Sara Olsher on Communication and Kids

Episode Transcript
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Sara Olsher (00:00):
I've done a lot of public speaking and teaching,

(00:02):
um, parents with cancermetastatic disease, or, you
know, early stage and a lot ofthem come up to me afterward and
say, I didn't think I could usethe word cancer.

Tina Kaczor, ND, FABNO (00:13):
Mm.

kids,

Mm.
hmm.
Mm hmm.

understand why I need to use that word.
I now know how I can explain itin a way that isn't terrifying.
Um, I, I think a lot of parentsthink that they are protecting
their kids by not explaining it,but it actually turns out.
You know, the exact opposite

Tina (00:35):
I'm Dr Tina Kaczor

Leah (00:36):
and I'm Dr Leah Sherman

Tina (00:38):
And we're two naturopathic doctors who practice integrative
cancer care

Leah (00:42):
But we're not your doctors

Tina (00:44):
This is for education entertainment and informational
purposes only

Leah (00:49):
do not apply any of this information without first
speaking to your doctor

Tina (00:53):
The views and opinions expressed on this podcast by the
hosts and their guests aresolely their own

Leah (00:59):
Welcome to the cancer pod

Leah Sherman, ND, RYT (01:05):
Hey, Tina,

Hey, Leah.

how much fun was this conversation?

I had a great time.
I think

This was such a good interview.
I said, I know we say this allthe time, but it really was.
We spoke with Sarah Ulsher whois the creator of and Bright.
She underwent some major lifechanges and um She took her
experience as a cancer survivorand experience through divorce

(01:40):
and she created this business.
She wrote a book, um, ended upwriting 12 books.
I guess that's what she's up tonow.
she has these, schedules thatshe's created through Mighty and
Bright where you can use themwith kids to help them kind of
manage their lives.
And, I don't know.

(02:02):
I don't want to give too muchaway, but that's kind of the
summary.
Do you think that's a goodsummary?

that's a good summary.
I think that, yeah, faced withchallenges, she saw how
universal some of her challengesare, and she set about finding
solutions, not just for her ownkid, but more applicable broadly
for other folks out there who

Yeah,

are single moms or have cancer
diagnoses and have to go throughthat.
Mm hmm.
Yeah.

eloquent now.
And it was a really greatconversation.
I don't know if we mentioned atthe end, but she, we did talk
about her TikTok.
Um, she has an Instagram, it'smightyandbrightco, C O.
So if we failed to mention that,we'll also have links in the
show notes, um, to how you canfind her, including her websites

(02:50):
and how to order the books andeverything.
But,

Yeah.
And as always, I mean, the wholeidea here is for our listeners
to gain some knowledge that iseither helpful for them
personally or for their lovedones or someone they know.
I mean, there's a lot of, a lotof really useful tidbits in
here.
I think that can be helpful forpeople.

yeah, and this is one of the first ones.
I'm gonna leave.
Um, to people about, you know,like family being kind of part
of this whole cancer world.
Um, but this is the one where wereally talk about, you know,
kids and the impact it has onkids.
And so

Yeah.

of a, you know, it's a, it's a, it's a new
world for us, but a

Yeah,

it's a whole new world.

yeah, yeah, it's definitely a big, a
steep learning curve for me, um,because I don't have kids.
So,

either.

yeah, so the challenges I understand them
in the abstract and I can onlyappreciate the fact that I only
know them in the abstract thatthat's a lot different to live
through it.
I would imagine.

Yeah, and we've had patients, obviously,
who have children and, you know,trying to work with them through
some of these issues that comeup.
I wish I knew about the solutionbefore, because this would be
something that I woulddefinitely recommend

Yes.

patients,

Totally agree.
Having some tools to help bringkids along and help them through
it and lessen their anxiety thatthey might have.

right?

yeah, yeah, it was a great
conversation.

okay, so before we get to the episode,
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(04:33):
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Without further ado, here's our guest,
hello, Sarah.
Thank you for joining us.
Thank

you so much for having me.
I'm really excited to chat withyou.

Yeah.
We did some looking online andyou're quite prolific with your
books.
And so I can see that this hasbeen going on about five years
from what I can tell, maybelonger in your storyline, but as
far as what's been published,Amazon and such, um, Can you
start us out with a little ofwhat inspired you and your
background on creating thesebooks specifically for children

(05:33):
and helping children understandwhat's going on with their
parents during treatment forcancer?

