From Coma to Calling: Holly Porter on Resilience, Faith, and the Power of Purpose

Holly Porter’s story is nothing short of miraculous. After a 70-day hospital battle with COVID-19 that left her in a coma, she not only survived multiple near-death experiences—she came back with a divine calling. Today, Holly is the founder of the Adventure Bucket Wish Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to helping women lead with resilience, purpose, passion, and presence.

In this powerful conversation, Holly shares what it was like to hear God’s voice in the depths of her coma, why she believes joy is the most contagious form of healing, and how she’s turned her pain into purpose. From surviving the unthinkable to building 11 startups and writing 15 international best-selling books, Holly is living proof that the human spirit can rise from any setback.

If you’ve ever doubted your own strength, this episode will remind you that even in the darkest of times, your life can shine brilliantly.

https://hollyporterinternational.com/

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/i-am-refocused-radio--2671113/support.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
You are listening to I Am Refocused Radio with your
host Shamaia Reid. This show is designed to inspire you
to live your purpose and regain your focus. And now
here's your host, Shamaia Reid.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Welcome talking we Focused Radio. We're back again Friday. Again.
It's like Fridays are coming faster than normal because man,
it's already August and we're getting almost halfway through to
get to September, so life is going by fast. We
have an amazing guest, Holly Porter. She is a survivor
and a CEO. She has faced two near death experiences,

(00:40):
including a seventy day battle with the COVID nineteen. We're
gonna get that story inside scoop of what that experience
was like. But that didn't stop her. She has done
a lot of great work since then and before, so
we're gonna learn everything about her story. She's not just
a survivor. She is a fifteen time international bestseller author

(01:01):
and an entrepreneur that is on the mission. She has
launched eleven successful startups and it is also a global speaker.
So we're going to get right into your story. But
before we do, welcome Holly to the show. Say how
you doing today.

Speaker 3 (01:15):
Hi, I'm doing great. Thanks for having me.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
I appreciate you being on. I want to jump into
the story that really piqued my interest when I was
reading up on you, and that is your life threatened
battle with COVID nineteen Can and paint the picture how
you got in the hospital and what did that look
like for you?

Speaker 3 (01:36):
Yeah? Wow, well it did look very good. So prior
to that, I was attending a conference and this was
fall of September in twenty twenty one, so we were
in the midst of everything. I caught the delta version
while at the conference. Didn't know. I never thought i'd

(01:56):
even get COVID. I was super healthy and didn't didn't
know I had it until I got home. So I
think sometimes how many people I infected on that plane.
It makes me really sad. So I got home, got tested.
About two days later, we closed ourselves up into a
fifth will. We were living there waiting behind my dad's house,
waiting for our house to close. And so for a

(02:19):
week I got my husband sick about two days behind me,
and for a week we just hunkered down in there,
wouldn't let anybody come in. People were just dropping his food,
and about that week to a day, I woke my
husband up about four thirty in the morning and just said,
I'm in trouble. I can't breathe. I felt like I
had an elephant sitting on my chest, and so we

(02:39):
didn't even dare call an ambulance because we were so
worried about getting other people sick. Somehow, he got up
and he drove us to the er, and he said
that he dropped me off in the front and by
the time he parked, he came back into the front
door and they already had me on my way to
the ICU, so they knew I was in trouble. My
oxygen was sixty three when I walked in door. I said,

(03:01):
I probably only had about another hour, as bad as
it was, and they wouldn't let him in because he
had COVID, so they sent him home and I didn't
see him for three and a half weeks after that,
and that began my first day of seventy that I
spent in the hospital, not counting recovery and the week before.
And there were some hard days and many days many

(03:25):
of us, including myself, didn't think I would walk out
of there, so I was intubated twice. I had a
trick sect me. I had sepsis and a couple other
life threatening infections while I was in there. But I
had some really cool experiences. I was in a coma
about thirty days, off and on and on, a ventilator

(03:46):
for fifty two total, and a feeding tube for sixty three.
So that's kind of how I ended up there.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
That's kinde of the experience to go through. When you
think about how much Dad disrupts your normal life. You know,
everyone has their responsibilities, goals, you know what they try
and do. You had other people you had to care
for prior to this. How were we able to get

(04:15):
back on your feet? No planting it, but how were
able to do that and kind of semi get back
to normal living?

