Latest / The 403 Podcast / Finding the Light in the Middle of the Hard | Claire Masikewich

Transcript

Finding the Light in the Middle of the Hard | Claire Masikewich · The 403 Podcast

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_04: I'm Carissa Savage, a Calgary realtor passionate about sharing the stories of people who are building Calgary and our surrounding areas.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_04: From entrepreneurs and business owners to the city shapers changing our community for the better.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_04: If you're buying, selling, investing, or just want to talk about Calgary, I'd love to hear from you.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_04: All my contact information is in the show notes.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_04: Talk soon.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_04: Today's guest is someone whose life and career took a turn she never could have planned for.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_04: Claire Maskowitz is a marketer, communicator, keynote speaker, philanthropist, wife, and mother.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_04: But in 2023, Claire's five-year-old daughter Sloan was diagnosed with stage four neuroblastoma, and suddenly everything changed.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_04: What came out of that experience was Strong Like Sloan, an organization rallying an incredible community around pediatric cancer awareness, advocacy, and research.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_04: But what I find really interesting about Claire's story is that she didn't just leave behind who she was before Sloan's diagnosis.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_04: She took the skills she already had in marketing, communication, storytelling, and leadership, and found a completely new purpose for them, was started as advocating for her daughter, has grown into fundraising, a foundation, a speaking career, and much bigger mission around pediatric cancer.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_04: While completely reshaping what resilience means to Claire along the way.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_04: And with September being childhood cancer awareness month, this feels like an especially important conversation to be having right now.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_04: Today I want to talk about what happened to Claire and her family, but I also want to talk about what she decided to build from it, what she's learned along the way, and what the rest of us can actually do to help.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: Claire, welcome to the 403 podcast.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, thank you so much.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: I'm so, so happy to be here.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: And um, thank you for shining a light on so many incredible people in this city.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: It's cool.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: And like we were just saying before you hit record, uh, it's incredible that we we don't know all of these little ins and outs of what's happening in the city.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: And it's cool to have a platform to share.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_04: Of course.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_04: No, thank you so much for spending the time with us.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_04: I know this is an incredible story.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_04: I'm so excited to dive into it and talk about your journey and your daughter's journey.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_04: But let's actually go before that.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_04: Sure.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_04: Before we talk about strong like Sloan, who was Claire before all of this happened?
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_04: What did your career look like?
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_04: What were you ambitious about?
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_04: What did you think the next five to 10 years looked like in your life?
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, good question.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, okay, so we'll we'll go way back for a second because I feel like it sets kind of the framework for a lot of kind of aha moments I've had along the way.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: But I uh had a lot of anxiety as a kid, a lot of anxiety when I was really little, like tears at school drop off, didn't have my first successful sleepover until I was in grade eight.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um I moved away actually for university.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: I went to go to Lethbridge, uh, University of Lethbridge for school.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: It was about 20.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_01: We moved, moved me there, had an apartment.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: I cried the entire first week of school, begged my parents to come pick me up, which they did.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um, bless their hearts, love them.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: But we moved me home and I went to school here and then went to, well, actually, University of Lethbridge had a campus here, which was great.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: So that was helpful, and did my Bachelor of Management degree with a minor in marketing.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: Got into the work world and was in a very, you know, different world in retail, marketing, energy industry, like a good born and raised Calgarian.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: You got to get into the oil and gas industry at some point.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: So landed in oil and gas and marketing communications.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: Still didn't feel super settled about work.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: For me, I always found that my anxiety later in life was very much connected to um not feeling purpose at work and meaning at work and making an impact.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: So I really struggled with that a lot in my late 20s.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: Had my girls, I had two beautiful daughters, Sloane and Indy.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: They were two years apart.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: So Indy is almost 11 and Sloane is almost nine.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: And then I landed in a very cool role as a director of marketing communications for a surveying geomatics company.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_01: And that was in March.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: I landed that role and started in March, uh March 11th, 2020.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: And then, if you can imagine, the world shut down.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: So it was a whole other challenge of launching a business because I put was put in this role to really launch this large startup.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: And that was a whole other challenge trying to bring different cultures together from different groups and branding and advertising and connecting with clients when we couldn't get in front of clients.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: So that was a really uh neat learning opportunity, huge challenge.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: I put a lot of really big expectations on myself, leading towards burnout.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: I remember many times thinking, okay, I see the light at the end of the tunnel and I'll get there.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_01: I'll just put my head down.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: I'll be more rested when this is all done.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: I'll be happier when this is all done, um, realizing that that's not the best approach to take in life at all, which I'll share later.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: And still really struggling with purpose.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: Kind of three years in, I was like, I don't know what my purpose is here.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna be leaving a legacy here as a director of marketing communications at a surveying firm.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: And I actually went to the National Surveyor Conference and presented on advocacy for the surveying industry.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, this is it.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna make my mark in surveying and geomatics.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna do advocacy for the surveying industry, get more people into this.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: This is my purpose.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: That was May 15th, 2023.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: And then less than two weeks later, my daughter was diagnosed with stage four cancer.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: And that felt like an incredibly rude awakening from the universe.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_01: And it was like, girl, you want purpose?
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_01: I'll give you purpose.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: And that's where we landed.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: And that was three years ago.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_01: So that's a bit of a background on me.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_04: And what were you particularly good at with marketing and communications?
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_04: What were some of those skill sets?
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, really?
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um actually honestly love the communication side the most.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: Like marketing communications, they can sometimes be seen as like two separate functions.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_01: Marketing is very much external facing.coms tends to be a lot of internal stuff, but really selling the same message, the same story internally as you do externally is very important.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_01: So it's nice to see those departments sometimes married together.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I love building culture.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: I love communicating, I love storytelling.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: So I think it's a natural fit.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I hate social media, which is funny that now I have like two social media accounts, like Instagram accounts that I run.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, ugh, hate social media, but here we are, gotta do it.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, just networking and branding and really creating stories behind uh the message and the brand is what I love the most.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_04: It's interesting hearing you describe that version of yourself because so much of what you learned in that career doesn't disappear after what happened next.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_04: It's a really unexpected way those skills end up becoming incredibly important.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_04: But before we get there, I want people listening who don't know Sloan's story to understand the moment that divided life into before and after for your family.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_04: Can you take us back to when you first realized something wasn't right with Sloan and ultimately heard the words that your five-year-old had stage four cancer?
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, for sure.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: So it was May long weekend 2023.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: We were in Sylvan Lake.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: We tend to go for a lot of long weekends in Sylvan, which is great.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: And she was really tired that weekend.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: Like she was napping, which was really weird.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_01: Like she was in kindergarten at this point, almost done kindergarten.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: So that was strange.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: And she was also complaining about a lot of pain in her pelvic region.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: But I just chalked it up to be growing pains because I was like, well, she's five, five and a half.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: Like my oldest daughter had growing pains, her legs hurt.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_01: That's all it was.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_01: So it was fine.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: We had a great weekend.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: Then on the Monday when we got home from the long weekend, she spiked a fever, and she was not normally a fever kid.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: Like even when she was teething, she was never really a fever kid, just didn't happen.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: So that was kind of strange too.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: But we kept her home.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: Like we just figured it was a flu.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, oh, she has like aches and pains and a fever, it's the flu.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_01: So that's what we we went with.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: And all week long, she still battled this fever.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: So that was probably a bit of a red flag that it didn't ever really go away.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: We just kept doing like Tylenol Advil back to back.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_01: And throughout the week, the pain spread from her pelvic region to her legs to her knees.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: And at one point I remember it was so bad.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: She was actually like physically pulling herself up the stairs using the banister.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_01: And I remember her getting into the car and really having to like pull herself up to get up with and being in pain.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: So on that Friday, um, I wish I could say that my mother's like intuition kicked in.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: And Chris, I know you're a new mom.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: So we always hope that we're gonna have this intuition.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: It's gonna kick in, and our gut feelings can be like something's not right.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: But I think as parents, too, um, and this is why I don't put blame on myself for this.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: I think as parents, we also um we we try to avoid doing the helicopter thing, right?