Yeah, absolutely.
so my background is inpsychology and I was like
running a business on the sidethat was very much about kids,
mental health and like, how tohelp them through transitions
and hard things.
Um, so I had like, a backgroundknowledge of kind of how kids
cope when something hardhappens.
and I really needed that becausewhen I was 34 and my daughter

(06:04):
was 6.
I was diagnosed with breastcancer and I, I was divorced at
the time and I had a familyhistory of breast cancer.
And so I had just beenadvocating for myself for a long
time, like, hey, I think I needearly screenings and then I
started to have this weirdsensation and my left breast

(06:24):
that felt like breast milk beinglet down.
I had kind of gotten.
Poo pooed by my doctor, um,previously about the early
screening.
She was like, yeah, you know,unless you have a 1st degree
relative, we're no longer doing,you know, early detection and I
had literally every single womanin my family on both sides had

(06:47):
breast cancer, except for mymother at that point.
Um, my dad's side of the familyis Ashkenazi Jewish.
I had.
No genetic screenings, nothing.
And I just thought this isridiculous.
So when I started having thatweird sensation, I just thought
I should a go get this checkedout.
And B, I'm no longer taking nofor an answer at this point,

(07:08):
because my mom had just beendiagnosed with breast cancer,
um, postmenopausal breastcancer.
She just had a lumpectomy.
It was really like.
Not that big of a deal in thebreast cancer world.
Um, and so I went into thedoctor.
She didn't feel anything, butshe got me into the early
screening program and so I wentin for my baseline MRI.

(07:31):
They said, we see something kindof funny, but we often see
things that are kind of funny.

Mm hmm.

so I went in for a ultrasound and a diagnostic
mammogram at 4 PM on a Fridayafternoon.
And And the radiologist lookedvery serious looking at my
ultrasound I said, what is goingon?
Like, am I going to need abiopsy?
And he looks at me and says, doyou want me to be frank?

(07:58):
I'm thinking, yeah, like, Idon't want to wait off all
weekend.

Right.

And he said, what we are seeing can be nothing
other than cancer and you aregoing to need your entire left
breast removed I was very muchin shock.
I was like, no, no, I, I don'tthink you understand.
Like, I'm 34.

Right.

a single mom.
This is not part of my plan.

Mm hmm.

so I don't, know, I don't know what you're talking
about and I literally had tohave this man talk to my parents
on the phone because my dad wasa doctor and explain to them
what was going on.
because I couldn't process it

Mm hmm.

that I had DCIS.
And it turned out, uh, so I wasgoing to go in for a
preventative double mastectomy.
I was like, don't leave one ofthem.
Just take it all.
Um, and when I woke up from thatsurgery, it turned out that it
had actually spread to my lymphnodes already.
I never had a tumor.

(09:01):
If I had not gone in andadvocated for myself, I probably
would not be sitting here.
That was 7 years ago.

So, wait, wait, wait.
You never had a tumor.
You mean they didn't, uh, theydidn't identify a tumor itself?

calcifications all the way up from my nipple, all
the way to my lymph nodes.

So there was nothing palpable.
You couldn't feel it.

not a

Oh wow.

at any point, I

Okay.

a single thing, even right before my surgery,
there was no lump.
So, uh, obviously, superterrifying, and, um, my number
one fear, even when I thought itwas stage zero, was what, Am I
going to do about my daughter?
Because

hmm.

our background was that she had really severe
anxiety and like she wasdiagnosed with separation
anxiety.
Like I was her person

Mm hmm.
Mm

only thing I could think about was like her tear
stained face at my funeral.
Like

hmm.

dark,

And how old was she at this time that
she was six when you werediagnosed.
Okay.
And just to clarify, is thislobular or ductal?

it was, uh, ductal.

It was ductile.
Okay.

Mm hmm.

Because lobular often doesn't, isn't
palpable.
That's why I was asking.
Like that's not uncommon,

and my mom had lobular.
That was that first diagnosisshe had, and then the year after
I had cancer, she was diagnosedin her other breast with ductal.

Okay.

we've had a whole lot of cancer in my family.

Yeah.
Yeah.

In a short period of time.

a cancer sandwich.
We have pictures of my mom and Iwith no hair together.

Well, yeah, that's a hell of a way to
bond.

