Candice - Your Social Funnel: welcome back to all our listeners. Welcome to the group reapers. Today we are doing one of our special episodes. We have Dion Minsa with us. Hello, Dion!

Dee's iPhone: Hello! Hi guys.

Candice - Your Social Funnel: Daily.

Gail Starr - Your Brand Genius: Hey, guys, hey? D lovely to have you on the the show with us this morning?

Dee's iPhone: Thank you for having me.

Candice - Your Social Funnel: And these special episodes are.

Candice - Your Social Funnel: I want to say, like some of my favorites. But I actually just love doing this whole podcast but I find that they are really special episodes, because we interview, if you've never listened to one of them, we interview really like everyday people, people that could be you or me, with extraordinary stories that have happened to them in their lives.

Candice - Your Social Funnel: and have showcased and exhibited some of the most

Candice - Your Social Funnel: phenomenal inner strength, resilience, all the stuff we talk about in a in kind of the business world, but in their personal lives. And I know a bit about the own story. And when I called her up. And I explained, we do this series with with people. And I just felt like she would be an unbelievable guest to have on our podcast because. Her story is

Candice - Your Social Funnel: harrowing. It's extraordinary. But more than anything, it is it was just her, her, the way. She coped and dealt with. What happened to her was just like mind blowing. I attended a talk where she told her story, and I was just in the audience, with like tears

Candice - Your Social Funnel: streaming down my face, and just totally inspired by this powerhouse of a woman. So d we are! We are really honored to have you on, and sharing such a personal experience with us and our listeners. And I'm going to really just give you the floor and to to tell your story, and we'll we'll just kind of go from there if we have questions. Or maybe we want to

Candice - Your Social Funnel: talk about some of the skills and the kind of mindset that got you through it. We'll just go from there. But really the floor is yours, and

Candice - Your Social Funnel: take it away.

Dee's iPhone: Thank you, Kenz, and thank you again for having me

Dee's iPhone: so I think before I begin with my story, I just want to paint a little picture on who I am, and what life was like in our household before this all happened.

Dee's iPhone: So

Dee's iPhone: I am to say I am a hands-on. Mom is just putting it mildly. I'm your typical. A top personality likes to be at every single one of my children's extramurals. I never organized lift schemes. I always had to do everything myself.

Dee's iPhone: so I would be at every single extramural from beginning to end. I would split myself into 10 places. I would just do it all homework, every single thing. I don't let my kids do one drop of homework without me. I'm like very, very involved and very, very hands on.

Dee's iPhone: and I was the fittest and strongest I've ever been in my life. I was

Dee's iPhone: doing 2 to 3 strong classes a week. I was like, really in good shape, and had just started running up hills, and was like.

Dee's iPhone: really just where I wanted to be in my fitness routine and doing it all.

Dee's iPhone: So

Dee's iPhone: basically it was, I had, like, a lot of friends had their kids bar Mitzvahs, and we were going from one bar Mitzvah to another. Every single weekend. So it was like really busy weeks, lots of homework, lots of cycle tests. It was like. Towards the end of the year the kids were really busy studying and stuff, and we were having busy weekends and busy weeks.

Dee's iPhone: and probably burning the candle from both ends. But weren't we all like we all in this rat race, you know.

Dee's iPhone: and I felt amazing. I didn't feel like it was too much. I really really just felt great.

Dee's iPhone: anyway. So

Dee's iPhone: it was on a Thursday morning in a strong class, when my heart rate wasn't coming down as usual. I'm quite good with my watching my

Dee's iPhone: app on my watch, and I just didn't feel great, and my heart rate wasn't coming down. And I actually said to my sister, when I stepped off the treadmill. I must be getting sick.

Dee's iPhone: So

Dee's iPhone: by the Friday, Richard, my husband, was also not feeling well, so he said he would go to the doctor, and basically, if he needed an antibiotic, then I would go to the doctor afterwards.

Dee's iPhone: So it was just like a viral flu. And we kind of just kept a low profile, and I didn't go out that weekend. I really was like just keeping

Dee's iPhone: just a bit like July.

Dee's iPhone: On the Monday started

Dee's iPhone: as any normal day, Monday, the 18th of September, started, as any normal day would. We carried on with all extra murals, and in the afternoon a cousin of mine just came past for a cup of tea, and we were just sitting chatting on the patio, and I started to feel dizzy.

Dee's iPhone: and I said to her, I need to go lie down.

Dee's iPhone: And as I walked inside I collapsed.

