Latest / The Weight of Fire / Episode 3 "Lindsey Ardmore"

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Episode 3 "Lindsey Ardmore" · The Weight of Fire

• Episode 3 Audio: In the middle of it. In the middle of the first part of the next episode that you might see. And this one is a good one. This today, filming with a great, great woman, with great, great ideas, with a passion for other women. She's doing it. She's building something from the ground up, building multiple things from the ground up. Truly inspirational, her story. And we're out here bringing some wall downs, getting uncomfortable. She got out of her comfort wheel. She's out here putting some gear on, doing some farmer's carry, doing some squats, bear crawling, baby. Bear crawling, one of my favorite things to do. She's doing it with me. And doing some lunges. All while getting harder and harder, putting more and more gear on. We just got done with round three. We got one more round to go. And after this, you know what we do? We're going inside. We're gonna have some conversation. We're gonna find something beautiful and unique about common people with some uncommon stories. Every fire needs fuel. Every wall needs to come down before what's underneath can breathe. This is the way to fire. Faith, fitness, and conversation. Featuring common people with uncommon stories. Every episode we're going to bring someone new. First we sweat because something happens when you're tired and honest at the same time. The wall comes down, and that's when the real conversation starts. About faith, about God, about the job, and about the why behind it all. I'm your host, Tiago, and this is the way to fire. Let's get to work. Alright, guys, here we are again with another episode of the Way to Fire podcast. Today with me, I have Lindsay Ardmore, who is a serial entrepreneur, the mother of Stella and Reagan, and wife to Derek, and a passionate advocate for women. She is the founder of Bronzy, a luxury spray tanning brand. Built from the ground up, Bronzy quickly became North Central Florida's fastest-growing tanning brand. Before Bronzy, Lindsay spent nearly a decade building a successful branding and marketing agency where she worked alongside and supported more than a thousand women in growing their own business. Beyond business, Lindsay is the founder of Hot Girls Against Breast Cancer, Inc., a nonprofit created from her own experience with breast cancer at the age of 31. The organization helps provide mammograms, MRIs, ultrasounds, and other breast screenings for women under 40. Who may otherwise face barriers to accessing care. Lindsay is driven by the belief that you can look good, feel good, and do good all at the same time. Wow. Phenomenal. So before I pass the mic on to Lindsay, we're gonna start it like we do every episode here at The Way to Fire with a quick little prayer. So I think our guest is gonna give us the honor of praying for the episode, Lindsay. So take over. Okay. Our kind and gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for the opportunity to sit down together and to discuss your impact in our lives. And we're so grateful for the chance to connect and for all of the things that thou has done for us. And we ask that thou would give us the spirit to be with us as we talk and as we move about our day. And we say it's in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Amen. All right, Lindsay. So let's get down to it. Let's start. tell us a little bit about yourself. man. so I'm Lindsay. And like you mentioned, I own Bronzy, which is a local Ocala tanning brand, which is so fun. But my heart's passion and my life's purpose is hot girls against breast cancer. Awesome, awesome. let's talk a little bit about your childhood before we get deep into what you let's get to the what got you here. Okay. All right. So let's talk about how did you grow up? Where did you grow up? Where are you from? Yeah, so I actually grew up down in a tiny town called Palmetto, Florida. south of Tampa. I actually I talk about this all the time, but it's kind of vulnerable to talk about it. my mom was a alcoholic and I grew up in a situation that was not healthy. and so I think a lot of that like pushed me to be who I am today and like the drive that I have because I I was n so desperately not wanting to be like that. Yeah. You know? So I grew up down there and then I graduated high school and went to Brigham Young University out in Utah, spent 10 years there, and then we moved back here six years ago. Nice. So were your mom and dad married together, split up? Yes. So my parents were married until I was fifteen and there was a large chain of events that happened. in the week of my fifteenth birthday. So I've s I I call her my angel. She's my grandmother. She passed away of breast cancer when I was fifteen. I turned fifteen. She passed away like five days later and my parents separated like two days later. Okay. Did did you see it coming or no? yes. Okay. So yeah there's it was I mean as bad as it can get. yeah. It's okay. It's okay. Did you grow up in a home that had f a a faith-based home? yes and no. So when I was a kid, we kinda went to like the first Baptist church and that's cause that's where my dad's whole family went. And so we would go there and then I don't know, they just decided to stop going. And then my grandma, my mom's mom was Catholic. So then then we went to Catholic Church for a while, so we're Batholic, right? And then when I was eighteen I converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints because I was looking for something and I found it there. Looking for community, maybe. Yeah. Awesome. Yeah. Awesome. So at fifteen, lose your grandma. Yeah. Parents split up. I went with my dad. Okay. Okay. Yeah. My mom and I did not Clash. Yeah, it was it was bad. It was bad. Brothers and sisters? I've got a lot of sisters. I have incredible sisters. I have an older sister, Lauren, who is like my rock in my life. And then I have two little sisters up at the University of Florida. Nice. That are going through college right now. Yeah. Awesome. So there's four of you. Yeah. Alright, we have four too. I have an older brother, two younger sisters, so I can relate to that. We too also had a lot of addiction in our family. Like we grew up with the addiction surrounding us through I think both sides of the family. And I think it took a strong woman to Take that first step, you know what I'm saying? Which I think a lot of us look at our our mother that way. You know, my grandma, which thank God she's still alive, but my grandma