When you meet Marisa Peters, her energy fills the room. She’s a mom of three boys, a performer, and now the co-founder of the Be Seen Foundation. But behind that brightness is a story of survival that changed everything.

At 39, while still nursing her youngest, Marisa learned she had late-stage colorectal cancer. What followed was months of treatment, a body she barely recognized, and the constant challenge of being present for her kids while fighting for her life. She’s honest about the hardest nights, the fear that never fully disappears, and the humor that sometimes kept her family afloat, like naming her tumor “Earl” so her kids had language to understand what was happening.

This is a story about illness, yes. But it’s also about marriage, music, and the ways we find ourselves again after everything has been stripped away.

What You’ll Discover in this Episode:

• How early symptoms were missed for years (14:19)
• Finding community through “poop parties” (22:04)
• Talking to kids about cancer with honesty (36:12)
• The reality of chemo’s hardest days (42:24)
• The mental weight of scan anxiety (53:59)
• Reclaiming old dreams in a new chapter (57:22)

Marisa’s story is a reminder that survival isn’t just about medicine; it’s about family, purpose, and the courage to keep living with intention. If you’ve ever wondered how to face life when everything changes overnight, this episode is for you.

You can watch this interview on YouTube: https://youtu.be/qlxDL9mS5cY 

For a full transcript and more, check out our blog post: https://www.lindsaycz.com/show-notes/marisa-peters-17  

Check out more from Marisa Peters: 

You can learn more about Marisa on her website

Or you can listen to her podcast, From Carpools to Chemo

If you feel called to it, you can give to Marisa’s foundation

Follow Marisa on Instagram

[00:00:22] It took me showing up, singing the night before, honoring lives lost to colorectal cancer. I was so nervous, I hadn't been on stage like that. Singing in that way for a really long time. We can hold two truths at the same time. I learned that when I was like, I am energetic and seemingly looking like a healthy person, and I have late-stage cancer.

[00:01:16] She was a musical guest at a charity event that we just had because of that. I'm gonna start with a little joke right out of the gate. Why did the singer bring a ladder to the show?

[00:01:53] This is the fourth year we've done it, called Bottoms Up. It's the Bottoms Up Invitational. And we do this in honor of his brother Lawrence, who lost his battle with colon cancer, a few years ago. And also my dad, Chet, who is a rectal cancer survivor. We're big believers in the advancement and technology that can lead to saving lives, through people coming together and raising awareness, raising money.

[00:02:42] And then Monday is always the golf tournament. So that night at the concert, and we do it in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Melvin and I always have to go backstage before the show and say hi to the folks in the Green room who have generously donated their time to come perform on stage. So we did that, and we went into the room, and we said hi to all the guests.

[00:03:20] And, I introduced myself. We started talking, and Marissa shared that she was kicking off the show that night. She was gonna be the first singer and, that she was getting, getting over, having had treatment for rectal cancer. And so she started telling me more about her journey, and I was just blown away because Marissa is a mom of three.

[00:04:07] 'cause I wanted people in that room to understand her story and not just hear this amazing song that she wrote, to kick off that night. But so she, I, she agreed we did that. And I swear it was like you could hear a pin drop. I mean, she was amazing talking about her story, but also more so just sharing what she's learned about the importance of people talking about their experiences.

[00:04:58] And I think that is so cool. So the thing no one tells you, that is the first one she starts with, is just profound. And I think there's so much to learn from it. And I'm hopeful that people who might be going through their own cancer journey or dealing with hard things can really take something away from this.

[00:05:34] Yes. Okay. In Los Angeles here at home. And one of the things I wanted to share with people before we get into the conversation here is I love how you frame your family label as Peter's party of five. Yes. Right? In our conversations, you will say Peter's party of five. Can you explain the ages of your kids right now, your three boys?

[00:06:17] Lindsay: But it's so great.

[00:06:26] Marisa: Yes. Such fun ages. And somebody gave me amazing advice when we were fresh into being parents. And it's like, don't mourn the loss of these little ages. Of course, there are things that you're not so sad about.