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: We're like, okay, that's not good.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: We can't be worried about everything that comes our way, like doesn't do any good.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: So I didn't actually think to do anything about it right away.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: It was actually my mom and my husband who were like, oh, I don't know.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: Like it just this this seems weird, like all of these things.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: So I was like, fine.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: So I called 811 Health Link, still thinking it was gonna be nothing.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, I'm gonna talk to this nurse and she's gonna be like, it's the flu.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: But she put me over to a physician.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: Like she actually had a physician call, which was strange because I never had that before.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_01: Like I called 811 a handful of times, and she actually had a physician call me back.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: And he said that the fever with no other signs or symptoms of cold or flu, because she like didn't have vomiting, diarrhea, like no cough, no stuffy nose, plus this leg pain was cause for alarm.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_01: So he's the one that suggested we go to the children's hospital.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it wasn't like a rush, like get there now, but we did go that night.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: And the reason why I actually went that night, this was Friday, May 26th.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: And the reason I went that night is because I actually had the girls signed up to do the kids' run in the Calgary Marathon, which was that weekend.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: So in my mind, I was like, hey, we're gonna go to the hospital, we're gonna get this done out of the way because tomorrow is race package pickup and you're running on Sunday.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_01: And that's where my mind was still going.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: So obviously, very much in denial that anything was actually happening.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: But when we got to the hospital, got in, um, I'm so thankful for the um ER doctor that was on that night because I have also heard heard really sad stories of kids who have been diagnosed with cancer, and it's like months of them trying to get help and support.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: So very grateful for this doctor.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_01: She did some leg strength tests, motor function, and ordered blood work.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: And really, that blood work came back that she had very low hemoglobin and platelets, which now I know what that means.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't at the time, but we were admitted and referred right away at that point.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: And the next morning, still in a little bit of denial because we had the pediatric hematologist come into the room and my husband and I were in there with both of our girls.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_01: And honestly, if I had known where it was gonna go and if I'd known that cancer was going to be the outcome, I would have been like, let's step out into the hall.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: And he didn't suggest it, which I'm surprised about, but that's okay.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um but he asked three red flag questions right away that I will never forget in this order.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: He said, like he sat down and he's like, remind me what you do for work.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_01: Do you have good benefits?
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: And do you have friends and family close by?
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_01: And we were like, Okay, wow, like these are some pretty like that those are serious questions.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_01: But then we heard the word malignant.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_01: Like he was very careful.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, he didn't say cancer in front of the girls, so he said malignant a couple times, and that's when my like spidey senses went up.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, we step into the hall and he confirmed that what he was talking about was cancer.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: And initially he thought it was leukemia.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: We did some tests.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: He said, if it comes back negative, don't get excited because it's probably a different type of cancer, and yeah, just went down the path of ultrasounds and MRI biopsy, and that landed us on stage four neuroblastoma, and it was stage four because she had a primary mass on her adrenal gland.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but then it was throughout her entire bone marrow, it was everywhere, so it was pretty scary.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_04: Wow.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_04: Um sorry, that is uh that's quite quite a story.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and as a new mom, I I can't even I can't even imagine.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_04: So yeah.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_04: Um, you know, thank you for going there.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_04: I was going actually through your Instagram and seeing the text messages that you and your husband were sending back and forth and going through how just life was, you know, normal and you're just talking about parent things, like who's picking up kids and all those logistics.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_04: What does life actually look like in the days immediately following news like that?
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, it feels like a blur.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: And um and I just want to say for your listeners that like right now in this whole conversation, if I don't cry, don't think it's because I'm a robot and I don't have feelings.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's just telling the story so many times, it feels like it's just like it's normal for me now.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't want people to think I don't have a heart.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: I really do.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: I've cried a lot over the last three years, but just wanted to put that out there.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, there might be tears, who knows?
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_01: There could be something.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_01: You never know what triggers me.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: It's different every day.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but yeah, the first few days were just like a blur.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: And um, I actually remember the second night.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: So the first night I stayed with Sloane, obviously in Emerge.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: Didn't know I was gonna be there all night, but I was in Emerge with her all night.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_01: So then the second night I went home so I could sleep, and my husband stayed because we were admitted at that point on unit one.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_01: And that next morning, I remember waking up at 5:30 in the morning and literally thinking it was a nightmare.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: Like I'm I'm can't even tell you how sure I was it was a nightmare.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, what a crazy dream nightmare.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_01: It was so vivid, but that was awful.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: And then I rolled over and I saw my husband wasn't there, and I realized that it was all real.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: So it was yeah, very strange.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_01: Like I think I just kept going back to the moments when she was born, and I was thinking, like, okay, well, we had a healthy baby, like we had a healthy baby.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, now I'll cry.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and you and you think like as a parent and you can relate to this, having a new baby.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_03: You're like, okay, you know, everything looks good.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_03: They have 10 fingers, they have 10 toes, they do the little heel preck, and you get everything back, and like genetically, everything looks okay.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_03: And then you just imagine, like, okay, now life is good, and they go on.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_03: And yes, tragic things happen, and people get in car accidents, and so you know, unfortunately, some kids turn to drugs and alcohol, and other things happen like that.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_03: But I never thought in a million years that anything like this would would come up because I was like, She was healthy when she was born.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: So I think we were just in a lot of shock.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: It was a lot of shock and um just really at that moment understanding that there was like life before cancer and life after cancer.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_01: And that is really how my life seems to be divided now.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_04: Um, cool.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_04: We got this.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_04: Um and before we move forward in the story, how is Sloan doing now?
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_02: She's good.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for bringing that up now.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_02: So people don't have to wait till the end.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, she's doing great.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_01: She so just I guess to kind of back up what she went through.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_01: So after we got her diagnosis, um, we were basically sat down with our primary oncologist and primary nurse who we were just assigned to.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: Basically, whoever was on staff that day to review her scans is who we got, which is great.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: And they're fantastic at the Alberta Children's Hospital.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: So I will say that.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but we were handed an 18-month treatment protocol and basically included every single type of modality you could throw at cancer.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: She had, um, you know, often people think about just like chemo and radiation, but um, she also had, well, she had surgery, she had high dose chemo and stem cell transplants twice.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um, using her own stem cells, it's an interesting thing.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: It's basically like wiping her immune system and then putting the back in.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: And she had um six months of immunotherapy, and immunotherapy is something that's becoming more prevalent in cancer treatment now, which is really cool.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like it's a really great future for cancer treatment because it targets specific proteins rather than systemically, whereas chemo is just all over until you lose your hair.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_01: So she went through everything for about 18 months.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: We had clear scans in October 2024, which was incredible.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: We lived our normal lives, normal lives for six months.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: And then in April 2025, she was she relapsed.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: We got scans.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_01: We were both in shock.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: There were a couple of things leading up to it that I'm like, oh, okay, those might have led to the thought that this was relapse, but still in shock.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I think in that moment, um, when she relapsed, honestly, I was, and this is gonna sound awful, but I wasn't as sad about the cancer.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_01: I obviously was later on, but it was this grief of loss of normal life because we knew what that meant.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: Like almost ignorance is bliss.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_01: The first time we went into it, we're like, we don't know what this looks like, but now, second time around, as much as you think the more you do something, the easier it gets.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: But sometimes it can be hard when you know what that means.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_01: So we knew what she was probably gonna go through or had an idea.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I cried more in those few months after she relapsed than I did when she was first diagnosed.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: And it's because relapse is a very scary place to be, certainly in the adult space, but with Sloane's um type of cancer, um, the statistics right now is the chance of survival drops below 10% after relapse.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: And like that's still a place that we live in to this day.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_01: So she went through seven months of treatment again.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: So it was a chemo immunotherapy combo, which meant she was admitted for a full week out of every single month.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_01: And then we got clear scans at the end of October 2025, and she remains to be in remission.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_01: So she still goes every three months for scans, but we just had a scan at the end of August, and it was all clear.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: So she is doing well, she's in grade four, and really this was the first year since she was in kindergarten that she was able to start like a normal school year, which is really amazing.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, that's incredible.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, I'm so happy to hear that.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_04: I I think that's important because we're gonna talk a lot about cancer today, but Sloan is also a kid.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_04: And one of the things that really struck me in preparing this conversation is how quickly your family's experience became about more than just your own family.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_04: Because once you were inside the world of pediatric cancer, you started seeing things most of us simply don't see.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_04: Yes.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_04: For someone listening who has been fortunate enough to never hear pediatric cancer, what do you wish they understood about it?
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's a really good question.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I love that we're chatting during childhood cancer awareness month.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_01: It's so fitting.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um, first of all, I'm sure a lot of people who have never heard pediatric cancer would never know that September was childhood cancer awareness month.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we start to see the the pink showing up in the stores for October for breast cancer awareness month, and we all know about Movember and November, and um, but people don't really talk about pediatric cancer.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's because it's uncomfortable and people don't like to talk about kids dying and cancer, it's really sad.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so a couple things.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I would love for people to know that only 7% of funding in Canada for cancer research goes to pediatrics, yet it's the number one cause of death by disease in kids.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_01: So it's wild to me that like the number one cause of death by disease is only getting 7% of funding.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_01: And I think the problem, couple problems.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_01: People generally speaking, and this is fine, you don't know what you don't know.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, they think, well, okay, but the other the money is going to adult research.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_01: So that's good too, right?
