This is Let's be clear, who's Shannon Dohrny? Well, Hi everybody, my name is Brooke Burke, and I just want to kick things off by saying hello to all of the Let's be clear listeners. This is a really special opportunity for me because I consider Shannon to be a friend, a forever friend, and I want to take I guess a short and sentimental walk down memory lane with all due respect and just a love for this community that has continued to stay on board and to connect and to supports. It was really honored when Shannon's producers reached out to me and asked me to do this podcast, So it was a very easy yes for me and I I was laying in bed last night really thinking about my relationship with Shannon and where this could go, and what I have to offer all of you, and how I can make you smile and yet still honor her. And it was a little bit of a sentimental journey that I took down the road last night. But let me just start with a little bit about me in case you don't know who I am. Shannon and I were both born in nineteen seventy one. I'm also a cancer survivor, so I feel particularly connected to just raising awareness and being an advocate for women's health, and particularly connected to her in her journey. I'm also a mother of four actually now six because I have some step children, and I did have the privilege of spending time with Shannon and her mother, and I'll tell you about that a little bit later, but their relationship really touched me as a mother and a daughter. Witnessing their bond and their connection, it was really really beautiful, which is I think what initially started my friendship with Shannon. But we have a lot in common. Actually, I mean she was sort of the bad all of the nineties. That wasn't me. But I did a host a wildly popular series called wild on On around that same time in life, so our paths crossed many, many, many times. And I just want to say that it's an honor to be here to connect with all of you, and hopefully I can honor her as well. We have a lot of mutual friends. I live in Malibu, and she definitely represented all things about this small hometown that we share and that we love and dinners at NOBU. We have mutual friends. I met Shannon and her mom at a studio that I used to teach fitness classes called Dance Star here in Malabu, and I remember knowing her admiring her, following her journey, following her very controversial celebrity life, and being in the business myself, I never really took any of that to heart because it's such a weird business that we're in. And I want to just go on the record to say that Shannon was everything that her reputation was not. And I say that with a giggle. And she and I have had many conversations about how crazy this entertainment business is, but being in it, I know how to separate truth from reality. So I want to tell you a little bit about how I know Shannon and what the relationship was like and who she really was just as a girl and a woman, because I never really knew her as a celebrity. I only know Shannon as my Malibu kind of HOMEI and who she was and what she represented. She is so kind, she was so compassionate, so connected to her mother. She was a fantastic daughter and friend. She was a fantastic partner to our wonderful mutual friend Chriscurtazo that we have they were actually sort of married in many ways innocently, because well, that's a whole other story. I won't even get into that. But if you know Chris Kurtaso, you know what I'm talking about. She was sort of his day wife and lover of life and honest and unapologetically who she was. That's really how I knew Shannon, and I wish that I would have spent more time with her, and I wish I would have carved out that time in life and in business. We were both wildly busy, and I think we would have been very, very, very very good friends. She's somebody that I really responded to in so many different ways. But going back about I don't know, a decade or so at least, we met at a place called Dance Star, where I was teaching my signature Booty Burn class that I've now made my whole wellness space around. And she walked in with her mother, and I was like, how cool is that? Her mom is my mom's age, but way more fit and fun. And there they were a mother and daughter showing up at my class like unannounced, and she was Shannon Doherty, Like, oh my god, I thought that was such a big cool deal that she was so free to just drop into a public space like every other girl. And that's really who she was to me. She was just every other girl, strong woman, unapologetic, opinionated, didn't give a shit about when anybody really thought. She was just marching to the beat of her own drum. And I love that. I'm raising four daughters. I tried to teach my children that to live out loud and to have a voice, and to be who you are and to not compromise that, and I feel like Shannon really embodied that sentiment, which I have mad respect for. And then I really admired the relationship that she had with her mother and her commitment. And they would show up in class and Shannon was in it. She was like already in it in her her cancer struggle and journey, and I loved that she was ever a victim. I love that she just fought the fight, sometimes silently, sometimes out loud, whatever she needed to do. I love that she surrounded herself with a very small, intimate inner circle, deep friends that were real friends, like Chris. In my opinion, the relationship with her mother, which is invaluable and unconditional her I'm also a daughter to a woman that I share the same type of relationship with who is like my ride or died with me through thick and thin, has loved me unconditionally and supported everything I've ever done in my career, both good and bad. I know Shannon can relate to that, and Mama too, if you're listening. I really admired that. And we also had the same doctor that guided us through our cancer journey. His name is doctor Lawrence Piro. He's a badass in the space unconventional thinks outside of the box. Was a tremendous influence and help for me and my family when I was diagnosed with irite cancer two thousand and I think it was twelve. He helped me assemble a fantastic medical team, guided me through every step of the way. When as layman, as regular people, sometimes it's very difficult to understand that medical dialogue, especially when you hear the words cancer, especially when that rocks your world, and it's that word that you hope you'll never here, that you'll never forget, that you can never unhear. I remember, I have hashimotos I have several autoimmune diseases that I struggle with Shannon and I also had that in common. Nobody would really know it because we hardly ever talked about it very private, but I had a nodule on my thyroid that was slightly irregular from my regular doctor. And I do want to say taking ownership of our own bodies and our health journey is so wildly important to be a good patient, to get that physical, to