Rising Phoenix Experience for Older Woman in Frisco: The Most Meaningful Gift You Can Give

Donna Schmittler was named the Frisco Chamber of Commerce’s Community Champion for 2025. She is seventy-nine years old and an inspiration to us all!

Additionally, Donna has been raising her hand for others her entire life.

To celebrate Donna even more, Brian and I had the honor of giving her the Rising Phoenix Experience at FIORIA, a full day of neuroscience-informed identity work in Frisco, Texas, designed for those stepping into a new chapter of who they are becoming.

This is Donna’s beautiful story of resilience. Furthermore, it is a story about what it looks like to keep becoming even after a lifetime of showing up for other people.

But before we get to her story, I have to share why this particular Rising Phoenix Experience mattered so deeply to me. I’ve been thinking about how our work at FIORIA serves individuals in every life stage, not just the teen-identity forming years or mid-life reinvention years.

Donna is proof that becoming is not something we finish.

Instead, it’s something we keep choosing, at every age and in every season.

So often in our society, women resist being photographed as they get older. Many quietly stop showing up in family photos, at events, in front of the camera altogether. We see this a lot in our Branding work. Women hanging on to old headshots consciously and subconsciously valuing the look of youth over wisdom and confidence. Consequently, they disappear from the visual record of their own lives at exactly the moment their stories are richest.

At FIORIA, we have been so honored to hold the Rising Phoenix Experience for older women, some in their eighties, some in their nineties. Additionally, we have watched the transformation that happens when a woman who has spent decades pouring out is finally invited to receive. She does not just get portraits. She gets a mirror held steady enough to see who she has become.

Coming into the experience, she is often afraid that she will only see how much she has aged.

But by the end, she sees the wisdom, grace, and radiance that only God, and the passing of decades, can give.

Ultimately, that is why we do this work. We help you see yourself clearly.

Meet Donna Schmittler, a Woman Who Can’t Help Herself

Donna is the woman I would describe as unable to not show up. When there is a need in her community, her hand goes up. Every time. She has been doing this for approximately seven decades.

She grew up as the oldest of four children near West Point, New York. From a young age, she was a mother figure to three younger brothers. In those early chapters of Donna’s life, she was being shaped into the generous woman she’d become.

Later, she married her first husband Joe. Together they built a life, raised children, and hosted enormous Italian family gatherings every summer. Sometimes fifty-seven people attended! Ultimately, life was vibrant and full.

Then, twelve years ago, Joe died unexpectedly.

Rather than withdraw into grief, Donna made a decision that has come to define her second chapter. She made a bold move that surprised even her dearest friends. Donna moved from New York to Texas to be near her children and start a new life. Additionally, she did the opposite of what many widowed women do at seventy. She got involved. Deeply involved.

Donna joined the Garden Club in Frisco. She got involved in her local church. Furthermore, she stepped into local politics and preserving Frisco history.

In her seventies, she also fell in love again with a wonderful man named Denny. Brian and I loved meeting him! What a smile, with the most kind (and mischievous) eyes.

At seventy-nine, Donna is more engaged in her community than most women half her age.

Looking at this photo, you can see what her friends describe when they talk about her. Her willingness to help. The warmth she brings into every room. It is the same warmth that has quietly organized her entire life.

The Frisco Chamber of Commerce Recognizes a Community Champion

In February, the Frisco Chamber of Commerce named Donna their Community Champion at our annual gala celebration. This was not her first recognition from the Chamber, either. Previously, she was named their Citizen of the Year. Ultimately, this is a woman Frisco has celebrated more than once because Frisco knows what she has given.

When I heard the news of the Community Champion recognition, I was not surprised in the slightest. Anyone who has spent even five minutes with Donna understands what the Chamber saw. This is a woman who has organized her whole life around showing up for other people. Furthermore, she does not wait to be asked. She notices what is needed and steps forward.

That kind of consistent showing up, across seven decades, is what community actually means. Additionally, it is exactly the kind of woman we built FIORIA to serve.

What Rising Phoenix Looked Like for Donna

A Rising Phoenix Experience is a full day of neuroscience-informed identity work in Frisco, Texas. The day itself is only the beginning. Additionally, every Rising Phoenix client goes home with custom wall art, daily neuroscience-based integration exercises, a mood log, and a full year of guided support as their brain rewires around the truth of who they are and also becoming.

