CELEBRATING 60 SHOWS AND OVER 50,000 DOWNLOADS! In Episode 60 that kicks off 2024 of the Shining Brightly Podcast Show (LINKS IN THE COMMENTS) titled, “TOP SHOWS OF 2023”. I look back at some fantastic episodes that had real impact, gave everyday people a voice and we laughed, cried and learned along the way. True hero and shero stories of struggle, love, hope, resilience, empowerment, survivorship, relationships, business, cancer and more. Every week I worked hard to motivate, educate and inspire the listening audience to SHINE BRIGHTLY A LITTLE EACH DAY FOR OURSELVES, OTHERS AND IN OUR COMMUNITIES TO MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE. Come download, listen, share and review the year in review!

Mentioned Resources

website - https://www.shiningbrightly.com/

Podcast - https://shining-brightly.captivate.fm/

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/howardsbrown

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/howard.brown.36

Amazon - https://tinyurl.com/BuyShiningBrightly

About the guest - Howard Brown is an author, Silicon Valley entrepreneur, interfaith peacemaker, two-time stage IV cancer survivor and healthcare advocate. For more than three decades, Howard’s business innovations, leadership principles, mentoring and his resilience in beating cancer against long odds have made him a sought-after speaker and consultant for businesses, nonprofits, congregations, and community groups. In his business career, Howard was a pioneer in helping to launch a series of technology startups before he co-founded two social networks that were the first to connect religious communities around the world. He served his alma matter —Babson College, ranked by US News as the nation’s top college for entrepreneurship—as a trustee and president of Babson’s worldwide alumni network. His hard-earned wisdom about resilience after beating cancer twice has led him to become a nationally known patient advocate and “cancer whisperer” to many families. Visit Howard at ShiningBrightly.com to learn more about his ongoing work and contact him. Through that website, you also will find resources to help you shine brightly in your own corner of the world. Howard, his wife Lisa and daughter Emily currently reside in Michigan.

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

Podcast Show. This week, we're doing a year in review top shows

of 2023. This is episode 60. So thanks for listening,

downloading, sharing and reviewing what a year it's been.

I started this podcast as an offshoot of the publishing of my

book. And to be able to start a movement, to shine brightly, use

our light, and get out of the darkness, and be able to live a

life of kindness, and giving and healing, as well as use that

resiliency and mental toughness to live a good life with hope.

And that's what we're doing. So I have so many interesting

guests. It's really been an incredible 60 episodes. And I'm

gonna highlight a bunch of them. I've got more than a top 10

list, because some of them actually tied and reviewed them

with lots of people and my publisher, and the votes are in.

So we're going to share my screen for those that are

watching. But for those that are listening, it's okay, I'll be

I'll be descriptive as far as how that works. So let me share

my screen. Here we go. And there it is. Yeah. All right. So it's

just been an incredible experience, interviewing the

most interesting people, great guests, with great stories of

either overcoming anything from hardship, to illness, in

business, and in life and in relationships, and sharing their

inspiration with the audience and my people. And it's been

great. I've really enjoyed every minute of it. So welcome to the

shining, brightly show, 2023 year in review, top shows. So

we'll go to the slide show. And there we go. All right. So I did

four solo shows this year. And they were actually really

important shows. The first show was 18 equals life. Now, it's

not showing on the screen. But that was just my appreciation

for my cancer anniversary of being diagnosed. June 16 2016.

Yeah, June 4 2016. And what happened was, is that I just had

an appreciation for life. And I've been through a lot, a lot

of treatment, chemotherapy, side effects, lots of surgeries,

clinical trials, then went metastatic, and so many people,

you know, honour so many people that one, get diagnosed, two

that are still in treatment, and three that are have passed away

because their cancer burden was too great. And God called them

to heaven. And this is why I shout at the top of my lungs to

go get screened. So that was episode 18 also did episode on

cancer screen week as well. So go get screened for your

mammography, for your prostate for your lady doctor and

cervical cancers, colonoscopy through a for colon cancer and

also lung cancer, and just go be healthy because if you're not

your optimal self, you you can't lift yourself up and help

others. As I always say, the next episode was a Father's Day

episode. It was for all the dads out there, and especially to my

miracle girl, Amelie. And it's the best job and it's a hard

job. But boy, is it a blessing to be a dad. And I've just what

a great episode. So episode 18 was life and then episode

Father's Day was 31. And you can go back and listen to those

episodes and just terrific. Good stuff. Episode 42 was done in

August and it was about getting my chemo poured out. After seven

and a half years I had this little port inside of me that

was underneath my clavicle, and it connected to my vena cava.

