Latest / More Than Before / How to Laugh When Life Is Falling Apart (Deb Krier’s Unfiltered Truth)

Transcript

How to Laugh When Life Is Falling Apart (Deb Krier’s Unfiltered Truth) · More Than Before

0:00
Don't hesitate, don't wait. You don't know what tomorrow
0:03
holds, so I don't want my headstone to say I wish I would
0:06
have be more. Don't.
0:08
Don't be satisfied with how you are.
0:10
The best thing you can be is curious.
0:13
Always be curious because that's going to make you be more.
0:23
Hey everyone, my guest today is a Wonder Woman warrior, a master
0:27
communicator, A thriver with grit and humor, a storyteller
0:31
whose life experience hits deeper than most books ever will
0:35
on a shelf. She's overcome cancer three
0:37
times, built a business from scratch, runs APR firm, and
0:41
she's also launched a community called Try Not to Die.
0:44
Yes, that is actually the name and has recorded over 1100
0:49
episodes of her podcast. She's a wife, animal lover, and
0:52
a positive human voice for those looking for a little levity in
0:55
life. Deb Creer, welcome to More Than
0:58
Before. So great to have you on.
1:00
Oh my gosh, Nathan, we're not going to have any fun.
1:03
This is going to be a 5 minute interview, but truly I am
1:06
honored to be on your podcast. I was listening to some of them
1:09
and they are wonderful. Well, it is.
1:12
It's so great to have someone else who's been on the other
1:15
side where I am right now. You understand all the hard work
1:18
that goes into it. But it's always nice because
1:22
when the other person is a conversationalist that can kind
1:25
of pilot the conversation, you know, you don't have to worry
1:28
about too many crazy things happening.
1:32
Well, we could do crazy. I can do crazy.
1:35
Oh, I know you can. So you grew up in Walden, Co
1:41
which is over 8000 feet in elevation, which not to mention
1:45
the elevation is actually greater than the population
1:48
there. Oh, by a lot.
1:50
By a lot. By a lot. 32 in my graduating
1:53
class 32. We won't ask you where you were
1:57
in the graduating class, but. I was #2.
2:02
Of course you were. By one grade.
2:04
By one stupid grade. So it was childhood like for
2:10
you? What?
2:11
Like what was your early childhood memories like?
2:13
I mean, it was idyllic. Now, granted, it was a while
2:17
ago. It was long before Al Gore
2:19
entered the, you know, invented the Internet.
2:22
You know, no computers. I mean, we had three television
2:25
channels and, but yeah, it was fantastic.
2:29
You had to go over and still do a mountain pass to get out of
2:33
there. And so we got snowed in, you
2:36
know, quite a bit and, and that was not a problem.
2:39
But you know, it. I walked to school.
2:43
It was, you know, one or two blocks.
2:45
If I was ever out late, Mom would just make a phone call or
2:48
two and they would know where I was.
2:51
And it really was absolutely perfect growing up because we
2:55
had so much freedom. We could go and we can have fun.
2:58
We didn't have to worry about the weird icky people in the
3:01
world. We could just be kids and and I
3:04
think that was was so cool to be able to grow up like that.
3:09
And you had a very special bond with your parents, so you're
3:13
really close with them. What were what were some of your
3:15
early childhood memories like with your parents?
3:18
So I'm an only child because they broke the mold.
3:22
Because you were the best child. I was, I was, my dad was quite a
3:26
bit older, but he and I, I was daddy's little girl and he
3:32
passed away in 2009. So it's been quite a while ago,
3:35
but I remember at night now he did not get past the 8th grade.
3:40
And you know, that was that was actually pretty far for him to
3:44
go. But he was an avid reader and he
3:48
instilled that in me. And I still remember being a
3:51
little girl and every night he would read to me.
3:56
Now he did work some nights and so he wasn't always there, but
3:58
and, and if he missed too many nights and I get pretty bent out
4:01
of shape, but you know, I like reading Misty of Chincoteague
4:05
and all of those fun books, you know, and, and and I just I
4:09
really remember that he did work a lot.
4:12
So he missed a lot of my activities work for the state of
4:15
Colorado. And so he did miss quite a few
4:18
of my, you know, after school events and things like that.
4:21
But you know, I knew he was there in spirit and that was
4:24
always so much fun. My mom was an incredibly
4:28
independent woman. I mean, you know, she was out in
4:30
the middle of nowhere in Colorado, but, and she taught me
4:34
how to stand on my own 2 feet and really just, you know, I
4:39
didn't need anybody to help me be what I could be, but I was
4:43
expected that I was going to be the best that I could be.
4:46
And I, you know, I never questioned that.
4:48
It was like, Oh dear, no one would want to make Tolly Gore
4:50
mad. The one eyebrow would go up,
4:52
Right, right. And so, but yeah, it was, we
4:57
traveled a lot. My dad got off a month every
4:59
summer and they had a trailer that they pulled behind their
5:02
Jeep. And so we would travel and I
5:05
mean it, you know, even as like a 1617 year old, it wasn't quite
5:09
as cool. But it's, you know, I, I was
5:12
smart enough to know just how true a gift that was.
5:17
And you know, and, and so it really was, was a very special
5:20
time. You spent a lot of time in the
5:23
outdoors and a lot of time with your dad in the outdoors, didn't
5:25
you? I did so he worked for it,
5:29
changed his name multiple times, but basically the the division
5:32
wildlife and so he I would go with him.
5:36
I mean, you know this they didn't care if kids went, you
5:39
know, it was it was it was pretty safe.
5:42
Some of the coolest things. Now, he didn't do this because
5:45
he didn't like this. They would come up to do counts
5:48
of antelope, deer, whatever. And you did those with a
5:50
helicopter. And so the helicopter landed
5:53
across from our house in the field and Oz's little bitty
5:56
little kid. And they would pile me in and
5:59
away I'd go in the helicopter and I could count to 10.
6:02
And so I'd wanted to do if I was in an 810, wanted to do if I was
6:05
in an 810. We never had more than 10 of
6:07
whatever it was, right. But, you know, and, and because
6:12
of what my dad did, he had a very flexible schedule.
6:15
So, you know, he could take me fishing, he could do, you know,
6:18
whatever, especially, you know, when I was, was a lot younger.
6:22
And it really was just very cool because you know, aside from the
6:25
news, you talk about a beautiful place.
6:28
I mean, it's, you know, high up in the, in the Rocky Mountains.
6:31
It really was absolutely beautiful there.
6:34
Yeah, it's gorgeous. I mean, did you, did you spend a
6:37
lot of time in the reservoir over there, like Walden
6:40
Reservoir? Because that that area is just
6:42
gorgeous. You know, and thank you for
6:44
doing all your research. You know, I know that you do
6:46
that it, you know, it was when we would go fishing, it would be
6:51
further out. You know, I didn't hunt.
6:53
That was just not my thing. I did get my hunter safety
6:56
license, and they took great delight in watching me get
7:01
knocked on my keister when I fired the rifle because nobody
7:03
bothered to tell me that. Little bitty kid.
