Hey everyone, Hi guys.
I'm Jackie Goldschneider, I'm Jensler, and we're two Jersey Jays. Yeah, we have a really really great episode today. You know what I was thinking. You know, first of all, when I said that, Evan always jokes whenever a show starts and they're like, we have a really great episode today, He's like, what are they going to say?
I suppose we'll be fun you guys, tune out, turn turn your radio.
No, But it actually is a great one today because I was thinking, like you know, when you have like you you wake up and you have this idea and you're like, oh, I really want to do this, and then like an hour later you're like, nah, too much effort. Yes, our guest today wakes up and oh my god, every
single thing you can imagine doing she has done. I absolutely agree, and I'm I definitely forget the Oh my god, I should do this, And three minutes in on my a You're like, no, because that'll take a lot of aff Yeah.
No, she is especially acquire shower exactly. But this woman, as you guys probably know, is a go getter for sure. Right, So today we have yes on the pad. Then again, Jack, I don't think we gave it enough of a bang.
Right, Today we have Maria Manuno's yeah, baby, yeah she is well, first of all, she's like the most stunning woman in the world. I always thought of her as just like a celebrity correspondent, right right, Yeah, So when I sat down to just like look at her bio, oh my god, Like there is nothing that she hasn't done, literally because she got.
When you hear the name, it's like you can't even like pinpoint though. One thing, she's just been a present. When she's younger, well she's your age, right, she's a little younger than me. But like I always picture her from and I maybe I mean, you know, I know Access Hollywood like all of those et and I know she didn't do all those not tamous Knight and whatever. I just always picture her.
I picture her also as the panteine girl, yes, like I know that with that unbelievable hair.
Yes, But she has been everything.
So she's been obviously a TV host, she was on Access Hollywood, E Extra, she was an actress, she was an actress, still an actress. She uh was a wrestler.
I don't even know, like we have to ask her a little bit about that, but like kind of a I can't even if you picture her in a ring, No.
I don't. I don't know exactly in what capacity she has to start as a WWE, but I know.
That she actually I know that she actually like fought Oh really, yeah.
I hope I'm not off there.
I don't know that, but I'm pretty right. Yes, I am pretty sure she produced a movie.
I know that. Yeah, I know that she has won beauty pageant, right, She's had a radio show, a podcast, a reality show chasing Mariam Minuno right right there, like literally there's been and she started early, like she started in childhood. So I'm really excited to talk to her because I only know this like little bit of fame as an adult, fully formed result, so I could make rational decisions.
I can't imagine starting so young. Yeah, and she's been through it, you guys. I mean, I don't know listeners what you know, but she is. She's battled, she had she's had several battles with her family having cancer, her mom had a brain tumor, her actually her dad had had Type one diabetes, which is what.
My daughter has.
So I'm excited to kind of talk to her about that. And now she's in her own battle with pancreatic cancer, so you know she's been through it, and she has a baby. She has a baby, and she has a new movie. Yes on it's on Lifetime. M Yeah, yes it is hill manor yeah, I can't imagine. No, I feel very inadequate segment.
She's very open about her health battle. Yeah, so we'll talk about everything. Really excited to have her on. So let's welcome Maria Minutos. Hi. Guys, Hi, Maria. You're just as beautiful as I was to say.
It's like, thank you. I was hoping my my crazy sunlight was gonna shift just at the right time, because see it's like right there.
No, no, no, no, you look ethereal it's actually.
Like an angel.
Yes, So it's not only what you look like, but as we were like, as we were opening here talking about the things that you've done, it's a little bit intimidating.
It's bordering on annoying. But I am.
Welcoming you with open arms and a warm heart.
We both are. I am pretty amazed, are you Right now?
We're in Jersey, I'm in Connecticut.
Actually you're in Connecticut. Okay, so yeah, so we're neighbors. I met. We are in New Jersey. You know that came out like where and you grew up in Boston.
No, I grew up in Boston. Yeah, just outside of Boston, Hedford.
Oh okay, I went to Boston Universe we went to after a couple of years. But yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't. But anyway, that's for another episode. So Maria, welcome. Thank you so much for being with us. We really do appreciate it, and thanks for having no we want to just start out, you know, when we have started out already kind of listing your accomplishments. Your career has been huge.