Mm hmm.
Yeah, my dad was like, this isnot a good group activity.
Can you

Yeah, right.
Exactly.
All right, so, so your daughterwas six.

and so what I did was because I had this
background in psychology andspecifically with, you know,
helping kids cope withtransitions like divorce.
I, knew that I needed to explainthings to her.
I couldn't just, you know,pretend like everything was okay
and have her be fine because Iknew she was going to notice

(11:14):
like the change in the air.
She was going to know somethingwasn't right.
And so my go to with any likebig thing was like, I'm going to
go get a book to help me explainthis to her.
So.
I think I bought probably sixbooks and got another like four
at the library

Mm hmm.

Them home and was immediately like, well, this is
a no.
I mean, one of the books, likeon an Amazon literally had a
surgeon holding a bloody knifeand I was

Oh my god.

who let this go?

That's right.
That's for a children's book.

Yes.

Whoa.

but the thing that I realized, like.
After looking through all thosebooks was I actually wanted to
explain to her what cancer was.
And

Mm hmm.

this was 7 years ago, there was nothing out there
that explained the science ofcancer in a way that.
I mean, even probably an adultcould understand on a basic
level.
It

Mm hmm.

children's books about it.
so I kind of had to come up withmy own method of explaining it
to her and I so that.
Explanation, which we can getinto if you would like, but that
kind of served as a basis forwhat I did during my treatment,
because I immediately took aleave of absence from work, but

(12:29):
the way I kept my brain occupiedwas writing my first book and
illustrating it.

Yeah Yeah, and the name of that book
because jotted that one downWhat Happens When Someone I Love
Has Cancer

Mm hmm.

Explain the science Of cancer and how a
loved one's diagnosis andtreatment affects a kid's day to
day life.

Mm

was its subtitle, right?
um, and that's still available.

used in children's hospitals all over the country.
It's really yeah.
Thank you.
It really is what I.
This, I just have such a passionfor helping parents have really
difficult conversations withtheir kids, because if there's
no resources out there, whatI've learned is parents will
just not have a conversation,because they

Well, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I mean, that is the biggestcompliment to any author is
readership, right?
That's what you want.
You want it to get it out there,especially self help books or
books that will help parentsbridge their conversations with
their kids.
I did look at some interviewsyou did online and communication
was, was really the crux of whatyou want to get out there is, is

(13:32):
helping bridge the communicationgap out there between the adults
and the kids.

For sure, for sure.
Yeah, I would say, I've done alot of public speaking and
teaching, um, parents withcancer metastatic disease, or,
you know, early stage and a lotof them come up to me afterward
and say, I didn't think I coulduse the word cancer.

Mm.

kids,

Mm.
hmm.
Mm hmm.

understand why I need to use that word.
I now know how I can explain itin a way that isn't terrifying.
Um, I, I think a lot of parentsthink that they are protecting
their kids by not explaining it,but it actually turns out.
You know, the exact opposite andI had to explain to my daughter

(14:17):
to, you know, I'm really youngand so cancer is a really big
word.
That means a lot of differentthings and it can mean, a really
big, illness where people aresick for a really long time.
Some, some people die and thatisn't the type of cancer that I
have, but the people.
Who you're going to talk to orI'm going to talk to are going

(14:39):
to have a strong reactionbecause they don't know what
type of cancer I have.

Mm.

this conversation with you so that you don't get
scared when you see how otherpeople react,

Mm hmm.
Mm

mostly this happens to older people.
And so they're going to besurprised.

hmm.

You know, and even just that conversation protected
her from her second gradeteacher who, who they were
writing these little cards for akid with terminal leukemia

Mm.

teacher pulled her aside and said, are you okay?
Because this kid has the samething your mom has

Oh.

and my 2nd

Oh wow.

said, that kid doesn't have the same thing.
My mom has.
is what my mom has.
That kid does not have what mymom has.

Oh good for her.

I just thought to myself, this could have gone so
differently.

Right.

are high that if the teacher had said something
to her, she probably wouldn'thave come home and said anything
to me because she would havebeen trying to protect me

Right.

have kept it inside.
And then she would have worriedevery night that I was going to
die like this kid with leukemia,who unfortunately.
Didn't make it.

Yeah.
It sounds like the apple didn'tfall far from the tree because I
did catch that, um, you put thisbook out, the first book, to
publishers

Mm

and got rejected

Mm

wherever you went.

Yeah,

wherever you sent it.
Um, wasn't big enough audience,I think is what you said.