show up for yourself, to ask questions, to make sure that you have a relationship with your medical team that's intimate, where there's space to learn and ask and to grow, and if you don't need to get another set of doctors. I will go on the record to say that. But anyway, I went in to have this nogule looked at, and I had a biopsy done, and the results came back inconclusive. They didn't know if it was or if it wasn't, and they wanted me to just come back every six months or so watch this little nodule. I didn't feel anything. I didn't have any side effect because I didn't know what was going on really but that I had this irregular nodule, and I didn't really accept that that didn't sit right for me, not with my career, not with my responsibilities, not raising my family. I didn't want to have that stress. And I have to go back every six months and figure out if I had di red cancer or not. So I found another doctor, and I found another team. Through the love and guidance of doctor Lawrence Piro, he helped me assemble a team. I went and I got another biops. I did like seven in one day. Not fun, but I'm a person. I'm a detective of my own body. I needed information and research. So I did that, and sure enough, within days, I'm sitting in my kitchen one morning and I get the call and I'm literally getting ready to go to set. I'm Dancing with the Stars, amazing show by the way, I absolutely love that journey. And I get the call from my doctor and I said, do you have cancer? And I'm like, wait, what what do you mean? I'm going to call you back when we like finished making my breakfast and get to work and let me just and they're like no, no, no, no no, we need to explore options and just kind of take this in and we need to put together a purposeful plan. You need to find a thyroid surgeon different than your diagnostic doctor. And you need to deal with this. And I remember standing in my kitchen saying inside like, hmm, I don't even have time for cancer, Like, what do you mean I have cancer? It takes such great care of myself. I'm an advocate for women's health. I'm in the health and wellness business. I feel my body mindfully, I speak to my body mindfully. I make responsible choices like what that can't be? And they're like, oh no, we're going to deal with this. So I say that because life is happening, cancer walcks your world. I decided to be a great page and put together an incredible team and to do everything that I could possibly do. And I am very lucky today to say that I beat cancer, kicked cancer's ass. My prognosis was great. I'm okay. I'm an advocate for women's health because of that, and I guide a lot of women through their journey. But it was really one doctor, doctor Lawrence Piro, that was so instrumental for me and helped me so much. And that was Shannon's doctor. That's why I brought it up, and he was really with her through so many steps. And I wasn't privileged to be part of the challenging part of Shannon's journey. I wish that I would have been I wish that I would have known her more. I wish that I would have spent more time with her. And I feel like when we lose loved ones, that's always the conversation I should have, would have, could have? I wish I did. I didn't. I don't believe in that anymore. I don't believe in should have, could have, would have. But I'm just saying that because I think she was an extraordinary, powerful woman misunderstood. I think she was a bad ass and I love that about her. And I think she was kind and compassion and gentle and loving and all of the things that the public persona did not represent. I also respect that and I get it, and I feel connected to her because I was able to spend some intimate time with her. Months before she passed. We went to a very close friend's birthday in Knoxville, Tennessee, and we spent a weekend together and she loved Tennessee. Her and Chris and we flew home together on a private plane, which was a very intimate journey. It was Scott, my fiancee, and I, Shannon, her mother and Chris and we got to spend time together and we got to laugh, we got to cry, we got to party, we got to understand, we got to make future plans. Shannon and I were going to partner up and go on some of these really cheeky industry celebrities signing gigs all over the world. She was connecting me with her manager in that space, and we were really looking forward to exploring our friendship and we didn't get to do that, and that's really sad to me. And I want to say to everybody that's listening, if you're going through it, or you're going through it with somebody that's fighting the fight, you're going through it too. If you're a family member of someone who has cancer that's fighting the fight, you're going through it too. And I remember my cancer journey, which was a dot in the sky compared to Shannon's. I'm lucky, but I remember my family was going through it. My children were going through it, my husband was going through it. And I really do believe that the families of anybody that's fighting that fight needs love and needs support and be compassion with that. And if you are a cancer survivor, if you are in it. If you are fighting the fight, you need to reach out for help and for love and for support. And there's so many, so many groups, so many opportunities to surround yourself with love and an outlet and a way to just process, to ugly cry if you need to, to laugh when you need to, to not feel guilty if you've survived and somebody else hasn't. To create a support system, to deepen those relationships, to be okay, to not be okay, to know how to surrender, to know that it's okay to become unraveled, to give yourself permission to be or not to be. I wasn't really sure where this conversation was going with all of you, But since I have your undivided attention, I want to tell you that I do a lot of transformation retreats. I guide a lot of women, whether they're redesigning their life, whether they're reinventing, whether they're rebooting, updating their inner software. They need to check out of their world, to check back in learning whatever it is. I work with all kinds of personalities and all types of different pain points, and what I really know to be true is that we need community and we need love, we need support, we need self acceptance, we need to change her in our dialogue. We need space, we need to create space to just feel and to be. And I remember watching Shannon and how strong she was, and half of the time she put her war pain on and gunfire probably going off in her head, pain in her body, and I didn't get intimate time with her. I wish I would have, because I wish I could have been instrumental and helped her more and helped her mom and just been there just for love and support. I feel like I'm called to do that, I'm really guided to do that. But I want to tell everybody that's listening to look for helpers, reach out a hand. If you know someone that's going through it, offer to