IRON DAD AND THE LIFE WE LIVE With Paul Weigel

Howard Brown: 00:00:04

Hello, it's Howard Brown. It's the Shining Brightly

Howard Brown: 00:00:06

Show. This is the Father's Day extravaganza. I have an amazing

Howard Brown: 00:00:12

guest, Paul Weigel. How are you, Paul?

Paul Weigel: 00:00:15

I am great Howard, how are you? Happy Father's Day

Howard Brown: 00:00:17

Happy Father's Day to you as well. Oh my god, I'm

Howard Brown: 00:00:20

so happy. I have to tell you. We've sort of known about each

Howard Brown: 00:00:24

other. And then we got to meet out at the CoLo guard Golf

Howard Brown: 00:00:28

Classic back in Arizona for March colo rectal cancer

Howard Brown: 00:00:32

awareness month. And I just was amazed by Paul because he didn't

Howard Brown: 00:00:38

come alone. He brought his 12 year old daughter. She's 12.

Howard Brown: 00:00:41

Right?

Paul Weigel: 00:00:42

She was 13 at the time. Yes. He's

Howard Brown: 00:00:44

13. Yeah, yeah. Okay. She's She's 13. And it was

Howard Brown: 00:00:48

just I was like, you know, you bring your daughter to this big

Howard Brown: 00:00:52

golf tournament, where there's advocacy going on. And the

Howard Brown: 00:00:55

golfers are playing in honour of patients and caregivers and

Howard Brown: 00:00:59

people that have passed. And it's just incredible. So I got

Howard Brown: 00:01:02

to sit down with Paul meet his daughter, get to know him a

Howard Brown: 00:01:05

little bit and then wanted to invite him to the show because

Howard Brown: 00:01:08

he's got some big things happening. So it's really,

Howard Brown: 00:01:10

really important that we get your message out and you've got

Howard Brown: 00:01:14

so many cool things happening that that I want to share with

Howard Brown: 00:01:18

my audience. And the first thing is, let me tell you just a

Howard Brown: 00:01:21

little bit more about Paul. So Paul Weigel is an author, a

Howard Brown: 00:01:24

keynote speaker, a spokesperson and communications consultant.

Howard Brown: 00:01:28

He is an 11 year cancer survivor, a six time Ironman

Howard Brown: 00:01:33

triathlete, and a dedicated Dad, that's the most important job of

Howard Brown: 00:01:38

course,

Paul Weigel: 00:01:38

that's the most important job.

Howard Brown: 00:01:42

Political Science from the University of Puget

Howard Brown: 00:01:56

Sound. So he's an educated guy, right. So this is really great.

Howard Brown: 00:02:00

And the fact that we are both, you know, colorectal cancer

Howard Brown: 00:02:04

survivors makes it even more special to show the world that

Howard Brown: 00:02:08

it can be done now we both got knocked down really hard. Our

Howard Brown: 00:02:12

lives came to a screeching halt when he got those, you have

Howard Brown: 00:02:15

cancer diagnosis as well. So Paul, let me ask you a question.

Howard Brown: 00:02:20

How do you shine brightly each day?

Paul Weigel: 00:02:24

Howard it's funny when you said what is most

Paul Weigel: 00:02:27

important how I shine brightly every day, is my time I spent

Paul Weigel: 00:02:31

with my daughter. As you mentioned me bringing her her

Paul Weigel: 00:02:36

with me to the colour guard classic and seeing life through

Paul Weigel: 00:02:40

her every single day. And getting a chance to see and

Paul Weigel: 00:02:43

learn from her allows me to shine brightly a little bit more

Paul Weigel: 00:02:48

exponentially every day, every single moment. So really,

Paul Weigel: 00:02:52

anything associated with my kiddo allows me to shine

Paul Weigel: 00:02:54

brightly.

Howard Brown: 00:02:55

I love that. And I have to be Pollack goes fast,

Howard Brown: 00:02:59

because, you know, my daughter was a freshman in high school

Howard Brown: 00:03:02

when I got diagnosed with stage three, and then a year later

Howard Brown: 00:03:05

metastatic stage four colon cancer. And it went fast. Right?

Howard Brown: 00:03:10

I didn't was not guaranteed that I see her graduate high school.