I honestly, Jackie just said, like, you know when you like, wake up and you think I'm going to do this today, and then you know, five minutes in, you're like, eh, not so much. Like we're saying that Maria Minuno's is the one that actually does it, which is rare. So you know, and again we started talking about all the things that you've done, but maybe I'm sure that we're missing a lot. I was actually saying you started out as like miss teen, Were you like miss teen Massachusetts?
I was, yeah, I can't seriously, Wow, how did you get into pageanting?
Well, I remember I was like thirteen and I got a card in the mail for the Miss Perfect Teen pageant, And at that time I was like starting, like I really wanted a model, I wanted to do stuff. And I got the card in the mail and my parents, my dad was like no. And then the next year I came again. The next year, I enlisted the help
of my cousin Anthony. I was like, you got to convince them to let me do this, and at that point I was like fifteen, actually, and so I did it and I won Miss Massachusetts perfecteen.
I can't imagine.
I imagine it putting that title on a pageant now, I would never write no way.
Yeah, so I was perfectly.
Dad happy once he won. He's proud, of course, like we went.
It was the first time we won. And then we went to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina for the national competition. I think I came in like third or something there.
Wow.
And then eventually I did Miss mass Teen USA and did that, and so yeah, that was kind of the entry point.
And then in college, that's when your career started really taking off in the TV world.
Right, so I feel like everything is like baby steps, right, Like how does a Greek girl from you know, parents who are immigrants make it? I don't know. You just make one move after another. So the pageants were, you know, a great entry point. Started doing some commercial work and things like that, and then in college I was really studying journalism and film and worked on a movie with my now husband Kevin. That really was the launching pad, like you know, when my classmates didn't want to work
for free and I did well. Then somebody I met on the movie helped me get my big break in LA at Channel one News.
Wow.
So I didn't finish my last year of college because I ended up getting that job.
And you and Kevin your husband, now I believe I him correct, You started dating in college and your father was not pleased. And you already said that your Greek. You have a very strong Greek heritage background, right, Yeah, my dad was.
I think it was more like he was like freaked out that it could be having sex. I don't know, like it was just very bad. It was a very ugly time. So it was because he was in Greek And yes, my dad was, you know, had his dream of you know, me marrying a Greek person and that whole scam.
But you love that moving, But do you love my big fat Greek wedding? Doesn't love that doesn't but doesn't resonate with you?
Is that, of course? With the whole world?
Ye, that's true.
That's true every Jewish, Yes, for sure. With all of these jobs and all of these amazing things that you've done, is there any one that's been your favorite? You've done, commercial work, reality shows, radio work, all of it.
Yeah. I mean, listen, I love everything, which is why I've done so many different things. I've wrestled, and so I love to talking about that.
Okay, we talk about that. We have to.
Yeah, yeah, because jams can kind of understand what you're saying right now.
Were you part of the WWE?
I am fourno on the WWE? I wrestled at WrestleMania Guys. Mark Wahlberg was sitting front row and I watched his mouth go, what are we? I'm like, God, why'd you even?
Who said? Marie? We have an idea? It was you? I want to be a wrestling What what are you talking about?
Inside scoop, I watched wrestling my whole life with my dad, and so I was a diehard wrestling fan. I met Kevin, who's also a diehard wrestling fan. When I first met Kevin as a chubby nineteen year old at one point when he you know, we were working on his movie. He lost, his movie went bankrupt. The whole world caved in on him. He was going to go potentially work with the WWE, and he was like, you could wrestle,
all right? It was like great, So he went and he met with Shane McMahon and he met with you know them over there. I think he even had FaceTime Evince at the time. And my job at Channel one came in the interim, and so that never even came to fruition. So we left and we moved to LA But then the dream to wrestle was still there, so then let me finish. So then flash forward years later, I was telling my publicist because they started having Monday Night Raw guest hosts. I said, you got to get
me in. I have to do this, And so he calls me like a month after that meeting. Meanwhile, he had not made one call yet, and he's like, you're not going to believe this. I didn't even call them. They called us. They want you to do it. I said, great, on one condition, I want to wrestle. They didn't take me seriously. They thought I was you know, and by the way, WW is such a machine, they don't have time to worry about Maria wrestling or whatever. So I
went and I hired a coach. I started doing backyard wrestling and learning. I showed up for that guest host appearance. I'm like, I know how to wrestle, let's go, and they created something on the fly, and from there I knew how to taunt the audience as a fan, so I taunted the audience. I taunted the other wrestlers and it became a thing that led to WrestleMania, and it was the first time the women got airtime on TV. It was a big deal. And I was doing Dancing
with the Stars at the same time. So I had cracked ribs, fractured feet. I was a hot mess. But I had to go and I did it, and it was one of the highlights of my life for sure. And then the other favorite thing I've done was like Nightly News for sure.
