Stories From Real Working Caregivers:  Stacie Vanags 2/2/26

Zack: Hey, this is Zack Demopoulos.

Selma: This is Selma Archer

Zack:  And we are here on our Stories from Real Working Caregivers series. So freaking excited, as we say here in New Jersey, that we have an amazing guest with us today to tell her journey. Her name is Stacie Vanags, and I've been following Stacie for quite some time on LinkedIn. She really is truly authentic. I know that word gets used a lot, but I truly believe… and I'm going to ask her, too, what she… how she defines authenticity. But I define it as somebody who shows up pretty much the same way, whether you're in front of a camera, or whether you're talking one-to-one, or you just bump into them in the street. I feel like that's how I know Stacie. So, Stacie, thank you so much for being on our show!

Stacie: Thank you, Zack and Selma. I'm so thrilled to be here and sharing caregiver stories, so thank you for hosting this amazing, important space for these stories, and I'm really happy to be here.

Zack:  We're excited. Tell us where you're calling in from!

Stacie: I am calling in from Ojai, California, which is about 2 hours north of Los Angeles, nestled in the mountains. Ojai is known to be a very healing, kind of magical space. It's quite lovely. We've been here about 9 months now, so… We've been on the West Coast, in California for about 13 years, but originally a Wisconsin native, to be fair, so I'm used to, like, the cold weather and, you know, the Northwest and all that… and all that stuff. I'm not a… I haven't been a California gal for all that long.

Zack: So, how does a Wisconsin woman become a surfer out on the California coast.

Stacie:  Gosh, you know, oh, there's so many ways I could go with that direction. It was just something… my husband, truthfully, was like, hey, we should try surfing, let's get out in the ocean. I was like, yeah, you know what? I grew up in the Midwest. I grew up, like, in the lakes and the rivers, and water skied, and, like, we were fortunate enough to have a pool, so I learned to swim young, and I thought, like, yeah, this'll translate to the ocean. It does not translate to the ocean. Surfing is a totally different beast, and, like, you learn respect for Mother Ocean very quickly and are humbled. It was a humbling experience unlike anything I've had before with, like, the true elements of nature. It took me about 3 years to, I would say, properly learn to “surf, “and stand up consistently and know what I was doing, so it's an amazing, incredible experience….

Zack: All right, let's get into this, Stacey. Again, thank you so much for being here. I'll ask the first question … tell us about your caregiver journey, but in particular, yours is really, really a very powerful story. We'd like to hear from the moment you actually heard about your husband's diagnosis, if that is the beginning of your journey. But please, start there if you like, and tell us about your caregiver journey.

Stacie: Thanks, Zack. You know, my husband and I were just recounting this the other day, strangely, so it's interesting you should ask. We're going on almost 4 years of his stage 4 lung cancer diagnosis. He was diagnosed at age 39, a surfer, a soccer player, very athletic, very, quote-unquote healthy, and we were at our home in Ventura at that point. Ventura's about 30 minutes from where we are now. We had bought, like, a fixer-upper property and worked on it. We really had to fully gut it and redo everything. It was a pretty run-down property, but I say it's all we could afford in Southern California, so that was what was in our budget.

So, we were in our fixer-upper property, and he had had a long cough for 6 plus months, and we just chalked it up to long COVID, because we had both had COVID. We were in Hawaii, and it just… it wasn't going away. So actually, that's another interesting story I should share, but going back to your question about the moment, he had gone to the doctor, finally, to try to get his cough assessed, and we both were like, oh, what are they going to do anyway? It's a cough, you know? And I… I was doing, like, a home workout in my living room, and he came home, and I… truthfully, I didn't go with him, because I thought they'll give him an inhaler or something.