was a rock back then. And I think my mom took that step and she said she was not gonna do what she seen before. And then I think that instilled a lot in me and my brother and my sisters, a lot of that too. Yeah. So I can kind of relate a little bit to you. Yeah. so move with your dad, do you guys leave Palmetto? Or do you guys No, we stayed. Okay. So we stay, I mean, I stayed in Palmer. met until I was eighteen and left for college. And then you went to Utah. Yeah. For college. Yeah. Is that where you found your loved one? Yeah. My husband. Yeah. So I actually worked for a water park and I met him. I walked in that office. I saw him and I was like, he's mine. Yeah? Yeah. That's awesome. Were you doing Like the the the tubing slides where you give people the experience and twist them and turn and I was actually I actually was in fulfillment in the headquarters. So like not the fun part of the water part. yes. So while going through college? While going through college, yeah. Awesome, awesome. What do you go to college for? Everyone always laughs at this, but I have a degree in wildlife conservation. So I could like work for the Department of Natural Resources. You do own a pet snake, don't you? yeah, I love snakes. Why did you bring it? I should have. We should have had it on the podcast. I could have had him. You could have worn him. You don't like snakes? some of the stuff you can't say out loud because the guys in the fire department ate you up. Okay. Right. Okay. But I do have a few stories with snakes at the fire department where the guys ate me up already. So they Okay, so they already know. Not a big fan. Banana's cool though. He's like ten years old. Yes, he's like Britney Spears like Python looking thing. He's yellow. His name's Banana. Yeah. Takes a it take it takes I think a special person to own a snake, right? Like they're so cool. Yeah? Yeah. He eats rats. Rat? Yeah, like dead rat. Like frozen rat. I have to heat it up in the microwave. It's the worst part. It's the worst part. But he is he's so cool. He's a rescue too. is he really? Yeah. Nice. Do you just leave the snake just crawl around the house or no, he has a terrarium. His whole Yeah setup. He's got a s he's got a little setup. I love it. That's awesome. That's awesome. So okay, so found your husband. How long did you guys date? Like is there a cool story there how you guys met? I think it's just like a typical office romance. Like I think we just Did you approach him or does he approach him? well he says I approached him and I will say that he approached me. But you just said two minutes ago that you saw him you're like, I was like, That's mine, yeah. I know what I was doing. no, Derek is genuinely the nicest, kindest, sweetest person on the face of the planet. Awesome. Like when I talk about my husband, I've had people tell me too, they're like, wow, you're like the only person I know that doesn't like complain him. And I'm like, there's plenty of complaints. But he is so wonderful. That's awesome. What does he do? He actually builds barns. No kidding. Like barn dominiums are just barns. Barns, like not a barn dominium. but like barns, like horse barns. horse stalls and tack rooms and stuff like that. So in Ocala he's full he's booked and busy. Yep. That's awesome. Awesome. What did he go to school for? my gosh, he's an accountant. So you guys really did something and decided to leave and completely change. Yes. That's awesome. Yeah. And we people like when we met, he he was over all of the accounting for that water park. Okay. and then when we moved here, he was like, I just want to do something different. And we've been self employed for the majority of our marriage. Nice, how long guys have been married? 13 years this year. Good stuff. That's awesome. That's how long I've been in the fire department. really? Yeah it's a great number. 13, yeah. Yeah, we're going on 13. I was just thinking, I'm like, yeah, 13. Why O'Cala? well, actually, so Utah, a lot of people don't know this because they're like, it's out west, right? there's lots of land. There's not a lot of land because there's no water. So we couldn't buy horse property. It was like a million an acre. It was insane. So we kind of were like, well, do we want to end up in South Carolina? Do we want to end up in Florida? Like, where do we want to be? And we found our farm. And so we were like, let's move. So we bought it sight unseen. So you guys didn't know anything about Ocala. Did you know it was like the hor the horse capital of the world? I did because I knew Wec was coming in. Okay. So I horse show, and when I horse showed in Utah I'd have to go to California or Idaho. There's nothing in Utah. So when we were moving here, I was like, I can be ten minutes from the sh horse show grounds. You know? Are your girls into horseshow? no, my kids don't ride at all. No? No. It's the thing about when you have it, then you don't appreciate it. You know, like I didn't have it, so I really appreciate it. But my kids are like, Yeah, this is whatever. Whatever, yeah. Yeah, whatever. All right. So how long you guys been in O'Cal or now? Reagan is seven so seven years. Okay. Yeah. Seven years. So not too long ago. No, we moved here. I moved like it was insane. So I had I had Regan, my son, and then we got in a car five weeks later and drove across the country and moved here. I signed the papers for my house in the hospital. Did you have that business back in Utah and you sold it to come to O'Cali? No, so it wasn't online, completely online. All of our clients were worldwide. So like I had clients in Australia and German, which is why I've sold calendars in Australia and Germany and the UK. Okay, so these are all my clients. and so I could l work and live anywhere. Anywhere. Yeah. Awesome. Yeah. All right. That's I sold I sold that business in two parts and I did that what year is it? I did that at the end of twenty twenty f beginning of twenty twenty four and beginning of twenty twenty five. Okay. Yeah. Not knowing what was gonna happen. well, I didn't think I would get anything for so so I sold the business into parts because I had a clientele. And when you have a marketing agency and you have retainer clients, like that's worth something to somebody else, right? So I sold the client list because I was like, I am burnt out. I don't want to do this anymore. working with hundreds and hundreds of accounts a month is like How big was your team? Seven girls full time. Wow, that's awesome. It was a it was a It was amazing. Like I've gr built it from the ground up. And at the same