In today’s episode I have Glenn Sturm in the studio. Glenn (www.glennsturm.com) is a 17-year cancer survivor, four-time bestselling author, and a decorated military officer with over three decades of service. He’s battled incurable cancer for 16 years and does not just talk about survival. He shows us what it means to reshape our identity after everything changes.
Glenn’s transition from a top attorney and military leader to a relentless advocate for cancer patients is a story we won’t forget. His message is not about cliches; it is about practical emotional survival, including what no one tells us, how to protect our energy, and the critical role of hope. He knows what it’s like to hear “you have cancer” and what it takes to fight for joy every day.
Transcript
Sam Led (00:02)
This is the Fearless Now podcast. My name is Sam Lead and I’m an ADHD coach. Let me be your peace of mind Uber driver as we explore what is possible when we learn how to use our brilliant high-speed ADHD mind to work for us and not against us. And if you want to book a personal coaching session with me, go to samleadconsulting.com and click on the Work With Me button. My brand new book Beyond ADHD is now available on Amazon, so go out and get yourself a copy. It’s a book Filled with visceral, in-the-moment stories, research on common ADHD benchmarks, and breakthrough insights, Beyond ADHD can help you recognize the latent superpowers of your own unique ADHD mind. Go out and get Beyond ADHD today. It’s available on Amazon. Welcome to the Fearless Now podcast. My name is Sam Lead. I’m an ADHD coach and author of the book Beyond ADHD. And I, as I say in the beginning of every one of my episodes. I can’t believe I had the attention span to sit and actually write 35,000 words. But I have another brilliant author, a real beacon of light to all of us, um, Glenn Sturm, uh, who has beaten tremendous odds.
Sam Led (01:20)
He’s still with us today, a cancer survivor. He, he’s lived many lifetimes, I think, in, in, um, in his life. I’m going to read his bio, um, because what I’m saying does no justice. Um, the fact that he is here with us, um, sharing his wisdom, his story— and I’m going to shut up in about 10 seconds after I read his bio— his story and, and how, um, he, he’s a, a wonderful example of, of our inner resilience And I said to Glenn in our proverbial green room that the title of my podcast, I Feel This Now, perfectly exemplifies Glenn and his strength and seeing the innate wisdom and the innate resilience that’s within all of us that I think is the truth. And that’s where all the great sages pointed us to. Name your favorite sage, name your favorite Jesus, Buddha, you know, the Maharishi, whatever, whoever you point to, um, he is, he is pointing us to that space of inner resilience and light and, and what is possible. Um, so I’m going to read his, um, his bio. It’s a long one, but I think it deserves every word. And so I hope you guys just listen, my beautiful and loyal audience, and just take in what Glenn has accomplished and what Glenn has persevered in, not only his professional life, but also in his health, his mental health, et cetera.
Sam Led (03:03)
So here it goes. When a diagnosis shatters your sense of control, a roadmap from someone who’s been through the darkness can be a lifetime. Glenn Sturm is a 17-year survivor, 4-time bestselling author, cancer survivor, and a decorated military officer with over 3 decades of service. He’s battled incurable cancer for 16 years and does not just talk about survival. He shows us what it means to reshape our identity after everything changes. Glenn’s transition from a top attorney and military leader to relentless advocate for cancer patients is a story You won’t forget. And I agree. Glenn’s message is not about clichés. It’s about practical emotional survival, including what no one tells us, which is true. And I was listening to Glenn’s— part of Glenn’s audiobook about like the phone call I got at the airport. It’s like, by the way, come in for a biopsy. You got cancer. You know, it’s like, okay, what do I do with this now? It’s about practical emotional survival, including what no one tells us. How to protect our energy, and the critical role of hope. Glenn knows what it’s like to hear you have the cancer, the big C, whatever you want to call it, and what it takes to fight for joy every day.
Sam Led (04:25)
Glenn, thank you for coming. Thank you for being. And I’m going to hand the conch over to you because you, again, you are the beacon for all of us. And so I’m going to shut up now and let you talk.