And he was like, hey, can you talk? And I was like, oh, can it wait? I'm in the middle of a really hard workout. I just want to finish this, because I know if I don't finish it, I won't do it, right? I won't come back to it. And he's like, no, it actually can't wait. And I just was like, what? I remember just kind of looking at him and seeing his expression, and just having no expression on his face, and I paused my… and I'm like, what's happening? And we had these two steps that led from our bedroom into the kitchen, and we just both sat down, and he just said they think it's lung cancer. And I just kind of laughed. I was like, no, that's not right. You know, it's obviously a lung infection or something. That's crazy. It's not lung cancer. You're 39, you've never smoked. That's a huge misnomer, as people think only people who smoke get lung cancer. Anyone with lungs can get lung cancer.

And so, that was the moment things truly started to unravel. But it's one of those things where, looking back, you do see the signs. He didn't feel well, something was off, and I remember our cat, who's no longer with us… Chad was lying on his chest … he's not one to lie around and not do things. He's a very active guy, and he was just like, I just don't feel well, and the cat was lying right on his back, essentially, where he was sick …And so fast forward … it took months to truly diagnose him, but something interesting I want to share. The tricky thing with lung cancer, and I guess this is a short PSA, … it's often not caught until it's very advanced, because the symptoms are kind of generic, a cough, fatigue, right? And people think, oh, well, whatever. What are they going to do about a cough anyway?

So one day, I remember my husband, because we both worked from home, and he was coughing constantly. But we had talked about it. And he wasn't… he hadn't gone to the doctor, and I took a pen and paper, and I tallied… And I sat in the morning from a two-hour window, and I tallied 67 coughs. And I told him, and my husband's very much a numbers guy, right? He's a stats guy, he's a numbers guy, research science, and I said, Chad, you know, I tallied how many you coughed 67 times in a span of two hours, and he was like, really? He's like, oh my gosh. And that was the moment that he took the initiative to call the doctor and try to figure out what was going on. But it took some data, right? It took something, because it had become our new normal. And I think that often happens, where things happen slowly over time, and you don't even realize it, and it's your new normal, and suddenly, you get busy, you're doing stuff, and suddenly six months have passed, or whatever. And so just… it's just a… a gentle reminder that even when subtle things feel off, it's really our body trying to communicate with us and ask us to listen and pay attention, even amongst our very busy, demanding lives. So, yeah. Thanks for that question. It's… yeah, PSA.

Zack: I mean, that's a very important one, because that is a misnomer. People all think, oh, only smokers get lung cancer, but…It's absolutely not true.

Selma:  Yeah, we all think that… What was the moment that you realized you were no longer just a wife, but now you're also a caregiver to Chad? When did you realize that?

Stacie:  Oh, that's a great question, Selma. I think it was another thing that slowly happened over time, because… It’s such a process when you're first diagnosed, and then… you have to get this test and this doctor. I think what I realized, and Chad is so, really excels cognitively; he's a reader, he's an intellect, he's a thinker. And what I… I started to realize, like, he was so overwhelmed, cognitively and emotionally, that he really wasn't able to take in the amount of information that I was used to him taking in or processing, and something switched in him, because he was just in a constant state of overwhelm and worry and anticipation.

And I think it was that moment, Selma, because I started doing the majority of the research. We went all out. I ordered every cancer book, historical cancer book under the sun, and tried to read as much as I could. I was a psychology major in college, so I think it helped a little bit, because I could read and interpret research papers, or know how to go to PubMed, or understand how to delineate between resources and things like that. But he was so overwhelmed that even I would try to…explain things or make suggestions, and he just kind of was in a haze ... I wasn't a physical caregiver for him yet at that point. It was more emotional caregiving… I don't think that's an original term, but I realized one day, there's the word caregiver, and then there are nuances. I'm not a physical caregiver. I'm not helping him get dressed or helping him to go to the bathroom, but I am very much an emotional caregiver.

I think that is when it started to switch for me, because I was so used to Chad being able to do everything, thinking cognitively, and then I saw that shut down, and I thought, I need to step up. This is an opportunity for me to step up on that front, and I reached out to lung cancer organizations, advocates… who you know, were strangers to me, who I didn't know, who either they were going through it, or their spouse was going through it, connected a lot through story, through exactly what you all are doing here, because stories are so important. People don't realize how important stories are.