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_01: Like research is research, it doesn't really matter.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: But that's not true.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, like when we're talking about overarching buckets around, like, let's see how immunotherapy is working to treat cancer, that's very true.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_01: But kids' bodies are so different than adults.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_01: Like they're developing, they have to be treated differently.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we need kinder, gentler treatments for these kids because even the kids who do survive, uh, 85% are left with some sort of a long-term health complication.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_01: And that's because of the treatments they received, because of this intense chemo that they have to get or radiation.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um, like they're left with hearing loss, organ damage, infertility, sometimes secondary cancers.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_01: That was one of the craziest things.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, when we were going into high-dose chemo the first time, one of, you know, you go through the risks and whatnot.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the chemos she was receiving in high-dose chemo could cause a secondary cancer in the future, which is just like, okay, so like we're the oncologists are trained to treat what's happening right now in front of them, which is fair, like that's their job.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_01: But then these treatments are causing all these things later.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_01: We've we've known children to die in high-dose chemo.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I've known kids, and when I say no, not like personally in Calgary, but throughout our oncology network, um, a little girl in Kelowna passed away two years after being in the mission for two years because of pulmonary fibrosis and is highly going to be damaged by that.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: So all of these things um and the other thing that really gets me to people also say well, it's probably because there are more adult things, right?
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like we need to look at presentation, we're adulting cancer in the kids, and we shouldn't even have to I'd argue that if we look at how many years the kids have left.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we shouldn't care about adult answer.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: We should see how much of a tension it can be, how many years it had left it.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I really believe there's enough energy for everyone.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying that like we need to be allocated many.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: I know we live in a very um applicant city, province, country, and I'd argue that the government can be doing more.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_01: And that's there's a lot of advocacy work um lobbying towards the government to say we need more for these kids.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_04: Is there something you know now about childhood cancer that you can't believe you didn't know before Sloan got sick?
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_01: I I think like the biggest thing was the 7%.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_01: Like I was shocked, and 7% funding is actually just in the last couple of years.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_01: For a very long time, it was 4.5%.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_01: And the only reason it went up to 7% is because of um the government kicking in some extra money towards research in the last few years.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_01: So that was the biggest thing.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_01: And just like the fact that, you know, we say childhood cancer is rare.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_01: And and yes, like there's, you know, about 240 kids in Alberta who are diagnosed every year, about 1,500 across the country.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_01: But the number of like small world connections that I'm like, oh, like, oh, you know somebody.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_01: And you I just feel like it's not that rare because there are many connections to other kids that I have that are in the oncology space, and my my connection is outside of oncology.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_01: There's something else that I know them from.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_01: That's wild.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_04: Wild is and I can imagine learning all of that creates this really uncomfortable feeling because as a parent, you can't control the cancer, you personally can't develop the treatment, you can't fix the system overnight.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_04: But you did have a skill set I want to dive into.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_04: You knew marketing, you understood storytelling, you knew how to build campaigns and to get people to pay attention.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_04: And suddenly those skills had a completely different purpose.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_04: Um was there a specific moment when sharing Sloan's story turned into we're actually going to do something about this?
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_04: How did Song like Sloan really begin?
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um, uh there's a couple things that I think led to it.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um, the first one I'll share because it's quite timely being Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_01: And I remember um actually we'll back it up.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_01: We'll back it up to one other moment.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_01: So in August 2023, um, so this one was diagnosed May, so this is a few months later.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_01: I had a friend reach out to me and she said, Hey, the Alberta Cancer Foundation is looking for families to feature in an upcoming campaign.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_01: And I like, I thought of you.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, Cool, great.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_01: So she sent me the a screenshot of the gal on LinkedIn who was looking for families.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_01: And so I reached out to this wonderful, wonderful gal.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, Hey, you know, my daughter was just diagnosed.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I am in marketing communications, I understand the importance of connecting to people and stories and how that creates, you know, impact.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_01: And she said, Oh, I'm so sorry.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_01: The Alberta Cancer Foundation actually doesn't do anything for pediatrics.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_01: You should go to kids' cancer care because we don't want to steal their stories.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what she said, quote unquote.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm and I'm not throwing her under the bus and I would never mention her name because Alberta Cancer Foundation is doing incredible things, but that was the turning moment that I was like, I'm sorry, WTF, like the Alberta Cancer Foundation, who is our province, like the Cancer Foundation for our province, does zero.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_01: Like they zero funds go to pediatric cancer for what they do.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_01: And so then I started going further down the research path.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_01: And that's when I discovered this 4.5 to 7% of funding.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then so this is what I was going to lead into my next story.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_01: And then I went down and looked at the financial statements of the Canadian Cancer Society and realized that very little funding, sure, they do some, but very little funding that they do and research goes to pediatrics.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_01: And this was leading now into September.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_01: And I remember seeing the Canadian Cancer Society posting already about October being um breast cancer awareness month.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_01: And that just sent me on a spiral.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I went down this rabbit hole, and I remember being so angry.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_01: I remember showing up on social media and like blasting the Canadian Cancer Society and screenshotting things and being like, this isn't okay.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_01: What about our kids?
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_01: And trying to get other oncology families.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_01: I was like that troll commenting on like their Facebook posts.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_01: Now I'm looking back and I'm very embarrassed about how I reacted to that.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_01: But that was a natural reaction, I think, for any parent who has just discovered all of these things and just I was just filled with rage.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that was kind of my turning point.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_01: And um, that didn't serve me well.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_01: Like now looking back, I actually kind of referenced in my keynote there's a difference between being informed and obsessed.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_01: And that in that moment, I was very obsessed with this like obsession over the Keeny Cancer Society and being really angry and just like making that problem everyone's problem.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_01: So that didn't serve me well, but it did um add a little bit of fuel to the fire.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_01: And that's when I felt like, okay, we need to be doing more.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_01: And there are other families and they are doing incredible things.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_01: But I will say that I I really think, and I think a lot of the people who collect five and four pediatric cancer research would agree with me.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_01: A big chunk of that money, yes, comes from the government or lobbying, but it comes from grassroots organizations and families, being like, this is not okay.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_01: And there are a lot of wonderful um groups in Calgary and other moms and parents who are doing similar things like me.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_01: So that's really was the turning point and the aha moment for me.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_01: And I realized that I had this skill set for marketing and communications.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_01: And at first, like we so we created a brand, Strong Like Sloan.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I give my sister-in-law full credit for the strong leg sloan.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_01: Like within like days of her diagnosis, my um sister-in-law Kayla was like, hashtag strong like slow and I was like, yes, like we're doing this.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_01: So that's where we created this brand.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, in all honesty and full transparency, at first, this brand and what I came up with was just a distraction.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_01: I actually had no intention of it going anywhere and didn't think it would.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_01: It was just, it felt like a good, healthy distraction for me to be like, okay, I'm gonna create a logo and oh, I have a promo company.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna, you know, do hats and toks and sell it.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_01: And we gave the first one that we did, we raised$6,000 and we gave proceeds to kids' cancer care specifically for research.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then as I got further and further into it, I was like, oh, okay, I think we actually have something here.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_01: Like this could turn into something and we could do some good with this.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_01: And maybe this is my purpose or part of my life's purpose.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_04: What did you learn about building a non-for-profit?
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so first of all, I will say that Strong Likes Loan is a charitable organization in the proper, which is different than a registered nonprofit or a registered charity.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_01: So I I learned all of that as well.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_04: I mean that is so cool.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_01: So being okay, so charitable organization, really, I just see it as like you basically have a business license.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_01: Like Strong Likes Loan is almost, it's not a business, like we're not creating revenue or generating revenue, but it really gives you like a business license number in Alberta.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_01: And it really just gives you the opportunity or allows you to solicit for more than$20,000 in donations per year, is really all it is.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_01: And we have looked, we have looked into like being a registered charity nonprofit, but it there's so much work, so much paperwork.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_01: It can take months, years to to head down that path.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, once you are, you have to have, you know, a board of directors, you have meetings every month, you have financial statements, you have legal, like there are a lot of costs and essentially a full-time job to be a registered charity.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_01: So the way my husband and I look at it, and maybe one day we'll go down that path.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um, actually, I would love it if there are any uh rich people on listening to this.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_01: If someone has$10,000 and they just want to like pump$10,000 towards a charitable lawyer, if we just like get a lawyer to do it all for us, it's a little easier.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_01: But that costs like$10,000 in legal fees.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_01: So we're not going down that path.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_01: But um the when we first came up with this idea, we realized that anything that we wanted to do right now can be done through another registered charity.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_01: So it's um helping families with financial support and support services.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_01: We can work with helping families handle cancer and they are a registered charity.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_01: If we want to do anything in the research space, we can work with the Alberta Children's Hospital Foundation or the University of Calgary to get done what we need to do.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_01: So at this point, we didn't really feel like there was a need for us to go down that path.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I describe strong like Sloan as like the hype team.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_01: So we're the ones maybe getting people excited, doing an initiative, and then we like funnel the money somewhere else.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_01: And there's a lot, like when I talk about other grassroots, family run oncology organizations that are out there in our province and across the country.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, there's a lot.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_01: Like most um family run foundations organizations are set up as a charitable organization and they work with other other registered charities.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_01: So people get tax receipts still.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_04: So yeah, and that's awesome too, because you only have so much energy in a day.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_04: Oh my gosh.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, going through all the businessy side of a non-for-profit is taking you away from your actual mission.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_01: The other thing, too, that I realize, and maybe this is also why I've put the brakes on moving forward with this as a registered charity, is because I realize and recognize that one of my um gaps and my areas that I could improve is asking for help.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I share that in my keynote is like a key is asking for help when you're going through hard times or before.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm terrible at that.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I just know I would cringe trying to get like volunteers and committee members, because like committee members and board, you know, board of directors is all volunteer.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I know I would have a lineup of people willing to help and do that, but I just can't wrap my mind around it.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_04: So that's probably another reason.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_04: What's been the hardest part?