And it was how chemotherapy got put into me and it's a pretty

vital piece so you don't have to poke the veins but Some people

told me I was crazy because I played basketball a lot with my

chemo port. And so I would protect myself with my hand over

my heart and protecting the port. When I felt contact, the

other hand was protecting the crown jewels. But basketball was

my happy place. And so when you go through and get knocked down,

as I always say, you must get back up again and again, learn

from the darkness, but get back up and survivorship and putting

Humpty Dumpty back together again, not once, but twice,

maybe even a third time. I dedicated episode 42 to that,

and episode 50 They hate me, but they don't even know me. And

this is a serious episode. Because what's going on in the

world. It was about hate. It's about how you can choose to

hate. It's not something that we're born with. It's learned.

And there's just a lot of hate going on in the world. And it's

unacceptable to me. And I do a tonne of interfaith work. And I

think it broadens your culture, the history, foods, religion, of

learning about other people and understanding them, it broadens

you and they in turn can learn about you and your culture and

your religion and your history and your foods and be good

neighbours. And so with all the hate going on, and the rise of

anti semitism the rise of Islamophobia. Episode 50 was

really an important episode. So now I want to change it up just

a teeny bit and talk about episode 36. Oh my god. I had

rice and thrive together. And these are my art our sisters and

Regina Rossi. And it was just unbelievable. Dr. Raquel Stewart

and these women crack me up. I played a game of she said she

said they introduced each other and they told something secret

about themselves. And I'm not going to spoil it for you. You

have to go back and listen to episode 36. The they are amazing

energy. life coaches, couples coaches, they will get you back

on track. Let me tell you, I also got to go on their TV show.

They were on. Shout out to Blanca and Blanca Perper. She

has runs a Roku channel with 50,000 subscribers. And it's the

laws of life channel. Shout out to her and oh my god, these

ladies, they are my r&r Sisters, I love them. And please go check

out episode 36. You won't regret it for sure. Now, this one right

here is one of my earlier episodes. This is when I

probably had very few audience but a big fan of Kevin Munroe.

Episode Five is Gratitude is the attitude. He is the gratitude

guru. I go to his gratitude encounters once a month, he's

got a gratitude community. And he uses the Mentimeter. And he

actually surveys, everyone on zoom on how they're feeling

about gratitude coming in, and how they're going out and you

break off into breakout rooms. And we talk about empowerment

and hope and how that positivity can really really change from

moment to moment, but change your day. Change your

trajectory, change your work life, change your relationships

with your kids and your spouse and your friends. So and I wake

up every morning and I actually say a ritual of gratitude. And I

say that I am blessed. I am grateful and lucky. And I hope

to be able to help many people today. And so what a great

episode I think you're really going to enjoy that as well.

Okay, the next episode little more serious. But Amanda

Blackwood. I got introduced her it's episode 26. And it's human

trafficking and trauma and survivorship. Oh my god, this

woman has a story. It's unbelievable. And I asked her a

question on the show in studio. I said, you know, I've never met

someone that's been human traffic before. And she said to

me, she said, you probably have you just didn't know it. And

there was six different types of human trafficking and human

trafficking. meaning that she suffered was servitude.

She got into a very difficult marriage, and she was trapped.

And she actually had to play a trick on this person and to get

her freedom. It's such a captivating episode. And it also

talks about other types of of trafficking as well. We've heard

about traffic, tracking sex trafficking other ones as well.

So episode 26 is a little more serious, but she's such a

resilient woman, and a lot of respect for what she went

through and what she conquered and what she overcame. And this

is what the show is all about, is learning about that. So

Alright, next episode that I wanted to feature episode 28. Oh

my god. Linda. Oh, my God. She's absolutely incredible. She

interviewed 20,000 people. And then it was like, I think a

computer interview process, I hope because it would have taken

her forever. And her episode and what it's why it's best to date,

like a caveman is really, really important about relationships.

And, you know, does the bad boy always win? Right? What's the

you know? Can the geek get a date? It's just unbelievable.

