Interview: Rachel Minion ~Surviving Cancer & Helping Others!

Rachel is funny, of that there is no doubt...and it is her story of what happened on a day in her doctor's office that had me convinced that her miracle is HER, and her sense of humor, absolutely. She is a powerhouse and here to help others who are suffering with cancer-she knows that the only reason we are here is to laugh and lift others up!

Transcript

Hi everyone,

And welcome back to another episode of the podcast and another conversation with an exemplary human being who's making this world a better place for those diagnosed with cancer.

Now I don't want to give everything away,

But Rachel Minion is creating beauty in every single facet of her life.

For example,

Rachel is the heart behind Beyond Basic Needs,

Which is a non-profit she founded to support cancer warriors with chemo care kits.

She has an unapologetic style,

She's absolutely funny,

And she's very pragmatic when she talks about her own life and her own experiences.

As you'll hear,

We start the conversation talking about Gem and the Holograms,

Which was one of my favorite cartoons when I was a kid.

Because when Rachel popped up on the screen,

Behind her was a wall of gorgeous guitars,

And I just needed to know the inspiration behind them.

And that's kind of what led us into the Gem and the Holograms conversation.

She's the CEO and founder of Rockstar and Moon and is a marketing executive par excellence.

But I want Rachel to tell you about her life and her triumphs and what she's gone through and how it's shaped her in her own words.

So I'll stop talking now and get right into my conversation with her.

So now,

My conversation with Rachel Minion.

Let me take you back to the day I was also diagnosed with cancer.

Yes,

I had the trip home.

Yes,

I told the doctor I was on candid camera.

But the part in the middle that I immediately went to is the humor side of the world.

And I said,

Wait a minute,

Doctor,

You're telling me Illinois just passed medical marijuana.

So are you telling me I get a pot cart?

Who are you?

How would you introduce yourself if you had to do that?

Well,

I am Rachel Minion,

Head rock star at Rockstar and Moon.

While I have zero musical talent,

I run a marketing and branding agency.

And as you can see,

Brand is everything.

So I if you cannot see the background right now,

I have guitars that are signed on all of my walls because they are our jewelry.

Oh,

My God.

So I'm going to date myself right now and tell you that one of the shows that I love when I was a kid was Jim and the Holograms.

OK,

Yeah,

That's what I grew up on.

I wanted to be Jim.

Thank God.

She's simply amazing,

Right?

Yes,

She's truly,

Truly,

Truly outrageous.

That guitar that's like just over,

I guess it would be your left shoulder just reminds me of Jim.

So that is our Dimebag Darryl guitar acoustic.

That is signed by Head From Corn.

Stop it.

Are we serious?

I'll go grab it for you.

Oh,

My gosh.

I'm just I'm thinking of I just saw it and I thought I'm having massive flashbacks to Jim and the Holograms.

The conceit of that show was fabulous and ridiculous as much of the 80s was.

But I think that's why my child heart loved it,

Because I was like,

I could do this.

I just need pink hair and a magical set of friends.

And and then I need to find myself in strange and unexpected circumstances.

And a van,

Right?

All went around the van.

Yes,

They were actually presaging the pandemic.

Everybody getting a sprinter and driving around with their magical friends,

Their magical pods.

Yes,

Exactly.

So I mean,

What exactly does your business do?

I'm curious.

So we help consultants and really get to the bottom of why they're stuck.

And there's so many times where you start growing your business and then all of a sudden it's like,

OK,

I'm grinding,

I'm grinding,

I'm grinding.

I'm working really hard to get these new clients.

And then you get the new clients in and you stop grinding to go get new clients.

You work on client delivery because you're going to exceed all those expectations you deliver.

And then it's like,

Wait,

I have no new clients.

So now we go back to the grind.

We help consultants get out of that cycle and in most cases double their revenue without having to add any additional people.

And I usually ask the second question,

What did you dream about being a kid?

Was was this part of what you thought you'd be doing?

I wanted to be a rock star.

I wanted to be jam.

I have no musical talent,

Though.

I can't play any of these guitars.

But,

You know,

In every job I ever had,

They kept saying,

Well,

You're a rock star,

You're a rock star,

Because I would go over and above for my clients and just fell into this.

You seem like you have a really creative spirit.

Would you say that?

Absolutely.

OK.

I mean,

It's it's almost like a superpower for you,

I think.

It is my superpower.

Yeah.

And so when did you first realize that?

I'm I'm intrigued.

We used to take these terrible,

Horrible,

No good,

Very bad drives to Maine from Maryland to go see my aunt.

And there is only so many hours a person like me wants to be in a car because you go through all the things that you're doing.

It's like,

OK,

This is terrible.

So then my parents got into books on tape and then you just stop that at some point because it just sucked.

And you can't,

You know,

Match something for everybody.

And then somebody loves it.

Somebody hates somebody talking over it.

Then we're hungry that I have to pay,

You know,

Just road trips.

So I started looking around the car for whatever we had in there,

Like I can remember rebranding Teddy Graham's and giving it a brand new tagline when I'm like seven or eight.