Speaker 3 (04:24):
Oh wow, it took a long time. So with COVID,
when you're laying in a bed that long, you're getting PTSD.
Anxiety depression comes later when you're in recovery. I literally
lost all five cents is at one point. They tie
your hands to the bed when you have when you're
on a ventilator so you won't pull it out. So

(04:45):
taste and smell we're gone from Thank you COVID and
then I'm legally blind naturally, so if I didn't have
any correction on, I couldn't see who anyone was unless
they were eight inches in front of my face. And
then they were covered in yellow hat, yellow mask, yellow gowns,
so that was scary. And then the ventilator took ninety
percent of my hearing away for some reason, and everybody

(05:09):
sounded like the Charlie Brown school teacher wa wah. So
I had to learn to do everything again. I mean
it was at first I had to learn to breathe
because that's what I lost, was my breath. And then
you know, when you get off of the feeding tube,
it's very delicate how they process you feed. You know,
you had to learn to eat, to swallow light foods,

(05:31):
and then and then learn how to walk. I had
to go to physical therapy while in the hospital. Hated
that because I had no energy. I mean, it was
a task. Everything I could do was like a wind.
So when I could pick up my actual phone like
I was that week, I couldn't even hold my phone
in my hand forever. And then it was the iPad
and then you know, I left on a walker and

(05:52):
then I went to a cane and I had oxygen
for months and months, I would say for a year
and a half. I really struggle with being able to
get back to my normal life. There were lots of setbacks.
Long COVID came after that, which all the diagnosis has
started coming in, so now it's like, yeah, you're out
of the hospital. You're doing recovery. I did pulmonary, I

(06:17):
had therapists for everything. I had nine doctors at one
time because I had so many different things going wrong.
And I'm super holistic by the way, so I'm not
doctor friendly. But there were so many different things happening
to my body because of it that I had a
specialist just for everything. So I walked in the hospital
on no drugs, walked out on twelve. Slowly worked my

(06:38):
way off of all of them, and it's been a journey.
It's not been easy. They're setbacks and we all have them.
So I can't say I just oh, yay, I go
out of the hospital. I was back to normal. It
wasn't that easy, and the setbacks are hard. They were
the first couple of years I had like six week setbacks.
This year I had a ten week setback. I did

(06:59):
work through it. I did travel through it, but I
felt like crap every day, and the fatigues real and
just those symptoms and things that come up. So when
you ask that question, I'm sorry that was a long answer,
but it's so loaded because it was. It was a
lot to get there. But I focused on wellness. I
didn't focus on being sick. I knew. I knew that

(07:20):
God saved me from my near death experience in the
hospital for a reason, and I knew I didn't want
to waste today. I don't want to waste my breath.
I just want to focus on wellness, and so that's
what I did.

Speaker 2 (07:34):
I was getting this on Refocus ready and watching this
on line talking to I guess, Holly Porter, you hear
a lot of people are We heard a lot of
people mention about like brainfall and fatigue. When you slowly
started to gain your strength back, was there any point
where you feel like this is going to be a

(07:57):
long term battle light of recovery or today right now,
are you feeling like your normal self as far as
life strength goes.

Speaker 3 (08:09):
No, I feel like everybody after you recover, you get
your new norm is what they call it. So there's
two hundred symptoms linked to long COVID, which if you
think about that, it's pretty much everything. And a lot
of people don't even realize they have long COVID. If
you trace back some help issues that you're having back
to when you had COVID, and if they started after that,

(08:31):
more than likely it is some long COVID lingkering on.
My husband even has long COVID and he didn't spend
any time in the hospital. There's people that were a
symptomatic that never got sick that have long COVID, Like
there's just no rhyme or reason. Everybody's so different from that.
So I still do suffer, especially on the setbacks, the

(08:51):
fatigues a big one, the brain fog, yes, and it goes,
I want to say, like goes in waves is the
only way to explain it. Days. What I noticed for
me is the directional stuff. So like I had a
little bit of dyslexia from numbers, and I noticed that's
a little more pronounced everything you seem to have. Maybe

