Hey folks, I'm Matt Major. Welcome to Good News
York. I'm joined as always by my, you're not
super spiky -haired. No, no. I'm like halfway.
It is almost like we coordinated shirts and I
feel weird. I know. It looks like we need to
start a band called The Plaid Dads. I did not
coordinate my watch like you, though. All right,
you're really on this coordinating watch. I thought
you would appreciate that I coordinate my watches
to my own. I do appreciate it. It's the funniest
thing that I've ever seen. Anyway, Plad Dads.
That's our band. Happy Veterans Day before anything
else. Yes, absolutely. Happy Veterans Day to
all the veterans out there, men and women, that
have served and that do serve and protect our
stupid asses. They deserve more than a death.
Yes, more than a death. It's also 1111, which
is something that we're going to talk about with
our guest, which is a great way to introduce
our incredible guest. And when I say introduce...
Mike has been working on this introduction. There's
some time now. As a producer, you're supposed
to edit things. And I went to edit this intro
and I went, but all of this is relevant. So this
is officially the longest intro in the history
of the show. And every word is meant to be there.
We have the former CEO of Hematology Oncology
Associates of CNY. and author of many books,
including Building the Team from the Inside Out.
She has over 30 years of healthcare experience
and senior leadership positions. She is a board
certified fellow in the American College of Medical
Practice Executives and maintains an active role
in leadership development through various speaking
engagements. She has a new podcast with us here
at Growth Mode Content that will be debuting
soon called The Transition of Hope. She has earned
her bachelor's degree from the Albany College
of Pharmacy and her master's degree from Upstate
Medical University. She obtained a doctoral degree
in divinity from the American Institute of Holistic
Theology and just when you thought it was over,
she serves as a board member and advisor to several
community organizations and is the co -founder
and president of the board of directors of Cancer
Connects Incorporated. She is a Reiki master
certified heart -centered hypnotherapist and
a senior Chi running instructor. Maryann Raffaro,
Raffaro, Raffaro. I mean, wow. I'm tired. I'm
just gonna call her Maryann. Or you could call
me Mary like the horse. That's what my friends
call me. Is it possible I left anything out?
Did I get everything was in there? Oh, well,
you know, I've been a busy girl for a lot of
years, but no, I think that pretty much covered
it. I didn't wear plaid today, but I do have
my love t -shirt on because I really like that.
Well, you know, I had to I had to, you know,
make it long sleeves. It's a little chilly here,
but I have to say this is all about L .O .V .E.
love. It's the only thing that there's too little
of. Yeah. Well, we need more of that. Yeah. So,
Marianne, I want to get into the book, obviously,
that we have here. It's one of the reasons we're
spoiler alert. She's got a new book that we're
going to be talking about. But I'd like to give
people a little background on you first. So aside
from your resume that our man just read here,
just tell us a little bit about yourself and
how your career kind of progressed to where we're
at today. Well, I actually started out as a medical
technologist in the clinical microbiology lab.
And I had total plans on getting a PhD in clinical
micro. But I had a poster one day. I was 29 years
old. I looked at all the people coming by my
poster and I thought, I'm really nothing like
these people. This is not a good move for me.
So on the way home, I told my mentor, you know
what? I'm not going to get that PhD. I'm going
to be an administrator. And then he said, well,
this is your whole life. And what do you know
about administration? And I said, well, honestly,
how hard could it be? I'm a born leader, it's
all gonna work out. And from there, I did remarkably
exciting things in this community. Set up the
first urgent care that ever existed, met with
an ex -cellist to try to convince them what an
urgent care was. Thanks to a John Merola MD.
It was over at North Medical Center It was his
brainchild and then I was the administrator of
his practice and I before that I was a lab manager
a Supervisor and then I was the VP at Kraus hospital
for seven years corporate VP of ambulatory services
And then I took my hematology oncology associates.
I was there 23 years Wow, so it's a long time
But that everything I've ever done all has led
really you know, it creates who you are and it
sets up the future for you. And I would say Hematology
Oncology Associates was, you know, I stayed there
a long time, which I never did before that. They
used to make a joke, you know, don't write your
contact info in pen because you'll only have
to white it out, use pencil. But yeah, I stayed
there because first of all, cancer care in and
of itself has had dramatic changes. We had so
many wonderful opportunities to create new programs.
