Amy Margolais is the founder of Sunshine Theory, an organization dedicated to helping cancer survivors transition into a life of positivity and growth. With over 25 years in corporate tech roles, Amy pivoted to focus on recovery coaching after her own battle with cancer during pregnancy in 2019. Her mission is to empower survivors to overcome trauma and embrace a life filled with purpose and positivity.
Amy shares her journey of overcoming cancer while pregnant and how it inspired her to help others. She emphasizes the importance of mindset, positivity, and being your own advocate in the recovery process. Amy's coaching focuses on post-traumatic growth, helping clients set goals and build a life they love after cancer.
Listeners interested in cancer recovery, positive mindset, and personal development will find this episode particularly inspiring. This episode provides valuable insights and practical advice for anyone facing similar challenges.
If you are recovering from anything, this recovery podcast is a daily dose of positivity. I speak on mindfulness, and share thought processes and affirmations to help with your recovery journey. Recovery is not just about substances, recovery is needed for all kinds of addictions and thoughts and ideas that you may be addicted to. This podcast is for you!
Amy Margolais is the founder of Sunshine Theory, an organization dedicated to helping cancer survivors transition into a life of positivity and growth. With over 25 years in corporate tech roles, Amy pivoted to focus on recovery coaching after her own battle with cancer during pregnancy in 2019. Her mission is to empower survivors to overcome trauma and embrace a life filled with purpose and positivity.
Amy shares her journey of overcoming cancer while pregnant and how it inspired her to help others. She emphasizes the importance of mindset, positivity, and being your own advocate in the recovery process. Amy's coaching focuses on post-traumatic growth, helping clients set goals and build a life they love after cancer.
Listeners interested in cancer recovery, positive mindset, and personal development will find this episode particularly inspiring. This episode provides valuable insights and practical advice for anyone facing similar challenges.
If you are recovering from anything, this recovery podcast is a daily dose of positivity. I speak on mindfulness, and share thought processes and affirmations to help with your recovery journey. Recovery is not just about substances, recovery is needed for all kinds of addictions and thoughts and ideas that you may be addicted to. This podcast is for you!
Good people find good people find other good people and stay connected to them. That's important Pow just like that we are here Affirmations for recovery the podcast. I'm your guy EA and I just love sitting down with people that's Building the recovery community and I just like talking about perseverance I like talking about good shit bad shit ugly shit whatever shit because that's what makes the world go around like people people's problems and The solution is what makes the world around. So today I have the pleasure and the honor sitting down with miss Amy Miss Amy. I have no idea what she does my production team. Shout out to the production team, by the way, Ocean Tree creative they found her and They thought this would be a great interview and I know them. They know what I like So tell me a little bit about you who you are. What brought you to the recovery space? Absolutely, and I would like to give a shout out to your production team as well. They're amazing. They're doing a great job and you are So energetic and I just love your vibe. So I'm really happy to be here today. Thank you so much. Thank you. Absolutely I'm honored. It's my pleasure. Okay. Yeah, so my name is Amy and Margulies and I founded the company sunshine theory after spending 25 plus years in corporate tech roles So I'm 25 plus years 25. You don't even you look like you 26 years But yeah, so I built like multiple teams and coached and mentored so many people and that was really my favorite part of my job Come 2019. I had a life pivot that I was Found out I was pregnant and a month later. I found out I had cancer Wow. Wait a minute Yeah, wait a minute. That's that's a lot of pregnancy and yes, how'd you do it? So I had to you know, I went to many many doctors I got Different opinions. I went to five hospitals to find my my smart Smart. Yeah, this is what I tell everybody I say, you know There's some people who will go and they'll get one opinion and they'll do it But I learned and I always point this out one doctor said to me and this opened up my eyes how to look at you know, how to take care of yourself and be your own advocate is Right, you know I had the baby I I had cancer So he told me my job is to keep your baby alive. Your oncologist job is to keep you alive So anything that they recommend you have to put that into my into your head, right? Cuz