March 13, 2025 • 33 mins
Carly shares her powerful journey from cancer diagnosis to healing through an integrative approach that honors both conventional medicine and holistic therapies, all while staying true to her entrepreneurial spirit and faith.
• Diagnosed with thyroid cancer at age 33 after having her first baby
• Discovered the root cause was a dental infection from a college accident years earlier
• Took an integrative approach at Hope for Cancer clinic focusing on dental work, emotional healing, and cellular detoxification
• Achieved 80% cancer reduction through holistic methods before choosing surgery on her own terms
• Created "Carly Loves Kale" Instagram platform to share detoxification methods and mindset techniques
• Uses dance as therapy to embody joy and prepare her body for healing
• Combined modern medicine with holistic practices to create her own healing path
• Emphasizes the importance of agency in health decisions rather than being rushed by fear
• Now has two children and runs multiple successful health-focused businesses
• Believes everyone has a unique light to shine and encourages others to live freely and authentically
Learn more about our amazing sponsor the Van Waarde Foundation.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Piet Van Waarde (00:00):
So it's like if I get a.
Hey, this was great, I feellike.
Carly Shankman (00:04):
All right, If you get a hey, this is great,
send me the recipe.
Piet Van Waarde (00:08):
Then we'll see what Ross has to say about it.
Good, what do you like?
Carly Shankman (00:12):
to cook.
What are your likes andweaknesses?
I?
Piet Van Waarde (00:13):
really like casseroles.
Carly Shankman (00:15):
Oh yeah.
Piet Van Waarde (00:16):
So just whether it's like so I'm doing a lot
with bison right now becauseit's a good like healthy red
meat, so I do spinach and bison.
Last night or two nights ago itwas bison, spinach, good
(00:42):
Italian pasta as opposed toAmerican pasta, various cheeses
and then I put in kind of aspicy sausage as well.
That was the part that shewasn't all that crazy about.
She's not great about spice andso that was a little much.
Carly Shankman (00:54):
But otherwise it was good that meal would be a
100% hit in my house.
Ross grew up on a cattle ranchin Montana.
Piet Van Waarde (01:02):
Okay.
Carly Shankman (01:02):
So his like number one food group is beef,
bison, just red meat.
And then, which was funny, whenI went during my cancer journey
, when I went raw, you know Iwas just like eating my own
little food over here.
And then he I didn't cook formy family for like two years
during that time, because ourdiets were so radically
different, but that meal, thatmeal would definitely be a hit
(01:25):
for us, so I'm gonna try it yes.
Piet Van Waarde (01:41):
Well, thank you for joining us today for
another grand adventure onSidewalk Conversations, and I am
thrilled to have a guest withme today that I know you're
going to thoroughly enjoy.
In fact, I had an opportunityto sit in on an interview she
did about a month ago that Ifound her to be authentic and
fun and really insightful, soI'm sure you're going to
(02:04):
appreciate our guest today.
But before I introduce her toyou, I want to say thank you to
the sponsors of our podcasttoday, the Van Ward Foundation.
We have a foundation wherethere are people who regularly
contribute.
They are the kind of folks thatlike to stay behind the scenes.
They don't necessarily want theattention, but they believe in
the mission.
(02:24):
But I want to say a publicthank you to those who support
the Van Ward Foundation.
They are the ones that makethis possible.
So thank you.
Today I have Carly with me, so,carly, thank you for joining me
.
If you are on Instagram, youcan follow her at Carly Loves
Kale, that's right.
(02:45):
And we're going to get into thatin a bit, but let me start at
the beginning.
Tell me a little bit about yourgrowing up years, where you
grew up some of your keyinfluences.
Carly Shankman (02:55):
Yeah, so I grew up on Long Island, new York.
Hey, yeah.
Piet Van Waarde (03:02):
I grew up in Connecticut.
Carly Shankman (03:03):
Wow.
On the other side of the LongIsland Sound, east coaster baby,
there's a spirit.
Piet Van Waarde (03:07):
There's an energy about the people from the
Northeast.
I hear you.
Carly Shankman (03:13):
I'm one of four kids.
I'm the second child, I have anolder brother, younger sister,
younger brother and I feel likeit was pretty unique because my
dad was a salesman.
My dad worked full-time kind ofvery entrepreneurial spirit.
Salesman was gone and travelinga lot, working to provide for
the family, and then my mom wasthis nurturing, loving, stay at
(03:36):
home mom of four kids.
And so I really did and I seeit play out more and more.
As you know, I now havechildren and I have my own
family and I see how the balanceof that really plays out in my
personality a lot, because youkind of do both of those things
yeah exactly, I kind of straddlethe line between both of them
and I love both of them.
(03:57):
Like they're very, very muchboth a part of my personality
and my why for being here and Ilove both aspects and I'm like
sometimes I'm like, oh, I couldgo 100% in on business, like I
love this.
And then I'm like some days I'mlike oh, I could go 100% on mom
life, homeschooling, living onthe land.
You know all that and yeah, Imean it was a really pretty
(04:20):
typical upbringing and we wereloved, we were cared for, we
were given space to dream and mymom would say, like you know,
you can create anything you wantto create.
And I think that spaciousnessalso gave me a lot of room to
decide who and what I wanted tobe in the world.
Piet Van Waarde (04:38):
That's great.
Carly Shankman (04:38):
Where other people were whose parents were
like you have to do this, bethis.
That was a gift that I wasgiven was like what do you want
to create?
That's awesome.
Piet Van Waarde (04:49):
What do you want to build?
It's special, yeah.
And so Connecticut to Texas.
I mean, I'm sure there's agrand journey in there somewhere
, but kind of what brought youthis way?
Carly Shankman (05:00):
Yeah, so I went to college at Penn State and the
reason that I went to PennState I also have a Pennsylvania
connection.
Piet Van Waarde (05:07):
I served as a pastor in a place called Derry,
which was right outside ofPittsburgh, and there is no
natural beauty like the beautyof Pennsylvania in my view.
Carly Shankman (05:16):
Yeah Well, I was like right smack in the middle
of the state, on a campus for a40,000, 18 to 22 year olds.
So it was a unique experience.
But I went there because Ireally wanted the typical, like
university experience, like bigschool football, of which I
still don't really understandfootball.
Piet Van Waarde (05:36):
It's fine.
I went to the game.
Carly Shankman (05:37):
Still don't get it Greek life, and after that I
moved out to San Diego.
I was like.
I want to get out to California.
I want to get out to the beach.
Piet Van Waarde (05:47):
I know this is going to sound really strange,
but I have a San Diegoconnection too.
Carly Shankman (05:51):
But of course, of course.
Piet Van Waarde (05:52):
My youngest son and his fiance live out there.
Really, we love it.
It's so beautiful.
Carly Shankman (05:58):
It's really, really spectacular and so now
we're in Texas together.
Piet Van Waarde (06:01):
I mean, come on .
Carly Shankman (06:02):
Yeah, I know We've just been on the same
little trajectory around the.
Piet Van Waarde (06:05):
US for a while, for the last 20 years.
Carly Shankman (06:09):
When I was in San Diego.
That was my first job at acollege where I worked for a
personal development company.
I worked for one of thespeakers from the book the
Secret.
You know that was really talkingabout the law of attraction and
how to use your thoughts andyour energy and your words to
create the reality you desire.
And that was I mean he was.
(06:30):
He has passed on.
Rest in peace, james.
And he was one of the biggestinfluences in my life.
I was 23 years old and reallysitting in the back of these
rooms that people paid anywherebetween two to $10,000 to be a
part of, to learn how to changethe circumstances of their life.
And so that was a reallytransformational time of my life
(06:52):
.
I at that point, the book EatPray Love came out, you know,
like India, bali, italy and Idecided to go on my own Eat Pray
Love adventure.
Piet Van Waarde (07:03):
Really, yep, I was just like I'm gonna.
Carly Shankman (07:04):
I'm gonna go do this.