(09:12):
that whatever happened to your body seems like it just
caught it on fire, and so directional things. I mean,
I am a real estate broker, so luckily we have navigation,
and most of the time it's right. I just rely
on that because trying to figure out the directions of
things is really challenging. That's where I noticed my brain fog.
I mean, for instance, I lived on a busy street

(09:34):
that was on a corner house, and I had drove
right past it going home a couple of times my
own house. I mean, just like you just don't compute,
and so that's the only way I can explain it. So, yes,
I think a lot of people just don't realize those
symptoms are following you. And it doesn't mean we need
to give them a label. I don't want to be
attached to diagnosies and things like that, but it's real.

(09:57):
It's my life, and if you figure out what it is,
it's a lot easier to figure out how to fix it.

Speaker 2 (10:04):
Yeah. Also, with all this that has gone on in
your life, you're also staying busy. You run businesses, you're coaching,
you're speaking, doing all these great things. Tell us about
what sparked the idea of the nonprofit adventure Bucket Woods Foundation,

(10:25):
and was the backstory on that project?

Speaker 3 (10:28):
Oh wow, So that's a five oh one c three.
Even the mission has changed. So while I was in
my near death experience in the hospital, God's my higher power,
whatever that is for anyone else. But I had this
told to me to start this nonprofit and it was
called Adventure Bucket Wish. But I didn't really get any
more instructions than that, and I'm like, huh yeah. So

(10:51):
when I started getting a little better, I knew I
needed to take care of it. I knew I needed
to incorporate it and then get the nonprofit. About three
months to four months after I got out of the hospital,
I was able to do that, and I was still
on oxygen. I was still pretty sick, but I knew
I was told to do this. If God's going to
save my life and he's going to tell me to
do something, I'm going to listen. So I incorporated it

(11:14):
and I was like, what's the mission. Well, long, COVID
was just starting to get out there where people were
even talking about it. It was a very underserved community.
Doctors didn't know how to help us. We're their statistics
because they didn't have any, and it was really challenging.
They would dismiss a lot of symptoms, a lot of
things that were going on. They just didn't know how to.

(11:34):
And it still is like that actually, and so I thought, wow,
what a better cause than for long COVID. So for
the first couple of years, we did our fundraisers and
it was all about helping the long COVID community. Well,
one day I was something the second year into our
third year just really didn't feel right to me. And

(11:56):
I'm very intuitive, a little more now then since I
had deth experience, but I just knew something was wrong,
but I didn't know what. So I took all the
fundraisers off the calendar that year and I just kept
doing a podcast that I had that we interviewed doctors
and holistic people and people with long COVID and caretakers
of long COVID people, and that was our guest. And

(12:17):
I was interviewing somebody that was sharing their long COVID story,
and all of a sudden, I'm overwhelmed with reliving my
story like she's telling hers and I'm reliving mine, and
I'm struggling breathing, and I'm like, what is going on?
And all of a sudden, I get this huge download
that was just like someone's just yelling it right through me.

(12:40):
And they said this is your last podcast. This is
not your mission anymore. I was like, whoa what. I
even had a hard time finishing the show. I mean,
she never knew what was going on. But I was
actually excited because it was like I wanted to just
take that wide open book and go whoop. And not
because it wasn't a cause that was underserved and needed.

(13:02):
It was It's just I. For me, it was putting
me in that sick space all the time, and I
wanted to live in wellness space. I wanted to get better.
Every day I something better. My comment was better is better,
and I would I would felt like I would always
be pulled back into the negative part of it. So
for me emotionally and physically, it was better. Like that

(13:26):
was a great answer for me. And then I got
really depressed about it because I called one of my
board members and I said, she's really intuitive too, And
I said, wow, why would God tell me to start
this nonprofit and then take it away? She said, what
do you mean take it away? I said, well, I
was told not to not this isn't my mission anymore.
And she said, but were you told to start the

(13:48):
nonprofit for the long COVID community and I thought about
it and I was like, no, actually I wasn't. I
came up with that myself because I was living it
and I felt like it was needed. And she said, well,
you're in your third year of the nonprofit, which is
significant for a nonprofit. She said, why don't we just
change the mission. Keep the name that God told you
to do, and just change the mission for it. So