I was you know thinking do I keep the pregnancy do I not what do I do? And that and that's really that gray area and that's where it was my power my my choice About how we proceeded so I needed to get all the information Because I say you don't know what you need to know until you need to know it, right? Nobody knows about you know different diseases until you have it most likely truth and You know, so so I did I thought I went fact-finding. I talked to different doctors saw what you know similarities there were It's great because we did keep the pregnancy and she's a beautiful cute little four-year-old girl now And yeah, so that pivot in life is what brought me to What I do today and and help, you know went through my own recovery after chemo radiation Targeted treatments and now my mission is to help other survivors coming out of cancer Just like you said like post-traumatic growth, right? There's there's so much Everybody as we you know, yeah, and I talked a little bit earlier and you know, we were talking about how much you know Everybody has trauma in their life in some some capacity whether it's the way from childhood or Something that happened recently there's there's always something so You know Finding out the right way to work through that trauma and to grow Because what pains me the most is when I see a survivor Saying oh, I'm so tired still I'm in so much pain my doctor gave me this medicine in this medicine in this right and then the medicines keep piling up Yes And then, you know, it pains me so so I you know, I'm like it's your second chance in life create the life you want Like let's do it, right. I love your energy. I love your energy and guys Listen up to her. She's definitely she's talking a lot of great Common to me what I call common sense People in recovery learn best from people in recovery I'm saying so the fact that you survive you're a survivor man. Congratulations on that. What what you know? What was your secret sauce for surviving your cancer? How'd you get through it? something that I Mean, there are several things but I think something that is innate in me and can be taught right? It's it's a mindset switch is Come on now positivity. I'm a very positive person naturally so, you know, I kept my head down and I Knew I just had to get through it. I think also having the pregnancy. It wasn't just me fighting for me I was also fighting for the baby. Yeah So you can apply that anywhere in recovery like who else are you is in your pod? Who else is in your your love circle, right friends? Yeah, the love so so it applies to any type of recovery right like who else is there you know supporting you and that's really important and Just knowing you're fighting for something. I love it I think I think something that you said I want to definitely shine a light on because my audience For me when we think about you know, I'm learning and relearning things Sometimes you have to say it several times just to reiterate and I love I love what you said about why you do the work that you do how you got here and The fact that you do it like non-stop like this is this is your life passion You are helping people like how many years have you been doing this now? Gosh, just just strictly with the cancer stuff four years now Wow Congratulations. So what's what's your ideal client? So my ideal clients are anybody moving into survivorship You know done with treatment anybody who's had cancer That's really my specialty where I focus Yeah, so it's sadly it's a pretty big audience and your work is never done Like there's always there's there's somebody woke up today. They just got a new diagnosis Yeah of cancer and I love I love what you said about the positive Because I'm a positive person. I breed positivity That's just how I thrive. I have to be around positive energy. Otherwise, it doesn't work for me So that's so guys she just gave you some game. I hope you wrote it down Positivity. Yeah is one of the key ingredients to recovery. Yes positive energy. I say it again for the people all the way in the back positive energy guys smiling Learning a smile even that even in the most challenging moments when you smile It makes it feel that much better and something else I teach too is the is it's the mindset flip Come on, I always say like for an example Say your friend called you and said they got in a bad car accident right You could say oh, man You know is your is your car ruined? This is gonna cost so much Or do you flip the mindset and say oh my god, thank God you're okay and thank God you're alive You know, that's the mind. Yes how you look at things, right? Are you looking at the negative stuff or are you like so happy about the positive stuff? I'm telling you you have to be happy about the positive because one thing about life is gonna keep life in. Yeah How we respond is what defines us? Okay. Yeah, so I love to attack everything with a smile man. People think I'm crazy. Maybe like me Yeah, you