Piet Van Waarde (07:04):
I did go on my own eat pray, love, adventure.
Carly Shankman (07:05):
Really, yep, how fun.
I was, just like I'm going togo do this.
I did Italy no, I did Indiafirst and then became an au pair
in Italy, and it was while Iwas traveling that I actually
heard about Austin.
I heard that it was just a verykind of entrepreneurial, health
conscious kind of forwardthinking place.
Piet Van Waarde (07:26):
Yeah, yeah.
Carly Shankman (07:27):
And I didn't really have any plans after I
traveled.
So I was like at that point Iknew I wanted to be an
entrepreneur and I thought, whydon't I go there?
So I came to Austin in 2011.
Piet Van Waarde (07:42):
Okay, yeah, 2011.
Wow, and did you pick up ahusband along the way?
Carly Shankman (07:47):
I picked up a husband two years later, so he
moved here exactly a year afterme.
Piet Van Waarde (07:53):
He moved in 2012 to move from Montana
Because that would have been funif it was in Italy.
Yeah, no that you found him andbrought him home.
Carly Shankman (08:01):
No, no, no, he's my Montana mountain man.
Okay, who moved?
Piet Van Waarde (08:03):
he moved to Austin in's my Montana mountain
man Okay.
Carly Shankman (08:04):
Who moved?
He moved to Austin in 2012 toplay the fiddle professionally.
Piet Van Waarde (08:10):
Okay.
Carly Shankman (08:10):
So he's an incredible fiddle player and he
moved here to like be part of aTexas band and do the tour bus
thing and we met, we met here.
Piet Van Waarde (08:17):
Oh nice.
Now this idea of personaldevelopment is something that's
kind of really been a commonthread, because you now have all
these ventures that are relatedto health and fitness.
Talk to me a little bit abouthow that got started.
Carly Shankman (08:32):
Yeah, I mean I think that, like I said when I
started learning about personalgrowth at 23, it changed my
entire mindset and I definitelyattribute a lot of what I'm
doing now from you know, runningan online business to running
an offline raw organic coldpress juice company to what I
learned at that point.
(08:53):
I mean, both of the both of thebusinesses that I have right
now are directly because of thecancer journey that I went
through and I can go into thatin a little bit.
But without a shadow of a doubt,my mom, encouraging me from a
young age seeing my dad'sentrepreneurial spirit being a
(09:14):
part of the personal developmentworld at age 23, shifted my
mindset so that I knew I wascapable of building what I
desired.
And in my businesses today, alot of what I do is work on
people's mindset because I cangive them every tool to build a
profitable, beautiful onlinebusiness.
But most of the time, peopleare in their own way because, of
(09:36):
the conditioning that they'vereceived for years or decades
prior.
So, building a business.
It's not actually that hard.
You have the steps that youfollow.
It's getting out of our own wayto be willing to take the steps
to follow.
So yeah, it sort of just has.
Piet Van Waarde (09:52):
You know the personal development world and
what I learned at a young age iswoven into every aspect of my
life now, when I had a chance tohear you do this interview that
I think is becoming part of adocumentary a couple of weeks
ago, what was interesting to mewas that you started talking
about like I was already livingin this space, where you were
(10:14):
thinking about being healthy andhaving a good mindset, and then
all of a sudden you'reinterrupted with this cancer
diagnosis, which kind of threweverything upside down, of
course.
So talk a little bit about likethat discovery and then what
that led to.
Carly Shankman (10:30):
Yeah, for sure I have to take a sip of water.
I'm 21 weeks pregnant and likeI'm out of breath doing
everything right now, so right.
So when I moved to Austin, Iwent to school to become a
holistic health coach.
I knew that one of the thingsthat I wanted to do was help
people live better, healthier,more embodied lives.
(10:52):
So the first thing I did thatwas become a health coach.
I started working with peopleone-on-one.
I created some online coursesand then, over time, after I met
my husband Ross, we started adigital marketing company.
I started.
I became a yoga teacher.
I started doing yoga retreats,just like kind of in my 20s,
(11:13):
dabbling in all of thesedifferent things, and I was
already living this healthy lifeeating organic, practicing yoga
, meditation.
So in 2019, when our first son,cruz, was eight months old,
when I was four monthspostpartum, I got a massage and
(11:36):
she found a lump on my neck.
And she said, hey, just so, youknow, you have a lump on your
neck.
And I was like, oh, it's fine,it's probably nothing, I'm just
postpart, know, you have a lumpon your neck.
And I was like, oh, it's fine,it's probably nothing, I'm just
postpartum, I'll keep an eye onit.
And we were actually livingdown in Mexico at the time, so
we just like to have a lot goingon at all times?
Piet Van Waarde (11:53):
Yes, you do, and.
Carly Shankman (11:55):
I was like we're living in Mexico, I'm
postpartum, like it's not a bigdeal, I was not worried about it
at all.
But over the next three, fourmonths I noticed that it
continued to grow and I wasn'tfeeling that great.
And I said you know, ross, wehave this baby and I'm not
feeling great and I've got thislump on my neck.
We don't know exactly what'sgoing on.
Let's go home, let's go back toAustin and just ground for a
little bit.
(12:15):
And when we got back here I gotan ultrasound done and again I
wasn't thinking anything, I wasnot even scared going to get the
ultrasound, I was just kind ofgoing through the routine.
And I got it back and it waslike you know, all the red, it
could be lymphoma.
It was like it could be sixtypes of cancer.
And one of them was thyroidcancer, metastatic thyroid
(12:38):
cancer and essentially withthyroid cancer, they send you to
a thyroid practitioner and shedid her own ultrasound and said
it does.
It looks like it's metastaticthyroid cancer, but we need to
do a biopsy and I'll call you intwo days.
And even then there was shockand overwhelm but I was like it
(13:01):
still can't be cancer, like notme not me, I, you know at that.
At that point I was 33, newbaby eating organic taking care
of my body.
I was like I, I don't get cancer, you know, and I think that's
maybe a common experience forpeople.
And she called me.
(13:21):
Two days later it was nine inthe morning.
If you're the one that hearsfrom the doctor in the morning,
it's not usually a good thing,and, yeah, that was when it set
in, that that was really whatwas happening and I knew my life
was going to change and Ididn't know how.
There was the moment of youknow, will I be here to see my
(13:41):
son, will I be here to watch himgrow up?
And the way that I can describeit was like there was the
initial devastation, like takemy breath away, like knocked out
.
And maybe five minutes laterafter I sat with it, just five
minutes alone in my kitchen withmy baby eating breakfast, I was
(14:02):
like this won't be the storythat I tell.
I will tell a story of healingand I will tell a story of
victory and I will be the onewho shows how we can heal and
restore the body back to the waythat it's designed.
Because if I had been eatingwell and I was moving and I was
taking care of my mindset, howdo I get cancer?
(14:23):
And so I really got curious oflike, oh, there's a piece of the
puzzle that I'm missing here.
And I got really curious aboutfinding out what that puzzle
piece was so that I could go tothe root cause and heal it.
And that's where, kind of, thetrajectory of my life did change
because I went very, very deepinto a two, three year season of
(14:44):
extreme healing.
Piet Van Waarde (14:46):
Yeah, I love that, and part of that journey
took you to Hope for Cancer.
Carly Shankman (14:50):
Yep.
Piet Van Waarde (14:51):
And that we also have now as a common thread
.
That's right, we were destinedto know each other, yes,
apparently.
Okay, so I know there's probablyso much in this, but could you
just take a bit of time to talkthrough what were some of the
major discoveries that you madein this journey of researching?
(15:13):
Okay, I have these other piecesthat, if I figured out, I've
tried to be faithful to them,but there's this missing piece.
How would you, how would youcategorize that?
What was some of the keylessons that you learned and how
would you describe that to our,to our audience?
Carly Shankman (15:27):
Yeah, so the first really obvious one that
comes that jumps out to me is sowhen I was first diagnosed, it
was recommended immediatesurgery.