Dee's iPhone: I came to quite quickly, and basically didn't really think anything of it. I had like a little cut on my head. She wanted to take me to the hospital, and I laughed it off. I was like, no, don't be ridiculous. I'm going to be fine.

Dee's iPhone: and basically just spent the night like I thought maybe I had Covid or something when I was feeling fluey. And there was this gastro post Covid at the time, and my stomach felt queasy, and I just felt really nauseous, and I just kind of spent the night on the couch asking my head, but still doing homework with my kids like it was, you know. Everything was still maintained routine.

Dee's iPhone: and that night, I remember, like it was quite hard to get upstairs. I remember like having no energy, and it was really difficult to get upstairs, but had an early night, and at about 1 30 in the morning I woke up feeling like I needed to get to the toilet.

Dee's iPhone: so I ran to the bathroom, and I just couldn't sit there and got up to go back into my bed, and as I got up I held on to the chair. I remember grabbing hold of the chair in my dressing room, and the next thing I woke up, and the chair was on top of me.

Dee's iPhone: and now there was blood pouring out of my head.

Dee's iPhone: and I actually turned to my husband and said, right now I think we can need to go to the hospital.

Dee's iPhone: and I couldn't actually get myself down the stairs. I couldn't get to the car for him to actually drive me to the hospital. It was actually the scariest thing, so I obviously was concussed, and I was vomiting, and I couldn't, but I couldn't get. I thought I'll just crawl down the stairs. I'll bum shuffle down the stairs. I tried everything. There was no way, so we had to call

Dee's iPhone: the ambulance, and they came, and we were like, we can just go to Morningside. And they said, No, you're going to signing Hill straight away. This is a head injury. We're going to Sunny Hill.

Dee's iPhone: So yeah, we go to Sunny Hill Hospital. And my Bp was basically non-existent at the time.

Dee's iPhone: and we arrive at Sunny Hill with this head injury, and

Dee's iPhone: I'm like kind of laughing it off.

Dee's iPhone: I'm like messaging my friends. Look where I am. Look where what I'm doing! I've got this bandage on my head like gluing the bed, the head back together, and it's kind of like not a big deal.

Dee's iPhone: and I just want to go home already and get out of here anyway. Then

Dee's iPhone: In the early hours of Tuesday morning

Dee's iPhone: my heart unexpectedly gives in. My blood pressure is now non-existent, and I start to swell until I'm almost unrecognizable

Dee's iPhone: when an MRI with Da was considered to be too dangerous. The cardiologist, physician, and neurologist were all in discussions about where to next. Nobody actually knew what was going on.

Dee's iPhone: and the cardiologist quickly diagnosed me with pericarditis.

Dee's iPhone: which is when fluid is sitting in the sac of the heart.

Dee's iPhone: And basically I wasn't stable enough to undergo an anesthetic at the time. So they said to me that they've got to take me in and remove this fluid of my heart, which was struggling to beat at that point, and I have to be awake.

Dee's iPhone: I can clearly remember sitting with my arms over this

Dee's iPhone: black bar while he took fish gut and fished it through my robes in order to suction the fluid of my heart.

Dee's iPhone: and I don't remember being any pain, but I remember hearing them talking. These doctors all just talking to each other. That's what I clearly remember, and then he goes. Oh, no! I just punctured the lung

Dee's iPhone: so that was now, with a compromised heart, a punctured lung, excruciating pain in my legs, and a heavily swollen body, and completely the worst thing ever completely baffled doctors. I still have no diagnosis. Nobody knows what's going on.

Dee's iPhone: so I spent the night in Icu, and my family arrived in the morning, and the doctor says she's not in a good way. She's going back into theater

Dee's iPhone: I had developed compartment syndrome.

Dee's iPhone: I don't know if you know what compartment syndrome is, but compartment syndrome is a very painful condition that occurs when the pressure in the muscles builds to a dangerous level and the pressure

Dee's iPhone: decreases, blood flow which prevents nourishment and oxygen from reaching the nerves and muscle cells.

Dee's iPhone: So that's why I'd swollen up so badly. But this needed to be attended to immediately in order to save my legs.

Dee's iPhone: so as they will me in for surgery. They tell me you might wake up on a ventilator and dialysis, and I remember clearly thinking, Oh, there's no ways definitely not.

Dee's iPhone: Well.

Candice - Your Social Funnel: DD at this point. Sorry to interrupt you, but, like you had said.