[00:07:01] Lindsay: I agree. Could not agree more. I just, I was just explaining about how we met literally, you know, in the green room backstage at the arena where you were performing at our Bottoms Up event. But I just love that not only, your story as a performer awesome, and seeing you up there on stage to open up our concert was like, so cool, so incredible.

[00:07:45] But do you remember what you talked about?

[00:08:03] Yeah, nobody told you that. Yeah. I think the two are for me, that are like really present right now. Obviously, being a mom with really young boys, when I was diagnosed with cancer, nobody really taught me about how to parent through it. What can become a terminal illness? What for many is a terminal illness, and you know, really, how to communicate and parent through those times when you're just trying to fight for your life, frankly.

[00:09:01] What are those big dreams that you have? And I think this idea that whatever we dream at that age and stage in the midst of high school senioritis, like if you don't go after it and you don't realize it in those first few years, the notion that like those dreams don't have to die, that. There's an endless amount of possibilities for those to come to fruition.

[00:09:56] Lindsay: So nice. So when I saw you in that green room and we started talking, where were you mentally at that point? What was going through your mind?

[00:10:24] Let's try it again. Those kinds of vibes, like I haven't been in that environment for a really long time, and I just loved it. I was sitting there just, they were all just like pinch yourself moments when we met each other. Of course. And getting to be with the community that you and Craig have put together is just like.

[00:11:12] Honestly.

[00:11:20] Marisa: Yeah, absolutely. So at a young age, I was a really loud person. Being a mom of three little boys, I know what it's like to see very different special talents bloom and grow in different ways.

[00:11:59] And I then went to school to pursue it at the University of Michigan, and moved directly to New York. Performed in New York, performed on Broadway, performed on tour in regional theaters. You know, a range of settings where anyone who has that gypsy lifestyle might show up. But for me, it was the pinnacle of what I aspired to do.

[00:12:45] And I was like, no. Like the whole yellow mindset. Yeah. Yeah. For a big Broadway show. Wow. For a big role. And I was like, if this is meant to be, it's gonna come back around. But that was really an inflection point for me of saying, like, I wanna have more control over my life and over what I'm doing, and how can I find a place in space that would allow me.

[00:13:32] So did that for almost another…

[00:13:36] Marisa: Seven, eight years. Yeah. HR lady, watch out.

[00:13:42] Marisa: That could be the furthest from the person that you would look at and be like, okay, she should be our HR lady. There are a lot of different kinds of HR people, right? Like, I'm not your police officer, regulator, rule maker kind of person, but more of the creative kind.

[00:14:08] Lindsay: So then you're married, you start having kids, right? Yes. At what point did you get the diagnosis?

[00:14:19] Marisa: Totally. This is such an important part of the story because I think we realize, you know, we think we're experiencing something for a certain amount of time, yet I thought I had been experiencing these symptoms for a far shorter amount of time than I actually had, so

[00:14:38] Marisa: Thankfully, I knew the moment when I had first communicated concerning symptoms, and that was bleeding. When I would have a bowel movement, I knew the first physician to whom I voiced that to. It turns up I was 33 years old. Wow. So it was over five years that I'd been having symptoms. We had two more boys born during that time.

[00:15:19] I knew about colonoscopies, but from my dad's experience, right? And he's a really funny, loud, big personality type of person. So the way he describes a person, a colonoscopy is actually, is very different from my experiences now having had many colonoscopies and done many preps and whatnot. But yeah, I was 39 years old when I was diagnosed.

[00:16:01] So if you're cool, Lindsay, I'm down to just lay it out, right? Yeah, just lay it out. I think it's really important we're talking about what people don't talk about on this show. Yeah. So like the things no one tells you, share. This is it. So I'm gonna tell you today. Yeah. So it started with blood, when I went to the bathroom number two, right?

[00:16:33] But that was the first indication. Then I started having ribbons of blood in my poop in my stool. And I'm like, that's weird. Then it increased, and it was almost.

[00:16:48] Marisa: I mean, it grew. Yeah, totally. I'm like, what's up with this red stripe through, you know, through my poop.

[00:17:16] Lindsay: But it's important for them too.