But I would say one of the key objectives that
I had was my own self mastery journey and also
bringing that self mastery journey to the employees
because there's about 350 employees there today.
And you know, when you look at all these people,
you think what can I bring them? You know, I'm
a very service oriented leader. So every day
I would be like, what can I do to make these
lives better? and help people see the divinity
and the preciousness and the beauty within themselves.
Because when someone brings their best self,
everything else kind of takes care of itself,
you know? So that's really what, and it's interesting.
You'll find out from this book and some of my
others. You know, I'm very intuitive. My mom
was the world to me. She died when I was 14.
And from seven to 14, which I tell a lot in this
book about me, we had the most precious mother
daughter relationship, unlike probably most mothers
and daughters. It was a very had a lot of spiritual
communication and a lot of communication about
the absence of death and merely taking on another
form in which she promised me she would be with
me always guide me help me. And I really was
able to hear her from the day that she died when
I was 14. And through the years, you know, when
you open yourself to what most people would think
is kind of crazy, as long as you do it in a way
that is completely consistent with goodness and
light and all that is divine. You know, I look
at that intuition as another sense. that other
people don't always have. And it's not only helped
me through my career, which I would talk about
things now that I wouldn't when I was a CEO,
hence my former book, A Human's Purpose by Millie
the dog. I was still a CEO and I didn't want
to spill all of my beans. So I wrote that book
through the voice of a dog, my dog Millie. However,
This is actually very interesting. My stepmom,
my husband were sitting at the kitchen table
waiting for me to finish my 10 mile run. I think
this was October of 2023. And while I was running,
I heard next book, transitions of hope, told
me a little bit about it while I was running,
because you know, running puts you in an altered
state of consciousness where you can really connect.
And, and it's funny because my career, you know,
I mean, I had to be very good in finance and
business and operations and healthcare is so
complex. And, you know, I lived in this other
world through my really entire career and sought
guidance from, from whomever. And yeah, so I
walked in the door and I said, Oh my gosh, my
next book is going to be called Transitions of
Hope. And there was a tag that I have to write
down because I will never remember it. And that
tag was using the power of the mind to replace
fear with love to navigate life's challenges
because really love is what it's all about. And
it's funny that I don't even, I didn't memorize
that. I have to look at it. And I look at it
every time. I tell people, yeah, and then there's
a tag, but I can't really remember it. And so,
you know, my stepmother, my husband, they're
used to, you know, me living on the edge of the
envelope. So they weren't like completely shocked.
But yeah, and then I, You know, I was inspired
with a lot of this book, but I really actually
wrote this one myself. The Millie book is really
a divine download. And even my leadership book,
which is called Building the Team from the Inside
Out, that's like a self -help book and a leadership
book head on collision. Because truthfully, to
build teams and to eliminate dysfunction can
only come from when people clear the clutter
within them. But if people can work on their
own self mastery journey, everything just proceeds
beautifully. You don't have toes to step on.
When someone says something, you're not offended
because you understand. This is one of my key
principles that every relationship we have depends
on the relationship we have with ourselves, everything.
So everything someone says and does is a reflection
from the inside out. And so when you acknowledge
that you don't take things personally. And I
talk a lot in this book about how, you know,
we don't have the whole data set of our lives.
And actually, Mike and I were chatting a little
before this, and we talked about hypnotherapy.
And I talk about that in this book, how eight
to nine out of 10 of my clients would go to another
lifetime to solve issues from today. Now, I grew
up this Catholic Italian girl. However, I have
to say my mother my grandmother extremely spiritual
very connected to the other side Very much, you
know talking to dead people and all of that kind
of stuff so I was always immersed in the other
side and So in any event the first time someone
went to a former lifetime, you know I was a little
like because I was in my early 40s I'm 66 now
in case you're interested just to let you know
how much experience I've had in all of this.
I remember having my own self mastery journey
really expanding because no matter, regardless
of how much we think we know, there's always
something out of our sphere of knowledge. Having
an open mind and always accepting that your premise
of everything could be flawed. is really important
because then it helps you really grow. And where
you grow is from the inside out. You know, I
was running one day a whole bunch of years ago.
