When life throws you its toughest challenge, how do you respond? For Jonny Imerman, the answer was connection, compassion, and action.

At just 26, Jonny was living a healthy, active life when an unexpected testicular cancer diagnosis changed everything. Two years of chemotherapy and surgeries later, Jonny realized a critical gap in the cancer journey: too many patients were going through it alone. What began as a small group of survivors mentoring newly diagnosed patients became Imerman Angels, a Chicago-born nonprofit that now connects over 16,000 cancer survivors and families across 120+ countries.

In this episode, Jonny shares:

1. How his personal fight with cancer inspired a movement of one-on-one peer mentorship around the world.
2. The power of community and shared experience in healing and resilience.
3. His evolution from survivor to social entrepreneur through CLOZTALK, a mission-driven B Corp helping nearly 500 nonprofits share their identity through custom apparel.

Jonny’s story is a masterclass in transforming adversity into purpose-driven impact. You'll come away believing that even in our hardest seasons, connection can be the spark that creates something extraordinary.

Listen now to discover how one person’s pain became a global network of hope and healing.

Jonny Imerman grew up in Metro Detroit, and shortly after graduating from the University of Michigan, he was diagnosed with advanced cancer & had 2 years of chemo & surgeries.

Jonny co-founded ImermanAngels.org, a Chicago-based nonprofit that provides free one-on-one peer cancer support for thousands of cancer families each year in 120+ countries.

Jonny also co-founded, CLOZTALK.com, a B Corp that creates web stores, & designs & sells logo apparel, for nearly 500 nonprofits.

Want to know how you can begin your journey to hope and healing? Visit Elevated Life Academy for classes and free resources for personal development and healing.

Resources:

CherieLindberg.com

ElevatedLifeAcademy.com

Guest Links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/imermanangels/

00;00;02;11 - 00;00;32;01

Cherie Lindberg

Hi, I'm Cherie Lindberg and welcome to Elevated Life Academy, where we share real stories of healing, hope and transformation. Tune in to hear how everyday people are rising above and lighting the way for others. Welcome everyone to another episode of Elevated Life Academy. I am your host, Cherie Lindberg, and we have a very interesting guest. His name is John, and I will let him introduce himself.

00;00;32;03 - 00;00;45;09

Cherie Lindberg

And as you all know from listening to the podcast, we talk about stories of hope and healing. And so we're going to hear what John has to say about his journey. And just thank you so much for being here and you're willing to to share with us today, John.

00;00;45;12 - 00;01;16;26

Jonny Imerman

Well, thank you for having me. And my name is Johnny Imerman. I live in New York City, used to live in Chicago for about 15 years. And before that, I'm from Michigan. And I would say maybe the most interesting part of my journey of life when I was in my mid-twenties, I got diagnosed with pretty advanced cancer. Testicular cancer out of the blue, went to the gym every day for the eight, healthy for fine, and all of a sudden, boom, you know, you're you're looking at a doctor and he says, this is the best testicular cancer.

00;01;16;27 - 00;01;40;17

Jonny Imerman

I'm going to start chemo and surgery. So went through about two years of chemo, multiple surgeries. And, you know, once I got through it all, through all the side effects and everything at the very end of it, which is really the most important part that I feel as a group of young survivors. And I met randomly at the hospital and we wanted to do something to help other people, want to do something to make a difference.

00;01;40;17 - 00;02;00;29

Jonny Imerman

And so we all kind of agreed that the missing piece in this cancer journey was when you're starting it and going through it. None of us knew other survivors like us, like same age, same gender, same cancer, like someone that was like your twin, but just had done this before. So this group of survivors and I, we sort of we really connected and bonded.

00;02;00;29 - 00;02;30;09

Jonny Imerman

We had so much in common. We were all young and we decided to come back on Tuesday nights or Thursday nights or Saturday, and we would go mentor one on one other people who are fighting the exact same cancer that we had, or just anyone that was sick in the hospital. And so over time we created a network in Community of cancer survivors that we're lucky is the biggest out there that we know there's over six 16,000 cancer survivors and over 120 countries, and they all join.