sit with them. Maybe they don't want to talk, maybe they just need somebody to just be with them. Maybe they want to talk. Sometimes we don't say anything because we don't know what to say say, And I think saying something is better than saying nothing. I lost my little brother who passed away at the age of forty six. He died in his sleep unexpectedly. We have a very big, very loving family. It was shocking. I remember receiving that call when I was driving down the four or five and I couldn't process it. I was in total shock. I had to like go home and deal with my children and grieve for them, with them, deal with the family. I remember coming home and not even mentioning it to my fiance. I had like a girlfriend's birthday party that I had to go to the next day. I was in such shock that I didn't know how to become unraveled and give myself grace to really go through it. So I just kind of marched through the motions. I guide a lot of people through grief and through transformation and through processing pain and joy. I promise you, if you're going through something and you don't deal with it now, it comes up later. And I just related so much much to Shannon's mom as a woman and as a mother and as a friend, and it really really really touched me. So I don't know. I guess I'm passionate about making myself available to help people go through their own journey. And it's wild peaks and valleys, you know, challenge, pain, grief, bliss, joy, all of it. I've been through all of it. There isn't anybody on my retreats that can tell me anything that shock me. I've been through loss, I've been divorced a couple of times. I'm a lover of life. My heart is wide open. I'm raising young, powerful children, and I'm learning all the time. I think one of the most valuable things about what I do is I always surround myself with people that are better than I am, that are greater leaders. I love being a student. I love being a leader. I love being a teacher, I love being a learner. I love being a student. Like I just I go back and forth, back and forth without egos so that I continue to learn. And I know that Shannon's journey and her strength and her fight in many ways is going to touch a lot of people. That's the good part of it. The other part of it is sometimes we don't get answers right. We ask questions, why why so young? She's my age? I can't imagine being her mother, and I can't imagine being her and why do those things happen? And I don't know the answer to that. But I still believe in asking questions and staying connected and knowing that we might not get the answers when we want them, And I say that to all people that are grieving, just keep asking the questions. There's reasons and there's messages, and so you know, sometimes people just say, you know, things happen for a reason, like we know that, but we just don't always get to know the reason. And I just think it's really important to sit in that space and grieve and learn and let go and be in pain and ugly cry if you need to, and then find points of joy and remember things like I remember laughing like deep belly laughs with Shannon. I remember some of the fun plans that we made and how much fun that was. And so I kind of default back to love and joy when pain sometimes is overwhelming. And I remember her in a beautiful time, in a beautiful space. I really really remember her being so powerful and so connected and so committed and just being such a lover. In Malibu, you know, we're going through a lot right now in this community, and I'm in it. I'm here, I'm like right on the border of where the fire line is dealing with I would say seventy five percent of the community just being completely destroyed and not knowing how we get back to place of beauty. And freedom here in Malibu. The coastline has like changed forever. I've driven pch twice since the fires. This is my sixth fire, by the way. I'll pop around a little bit just to give you some perspective and then to tell you sort of how I deal with drama and trauma and loss, if that's helpful for this podcast. My house burned about six years ago after the Wolsey Fire, not because of that fire, it was unrelated. It was a structural fire. I was going through the destruction of my own divorce and redesigning my life, and then the fire happened and I was able to relocate and leave my home and rebuild for two years. I was home alone when the fire broke out. Thank God, I was home alone, and it was really terrifying, but I was safe in my family and my animals were safe and I got my dogs out okay, and I was able to depart and sort of rebuild my life. And in many ways I'm looking for the goodness in that and the positive part of that journey. I was able to depart from a home that was a family home with my husband, rebuild the house parts of it, and take a break emotionally and spiritually for two years to sort of redesign my life and then come home to a space of newness, which is really important, and I want to share that because if you're going through something, whether it's life, loss, death, divorce, which isn't death in many ways, sometimes you might need to depart and come back to a space and create a sense of newness where you can rebuild and redesign a new space in a new place for a new year and a new season, in a new year and a new possibility. And I really believe in that, in creating new spaces and familiar places, and I do do a lot of work in relation to that in my retreat work and transformation work, creating spaces within familiar places. Because life changes, we have to change with it. And now we're looking at what's happening here in Malibourne. It's devastating and unexpected and unfathomable, and we're driving the coast and the landscape has changed forever and people are grieving not just buildings and structures, but homes and dreams and memories and keepsakes and sentimental things. So where do you go from there? How do you fight the fight. How do you stay positive? First you have to accept the reality of what is, and then decide what it looks like and what does the future look like, and imagine that and manifest that, and then find the strength to kind of keep going and to rebuild. That's sort of where we're at right now, even though I have no idea how Malibu does that, and driving pcech is devastating this as we raised our children, restaurants that we frequent, homes that are lost. Four of the homes that my new man, my fiance, his family home, and his children's home burned, the home that I relocated to burned, the home that we rented together before being here burned, and another home that he lived and when we met burned. So we're talking about different points of contact all over the city, unrelated to one another, that are gone. The energy has been really devastating. One of the things that I've been speaking about a lot, trying to help people and trying to sort of pay this forward in a positive way is a system that I put in place. It's