I mean, this is so simple, but when the sun was
shining on me, my shadow was behind me. And I
remember thinking on Route 5, where all the cars
were flying by, I remember thinking, you know,
this is so poignant. This is life. When we put
light or love into any of our issues, then all
that clutter and crap that we work on within
the shadows of ourself are behind. And I remember
thinking, oh, I must include that in one of my
books and then when I speak. And so, you know,
those are the things that I talk about. I think
I just went off on a tangent. I can't even remember
originally what I was going to talk about. That's
all right. But yeah, so that book is just filled
with a lot. And so it's interesting also like
Hematology Oncology Associates were founded by
the best oncologists. And I remember thinking
to myself, so now I'm very early in my 40s. And
I remember thinking, what can I bring to this
group? You know, there's already incredible doctors,
wonderful staff. I mean, the culture really needed
rehab, like a total 180 rehab. And I knew that
I had to work on that. But I heard the word self
-mastery and it's funny at that time. I didn't
even know what self -mastery really meant. And
I was like, self -mastery, okay, well I better
do a little research, figure out what the heck
this is. Oh, I know we were talking about previous
lives. So the first time I was shocked when someone
went to a previous life to solve their issues,
the 50th time, you're just going with the flow.
And I was, I felt very privileged that I could
journey with these people in their healing journey.
but also it was almost like I would know what
to say and what to do. And so for 10 years, I
had my private practice of reiki and hypnotherapy
on Tuesday, it was Mondays and Wednesday evenings
until I got too seasoned. old to want to come
home at 8 o 'clock every night. So I thought,
okay, I've been doing this for 10 years. I've
taught a lot of people Reiki. And so I don't
really do any of that anymore because I will
have people say, oh, can't you do a hypnotherapy
for me? Oh, can't you do a Reiki? But I think
what my role is now, besides little individual
things, perhaps for good friends or whatever,
is I want the message of making the world a better
place one person at a time from the inside out.
I really want that message to be embedded in
the hearts of people because we have a lot of
anger in this world. We have people who can't
get along, various opinions where there's a lack
of tolerance. There's a lack of accountability
that I've seen even in the workforce over the
last Five to seven years the candidates are different.
They have different goals They you know, not
that it's anything bad. It's just different sure
and You know, we have disruptors in this world
that are put here to disrupt and some people
love the disruptors and some people hate them
But nonetheless, there's this great purpose that
a lot of times we don't see Because we're thinking
very humanly So another objective of writing
this book was to be able to you know, weather
those storms to have hope through everything
hope is something you can always have because
happiness hope their decisions that you make
and you know You can't ever hold anybody else
responsible for being happy or any of that. It's
all an inside job. And so really this book goes
into a lot of that. And then there's also some
very helpful exercises that I've included in
here, like just practical exercises to help people
forgive, to help people assess their level of
self mastery, to be able to be more resilient,
to be able to be more hopeful. And, you know,
there's a slope of hope that is constantly moving.
And one of the examples I use in the book is
my former husband, very dear to me. I went through
his cancer journey with him. And I talk about
how the level, the high level of hope that we
had at the beginning and at the end were equivalent,
but what we were hopeful for was completely different.
You start out hopeful that someone will be cured.
And what we ended was we hoped that he had a
beautiful and peaceful transition. And he landed
on the other side, you know, filled with love.
And I talk a little bit about that journey because
the slope of hope goes like this all day long.
And we don't really focus on that as people.
We don't say like, oh, it's my level of hope
today. But hope and resilience are so intertwined
that we really need that to keep moving forward,
to get ourselves through all the muck. Because
there's a ton of it. And I don't care how bright
you are, how rich you are, successful, what your
titles are, nobody gets away unscathed. Nobody.
And what, you know, the life that people see
in social media are so snippets. Young people
don't realize everybody's got so much clutter
that they're working on. And, you know, the more
clutter you clear, the more you're a conduit
to be able to traverse life. in a more global
sense, not being affected by the moment to moment.