[00:17:38] This is a straight, like, fast track pass to a colonoscopy, right? Like, don't wait, don't, you know, pass, go. Let's get it done. But for me, I also had increased urgency to go to the bathroom, which makes sense. I had a five-centimeter tumor growing at the top of my rectum. Our rectum is what holds our stool until it's time to go to the bathroom.

[00:18:21] Like, it was scary. But fast forward to the doctor who actually saw me. I made it, in a serendipitous sort of way, to a gastroenterologist. And in that appointment, as I was sharing my symptoms, I will still never forget her face. And her question was like, Do you want a colonoscopy? Well, no, I've heard from my dad what a colonoscopy is.

[00:19:03] It was after I came outta that colonoscopy and that same physician came into my husband and me and said, like we’re here. We're really sure, like we're gonna send it for labs. But like, I'm, I think she said like 96% or something, at least that's how I remember it coming out. I'm 96% sure that you have cancer. And my immediate response was, okay.

[00:19:44] 'cause I've figured out all the tough ways of going through it. And just had a colonoscopy, you know, two weeks ago, and it was awesome. The prep was awesome. So don't let anybody scare you on this,

[00:20:04] Do you make sure that you have different bathrooms? Like what?

[00:20:23] You pull in all of your changing rooms, your toilets, like all of it. So I was like, we just need to pull in luxury toilets, so everyone's gonna have their own, we're not going like on the side of the field board potty. It's, yeah. Yeah. It's. They're fancy, they have AC, they've got great lighting. It's gonna be your own.

[00:21:00] But yeah, we're gonna, we're gonna be, everybody's gonna have their jugs. We're gonna have, you know, jello, shots of the magic potion, all kinds of activities to help get people through that, prep. Not in isolation, but with each other and still in their own comfort zone. We have a screening of a film called Andre is an Idiot, which premiered at Sundance last year and won the audience award for the best documentary.

[00:21:47] And by the end of a couple of hours, all of their plus ones will be there to come out of anesthesia and to get their results with them. And then we take that party bus to go share our first solids. So we have a meal together, kind of a debrief, and then they get to go home for the nap of their lives. You know, it's like, go sleep it off.

[00:22:24] Lindsay: Wow. Really?

[00:22:26] Lindsay: So, okay. So I think what you've just described is amazing for people who are like, I wanna do that. I wanna be a part of that. Is there a way for them to get involved in future events that you have?

[00:22:46] You can go to our website, enter your information, and take our pledge. It's there, available for people, but put a special note in that you're like, I want in on a poop party. Please bring a poop party to my town or to my area, or whatever. And we, would love to be able to take this on the road, if not just for getting more people, to be seen, but also to, you know, to raise awareness for this because how many, you know, thousands of people are getting colonoscopies done right now as we speak, yet nobody knows and they're doing it by themselves and they're, you know, everybody says the prep is the hardest part, which is true, but we figured out how to make that really easy with chewing gum and gummy bears and broth and all kinds of different things, to really make that prep so much better.

[00:23:43] Marisa: Literally, life has turned up sound upside down overnight. We walk out, of course, you're coming out of anesthesia, so you're a little loopy already. But my sweet, amazing husband, like he turns ghost white and is like.

[00:24:24] and I shared very openly. My husband and I shared very openly from the point of diagnosis. So, like we left the colonoscopy, we were in the parking lot. We called my family in Indiana. They all happened to be together that Monday, June 7th, having a, they were having like family dinner with each other, but they were there.

[00:25:06] which we did last year, but literally like, we called my bossand I was like, thanks for the support for the colonoscopy day off. This is what we found. And he was wonderful and was like, Why don't you just take two weeks and like focus on this new stuff for me? I was like, I'm not ready to drop the mic right now, and like, move to Marissa, cancer patient life.

[00:26:23] She was like, Marissa, keep life as normal as you can for as long as you can, because the time will come when you can no longer keep it normal. So. Just do it if you can. And so I did, I worked throughout the 11 months of treatment, but after my last surgery, it like got really real. But one thing I think that's important, Lindsay, is that as we were driving home from that colonoscopy, we pulled up to the house.

