Latest / Pursuit of Sassiness / How “Broken D**ks” Healed Her Trauma With Her Father - Seriously!
Transcript
- 0:14Speaker 1: Hey, guys, welcome back to I Do Part two. It
- 0:16Speaker 1: is your celebrity mentor Cheryl Burke, and today I have
- 0:19Speaker 1: a wild story to unpack with my guests. Somehow, I
- 0:23Speaker 1: don't know how, but she went from acting to working
- 0:25Speaker 1: with men who have a rectile dysfunction two writing a memoir,
- 0:31Speaker 1: A lot to unpack, to say the least, her memoir
- 0:34Speaker 1: You Don't Know Dick, is out June thirtieth.
- 0:37Speaker 2: Please welcome Christina Den to the pod.
- 0:40Speaker 1: Okay, so we obviously have a lot to talk about.
- 0:44Speaker 1: I mean talk about like a hook, right when it
- 0:47Speaker 1: comes to your book, it's a hook in itself.
- 0:50Speaker 2: So you were an actress first.
- 0:52Speaker 1: Right, and now you have written a book and you've
- 0:57Speaker 1: gotten into screenwriting as well. But you basically started working
- 1:00Speaker 1: with men who had a rectile dysfunction.
- 1:03Speaker 2: How did that happen? And how did you just fall
- 1:05Speaker 2: into place? There?
- 1:07Speaker 3: Not naturally not a natural segue, right, It's like, how
- 1:11Speaker 3: would you go from this to this? So, as many
- 1:14Speaker 3: people probably know actors, you know, we have to have
- 1:16Speaker 3: a lot of day jobs, right to get by between gigs.
- 1:19Speaker 3: And my friends were opening a wellness center in la
- 1:23Speaker 3: and asked me if I would help them be the
- 1:25Speaker 3: office manager, and I said absolutely, and we were doing
- 1:27Speaker 3: ivy nutrition, cryotherapy, you know, all the things that La
- 1:31Speaker 3: wellness centers offer. But the problem is is that there's
- 1:34Speaker 3: so many of them here. They're so competitive. It's like
- 1:36Speaker 3: there's one in every strip mall, and so they're like,
- 1:40Speaker 3: how are we going to make money and survive? So
- 1:42Speaker 3: the owner, the mail owner of this couple, here's this
- 1:44Speaker 3: Joe Rogan podcast talking about this service for reptil a
- 1:47Speaker 3: dysfunction and it's non invasive and so you know, you
- 1:51Speaker 3: don't necessarily have to be a licensed medical professional to
- 1:54Speaker 3: do it, and it was his solution to saving the clinic.
- 1:58Speaker 3: And so he approached me as I'm like holding towels
- 2:00Speaker 3: for the cryod therapy machine day, and I was like,
- 2:02Speaker 3: I'm sorry, Like my comedian brain was like did you
- 2:05Speaker 3: just say that? Like we're going to be dick fixers?
- 2:07Speaker 3: Like I don't know how to process this right, Like
- 2:09Speaker 3: it was so at the time so hilarious to me
- 2:12Speaker 3: to either the idea that this existed. And so next
- 2:17Speaker 3: thing I know, it's like I'm on a plane to Tucson,
- 2:20Speaker 3: Arizona to get certified. And the only reason I said yes,
- 2:23Speaker 3: is because fascination. I needed more money. They were going
- 2:26Speaker 3: to pay me more, and you know, I was like
- 2:28Speaker 3: I can handle something like this. I'm mature enough, right,
- 2:31Speaker 3: And so you know, little did I know there's an
- 2:33Speaker 3: entire industry out there that is, you know, doctors are
- 2:36Speaker 3: paying their mortgages for solutions for retail dysfunction. And so
- 2:40Speaker 3: this was innovative, groundbreaking way to go without having to
- 2:44Speaker 3: do pills and injections and all these other things guys
- 2:47Speaker 3: have been doing for years.
- 2:48Speaker 2: Right, what did that entail? Like this sort of certification
- 2:52Speaker 2: of Yes, it was like this day.