Glenn Sturm (04:43)
Well, you brought up the call. I mean, I got a phone call. They had done biopsies in early December, and on January 21st, I’m on my way to the University of North Carolina to give a presentation, and the phone rang, and I didn’t recognize the number. I said— that was back in the day, she would answer a phone call. Like that. And I answered. It was my doctor, and she said, Glenn, we got the biopsies back. And I said, what biopsies? The ones we did for Christmas. And I said, oh, okay, whatever. And she said, they came positive back for lymphoma. You’ve got, uh, cancer. And I initially, I thought it was a joke because I, I ran triathlons and marathons And she was one of the doctors that I ran with occasionally. And I said, okay, which one of you guys put me up to this, put her up to this?
Sam Led (05:36)
Bad joke.
Glenn Sturm (05:37)
Oh, it was bad. I thought it was a bad joke, but my friends aren’t beyond doing that.
Sam Led (05:42)
Okay.
Glenn Sturm (05:43)
And she immediately reassured me that I had come back positive for a form of cancer that was probably incurable, but we needed to get on it right away. So I said, okay. So I got on the plane, I was at gate B13. What a wonderful number and letter. And so I got on a plane, went to North Carolina, got to see UNC beat Clemson again. And then flew back, got more biopsies. And 3 weeks later I was at Smilow Cancer Center, Yale University with the world’s expert. And when I walked in the place, she just looked at me and said, yeah, you got, you know, an incurable T-cell lymphoma. And so, uh, she immediately put me on chemo that day, and, uh, I was on chemo the rest of that year. And towards the end of the year, she said, Glenn, this chemo is not working. This oral agent’s not working right. We’re gonna have to put you on IV. I said, IV? Okay, that’s interesting. So what does that mean? She said, it’s 3 days every 3 weeks. You have to be in New Haven, Connecticut for the IV.
Sam Led (06:55)
And I said, good pizza.
Glenn Sturm (07:00)
Yeah. I mean, yeah, great pizza. Yeah, I’ve got a great pizza story because I’ll give you that now. Because, look, there’s always something positive in everything. And one of the great pizza places is Sally’s.
Sam Led (07:14)
My favorite. I’m from New Haven, by the way. I was born in the hospital. Yeah, well, it’s a pizza. A pizza.
Glenn Sturm (07:21)
So I was there with my oncologist one night getting pizza, and the son of the owner said, he said, where are you from? And I said, Jackson, Wyoming. And she’s— he said, really? I’m taking my best friend there. He’s got incurable cancer, and we’re trying to find the, you know, the resources to get it. I said, I said, done. He said, what do you mean? I said, military guy got Agent Orange stuff. And he said, that’s it. I said, okay, I’ve got a— I’ve got a nice house out there. You can stay in it for free, and I’m buying his plane ticket.
Sam Led (08:00)
Wow. And the greatest pizza place, the greatest hole-in-the-wall pizza place, I think, as a Connecticut— originally from, you know, Connecticut person.
Glenn Sturm (08:11)
Wow. The neatest thing that they did for me, though, was give me a key to the back door. So I never, I never had to wait in line again.
Sam Led (08:23)
Wow. I mean, like, I remember as a little kid in snowstorms waiting in line. I mean, it took like an hour and a half.
Glenn Sturm (08:30)
And my doc, my doc is like the world’s expert in T-cell lymphoma, looks at me after they gave me the key and she said, can I have that? And I said, no, it’s my key. We took care of her though because she was taking care of me. But anyway, it was kind of a funny story, but that’s kind of what happened. And what I decided immediately was I would never let cancer define me. I didn’t know how, as I said—
Sam Led (08:59)
What do you mean by that? What do you mean by define?