called the Peas and it really helps people to find a sense of calmness and equanimity when they're dealing with some drama or some trauma or an emergency, whether it's fire, hurricane, earthquake, whatever it is. We all read about that. Have your safety kit, have this, have that none of us fun do it. Have a first aid kit in your car at a minimum. Have all your phones and tablets powered up at a minimum. Have a purposeful plan. Have a meeting place. So here's what I do to remain calm, because I've got lots of animals and kids and I've got to pull it together as mama. There the peas, listen to the system. I told totally love this. Have a purposeful plan, so chill out, have a plan to default to, have a place to meet here in Malibor. Power goes out all the time. We've got earthquakes, fires, You never know what's going on. And I have children in different school systems, and quite honestly, if power goes out, what's your plan. So we have a meeting place, meaning if we can't reach each other and the shit sitting the fan, we have a place that we're going to meet. Okay, So you have a purposeful plan, you have a place. Then you're going to worry about people in pets. First, you're going to take a breath. You're going to remain calm. You're going to sort out your people and your pets. So I have like a pet bag during fire season that's packed. Have your prescriptions filled, don't run low on your prescriptions. And then paperwork and sentimental things. I have a firebox. It's about so big. I'm strong enough to lift it up. You can get it on home depot. You can order it online. In that firebox our personal paperwork, birth certificates, social security passports, baby books, old school discs, like things that are irreplaceable or a pain in the as to replace. Power points everybody. I have power points and generators right now that will power my coffee machine, priorities, coffee everyone that I could use to get ready if I needed to that I could power up certain rooms. They're power boxes. I also have like little mini generators that are like affordable where I can charge up my tablets. My device is my computers. If you're grabbing your computers and your devices, don't forget your chargers. So I have a bag that's packed and in it, I'm packing like I'm going on a trip. I've got my toilet trees, I've got my personal things I've got a workout outfit because that's how I lower my stress levels. I got sneakers to be compy chargers. I've got plastics, credit cards. You're going to need them when the shit goes down here. We don't always get to come home for weeks, so you have to be prepared. Those are the ps. Have a purposeful plan. I promise you it will save you. My bag looks like I'm going on a trip and I've been displaced for weeks at a time time here in Malibu. That will save you. Have a plan, and ladies, I want to tell you too. If you have a fire, or you're going through a divorce and all of a sudden, it's you and you, and you have to learn how to be the ch of the chief household officer of your own life. You better know how to run everything. You better know where your gas and power is, how to turn off the water, all your account numbers, how to call direct TV or whatever your sources, how to call your electric company and have an account number or they're not going to talk to you. Have access to all your banks, like, have everything in order. I have so many people who find themselves in an unexpected situation and they don't have access to anything. You're aft. So I am all about guiding and educating women to have a purposeful plan. We need it. I went through it, not only my fire, but through it with my divorce. I have all my documents, all my account numbers, all in one place. I have an album on my phone that's got a copy of insurance registration, passports, security numbers, insurance cards for my kids to when they need something. I pull up in ten seconds, here's my kid album. Pulls up Boom or here you go, Shire, or here you go Sarah or Rain? You lost? This so easy saving grace right here you can organize everyone. I'm so honored to be able to do this podcast. I'm so honored to be able to take a walk down memory laying with Shannon mad respect for her, I miss her. Make sure you reach out to people you love. Make sure you book that lunch, make sure you call your mom, make sure you call your friend. Don't wait. Life is so precious. We don't know what's going to happen. I don't believe them. Should have, could have, would of. So make sure you do what you want to do. Make sure you live the way you want to live. Make sure every day is precious. Make sure you share your love and open your heart no matter what you're going through. Don't hold on to loving feelings. You got to open your heart so you can receive more love and give more love and live out loud. I know that she did that, So thank you everybody for listening to this episode of Let's Be Clear. I can only hope my stories have inspired you in some way. I wish you all lots of love, deep deep, deep love, and health and wellness and healing. I'm really easy to find. I have a wellness app. It's called Brook Broke Body. The first week is even free. I do a digital meetup every week at eight thirty in the morning on Mondays where we can connect. We can do Q and as. I have an incredible community of like minded people, mostly women, but also men. If you're looking for a way to start, if you don't know where to begin, if you're a woman like me, and maybe you don't even love fitness, I do. If you're in your forties, if you're in a fifties, if you're struggling with menopause, let me be your homegirl. Let me show you how to train your body, how to meet your body, how to fuel your body. I have an incredible community at brook Broke Body, and we connect. We do yoga, we do mindfulness, we do breathwork, meditation, body sculpting. That's the easy part. The fitness part of what I do is really easy. But most importantly, we have a community. That's where I reconnected with Shannon and her mom. I teach classes, I do digital meetups, I do live streams. I'm really easy to find. You can find me on Brookbork dot com. You can find me on social media at brook Work, you can find me at brook Bork Body. But most importantly, you can be part of my community that's built on love and mindfulness and intentional wellness. So follow me, dm me, reach out to me. I would love to connect. I'd love to help you on your journey. I'd love to continue to share stories because my stories become part of your stories, and your stories will become part of mine. And I love that possibility of connecting. It's sort of a sisterhood, right, It's a language that we speak as women. So I would love to know you. So reach out to me. Thank you for listening, thank you for connecting, and thank you for continuing to support Shannon and her family. She deserves that, and we're also worthy of just carrying on this legacy. I have a beautiful day, everybody. Bye,