Ria, but your face, I would have never if we had been friends back then, I would have never allowed for such a thing.
You could really get hurt. No, right hurt. Look at her face? Who does that?
I'm dead? I said, okay, you know I said that to Daria Baronatto, who's now Sonya Deville and WWE. When she first came to After Buzz as one of our hosts. We went to Aronda Rosie the UFC fight and we were sitting in the booth and I go, you are too pretty to be fighting and having people punch you in the face. We out you and then long story short, I'm in a meeting with USA Network for tough Enough, no for something for general, and they're like, you should
do tough enough. I'm like, no, but I know who's perfect. And then she did that and ended up launching her whole career, which is so cool. So she made the shift. Wow.
So dancing with them? What's easier dancing with the stars or WWA or what's harder? I can't imagine. Both of them are so out of my realm of what I possibly can do.
They're both really hard wrestlers, really have a hard life. I mean they're traveling three hundred and sixty days a year by rental car and you know, the whole thing. I mean, the what they put their bodies through is so intense. I have the utmost respect for them, which is why I think I did so well with them, because they knew I wasn't just, you know, there for any other reason. I really respect them and their craft and dancing.
My god, when I.
First started had the video, I couldn't put you know, two steps together. Derek had, you know, a definite project player on his hands. But you know, the cool thing in my life is I've I love challenges. I love living in that moment of like terror and like am I gonna be Okay? Am I gonna be? Okay?
Okay?
We did all right? All right?
Yeah, I'm so glad you said that.
Yeah you said someone like you that you don't get scared of. Yeah. Well, I was going to say, like, I don't want to be this cheesy transition, right, but like, clearly you're a fighter, and you know, I'm sure we're going to talk about your health challenges. But when I was reading what I was reading about you, even going back to your childhood, what struck me was that you grew up with a father with Type one diabetes, and
I have a daughter with type one diabetes. So I know a lot about how difficult that can be, but I'm sure most of our listeners don't know. But type one diabetes is way more It's still a bitch, but it's way more manageable now. So going back that many years, I'm there were no pumps, there were no sensors, right,
So it was life and very life and death. And I was reading about how often your father would have low blood sugar and how often he was, you know, on the verge of death and you had to be tough. How old were you when he first was diagnosed.
Oh, he was diagnosed when he was like twenty, way before I wash, okaved, yeah, so it was my whole life with him.
Yeah, okay, okay, So I mean I'm I'm thinking you know that already. Now you have a different type of childhood starting there, and you obviously rose to all of these occasions. But yeah, the fighting thing, the wrestling thing. Again, I didn't want to sound cheesy, so I'm glad you said it, but you clearly enjoy a fight.
So the one job aspect that we do have in common was the reality show. Yeah, yeah, unfortunately, yes, right, so your reality show it was called Chasing Briam and you know, sorry, did you enjoy it? Do you like sharing your did you have to share your whole life?
You know that was such a tough thing because I had no problem sharing. The problem is they were so fake about it. They had like their agenda of what they wanted, which was marriage and babies, and that was my dad's dream. That's all he wanted at the time. And I said to them at one point, I go, if my dad is sick of this, then that means the audience is going to be totally sick of this.
So instead of allowing for reality to happen, which I think is hard with budgetary constraints, I'm like, guys, we are definitely full of stuff. And imagine if they had been filming these last seven years. There was so much stuff that had gone on. But they were the I guess, the plan you know, laid out was just very restrictive
and so it wasn't as fun as I thought. The one good thing is is I do I do have my family on camera, and it was it was fun to be with my parents a little bit more than I would have at that time because we had to squeeze in filming. But but but I do think that Jackie's like, I think about that for you, because you have your kids forever, you know, right, I have toes that I'll ever be able to watch back, you know, for all the good and the bad.
You don't find the time and the energy. How do you find the time for all of for all of it?