I helped find different oncologists for him throughout the course of changing treatments multiple times, so… yeah, and then that shifted … then it did turn into much more physical caregiving. For a period of time, and now it's almost like the pendulum's back more to emotional caregiving, because thankfully, knock on wood, he's okay in this moment and pretty independent, so… it just… yeah, it ebbs and flows, right?

Selma: What was totally surprising to you? Particularly because you're caring for a cancer patient.

Stacie: I think it's the realization that I was trying to cure stage 4 lung cancer. I didn't realize what I was doing, but I was setting such a high expectation with all this research and nutrition… but there was a day where I think I was just in complete exhaustion …and I realized, Stacie. you're trying to cure stage 4 lung cancer. Do you think that they wouldn't have this figured out by now? You know how many researchers and really incredibly brilliant, smart, passionate people are working on this problem, right? And there was that realization, and then this surrendering to say, that's not your job here, right? …

So that was a moment, that was a big statement for me when I realized that, and I said it out loud, and I was like, oh, okay, that's what you're doing… let's be realistic about what your role is here, and what you can do, and what you… how you can contribute, and what's realistic, and I wasn't about giving up, that wasn't me giving up. It was just a reframing, and also being probably kinder to myself and expectations for what I could or should be doing.

Zack: We've interviewed a few spousal caregivers, and their stories are very powerful… I'll leave it up to you what you'd like to share, but in terms of advice to spousal caregivers, what would you say is an important piece of advice to give to a spousal caregiver as a heads up? Put this on your radar. May or may not happen to you.

Stacie:  Yeah, gosh, that is such a great question, and I… well, my brain initially went to, like, the financial…piece of it, right? Because people are impacted, and we ended up having to sell our house because of cancer. Chad couldn't work, I was carrying the workload through, a really, busy… demanding tech job, right? I was an executive in a tech role. And that was not sustainable for me either, because my stress from just the demands of that role were really difficult. So, the financial story really shifted, and we had to shift with it.

We tried to hold on to the house… It's one of those things where you hear people losing their houses to cancer, or chronic disease, or… It doesn't have to be cancer, it can be so many things, right? Challenging times that compound over time and impact families, and it was, again, kind of, I'm using this word surrender, but it was that realization that this beautiful house that we had built and renovated, and this amazing project that Chad and I worked on a lot with his dad. His dad helped us quite extensively, that we had to let that go.

And this flower farm that I had just planted that was really an important part of my healing… I had to let all that go. We try to hold onto things, right? Like, things, houses, possessions, stuff. There's some freedom in letting some of that stuff go, and I think also the biggest thing that I'm processing this, Zack, as I talk out loud about your question, it's this -- and this was really advice that was shared to us from our friend Maggie, who's also a lung cancer survivor, was that you try to hold on to your old self.

Like, specifically for the patient, and then even the care… for me, holding on to what Chad was, that version of him, knowing that was changing and shifting, and that the more you try to hold on to the old version or expectations the more difficult it is. And so just understanding that this experience will change you. It will change your relationship, and Chad and I were just talking the other day, because relationships are incredibly taxed during these experiences, and no one really talks about it.

No one talks about the challenges in marriage, or the hardship, or how hard it is to communicate, or all the things, right? And we were just talking about this, so it's really relevant. We were talking about, like, version 2.0. What is our version 2.0? Not the old version when we got married 13 years ago, but, like, today and going forward. That's financial, that's our connection to each other. how we communicate. Like, yeah, we have this history with each other, but, like, we're both different people now from this experience, and we're still very much in it… We need a new narrative. And that invitation, and making sure that we're both open to that, has been really important for us.

Zack:  Thank you, thank you for sharing that, honestly, and how's Maggie doing, by the way? That was great advice Maggie gave you.

Stacie:  I think she's well, I haven't connected with Maggie in some time.