time, it was sucking me dry. Like I just it was too much. It was I was so burned out. I was so sad. So we talked about it. I was like, I'm gonna sell it. I sold it in like twenty four hours. And I was like, my gosh. So then I started Bronzy because I was like, I just want to do something fun, you know, and I'm such an entrepreneurial person that I was like, let's go, let's make it, let's make it big. And then I got diagnosed with cancer. But because I'm sick in the brain, I was like, well, I'm just gonna keep pushing Bronzy because that's keeping me sane and safe and alive. And then I sold my intellectual property in January of twenty twenty five to fund Bronzi. Bronzy. Yeah, no, you seem like the person that goes all in. A hundred percent of the time. Yeah. And you give like your your max effort no matter what task it is, what job it is, which is Think it's hard to find nowadays. Not a lot of people are that way. I feel like it's sickness. Like I don't like it would be so nice to just back off a little bit. But I've never I've never backed off of anything in my life. Yeah, if you if we're gonna do it, let's do it right all the way. But I can see how yes it can be a blessing and a curse a little bit. Yeah. All right. So in Ocala, you already had Your kid, your your boy, right? Yeah. And then when do you guys have a second one? Stella I had Stella in Utah. So I had so you have both kids. Yeah, both kids. I have a ten and a seven. so Stella's the oldest. Okay. Okay. So ten, seven, and Ocala. Do the whole does the whole family love O'Cala now? Yeah, I think so. Reagan doesn't know anything different. He is a Florida boy. Like he's being raised as a Florida boy. my husband likes Ocala. His his parents moved with us. They bought a house adjacent to our farm. that's awesome. Which is so awesome. So they like Ocala. It's been better for them 'cause this ice and snow and yeah stuff is hard. Yeah, we he br we recently had my sister move in to closer to us. She's twenty minutes away right now. So nice. And just having family close. Yeah. Just I just bring peace. I think peace. Especially for me being a fireman. I'm gone every third day. So if anything happens while I'm on duty, I call my sister or Samantha is pretty good friends with my sister. So she'll just call her and they can kinda help each other out. It's not all yeah on me or the worry, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, for sure. So very, very cool. So you had no experience with tanning and you decided to dive in head first into a tanning business. Yes and no. So I had been tanning like I had got my own little machine when I was like 16. So I would be like spraying myself, spraying friends. but in terms of like a beauty business brick and mortar, had no idea. I was just like, why not me? You know, Ocala doesn't have anything like this. And I'm I try to be good at finding the gap. So if there's a gap in a market with my old branding and marketing clients, that's what we would go for. Like, let's go into the gap. and so when I saw that there's nothing here anywhere. remotely close to Bronzy. I was like, hmm. Okay, let's try it. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Do you feel like that prepared you to be where you're at right now with Bronzy? the marketing. a hundred percent. Yeah. Because a lot of a lot of it's all social now, you know? Like social is so important. And I used to do, you know, hundreds of accounts a day. So me doing one account, I'm like, this is so easy. This is nothing. I can do this all day long. Yeah. That's sweet, sweet, sweet. So with that being said, let's go to 2024. Which big for me it was a turning point. It was a big year for me. I know it was a big year for you. We were talking about this a little bit throughout the workout and I had to pause a little bit because I was like, no, we need to get this on camera. But throwback. Let's go to twenty twenty four. Hit me with something. so I got diagnosed with breast cancer, invasive ductal carcinoma, September tenth of twenty twenty four. Tough, wasn't it? it was awful. You remember where you were when you either got the phone call or how how did you find out? I was I was in the car in car line picking up my kids and got an email. And because I'm not you know how they send results sent now via email all the time? And you're like, You shouldn't r look at the results because you don't know what the results are. But I went and looked cause I knew. I knew from the time I was five, six years old I was gonna have breast cancer. Knew it. Because of grandma? Yeah, my entire family. So like my grandma died of breast cancer after battling it multiple times. My aunt at thirty one had breast cancer. My mom died of breast cancer. Like cousins. Like it's a So you were just waiting for Yeah, I knew it was gonna happen. But I didn't think you you know, there's that thing about people like humans, we don't think anything bad's gonna happen to us. You know? We kinda have like that little sense of invincibility. But I didn't think it was gonna happen at thirty one. Yeah. Yeah. So I can't even imagine you'll be in a car line. So the next thing you wait and pick up your kids and you gotta be strong, you gotta be tough, you gotta hold it all together. Yeah, it was awful. I'm g I guarantee you remember that whole ride back home, don't you? my gosh. I I actually posted this on Instagram on September tenth. I had texted my husband that it was breast cancer 'cause I didn't wanna call him because my kids were in the car. Well you already had picked them up. Yeah, so I'm sitting in car line and In our s in our school, it's like the front car line. So I was going through the front car line and I get the email and I'm like, I look it up and I'm like, my gosh. Like I knew it. I knew it. And my kids get in the car after like twenty seconds later. So I'm like crashing out. Then I have to be I made the decision to not tell my children that I had cancer immediately. And so I texted my husband, like, it's breast cancer and he's like, I'm leaving, I'm coming home right now, you know? trying to call me, I'm like, I cannot speak to you. I cannot speak to you. We ended up having sports and baseball and all that stuff. So I didn't get to have my full meltdown crash out moment until like nine o'clock that night. And it just came I mean, I just I went outside and I thought, well, because in my life so many people have died of the disease. So I was thinking, I'm dead. Like this is my death sentence. I'm thirty-one years old. I'm not gonna be there for my daughter when she has kids. I'm not