[00:27:10] Like they're standing there and we're clearly not in a place of coming home to like. Share good news. And so that night, like we told them, something's growing in mom's body that's not supposed to be growing in mom's body, and we're gonna find out what's going on. But throughout that, we pretty quickly named, named my tumor.

[00:27:56] and he did in fact. But so for our boys, we talked about Earl for our whole community. Everybody knows, Earl, what that meant and how it took on a whole different meaning. But it gave us a way to communicate with them without, you know, saying cancer, like my childhood voice teacher had just died the year before of metastatic breast cancer in her early seventies.

[00:28:49] But right now, our reality is that one in two people will hear the words someday in their life, you have cancer. So we found all kinds of different ways to meet our boys where they were at in communication with them. But yeah, four days later, without the lead time that I would suggest for others, I was done nursing for the last time in my life.

[00:29:30] They can come full circle as middle-aged adults, Older people with the great gift of getting to grow old. Yeah. If this is that message, to whoever the one person is that needs to hear it, it's like if you have that dream or that wish or that thing of, oh, I'd love to get to do this. Like, do it, find a way.

[00:30:12] And that's what you did by trade. But I think, I really think you're so right. It's like, and I've seen that, obviously, my story is a different vein, but it's like I, I still think that the things that got me into and lit me up about what I do as a career or they're still the same things along the way. And I think you're exactly right.

[00:30:54] because I look at the stark contrast of how men are not wired that way, you know, and I love 'em, but it's just different. Yes. Right. But, I also think that it's really important the way that you talked about being really open. And I, yes, everyone has a different level of being open about a diagnosis, about what have you, but I think, you know, my father, you and I talked about this.

[00:31:50] And I wanna be clear that I think the reason we didn't talk about it is 'cause I didn't know what to say. It wasn't that my parents weren't open to talking about it. It was just like me, initially a high schooler with a lymphoma, and then later in life, when he had the rectal cancer, and they're talking to him about the possibility of having a bag for the rest of his life.

[00:32:28] Years later, circled back. And. He has helped save his life. Right. So, I guess one thing that I think that no one tells you is that you can; everyone has their unique journey in talking about it. And I just think from my experience, the more open you can be about it, yes. Is kinda what you're saying.

[00:32:47] Marisa: Yes. And, there are simple things when we communicate about this, like there are really subtle, simple things that may come up or open a conversation with someone where they feel less alone. And by exchange in the giving, you are also receiving. It's like that pain that you go through, using pain for a purpose.

[00:33:33] Yeah, and here I'm walking around being like, but cancer did you, you know, what's up your butt? And all these other ways of describing it. But pun intended, when we allow ourselves even just a little crack into the vulnerability, the amount that others feel comfortable to show up truly as themselves is, it has been massive in my life to see there are grown young men who this last march.

[00:34:30] But while I was there, I met these young men in their thirties, in their forties. You know, one was there with his daughter in the hallway. Like the House of Representatives, they're confiding in me about needing to wear adult diapers and having incontinence issues that their pelvic floor was never treated and healed, and recovered from their treatment, and now they're living that way.

[00:35:20] And. So even amidst being a confident person, it's this idea that we can hold two truths at the same time. We can be like so scared, nervous, and vulnerable, and show up as a confident, alive, happy person that we are. Both of those can be true. At the very same time, I learned that when I was like, I am energetic and seemingly looking like a healthy, feeling, like a healthy person, and I have late-stage cancer.

[00:36:05] Yeah. We're going through it too at the same time.

[00:36:13] Marisa: Oh, so surreal. I mean, I think we just kind of were very brass tacks about it. And, to come back to your point about not knowing the questions to ask when you were a child, dealing with your father, being diagnosed with rectal cancer as well, like Yes.

[00:36:52] And so she was instrumental in really helping me over time and then helping Josh over time, like really meet our kids where they were. So, I don't wanna for a second that this was not something I did alone at all, as a child with a parent who has cancer. You don't know what to ask or what to say, and I actually think as we get older, we start to have this screen up where we hold back what we're gonna say.

