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.