This is Let's be clear, who's Shannon Dohrny? Well, Hi everybody, my name is Brooke Burke, and I just want to kick things off by saying hello to all of the Let's be clear listeners. This is a really special opportunity for me because I consider Shannon to be a friend, a forever friend, and I want to take I guess a short and sentimental walk down memory lane with all due respect and just a love for this community that has continued to stay on board and to connect and to supports. It was really honored when Shannon's producers reached out to me and asked me to do this podcast, So it was a very easy yes for me and I I was laying in bed last night really thinking about my relationship with Shannon and where this could go, and what I have to offer all of you, and how I can make you smile and yet still honor her. And it was a little bit of a sentimental journey that I took down the road last night. But let me just start with a little bit about me in case you don't know who I am. Shannon and I were both born in nineteen seventy one. I'm also a cancer survivor, so I feel particularly connected to just raising awareness and being an advocate for women's health, and particularly connected to her in her journey. I'm also a mother of four actually now six because I have some step children, and I did have the privilege of spending time with Shannon and her mother, and I'll tell you about that a little bit later, but their relationship really touched me as a mother and a daughter. Witnessing their bond and their connection, it was really really beautiful, which is I think what initially started my friendship with Shannon. But we have a lot in common. Actually, I mean she was sort of the bad all of the nineties. That wasn't me. But I did a host a wildly popular series called wild on On around that same time in life, so our paths crossed many, many, many times. And I just want to say that it's an honor to be here to connect with all of you, and hopefully I can honor her as well. We have a lot of mutual friends. I live in Malibu, and she definitely represented all things about this small hometown that we share and that we love and dinners at NOBU. We have mutual friends. I met Shannon and her mom at a studio that I used to teach fitness classes called Dance Star here in Malabu, and I remember knowing her admiring her, following her journey, following her very controversial celebrity life, and being in the business myself, I never really took any of that to heart because it's such a weird business that we're in. And I want to just go on the record to say that Shannon was everything that her reputation was not. And I say that with a giggle. And she and I have had many conversations about how crazy this entertainment business is, but being in it, I know how to separate truth from reality. So I want to tell you a little bit about how I know Shannon and what the relationship was like and who she really was just as a girl and a woman, because I never really knew her as a celebrity. I only know Shannon as my Malibu kind of HOMEI and who she was and what she represented. She is so kind, she was so compassionate, so connected to her mother. She was a fantastic daughter and friend. She was a fantastic partner to our wonderful mutual friend Chriscurtazo that we have they were actually sort of married in many ways innocently, because well, that's a whole other story. I won't even get into that. But if you know Chris Kurtaso, you know what I'm talking about. She was sort of his day wife and lover of life and honest and unapologetically who she was. That's really how I knew Shannon, and I wish that I would have spent more time with her, and I wish I would have carved out that time in life and in business. We were both wildly busy, and I think we would have been very, very, very very good friends. She's somebody that I really responded to in so many different ways. But going back about I don't know, a decade or so at least, we met at a place called Dance Star, where I was teaching my signature Booty Burn class that I've now made my whole wellness space around. And she walked in with her mother, and I was like, how cool is that? Her mom is my mom's age, but way more fit and fun. And there they were a mother and daughter showing up at my class like unannounced, and she was Shannon Doherty, Like, oh my god, I thought that was such a big cool deal that she was so free to just drop into a public space like every other girl. And that's really who she was to me. She was just every other girl, strong woman, unapologetic, opinionated, didn't give a shit about when anybody really thought. She was just marching to the beat of her own drum. And I love that. I'm raising four daughters. I tried to teach my children that to live out loud and to have a voice, and to be who you are and to not compromise that, and I feel like Shannon really embodied that sentiment, which I have mad respect for. And then I really admired the relationship that she had with her mother and her commitment. And they would show up in class and Shannon was in it. She was like already in it in her her cancer struggle and journey, and I loved that she was ever a victim. I love that she just fought the fight, sometimes silently, sometimes out loud, whatever she needed to do. I love that she surrounded herself with a very small, intimate inner circle, deep friends that were real friends, like Chris. In my opinion, the relationship with her mother, which is invaluable and unconditional her I'm also a daughter to a woman that I share the same type of relationship with who is like my ride or died with me through thick and thin, has loved me unconditionally and supported everything I've ever done in my career, both good and bad. I know Shannon can relate to that, and Mama too, if you're listening. I really admired that. And we also had the same doctor that guided us through our cancer journey. His name is doctor Lawrence Piro. He's a badass in the space unconventional thinks outside of the box. Was a tremendous influence and help for me and my family when I was diagnosed with irite cancer two thousand and I think it was twelve. He helped me assemble a fantastic medical team, guided me through every step of the way. When as layman, as regular people, sometimes it's very difficult to understand that medical dialogue, especially when you hear the words cancer, especially when that rocks your world, and it's that word that you hope you'll never here, that you'll never forget, that you can never unhear. I remember, I have hashimotos I have several autoimmune diseases that I struggle with Shannon and I also had that in common. Nobody would really know it because we hardly ever talked about it very private, but I had a nodule on my thyroid that was slightly irregular from my regular doctor. And I do want to say taking ownership of our own bodies and our health journey is so wildly important to be a good patient, to get that physical, to