Howard Brown: 00:03:13

yet. I saw her graduate college. And she's actually started her

Howard Brown: 00:03:18

career as a TV reporter in Missoula, Montana. So I don't

Howard Brown: 00:03:21

get this year except I watch her on TV on the app a couple times

Howard Brown: 00:03:25

a week so that you know that that is the shining brightly

Howard Brown: 00:03:28

time. I love that. That's amazing. Why don't you share

Howard Brown: 00:03:31

just a little bit about you know who you are and your background

Howard Brown: 00:03:34

a little bit? Sure.

Paul Weigel: 00:03:36

My name is Paul Weigel. As you mentioned, I am

Paul Weigel: 00:03:39

an 11 year colon cancer, colorectal cancer survivor. I

Paul Weigel: 00:03:44

when I was 43 years old, got diagnosed with a tumour about

Paul Weigel: 00:03:48

the size of your fist at the junction of my rectum and my

Paul Weigel: 00:03:51

colon. Like you I was originally diagnosed as a stage three colon

Paul Weigel: 00:03:56

cancer. And very quickly went into treatment. You know, one of

Paul Weigel: 00:04:03

the things for me, I was in my I was in my early 40s when I got

Paul Weigel: 00:04:07

diagnosed, and I had had symptoms for years. And I talked

Paul Weigel: 00:04:11

with my doctors, and my doctors hadn't totally paid attention to

Paul Weigel: 00:04:14

it. In part because as you mentioned, I was an athlete, I

Paul Weigel: 00:04:18

was doing all these other things that doctors would not assume

Paul Weigel: 00:04:23

that I would be ill in any type of way. And yet I was getting

Paul Weigel: 00:04:28

more and more incrementally sick. Now I'm 10 years later, or

Paul Weigel: 00:04:33

now 11 years later. And as my daughter has gotten older, she

Paul Weigel: 00:04:39

was three when I was originally diagnosed. And as she's gotten

Paul Weigel: 00:04:43

older, she started asking some more questions about what that

Paul Weigel: 00:04:46

time was like. What did it mean to be a patient back then? And I

Paul Weigel: 00:04:52

was able to pull together this book and start I've been writing

Paul Weigel: 00:04:55

this book called Iron dad. And it really has become this

Paul Weigel: 00:04:59

wonderful A testament to her of how important she has been in my

Paul Weigel: 00:05:03

life. And how great my life is now moving ahead 10 years later

Paul Weigel: 00:05:08

with her apartment,

Howard Brown: 00:05:09

I It's an amazing story, the fact that she's taken

Howard Brown: 00:05:13

such an interest in your journey that way. And also, the fact is

Howard Brown: 00:05:18

the iron dad stands for a bunch of things. There's a lot of

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symbolism in that, right. And so one of the things that you your

Howard Brown: 00:05:25

happy place happens to be triathlons. And so you've run

Howard Brown: 00:05:29

six, and you ran some before you're sick. And now you're

Howard Brown: 00:05:32

running after that's incredible as

Paul Weigel: 00:05:35

well. But we're, you know, Howard, we're all

Paul Weigel: 00:05:37

incredible. And that, and that may be part of the shining

Paul Weigel: 00:05:39

brightly part. For me, when I had done my first Ironman

Paul Weigel: 00:05:44

before, before I was sick, and before my daughter was born, but

Paul Weigel: 00:05:49

when I did an Ironman triathlete six months after finishing

Paul Weigel: 00:05:52

chemotherapy, and part of that was because we've talked about

Paul Weigel: 00:05:57

the relationship with my kid, and with Natalie, that I wanted

Paul Weigel: 00:06:00

her to see an experience that love and that passion for me,

Paul Weigel: 00:06:05

too. And I've continued to do that. years later. And this

Paul Weigel: 00:06:10

year, actually, as we're finishing this recording, I've

Paul Weigel: 00:06:14

just finished to half Ironman, and then in October, I'm going

Paul Weigel: 00:06:18

to be doing another full one. Because there we life is about

Paul Weigel: 00:06:22

living and life is about taking it and pushing ourselves to new

Paul Weigel: 00:06:26

limits. And so many of the lessons I learned while going

Paul Weigel: 00:06:30

through treatment, have been lessons I've learned through

Paul Weigel: 00:06:33

work, but if allowed me to continue and persevere through

Paul Weigel: 00:06:36

things like the race, so I'm very lucky to for those who are

Paul Weigel: 00:06:40

religious, I've been blessed. For those who are not I'm very

Paul Weigel: 00:06:44

lucky.