Candice - Your Social Funnel: you know you when you fell your cousin was at you fell, and you were like, Oh, I'm fine, you know. And then you get to the hospital, you messaging your friends. Look where I am. And with this bandage on my head?

Candice - Your Social Funnel: At what point at at this point in your story so far.

Candice - Your Social Funnel: were you starting to get concerned, like something like, were you scared, or were you still like? It's gonna be fine. I'm gonna be fine.

Dee's iPhone: Don't know why. I never felt scared. I never felt scared, and I never, ever thought this is going to be a big problem, even when they said to me, you could wake up on a ventilator, I thought, Oh, there is no way I'm going to wake up on a ventilator. I'll go in. They'll open my legs, and I'll be fine.

Candice - Your Social Funnel: Okay.

Dee's iPhone: I never thought, Oh, yeah, I might lose my legs. I mean, it was definitely the possibility. But I think that my family were hearing the like raw, real stuff, and they weren't sharing everything with me. I think that was one huge thing, but

Dee's iPhone: I don't know I didn't.

Dee's iPhone: I didn't feel like

Dee's iPhone: I don't know. I never felt like Oi! This is the end, or Oh, my God! Am I going to see my husband again? He was saying goodbye to me, not saying goodbye. I might never see you again, but in his mind, knowing that he may never see me again, and I just never

Dee's iPhone: saw that side of it. I just thought, I'm going to fart. I'm going to be okay, and I'm going to be fine.

Candice - Your Social Funnel: Okay. So your mindset, like from the get go was, I'm gonna get through it.

Dee's iPhone: I just wasn't taking it. It was just not an option for me. It was not.

Dee's iPhone: Something was prepared to accept.

Candice - Your Social Funnel: And you woke up on a Ventilla.

Dee's iPhone: I woke up on a ventilator and dialysis and.

Gail Starr - Your Brand Genius: Wow! But.

Dee's iPhone: Yeah, both, and both legs last open, top to bottom.

Dee's iPhone: so it was. The the ventilator was probably the darkest part, I would say, and the dialysis of the whole experience.

Dee's iPhone: But you know we so the the loss of communication was hard. But

Dee's iPhone: you, you know, I just had like this in my mind. I don't have time for this. I really don't have time for this, like I've got lots to do. There's lots going on. So I asked my sister to pass me a pen and paper

Dee's iPhone: so that I could write.

Dee's iPhone: and as my family gathered around to see what I was now going to say on this piece of paper

Dee's iPhone: I started writing, please dress Sofia in long sleeves for the play date.

Gail Starr - Your Brand Genius: You were writing a to-do list while you were on a ventilator. Isn't that just what moms.

Dee's iPhone: That we do.

Dee's iPhone: and I think that is part of what saved me, because there was no time in my brain to sit and worry about what was going on here. I just needed this ventilator finished, and everybody needed to do the things that I was supposed to be doing.

Dee's iPhone: I actually had a birthday party in my house at my house a few days later for my daughter and 4 of her friends.

Dee's iPhone: so that needed to be cancelled, which was a big stress in my mind. I was like, really focused on that and really worried about that

Dee's iPhone: which is when I think I realized for the 1st time what the community actually did for me, because they obviously all took care of the party. That was all had already been canceled. But in my mind. I was the person who had organized the braid lady who was coming to braid the hair, and I need I only had her number. And how was anyone going to find her number? I had to phone and cancel it, you know.

Dee's iPhone: So it was what I was focused on, and maybe it was a good thing. Maybe that was what you know. I think if we sit and focus on negative things. And Oi, this is happening to me. And how am I going to survive it? But I didn't. I was so worried about this big party at my house, and where my kids going to be okay, and who was going to help them with their test. That was coming up on Friday. And this is all I was thinking about the whole time.

Dee's iPhone: you know, and

Dee's iPhone: at the point where I felt like at the darkest in my health, was the poorest there. I was just trying to focus on staying in control and not giving up this control, this level of control.

Dee's iPhone: And you know, people are amazing. They really just sorted everything out. And I actually could rest, and I just felt so guilty. And I was so worried. There were people at other schools. How are they going to find out that the party was canceled. What if they arrived at my house? You know these were all the things that were going through my mind. Really quite crazy.

Candice - Your Social Funnel: Yeah, what is?

Gail Starr - Your Brand Genius: And Dion, when you are on a ventilator like that, are you fully conscious? You fully conscious of everything going on around you, people talking to you. You just can't talk back.