7:05
Great big gun. Whoop.
7:06
Right. Yeah.
7:08
I just, I wasn't in the hunting, but we would go fishing, but we
7:11
typically went more up in the mountains.
7:14
Walden is kind of in this valley and then completely surrounded
7:17
by the mountains. So it's out there in the middle
7:19
of the sagebrush. But yeah, I mean, it was very
7:22
cool. So what was your desire as a
7:25
little kid? Like I, I always love to ask the
7:27
question and maybe it gets redundant for some people, but
7:30
I'm always fascinated. What did you want to be when you
7:32
grew up? Like?
7:32
What was? What was the the the picture
7:35
that Deb wanted to be? Well, I actually had two things,
7:38
and it was funny, I'd forgotten about one of them until not long
7:41
ago. I wanted to be a musical
7:44
performer. I wanted to sing on Broadway,
7:47
right? And do all of those things.
7:51
And then the flip side of that, because, you know, you might
7:54
need to make money. I wanted to be a defense
7:57
attorney. I was going to be Missus Perry
7:59
Mason, you know, and and thank God Kathy Bates took that over.
8:04
But yeah, I wanted to to go into law school and I'm at the tail
8:08
end of the baby boomer generation.
8:10
And that was not really encouraged.
8:13
You know, young girls did not do that.
8:16
And I remember my mother going, what do you mean?
8:18
Your counselor told you that, you know, and but you know, but
8:23
I like to argue with people, you know, big surprise, right?
8:27
And so I just wanted to be a defense attorney.
8:29
And I thought that that looked fun because all I knew of it was
8:32
what you saw on TV. And so it really did look very
8:36
interesting. And, and I, I sang all the way
8:40
through college, but you know, and was good.
8:44
Maybe I could have been good enough.
8:45
I don't know. You know, things kind of changed
8:48
from there and I just moved on from that.
8:50
Yeah, I, I find it interesting too, that you know your, your
8:54
dad's little nickname for you, his little singing bird or
8:57
songbird. I I find that really
8:59
fascinating. Yeah, yeah.
9:01
When I would sing, he would say I was twittering like a bird.
9:04
And I don't know if that was positive or or not, but.
9:10
Yeah. Well, I think it's, I think it's
9:11
a really cool balance of, you know, of voice, of loving to
9:15
sing, but then also this being wrapped around in nature and
9:19
just how beautiful life was growing up.
9:22
I am curious because you were actually kind of reserved,
9:25
weren't you, growing up? You weren't necessarily the
9:28
outgoing type. No, I was always outgoing.
9:30
I was the kid. I was, I was the person that the
9:34
teacher would go, go sit down and I always sat in the front
9:39
row and I still do. I mean, you know, I'm one of
9:41
those people. I, I suck up no matter what the
9:43
class is. And but you know, I, I also knew
9:49
that sometimes being the nerdy kid was not going to be popular.
9:54
And so, but I, and I was also this little scrawny thing and my
9:57
mother thought I needed to be in sports.
10:01
I was on the teams, but oh Lord, no, you know, I they should have
10:07
named me Grace because I was not, you know, I could I could
10:11
be dribbling the basketball and fall over the lines, right.
10:14
And so but you know, it's so it's kind of a weird combination
10:18
of this out. But well, my mother called me
10:21
Debbie go Gore because my last name, my maiden name was Gore
10:24
because I was always just here, there everywhere else, right.
10:27
Big surprise. But in a lot of ways, I was
10:30
still was really shy, Yeah. And, and just uncertain as to
10:35
because I was not the cute kid, I wasn't the cheerleader, you
10:38
know, all of those things. And so it was.
10:41
It was kind of a an odd combination.
10:43
Yeah. So then you graduate from high
10:47
school. What takes you out of Colorado?
10:50
So initially it's really funny. I just got a text message on my
10:54
phone from somebody in Walden of all things, right?
10:57
They know. They know that we're talking
10:59
about them. And actually, I had texted her
11:01
earlier today and I they're supposed to get 9 inches of
11:03
snow. And so she was telling me if if
11:06
that happened or not. But so initially I went to
11:10
school in Kansas. I went to Baker University and I
11:14
loved it. There was a private university
11:16
kind of between Topeka and Kansas City, and it was far
11:20
enough away from my parents and from Colorado, but I had my
11:25
grandmother and people like that in case I needed to do laundry
11:28
and, you know, have a good home cooked meal.
11:31
So yeah, I, you know, I went away to, to Kansas, to college.
11:36
And what were, what were some of the early lessons from jobs that
11:39
you had? You've, you've had some pretty
11:41
interesting jobs in your life. I, I love, I love specifically
11:44
the camping campground one. But like, what are some of the
11:47
ones that that kind of stir your mind of?
11:50
Like, man, I can't believe I ever did that job.
11:53
Right. Well, the campground one was
11:55
actually, I had it for 2 summers in in when I was in college and
12:00
I was, I worked in campgrounds. So I worked for the, the Forest
12:04
Service cleaning campgrounds. Yeah, just doing nothing be that
12:08
was basically now they this silly fools actually gave me a
12:11
chainsaw at one point and that didn't work.
12:13
They took the chainsaw away from me.
12:15
But you know, it was, it was interesting because I was the
12:20
only girl. It was, you know, that was back
12:23
when that was very definitely a very male field and they were
12:27
all college boys and, you know, and, and there I was this gawky
12:32
awkward thing and, but, but I at that point, that was one of the
12:36
first times where I really thought I can do whatever I
12:38
want. You know, nobody can tell me
12:41
you're the girl, you know, and, and so that was really very
12:45
interesting. I worked for a candy broker one
12:48
time for several years. You know, there's, there's a way
12:52
that convenience stores get cases and cases of candy.
12:55
It's a candy broker. My dad thought that was the
12:58
greatest thing in the world because I got cases of candy.
13:02
And so that was that was very interesting.
13:04
I'm not sure I learned actually, I really learned important on
13:08
that because my boss was a bully.
13:09
He was not a nice man and he would yell and he would throw
13:13
things. And I went up to him one time
13:15
and I said, you get to call me AB word once.
13:20
And he kind of looked at me and I said, you do it, you do it
13:23
again. And I own your company.
13:26
And he did call me that word once.
13:27
And all I did was hold up one finger.
13:30
And he knew, oh, you know, this, this, this red hair is enhanced
13:36
now, but it's always been red. And but, you know, and and I
13:41
worked for the American Cancer Society.
13:43
That was one of the absolute best places I could be.
13:46
I was a lobbyist for a while. That was very interesting, you
13:51
know, and, and so. But.
13:53
Yeah, I just kind of go where the spirit moves.
13:58
I love that. And you know, you're, you're so
14:01
good with your words. I'm curious about like
14:03
communication. Where do you feel like you
14:04
really wrapped your mind around communicating and learning to
14:08
communicate well? My first job where I was paid to
14:12
do it was with the American Cancer Society and I had been
14:15
working for a company called Advanced System Technology.