Howard Brown: 00:06:45

Yeah, so it's funny, I say the same things. I

Howard Brown: 00:06:48

look in the mirror. My mantra is, I am blessed. I am grateful.

Howard Brown: 00:06:53

And I am lucky to be alive. Let's go help you. Today. Let's

Howard Brown: 00:06:57

go help people. Yes. So

Paul Weigel: 00:07:00

we'll be going and helping people. Dan has been a

Paul Weigel: 00:07:03

big part for me. As you know, I had written this book for my

Paul Weigel: 00:07:09

daughter, ultimately. And it's only in January, I started

Paul Weigel: 00:07:13

talking about does this story make sense to help make people's

Paul Weigel: 00:07:17

lives better. And all of a sudden, people started saying,

Paul Weigel: 00:07:21

this is a good message about fatherhood, and really helps

Paul Weigel: 00:07:25

people think about being ill or taking care of their own health

Paul Weigel: 00:07:29

in a different way. So each day for me has been tremendous as

Paul Weigel: 00:07:33

I've gotten the chance to be able to talk about being a

Paul Weigel: 00:07:36

survivor about having hard conversations with your doctor,

Paul Weigel: 00:07:40

about being your own healthcare advocate. And that has been a

Paul Weigel: 00:07:44

really neat exploration. Every day that I'm just lucky,

Paul Weigel: 00:07:50

blessed, all those different things.

Howard Brown: 00:07:52

So it's, we have so many. We're aligned in so

Howard Brown: 00:07:56

many ways that so many parallels because we have daughters. And

Howard Brown: 00:07:59

also I have been playing basketball my whole life. And I

Howard Brown: 00:08:02

had to prove to myself that I actually played basketball

Howard Brown: 00:08:05

during treatment with a chemo port. not advisable. Okay,

Howard Brown: 00:08:08

doctor, so what are you doing? It could get pulled out, you'll

Howard Brown: 00:08:10

bleed out of the elbow right there, right? Just yeah, I would

Howard Brown: 00:08:14

protect I would cover it up with my hand. But again, I had to

Howard Brown: 00:08:17

prove to myself and I, we that's our happy place. And you have to

Howard Brown: 00:08:21

go to your stress free zone. And I tell everyone, I don't care if

Howard Brown: 00:08:25

it's meditation, or yoga, or cooking or travel or hiking,

Howard Brown: 00:08:28

find your happy place or art. And go there, schedule it in go

Howard Brown: 00:08:32

there often. And the fact that you and I both before and now

Howard Brown: 00:08:36

after living through what we have lived through, in as far as

Howard Brown: 00:08:40

you know, radiation, surgeries, treatment, and chemo and all the

Howard Brown: 00:08:43

side effects, and we're still doing it. That's cool, man, that

Howard Brown: 00:08:47

is really true as well. And I'm just so I'm so impressed, Paul,

Howard Brown: 00:08:51

that is just incredible. Now, I do want to shout out a little

Howard Brown: 00:08:55

bit. So Paul and I, we've decided that because we're so

Howard Brown: 00:09:00

blessed and grateful to be alive. We take time and we

Howard Brown: 00:09:04

actually I'll give shout outs now. So we both have done great

Howard Brown: 00:09:07

volunteer champion work with the Colorectal Cancer Alliance.

Howard Brown: 00:09:12

You've done a little more work with fight CRC than I have but

Howard Brown: 00:09:15

great organisation, they plant flags on the Capitol and they're

Howard Brown: 00:09:18

big into grants and research and advocacy at the government level

Howard Brown: 00:09:23

and then also Man Up To Cancer This is really cool place is

Howard Brown: 00:09:27

incredible. It's it's all psychosocial help for men

Howard Brown: 00:09:32

because men tend to isolate men don't get screened men are

Howard Brown: 00:09:35

tough. We're macho, right? This is an amazing growing community

Howard Brown: 00:09:41

of really caring guys that I've got your back and some of them

Howard Brown: 00:09:45

are like Paul and I that are five steps ahead on our healing

Howard Brown: 00:09:48

journey. Others are just starting out and got the bad

Howard Brown: 00:09:51

news of having cancer and I found it to be a very cool place

Howard Brown: 00:09:54

and in Arizona at the colocar classic got to meet in person

Howard Brown: 00:09:58

like 2025 Guy It was really quite incredible. So shout out

Howard Brown: 00:10:02

to there for that as well. What I want you to talk about though,

Howard Brown: 00:10:06

is is the book because you actually in talking to your

Howard Brown: 00:10:09

daughter, and explaining to her kind of what's going on there.