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_04: Is it getting people to raise their hand?
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_04: Is it um, you know, getting people to scroll and take action, or what's been the hardest challenge?
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I think the hardest challenge is um, so we the the biggest, I guess, initiative that we try to kind of promote and run every year is the Strong Like Sloan run team and the Calgary Marathon.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_01: So we do that, um, we've done it three years now.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_01: Honestly, the connection really is because I love to run.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_01: Like that was like my mental health, like that carried me through um through Sloan's journey.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_01: I would run as much as I could and have someone come sit with Sloan while I ran like the five kilometer route that I'd mapped out by the hospital.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_01: And um, and because the girls were supposed to run in the kids' marathon that same weekend that Sloan was diagnosed, I was like, this is just so fitting.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_01: Let's put together a run team.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I thought it was gonna be a few friends and we'd raise a few thousand dollars.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_01: But year one, we raised 120,000.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_01: We had the biggest run team the Calgary Marathon had ever seen with 185 people.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_01: Year two, we raised 160,000 and last year, or this year we raised 190,000 and had 202 people.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, which is so incredible.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_01: So really proud of that.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_01: But um I think the most challenging part of all of this and raising money is um, I don't know if it would be donor fatigue because you know, we're still we're certainly going after the same people.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_01: Like the people who have joined our run team will join year after year, and I love that and they support us.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_01: But I can even see them like it feels I don't think it should feel weird asking people for money when it's going to a good cause, but it can be, and it could be hard for people.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_01: And we're asking people to reach out to their night year their networks year after year and ask for money for the same thing.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_01: But um, I I think the hardest part that I didn't anticipate is, you know, year one, uh quite honestly, year one, it felt easy to raise$120,000.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, like I think I set my goal for$5,000 and then it just continued to increase and it actually increased quite quickly and it felt easy.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_01: And it's because I I really believe that everyone was on the strong leg Sloan bandwagon.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_01: She was going through treatment, it was still fairly new, and that's fair.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying that in a bad way.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's people glom onto a cause and they're like, yeah, let's go all in.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_01: And it feels real and raw and timely.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, year two for the run team, it felt like a bit of a slog and it was a bit of a struggle.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_01: And coincidentally or not, um, our um fundraising dollars went up exponentially after Sloan relapsed at the end of April 2025, and the run was at the end of May.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_01: So we, you know, we expect kind of at the end a bit of a push, anyways, but I think it was also connected to, okay, well, now this is relevant and timely again.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_01: And this last year, even though we raised$190,000, um, part of that honestly was from a very big donation we had from a financial organization, and they donated$46,000.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_01: So a big chunk of it came from that.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but that was tough.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_01: This was our hardest year, and it's because Sloan is out of treatment, she's doing well.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_01: People didn't see, I don't think, the same need and the same um drive to raise money.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_01: So now this is a great lesson learned for me for next year, even though I've never felt like this is about Sloan, like this is about the future of all of the kids who are going to be going through cancer treatment.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_01: Heaven forbid, I hope it's not for Sloan, but it could be.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but this is about the future of all of the kids in our province who are going to be diagnosed, not just Sloan.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_01: And understandably, the people who have connected to this are connected to us and our family and Sloan.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_01: But I think I need, I have realized that in 2027, I need to do a better job of telling um other families' stories and how it's connected to other families and not just ours.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_01: So I think the hardest part is um staying it sounds so staying relevant.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_01: You know, there's so many charities, there's so many incredible people doing wonderful things.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_01: And it's hard for people to figure out like where to put their money.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, I I think we're seeing a shift in this generation of giving back.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_01: Like I, my parents' generation, my grandparents, like that was just part of what they did.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_01: Like every month they would go to a charity, and we kind of missed that gap, I think, like with our our group.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm hoping we're seeing a bit of a change in people understanding that regular giving back is still very important.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that's a very interesting point about staying relevant, even though it's like fantastic that she has like this incredible story of kicking cancer's butt, right?
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so I want to transition a little bit into talking about you.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_04: Um, because you know, this podcast is about the crazy awesome people in our city that are building something, right?
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_04: And what's interesting is that somewhere along the way, this stopped being only about what you were building for Sloan.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_04: People started paying attention to you, Claire.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_04: You had spent years working in marketing and communications, but now you had this completely different perspective on leadership, adversity, and what happens when the plan you had for your life gets blown up.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_04: And companies started asking you to come into their rooms and talk about it.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so I want to separate the two for a minute because Strong Like Sloan is one thing you've built.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_04: Um, Claire, the speaker, is another.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_04: So, how did you get into the speaking side originally?
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so um going back to the same sister-in-law, Kayla, I'll have to share this podcast with her, but she We love Kayla.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_00: We love Kayla.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_01: We love Kayla, she's throwing me, you know, into the world.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, so she heard me um on a podcast in October 2024.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_01: So again, right around the same time when Sloane like finished up treatment.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_01: And um, she heard me on a podcast, and it was actually it's called the The Deep Sea.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's very much focused on cancer families, like it's a support podcast for cancer families.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_01: And um that was the first podcast where you know, everybody listening to it knows about cancer.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_01: They didn't need to hear about neuroblastoma and the treatment protocol and what that all looked like.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_01: So the host of that podcast, who's now a dear friend of mine, she really just dove right into like, okay, how is this for you and how did this impact you and very much my journey throughout all of that?
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_01: So Kayla heard that podcast and she was like, I think you actually have a really good story to tell and you'd be a great speaker.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, oh yeah, like I've kind of like thought about it, maybe, maybe one day, maybe not.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_01: And she said that um she's a teacher in Sylvan Lake, and she said, we have the Central Alberta Teachers Convention coming up in February, and I think you'd be a great fit.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, Yeah, okay, maybe.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_01: So the next day I saw that she had CC'd me on an email to the program chair of the Central Alberta Teachers Convention and said, My sister-in-law is a speaker.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_01: Actually, I don't even think she said sister-in-law.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_01: She was like, I know someone who is a great speaker.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_01: And he sent me a note back and was like, Can you send me your website?
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_01: And I had to completely bullshit him, pardon my language, and be like, Oh, I'm just in the middle of creating a new website.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_01: So, like, lied, just lied.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_01: And uh yeah, and he was like, Hey, I like I don't know how this guy trusted me to go up on stage when I had nothing to show, but he did.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_01: So I quickly scrambled.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_01: I would say I didn't scramble because it wasn't until February, but um the November.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_01: So like a couple weeks later, I remember going to my parents' house so I could have like a quiet space to work.
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm very proud of how I created my keynote because it was so old school.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_01: Like, you know, people rely so much on AI, ChatGPT now, but I am proud to say that mine was all me, which is very great and authentic.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_01: But I have so many, like my phone, my notes app, so many notes.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_01: Like I would just I found it really healing.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_01: Like, that's also why I post it post as much as I do on Instagram because it's very healing and cathartic for me to just like share and write stories.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_01: So I had so many notes on my phone, and I remember um copying and pasting them all into a Word document.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I printed them out, like physically printed all of these notes out.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_01: I cut them all like based on my thoughts, and then I started mapping out like kind of how there were common themes for these ideas in my head.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_01: So that's how I came up with my keynote uh shift happens, how to thrive in hard times.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_01: And it's really all about letting go of what you can't control and controlling what you can, which are your thoughts, your community, and your actions, and really looking at resiliency with a different lens and trying to redefine what resiliency means.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_01: Because um, if you look at the definition of resiliency as a resilient person online, it talks a lot about mental toughness, strength, grit, bouncing back after hard times.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_01: We've all heard that, or growing forward is more common and trendy now.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but they all like have this toughness to them.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_01: They all um kind of look at there's an end and it's what happens after we get through something hard.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_01: But I think as adults, we will continue to have hard things come our way.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_01: And we can't always wait for that hard thing to be over to find peace and hope and happiness.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_01: And we can find that in the hard.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_01: And that's where I go back to like our earlier conversation around my job and my role when I was launching this company and this idea that I saw this light at the end of the tunnel.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I really want to encourage people to not wait till this magical light at the end of the tunnel because you might not get there, or you might get to that light, and then something else hard comes your way.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_01: So um, we really need to find the light right now in the middle of the heart.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_01: And that's um really what kicked off my speaking career.