Like you have, you need to getinto surgery next week radiation
treatment, hormone replacement,the rest of my life and it was
(15:50):
November 2019.
And I didn't have insurance.
So I essentially said I have toput off.
Piet Van Waarde (15:52):
You know, and they're, they're very adamant.
You need to get into surgeryimmediately I.
Carly Shankman (15:54):
But I said I don't have insurance so I have
to wait until January 1, toapply for insurance and be able
to cover this surgery.
So I kind of got her off myback a little bit and bought
myself some time and in thatwindow I started researching
integrative cancer therapies.
I went on my Instagram saiddoes anybody know?
You know, I was just diagnosedwith thyroid cancer who has
tools or resources?
(16:15):
And I started learning aboutpeople like Chris Wart, chris
Beat Cancer and juicing and rawfoods and red light therapies
and I was just kind of likeGoogling and hearing from people
like I just kind of openedmyself up to say if one was
going to heal cancer in aholistic way, how would one go
about doing that?
And I started driving all overAustin going to different
(16:36):
practitioners and therapists andgetting IVs and things like
that, and I thought, gosh, thisis exhausting.
You know I was gone hours a dayand it was a lot on me.
And at that point one of mymom's friends called and said
hey, I just got back from aclinic in Florida that takes all
of these integrative therapiesthat Carly's doing and does them
(16:58):
under one roof with a doctorwho oversees, and that was all
we needed to be like we're going.
And these things are veryexpensive.
I did not have the money in mybank account.
I think we were genuinelymaking like $2,000 a month, like
enough to get by and live.
So I did a GoFundMe.
I did a GoFundMe and I was ableto raise enough money to get to
(17:19):
that clinic and the biggestdiscovery that came out of that
was I sat down with the doctor,which, by the way, I don't
recommend this clinic.
I haven't gone back there again.
I'm going to tell you why andwhy hope for cancer is my
healing home.
But I sat down with the doctorthat first day and he
essentially said tell me, tellme your story.
And I was like from when he'slike?
(17:40):
From the beginning I was likeokay.
So one part of my story wasthat my freshman year of college
at Penn State, I was at a frathouse and I slipped on beer.
This is like the craziest story.
I had heels on and I slipped onbeer on the floor because
people had been playing beerpong and I fell where it was
(18:00):
like my knees, then my chest andthen my face hit last and I
knocked out my two front teethand I broke the upper bone in my
mouth and he was like that's it.
I was like what do you mean?
That's it?
He was like I can pretty muchguarantee that you have a dental
infection that shut off theimmune system enough that cancer
was able to thrive.
In addition to the amount ofsurgeries you've had, the amount
(18:23):
of x-rays you've had doing workon your mouth for the last 10
years, and there's a directcorrelation between dental
infections and cancer of thehead and neck.
So he sent me to a biologicaldentist and I got something
called a 3D cone beam scan andit was black with infection.
Piet Van Waarde (18:41):
It was.
Carly Shankman (18:42):
I had infection all throughout my mouth in
addition to the place where mywisdom teeth had been removed.
There was infection in there aswell and the dentist said to me
he literally said you're luckyit's cancer.
The bones of your mouth couldhave fallen apart Like it was
that bad.
So during the seven weeks thatI was at that clinic in Florida
(19:02):
I had three separate dentalsurgeries done to remove the
infection in my mouth.
There were two weeks where mymouth was sewn shut.
I couldn't talk, I couldn'tlaugh, I couldn't smile and it
was actually during that timethat I spent a lot of time with
God.
You know I couldn't.
I was in.
I was in pretty rough timesstate I was going to the clinic
(19:25):
during the day I was recoveringfrom these surgeries.
My mouth was sewn shut and Iwould go to the clinic from
about seven to three and then Iwould come back and I would just
journal and rest and meditateand talk to God and I did that
for like two or three weeksevery single day and a lot of
(19:46):
emotional healing happenedduring that time.
So, interconnected, isn't it?
Piet Van Waarde (19:50):
Yes.
Carly Shankman (19:51):
So when you ask me, like, what do you feel are
the biggest things?
It would be the dental work.
For sure.
I say like once I removed thedental infection I turned the
faucet off right.
So once I turned the faucet offI could actually get to the
root cause healing off I couldactually get to the root cause
healing the emotional work,being willing to sit with myself
(20:11):
long enough to be quiet, torebuild my relationship with God
, to get out of the way, tosurrender and just say your will
is my will, regardless of whatthat looks like.
I'd really gotten to that placeof like hands off the wheel,
surrender.
Piet Van Waarde (20:26):
And what happened when I left that clinic
was and before you move too faron from that, I just want to
kind of put a punctuation markright there, because I feel like
this is one of the things I'veexperienced over and over, and
many of the guests who we'vetalked about with this kind of
thing.
It seems to me that that is oneof the ways that God redeems
the hardship is that he createsspace within the hardship to all
(20:51):
of a sudden do a new kind ofbusiness with Him.
Now, I don't think he causesthose kinds of experiences, but
it is part of how he uses theexperience to bring about a
healing in our hearts that is asinstrumental as whatever is
going on with us physically.
Carly Shankman (21:06):
Yeah, 100%, and I think it's also the gifts in
the darkness.
You know so many people ashumanity.
Right, we don't want to gothrough hard things.
We don't want to go through thedarkness.
We want to live in the light,in the joy, in the play.
But the truth of the matter isthat if you talk to people and
you ask where the greatesttransformations in their lives
(21:28):
happened, it happened in thedepths of the darkness, you know
, and I can very much say thatthat's the same for me, because
that building that relationshipwith God, coming back home to
myself, to my faith, beingwilling to surrender, also has
changed the trajectory of mylife and now I walk with God in
every aspect of my life, which Iwasn't doing beforehand.
(21:50):
Yeah awesome, and so when I leftthat clinic I had had some
progress.
Obviously we got rid of theinfection.
But when I got home I got anultrasound and I sent it to the
clinic and said, hey, would youmind looking at this for me?
And they said you're no longera patient and if you want us to
look at this, you have to pay$7,000 to come back for a week
(22:11):
for us to look at this scan.
And I was just like I was soupset, I was so angry, I was
like come on, I just I justspent all you know.
It's ridiculous.
I was like I want someone who'son my team, Like I want my, I
want my people, and it was rightaround that time that I learned
about Hope for Cancer and oneof the things about them is that
they follow you for a year,Like you go for your three weeks
(22:32):
stay, you go back again for afollow-up and then a doctor from
their team calls you once amonth for a year to check in on
you, and that was reallynourishing to me.
And the third pillar so therewas the dental, there was the
emotional work and faith, andthen the third one that I would
say is cellular detoxification,and that was the depths of what
(22:55):
we do at Hope for Cancer, wherethe way that I would explain it
is like restoring the body tothe way that God designed the
way that we came in the resetexactly so.
We're doing coffee, enemas,colonics, red light therapy,
heat therapy.
We're doing the emotional work.
We're eating the alkaline food,the juicing, all of the things,
(23:16):
and, I think, the healing thatcomes from having a doctor come
sit beside you and look you inthe eye and say how are you
doing today?
How are you feeling?
Tell me, I'm like how are youdoing today, how are you feeling
?
Tell me, I'm like, thank you.
Piet Van Waarde (23:31):
And we were talking about the community too
and I have to say that I saw ontheir advertising and I talked
with their intake specialist,who is now also a dear friend,
about the whole dynamic of we doholistic and you hear that word
a lot and they said you know,we have a spiritual component,
(23:51):
we have an emotional componentand what you eat and, of course,
the therapies.
And I'm like yeah, yeah, yeah,yeah.
And then the first thing youget there, all right.
So the receptionist comes tothe door and gives you a hug and
says welcome to Hope for Cancer.
And this stark differencebetween that and my experience
(24:15):
of going to a urology office andI have a great urology team,
but I can tell you thereceptionist did not hug me at
the door.
