We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Stephanie Brown a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Stephanie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’re complete cheeseballs and so we love asking folks to share the most heartwarming moment from their career – do you have a touching moment you can share with us?

I am a Healthcare Recruiter. When I place people with fulfilling new jobs, their following chapters, it can be quite overwhelming and I tend to hold back those really big ugly cries. Being that I am the mother of a 13-year cancer survivor, being in this industry makes me feel as if I am giving back to everyone that helped save my Sam. It’s certainly a strange and beautiful feeling of life coming back around, full circle I guess. I have also met quite a few people along my journey that have battled the same past as myself with their children. Some not having their children today and the one thing we all have in common is how we look at life just a squeeze differently than we would have if we didn’t go through the pain of having a child with cancer. It’s like you go for a walk and stop and say, “Hey, that’s a cool flower! Look at that horse!” I guess you really learn to appreciate everything for what it is in the moment you are experiencing it or something. My life is full of gratitude, positivity, and a little PTSD.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I worked as a Sales Manager in the cosmetics industry for years. It’s weird to think back to September 2007, when I was on maternity leave waiting for my second daughter (Sayler) to be born. Soon my almost two-year-old started acting really lethargic and weird. I remember Sam was taking a nap and Jenny McCarthy was on Oprah talking about her ill son. I sat down at my old MAC computer and started googling “Signs of a serious illness in children.” Nothing that said “cancer” came up. I then called my pediatrician whom I just love and they suggested blood work. It was September 19, 2007, and my whole life as I knew and was excited for it to be had just stopped. It was so strange seeing the freeway outside Providence Hospital here in Spokane because all I saw were people driving and going about their days and mine, had come to a screeching halt. I was so scared. People forgot to tell me due to the panic of Sam being diagnosed with high-risk leukemia that kids actually can survive this stuff. It was probably a good 9 hours of just thinking my child was going to die before a social worker stopped me in the hallway and hugged me and said, “kids beat this stuff.” Sam’s doctor sat me down and told me that it was best to remain as positive as possible because it’s a proven fact that children have a better outcome when the parents remain positive. Perhaps it was that moment I knew I just had to trust in all I could not see. I had just lost my grandparents over in Anacortes, WA and I pictured them there watching over us all. I still have an overwhelming sense that they left to be there for us in a way they couldn’t have been in the physical world, we were so close and it would have just been so hard on them. The feeling would bring me to my knees at times.

Sayler was born in the wee hours of the morning and I was supposed to deliver at another hospital but due to the fact that Sam had been admitted to the pediatrics oncology unit at Sacred Heart, I was wheeled down to the Labor and Delivery unit the moment a grandma was able to get there and be with Sam. I had a stem-cell transplant kit sitting on my lap and was dilated to an 8 upon being wheeled in, everything was happening so fast. Anyways, the doctor came in screaming “she was NOT supposed to deliver here, what is she doing here? It’s the middle of the night and I had to drive this far?” Nurses were in the corner and one is looking at him taking her finger across her neck, he then yells, “I am going to go out into the hallway to read her file!” They continue to look like the “eyeball emoji,” while one runs after him out the door. He then comes back in and kneels down on the side of my bed and simply apologizes. I will never forget that. I am sure it was a life-changing moment for him.

Sayler was born at 4 am and Sam’s surgery was scheduled at 8:00 am two floors down. I didn’t sleep the night before so I had a baby, ate half a sandwich, and then walked myself down to ped’s surgery center. Not being able to return to hold Sayler for a bit in the afternoon and then again that evening. Adrenaline is a powerful thing.

Sam’s treatment lasted 3.5 years and during that time I lost my job as a Sales Manager (FMLA was not regulated back then) but continued to work part-time because we couldn’t afford for me not to. For 3 years, I threw on a smile, spent many nights in the hospital, went in for outpatient treatment, and then straight to work while raising two hilarious daughters in the midst of a storm, never did I take my sneakers off. It was weird being asked the simple question “how are you?” whether that be at the grocery store, or since my job was doing makeup, I was certainly very customer-facing, and many days I was dying inside and it became such a hard question to answer.