- 2:55Speaker 3: Long seminar Intoucson where we're staring at cross actions of
- 3:00Speaker 3: male anatomy blown up on this projector. And of course
- 3:03Speaker 3: I'm like giggling and I'm looking around. I'm like, oh,
- 3:05Speaker 3: they take it very seriously. I'm the only like immature
- 3:08Speaker 3: person here that's not a medical professional, right, And I
- 3:12Speaker 3: you know, I studied theology in college, so it wasn't
- 3:14Speaker 3: completely foreign to me, but it was still just like
- 3:17Speaker 3: this is wild. And then we had to practice on
- 3:20Speaker 3: two different volunteers. So we had to use this device
- 3:24Speaker 3: that looks like a gun. It's like a space ship,
- 3:26Speaker 3: like a futuristic looking gun and put it onto the
- 3:29Speaker 3: men's you know part, and it was like all around,
- 3:32Speaker 3: all around, underneath, everywhere. So this wasn't just you know,
- 3:36Speaker 3: the member, it was it was so foreign to me,
- 3:40Speaker 3: Like I just kept feeling like I was watching myself
- 3:42Speaker 3: have this out of body experience. And so after that
- 3:46Speaker 3: we were technically certified and came back to LA and
- 3:50Speaker 3: two weeks later I had my first client.
- 3:52Speaker 2: Oh my goodness.
- 3:54Speaker 1: Okay, so what do you think, I guess is the
- 3:56Speaker 1: most shocking thing that you can think of that women
- 3:58Speaker 1: would find surprising about men and their penises?
- 4:02Speaker 3: You know, I think listen, I was. I was one
- 4:05Speaker 3: of these women that went into this again thinking this
- 4:07Speaker 3: was a joke. It was like, of course, old dudes
- 4:09Speaker 3: just want to like keep their penises hard forever, like
- 4:11Speaker 3: this is I was in the school of thought of
- 4:14Speaker 3: like ewgross, like of course they're pervs, right, like this
- 4:16Speaker 3: is where meat for sure. The fact that I was
- 4:21Speaker 3: then like a few months in after I kind of
- 4:22Speaker 3: got over the silliness of it, I started fosnessing something
- 4:26Speaker 3: that I didn't even know men were capable of, which
- 4:28Speaker 3: was deep, deep levels of shame. Oh, like so much
- 4:33Speaker 3: shame when it comes to this part of their body
- 4:35Speaker 3: not working. And that could be because it's how they
- 4:38Speaker 3: define their manhood, right, it's this of what makes them
- 4:41Speaker 3: a man. And if they're not able to perform, well
- 4:44Speaker 3: then what are they?
- 4:45Speaker 1: Right?
- 4:46Speaker 3: And so, my gosh, this was this most insane kind
- 4:50Speaker 3: of almost like spiritual classroom into the male vulnerability like
- 4:54Speaker 3: crisis of I have all these feelings, I have nowhere
- 4:57Speaker 3: for them to go because society doesn't let me express
- 5:00Speaker 3: them safe, safely and welcomely. Right, I was so my
- 5:04Speaker 3: brain was so scrambled and transformed after that. So I think,
- 5:08Speaker 3: like women, I can't imagine I'm much different than most
- 5:11Speaker 3: women where when you have I had a front row
- 5:13Speaker 3: seat to male shame and I didn't have that possible,
- 5:17Speaker 3: I think. So there's so much in my book that
- 5:20Speaker 3: I'm trying to sort of cover about this, to to
- 5:23Speaker 3: sort of open the conversation, to to shed light on
- 5:27Speaker 3: this very normal yet super you know, taboo topic that
- 5:33Speaker 3: of sexual dysfunction.
- 5:34Speaker 1: Right, yeah, so yeah, for real, for real, Well, why
- 5:40Speaker 1: do you think men in general connect their manhood to
- 5:43Speaker 1: their penises, because we don't do that with our vaginas.
- 5:46Speaker 3: No, we don't we definitely don't. I think, oh my gosh,
- 5:49Speaker 3: I feel like it's like so much of it is.
- 5:52Speaker 3: It could be a combination of physiological drive, societal expectations.
- 5:57Speaker 3: They think women have on them.
- 5:58Speaker 2: They think, yeah, that they're cold.
- 6:01Speaker 3: This is what makes you a man, right, right, Like
- 6:03Speaker 3: the better more money, right, Like it's like they define
- 6:08Speaker 3: they have these like checkboxes of what make them a man,
- 6:11Speaker 3: and this is such a huge part of that. And
- 6:14Speaker 3: when it's broken, it's like it it doesn't matter how
- 6:17Speaker 3: much money you have, right, I saw listen, I saw
- 6:20Speaker 3: men from the ages of eighteen to eighty. I saw
- 6:23Speaker 3: eighteen motorcycle accident. Right, there's all these things we don't realize, like, oh,
- 6:29Speaker 3: it can break, Like I.
- 6:30Speaker 2: Didn't know, Oh it can break.
- 6:32Speaker 3: I didn't know it could break. It can break for
- 6:35Speaker 3: physical injury, sex accidents. There's so many things that cause
- 6:39Speaker 3: like scar tissue build up and then it goes crooked.
- 6:42Speaker 3: Like there's so many different things that deform and make
- 6:46Speaker 3: the thing not function properly.
