Reorganizing and Cleaning Up for Spring, FMS/CF Awareness, Anniversary, Birthday .... Busy!

Life is a process, a cycle.  And websites are like people and seems to have developmental stages, just like kids and people do.  Lumigrate will pass it's one year anniversary this week on Saturday, March 27th, and the following Friday Mardy will turn 50.  The way Lumigrate evolved from an idea to a reality, not exactly as Mardy had planned because a person doesn't work in a vacuum -- you're influenced by the people you utilize for your information and by who comes to work for you, the economy, and your life events.  I hate to compare you to a spaghetti noodle, but when I think back to my process, I did my homework (took a class on entrepreneurship and business planning), researched what was going on with trends on the Internet, saw what was going on with the live people that were my patients and participants in the Fibromyalgia Forum Dr. Young and I co-created and lead in Grand Junction 3 years ago, and saw and heard what I was seeing with patients even with hand therapy coming in with what appeared to be systemic issues that might have had something to do with food allergies and inflammation in their body which they and their doctors were unaware of, and clueless about the existence of, so there appeared to be a huge need for progressive health information.  

Over a year ago I was composing and designing what you see on the website in terms of the base information and the videos were done being edited and sent off to the web designer, credit card processing completed, and we were testing the website and foreseeing going 'live', which happened a few days after our launch party, but that's okay, we had those close to us there viewing the test version.  And then I've spent time on facebook last summer finding people who might want to follow Lumigrate, in several interests from health care reform to organic eating and with food allergies and fibromyalgia in between and it's like those noodles were thrown on the wall and we'd see what stuck.  Chronic pain and fatigue, specifically those that know they have 'fibromyalgia' was mostly what stuck, but I've also seen many people interested in 'the great immunization debate', and specific things that are getting much attention lately, such as vitamin D. 

More people found their way to Lumigrate, including providers who are utilizing the Internet, and our 'resident experts' expanded from my back yard of Grand Junction, Colorado, which now is known as the top place in the nation for health care.  It is foreseen that people will be more adept and increasingly have the technology to watch information from the Internet on their televisions and other devices in 2010 and beyond, but really, the number of downloads of videos on Lumigrate in our first year was impressive!  And each time I'd look at the data and talk to another adviser or business person, I'd realize things were getting narrowed down based on what noodles were on the wall now.  

So I used the end of winter to do some hibernation in a way.  I moved a lot of content from the blog information to also be in the Forum areas where it is easier to find in the categories.  I've added categories and will be deleting some.  We're having enough people coming to the website based on the loyal group of followers who know about us (which we've intentionally kept as it was or word of mouth expansion, so to speak) to be impressive to potential sponsors, and so we will proceed for now approaching sponsors that are appropriate and desirable for each area of the Forum; for instance, the upcoming 'driving and the impaired person' section which will be looked at by physicians as they very much need a resource about that might be sponsored by an insurance company.  The skin aesthetics forum by an organic skin care company.  While I believe that people show you what's important to them by what they invest their resources in, with 'resources' being time, energy and money, most people who have chronic illness truly are in financially difficult times, as are many in the country who didn't have the health care costs as well. 

Mostly what I'm seeing is that people in the United States and many other countries where English is spoken, are wanting the kind of information Lumigrate represents: valid and progressive.  Everyone is short on time, so making it streamlined is good for everyone -- those writing the information are short on time too!  And EVERYONE wants to have some fun, they want to have meaningful conversations with good people, and also talk about food and basically I'm thinking of Lumigrate as a campfire people can come to and gather round and exchange ideas.  We'll hopefully have some 'wise men' and 'medicine women', and naturally today those might be medicine men and wise women, and hopefully they're all rolled up in one!  

Since our medical experts can tell us how to find a qualified provider of their type, we're going to compile that information on Lumigrate, and hope that a resource will grow where people can find providers in their own area AND on the Internet, as health care is changing and it's not just about going face to face with someone you live in proximity to.  This has caused changed in how people get their education, and truly, some of the people with medical conditions are wonderful resources and have contributed GRATEly to Lumigrate. 

So now it's spring -- a great time for new growth, cleaning things up and looking forward to summer.  We look forward to passing these milestones as well as participating in International Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Awareness Day, which is May 12th.  Stay tuned in, we have lots more coming up about THAT this week!