Glenn Sturm (09:02)
Well, people always say that they got cancer and that’s their life. And no, cancer was a— I joke about it being a tax. We don’t have state income tax in Wyoming. So I’ve got this other tax, so it consumes about 7 to 10% of my year, which is what a lot of people pay in income tax. So I wasn’t going to let it define me. It was just another hill to climb. And I continued to work out, I continued to race bicycles, I continued to do other things. And I started with a CaringBridge blog, which turned into my first book and then my second, third, and now fifth book. And it’s just cancer’s attacks. And if you let cancer define you, that will be your life. If you say it’s not going to define you, what’s going to define you is trying to make the world a better place. That changes everything for however long you get. And I’ve been very blessed. My daughter was told right after I got diagnosed that I probably, I didn’t ask, but she was told I had 2.5 years. Well, I’m now starting my 18th year of chemo.
Sam Led (10:19)
Knocking on my wood between my ears right here. You know, there’s something that happens when we stop identifying with our illness, our, our depression, our state of income. And I’m not saying that like, you know, let’s say context where, as you know firsthand, we’re going to get our knocks. I mean, you know this, you know, when I was going through a divorce or had some major life struggles, it’s very normal and very human for us to get caught up in the emotional tumult. And I love for you where, you know, it’s like everyone— if I put 5 people in the room and they got the call like you did at the airport, you’d get 5 different answers. You get 5 different people with 5 different answers, right? That’s how brilliant the human experience is, to say that none of us would respond the same way, right? Some people like you, you would be like, this has got to be a joke. You’re like, are you putting me up to this? And then someone else would break down, someone else would have nervous breakdown, and etc., etc. Um, I think for you, you just kind of like dropped at— like, it’s, it’s almost like you saw beyond the very normal human brain self-protection system’s way of going into fight or flight or, or stress mode.
Sam Led (12:03)
However, you led a career, and I was listening to your audiobook, where you were in high-stress environments. There was a lot of money on the table. You’re doing complex business deals and stuff. And it’s interesting that you had a very different experience with the cancer diagnosis. Like, it’s almost like you went into a bit— it’s like after the joke, okay, this is not a joke. You went into, you went into business mode. Like, could you— is that kind of what happened or am I misreading it?
Glenn Sturm (12:34)
Well, yeah, my whole life is we’re solving problems and, and that’s what I do. But, but I mean, one of the things that happened positively, I mean, my mom, when I was 5, gave me a camera. My dad was an Army officer in Germany. We’re getting ready to take a trip around Europe. For 30 days in a Volkswagen Bug with my two sisters and a German Shepherd in the back seat. Oh wow. And my mom gave me the camera so I wouldn’t pull my sister’s hair out. Um, well, what happened was, I mean, shortly thereafter I read that there was going to be an eclipse in Jackson, Wyoming, and so I said, okay, I’m gonna shoot the eclipse. And I got— I put together a team to do it and Then, then something happened. I’m walking to my infusion center at Smilo, and I started noticing my environment. Well, I didn’t— initially I just walked in and walked out, but I didn’t really notice it. But it turned out that I had to walk by the children’s infusion center every day I went to for chemo, and I see these parents with their babies who’ve got cancer, and the parents are just being totally— they’re totally distraught.
Glenn Sturm (13:54)
You know, I’m sitting here saying, well, you know, give me a break. I mean, I don’t have that problem. It’s just me, and I can deal with it. And so, um, one of the things I’ve done, which I’ve got one of my— there are two phrases I love, and, uh, That first one is put a smile on somebody’s face every day.
Sam Led (14:16)
Give it away. Give the joy away.
Glenn Sturm (14:19)
Say again?
Sam Led (14:20)
Give the joy away. Give it away.
Glenn Sturm (14:22)
Absolutely. If you put a smile on somebody’s face every day, you end up putting a smile on yours. And that’s the first thing. And so the second thing is we must all give up hope for a better yesterday. I can’t change yesterday, but I can change the future. And so what I do is 100% of the revenue from my astrophotography goes to Children’s Health.
Sam Led (14:45)
What’s astrophotography again?