show up for yourself, to ask questions, to make sure that you have a relationship with your medical team that's intimate, where there's space to learn and ask and to grow, and if you don't need to get another set of doctors. I will go on the record to say that. But anyway, I went in to have this nogule looked at, and I had a biopsy done, and the results came back inconclusive. They didn't know if it was or if it wasn't, and they wanted me to just come back every six months or so watch this little nodule. I didn't feel anything. I didn't have any side effect because I didn't know what was going on really but that I had this irregular nodule, and I didn't really accept that that didn't sit right for me, not with my career, not with my responsibilities, not raising my family. I didn't want to have that stress. And I have to go back every six months and figure out if I had di red cancer or not. So I found another doctor, and I found another team. Through the love and guidance of doctor Lawrence Piro, he helped me assemble a team. I went and I got another biops. I did like seven in one day. Not fun, but I'm a person. I'm a detective of my own body. I needed information and research. So I did that, and sure enough, within days, I'm sitting in my kitchen one morning and I get the call and I'm literally getting ready to go to set. I'm Dancing with the Stars, amazing show by the way, I absolutely love that journey. And I get the call from my doctor and I said, do you have cancer? And I'm like, wait, what what do you mean? I'm going to call you back when we like finished making my breakfast and get to work and let me just and they're like no, no, no, no no, we need to explore options and just kind of take this in and we need to put together a purposeful plan. You need to find a thyroid surgeon different than your diagnostic doctor. And you need to deal with this. And I remember standing in my kitchen saying inside like, hmm, I don't even have time for cancer, Like, what do you mean I have cancer? It takes such great care of myself. I'm an advocate for women's health. I'm in the health and wellness business. I feel my body mindfully, I speak to my body mindfully. I make responsible choices like what that can't be? And they're like, oh no, we're going to deal with this. So I say that because life is happening, cancer walcks your world. I decided to be a great page and put together an incredible team and to do everything that I could possibly do. And I am very lucky today to say that I beat cancer, kicked cancer's ass. My prognosis was great. I'm okay. I'm an advocate for women's health because of that, and I guide a lot of women through their journey. But it was really one doctor, doctor Lawrence Piro, that was so instrumental for me and helped me so much. And that was Shannon's doctor. That's why I brought it up, and he was really with her through so many steps. And I wasn't privileged to be part of the challenging part of Shannon's journey. I wish that I would have been I wish that I would have known her more. I wish that I would have spent more time with her. And I feel like when we lose loved ones, that's always the conversation I should have, would have, could have? I wish I did. I didn't. I don't believe in that anymore. I don't believe in should have, could have, would have. But I'm just saying that because I think she was an extraordinary, powerful woman misunderstood. I think she was a bad ass and I love that about her. And I think she was kind and compassion and gentle and loving and all of the things that the public persona did not represent. I also respect that and I get it, and I feel connected to her because I was able to spend some intimate time with her. Months before she passed. We went to a very close friend's birthday in Knoxville, Tennessee, and we spent a weekend together and she loved Tennessee. Her and Chris and we flew home together on a private plane, which was a very intimate journey. It was Scott, my fiancee, and I, Shannon, her mother and Chris and we got to spend time together and we got to laugh, we got to cry, we got to party, we got to understand, we got to make future plans. Shannon and I were going to partner up and go on some of these really cheeky industry celebrities signing gigs all over the world. She was connecting me with her manager in that space, and we were really looking forward to exploring our friendship and we didn't get to do that, and that's really sad to me. And I want to say to everybody that's listening, if you're going through it, or you're going through it with somebody that's fighting the fight, you're going through it too. If you're a family member of someone who has cancer that's fighting the fight, you're going through it too. And I remember my cancer journey, which was a dot in the sky compared to Shannon's. I'm lucky, but I remember my family was going through it. My children were going through it, my husband was going through it. And I really do believe that the families of anybody that's fighting that fight needs love and needs support and be compassion with that. And if you are a cancer survivor, if you are in it. If you are fighting the fight, you need to reach out for help and for love and for support. And there's so many, so many groups, so many opportunities to surround yourself with love and an outlet and a way to just process, to ugly cry if you need to, to laugh when you need to, to not feel guilty if you've survived and somebody else hasn't. To create a support system, to deepen those relationships, to be okay, to not be okay, to know how to surrender, to know that it's okay to become unraveled, to give yourself permission to be or not to be. I wasn't really sure where this conversation was going with all of you, But since I have your undivided attention, I want to tell you that I do a lot of transformation retreats. I guide a lot of women, whether they're redesigning their life, whether they're reinventing, whether they're rebooting, updating their inner software. They need to check out of their world, to check back in learning whatever it is. I work with all kinds of personalities and all types of different pain points, and what I really know to be true is that we need community and we need love, we need support, we need self acceptance, we need to change her in our dialogue. We need space, we need to create space to just feel and to be. And I remember watching Shannon and how strong she was, and half of the time she put her war pain on and gunfire probably going off in her head, pain in her body, and I didn't get intimate time with her. I wish I would have, because I wish I could have been instrumental and helped her more and helped her mom and just been there just for love and support. I feel like I'm called to do that, I'm really guided to do that. But I want to tell everybody that's listening to look for helpers, reach out a hand. If you know someone that's going through it, offer to