Carly Shankman (24:22):
No kidding.
Piet Van Waarde (24:23):
Where's your insurance information, young man
?
And so that whole dynamic.
And then you go into a worshipservice and then you have the
people that you talked to, likeyou said that actually take the
time to sit with you for morethan your five, 10 minutes in
the office.
It was such a profoundexperience and then the
relationships as we talkedbefore we even got on the air
(24:44):
are just so still an integralpart of my life.
Carly Shankman (24:50):
All right let me roll forward.
Piet Van Waarde (24:51):
Now.
You are quite active on socialmedia.
You have an Instagram accountcalled Carly Loves Kale.
Where did that name come from?
Carly Shankman (25:03):
first of all, Well, the funny thing was is
that that Instagram name is likenine years old.
I started it when I was ahealth coach.
Piet Van Waarde (25:11):
That was it when I started my health
coaching business I made.
Carly Shankman (25:14):
Carly Loves Kale , not knowing that fast forward
many years.
I was going to have an organicjuice company, which is just.
You know, that's how God works.
Piet Van Waarde (25:22):
Yes, yes.
So now you are givingencouragement and receiving
encouragement on that platform.
What are some of the thingsthat you find yourself talking
about regularly there?
Carly Shankman (25:36):
Mindset and detoxification for sure, Without
a doubt those are the two bigones.
People wanted to know like whatkind of red light and how long
do I do red light?
And what's a coffee enema?
And how do I do a coffee enema?
What's lymphatic drainage?
How do I do it?
So I spend a lot of time justreally talking and teaching
about practices.
Piet Van Waarde (25:55):
Is that where you do your dance as well?
Carly Shankman (25:57):
Yes, yes, dance is one of my therapies because
it's embodiment of joy and playand self-expression.
When you said that in theinterview that I was watching I
said, oh, I have to go check itout and you really do dance on
your Instagram.
I do, I do, I love to dance.
You know, when I starteddancing was the morning.
The first morning I went toHope for Cancer.
Piet Van Waarde (26:19):
Really.
Carly Shankman (26:20):
The first time I ever I was like.
I was like, okay, I'm here, I'malone.
I had three weeks I was awayfrom my baby and my husband and
I thought I'm about to go dosome serious healing work.
How do I get myself into a peakenergetic state so my body's
able to receive the therapies?
And I thought I should dance.
And I don't know why, but Ijust turned my phone on and
(26:42):
danced and talked about how Iwas embodying joy and opening my
cells for healing, and itstruck a chord with people you
know and it felt really good forme.
And so it's really become.
I've always loved to dance Likeat a wedding.
I'm the first one on the dancefloor, so it kind of makes sense
too.
Piet Van Waarde (27:02):
Okay, now you also.
You've actually also combinedsome of the modern technology
with your holistic approach andI think, at least for me, that's
been kind of.
One of the challenges in thehealing journey is that you
sometimes talk to the people whoare in the quote-unquote modern
medicine space and they havesuch distrust for the people who
(27:26):
are more integrative andholistic and conversely, the
other camp often looks at well,they're going to waste your
money and they're going topoison your body.
But you've kind of taken anapproach where you've included
both.
How have you navigated thosedecisions for yourself?
Carly Shankman (27:42):
Right.
So through my work at Hope forCancer and all of the nutrition
and the mindset and the detoxand the many things that I did
for two and a half years I hadan 80% reduction in the amount
of cancer in my body, and soessentially I got to a place
with Hope for Cancer where I waslike in maintenance and it was
on my heart to have another baby.
(28:02):
I had my first son, cruz, and Ireally wanted to have another
pregnancy.
And when I was pregnant with mysecond son, cash, there was
some progression of the cancer,which I knew was a risk, because
when you're pregnant you haveto stop your therapies and
things just change.
You can't be doing majordetoxification.
So when he was four months old,I called my surgeon and I said
(28:30):
he was four months old.
I called my surgeon and I saidokay, I'm ready, and I decided
that it was my time to go in andhave my thyroid removed.
And the thing about that wasthat I did it in my way in my
time, without being guilted orforced or manipulated, which I
think is actually a very commonoccurrence for people.
I can't tell you the amount ofpeople on Instagram or social
media who have reached out andsaid I wish I would have just
(28:51):
taken a pause.
You know, when a diagnosiscomes, we're just rushed and
we're in fear, and so we wannatrust these experts.
But the experts can only themedical, conventional experts
can only see it from one lens.
The surgeon knows surgery right.
So what I feel really gratefulfor is that I took that two and
(29:11):
a half years to do the cellularhealing so that when my time
came and said yes, I'm ready forsurgery, I went in there with
an incredibly strong immunesystem, an incredibly strong
spirit, and I have a video of mein the hospital gown dancing
before I went into surgery.
Of course Of course, and thatwas how I was able to do it,
(29:33):
because I did it on my terms andI did it on my timeline and my
recovery was so smooth.
One of the biggest things thatI've heard about having your
thyroid removed I had my thyroidand 30 lymph nodes removed was,
and the reason I was so fearfulof doing it originally was
because I heard from people.
I never felt like myself againand that was terrifying for me
(29:55):
because, I have this fire in thespirit that I didn't want to
lose, of course, and well, Ididn't lose it.
Piet Van Waarde (30:01):
I can tell I didn't lose it.
Carly Shankman (30:04):
And I feel more myself, more embodied, more on
purpose, more aligned than Iever have.
And it didn't have to do somuch with the what, but it had
to do with the how, which wasslowing down enough to say how
do I want to go about thishealing journey.
Piet Van Waarde (30:23):
Yeah, I love that because it just reinforces
this idea of agency.
You know, it really is yourchoice.
So we were talking, before wegot on the air, about this
support group that I'm helpingto lead, and one of the things
we keep coming back to is no,seriously, it's your choice.
What you want to do, how do youwant to live, what are the
important values that you wantto use as markers for how to
(30:47):
make decisions?
And that is so crucial, and Ilove the way that you just
expressed that and modeled it.
Carly Shankman (30:54):
Yeah, thank you, and it's interesting because I
also another question I get alot online is how do I get my
loved one, my parent, my spouse,to see it through this lens?
How do I get them to dointegrative or to do a coffee
enema or a colonic?
And I'm normally like you can't.
You know, what we can do is say, hey, here's a book to read
(31:15):
that I think might be reallyhelpful, or here's a link to
Hope for Cancer if you want tocheck it out.
But at the end of the day, Ithink that the greatest thing
that we can do is honor people'sdesires when it comes to their
health, their healing and howthey want to go about this.
So true, because I even hadpeople in my family who reached
out in the beginning and saidwhat are you doing?
Piet Van Waarde (31:37):
Listen to the doctor do what they say, and
they were so scared for me.
Carly Shankman (31:41):
I said the greatest way you can love me
right now is just to support mydecisions, because I'm the one
who has to sit with this.
You know, this is my life andthey eventually heard that and I
think it's for on either sideof the coin just supporting your
loved ones.
That's loving them is the bestthing that you can do, because
you don't want to add to thepressure Exactly.
Piet Van Waarde (32:01):
Yeah, good, all right, I want to give you an
opportunity to close out ourtime together with, if you had
to summarize your life messageas it is right now, and all that
you're doing and all thatyou've experienced.
What is it that you're reallytrying to say?
Carly Shankman (32:19):
What I really want to say is that every single
person came into this worldwith a unique gift, a unique
light, and that we need thatfrom you.
We need people who are turnedon and fully embodied in who
they are, using their voice,shining their light.
What is the quote from MarianneWilliamson?
It says it's like your light,but not your darkness, that you
(32:42):
fear most.
So permission, it's like Iwould want everybody just to
have permission to be as brightand big and bold and expressed
as possible, because the worldwill be set free by people who
are free.
And I love that, yeah, and we,I think we live in a society
that's like do this, look atthis, put, put you in a box, put
(33:03):
you, put a label on you.
And it's like I just want thisfrom everyone.