Yeah, they said cancer isn't a big enough niche,

Mm.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.

treatment, I was like, are you kidding me?

Yeah.
Yeah.

if this helps two people.

Right?

niche for me.

Yes.
Right, right.
Because your purpose isdifferent than their purpose.
They're a publishing companylooking at, counting beans.
Yeah.
Um, yeah.
So you've self-published andyou've self-published since.
Is that correct?

I really, um, I'm not necessarily opposed to
traditional publishing.
but I really learned that I amable to react.
more quickly, you know, theturnaround time with traditional
publishing is a long time.
And I just felt to get this intothe hands of as many people as I

(17:01):
possibly could.
And

Mm-Hmm.

to other resources that I saw were needed.
I was just, I'm not entertainingthis at this point, because I
feel like, you know, my latestbook is co written with child
life specialist at the MayoClinic, and it's all about what
happens when someone you love isgoing to die, like, within the
next few weeks.

Mm-Hmm.

are literally no resources out there for that
conversation.
according to the child lifespecialists, uh, most parents
are not going to have theconversation and they're just
going to try and deal with thegrief afterward.
And I thought, not going towait, you know, 3 years to

Mm-Hmm.

know, from publishers over a topic.
I think is this important.
So,

your background is not only in
psychology, but You were, wereyou working as an illustrator or
in the arts before that?
Or was this something new?

Um,

It was

of new.
I, sort of and was going to be atherapist and then I started, I
got a chronic illness and I hadto drop out of my doctoral
program and I started anillustration business where I
was drawing people's weddinginvitations.
I taught myself how to draw,even though I've been doing it
since I was a kid.

(18:20):
Um, and so all of these piecessort of come together in this,
like, beautiful symphony.
I was like, I would have neverthought that I would have had a
career that involvedillustration and psychology and,
you know, all these differentthings.
So cool.

Yeah.
Yeah.
And you get to help people,

Yes.
Absolutely.

I, um.
I dug deep onto YouTube and Idid spot some, um, I think
planted videos that you don'tintend people to find for a
decade.

where did you do?

how did you find this?
Terrifying.

I found I don't know.
Maybe you don't even rememberyou did this, but you turn the
camera on.
There's been like 56 people havewatched it to this point.
Um, so it's not a lot ofsubscribers or viewers and it
has to do with you turning thecamera on and looking at the
camera and saying, you know, I'mplanning this.
Now.
I'm not telling my family.
I'm not telling my friends.
Here's what's going on.
And, you know, Write to me in 10years and I'll still be here to

(19:20):
answer your comments.
And I just want people who are30 something now with a
diagnosis to know that it can beokay.
And so you were talking tobasically your future audience,
which was a little eerie, butkind of cool that six years ago.

creepy.
I completely forgot I did thatand it was because I was on
YouTube searching for stories ofpeople that lived because I was
terrified.
I wasn't going to.

yeah, it was very moving, I'll tell you,
because

thank

it was clearly heartfelt.
you weren't on YouTube for any,you know, self promotion
purposes.
That was clearly a sincere

Yeah.

to fellow women

Yeah.

going to find themselves where you were
six years ago.

Yeah, I totally forgot.
That was I totally forgot.
That was a thing.

Well, don't take it down.

No, this is, this is,

All right.

is.

any of those 56 people look at that and they're
like, she's still alive,

There you go.

I did there.
There it goes.
That's good for me.

Yeah.
Six years down.

Yeah.

All right.
Well, let's switch gears.
Um.
You also have a business,besides the books, which are
available, I should mention, onyour website,

Yeah,

which is,

Amazon and Barnes Noble and all the places.

yeah, and as long as you spell Sara
correctly, S A R A, Olsher, O LS H E R, um, it should be easy
to find your books and you.

Thank you.

your website is just yourname.
com, right?

it is.

Super simple.
Um, but you also have abusiness, and a non profit, is
that correct?

Uh, we actually are folding the nonprofit into the
business.

Okay.

I realized if you want to do good, just do good
and don't overcomplicate things.
Um, I basically wanted to find avehicle for donating.
My books, uh, to children'shospitals.
And so we've just created acharitable mission around my
business.
So every order that we receive,we donate a book or a treatment

(21:16):
calendar to children affected bycancer.
now we don't need the nonprofitanymore.
Yeah.