14:18
I was the stupidest one there. They all had pH DS in statistics
14:24
and so but really nice men, right?
14:27
Really nice guys. Super, super.
14:29
I mean, it was very much a family type of thing.
14:31
And they wrote computer software for the federal government,
14:34
primarily for NASA and for Navy. And I managed the office, but I
14:38
knew that I was not going to go get a PhD in statistics because
14:41
two and two don't make 4 for me. And so somebody said, well, why
14:47
don't you want to get paid to do what you enjoy doing?
14:50
And I volunteered doing marketing and things like that.
14:54
And so I went to work for the American Cancer Society.
14:57
And it was probably the best place to learn how to do media
15:02
relations and communications and, and everything like that
15:06
because, you know, aside from anything else, you know, what
15:08
you did was was really going to make a difference.
15:11
Yeah. It's true.
15:13
Well, and it's so interesting too.
15:15
I also have a follow up with that too, because I find that a
15:18
lot of people who have the type of levity that you have that are
15:22
good on their feet, that have a comedic bone inside of them.
15:26
They grow up at least listening or hearing some type of comedy.
15:30
Like, I mean, maybe it's different for you, but you know,
15:33
I have, I have my comedy legends in my head of the people who I
15:36
loved and who I still love to this day, kind of the classics.
15:39
But who are some of those people that you kind of got to here
15:43
early on in life that really you got your humor bone from, right?
15:48
Well, I mean, there is that little redhead, you know, there
15:51
was Lucy. I'm a little past Lucy, but
15:56
yeah, I mean, it was just she was phenomenal.
15:59
And I knew that she ran everything.
16:01
I mean, you know, she she was in charge, all of those things.
16:05
I also really liked MASH and, and it's interesting because,
16:10
you know, I remember one of the things that they asked the
16:13
Hawkeye character one time, they said, why are you always joking?
16:17
And he said, because if we didn't, we would cry.
16:21
And that really is a big part of especially with, you know, with
16:25
the the twists and turns that my journey has taken.
16:27
That really is is something. But Robin Williams.
16:31
Oh, my gosh, right. You know, you couldn't.
16:33
I mean, Mork, Mork and Mindy, I mean, clearly, you know, they
16:37
did some of it in, in Boulder and, you know, yeah, Mork was
16:41
just somebody that, you know, and, and, and I think with any
16:45
of them, they made it look so easy.
16:48
Now, that said, I don't think I could do stand up.
16:51
I think I would get up there, go.
16:54
But, you know, it's, you know, and but yeah, they they, and I
16:58
mean, even some of the the people like Eddie Murphy and you
17:02
know, when and Saturday Night Live started when I was probably
17:05
in college. And yeah, I mean, it's just they
17:09
made it look so easy, but you knew that it was also very
17:14
serious with what they were doing.
17:16
Yeah, I love that you say that because it's it's true that like
17:19
with comedy, there's, there's a little bit of a dark side to it.
17:23
If you if you have a little bit of the dark side and
17:26
understanding, it's almost tongue in cheek that if you
17:28
understand the dark side of it, you can bring levity to it.
17:31
And that's what I think a lot of the world needs nowadays is we
17:33
need more levity. There's too much seriousness.
17:36
We we, we no one laughs. You know, I can't remember who
17:39
said it, but you know, the first day you grow up is the day that
17:42
you have your first good laugh at yourself.
17:44
And it's true. Like you can't take yourself so
17:46
seriously. Now you brought up one of your
17:49
Crucible moments here, kind of going into it.
17:52
You you had a huge Crucible moment in your life.
17:55
You know, you're working for the American Cancer Society and you
17:58
know, to be on that side of, you know, helping people.
18:01
But then all of a sudden, but you know, you go in for your
18:05
screening and you get the news. I get the news.
18:09
No one ever wants to hear the news, right?
18:11
Right. Well, and I also work for an
18:13
oncologist. And so I tell people I know just
18:16
enough to be dangerous, right? I recognize the words, you know?
18:21
And so, yeah, it was. It's a little over 10 years ago.
18:24
I did my routine mammogram and I didn't even get home.
18:28
And I'm 5 minutes from the hospital.
18:30
And they called and said, you need to come back.
18:33
And I knew that wasn't that I hadn't smiled pretty.
18:36
You know, there were, there was a reason.
18:38
And your part of your brain says, well, the equipment
18:42
malfunctioned or something. And the other part of your brain
18:45
says, uh oh. And so I did.
18:48
I went back in and repeated my mammogram.
18:50
And they said, hey, you've got cancer.
18:53
You've got stage 0 cancer, which means, you know, we're not going
18:58
to worry about it. You know, I didn't get an
19:00
oncologist and, and it was, we're just going to monitor
19:03
this. We did a couple biopsies that
19:06
were really, really fun. They heard me yell in the
19:08
waiting room and I was like. Ow.
19:14
And then my, my doctor said, you know what, I think we need to,
19:18
to actually get a little bit more invasive and, and pull some
19:21
lymph nodes because I'd had, I had an MRI and, and it, it came
19:26
back showing that my lymph nodes on, on the bad side were
19:30
lighting up. And, you know, and, and, but I
19:34
also had, because, you know, at that point I was living here in
19:36
Georgia and my entire arm was Poison Ivy.
19:40
I had this horrible Poison Ivy infection.
19:42
And so they thought, well, that's probably what it is, is
19:44
the lymph nodes were responding to that infection.
19:47
And she came out of surgery and she said, well, 8 of 12 lymph
19:51
nodes were positive. So I went from stage 0 cancer to
19:55
stage 3 because that minute had already spread.
19:58
And and then I got the oncologist, right.
20:00
You know, I hadn't even done that yet.
20:02
And but you know, I, I very distinctly remember when she was
20:06
telling me this, I looked around and I said, I'm sorry, I don't
20:08
have time for this. And she looked at me like.
20:16
I don't think you're allowed to do that.
20:17
Yeah, yeah. But you actually do get a vote,
20:20
right? You know, you're the, you're the
20:22
only vote that counts. And but yeah, it was like, you
20:27
know, this and, and so then I was going to tackle it like I
20:30
did everything else, you know, just jump right into it.
20:33
That kind of bit me. But but yeah, it was it was
20:38
very, very interesting. And, and actually I found out
20:41
that my cancer had spread ultimately on you.
20:46
You get your online charts, right?
20:48
Those are great things. Now you can log in.
20:50
I logged in and, and the word metastatic jumped out at me.
20:53
And of course, metastatic means that it has spread.
20:56
And I was like, no, no, no, must be the wrong persons.
20:59
And it wasn't. It was mine.
21:00
Wow. It's it's crazy too.
21:03
And so you also jump into treatment and you start going
21:07
through all the treatment and you know, you're just one of
21:10
those special gals, right? Like I'm and.
21:12
I'm. You know, I, I can relate with
21:18
that to an extent. You know, I'm always the person
21:20
that, you know, if we have some kind of tech issue or something,
21:24
I'm, I'm the only person that's ever had the issue.