She's so experienced. She's a published author. She's a

corporate trainer. She's a coach. And it's it was a great

episode is unbelievable. of dating scene a little bit of a

little bit more from the men's perspective. And so, go check

out episode 28 why it's best date like a caveman. I think

you'll, you'll really enjoy that as well. Well, here's here's

someone that I'm truly inspired by Nim stat, go all in. This is

a woman that moved here from Thailand with nothing,

absolutely nothing. And she has built a very, very cool

business. She is a book publisher. Also, she is a TEDx

trainer. She's done a TEDx. She's actually published a whole

bunch of books. And she runs the go all in fest a couple times a

year, which are speaking about inspiration. And it's truly

amazing. She has a Book Awards, which I won, shining brightly

won the most inspirational book of the year. And I got an award

and a beautiful trophy, and very proud for that. But also, she

has her own TV show. And so I went and flew to Phoenix,

Arizona, and she put it out on ABC TV 15 In Phoenix, and then

we were able to broadcast it out. And I did a 30 minute show

with her when my book came out what a great interview, she was,

oh my god, she's like Oprah on the couch. It was incredible. I

really enjoyed it. And she's a very passionate, smart

businesswoman. And really, really incredible. So check out

episode 23 called go all in only way to go. And I actually have,

there's like four women in a row that are going to feature. This

is right now in a row, and they happen to be Asian women. And

this next one is episode 37 by Sheena Yep, Chan, direct from

outside of Toronto, Canada. And she published a enormous book

called The Tao of self confidence. And her stories of

Asian women. And being able to and what they were brought up to

and expected to do was not to be able to step out, not to be

bold, not to actually use the courage and get out there and

lead. And it's a really impressive book. I've read it. I

interviewed on it. She's now signed on to do a book too. She

has a great publisher, Wiley, and she speaks everywhere and

coaches women about how to take charge of their lives and to be

able to lead with confidence and incredible book incredible

person. check out episode 37 chinny chin I think, great

episode, great episode. Oh, my goodness, and then we actually

have Sabrina runback episode 17 Now, this is one master

connector. The expert connector is the name of the episode and

she teaches you the four C's of networking and coaching. This is

a former you know clinician in biology. She knows how to

network like no other expert networker. She will teach you

the four C's of connection, about making that quality

connection and actually how to grow those connections and turn

those into revenue. And great podcaster as well. Great

speaker. Check out Sabrina run back in episode 17. You'll learn

a lot, for sure. Oh, and then we have my friend and there's

actually I'm showing a picture of ReadOn in studio. She's in

Montreal, I think as well. So I guess we're in a Canadians. Were

in the Canadians a little bit about there. But I'm wearing my

shining brightly sunglasses. She's sharing some inspiration

of the hummingbird. Now, the hummingbird was her sister that

passed away, it gives her a lot of inspiration. She is

absolutely a relationship expert. The episode 49 is what

is true love. And she is very spiritual. Her energy is

amazing. And she is able to consult with people about how to

prepare for their first date and their 10th date and be able to

navigate the dating scene and the relationship scene. And I

have to tell you, I'm following a column of hers right now. This

is actually, you know, shows you how people are authentic. You

know, my guests are. She's actually publicly speaking about

her breakup right now. And she's in heartbreak right now. And

being able to tell people about that is really something that's

incredible. So if you follow her on socials redawning, and on

Facebook and on Instagram, I think she might even be a tick

tock and also, of course, LinkedIn. So what is true love

for dating advice? Great show. You I think you'll love it.

Well, moving on. All righty. Well, this is a very special

friend of mine. This is Jenny marks. And I call her Jenny hope

monks.

She runs a foundation and she's a cancer survivor. She's a TEDx

speaker. She's a cancer coach. And she runs a foundation called

all about hope. I mean, she's she's really an angel. She gives

little kids hope the bear that have a speaking message in it.

She able raises money for people, families that have kids

with cancer that need help and financial assistance. And she

runs a huge network out in the west coast, San Luis Obispo, and

I met her early on in my cancer diagnosis. And she sent me a

bear. So I'm gonna reach over for a second and show you guys

hope the bear I didn't have them right with me now. Now we got

back on camera. This is hope to buy you're done. I gotta change

the battery. But she left me a beautiful message. And she is

very special friend of mine. And you got to have hope. Hope is

the fuel that gets us through those tough times. And so are

you a hope maker? And she says, Are you a heartbreaker? Be a

homemaker, be a good friend. But hope is very important. It's how

I actually had survived cancer twice. And I set out those

short, mid and long term goals. And it's it's just incredible.

So check out Jenny marks. Are you a homemaker, homemaker,

Episode 32. Oh, this is special. So moving on. Episode 22, my

friend or REIT, Rambler. She's down in North Carolina,

originally from Israel, and she is a life coach extraordinaire.

Oh my god, she's so organised. She's actually been my coach.

And she wrote a book called the box of life. Now, when you

really think about things, you know, you only you don't even

get 140 characters on your tombstone. If you analyse what

your life is about, right, and how you lived your life, and she

always says that you can actually keep track of that, you

know, digitally, metaphorically or physically put items in a box

that represent the most important parts of your life.

They can be pictures, they can be art. I don't think you want

to put in food because I think it'll mould but you're really

talking about what your legacy is, and how you want to be

remembered. What a great book. So great speaker, great coach.