Zack:  Shout out to Maggie.

Stacie: Yeah, shout out to Maggie, it's a good nudge for me to reach out to her and say hello.

Selma:  When all this initially started, you were working, he was working. Did you speak to your employer about what was going on? Were they supportive? What was that experience like? Can you share?

Stacie: Yeah, I'm so glad you asked that. I did, and I think this is incredibly important for caregivers and patients to be transparent about their experience. I don't know how it's typically received, but I was between two different employers. When Chad was first diagnosed, I was with a former employer, and they were wonderful. Now, to be fair, they were a caregiver company, so I could not have been more lucky to be working with them in this business, it was super ironic. It was a digital health, a digital caregiver company, and they focused mostly on childcare and elder care… But then I ended up switching companies, and my new company… they were equally very supportive. But I was really transparent, and as you can see on my social media, especially LinkedIn, because it's typically a professional platform, I'm an open book.

And I've had so many, specifically women, message me and say, I can't talk to my employer. My employer doesn't know my husband has cancer. I'm, you know, I'm just pushing… they're just, like, they have this persona, and they're showing up, and they're not just sharing any of that. And there are my… my colleagues rallied for us, like, beyond anything I could have ever expected. But they wouldn't have known, and I don't… I think we don't give people the benefit of the doubt that they want to show up, and they want to help… I don't know if I've just been lucky with, you know, my employers, or if it's because I've been so transparent. But I do know there's a lot of fear, and I think that that question you're asking is a really important one for caregivers, to try to encourage them to explore disclosing that, or finding support with their employers, and knowing that this is an important dialogue.

Selma:  What advice would you give to someone who's just beginning their care journey, and they have not shared that with their employer? How would you advise them to approach their employer with that information to start a dialogue?

Stacie:  I think understanding, one, their benefits… you don't know how long you might be out of work, or if you can work… I think one is just investing the time to go into your benefit portal. And I worked in benefits for 25 years, so I probably am a little bit more confident with this. Specifically, mental health benefits. So that was my area of expertise for all those years, but…going to understand what are my benefits? Are there caregiving benefits? These really started to surface during, like, the pandemic, where a couple of really big companies were offering caregiver benefits, and it was a big perk. It was part of the benefit perk, right? You get caregiver benefits. See what their time off is… I know it really depends on the role… for me, a lot of folks who work a 9 to 5, or they're hourly or something, that's obviously different. It's a different story, it's a different narrative, and it could be more challenging. But I think empowering them to understand their benefits. Hopefully having a decent, good relationship and communication with their manager or their leadership team.

And letting them know… what's happening, and not waiting until it's just really challenging, where they're just suddenly it's an emergency, right? I think helping people to set expectations, and it's just so many people go through things. Also, HR, human resources… It's designed to be there, to be helpful. My HR person was incredible! She was really an advocate for me. And in the state of California, I know there's different paid caregiver benefits… we do have a program that gives you X amount of weeks. It kind of depends on how long you've been with the company, and truthfully, I wasn't at the company very long. And then it'll determine, based on your salary, what you would receive. So, that process, and I think I saw that in your questions, that process was incredibly difficult. And very frustrating.

Zack Demopoulos: You got the HR background and the benefits background, right? And it still was challenging.

Stacie:  Yeah… and it wasn't anything to do with my employer or HR… it was a state-based program that's supposed to be this great thing for caregivers. And the red tape, and what I had to do to get that approved. It took me, like, 3 months to get it approved, and endless phone calls, and driving to an office that's 45 minutes away, because the phone line would just hang up on you. So the only way I could get anything done was to drive up in person, and it was tough… you could see the people in the waiting room that were equally applying for these benefits, that were truly in hardship and had family members there translating with them, because maybe they didn't speak confidently with their English, and they needed help… asking questions, or getting what they needed. So there were a lot of family members that would be supporting them, and it was tough. I think we can do better. I think we need to do better…

Zack: Again, appreciate another PSA from you, and for those of you who are viewing and listening in, please, please, please, if you think you're going to need a paid or unpaid short-term leave of absence in the future, please start thinking about it now and start going through the nuts and bolts of it, because that's a really important message, Stacie, you just shared. And California's not alone. Every state has it, has its hurdles. I know New Jersey does, so, yeah.