sit with them. Maybe they don't want to talk, maybe they just need somebody to just be with them. Maybe they want to talk. Sometimes we don't say anything because we don't know what to say say, And I think saying something is better than saying nothing. I lost my little brother who passed away at the age of forty six. He died in his sleep unexpectedly. We have a very big, very loving family. It was shocking. I remember receiving that call when I was driving down the four or five and I couldn't process it. I was in total shock. I had to like go home and deal with my children and grieve for them, with them, deal with the family. I remember coming home and not even mentioning it to my fiance. I had like a girlfriend's birthday party that I had to go to the next day. I was in such shock that I didn't know how to become unraveled and give myself grace to really go through it. So I just kind of marched through the motions. I guide a lot of people through grief and through transformation and through processing pain and joy. I promise you, if you're going through something and you don't deal with it now, it comes up later. And I just related so much much to Shannon's mom as a woman and as a mother and as a friend, and it really really really touched me. So I don't know. I guess I'm passionate about making myself available to help people go through their own journey. And it's wild peaks and valleys, you know, challenge, pain, grief, bliss, joy, all of it. I've been through all of it. There isn't anybody on my retreats that can tell me anything that shock me. I've been through loss, I've been divorced a couple of times. I'm a lover of life. My heart is wide open. I'm raising young, powerful children, and I'm learning all the time. I think one of the most valuable things about what I do is I always surround myself with people that are better than I am, that are greater leaders. I love being a student. I love being a leader. I love being a teacher, I love being a learner. I love being a student. Like I just I go back and forth, back and forth without egos so that I continue to learn. And I know that Shannon's journey and her strength and her fight in many ways is going to touch a lot of people. That's the good part of it. The other part of it is sometimes we don't get answers right. We ask questions, why why so young? She's my age? I can't imagine being her mother, and I can't imagine being her and why do those things happen? And I don't know the answer to that. But I still believe in asking questions and staying connected and knowing that we might not get the answers when we want them, And I say that to all people that are grieving, just keep asking the questions. There's reasons and there's messages, and so you know, sometimes people just say, you know, things happen for a reason, like we know that, but we just don't always get to know the reason. And I just think it's really important to sit in that space and grieve and learn and let go and be in pain and ugly cry if you need to, and then find points of joy and remember things like I remember laughing like deep belly laughs with Shannon. I remember some of the fun plans that we made and how much fun that was. And so I kind of default back to love and joy when pain sometimes is overwhelming. And I remember her in a beautiful time, in a beautiful space. I really really remember her being so powerful and so connected and so committed and just being such a lover. In Malibu, you know, we're going through a lot right now in this community, and I'm in it. I'm here, I'm like right on the border of where the fire line is dealing with I would say seventy five percent of the community just being completely destroyed and not knowing how we get back to place of beauty. And freedom here in Malibu. The coastline has like changed forever. I've driven pch twice since the fires. This is my sixth fire, by the way. I'll pop around a little bit just to give you some perspective and then to tell you sort of how I deal with drama and trauma and loss, if that's helpful for this podcast. My house burned about six years ago after the Wolsey Fire, not because of that fire, it was unrelated. It was a structural fire. I was going through the destruction of my own divorce and redesigning my life, and then the fire happened and I was able to relocate and leave my home and rebuild for two years. I was home alone when the fire broke out. Thank God, I was home alone, and it was really terrifying, but I was safe in my family and my animals were safe and I got my dogs out okay, and I was able to depart and sort of rebuild my life. And in many ways I'm looking for the goodness in that and the positive part of that journey. I was able to depart from a home that was a family home with my husband, rebuild the house parts of it, and take a break emotionally and spiritually for two years to sort of redesign my life and then come home to a space of newness, which is really important, and I want to share that because if you're going through something, whether it's life, loss, death, divorce, which isn't death in many ways, sometimes you might need to depart and come back to a space and create a sense of newness where you can rebuild and redesign a new space in a new place for a new year and a new season, in a new year and a new possibility. And I really believe in that, in creating new spaces and familiar places, and I do do a lot of work in relation to that in my retreat work and transformation work, creating spaces within familiar places. Because life changes, we have to change with it. And now we're looking at what's happening here in Malibourne. It's devastating and unexpected and unfathomable, and we're driving the coast and the landscape has changed forever and people are grieving not just buildings and structures, but homes and dreams and memories and keepsakes and sentimental things. So where do you go from there? How do you fight the fight. How do you stay positive? First you have to accept the reality of what is, and then decide what it looks like and what does the future look like, and imagine that and manifest that, and then find the strength to kind of keep going and to rebuild. That's sort of where we're at right now, even though I have no idea how Malibu does that, and driving pcech is devastating this as we raised our children, restaurants that we frequent, homes that are lost. Four of the homes that my new man, my fiance, his family home, and his children's home burned, the home that I relocated to burned, the home that we rented together before being here burned, and another home that he lived and when we met burned. So we're talking about different points of contact all over the city, unrelated to one another, that are gone. The energy has been really devastating. One of the things that I've been speaking about a lot, trying to help people and trying to sort of pay this forward in a positive way is a system that I put in place. It's