[00:37:44] When does, when do mom and dad's voices sound different? Like what he can walk in one second, read a room. It's like he's an empath, like aan mazing talent. He's such an empath, but he's also a sponge for it. So, this like showed up in his life in a series of kind of stories and things that in movies and in the world around would end up coming to kind of haunt him in different ways.

[00:38:33] He's innately curious. He wants to know how things work. He's like my little handyman, that's like beside me working the drill and fixing, you know, and building things. So he wanted to know how my port worked. My port, we called it like my Lego piece. It rose up out of my skin, where I would get hooked up for infusions.

[00:39:17] It's lovely. But I didn't have to stay inpatient, right? So we would explain how the pump works. You would hear the sound of it kind of clicking every. 20, 30 seconds pumping this infusion in. So we explained, okay, don't pull this wire. It's hooked to mom. Like, then you've got the baby. Yeah, the baby who was nursing and now this connection that he has known since birth is without any communication, and the lead time is gone.

[00:40:08] And also now my body is physically going through major changes on no longer right. Nursing, right. There wasn't a wean-down time period. You're just, you know, off. So that was really different for him. He processes still when I get sick. Even if it's just a cold or if I'm going in for, you know, some sort of basic procedure.

[00:40:53] So it's like, come and sit next to me. I can't hold you, but you can sit on my lap. Or we just need to get set up in a different way for you to be able to still be in a different way. Oh yeah. But I think that's, to me, it's a testament through life. Still today, we'll be driving, and one of the boys from the backseat will be like, Mom, is your cancer gonna come back?

[00:41:36] And the questions don't stop. Like they, they still come up. But I think by being open through this, we've been able to be open and they've been taught from their upbringing to ask the questions on their mind, and that they know and trust we're gonna meet them where they're at. And with a level of honesty and openness and candor, even when it's hard and it hurts.

[00:42:18] Marisa: Oh my gosh. Every day, I would honestly say every day and every chemo round was different.

[00:42:59] Lindsay: Ohh no,

[00:43:18] And like, literally I was like, okay, this is Thisthis isn't gonna work out for us

[00:43:25] Marisa: Oh yeah. It was like, this is like, I'm, not, this is the end. Like this is coming, this is how it's gonna be. The other likes, and ironically,

[00:43:38] Yeah. I like, I've heard, I feel like I've heard versions of that, whether it's you're reading it or you're hearing someone's story. And I actually think that's such an eye-opening thing to hear, to see you right now and how vibrant you are, but to know that you actually had those thoughts. Oh, yeah.

[00:43:57] Marisa: For sure. You know?

[00:44:18] Like I didn't, you know, doctors told me, you're probably just gonna wanna shave your head because it's gonna look mangy and patchy and different than you're used to. Well, it didn't work that way for me. And I've even sat and thought like. I wonder if people think I'm making this up. Like I showed up, I was still working.

[00:45:04] No. Like, I've really learned how to manage these things. It's part of why, like, being with you all last weekend and up on stage, I was like, I don't know what's gonna happen with my body. Let's see how my body feels through this. And like my body cooperated. It did. But when you're in an environment with people that are there who understand colorectal cancer and the ramifications of it, if Iweres were sitting on a toilet and in the bathroom for a long period of time, it wouldn't have been surprising.

[00:45:53] But I don't know, does that make people question like, did she really go through it? Was her cancer bad enough? Was it really this or that? Like, I don't know, nobody's ever said that to my face, but you know, when you show up and look certain ways, like, my boys never had to see me with those, you know, big, glaring signs of what cancer is.

[00:46:37] but he didn't flinch. He was there. He's like, I'm in it with you. Whatever it takes to have you by my side. And like you do, and you can grow in deeper love, your marriage and relationships can take on different shapes that were unimaginable, and you can still show up through it. You can still be yourself through it.

[00:47:11] Lindsay: And a reversal is what? Sorry.

[00:47:15] So when you have an ileostomy, for some people, they have a colostomy or an ileostomy for the rest of their life, meaning, and that's a bag? It's a bag, yeah. That's like a giant, amazing sticker that sticks to your body where a part of your intestine comes through the walls of your abdominal muscles, and it's positioned there to eliminate that solid waste from your body, although it's not so solid in that form, you know, at that stage of where it's going through your gastrointestinal tract.