I mean, simplifying things is always a
good thing.
So, so the business itself, theactual items that you sell are
calendars.

Yeah, ish.
So it started out, I was doingthis actually on the side, just
as like as a side hustle.
when I was diagnosed withcancer, I was selling co
parenting calendars, likemagnetic co parenting calendars,
so that kids could see visuallywhen they would see each parent
during the divorce.

(21:52):
because I thought at the time, Iwas like, this is the worst
thing, you know, it's so awfuland stupid.
So traumatizing,

Mm hmm.

everybody's always talking about putting the kids
first, but they don't actuallytell you how to do that.

Mm hmm.

with my background, I knew kids learn in a different
way.
They don't have the executivefunctioning skills to be able to
remember when they're going tosee each parent.
So I created this calendar.
There were none out there and Ijust ran it on the side and
then.
When I was diagnosed withcancer, I remember saying to my
mom, she, she must have flown tomy house somehow because she

(22:29):
lived in Oregon.
And at the time I was inCalifornia, she was at my house.
The day after I was diagnosedwith cancer and I said to her.
just do not want this to be ashard as the divorce was.
She looked at me and I was like,yeah, it's already harder than
the divorce was.
it's really bad.

Yeah.

and that was when I started to realize, you know,
from my own personal, you know,There are so many things that
kids are going through likeanything an adult is going
through

hmm.

are going through it, too

Mm hmm.

that realization You know kind of made me realize
this that there were a wholehost of things that kids needed
shown visually to them.
And so I started creating acalendar for my daughter so she
would understand, when I wasgoing to be at the doctor, when
I was going to be at thehospital, you know, I tried to
plan out activities with her sothat, she had something to look

(23:26):
forward to even in the daysafter chemo when I felt
exhausted and I wasn't going tobe the mom that I wanted to be
for her.
At least she would be able tolook forward to something later
in the week when I couldanticipate I'd be feeling
better.

Mm hmm.
Mm

so then it kind of grew from there and now we have
a whole host of different chartsbasically, uh, for both kids to
understand things like what'sgoing on in their lives, like
routine charts, that sort ofthing, but also breaking things
down into smaller steps.
So if like a kid needs to learnhow to clean their room and you

(24:02):
just tell them.
Go in your room and clean yourroom.
That can be really overwhelmingfor kids.
So we

hmm.

that like break it down step by step like first you
put away everything that'syellow Then you throw away all
the trash, you know all that andthen we started getting comments
on tiktok from people who werelike I need this for adults

Mm

I saw that you have, like, and so is
it's the magnet that's differentor.

Yeah, so each thing is, we have different charts.
So 1 of them is like a to dolist.
1 of them is a calendar and thenwe, we create these sticker
sheets where you canessentially, you want Look at
all of the different options,depending on what it is.
Like, we have 1 for division oflabor for like adult.
It's basically an adult shortchart

hmm.
Mm

2 of those charts and then you can sit down with
your partner and look at all ofthe things and prioritize what
actually needs to be done andthen assign them to different
people.
You assemble the whole thing,and then you no longer need to
communicate with your partnerabout.
Did you take the trash outbecause you can see it and they
can take that magnet from the todo list and they can put it on

(25:11):
their weekly calendar.
So you can see, okay, you're notjust planning to, you know, do
it someday.
You actually have a plan to doit on this day.
And that just decreases theamount of communication.
Snafu's and resentment, and itbecomes really clear if there is
1 partner.
Who does all the stuff,

hmm.
Mm hmm.

which is very helpful.
And during treatment is like,that was the thing for me.
Like, so many things are runthrough the lens of, like, I am
a single mom.
I am neurodivergent now, I havethis whole household running,
like, how helpful would it havebeen to me to have that?
On the chart, like on my fridge.

(25:56):
So when friends came over, theycould see what needed to be done
and just help me out by doing itinstead of

Yeah,

will you tell me what needs to be done?
And I'm like, I don't accepthelp.
Well, and also I'm too tired tothink about this.
I'll live in filth.

Hmm.

yeah,

Yeah, that's a really good idea.
I mean, on all of those counts,cause it comes back down that
communication idea.
Like it's clear, you know,whether you're talking with kids
or your partner or your friends,That's come up on this podcast
before, which is well meaningfriends and family coming to
person that's going throughtreatment and you're exhausted
and you don't know exactly whatyou need, but you need a lot of

(26:33):
things,

Yes.

if there was something on the fridge that
simply said, okay, nobody tookout the trash this week.
Or whatever, like whatever youpopulate it with that you can
think of when you're feelingwell enough to think of things.

