Fall Breakfast 2023

Past Events
Written By Christian Griffith

L-R: Jonathan Cottor, Guest Speaker and Founder of Ryan House in Phoenix; Mary Cota Reed, Chair of the Board of Directors and mother of Catherine; Kathleen Fleiszar, Founder and Executive Director of Life House Atlanta; Ernie Johnson, Jr., Keynote Speaker, Multi-Sports Emmy Award Winner, 2023 National Sportscaster of the Year; John Bell, Board member; Catherine Reed - (center), daughter of Mary and Rob Reed

Life House Atlanta wants to express heartfelt gratitude to Ernie Johnson Jr., beloved sportscaster and host of TNT’s “Inside the NBA” for being the keynote speaker at its inaugural fall breakfast at Cherokee Town and Country Club. Ernie charmed the audience of 150 guests with recollections of precious moments of his adopted son Michael who was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy. Not expected to survive past his teens, Michael lived until age 33. His medical needs were complex and around the clock, so Ernie experienced first-hand the demands of full-time caregiving.

“I’ve been down that road as a family, so I’ve seen the need, and I know what it feels like…not having time with your wife.”, said Ernie. ”Give families a little reprieve now and then, and thanks for investing in the dream of building Life House Atlanta.” Each guest received a copy of Ernie Johnson, Jr’s wonderful book, Unscripted: The Unpredictable Moments that Make Life Extraordinary. It is highly recommended reading.

Prior to Ernie’s speech, Jonathan Cottor, founder, and CEO of the National Center for Pediatric Palliative Care Homes (ncppch.org) spoke about the need for pediatric palliative care homes in Atlanta and across the U.S. There are only five of these homes in the U.S. compared to over 54 in the U.K. Cottor is also co-founder of Ryan House, a Pediatric Palliative Care home in Phoenix, Arizona, named after his son Ryan who was born with a life-limiting illness and who died at age 17.

His goal is to help Life House Atlanta and other organizations get established so that families across America can receive the rest and support they need. Life House Atlanta will be the first of its kind in the Southeastern U.S. Emceed by Katie Beasley, former Fox5 Atlanta News Anchor, the event was a spectacular success and has raised over $72,000 to date for Life House Atlanta.

Christian Griffith

Christian Griffith lives, eats, sleeps, and drinks artificial intelligence [AI], digital marketing, brand advertising, and communications strategy on a daily basis.

His career has been deeply entrenched in branding, web development, internet marketing, online advertising, and creative strategy since 1997, but believes AI and big data to be the biggest advancements to hit business in a lifetime.

After 25 years in executive leadership, Christian Griffith left his last gig as SVP of Digital Strategy at Atlanta ad agency, Freebairn and Company, to start his own shop in 2015 called Live for a Living. A wildly successful 10-year run with Live for a Living opened the doors to an additional venture focused squarely on the advantages that AI brings to business. Now, with the 2025 launch of Kai Daddy Digital, he's helping clients get a serious edge by using cutting-edge AI and big data digital strategies on the marketing platforms that have proven to work for over a decade.

Christian loves being daddy to daughter, Kai, first and foremost, leaning into challenging fitness-type events and extreme sports for fun after that. In 2018, Christian ran 3,142 miles across the USA, New York to San Francisco, in an effort to raise $1 million for the prevention and treatment of child sexual abuse.

In 2025, Christian launched 5-Minute Fitness, a program as he calls it, “to eliminate all barriers to fitness training success,” targeting at-risk individuals such as the sedentary or over-40 crowd. As of this writing, he has over 600 members.

https://liveforaliving.com
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