gonna be there when my son gets married, you know. And I like had full bone meltdown. Mm-hmm. And I ended up texting one of my good friends was waiting. she had no like known something was wrong. And her husband very graciously called me. He's was he's j they just moved, but the CEO of West Marion. which is the only breast certified center in Marion County. Mm-hmm. And he called me, he said, you know, my wife told me what happened. I if you would like me to, I will call the breast surgeon that they are referring you to and I will get him to get you in tomorrow or the next day. Wow. Which doesn't happen. You know, it's weeks and weeks and it's awful experience. And so I got to go see my breast surgeon on September twelfth. Wow. Two days later. And obviously that helps. Being that quick and that. Yeah. Well, I am such a like you we talked about like a hundred miles an hour all the time. And so when I got diagnosed, it wasn't like, it's not for me. It was like, okay, so what's next steps? Like what are we doing? Where are we going? What are we what's gotta happen? You know? And the hardest part was just getting everybody to get to my speed. Yeah. You know? Because I wasn't gonna slow down for anybody. I was like, no, you're gonna see me as soon as you can. Mm-hmm. So Yeah, for me My the way I found out, so I found out I had Hodgkin's lymphoma. That was back in June of 2024, the same year. That was the same. How oddly and unique this is. Same year. So in June I found out and the way I found out was possibly it was tough because this is kinda how it all went down. I started having a lot of pain on my left side of my body, right? Every time I went two, three nights without being able to sleep because my whole left side of my body was going numb. And being like most dudes, I was like, nah, whatever, it's probably sore from a workout or something I did around the station. We let it play off a little bit at the third night. My wife was like, nah, hey, you gotta go get it checked out. So I went to a chiropractor. Hey, go to a chiropractor, they'll give you an adjustment, you'll be good. So go to a chiropractor. I sit, I s I lay on her table the first. five minutes or so, she's touching it around my neck and she stops. She was like, you got a lump here, hun. Was super honest with me, is like, this is not something I could fix. You need to call your doctor right now and you need to go get this this figured out. So that started a bunch of a chain of events of me seeing three or four doctors within that week. And then finally go to a specialist for for the neck area and we get surgery to get a biopsy out of it. So we get the surgery done. I'm on light duty at work now because after getting surgery, you can't go fight fire. So go to light duty on work, and I had an appointment to get the results of the biopsy, but the main doctor was on vacation. So I got like his nurse practitioner or whoever was filling in for him. Me and my wife go in, we sit down with her and comes in the room, we start conversation. Obviously, she's saying a bunch of things, and I go. I just need to know if I have cancer or not. Like that's all I need to know. Do I have cancer or not? And till this day I can still remember the nurse practitioner telling me, you don't have cancer. You're good. It's not cancer. So best news in the world, me and my wife leave, you know, like party. Yeah. Yeah, like that that that weight been lifted off my shoulder just to learn two days after that, I was behind station four. Cause in light duty, you're doing a bunch of like administrative work. So I was delivering a bunch stuff around the stations. I remember parking behind station four. I was about to go in to deliver some stuff for the guys and I get a phone call from the from the doctor office and I was like, this is odd. Okay. So I pick up, it's the doctor on the other side of the phone. And he's like, Hey man, I gotta I got some bad news I gotta give you. I don't know why she said you don't have cancer, but you do. And I r like I I I remember kinda going in the black, not remembering that like e everything right and the first couple things that came to to my head, because I'm very similar to you. I just okay, so I got this, you gave me this news. I'm a problem solver. Firemen's our problem solver, right? So like there's really no problem that we can't solve or we can make it a little better. But give me the problem, okay, what are my options? What what can I do to make this better? So I remember being in that car and just everything, everything around me just paused. Everything went silent. And I remember asking, okay, so what now? And he felt so bad that his nurse practitioner had done that, that he also scheduled scheduled me that afternoon to go talk to who became my oncologist. Yeah. So obviously I wasn't strong enough like you to hold on until nine. I remember calling the fire chief at station four, telling him what just happened. And he's like, and he was like, go home. Mm-hmm. So I drove the fire truck the I had a little SUV, the SUV back to station one where my car was at. I remember going in telling the battalion chief at the time, who was my battalion chief? Hey man, I just popped. I got cancer. It was him and another battalion chief there. I left that office and surprisingly, it was my shift. one of the guys that was there was he was a captain at the time. He was a battalion chief. He actually got interviewed here for an episode. I call him in a separate room with him. And I that that's where I had my meltdown moment was with that dude in that room. And I remember the other two battalion chiefs came in, gave me hugs, like they gave me support. The fire department has been nothing but a blessing in my life. You know what I'm saying? Like I talk a lot about my family, I talk a lot about everybody, but the fire department has been nothing but like just this blessing for me. Left and we started treatment. You know, we started treatment. so how was that for you? Like what what were what were your paths? Hey, we can do this, we can't do that. Did you get options or no we have to do this? It was just straight to surgery. Yeah. So I had I had some options. because of my family history, there's in breast cancer they look for the bracagene or there's thirteen breast cause breast cancer causing genes. And I've been genetic tested multiple times. When I was 12, I was genetic tested. When I was 25, I was genetic tested, which is like a whole nother story. But I I go in and I meet with this breast surgeon. And he said, I would put my entire medical license