And I think that's the whole thing, right?
Because the thinking of thethings, I really feel like my
brain chemistry was changedduring chemo because I didn't
have the energy to think abouteven my own thoughts.
I was just like watching them goby.
I couldn't, I couldn't think ofall the things that needed to be
done.
And that's true.
If you have ADHD, a lot of thetime, you can't think of the

(27:10):
things that need to be done.
And so we've done all the mentallabor.
for you by giving you, like inthe chore chart case, three
different sticker sheets thatare all organized according to
how often they need to be doneor what they relate to so you
don't actually even need tothink about it because the
thinking is, don't think it'sdoable.

Mm hmm.
Right.
Right.
And, and all of this is likereusable.
This is not throwaway stuff.
This is magnets and sheets andput up on the fridge typically.

Mhm.
Yeah.
We have two different kinds.
One of them is magnetic forrefrigerators or it has holes so
you can hang it on the wall.
And then we have this reallyweird material that sticks to
literally anything.

hmm.

if you don't have a magnetic refrigerator, you want
to put it on the door, you know,works like that too.

Oh, nice.
That's awesome.

so was it was it during your treatment
that you also came up with thethe special time cards?

That was post treatment.
That was actually during thepandemic

Okay

collaborated with a parenting coach named Danielle
Bettman from ParentingWholeheartedly to create those
because we were really worriedabout kids mental health and
during the pandemic, or if youhave multiple kids, or in my
case, if you have a chronicillness, or you're going through

(28:28):
treatment, there are any numberof reasons why playing with your
kids can be overwhelming.
we created these cards that arebasically putting structure
around.
Play time.
So they're color coded.
You can choose between playactive art or chill cards.
So you as a parent select, youknow, however, many cards

(28:52):
appealing to you and then youlet your kid shoes from those
cards about what you want to doand then you play for 15 minutes
and then their bucket is filled.
You did not end up playing thefloor is lava when you had chemo
yesterday and life is better foreverybody.

Right.
Well, it's interesting becausethe, the, the role of
expectations, controllingexpectations, helping the kids
have some less anxiety becauseit's less, less of a unknown,

Mm hmm,

of a You know, just who knows what's
going going to be happeningtomorrow or the next day or
later today for that matter.
Um, in a sense of some controlover it, some, at least some say
in what's going to be happening.

And all these things are are created with that
in mind.
Like the calendars come withthese reusable stickers and the
idea isn't that you put ittogether as a parent and then
hand it to your kid.
Like, they love the stickers, sothey're helping to put it
together.
Now they have a sense ofownership over it,

Mm hmm.

sheet for chronic illness that has, like, a plan a
and a plan B.
So, like, I feel well, we willgo play games in the park.
And then the plan B is, if Idon't feel well, we'll play
board games at home.
You can let your kids make thedecision about which of these
activities you're going to dotogether and then you're
managing their expectations, butyou're also giving them a sense

(30:16):
of control so that they don'tfeel like everything is
constantly happening to them

Mm hmm.

feels long

Mm hmm.

it feels long for adults, but it feels extra long
for kids.

Mm hmm.
Yeah.
And, and anything that improvescommunication is good.
So I can see how this hasshifted to the adult world.

Yes.

Very, very naturally.
Uh,

Yes.

Yeah, for all of us like late diagnosed
ADHD

Mm hmm.

Leah Sherman, ND, RY (30:43):
especially after treatment, because I went
through treatment myself.
And so I feel like all of thatkind of came out

Yeah, me

you know,

yeah,

whatever,

yeah,

we were doing as children.

it's just like I'm not able to do this anymore.

Right.

my brain just does

Yeah.

work.

yeah,

yeah.
And I don't know if we mentionedthe whole, all of these
calendars and that we're talkingabout and the donation of the
books to the places becausepeople buy the calendars.
Um, that is all happening on awebsite called Mighty and
Bright, which is the name ofyour company, right?

Yeah.

Okay.

bright.