Dee's iPhone: So it's quite interesting, actually, because my husband didn't think that I would be. And he left. And he went down to the coffee shop, and when he came back I was fully conscious, and like cross like, where were you? Where have you been, you know, like.

Gail Starr - Your Brand Genius: Yes.

Dee's iPhone: Was fully fully conscious. I mean.

Dee's iPhone: I think, that he thought I was going to be sedated, and maybe there are times where people are. But I was fully fully conscious.

Gail Starr - Your Brand Genius: Wow, that's crazy like like that. I think I can understand why. That's the darkest time. Because, yeah, you've got this thing basically breathing for you, and you can't do anything.

Gail Starr - Your Brand Genius: Sure.

Dee's iPhone: And then they take it off, and they try and wean you offered and onto. So then I was. After that I was stuck in like a fishbowl when they took the ventilator out, because then they had to keep oxygen all around my face.

Gail Starr - Your Brand Genius: I mean.

Dee's iPhone: And try and get me to breathe with it. That was really terrible, because that was so claustrophobic.

Candice - Your Social Funnel: Hmm, okay, sure, Dean.

Candice - Your Social Funnel: And has you had you got it?

Candice - Your Social Funnel: Diagnosis by this point.

Dee's iPhone: No.

Candice - Your Social Funnel: You. Still, I don't know what was happened. What happened.

Dee's iPhone: Yeah.

Candice - Your Social Funnel: Perfect.

Dee's iPhone: No, I still didn't know what had happened. They were just trying to save me and save my legs.

Candice - Your Social Funnel: Sure.

Dee's iPhone: So yeah, so they were. It was just

Dee's iPhone: the support that I had at this time was also unbelievable. I mean, I didn't even know what was going on. But downstairs there was

Dee's iPhone: people in the coffee shop.

Dee's iPhone: full rooms of people downstairs, and people were praying, and they had prayer groups going on online all over the world. 500 people were on on a prayer group for me. All over the world people were bringing, dropping, jumping castles for my kids, because now we were going in. It was now school holidays.

Dee's iPhone: So people were entertaining my kids. I think my kids had sometimes 2 play dates in one day. I must say my kids were like the happiest they've ever been, and I think for me to just have my mind at ease and know that they were taken care of, was also like one huge, huge factor that really played a huge role in my recovery.

Gail Starr - Your Brand Genius: And.

Candice - Your Social Funnel: Can you walk us through?

Candice - Your Social Funnel: Kind of the rest of the story? D like.

Dee's iPhone: So, okay, so then, basically.

Dee's iPhone: my legs. Every few days I will had more and more operations just to try. Because now what had happened was that my legs were open

Dee's iPhone: and they couldn't close them

Dee's iPhone: every single time I went in for another operation they closed them slightly, more and slightly, more and slightly more. And the whole time they kept saying to me, We're going to need skin grafts. We will take skin from somewhere else to close the balance. But let's just keep trying to close them as much as we can, so we never ever knew if they were going to be able to close them or not close them.

Dee's iPhone: and I had a very big miracle.

Dee's iPhone: The one morning I went in for another just routine operation.

Dee's iPhone: and when I woke up, they said to me, and Richard had spoken to the surgeon. My husband had spoken to the surgeon the night before, and he had said to him. You know, we're really not out the woods. We've still got multiple more operations. We've still got months of skin grafts ahead of us. We've got a long way to go.

Dee's iPhone: and I just had a huge miracle, and I woke up from the up, and that actually managed to close my legs so I never, ever had skin grafts. I was really, really, really lucky.

Dee's iPhone: and I just

Dee's iPhone: I went through lots and lots of procedures in the hospital where I had lung aspirations, you know. I battled with that lung that they punctured in the beginning, and I went through a lot of really difficult times, but

Dee's iPhone: I never, ever. Something just said to me, you've got to keep smiling. You've just got to smile. You've got to keep a happy face on whether it was for the other patients in the ward. Whether it was for my family, whether it was just to make me feel happy I don't know what it was.

Dee's iPhone: but I kept a smile on my face every single day, and I just knew I just knew I'm not giving up. This is going to be fun. I'm going to be fun. And I went through extensive amounts of Physio every single day. And then I also had an amazing story.

Dee's iPhone: One day I was in the middle of a physio session.

Dee's iPhone: and a stranger knocked on the door and said, Would I mind if you came to speak to me?

Dee's iPhone: And he had gone through the same operation as me on one of his legs.

Dee's iPhone: and he showed me his scar, and he was walking, and he said to me that he's just run the Paris Marathon.