Dare I ask what the tagline was?

Oh,

My God,

I cannot remember.

But it was so the time.

And then I was picking random other objects and billboards and things,

And I would just rewrite them as we would go.

And that's how I stayed entertained for all of those hours.

Oh,

My gosh.

Can I ask how long of a drive that was?

It was at least 12 from what I remember.

Oh,

My God.

I think it was longer.

Because we also we would sometimes drive up and then we would drive to Vermont or we would drive up to Maine.

It just these were long drives.

And they were like once a year and it was like a family trip.

So we would go up if we're going to go to Maine,

We're going to go see my aunt and we would then either go skiing or go hang out on campus where she was.

Or if we were going up to Vermont,

That was a ski trip with a family.

And that just the drives were long.

And it was,

You know,

At some point it's winter.

So it's snowing.

And which makes it even more miserable.

Yeah.

Well,

I'm just interested.

Like so when you started this and you're like,

This is going to be some sort of horrible,

Terrible,

Long prison in this car.

Did you ever think to yourself,

Oh,

My gosh,

By the time I get to the end,

It's going to be amazing.

We're going to have so much fun.

No.

No,

I don't want to be in cold weather.

I'm a warm weather person.

And so it was like,

OK,

Now you're going to put me and I have to wear 7000 layers and I have to wear a big coat and all these things.

But I'll sit in front of a fire.

And hopefully if we got a place that we rented that has a sauna,

I will live there.

OK,

Fair,

Fair.

So where do you live now?

Is it warm?

I hope.

Well,

So we live in Florida and I made up a Golden Girls rule when I moved down here from Chicago.

Let me back up a little bit.

My husband and I met.

He moved me from Maryland down to Florida.

I thought,

This is it.

This is perfect.

This is exactly what I want.

And then a year later,

Right around Christmas,

He gets this job offer out of the blue and moves us to Chicago.

When we left,

It was 80 degrees.

When we got up there was the polar vortex in negative 60.

It was terrible.

So.

Then it snowed every day through May and it's like,

Where are we?

So when we finally the pandemic happened and we're like,

Now we get to choose where we live.

Florida was an open state.

So we moved down and we started slumming it on the beach.

It was terrible.

There was nobody there.

It was just so horrible living on a beach.

I made up this Golden Girls rule.

And this is that I never want to live in a place that in winter is consistently less than my age.

So I feel like with global warming,

When I'm in my 80s,

It'll be fine.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I am.

Yeah.

Florida does not suck.

I actually moved and lived there for a couple of months and Palm Beach Gardens because a dear friend.

Well,

Who had been my boss at my first corporate job.

We stayed friends over the years.

She got diagnosed with a really rare form of Parkinson's.

And so one year in 2010,

I actually moved,

Drove across the country and moved to Palm Beach Gardens for a couple of months while she was getting her deep brain stimulation surgery up in Gainesville.

I can tell you that caretaking is not for the faint of heart.

But I can also tell you that,

You know,

She had 24 hour nursing care,

The same five nurses.

They would come in and out because she needed help with being bathed,

With being fed,

With everything.

She couldn't walk anymore.

You know,

One night,

All the nurses,

We all went out and we went to this bar that had sand for its floor.

And I thought,

I think I might be in heaven now.

I might be in heaven.

Or the tiki bars or those things.

That's what you need for life.

That's so fun.

Yes,

So fun.

I'd love for you to also,

You know,

Rockstar and Moon,

First of all,

Love the name.

Badass.

If Jem and the Holograms were going to have a company,

They would hire you.

That's all I'm going to put out there based on the name alone and how badass it is.

I'd love to ask about your nonprofit.

And I'm intrigued partially because at my insanely part-time job,

My boss,

Who's just a couple years older than me,

Just got diagnosed with bone cancer.

And so she lives in Portland.

So that's good because OHSU is there and they're an incredible cancer hospital.

But it has really made me reflect on my life.

You know,

In two years,

That could happen to me.

In two years,

Something else.

What am I doing with my life?

How can I be brave?

How can I step out and do the things that scare me or live a full life?

Because we never know what's going to happen.

But,

You know,

I thought,

How can I be present to her from so far away?

And so I sent her a little gift basket.

But I thought,

You know,

She's going to be in isolation for multiple months while they try to grow new bone marrow from a donor.

Your nonprofit is intriguing to me.

So could you just explain what it is?

Yeah,

So about 11 years ago,

I was diagnosed with appendix cancer.

And when you're in your 30s,

Four months after you get married,

This is not what you're expecting.

This is not the direction you thought life would be.

And what was really interesting,

And I'll use the word interesting,

Is that if there were people in your life,

Friends,

Co-workers,

Family,

Who have never dealt with cancer before,

They disappear.

And they disappear to give you space so you can be,

You know,

And deal with it and go on your journey.

But that's not what any of us want.

All of us want you to reach out.

I don't care if you're going to message me about what stupid housewife did what,

Or that,

Oh my God,

My husband put the milk in the dishwasher,

Or I don't care.

Give me a story.

Tell me what's going on.