That's incredible. Wow. Wow. So yeah, I talked
a lot. I'm going to have a drink now. No one's
ever going to ask us why we thought you'd be
good on a podcast. Right. Marianne, one of the
things I want to ask you is, throughout your
career, you spent all this time at... Hematology
and oncology surrounded by doctors and scientists
and and very very traditional professionals the
type of folks that I maybe incorrectly perceive
as being Not into some of the spiritual things
and everything that you're talking about Can
you tell us how all of this was received in that
group of professionals? Well, I was in the perfect
place with the perfect group of people to accept
my ideas and I think it's partly because every
one of those people are a beacon of hope to cancer
patients and families and some people make it
and some people don't and when you deal with
the fragility of life and when you see people
you know fighting with everything they have or
you see that it's time for them to accept that
there's just no more. There's something that
happens to you inside. And people would say to
me, oh my God, how are you? How do you handle
being around all these cancer patients and death?
And I have always said, you learn so much more
about life from those people than you ever could
about death. You see resilience in its truest
form. And when I first started, I didn't talk
about spiritual things off the bat. So we used
to have staff meetings, and when I first started,
they were every month. And this is kind of funny,
because those people who know me will be like,
oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I used to love those. Or,
oh, yeah, I had to listen to those. And I used
to call them eight and a half by elevens. And
the reason is, is because when I first started,
24 years ago, I used to hold up a piece of paper
with a word on it. In the beginning, they were
business things. You know good to great had just
come out. So we talked about some of those things
You know the enemy of great is good and you know,
just a lot of business terminology talked about
how to be successful how to be You know not so
task -oriented be more process oriented and then
you know slowly as I was accepted as a good leader
and We were successful and really building a
team culture. I Interjected things and I want
to say one of my the first was love on a piece
of paper that wasn't business oriented. And then
those eight and a half by 11s, even though it
went to nice PowerPoint, you know, sometimes
it'd be a phrase, it normally would be a word
though. And then I would go off on this whole
little thing. And I was very involved in things
that were going on in the practice. So I would
know pockets of struggle. And I would Always
do a little meditation with myself and I'd be
like, what's the eight and a half by 11 for this
month? And it was amazing. I'd have people be
like, can you please send that to me? Oh my god,
were you at my house this weekend? Oh my gosh,
you have helped me like so much. So the tag it
was eight and a half by 11. It was it would say
the month and it would be making the world a
better place one person at a time from the inside
out. And so slowly, we interjected a lot of self
mastery and That was really the premise of how
I functioned as a leader. And so my team, my
key leaders, you know, I guess maybe in the beginning
they had to buy into it because I was the CEO,
but I really believe they embraced it. And and
one of the things that I why I wrote the first
book is I remember somebody came to my office,
one of my key leaders and said, you know, another
key leader said something that would normally
really upset me, but I did something that we've
learned together. I wondered what was going on
inside of them that they should say that. Because
I used to say, is that person loving? Are they
going to sabotage us? They wouldn't even be here
if they had those characteristics. So do you
trust them? So there has to be another reason,
something that you don't know. Because let's
face it, you can react differently Today and
tomorrow on on something that happens Depending
on your fuse of like what happened 100 % right
so You got a cup people slack and if you trust
them and believe that their intentions are always
good Then that's what you got to do when somebody
says some crappy stuff. You got to think to yourself
What's going on here? You know their intention
would never be to hurt me would never be to embarrass
me would never be so there's got to be something
else And I really started writing my book shortly
after that person came in my office because I
was like so happy. I thought, oh my gosh, we
have really people really understand that everything's
a reflection from the inside out. So you can't
take this stuff personally when you pick the
right people. Now, believe me, I've terminated
many a people in my bazillion years of health
care. But sometimes I got thank you cards. Everybody's
life got went because. I used to tell people
if you're holding up a wall of ocean water, one
of these days it's just going to come down and
flatten you out. So if you're the square peg
in the round hole, get somewhere that you know
the sweater fits where you you know where you
can be successful. So believe it or not, we journeyed
through this. And I mean, some of the eight and
a half by elevens were awesome, like gratitude,
like I did a whole thing on water crystals, and
how you can change the morphology of water crystals.
Whose book was that? Was it Masaru Omodo, maybe,
who wrote the water crystals? Very good. You
could just Google water crystals. And so Did
that whole presentation then handed out t -shirts
that said gratitude on it had everybody wearing
the next day and on the back between gratitude
was every employees name and You know, we did
fun things like that and you know I might do
one of the eight and half beloved eight and half
by 11s on a book like the four agreements you
know, they were always things that precipitated
thought and So, you know I really think, and
the doctors just knew that the culture was shifting
to be very efficient. We would have patients
come and say, would you put happy pills in these
people's water? Why is this like this? You're
like Patch Adams. And the doctors, I don't know,
they're just an extremely special group of people.