Dee's iPhone: and I just thought you know what I've got to get out of this bed. And I said to my Physio there and then. Can I try? Take some steps? And she said, Let's do it. And we took steps, and they didn't know if I'd ever walk again. And I walked.

Gail Starr - Your Brand Genius: And.

Dee's iPhone: And with that was

Dee's iPhone: I got out of hospital in October into a rehab in November, and by January I was running down Ravonia road. That was it.

Dee's iPhone: not taking over and on. So I was doing it so?

Dee's iPhone: Yeah.

Gail Starr - Your Brand Genius: Okay, and.

Dee's iPhone: So.

Gail Starr - Your Brand Genius: Dion, did you ever get a diagnosis.

Dee's iPhone: So at 1 point in hospital they came in to diagnose me with. I remember I was upside down in a physio session, and they came in and said to me, Oh, by the way, you've got something called polycythemia.

Dee's iPhone: which is a very rare blood cancer.

Candice - Your Social Funnel: Away!

Dee's iPhone: So that was a really big shock to me. I was alone. I didn't have any of my family with me, and it was like. I mean to be told that you've got cancer.

Gail Starr - Your Brand Genius: Bye.

Dee's iPhone: Anybody.

Gail Starr - Your Brand Genius: Sat down in a physio session.

Gail Starr - Your Brand Genius: Yes, crazy.

Dee's iPhone: So that was quite a big thing and a big trauma, and probably one of the biggest traumas I experienced in hospital.

Dee's iPhone: But

Dee's iPhone: I just she was like, we're not dealing with it. Now you're going to get well. You're going to get out of hospital, and when you're well enough you will go and see an oncologist.

Dee's iPhone: And

Dee's iPhone: I decided, I'm very much like that. I do things. I'm not like looking at a big picture type of person. I will tackle each task daily, and I deal with that with every element of my life.

Dee's iPhone: So I just knew that I was just going to get through what I needed to get through, and when that moment came I'll focus my mind on worrying about it, because if you sit and stress about it, you know there's nothing you can do about it. And anyway, she had said to me, the levels are so low, and you don't even need to take medication for it. Now just get well and don't worry about it. And that is what I did. I just didn't focus on it. It wasn't going to be a big

Dee's iPhone: thing that it was gonna like, pull me down. I needed to keep going. I needed to keep focused. I needed to stay on path, and that was what I was gonna do. So

Dee's iPhone: when I did get well enough, and I did go see the oncologist. And he ran multiple bloods

Dee's iPhone: and sat quietly in front of me, reading through every single report, while I sat with bated breath for his answer. He looked at me and he said, You don't have cancer. You don't have polycythemia. There's actually nothing wrong with you. Go and live your life and just be well.

Gail Starr - Your Brand Genius: So, yeah.

Gail Starr - Your Brand Genius: that is so that is crazy. And the other thing I was really like, okay, so what you just said, now, I think is a great lesson for us as online business owners. Just bringing it back to the whole thing

Gail Starr - Your Brand Genius: is what you just said about

Gail Starr - Your Brand Genius: you don't look at the big picture.

Gail Starr - Your Brand Genius: You do things that need to be done today, and then you move on to the next thing and the next thing, and while I believe, as business owners, we need to know what what we're working towards. But so often we so busy worrying about stuff that we can't actually control or other things.

Gail Starr - Your Brand Genius: And when you actually just sit down and you be like, okay, right? I'm gonna launch. Now, I need to do this, this, this and this and get it done like. Don't be always stressing about what could be. What could be

Gail Starr - Your Brand Genius: like? Deal with those things when they come up so I loved. I love that definitely. I think it's it's a good way for our work like that as well. I do. I do. I do stress a bit about things going forward, but I try not to. But also I'm so fascinated when you said when you had fallen the second time when they had to call the ambulance, and you couldn't get down the stairs

Gail Starr - Your Brand Genius: like what was that? Would your body just not move? Was you just? Were you just so weak? Were you just like.

Dee's iPhone: Just didn't. So my blood pressure was literally non existent, and I promise you, no matter what I did, I could not do it, and I'm a strong person I'm not interested in.

Dee's iPhone: Don't take help. I just don't

Dee's iPhone: ask for help. I never ask for any favors. I just. I like to do everything myself. I'm a control freak.

Dee's iPhone: but I couldn't get myself down those stairs. Nothing.

Dee's iPhone: And as much as I tried and tried, I thought, I'll just bum shuffle. I'll just pull myself and move my bum and just get myself down, but I couldn't. I actually couldn't.