Donna’s Rising Phoenix, however, was unusual for one specific reason. Most women who come to us are in the middle of a transition. By contrast, Donna’s transition happened over the last twelve years. She had lived through widowhood, relocation, remarriage, and the quiet steady work of building a whole new life in a new city. Ultimately, she was not arriving at her transition. Rather, she was celebrating that she had lived through it.

What the Rising Phoenix offered Donna was not transformation. Instead, it was beautiful, worthy recognition. Namely, a mirror held steady long enough for her to see the woman she had already become.

The Reading Ritual: Seeing Herself Through the Words of Her People

One of the most sacred parts of the Rising Phoenix Experience happens in the morning during what we call the Reading Ritual. While our professional makeup and hair artist, Ginger, cares for her, Brian and I sit and read her the words her closest people wrote about her. Consequently, the woman in the chair hears herself the way she is loved.

Four dear friends of Donna’s contributed to her Rising Phoenix. Together, their voices painted a picture of a woman who is impossible not to love.

Kim Baldridge, her nail technician of fourteen years

Kim described Donna as an amazing and loyal friend who “will do anything for anybody.” Additionally, Kim said Donna gives good advice, listens without repeating what is shared, and is so easy to be around. When Kim was going through a heartbreaking season, Donna would listen and not tell her what to do. But instead, she would talk Kim through it with kindness and love.

Linda Stricker, her Garden Club friend of eighteen years

Linda said what makes Donna extraordinary is her intentionality. Specifically, she used these words:

Donna is very intentional about finding out about you. She puts everything on such a personal level. She remembers things you tell her, and she will ask about it months later.

Linda’s hope for Donna’s Rising Phoenix portraits was this: that they would remind her, every day, that God loves her and that life is good and full.

Furthermore, Linda’s own catchphrase for Donna is one they say back and forth to each other in every hard season. “This too shall pass.”

Sitting with this beautiful portrait, I remember what the Reading ritual felt like on Donna’s special day. I remember how still she went in the chair as her people’s words were read aloud. Being seen this way changes what the brain believes.

Robin Bennett described her energy as unmatched

Robin used the phrase that has become the emotional heart of Donna’s story. Namely, Donna’s first husband once told her she has healing hands, because she is always volunteering, always stepping up, always finding another way to make a difference. Additionally, Robin compared her to the Energizer Bunny. She said, “She gets so much done. And she knows everybody.”

Rosemary Eckard, her friend since 1992

Rosemary and Donna met volunteering together at a local hospital in Chester, New York, in 1992. That fact alone tells you something about who Donna has always been. Rosemary spoke about Donna’s faith. She said, “Her faith is very important to her, and it shows through a lot of the things that she does.”

Rosemary also named what everyone else circled around in different words. Ultimately: “You always feel that you are important to Donna. She manages to make everybody feel important.”

The Cinematic Reveal and the Wall Art That Followed

At the end of Donna’s Rising Phoenix day, we held her Cinematic Reveal. This is the moment every Rising Phoenix client sees all the Best Of portraits from that morning. Additionally, every client has a different reaction to this moment. Some cry. Others laugh. Some grow quiet.

Donna’s reaction was uniquely her own. She was tickled. Additionally, she was quietly moved.

Coming into the experience, she wasn’t quiet sure what to expect or think. But Donna knew others in the community who had done their own Rising Phoenix Experience and said how much it gave to them. So she decided to give it a try!

This alone is so inspiring to me! When I am in my 70s some day, I want to be like Donna! I want to be open to new experiences that keep me growing.

Brian and I will always remember the day Donna came to pick up her wall art.

She was receiving.

This beautiful woman who has spent seventy-nine years pouring out was receiving pieces of art with her own face on it that will live in her home for years to come.

Furthermore, she was not receiving it because she had earned it.

She was not receiving it because it was her turn.

Rather, she was receiving it because it was time for her to receive.

Ultimately, that is what Rising Phoenix is for.

These portraits will hang in Donna’s home. It will continue doing quiet neuroscience-based work every day as her brain reorganizes around who she is becoming. That is what the wall art is designed to do.

How the Rising Phoenix Experience for Older Women in Frisco Meets Her Where She Is

When women in their sixties, seventies, and eighties come to FIORIA, we sometimes hear a version of the same quiet worry. Namely, they ask, “Am I too old for this?”

The honest answer, grounded in what neuroscience tells us about the brain’s capacity to reorganize itself throughout life, is no. In fact, women in Donna’s life stage often experience the deepest kind of shift after a Rising Phoenix Experience. Consequently, they have decades of accumulated identity to integrate. Furthermore, their nervous systems have been carrying that weight for years without ever being invited to release it.