- 6:47Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a muscle, right, Like, I guess it's the
- 6:49Speaker 2: same thing, and they call it.
- 6:50Speaker 3: I guess they call it an organ, but it feels
- 6:53Speaker 3: down more like it. Yeah, there's muscles that are around
- 6:57Speaker 3: the area that help. But it's yeah, so I was
- 7:00Speaker 3: just the insight. I was like, man, they I have
- 7:03Speaker 3: this line in the book where I'm like, man, do
- 7:04Speaker 3: men go to more extreme links to save their dicks
- 7:06Speaker 3: than we do to save our faces? Like you know
- 7:08Speaker 3: what I mean? Because I'm like, maybe, like maybe it's.
- 7:11Speaker 2: There skincare for their.
- 7:14Speaker 3: Yeah, there's like so there's botox. Now there's like all
- 7:19Speaker 3: kinds of testicles like I've heard. We didn't do that,
- 7:22Speaker 3: but I heard all these things. We actually also offered
- 7:25Speaker 3: pea shots, which is PRP and we know what Vieyes, right,
- 7:30Speaker 3: So spinning your blood, getting the platelets, all the beautiful
- 7:34Speaker 3: plasma that helps heal, and you stick it in.
- 7:37Speaker 2: There, it means your penis age backwards.
- 7:39Speaker 3: It's like let's reverse. Yeah, let's keep it, keep it
- 7:42Speaker 3: nice and does it work caculation? It does. Now, granted
- 7:47Speaker 3: I'm not again, I'm not a medical professional. If you
- 7:49Speaker 3: are somebody who has you know, diabetes, high cholesterol, things
- 7:52Speaker 3: that are already compromising calculation, it's going to be a
- 7:56Speaker 3: more difficult road. But yes, it was. It wasn't like
- 7:59Speaker 3: a permanent thing, but it was something that you. It's
- 8:02Speaker 3: like a preventative thing. It can help, like.
- 8:04Speaker 2: For us, like for PRP when we do PUP.
- 8:06Speaker 1: That's why you do it. You want to do it
- 8:08Speaker 1: the not the younger younger, but like you know, you
- 8:10Speaker 1: want to do it as a preventative thing, not.
- 8:13Speaker 2: Just not going to work.
- 8:14Speaker 3: Delay the night, right, yeah, not take it away, but
- 8:17Speaker 3: delay the indevitable.
- 8:29Speaker 1: So when these men walk into the room and they
- 8:31Speaker 1: see you're beautiful, you know obviously. And I remember my
- 8:34Speaker 1: stepdad saying this to me recently. I think he got
- 8:38Speaker 1: he had to.
- 8:38Speaker 2: Get checked right, it was like a physical or whatever,
- 8:41Speaker 2: and he was like.
- 8:42Speaker 1: This woman was just so beautiful, this nurse and like
- 8:45Speaker 1: she had to like feel my balls basically, and like
- 8:47Speaker 1: how do they do at first? Do they become defensive
- 8:51Speaker 1: or are they just right away vulnerable?
- 8:53Speaker 3: All of it? Honestly, I saw it all. I definitely
- 8:56Speaker 3: there were men that blatantly looked at me and said, no,
- 9:00Speaker 3: you're not treating me, like before their pants are off,
- 9:03Speaker 3: obviously they were.
- 9:03Speaker 2: Like I get it, I get it.
- 9:05Speaker 3: And but owners are like, look like this is La.
- 9:07Speaker 3: She's our old like she's our technician. And so after
- 9:11Speaker 3: they kind of got over themselves you know, I definitely
- 9:13Speaker 3: got the peacock and you're like, oh, what is your
- 9:14Speaker 3: boyfriend think of?
- 9:15Speaker 2: There?
- 9:16Speaker 3: Was your husband like just trying.
- 9:17Speaker 2: To Are they trying to hit on you when you're
- 9:19Speaker 2: trying to do this?
- 9:19Speaker 3: On this I honestly had only one guy out of
- 9:23Speaker 3: I think almost four hundred guys. I treated one guy
- 9:25Speaker 3: be weird with me and like kind of pervert, No,
- 9:28Speaker 3: tell me what a good job I was doing. And
- 9:30Speaker 3: I was like he was not welcome back. But honestly,
- 9:32Speaker 3: they're they're in such a vulnerable position, right, and they're
- 9:35Speaker 3: coming in like, Hi, my manhoods that compromise and it
- 9:38Speaker 3: can you help me? They don't have it in them
- 9:41Speaker 3: to like then also hit on Like there's no way
- 9:44Speaker 3: that was happening, right, Thank God for me.