Gail Starr - Your Brand Genius: Wow!

Candice - Your Social Funnel: Amazing.

Candice - Your Social Funnel: It's like I I still keep coming back to which is, which is, I think, the thing for me that is just like

Candice - Your Social Funnel: it's like, I almost feel like gobsmacked about, is it? Just throughout this, you just had this belief

Candice - Your Social Funnel: like you were, gonna be okay.

Candice - Your Social Funnel: like. And I mean, we we speaking about like it? It feels so intense and so hectic.

Candice - Your Social Funnel: What happened to you and scary, you know. Hearing a doctor say, Oops, I just punctured her lung or.

Gail Starr - Your Brand Genius: Yay!

Candice - Your Social Funnel: Having fish gut fed through your ribs into, you know, like it, we're not waking up ventilated. These are like intense experiences that that

Candice - Your Social Funnel: I imagine, would just invoke a lot of fear in people, you know, and it's just phenomenal to me. How like you had this

Candice - Your Social Funnel: unwavering belief

Candice - Your Social Funnel: and a mindset that like this was just not going to be your life like you were. Gonna make it out of this, you know.

Candice - Your Social Funnel: Where do you think that comes from. Do! Have you always been like that? Your whole life.

Dee's iPhone: Passing.

Dee's iPhone: I've always been the type like my husband hates me when I'm sick, because I won't go to the doctor, and I don't like to take medicine, and I'm going to be fine. I'm going to be fine. I'm going to be fine, so he always says I'm the worst patient. But

Dee's iPhone: I just think that I don't ever like admitting defeat like I just don't want to be. I don't know what it is. I don't know if it's like

Dee's iPhone: something inside me that likes to just know that I'm strong, and I'm going to be fine, and I don't want to portray this element of weakness, or

Dee's iPhone: I'm not entirely sure exactly where it comes from. I wish I could explain where it came from, or how I smiled through it all, or just.

Dee's iPhone: I wish I had the answers, but I don't really know, but I just think that the minute you give in to the belief that something is going to that. You're prepared to accept it. Then you just give up.

Dee's iPhone: And that wasn't an option for me. I was never going to give up.

Candice - Your Social Funnel: I mean, it's funny, cause you you said in the beginning, like I'm such an a type. And I'm and you've said multiple times in our discussion that you like a control freak. And and I mean, I think in some ways, you know, a lot can be said for those of us

Candice - Your Social Funnel: who like don't find it easy to ask for help, and we always like to do things ourselves, and I think we can in some ways make our lives much more difficult than they need to be. You know.

Dee's iPhone: Well, I've definitely learned that. My kids are now in love schemes.

Candice - Your Social Funnel: Okay, that was going to be my next question, what have you taken from? But I do think in a way.

Candice - Your Social Funnel: it it having that belief like. So, in other words, while these things can not always be the best qualities and kind of an impact on us in this situation.

Candice - Your Social Funnel: it actually thank God, you were like that because you were so Gung ho! And like convinced that you were not going to like surrender to this, you were going to be fine. You were going to come out of it, I mean, I think that, thank God, you actually had that because it clearly had something to do with your recovery.

Gail Starr - Your Brand Genius: Yeah. And and I think again, Dion.

Gail Starr - Your Brand Genius: we, you know, so so many people in the online space, so many coaches and stuff, say to you like, you have to believe that you already have what you want. You have to embody the person that you that you want to be like. You can't be this person aspiring to be this person. You have to almost act like that. And and I feel like that.

Gail Starr - Your Brand Genius: That is very much what you did. You knew you were going to be okay. And this was like a an inconvenience to you. You just needed to get through it so that you could be okay, because you knew you were going to be okay. And I think that's that I found

Gail Starr - Your Brand Genius: that difficult. I've always found that concept of like, what you want start behaving like that. And so, yeah, that's really, that's really interesting. I I think that's that's amazing. So yeah.

Dee's iPhone: So the diagnosis that my cardiologist thinks I mean, no one really knows exactly what happened. But the cardiologist thinks that

Dee's iPhone: I had a virus probably covid. And my body built up fighter cells to fight this virus and basically built up too many of them. And it was caused something called a Cytokine storm, where the.

Gail Starr - Your Brand Genius: Bye.

Dee's iPhone: Body actually lands up, attacking office.

Gail Starr - Your Brand Genius: Just, so.

Dee's iPhone: Which in turn turned my blood to sugary syrup, which folds my absolutely up with cloths.