I mean before I was just a human doing. That's why I said, I'm like the brain tumor came to make me a human being. I was just a human doing. I was just a machine NonStop. And I think when you grow up the way I did. I just had someone on my show on Heel Squad talking about how we're high functioning codependence and hfc's are just really good in crisis. We're really good at solving everything. And you know, I grew up not speaking the language. I had to
be my parents interpreter. I was first gen had to literally revive and save my dad on the regular. We were always in fight or flight and you know, we you know, had some really rough times financially as well. So I think that when I made it in this business, I found it to be such a blessing. I was like, my God, I'm making more money than my parents ever could have dreamed of. How could I say no? And how could I not go for every opportunity and do everything?
And so yeah, that's what I did, and then got through a brick at my head and then said, let's recalibrate.
So you, guys, I just want to make sure that our viewers understand a little bit even more about your background. But your mom had a brain tumor. I hope it's okay.
I'm sure.
I'm thinking it's okay. I know you're very open about your struggle. It is okay. So your mom had had a malignant brain tumor. And was it a year later that you were diagnosed as well with a brain tumor? Month?
But a nine one months? I mean, wow, it's mind growing. Yeah, So what was that that whole time period? Were you working through it? Were you? Well?
It was crazy because my mom was diagnosed beginning of September twenty sixteen with a malignant brain tumor called glioblastoma stage four brain cancer, one of the deadliest cancers you can get. Oh gosh, don't ask. I have no freaking clue. This was twenty sixteen. Someone do the mau Yeah, thirty
thirty eight, thirty nine something like that. Anyway, I was working at E News at the time, and now I'm trying to like and serious X, I'm trying to keep all the masters happy while I'm also trying to keep my mom alive. And I thought the headaches I was getting and the pain I was having and the fatigue was all due to the stress of my mom. And then I started learning my speech and then I was needing second takes and I was like one take, Maria, Like what the heck's going on? And then I started
having really bad ear pain. And so the ear pain took me to the doctor because I'm like, do I have an ear infection? At thirty something like this is crazy? And he was like, you don't have an ear infection? What else are you feeling? Well? Once I started rattling off all those symptoms, He's like, I go, oh my god, and he's like what I go, I think I have a brain tumor, Like my mom, isn't that crazy? Just saying it right now, I'm reminded of how crazy that was.
And he's like, I don't think you're crazy. Let's just get MRI to rule it out, and then the MRI said I had a brain tumor. Now luckily mine appeared to be benign, but they were like, we don't know, but mine. Also when I talked to her the same neurosurgeon. When I call the neurosurgeon, doctor Keith Black's office, I was like, I need an appointment. They're like, oh, okay, so what time can your mom came? I go, no, no, no,
it's for me and they were shook. I said, so, surely this is going to be an easier surgery than my mom's and he was like, nope, this is way more complicated. Wow.
Is that hereditary or coincidental?
Totally coincidental. I believe it was the IVF that did this because when I was doing IVF. First of all, at some point we're going to learn how dangerous IVF is. I'm not against it obviously because I have a beautiful baby because of it, but I do always tell people to get a scan before you do anything, to see
if there's anything that will grow. The reason my neurosurgeon wouldn't let me get pregnant is he was afraid when you get hormones going, things grows when right, So I unknowingly might have had the brain tumor in my head all this time, or maybe it came out of nowhere. I don't know, But all I know is when I was taking those progesterone shots, I called my doctor and I said, I want to drive my car through a brick wall and I was my head was exploding, and
she was like, stop the progesterone. And that was I think months before I finished, months before I was diagnosed, I had finished my last IVF cycle, So I think the hormones grew it. So I always tell my girlfriends and now all of you, because it's really sketchy to like go out in public and say this stuff. I feel like people like get really like freaked out and upset.
But secretly, behind the scenes, I always tell my friends, if you are going to do IVF, find a way to get a skin and make sure that nothing's going to grow, because these hormones have the potential to grow things.
They say that about right now, So I'm not I'm way past the time to get pregnant, but I'm in that phase of menopause where you take hormones. You take estrogen right to make you feel better with in terms
of what's going on with your body during menopause. And then I think it's sort of the same idea, right, Like it's a very it's a balancing act and it's a risk versus reward because you know, hormones can if I don't know what, they can actually cause cancer, but they can grow cancer from what I understand.
So and doctors don't tell you that I had five rounds of IVF myself.