on the fact that you are genetic. And I was like, I promise you, I'm not genetic. I am because I have a family history, we're familial, but I don't have a gene. So I go in and meet him. He is the most wonderful human being on the face of the planet. Cause I I'm like, you know, just Crying, it's it's so emotional. And he's like, We're gonna take all of it. You can do a lumbectomy. So options with breast cancer are they can take the tumor out or they can take all of the breast tissue out, they can take one or both. And he was like, If you were my kid, you would be doing both, and that's what we're gonna do. So, because I had had that biopsy, they knew that it was slow growing. Thank goodness. Yep. Like I always say God gave me the credentials. Like he didn't want me to die from this. He wanted me to have like the credentials. I love that. Because I wouldn't be able to do anything I've done without my credentials, right? so I go and and I meet with him on the 12th. They schedule surgery for me. The soonest time that they can schedule it is October 15th. And there's a wild story around that too, because I was tanning. a girl for her bachelorette trip and her engagement photos and her wedding. And I walked into that doctor's office and whose face is on the wall? Hers, because she's a nurse practitioner. He's she's a surgical nurse practitioner for him. And I tanned her for her wedding on October 4th. And she was back from her honeymoon on October 14th and in my surgery on October 15th and was the one that told me like We got everything. It wasn't in your lymph nodes. Like you're gonna be okay. And it's just like little things like that that really got me through. But I ended up meeting with my oncologist on September 19th, which is my birthday, which is like what a birthday present. Yeah. But he typically with breast cancer, they they biopsy to see if it's cancer, but then they do something called a mamma print. And that mamma print is thanks to hundreds of thousands of women who have donated their body, right? For research. and it tells you whether do you need chemo? Do you need adjudicant therapy? Do you need to be on a drug? How long do you need to be on that drug for? So at that appointment, he was like, We're gonna do a mamma print. We can't do that until after surgery, but we're gonna try and see if we can get it from your biopsy. And so I went and had that surgery. I had my cutie angel with me. And I come out and it we prayed so hard that I wouldn't be in my lymph nodes because the type of cancer I had, if it had been in my lymph nodes, it's very common to come back, you know. So I go and I get a phone call the next day, which is so unheard of, because usually those mamma prints take forever. They were able to use my biopsy from like early September, were able to run my mamma print. And so when I went in on November second, they were able to tell me, you don't need chemotherapy, it's not gonna help you. It was a one percent improvement in my odds. Why make your body do that? And then you don't need radiation because it wasn't in your lymph node. So you at this moment are cancer free, and you're gonna take this drug for the next ten years and you're gonna be okay. It's crazy. That's phenomenal. Yeah. Phenomenal. It was it's a lot of it was a lot of like little moments where I was like, my gosh, God's like holding me through this because I wanted to just I mean, I I documented all of it. Like a your your wife was watching me before she even knew me, you know, crying in my car talking about breast cancer because I wanted to document it. and then I look back at that and I'm like, Wow, I really was I was handheld through that whole process. Yeah. Yeah. So twenty twenty four for me I think was my turning point, right? My Like, hey man, I've done I didn't live a bad life. I I I was good. But when I got the news, the only thing that came to my head was my family and then God, right? That that's those are the two things. It was my family, my wife, and my two my my two girls, and then God. Like so go through the whole cancer pro I had to do chemo. So I had to experience that. And I I'm glad I did. I'm glad because until then I was thought like you said, I thought I was invisible. You know, I work out six times a week. I do this. I'm a fireman. I can solve anything. I can do anything. And then boom. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Like they Yeah, it's very humbling. Very quickly. And then I go through chemo and chemo was a struggle before I even got to chemo. Just like you said, I felt like God's hand was already controlling everything. My mom, my mom Man, I can't even say words about my mom when it comes to stuff like this. You know what I'm saying? My mom was by our side the whole time. Same ways I can't say that I could not go through what I just went through without my wife. You know what I'm saying? My wife was my rock. My wife did things that I I probably never know what she did, you know, but because while I was a week down, for me it was get chemo every two weeks. The the week after chemo I could barely walk around the block. Mm-hmm and it was small steps. But then the other the the following week was what I felt like it was like my recharge week because I my doctor actually let me go back to work. Which people say it's unheard of, but I felt good enough. Yeah. To go back to work. I appreciate the fire chief. I appreciate again the fire department because I went to a place where the dudes asked me how everything was going for the first 20 minutes of my shift, but after that they treated me normal. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Like so the last week all I've been talking about is cancer. I don't want to talk about cancer anymore. Yeah. Let's go help people. Let's go let's act like we're normal. Like, you know what I'm saying? And I think that mentally kept me on check. And then I had this that I think that brought me back to church, our church of the springs, that's where we go. And at Church of the Springs, every Sunday I've kept getting the word and I kept getting this feeling, the Holy Spirit talking to me about, hey man, your testimony is not just for you to have and share with your family. It's for you to share with other people. It's your credentials. Yeah. First time I ever heard that. That's that's awesome to even to put it out like that. But so for me now that this became My passion, my purpose, I need to I need to share my testimony. I need to share how good God was with me because I also had a bunch of people won't say it's good news because it's