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_01: I got in front of a uh room, it was a very big auditorium um at Red Deer College.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I was so excited.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_01: There was like 140 people signed up for my session.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_01: It was the last session on the Friday of the teachers' convention, and I showed up and there was probably 30 people there.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_01: Cause like, did you know that teachers don't actually have to show up to the sessions they say they're gonna go to, especially on the last day of teachers convention?
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_02: They're all somewhere else having fun, I'll tell you that much.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_04: Or recovering from something.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_02: Or recovering from the Thursday night.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, exactly.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_02: So that was it.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_04: Did you um was it like riding a high after you were public speaking, or did you struggle at all with imposter syndrome?
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_01: You know, uh, yeah, certainly imposter syndrome is something that has come and gone throughout my entire life.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I think I've kind of gotten over that hump.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_01: I actually don't feel like I have that anymore.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't know what that flip of a switch was that I'm just like, here I am, I'm just gonna do it.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_01: Uh but yeah, I think in that moment I knew that I was either gonna get on stage and I was I was gonna love it or hate it.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't feel like there was gonna be any in between.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_01: It was gonna be like, okay, I'm either gonna love this and this is it, and I'm gonna build build this into something bigger, or I'm gonna hate it.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just gonna go back to my like nine to five job.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_01: So spoiler alert, I loved it and just really excited to see, you know, some of the really cool groups that I've been in front of.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, all the way from uh room full of eight, like last week, I did one for an executive group with eight people, which was very small and actually very intimidating.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_01: I'm more intimidated by eight people up close and personal staring at me than um I did one in April for 700 people on a big stage with big lights.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_01: So huge, huge different groups of people.
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_04: Um, when a company hires you, what problems are they actually hiring you to help solve?
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_01: It's usually around like it's really that someone wants to hear like an inspiring story.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_01: So honestly, a lot of it is just like, hey, our people just like could use a little bit of inspiration.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_01: But really, um, I think the biggest thing is, uh, and this is where I find I can connect with a lot of audiences, is that we all will go through challenging things, whether it's at work or not.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_01: Like some people have specific challenges that they're dealing with in their company.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's uncertainty, change in the market, whatever that may be.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_01: But also the fact that employers do hold a Little bit of responsibility or a decent amount of responsibility for their employees' mental health outside of work too.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_01: Because what happens outside of work, you very much bring into work.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_01: So my talk is really just around helping people get through challenges and thrive in challenges and in uncertainty and in change because challenges connect us as humans.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_01: Like we're all connected by hard things.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_01: And that's an incredible, cool bond that we all share.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and I think resilience is one of those words we hear so often, especially in business, that can kind of start losing its meaning.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_04: It's exactly what you talked about, you know, like grits, grind, um, just fail forward.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_04: You know, it kind of has like a little bit of a chip on your shoulder.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_04: And but uh you've actually had to live it.
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_04: What do you think we get wrong about resilience?
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I I think again, this thought that resiliency is something that we just call on when things are hard.
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's something that like it's a phase or it's a moment that like we have to be resilient and this thing happens and we have to be resilient.
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, the the chip on the shoulder kind of like strength grit piece doesn't sit well with me because that never really felt like me.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's where I had this moment of um early on in Sloan's cancer journey with my level of anxiety that I had as a kid.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_01: I never felt like I was resilient.
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sure my mom would argue differently.
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_01: She probably thought I was a pretty resilient kid, but I never that I never identified as like a resilient person, but I knew that I needed to call on that um to get through and and enjoy the the time we had with Sloan.
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_01: Like I didn't know if we had weeks or months or days left with Sloan.
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, I'm not gonna sit here in misery because misery only makes the hard things harder.
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_01: So, how do I call on my resilient self when I don't identify with any of these words that describe resiliency?
• 45:51
  SPEAKER_01: So I think it's just that um, you know, resiliency isn't a moment of time or a phase or something that we learn or something that comes to us after things are hard.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_01: I think we can learn to be resilient before things are hard.
• 46:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's key.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_01: And once we do that and we learn to be resilient before some big catastrophic event or traumatic event happens, if we learn that and we teach our kids to be resilient and don't take it as such a chip on the shoulder kind of mentality.
• 46:18
  SPEAKER_01: It can be really peaceful.
• 46:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I see resiliency as being a really peaceful thing.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_01: And once we kind of take that approach, I would say that life's ups and downs become more of a gentle wave rather than this crazy roller coaster of like calling on resiliency when things are hard.
• 46:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I think that would be my biggest takeaway is that you know we can learn to be resilient and it doesn't have to be this head down, get through the tough times, just focus on you know the end goal and focus at the you know, light at the end of the tunnel.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_04: So yeah, it's living in the moment and actually going, hey, you know what, like we're in it.
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_04: And how to how do I find that inner peace and go through it and still live, not you know, go on that survival mode, right?
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I I think that um you hit the nail on the head there with the living in the moment and the um really a big thing for me over the last three years was acceptance and accepting what I couldn't control.
• 47:15
  SPEAKER_01: And as we know, anxiety is a lot about um uncertainty and worrying about things we can't control, worrying about things that might not ever happen.
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_01: And that's really where I had to take control over that and be like, I don't have any control over this.
• 47:29
  SPEAKER_01: So I just need to accept it.
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_01: It's not bad, it's not good, it just is.
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_01: And that's the mentality I had to roll with.
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_01: And um, I know it sounds crazy when I say this, but I have found more peace in the last three years um than I have my entire life.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_01: And it's because I have finally learned to let go of what I can't control.
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_01: And with that, I have found so much peace.
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, that's inspiring, especially in this world that we live in when there's a lot of uncertainties, there's a lot of things we can't control.
• 47:55
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and you know, it's uh it's great to hear that when you can learn that and actually live.
• 48:01
  SPEAKER_04: That's I think the real version of success.
• 48:03
  SPEAKER_04: I want to bring it back to talk to the people here, the viewers that really want to go into keynote speaking or have a story and they want the platform to have their voice heard.
• 48:13
  SPEAKER_04: Um, how much of it is becoming a successful keynote speaker, like being good on stage, bringing your audience, and how much of it is what people don't see.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_04: So, like the marketing, developing the keynote, finding the clients, traveling, follow-up, all the all the nitty-gritty.
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my goodness.
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_01: I would say it's yeah, a good balance for sure.
• 48:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and you know what?
• 48:34
  SPEAKER_01: I I really truly believe that we can all change and we can all adapt.
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_01: So even if you're a person who's like, I hate getting on stage and there's no way I could think about doing this, I'd encourage you to think differently because I think if you have a I believe what's scary about getting up on stage is when we aren't really confident in the content of the material that we're sharing.
• 48:53
  SPEAKER_01: I even admit, like in my years of work, I had to present.
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_01: And when I talk about how I got up on stage at this National Surveyors Conference, you know, weeks before someone was diagnosed, I stood up on stage and I read from my notes the entire time.
• 49:09
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, I've had to make that shift.
• 49:11
  SPEAKER_01: And with that, though, comes a lot of practice.
• 49:13
  SPEAKER_01: Like I think people see keynote speakers and they're like, oh, you get paid to literally you get paid that for one hour, but it's not, you know, there's a lot of, you know, I have my signature keynote, but I try to roll in examples.
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_01: Like I meet with a client before and we have a discovery call to talk about their challenges.
• 49:29
  SPEAKER_01: So I can kind of try to loop in um examples from their industry, or if they have an event and they have a theme or a key message, I work that into my keynote.
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_01: So there's a lot of prep and yeah, a lot of hustle.
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_01: I think that having a good network and not being afraid to go out to your network and ask.
• 49:47
  SPEAKER_01: This is an incredible city.
• 49:49
  SPEAKER_01: Like as we talk about the wonderful people who are here, I have found nothing but support and the idea of collaboration over competition, even with speaker friends of mine.
• 50:00
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's it's a very collaborative environment because there's speakers that are needed for everything.
• 50:05
  SPEAKER_01: Like I t I kid you not, there's probably a national association of um, I don't know, ballpoint pens where you could go do a keynote talk.
• 50:13
  SPEAKER_01: It's crazy.
• 50:14
  SPEAKER_01: So I think just it's yeah, you you know, what you see on stage is a very, very small portion of you know, the blood, sweat, and tears and heart that goes into um building building this.
• 50:26
  SPEAKER_01: And it's a very impactful emotional story that I feel this uh almost heaviness after I'm done.
• 50:35
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's great and it's therapeutic, but it is, it's hard sharing this story and this emotional impact um every time I get up there.
