Speaker 1: Welcome to the Funny Kind with Erica Gummeny, bringing heart, humor,
Speaker 1: and hope to everyday life. Laughter and love really do
Speaker 1: make a difference, and Erica's here to prove it. Part
Speaker 1: deep Dive, part stand up for the Soul, this show
Speaker 1: blends humor, heart and real talk to help you stop
Speaker 1: believing the lies that hold you back. Whether she's flying
Speaker 1: solo or chatting with guests, Erica brings her signature mix
Speaker 1: of authenticity, wit and wisdom, reminding you that growth doesn't
Speaker 1: have to be so serious. So pull up a chair, exhale,
Speaker 1: and get ready to laugh, reflect, and reconnect with the
Speaker 1: extraordinary human you already are, because this is the Funny
Speaker 1: Kind where humor meets healing and inspiration meets action.
Speaker 2: Hello, everyone, thanks for being with us on well, at
Speaker 2: least recording. It's a hot summer day on July first,
Speaker 2: and it's it's a little hot outside, so I'm glad
Speaker 2: we're inside and air conditioning, so all I have to
Speaker 2: say thank God for air conditioning. So welcome to this
Speaker 2: episode of the Funny Kind. I'm very excited to have
Speaker 2: this conversation with a dear friend of mine and someone
Speaker 2: who I know that you are going to love and
Speaker 2: learn from and relate to. Her name is Susan Marshall.
Speaker 2: I'm just going to tell you a little bit about her.
Speaker 3: Hi, Susan, Hey Erica at the Hot Summer July first.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, for those of you that are watching, we're
Speaker 2: both we're both sleeveless. Yeah, we are, which you know. Yeah,
Speaker 2: So let me tell you a little bit about Susan.
Speaker 2: She is an author, a public speaker, a leadership advisor
Speaker 2: whose professional experience spans decades, and a global geography. Susan's
Speaker 2: done a lot of work in the public and private sectors,
Speaker 2: in nonprofit agencies, public education, and her passion is really
Speaker 2: to advocate for improve confidence, confidence and effective risk taking.
Speaker 2: I've seen Susan do a lot of different workshops and
Speaker 2: seen her speak, and she has a wonderful way of
Speaker 2: exuding confidence and humility at the same time. There's not
Speaker 2: a there's not a for lack of a better word,
Speaker 2: of cockiness about her that makes you go m it's
Speaker 2: a it's an authentic confidence that I really admire and
Speaker 2: am inspired by. So I love how you show up,
Speaker 2: my friend.
Speaker 3: Thank you. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well. Susan is the author of four books hundreds of articles.
Speaker 2: I love her books, I love her articles. She writes
Speaker 2: a little locally, she's been a guest lecturer. I mean,
Speaker 2: we could go on and on. A few years back,
Speaker 2: Susan launched something called Compassion Chats, which is a really
Speaker 2: cool way to bring Alzheimer's and dementia care providers to
Speaker 2: the caregiver community and an effort to kind of dispel
Speaker 2: the loneliness and helplessness that often comes with the caregiving journey. So,
Speaker 2: you knows, as we move in our careers, at one
Speaker 2: moment in our career, we're maybe talking about another topic,
Speaker 2: and then years later here we're in a different season
Speaker 2: of life. So, but Susan's books, and I'll give the
Speaker 2: link to everything that you can find her blog and
Speaker 2: all of her information. She just shares such a wealth
Speaker 2: of information at Susanmarshall dot com. So that'll be in
Speaker 2: the description. But Hi, Susan officially, welcome.
Speaker 3: Hello Erica. Officially. It's wonderful to be welcomed. You know,
Speaker 3: I was thinking about we go back so far, Yeah,
Speaker 3: and have shared so many things that are delightful and
Speaker 3: frightening and very very real.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Susan is one of those people that when you
Speaker 2: see her across the room, there's a there's a connection
Speaker 2: that you make that is real, and it's almost like
Speaker 2: we're checking in with each other. And then when we
Speaker 2: do sit down and have a one on one conversation,
Speaker 2: there is no chit chat. It is immediately deep.