Howard Brown: 00:10:13

So give me the you know, it's kind of the genesis of the book

Howard Brown: 00:10:15

and, and it's coming out soon, in a couple of weeks. So I think

Howard Brown: 00:10:19

we're at mid June. So talk about this.

Paul Weigel: 00:10:24

The book has been really an 11 year really an 11

Paul Weigel: 00:10:27

year labour of love, right? That, well, I was going through

Paul Weigel: 00:10:31

treatment being diagnosed at the advanced stage, I was I mean, it

Paul Weigel: 00:10:36

was stage three, and that there were some signs that I might be

Paul Weigel: 00:10:42

a stage four patient, and that I was incredibly concerned that I

Paul Weigel: 00:10:46

was not going to be around very long. And so as I was going

Paul Weigel: 00:10:50

through my treatment, I actually wrote a blog. And that blog guy

Paul Weigel: 00:10:54

showed all my different experiences, my time, my time

Paul Weigel: 00:10:59

how I felt, when I was dealing with at work, while I was

Paul Weigel: 00:11:03

dealing with side effects, trying to balance out driving,

Paul Weigel: 00:11:09

we lived in Seattle at the time driving into work working part

Paul Weigel: 00:11:12

of the day, then driving across the city to get radiation and

Paul Weigel: 00:11:15

chemo, then driving back home to try and be a dad. And so it

Paul Weigel: 00:11:20

started with this blog. And then, you know, being a cancer

Paul Weigel: 00:11:26

patient, as you know, Eric is hard. And and to have that

Paul Weigel: 00:11:29

ongoing conversation for so long was was overwhelming for me. So

Paul Weigel: 00:11:35

what I did was I actually I took this blog I had and I packaged

Paul Weigel: 00:11:39

it up, I certainly had it printed out. But I took my

Paul Weigel: 00:11:42

digital copy. And I put it all on a shelf. And I was like, I'm

Paul Weigel: 00:11:45

not dealing with this for a long time, until I'm really ready to

Paul Weigel: 00:11:49

tell my story. And then as Natalie has gotten older, and as

Paul Weigel: 00:11:56

some of these things that they continue to explore on, on on my

Paul Weigel: 00:12:00

test finally were cleared. And I was finally given my no evidence

Paul Weigel: 00:12:04

of disease card. I call it my no cancer card. Nine years later,

Paul Weigel: 00:12:10

that I felt that I was in a position that I could really

Paul Weigel: 00:12:12

tell the story. And, and so ultimately what I did was I took

Paul Weigel: 00:12:19

this blog and I started saying, now how can I explain to Natalie

Paul Weigel: 00:12:23

some of this time, and as I started writing it, I realised

Paul Weigel: 00:12:28

that I took a step back and started explaining how important

Paul Weigel: 00:12:31

she was to me in my life. And and some of the trials and

Paul Weigel: 00:12:36

tribulations I had before she was born. And then the fact that

Paul Weigel: 00:12:41

once she was born, I had something to live for. And when

Paul Weigel: 00:12:46

we were going when I was going through treatment, I found it. I

Paul Weigel: 00:12:54

thought so many times to myself, if I had been diagnosed just

Paul Weigel: 00:12:57

three or four years before before she was born. I don't

Paul Weigel: 00:13:00

know how much I would have had to fight for. But that all the

Paul Weigel: 00:13:04

sudden I really had her to fight for that was an inspiration that

Paul Weigel: 00:13:09

helped me to shine brightly to help me have hope and to feel

Paul Weigel: 00:13:13

like I had something to go for. And the book continued to evolve

Paul Weigel: 00:13:18

into what's become iron dad, as you said is a complex answer. It

Paul Weigel: 00:13:23

talks about being Yes, being an Ironman triathlete, but it also

Paul Weigel: 00:13:27

talks about the perseverance of getting through life every day

Paul Weigel: 00:13:31

as a parent and, and doing the different things that we need to

Paul Weigel: 00:13:34

be engaged for our daughters, whether you are watching your

Paul Weigel: 00:13:38

daughter on on a download, or whether I'm watching my daughter

Paul Weigel: 00:13:42

during her middle school graduation. So the book has

Paul Weigel: 00:13:46

really become it started as a blog 10 years ago, it's evolved

Paul Weigel: 00:13:52

as Natalie started asking questions, and then has really

Paul Weigel: 00:13:56

morphed into a story that hopefully is inspirational for

Paul Weigel: 00:14:00

others. That's we're dealing with the issues of colon cancer

Paul Weigel: 00:14:04

now. That was one of the things that has been fascinating to me