Like, just like, dance in theglory of God.
The way that we came into thisworld, shine bright and
permission to shine bright Boom.
Piet Van Waarde (33:17):
That's it.
This has been so fun.
Thank you so much for joiningme.
I know you have such a busyschedule and I really appreciate
it.
It's been an absolute delight.
Carly Shankman (33:25):
My pleasure.
Thank you for asking me.
Piet Van Waarde (33:27):
And thank you for joining us.
Join us again at our nextSidewalk Conversation.
Bless you and keep the faith.
So it's like if I get a.
Hey, this was great, I feellike.
Carly Shankman (00:04):
All right, If you get a hey, this is great,
send me the recipe.
Piet Van Waarde (00:08):
Then we'll see what Ross has to say about it.
Good, what do you like?
Carly Shankman (00:12):
to cook.
What are your likes andweaknesses?
I?
Piet Van Waarde (00:13):
really like casseroles.
Carly Shankman (00:15):
Oh yeah.
Piet Van Waarde (00:16):
So just whether it's like so I'm doing a lot
with bison right now becauseit's a good like healthy red
meat, so I do spinach and bison.
Last night or two nights ago itwas bison, spinach, good
(00:42):
Italian pasta as opposed toAmerican pasta, various cheeses
and then I put in kind of aspicy sausage as well.
That was the part that shewasn't all that crazy about.
She's not great about spice andso that was a little much.
Carly Shankman (00:54):
But otherwise it was good that meal would be a
100% hit in my house.
Ross grew up on a cattle ranchin Montana.
Piet Van Waarde (01:02):
Okay.
Carly Shankman (01:02):
So his like number one food group is beef,
bison, just red meat.
And then, which was funny, whenI went during my cancer journey
, when I went raw, you know Iwas just like eating my own
little food over here.
And then he I didn't cook formy family for like two years
during that time, because ourdiets were so radically
different, but that meal, thatmeal would definitely be a hit
(01:25):
for us, so I'm gonna try it yes.
Piet Van Waarde (01:41):
Well, thank you for joining us today for
another grand adventure onSidewalk Conversations, and I am
thrilled to have a guest withme today that I know you're
going to thoroughly enjoy.
In fact, I had an opportunityto sit in on an interview she
did about a month ago that Ifound her to be authentic and
fun and really insightful, soI'm sure you're going to
(02:04):
appreciate our guest today.
But before I introduce her toyou, I want to say thank you to
the sponsors of our podcasttoday, the Van Ward Foundation.
We have a foundation wherethere are people who regularly
contribute.
They are the kind of folks thatlike to stay behind the scenes.
They don't necessarily want theattention, but they believe in
the mission.
(02:24):
But I want to say a publicthank you to those who support
the Van Ward Foundation.
They are the ones that makethis possible.
So thank you.
Today I have Carly with me, so,carly, thank you for joining me
.
If you are on Instagram, youcan follow her at Carly Loves
Kale, that's right.
(02:45):
And we're going to get into thatin a bit, but let me start at
the beginning.
Tell me a little bit about yourgrowing up years, where you
grew up some of your keyinfluences.
Carly Shankman (02:55):
Yeah, so I grew up on Long Island, new York.
Hey, yeah.
Piet Van Waarde (03:02):
I grew up in Connecticut.
Carly Shankman (03:03):
Wow.
On the other side of the LongIsland Sound, east coaster baby,
there's a spirit.
Piet Van Waarde (03:07):
There's an energy about the people from the
Northeast.
I hear you.
Carly Shankman (03:13):
I'm one of four kids.
I'm the second child, I have anolder brother, younger sister,
younger brother and I feel likeit was pretty unique because my
dad was a salesman.
My dad worked full-time kind ofvery entrepreneurial spirit.
Salesman was gone and travelinga lot, working to provide for
the family, and then my mom wasthis nurturing, loving, stay at
(03:36):
home mom of four kids.
And so I really did and I seeit play out more and more.
As you know, I now havechildren and I have my own
family and I see how the balanceof that really plays out in my
personality a lot, because youkind of do both of those things
yeah exactly, I kind of straddlethe line between both of them
and I love both of them.
(03:57):
Like they're very, very muchboth a part of my personality
and my why for being here and Ilove both aspects and I'm like
sometimes I'm like, oh, I couldgo 100% in on business, like I
love this.
And then I'm like some days I'mlike oh, I could go 100% on mom
life, homeschooling, living onthe land.
You know all that and yeah, Imean it was a really pretty
(04:20):
typical upbringing and we wereloved, we were cared for, we
were given space to dream and mymom would say, like you know,
you can create anything you wantto create.
And I think that spaciousnessalso gave me a lot of room to
decide who and what I wanted tobe in the world.
Piet Van Waarde (04:38):
That's great.
Carly Shankman (04:38):
Where other people were whose parents were
like you have to do this, bethis.
That was a gift that I wasgiven was like what do you want
to create?
That's awesome.
Piet Van Waarde (04:49):
What do you want to build?
It's special, yeah.
And so Connecticut to Texas.
I mean, I'm sure there's agrand journey in there somewhere
, but kind of what brought youthis way?
Carly Shankman (05:00):
Yeah, so I went to college at Penn State and the
reason that I went to PennState I also have a Pennsylvania
connection.
Piet Van Waarde (05:07):
I served as a pastor in a place called Derry,
which was right outside ofPittsburgh, and there is no
natural beauty like the beautyof Pennsylvania in my view.
Carly Shankman (05:16):
Yeah Well, I was like right smack in the middle
of the state, on a campus for a40,000, 18 to 22 year olds.
So it was a unique experience.
But I went there because Ireally wanted the typical, like
university experience, like bigschool football, of which I
still don't really understandfootball.
Piet Van Waarde (05:36):
It's fine.
I went to the game.
Carly Shankman (05:37):
Still don't get it Greek life, and after that I
moved out to San Diego.
I was like.
I want to get out to California.
I want to get out to the beach.
Piet Van Waarde (05:47):
I know this is going to sound really strange,
but I have a San Diegoconnection too.
Carly Shankman (05:51):
But of course, of course.
Piet Van Waarde (05:52):
My youngest son and his fiance live out there.
Really, we love it.
It's so beautiful.
Carly Shankman (05:58):
It's really, really spectacular and so now
we're in Texas together.
Piet Van Waarde (06:01):
I mean, come on .
Carly Shankman (06:02):
Yeah, I know We've just been on the same
little trajectory around the.
Piet Van Waarde (06:05):
US for a while, for the last 20 years.
Carly Shankman (06:09):
When I was in San Diego.
That was my first job at acollege where I worked for a
personal development company.
I worked for one of thespeakers from the book the
Secret.
You know that was really talkingabout the law of attraction and
how to use your thoughts andyour energy and your words to
create the reality you desire.
And that was I mean he was.
(06:30):
He has passed on.
Rest in peace, james.
And he was one of the biggestinfluences in my life.
I was 23 years old and reallysitting in the back of these
rooms that people paid anywherebetween two to $10,000 to be a
part of, to learn how to changethe circumstances of their life.
And so that was a reallytransformational time of my life
(06:52):
.
I at that point, the book EatPray Love came out, you know,
like India, bali, italy and Idecided to go on my own Eat Pray
Love adventure.
Piet Van Waarde (07:03):
Really, yep, I was just like I'm gonna.
Carly Shankman (07:04):
I'm gonna go do this.
Piet Van Waarde (07:04):
I did go on my own eat pray, love, adventure.
Carly Shankman (07:05):
Really, yep, how fun.
I was, just like I'm going togo do this.
I did Italy no, I did Indiafirst and then became an au pair
in Italy, and it was while Iwas traveling that I actually
heard about Austin.
I heard that it was just a verykind of entrepreneurial, health
conscious kind of forwardthinking place.
Piet Van Waarde (07:26):
Yeah, yeah.
Carly Shankman (07:27):
And I didn't really have any plans after I
traveled.