21:27
They've never seen it before. You got to send whatever product
21:30
it is back. Oh, you're the only one that
21:32
have this 1% chance of having a reaction to the and that was me.
21:37
Yeah, that was you, you know, And so I had a treatment, you
21:42
know, they, I was supposed to have a whole course of
21:44
chemotherapy, but it was, it was a massive dose.
21:48
It was 8 different drugs, took 8 hours to do it because now at
21:53
that was that was not, you know, that was the actually very
21:56
standard when you're starting chemo, they give it to you very,
21:59
very slowly to see, you know, make sure your body is going to
22:02
tolerate it. And so I had all these different
22:04
drugs, Halloween was in there, trick or treaters, all this
22:08
stuff. And then I started feeling kind
22:10
of Blair, right, just play, you know, and, and I was thinking,
22:13
well, duh, you just had all this chemo.
22:15
And I send my husband off to work, you know, he checks in
22:18
periodically through the day. How you doing?
22:19
I kept saying, you know, I just, I felt like I'd had eight
22:23
different chemo drugs. And then in the middle of the
22:27
night it, it took a turn and, and I told him, I said, we need
22:31
to, you know, we, we need to call an ambulance.
22:34
And so he did. Here I am, Chatty Cathy with the
22:39
fire department right as they're carting me down the stairs and,
22:44
you know, and, and they load me up into the ambulance and like I
22:48
said, I'm 5 minutes away. And we stopped at one point.
22:51
And, and the reason why I knew there was a problem, I had a
22:55
pain that was incredible. And I had a pretty high
22:58
temperature, you know, and I knew, OK, this is not normal.
23:01
And so you're in the ambulance and I, I am, I'm just chatty,
23:05
chatty. And we stop.
23:07
And I said, why are we stopping? And the very nice EMT says,
23:11
well, it's a red light. And I said, I don't get lights
23:16
and sirens. And I swear to God, that was the
23:19
last thing I remembered for hours.
23:22
I mean, I hit rock bottom. And So what had happened?
23:27
Was it the, the drug literally ate a hole through my colon?
23:33
And the stuff that's in your colon is not supposed to get
23:35
into your body. And so I went into septic shock
23:39
and I was, my heart rate was about 200.
23:42
I thought I could fly, you know, 'cause like, right.
23:46
And, and I was in and out of consciousness and, and all of
23:49
this and, and, you know, and they, they didn't want to really
23:53
medicate me because they needed to figure out what's going on.
23:56
And, you know, and so I had this, this horrible pain.
23:59
And I remember the oncologist was out in the hall with the
24:02
surgeon and he said, I see no reason to operate on her because
24:09
she will be dead by night. Because I, I skipped, I kind of
24:12
skipped sepsis. I mean, it was in there, but I
24:14
went over it quickly and I went into septic shock.
24:17
And septic shock about 75% of the time is, is fatal.
24:22
Obviously she got in his face. And I remember thinking, hello,
24:25
I get to vote. Hello, hello.
24:28
And so they did, you know, emergency surgery that was very
24:33
entertaining. And, but they had told my
24:36
husband she's, she will not make it, you know, And so he got to
24:40
call my mother and say, you got to get here from Kansas and it
24:43
won't be fast enough. I can't imagine that.
24:45
Can you imagine? You know, and, and, and so you
24:50
know, in Long story short, I was in the hospital 7 weeks, lots of
24:55
different surgeries, you know, all sorts of different things.
24:59
The, the cancer is probably not going to be what does me in.
25:02
It's going to be from having septic shock and because your
25:05
organs shut down and, and so my kidneys are like, we don't want
25:09
to work anymore. And so but yeah, I mean, it was
25:13
just in and out of ICU, in and out of surgeries.
25:16
And for the most part, I'm still miss jibber jabber.
25:19
You know, they knew that things were not good when when I would
25:22
be very quiet. But yeah, I mean, like, at one
25:25
point I remember because now I have the bad arm, the cancer
25:29
arm. And you don't get pokes on it.
25:32
So no, no Ivs or anything like that because you have no lymph
25:36
nodes. So if something happens, your
25:38
body can't fight it off. And so I only have the one good
25:40
arm. And I remember at one point when
25:42
you and your mom needed me, I had eight Ivs and that one arm
25:48
and I was like, and you know, like they were, they were splits
25:50
and, and things, but was like, wow, this is pretty incredible,
25:54
you know, and, and I had this really pretty cool private room.
26:00
And but that was we're trying not to die.
26:03
Initially the name came from because my mother, you know,
26:06
being my mother, you know, somebody came, somebody went
26:10
fabulous medical care and, and I got the disapproving mother
26:15
frown and I went that's and she said, you did not say thank you.
26:20
And I said, oh, for God's sakes, mom, I'm trying to not die here.
26:25
And and that really that was kind of the start of that was,
26:28
you know, I, I couldn't say thank you.
26:30
I was trying to not die, but yeah, I mean, it was, it was
26:34
interesting, you know, and, and, but yeah, you know, I, I, I made
26:39
it a goal that I would be home for Christmas and I was home on
26:43
the 23rd. And thank God for Amazon because
26:46
I was able to get Christmas gifts for people.
26:51
Wow, it you know, it's, it's funny because you know,
26:54
throughout life there are certain people, you know, my
26:57
father is one of those where I feel like he should have a punch
26:59
card for surgeries. Like you get, you get 30, you
27:03
get an extra 1 on the House, right?
27:05
I know. Yeah, you've gone.
27:07
Through so many surgeries, you've gone through so many
27:10
procedures. I'm curious, like what what has
27:14
that taught you about life? Because when you are constantly
27:18
in and out of the hospital, when you're constantly going from
27:20
procedure to procedure, when you're looking at your body and
27:23
you're going, what in the world is going on?
27:25
Like, let's get it together. Come on guys, this is not.
27:27
Me anymore? What the heck?
27:30
Yeah. Bionic.
27:31
You're Wonder Woman? What what?
27:33
What does that teach you about life?
27:37
I think one of the biggest things was and, and I, you know,
27:40
I talked to a lot of other cancer patients who, who are not
27:43
Miss Special. I mean, you know, that that
27:45
complication that I had does happen less than 1% of the time.
27:48
And at that point, I was the only one who'd ever survived it.
27:51
I still might be, I don't know. But that was 10 years.
27:54
I think you're. An oncologist, I I think all
27:56
they've written papers. About me and all sorts of
27:58
things. Well, I think you.
28:00
Had said that the the reason why you survived was because the
28:04
patient before you had died. Yes, the patient.
28:06
Before me had died the last one and yeah.
28:08
And and so she knew what it was and.
28:11
And so she was able to tell him this is what's going on.
28:14
But I think that the biggest thing is you feel out of
28:17
control, you know, just completely and totally.
28:21
And so anytime you can get something back, you, you do
28:25
that, you know, and one of the things I did, you know, I, I
28:28
had, you know, I had a cardiac event, I had several other
28:32
things. I got the, the, the poop, poop,
28:34
poop people that came in twice. That was really fun.