Speaker 3: And isn't that fun. There's so much titter chatter, there's
Speaker 3: so much noise. It's like, you know, what, what are
Speaker 3: we talking about?
Speaker 2: That's what are we talking about?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah, So in.
Speaker 2: Today's podcast, we are talking about being free, and we
Speaker 2: picked that topic because it aligns with the theme of
Speaker 2: my book, Journey from the Ashes. You know, Shameless plug
Speaker 2: every month in the in the book as a different theme,
Speaker 2: and we're walking through lies that hold us back in
Speaker 2: our journey from the Ashes of our pain are past
Speaker 2: whatever might be holding us back, and so in this
Speaker 2: month of July, we're talking about being free. And when
Speaker 2: I thought about that, I thought about Susan, because I
Speaker 2: see Susan. I see you, Susan as someone who lives.
Speaker 2: You know, the last couple episodes, people have said be
Speaker 2: where your feet are. I have had two bit different
Speaker 2: people say that, I feel like you are in your self.
Speaker 2: You know you are just who you are, and it
Speaker 2: means you're having fun. It means you're playing, it means
Speaker 2: you're serious, it means all the things that you are,
Speaker 2: and you are who you are, and you are free.
Speaker 2: When I think of free, you resonate with to me
Speaker 2: with that, So what does free mean to you?
Speaker 3: You know, I love what you just said, because being
Speaker 3: free to me means being who you are. Now that
Speaker 3: can take a very long time to discover exactly who
Speaker 3: that is, because we're told from the time our first
Speaker 3: feet hit the floor and we take our very first
Speaker 3: tippy tippy steps, we're total we are and then we
Speaker 3: try to live into that expectation. Right. We talk about
Speaker 3: expectation a lot, and I've finally, over many many years
Speaker 3: and many painful episodes, and you know, many of them
Speaker 3: came to appreciate and understand. And I don't think there's
Speaker 3: a moment right where we're We're in church and we're
Speaker 3: in a service and there's a sermon, and two things
Speaker 3: I remember so very clearly. One is that people think
Speaker 3: church is this holy place and the pastor who was
Speaker 3: speaking said, this is not celebration of what this is
Speaker 3: a hospital for sinners. Yeah, and I thought, yes, and
Speaker 3: I belong here. And then the second thing that really
Speaker 3: struck me is do you have any idea what it
Speaker 3: means when you hear the words you are God's daughter?
Speaker 3: And that blew my mind. I'm like, I know, right,
Speaker 3: because I know all the stuff, I know all the gunk,
Speaker 3: I know everything that's been wrong, and I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 3: God doesn't have time for me, oh no, but he does.
Speaker 3: That Erica for me was just a almost like an
Speaker 3: opening up.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: And you hear people in this world, on this planet
Speaker 3: with us, who are every bit is broken, who are
Speaker 3: every bit is frightened of being exposed, who are also
Speaker 3: God's children, And when we can relate to each other
Speaker 3: with a measure of comp passion with the giggles once
Speaker 3: in a while, right, it's like yeah, who. It is
Speaker 3: so freeing to understand that the people who told you
Speaker 3: who you are or were were telling you about them,
Speaker 3: not about you.
Speaker 2: M wow. So freedom means free free to you and
Speaker 2: what that means to you. And when Susan and I
Speaker 2: were talking about this podcast, because we could like we
Speaker 2: could be here for eight hours, you know, we could
Speaker 2: be here till the season's change, and it gets chilly outside,
Speaker 2: we could, but we were thinking about like a lot
Speaker 2: of in a lot of spaces, and like coaching and
Speaker 2: things like that. There's talk of your future self and
Speaker 2: imagining visualizing yourself in a new place, where you want
Speaker 2: to be, where your goals are, where you've achieved whatever.
Speaker 2: And we thought, wouldn't it be fun if we in
Speaker 2: the current Erica and Susan place go talk back to
Speaker 2: the old Erica and the old Susan. You know, twelve
Speaker 2: versions of ourselves ago, right, what would we tell them
Speaker 2: when it comes to freedom?