00;02;30;12 - 00;02;53;06

Jonny Imerman

It's called Emerson Angels. They kind of see it zero crew, black on black shirts. So a little tacky say, but it's a free nonprofit. Anyone that's out there diagnosed with cancer, anyone on the planet, we can introduce you to an angel. Someone that already beat the same thing your age, your gender, beat, your cancer, your is novel. And we just we knew that there was a way to give back.

00;02;53;06 - 00;03;12;07

Jonny Imerman

And it's the epitome of teamwork. And we just created a community of survivors. And now, one at a time when people contact us, we find the survivors, the closest to them to be the mentor. So I think that's probably the most interesting part of my journey of life that I think we all try to find ways to give back and find purpose and positivity.

00;03;12;10 - 00;03;33;14

Jonny Imerman

When you go through something that's really hard and scary that you're going to die a lot of times and you realize, Hey, there's something that is good that came out of this. So that's why we created this mentor program, Got It's Free. It's a nonprofit that's based in Chicago that we help people across the world. We have 12 full time people.

00;03;33;14 - 00;03;43;25

Jonny Imerman

We raised about $3 million in years, just enough to keep us going. And this has been a journey. Tell me a little about you, too, Cherie. I don't I don't know your story as well.

00;03;44;02 - 00;04;20;10

Cherie Lindberg

Yeah. So. Well, I yeah, trauma. Let's let's start there. So a trauma history and much like yourself worked really hard to overcome everything that happened to me and wanted to make it purposeful and to be able to give back. And so this podcast is part of that as well. I want to bring out stories of hope and healing for people so that they know they're not alone, which is a very similar theme to too, what you're discussing here.

00;04;20;16 - 00;04;45;15

Cherie Lindberg

And just it's welcome to meet a fellow traveler, you know, on the path, because I think when we take something that has happened to us and we make purpose and meaning out of that, it also helps us heal. And then it also, like you said, it really helps others by us giving back and so forth. So how many how many years now has this been your organization?

00;04;45;18 - 00;05;07;15

Jonny Imerman

There's no doubt of that. And what you say is the pure truth. It's like how we feel with you're sharing the trauma by talking about it by like kind of working through it. And when you realize it, you can talk through it and share the ins and outs the better or all the answers that you've learned along the way to others that are just in the first step of the journey.

00;05;07;17 - 00;05;38;03

Jonny Imerman

I think that's the best part because you realize, okay, like, I'm going to dig through this again, I'm going to work through it, even though that might not be the reason you're working through it. But by me taking that story to share it with the next person, everybody benefits, right? Those who are starting the journey, they need to know how to get there, or someone like you and I have been through all this or something horrid, but it also lifts us to it's just feels good to be able to use it for something positive.

00;05;38;03 - 00;05;49;09

Jonny Imerman

So I'm glad you've worked through yours as well. And, you know, I think we all go for something in life, but to use it for purpose and good and help the next person I think is the true meaning of it.

00;05;49;11 - 00;06;18;09

Cherie Lindberg

You know, that's that's the definition of post-traumatic growth. So we take it and we make meaning and purpose. And it doesn't mean we're done. There's always things that are going to continue to come up and and work through, but that gives you a sense of confidence that you can get through it. And yes, listening to what you're talking about with your program, boy, what an amazing thing to have a mentor that has already gone through that could possibly share resources.

00;06;18;15 - 00;06;26;19

Cherie Lindberg

You can feel seen and heard because they'll say, yeah, I remember feeling that way, you know, to validate the whole journey as you're going through it.

00;06;26;21 - 00;06;48;21

Jonny Imerman

Exactly right. Sure. And like, gratitude, I think is the number one reason why survivor's do this, because we know some people die and any trauma, right? Some people can die and some make it through it. But if you're grateful enough that you're still alive, like I think most cancer survivors like me are, because you fly off people, you see people that make it.