(14:09):
she said what would light you up? What would make
you excited about it? So I thought about it and
I said, really, something with women and purpose. So it's
about women leading with purpose. And that's really what I
gained out of my whole setback is what I call it.
When I was in the hospital was purpose. Before that,
I had a great family, I was happy, you know,

(14:32):
but I didn't really have anything that just lit me
up to where it was like, this is the legacy
I want to leave, This is what I want to
be known for. This, this is it. And now it
feels so much better to be able to feel like, Wow,
what if I could help women, especially minorities and veterans
and single moms, because I have a bigger heart for

(14:54):
those people. What if I could help them find their
purpose and gather them into that. Well that's what we did.
So sorry for the long answer, but that's the answer.

Speaker 2 (15:05):
No, it's perfect and was very interesting. It's the timeline.
And you said it only took three months for you
to get things going originally, and that's very impressive. But
when you say your background, you say you was also
in real estate prior to.

Speaker 3 (15:25):
Yeah, so I've had eleven startups, not counting all the
little things I set my kids up in and little stuff,
but we usually had three or four at a time,
and so I've had like real estate, I've been in
that twenty years. But I had a salon in Spa
for twenty years, so I had a lot of licenses
in the beauty industry. But I just I love the
service industry. I got into real estate. I would actually

(15:48):
put my real estate office when I got my broker's
license into my salon. I had a big salon, so
in the center of it was an office and it
was kind of it was just fun. The energy was
really fun. I loved doing that stuff. I knew with hair,
I did hair and skin, and I knew my passion
for it wouldn't end, but my body wouldn't be able
to keep up with the passion for it. So I

(16:09):
knew always I needed to look for something that was
going to be more sustainable. And I also didn't even
I didn't just start in the three months the nonprofit.
I also was told I had an idea for a
company called Retreat R and R, and I had pitched
the day I found out I had COVID. I was
sicker than a dog and pitched to them. They had

(16:31):
a billionaire backer. I wanted to partner with them, but
I was told in minar death to not partner with them.
That was the highest and best thing to do, and
by then this was just a concept, but I went ahead.
I also was told it would take longer, which it has,
but I went ahead and both companies, so the nonprofit
and then the for profit. I incorporated both of them

(16:52):
within about thirty days of each other. So I was
working on both of them at the same time. I
still don't know how I had the energy to do
any of it. I mean, I did have an attorney
that was helping me with a lot of it, But
I look back and I'm just like, how did I
even do that with what I was going through? Because
I was very sick.

Speaker 2 (17:13):
The reason why I want to touch on that is
because the fact that you just have this goal get
it mindset, and there's a lot people who struggle with
just one, but you have multiple. And that's very telling
that you are not just committed to the work you do,

(17:36):
but you're committed plus passionate, plus visionary. And that's very impressive.
That's very impressive because those are qualities that are very
necessary for any platform to have growth and to be
able to sustain the success that comes with challenges. You

(18:00):
live literally live through challenges as well. So my next
question is when you think have to combat from your health,
it took a hit. But what's very impressive its hearing
you speak of how even more driven you were. I mean,
most people they went through what you went through, they

(18:23):
might even slowed down and say, you know what, maybe
I'm just moving too much or too fast? Why not
because you probably have the same type of energy, But
how are you developing this energy to just keep moving
in the business world, because it's very intriguing interesting.

Speaker 3 (18:45):
Well, it wasn't easy because I didn't have the energy
I used to have. I still don't, I feel like
and I didn't answer that when you asked me the
other question. I probably for a long time, I was
at seventy percent better, I would say, and I thought
that was my new norm. But to lose thirty percent
of what you were, that's a lot. And I would say,
then I got to about ninety percent, and then I

(19:07):
actually tipped to about ninety five percent. So I would
say I'm between ninety and ninety five percent depending on
the day. I don't know if I'll ever be one
hundred percent again where I was, just because I have
so many other other things. But I think when you
talk about setbacks, we all have setbacks, and we also
all have the mental capacity to deal with what we
can deal with, right And when people say, oh God,