Paul Weigel: 00:14:09

in the last few years. You know, when I got diagnosed 10 years

Paul Weigel: 00:14:15

ago, we didn't talk about colon cancer, we didn't have many of

Paul Weigel: 00:14:18

the things that were was going on. And in spite of the fact

Paul Weigel: 00:14:21

that we've made so much progress and colon cancer awareness or in

Paul Weigel: 00:14:25

discussions with doctors, we are still so far behind in terms of

Paul Weigel: 00:14:31

what we need to do to make sure doctors and patients are aware.

Paul Weigel: 00:14:35

So I'm wanting to really to be able to help share our stories

Paul Weigel: 00:14:40

so that people are having those conversations with those doctors

Paul Weigel: 00:14:44

and are being more aware of what's going on with their body.

Howard Brown: 00:14:46

I want to stop right there. Pause for a second

Howard Brown: 00:14:49

because first of all the people that are on video will see that

Howard Brown: 00:14:52

and when they see a copy of your book you have you're holding

Howard Brown: 00:14:55

your daughter's hand and a heart on top of the iron dad. And yes,

Howard Brown: 00:14:59

this is why This is such an important Father's Day issue,

Howard Brown: 00:15:02

because relationships, okay dads with their children, dads with

Howard Brown: 00:15:07

their spouses, significant others family members, but when

Howard Brown: 00:15:09

you get this cancer diagnosis, emotionally, physically,

Howard Brown: 00:15:13

sometimes financially, your career and in relationships,

Howard Brown: 00:15:17

that all gets thrown into a blender sometimes. And I will

Howard Brown: 00:15:20

tell you this at over 153,000 in the US who will be diagnosed,

Howard Brown: 00:15:25

maybe 2.2 million worldwide. Okay, a third of those patients

Howard Brown: 00:15:30

will actually die this year from colorectal cancer. It's the

Howard Brown: 00:15:33

number one killer for men. Number two, killer for women

Howard Brown: 00:15:36

under the age of 50. This isn't an old man's disease, grandma

Howard Brown: 00:15:39

and grandpa's disease anymore. And so, the one thing that I do

Howard Brown: 00:15:44

you see me walking around with my blue sneakers, and I'm always

Howard Brown: 00:15:47

wearing blue, I have a blue shirt on today. But I actually

Howard Brown: 00:15:50

what I do is I want people to get screened, and you do too,

Howard Brown: 00:15:53

right, don't get this disease don't get it? Well,

Paul Weigel: 00:15:57

and that's the part that getting screened is is so

Paul Weigel: 00:16:02

easy, and especially when we're looking at, I had symptoms for

Paul Weigel: 00:16:06

five years before I got diagnosed. And I've even talked

Paul Weigel: 00:16:10

with my doctor. And if we had just done some of those

Paul Weigel: 00:16:14

preliminary evaluations, that helmet that we would have found,

Paul Weigel: 00:16:19

like cancer when it was an early stage or even a polyp. And that

Paul Weigel: 00:16:23

I wouldn't have had to go through all this. But there's

Paul Weigel: 00:16:25

still so many people all the time that they're they have

Paul Weigel: 00:16:29

symptoms, and if they don't end and talk to the doctor, their

Paul Weigel: 00:16:32

lives will be saved. So absolutely the more chances we

Paul Weigel: 00:16:36

get for people to think about getting screened, the better.

Howard Brown: 00:16:39

Well, I mean, if I would have been screened at 40,

Howard Brown: 00:16:41

we might have not met Paul, but we'll shout out to the coast

Howard Brown: 00:16:43

guard and exact science folks. So you can poop in a cup and

Howard Brown: 00:16:46

send it to the lab and then write your tests positive you do

Howard Brown: 00:16:48

go get a coal colonoscopy, the gold standard snip a polyp and

Howard Brown: 00:16:52

then you know move on with your life hopefully and not have to

Howard Brown: 00:16:55

go through the stuff that we've gone through. The next is that

Howard Brown: 00:16:57

there's going to be over 100,000 in the US in treatment. And you

Howard Brown: 00:17:01

and I know what that is feeling like so we have the advocacy

Howard Brown: 00:17:04

organs, and especially colon town as well that walk hand in

Howard Brown: 00:17:07

hand with 10 is a great group, with the coat with the

Howard Brown: 00:17:09

caregivers and to be able to have the information to be able

Howard Brown: 00:17:13

to make decisions. It's a complex thing. And you hear all

Howard Brown: 00:17:16

these ABC soups of names and acronyms. You got to learn it.