But the silence was so loud for me.

And I didn't expect that that was going to be the case.

And because of that,

I created a nonprofit called Beyond Basic Needs.

And we provide chemo care kits to anyone in the United States.

We have all the supplies donated.

Whoever requests just pays for shipping.

And we take care of making sure that somebody can show up for you wherever you are.

So within that comes a port pillow.

So if you're going through chemo,

We want to cover that port.

We want to protect it a little bit from the seatbelt that you need to go to and from treatment.

We have ginger chews.

We have all of these things that are in those kits.

So that way we can help support and make sure that we're getting you on the right foot with some of the essentials you'll need.

That is simple and brilliant.

Has anyone ever told you that before?

Well,

Thank you.

I mean,

I think one of our callings as human beings is to see where the need is.

And then,

You know,

If you look around and nobody's,

Nobody's doing it,

You,

You say,

Well,

I,

I'm going to do this.

I'm going to step forward.

I'm going to assist how I can and be present for other people,

How I can.

That is amazing.

I know nothing about chemo.

I mean,

I know a little bit because I did some research,

But I know nothing about it.

I do know that it's a horrible.

Eviscerating devastating process.

I mean,

On so many levels,

You know,

Let alone physically,

You know,

Emotionally,

Mentally.

And so just that you saw this need and you created this nonprofit is,

Is insanely powerful.

I hope that people.

Bow down to you daily.

I mean,

Does that happen?

No,

But I think one of the things that came out of this for me was.

A very different mindset change.

And.

Once you were told that you have cancer.

Everything changes.

I don't care that this happened.

I don't care that there's dirt on my windows.

I don't care.

Yes,

I,

I do,

But it isn't like the end of the world.

Right.

And.

One of the other things that I learned with this is that.

No matter the journey,

We're all Greek gods.

We are warriors and.

Whether you survive the journey or you don't,

I don't like the word survive.

I don't ever want to be called a survivor.

And so I would rather be a cancer warrior because that honors that journey.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's like that.

I don't know.

I always think of the phrase in media res.

And I don't know if you've heard that before,

But it's,

It kind of implies in the midst of life's journey.

Something unexpected happens.

So in the middle.

In the middle,

Something happens and 30 is insanely young.

I think 34.

I mean,

Yeah.

Yeah.

Also like also to be honest,

I've never heard of appendix cancer before.

I didn't even know that was a thing.

I am one in a million.

What's crazy is my body saved my life.

I.

Had just gotten married.

Like this is just when we had moved to Chicago.

So we moved to Chicago with two week notice,

Right?

That we,

He's going to take the job.

So now we need to go.

We drove up over Christmas.

We found one place that would take us with two big frigging dogs.

Or three dogs.

And we're like,

All right,

Let's,

Let's do this.

Let's go.

So then we sold our condo.

We're moving up to Chicago.

We get all of our things together.

Then two weeks after that,

We had already planned our wedding in Vegas.

So we have to figure out all new tickets and all the things to Vegas from Chicago,

Because originally it was going to be where my husband worked.

It was their user conference that we met at.

And we're getting married.

So.

We're like,

All right,

Lots of stress,

Lots of stress.

We can do this.

So a few months later,

I am in New York.

I'm sitting in like Google headquarters.

It's a Verizon executive meeting.

And all of a sudden I'm green.

And not only am I green,

My pants don't fit.

They fit three minutes before it.

But now all of a sudden I am so bloated.

I can't function.

I was like,

Well,

What did I do last night?

I came,

I flew in and I went right to bed.

I didn't do anything horrible.

I was not out playing in the city.

I didn't even go get pizza or bagel.

I just got to bed and went straight to the meeting in the morning.

And I'm like,

All right,

Something's wrong.

And I start Googling symptoms,

Right?

Because we're all doctors,

According to Google now.

And so we're like,

All right,

Cool.

I'm pregnant.

I messaged my husband.

I think I'm pregnant.

I cannot take the smell of bagels in this room.

I cannot take the smell of coffee.

I am just not fitting in my pants.

I am standing up and leaving this meeting that I'm supposed to be meeting with enough people on.

I can't do it.

I'm getting on a plane and I'm flying home.

So I head straight to the airport.

It was the smelliest cab I've ever been in.

And now I'm craving donuts.

I don't eat donuts.

I've never eaten a donut in over a decade.

And I'm like,

All right.

Well,

I'm definitely pregnant.

This is weird.

So I get home,

Really excited.

Husband's excited.

He leaves work early to come see me.

And the dogs are there.

And,

You know,

It would have been a little bit early for me to know.

So I wait to take a pregnancy test.

I'm just going to see how things are.

And nausea is still there.

I'm not feeling great.

And about a week later,

My stomach hurts.

But not a big deal.

Whatever.

A few days after that,

It's a Friday night,

About three in the morning.

And I am awake with stomach pain.

And I'm Googling pregnancy and stomach pain.

And everyone's like,

Oh,

It's the worst stomach pain for nine months.

And I'm like,

Oh,

My God,

I'm a wimp.

How am I going to get through this?

And it's like,

All right.

