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EAT, SKI, LIVE is on a mission to end the stigma of mental health issues and help others know they are not alone. Chef Lee Wright is a millennial professional chef who has achieved extreme highs and crushing lows. When Lee was 16, he apprenticed under Michelin Star chefs Heston Blumenthal and Clive Dixon. At 20, Chef Lee was one of the youngest contestants on MasterChef: The Professionals TV Series in the United Kingdom. He has worked in gastropubs, restaurants, hotels, and event venues in the UK, Norway, and Australia. Chef Lee even cooked for the late Queen Elizabeth and her staff in Buckingham Palace.

After Chef Lee's appearance on MasterChef: The Professionals TV Series, Chef Lee implored Jill Hammergren, a producer in the U.S., to help him develop a TV series. Their friendship deepened, and Jill learned of Chef Lee's love of water skiing and that he was a competitive slalom water skier. Those components launched the initial concept for the EAT, SKI, LIVE TV series.

While those early fantastic experiences were educational, rewarding, and career-boosting, they also proved detrimental to Chef Lee's mental health and overall well-being. The hospitality industry is highly demanding and stressful, especially for high-achieving chefs. Many factors include unreasonable expectations and pressure from owners, customers, and suppliers. Working conditions are often deplorable. There aren't enough people staffing all the necessary positions in the kitchen. Chefs also lack other resources, receive low compensation rates and little-to-no benefits, and face the insurmountable problem of long hours and lack of sleep. For many chefs and others working in hospitality, this often results in anxiety, depression, addictions, physical illness, and, for Chef Lee, a mental breakdown.

Why is a Work-Life-Balance important to Chef Lee?   

As Chef Lee's responsibilities and stress grew in his working conditions, so did his struggles with his mental health. After Chef Lee endured four mental breakdowns over ten years, they knew that it was now more critical than ever to share Chef Lee's journey with audiences around the world.

Now, they are developing a documentary called EAT, SKI, LIVE: A Professional Chef's Journey to Find Mental Health Wellness and Balance to share Chef Lee's personal, raw, and heart-wrenching journey, as told through his lived experiences. It will also focus on Lee's family and friends' experiences as they share how Lee's breakdowns affected them. Lee's love of slalom water skiing and his drive to develop a global TV series keep pushing him to achieve mental health wellness and to help others facing similar situations heal by ending the stigma of talking about and addressing mental health issues.

Chef Lee Uses Water Skiing to Find Balance in his life.  

Chef Lee is not alone in his struggle with mental health issues. Consider these staggering statistics:

  • In the US, 1 in 5 adults, or 59.3 million people, live with a mental illness, and in the UK, 1 in 4 adults experience mental health issues.
  • Globally, in the hospitality industry, 1 in 5 hospitality workers suffer from work-related severe mental health issues.
  • Age Group: In the U.S., 30.6% of young adults ages 18 to 25 have the highest rate of experiencing mental health conditions, followed by 25.3% of people between the ages 26 to 49 and 14.5% of all adults who are 50+ experience mental health conditions. 
  • Race and ethnicity: Annually, these groups experience some of the highest rates of mental health conditions: individuals who are multiracial (35.8%), non-Hispanic white (22.6%), non-Hispanic American Indian or Alaska Native (18.7%), and Hispanic or Latino (18.4%).

Chef Lee wants to end the stigma of mental health illness and promote positivity.  

It is achievable to Discover Your Balance!

The EAT, SKI, LIVE TV series is a unique recipe that combines purposeful and intentional mental health activities with food, action, adventure, travel, and lifestyle events. It engages audiences in meaningful engagements with Chef Lee Wright and promotes positivity, optimism, gratitude, and acceptance. Every episode has a Discover Your Balance segment that empowers, encourages, educates, and supports a visual and interactive activity that helps people find balance and promotes mental health wellness. Initial content and episodes for EAT, SKI, LIVE started in North Carolina and in Norway.

Here's a link to the EAT, SKI, LIVE Global TV Series Sizzle Reel. EAT, SKI, LIVE got a chance to shoot some content in Norway. Here's a link to the EAT, SKI, LIVE Norway Series Sizzle Reel.

Visit the EAT, SKI, LIVE website https://eatskilive.com/  

EAT, SKI, LIVE will be distributed on our own EAT, SKI, LIVE Roku Channel and additional streaming platforms and channels. The EAT, SKI, LIVE Documentary and TV Series, and our subsequent cookbooks, travel guides, and other content, will enable donors and investors to make a real difference in the lives of people who crave mental health wellness. 