• 50:43
  SPEAKER_01: But it's great and I love it.
• 50:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I do feel like um I don't like thinking that things happen for a reason because it's hard to figure out why any kid gets cancer.
• 50:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I do believe that you can find a reason for everything.
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_01: And for me, this is my reason is strong like slow advocating for pediatric cancer, as well as maybe inspiring a few more people who are struggling with uncertainty and anxiety and control, or people in organizations who are going through organizational change.
• 51:10
  SPEAKER_01: If I can inspire a few people to get through hard times and live in the hard times, then I've done my job.
• 51:15
  SPEAKER_04: And this is the part I find fascinating because when we say, you know, Claire is the keynote speaker, it's very tidy, but that's one piece.
• 51:24
  SPEAKER_04: You just mentioned you're building a speaking business, you're running strong like Sloan, you're fundraising.
• 51:30
  SPEAKER_04: Rumor has it, you're writing a book.
• 51:32
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh, yes.
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, rumor.
• 51:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 51:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's still probably gonna be like a year or two or three years, but yeah, it's there.
• 51:39
  SPEAKER_01: You know what?
• 51:40
  SPEAKER_01: If you really they say that if you really want to like stick to a timeline of writing a book, you're supposed to schedule in like I think they say like if you can schedule in one hour every day from Monday to Friday, you may have a first draft in six months, is what they say.
• 51:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but for me, I'm like, I can't write like that.
• 51:57
  SPEAKER_01: Like I just write when I feel like there's a moment of inspiration.
• 52:01
  SPEAKER_01: So yes, I am.
• 52:03
  SPEAKER_01: I am writing a book one day, and uh it'll it'll come.
• 52:08
  SPEAKER_01: If you want to, if you want to be first to know, I do have a little sign-up on my website for my book where you'll be the first to know in a year or two when it's coming out.
• 52:18
  SPEAKER_04: You know what?
• 52:19
  SPEAKER_04: We'll have to sit down when it does come out, and we'll have to, you know, use this as a platform to launch it because we'll both be even bigger than we are right now.
• 52:27
  SPEAKER_04: So absolutely.
• 52:28
  SPEAKER_04: I would really appreciate that.
• 52:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 52:31
  SPEAKER_04: And I will definitely read it because I'm inspired.
• 52:34
  SPEAKER_04: So um, being, of course, a new mom and wife, um, I just your family's still living with something that doesn't conveniently disappear because you have a keynote on Thursday or you know, running on the weekend, um, which brings me to how the hell do you actually like what are the logistics of your life?
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_04: How do you make it all work?
• 52:56
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my goodness.
• 52:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's funny you bring that up because I was just thinking this morning of like all these things.
• 53:02
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, how do we manage as parents?
• 53:04
  SPEAKER_01: Like I have like I have so many tabs open right now, which is probably why we like had a slow video connection.
• 53:10
  SPEAKER_01: Cause I'm like, I should have shut all of those tabs, but that's where my mind lives.
• 53:13
  SPEAKER_01: Like, if I don't have that tab open, I'll forget to do that thing.
• 53:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I have like again my notes app in my phone, and I've gotten really good at adding things there to like my to-do list so I can still remain present in the moment with what I'm doing at that time.
• 53:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but yeah, that's I have a very um supportive, loving husband.
• 53:30
  SPEAKER_01: We've been married for almost 18 years now.
• 53:33
  SPEAKER_01: We got married, we were just babies when we got married, and that is he's my rock and he's my person, he's my best friend.
• 53:39
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, having honestly the flexibility, I do some marketing communications consulting on the side because you know, I have to make sure we still continue to pay our bills.
• 53:49
  SPEAKER_01: So as I build my speaking business, I have that.
• 53:52
  SPEAKER_01: But it really not having a you know Monday to Friday um eight to five kind of job allows me the flexibility to build a speaking business and work with strong like Sloan.
• 54:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I also have to give a shout out to family and friends because um outside of my husband Kurt, there's an incredible community that is rallied around us, family, friends, new friends.
• 54:13
  SPEAKER_01: And I know that they would all when I joke about asking for help or you know getting volunteers, I know they would all be there in a heartbeat if I needed help.
• 54:20
  SPEAKER_01: I get this question all the time.
• 54:22
  SPEAKER_04: How do you manage it all?
• 54:23
  SPEAKER_04: And people see the output, right?
• 54:25
  SPEAKER_04: They see not below the iceberg, they see what you are, you know, putting out into the world.
• 54:31
  SPEAKER_04: But do you genuinely believe in balance or are you just constantly deciding which things get your attention?
• 54:39
  SPEAKER_01: No, I don't think balance is a thing.
• 54:41
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think that multitasking is effective.
• 54:44
  SPEAKER_01: I've come to realize that time and time again.
• 54:47
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, I think that you we are just choosing, I don't think there's balance.
• 54:52
  SPEAKER_01: I think we're choosing where we want to put our energy.
• 54:54
  SPEAKER_01: And that's another thing that over the last three years, when I, you know, had to let go of a lot of things that I couldn't control, it's because I if I was putting energy into things I couldn't control, I wouldn't have the energy to put into the things that I could.
• 55:07
  SPEAKER_01: And I yeah, I really think it's a matter of prioritizing what's good for us now.
• 55:14
  SPEAKER_01: And over the last couple of years, I would say our values, we have the the same values.
• 55:20
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think that those have changed, but I think that the priority of our values has changed as a family.
• 55:26
  SPEAKER_01: And we very much live with the YOLO, you only live one, live one's mindset.
• 55:32
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, try not to be frivolous when it comes to spending, but we are we are in a position as a family that we're like, if we want to go on vacation, we're gonna figure out how to go on vacation because we don't know if we could next year or the year after, and we just we make it happen because that's the place we live in, and YOLO.
• 55:55
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, tomorrow's never guaranteed, right?
• 55:57
  SPEAKER_04: No, for any of us.
• 55:59
  SPEAKER_04: Exactly.
• 56:00
  SPEAKER_01: So, what do you say no to to protect that family time now?
• 56:03
  SPEAKER_01: I've learned to listen to my gut a lot.
• 56:05
  SPEAKER_01: If it's not a hell yes, it's a hell no for a lot of things, and I have no problem saying no.
• 56:14
  SPEAKER_01: And I have a I still very much try to hold my commitments and keep my commitments to friends and family, but I also know that they are very understanding that if it's just not a good fit, that I'm okay to say no, and I respect that on their side as well.
• 56:31
  SPEAKER_01: So um there are honestly, like as a speaker too, I probably should be going to way more networking events than I am because that is a great way to get speaking business is meeting people.
• 56:42
  SPEAKER_01: But again, I prioritize family over those kind of things.
• 56:45
  SPEAKER_01: And that's just when we look at balance, like that's just a sacrifice that I have to make.
• 56:49
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think we can be great at everything.
• 56:52
  SPEAKER_01: And I've I really do believe that I have chosen to be great as being a mom and a partner and great to myself.
• 57:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I prioritize myself, and honestly, and I would hope, I hope that a lot of people would say this, I'd rather be a great mom and be good at speaking than the other way around.
• 57:15
  SPEAKER_01: But I do think I'm a great speaker too.
• 57:17
  SPEAKER_01: So I shouldn't throw myself under the bus.
• 57:20
  SPEAKER_01: I actually think I'm a great speaker, but I also think that I'm prioritizing um what matters most in my life.
• 57:26
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, a hundred percent.
• 57:27
  SPEAKER_04: So when we touched a little bit about success, you know, saying no to things, I think that's super important for people to hear because, you know, especially as women, we uh tap into people pleasing a lot more.
• 57:40
  SPEAKER_04: But what does success look like to you now as opposed to three years ago?
• 57:46
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I think success three years ago, I was very much climbing the corporate ladder.
• 57:50
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, hey, I'm in a director role.
• 57:52
  SPEAKER_01: Like next step for me would be a VP level somewhere or director at like a bigger corporation in Calgary.
• 57:57
  SPEAKER_01: And success very much was connected to a title.
• 58:01
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, how many people I had on my team, if I was a manager, leadership, sat on senior leadership, like that was success.
• 58:08
  SPEAKER_01: And obviously, how much you get paid.
• 58:12
  SPEAKER_01: I very much connected success to pay, but now I'm realizing that success means leaving a legacy.
• 58:20
  SPEAKER_01: Like for me, I care more about like what I'm leaving behind and what I'm leaving for my kids, what I'm leaving for the next generation.
• 58:27
  SPEAKER_01: And success means helping other people when they're faced with life's challenges.
• 58:35
  SPEAKER_01: And that like when I when I talk and I'm on stage and then I come off and I have like the pleasure to sit and chit-chat and you know, talk to people after, the number of people I have coming up after that say, Hey, I'm going through this, and your perspective or your mindset shift really helped me think about it in this way, that is success.