Zack:  So all this impacts us financially, you've already touched on that... But still, the financial impact is huge when it comes to caregiving. So maybe for those who are listening in, financially, some of us are a little embarrassed to come forward and talk about that. You did a most amazing GoFundMe page. I loved how you listed on there, this is how we'll be using these funds, by the way, which is very important, right? How did you get this idea? How did you get the courage to do it? And what would you tell somebody who's thinking about doing it?

Stacie:  Yeah, so we really waited. We had… it was kind of that pride thing that got in the way. Friends encouraged us in the early days of Chad's diagnosis to do a GoFundMe, and we were like, no, no, no. I don't know, and I… it was more his… ultimately his decision, and so we didn't do it until, really, we were in true dire straits, when he was in about 3 years in, and he…had a collapsed… fully collapsed lung, and then was hospitalized, and his oncologist was like, I'm sorry, I wish there was more we could do… So, he was in really rough shape, and… That was the moment where… he decided and was open to the GoFundMe…

And you don't ever think you're going to need community the way you do, but… so I think we were fortunate, in that respect, but we also were both, like, pretty communicative leading up to, and it kind of… we got very… we were so lucky to have such support. And the… I think the key with the GoFundMe, if anyone's listening who's considering doing it, it really is continuing to show up and share along the way like the updates, and you don't have to share everything, just what you feel comfortable. There are things that are just meant for you to be private. You don't have to disclose everything in your life. But just sharing, because people really do want to support, and the more I think the more vulnerable and transparent we are, the more it makes other people feel less alone. There's more people than we realize who are… who are carrying something or going through something, and that these stories and writing videos like you guys are doing here, really do make a difference.

Zack:  Great advice, thank you.

Selma:  So, what do you think, Stacie, has been the most critical support mechanism for you? I know your husband used meditation. Can you talk a little bit about other things that have helped you guys get through this journey? What do you turn to for support?

Stacie: …So I wish I could say, like, one thing. I think it just is being open-minded to maybe something you wouldn't expect for the first time, and it's so… it's so different for everyone. I know that for my husband, because I mentioned he's such a… he's such a thinker, he's such a deep thinker, and his brain just doesn't ever shut off… And so, the meditation practice of just trying to calm his body and taking that moment, and I've really… I can't speak for him personally, but what I have seen, really, is just that… that practice of understanding your thoughts, because there's, you know, there's a lot of things we'll hear from doctors.

… I held onto this one doctor's words, where they gave Chad six months to live, and we're on almost year four. And I realized that I was carrying his [the doctor’s] narrative and expectations that he had set for Chad, and I had to let that go. And a lot of that comes with our thoughts, right? And we don't even realize we're doing it, because… unconsciously or whatever, your thoughts are controlling so much. So I've been so much better at recognizing and having self-awareness with what I'm thinking, and catching myself, and being… not being hard on myself… my business coach recently said, because I said, I'm just so fragmented, I'm fragmented between Chad's stuff, and starting a business, and being an entrepreneur, and my dog has some health problems, and another family member I'm supporting. And she was, like, just…when you're with Chad, kind of double down on being present. When you're with your dog, double down on being present. You know, when you're… you know, the… and I… and I've thought about that, and I'm like, okay, Chad and I are on a walk, and we're just… you know, I'm just trying to be in the moment and appreciate that…

Zack:  Shout out to Chad, man, I mean, six months and four years, brother, you're… man, shout out to you, buddy. But back to you, though, caregiver, spousal. What, recently on LinkedIn, which, by the way, I'm encouraging everybody watching connect with Stacie. She has incredible content. I really… I mean that. I may say that a lot about our guests, but her content is, again, authentic. And you did a post recently, a video, it looks like you just…Got up and just started talking about, you know, the importance of self-care, and that is the most abused word out there. People don't even like it, they cringe to it. We like to maybe use rest and recovery, but you did it in a way that really made sense, because you talked from lived experiences. So what did you do for self-care? What would you recommend to caregivers who don't like to use that word?