They don't tell you, and you wouldn't know that metals stuff like, you wouldn't know. And then also the other thing that's crazy is nobody knows that you can actually do natural realms. So it's a much less expensive thing too, which they don't want you to really know about. But my IVF doctor, doctor Wennie Chang, who is amazing, told me that it was possible. So if you have follicle naturally, you can just do a trigger shot and go in
for your your removal. You just have to time everything carefully. But there is a way to do natural cycles to avoid all of those shots.
I hope that a lot of women are listening.
Yeah, I hope that you know. You know, I always say that you have to advocate for yourself at these doctors appointments, because they really some doctors do not do a great job. But anyway, So, so you you're diagnosed with this brain tumor, they find that it's benign, you have surgery.
To reveals whether it's benign or not. So yeah, so they removed it as much as they could because there's a tumor that's there's still tumor in there that's wrapped around my facial nerves. So if he tried to get rid of it, I would have been paralyzed. So he left it alone, thank god.
So yeah, and so do you have any remaining Yeah, there's stuff that I fee.
But I manage it. And I've been doing a lot of things like lightning my mind talks and load has been helpful. Meditation has been helpful. I'm experimenting every day with stuff to to heal and get better.
I am. It occurs to me that I know I have known some people with brain tumors and malignant or not. Brain surgery is a very very serious kind of surgery. I don't think you know, it's not just like Okay, we're going to go in and take it out. When it comes to the brain, it's and you can if I'm not right, but I think it's very very tricky and very very risky, and so I just that hits me because you've just gone through a lot of stuff.
Yeah, that was an eight hour surgery.
No, that one.
Was six and a half I think, And then the pancreas surgery was like eight.
After your brain tumor comes out and you're recovering, then you get thrown another health Yeah.
Well, I was feeling something. I was getting really bloated. Things weren't right. I was like, something's off somehow predicted on my own show. An audience member later was like, you predicted this in April before you were diagnosed. I'm like what, And I listened and looked. I was like, oh my god. But that's not pertinent to the story. But the truth is is I knew something was wrong. I kept investigating different diagnostic tests. They kept telling me
it was fine. I went to the doctor's buckled over and excruciating pain, like unbelievable, unbearable pain. They told me it was fine. And it was only until I got this pernuvo scan that they found a tumor, a large tumor on the tail of my pancreas. It's called the neuroendocrine tumor. That's what Steve Jobs had and it had doubled in size within two months of that scan, where I went to the doctors and I was like, I'm in so much pain?
And when when was this? This was last year and it was you did the pernubo scan. Well you just saw our listeners because I hear more and more about people doing it. That's a full body.
It's a full body scan. Yeah, so they listen. It's not it's not free, and it's not perfect, but they saved my life when you know, traditional hospitals told me I was fine and sent me home. This thing doubled in size. Now where would I be by June if from November to January it doubled And my baby was due in June.
So wow, And now how old is Athena?
Now?
She's seventeen months next week?
Oh my goodness.
Wow?
Do you call her your miracle baby?
Right? She is?
I think I read that as yeah, wow, So your your health journey now, are you in the clear? Are you still battling?
You know, I'm in the clear in a lot of ways, but like there's still stuff right, Like I was in the Dominican Republic earlier this year because they thought they found liver cancer, and I was like, I don't think it's liver cancer. I think my body's just having a hard time processing all these scans. People think scans are nebulous, they're not. When you're getting gatolinium and you're getting CT scans,
these are very powerful, high radiation, highly toxic things. And yeah, if you're doing one, that's fine, But I've had to do so many and no one's really counting, and no one's really paying attention, and so I was like, I think my body's just having a hard time detoxing all this out while I went to the dr and I created this little health proto call of just sun and grounding and sweating and sleeping, and they all shrunk in two and a half weeks.
How in the world did you know that it wasn't your liver? How would you be that in tune?
I am super intuitive, but I also I've learned over these last seven years of this brain tumor experience and stuff to listen. And I just felt I felt like it didn't make any sense, and I didn't feel like it was true, because yeah, I just didn't. So I was like, I'm just going to go experiment, and I know the equator is really healing from everything I've studied and my natural path that's been on my show a lot that's helped me through a lot, and I was
really pleased, obviously with the results. And so when you say are you healed, I mean I still have a brain tumor. I still have lesions on my liver, like two new ones popped up, we just found, and I'm like, I'm looking at Kevin. I'm like, but I'm not scared. I think I'm fine. He goes, I think you're fine too, And so I just think, again, these scans that I got before now have accumulated. So it's it's a thing,
and so I'm constantly working on it. I'm using my red light and my sauna and my sun and my grounding and my fashion release exercises. I'm like, as as much as I can devote each day to my healing and my health. It's important obviously because I need to be around for my baby. But I know I'm vibrant and healthy. I know a lot of this doesn't make sense. The diabetes actually broke my heart and threw me on the floor because I think I have so much trauma
with that. Like the brain tumor was easy in a sense, Like I did have moments where like the mac truck rolled over my chest and I'm like, oh my god, someone's gonna saw my head open. But I watched my mom go in with a smile and I was like, Okay, I'm good. I'm in great hands. There's nobody better than doctor Black. And the diabetes killed me because I had quit sugar two years before, and I it just didn't make any sense all this shit.