[00:48:08] And that experience is a wild one because, you know, our body is full of a number of sphincters that, some of which we control, some of which we don't, right? But it'sthese gates are opening and closing throughout our body. Our mouths we control, right? Like our bottom. If we're fortunate enough, we can decide when it's time to go to the bathroom.

[00:48:52] We switch back and forth and do all these different things. But throughout that time, you know, you're working on skincare, you wanna make sure that you don't have like cracks and bleeding. You wanna make sure the seal is really secure and there, so it's catching everything, and you're racing against the clock because this stoma might decide to like, be part of the journey with you at that time.

[00:49:23] Lindsay: I never even thought about that. That is what I mean.

[00:49:36] He specializes in not just minimally invasive GI surgeries, but he is perfecting minimally invasive. And so, one word of advice, if anybody's listening to this, that is going through colorectal cancer treatment, like find the best surgeon you possibly can, because it impacts your quality of life on the other side.

[00:50:24] And so with my sister as an oncology pharmacist with the care team that I had, I was really vocal about like nitty gritty things. That really helped me get through the entire full span of treatment, which was six rounds of chemo, 28 days of radiation, a seven-plus-hour-long rectal reconstruction surgery week in the hospital bag for four months, six more rounds of chemo.

[00:50:54] Lindsay: Six more rounds of chemo.

[00:51:10] Well, guess what? It was a cakewalk for him because it was less than an hour to put me back together. Yeah. For me, I'm like, okay, number one, this system hasn't been used in this way for four months. Like, it was extremely painful starting to go to the bathroom again. It was just like a lot to manage, and there are things to help manage.

[00:52:11] but it's getting to a place like we shared last weekend, like that's where revisiting those dreams, seeing what you were trying to fight for and live for, being a mom, being a part of their lives, being a wife, that's like. Aspires to be married at 17 years, married to someone like, and reach that 50th wedding anniversary. Like all of those things, this care team made it possible.

[00:52:42] Lindsay: What is the current state of your cancer? Yeah. What is your situation? Where are things right now?

[00:53:03] So it worked. You know, in my case, I am under an immense amount of surveillance, so that means I get blood work every three months. There's an amazing test that I get, which is called a Signator CT, DNA test. And it gives me great assurance in terms of going into my scans. So I get CT scans, I have MRIs, just to make sure that we don't have an, incidents of that colorectal cancer showing up in areas where it potentially metastasizes first.

[00:53:58] Yeah, I'm watching very closely. In being watched very closely. It means every time that I have results that I'm awaiting, this idea of scanxiety is very present.

[00:54:24] I either do or I don't. And anytime someone that's going through something like this is awaiting those results, it's both going in and the reminder that you've been through a lot, it's the coming out and waiting for it. It's the communication around it. I've had some very triggering experiences where I was awaiting results and my oncologist's office calls, and they're.

[00:55:11] It's so fresh. But no, the schedule was just calling to schedule a Zoom. It wasn't any of those things.

[00:55:23] Marisa: Our minds are wild, and where they can take us. Yeah. And good and bad ways

[00:55:37] Was there a moment that you had that realization and that, that, kind of manifested in, wait a minute, I want to go back to more of that.

[00:56:04] So from a professional standpoint, I'd been in a range of really unique circumstances that I'm like this never like, whoa, look at the pandemic alone. All of us were in the middle of a really unique circumstance, but it was in, it was individual for all of us. So for me, like I had the chapter of life as Marissa, the professional performer, and I closed that chapter and discovered a new one.

[00:57:05] Like, I am not a medical professional. I do not have the capacity to treat people in medical settings or nor the aspiration to do that. But if I can give voice, that allows people to be seen in their lives for the wholeness that they possess, warts, ugliness, beauty in all of it in one, awesome. Then that's my life purpose lived out.

[00:58:02] Right. We did this celebration of living earlier this summer, which was the prize I wanted through cancer treatment. I just wanted a room full of the people who got you through who love you so much. And you love so much like the people at your wedding. Yes. The people at your funeral. Yes. Like I wanted to be there physically.