(19:29):
I'll never give you more than you can deal with,
that's hard to believe sometimes when you're in it, when
you're in that moment, and I will share that during
So about the time I incorporated about those companies was
my biggest setback. So for two years almost I had
the worst, the worst life ever. Like you would think, Oh,

(19:51):
you just came back from seeing you know Heaven, You
think everything'd be great. Everybody would be gravitating towards you,
and oh my mom almost died you know, let's be close.
And with the exception of my husband and a couple
siblings and a couple friends, I felt so alone in
my life and it was like I repelled everybody and

(20:12):
I cried every day for two years. In fact, I
prayed many of those days that I've just died. I
literally was like, why would God save me to put
me through this hell I'm going through? And it was
just everything was challenged. It was really really hard. So
I ended up coming out of the two years and

(20:32):
I had a hypno succession on the near death, so
I had out of body experiences. I had a spiritual
transformational experience and a near death experience in about a
three and a half week period of time while I
was in the hospital and when I was the worst
and I felt like I knew the story of the others,
but I wanted this hypno succession just on the near

(20:53):
death so I could understand, like what is going on.
I mean, I'm saved. I got sent back. I didn't
even get a choice to stay in heaven. I got
sent back, and now I have all these things to
do and now I'm having all these setbacks. Now I'm
having the worst two years of my life? What is
going on? So that was an amazing adventure and a

(21:14):
lot of things were opened up to me in that
and I was told more will be revealed to you
when the time is right. I was told to love
people where they're at. And I think those were two
messages at that time. I needed. I needed really bad.
I reviewed my life review again and all I had
remember seeing was good. And trust me, I've done plenty

(21:36):
about things. We all have done bad things. But this
time I was like, I must have had the thought,
why where's all the bad? Because I wasn't seeing bad.
I was seeing acts of kindness and service and joy
and love. And I was told, this is what matters.
The good I did was what mattered. That's what God

(21:56):
cared about, was the good I did. And I feel
like it was. It was just such a It was
like another awakening for me to say keep going. He
showed me a couple symbols in there. One had to
do with a tree that ended up being the logo,
not that actual tree, but a logo to my retree
ar in our company I had created, and I told

(22:18):
him I had to have a tree on it. I
didn't remember that tree was in my near death till
I had this hypnosiscession and then it appeared, and it
was almost like God saying, you created that logo in
that company. You were told to do on your own
without partnering with that billionaire, and you did it, and
you didn't even remember part of it. You didn't even remember.
And then there was another incidence with the nonprofit where

(22:42):
I saw these pink parts being formed out of matter
and then they would form into a heart and they
would float off into the light. And when I did
my nonprofit Gay Left fundraiser, I had these gift bags
that I created for everybody that came, and I knew
instinctively that every one of them needed a Peak rose
Court heart inside that bag. Never questioned it, I just

(23:05):
knew it did, and so I put it in there.
And when I saw that, I was just like wow.
It was just like, huh, I did that too, you know.

Speaker 2 (23:14):
Well.

Speaker 3 (23:14):
I listened, and it's like, sometimes I think we have
to get still when we talk about busy, and you
ask about busy, sometimes busy is just the new stupid,
and you just really need to take a step back.
I believe I was put in a coma so that
I would sit still. I don't think I was listening.
I wasn't sitting still. I wasn't living in a purpose.

(23:37):
I really wasn't. I was living in chaos and just
on the edge all the time, you know. And it's
hard when you do more than one thing to really focus.
I know, for me, I will never do just one thing.
I've had people say, you know, my broker used to
tell me before I was a broker, he said, you know,
you'd be my number one real estate agent if you

(23:59):
would just focus on real estate. And I looked him
right in the eyes and I said, you're right, I
would be, but I wouldn't be happy and wake up
every day happy. I just knew that about myself. And
do you know, later, like ten years, maybe even twelve
years later, he got dementia really bad, and I ran
into him and he hardly remembered anyone at this point.

(24:21):
And he came up to me and he said, are
you still doing a hundred different things? And to me,
that was a huge compliment because he doesn't remember anyone
he has all this dementia, but he remembered that about me,
And I thought, well, who do you want? Do you
want someone to get things done that's already busy, or
do you want someone who's not busy, because busy people
are the ones getting things done.