28:37
You know, they're, you're in there and they're telling you
28:40
now just stay calm. And there's like 20 people in
28:43
the room, you know, and they're all, and, but so at one point I
28:49
had about 10 doctors that would come in, in the morning and do
28:52
rounds and I, you know, I didn't know who they were.
28:55
And, and for a good portion of that time, I was pretty out of
29:00
it. I mean, you know, your body
29:01
sleeps to heal. And so I slept an awful lot.
29:05
But, you know, the parade would come through and they'd ask me
29:09
questions and they'd leave and I'd think.
29:11
And so when I, when my brain started working a little bit
29:14
more, I remembered that I made them come in and, and they
29:18
would, I had this giant window, like I said, I had a very cool
29:21
room and they would go and they would stand and look out this
29:23
giant window. And so they were behind me and I
29:26
would say, no, no, no, I need you to come and stand at the
29:28
foot of my bed so I can see you. Otherwise I'd just fall asleep.
29:33
And so they'd come and they all did, I mean, none, none of them
29:36
said no or anything like that. They all came and I said, and
29:39
before we go any further, I need you to tell me who you are and
29:42
what your specialty is because then I know what questions and
29:46
things like that I need to be saying.
29:48
And I had one that said, we'll have a name tag on.
29:51
And I said, show it to me. And it had gone under his lapel.
29:53
And so he apologized, but yeah, to get that control back in.
29:58
And one of the doctors came back and pulled up a chair and sat
30:00
down. I thought, oh, and he was my
30:01
infectious disease specialist because, you know, you're in the
30:04
hospital that much. You catch the cooties that are
30:05
in the hospital. And he came back and he sat
30:08
down. I thought, this is it.
30:10
I'm dying. What was it, Elizabeth?
30:13
And he he said, you know, I have to tell you that what you told
30:18
me earlier today is probably the best thing anybody has ever told
30:21
me. And I went and he said my ego
30:25
assumed you knew who I was and what my specialty was.
30:28
He said it never occurred to me you didn't know who I was.
30:31
And he said, I will never again walk into a patient's room
30:33
without telling him who I am and what my specialty is.
30:36
And I thought, you know, OK, I I did good, you know, and, and.
30:40
But yeah, it's you, you do everything you possibly can to
30:43
get back some semblance of control, even if it's just
30:47
here's what I'm going to eat today or I'm not going for that
30:50
walk or, or any of those things. You know, it's because it's, we
30:54
need that, you know, we need to be in, you know, as, as my
30:57
husband puts it, in charge. But yeah, just in in control to
31:02
to know, you know, hey, this is me and these are my decisions
31:05
that I'making. I find that interesting because
31:09
I think there's, there's two kinds of people.
31:11
There are those that understand that we should be nice to other
31:16
people, that we we should see other people as human beings and
31:19
we should want to find them interesting.
31:21
And then there are those that are just hyper aware.
31:25
And you seem like a hyper aware person of especially with your
31:29
podcast because you interview so many people from different
31:32
aspects of life that you truly do become hyper interested in
31:37
that person that you really do want to learn.
31:39
And when you are in that mindset of learning, when you're in
31:43
front of someone that maybe doesn't have that awareness to
31:46
even like the minimum of like, hey, what's your name?
31:49
What is your specialty? There's almost a sense of you
31:53
want to be able to teach them to connect deeper.
31:57
How? How has that lesson of being
32:00
able to connect really opened up doors in your life?
32:05
Well, you know, as much as I jibber jabber there, there is
32:09
that saying we have two ears and one mouth, right.
32:12
So you should be listening twice as much.
32:14
And so I try and do that. Do I always know?
32:19
But but I still remember like one of the nurses I was talking
32:22
to, and she's one of the charge nurses.
32:23
And and now this will tell you what, you know what it was like.
32:26
They would come in my room and do their paperwork.
32:29
They liked coming in. They like sitting in there with
32:31
me and nobody knew where they were.
32:33
And usually I was asleep, so it didn't matter.
32:35
But they would come in there and and I remember she and I were
32:37
talking and she was a nurse and had been a practicing nurse for
32:41
many, many years. And we were talking about the
32:43
different types of nurses. And she said, well, yeah,
32:45
there's basically two types. There are those where it's a job
32:49
and that's great. And she said, and there are
32:51
those that it's a calling. And and I thought, you know,
32:55
that really isn't what whatever we're doing in life.
32:58
Is it just the job or is it a calling for us?
33:02
You know, and, and I think it's, you know, it really is important
33:06
just to listen to, you know, you really pick up on body language
33:09
a lot more when you're just laying there and you can't do
33:12
anything. I mean, you can really pick up
33:14
on a lot of things from people. So I would ask the staff, hey,
33:17
what's going on today? Because when you're also when
33:20
you're there seven weeks, you get to know this one has a kid
33:23
and this one has a dog. And you know, all of those
33:25
things because they tried to give me the same staff.
33:29
So we didn't have to go through the whole spiel of this was what
33:31
was wrong every time and so. But yeah, it was the IT was kind
33:37
of a safe place for them. They could come in my room and
33:39
kind of hide. So what was what was the idea
33:43
behind Wise Women communications?
33:45
Like what? What?
33:47
What sparked that idea? So I, at one point I worked for
33:52
a company called ING and I did their, I did corporate
33:55
communications for them and they were the 7th largest corporation
33:59
in the world where you talk about having fun budgets, right?
34:03
And, and from there I went to the, the firm where I was a
34:06
lobbyist, but it was kind of like, you know, what do I want
34:12
to do when I grow up? And I'll be honest, I'm still
34:13
trying to figure that one out, but I decided I wanted to start
34:16
my own communications firm to specifically because they hired
34:20
me back at ING because they never filled my position, but
34:24
they didn't need somebody full time.
34:25
So they hired me back to just do bits and pieces, right?
34:28
A project here, project there. And I thought, how many other
34:30
companies are like that? They don't even need a full time
34:33
agency. They just need somebody to come
34:36
in and do this and do that website and do this and do that.
34:39
And so that was where we started it.
34:41
And then I started, you know, what the heck do you call it
34:43
new? And, and I was, you know, I
34:46
didn't want to call it my name. I didn't want to call it Rocky
34:49
Mountain, you know, any of those things.
34:51
And I was very active with the Colorado Women's Chamber of
34:54
Commerce, wonderful group. And I remember them saying that
34:58
if at all possible, they wanted to work with other women
35:02
business owners. And now, you know, Wise Women is
35:06
comprised of consultants and it's about 5050, you know, and,
35:10
and of course, you know, we will work for male clients.
35:12
You know, everybody's money is green.
35:14
But it really did make me think, you know, how can we do that?
35:17
And of course, we are wise women.