- 9:46Speaker 1: But yeah, so why do you do you think that
- 9:50Speaker 1: like a lot of these men, you know, there's this whole,
- 9:53Speaker 1: like you said earlier, with the size of their penis
- 9:55Speaker 1: and all of that.
- 9:56Speaker 2: Why is that? So? Why does that define a man
- 10:00Speaker 2: and a man's hood? I guess so much.
- 10:02Speaker 1: Because like I honestly don't think every woman cares about
- 10:05Speaker 1: the size, Like I really don't know.
- 10:07Speaker 3: No, And you know, it's something that's interesting that I've
- 10:09Speaker 3: been like, you know, I resource this a while back.
- 10:11Speaker 3: But like women, we all have different sizes too. Inside
- 10:14Speaker 3: you you are different shapes, different sizes, different.
- 10:17Speaker 2: As Absolutely you can only fit in so much, if
- 10:19Speaker 2: you know what I mean.
- 10:20Speaker 3: Yeah, there's not like a universal vagina that men are
- 10:23Speaker 3: all trying to like live up too, you know. So
- 10:26Speaker 3: there's not a universal dick side color anything, right, And
- 10:29Speaker 3: I I did not have a clue how much variety
- 10:32Speaker 3: there was until of course I was witnessing it. But
- 10:34Speaker 3: it was just yeah, it makes me really sad that
- 10:37Speaker 3: there's still that same thing out there in society that's
- 10:41Speaker 3: like all bigger, but you know, and it's like, man,
- 10:43Speaker 3: can we just like drop that already? Like it's actually
- 10:45Speaker 3: I wanted other women.
- 10:46Speaker 2: I don't think the bigger the better, no doubt that.
- 10:49Speaker 3: No, I think sometimes too big is not great at all.
- 10:52Speaker 2: Well, now you want this to be an enjoyable experience.
- 10:55Speaker 3: Racing for impact the whole time? Yes, yeah, like not
- 11:00Speaker 3: doing like a prayer, like God, it's not meant for me,
- 11:03Speaker 3: like this is not We're not made for each other. Sorry,
- 11:06Speaker 3: this is not gonna work.
- 11:07Speaker 1: Yeah, no, God, Yeah, that's just so what do you
- 11:11Speaker 1: like when you win. They pulled their pants down and
- 11:13Speaker 1: they show you their penis, like is it there?
- 11:16Speaker 2: You see right away there's a sense of shame.
- 11:19Speaker 3: So so here let me show you. Like, okay, so
- 11:22Speaker 3: picture a treatment table right, like a doctor's office with
- 11:25Speaker 3: the medical like the gross paper.
- 11:27Speaker 2: Yes, yes, of course it's horrible.
- 11:29Speaker 3: And I let them undress obviously without me in the room. Right,
- 11:32Speaker 3: I was like, get ready, put this little medical drape over.
- 11:35Speaker 3: You have some like dignity for yourself. So they're staring
- 11:38Speaker 3: up at the sky at these horrible you know, the
- 11:39Speaker 3: fluorescent lighting of a medical office. I try to lower
- 11:42Speaker 3: the lights. I try to make it all spot lighting horrible. Yeah,
- 11:45Speaker 3: I try to like make it. I put like Serenes
- 11:47Speaker 3: Bob music on and like had like diffusers, it's nice.
- 11:50Speaker 3: I was trying to make them feel safe and comfortable
- 11:52Speaker 3: because I knew this is horrible. And so then it's like,
- 11:55Speaker 3: you know, the big reveal of Okay, now I have
- 11:56Speaker 3: to pull down the drape. And so if they're just
- 11:58Speaker 3: like literally like steering up the sky like like most
- 12:02Speaker 3: of them were just immediately like embarrassed, quiet, internal, uh defensive,
- 12:08Speaker 3: you know, because now it's like and also I'm seeing
- 12:11Speaker 3: it placid. I'm not seeing what the potential is right right,
- 12:17Speaker 3: you know, And and so there, and of course there
- 12:19Speaker 3: were guys some of them did get hard right away,
- 12:21Speaker 3: which was that I was like, that happened, and I
- 12:26Speaker 3: was like, hey, we did it, you know.
- 12:28Speaker 2: No, You're like, hey, go get go sort yourself out. Coming.
- 12:31Speaker 3: Yeah, you get a refund. Yeah. But they were numb also,
- 12:35Speaker 3: like you know how like I get like I've had
- 12:37Speaker 3: like yes on my face for injections, right, so you
- 12:40Speaker 3: mean like actually numb. They we would put numbing cream
- 12:43Speaker 3: on they, like, we would have them apply it an
- 12:45Speaker 3: hour before the treatment. Nowadays they might be a little different,
- 12:47Speaker 3: but that would help desensitize the impact of this machine
- 12:50Speaker 3: because it was very aggressive. Yeah, sounds like a jackhammer, okay,
- 12:58Speaker 3: doing construction.
