The greatest thing about achieving a goal is realizing who you had to become to get there.

This week as I celebrate releasing the 200^th episode of the Breast Cancer Recovery Coach podcast, I reflect on how much I, my business, and this community have evolved.

In this episode, I’ll share the most important things I’ve learned as I’ve navigated breast cancer, built a business, and become the coach and the person I am today.

Maybe, more importantly, I’ve come to embrace the knowledge that life is in a constant flow, and we are always living in transformation.

When we step into the field of transformation and allow ourselves to be in the evolution of life, we open ourselves to growth and drop the burden of resistance.

Join me in this episode as step into the field of transformation and celebrate this landmark episode.

Read the full transcript below:

Laura Lummer 0:00
You're listening to the breast cancer recovery coach podcast. I'm your host, Laura Lummer. I'm a Certified Life health and nutrition coach, and I'm also a breast cancer thriver. If you're trying to figure out how to move past the trauma and the emotional toll of breast cancer, you've come to the right place. In this podcast, I will give you the tools and the insights to create a life that's even better than before breast cancer. Well, let's get started. Hello, hello, welcome to episode 200 of the breast cancer recovery coach podcast. Cue the confetti imagine the balloons falling. I wish I had like a automatic cue the confetti, confetti falling all around sparkle confetti, of course. And I wore my sparkle today to celebrate this 200th episode of the breast cancer recovery coach Podcast. I'm so excited to be here. And man do I mean that when I say it, I am back from the land of COVID not a place I want to visit again, ever, ever. That was really not fun. And I'm just so happy to be here and be celebrating everything that episode 200 means to me. And you know, I'm going to share that with you. I want to start off by saying so much. Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you so much for the tons of love, which is that I got in for all the support and the accolades for episode 199 that my sister was kind enough to do for me. Thank you. So many of you reached out and gave such great feedback. And we're so complimentary to her. And I really appreciate that. And I know she really appreciates that. And I appreciate her and the fact that, you know, she she was there for me. And she did exactly what needed to be done for episode 199. I thought it was absolutely beautiful. I as a sibling and the older sibling, I do have to set the record straight. One, I have learned over the course of my life to walk with my sparkly shoes without walking into walls. I do stare at them still. But I'm a little more spatially adapted, I guess. And to she did say I remember in the show that I would be listening, and then I would edit and I didn't edit anything, I let it be exactly what she had to say. And all I did was have the the beginning the intro and the ending of music added on to it. And I think she did a spectacular job. And I hope that that it was meaningful for a lot of you who listened in and heard just the perspective. You know, I mean, she she's the loved one of someone with cancer, but she is also a survivor of cancer. And that means a lot. You know, a lot of times as we go through this journey, and we think about all that we're going through, sometimes we can forget. And I think a lot of times the people who love us just kind of stay under the radar with a lot that they're going through. But it can be really traumatic and take a lot of energy. And a lot of thought, you know, a lot of thought goes into what we're going through. When things happen for us even long after we have had cancer, there's just some little scar in Ayurveda and yoga, it's called samskaara, which I equate to a trauma, there's this little scar somewhere back there in your brain that remembers how frightening someone's diagnosis was. And if you're going through treatment, how frightening it is. And it stays with us for a long time and the ones that we love. So I just want to give another shout out to all those loved ones, including my sister, thank you so much for being there. And being a part of this journey. And you know, I want to say that with episode 200 That's really what this is about. It is about the journey it for me it's about the journey of what this business the breast cancer recovery coach is and what it's meant in my life. It's about who I've become as a coach over 200 episodes, and it's who I become as a human being and what my life has become over 200 episodes so they're kind of like these just mile markers. And you know, the big round ones are ones to celebrate for some reason. It's like the big five oh, and the big six oh birthday, and you get to Episode 200 And it's more than Just saying, I have 200 episodes behind me, it's really about something so much more powerful, because in that time since March of 2017, and if you're doing the math, you'd be like, Hmm, that should be more than 200 episodes. And you're right. It should be if I did them every week, from the time I actually started, I'm going to talk about that, because I did not. But since that time, I really sat and gave some thought to what the breast cancer recovery coach podcast, and coaching business has meant to me. And really how it's mirrored just the mile markers in my life, how this podcast has evolved with me. And just some of the phases that I've gone through. And I think that we all go through in healing, during treatment, after treatment, long after treatment, with me with a recurrence, and everything that it's meant. And I look back, and I really see that it's kind of just the spirit of this thing, right? It's like, there's me, and there's the breast cancer recovery coach. And, I mean, I create it, but it has a spirit that's kind of a partner with me, a partner with me as I go through this process of creation. And I heard someone mentioned that I say it in this way, because I heard someone recently on a podcast, and she was talking about the spirit of her business. And when she did, it's one of those things, you know that your heart just kind of goes, Oh, wait, yes, yes, that's it. That makes sense. To me, it is the Spirit. That's what I feel.