00;06;48;28 - 00;07;17;16

Jonny Imerman

Unfortunately, that's the reality. And it's like serving on that gratitude or sharing your story with the next person. That's, I think, probably the only reason our idea works is survivors are grateful and they're willing to do this for no money, for no pay for glory. It's like, no, they don't get a PR out of his. It's just like they taught the people behind the scenes Sunday night at 10 p.m. or a monday afternoon at 2 p.m..

00;07;17;16 - 00;07;37;28

Jonny Imerman

Right. They're talking to people saying, I'm going to share what you need to know. This is where you're going. This is what's likely to happen when you have this chemo, eat, donate. Their energy level is probably going to be about here. I mean, all the little things that the survivors know. We can share that to get that back with the guys that are just starting the journey.

00;07;38;00 - 00;08;00;04

Jonny Imerman

And like you said, it can be any journey of trauma. We look at Hammerman Angels, very similar to something like AA. I know if it's addiction, whether it's alcohol or drugs and you're trying to break that, you get a sponsor. We just call them an angel, but it's a survivor, someone who's been there for any trauma and just knows more and has survived is doing well.

00;08;00;06 - 00;08;04;16

Jonny Imerman

I mean, that's the kind of hope I think we do. People will be getting a trauma.

00;08;04;19 - 00;08;21;06

Cherie Lindberg

Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, when you first started and shared I can only imagine what that was like when you first found out your diagnosis. And I'm just wondering, what was that like for you when you first had the diagnosis?

00;08;21;09 - 00;08;41;17

Jonny Imerman

00;08;41;19 - 00;09;01;20

Jonny Imerman

That's kind of what went through my mind is like, where is this thing? And there's this thing, I'm going to die soon. And all those questions start spiraling. And then on top of that, you know, single 26, my brain immediately went to How do I tell my family this? I've got to call my mom and my brother or go to their house.

00;09;01;20 - 00;09;22;01

Jonny Imerman

00;09;22;01 - 00;09;47;20

Jonny Imerman

00;09;47;20 - 00;09;53;19

Jonny Imerman

Like what is going on? How do we treat this? But yeah, it's a it's a mix of emotions. There's no doubt. It's pretty scary.

00;09;53;22 - 00;09;57;20

Cherie Lindberg

Of course. Of course I would I would imagine that there was some shock.

00;09;57;22 - 00;09;58;23

Jonny Imerman

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

00;09;58;25 - 00;10;04;06

Cherie Lindberg

But I recovered, especially being a 26 year old young man. It doesn't compute, you know?

00;10;04;08 - 00;10;22;11

Jonny Imerman

Yeah. You don't think you're going to get this in your twenties now and now that I've been around this for 20 bad years, you know, we see, you know, ten year old babies, sadly, whose are born with cancer in the womb. It's already there. We detect it at birth. I mean, it could be a two year old. It can be a fight or be any age.

00;10;22;14 - 00;10;41;20

Jonny Imerman

But I think younger people in general don't expect it. I was definitely one of those especially, you know, healthy person that kind of felt like I was healthy. I got to go to the gym a healthy I'll do drugs. Like, you know, you think you're the body is okay until a doctor says, no, it's not.

00;10;41;23 - 00;10;51;09

Cherie Lindberg

So it's been 25 years now. Roughly. Yeah. Of being a survivor. Yeah. Are there things that you still have to do now to monitor your health?

00;10;51;15 - 00;11;15;09

Jonny Imerman

I will go in January every once to two times a year, like every six months to a year. Get a blood test every couple of years I'll get a chest X-ray or a CAT scan, maybe every few years. And you don't see too many CAT scans because you're on too much radiation, right? I can damage other organs or cause the chemo and other problems, but sometimes you should scan just to make sure nothing's coming back.

00;11;15;11 - 00;11;38;29

Jonny Imerman

But one good thing about cancer is every day you go out cancer like you haven't had it, you're less and less likely forever to come back again. After 20, 25 years, it would be unlikely, but you never know. You can't get too confident either. You got to go to the doctor, you had to get checked. Everybody should go at least once a year, get a blood test, have the doctor look in your eyes and your ears.