So I went back to bed.

When we got up in the morning,

I was like,

I think we just go to urgent care.

Let's just do a pregnancy test and make sure that's what this is.

Because if it's not,

Like,

We should know.

And so we did.

And they said,

Ma'am,

You're not pregnant.

All right,

Well,

What am I?

I don't know.

It's a Saturday.

Our labs close tomorrow.

So on Monday,

We'll call you when they have answers.

I was like,

Oh,

Cool.

We went about our day.

And 7 o'clock the next morning,

I'm about to let the dogs out.

And I get a phone call from the lab that's not allowed to call me.

That they're doing this because they've never seen a white blood cell count so high.

And this goes past all the guidelines that there ever are.

And they're like,

Go to the hospital now.

And I was like,

Well,

Are they going to feed me?

They said,

Ma'am,

Go to the hospital.

And I'm thinking,

Wait,

I'm in Chicago.

It was Saturday night.

Now it's Sunday morning.

There's going to be gunshot victims everywhere.

There's no way I'm getting in.

If I'm waiting hangry in a waiting room,

Like,

This is not something anybody needs to see.

So we stopped and got bagels.

And then we went to the hospital.

And they didn't even let me fill out the registration card.

I showed them the test results that were emailed to me,

Which this is before you were even allowed to do that.

But they had to give me something to show at the front desk.

Showed them my results.

And I said my name to the registrar.

And then they wheeled me straight to the back.

I didn't even get a chance to get my insurance.

None of those things.

And so with that,

They noticed my appendix had burst.

It encapsulated.

And they can't do surgery.

Because now it is a week and a half past.

It is the biggest infection.

So they keep me in the hospital for three days.

There's no food.

There's no drink.

There's no nothing.

I am just getting pumped full of antibiotics.

And then I have another six-week course of antibiotics once we get out of the hospital.

And then I finally get surgery.

So,

Of course,

This is an interesting ordeal.

We're newlyweds in a brand-new city.

I have no idea what's going on,

Right?

And I then have this moment where I'm offered another job.

And I take it.

So I go in after surgery for my follow-up.

And they've delayed me.

I'm sitting in this brick building in South Side Chicago.

And they delayed me and delayed me and delayed me.

So now I'm the last appointment of the day.

And I was supposed to be at 1 o'clock.

My phone is basically dead.

And they say,

And I've asked multiple times,

Do I need to bring somebody with me?

And I'm like,

No,

You're fine.

Just come.

So they said,

Ma'am,

You have cancer.

And I was like,

No,

I don't.

I'm on candid camera.

This is not funny.

Just bring in the guys.

It's fine.

Like,

Not funny.

You got me.

But not funny.

And they're like,

No,

We'll just let you sit here.

And I was like,

No,

I quit my job yesterday.

This is really not funny,

Guys.

And they're like,

Well,

Cancer is never funny.

Like,

Oh,

So we're real.

Got it.

And they're like,

Next steps are what we should be talking about.

So you need to do surgery.

We need to see what happened.

We need to see how big this is.

And it was just they were randomly biopsying my appendix to just see why it burst.

So after this,

And,

You know,

I get out of the doctor's office.

I text my mom,

My dad,

And my husband.

Hey,

So I have cancer.

It goes through and then my phone shuts off.

It's like,

Oh,

My God.

And it's Friday afternoon in Chicago.

So now instead of it taking 45 minutes to an hour to get home,

It's two and a half hours.

That is absurd.

And I do want to just let you know,

I grew up,

After we came back from living overseas,

I grew up in Batavia,

Which is about 45 minutes southwest.

Which I always say it's near Geneva,

St.

Charles,

Aurora,

Wayne's World,

Party on.

Excellent.

So I know Chicago very well.

It's a beautiful city.

Amazing hospitals,

If you can get to see the right practitioner.

Incredible,

Just there's a brain trust there for health.

So I'm so glad.

But,

I mean,

Talk about fast and furious.

Talk about things that you don't plan for.

Especially at age 34.

You must have just felt like you were on some sort of crazy bus.

But I think I'm used to the crazy bus.

See,

I have avoided Vegas my entire life.

I was like,

I am going to meet my husband there.

I am not going.

So I finally have a job with a three-day notice they send me to Vegas to go to this user conference.

And they're like,

You just have to go talk to John.

We have to get our tech fixed.

You have to go.

This is the only way we're going to do it.

Or else they're going to charge us $500 or something an hour to just work with you to get this stuff fixed.

I was working for a really cheap company,

So I didn't expect I was going to be sent.

So you put me in Vegas and I'm like,

All right,

Let's get this stuff done.

Where's John?

Show me John.

Get me John because I want to fix this now so I can go Vegas.

And they were,

You know,

John was teaching.

John was this.

John was that.

So finally,

Day one goes by.

Day two,

I wake up and I'm like,

I am going on a bar crawl today.

And the guys that were with me were the CFO of the company,

Not a fun guy.

And a guy who'd been with his wife since they were six years old,

Not a fun guy.

And it's like,

All right,

Well,

Let's go on a bar crawl.