Speaker 3: You know, the very first word Erica that came to
Speaker 3: my mind just now, and I don't remember if we
Speaker 3: talked about this is relax. Relax. You don't have to
Speaker 3: be there in thirty five seconds. You don't have to
Speaker 3: respond every time somebody asks you a question. You don't
Speaker 3: have to be angry or upset because people are demanding
Speaker 3: things of you you don't want to do. Relax.
Speaker 2: You get to choose ooh, relax. You know, I look
Speaker 2: back at when I talk to little Erica, who I've
Speaker 2: had a lot of conversations with writing this book and
Speaker 2: doing a lot of the work that happens in your
Speaker 2: older age when your kids are grown, and you kind
Speaker 2: of go okay, right, Reset, yeah, Reset, what's going on?
Speaker 2: And I look at her and I feel relaxed. I
Speaker 2: hear what you're saying, and I feel you know this
Speaker 2: this constant. I don't like, we are not experiments to
Speaker 2: be proven right or wrong. And so I always felt
Speaker 2: like I had to prove myself or reach some goal, reach,
Speaker 2: do be busy, do to prove that I am worthy
Speaker 2: and wanted. And a lot of the things in the
Speaker 2: book are things this is for me, you know, worthy, wanted,
Speaker 2: loved enough, right and free, love, Sorry enough?
Speaker 3: What is it? Says?
Speaker 2: Who? Oh, oh my gosh, yes, so yes, probably Susan's
Speaker 2: next book or keynote or teeth, shirts or sticker or something,
Speaker 2: says who tell us more about that? So, just to
Speaker 2: finish my thought, I was just gonna say that what
Speaker 2: I would tell little Erica is that you are enough,
Speaker 2: like you're saying, and you are God's daughter like you said,
Speaker 2: and honey, you are, Oh my goodness, look at you
Speaker 2: just the way you are. Look at your hazel eyes.
Speaker 2: Look at your squinty little hazel eyes. Look at your
Speaker 2: strawberry belond here. Look at how you make people laugh.
Speaker 2: Look at you. Look at what a connector you are
Speaker 2: of people. Look at how well you take care of
Speaker 2: those people. Look at you, Like my pastor always says,
Speaker 2: look at you, look at that. He's so sweet, and
Speaker 2: it's like, oh, you know, we're so turned hard on ourselves.
Speaker 3: Yeah we are.
Speaker 2: Oh, so let's talk about this. Who says? I love
Speaker 2: it because I'm like, that's what she said. That's a
Speaker 2: different that's a different tone, right.
Speaker 3: Right, right, No, the who says comes from, as we
Speaker 3: talk the other day, expectations from the time we come
Speaker 3: out of the womb. There are expectations placed on us
Speaker 3: by our parents. When are you going to take your
Speaker 3: first step? When are you going to say your first word?
Speaker 3: When are you going to eat your first solids? When
Speaker 3: are you going to be potty trained?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 3: When are you going to learn to When I said
Speaker 3: clean up your room, You're going to go clean up
Speaker 3: your room? Right. Then we go to school and we
Speaker 3: have teachers, and we have coaches, And if we go
Speaker 3: to church, we have ministers and we have you know,
Speaker 3: leaders in the church. Then we have coaches. Perhaps if
Speaker 3: we're in sports, then we have bosses. Then we have corporations,
Speaker 3: then we have society, and then we have social media.
Speaker 3: Oh oh man. And so when I hear probably the
Speaker 3: most adamant demands placed on me, and it's always a
Speaker 3: work as you know, it says who, Yeah, it says
Speaker 3: who who. It's like, you know, one, we're two. You're
Speaker 3: not the boss of me.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah.
Speaker 3: Nobody is the boss of us except the one who
Speaker 3: made us.