Laura Lummer 6:56
And I wanted to share with you today, three things that I think are very meaningful. I know they're very meaningful to me. But they're a very poor, important part of this evolution of this podcast, and of my life as I look back, and I see how this podcast has been just a big part of everything that I've done as a coach and as a person. And I think back to when I first started it, and some of the things that we go through, and let's kind of like the phases we go through in life. And as I reflect back, and I look back 200 episodes ago, and I remember just thinking like, how do I do this? How am I going to do this? The how is so big? And I believe that that's a very big deal for us in life as well. How, how am I supposed to do it? How am I supposed to be? How am I supposed to handle this? We ask how a lot. And it's okay, because we don't know how, when you get a new diagnosis of breast cancer, you don't know how to do breast cancer. And you ask a lot how, tell me how, tell me what I'm supposed to do. And then you hear the how from a lot of people, and then some of those houses become overwhelming. And you think which How is best for me? How am I supposed to do this? And it can be very overwhelming. And very frightening because we worry that we'll pick the wrong how we want to do the right thing. We don't want to make the wrong decision. We get very, very caught up in the how. And I know for me when I first started this podcast and my business as a coach, that was a big deal. How do you do this? How do you become a podcaster? How do you become an online coach? Tell me how. And so I listened to a lot of people. And I got a lot of directions from people who were already doing this who had their own how. And I'd follow them sometimes to a certain point. And I think you know, the way you're doing it was awesome. And I learned so much, but it's not working for me anymore. Because there's a time when we need to know how. And there's a time when we need to look within us and check in and listen and just listen to ourselves and see how we feel. And ask ourselves, is this right for me? I've taken all the houses I've heard all the house from as many people as I need to hear them from. Now let me sit with all of these. And let me see which ones work for me. And I think that if I could give any newly diagnosed person, the very best advice from everything I've learned from breast cancer, and from all the people that I've coached and everything that I've seen is when you get that diagnosis, it's okay ask how do you do it? How do I do it? What are the options, but it's also very important to stop. And it doesn't seem like you can stop at first, because so much is happening. So friggin fast, right? You need to make a decision. Now you hear from the doctors and the gods, it's got to move quickly, you need to make a decision. And so your brain is in, move, move, move, decide, decide, decide, but you get to be in control of that. And as frightening as it may seem, collect all your house, and then stop. Even if it's just for a whole day to days, stop. Take a breath, create some space for yourself. And then listen, just listen to you. What do I need? is the most important question. And it's going to come up over and over again. What does this mean to me? And I can remember in the beginning of my business, being so concerned that I got the house the right way, how do I do it? What do I say? Did I do enough research? And there's so much fear? What if someone judges me? What if I say the wrong thing? What if I look stupid? You know, when we don't know how to do something, we let our brain go into all of the worst case scenarios? And what happens if it goes wrong? And so I think that in the beginning of anything, any new experience when you don't know how is the time to stop? And check in with yourself? And don't ask how? Because you don't know. We never know how, until we get there. I never knew how I would record 200 episodes of a podcast. But now I'm here. And now I can stop. And now I can look back and I can say so that's how you do it. So that's how this gets done. That's how all the people that I listened to in the beginning and thought, wow, how do I get there. That's how they got there.