We've never done that before.

I'll fix that.

We're going.

And we finally get into this one class because I see John's name on it.

We're sitting down.

Now I see who he is.

And I'm like,

OK,

Great.

But it's talking tech and it's really not interesting.

So I get up and leave.

I figure I'll see him afterward.

I know who he is now.

I'll go around him later.

And I left my phone there.

So now I'm stuck sitting outside the friggin thing,

Waiting to get back into the classroom so I can get my phone.

So it ends.

I run back in to go get the phone and John comes out and he says,

So you're the one I've been looking for.

I'm like,

Well,

What took you so long?

We have this great conversation.

He fixes the tech in 30 minutes because it was something that just wasn't making sense.

He put in a ticket.

And it's fixed,

Right.

And I was like,

Well,

You know,

If you want,

We're going on a bar call tonight.

You're more than welcome to come with us.

I know you probably don't want to hang out with us clients,

But it's cool.

He's like,

Oh,

No,

I have a client dinner and then I'll meet you afterwards.

So we go on our bar crawl.

And he messages me,

He meets up with us and he's like,

So how's your night gone so far?

Well,

John.

It could be better.

And he's like,

Why?

What happened?

I was like,

Well,

When we walked past Treasure Island,

It had the best smelling barbecue ever.

And I really want a barbecue.

I really just smell good tonight.

But it was closed for a private event.

And these guys,

I can't talk my way in with them because they're going to tell the truth.

But you,

You're the most famous country singer nobody's ever heard of.

And I will walk in any bar and I will get us VIP.

I just want to barbecue.

Come on.

And he's like,

Well,

That's great.

I need a name.

John Black.

John Black is the most famous country singer nobody's ever heard.

Like this isn't how fast it's coming.

Right.

And he's like.

Great story.

Amazing name.

We're not going for barbecue.

Right.

So this is how I meet my husband.

This is our like real first conversation.

And he's been known as John Black since.

And like my life is such a whirlwind that a month later we have our first date in Germany.

What?

We were both there for a conference.

I was interviewing to go move to Israel and go work for HP.

And it was just the biggest print conference.

So he was going to be there anyways.

And HP flew me out.

So we went to a Spanish German restaurant for our first date.

Okay.

I that is a pretty intense meet cute.

I have to say.

See,

It's always just a whirlwind.

Yeah,

That's that's maybe the understatement of the century.

But what I just love about that is that you seem like you're comfortable being along for the ride.

I love the ride because what else are we going to do?

Are we going to dread it?

Like,

Let's see where this goes.

Let's have some fun.

Let's enable something stupid.

Oh,

My God.

Let's enable something stupid.

That's amazing.

Let's that should be on a T-shirt somewhere.

Well,

Hi,

I'm Rachel.

I'll be your enabler tonight.

That actually moves really beautifully into my second question,

Which is,

Did you grow up in a religious household?

And what did that look like?

And how has that shifted over time for you?

If you even have a connection to anything outside yourself,

Because really,

Truly,

I'm hearing about your attitude towards life or your response to life.

And it seems really joyful.

It seems like it's filled with a lot of faith that all will be well.

It just sounds like you have a really I don't know,

I would say fun and irreverent connection with with life.

So sort of for me,

That ties into kind of your belief setter or where that came from.

So I grew up in a very religious household.

My parents,

Well,

I've been going to like even a two year old class and a three year old class at a Jewish day school.

Right.

And it was phenomenal.

And there was a very tight knit community.

And my parents even volunteered for the temple.

They ran high holiday services for years.

I had always been in Hebrew school,

But I had no real.

Real.

Belief,

There were things going on in my family's world where.

I had so many questions and being told that I was required to believe.

Made me tell them where to go.

And there's no question,

Like my rabbi was like,

You need to believe in God.

And I was like,

Here is a seven page essay as to why I do not believe in God and how you will not tell me what to do.

So.

I really just buffed at any idea that I had to do something.

And.

Over the years.

Things changed because situations happen and just the journey of life exists.

And all of a sudden,

One day it was a Kabbalah class popped up on my screen and I started following a Kabbalah podcast and I took the Kabbalah class and.

The neatest part about Kabbalah that stuck with me.

Was when something happens,

Pausing.

And asking,

Why is this in my movie?

Right,

Because this in the end is kind of a movie and you have so many different pathways you can choose with it.

So taking the pause as to what can I do with this and where can this go was really impactful to me and kind of reopened up all the ideas of religion and how things are intertwined for me and how they connect.

Wow,

I,

You know,

That speaks right to my belief that and I try to live into it,

But sometimes I'm like I complain and I whine and I'm like,

Why is this happening to me?

But,

You know,

I do say I try to live my life with a sense that things happen for me versus to me.

And so I'm hearing your.

Usage of words about the movie,

And I'm thinking that those are just they're so connected.

You know,

If you if you view your life as a movie and something happens.

You think,

OK,

This is in my movie now.

What is it for?

How do I utilize it?

How do I heal it?

Whatever the case may be.

That's fascinating.