Speaker 2: Oh. I'm thinking of a talk that I did recently
Speaker 2: called who do you Think You Are? And I had
Speaker 2: a mirror up on the stage with different colored post
Speaker 2: it notes, and just like you're saying, like, this is
Speaker 2: all the people, all these things that people have told me,
Speaker 2: and it covers up the mirror so much that I
Speaker 2: can't even see myself anymore, right, and this stage of
Speaker 2: life that we're in, or whatever is happening in your
Speaker 2: life that you might be listening right now where you're like,
Speaker 2: something's got to give here, man. And now I'm like
Speaker 2: looking at all these post it notes and I'm like,
Speaker 2: what is this? Throw that out?
Speaker 3: What is this?
Speaker 2: And And now once I've kind of cleaned it up
Speaker 2: and I can see myself now, you don't dare be
Speaker 2: put no post it notes on my mirror unless you
Speaker 2: go through God and me first.
Speaker 3: Right, well, and I think there's a there's sort of
Speaker 3: an enigma buried in that because as long as there
Speaker 3: are posting notes covering the mirror, I don't have to
Speaker 3: see what I really look like you. I can just
Speaker 3: be who I am. And I think if women generally,
Speaker 3: and this was in my book of Beauty and Substance,
Speaker 3: if you got away from the mirror and got out
Speaker 3: into the world, you'd be a much happier human.
Speaker 2: Oh too much self focus and.
Speaker 3: It's encouraged and it is It goes back to that
Speaker 3: word enough. If you don't look quite like this, if
Speaker 3: you have this wrinkle bag, sag, gray, heir, whatever that is,
Speaker 3: then you're not enough. You know that's not right. You
Speaker 3: are somehow deficient. And if we as efficient, however we
Speaker 3: find deficient or we're taught to be deficient. Yeah, that's
Speaker 3: when I get stubborn. Now, I say, he says, who's who?
Speaker 3: You know what? I reject that I become Now. I
Speaker 3: don't reject it just because I'm rebellious and I am.
Speaker 3: I reject it because that is your definition of b
Speaker 3: which does not sit well, which does not accurately describe,
Speaker 3: and it's not true. It's just not true.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that had to have required a lot of
Speaker 2: work to pull that back and dig into what you
Speaker 2: what was it holding you in bondage? Let's say that
Speaker 2: you weren't even aware of. Can you think of an example.
Speaker 2: I'm just throwing this, I mean, Joe.
Speaker 3: You know it's it's kind of a funny thing to say,
Speaker 3: but when I was in eighth grade, my mother sewed
Speaker 3: a lot of her clothes, which was a source of
Speaker 3: tremendous embarrassment to us, right, particularly in grade school. Well,
Speaker 3: she saw in my eighth grade graduation dress, which was hideous,
Speaker 3: but it's what she wanted, not what I wanted. So
Speaker 3: and she had these little cuffs right that she was
Speaker 3: making and she's like, oh, Susie, you're getting so fat.
Speaker 3: That stayed with me my entire life. Oh and I thought,
Speaker 3: you know, adolescent. I mean, I'm watching my granddaughters now
Speaker 3: beautiful young women. Adolescence, puberty, Yes, you gain weight, your
Speaker 3: your body is developed, it's blossoming. And that was completely
Speaker 3: destroyed for me. And I carried that definition for years. Hmm.
Speaker 3: And it's so silly, but it was so damaged. I mean,
Speaker 3: you and I have talked about this over the years.
Speaker 3: The things you hear as a child, you have no
Speaker 3: means of there's no benchmark for them. So you hear them,
Speaker 3: you say, well, that must be true because this person
Speaker 3: who I'm dependent on from anything. Oh yeah, it must
Speaker 3: be true. Yes, yeah, how how do you? How did
Speaker 3: so we're going back to talk to our old, our
Speaker 3: old susan. Yeah I heard that. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Other than saying that's not true, don't listen to that.
Speaker 2: How do you?
Speaker 3: How do you come?
Speaker 2: How do you It's almost like I'm thinking of Harry
Speaker 2: Potter when when Dumbledore takes out that memory and pulls
Speaker 2: it out. How do you?
Speaker 3: How do you?
Speaker 2: How did you find a way to freedom from that?