Stacie:  Yeah, and I… I do… I felt like self-care became a task and one more thing I was supposed to be doing, so I agree with here.  Because a lot of people are like, I'm doing it all already, and now I have to do self-care… then it becomes this additional thing, right? So, rest and recover, I love that. For me, for me as a caregiver, hands down, it is connecting to nature. I like to walk, I want to be in the mountains, I go cold plunge in the creek, I love to grow flowers and garden... So, for me, as a caregiver, it's just… it's this connection to nature. I don't know, you could go birdwatching, right? Like, you can just get a pair of binoculars and nerd out and be into that whole thing. I don't know, nature is my biggest, like, another PSA is just find that connection to nature. 

Selma:  Well, if you look back four years and six months ago, as Zack said, before you started your care journey, what would you advise yourself? How would you prepare for what you've gone through?

Stacie:  Oh, gosh… I don't think there's much you can do to prepare for something like this, right? I think the biggest thing I realized was there's no playbook. There's no playbook for this, that's the biggest thing… you just kind of start scrambling, and…I don't know, that's a really hard question… One thing that's really been helpful for me is my own self-communication, and that has been something that's really evolved through this process, because in the beginning, it was all about Chad… And so, I lost that, communication with self, because I was so focused on doing things for other people, which is… that's what we do often. That's what we do as caregivers, right? And so I kind of lost my own communication with myself. My nervous system was… it was extremely frazzled. Like, if I could have opened a little door inside my body, my… my nervous system would have been like… I need help too, right? And so I started writing, I started doodling, I started sketching, I started thinking about questions, like, really simple stuff, like, Stacy, what do you need today?

… And it was really about lowering my expectations for what I thought I should be doing, or what we think we should look like or be doing actively, and just knowing we don't need to be doing any of that… I don't have energy for a hike, but today I'm going to… I'm just going to go one block, and that feels like that's enough. So it's just listening, asking ourselves questions, reigniting that communication with ourselves is… I think that… that's probably what I would encourage.

Zack: You had a great head on your shoulders. Have you always been this way?

Stacie:  Oh! I don't think so. 

Zack:  … You and I talked once about how you had to leave corporate. And it ended up being a good thing for you. And a lot of caregivers, unfortunately, involuntarily have to leave corporate, and they struggle. And I think you're encouraging to know that not only did you leave corporate, face financial woes and challenges, but now you've built something that you absolutely are thriving, the Marigold Collective. So, two-part question: What would you tell somebody who has to leave corporate?  Put that head on your shoulders, and then tell us what you're doing now, and how we can support you.

Stacie:  Oh, thanks, Zack. I will tell you the moment, because I think it's a really interesting moment and story and why and how I knew. Chad had had brain surgery. He had his largest brain tumor removed, and he was recovering at Cedars-Sinai… I was spending the night there. We were lucky to have a room that had a bed, which is rare for any of the hospitals. But I was working. And so, I had a really important executive pitch that I had to do, and I put on my blazer that morning, and Chad's coming out, you know, it was like a day after surgery, and I put on my blazer and my lipstick, and I took my laptop, and I walked down to the lobby, and I found this place where there's staff, there' nurses and doctors and people and patients and family walking in front of me, it's a very busy hospital in LA.