And you'll love the book, a box of life. So check it out episode

22 and and think about your legacy, I think very, very

important part of doing things as well. Okay, now here's from a

little inspiration here. So Episode 52, Keith bow ring. This

is recent. So but eight episodes ago, and I was introduced to key

from John Rappaport a really good, my brother from another

mother, friend, and Keith. He's incredible. So it took about 18

months. And he got diagnosed with frontal temporal dementia

FTD. And he is literally losing his mind. They don't know when

but eventually he will not be able to speak. And he started

stuttering and slurring a little bit. And it took a long time to

get diagnosed. Actor Bruce Willis took three years to get

diagnosed with this very rare disease. And he came on my

podcast for the first time going public ever. It's a very

powerful episode. There's a frontal temporal lobe dementia

Foundation, and he's a big part of that. And he's getting the

word out for the people because it's very difficult. And he in

the episode he talked about actually, not knowing and then

also not revealing it to people at work and all that. But his

wife was noticing that he was being more forgetful, slurring

his speech, stuttering and then finally went to the doctor, but

it took a long time. Such an inspirational episode.

Incredible man, just full of full of heart and energy in

check it out, check out episode 52 losing my mind with Keith bow

ring. All right, Episode 43. There is no why. So this one was

one of my hardest episodes I ever did. Because Ashley, the

mom and caregiver, and Michael, I think is age 19 At the time of

his diagnosis of of cancer, blood cancer, and the Kramer's

make this unbelievable couple and pair. And what it did was it

took me back 34 years to my mom, Nancy Brown, and me and when I

was diagnosed, but I was diagnosed at age 23. And the

amount of love they have for each other and the world and

helping others is incredible. Right now, I believe he's

suffering from a little bit of graft versus host disease after

transplant. And it's caused him a tonne of side effects. So he's

taking meds and all that hopeful that's working out I got to

check in with him. And what an incredible strength of a single

mom with three kids. She lost her husband to cancer. So she's

a widow, and just so much strength in this episode. And it

just reminded me so much of me at age 23 with my mom taking me

to every single appointment, every blood transfusion, every

chemo appointment, even to the stepping stones support groups.

I mean, we're joined at the hip and I saw them too. And so

unbelievable episode, I think you'll really learn a lot about

an incredible young man. Incredible mom and their

relationship and it mirrors my mom and Nancy Brown. Shout out

to you mom, and check out episode 43 with Ashley and

Michael Kramer. There is no why. Oh, wow. Next episode 51 This

was incredible. So oh my god. The bones are incredible. They

did Carl is he's a madman. And Melissa they're incredible

couple. She basically dragged his ass to the hospital. Okay,

because he was having a grand mal seizure. And he's now live

to tell about it. He has so much energy just pure power. So

episode 51 Surviving purely out of spite. All my God he rip rip

tater chip. It's all energy that is a you know from start to

finish. Carl is incredible. She's incredible. They ended up

you know, he had chemo he had surgeries. And he's alive to

tell about it. And he gets in these ice baths. And it's

actually shocks his body shocks his brain. And he's a miracle

walkin just like me just like key. Just like Michael Kramer a

lot of miracles in what I'm talking about in the podcast. So

just you got to tune into that one because it's incredible,

high octane episode. There's the there's the warning there

episode 51 Surviving purely out of spite. Wow, really cool.

You'll like that one. Okay, heading down the homestretch

here. I will tell you that I met this woman when I was going

through chemotherapy. Her name is Maggie cook one G. And you

can check her out at Maggie cook.com. Her story blew me

away. So, Episode 16. Your purpose is you. This is an

orphan from Mexico. I think she would take ketchup packets and

spices and call it salsa and make it for the kids in the

orphanage. At least that's my side of it. And as she grew

older, the older kids take care of the younger kids. And she was

really good at basketball. She's a point guard. That's why we

love each other. Because I'm a basketball point guard and she

loves hoops. I don't think she plays much anymore, but I do.

And she got a scholarship to East Carolina, played hoops and

graduated. And unfortunately, she didn't have family so she

became homeless. And I think she started making her little catch

ups in spice salsa for the homeless crew. This just tells

you the person she is she got someone who loaned her $800. And

she made salsa and started like a little bit of a catering

business. And she I think approached over 100 Folks, she

was kind of catering parties, and finally Whole Foods, took an

appointment with her and loved her salsa. And she went from

making a small amount to a lot of salsa. And as karma would

have it and hard work. Campbell's Soup Company bought

out. Maggie cook for a big dollar amount. And she's got

this incredible story. And she is a woman CEO, a minority CEO.