Speaker 3: Well? It's interesting because it was not easy and it
Speaker 3: was not linear, and it took many, many, many, many years.
Speaker 3: I was a comfort food eater, potato chips, bring them baby.
Speaker 3: I loved to bake. So when I babysat there was
Speaker 3: one family. It's so funny. We're thinking about this now
Speaker 3: because it's mortifying as I think about it now, But
Speaker 3: it's funny. She was a baker. And so the kids
Speaker 3: will go to bed and I go through all the cupboards.
Speaker 3: What did she make ooh these bars, and I would
Speaker 3: just anything I can get in my mouth was my comfort,
Speaker 3: which of course made the problem worse. But I didn't
Speaker 3: know how to deal with the rejection, the abandonment, the judgment,
Speaker 3: all that felt like. And so I ate, and I
Speaker 3: still do, by the way, But you know, I work out,
Speaker 3: So it's all good. But we, as I said, when
Speaker 3: we're children and we hear things that are so discordant
Speaker 3: from how we see our own selves, and we have
Speaker 3: no means of even understanding it, Yeah, we can't cope.
Speaker 3: And so I think, as we talked the other day,
Speaker 3: there's there are these episodes and even whole chapters of
Speaker 3: our lives that are very difficult, that are very dark,
Speaker 3: that are so discouraging, and they are all necessary on
Speaker 3: the journey to freedom. Oh yes, And I just got
Speaker 3: sick of being, you know, a chunkster. I just got
Speaker 3: sick of it. I'm like, okay, well what do I
Speaker 3: do instead? And I find different found different ways. What
Speaker 3: I what I have learned repeatedly over the years, Erica,
Speaker 3: is if I can be curious about something I get
Speaker 3: outside of me, that's very very helpful.
Speaker 2: Oh, I really love that. If you can get curious
Speaker 2: about something you step outside of yourself. Yeah, and and
Speaker 2: don't you think And I think this is why the
Speaker 2: journey from the Ashes book and the long process that
Speaker 2: that took me. And it's not like, oh the book
Speaker 2: is over, I'm free, I'm fixed.
Speaker 3: No good luck for that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, if i'd be, i'd be we'd be sitting at
Speaker 2: a beach having this conversation if that was tough, because
Speaker 2: I'd be making billions. But what what it taught me
Speaker 2: is and I've been sober from alcohol for just over
Speaker 2: two years since the day my sister passed away. Wasn't
Speaker 2: inten to be a sober journey or anything. That wasn't
Speaker 2: like you know, rock Bottom or anything like that. It
Speaker 2: was just we were having a lot of trauma that
Speaker 2: came out of nowhere. It was very traumatic for our family,
Speaker 2: and I knew that I needed to be really crystal
Speaker 2: clear to go through that and through that experience. And
Speaker 2: the book was already being written and working on and
Speaker 2: things like that. But it when you talk about like
Speaker 2: the coping mechanisms that we do, it's almost like how
Speaker 2: those post it notes covered up the mirror. The coping
Speaker 2: makes it blurry. So I can't see myself.
Speaker 3: Absolutely true, and I was there's some comfort in that
Speaker 3: I can't see the real me until I am ready.
Speaker 3: Oh that's such an iterative. I'm ready today, I'm not ready.
Speaker 3: An hour later, I'm not ready. No, no, put the
Speaker 3: post is back. It's just it is messy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is messy, and like you said, it's not linear.
Speaker 2: And I think I just I wrote about this today
Speaker 2: that a friend of mine wrote a song for me.
Speaker 2: She's a songwriter. She's an award winning songwriter. She's so cool.
Speaker 2: She's a dear friend of mine and a breaker of
Speaker 2: change for women, chains for women. She does this really
Speaker 2: cool thing called when Stories and has women from talk
Speaker 2: and it's usually something very intense. She's amazing. And she
Speaker 2: wrote the song. It's called coming Home to You, Come
Speaker 2: Home to You. I'll send it to you and put
Speaker 2: it in the description. But in the beginning of the scene,
Speaker 2: I made a video to go with her song, with
Speaker 2: all these different images, and I found a hot air balloon.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Because the sand bags is the stuff that I think
Speaker 2: about most often. I focus a lot of my time
Speaker 2: on the sand bags in my life. And why did
Speaker 2: they say that to me? Why did that happen to me?