35:19
And so, you know, we're not just, we're wise, we're wise
35:24
women, you know, and, and so that was where that name came
35:27
from. So when did you switch from the
35:31
PR and communications to really wanting to focus and help other
35:35
people through the cancer diagnosis and that cancer
35:38
journey? I still do both because Wise
35:42
Women pays the bills. Let's be honest, right?
35:46
You know I did a. Philanthropic arm and you have
35:49
the one that you know, you still love and you still do.
35:52
I did as I was a gig person before gig had been invented.
35:57
And so it was my, It was the entirely the fault of my
36:01
business coach, the wonderful Kathleen Caldwell, who knows my
36:05
long and detailed story. And it was still about four
36:10
years ago or so. We're on a Zoom and she shook
36:13
her finger at me and I'm like, oh, what did I do?
36:15
And, and she said, you know, you didn't go through everything you
36:18
went through without using it to help others.
36:20
And I think, but I don't want to be cancer girl, right?
36:24
A funny thing aside, right? Several months ago, they, they
36:27
had that whole thing on Facebook where you could create
36:29
superheroes. Of course I create a cancer
36:32
girl. But yeah, I didn't, I didn't
36:35
want to do that. But I realized I was already
36:37
doing that, you know, and always had.
36:40
I mean, that was one of the things my mom had always
36:42
insisted on was you volunteer, you give back, you do what you
36:45
can. And but doctors would call me in
36:48
when they had students or new patients.
36:51
You know, I'm always the person in the infusion room.
36:54
I am still in active treatment. I go in every 21 days.
36:58
And so I'm the person that's going around and you'd need
37:00
water, you need crackers. COVID was horrible.
37:03
I hated it. But you know, the nursing staff
37:07
in there have other things to do.
37:08
If I can get somebody a bottle of water, I'm going to get him a
37:10
bottle of water and free the staff up.
37:13
And so you know that that just kind of came from there.
37:16
And so we launched Trying Not to Die.
37:18
And you know, I'm a marketing person, right?
37:20
So it's going to be trying not to die.com because you know,
37:24
that's what you do with those things.
37:27
But it was taken. Somebody had the name.
37:32
I mean, Can you imagine how rude is that, that somebody had try
37:36
not to die.com you've gone through?
37:39
All of this just to get the.com and I tracked.
37:43
Them down. I made a reasonable offer and
37:45
she wanted me to add a zero to it and I said no.
37:49
This was in my brain. I wasn't going to spend $5000 to
37:53
buy a URL just, you know, and, and, and so, you know, you go to
37:57
GoDaddy and you type in try not to die and then it gives you all
38:01
these other things that you can add on.
38:04
And it gave USDOT live and it was like, all right.
38:09
And so now I do own.com now, you know, I I she eventually let it
38:14
go. But because, I mean, you know,
38:15
we type that that's just, I don't care.
38:17
Force a habit. Yeah.
38:19
And so we made it an acronym. And so it is live, but yeah, so
38:23
it's trying not to die dot live. I love it.
38:26
It's so it's so uplifting too. I, I'm curious, you know, I know
38:31
a lot of people listening right now have it.
38:33
They at least know one person that has been touched by cancer.
38:37
And I'm curious, what are the, what's like one of those things
38:40
that most people don't quite understand about the process of
38:44
going through cancer well. When you're going through it, I
38:48
think it really is the lack of control.
38:50
And you want everything to be as normal as possible.
38:53
If you are supporting someone, whether you're your real direct
38:57
caregiver or even just a friend, you don't know what to do.
39:00
You don't know what to say. And so you either ignore it.
39:05
And then it's like, no, no, you know, this, you know, or you you
39:09
ask way too many questions or you say, Nathan, just tell me if
39:13
you need anything and you go because your brain can't grasp,
39:19
you know, you're dealing with having cancer.
39:21
But if I said, Nathan, can I bring you dinner tomorrow night?
39:24
Can I take your kids to the movie?
39:26
Then you can go, yeah, I can do that.
39:28
You know, if it's a workplace, then you can say, what can I
39:30
help you with here? So be specific.
39:34
And, and it is OK to ask about it, you know, but I, you know,
39:38
I've been on this journey now for 10 years and like you said,
39:40
three different cancers because I have to be special.
39:43
And, you know, and, and it's OK for people to ask.
39:48
Usually I'll just say I'm doing good, you know, and, and most of
39:52
the time they don't want to know the details.
39:54
They don't want to know the, it, they certainly don't want to
39:56
know the ickies. And I don't want to talk about
39:57
the ickies, but don't act like it doesn't exist, you know,
40:02
because it does, you know, and, and my, my full diagnosis is
40:06
stage 4, triple positive metastatic breast cancer.
40:09
Stage 4 is not considered curable now.
40:12
You know, 10 years and those little buggins have have yet to
40:15
rear their head up again, which is good, right?
40:18
Knock on wood, but yeah, don't act like it doesn't exist.
40:22
It's OK to just say how are you feeling?
40:25
And then, you know, let them choose if they want to tell you
40:27
a little bit more about it. But and, and, but it the hard
40:32
part as the, the, the patient or the warrior, as I like to say,
40:36
right, because I'm in a battle for my life.
40:39
You know, I don't always want to, to start the conversation
40:43
with, well, how poor me. And I don't want to complain.
40:47
I don't want to whine, but it is still there.
40:50
It's kind of that elephant that's in the room, you know,
40:53
and and, you know, like one of the things, my third cancer was
40:56
thyroid cancer. And when they remove my thyroid,
40:59
they damage my vocal cords. Like, I can hear right now that
41:02
my voice is is going. You probably don't because you
41:05
haven't known me for 60 years, Right.
41:09
And but. But yeah, you know, somebody
41:12
says, hey, you know what's going on?
41:14
You sound a little hoarse. Then I can say, you know.
41:16
Yeah. Yeah.
41:17
OK, here's the thing. All the way back to the
41:19
beginning, I Can't Sing anymore when they damage my vocal cords.
41:23
I have two notes and they are the wrong notes.
41:26
And so, yeah, it's like, OK, this is fun.
41:29
But yeah, you know, it's don't act like it's not there, but you
41:34
know, you don't have to dwell on it either.
41:37
You know, one of the things I, I love about your journey though,
41:39
is that you, you are so positive.
41:41
And in fact, one of the things I I think is quite remarkable,
41:45
you, you actually remind me a lot of a really good friend of
41:47
mine. She's actually from Colorado and
41:49
she's gone through many similar cancer diagnosis, traumatic
41:55
brain injury too. And she is also this positive
41:59
little beam of light wherever she goes.
42:02
And you reminded her so much, but one of the things that you
42:07
and her both have in common is that you look at these things as
42:11
a blessing. And I've, I don't know a lot of
42:15
people that would say, you know what?
42:16
Cancer was a blessing to me. Why would you?
42:19
Why would you say that cancer is a has been a blessing for you my
42:22
brain? Shorted out?
42:24
No, you know, it's when I was filling.
42:26
It out my, my, my fingers didn't type right.
42:28
Yeah, yeah. Now here's the thing.
42:31
I I am not always miss Perky perky, right.