[00:58:46] And it was a musical celebration. Original artists, you know, 18-piece, big band, loved ones there, sharing words. And we actually gave awards to my entire care team, the leaders of that. We gave live awards to each of them. We did it. That was a dream. I actually like. There were so many times I was like, This is never gonna happen.

[00:59:23] We've got to share this same air together. Last weekend on that stage, sharing it with you, Lindsay, that was like the 18-year-old Marissa completing a dream. Like I felt like a rockstar.

[00:59:43] Marisa: Ugh, please.

[00:59:52] And I can't believe that we were gonna have you kick it off and just, and I know that they would've mentioned something, but I was like, we have to hear your story, 'cause not only is it like. You are so incredible, and you have so much to share and to give back. And like, to your point, I think you just said that so beautifully.

[01:00:33] Marisa: By the way,

[01:00:35] Marisa: Oh, thank you. I wore that dress at my celebration of being alive. That's like, that dress screams I'm alive, doesn't it? It's like so fun. It's so bold and out there.

[01:00:47] Marisa: It was Amazing. Amazing. I love wearing that dress, and who knows if I'll get to do it again, in an environment like that, but when I was invited to sing, I was like, I know what I'm wearing.

[01:01:22] I would never tell anybody a word about your 11 months of chemo treatment. I would never tell anybody, write a song and perform it 10 days later on, like a stage in the middle of this beautiful arena for a cause that is like the most worthy, and oh, it's gonna raise $1.1 million by, you know, me being a small part of it.

[01:02:05] But I shared it with the world, and it happened with my mom, and like a day before the performance, she decided to book a flight and be there too. And all of it, like mom, it just was, yeah, it was just so simple. I was gonna be there by myself, you know? Like it was the first time I was gonna go do it without our boys, performing.

[01:02:42] This is just, yeah. There was something like magical and very, not coincidental, about the whole thing. You know.

[01:03:10] And that can be true in the very same moment that we are sharing something that we are so grateful for that couldn't be created any other way. That, you know, those people in that room wouldn't have come together at that time and place without the two of you seeing and creating that environment and using it to do good and to celebrate, you know, Lawrence and the loss of life.

[01:03:51] Lindsay: Thank you. Well, likewise. You too. And I think the work that you're doing with Be Seen is amazing.

[01:04:09] Marisa: I would just say if you have a moment of adversity, either that you're in the middle of right now or that you've experienced and it's gone, kept as a secret or it's gone, unseen or maybe underutilized in your life, I would encourage you to find that safe, spl safe space and that special person.

[01:04:54] There's also a space for you to share your story, and we're finding special ways to connect with people who've shared those stories with us. And, we would love, love, love nothing more than to hear from you. But if for nothing more than just a gentle nudge in your life, to journal about that today, to find a person to share it with in some way, just to connect back and see that self within you, this is your little reminder to do that.

[01:05:26] Marisa: You too.

[01:05:30] Marisa: Yes, I will. I will, and the same to your crew. And, so glad that. You have had me come and share this conversation, and for this cancer community that connects all of us. I really appreciate it.

[01:05:49] Marisa: We shouldn't have to do that alone.

[01:05:51] Marisa: There are better ways to do it. Like, let's get after it. Yes, let's go.

[01:06:07] And then the fact that she did keep saying that she looks like a face. You don't expect to be a face of someone with cancer. And having met her, that's kind of what I was thinking when I first met her in person. But also to understand that she's not that far off from the times when she was really questioning whether she was gonna make it, and to see.

[01:06:59] Helpful and insightful information. And if you take some time to peruse her website, you will see. It is all there and all great, crucial information for getting yourself checked, et cetera. So thank you, Marissa, for taking the time to join, and I'm grateful to her family also because she actually had a sick child at home that day.

[01:07:40] I can't wait. I'll see you next time. Thanks. Thanks so much for joining me. I can't wait to see you back here next week. Please don't forget, follow and subscribe to things no one tells you. And of course, if you're listening on Apple Podcast, don't forget to leave a five-star review because. That's really what helps people get more.