00;11;38;29 - 00;11;50;28

Jonny Imerman

There's something wrong. Time matters. You just want to know earlier versus the later because the later it goes, the longer it grows, the worse the cancer is, the harder it is to get it out.

00;11;51;00 - 00;12;08;20

Cherie Lindberg

Yeah. So when you yourself and this group of people decided to create this, I can only imagine because creating a nonprofit, I've done that. That's not easy either. So how did how did that all come to be?

00;12;08;22 - 00;12;37;29

Jonny Imerman

You know, you've done it too. You get it. It takes your soul to build something, build a brand, get enough people to support its brand, or the marketing is very hard for nonprofits. You know, we just basically a small group said, this is important. You should do this. And we made a name, we built a website. I had no idea in those days what we were doing, but it was like, we know if this person has cancer, I'm this person be that the same type and you put them in a room.

00;12;37;29 - 00;12;39;15

Jonny Imerman

It's like violence or.

00;12;39;21 - 00;12;39;26

Cherie Lindberg

Own.

00;12;39;27 - 00;13;01;06

Jonny Imerman

Works, like they connect and everything in common. One's got a ton of questions. I want to get a lot of answers. Like it's just like the perfect connect. And so when things started rolling and saying, Let's just keep helping people and matching people and we'll figure out along the way how to build this. And it was like, build the plane while you're flying.

00;13;01;09 - 00;13;22;16

Jonny Imerman

And we found some great board numbers that joined the board. They met one of my best friends said, Hey, let's create a marathon. Ten hour marathon team has over 300 runners in the Chicago marathon. It's like the three biggest in Chicago. And that raised a lot of awareness for a lot of funds. We just figured it out piece by piece.

00;13;22;18 - 00;13;38;01

Jonny Imerman

But I would say you have to have a lot of faith and it's just you've done it before, too. There's no roadmap of how to build something. You just kind of keep trying things. And when they don't work, you try something else. If you believe the mission is important enough, right? You're right.

00;13;38;01 - 00;13;39;03

Cherie Lindberg

That's the anchor.

00;13;39;08 - 00;13;49;23

Jonny Imerman

These are the mission's important enough. You're going to push through. I think most people are going to find a way to persist in the mission support, and they love it above the means above to them.

00;13;49;27 - 00;14;21;28

Cherie Lindberg

What a beautiful mission. And if anything, your story really emulates what I've been trying to do with the stories of of hope and healing and to be able to get that out there. My hope that people will share this far and wide to all their family and their friends and so forth, so that the mission keeps spreading because, you know, when you get a diagnosis like that, I mean, of course your brain goes not into the to the positive, it goes it has a really strong fear response.

00;14;21;28 - 00;14;39;18

Cherie Lindberg

And to be able to have people that have already been through that they can, you know, hold your hand and support you through that. I can only imagine the stories that you've heard. And like you're saying, the magic that in the fireworks that that happen when people are helping people like that.

00;14;39;21 - 00;15;01;25

Jonny Imerman

We're here. Right? Whether you're on the planet of humans, when you're the right human and the right team in the same room at the right time, that's, I think, one of the greatest things, right. One can help the next. And a mentoring has been around forever. But when it comes to scary trauma situations like this, that's sort of connect at that point in time might be the biggest connection.

00;15;01;29 - 00;15;04;05

Jonny Imerman

You know, you can imagine for something resolutely.

00;15;04;05 - 00;15;15;18

Cherie Lindberg

Absolutely. So So tell me about the 26 year old young man. He creates this organization with a group of people. What what else have you done in your life?

00;15;15;21 - 00;15;38;23

Jonny Imerman

And we love building social impact organizations. They're hard, but we love them. And you've done it, too. Was you built on our profit and we also co-founded another It's a it's a company technically, it's called Close Talk. It's a B Corp, which is a social impact company where we make logo apparel. So it's not just like this. We only make it for nonprofits.