Laura Lummer 12:09
Now I know. And that works for business. And that works for life. You're newly diagnosed, or you're just coming out of treatment, and you're looking at people and you're borrowing hope they have a future. They're there, they have a life, they seem happy. And so you see that it can be done. But you stay in your own space, you create space for yourself, and you stay in that place where you say, Okay, what do I need to do today? To get there? Because the how is going to figure itself out. And I think that's one of the most important things that I have learned that it's not about the how, but about the why. And when we really connect with the why, why do I want this? Why did I want this business? Why did I want this podcast because there was something literally just burning in my heart a passion in my heart that said, this is a space where women need more support. And I can remember looking for other people who were doing what I was doing and checking things out. And it just wasn't out there. There just wasn't the kind of support that I was offering. And you know, here I am coming off of I think it was a week ago, two weeks ago, the Met Reclaim Your Life After breast cancer Summit. And that was the second summit that I've been in. And there are so many people who reach out to me now and say I want to be a breast cancer recovery coach, I want to help people in this space. And it was the why that is everything in making sure that I kept showing up. And it's so interesting, because as I said a minute ago, I should have over 260 episodes if I had done this show every week from the time I started, but I didn't because it was scary. And I didn't know how. And so at first I said okay, I think the most I can commit to is every other week. And I started off doing it every other week, it wasn't even called the breast cancer recovery coach at that time it was called let your lifestyle be your medicine. And I didn't even know how to get my message out there that I wanted to get out. Right. So it's just fantastic to look back and see the evolution and the transformation. And I think letting go of the how and just being in the why why do I want to do this? What do I want to convey? Why is it important to me translates all across our life. And when you're going through breast cancer treatment, holding on to that why holding on to what is important and to why you want to be there is everything. And that's where we find so much strength. And I think moving from that place and being in the why as we come out of breast cancer treatment suddenly there's this new space and this new space is now what now? What now? What do I want my life to look like now? And if we allow ourself space there in that time, if we allow ourselves space to say, Wow, this is something really big, that's just happened in my life, I've been through a diagnosis and treatment of cancer, that's a really big deal. And we can let go of the distance stay as normal as possible, get back to normal, don't miss a day of work, make sure everybody thinks that you're a pink warrior, if we can drop that, and just give ourselves a little bit of space, and we come up for air. And then we can say, Wow, what now? What does my life look like now? What do I want it to become? And I feel like when I went through that phase, that that translated into my business, because the doing the how, and following the steps and following the formula that I was taught to understand how to get an online business, how to become a coach, suddenly, there was something else in me that was like, let's get the y out there, let's really dig into what's important. Let's not worry about what other people might think about what you put out there. What other of course, I want you to like what I put out there, because how's it going to help you if you don't like it and engage in it, right. But for me, as a podcaster, as a business owner, I really had to get in touch with in my heart and in my soul. Who am I, I'm the person who's coaching other people to move through their life and helping them have more awareness of their thoughts, more awareness of what they're creating in their life. And I want to do that same thing, I have to be like a step or two ahead, because I'm coaching others. So it got to this point, where I feel like, wow, it's just growing, this spirit of the business is just in me. And it's just growing. And it's just changing. And I'm evolving, one day at a time, one week at a time, one, publishing one piece of content at a time into understanding my part, in this business, in the spirit of this business and my life. One day at a time in my life, what do I want my life to look like? What is the purpose for it. And I feel like that was so entwined, so interconnected through that period. And basically, when I was doing revivify, my first really live 10 week program where I took small groups of women through really connecting to themselves and connecting to each other. And that was everything that was such a pivotal, transformational point for me, as a coach. And as a person, because boy being in their hands on meeting a couple times a week live with these groups of women, it was just so powerful. And I had to really do my work ahead of time to show up, show up for them, and show up as the coach that they could trust. And in doing that, I learned so much about me. So I really feel like that piece of my business that started happening in in 2020, was just this amazing period of growth and change. Because I allowed a space for it. I had left the other coaches I was working with. And I thought you know what, there's something in me, you taught me the how I'm done with the how and now I need to listen, and I need to let myself become who I am. And that was that space. And I feel like it's so mirrors what we go through in breast cancer when you come out of treatment. It's an uncomfortable space. And it's a chance if you give yourself the space to become truly who you are. To move past that. What do people expect of me? How am I supposed to be? How am I supposed to add? What am I supposed to do? What do I want them to think? And come back to? Who am I? And who do I want to be? And what do I want this life to look like? It's such a powerful place. And that's why I called this episode, the field of transformation. Because we are just living in this constant, this perpetual state of transformation if we leave the space for