Speaker 2: Why did those terrible things happen? We spent so much
Speaker 2: time feeling sorry for ourselves, feeling like victims being You know,
Speaker 2: the book is not called Journey Staring at the Ashes, right,
Speaker 2: But you had said something that really resonates is that
Speaker 2: curiosity to be like, isn't that interesting that I feel
Speaker 2: that way? And I know my therapist taught me about that,
Speaker 2: but it's like, once you look at it, it loses
Speaker 2: its power over you. Like you clean a little part
Speaker 2: of the mirror and you're like, well, that wasn't so bad. Oh,
Speaker 2: look what I learned because of that? All right?
Speaker 3: Yep, you know it's interesting. Speaking of nonlinear I had
Speaker 3: an extraordinary opportunity, I don't know, five or six years
Speaker 3: ago to go to Brunei and work with a global
Speaker 3: team through the University of Michigan. And it was wonderful
Speaker 3: and it was awful and it was so different than
Speaker 3: anything I had done. It was a ten day trip
Speaker 3: and I came home and I said, I'm not going back.
Speaker 3: I don't care about their kids. I care about our kids, right.
Speaker 3: I don't want to be on coaching calls at one
Speaker 3: o'clock in the morning. But I was so for some reason,
Speaker 3: it brought everything that I had been told about me
Speaker 3: that was deficient. It brought it front and center. And
Speaker 3: I remember one Friday night sitting I went to a
Speaker 3: friend in University of Wisconsin Madison. I said, how do
Speaker 3: I travel internationally? She said, Get an antidiarrhea pill. Get
Speaker 3: a sleeping pill. When you get on the plane in
Speaker 3: Newark to Singapore, take a sleeping pill. Don't eat anything,
Speaker 3: don't drink anything. Left I'm like, okay, Well, get on
Speaker 3: the plane in Newark and you're greeted at would you
Speaker 3: like a glass of wine? Yes? Or this champagne? Yes?
Speaker 3: I would. Would you like some mixed nuts so that, yes,
Speaker 3: I would. Would you like dinner, yes I would. Would
Speaker 3: you like wine with dinner, Yes I would. So I'm
Speaker 3: having my own little party. Right. Fabulous all of that,
Speaker 3: and it was fine. The way back was not the same.
Speaker 3: But after I got back, for whatever reason, I found
Speaker 3: myself in one of the darkest tunnels I had ever
Speaker 3: experienced to that time, and the sleeping pill that I
Speaker 3: was given was lazop. Now, my next door neighbors said,
Speaker 3: that's not a sleeping pill. I take two every morning
Speaker 3: before I go to work. I'm like, okay, I don't
Speaker 3: have that kind of tolerance anyway. I had probably twenty
Speaker 3: their teeny tiny little things, twenty and I had a
Speaker 3: glass of shardin eye and I sat there for twenty
Speaker 3: minutes Erica and thought, you know what, these are so tiny?
Speaker 3: This finish that wine. I'm done. Wow, I'm done. I'm gone.
Speaker 3: I can't do this anymore. I don't know what the
Speaker 3: hell I'm going to do next. I just said no
Speaker 3: to this big gig. And I remember sitting there thinking,
Speaker 3: I just you know, and I'm just tired. I don't
Speaker 3: want to be happy anymore. I don't want to have
Speaker 3: people think I got my shit together. Twenty minutes and
Speaker 3: then I finally went, are you serious? You would do
Speaker 3: this to your kids, you would do this to your grandkids?
Speaker 3: Get over yourself. Down the toilet, they went, don't tell
Speaker 3: the city that, and wine went into the kitchen, down
Speaker 3: the stake. But it was. It was one of those moments,
Speaker 3: and I think about so often God's saying.
Speaker 2: Yours to choose, mmm, yours to choose words to choose.