Well,

We're all the main character of our own movie,

So it's what do we want that hero to do?

Yeah.

Let me ask you,

Because I've never interviewed anyone who's been to a Kabbalah class and I am very interested in Kabbalah.

I think personally,

I don't know.

The Hebrew alphabet is very kinetic for me.

Those those letters seem like they move.

It's very hard to explain,

But they it's not even that they hold a lot of energy.

I just have this sense that they exist outside of space and time.

It's just I don't know.

There's something really powerful going on there with the Hebrew alphabet.

Also,

I feel that way about the Arabic alphabet as well,

Which is is very sinuous and curving.

There's a lot of kinetic energy in those letters as well.

But I did grow up in an Islamic country,

So I have a particularly affinity for it anyway.

But what was that like?

I just I would I'm curious.

So I separate Kabbalah from religion because it doesn't mean you can study Kabbalah and be any religion.

And what's interesting that I found is we all have these questions.

We all have the same questions in life.

Right.

Like,

Why is this happening to me?

Or we have the same fears of being.

Are we safe?

Are we alone?

All of those things.

When am I going to find my match?

When am I going to do this?

How am I going to move up in my company?

And what's interesting is.

How we can take the information that's coming at us and just change that perspective.

So when something is really hard,

Having certainty that it's hard for a reason,

It's here for a reason.

It is there.

Now,

How do we work through that?

And it's a weird mind shift.

Like the minute that that happens and it's like,

OK.

Got it.

My world is blowing up.

I choose that this is for good.

Great.

Let it keep happening.

Now,

Are you had you been diagnosed with cancer when you took this class?

It was right around that same time.

OK,

So it it sort of helped you reframe what was happening.

Completely.

Like the hardest day of my life was.

Well.

After it all set in,

Because.

Let me take you back to the day I was also diagnosed with cancer.

Yes,

I had the trip home.

Yes,

I told the doctor I was on candid camera.

But the part in the middle that I immediately went to is the humor side of the world.

And I said,

Wait a minute,

Doctor,

You're telling me Illinois just passed.

Medical marijuana.

So are you telling me I get a pot card?

And the guy looks at me and he's like,

You can have a pot card.

And I was like,

OK,

I have said pot card.

Am I allowed to take somebody else in there?

Because I am sure I'm going to start making fun of every single brand and name and all of that.

So is somebody going to be in there to supervise me?

He said.

I think we should get back to that.

You have cancer.

I was like,

No,

Wait,

I have another one.

So now I can go in and I have a pot card and I buy pot and then I go home to my apartment and I smoke said pot.

When the cops come,

Does that mean you just gave me a get out of jail free card?

Like this is how that works,

Right?

Like this was before Cabal,

This was whatever,

But this is how the mind for me works.

And trying to find that humor and find the fun or opportunity in it.

And do I smell pot?

No.

But having a pot card is just kind of a cool thing.

Right.

Like,

Sure.

Nobody else has had one yet in this state.

I have to say that what is really striking is that you and your spirit and your nature looks for the opportunity.

And by that,

You know,

You were on these interminably long prison like excursions to Vermont and Maine to see your aunt.

But the child self in you,

Because you were a child,

You know,

Is dreading it.

But also utilizing that time as an opportunity to be creative and make it less tedious,

I guess you could say.

And it seems like you've done a really great job.

I mean,

A lot of people lose their child self,

You know,

They forget about it.

They consider that this world doesn't work if you don't grow up and if you're not serious.

But you seem like you've just really retained this seriously potent essence of joy and levity and childhood charm.

And you bring it into everything,

Every facet of your life.

Would you agree?

I think I agree with everything except for the word joy.

I think I'm working on fixing my association with that word.

My grandmother's name was Joy and she was anything but.

Unfortunately,

She was a very strong New York,

New Jersey personality type where you walk into her house and it's like,

You know,

You could stand to lose five pounds.

Or three seconds later,

She could say,

Now you need to eat it up.

I bought all this food for you,

Eat it up.

It was a weird situation.

So I'm just working on reassociating with the word joy,

But otherwise,

Absolutely.

And I think there's moments where I can be really serious and focused and just work driven and that's it.

But then there's the moment of,

Okay,

Now what?

And figuring out breathing and fun again.

Yeah,

Yeah.

So this Kabbalah class,

Curious,

Did it ignite a desire in you to learn more about Kabbalah or anything else?

So it ignited a desire to change my current situation.

So let me explain what that means.

So I run a company,

I run a nonprofit.

They were draining.

They were draining.

For example,

The nonprofit,

We got to a point where almost all of the supplies within the kit are free.

They have been donated by a person,

By a company,

By all these incredible individuals.

And guess what?

I had to pay $8.

50 for every kit to go out.

We went from 20 to 30 kit requests a month to three to 400 kit requests a month.

Now,

This fundraising is coming just from me and my personal network,

And there's no way to do that.

And I was drowning.

And I took the David Guillaume class in October,

And it was right before the Jewish holiday,

So it might have been September.

And one of the things that inspired me was that I have the freedom to blow it up and make it whatever I want.

So I blew up the nonprofit.