So I was like at that point Iknew I wanted to be an
entrepreneur and I thought, whydon't I go there?
So I came to Austin in 2011.
Piet Van Waarde (07:42):
Okay, yeah, 2011.
Wow, and did you pick up ahusband along the way?
Carly Shankman (07:47):
I picked up a husband two years later, so he
moved here exactly a year afterme.
Piet Van Waarde (07:53):
He moved in 2012 to move from Montana
Because that would have been funif it was in Italy.
Yeah, no that you found him andbrought him home.
Carly Shankman (08:01):
No, no, no, he's my Montana mountain man.
Okay, who moved?
Piet Van Waarde (08:03):
he moved to Austin in's my Montana mountain
man Okay.
Carly Shankman (08:04):
Who moved?
He moved to Austin in 2012 toplay the fiddle professionally.
Piet Van Waarde (08:10):
Okay.
Carly Shankman (08:10):
So he's an incredible fiddle player and he
moved here to like be part of aTexas band and do the tour bus
thing and we met, we met here.
Piet Van Waarde (08:17):
Oh nice.
Now this idea of personaldevelopment is something that's
kind of really been a commonthread, because you now have all
these ventures that are relatedto health and fitness.
Talk to me a little bit abouthow that got started.
Carly Shankman (08:32):
Yeah, I mean I think that, like I said when I
started learning about personalgrowth at 23, it changed my
entire mindset and I definitelyattribute a lot of what I'm
doing now from you know, runningan online business to running
an offline raw organic coldpress juice company to what I
learned at that point.
(08:53):
I mean, both of the both of thebusinesses that I have right
now are directly because of thecancer journey that I went
through and I can go into thatin a little bit.
But without a shadow of a doubt,my mom, encouraging me from a
young age seeing my dad'sentrepreneurial spirit being a
(09:14):
part of the personal developmentworld at age 23, shifted my
mindset so that I knew I wascapable of building what I
desired.
And in my businesses today, alot of what I do is work on
people's mindset because I cangive them every tool to build a
profitable, beautiful onlinebusiness.
But most of the time, peopleare in their own way because, of
(09:36):
the conditioning that they'vereceived for years or decades
prior.
So, building a business.
It's not actually that hard.
You have the steps that youfollow.
It's getting out of our own wayto be willing to take the steps
to follow.
So yeah, it sort of just has.
Piet Van Waarde (09:52):
You know the personal development world and
what I learned at a young age iswoven into every aspect of my
life now, when I had a chance tohear you do this interview that
I think is becoming part of adocumentary a couple of weeks
ago, what was interesting to mewas that you started talking
about like I was already livingin this space, where you were
(10:14):
thinking about being healthy andhaving a good mindset, and then
all of a sudden you'reinterrupted with this cancer
diagnosis, which kind of threweverything upside down, of
course.
So talk a little bit about likethat discovery and then what
that led to.
Carly Shankman (10:30):
Yeah, for sure I have to take a sip of water.
I'm 21 weeks pregnant and likeI'm out of breath doing
everything right now, so right.
So when I moved to Austin, Iwent to school to become a
holistic health coach.
I knew that one of the thingsthat I wanted to do was help
people live better, healthier,more embodied lives.
(10:52):
So the first thing I did thatwas become a health coach.
I started working with peopleone-on-one.
I created some online coursesand then, over time, after I met
my husband Ross, we started adigital marketing company.
I started.
I became a yoga teacher.
I started doing yoga retreats,just like kind of in my 20s,
(11:13):
dabbling in all of thesedifferent things, and I was
already living this healthy lifeeating organic, practicing yoga
, meditation.
So in 2019, when our first son,cruz, was eight months old,
when I was four monthspostpartum, I got a massage and
(11:36):
she found a lump on my neck.
And she said, hey, just so, youknow, you have a lump on your
neck.
And I was like, oh, it's fine,it's probably nothing, I'm just
postpart, know, you have a lumpon your neck.
And I was like, oh, it's fine,it's probably nothing, I'm just
postpartum, I'll keep an eye onit.
And we were actually livingdown in Mexico at the time, so
we just like to have a lot goingon at all times?
Piet Van Waarde (11:53):
Yes, you do, and.
Carly Shankman (11:55):
I was like we're living in Mexico, I'm
postpartum, like it's not a bigdeal, I was not worried about it
at all.
But over the next three, fourmonths I noticed that it
continued to grow and I wasn'tfeeling that great.
And I said you know, ross, wehave this baby and I'm not
feeling great and I've got thislump on my neck.
We don't know exactly what'sgoing on.
Let's go home, let's go back toAustin and just ground for a
little bit.
(12:15):
And when we got back here I gotan ultrasound done and again I
wasn't thinking anything, I wasnot even scared going to get the
ultrasound, I was just kind ofgoing through the routine.
And I got it back and it waslike you know, all the red, it
could be lymphoma.
It was like it could be sixtypes of cancer.
And one of them was thyroidcancer, metastatic thyroid
(12:38):
cancer and essentially withthyroid cancer, they send you to
a thyroid practitioner and shedid her own ultrasound and said
it does.
It looks like it's metastaticthyroid cancer, but we need to
do a biopsy and I'll call you intwo days.
And even then there was shockand overwhelm but I was like it
(13:01):
still can't be cancer, like notme not me, I, you know at that.
At that point I was 33, newbaby eating organic taking care
of my body.
I was like I, I don't get cancer, you know, and I think that's
maybe a common experience forpeople.
And she called me.
(13:21):
Two days later it was nine inthe morning.
If you're the one that hearsfrom the doctor in the morning,
it's not usually a good thing,and, yeah, that was when it set
in, that that was really whatwas happening and I knew my life
was going to change and Ididn't know how.
There was the moment of youknow, will I be here to see my
(13:41):
son, will I be here to watch himgrow up?
And the way that I can describeit was like there was the
initial devastation, like takemy breath away, like knocked out
.
And maybe five minutes laterafter I sat with it, just five
minutes alone in my kitchen withmy baby eating breakfast, I was
(14:02):
like this won't be the storythat I tell.
I will tell a story of healingand I will tell a story of
victory and I will be the onewho shows how we can heal and
restore the body back to the waythat it's designed.
Because if I had been eatingwell and I was moving and I was
taking care of my mindset, howdo I get cancer?
(14:23):
And so I really got curious oflike, oh, there's a piece of the
puzzle that I'm missing here.
And I got really curious aboutfinding out what that puzzle
piece was so that I could go tothe root cause and heal it.
And that's where, kind of, thetrajectory of my life did change
because I went very, very deepinto a two, three year season of
(14:44):
extreme healing.
Piet Van Waarde (14:46):
Yeah, I love that, and part of that journey
took you to Hope for Cancer.
Carly Shankman (14:50):
Yep.
Piet Van Waarde (14:51):
And that we also have now as a common thread
.
That's right, we were destinedto know each other, yes,
apparently.
Okay, so I know there's probablyso much in this, but could you
just take a bit of time to talkthrough what were some of the
major discoveries that you madein this journey of researching?
(15:13):
Okay, I have these other piecesthat, if I figured out, I've
tried to be faithful to them,but there's this missing piece.
How would you, how would youcategorize that?
What was some of the keylessons that you learned and how
would you describe that to our,to our audience?
Carly Shankman (15:27):
Yeah, so the first really obvious one that
comes that jumps out to me is sowhen I was first diagnosed, it
was recommended immediatesurgery.
Like you have, you need to getinto surgery next week radiation
treatment, hormone replacement,the rest of my life and it was
(15:50):
November 2019.
And I didn't have insurance.
So I essentially said I have toput off.
Piet Van Waarde (15:52):
You know, and they're, they're very adamant.
You need to get into surgeryimmediately I.
Carly Shankman (15:54):
But I said I don't have insurance so I have
to wait until January 1, toapply for insurance and be able
to cover this surgery.