Just so people know where to find that
if they want to look at that.
And of course, social media iswhere people will see you.
You're most prolific on.

probably TikTok.
Um, Mighty and Bright is prettyactive on Instagram.
Um, but I just love TikTok.
Oh my gosh.
I like, it is so good for mymental health.
My whole feed at this point islike silly cats and Taylor
Swift.
I'm just

Oh,

brings me a lot of joy.

you mean when you're, when you're doing
it, not your actual content,you're, you're, you're putting
some videos out.

you're, you're, you're scrolling through
Katz and Taylor Swift.
That's awesome.
no, I, I was wondering if youeven had a theater background
because you are so animated onTikTok.
Like, I loved watching, I wasjust kind of going, starting
like at the most recent and justkind of scrolling through and
I'm like, I have a theaterbackground and I'm so awkward on
TikTok.

Yeah, it just is practice and pretending like I'm
somebody else like the, the, um,the, the, when I have my
employee, Katie is like, all ofour bloopers are being being
like, that was absolutely awful.
And she's like, well, then youshould say this.
And then I say that, and then Ihave to cut the whole thing

(32:29):
together because the whole thingis me being like, why did I say
that?
That was terrible.

Well, you can't tell.
You can't tell.
You are just so, like, presentand, uh, captivating.
I love it.
I, yeah, I was really having alot of fun watching your videos.

Thank you.

So, is there anything else that we need
to, let our listeners know asfar as anything else is going
on?
Oh, you know what?
I didn't even mention, lastyear, 2023, you were awarded

Oh yeah.

Tina Kaczor, ND, FAB (32:58):
Remarkable Woman

Yeah.

I saw it on, okay, so I picked up it on
Coinsix News, they hadcandidates won like every week
for a month and then you endedup winning the contest.
What was that?

So, uh, Nextstar Media, they own a lot of the
news organizations across thecountry.
And so they did this wholecampaign and they do it every
year of trying to recognizewomen who are doing things that
are good for their community,not for the glory, but

hmm.

just helping people.
And so I was nominated somehowin the Pacific Northwest where I
live and ended up winning.
And then they sent me and, um,107 other women from all over
the country to LA and it was soawesome to meet all of these

(33:50):
women who are doing most, mostlynonprofit work, work with, you
know, homeless kids, homelessseniors, uh, feeding people.
It was really cool.

Yeah, I saw the clips on Coinsix News
and they made it look like youguys were treated like rock
stars.
Yeah.
Yeah.

we totally were, they even gave us a, like, they
gave us a star as like the kindthat you get on the, um, w of
fame.

Huh?
Oh,

a star on the W of fame, you also get a little star
that you get to take home withyou.

Oh.

To take home a little star.
Don't look for, don't look formy star on the road in a.
In Hollywood, it is not there.

well, this isn't this where you're
supposed to prop it up behindyou as you're, you know,

Probably this whole thing.

Oh, that

Oh, you know?
Yeah.
I love that.
It makes me so happy because italso just reminds me of how many
cool people there are out therethat are doing so many different
things that are making the worlda better place, which, you know,
if you get overwhelmed by thenews, seeing something positive
like that

Leah Sherman, ND, R (34:58):
Absolutely.

it's everything.
It's everything.
I feel like we, we swim in aworld of a lot of really good
people who do things for theright reasons and just want to
help other people.
And so I, I feel privileged.
To know so many people likethat, but it was great to see it
on the news and kind of for achange.
Some good news.
Yeah,

Totally.
Yes.
And it was really fun because Igot to meet all of the anchors
at coin six and they were all soexcited for the exact same
reason.
They were like, usually we'recovering horrible things and
this just makes us so happy.

Oh, nice.

Yeah, it was cool.

Oh, I do want to point out also that have
books, a book, for children whoare going through cancer
themselves.
Yeah.

Yeah.
So it started with the one forwhen someone you love has
cancer.
And then I had Duke Universityreach out and say, we use this
all the time for children ofadult patients.
Do you have anything forpediatric patients?
It could be the sameexplanation, just switched up a
little bit.
And I thought, well, that's a nobrainer done.
So I did that.

(36:01):
And then reached out again andthey said, actually, we would
really like one for siblings.
And again, I'm like, if thishelps anybody, I will do it.
Um, and so I created 1 forsiblings and as it turned out,
that was a really neededresource.
The siblings of pediatricpatients, because as the parents
are, you know, their attentionis quite reasonably on the child

(36:26):
that is ill, but it makes thesibling feel ignored or left
behind a lot of the time.
So.
that 1 and then they're allavailable in Spanish also, and
then the Mayo Clinic reached outand said, do you have anything
for anticipatory grief?
And as she and I were talking,we realized we actually need a

(36:48):
2nd book for, you know, the, thestage that is after active
treatment.
And is maybe chronic illnessrecovering from treatment, or
could be, you know, long termtreatment.
If you have metastatic illness,and you have to kind of set
expectations for your kids.