Glenn Sturm (14:47)
Because I should Google—
Sam Led (14:49)
I would Google it. You know, you’re Google right now.
Glenn Sturm (14:53)
Yeah, I shoot eclipses all over the world.
Sam Led (14:56)
Oh wow, one’s coming up on Tuesday, right? Is it Wednesday?
Glenn Sturm (14:59)
Well, there’s a solar eclipse coming up on August 12th, and that’s what I focus on. And the next one’s in Spain on August 12th, and it’s a sunset eclipse into the Atlantic ocean. And the most spectacular things you’ll ever see. And so I’ve got a, there are 3 of us who take them. I focus on the, you know, the closeups to the, so I get the solar flares. One of my colleagues focuses with the 15mm to get the time lapses. And then another one does coronas. And we don’t, you know, all the revenue from the sales of the individual photographs is given to cancer, cancer-related causes. I mean, there’s a brain cancer thing I’m doing on April 8th or 9th that I’m going there and we’re going to do a, I think a 4-foot by 6-foot picture of a solar eclipse with the solar flares. And the other thing that’s neat about eclipses is the night of an eclipse, a solar eclipse, is a new moon. So you can see all the stars in the sky, you see the Milky Way, you see everything, and it just opens your eyes up to see more things.
Glenn Sturm (16:20)
And what I love—
Sam Led (16:21)
I didn’t interrupt you, but I love— Glenn, there’s a metaphor there for— I don’t mean to get all pithy, but I— it’s what I do. Um, eclipses are a symbol or metaphor for change, right? Um, And it’s interesting that you had such an attraction to taking pictures. And it’s beautiful, you know, that experience. It’s metaphysical. But for you, you know, in your, in your journey in life, I mean, there’s been so much, especially the last 20 years or however long, there’s, there’s been a lot of change. And it’s, and it’s interesting and the beautiful irony to that, but it’s also beautiful metaphor. Like, that’s what, you know, the human experience is not linear. It’s going to be changing. There’s going to be ups and downs and sideways. And yeah, I just love that about, you know, like, what you— what you’re doing, because astrophotography is— and what— and taking these eclipses is about the human journey. I know that sounds so like California, you know.
Glenn Sturm (17:31)
No, no, let me— let me give you a good one. Is, um, I cannot believe we got this. But I believe I’m a lawyer and did deals and stuff and hired great lawyers to work with me who are intellectual property protection. But a syzygy, all eclipses are syzygies, which is pre-celestial objects inside a gravitational field that form a straight line. All eclipses are syzygies, but not all syzygies are eclipses. And my book series on eclipses is the Scissors E-Series, and we got the federal trademark on that. Oh, I don’t know how we got that. Yeah, but if you don’t ask, you can’t get. And, and I mean, one of the— one of my other phrases I love is only you can stop you. And let me give you an anecdote on that. Um, I went to 4 high schools. I went to 12 schools growing up. Dad was an Army officer. We always, always been So we moved to Florida after my dad retired. That’s where mom and dad were going to stay after they retired. And I went to a high school and I was not really impressed with it academically. And so we had the first parent-teacher conference and I was there because I was a senior.
Glenn Sturm (18:50)
And my teacher told my parents I shouldn’t go to college, I should go to trade school. Because I wouldn’t make it through college. Two weeks later, we had what we had, an in-state SAT at the time. Uh, it was called the Florida Senior Placement Test, and I got the first perfect score in my school’s history on that test. And, um, so I had fun with that because only you can stop you. Nobody else can stop you. I was going to go to college, didn’t matter. Now, when I got the perfect score, I got my choice of schools. But the point is, is people will all the time tell you what you can and cannot do. No, you can do anything you choose to do, and you can make the world better. And we all have different ways of doing that, but only you can stop you. Well, that’s— there’s that— that phrase actually has components to it. And that’s the first side of it. But sometimes you’re the only one who’ll stop you. And you need to stop you. If that makes sense. I mean, yeah, I had to get rid of the stress in my life to cure myself or to survive.