Howard Brown: 00:17:20

And you got to be a smart patient, smart patients

Howard Brown: 00:17:23

collaborate with their care teams and their oncologist and

Howard Brown: 00:17:25

their surgeons to make the best decisions in front of them. And

Howard Brown: 00:17:29

then lastly, oh, you you mentioned

Paul Weigel: 00:17:33

all of these different groups, whether it's

Paul Weigel: 00:17:34

colon town, or fight CRC, or the CCA or a Man Up To Cancer. That

Paul Weigel: 00:17:41

was something that wasn't around 10 years ago, but I really felt

Paul Weigel: 00:17:45

that I was going through my battle alone. But yes, there

Paul Weigel: 00:17:49

were a couple of small groups in the Seattle area. And they they

Paul Weigel: 00:17:53

were like 10 people and to really have big deep

Paul Weigel: 00:17:56

conversations, especially men trying to talk through what does

Paul Weigel: 00:18:01

it mean to be going through this treatment just wasn't there. And

Paul Weigel: 00:18:05

I felt alone on an island so much of the time going through.

Paul Weigel: 00:18:09

I think that's probably part of the reason I had my blog was I

Paul Weigel: 00:18:11

was trying to get out there and say, This is what this

Paul Weigel: 00:18:14

experience is like, I'm sorry, I interrupted No, no, no, I

Howard Brown: 00:18:17

was just all good. No, no, this, this is a free

Howard Brown: 00:18:20

front free format, you know, show so we can talk over each

Howard Brown: 00:18:23

other. But the last thing is, is that that there's people that

Howard Brown: 00:18:27

are going to die from this disease, right? And so I always

Howard Brown: 00:18:30

memorialise when their cancer burden is too great. And they

Howard Brown: 00:18:32

get called to heaven. You just don't know when that time is up.

Howard Brown: 00:18:35

So you have to be able to get back up again. And that's the

Howard Brown: 00:18:39

beautiful thing, Paul, that we prove every day that we can get

Howard Brown: 00:18:42

out of bed, we can actually live real productive lives be loving

Howard Brown: 00:18:45

dads, and husbands and family members and be able to be

Howard Brown: 00:18:49

productive, but also show you what can happen. Okay, it's not

Howard Brown: 00:18:53

it doesn't happen for everybody and we don't take it for granted

Howard Brown: 00:18:56

for sure. And so what I wanted to ask you was that you know, in

Howard Brown: 00:19:00

your book I mean you're basically living your life now

Howard Brown: 00:19:03

what does Father's Day mean to you and I'll tell you what it

Howard Brown: 00:19:05

means to me as well.

Paul Weigel: 00:19:11

Eric, you know, every day is Father's Day

Paul Weigel: 00:19:19

I just feel absolutely so lucky every single day to see Natalie

Paul Weigel: 00:19:28

do more and explore and, and, and yes, she is a teenager now

Paul Weigel: 00:19:34

and she can be a total pain. But at the same point I have to note

Paul Weigel: 00:19:40

that I'm around and that I get to see life through her eyes.

Paul Weigel: 00:19:45

One of the things you mentioned a little bit ago of like being

Paul Weigel: 00:19:48

thrown into a blender of my since I was diagnosed my career

Paul Weigel: 00:19:54

change dramatically. I've chosen to pretty much stay at home

Paul Weigel: 00:19:59

working In jobs, so I can see her every single day that I

Paul Weigel: 00:20:03

would, I was the dad who walked her to school and dropped her

Paul Weigel: 00:20:06

off at the door and picked her up or would go on all those

Paul Weigel: 00:20:09

different field trips. So that I want to have every single

Paul Weigel: 00:20:13

experience, in spite of the chaotic world that I've now been

Paul Weigel: 00:20:18

forever immersed into.