cancer, but a bunch of good scenarios in far a as the cancer world goes, right? I had hot lymphoma. So I had you have A or B, I had the better one. You have type one, two, three, and four. you know, everything was lined up. Hey man, it it's bad, but it's not as bad as it can be. A hundred percent. I I c it's crazy how Similar. You know what I'm saying? Both stories are. So how was your husband throughout all of this? Do you guys ever sit down and have a conversation? He I I mentioned earlier he's like the best, kindest, sweetest, like servant's heart of any person I've ever met in my life. And he it's really hard for the spouse of somebody going through something like this because you want to take it from You know, and especially as a man, he wanted to like take all of it from me, you know, and carry it and you can't, you know? And he was I had I don't know if you experienced the nighttime like insomnia and anxiety and the all of that stuff during but I wouldn't sleep at night and I'd go to sleep and then I'd be up at like midnight or one o'clock and be try be up for hours because my that's when finally I crashed, you know. All day long I was compartmentalizing. I was working on Bronzy. I like talking to girls. I like, you know, whatever. And then in the middle of the night I was like really, really struggling. And he would sit there with me and like rub my back and, you know, hold my hand and just like like his physical presence calmed me. And for many, many nights during all of that, I couldn't go to sleep unless he was there. And I was holding him and like put my hand on him because I'm like, I need I need you to give me that good energy. Cause right now I'm just in full turmoil turmoil. So I don't think I've ever seen throughout the whole finding out cancer, going through I don't like I never saw my wife cry once. It's amazing, isn't it? It's just wild, right? Like we talk ab like I look back, I don't think but I and I know my wife, I know she's very emotional. Mm-hmm. But Through the most emotional part I think of us being together. I n I don't think I've ever She was a rock. Yeah. Yeah, that's how Derek was. Yeah. They're tough. They're tough. I remember being like really because I have a lot of fear around death and breast cancer and watching people in my life, like close family members die from it. I mean, my mom died less than a year before I was diagnosed from breast cancer. And so watching that and my fear was just so strong. And Derek would literally just sit there and be like, You are gonna be okay. You are gonna be just fine. Like you had to go through this so that you can be a rocket ship. Yeah. You know? So it's it's hard. It's hard. I mean, it was really hard because I didn't tell my children because I didn't want them to be scared because they knew our angel died of breast cancer. They knew my mom died of breast cancer. They knew my aunt had breast cancer, you know, so they I didn't want to tell Yeah. I don't think we told ours either. But ours was like they were super young. Yeah. You know, so it's Yeah. But feeling useless too for me, the week of chemo was it's hard. If I look back, that was probably one of the like just not being able to 'cause you once you get chemo, you gotta stay twenty four to forty eight hours away from your kids. Yeah. Because all the drugs are just constantly getting pumped out of you. Yeah. So that that was another big, big challenge for me. Yeah. But we made it. Yeah. It's amazing. I think back like October fifteenth is my two year. And I'm like It's just and I don't know if you've graduated from like I don't know if you guys had to do like three six month checks and like constant like blood work and stuff. Every s it started with three months, now I'm at six. You graduated to six months. I just I just am graduating to six months. Okay. So very excited about that. Feels it's a moment. Yeah. You know? you win. Every little win is a win, you know. And you take it. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. So Sorry, I cry a lot. No. This is this is great. This is great. This is what this is for, right? share our testimony, share our story. How do you think your faith help you through most of it though? my goodness. there's there's so much like like I believe you know that the Holy Spirit is with us all the time and he's always trying to talk to us and we're you know Heavenly Father and Jesus are trying to help us like we're never just alone right and before I had cancer I believed that like I I was like in my mind I believe that but then after I got diagnosed with cancer I believed it in my heart, you know? And it's a very special testimony. of mine, like even like the power of collective prayer and like having multiple people like give you positive vibes, you know, and like pray for you. And that happened at and for me before my surgery, my entire church family prayed and fasted that we would not have it in my lymph nodes. You know, and the feeling of that is I don't even know how to describe that. but I think I think it was a really big turning point in my life that from just going from like I believe it in my head to I believe it in my heart and I know it. You know, like it's not just I have testimony of it, I have a lived testimony of it. It's been put to it's been put to action for me. And I would I could never I could never step away from that. Yeah. You heard about it, you lived it. Now you can talk about it. Yeah. Right. That's an easy way to put it too. Alright, so you ready to dive in some of these questions that we have? Yeah. All right. So we like to ask a few simple questions to our guests, but to see what's their perspective and how they deal with it and whatnot. So question number one, what is your why? What what makes you do the things you do and push the way you push? I think I think my family, like my children, when I had when I had my daughter. And I mean both of my children are incredible and wonderful and special. But when I had my daughter, I saw a lot of like myself in that. And I thought, if there's anything I'm gonna do in this world is going to make it a better world for her, you know? And so everything, my hundred miles an hour, like speeding down the road, like that is all for her. You feel like she's that energetic too? Yeah. She's a little you? Yeah, she's spicy. I love her. We we joke all the time that we're the same with but she's got blonde hair. is it? Yeah. That's awesome. That's awesome. All right. So family, your kids, basically making this world better than what's in front of you, right? Yes. All