Glenn Sturm (20:08)
I had to eliminate stress. I mean, I was in the most crazy stress environment I could imagine. I wasn’t being shot at anymore. But it was figuratively being shot at every day. So you can stop things that get in your way in life. You can change your future. And that’s what I think I’ve been okay at. I’m now an author. I mean, in third grade, my parents were told I should never get a job that involved writing. Well, we fooled them.
Sam Led (20:43)
You didn’t listen to that advice.
Glenn Sturm (20:47)
Exactly.
Sam Led (20:48)
Was it the— it was the corporate— the corporate— what do you call it?
Glenn Sturm (20:52)
Room?
Sam Led (20:54)
Ballroom? Not ballroom. The corporate was— I mean, well, no, you know, you go into an office, there’s all these people sitting around a table. What do you call that?
Glenn Sturm (21:01)
Yeah. Oh, the conference room.
Sam Led (21:03)
The corporate conference room is where you’re doing all your battles. You know, and then it doesn’t matter what it is. I, you know, I do think— go ahead. Sorry.
Glenn Sturm (21:14)
Well, the interesting thing about it was the stress was not external. I was the corporate chairman for a long time. And then on the compensation committee, we call it the executive committee. We ran the firm. That’s, that’s where the stress was.
Sam Led (21:32)
Yeah. But it— but could you argue though that, that it wasn’t our— it wasn’t your external environment, it was your thinking about your external environment and the story going on in your head about these important decisions that you have to make as a corporate officer in the C-suite? I guess it’s called the C-suite.
Glenn Sturm (21:50)
Yep. Because—
Sam Led (21:51)
and, and, and the story you’re telling yourself, the C-suite, and how you’re interpreting what your, your colleagues and your in your cohort was telling you about what was going on. And then, you know, because our brain loves to keep us really small, keep our world safe, it’s going to, you know, we have a very old operating system between our ears that’s constantly informing us about how dangerous everything is. And I always say we have an operating system that hasn’t had a software update since like the Paleolithic era. Since God, you know, we got old software. I think the TSA is, you know, it’s like I always say, we have a, you know, TSA brain, um, you know, because it’s so old. Like, you, you were dealing with old communication software, but, and, and we’re never really taught how to use emotional intelligence and understand what that means in coping and locus of control. Growing up, we’re just taught to memorize and regurgitate stuff, especially your generation. Um, you know, I think my generation too. Um, and we’re starting to kind of dip into that, but I think it’s also all related to a mechanical body that has a limit, right?
Glenn Sturm (23:04)
Yeah, there’s no doubt it has a limit. And the thing is, is when you’re being constantly attacked, and in some jobs you are, And some jobs you’re so passionate about your clients, your patients, whatever, that they’re not attacking you, you attack yourself.
Sam Led (23:29)
Yeah.
Glenn Sturm (23:30)
Because you’re not successful enough in fixing things. What happened when I got cancer, I mean, at the end of the first year I had to go on IV and I couldn’t continue to practice. And so I was pushed into retirement when I was 54. And what do you do then? And so I started shooting eclipses and then I started doing my CaringBridge posting, which turned into Cancer Set Me Free. And I had all this Army background, so I wrote a book about the military failures for the past, well, yeah, what is it now, 80 years? And then I’ve got my first novel coming out in the future. So I’ve been able to celebrate life every day.
Sam Led (24:24)
Well, that’s it. It’s almost like the big C pushed you into the next chapter.
Glenn Sturm (24:32)
That’s the reason the name of the book, Cancer Set Me Free, because I was able to let go of the other stuff. And, and just, and just celebrate.
Sam Led (24:46)
Yeah.
Glenn Sturm (24:47)
And, uh, and, you know, the only thing I, I, that’s what I always thought. But then, then when you’re an author, you become highly self-critical, um, about things. What do you do to make it better? Yeah. And, um, in my novel, I got an, I, and, um, an editorial review halfway through because I wanted to see if I was a fool for doing it. And by the way, that’s one of my two golden retrievers over my right shoulder, my left shoulder. That’s Lulu.