I was like, I don't know.
I just want everybody to understand. I don't understand it all everything you're saying. I understand this part of it that is type one diabetes. And I want you guys to understand that that in itself is an every day on your mind.
I know this.
I'll cry too, because it's like that in and of itself is so hard, and then you have all of this other stuff. You are my absolute new hero. You have to be my friend, our friend.
You must. You are so I'm so proud of you.
Maria.
What's your energy level like has it affected like.
It's been so hard at different time times like to be honest, but right now it's been it's on the upswing, and so that's been really exciting. I mean, doctor Allison and I have done so much work that I feel like I have more energy than I ever have. So that's been really good.
You know.
I say, I kind of have to pitch a perfect game with my health, like I can't. I don't have a lot of wiggle room because I have to. I have to really heal from all these things and they are healable. Like even when they found the breast lesion. I went back to doctor Funk and she goes, it's shrunk. I was like, yes, because I focused in my meditations on it shrinking. So I keep getting success even though there's so much shit that pops up and it's felt
like whack a mole. I know how to heal, and I believe in my healing and Saint Nctarios, our healing saint, has been so good to me.
So I need to write that down.
Star Saint Niktarios Nectar Nectarios. Okay, he is the healing saint in the Greek Orthodox Church, but he will heal anyone who believes in him, and I've had so many miraculous moments of healing, whether it's me, my mom, my friends. I wear my bracelet that I got at his church in Aegina, Greece, which is an island just south of Athens, and so ever since he's come into my life, like so much good has happened, and I know that the
it looks like so much bad has happened too. And listen, it's not been easy, but I do believe that it's happened for me, not to me. And I do believe that it's happened to me because I can figure it out and I can heal and I can show other people how to do it, and I do that through my show every day.
So you know what a mindset. It's unbelievable. You know. They say that like you could have a million problems until something happens with your health and then you have one problem. There is just no there's no way around it. You are my hero.
I've had people in my life that have been you know, they've been, they've gotten sick, they've had kids. I have friends whose kids have gotten sick.
Nobody.
I always say this to my daughter, who has Type one I'm like, you know, nobody gets away, and I just I'm much talking about health issues. No one gets away. Everyone has got their stuff, and hopefully we all deal with the cards we are dealt with, you know, we can actually turn them into something productive. You wanting to inspire people, you know and say, what did you just say?
It happened?
Happened to me?
I absolutely absolutely love that. But you know, tell us something good, tell us.
Let's tell us, let's pivot a hard pivot and talk about this Christmas movie. Now, I'm a Jewish girl. I love Christmas. Me friends all love it too, so I just get this feeling. I remember sitting in the movie theater. I was single. It was like two thousand and six. I was like, I'm never going to meet newbody, and I was watching that movie Love Actually yeah, my husband a few months later, but I was like, I just nothing makes me feel better than a Christmas movie, Christmas general issues. Please.
Well, I'll tell you. The Christmas movies came at the perfect time because it was on my bucket list to do one, and it was because of my mom that I got in the first one. Because I had made this like little video on YouTube of our journey caretaking
for her in her last months. And my friend Ryan McPartland, who is a Christmas movie star amongst other amazing things like chuck and stuff, but he was making one just down the street in Connecticut, so he connected with me to tell me how moved he was by this peace I put together. And then I ended up as his sister in this, and then the director of that called me to start in the next one, which came out two years ago, and then he called me for this
one that we shot in London. So funny you talk about love, Actually we shot ours in London, so you're not really used to seeing, you know, these holiday movies on Lifetime, et cetera, where they're set in London. There's I think only two Christmas movies set there. So you're going to get the most amazing British feels, the accents, the charm.
Are you British in it? Do you have to have put on the absent?