Speaker 2 (24:42):
Great point on wasn't goin to listen, sorry folks radio
and watching this a lot talking to our guests Holly
Porter and getting closest to the and you know what
it takes personally to do with that you are aiming
to do with your personal goals professionally and community and family.

(25:08):
There's a ton of people in our audience who are entrepreneurs,
those who are striving to be entrepreneur one day and
go full time. You know what it takes to get
things done. Talking about busy and busy people getting things done,
you personally lived it. What would you say to so
on who feels like they are in their way when

(25:33):
it comes to this business or this entrepreneurship opportunity. Having
gone through what you've been through in your life, what
worse or wisdom will you share with them to help
them maybe break through that vicious cycle.

Speaker 3 (25:49):
Yeah, oh I'm in my way most of the time.
I can relate to that. I would say the biggest
lesson is to find your balance. What someone tells you
to do or works for them may not work for you.
Everybody has different spaces of their life. And if you're
raising children, you're in a different space. If you're an

(26:09):
empty nester, you're in a different space. If you're getting divorced,
if you're having life crisis, things going on. What someone
can say, oh, try this, try that, But you got
to know everybody has their own intuition. So I think
listening to your gut and realizing, but finding that space
of balance. So look at when you look at all this,

(26:30):
you know life, every day, you're physical, mental, every being
that you have within you needs to be balanced. And
so see find one of those charts they're out there
all over that gives you all the different categories and
see where you're off. There's a little tests you can
take and probably chat GPT something and it'll come up
and help you figure out, like am I not having

(26:52):
enough self care? Do I not have enough playtime? Do
I work? You know twelve fourteen hour days? I've had
those days too. When you're building something big, yes you
have to sacrifice a little bit more. But if that
balance is off, if you're not spending time with your
children or your family, or your spouse or your partner,
and you're not finding that balance in what you're doing.

(27:12):
That's when I think the scales get tipped, and for me,
that's when I get help setbacks. I've realized that. Now, Oh,
next time I start getting a health step back, I'm
going to realize you're off track, you're not doing something right,
and so you're getting sick. So why are you getting sick?
And what do you need to look at?

Speaker 1 (27:28):
So?

Speaker 3 (27:28):
I think it's just it's a self observation, is what
I would say.

Speaker 2 (27:34):
And the last thing before we close is I want
to zoom in on that part of being still because
I personally can relate to that being still sometimes is
not like you taking the break just to take a break.
Is more like you're taking the break to almost zoom

(27:55):
out and reflect on where am I actually going with this?
And until you can stop and ask yourself, that you
might become the person that is just never quite hitting
the mark, because when you're so caught up in just

(28:16):
being the busy busy bee, you miss win those opportunities
that use the R like once in a lifetime for me,
treating memories, to making sure that this platform is healthy
for my guests, and three making sure the listeners are
being inspired and cutting the fluff. You have to at

(28:36):
times be still because that's my personal experience. In line
me with what you've been talking about throughout the whole show,
that's when you almost start to gain more clarity of
who you are. It is possible, but it's totally a
fog if you will, if you just keep this busy
mindset where you have no breaks and you don't have

(28:58):
no mental sit down time and start reflecting on what's
really going on.

Speaker 3 (29:05):
Love that so true. Now, one more thing to shake
it up. I bought a vibration plate. So it literally
is one of those things you stand on that does this.
And so sometimes the break is that because I feel
like it shakes up my nervous system and it just
it doesn't get me pumped up or anything, but it's
just like move things around a little bit. So when

(29:27):
you're sitting at a desk and working at home or
working at your office, you can buy one for about
sixty dollars. They're so nice to have because it just
it does it, just like it shakes everything inside. I
feel like after I've done, I feel like, okay, now
I can get back to work. You know, move things around.

Speaker 2 (29:44):
Those watching listen to us right now was the best
website that they can go to to stay updated with
your work and your resources.

Speaker 3 (29:52):
Yeah. The nonprofit is Adventure Bucket wish dot org and
you can contact us there or alliporter dot com. You can,
that's my personal one. Either way you can get in touch,
that'd be great. And I'm on all social media platforms,
some more than others.

Speaker 2 (30:09):
I'd always want to say to our guest Holly, thank
you for your timing me