Sam Led (25:20)
They keep you young.
Glenn Sturm (25:22)
Yeah, they do. But the thing is, I was kind of in shock when what they said, because they said it was really an amazing book. And I, I said, nothing, that’s not— stop. I thought that was— it’s in a different room, so quickly. But what happened was, is when they said how good it was, I second-guessed them and I had to rewrite everything and make it better. Make it better. Well, okay, well, sometimes you gotta let go.
Sam Led (25:56)
Yeah.
Glenn Sturm (25:57)
Okay. And, and, you know, let other people help you. And that’s the other thing is one of my— I’ve been fortunate because my caregivers are my two Goldens, and I’ve got two wonderful daughters and a son. They live all over the country and the world, but I don’t understand how the caregivers do it because they can’t really affect what you’re going through. You know, I wonder if I’ve been better off because I haven’t had to worry about the other people so much.
Sam Led (26:34)
Well, that— I think there’s—
Glenn Sturm (26:35)
there’s—
Sam Led (26:35)
when you talk about letting go, that’s the hardest thing for a human being to do. Yes, because we have neuromachinery that doesn’t want to. You know, I have— I grew up with, uh, tropical birds, um, and a cockatoo, a Moluccan cockatoo, has 300 pounds per square inch of pressure in their beak. So when they clamp down on something or someone, it’s hard for them to let go. And I think that’s a metaphor for how we clamp down and hyperfocus. And, you know, coming back to speaking about ADHD and my journey in mental health, that’s what we do. We hyperfocus on stuff, most of the time unrelated to what we should be focusing on. But I think as a, you know, a neural machine between our ears, we have sometimes a proclivity to, to hyperfocus on things that aren’t serving a greater purpose. Like you having to rewrite your— like, you know, you beating yourself up even when an editor says, well, this book is freaking fantastic. And like, I can’t believe— like, I did the same thing, by the way. I wrote a book about ADHD called Beyond ADHD, and I I have it in my bookcase, you can’t see it.
Sam Led (27:50)
And I was just like, this thing’s a piece of crap. Come on, you jerk. It’s like when you got the cancer diagnosis and you’re like, no, come on, what are you pulling my leg? But I think that’s a very human experience, but it’s also something not to take on as truth. I mean, because we do it to ourselves in ways like we create such drama within ourselves.
Glenn Sturm (28:15)
You have said so many things that are so spot on. It’s refreshing. But let me tell you the interesting thing that’s going on in cancer care.
Sam Led (28:25)
Yeah.
Glenn Sturm (28:25)
How familiar are you with the new multi-factor or multi-professional integrated cancer diagnosis and teams, the multi-factor cancer teams that are helping people?
Sam Led (28:42)
Vaguely, but let me give you a couple stats. Yeah.
Glenn Sturm (28:47)
Okay. The first stat is if you’re in a multi-factor team, your survival rate has improved dramatically and it’s all over the board. Mine’s improved by 70%.
Sam Led (29:01)
Wow. Wow.
Glenn Sturm (29:02)
Yeah, exactly. And that’s actually the average. If you’re in a silo-based practice, it hadn’t changed at all. So now there’s only one problem with that. If you have that impact, if the multifactor or multidisciplined approach has near-perfect communication skills, because there can be up to 30 professionals involved in helping you. And by the way, I think psychiatry, psychology is the second most important part of it.
Sam Led (29:43)
Yeah.
Glenn Sturm (29:45)
And that’s one thing, but if they don’t communicate, you might die because of the failure to communicate. And that’s what happened to me last year was the docs didn’t talk to each other. And they got me into this problem and it took a while to get out of it. But you think about that. I mean, how simple would it be for people just to talk to each other? Well, it’s very—
Sam Led (30:12)
I mean, you’re doing right now. We’re just having a conversation like two old buddies talking about life and—
Glenn Sturm (30:17)
Right. Right.