A Rising Phoenix Experience for a woman like Donna is not about becoming someone new. Instead, it is about the brain finally seeing, in its own reflection, the woman she has already become. The daily integration exercises, the custom wall art in her home, the mood log, and the year-long support ensure that this new visual and emotional truth becomes part of her nervous system’s daily reference point.

For a woman who has spent her life raising her hand for others, this practice becomes something quietly radical. Namely, a daily invitation to receive.

What This Book of Becoming Entry Means to Me

If you are new here, the blog you are reading is called the Book of Becoming. I chose the name deliberately. Becoming is not a phase we grow out of. Rather, it is a way of moving through this life at every age.

Donna’s Community Champion recognition arriving so close to her Rising Phoenix Experience was not planned. Furthermore, life sometimes magically stitches things together this way. What I want you to notice is not the timing, however, but the pattern.

The woman Frisco recognizes as its Community Champion is the same woman who, at seventy-nine, was willing to sit for one more moment of new. Namely, she was willing to be seen.

Even more inspiring for someone who gives so much, she was willing to receive. Ultimately, that willingness, after seven decades of pouring out, is itself the character trait the Chamber recognized.

Donna is a Community Champion because she has never stopped being open.

Questions Women Ask Before Booking the Rising Phoenix Experience for Older Women in Frisco

Am I too old for the Rising Phoenix Experience?

Absolutely not. The Rising Phoenix Experience has been designed to serve women at every life stage. Additionally, some of the most powerful experiences we have held have been for women in their seventies, eighties, even nineties. The daily integration practices, the wall art, and the year-long support are structured to serve a woman regardless of her age. Furthermore, the neuroscience of visual identity work is not age-limited. The brain remains capable of reorganizing around new visual references throughout life.

What if I have already been through my hardest seasons?

The Rising Phoenix Experience is not only for women in the middle of transformation. It’s not only for women who feel stuck in old narratives. It is increasingly for women who have already done the deep work of a lifetime and want to see themselves as they are now. Namely, it is for the woman who wants to celebrate her arrival, not just navigate her becoming.

What makes this different from a traditional photography experience?

The FIORIA method combines neuroscience with photography in a way that is designed to reshape how the brain sees the self. Additionally, we begin with what we call “Identity Excavation”. Through Clarity Calls, we gather the words of the people who love you most, read those words back to you during your day, and pair the visual work with a year of integration support. We offer Brain Analysis for those who want to see the data of how everything we’re doing is impacting their cognitive function. Through two amazing neuroscientist advisors and two therapists, we’ve integrated details throughout the day that fire off different systems in your brain for healing and restoration. Consequently, the wall art you go home with continues to do neuroplasticity-informed work in your daily environment long after the shoot day ends.

What happens after my Rising Phoenix day?

Every Rising Phoenix client receives custom wall art, daily neuroscience-based integration exercises, a mood log, and a full year of guided support with our team. Furthermore, the wall art is strategically placed in your home to serve as a daily neuroplasticity anchor. Additionally, we walk alongside you for the twelve months that follow as your brain rewires around who you are becoming.

For the Woman Who Has Been Raising Her Hand

If you know a woman who has been quietly raising her hand for other people her whole life, a mother, a grandmother, a mentor, an aunt, a friend, a nurse or caregiver, the Rising Phoenix Experience was built for her. She may not know she is a Rising Phoenix yet. But she is.

Furthermore, if you yourself are that woman, this Book of Becoming entry is written with you in mind. Namely, the one who has spent her life pouring out and quietly wonders what it would be like to receive.

Neuroscience-informed identity work in Frisco is available to you. The Rising Phoenix Experience for older women in Frisco is one of the most meaningful, life giving gifts you can give. Additionally, we walk with every client through her Clarity Call, her Experience day, and the full year that follows.

Book a Rising Phoenix Clarity Call and we will walk with you through what your Experience could look like.

With so much love, still we rise.

Me Ra Koh

p.s. Donna, thank you for trusting us with your becoming. You are the reason FIORIA exists. And may every woman who reads this give themselves permission, like you did, to receive and acknowledge all they’ve become. Because of your beautiful model.

p.p.s. If you are in Frisco and you have not yet met Donna, look for her at the next Chamber event. She will be the one raising her hand. 🙂