called the Peas and it really helps people to find a sense of calmness and equanimity when they're dealing with some drama or some trauma or an emergency, whether it's fire, hurricane, earthquake, whatever it is. We all read about that. Have your safety kit, have this, have that none of us fun do it. Have a first aid kit in your car at a minimum. Have all your phones and tablets powered up at a minimum. Have a purposeful plan. Have a meeting place. So here's what I do to remain calm, because I've got lots of animals and kids and I've got to pull it together as mama. There the peas, listen to the system. I told totally love this. Have a purposeful plan, so chill out, have a plan to default to, have a place to meet here in Malibor. Power goes out all the time. We've got earthquakes, fires, You never know what's going on. And I have children in different school systems, and quite honestly, if power goes out, what's your plan. So we have a meeting place, meaning if we can't reach each other and the shit sitting the fan, we have a place that we're going to meet. Okay, So you have a purposeful plan, you have a place. Then you're going to worry about people in pets. First, you're going to take a breath. You're going to remain calm. You're going to sort out your people and your pets. So I have like a pet bag during fire season that's packed. Have your prescriptions filled, don't run low on your prescriptions. And then paperwork and sentimental things. I have a firebox. It's about so big. I'm strong enough to lift it up. You can get it on home depot. You can order it online. In that firebox our personal paperwork, birth certificates, social security passports, baby books, old school discs, like things that are irreplaceable or a pain in the as to replace. Power points everybody. I have power points and generators right now that will power my coffee machine, priorities, coffee everyone that I could use to get ready if I needed to that I could power up certain rooms. They're power boxes. I also have like little mini generators that are like affordable where I can charge up my tablets. My device is my computers. If you're grabbing your computers and your devices, don't forget your chargers. So I have a bag that's packed and in it, I'm packing like I'm going on a trip. I've got my toilet trees, I've got my personal things I've got a workout outfit because that's how I lower my stress levels. I got sneakers to be compy chargers. I've got plastics, credit cards. You're going to need them when the shit goes down here. We don't always get to come home for weeks, so you have to be prepared. Those are the ps. Have a purposeful plan. I promise you it will save you. My bag looks like I'm going on a trip and I've been displaced for weeks at a time time here in Malibu. That will save you. Have a plan, and ladies, I want to tell you too. If you have a fire, or you're going through a divorce and all of a sudden, it's you and you, and you have to learn how to be the ch of the chief household officer of your own life. You better know how to run everything. You better know where your gas and power is, how to turn off the water, all your account numbers, how to call direct TV or whatever your sources, how to call your electric company and have an account number or they're not going to talk to you. Have access to all your banks, like, have everything in order. I have so many people who find themselves in an unexpected situation and they don't have access to anything. You're aft. So I am all about guiding and educating women to have a purposeful plan. We need it. I went through it, not only my fire, but through it with my divorce. I have all my documents, all my account numbers, all in one place. I have an album on my phone that's got a copy of insurance registration, passports, security numbers, insurance cards for my kids to when they need something. I pull up in ten seconds, here's my kid album. Pulls up Boom or here you go, Shire, or here you go Sarah or Rain? You lost? This so easy saving grace right here you can organize everyone. I'm so honored to be able to do this podcast. I'm so honored to be able to take a walk down memory laying with Shannon mad respect for her, I miss her. Make sure you reach out to people you love. Make sure you book that lunch, make sure you call your mom, make sure you call your friend. Don't wait. Life is so precious. We don't know what's going to happen. I don't believe them. Should have, could have, would of. So make sure you do what you want to do. Make sure you live the way you want to live. Make sure every day is precious. Make sure you share your love and open your heart no matter what you're going through. Don't hold on to loving feelings. You got to open your heart so you can receive more love and give more love and live out loud. I know that she did that, So thank you everybody for listening to this episode of Let's Be Clear. I can only hope my stories have inspired you in some way. I wish you all lots of love, deep deep, deep love, and health and wellness and healing. I'm really easy to find. I have a wellness app. It's called Brook Broke Body. The first week is even free. I do a digital meetup every week at eight thirty in the morning on Mondays where we can connect. We can do Q and as. I have an incredible community of like minded people, mostly women, but also men. If you're looking for a way to start, if you don't know where to begin, if you're a woman like me, and maybe you don't even love fitness, I do. If you're in your forties, if you're in a fifties, if you're struggling with menopause, let me be your homegirl. Let me show you how to train your body, how to meet your body, how to fuel your body. I have an incredible community at brook Broke Body, and we connect. We do yoga, we do mindfulness, we do breathwork, meditation, body sculpting. That's the easy part. The fitness part of what I do is really easy. But most importantly, we have a community. That's where I reconnected with Shannon and her mom. I teach classes, I do digital meetups, I do live streams. I'm really easy to find. You can find me on Brookbork dot com. You can find me on social media at brook Work, you can find me at brook Bork Body. But most importantly, you can be part of my community that's built on love and mindfulness and intentional wellness. So follow me, dm me, reach out to me. I would love to connect. I'd love to help you on your journey. I'd love to continue to share stories because my stories become part of your stories, and your stories will become part of mine. And I love that possibility of connecting. It's sort of a sisterhood, right, It's a language that we speak as women. So I would love to know you. So reach out to me. Thank you for listening, thank you for connecting, and thank you for continuing to support Shannon and her family. She deserves that, and we're also worthy of just carrying on this legacy. I have a beautiful day, everybody. Bye,