Dee's iPhone: Wow!

Candice - Your Social Funnel: When you tell your story. Now, Dee, do you

Candice - Your Social Funnel: hear it? And sometimes think like, Oh, my God! I'm lucky to be alive!

Dee's iPhone: Yes, you do.

Dee's iPhone: So much gratitude. I'm grateful. Every single day I found myself looking at my children just walking, just even taking a step. There's so much gratitude. I just, I'm saying thank you all day, every day.

Dee's iPhone: I really am just so grateful.

Candice - Your Social Funnel: Gc, you you hinted now at like that. That was one of the things you took out of this experience which is actually allowing people to support you and help you? And

Candice - Your Social Funnel: are there any others that stand out for you like? So the gratitude clearly for what you have, and how blessed you are the fact that you can allow people to have.

Candice - Your Social Funnel: With you. I'm okay.

Candice - Your Social Funnel: And being a superwoman. You can still be a superwoman if someone's doing a lift for you.

Dee's iPhone: Yeah, exactly.

Candice - Your Social Funnel: That's right.

Dee's iPhone: I'm just.

Candice - Your Social Funnel: Are there any anything else? Do you like any other profound takeaways?

Dee's iPhone: Maybe not just sweating. The small stuff like, just, you know, laugh is actually bigger than just worrying about all this rubbish that we really focus on. It's just not important. And I think that's been a big thing for me, I'm just not prepared to get into it. So

Dee's iPhone: yeah, just really not focusing on the little nitty, gritty rubbish that actually means nothing.

Candice - Your Social Funnel: Okay.

Dee's iPhone: And that there are more important things in life to focus on.

Candice - Your Social Funnel: And.

Dee's iPhone: And put your focus where it's necessary. Basically.

Gail Starr - Your Brand Genius: Yeah, yeah.

Candice - Your Social Funnel: Family like from growing up. So I know.

Candice - Your Social Funnel: Well, we lived on the same road. We lived.

Dee's iPhone: No.

Candice - Your Social Funnel: She lived like 2 houses away from each other.

Dee's iPhone: Growing up. So I've like known Dion pretty much my whole life. And

Candice - Your Social Funnel: so I know that your nuclear family is big. You know. She's 1 of like 4 sisters, and then she has an extended family here that is also big, so like when all of them go away. It is like a crew is going, you know.

Candice - Your Social Funnel: But DI think that you speak a lot about like how you had your family around, Richard, and such a loving husband. You've got 3 children, and there was the community showing up, delivering the meals, people like whatsapping and praying and being there for Richard and your mom and your dad. And

Candice - Your Social Funnel: can you talk a little bit about the role that support had in this experience? But maybe not even only for you, but maybe even, for, like Richard and and your parents, your sisters, like any thoughts you have on on that.

Dee's iPhone: So my family were unbelievable. I think that they kept a lot from me, which obviously was a huge thing for me in terms of keeping a positive mindset, and they didn't tell me everything that they heard from the doctors.

Dee's iPhone: And I'm 1 of

Dee's iPhone: I'm 1 of 4 girls, and then we've got 3 girl cousins. There's actually 7 girls, and we very close. And we all live in South Africa, which is really an amazing.

Dee's iPhone: It's a

Dee's iPhone: and yeah, it's really unusual. So I had my cousins. My husband was unbelievable. He stepped in. He did everything that needed to be done, and took all my orders because I had to give lots of orders from the bed.

Dee's iPhone: and the community were just amazing. They were dropping meals off for him. They were dropping pajamas for my kids, because now the season changed and they didn't have pyjamas.

Dee's iPhone: They were, as I said, dropping jumping castles for them during the holidays and taking them on play dates. And my kids were really amazing. They were unbelievable.

Dee's iPhone: And just added the community, I didn't actually realize what an amazing community we have here. But if you've got support, you feel like you being held, and then you can just conquer it all. And I think I was lucky also that it was school holidays, because I think if it was my kids, I think I actually would have probably tried to do homework with them. Via zoom. I'm telling you.

Gail Starr - Your Brand Genius: From.

Dee's iPhone: I don't want to.

Gail Starr - Your Brand Genius: On your ventilator. Yeah.

Candice - Your Social Funnel: Listen.

Dee's iPhone: So.

Candice - Your Social Funnel: Never felt alone. D, you know.

Dee's iPhone: I was never alone. There was people all the time, in fact, at some points, when it was visiting hours I had friends sneaking in. I'm like a very law abiding.