42:34
I have bad days. My husband knows when I have bad
42:36
days. Nobody else does.
42:39
You know, I'm I'm not going to do that.
42:41
And now, you know, some of my friends can tell when I'm extra
42:44
tired, things like that. But yeah, you know, you just
42:48
what's what is it put on a happy face, right?
42:52
You know, and, and so, but it is very much about your attitude as
42:56
to how you're going to get through it your way Back when I
42:59
worked for that oncologist, he was now, this was 35 years ago
43:03
or so that I work for the oncologist.
43:05
He would say 99% of it is in here.
43:07
And he would point at his head, if you think you're going to
43:10
die, you're going to die. If you think you're going to
43:12
live, you're going to live. Now, the prognosis might not
43:15
have been good. I mean, they might have only
43:16
lived five days, but how did they live during that time
43:19
period? You know, and, and so, yeah,
43:22
it's you, you, you want to stay as upbeat as you can.
43:26
And, and we all know humor and laughter helps us heal, you
43:31
know, and, and so how can we do all of those things?
43:33
And I got us off the question. I don't remember what the
43:36
question was. Well, the question was is why
43:39
would you say that cancer was a blessing to you?
43:42
Because most people would say, well, this is my curse that I
43:45
carry now. And you go, this is a blessing.
43:47
This is this is for me to make me better.
43:51
I mean, it's, it is kind of a catch 22 because I have chronic
43:54
pain, you know, and, and several other things.
43:57
And, and I'm, I am at about surgery #35 you know, and, and
44:01
so those, those are not fun. My scars have scars.
44:05
But it is also, I think probably the biggest thing is it has
44:09
truly made me value life and know that it could end tomorrow.
44:14
I mean, I've come close. There were three times that they
44:16
told my husband, you know, and, and, and yeah, it's so live your
44:22
life. Don't, don't put stuff off.
44:25
Value the people that you are around.
44:28
I mean, I never would have met you right if it hadn't been for
44:32
this. And and that's kind of one of
44:34
the cool things too, is who has it brought into my life?
44:37
And you know, and that's just been so fun to to be able to see
44:41
that, you know, I'm, I don't put up with toxic people.
44:46
No, I'm just not going to do it. I don't really watch the news an
44:49
awful lot. I know what's going on out
44:51
there. I don't need to know much more
44:52
about it, you know, and, and, and I also put that on the flip
44:57
side of that. I, I tell people I love them.
45:00
I tell them I appreciate them. Even if it's back to, you know,
45:03
just like my mother, you need to say thank you.
45:05
I do, I try now, do I always know?
45:08
But I really try to show my appreciation, my gratitude
45:11
towards people. I love that your husband has
45:15
been with you for over 32 years now.
45:18
I'm curious, how did you guys first meet and how has having
45:23
him in your life made you more of the person that you feel like
45:28
you were created to be so? He lived in Denver and he was my
45:33
best friend from age 5. He was her next door neighbor
45:38
and she had a Kentucky Derby party and the rest is history.
45:42
In fact, I remember telling her you can tell Tom it's OK if he
45:45
calls me. And he backs the right horse.
45:49
He did he. Did I think he thought, what the
45:52
heck am I getting myself into? I know I wouldn't have survived
45:56
this without him. You know, he has been just an
45:59
incredible caregiver, put up with a lot because when I am not
46:05
feeling good, I am not a nice person, you know, and, and
46:10
obviously just the stress of all of it and, and having to do that
46:14
and having in, in a lot of cases to be doing everything, you
46:18
know, and, and because I'm just pitiful.
46:20
But but yeah, I couldn't have done it without him, you know,
46:23
and, and you know, I, I kind of joked before about being a
46:26
warrior. It says it on my arm.
46:27
It says right here that I am a warrior.
46:30
But you also have to have your tribe, right?
46:32
No warrior stands alone. And my husband is the biggest
46:34
tribe member that I have, you know, and, and that's just
46:38
always there. Why do you think it's so
46:41
important to have a tribe? Because, you know, we, we hear
46:43
about tribes, we hear about, you know, have your inner circle.
46:46
And I think a lot of people go, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
46:48
I've got my inner tribe, I've got my circle.
46:50
But most people, I don't think they actually intentionally put
46:53
the right people around them. You know, the people that are
46:56
around them are, they're there because of proximity, not
46:59
because of choice. And I'm curious, why is that
47:02
such an important thing in your mind, especially going through
47:04
everything that you've been through in life?
47:06
Why is it so important to have the right people around you?
47:09
Well, I think one of the things to remember is if they're not
47:12
the right people, get rid of them.
47:14
I fired doctors. That very first surgeon that
47:17
said now he did 2 surgeries. I mean, he did that initial one
47:20
and then he did one several days later that was 7 1/2 hours long.
47:25
And he actually couldn't make it through the surgery.
47:27
He had to have somebody else come in.
47:28
But I didn't like him, just did not like him.
47:31
And, and I thought, I don't have to deal with this man.
47:34
There's a reason he worked with people when they were
47:36
unconscious, you know, and, and, and there were several of my
47:40
doctors that I fired along the way.
47:43
But you know, and, and there are some friends that it's like, you
47:46
know, I'm just going to keep it at a distance.
47:49
But, you know, for one thing, we shouldn't go it alone, but we do
47:55
many times when we're sick. You know, no matter what, we're
47:57
just, I'm just going to be in this little ball curled up by
48:00
myself. I remember somebody posted on
48:02
Facebook one time I'd written a post about cancer.
48:05
And this person I didn't know because most of my posts are
48:07
public. You know, I'm, I'm one of those
48:09
people. And he responded, I have no idea
48:12
who he is. And he said, I've never felt so
48:14
alone in my life. And it broke your heart.
48:17
I mean, it was like, but people who did not know him, did not
48:21
know me, responded what can we do?
48:24
You can reach out to us, you know.
48:27
And, and so it is about that, you know, when I was so sick in
48:30
the hospital, oh, I look bad. I was bald that one treatment
48:34
did my hair in and and I had an Ng tube and I lost 30 some
48:38
pounds. So I was quite the delightful
48:40
person and and I didn't want anybody to visit me.
48:44
I did not want people to see me like that.
48:47
And it was probably, you know, several weeks into my stay where
48:50
I thought, no, you are a social butterfly.
48:53
You are a social creature. You need people to come visit.
48:58
And it was, it was hard on them. I mean, like I had some that
49:01
couldn't handle it, you know, and and that was OK that
49:05
nothing, nothing wrong with that or with them.
49:08
But but yeah, you need people. We, we are social creatures and
49:13
so we need people to be supporting us, even if it's just
49:16
to say, hey, can I, can I, you know, bring you dinner tomorrow
49:19
night. I think it's.
49:21
Really impactful because, you know, in the, in the world that
49:23
we live in, I feel like most of us are, are just on these
49:25
islands because you know, with social media, we've, we look out
49:29
and we see everyone's life is just so perfect.