• 58:55
  SPEAKER_01: People helping people is the true definition of success in this world.
• 59:01
  SPEAKER_04: It's interesting you say that because that leads me to my next question.
• 59:07
  SPEAKER_04: I want to ask this for the person listening who's in it right now.
• 59:11
  SPEAKER_04: Maybe it's a family going through something devastating, maybe it's not that entrepreneur whose business is failing, um, you know, financial distress, maybe it's somebody who's just lost their job, their relationship ended, and they can't see that light at the end of the tunnel yet.
• 59:26
  SPEAKER_04: What would you tell that person?
• 59:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um couple things.
• 59:32
  SPEAKER_01: I would tell them that to not just focus on the hard and all of the crap, and because there's so much stuff that we could be focusing on that's hard.
• 59:41
  SPEAKER_01: But I think I said it before that hard things are going to happen no matter what.
• 59:45
  SPEAKER_01: And living a life of sadness or stewing about things you can't control or life of misery only makes the hard things harder.
• 59:51
  SPEAKER_01: And I'd argue that yes, you know, joy and grief can coexist.
• 59:54
  SPEAKER_01: I do very much believe that.
• 59:56
  SPEAKER_01: But if we are always focused on the negative and all of these terrible things that might not ever happen, I really struggle to believe that we can find that peace, hope, and happiness while our mind is also in a place of like all of this, like it's not gonna work out for me.
• 1:00:10
  SPEAKER_01: So I feel the feelings, absolutely.
• 1:00:14
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a big believer in feeling the feelings and crying and being angry.
• 1:00:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but it's about how we come out of that and where we and making sure we do come out of that sadness.
• 1:00:23
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes it's gonna sound cheesy, but it's sometimes just a flip of the mindset to what if it all works out.
• 1:00:31
  SPEAKER_01: And I have a poster in my front room that was gifted to me by um another dear friend of mine, and it says what if it all works out.
• 1:00:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I have that daily reminder every time I walk in the door because that's a very real possibility.
• 1:00:42
  SPEAKER_01: As humans, we always go to the what if it doesn't work out, what if, what if, all these negative things.
• 1:00:48
  SPEAKER_01: But there is a real possibility that it could all work out too.
• 1:00:52
  SPEAKER_04: I think that's the perfect place to bring this back to what you're doing now because you're not just talking about these ideas on a stage, you're actively building something out of them.
• 1:01:01
  SPEAKER_04: And during childhood cancer awareness month, there's a very tangible way for this community to be part of what comes next.
• 1:01:07
  SPEAKER_04: So um, on October 30th, you're bringing people together in Canmore for another tomorrow in support of Alberta Children's Hospital Foundation and pediatric cancer research.
• 1:01:18
  SPEAKER_04: I actually love the language you use behind this.
• 1:01:21
  SPEAKER_04: Every kid deserves another birthday, another first day of school, another hockey game, another family vacation, graduation, and just another chance.
• 1:01:31
  SPEAKER_04: Tell me about how we could support.
• 1:01:33
  SPEAKER_04: Tell me about another tomorrow and what you're trying to build with this event.
• 1:01:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 1:01:37
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, thank you.
• 1:01:37
  SPEAKER_03: So I got chills and I got tear-eyed with you say that because yeah.
• 1:01:43
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, it's hard.
• 1:01:45
  SPEAKER_03: Um, yeah, it's gonna be incredible.
• 1:01:47
  SPEAKER_03: It's gonna be a beautiful event.
• 1:01:48
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, we have um we're working with Everwild Nordic Spa and Resort.
• 1:01:53
  SPEAKER_03: So that's the new Nordic Spa out in Canmore.
• 1:01:55
  SPEAKER_03: Um, crazy's connection to how that happened.
• 1:01:58
  SPEAKER_01: I won't go into the details, but basically, uh they're president at Base Camp.
• 1:02:03
  SPEAKER_01: We were at an event of their opening last November for their new Nordic Spa.
• 1:02:07
  SPEAKER_01: I was there.
• 1:02:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we made this crazy connection that his daughter, who's now 22, was actually diagnosed with neuroblastoma when she was one or two years old.
• 1:02:15
  SPEAKER_01: So, like when you say it's rare, well, I'm standing beside someone in a room whose daughter was diagnosed with the same cancer my daughter was diagnosed with.
• 1:02:22
  SPEAKER_01: So that's how it all kind of came about.
• 1:02:24
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, we're working on this really great event.
• 1:02:27
  SPEAKER_01: It's gonna be very small, like it's really beautiful, intimate, small event.
• 1:02:30
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I think we have max 80 tickets.
• 1:02:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and we're hoping to sell them all.
• 1:02:36
  SPEAKER_01: We'll have uh the spa and the hotel is closed down for this event.
• 1:02:40
  SPEAKER_01: So if you get tickets, then you will be in the spa you're on your own with, you know, just 50, 60 other people off and on.
• 1:02:49
  SPEAKER_01: And it's a really wonderful Nordic spa if you haven't already been.
• 1:02:52
  SPEAKER_01: And then we're gonna have a really beautiful sixth course dinner with wine pairings.
• 1:02:56
  SPEAKER_01: There's a silent auction, live auction, and the silent auction actually will be posted online to the public a week before.
• 1:03:02
  SPEAKER_01: So if you can't make it to the event, we have that silent auction.
• 1:03:05
  SPEAKER_01: And we really focused on quality over quantity.
• 1:03:08
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we don't have like a hundred silent auction items, like there's a small amount that are all, I think the smallest one is valued at$750.
• 1:03:17
  SPEAKER_01: So there's a chance to get some pretty cool things um in this silent auction live auction.
• 1:03:21
  SPEAKER_01: So there's that.
• 1:03:22
  SPEAKER_01: And then we're always doing work with the Alberta Children's Hospital Foundation.
• 1:03:25
  SPEAKER_01: So if anyone follows um strong like Sloan on Instagram, you'll see um all the things that we do.
• 1:03:31
  SPEAKER_01: Next year, we will have a run team again.
• 1:03:33
  SPEAKER_01: So if even if you're not a runner, like we have people walk the 5k, and we had 202 people this year, and I'd love to just continue to see that grow.
• 1:03:42
  SPEAKER_01: We all have matching team shirts.
• 1:03:43
  SPEAKER_01: It's a whole thing.
• 1:03:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's like a beautifully emotional day.
• 1:03:46
  SPEAKER_01: We have people who run their first half marathon, first full marathon on our team, and they just get this high.
• 1:03:53
  SPEAKER_01: You get more than just the runners high and the event high.
• 1:03:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's like I'm also doing amazing things for my community.
• 1:03:58
  SPEAKER_04: Definitely pass the link on and we'll touch all of the all of the handles in our show notes and all the links.
• 1:04:05
  SPEAKER_04: One of the things I love about doing this podcast is getting to meet people, building the things in our city.
• 1:04:11
  SPEAKER_04: And building doesn't always mean starting another company.
• 1:04:13
  SPEAKER_04: Sometimes it's a career, sometimes it's community, sometimes it's something you desperately wish never needing to exist.
• 1:04:20
  SPEAKER_04: What has Calgary taught you about community through all of this?
• 1:04:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's taught me that people are always willing to help and put their hand up and donate.
• 1:04:34
  SPEAKER_01: And it really is.
• 1:04:36
  SPEAKER_01: Like I will say that the the community in Calgary is so loving, so giving.
• 1:04:42
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a born and raised Calgarian, so I'm a proud Calgarian.
• 1:04:46
  SPEAKER_01: And there's so many connections that we don't even know until we start talking and we start listening.
• 1:04:51
  SPEAKER_01: And I have uh a good group of friends who have come out of this experience.
• 1:04:57
  SPEAKER_01: And I truly believe that real friends um show up when life gets uncomfortable.
• 1:05:02
  SPEAKER_01: They don't leave, they stay and they show up.
• 1:05:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I feel like in a weird way, that's the entire city has rallied around our family and our cause.
• 1:05:12
  SPEAKER_01: And it's an incredible place to live.
• 1:05:14
  SPEAKER_04: Well, I CrossFit.
• 1:05:15
  SPEAKER_04: CrossFit's usually my sport of choice right now.
• 1:05:18
  SPEAKER_04: But uh I'm getting back into running after obviously being post-mortem and starting up a very humbling place.
• 1:05:24
  SPEAKER_04: Um so obviously, uh CrossFit Jim, you're hearing this.
• 1:05:29
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, we need to go run in 2027 and support.
• 1:05:34
  SPEAKER_04: That'd be awesome.
• 1:05:35
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, awesome.
• 1:05:36
  SPEAKER_04: Love it.
• 1:05:37
  SPEAKER_04: I'm getting to the end here.
• 1:05:39
  SPEAKER_04: And this is a pretty powerful question for you.