(37:09):
So we created what happens whensomeone I love doesn't feel
good.
And that book is really greatfor people who have metastatic
disease, or who, like me, justtheir body just did not work
right for years after treatment.
That one was kind of inspired bymy daughter who.
Had a birthday party she wasgoing to, where they were

(37:29):
walking in the 100 degree heatto the park, then having a
picnic, playing tag out in the,you know, grass 100 degrees,
then walking back to the house,then going to the arcade and
doing paintball after that.
And my daughter was like, mom, Iknew that you weren't playing
tag because you weren't going tohave enough energy for all the

(37:52):
things and you were saving itfor paintball.
I thought.
I think we need to have a bookabout this.
So, because I don't think there,there's a lot of things that you
just don't think about untilafter it's over, you know, and
if you had resources that werelike, hey, your kid probably
needs to know this, it wouldmake it so much easier for

(38:14):
parents to have the conversationand then kids are going to feel
so much better having heard thatinformation and been prepared
for, for it.

I think it's commendable.
Also that you see that yourchallenges are somewhat
universal challenges and thenrecognizing that you can do
something to help others.
Get through it, even if you'relooking at it in retrospect in
your own life and going, Oh,Well, they're basically creating
what you, what would be nice foryou to have found

Yes,

So it's, it's, it's really organic and
very authentic.
And I think that's also, reallynoticeable in everything that
you do is it's, it's heartfelt.
So yeah.

really felt strongly, you know, I had breast
cancer, but I mean, I have lotsof friends who had colon cancer,
stomach cancer, brain cancer Idid not want to create resources
that were specific to breastcancer.
I didn't want to createresources that were specific in
some cases, even just to cancer,like

Mm hmm.

about not feeling good.
could be cancer.
It could be ALS.
We have like a guide in the backthat will help you explain the
science behind literallyanything we could think of from
multiple sclerosis to depressionin kids speak because there are
any number of reasons why anadult's body might not feel

(39:36):
good.

Yeah, that's great.
Again, just seeing the need, andthen filling the need is a great
way to go about this.
And

Thanks.

I'm sure it's a big reason for the
success of the book and variouscancer centers and universities
integrating it into their, theirprogram.
So kudos.

Thank you.

Makes me want to buy the whole set.

I know,

Thanks.

I love how, like, you know, you have
Duke approaching you.
I mean, you have like thesemajor centers, coming to you

Yeah,

saying, you know, create this.

out.
I mean, honestly, I remember the1st time I got a huge bulk
order, from a major cancercenter that, I recognized I was
like, this is insane.
And then after I wrote the kidsbook and I had, you know, Saint
Jude, I was like, I havearrived.
I don't care if I make one centoff of this, those kids, this

Yeah.

Yeah, it feels really good.

Yeah, It's awesome.
Well, thanks for joining ustoday.

Thank you for having me.

I'm so happy that you made some time
and that our listeners get tolearn about your books and your
products and I, I encourageeveryone to go check it out
online and as simple as going toAmazon, you can find it there
too.
Um,

we'll mention the website again,
mightyandbright.

Yes, for the calendars.
And then Sarah Olsher, with noH, I should probably get it with
an H too, but saraholsher.
com is for the books.
Yes,

that purchasing the calendar ends up
giving the book a book getsgiven away.
So that's gifting a book to,people in need.
So, yeah, thank you so much.
This is great.
Um, it's been a pleasure gettingto know you.
Maybe we'll run into yousometime in, uh, in the
Portland, Salem area.
Who knows?

awesome.

Well, you're, are you, are you in
currently in

All right,

Leah (41:30):
Thanks for listening to The Cancer Pod.
Remember to subscribe, review,and rate us wherever you get
your podcasts.
Follow us on social media forupdates.
And as always, this is notmedical advice.
These are our opinions.
Talk to your doctor beforechanging anything related to
your treatment plan.
The Cancer Pod is hosted by me,Dr.
Leah Sherman, and by Dr.

(41:51):
Tina Kaczor.
Music is by Kevin MacLeod.
See you next time.

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