No, thank god, because that would take a little bit of work because my accent ain't great. But but I've worked on it the whole time there. But I play an architect, like a New York City architect who, unknownst to her had this great aunt that left her a manner and she has one week she has to spend there before she can make the decision of keeping it or getting rid of it. And she's like, you know,
the super type A, it's all about her career. She shows up there, she sees a whole other lifestyle, you know, a life where like community and events and you know, Christmas, you know, Carol of the Bell, events and stuff are the main focus. And she ends up falling in love and sees a whole other path for life. And I feel like a lot of us need to to kind of see it for a few reasons. One like, listen, we love holiday movies, and this one I think will
make you have all the holiday feels. And I know for me, with everything that we've gone through, these have been great escapes. And there are hard times out there. People are really suffering, and that's why we love watching these.
But the other thing is is like for all of us kind of type A high function and independence, some kidding, all of us Type A women who kind of sometimes forget that there's other things that matter other than just business and making it and succeeding and buying more things.
Like are you listening to us.
We need us in particular, need to be hearing this. Yes, yes, I know, but it's just it's so true because it's so easy, especially in we were in reality television and you forget all of a sudden, you're so caught up in that world and all you know you need to be reminded. But please, I'm sorry, go on.
Yeah. No, life is about more than that. And the problem is is we've been born and bred into like achieved, succeed, get good grades, get a huge job, make a lot of money, and then maybe marriage and kids. Never health, but everything's always an aside to money and success that's always first. And so the great gift I think I've gotten from all of the health crises is that there's
so much more to life. And I've been working actively in the last seven years on redefining success from myself, because we also define success by other people's standards, and I caught myself doing that. I was chasing the people who were working twenty four to seven and like all this stuff, and I'm like, wait, this is so against my nature. I don't care. Kevin's been trying to put shows together with my name on it. This and that I don't care. I just want to be happy. I
want to live. I want to cook something in my kitchen with my family. I want to be present for my baby. I want to work as little as possible, but maintain as much as I can what I have now. I don't need more. Like I remember meeting with a friend who was, you know, really successful in business, Murray folio. She's a business teacher, and we were talking about kind of my next phase in life. This was two years ago, and she's like, how much money do you want to
kind I'm like, I give her a number. It was so low, and she goes, what I go, I don't care. I just need to be healthy. That's all that matter. But we don't ever realize it until shit hits the fans. So I'm always I think that now more than ever, and the millennials are doing this, the gen zers are doing this. They're looking at our generation like we were crazy people, workaholics, and they're going the other way. But there's a happy medium, right.
They're getting a lot of slack for that too. They're called a very lazy generation, a very like coddles. Well, I think there is a happy medium.
Yeah, yeah, Like we don't need to be chasing a life that we didn't even want. And I think that a lot of us chase a life we don't even want. We're not really happy, We're like snappy and short and miserable. I know, I remember, and it's not worth it.
It's just I mean, can you just change that by changing your mindset? Because I think I have a little of that, Like I want things so that I mean, I'm not super in tune to what I want. I sometimes I know that I want things that I don't really deep down want, but I want other people to see me doing them.
Yeah. Yeah, And I think that it really comes down to you having like some time with yourself to be like, what do I really want? What do I not want? And how do I now get time with myself to be more introspective? Like meditation has changed everything for me. I'm not currently meditating the way I was. I'm about to get back on track because we've been doing so
much here. But but I'll tell you like it, it really is important to find the things that are going to give you joy and happiness that don't cost anything. Making that list and then realizing, well, like all these things that I'm focusing my energy and attention on are taking away from the things I really want. I really want time with my family. I don't want to be on my phone all the time. I want to be able to go, you know, on fun adventures with my
with my kids, or with my friends. Or I don't really care about the stupid new.
Chanelle bag like Ammen's sister.
I don't want to be robbed, so I don't buy this stuff. I'm like at this point, like you're just a target anyway, Like, let's let's put that into just not having to work more so, less less of that stuff, more peace.
If you ever want a new job, you could be my life coach. Do you write?
Are you writing a book? I mean, I know you've done enough and I shouldn't be pressuring you.
But you've written a book? You have.
I've written a few books, but but that was in my crazy stage. You know, it's been really hard. I had a book deal just before COVID didn't feel right, so I passed. I do have a few in me, but I really just want to be with Athena, and so it's going to take a while before I have a documentary. I've been in the middle of I'm like, everything's just going to take a backseat to my health and my baby, So you don't need.
