Cassie Walker Johnson is my friend. She is a successful real estate agent with her husband Jeremy. She is a mom, she is an incredible networker and connecter, and in December of 2020, she became a cancer patient. Right before Christmas, Cassie got the phone call 1 in 7 women will get, the call from the doctor telling her that she had breast cancer. Now there’s a covid pivot.

Over the next hour, Cassie is going to share her experience so please know we talk about breast cancer, surgery, and chemo. We also talk about helping our sisters in arms that get diagnosed, and how we can best serve each other. Cassie’s mom asked me if it was going to be a “silver linings” podcast and I assure you it is. This conversation is meant to serve as a tool - Cassie wants her experience to help others who get this diagnosis, and remind us that there are silver linings within the cancer diagnosis.

As you know this season is focused on Covid pivots - people who despite the worst circumstances have dug down, found some resilience and done incredible things. My next guest embodies the pivot. I’d like to introduce Erin Quick. Erin is a professional - she’s a 3 time startup founder, 20 year marketing and branding professional and mom of two kids. Erin and I have lots in common as it turns out - we’re both the exact same age, we’re from Spokane, both started our careers in very similar ways…but where we differ is in our paths to motherhood.

I reference this in the episode, but I’m from the Teen Mom on MTV generation. Because I have virtually no experience with adoption personally, what I thought I knew is mostly stereotype. When Erin’s fertility path led to adoption, she, as a marketer and brander, began asking questions about the process and wondering why it had to be the way it was - expensive, discriminatory, and long. After deviating from the norm and adopting two kids with her own team, her circle started reaching out to her for help. That circle grew and before she knew it, she realized her calling was to modernize adoption, and figure out how to allow all families to grow without an agency if they so desired. All in Spring of 2020. While she was homeschooling her kindergartner.

Her company PairTree is going to change the face of adoption as we know it. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.

Founder of Contour + Ink, Erin Skipley talks about keeping her dream studio alive over the last 2 years and manifesting your own destiny by getting out of your comfort zone.

Listen to Dan Felton from Assorted Goods and I grow a conscience while discussing all things Amazon.

Ali was 40 by the time she'd met the love of her life and decided it was time for a baby. Like so many women before her, she struggled to carry a pregnancy full-term so visited the specialists at Seattle Reproductive Medicine to explore her options. She and her partner agreed to try a round of IVF, and this interview is Ali sharing her ride on the IVF roller coaster. Following her journey, Ali is now the Seattle Fertility Doula and hopes to help other women and couples through this sometimes confusing, emotional, and taxing process. Over the next hour, Ali shares her experience and insight - she is raw, hilarious, and empathetic to anyone who has experienced fertility issues and offers hope to those who may believe there's no light at the end of the tunnel.

If you'd like to connect with Ali her information is:

Instagram: @seattlefertilitydoula

Twitter: @DoulaSeattle