it, if we don't tell ourselves, we have to be a certain way. And we have to follow a certain formula. And you know, there's life formulas out there. And there's expectations and things for good reasons. You know, this gives you financial security or that gives you job security. But there's also something inside of you. And I see this in my clients all the time. There's just something in them yearning yearning so badly for something more. And if you allow yourself the space to explore that. I think it's a magical place to be. And again, when you feel that yearning for something different doesn't be How am I get, it doesn't have to be how am I going to get there? How is this going to be different? It just has to be I feel it And what do I need today to move closer to it? One step at a time, when you get there, you'll look back and go, Wow, I had no idea that that's what I was going to have to go through to get here. I had no idea, you know that there was going to come a point where I would say out loud on the podcast, okay, now, this is going to be a weekly show. And it was scary as hell to say that make that commitment. But I felt this was what I needed to do to take the next step and move forward in the way I wanted to move forward. And sometimes I think that's what happens in life, we know we need to take the next step. And it's big, and it's scary, and you don't know how, and that's okay. So rule number one, don't worry about the how, I think that's one of the most important lessons I've learned. Because of Rule number two, leave and create space for yourself, to grow into you to become who you are, drop all of the other things that are the pretenses that you believe you have to show up for, and create space for yourself to become who you actually are. And from that space, comm such a sense of confidence, such a sense of personal power. And honestly, I would relate that to the part of my life where I was diagnosed with a recurrence with stage four metastatic breast cancer. And I stepped into that space in my life. And in my business, coming from this place of competence coming from this place of having really worked through Who am I how do I speak? And where's my voice? And what do I want my message in life to be. And so when I got that diagnosis, I was in a great place in my business, right, I had done re vivify three different times, I had just opened the last program. I was loving it, I was like, this is becoming everything that I dreamed up. So happy, so excited about it. And then boom, I got the diagnosis. And I had to really think about how I want this to look, not how I want it to work, not how it's going to end up. But what do I want this to look like? Can I still stay connected to my wife to what's important for me every single day in my life? Can I believe in that? And can I just allow myself to be in the flow of this space that I've created? Can I allow myself to just share what I'm going through, share what's on my mind, let go of anything outside of just be real and be in life and be in the flow of stepping into it every single day. And changing all along the way. When I got my diagnosis, I didn't stop and go, No, this isn't the way it's supposed to work. This is bullshit. Look at what I did look at what I've done, look at how hard I worked. Where's this coming from? Because by that time, I already realized this is just life. It's just life. And it's not like, oh, every time something goes good, something else comes up, stuff comes up constantly. But again, when you create that space for yourself to grow into, you also create a space for life to just be if you can let yourself just be in it and feel it 100% Without having to dictate how you have to be how someone else has to be what everything should be, and just be in it. And just be in the flow. I don't know, you just see your way. You know, you start to see the way through the things that are challenging, by holding on to this beautiful space you've created for yourself to live in with complete authenticity. And as I progress through these episodes of the breast cancer recovery coach, it's funny because I don't go back and listen to the early episodes. And I've heard that from so many other podcasters because I had no idea what I was doing when I first started. But it's almost like, you know, I'm at this stage of being the grown up in my business. And if you look back at when you were a toddler or a baby in the business and the things you said and dead you probably cringe about it right? And it's like that too. Sometimes with life, don't we look back at our life and say, Wow, I didn't even know that. I didn't realize I could have known that I didn't realize I could have been different than but if we allow ourselves to be in the unknown and to witness and to say life is unknown every single day but the unknown is full of transformation. And transformation can be beautiful. It is just the evolution of who we are. And if we can be in it without judgment. This is bad. This sucks and just learn from it. It is amazing how much our life can expand and grow. When I think of out just last week getting COVID I had a big promotion a really special thing I wanted to launch this week with the 200th episode. And there was no way I could finish it. I mean, I did not have that I could barely lift my head up off the pillow. But I didn't lay in bed cursing myself and cursing COVID I laid in my bed just going, this is what I can do right now, I don't know why my life is here right now. But I'm going to be in this space. And I'm going to treat myself as good as possible in this space, I am going to rest, I'm going to drink lots of water, I'm gonna eat a ton of watermelon for some reason, I wanted a ton of watermelon while I had COVID. And my sweet husband kept going out and getting me big things of watermelon. And it was just like, I'm not going to worry, you know, I've stepped into this space, and whatever I have coming up is going to come up. And whatever I need to create in my business will get created in its time. And I believe that with life as well. And so I think that over these 200 episodes over the so let's see, I started the podcast in 2017. So we're looking at five years. And this July, July 11 was 11 years that I was originally diagnosed with breast cancer. And I look back at all of it. And then I'm so glad that I was led down this path of creating something from my breast cancer experience,