00;15;38;26 - 00;16;01;13

Jonny Imerman

We work with our good causes. We make their t shirts, their hats, their hoodies. We want an online digital store where people can buy a single hat or t shirt and demand demand and ship it. But our whole goal is in a cooler, more sustainable and softer so that people wear the logo and they go to the gym where they go to a sports game where they they're out with their friends or at a bar.

00;16;01;15 - 00;16;19;29

Jonny Imerman

You know, you can spread the word logo apparel. So about 500 nonprofits that we work with. And maybe one day we'll work with B Corp companies as well. But right now we're just really focused on helping nonprofits make cooler logo branded apparel. That's not just going to be tossed in the landfill, right?

00;16;19;29 - 00;16;22;00

Cherie Lindberg

But people are actually going to wear it and spurns.

00;16;22;00 - 00;16;37;19

Jonny Imerman

That's the goal. It's like, why make this stuff? It's going to be cheap and $2. And we felt that there was a problem in the nonprofit world where people just make really cheap stuff and no one really keeps it. So that's our goal. So we're getting out there stuff that people are going to wear and spread the word.

00;16;37;19 - 00;16;43;05

Jonny Imerman

And I'm sorry, I think I only have time to jump another call, but I only comment one more question and ask me, you.

00;16;43;08 - 00;16;46;14

Cherie Lindberg

Know, I mean, how long have you been doing that with with the.

00;16;46;14 - 00;17;05;18

Jonny Imerman

Course talk has been going for about seven years. My brother is my partner. He lives in Michigan and I'm here in New York. But everything that people buy and clothes talk is online. So it doesn't matter where we are, but we have a facility probably close to you. It's in Wisconsin. It's in why? What I would tell us.

00;17;05;18 - 00;17;06;19

Cherie Lindberg

Over Tosa or.

00;17;06;23 - 00;17;23;15

Jonny Imerman

Just Milwaukee or just west of Milwaukee? Absolutely. And we have a facility there where we keep the blanks. And then when somebody's for, let's say, Feeding America or bare necessities or whatever nonprofit it is, they order something and demand demand right from Wisconsin and we ship a mt..

00;17;23;15 - 00;17;46;02

Cherie Lindberg

BROWN Well, I first of all, I just want to say thank you so much for taking your time to be on the podcast. Thank you for sharing your inspiring story and the story of others who have been impacted by cancer. And we will make sure we have all your your socials and everything so that we can help spread the word and do our part to to get more out about our sons angels.

00;17;46;05 - 00;18;03;12

Jonny Imerman

Well, thank you. And I'm glad you got through your trauma. And you clearly get it. And you're helping people and sharing and you're open. Not only is it the best thing for you, as we both know, but you're helping other people. It's it's a win win. So keep doing what you're doing and I'm glad you're here. You healed and you're in a good place to thank.

00;18;03;12 - 00;18;05;07

Cherie Lindberg

You will be each other's cheerleader.

00;18;05;09 - 00;18;05;24

Jonny Imerman

You got.

00;18;05;24 - 00;18;09;25

Cherie Lindberg

It. All right. All right. Care. And thank you so much.

00;18;09;25 - 00;18;10;27

Jonny Imerman

We welcome you.

00;18;10;27 - 00;18;39;25

Cherie Lindberg

To thank you for joining us today. An Elevated Life Academy Stories of Hope and Healing. As you move back into your world, I invite you to take a breath and hold on to what ever stirred something in you from our podcast today, Healing isn't always loud, but it is always sacred. Whether today's story Open Your Heart gave you a new perspective or just reminded you that you are not alone, it matters.

00;18;39;25 - 00;18;59;27

Cherie Lindberg

And so do you. Keep choosing alignment, keep trusting your becoming. And remember, the elevated life is imperfect. It's present. If this episode resonated, share it with someone who needs a little more light. And if you're ready to go deeper in your own journey, you know where to find me. Until next time, stay rooted, stay rising and stay. You.