- 12:59Speaker 1: Like how many sessions do they go through? I'm sure
- 13:02Speaker 1: it's personal.
- 13:03Speaker 3: That's like the protocol calls for six over six weeks,
- 13:06Speaker 3: So either they would do three weeks and then we'd
- 13:08Speaker 3: like give them two months off to kind of have
- 13:10Speaker 3: everything start working in the body, and then three more
- 13:12Speaker 3: sessions later they'd come back.
- 13:14Speaker 2: So it was does it work? Yeah, every time?
- 13:18Speaker 3: Most of the guys, I saw saw improvement. Absolutely. Now,
- 13:22Speaker 3: it's not making it bigger. Let's be clear about that,
- 13:24Speaker 3: because a lot of how I'm gonna come and there
- 13:26Speaker 3: were guys coming to me like I don't have interactile
- 13:28Speaker 3: dysfunction problem, but I just want to see if it
- 13:30Speaker 3: can get bigger. Oh come on, Well it's like think
- 13:33Speaker 3: about like when you do a bicep, curl your muscle
- 13:35Speaker 3: like e gorges with more blood. That's all that's happening
- 13:38Speaker 3: with something. Right. It's not gonna make it bigger, but
- 13:41Speaker 3: it will make it feel and look fuller. So there
- 13:43Speaker 3: was that bit of confidence.
- 13:45Speaker 2: That was interesting.
- 13:46Speaker 3: Yeah okay or blood flow right.
- 13:48Speaker 1: So yeah, so basically this is the equivalent of us
- 13:52Speaker 1: going to get botox.
- 13:53Speaker 3: It's a lot in the same way. Yeah, like we're
- 13:56Speaker 3: trying to do laser we're trying to like anything plump
- 13:58Speaker 3: and you make this they want.
- 14:00Speaker 1: Like we go like what every few months? Like same
- 14:02Speaker 1: things for them, right, Yeah.
- 14:04Speaker 3: So what they would say back then, I was when
- 14:06Speaker 3: I was trained, it was like eighteen It would last
- 14:08Speaker 3: like eighteen months before they'd have to feel like, oh
- 14:11Speaker 3: maybe I need to do it again. But I would
- 14:12Speaker 3: send them with homework us homework penis pump.
- 14:16Speaker 2: Oh does that work?
- 14:17Speaker 3: Yes? So we like what part of protocol was is
- 14:20Speaker 3: that they had to use this during their treatment for me.
- 14:23Speaker 3: With me for six weeks they used it twice a
- 14:24Speaker 3: day for ten minutes each.
- 14:26Speaker 2: It's a day.
- 14:27Speaker 3: And now I'm like all of my friends everyone in
- 14:29Speaker 3: my life. I'm like, if you're over forty, you need
- 14:31Speaker 3: a penis pump and you should be using it twice
- 14:33Speaker 3: a week. It's like cardio for your dick. That's how
- 14:34Speaker 3: you have to think of it, because yeah, I guess,
- 14:36Speaker 3: so that's flow and kind of clearing the debris, right,
- 14:39Speaker 3: because the blood vessels and the penis are so much
- 14:41Speaker 3: smaller than anywhere else, and they're farther away from the heart,
- 14:45Speaker 3: so they claw with clack first, and it's like a
- 14:48Speaker 3: warning sign for guys. If that starts happening. Usually with
- 14:52Speaker 3: three to five years, you're looking at heart problems. So
- 14:54Speaker 3: it's like I would say, like it's your check engine light, right, It's.
- 14:57Speaker 2: Like, yeah, you get gotta get it circulation.
- 15:01Speaker 3: Through penis boot Camp. I called this penis boot camp
- 15:03Speaker 3: because I used to be a personal trainer. I don't know.
- 15:05Speaker 3: I was like, look, we're going to clean up our lifestyle.
- 15:07Speaker 3: We're gonna start eating healthy, we're gonna start working now,
- 15:09Speaker 3: we're going to use this pump like and we're gonna
- 15:10Speaker 3: get our penis back. You know.
- 15:12Speaker 1: Oh my, it was fascinating. Let's transition a little bit.
- 15:26Speaker 1: What did you learn about yourself working there?