Sam Led (30:19)
Yeah. Right.
Glenn Sturm (30:20)
I mean, but that’s what you do and you help to foster communication and people and understanding. Well, if you work in a silo and they don’t consider everything else, you got real problems. If you work as a team, it’s astounding what you can accomplish.
Sam Led (30:40)
And I have a tendency to— my mind goes to the first thing came into my mind is what about groupthink? You know, like I always look at history, you know, we’re taught in the history books groupthink led to the Bay of Pigs. Disaster, you know, and the Challenger disaster. I know, and I know that’s a cliché and you’re laughing because, well, let’s, you know, you’re—
Glenn Sturm (31:01)
it’s spot on, spot on, right?
Sam Led (31:03)
You know, like, uh, and I go back to the Eric Hoffer quote, you know, the learners, learners inherit the earth, and, you know, the ones that think they know everything and prepared for a world doesn’t exist. Um, and, uh, for you, it’s like the— I love that, you know, the silo approach scares me. It’s like flying a plane with just one pilot. And yes, if you’re a fighter pilot in the 1940s, a lot of times it’s solo, right? But we’re not in the 1940s.
Glenn Sturm (31:37)
Well, see, I live in Jackson, Wyoming, and we have one oncologist here. Okay.
Sam Led (31:43)
I was going to ask you that. You’re in a— you’re not in Houston, where— or—
Glenn Sturm (31:48)
no, you are. You got one oncologist. I do. I have— I put my own team together years ago because that’s where I did deals. I always had other professionals with me, so I put my own team together when I started. That may be the reason I’m alive today. Nobody will ever know. But here you don’t have those teams.
Sam Led (32:08)
Yeah.
Glenn Sturm (32:09)
And they don’t have communication protocols. The— a friend of mine’s daughter About 6 months ago, I was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic breast cancer at the age of 25.
Sam Led (32:27)
Oh my goodness.
Glenn Sturm (32:28)
And they asked if I could find the best doctors in the world for her. And so that’s how I came across all the NIH studies about this multidisciplinary approach. And so I started looking and looking and I finally found where I thought was the best hospital for them. And I mean, I could be wrong, I mean, but it was University of San Francisco Medical Center. Um, and that’s not who you would have thought about initially, but they have a multidisciplinary approach and it is extraordinary. And the results are pretty amazing because they’ve got a team and they approach it as a team. And there’s none of this not invented here syndrome problem.
Sam Led (33:09)
Um, that makes a lot of sense to me. Uh, but I also think you gotta sprinkle in some luck and also some locus of control stuff, uh, to— and most importantly, having connection to other humans in, in a healthy way while you’re going through this is critical.
Glenn Sturm (33:34)
Critical.
Sam Led (33:36)
And, you know, and I, and I don’t know what it’s like to be in your shoes, but I do have clients and I had clients that had the, you know, the big C, have had cancer. And my, you know, my uncle wasn’t blood related, but he was like an uncle, just passed away from, you know, a health, major health-related, but along the lines of cancer kind of stuff.
Glenn Sturm (34:04)
But it also—
Sam Led (34:04)
I also circle back to the understanding that we’re all one thought away from seeing what you see, Glenn, amidst the tumult of your major health crises and the— how scared you must have felt when you got the initial diagnosis. You still saw beyond that. You saw like, you’re like, you know what though, but Glenn has this intelligence within me. He’s got this wisdom within me, and that, that he’s gonna follow that. And it doesn’t come from our intellect, it comes from another place. And, and I think you’ve— there’s so much wisdom that you’ve gained from your, from your astrophotography, and, and not a like literal sense, but in a psycho-spiritual sense. I know I’m going big woo, right?