Laura Lummer 26:30
this path of noticing a need and then growing into what that need was. So yeah, I'm super proud to be at episode 200. Because to me, it shows that, you know, that was a big commitment. And it takes a lot of time. And it takes a lot of intention. But I feel like I've grown up in that space of time, I feel like I've grown more into me. And I love who I am now and I love who I've become. And I'm so excited to see what more I will become who more I will become, what else will happen for me in this life, how much more this podcast will be able to serve other women how much more I'll be able to serve other women going forward. And so I take this moment to pause and just look back over these 200 episodes and look at where this show has come look at where I have come look at all the amazing souls, the amazing women who have come into my life as a result of this. And just be in this really beautiful happy space of transformation and just be completely embracing the fact that every day I'm still in the transformation, it's never going to be done. I'm never going to arrive. And I'm 100% okay with that. Because the evolution of who I am and who this show is and what this show is and the spirit of this show, and the spirit of my coaching business is such a joy to witness and experience. And I think that's the same way with life. So I hope that from anything you get from this episode, it's no matter where you are, no matter where you are in treatment, no matter how far out no matter where you are in life, no matter what is going on. If you can drop the resistance, don't worry about how it's gonna get better. Leave this space for yourself to just be in and embrace the fact that life is just a constant flow of transformation, and evolution. And I think that when you can get to that space, you invite a tremendous amount of peace and a tremendous amount of joy in your heart. So I just want to close the show by saying thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much to everyone who's listening to this, this show wouldn't be here without you. So thank you for supporting the breast cancer recovery coach podcast. Thank you for being a part of my dream coming true and my evolution as a human being. We truly are all connected. And if you like what you hear in this podcast, please take the time to give it a rating or review and then it will help make it that much easier for someone else who's out there who may need to hear what's in the show to find it as well and our community will continue to grow and to support each other. All right, sending so much love out to this amazing, amazing audience of women and so much gratitude. And thank you for coming along with me to Episode 200 Take care I'll talk to you again next week.

Speaker 2 29:47
Courage to the test laid all your doubts. Your mind is clearer than before. Your heart is full and wanting more Your futures Give it all you know you've been waiting on