Howard Brown: 00:20:21

I love it. So I Father's Day to me is a wait,

Howard Brown: 00:20:24

it's one day out of the whole year, and I am with you father's

Howard Brown: 00:20:28

days every day, right. And I just think it's a way to show

Howard Brown: 00:20:31

appreciation back to for, you know, being loved

Howard Brown: 00:20:35

unconditionally, showing a legacy showing what is possible.

Howard Brown: 00:20:40

You know, it's just, it's important. I want my daughter to

Howard Brown: 00:20:45

know that, that she was part of the reason that and as you said,

Howard Brown: 00:20:51

that we that were alive today is that wanting to see them. And

Howard Brown: 00:20:55

so, you know, I want to see your graduate high school, I want to

Howard Brown: 00:20:58

see your Graduate University of Michigan, she did, and I put it

Howard Brown: 00:21:01

out there, when at the right time, I will walk her down the

Howard Brown: 00:21:04

aisle because life's about making memories. Now. Those are

Howard Brown: 00:21:07

the important things in life and all that. So it's just so so

Howard Brown: 00:21:11

important that we do that. And for all the dads out there, this

Howard Brown: 00:21:14

is your day, sit back, have a cold one, have a hot dog or a

Howard Brown: 00:21:17

burger. But remember every day is Father's Day and fatherhood.

Howard Brown: 00:21:20

And is really important. Stable fatherhood matters. And we if

Howard Brown: 00:21:27

you need help with that, we Paul and I can give you a good

Howard Brown: 00:21:29

direction. And you don't have to have cancer to be a good dad.

Howard Brown: 00:21:33

That's for sure.

Paul Weigel: 00:21:34

That is for sure. Well, you know, we, you have

Paul Weigel: 00:21:38

your story of when you were told you had cancer and and when you

Paul Weigel: 00:21:42

heard those words, and I have the same thing for me that when

Paul Weigel: 00:21:45

the doctor told me that I had a tumour, my first thoughts were

Paul Weigel: 00:21:49

all those different things I was not going to see Natalie do what

Paul Weigel: 00:21:53

was like, even going to see her start school, let alone go to

Paul Weigel: 00:21:58

prom or get married or have her first job. And and so it was an

Paul Weigel: 00:22:03

apocalyptic moment to be thinking through. Not what was

Paul Weigel: 00:22:09

not what was I going to miss outside of that, but to see

Paul Weigel: 00:22:12

through her. And so that she has been a wonderful source of

Paul Weigel: 00:22:16

inspiration to me. As we've gone through the last 10 plus years.

Paul Weigel: 00:22:20

I

Howard Brown: 00:22:20

want to tell you how excited I am for you. Okay,

Howard Brown: 00:22:24

cherish this moment, you have a will be a published author and

Howard Brown: 00:22:27

have a book coming out in a couple of weeks, mid June,

Howard Brown: 00:22:30

right? You started your own podcast, you have your own

Howard Brown: 00:22:33

platform, you're spreading your advocacy and your message out

Howard Brown: 00:22:36

there. You're speaking on stages, right? You're a

Howard Brown: 00:22:39

communications expert. This is this is really a beautiful time.

Howard Brown: 00:22:43

And I just want to tell you how much I appreciate you sharing

Howard Brown: 00:22:46

that with everyone to show you that you did get back up again,

Howard Brown: 00:22:50

you are like me, I'm Humpty Dumpty version three, oh, you're

Howard Brown: 00:22:53

putting your pieces back together again, but you're

Howard Brown: 00:22:55

lifting up others and that's what my whole show is, and my

Howard Brown: 00:22:58

whole shining brighten the movement as well. So I just want

Howard Brown: 00:23:01

you to take in a deep breath and appreciate this what you're

Howard Brown: 00:23:05

doing. And it matters, I'm just telling you, it really matters

Howard Brown: 00:23:09

and, and you and I will help promote each other and, and

Howard Brown: 00:23:13

share that with it. But I'm very proud of you. It does this is

Howard Brown: 00:23:16

not easy to be published and to get out there and to share your

Howard Brown: 00:23:19

voice and your you are a role model for Natalie, but also for

Howard Brown: 00:23:23

others, and including others that are in the journey of going

Howard Brown: 00:23:27

through cancer right now to thank you so bad.