49:31
And then we look at ours and we're like, oh man, my life is
49:33
falling apart and fill in the blank.
49:35
Or I don't have the right blouse or Vera.
49:39
Well, but isn't that true? Like, like, you know, something
49:42
like a health scare or or not even a scare, but actually going
49:45
through that for yourself. It actually really does put
49:48
teeth to life to say, you know what, you only get this one shot
49:51
to live it. And why?
49:53
Why not enjoy it? Why not love the people that
49:57
you're around? Why not put the right people
49:59
around you? You know, you have such this,
50:01
this fun energy about you. I I would love for you to tell
50:05
everyone about the adventures of Track career.
50:10
And he's not here. He's he's wandered off on an
50:13
adventure. So track is a little stuffed
50:16
animal. And that came about when I was
50:20
in the hospital. I had two very close family
50:24
members who couldn't be here and they sent little stuffed
50:27
animals, right. And, and I still have them.
50:31
They're they're on the old shelf when the dogs can't get them,
50:35
but they went with me every day, went with me through the
50:37
hospital, you know, all these various things.
50:39
And so I was not alone when I had those.
50:44
And, you know, you mentioned that I do dog shows and, and all
50:47
of these really weird things. And so one time when we were out
50:50
and about, we found this little stuffed, he's about four inches
50:53
tall Beagle. And his name is track.
50:55
It really does say that on his thing.
50:57
And so everywhere we go now, track goes, he has his own
51:02
hashtag, you know, tracks travels.
51:04
And if I dare to go somewhere without him, people get annoyed,
51:09
you know, and, and well, and you know, and it was funny because
51:14
we, we took a cruise to Alaska earlier this year, took my aunt
51:16
and uncle in and we went to Alaska.
51:19
And so we were, we were looking through the pictures just
51:21
yesterday and I started laughing and my husband's like, what?
51:26
So it's the final night and it's the whole crew and they have
51:29
come out to say thank you and, and all of those things.
51:32
So yeah, you know, everybody on the crew and they're in the
51:36
middle of it is track. One of them had come and stolen
51:41
him. And so all of these people
51:43
taking pictures on the cruise have the crew and track, but
51:48
it's, you know, it's, it's just this fun little thing.
51:51
It's very silly, right? But But yeah, you know, he, I
51:55
don't take selfies. I take pictures of track, you
51:58
know, and, and so but yeah, I mean, it's just, it's kind of a
52:02
fun little thing to to do And and you know, the flat Stanley's
52:06
or whatever it is that that people do.
52:08
Yeah. Track Track has Track has his
52:10
own fan club. I love that he has his own
52:14
social media accounts too. So you could you could look up
52:16
Trek if you want to. I have absolutely loved having
52:22
you on. I do have one more here question
52:24
for you here before we wrap up. But for all of you guys
52:26
listening, do yourself a favor, go deeper with Deb.
52:30
She is a powerhouse behind the Wise Women connections.
52:34
You can find that in the show notes here.
52:37
That is helping brands get seen, heard and taking seriously.
52:41
She's also the creator of Try Not to Die dot live.
52:45
You could also look at dot com too, but go with Liv.
52:48
Liv just sounds better. And then also she has an amazing
52:53
podcast that you should go and binge.
52:55
If you want to listen to a great podcast.
52:58
It's the Business Power Hour with over 111 hundred episodes.
53:02
Actually, it's growing by the hour.
53:05
It feels like it's just continuing to go.
53:07
She's recording one right now as we do this.
53:11
She's doing that sometime. That.
53:14
'D be fun. That would be an.
53:15
Interesting concept, but she's interviewed everyone from
53:20
entrepreneurs to industry disruptors and she she brings
53:24
the same type of humor and fire that you guys heard today here
53:28
on this podcast. So make sure you go check that
53:30
out. Deb, you have this.
53:34
Everyone has listened thus far knows this, You have this
53:37
incredible sense of humor and humor truly does bring so much
53:42
levity to to life. Why is humor so powerful when it
53:49
comes to breaking down walls and connecting with other people?
53:53
How? How has humor been a connector
53:55
for you in your life? Well, sometimes it's been
53:58
inappropriate humor, right? But, but yeah, it's it.
54:04
Well, it's it's hard to be grumpy if somebody's laughing.
54:09
One of my goals always is and and I'm at a doctor once a week
54:14
is to make my staff laugh, you know, and and so when it now,
54:17
what is your name and date of birth?
54:19
Well, I'm Anastasia Beaver Housing and and they look at me
54:23
and now I don't do it to brand new people because I don't want
54:26
them going. Oh my God, I brought the wrong
54:27
page. I'm back and you've decided I'm
54:30
Princess Anastasia Beaverhausen. So, you know, one must do the
54:33
queen wave. But but yeah, you know, it's and
54:37
and there are documented medical reasons why laughter is good for
54:41
you. It, you know, raises serotonin,
54:44
lowers your blood pressure, all sorts of things.
54:47
Even fake laughter will do that because your brain doesn't know
54:52
that you're faking it. And, you know, and, and so, you
54:55
know, it's OK to, to laugh. I mean, you know, I mentioned
54:58
Robin Williams earlier. I mean, think of Patch Adams,
55:01
right? Making children laugh, you know,
55:05
and, and so, you know, in this world where it's grumpy, they're
55:09
bad things. We're not trying to hide those
55:12
bad things. But can we make somebody laugh
55:14
instead of cringe? I love that.
55:17
I'm going to ask you a follow up question to that because I just
55:20
love that answer. What is it?
55:22
What does it mean to live a life that is more than before you?
55:27
You've grown so much you you have certification after
55:31
certification. You've got numerous different
55:34
coaching backgrounds and different like it's, it's
55:37
amazing to hear all the things that you have your fingers in,
55:40
but what does it really mean to be more than before today, more
55:44
today of who you are than it was yesterday?
55:48
Don't be little. I mean, maybe that's the thing
55:51
now, I've always been kind of this outgoing personality and
55:54
everything. But don't hesitate.
55:56
Don't wait. You don't know what tomorrow
55:59
holds, you know, I don't want my head stoned to say I wish I
56:02
would have, you know, and and so just be more.
56:06
Do I need naps right before I went on the air?
56:10
You'll love this. I was sound asleep and I woke up
56:13
and thought, Holy cow, what time is it?
56:16
And I was just like, Oh my God, I've slept through the
56:19
interview. But you know, I did.
56:23
I really did be be more. Don't don't be satisfied with
56:27
how you are. I told somebody the other day, I
56:30
said the best thing you can be is curious.
56:33
Always be curious because that's going to make you be more, be
56:37
more than you were yesterday and tomorrow will be more than you
56:39
were today. That's.
56:41
So good Deb, you are such a bright light in this world.
56:45
I thank you so much for being on the show.
56:48
For all of you listening, make sure you go check out all of
56:50
Deb's content and remember to like and subscribe this episode
56:53
and make sure you share it with a friend because someone needs a
56:56
good laugh today. Until next time, remember to be
56:59
more, see more, and experience more than before.