She went back and adopted these kids and save them from the

cartels in Mexico. How incredible is this? So she's an

author. She is a speaker. She runs a speaker mastery class. I

know a bunch of her students shout out to Rachel rose. And I

think very Kenzi as well. But incredible speaker came on my

show early on. And I want to be speaking with her because she

makes the big bucks. She's an incredible corporate trainer

speaks all over the place. And Her story's amazing. And she's

just a humble, amazing person. And I love Maggie cook and I

gotta bring her back for a second episode. Actually, I'm

that's what I'm gonna do I think so check out episode 16. Your

purpose is you and check out Maggie cook.com with one G and

learn with all the amazing things that she does. All right.

Well, this episode was one of my top episodes of the year. Now,

when you actually listen to this episode, it will be on January

3. So we'll be already into the new year. And I will have

crossed 50,000 downloads. I started in February of 2023. And

so the show is picking up huge steam, huge momentum. And this

episode has sort of just been the top Episode Episode 47. A

lot more. Absolutely incredible story. I met her at a networking

event online on Zoom. We were in the same breakout room. And I

found her story so compelling. I reached out to her. And I was

her first podcast episode ever, where she was going to share a

story I know she's writing a book. And the episode is called

incarceration to inspiration equal sign justice. All right,

the highlights of the story and we are wearing sunglasses on the

show in studio. And she shined brightly Oh my god. So she tells

a story of being a young impressionable fashion designer

in Canada, and she was asked to go to Panama. And while in

Panama, she was asked to take home a suitcase. Well, hopefully

you know where this is going. And she did it even though she

probably knew that it was the wrong decision. And she brought

to the airport, a suitcase as a drug mu and that suitcase ended

up having cocaine in it. And she didn't speak the language. But

she got busted at the Panama airport, coming back to Canada

and She spent 81 months in a Panamanian women's prison. Now

when she tells that she's getting off of a bus, you know,

with handcuffs, and women are in jeans and a pink T shirts and a

curlers in their hair out in the yard. And she, she went to

prison, and she speaks about life in prison. She thought

she's gonna get her butt kicked. She ended up becoming like a

fitness instructor, she learned the language, she was able to

give a very inspirational speech. That means she got off

campus off the off the prison yard and got to do that. I think

even our parents got to come down and see her. And after 81

months, she got parole, but she couldn't leave the country just

yet. And so she got placed with the founder of Burt's Bees,

chapstick type stuff, and or lip balm. She's not chapstick. And

she met a man. And she got pregnant. And then when her

parole came up, she got booted out of the country. And she

moved back to I believe Vancouver, British Columbia,

Canada. And she had a baby. And she named that baby justice. How

fitting right? And so baby justice must be three or four

years old now. And I know she's travelling in a little bit right

now. But really incredible story. Really incredible story

of Absolutely. Making a mistake paying for it and trying to turn

your life around and make something for her and justice.

And hopefully she'll see her fiance i believe or boyfriend

and someday soon, but incarceration to inspiration

equals justice. Awesome, my number one episode for downloads

of the year. And, and listens. And so I wish a lot more all the

best, check her out on Instagram, on Facebook or on

LinkedIn as well. And just a while just a while. So that's my

top episodes that I wanted to share with you. I'm gonna stop

sharing the screen now. Come back on camera and tell you what

it's a pleasure. I've really enjoyed having my own platform.

And my guests are not famous stars, although I think I'm

gonna attract some really cool people, celebrities and sports

stars and others. But these are everyday people that are telling

their story. And I'm sharing their and their story and them

with the world and my audience and really great life lessons,

amazing life lessons. And I want them to shine brightly and share

their light with you my listening and watching audience

as well. And so I'm going to put on my shining brightly glasses

right now for those that are listening. So I've got metallic

white glasses on and I am shining my light back to you.

And I want to tell you that I am so grateful for those that are

listened to me and are starting to listen to me continue to

listen to me every Wednesday starting at 4am Eastern time

whenever the new episodes popped. I've got some great ones

coming up. And so join me in 2024 to keep shining brightly.

Because if you shine brightly for yourself, for others, for

our communities, it makes the world a better place. keep

shining brightly. And thank you check out shining brightly.com

Come check out my speaking and the paid speaking gigs, lots

more of their podcasts. Also my book selling really well my

memoir shining brightly. And also this podcast can be found

there every week on a feed and also my advocacy, my advocacy

for entrepreneurship. My advocacy for mentorship is

leadership and my service work in the cancer world. Also the

interfaith world. So from me to you go make the world a better

place. We all get knocked down in life. But it's our job to get

back up again and again. Shine brightly, always