Speaker 2: Thank you for sharing that very personal situation. I'm sure
Speaker 2: a lot of people can relate to that, and I'm
Speaker 2: glad that you are here and me too.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I guess the point of that story, Erica
Speaker 3: is it is not a it's not a linear process.
Speaker 3: We're better than we're not, but we we always get
Speaker 3: to choose. And I think that freedom is truly a
Speaker 3: gift that I think we make light of at times
Speaker 3: where we probably shouldn't.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think that that, you know, there's there's
Speaker 2: so much we could talk about, and I wish we
Speaker 2: had ours. I think that those moments that you've had,
Speaker 2: of this clarity of who says what freedom means to you,
Speaker 2: and the various iterations of Susan and Erica that have
Speaker 2: happened since you know, our little toes hit the ground.
Speaker 2: Like you said, we've transformed into different versions of ourselves.
Speaker 2: And here we are now in this I call it
Speaker 2: Perry retirement. Midty biddy. I'm not old, I'm not young,
Speaker 2: I'm not totally gray, but I'm definitely great, you know,
Speaker 2: like I'm kind of in this weird.
Speaker 3: It is weird.
Speaker 2: And I think back and if I could say, like
Speaker 2: if I could sit down and like before, she did
Speaker 2: some things that make me shudder when I remember them,
Speaker 2: I go, oh, my god, Oh how did I survive that?
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, how embarrassing, you know, like when you
Speaker 2: see old pictures of yourself. Thank god there wasn't social media.
Speaker 3: Amen to that, sister.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but like you said, all of those things, rather
Speaker 2: than feeling shame about it, just it happened. They happened
Speaker 2: some I'm not proud of. But here I am, and
Speaker 2: I am God's daughter, and I'm not going to let
Speaker 2: pardon my language, that shit hold me back anymore. I
Speaker 2: am who I am, and you don't get to tell me,
Speaker 2: and even even in me head voice doesn't get to
Speaker 2: tell me.
Speaker 3: And you will try to tell us, and others will
Speaker 3: continue to try to tell us. So that's where the
Speaker 3: ability to just shut up the noise. Yes, essential essential.
Speaker 2: So well, thank you for being here with us. I
Speaker 2: feel like this time went too fast. Yeah great, Oh
Speaker 2: my gosh. And I I just love the work that
Speaker 2: you do that really takes people from you know, kind
Speaker 2: of that self focus of building your confidence, getting a backbone,
Speaker 2: feeling strong and confident, to caring for your parents, caring
Speaker 2: for someone, just the kind of spectrum of life that
Speaker 2: happens to us and the journey that we're on. And
Speaker 2: that you bring us alongside you with your vulnerability and
Speaker 2: your authenticity, so that it opens up these conversations for people.
Speaker 2: Because in those dark moments that you talked about in
Speaker 2: that dark tunnel, I know there are people who are
Speaker 2: feeling that.
Speaker 3: No question.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And what would you say to those people who
Speaker 2: are listening right now who are like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 2: I'm feeling imprisoned.
Speaker 3: Rest find a friend. You can say that too. You
Speaker 3: are not alone.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you are God's daughter, our son, God's you
Speaker 2: are God's baby.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you are not alone. Oh my goodness. Well, thank
Speaker 2: you my friend again. Susanmarshall dot com.
Speaker 3: Such a Susan A. Marshall.
Speaker 2: Susan A. Marshall. Yes, they say I was old Marshall. Hey,
Speaker 2: all right, well my friend you, thank you and we'll
Speaker 2: see you guys on the next episode of The Funny
Speaker 2: Kind by.
Speaker 1: Thanks for tuning in to the Funny Kind with Erica Gummeny,
Speaker 1: where humor meets healing and inspiration meets action. If this
Speaker 1: episode made you laugh, think, or become inspired, be sure
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Speaker 1: about turning your pivotal moments into powerful growth, visit your
Speaker 1: pivotalpoint dot com. Until next time, keep laughing, keep laughing,
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Speaker 1: whole lot of kind