EAT, SKI, LIVE is tremendously beneficial to sponsors, service providers, product manufacturers, destination, travel, and tourism, and others in the hospitality, food, beverages, action, adventure, sports, and mental health wellness industries to connect with our target audience: EAT, SKI, LIVE offers unique, fully customized opportunities for direct engagement with audiences who have tremendous purchasing powers, and who participate in and financially support numerous multi-billion and multi-trillion dollar industries.
EAT, SKI, LIVE's TARGET AUDIENCE:
PRIMARY - 18-34 years old
SECONDARY - 35+ 
 
INCOME AND INTERESTS
Annual incomes $50K+, food, cooking, unique culinary experiences, recipes, beverages - beer, wine, spirits, authentic experiences, travel and tourism, action/adventure, water and alpine sports, mental health awareness, mindfulness, work-life balance, health, well-being, positivity, optimism, doing good, giving back, inclusion and respect, international cultures, customs, history, and heritage
  • In 2023, the Global Mental Health Wellness Industry was $160.3 billion.
  • In 2020, the Global Wellness Industry was estimated at $4.4 trillion during the global pandemic, but the Global Wellness Institute projects a 9.9% increase to $7.0 trillion by 2025.
  • In 2022, the Wellness Tourism Industry was $731.36 billion. By 2032, the industry is expected to grow to $1,876.43 billion.
  • In 2023, the Global Travel and Tourism Sector was projected to reach $9.5 trillion — just 5% below 2019 pre-pandemic levels.
  • In 2023, the Global Culinary Tourism Industry reached $805.9 billion and is projected to reach $2114.2 billion by 2028.
  • In 2023, the Global Adventure Tourism Industry reached $4.6 trillion.
  • In 2023, the U.S. Recreational Boating Industry reached $230 billion, and in North Carolina (EAT, SKI, LIVE initially started in NC), the recreational boating industry had a $9.1 billion impact on the state’s economy.
  • In 2022, the Global Water Sports Gear Industry reached $46.2 billion and is projected to reach $62.745 billion by 2030.
  • In 2022, the Global Ski (snow) and Snowboard Industry – $4.4 billion.
 
 EAT, SKI, LIVE is being developed by Jill Hammergren, Creator and Executive Producer, and  Chef  Lee Wright, Co-Creator and On-Air Host. While they come from different parts of the world – Jill is American, and Lee is British – they share a love of travel, great food and beverages, incredible visual storytelling, and a global perspective on why mental health wellness is critical for each of us to achieve balance in our lives. EAT, SKI, LIVE entertains audiences and introduces them to unique places to visit, new foods to taste, and wild adventures to experience, and in every episode, there are Discover Your Balance segments that are intentional, engaging, and focused on mental health wellness activities. Jill Hammergren owns The Media Pro – a women-owned, full-service production, media, marketing, and communications agency. She is an award-winning visual storyteller with 20+ years of experience connecting audiences and delivering measurable results by developing and producing TV, Video, and Film projects, creating additional content for print, digital, online, media, marketing, advertising, public relations, social media strategy, and implementation; brand ideation, creation, and development; corporate communications; B2C and B2B advertising, communications, and integration. She also does large event development, organization, management, support, and resource allocations. Jill has been recognized with multiple International Telly Awards & an Emmy for excellence in video, TV, and film production. She is a 30+ year Global Media & Communications Strategist and supporter of Special Olympics. In that role, she is part of a team that provides and facilitates the promotion, education, awareness, acceptance, and inclusion for people with intellectual disabilities.
 Lee Wright is a Millennial professional chef with more than a decade of experience in menu and recipe development, event organization, management, support, fine dining, hotel, and gastro pub kitchen management. He has worked as a chef in England, Norway, and Australia. He's even cooked for the late Queen Elizabeth and her staff in Buckingham Palace. Additionally, he has volunteered as a chef for WITH COMPASSION, which has served 650,000 meals to the needy in London. In 2012, Chef Lee competed as the youngest contestant at that time in UK MasterChef: The Professionals. He also starred in The Wright Way online mini-series. Lee is also a competitive trick slalom water skier with more than a decade of experience on the water around the world and an avid recreational snow skier and adventure-seeker. 

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