And so they embrace that. And then when we moved
out of our Med Center West building, there was
a flood. I said, don't do anything with the flood
because it was a building that had a vault and
for market preservation, we didn't want to lose
that site, but we didn't use it. So I said to
the docs, you know, I'll do it on a shoestring
budget, but let me make a wellness center there.
You know, now this is going back 20 something
years when Reiki and all of that, you know, acupuncture
was probably more accepted. Massage was, you
know, Probably more accepted but Reiki and energy
work and all of that and I can remember there
were doctors like well Don't do any of that stuff
an infusion, you know and and through the years
It's just everything changed people began to
be more open patients wanted this they realized
I mean I talk about one of the few of my Reiki
clients because all I ever really treated for
cancer patients. Yeah Which was a real privilege
for me, you know, you're the CEO in the daytime
and now you're part of the team, right? You're
part of the healing team Even though because
the most important thing though that I don't
want anybody to ever forget is you don't throw
out Conventional wisdom you blend it You blend
what we've learned and what we can do conventionally
with ancient wisdom because we are beings of
electrical energy You know, we I mean I talk
about science the science of it in here I talk
about Ampere's law when there's any kind of electricity
going through cells There's you know an electromagnetic
field and we do tons of things with that electromagnetic
field It's some things we don't even think about
but you know, I mean, I'm sure you've sat down
and somebody's walked in the room You know they're
there. You know, you've said, oh my God, you
could cut the tension with a knife. Oh my gosh,
what is the mood? Well, where does all that come
from? It's all the energies and the patterns,
right? So anyways, that's how those physicians,
and then when we did the new building in Camillus
the year last year, because I just retired this
February, we moved our wellness center. So now,
you know, it's a very busy place and it has Tai
Chi and yoga and, you know, reiki and energy
work. these doctors give it out of the goodness
of their heart. So all the practitioners will
bill for their own services, none of them are
employees, and we don't charge them anything,
but they have to charge less, like 20 % less
than what the traffic bears out in the community.
Because I felt like you can spend a ton of money
on billboards, you can spend a ton of money on
whatever, but when those people go to that wellness
center and they have profound experiences and
go tell all their friends, And they know that
those practitioners are charging less because
those doctors have supported that. I mean, that's
a huge marketing tool. You know, it's amazing
to me that you're you. I live in the world of
like I believe in science and medicine very much,
but I'm also spiritual. And it's rare that we
find somebody with your resume. who is able to
play both sides and incorporate it together.
It's really, really refreshing that you don't
really see science and spirituality together.
It's pretty cool. No, it's great. the red flag
you see with some folks in why you think they're
selling snake oil. None of these doctors and
experts in medicine that we've had, they're a
joke. It's this one magic plant. You're not doing
anything of that sort. So I talk about a beautiful
human being that I did reiki on for, geez, I
don't know, years every week. And she had...
she had lung cancer with metastatic tumors to
her head. And so she had 11 of them, bam, bam,
bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. And they had done as
much radiation, whole brain as they could, whatever.
And her radiation oncologist, we were, you know,
had beautiful relationships with these docs.
He reaches out and he says, Mare, I mean, I'm
kinda in mental loss, you know, that thing you
do, that reiki thing, do you think that could
help? I said, well, it certainly wouldn't hurt.
I mean, is it a coincidence that as soon as we
started Reiki, she never had another brain met
in her head, and she lived like 10, 11, 12 more
years? I mean, I saw her in the grocery store,
like probably a couple years after we stopped
doing Reiki, and she had braces on, and I'm like,
oh my gosh, you got braces. She goes, yeah, had
I known I was gonna live this long, I would have
got them a long time ago. I had no idea. and
uh but there was profound healing because she
also did a lot of work from the inside out but
i've had other clients like maryann you know
i don't see the radiation beam i don't know how
it works but i know it's killing this tumor and
i don't know what you're doing but for a week
after i have no diarrhea and i have no nausea
for five days after this reiki treatment so you
know And then that's one of the one of the reasons
why I set up cancer connects because one of the
things that cancer connects does is It has this
voucher program because I also knew while these
people were going through this cancer journey
It could be very expensive and even though back
then a Reiki treatment was $40 people didn't
have an extra $40 hanging around. So I was like
we need a foundation That will raise money to
be able to pay for these integrative therapies
and never in my wildest dreams when I filled
out that 50133 paperwork for Cancer Connects
did I ever imagine that today and it's for the
entire community not just hematology oncology
associates primarily because it's not legal to
have a foundation for a for -profit company so
it's for everyone it's in five counties Cancer
Connects orchestrates the vouchers for integrative
therapies, Reiki, acupuncture, all of that. It
has a mentoring program where we hook people
up one -to -one, try to even find the people
that would really connect with other people.