- 15:30Speaker 3: Okay, So the biggest transformation that happened for me was
- 15:33Speaker 3: finding safety with men like I had. I was given
- 15:36Speaker 3: this blueprint for men by my father that was he
- 15:39Speaker 3: was an alcoholic, he was verbally abusive, he was absent, right,
- 15:42Speaker 3: So I got this in. You know, men were to
- 15:45Speaker 3: me that that's what they were. They weren't around, they
- 15:47Speaker 3: weren't to be trusted, and I would go seeking those relationships,
- 15:50Speaker 3: right and anytime I found a safe man, I was like, hmm,
- 15:53Speaker 3: you're boring. I don't trust any of this, right, so
- 15:56Speaker 3: totally run away to the next thing. And and so
- 15:59Speaker 3: what and is I didn't realize that men again were
- 16:03Speaker 3: capable of this level of emotion, capable of the shame,
- 16:06Speaker 3: and it helped me disarm myself towards them and see
- 16:10Speaker 3: them as human and say, wait a second, they're just
- 16:12Speaker 3: like us. They just can't show it. Why is no
- 16:15Speaker 3: one talking about this and so being able to be
- 16:18Speaker 3: let into their personal stories of grief. Maybe they had
- 16:21Speaker 3: lost their wife two years ago, how to get back
- 16:24Speaker 3: out there. They feel guilty, like they're cheating on her. Still,
- 16:27Speaker 3: maybe their wife thinks they're cheating on them because their
- 16:29Speaker 3: penis doesn't work right. Like, there's so many stories I
- 16:32Speaker 3: kept collecting. Oh yeah, and I started seeing this pattern,
- 16:35Speaker 3: and I was like, whoa. They are dealing with so
- 16:37Speaker 3: much and they're just looking for permission to be able
- 16:39Speaker 3: to talk about it. And I'm like, well, I have
- 16:41Speaker 3: your broken dick in my hand. I think this is
- 16:43Speaker 3: a good space, right. Like it was like I was
- 16:45Speaker 3: their therapist and it was helping me learn and trust
- 16:48Speaker 3: them right And ultimately, most importantly, my father died right
- 16:52Speaker 3: before I started the job, so I got certain he
- 16:55Speaker 3: passed away, and then I came back and had my
- 16:57Speaker 3: first client, and you know, he had cancer. We knew
- 16:59Speaker 3: it was, but losing somebody that you have such a
- 17:02Speaker 3: complicated relationship can kind of mess with you, right because
- 17:05Speaker 3: you feel the sense of almost relief, and I didn't
- 17:08Speaker 3: know when to deal with that. I was like, oh
- 17:09Speaker 3: my gosh, Okay, he can never hurt me again. I
- 17:11Speaker 3: can never say anything again. But now it's never going
- 17:13Speaker 3: to get better. So what does it mean? And so
- 17:16Speaker 3: this job actually almost like saved me from just spouse
- 17:19Speaker 3: about that because I had such I had. I was
- 17:21Speaker 3: like focusing on helping other people, helping men, and they
- 17:25Speaker 3: were teaching me so much about my dad that I
- 17:27Speaker 3: did not understand. Wow, it was like I was seeing
- 17:30Speaker 3: him in their behavior, and I was like, oh, maybe
- 17:34Speaker 3: he had all this pain that he didn't know how
- 17:35Speaker 3: to deal with. Maybe he was trying to hide in
- 17:38Speaker 3: his ways of and it just it absolutely transformed, and
- 17:42Speaker 3: I was able to make peace with him after he
- 17:43Speaker 3: died and forgive him.
- 17:45Speaker 2: Oh that's beautiful.
- 17:46Speaker 1: Maybe I need to do this job because I have
- 17:48Speaker 1: almost an identical story like yours, you know, like, yeah,
- 17:52Speaker 1: I hear you, I feel you, and.
- 17:54Speaker 2: That's really beautiful.
- 17:55Speaker 1: That is probably yeah, because I can relate to put
- 18:00Speaker 1: it that way.
- 18:00Speaker 2: Are you married or single?
- 18:02Speaker 3: I am? Now? I am?
- 18:03Speaker 2: Now you're married?
- 18:05Speaker 3: Yeah?
- 18:05Speaker 2: Congratulations recently?
- 18:07Speaker 3: Yes?
- 18:08Speaker 2: Was it one of your clients?
- 18:09Speaker 1: Just kidding?
- 18:09Speaker 2: Yeah?
- 18:10Speaker 1: Right?
- 18:10Speaker 3: No, god right, no, couldn't be farther from that, but no,
- 18:14Speaker 3: it's but man, listen, it transformed my relationships with men
- 18:17Speaker 3: like I got out of a relationship I was in
- 18:19Speaker 3: at the time, in the job, and it was, yeah,
- 18:22Speaker 3: like it, I could never I can't. Well now from
- 18:24Speaker 3: now on, I can't really look at men the same.