• 1:05:42
  SPEAKER_04: I want to finish with Sloan.
• 1:05:44
  SPEAKER_04: When Sloan is older and she looks back at everything her mom built during this chapter of her life, what do you hope she understands about why you did it?
• 1:05:55
  SPEAKER_03: I hope she understands that it's all because of her.
• 1:06:00
  SPEAKER_03: Like I wouldn't be who I am today.
• 1:06:04
  SPEAKER_03: I wouldn't be this strong, this brave.
• 1:06:06
  SPEAKER_03: I wouldn't be getting up on stage and sharing if it wasn't for her.
• 1:06:11
  SPEAKER_03: And um everything she went through, like I would I would take it all away.
• 1:06:15
  SPEAKER_03: But if it meant I was just in my normal nine to five job working my way up the corporate ladder, didn't find purpose, didn't find peace, I would, I would have all of that if it meant that Sloan didn't have cancer, but I can't turn back time, I can't change what happened.
• 1:06:30
  SPEAKER_03: So I hope that she realizes that um I I've been able to create an impact and be brave and be strong because of what she went through.
• 1:06:41
  SPEAKER_03: And I think that there are a lot of other people I know.
• 1:06:44
  SPEAKER_03: I've had people tell me that they got through something hard because they're like, if Sloan can do this, if Sloane can go through all of the terrible treatments she's been through and still come out grateful, like this, she is the most grateful kid, most thankful kid I have ever met.
• 1:06:59
  SPEAKER_03: She's constantly thanking us.
• 1:07:01
  SPEAKER_01: And um if if she can get through hard times and be like that, then I think we can all be a little bit more inspired by kids like Sloan.
• 1:07:10
  SPEAKER_01: And it's not just Sloan, but I hope that's what she would know that I am who I am because of her journey.
• 1:07:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm so forever grateful for that.
• 1:07:18
  SPEAKER_02: Here I said I wasn't gonna cry, and uh yeah, should have known that wasn't gonna happen.
• 1:07:23
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I know it's gonna get me as soon as um as soon as you answered it, but I think that it's so important and um you know that's that's what we can hope for our children as they look up and and see their moms absolutely kicking ass.
• 1:07:38
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm so sorry that you and your family have had to go through this and um just so appreciate what you're doing for our city and kids and families that are going to be impacted by your resiliency.
• 1:07:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um thank you for giving me a platform to share.
• 1:07:54
  SPEAKER_01: I really, really appreciate the platform to share.
• 1:07:57
  SPEAKER_04: Oh my gosh, literally.
• 1:07:59
  SPEAKER_04: I'm so so grateful that uh this is turning into something pretty incredible and um that you would give us a little bit of your time.
• 1:08:08
  SPEAKER_04: I like to do this thing with my podcast guests about rapid fire about our city.
• 1:08:13
  SPEAKER_04: Um don't overthink these.
• 1:08:15
  SPEAKER_04: Just the first thing that comes to your mind, okay?
• 1:08:17
  SPEAKER_04: Coffee or wine?
• 1:08:19
  SPEAKER_04: Wine.
• 1:08:21
  SPEAKER_04: Red or white wine?
• 1:08:23
  SPEAKER_04: White favorite Calgary restaurant.
• 1:08:27
  SPEAKER_04: Lulu Bar.
• 1:08:30
  SPEAKER_04: Something you spend way too much money on.
• 1:08:36
  SPEAKER_02: I was gonna say wine, but that makes me sound like an alcoholic.
• 1:08:42
  SPEAKER_02: But it's because I like good wine.
• 1:08:44
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe that's why.
• 1:08:45
  SPEAKER_02: I like good wine.
• 1:08:46
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, I'll also say coffee now, too, because I feel like with my networking and my business development, I am taking everybody out for coffee, left, right, and center.
• 1:08:54
  SPEAKER_01: So probably a lot of money on coffee as well.
• 1:08:56
  SPEAKER_04: Your most irrational pet peeve.
• 1:08:59
  SPEAKER_04: That's hard.
• 1:08:59
  SPEAKER_04: Is there some like does Kurt do something, like leave something around the house that drives me mentally?
• 1:09:04
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah, probably.
• 1:09:05
  SPEAKER_01: Like I've just learned to deal with it.
• 1:09:06
  SPEAKER_01: But um, he leaves his tags.
• 1:09:08
  SPEAKER_01: Like if he has a new shirt, he just like rips the tag off and puts it on like the um the dresser.
• 1:09:13
  SPEAKER_01: And like I feel like the girls do that too now.
• 1:09:15
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, do you think there's like a magical tag fairy?
• 1:09:17
  SPEAKER_01: Like that's how they disappear, because it's me.
• 1:09:19
  SPEAKER_01: I'm the tag fairy that's putting these in the garbage.
• 1:09:22
  SPEAKER_01: So that's probably one of them.
• 1:09:24
  SPEAKER_04: I'm finding the plastic things on the ground, and you're like, yes, a powdery business everyone should know about, or that you want to give a special shout out to.
• 1:09:33
  SPEAKER_01: Oh gosh.
• 1:09:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um there's so many because there's been so many that have been so wonderful to our family.
• 1:09:42
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I know.
• 1:09:43
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 1:09:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um, because I feel like this fueled me throughout like our our journey with like the hospital, and thank goodness there was one that opened up close to the hospital.
• 1:09:52
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna give a shout out to Seed and Salt.
• 1:09:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um, that is when we talked about so favorite restaurant, I said Lulu Bar, but like my favorite, like we'll call it takeout because it's like healthy takeout is Seed and Salt.
• 1:10:02
  SPEAKER_01: So um, that's a Calgary company.
• 1:10:04
  SPEAKER_01: They have one university district, and that's where we would go, and that would help keep me fueled, and it still does to this day.
• 1:10:09
  SPEAKER_01: So, and they're actually helping support our um event at another tomorrow as well.
• 1:10:14
  SPEAKER_04: So that's amazing.
• 1:10:16
  SPEAKER_04: They're also ran by two incredible badass women.
• 1:10:19
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, have you had them on?
• 1:10:22
  SPEAKER_04: I we are trying to find time, they're so busy, but it's definitely an ask and a goal.
• 1:10:29
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:10:30
  SPEAKER_04: This is your cue to come on the 403 podcast.
• 1:10:33
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, yes, absolutely.
• 1:10:35
  SPEAKER_04: One final question that you can leave us with.
• 1:10:38
  SPEAKER_04: What are you most excited about in the future?
• 1:10:42
  SPEAKER_01: I'm excited to just live our best lives as a family, and I'm just excited to still continue to see where Sloane goes with her cool, incredible life.
• 1:10:52
  SPEAKER_01: She's like the coolest kid.
• 1:10:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and her sister, I gotta give a shout out to her sister Indy.
• 1:10:56
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's what I'm excited for is the future to see um where they go and where they take life.
• 1:11:02
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, that that would be the thing I'm most excited for.
• 1:11:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm excited to get on some more stages.
• 1:11:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I need to make it out to one of your keynotes.
• 1:11:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, definitely.
• 1:11:11
  SPEAKER_04: One thing I keep coming back to from this conversation is that your story isn't as simple as turning something bad into something good.
• 1:11:19
  SPEAKER_04: Real life is much messier than that.
• 1:11:21
  SPEAKER_04: You can hate the reason strong like Sloan exists and be incredibly proud of what it's become.
• 1:11:26
  SPEAKER_04: You can build something meaningful without pretending the thing that led you there was somehow meant to happen.
• 1:11:32
  SPEAKER_04: And maybe most importantly, you don't have to wait until life is perfectly okay before you're allowed to start building, dreaming, or being ambitious again.
• 1:11:41
  SPEAKER_04: And because we're recording during childhood cancer awareness month, I don't want this conversation to end with awareness alone.
• 1:11:47
  SPEAKER_04: On October 30th, another tomorrow is happening at Everwild and Canmore in support of the Alberta Children's Hospital Foundation and Pediatric Cancer Research.
• 1:11:56
  SPEAKER_04: We'll put the link to another tomorrow, Strong Like Sloan, Claire's speaking work, and ways to support pediatric cancer research directly in the show notes.
• 1:12:04
  SPEAKER_04: Claire, thank you for sharing your family, your work, and your story with us.
• 1:12:08
  SPEAKER_04: And thank you for coming on the 403 Podcast.
• 1:12:10
  SPEAKER_04: Thank you so much for having me.
• 1:12:12
  SPEAKER_04: I appreciate it.
• 1:12:13
  SPEAKER_04: If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to subscribe to the 403 Podcast as we continue introducing you to the people, businesses, and ideas shaping Calgary and Alberta.
• 1:12:23
  SPEAKER_04: Because every city has stories, ours just happens to be told by people building it.
• 1:12:28
  SPEAKER_04: We'll see you next time.