Paul Weigel: 00:23:33

I was just gonna say just the you do this, we

Paul Weigel: 00:23:36

both do this. This is a labour of love. And Ben, I know we're

Paul Weigel: 00:23:40

gonna put on our sunglasses here in a second. But we are the FET

Paul Weigel: 00:23:43

but the we are spending a huge amount of time and energy,

Paul Weigel: 00:23:48

trying to help make lives better, and to help people

Paul Weigel: 00:23:52

thinking that there is the power of positivity and there is hope

Paul Weigel: 00:23:56

and there is you can dream and and have a wonderful future and

Paul Weigel: 00:24:00

a wonderful life. And I'm just so happy to be here with you

Paul Weigel: 00:24:03

today. So

Howard Brown: 00:24:04

right and so let's put on our glasses because it's

Howard Brown: 00:24:06

the shining bright the spotlight it is the shining bright. The

Howard Brown: 00:24:09

answer is that it's a team sport. Life is a team sport.

Howard Brown: 00:24:12

Fighting cancer is a team sport. It's a team sport, and we're a

Howard Brown: 00:24:15

team. So all the shining brightly spotlight is on you.

Howard Brown: 00:24:19

Okay, I want to tell people how they should best get a hold of

Howard Brown: 00:24:22

you. And then share some final inspiration and kick the show

Howard Brown: 00:24:25

back to me for a close.

Paul Weigel: 00:24:27

All right. To find out more about my book or any of

Paul Weigel: 00:24:31

the things I'm working on just go to www.on Your dad book.com

Paul Weigel: 00:24:37

You'll find different resources there as you mentioned, our

Paul Weigel: 00:24:39

podcasts as well as contact resources for how to get in

Paul Weigel: 00:24:44

touch with me. So thank you my parting words for everybody in

Paul Weigel: 00:24:50

anybody is not only shine bright, but fight like hell. I

Paul Weigel: 00:24:54

mean, be your biggest advocate live your life to the absolute

Paul Weigel: 00:24:58

fullest. That's So what i You mentioned being being an Ironman

Paul Weigel: 00:25:02

triathlete, that's what I'm trying to do every day is push

Paul Weigel: 00:25:05

the edge of that envelope. So that when I'm looking back on my

Paul Weigel: 00:25:09

life, hopefully in 50 years, that my last moments are just of

Paul Weigel: 00:25:13

wonderful, tremendous experiences. I

Howard Brown: 00:25:16

love it. And I will tell you this for those who

Howard Brown: 00:25:18

don't know what an Ironman is, you're swimming a mile, maybe

Howard Brown: 00:25:21

two or and then you're biking. 20 112 112 And then you're doing

Howard Brown: 00:25:26

a full marathon after that. That is out. I listen, I go two hours

Howard Brown: 00:25:31

in the basketball court. Paul, that is incredible. You are iron

Howard Brown: 00:25:34

dad. And I am so happier here. So shining brightly this show is

Howard Brown: 00:25:39

every Wednesday, you can find me at shining brightly.com and

Howard Brown: 00:25:44

plenty of information about my book. Also, thank you, Paul.

Howard Brown: 00:25:48

I've endorsed your book, and I can't wait for it to come out.

Howard Brown: 00:25:51

And also my speaking if you want me to speak to your and put on a

Howard Brown: 00:25:56

great show motivational speaker and teach a little bit too. And

Howard Brown: 00:26:00

then also, my advocacy. My advocacy is so important. And

Howard Brown: 00:26:04

Paul and I share this cancer advocacy for screening in

Howard Brown: 00:26:08

treatment and survivorship is everything to us as well. I also

Howard Brown: 00:26:12

mentor entrepreneurs and then my interfaith work is vital because

Howard Brown: 00:26:16

we live in a planet where we're all not the same. And I tell

Howard Brown: 00:26:19

everyone to choose not to hate. And so those are my three kind

Howard Brown: 00:26:22

of lanes that I play and so find me at shining brightly.com This

Howard Brown: 00:26:26

has been an incredible show. Paul, you are just a friend and

Howard Brown: 00:26:30

truly an inspiration. And just remember if we choose and we do

Howard Brown: 00:26:34

to shine brightly, just a little bit each day for ourselves, go

Howard Brown: 00:26:37

lift up others in our communities in our

Howard Brown: 00:26:39

neighbourhoods, yes, the world would be a better place. Again,

Howard Brown: 00:26:43

Paul, thank you. You've been outstanding. I can't wait for

Howard Brown: 00:26:45

your book and to check out your show.

Paul Weigel: 00:26:49

Thank you, Howard. Appreciate your time. You are

Paul Weigel: 00:26:51

too