right. Awesome. Did you feel like you've been better not only as a mother, but obviously to to to be a mother you need to have a kid. But once you've had that kid, you feel like you've been better had a better perspective in life in general. I think so. I think it calmed me down a lot. Like I because I am so passionate about everything that I do, I and I have no problem I always say I have no problem going toe to toe with the devil on anything. no problems. but it really helped me like see perspective and see other people's perspective and like how do I want to show up for her? Because I don't want to be going a million miles an hour And it's not for my kids, you know, or not for the benefit of humanity, you know? Absolutely. Absolutely. And they're watching everything we do, which is crazy. And they are sponges. Yes. And it's very humbling when your child does something and you're like, that's not my best trait. But you see a little bit of V. Yes. No, thank you. Awesome. That you think that transfer also into like this you have a unique capability I think of being a great leader, right? And having a lot of people follow you and I feel like you have this great positive energy no matter what room you walk in, you bring that with you, which I think thank you. It's very cool to have, right? And not a lot of people are capable of doing that. Do you feel like being a mother has helped you get to that point? Yeah, I think so. I when I was in college, a lot of people don't believe me, but I when I they called on me in wildlife classes. Okay. So this is not like chemistry or something. I would cry. I would be so terrified. Like I didn't believe in myself and I didn't like like I didn't trust that I was gonna have the right answer, you know. Shy or no, I'm not shy. I just had no confidence. okay. You know? And I think like belief in myself and you know, after I had my daughter, I when you know, she's ten now. Mm-hmm. It's been a lot of years of like growing confidence and growing that inner Inner effervescence or whatever. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Good. All right. So the next question would be what keeps you going? So family is your reason why. It's the reason you push the way you push. What keeps you there? Is there anything else besides? Obviously, family is always always an easy answer for that question. Was there anything else that you feel like? man, what keeps me going? I have this internal drive to just be the best. Person that I can be. And we didn't talk about him, but my big papa passed away this year, and he was like the coolest human being on the planet, like the most humble, kindest, sweetest. And he's like a Hall of Famer and a philanthropist and a mayor and a county commissioner, and he has all these things, but he would never tell you that. Like he would, he would have killed me if he had known I read that in his eulogy, you know? Like, but I think. I think I get a lot of that trait from him. Like, I wanna make the world a better place. Like I came here for a reason. God gave me this moment in time, this space, this these decades, right? And I wanna make it the best that I can make it. And my dad always used to say, like, why not why not you? You know, and people say that, but like really if you take that to heart, like why not me? Like why can't I change the laws around who can get breast screenings and who can't? You know, why not? If someone's gotta do it, it might as well be me. Yeah. So talking about that, tell us a little bit about this project, your hot girls against breast cancer project. Well, she started as an initiative. When I got diagnosed, I thought immediately I gotta compartmentalize this. Like I can't sit here and be sad for myself because I would love to sit in bed and cry, you know, but that's just not gonna work. So we started as an initiative where we raised money for and you know, sold shirts and stuff. for local nonprofits. And then I had met, I actually had met with a few people beforehand and I thought, wouldn't it be fun to do like a firefighter calendar? Because this firefighter calendar, it's hot and hot girls, you know, it's kind of punny. And I was getting that stood up and that's when I met your wife at a PTO event of all places. And I was and she was like, that's a great idea. Like We can figure this out. And at that point, you know, that was end of July-ish. Yeah, end of July that ha started happening. and I really felt in my heart God told me, Your purpose is women under 40, because everybody we had donated money to, they didn't have a mission like ours. Their mission is to, you know, support women with breast cancer, but they could be eighty-five years old. and in I don't know if you know this, but women that get late stage breast cancer are more likely to be under forty and they're more likely to die because there's no screening. So it's something that is a huge issue and a big problem. And God, when I was realizing, my gosh, I'm gonna do this firefighter calendar, I'm gonna make some money and I don't want it to go to something that's not my cause. Yes. So I called I called up my CPA and I said, I need to be a five one C threak, how can we do it this week? And he was like, my gosh, Lindsay. So he he got me he got me registered, we created our own formed our own nonprofit. And you know, last year we raised about ten thousand dollars through the whole year. Which is cool. this in September we raised over thirty thousand dollars. Wow. Isn't that crazy? And October fifteenth our big gala. I've never done something like this before, but the entire time I keep thinking like I've never done anything like this before and I'm just kind of winging it, but like it's all falling into place because God wants me to do this. That this is this is my I tell everyone this is my life's purpose. Bronzy isn't my life's purpose. Bronzy gives me the machine so that I can do my life's purpose. So I think I think we might I mean, I wanna raise a hundred thousand dollars, so why not? Why not me? Why not me? Yeah. And very excitingly, it's actually been wild. I've had struggled to get anyone to call me back and like create a partnership. And, you know, they working through the medical field is just yeah. I if I never have to do it again, I would be so grateful. But I finally was telling everyone, I'm just gonna like open my own imaging center. Like we're just gonna do that. What do we need? We need an ultrasound machine. Like that's what we need, you know? I'm like, how much money is it? It's not that much money. We can we can raise it. And finally, a few