So I kind of got her off myback a little bit and bought
myself some time and in thatwindow I started researching
integrative cancer therapies.
I went on my Instagram saiddoes anybody know?
You know, I was just diagnosedwith thyroid cancer who has
tools or resources?
(16:15):
And I started learning aboutpeople like Chris Wart, chris
Beat Cancer and juicing and rawfoods and red light therapies
and I was just kind of likeGoogling and hearing from people
like I just kind of openedmyself up to say if one was
going to heal cancer in aholistic way, how would one go
about doing that?
And I started driving all overAustin going to different
(16:36):
practitioners and therapists andgetting IVs and things like
that, and I thought, gosh, thisis exhausting.
You know I was gone hours a dayand it was a lot on me.
And at that point one of mymom's friends called and said
hey, I just got back from aclinic in Florida that takes all
of these integrative therapiesthat Carly's doing and does them
(16:58):
under one roof with a doctorwho oversees, and that was all
we needed to be like we're going.
And these things are veryexpensive.
I did not have the money in mybank account.
I think we were genuinelymaking like $2,000 a month, like
enough to get by and live.
So I did a GoFundMe.
I did a GoFundMe and I was ableto raise enough money to get to
(17:19):
that clinic and the biggestdiscovery that came out of that
was I sat down with the doctor,which, by the way, I don't
recommend this clinic.
I haven't gone back there again.
I'm going to tell you why andwhy hope for cancer is my
healing home.
But I sat down with the doctorthat first day and he
essentially said tell me, tellme your story.
And I was like from when he'slike?
(17:40):
From the beginning I was likeokay.
So one part of my story wasthat my freshman year of college
at Penn State, I was at a frathouse and I slipped on beer.
This is like the craziest story.
I had heels on and I slipped onbeer on the floor because
people had been playing beerpong and I fell where it was
(18:00):
like my knees, then my chest andthen my face hit last and I
knocked out my two front teethand I broke the upper bone in my
mouth and he was like that's it.
I was like what do you mean?
That's it?
He was like I can pretty muchguarantee that you have a dental
infection that shut off theimmune system enough that cancer
was able to thrive.
In addition to the amount ofsurgeries you've had, the amount
(18:23):
of x-rays you've had doing workon your mouth for the last 10
years, and there's a directcorrelation between dental
infections and cancer of thehead and neck.
So he sent me to a biologicaldentist and I got something
called a 3D cone beam scan andit was black with infection.
Piet Van Waarde (18:41):
It was.
Carly Shankman (18:42):
I had infection all throughout my mouth in
addition to the place where mywisdom teeth had been removed.
There was infection in there aswell and the dentist said to me
he literally said you're luckyit's cancer.
The bones of your mouth couldhave fallen apart Like it was
that bad.
So during the seven weeks thatI was at that clinic in Florida
(19:02):
I had three separate dentalsurgeries done to remove the
infection in my mouth.
There were two weeks where mymouth was sewn shut.
I couldn't talk, I couldn'tlaugh, I couldn't smile and it
was actually during that timethat I spent a lot of time with
God.
You know I couldn't.
I was in.
I was in pretty rough timesstate I was going to the clinic
(19:25):
during the day I was recoveringfrom these surgeries.
My mouth was sewn shut and Iwould go to the clinic from
about seven to three and then Iwould come back and I would just
journal and rest and meditateand talk to God and I did that
for like two or three weeksevery single day and a lot of
(19:46):
emotional healing happenedduring that time.
So, interconnected, isn't it?
Piet Van Waarde (19:50):
Yes.
Carly Shankman (19:51):
So when you ask me, like, what do you feel are
the biggest things?
It would be the dental work.
For sure.
I say like once I removed thedental infection I turned the
faucet off right.
So once I turned the faucet offI could actually get to the
root cause healing off I couldactually get to the root cause
healing the emotional work,being willing to sit with myself
(20:11):
long enough to be quiet, torebuild my relationship with God
, to get out of the way, tosurrender and just say your will
is my will, regardless of whatthat looks like.
I'd really gotten to that placeof like hands off the wheel,
surrender.
Piet Van Waarde (20:26):
And what happened when I left that clinic
was and before you move too faron from that, I just want to
kind of put a punctuation markright there, because I feel like
this is one of the things I'veexperienced over and over, and
many of the guests who we'vetalked about with this kind of
thing.
It seems to me that that is oneof the ways that God redeems
the hardship is that he createsspace within the hardship to all
(20:51):
of a sudden do a new kind ofbusiness with Him.
Now, I don't think he causesthose kinds of experiences, but
it is part of how he uses theexperience to bring about a
healing in our hearts that is asinstrumental as whatever is
going on with us physically.
Carly Shankman (21:06):
Yeah, 100%, and I think it's also the gifts in
the darkness.
You know so many people ashumanity.
Right, we don't want to gothrough hard things.
We don't want to go through thedarkness.
We want to live in the light,in the joy, in the play.
But the truth of the matter isthat if you talk to people and
you ask where the greatesttransformations in their lives
(21:28):
happened, it happened in thedepths of the darkness, you know
, and I can very much say thatthat's the same for me, because
that building that relationshipwith God, coming back home to
myself, to my faith, beingwilling to surrender, also has
changed the trajectory of mylife and now I walk with God in
every aspect of my life, which Iwasn't doing beforehand.
(21:50):
Yeah awesome, and so when I leftthat clinic I had had some
progress.
Obviously we got rid of theinfection.
But when I got home I got anultrasound and I sent it to the
clinic and said, hey, would youmind looking at this for me?
And they said you're no longera patient and if you want us to
look at this, you have to pay$7,000 to come back for a week
(22:11):
for us to look at this scan.
And I was just like I was soupset, I was so angry, I was
like come on, I just I justspent all you know.
It's ridiculous.
I was like I want someone who'son my team, Like I want my, I
want my people, and it was rightaround that time that I learned
about Hope for Cancer and oneof the things about them is that
they follow you for a year,Like you go for your three weeks
(22:32):
stay, you go back again for afollow-up and then a doctor from
their team calls you once amonth for a year to check in on
you, and that was reallynourishing to me.
And the third pillar so therewas the dental, there was the
emotional work and faith, andthen the third one that I would
say is cellular detoxification,and that was the depths of what
(22:55):
we do at Hope for Cancer, wherethe way that I would explain it
is like restoring the body tothe way that God designed the
way that we came in the resetexactly so.
We're doing coffee, enemas,colonics, red light therapy,
heat therapy.
We're doing the emotional work.
We're eating the alkaline food,the juicing, all of the things,
(23:16):
and, I think, the healing thatcomes from having a doctor come
sit beside you and look you inthe eye and say how are you
doing today?
How are you feeling?
Tell me, I'm like how are youdoing today, how are you feeling
?
Tell me, I'm like, thank you.
Piet Van Waarde (23:31):
And we were talking about the community too
and I have to say that I saw ontheir advertising and I talked
with their intake specialist,who is now also a dear friend,
about the whole dynamic of we doholistic and you hear that word
a lot and they said you know,we have a spiritual component,
(23:51):
we have an emotional componentand what you eat and, of course,
the therapies.
And I'm like yeah, yeah, yeah,yeah.
And then the first thing youget there, all right.
So the receptionist comes tothe door and gives you a hug and
says welcome to Hope for Cancer.
And this stark differencebetween that and my experience
(24:15):
of going to a urology office andI have a great urology team,
but I can tell you thereceptionist did not hug me at
the door.
Carly Shankman (24:22):
No kidding.
Piet Van Waarde (24:23):
Where's your insurance information, young man
?
And so that whole dynamic.
And then you go into a worshipservice and then you have the
people that you talked to, likeyou said that actually take the
time to sit with you for morethan your five, 10 minutes in
the office.
It was such a profoundexperience and then the
relationships as we talkedbefore we even got on the air
(24:44):
are just so still an integralpart of my life.
Carly Shankman (24:50):
All right let me roll forward.
Piet Van Waarde (24:51):
Now.