just lost a million dollars, but you're still smiling Because at the end of the night everything happens according to the plan. I'm a strong believer in God I'm not a religious person, but I'm very spiritual. Yeah, so I do pray I pray I take everything to God So I believe in what I'm saying to God, so I believe in what he's saying back to me Yeah, so I don't really I don't I don't spend a lot of time Worrying about things that I cannot control. Yes. That's it. That's the secret to happiness That's the secret to recovery as well. Yes. Okay. There's a lot of things that's going on The world is gonna always be going on. Mm-hmm. Somebody died. Somebody didn't wake up this morning. Believe me. The world is still going on Mm-hmm. So you got to find ways to keep going on with the world. Yeah, keep aligning yourself with people like you like miss Amy She's positive ever since we've been on this ever since we've been here. I've seen nothing but a beautiful smile I feel the energy because I'm an energy person. I can feel it even through the screen. I can feel it I Feel it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I want more of it. How can I get more of it? I mean, what are you how can people find you? Like what do you do? Yes, so like I said before my I founded sunshine theory so it's Tell me wait a minute. Tell me a little bit about sunshine theory because that That sounds like a lot like what what exactly is sunshine theory? It's a one-on-one coaching I work with clients one-on-one and as I said before specializing in post-traumatic growth, so there's a there's a very easy three-step formula you know roadmap that we kind of work through and You know, I've seen so many successes and that's the passion and joy I'm sure in your work as well. Like when you see somebody coming out and they're like, oh my gosh I I'm not depressed anymore and I'm where I'm not focusing on this and I I found this job that I wanted to do But I never thought I could it's just you know, those empowering moments is what it's all about I'm telling you. That's what I do the work for. I do the work to see people smile Yeah for the money the money always finds me somehow some way God is providing them I'm thankful for that. But for me, I do this work to see people persevere to see people smile That's my role too. It's like all those years in corporate and I realized you know what this is My passion is working with people. I love seeing them grow I love seeing them be the best selves and it's not worth it if you're not living the life you want, you know So what's the typical take, you know, if I was a client, I'm new Working with you. What would you say take like a time a time timeline? Typically, I do six months. Okay, that sounds like a man because the meat of it, right? It's like the beginning part. Okay, we can talk It's like the meat of it getting deep and and really going into the trauma to help, you know move past it That's where the meat of the everything happens. And then on the back end. It's setting those goals for who you want to be Yes, and so talk to me talk to me about goal-setting because I talk about that every day How important is goal-setting to you oh, it's so key if you don't have your own roadmap and your own goals that your Reaching towards you're kind of you're kind of lost, right? You're doing this in a way one-off one-off, right? Like oh this felt good, but then it goes away right like you don't you don't remember that's a step towards your goal It's really hard without goals to move forward And I see this a lot sometimes when people come and start working with me Like they've been trying their own things here and there they you know They try a little exercise or they try this and they try that but nothing's sustainable and it's not They're just stuck. You know, it's like stuck in this like trial and error thing So that's I think goal-setting is is like number one It's number one to recovery ideal. You've got to have goals for me I teach this every day like in groups when I do groups as Like when I'm checking in with the people that I'm working with like the first thing we do I need to know a word to describe how you feel Yeah, because I believe feeling words are so important and people that need recovery They don't know how to talk about how they feel. Yeah, they usually say good. Oh, I feel good. I feel bad There's a lot of more feeling words in between that. We need to really learn how to identify right? Yeah, I need to know a goal every time I every day We should be working on goals if you're in recovery there should be a goal for you It's nothing else the goal is to stay clean for today. Yeah, that's the goal. Okay, and thirdly lastly I like to know one thing that you're thankful for Okay, cuz think gratitude is not it's so important and that's how you can keep a smile on your face It's not in your blessings. Okay, I woke up today that puts a smile on my face Yeah, just waking up every day and