And then there's also a program that will distribute
money to help people pay their copays, pay supplemental
insurance, pay their car payment, pay their daycare.
And there's... There's a there's an angel fund
for all non breast cancer. And then there's a
breast cancer fund that is funded in total by
my dear friend Lori Mezalingua's foundation that
she started. And, you know, it's it's just, you
know, it's the St. Agatha Foundation. Lori, I'll
never forget her telling me the big secret that
she was going to start it, named after the patron
saint of breast health. And St. Agatha's funds
so much in this community. And Cancer Connects
is like the conduit to be able to distribute
these funds. And Lori and I, you know, she was
actually the person that I did my 100 hours before
I became a Reiki master. And I learned a lot.
from her cancer journey. So, you know, these
are very profound things. I've been so blessed.
I've been so fortunate to be able to do all this.
But thank God, I also have a really great science
brain and I am very grounded in science and medicine
so that I understand, you know, because physicians
don't have that training. You know, they want
to see data. They want to make sure they don't
want to. The most important thing is is that
they don't say I think you should go for Reiki
treatment But if someone says doc, what do you
think of this? They don't say Don't do it. They'll
say sure it could be very helpful. So they're
more just They're they're just neutral. Yeah,
but they support it and You know big huge cancer
centers 20 something years ago. We're doing You
know Reiki and all of that kind of stuff and
when upstate built their cancer center, you know
They incorporated it and I had a laugh because
our docs were like we've had this program for
17 years and I wanted to say yeah Remember how
open you were about it big men, but you know
They are they're very open and it's a it's a
very and I think that's what makes HOA special
and I made sure that my successor And I worked
together a couple years. She's cut of the same
cloth and I don't anticipate that culture and
that self mastery Um, you know, we even had a
consultant who will be on my, uh, one of my podcasts,
Mary Schecter. She runs the intuitive organization.
She's absolutely awesome. Has done so much work
through the years with hematology oncology associates,
um, helping people in their self mastery journey.
So we did a lot of work and we spent some money
for groups, teams that were having issues to
really appreciate what was inside of each other.
That's incredible. That's incredible. Marion,
we can talk to you for years and years and years.
Yeah, but we're probably done. Which is why we're
making a podcast. We are. So let's just talk
about that for a quick minute. Yes. And then
we're actually going to get to making it. OK.
A little behind the scenes. Yeah, yeah. So, yes,
I'm very excited about it. What are we talking
about on the podcast? Well, I think down the
road, I will have people as guests on this podcast.
But. For a while, I really want to focus on some
of the concepts in this book. It won't follow
it along, but the most important things, like
every relationship we have depends on the one
with herself. Well, how do we know? What does
that mean exactly? And how do we clear the clutter?
And how do you even assess your level of clutter?
How do you do that? Unconditional love is an
act of being, not an act of doing. You know,
for how many years of my life I was like, you
know, I'm sorry, I can't unconditionally love
that person. I can't unconditionally, oh no,
that's not gonna happen. Well, I'm failing severely
on this unconditional love thing. Until I was
actually writing Millie Book and I was in a chapter
and I just got a divine download, you know, unconditional
love is not an act of. doing. It's an act of
being. It's understanding that we were created
from unconditional love and we are unconditional
love. So you don't have to ask yourself, what
do I got to do to love these people? You say
to yourself, what would love do? How would love?