We brought in corporate give days,

And immediately Valvoline Instant Oil Change and Waystar found us.

Now they're doing corporate build days that we're helping,

We're making a bigger impact,

And they're doing their local hospital.

And guess what?

It doesn't cost me my life in fundraising.

And that is incredible.

And then we added where now,

And it was a test to see what would happen,

The $8.

50 charge for postage.

It goes on every order.

If you would like a kit,

You pay the postage,

And let's see what happens.

And I still get 30 kit requests a week,

Which is incredible.

And I don't have to fundraise like crazy for it,

And they're still able to do good.

We're still able to make impact,

And we're able to do build days internally and pick one or two local hospitals we can serve.

Wow.

I didn't even think about.

I hear your nonprofit's goal,

The work you're doing in the world,

The generosity and the mindfulness that you're bringing to those who are suffering from a diagnosis of cancer.

And I just go to the,

Oh,

My God,

It's amazing.

I just don't think about the nuts and bolts of things like,

Oh,

God.

You think about how much money that is that you have to raise.

We don't know how it happened.

But randomly,

Last year on my grandmother's birthday,

And thank you,

Joy,

Last year on January 15th,

We were featured at the top of Cancer Care News.

Now,

Mind you,

I run a marketing company.

I did not do SEO.

I have not marketed the company because every time I'd market it,

I had to go raise more money.

So I didn't market anything.

And somehow we were found.

We were featured at the top of the list,

And our request went from the 20 to 30 a month to all of a sudden we had 100 in a day.

And I was like,

Okay,

What happened?

So immediately we have to scale and figure out how do we put the technology and automations into this.

Then it's like,

Okay,

How do we get more money?

So then I'm running around like crazy to do these things.

Like,

There is so much infrastructure that has to go in,

Especially when things blow up,

That you don't plan for,

Especially when a nonprofit,

When you want to just do good.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I love asking this next question,

Because to me,

It's a little bit,

I'm just listening to your stories in your life.

And I'm listening to your story about how you met your husband,

Where you're like,

I don't want to go to Vegas.

But then ironically,

That's where you meet your husband.

And then there's this whole barbecue story and country western thing that goes along with it.

There's just kind of the cherry on the top of that story.

And then you have this story of being diagnosed with cancer of the appendix.

And in your body,

The miracle of your body being like,

Hey,

Hey,

Hey,

Pay attention.

And now here's another miracle story about,

I mean,

I'm like,

Here's my question.

I would love for you to share if you have any other stories where you think something magical or mysterious or miraculous has occurred in your life.

Something where you didn't,

If you witnessed it,

Maybe it could have happened to someone else.

I'd love to hear whatever you want to share.

So I created Rockstar and Moon when my parents' business closed.

I'd been running their business for about a decade.

It was really hard in the printing industry.

By 2010,

The recession had hit.

All the contracts from the government for printing stopped.

Every single one of our clients were printers who outsourced us,

And they went from paying in 30 days to 60 to 92.

Oh,

My God,

They're out of business.

The largest client,

Ritz Camera,

Bankrupt.

And we closed the business,

And it was one of the hardest things that I've ever done.

And in this time,

I would not get hired because I was a woman in the printing industry,

And they didn't believe I could go run the business.

I could go jump on the press.

I could go do any of these things.

I could fix a file.

Any of those things,

They didn't believe.

And I set out to just create something to prove everybody wrong.

And Rockstar and Moon came to me because I was sitting in a beach house that I had rented.

When I say house,

It is a three-bedroom condo,

Two bathrooms,

Eight people.

I was only meant to be there on the weekends.

Now I'm homeless and jobless,

And I am living in this condo with all these people.

And they got it,

You know,

I rented it or else I don't know where I'd be.

And I'm trying to figure out what it is I'm going to do.

I'm sitting out back.

It's Dewey Beach,

So we're having a blast.

And I'm under the stars.

I'm under the moon.

And the greatest rock and roll bar in the world is just right there,

Bottle and Cork.

And so that's how Rockstar and Moon started.

It all just magically came together.

And I've had it as a side hustle for a decade.

And I was working corporate jobs.

I finally had what I thought was my dream job.

I was working,

Running a division of,

Sorry,

I was working to run marketing for a division of Ticketmaster.

And I loved the gig.

Why?

It wasn't like the best gig in the world.

But the first year I worked there,

275 different artists I got to see.

The second year,

About 250.

I am a girl who loves live music.

This is where I wanted to be.

I figured out,

You know,

What I needed to do.

And I was able to see Hamilton.

I was able to get on Beyonce floor tickets.

I was able to do all these things that nobody else would do.

I was backstage when we were trying to go through IVF at Jane's Addiction because,

You know,

Everybody gets pregnant backstage at Jane's Addiction.

So why not just kind of up the odds?

Didn't work,

But I had a plan.

And so I thought I had the dream job.

I was like,

Do I shut down the company?

Do I not?

What do I do?

I have all these clients who want stuff.

And the pandemic hit.

And believe it or not,

It's the best thing that ever happened.