You are quite active on socialmedia.
You have an Instagram accountcalled Carly Loves Kale.
Where did that name come from?
Carly Shankman (25:03):
first of all, Well, the funny thing was is
that that Instagram name is likenine years old.
I started it when I was ahealth coach.
Piet Van Waarde (25:11):
That was it when I started my health
coaching business I made.
Carly Shankman (25:14):
Carly Loves Kale , not knowing that fast forward
many years.
I was going to have an organicjuice company, which is just.
You know, that's how God works.
Piet Van Waarde (25:22):
Yes, yes.
So now you are givingencouragement and receiving
encouragement on that platform.
What are some of the thingsthat you find yourself talking
about regularly there?
Carly Shankman (25:36):
Mindset and detoxification for sure, Without
a doubt those are the two bigones.
People wanted to know like whatkind of red light and how long
do I do red light?
And what's a coffee enema?
And how do I do a coffee enema?
What's lymphatic drainage?
How do I do it?
So I spend a lot of time justreally talking and teaching
about practices.
Piet Van Waarde (25:55):
Is that where you do your dance as well?
Carly Shankman (25:57):
Yes, yes, dance is one of my therapies because
it's embodiment of joy and playand self-expression.
When you said that in theinterview that I was watching I
said, oh, I have to go check itout and you really do dance on
your Instagram.
I do, I do, I love to dance.
You know, when I starteddancing was the morning.
The first morning I went toHope for Cancer.
Piet Van Waarde (26:19):
Really.
Carly Shankman (26:20):
The first time I ever I was like.
I was like, okay, I'm here, I'malone.
I had three weeks I was awayfrom my baby and my husband and
I thought I'm about to go dosome serious healing work.
How do I get myself into a peakenergetic state so my body's
able to receive the therapies?
And I thought I should dance.
And I don't know why, but Ijust turned my phone on and
(26:42):
danced and talked about how Iwas embodying joy and opening my
cells for healing, and itstruck a chord with people you
know and it felt really good forme.
And so it's really become.
I've always loved to dance Likeat a wedding.
I'm the first one on the dancefloor, so it kind of makes sense
too.
Piet Van Waarde (27:02):
Okay, now you also.
You've actually also combinedsome of the modern technology
with your holistic approach andI think, at least for me, that's
been kind of.
One of the challenges in thehealing journey is that you
sometimes talk to the people whoare in the quote-unquote modern
medicine space and they havesuch distrust for the people who
(27:26):
are more integrative andholistic and conversely, the
other camp often looks at well,they're going to waste your
money and they're going topoison your body.
But you've kind of taken anapproach where you've included
both.
How have you navigated thosedecisions for yourself?
Carly Shankman (27:42):
Right.
So through my work at Hope forCancer and all of the nutrition
and the mindset and the detoxand the many things that I did
for two and a half years I hadan 80% reduction in the amount
of cancer in my body, and soessentially I got to a place
with Hope for Cancer where I waslike in maintenance and it was
on my heart to have another baby.
(28:02):
I had my first son, cruz, and Ireally wanted to have another
pregnancy.
And when I was pregnant with mysecond son, cash, there was
some progression of the cancer,which I knew was a risk, because
when you're pregnant you haveto stop your therapies and
things just change.
You can't be doing majordetoxification.
So when he was four months old,I called my surgeon and I said
(28:30):
he was four months old.
I called my surgeon and I saidokay, I'm ready, and I decided
that it was my time to go in andhave my thyroid removed.
And the thing about that wasthat I did it in my way in my
time, without being guilted orforced or manipulated, which I
think is actually a very commonoccurrence for people.
I can't tell you the amount ofpeople on Instagram or social
media who have reached out andsaid I wish I would have just
(28:51):
taken a pause.
You know, when a diagnosiscomes, we're just rushed and
we're in fear, and so we wannatrust these experts.
But the experts can only themedical, conventional experts
can only see it from one lens.
The surgeon knows surgery right.
So what I feel really gratefulfor is that I took that two and
(29:11):
a half years to do the cellularhealing so that when my time
came and said yes, I'm ready forsurgery, I went in there with
an incredibly strong immunesystem, an incredibly strong
spirit, and I have a video of mein the hospital gown dancing
before I went into surgery.
Of course Of course, and thatwas how I was able to do it,
(29:33):
because I did it on my terms andI did it on my timeline and my
recovery was so smooth.
One of the biggest things thatI've heard about having your
thyroid removed I had my thyroidand 30 lymph nodes removed was,
and the reason I was so fearfulof doing it originally was
because I heard from people.
I never felt like myself againand that was terrifying for me
(29:55):
because, I have this fire in thespirit that I didn't want to
lose, of course, and well, Ididn't lose it.
Piet Van Waarde (30:01):
I can tell I didn't lose it.
Carly Shankman (30:04):
And I feel more myself, more embodied, more on
purpose, more aligned than Iever have.
And it didn't have to do somuch with the what, but it had
to do with the how, which wasslowing down enough to say how
do I want to go about thishealing journey.
Piet Van Waarde (30:23):
Yeah, I love that because it just reinforces
this idea of agency.
You know, it really is yourchoice.
So we were talking, before wegot on the air, about this
support group that I'm helpingto lead, and one of the things
we keep coming back to is no,seriously, it's your choice.
What you want to do, how do youwant to live, what are the
important values that you wantto use as markers for how to
(30:47):
make decisions?
And that is so crucial, and Ilove the way that you just
expressed that and modeled it.
Carly Shankman (30:54):
Yeah, thank you, and it's interesting because I
also another question I get alot online is how do I get my
loved one, my parent, my spouse,to see it through this lens?
How do I get them to dointegrative or to do a coffee
enema or a colonic?
And I'm normally like you can't.
You know, what we can do is say, hey, here's a book to read
(31:15):
that I think might be reallyhelpful, or here's a link to
Hope for Cancer if you want tocheck it out.
But at the end of the day, Ithink that the greatest thing
that we can do is honor people'sdesires when it comes to their
health, their healing and howthey want to go about this.
So true, because I even hadpeople in my family who reached
out in the beginning and saidwhat are you doing?
Piet Van Waarde (31:37):
Listen to the doctor do what they say, and
they were so scared for me.
Carly Shankman (31:41):
I said the greatest way you can love me
right now is just to support mydecisions, because I'm the one
who has to sit with this.
You know, this is my life andthey eventually heard that and I
think it's for on either sideof the coin just supporting your
loved ones.
That's loving them is the bestthing that you can do, because
you don't want to add to thepressure Exactly.
Piet Van Waarde (32:01):
Yeah, good, all right, I want to give you an
opportunity to close out ourtime together with, if you had
to summarize your life messageas it is right now, and all that
you're doing and all thatyou've experienced.
What is it that you're reallytrying to say?
Carly Shankman (32:19):
What I really want to say is that every single
person came into this worldwith a unique gift, a unique
light, and that we need thatfrom you.
We need people who are turnedon and fully embodied in who
they are, using their voice,shining their light.
What is the quote from MarianneWilliamson?
It says it's like your light,but not your darkness, that you
(32:42):
fear most.
So permission, it's like Iwould want everybody just to
have permission to be as brightand big and bold and expressed
as possible, because the worldwill be set free by people who
are free.
And I love that, yeah, and we,I think we live in a society
that's like do this, look atthis, put, put you in a box, put
(33:03):
you, put a label on you.
And it's like I just want thisfrom everyone.
Like, just like, dance in theglory of God.
The way that we came into thisworld, shine bright and
permission to shine bright Boom.
Piet Van Waarde (33:17):
That's it.
This has been so fun.
Thank you so much for joiningme.
I know you have such a busyschedule and I really appreciate
it.
It's been an absolute delight.
Carly Shankman (33:25):
My pleasure.
Thank you for asking me.
Piet Van Waarde (33:27):
And thank you for joining us.
Join us again at our nextSidewalk Conversation.
Bless you and keep the faith.
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