Season 3 of Podcaster Stories has just wrapped, and my
guests in this season shared incredible stories about overcoming adversity,
difficult times in their lives, and much more. In this
episode, I'm going to take a recap of these guests
and share their stories with you. In episode one, Fitz
Koehler of The Fitness Show, and author of the book
My Noisy Cancer Comeback, shared how her life changed when
she was diagnosed with breast cancer, and how she used
that as a starting point for her inspiring fight against
it.
Nobody told me XYZ was going to happen. So they
tell you up front with chemo, Oh, you might feel
sick and you might be extra tired and you might
be bald. Nobody tells you that your eyes may change
colors or that your fingernails may rot out while on
your hands and stink to high hell. Nobody told me
any of those things. So as the accumulation of side
effects became the size of a mountain, I kept.. It
turned humorous. You know, it was one of those things
where I thought, holy crap, this is so funny.
In episode two, I spoke with Roman Mironov of the
Be Version 2.0 of Yourself podcast. Roman talked about his
work as a personal relationship coach and the importance of
defining what's healthy and not healthy in your relationships.
Oh, you know, when you see masturbation in it of
itself is oftentimes there's not a real problem. The problem
is that when you rewire your brain to associate sexual
pleasure with porn and your hand, rather than normal sex,
and because many people start with this, you start this
habit in teenage years, it becomes so ingrained that it's
so difficult to get it out of their head later.
So I always encourage parents to have this conversation about
masturbation as, as early as possible.
Episode three saw me talking with my wife, Jaclyn Brown,
co-host of the Mental Health and Us podcast. Jaclyn shared
her 20 year battle with anxiety and depression, as well
as the effect an abusive childhood had on her adult
life.
I did draw a little bit from my childhood and
I was thinking about, I was thinking about this. I
was kind of prepared to answer this question and I
didn't really know which way I wanted to go with
it because there are things that I definitely pulled from
my childhood and I put into that book. But for
the most part, I, I wrote about the life that
I may have wanted at that time when surviving the
abuse. So I was acknowledging that the abuse was there,
but, but I, I wish that it may have gotten
a little differently.
In episode four, John Adams of the DadPodUK podcast joined
me to speak about his experiences as a stay at
home dad for the last 10 years. And how Covid
has changed today's generation of kids.
This is a generation that is never going to work
9-to-5 in an office or workplace, you know, they're just
going to be, "Hang on, I could be schooled remotely.
Why can't I, why can't I work remotely? And also
the online etiquette skills that these kids are developing are
going to be second to none. I was talking to
another dad about it the other day that they, you
know, the, with all the experiences they are getting there,
probably going to be better then the most adults or
a meet, you know, that those kids that have just
left the university, they spent so much time online. That's
just what they do.
In episode five, communications pro Paul Sutton of the Digital
Download podcast shared some very personal stories about his journey
with mental health and the dark places he visited as
a younger man. He also shared how he's become an
advocate for mental health discussions in the workplace.
Yes. I think everyone has to take some time, sometimes
you just think, Oh, you know what? I know there
were certain times in my life where it sucked. It
really sucked, but look where I am now. So I,
I think, I think you're right. And I'm sure you,
you've got things in your life as well, where you
look back and go, what do you know what that
was a bad time, but I have grown as a
person and in my life when everything else that's come
on, I mean, you know, you've got kids and a
wife and things, and you must think the same thing
at times. And I think that's a valuable thing to
do.
James Perdue, host of the Professor of Perseverance podcast, joined
me in episode six, where he talked about being paralyzed
at age 19 and the sacrifices he and his parents
made to ensure he lived the fullest life he could.
Instantaneously. I was paralyzed. So I was told I would
never walk again, possibly not move from the neck down.
And, later on doctors advised my family to put me
in a nursing home at the age of 19, because
that'd be too much of a burden for them to
provide care for. And so you can imagine 19, someone's
going into a nursing home. I mean, I understand that
it happens, but it's just hard to believe something like
that goes on.
In episode seven, Steven Webb of the Stillness in the
Storms podcast was incredibly open about his life struggles, from
parents divorcing when he was very young to a life
changing accident, and how he used that to forge a
positive mindset that everyone can learn from.
But it is certainly, it gives you a perspective of,
you know, if you've got nothing and you lose everything,
you already know that you can lose everything and be
okay. Even at that doorway, when I was crying, you
know, I had no money, I had in in effect,
I had nothing. I didn't even have my ability to
move a foot forward and being 40 years old, literally
bawling your eyes out in front of the public on
a sunny Saturday afternoon... You don't go much lower than
that.
In the final episode of season three, Lainey Cameron of
the Best of Women's Fiction podcast spoke about her experiences
of being the only female senior executive in the tech
world and the toxic masculinity that inspired her to write
a book drawing from these experiences.
And I actually mentioned in the, in the author's note
that there was an example of something that I experienced
frequently in tech, which is meetings happening at a strip
strip clubs, where the guys we've been in, in a
meeting all afternoon. And they say, lets take this meeting
to this strip club and your face with this horrible
decision as a woman of like, you're either going to
say, you know, no hell no, in which case you're
that person, and now you were like out of it
because they're going to go anyway. So now you're out
of the meeting or you're going to go and have
the most awkward business meeting in the history of reality
where some woman is wiggling her tits and ass over
you while you're trying to have a business conversation. Or
you were kind of going to make a joke of
it and try to be one of the guys, but
not kind of, it's horrible.
It's just a horrible, horrible situation because there's no good
answer in that scenario other than don't do it, don't
suggest it, it's a stupid idea. But that was an
example of something I took out of the book because
I just thought people are not going to believe that
actually happens, even though it happened to me four or
five times over my career.
Thanks for listening to Season 3 of Podcaster Stories. I
hope you enjoyed listening to these episodes as much as
I've enjoyed recording them. And if you are listening on
your favorite podcast app, or via the web player on
the website, make sure to hop down to the show
notes and you'll get links to each episode. If you
enjoy the show, be sure to hop on over to
Podcaster Stories dot com, where you can catch up on
any episode you have missed as well as sign up
for the free newsletter for exclusive content and more. There's
also an option to send me a voice message, if
that's something that you want to do, just to give
me feedback on an episode or just chat in general.
The show will be taking a four week break now,
but I'll be back with Season 4 at the beginning
of June. Until then, stay safe and take care.