To actually give us what we want them, because I've got a list of things from.
You, I will tell you. Funny enough, I was just on a meeting with one of my team members and I was like, listen, and I finally think I have the energy to put some things forward that I've wanted to do, and I almost did last year, but then the pancreast tumor derailed me. But one of my dreams is to put health retreats together and take people on this journey so that if you want to be healthier, you'll learn the foundational health things that you need to learn.
But if you need to heal from something, we can also teach you how to do that. I've also already guinea piged myself. I've proven that the stuff works, and doctor Allison, my partner, is the genius of all geniuses. And then I want to also put a course together for women to be able to do exactly what you
were just asking, figure out what you really want. I got this weird downloading COVID and it was like coming through so fast and I'm writing everything down, writing everything down, I'm like, I need this and then I go me this shit. So I was just on the phone with that. I was like, if we can make this easy and I can film this and it's a course and people can just grab it and use it and do it, I'm in. So I'm working on.
Going to pat those together. Jen and I want to be deposit now.
Just tell us what's your bed And I am so excited to see your holiday movie.
You can go to my Instagram and you'll find it Christmas at Plumb Hill Manner. And then my podcast is He'll Squad, so you guys can always.
Listen to them as well be listening.
And I hope that I don't know, I feel so I don't want to put you on this weird pedestal and if people do that a lot, and I don't know if you would like that or not, but I'm just I know, Jackie, we both are just in. Yeah, you know, it's like we're all humans, we all struggle.
Nobody's I feel very much like my priorities get reset when I meet someone like you and I listened to you and you're very guyased. Yeah, and it's really been an honor to speak to you.
Thank you guys, thank you so much. And if I can be helpful with your daughter with Type one. I learned to look at the equator, my blood sugar, you're going down. It was crazy, really, Oh my god. I was like lighting bread without having to take insulin. People heal from diabetes at the equator, people heal from MS Parkinson's. It's unbelievable.
Yeah, I don't know anything about this.
That's amazing.
If you wouldn't mind, then off camera we're gonna have to have a little discussion because I would love to know.
Well. Also, if you go to heel squad dot com, I took because Apple Podcasts doesn't organize the episodes that also, you can't really find what you need easily when you've done as many episodes as I have. But there's a column called foundational Health. There's one for autoimmune, there's one for cancer. Foundational Health. All those episodes will teach you everything that I did to heal the liver lesions and
everything about the equator and how powerful it is. So you can deep dive on the episodes that are connected to specifically those themes on heel Squad dot com. They're called healthy.
I think amazing. I was working. Yeah, thank you so much. Wish know only good things and everything and happy holidays, and I can't wait to watch Thanks Maria, Thank you Maria.
That was unbelievable. I feel like so freaked out and not freaked out in the best way.
Yeah.
I like to see this woman who is again, you're probably the same age, right, I think she's a little bit younger. She looks so young and well.
Her mindset is fucking amazing. I it makes me feel nervous because I don't pay attention to my health nearly as much.
When she said she did that scan, I forget. I almost don't want to know. I'm very nervous. I know everyone else, but anyway she is and inspiration doesn't seem like I know.
It's amazing. I want to have that guy on. To know yourself so well that someone could tell you that you might have. If someone ever said the words liver cancer to me, I would black out, and then my entire life, every focus of every second of every day would be about whether or not I.
Have liver cancer.
For her to intuitively know that it just doesn't feel like I have that is fucking mind blowing into me. How do you know yourself so well? I don't know.
You know, Jack, I'm a reaching hypochondriac, so I always think I have everything, but I don't know. This woman is amazing. I am definitely gonna watch her and Jackie Jacqueline. Who's on Jackie Jackie? I know you got the name of the new doctor that we want on the pod, doctor Joe Dispensa.
I would love that game. I need to learn how to do the things in life that I really authentically want to do, which a lot of them. Listen, some of the stuff I'm doing I do want to do, and I love every second with my family. Career wise, I'm not so sure what I really authentically want.
It so easy, we both struggle, we both have mental health struggles. Yeah, and so yeah, nothing is easy. Everything is a journey. But yeah, I mean, I hope a ton of people listen to this.
Yeah, me too, me too. All right, guys on that note, all right, we will see you next time.
I love you, guys. You jack Let me go you guys. Bye.
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