days ago, someone like I finally got a hold of somebody. So for this month in October, Hot Girls Against Breast Cancer is able to reimburse mammograms, breast screenings, ultrasounds through that company. and so we're gonna create some like really serious impact while we're raising our money to create our own imaging center. That's awesome. Yeah. Wow. You gotta feel accomplished by that. I I just feel like it's what I was put here to do. It's very fulfilling. You know. You feel like after you work on something like that though even you're going a hundred miles an hour because but because it's God's plan, you feel super good afterwards, right? yeah. I don't get burnt out by that. I mean I get no, like I I could work on like the hot girl stuff full time and I wouldn't not get burnt out by it because I love it and I feel like, you know, when when women ooh, I'm gonna cry. When women reach out to me and they tell me, like, I got an ultrasound because of you. I was able to get a mammogram because you told me to, you know, or hey, I got diagnosed. What do I do now? Who do I talk to? I need prophylactic surgery, who am I going to? You know, I feel like every single time it's like you're doing good. You're doing good. You're doing good, you know? whereas Bronzy, my beautiful my beautiful business, my machine she can burn me out real quick. Yeah. And how are you doing to balance your family life and your business and a non profit now? Yeah. So I try to work while my kids are in school. So ten to two. And if I can't get it done into ten to two, then it's the nine o'clock at night and I'm working on something. But that's it's so important to me that when we're at baseball or at soccer or we're having dinner, you know, I present. I'm present. Yeah. And it's hard to be present. But it's so it's such a priority for me. Absolutely. Absolutely. I love that. So let's finish off with a good question. Mm-hmm. What's one piece of advice you give somebody that's going through a rough time right now? that's such a good question. I would say it's very easy to internalize everything and like kind of shut yourself off and it's like, you know, you wanna go lick your wounds and be sad and, you know, like really retreat and the best thing that you can do, something that I read in a it's actually from our church released it, but it was this story about this girl and she said whenever she was feeling crappy, whenever she had chemo and she couldn't walk or whenever she was, you know, dealing with something really awful, she turned around. And she serves somebody else. And I think when I was so sad and miserable and dealing with everything I was dealing with, every single day I would be like, Who can I impact today? Who can I serve today? Can I take lunch to my friend? You know, can I d drop something off for the kids' teacher? You know. I think that that is when you get outside of yourself, your problems are way less small, even if they're catastrophic. Wow. So awesome. Did that make sense? Basically, I think again in the fire service we have the capability of serving people every day we go to work, right? As small as the call might be or as big as the fire might be, we still get the opportunity when we show up, we bring peace, we bring happiness, we bring maybe a little bit of joy, a little bit of comfort to people. You know, we have not a lot of jobs have that. Yeah. But ours I'm blessed to be able to say I've served the city of O'Cala for thirteen years. Yeah. So but once you do that, once you run that call and I've talked about this a little bit is like the old lady that fell at the nursing home that's been sitting there for three, four hours. If I get to go over there and just help her up from probably a place where she's not comfortable, she's in pain, yeah, and put her on a chair or on a recliner on her bed and she's comfortable. It's this big old smile. Yeah. Thank you, honey. You know, I'm saying just that old lady charm. And we get to run those calls. So I can a hundred percent understand what you're saying. Like when you serve somebody, it brings you makes you understand that there's something a little bit more than just you. Yeah, for sure. You know, there's so that's great, Lindsay. We also like to see if our guest has a Bible verse they would like to share, something that you hold on to, something that helps you through When you're going through something or you're just feeling down. Yes. So I actually when I was diagnosed with cancer, my really good friend sent this one to me and I was I I remember being there when they do before you go in for surgery, they like they inject you with golly, what is it? I always say battery acid. It's not battery acid, but it burns so bad. they inject you with radiation so that they can see where the the blood flows and I thought about this as I'm sitting in that machine with with like alone and sad and scared and it's it's Psalm thirty four four it says I sought the Lord and he answered me and he delivered me from all of my fears and I thought about that and I think about that every probably every day. Like if I made it through that and he heard me, what is this? You know, this is nothing this is nothing. No problem too big for. No. And he like it's so easy to feel like there's nobody listening or that nobody cares or you know, it's so easy to internalize and just become a shell, you know. But really, if you just bring God into your life and try to listen for him, he is there and he will show you and will tell you the way forward. Awesome. Phenomenal. Okay. You got anything else for our guests? no, just thank you so much for having me. This is very cathartic. No, this was awesome. It was awesome. You enjoyed the workout? yeah. You enjoyed the workout. I'm very I'm very proud of myself for doing that. You did great. I told you out there I was I'm claustrophobic and I have struggled with claustrophobia for a long time. And I was like, I'm gonna try, I'm gonna just I'm just gonna do it. Like, why not? Worst case that can happen, he's gotta rip it off of me, right? and then for me to be able to do that, I'm like I'm so cool. I think you did great. Thank you. Thank you. So with that being said, guys, another great episode. Another great person to sit across the table from and have a conversation with. I'm glad and honored to be able to ask her questions, just learn a little bit more about her. And that's it for this episode. Hope you guys enjoyed it. If you did, make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel. You like and throw us a comment. Tell us how we're doing. Right.