Dee's iPhone: and the rules kind of burst. And I used to say, Please, can you get out even?

Dee's iPhone: I'm just gonna pray next to her bed here, and I used to say, No, you cannot be here now.

Gail Starr - Your Brand Genius: 3.

Dee's iPhone: But people were amazing. They were unbelievable, really amazing. I was lucky.

Candice - Your Social Funnel: Yeah.

Gail Starr - Your Brand Genius: An amazing story. Wow.

Candice - Your Social Funnel: Yeah, it's

Candice - Your Social Funnel: it's truly I mean when when I when I as I said, I heard dear, and give this talk she had like a project there was like a projector, you know, behind with with pictures. And

Candice - Your Social Funnel: and and you you kind of saw these screen. You know these these pictures and screenshots, or whatever they were of her in her hospital bed, you know. And then, you know, standing with that walking.

Candice - Your Social Funnel: Yeah, we'll try.

Candice - Your Social Funnel: Yeah. And I mean, they very impactful pictures, especially when it's someone that you know, you know. And then it kind of went through this. And it was all with music, and you know, and at the end you just see like dear on there, and there she is, and she's like going for a run or and it was just the most

Candice - Your Social Funnel: profound thing to hear your story, like, you know, in like in real life. But as I as I keep saying, do you know? And and that's why we really happy that you came on today? Because I think that so many of the characteristics

Candice - Your Social Funnel: that you displayed throughout this whole experience are really like just the epitome of having like resilience and determination, you know, and how much your mindset, and what you think and believe.

Candice - Your Social Funnel: and having the right people around you. How much that impacts on what you do with your life, you know, and how you take, manage the

Candice - Your Social Funnel: the waves that come and hit you, you know. So

Candice - Your Social Funnel: yeah, just thank you. Thank you so much, Jean. Thank you.

Dee's iPhone: Thank you for having me and letting me share my story.

Candice - Your Social Funnel: We will. And because Dion is actually, this is like one of her stories. You know, it is a very hectic story, but it is actually just one of her stories. Dion is also an incredible entrepreneur. You know she's she's a business owner. I think she's had several businesses, and I know deed. You maybe want to even just tell us. I know you've recently just launched a new business.

Dee's iPhone: So yeah, it was very exciting came out of hospital. And I thought, I've got to focus my mind on something as well, and it's time to start something new. My previous business partner immigrated. So our business had to close down, and I just decided to start something new. So we've launched. I've always been in the hair care industry for many, many years, worked for L'oreal, and then had my own salon for many years.

Gail Starr - Your Brand Genius: And we've just launched a range of hair treatments. So it's single application hair treatment. So you can use a different one every time you wash your hair. And yeah, hopefully, we will be in store soon. So yeah.

Candice - Your Social Funnel: Packaging and your branding, you know, Gail, I mean I laughed. Gail tagged me in a post last night, which I properly laughed out loud, really.

Candice - Your Social Funnel: about this. Zack, right? Zack, who who has a program on paid ads, and he posted the most hilarious thing about how and he feels like he wants to burn down his website and rebuild it, and.

Gail Starr - Your Brand Genius: So unengaged.

Candice - Your Social Funnel: He. He knows that they're probably some important projects he should be focusing on, you know, but it made me think of branding, because I'm always like it's my go to, and I'm like avoiding shit. I just rebrand stuff. But I but why I'm saying this is because actually, I noticed Dion's branding on her new on her new products, which is like stunning colors. And it's like funky. And I was like, and she's I mean, look at that hair, Gail.

Gail Starr - Your Brand Genius: I know I was. Gonna say, now it all makes sense

Gail Starr - Your Brand Genius: the curls and the oh, my God! Dwell, and we will drop.

Candice - Your Social Funnel: All of Dean's details like where you can find her new business. If you want to check out her hair product. If you want to just connect with Dion. If you want to learn more about her and her story, and we'll drop all her links either below this video or somewhere in our show notes so that you can find her and again, just from us guys. Thanks so much, Dean, for coming on.

Dee's iPhone: Thank you. It was good to meet you, Kyle.

Gail Starr - Your Brand Genius: Thank you, and thanks for coming, dear. It was lovely to meet you, and so lovely and inspiring to hear your story. Candace told me you had an amazing story to tell, and you really really do so. Thanks for coming on.

Dee's iPhone: Thank you so much. Thanks. Guys.

Candice - Your Social Funnel: Okay.

Gail Starr - Your Brand Genius: Bye.

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