So, okay, you think very differently from me,
but you have that prerogative and I have, if
I live in a world where I'm not going to judge,
what is my place? You know, and then I want to
talk about things like why we have the limited
data set. How do I what are some of the experiences
I've had that have proven to me that there are
other lifetimes? And what do we bring into these
lifetimes? And what do we need to do to make
sure that we don't have these recurrent themes
over and over and over? You know, those are all
the kinds of things I want to talk about. And
when we have enough podcasts that I feel that
that people will have a foundation, then I do
want to have some guests on there. But I'm hoping
that these guests are extraordinarily different
living on the fringe. You know, I heard the other
day that there was an individual who's a death
doula Who's a medium who helped a young man in
a coma communicate with his family? I want people
like that on my podcast. I want like a medium
I have absolutely, you know I want I because
people say well that's supernatural Well, I've
had a ton of things happen to me and it's not
supernatural. It's natural. It's just out of
our realm of thought and you know, we I'm going
to spend some time in these podcasts talking
about ego and spirit, the world of structure
that we live in. And when you allow structure
to dominate your whole life, what you get yourself
into as opposed to when you really allow spirit
and put your ego aside. You know, it doesn't
mean that you you know, I have to give away all
your stuff and you got to be poor and you got
to know, you know, we are modern day mystics.
Okay, we are people who You have to live in this
world. You have to, you know, national grids,
nobody, not going to give anybody a discount
for, you know, and so we have to be able to.
And, you know, you don't, you know, people need,
they have to have their needs met, but they got
to have some of the wants met too. Otherwise,
you know, what's, what are you doing? What are
you doing? So yeah, so I hope to really have
a good time with people with this podcast. Talk
about all those things. This is going to be fun.
Yeah. I'm going to actually ask people if they
want to write in, but they're going to have to
do something very old fashioned. They're going
to have to write, put a stamp on an envelope
and send it to my PO box. Marianne, real quick.
She's going to read real letters. You're talking
about previous lives. What do you think Matt
and I were in our previous lives? I would have
no idea. I think I was a deer, because watch.
My wife tells me I look like a deer. I'm eating.
I'm eating. Yeah. There you go. You definitely
got the whole headlight thing. Do I look like
a deer? Yeah, could be. What do you think you
were in your previous life, dude? This is fun.
I want to figure this out. Well, now I can't
say hunter. Oh, that would be awkward. But you
know what? What you could do is tonight, Okay.
You go and you evaluate some of the things that
haunt you. Like, you know, do you have something
that you just can't seem to understand? Yes.
And sometimes those things come from... Hold
over but when we come to this world We we have
amnesia because it certainly wouldn't be anything
without free will right you have to make those
decisions Is it time to clear the clutter or
is it not? Some people love living living in
the density of their fear and their anger and
it's where they're happy Okay, no problem. You'll
just probably come back with that same bullshit
until you figure out that you know Love is the
answer. So might as well figure it out now. You
know, there's also people think you die and you
know, you just float into this beautiful place
and all your problems are gone. And you know,
I say it in the book, I use jerk, but you know,
I have a very foul mouth, but I'm gonna try to
control it. But if you're a jerk, you know, you
die with jerk like qualities. You know, you have
to heal the jerk because you know, you take when
you die, no matter what you had here, everybody
takes the same stuff with them. Their soul. transfers,
combines, spirit. Now they know everything. They
know all their other lifetimes. They know all
the things they put in their path to try to learn
and grow. And then you say, well, shit, I didn't
do that. I missed that mark. And you can grow
on that side. You can grow on this side. But
these two worlds are so intertwined and they're
so much closer than people think. You know, that
veil, and as really the world turns, and we evolve
through time, and celestial patterns, it's getting
thinner and thinner. And more and more people,
and I even have an exercise in here, and how
do you know when spirit's talking to you and
it's not your imagination? That's a great question.
Somebody taught me that when I was 30 -something
years old. It's in the book, and I'm like...
I've got to put this in here because that was
a game. You know, I've had a few real game changers
in my life. It's worth the book by itself. Yeah,
yeah. That was a game changer. And honestly,
understanding that we are, we are unconditional
love. It's a, it's a, it's a state of being,
not a state of doing. That was a life changer
for me because then I thought, oh yeah, I just
have to really accept that that opinion is very
different and that they're doing the best they
can with what they have. Because you know, we
all have, you know, like we're doing the best
we can for the most part. And, you know, we're
living within that set of the gifts that we have.