And I'm sitting here, with my fake background, doing this perfect pitch. And I was like, no one would ever know that I am in the lobby, and my husband had brain surgery yesterday, and I was like, this is insane!… that's the moment I was like… this is crazy! You can't keep doing this… you need to spend time with your husband… And I think that's where, truthfully, we can have that persona, we can look like we're okay, right? My… the gentleman who I was on the call with, he knew, because I was transparent, and I told him, and he was like… can you still do this? You know, do we need… and I was like, no, I can do it. So, I was transparent, and I did… it was my choice… I will tell you, it felt really difficult to leave corporate because, again, I was the only one working. The GoFundMe was incredibly helpful, so for anyone listening who donated to our GoFundMe, I can't thank you enough… And it takes courage and self-belief. I might look like I'm thriving in the Miracle Collective, it's still very much a new business endeavor. I come from a family of entrepreneurs, so I remind myself that every day. I think I've always kind of had it in my blood. 

But it's, working on self-belief every single day, that, like, I can do this, I can do this, I can do this like, one building block at a time, because I don't get that steady paycheck anymore, I don't get that reassurance, I don't get that just certain days off. When you're an entrepreneur, it's really different, and it's… it can be really difficult. So, like, daily self-belief and surrounding yourself with people who equally believe in you and see your mission…

Zack:  What exactly is your business?...

Stacie:  The Marigold Collective, it's essentially a container for women to show up, as I was talking about that communication with self. It's a community, it's an online community… where you can write, doodle, sketch move your way forward through whatever life experiences you're moving through. So we show up and we write together… twice a month, we have other speakers, kind of like a live podcast, session as well, where women tell their stories, all kinds of different things they've moved through.

 … It's not about being a writer, it's not about being a published author, or writing a book, or having an outcome. It's really about… it's kind of like the prerequisite to that. It's, again, reconnecting with self when we've become so disconnected, and learning that language of communication again. And I also do workshops in corporate to work with employees with similar messaging. And I tend to bring in flowers and  some nature as a botanical experience to reconnect folks with nature, but also with… through writing and journaling and reconnecting with themselves and strengthening communication in the workplace, so…Yeah, it's been a lot of fun…

Selma: …I just wondered if you're just working with women that are caregivers, or open to a broad spectrum of women.

Stacie:  It's open to a broad spectrum. Really, it's been all ages, stages of life, young moms, retired women with grandchildren, you know, all different, multi-generational, which I've really appreciated, because there's just so many different experiences and stories that come from that. So, it's a pretty broad brush, yeah.

Selma:  So how can we connect with you, and find out more about the work you do, and your services?

Stacie:  I think LinkedIn is an awesome place to start. So I'm just Stacie Vanags on LinkedIn, and my business website, but it will all link in the bio there on LinkedIn, is: Hello Marigold Collective. So, on Instagram and my website, Hello Marigold Collective. And marigolds, by the way, if you don't know, marigolds are a flower that garners plant in their gardens to keep pests away, and they help other flowers and other vegetables thrive... You all are marigolds, so thank you for that…

Zack:  … Stacie, like I said, we could have spent another hour with you. I know we had a ton of questions for you, and thank you so much for sharing your story. 

Stacie:  Oh, thank you both.

Selma:  Today's great! 

Stacie: … It was a beautiful hour together, and I, likewise, I feel like we could just chat all afternoon, so the hour went way too fast, but thank you for all of the work you're doing for this community, for these voices that are often quiet, silence, this is an incredibly important platform for caregivers, and… making sure people know that they're not alone. And like I've said a few times here, stories really matter, so thank you for the work you both are doing. 

Zack:  Oh, thank you for that. We will put all your links, in our show notes, so thank you so much…

With 25 years in corporate mental health, Stacie Vanags understands what it means to hold a lot, both at work and at home. She represents Identify Diversification, embracing the permission to be several things at once: a flower farmer, a writing workshop facilitator, and a keynote speaker for organizations exploring mental health, caregiving, and creativity as tools for resilience. Stacie is a caregiver advocate, a dog mom, and a deep lover of nature who believes language can help us make sense of what we’re carrying and move forward with more clarity and care. Connect with Stacie on LinkedIn. Learn more about her The Marigold Collective.