- 18:26Speaker 3: I see. I have such a soft spot in my
- 18:28Speaker 3: heart for them. I'm passionate what they're hiding. I see
- 18:31Speaker 3: what they're avoiding, and I'm just like, Oh, we're going
- 18:34Speaker 3: to get there. That's one of the reasons I felt
- 18:36Speaker 3: this conviction to tell my story.
- 18:38Speaker 2: Yeah, so let's talk about it then. So what was
- 18:41Speaker 2: the process like writing the book?
- 18:43Speaker 3: Oh my goodness, Okay, So this job actually happened about
- 18:46Speaker 3: eight years ago. So I was in COVID. I ended
- 18:50Speaker 3: up writing a pilot because I'm a screenwriter first, and
- 18:52Speaker 3: I saw this world on TV. That's how I storytell
- 18:57Speaker 3: and so you know, COVID was happening, okay, and then
- 19:00Speaker 3: we started taking it out. The strikes happened, and then
- 19:03Speaker 3: the fires and all these things, and I was like,
- 19:05Speaker 3: you know what, what if I just wrote a book
- 19:07Speaker 3: and I told my whole story. And I got the
- 19:09Speaker 3: idea a few years ago during the strikes, and I'd
- 19:12Speaker 3: never written a book. I didn't know how to do that.
- 19:14Speaker 3: I was like, is this just like read writing my
- 19:15Speaker 3: diary and like putting it out in the world. How
- 19:18Speaker 3: do I do this? And so I ended up pitching
- 19:21Speaker 3: the publishing company Storyteller Publishing last year, and I said, listen,
- 19:25Speaker 3: I have this incredible idea. It's one of those things
- 19:27Speaker 3: that's never been able to leave me alone. And I
- 19:31Speaker 3: always like, I always sort of use that as my
- 19:33Speaker 3: my barometer. It's like, if I have a story that
- 19:35Speaker 3: I cannot get out of my head, that's the one
- 19:37Speaker 3: I have to tell. And this one is like very,
- 19:40Speaker 3: very unique and it's a real story. So I'm like,
- 19:43Speaker 3: no one else has the story. There's no way, right,
- 19:45Speaker 3: So one story I have nobody else can tell. So yeah,
- 19:48Speaker 3: So we talked about what that would look like and
- 19:51Speaker 3: last year I started kind of outlining writing got notes.
- 19:55Speaker 3: We did it, you know, over six months, back and forth,
- 19:57Speaker 3: and the book was done and so here we are.
- 20:01Speaker 2: You didn't have a gross writer. You did everything else,
- 20:03Speaker 2: so I did.
- 20:03Speaker 3: I had to do it myself.
- 20:04Speaker 2: I had to wow, wow, wow.
- 20:07Speaker 1: Okay, So I think like the next question I have
- 20:11Speaker 1: would be like, what was the scariest part of writing
- 20:15Speaker 1: that book?
- 20:15Speaker 2: Like, because you're really you're.
- 20:17Speaker 1: Also being very vulnerable, and also did you have to
- 20:19Speaker 1: get permission from them?
- 20:20Speaker 2: Like how does this work?
- 20:22Speaker 3: No, I changed everybody's names and I didn't anything that
- 20:25Speaker 3: would be identifying enough, right of course anybody. I was
- 20:29Speaker 3: very conscientious of that. And yeah, the scariest part I
- 20:32Speaker 3: would say is I always say like I was like
- 20:35Speaker 3: Diane Keaton in that movie Something's Got to Give, Like.
- 20:38Speaker 2: I love that movie, She's just like.
- 20:40Speaker 3: Muscling her way through crying. It was. It was very
- 20:44Speaker 3: healing for me, but it was also confronting to look
- 20:47Speaker 3: at the ways, like the responsibility that I had in
- 20:50Speaker 3: a lot of the situations that I maybe previously felt
- 20:53Speaker 3: like a victim in or felt like I was wrong
- 20:56Speaker 3: or whatever, and going like, let me take a step back,
- 20:58Speaker 3: and yes, it's crazy to be the author and the
- 21:01Speaker 3: main character, but let me hold myself responsible for some
- 21:04Speaker 3: or accountable for things. And that was really helpful for me,
- 21:09Speaker 3: but also very confronting and vulnerable. And then I think, truthfully,
- 21:13Speaker 3: the hardest stuff was writing about my dad because I
- 21:16Speaker 3: go back in childhood to you know, and that was
- 21:20Speaker 3: that was it was. It was hard. It was hard,
- 21:22Speaker 3: but beautiful.
- 21:23Speaker 1: Did you intentionally wait for your dad to pass prior
- 21:27Speaker 1: to writing a book.