And so when you understand that about someone,
you respect them for, okay, I'll respect you
for what you believe. It's totally different
than me. I don't really get it. And I could never
really think like that, but. You know, may you
have a successful co -created journey and maybe
figure things out and I'll figure my own crap
out and I'll try to effectuate the world that
I can that's here and make it a better place.
One person at a time from the inside out. Man,
Mary Raffero is, you are one of the most interesting
people I've ever met and I mean that in a very
good way. Well, thank you so much. I can see
the smoke coming out of his ears. Well, I have
a hundred questions. His mind is blown. Yeah,
I mean, was I a deer in the past life? What happens
when we die? And it makes sense that you're a
jerk, if you're a jerk in your real life and
then you're past, remember the guy in Ghost?
Get off my train! He was a jerk when he died
and he was a jerk in his afterlife. Yeah, that's
it. Sometimes, you know, sometimes Hollywood
does blend with real life, right? Sometimes.
Well, I still am not getting good at pottery,
but. Yeah, I just want you to know that it's
been a privilege to be on your podcast. You guys
are awesome. I'm so grateful. And thank you so
much for having me. We really appreciate this,
Marianne. And we're very excited because, like
I said, it's obviously everything that we've
talked is something that needs to be. delved
very deep into, which is the whole reason that
people do podcasts. So this is one that we're
very excited to make. Me too. And we're excited
to have you here. Our client portfolio just got
way more interesting. You know what I mean? It
did. And it's not a knock on anybody else. No.
This is a whole new world, literally. Yeah. And
I'm very excited. In all honesty, while we might
not get nearly as spiritual or anything like
that, the whole reason we exist, Good News York,
is very much along the same lines. I am a huge,
huge proponent of positivity and empathy for
people in many of the same ways. Attitude's everything,
right? Absolutely. It really is. I love hearing
an expert sort of quantify these things. that
I've already subscribed to or something. Well,
I'm on my own journey. I wouldn't really call
me an expert, but let's just say I've been working
at it a long, long time. I mean, you're writing
books, so. You're doing something right. Yeah.
Yeah. Marianne Raffero, health professional,
Reiki master, author, and now host of her own
podcast that's going to be powered by growth
mode content, Transitions of Hope. You can catch
it right here. Thank you so much for joining
the show. Thank you. And thanks, everybody, for
tuning in. You know, I mean, love. It's all you
need. Love is all you need. Exactly. It's going
to be our new standard. I think so. Good News
York, sponsored by ads on the go. Quick plug
for tomorrow's show. Oh, I don't know. Should
I give this away? Buddy, this is... Should we
make it a surprise? I always get worried when
there's something exciting that they're going
to cancel on us the last second and then I'm
going like a schmuck. I canceled on CNN a couple
times. You're like, yeah, we're going to go live
in a half hour. And they're like, oh, yeah, we
actually want to talk about something much more
boring. Sorry. You're out of luck. You do your
thing. So I stopped telling people that I was
going to be on. I'll tell you, there's a new
restaurant coming to town that's got a lot of
buzz. And it's a chain restaurant. It's the most
buzz I've seen for a chain restaurant that isn't
Chick -fil -A. A new Taco Bell Cantina is opening
up in Manlius, and this is a merger of a Taco
Bell and a bar. Yeah, this is wild to me. Spoiler
alert, we're getting a preview of it before it
opens. You will be able to see all this fun stuff
on Good News York tomorrow, Thursday. Thursday.
I don't know what day it is. It's coming up.
We can also edit this out. What do we got? Oh,
tomorrow we've got a bunch of questions. Alec,
Alec, that's right. From social media, he's a
real estate guy, but he does these really cool
videos. Local guys have been killing it on social
media. Killing it on social media. We've got
a lot of exciting things. I've got tacos in the
brain, but stay tuned to the show all week. And
also... Check out our boy ads on the go. Did
you realize yesterday he had the he had the truck
with the the graphics and everything outside
I didn't even realize oh till it till he was
leaving. I'm like, oh shoot. He had it all we
should have got pictures Yeah, but that's all
right. He'll be around Taco Bell Cantina. Here
we come. That's right. That's right That's good
news. You are sponsored by ads on the go get
ads on the go calm Mary and Raffero Thank you
for being here and we'll see you on your podcast.
Oh peace out