Glenn Sturm (34:59)
I’m a research hound, right? And so, you know, one of the things I did when I, you know, first diagnosis, I was trying to find people who had my disease and what, what they did. And I found a gentleman who had written a couple articles about it, and he had 6 months to live, and he— that’s all he got, right? And he said how lucky he was. It’s unlike his friends who had died in Vietnam. Or have a heart attack or a car wreck. He had 6 months to make it right. And boy, did that resonate. And, uh, I mean, you know, I’m in my 18th year. You think as long as I’ve had you try, better be getting it right.
Sam Led (35:44)
Can you get it right? I don’t think you can get it wrong either. I don’t think you can get it wrong. I think, I think that trying to get it right is made up. And, and I, and I speak that as a coach and as someone who’s had his own challenges, um, different but, but very human. I think— I don’t think you can get it wrong. I think that, um, our health is telling us something about how we treat ourselves or not. I mean, that’s what it comes for— comes up for me.
Glenn Sturm (36:16)
Well, the neatest thing for me is is my grandson.
Sam Led (36:22)
Yeah.
Glenn Sturm (36:23)
Last summer I got— I love to play golf, and before I had the spine tumor, I had a +2 handicap, which is pretty good. And I got to teach him how to play golf. And I mean, the other, the other day, my daughter and son-in-law took him to Topgolf. And he left Topgolf and he called me on my daughter’s phone and said, Grandpa, will you come see me to play Topgolf with me? Well, I mean, that gives you a reason to live. And I mean, that’s not something you think about. It just happens.
Sam Led (37:03)
You don’t need to.
Glenn Sturm (37:04)
No, it just is there.
Sam Led (37:06)
There’s the miracle right there. That’s what I’m pointing to. That’s the blessing and that’s the gift. I mean, Glenn, you have so many blessings in your life. You know, it’s like despite the, you know, the health challenges. But what I love what you said, it’s like, I’m a cancer. I’m a cancer. That’s not the label. It’s like 7% of the way, you know, it’s like this is— it’s like, yeah, income tax, you know, it’s like, you know, I’m living even though you live in a red state and we’re not going into politics, but it’s like, you know, it’s just an added tax that was thrust onto you. And sometimes it’s painful. But you got a big— you got a big Glenn Sturm cheerleading committee, including me, even though I’ve never met you in the flesh, that’s rooting for you. And you got a brilliant intellect. And you have so many gifts in your life, and we’re not going to poo-poo it, as my mother would say, or my grandma, Hungarian grandmother would say. But like, um, you’re living this miracle and this gift called life in, in such a beautiful way. And I just want to thank you for being, and I also want to thank you for, for sharing your wisdom, um, in your, in your journey, because, you know, we It’s like you’re the 4×4 in the mud, right?
Sam Led (38:35)
You know, you were in the mud and you’re spinning your tires. You’re like, how the hell do I get out of this mud and this muck? But you’re doing it and you’re doing it beautifully. And life’s messy, right? Life’s a mess. But then it isn’t. And then you go get to play Topgolf with your grandson.
Glenn Sturm (38:54)
Bingo. Let me tell you the other thing I did. That was my first book, Cancer Set Me Free. I’ve never said this publicly, but I think I’ve said it to a lot of people. Anybody who has bought my book who has a friend who gets cancer, please give them your book. And if you do that and you send me an email, I will sign a first edition of my book. I kept a bunch of them and send you the replacement.
Sam Led (39:22)
Beautiful. The link to your book will be in the, um, in the liner notes, I say, because I would say every episode is like putting it— it’s like recording an album, you know. I’m a Gen Xer, so I grew up with records. Um, and all the links to your— to get in touch with you will be in the, um, in the liner notes of the podcast episode. Um, Glenn, thank you. Thank you for being— thank you for being here. And, um, please don’t be a stranger. Stay in touch.
Glenn Sturm (39:51)
Well, and last to you is, if there’s ever anything I can do for you, please let me know. I’m sorry, what? I’m sorry, what? If there’s ever anything I can do for you, please let me know. I would consider it an honor to do that. Thank you.
Sam Led (40:07)
Touché, for sure. Thank you, Glenn.