First call that we had was with Pharrell as a company,

Right?

You have a company-wide Zoom.

Everybody gets on.

Now you're talking to Pharrell.

Next one was with Garth.

I love Garth Brooks.

He is the ultimate guy who's going to bring life back,

Right?

And then the third Zoom,

80% of us were furloughed at once.

And I said,

All right,

Cool.

Now I'm full time.

Called every single one of my clients that afternoon.

Okay,

Let's go do all these projects that I've been putting off because I've been too darn busy.

And immediately,

That's where momentum started.

It was like it was all just supposed to happen.

Well,

It sounds like,

You know,

Because there's this idea of thought that ideas,

Concepts,

Inventions,

They come from this,

You know,

The muses or,

You know,

The magical energy or whatever,

The gods,

The goddesses.

They're all out there waiting for us to grab onto them and bring them into life in this reality.

And it sounds like you had a whole bunch of ideas waiting patiently on the side stage,

Just waiting for the pandemic to start.

No,

It's not my fault.

But what an incredible way to create abundance in the midst of so much scarcity.

Yeah.

And the bonus was,

Is now we were free to go move and do whatever we wanted because my husband was laid off at the same time.

So no one had ever sold a house in a pandemic.

So we put our condo that we had just renovated.

It was a 1500 square foot,

One bedroom.

Elevator opened in.

It was the penthouse.

I had rooftop views of Chicago and rooftop deck all around.

And so we sold our house immediately and we're like,

All right,

Where are we going to go?

And the world just opened.

So we went and slummed it on a beach in St.

Augustine because Florida was open.

And while everyone was talking about how they're stuck inside and doing these things,

I was on a beach.

It was so terrible.

Let me tell you,

I strongly recommend stay away from any beach during a pandemic because I'll be there and I don't like we're not going to hang out.

No company.

No company.

That actually that's so interesting because,

You know,

I think about the pandemic and the inception of it,

You know,

Off and on.

I think about what happened and and how different people kind of responded to it.

And,

You know,

The faith groups,

Because I was graduating from seminary with my Masters of Divinity in June of 2020.

And we did it online.

It was a Zoom graduation.

But,

You know,

The faith leaders that I'd done my internship with,

They were suddenly thrust into a world where they they were like,

Oh,

My gosh,

Nobody can meet in person anymore.

How do we pivot?

How do we change this to Zoom?

How do we keep our flocks?

You know,

It was really.

And then the technology question that was that was even crazier for everybody.

Everyone I knew was struggling.

You know,

Also,

No one knew how long this was going to last.

I think a lot of people were like,

Oh,

This will be done in a couple months.

This is not a big deal.

Oh,

This isn't.

You know,

It's not going to be that big of a deal.

It's you know,

Who cares?

Whatever.

I don't think anybody could have anticipated the years that it was going to take.

But again,

Your response was one of resilience and creativity.

And and also there we go again,

Seeing the opportunity.

Right.

So you're like all of these dreams,

All of these ideas,

All of these,

You know,

Brilliant confections that my mind and my friends minds have come up with.

Now we can work on those.

And I think you're a great one for I mean,

Is there any scarcity in your life whatsoever?

It's kind of you're just kind of this alchemist.

I mean,

Sometimes we get low on wine and then that's the end of the friggin world.

But there's always more wine.

Yes.

Yes.

As you say.

I mean,

I just think what's remarkable about your spirit is a that you've retained your childlike connection to the world.

And I think that's a superpower.

And you can then when things change drastically or something unexpected happens,

You can pivot and say,

Oh,

This is how we can respond.

And it's an it's a response of abundance.

And it's a response of kind of,

Oh,

Wow.

Let's see what we can do with this.

Let's see where we can take this.

And frankly,

I mean,

We need millions more of you in the world.

Yeah.

We don't need more minions.

And that's a wrap on my conversation with Rachel.

I need to thank her for her grace,

The way she moves in the world,

Her sense of humor and for sharing all of her powerful stories.

You know,

She had an experience that most people would consider devastating,

But she approached it with aplomb.

She approached it with incredible strength and she approached it with a certainty that all would be well.

And after surviving cancer and recovering,

She decided to change the world because she saw the need.

She saw where chemo kits would be of service,

Where she could be of service.

And now she's bringing this gift to those who need it.

So I need to thank Rachel for being on the show and for sharing her beautiful self.

I want to thank all of you for listening.

Please know that ratings and reviews change the world for me.

So if you like what you hear,

Please do consider leaving a rating or writing a little review.

Thank you for listening.

And here's my one request.

Be like Rachel.

See the need.

I mean,

Rachel went through a potentially devastating and extraordinary experience in her life.

And instead of coming out on the other end bitter or resentful,

She thought,

No,

I'm going to use my experience to make this world a better place for others suffering or diagnosed with cancer.

And so she saw the need and then she went out and she did it.

She created the chemo care kits that are making such a difference in so many lives.

So you,

You out there in the world,

Where do you see the need?

Where do you see action that needs to be taken?

Be like Rachel and step forward and make that change for others to make this world an even more incredible and bountiful place.