then for me I teach people how to follow that yellow brick road. Yeah all day Yeah, okay. That's the secret sauce. Don't don't let nobody throw you off the off the yellow brick road. Okay? Things are gonna happen. Yes bills are gonna be due Spouses are mad. The job is pissing us off, right? You still got to figure out a way to keep the smile on. Yeah, keep moving through it because you can't tell you I'm telling you it's it's possible. It works if you work it and they say it in it and it won't if you don't It's just it's really that simple I didn't really understand that until I sat back and really thought about it because yeah, I want to buy recovery I was hoping I could I was shot I was searching for a store that I could buy recovery. Yeah, right, right But I learned I had to I had to really do the work in order to seek and in order to reach recovery Mm-hmm have to work for it. There is no ideal. That's right. You have to put in the work. You have to put it Yes, I wish I could send you an invoice and just get me some recovery for like $50 an hour or something But it doesn't work like that correct Yeah, I Applaud your efforts. You're putting in the work. Where are you located? What what area the the nation are you? Yeah, so we're East Coast. I'll say we just moved a year ago from New Jersey, New York Yeah, and now we're down in South Florida Okay, so, you know talk about following You know what feels good and what's right. We I love a outdoor lifestyle and That's what we moved here for so it's been great so you said we married Okay, so my other two are 14 and 12 Wow You look amazing by the way Thank you. So sweet look amazing, by the way. Okay, you make you make you make motherhood look great. Oh you are a charmer Yes Yes, indeed no, I love women I'm a woman person I am married as well But I do like I think women make the world around I think people in recovery also make the world around So yeah, so you got you're a woman and your recovery. So You're actually making the world. You're a superhero Amazing. I believe everybody who's putting in the work Yes, I believe really the people in recovery are the strongest strongest We'll the strongest will people the strongest minded people in the most resilient. Yes Super key, so how can people follow you people want to follow you? How can you do that? Absolutely so my website is www.sunshinetheory.com Also on instagram at sunshine theory Sunshine that theory. Okay, and then no LinkedIn. No Facebook none of that stuff. I'm also on Facebook Under sunshine theory and also on LinkedIn under sunshine theory. There you guys go. How about Al have you heard of Al? Al See, I knew it. This is my perfect time. So this is a this is is one of my sponsors Owwl, it's a new app for today's working entrepreneur. It's a great app. I found my tribe on Al I'll guarantee you do it today. It's in the App Store. It's free to download. It doesn't cost a thing, but I guarantee you Your tribe lives there. So I would encourage you Download the app today. It's free. Use my referral code EA get yourself $10. I Appreciate all of you for continuously supporting me Affirmations for recovery the the podcast streaming on all platforms comes out at 1 a.m if you're in the West Coast 4 o'clock if you're in the East Coast and Just pick pick a place to where podcasts are coming and just subscribe That's important. We live in a world where Subscriptions that we live off subscriptions. We live off of feedback. So if you see affirmations for recovery anywhere say something to it Engage with it That's how I thrive. That's that's what gives me my energy and my importance So I appreciate it any final words Amy for your fans Yes, I would love to if if works for you as well. I do have a link that I can share That has you know It's free. You can download it and it has a couple it gives an overview of some of the steps To help anybody as they're moving through trauma, so I'd like to share that with with the audience Please can't where's the link it? How else I'll share it with you and we can share with me Is there a link on your actual website as well? There is yes. Okay, so say your website one more time It's sunshine theory calm. Okay guys get on there. Click the link and Get you some freeness because free is a very good price Something about free I love free at the same time. I like compensating people as well So if there's a way that you can support sunshine theory guys do that for me do that for me. It's important That's how you know, she's an entrepreneur. She's today. She's a she's the the poster for today's person in recovery I love it. She's still smiling after all the sting that she's been beat up. She's been kicked Kicked in the stomach pushed down and everything. She still look at her. She's still smiling. She's a fighter So if she can do it We can do it Until next time take care of yourself and each other Let's go. The affirmations for recovery podcast is an ocean tree creative comm production