- 21:28Speaker 3: Well, he died right before I started the job, so
- 21:30Speaker 3: I don't story until you know he was well well gone.
- 21:36Speaker 3: But yeah, I mean definitely there's a safety in that, right, Like,
- 21:39Speaker 3: I don't think that the job would landed the same
- 21:42Speaker 3: way I wouldn't have had the healing journey was it?
- 21:44Speaker 1: Did you find the healing journey more through writing or
- 21:46Speaker 1: through being through working?
- 21:49Speaker 3: I think writing, I think reflecting it, right. I think
- 21:51Speaker 3: while I was in it, I was so focused on
- 21:53Speaker 3: what was happening to the men in front of me.
- 21:54Speaker 3: I didn't realize what was happening to me yet. I
- 21:57Speaker 3: needed some space from it to go, oh my god,
- 22:00Speaker 3: this completely changed me and I didn't even realize that
- 22:03Speaker 3: was happening.
- 22:03Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, were you in therapy during this time or no?
- 22:07Speaker 1: Well?
- 22:07Speaker 2: Wow wow okay, okay, yeah yeah, wow. That's that's amazing.
- 22:13Speaker 1: I mean, what do you think, what do you want
- 22:15Speaker 1: people to take away once they read your memoir?
- 22:19Speaker 3: I mean, that's such a good question. I feel this.
- 22:23Speaker 3: I feel this responsibility to share what I learned about
- 22:26Speaker 3: men in order to help shed light not It's not
- 22:28Speaker 3: a book that mocks them. It's not like we're women
- 22:32Speaker 3: and we're so we apologize. It's like it's like, hey,
- 22:36Speaker 3: you're human too, we see I see that. I hope
- 22:39Speaker 3: other women can see that, and I hope we can
- 22:41Speaker 3: bridge this gap between toxic masculinity and toxic feminity because
- 22:44Speaker 3: underneath it all, we're all just like hurting. We're all
- 22:47Speaker 3: just confused. We can find peace in the messy middle
- 22:50Speaker 3: if we could just all like let our guards down
- 22:52Speaker 3: and come together. It's a very big ask and a
- 22:55Speaker 3: big swing, but that's my like, you know, that would
- 22:59Speaker 3: be a hope that it it sheds light in this
- 23:01Speaker 3: new way into male vulnerability that we maybe haven't seen before.
- 23:05Speaker 1: I think honestly too, if you know, like I said,
- 23:07Speaker 1: I can relate to your story, I think it would
- 23:09Speaker 1: maybe for me at least have compassion towards you know,
- 23:12Speaker 1: just their different way of showing vulnerability, right. Like you know,
- 23:17Speaker 1: I used to be a performer and I used to dance,
- 23:19Speaker 1: and I would like whenever I get nervous or get
- 23:21Speaker 1: a stage fright, it's like, you know, my coach would
- 23:23Speaker 1: always say, we all got assholes, like literally every single
- 23:26Speaker 1: person sitting here, like there's no don't put anyone on
- 23:29Speaker 1: a pedestal, like we are all one in that sense.
- 23:32Speaker 3: That's it.
- 23:33Speaker 1: So yeah, do you have any final thoughts before we
- 23:35Speaker 1: wrap up?
- 23:36Speaker 2: This is? This is great.
- 23:37Speaker 3: No, I'm just listen. I'm excited to be able to
- 23:40Speaker 3: have this platform and just be with you guys and
- 23:42Speaker 3: chat about it because there there is something and it's
- 23:44Speaker 3: it's a bit of a humor and heartbreak. So there's
- 23:47Speaker 3: something for everybody on my story and I hope, I
- 23:49Speaker 3: hope they enjoy it.
- 23:51Speaker 2: Thank you for sharing your story and where can people
- 23:52Speaker 2: find it?
- 23:54Speaker 3: Anywhere? Books are sold independent bookstores, Amazon, Marts and Noble. Yeah,
- 23:58Speaker 3: all the spots.
- 23:59Speaker 2: So, and you're social media handled? Are you on all platforms?
- 24:02Speaker 3: Yeah, Christina's have been dead and it is Christina with
- 24:05Speaker 3: a K.
- 24:06Speaker 2: Thank you so much. That was so fun. Thank you
- 24:08Speaker 2: with you, Thank you honey, Thanks bye, hey bye.
- 24:11Speaker 1: Are you getting back into the dating scene or struggling
- 24:14Speaker 1: with vulnerability? Well we can help send us an email
- 24:17Speaker 1: or leave us a voicemail. All the info is in
- 24:19Speaker 1: the show notes, and don't forget to follow us on socials,
- 24:23Speaker 1: I do Part two and iHeartRadio podcast where falling in
- 24:26Speaker 1: love is the main objective.