My favorite artist Dermot Kennedy has a new album out, it’s called “Sonder” and it brings me right back to this place. Sonder means, “The profound feeling of realizing that everyone, including strangers passing in the street, has a life as complex as one’s own.” I started looking at people differently and feeling them differently. If people were really crabby it told me they were sad because they too did not know how to answer the simple question “Hi, how are you?” It’s a mind-blowing feeling not being able to respond or if you do it’s like “How much time do you have?” One thing I have taken from this and did the first time I didn’t know how to respond to such a simple question was perhaps also that quote my mom taught me as a child, “People need loving the most when they deserve it the least.” I live my days like this, you never know what someone is going through, we all simply need to be kind and take nothing personally. I have developed a new silly motto that I tell people, “be more like Snoop Dogg.” He seems to just be happy, take nothing personally, and live for the good moments. Laughter is truly the best remedy for pain, so surround yourself with people that lift you up. Life is too short not to be celebrated.

Watching a community come forward, and strangers from all over the world with one common goal, which was hope for a beautiful child was certainly so overwhelming and such a beautiful thing to witness. No political differences, it was all just love. An extremely powerful feeling of love and the powerful feeling of connecting for a common goal of hope.

It was years after Sam’s treatment ended that I would be back to working as a Sales Manager when I was contacted via LinkedIn about a job as a recruiter. I had no idea what a recruiter was but for some reason, I was drawn to this message and went for an interview. It was then I was asked to be a Healthcare Recruiter and now here I am, doing something I have so much passion for, I am so thankful. I couldn’t handle it anymore and the only good thing that came from my schedule was that my house more than likely wouldn’t get robbed because no one could tell what time I was coming or going. Life felt too chaotic. I will forever be so grateful I logged into my LinkedIn that day.

Today I work for some really amazing hospitals and provide leadership interim and permanent staffing to all the people that helped save us all. I mean they saved Sam, but they also delivered me a healthy baby girl, kept me sane, my family sane, absolutely loved my children, made me laugh, and they were all just there during our darkest days. Whether it was a smile in the elevator, that really horrible “how are you?’” question passing in the hallways, they were simply always there. We are all human and the one thing we can always give each other is a smile and kindness because sometimes that’s all we need to get through the day, just one more day.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

I would certainly say that being a genuine human goes a long way in this industry and in life. I love talking with my clients on the phone, texting, and via email. The more genuine connections you have in life, the better. I don’t do face-to-face visits (working on it) but the best of my clientele reminds me of those really fun pen pals we had when we were in elementary school in the 80s or those distant cousins you would chat with via the postal service. I have some great friends that I haven’t even been able to meet and those are both my clientele and my candidates but nonetheless, it’s a really neat interesting relationship. I look forward to the day I can hug my people, I am so thankful for all my people and the relationships I have built and continue to build.

I also have a great vetting process that took a lot of time to learn, I am still learning, and working on it every day. Never a dull moment in the recruiting world. It’s so hard because you wish to trust people so much but then they turn around and really pull the rug out on you sometimes but you just have to shrug that off and keep on keeping on! My old boss would always tell me when I would be super frustrated working on a role and having a hard time finding an awesome person, “Keep looking Steph, they are out there.” I think of that often, sometimes it takes a bit to find the right person but when you do, it’s a wonderful feeling, and sometimes it’s just all about the timing and fate. “What’s meant to be will always be,” is another thing I always tell myself to keep pushing forward.

So yes, back to your question. Be good, work hard, and be massively honest, the work will come. Trust the process, your process, and yourself, and never lose hope!

Do you think you’d choose a different profession or specialty if you were starting now?

Yes, I think the day I received that LinkedIn message was one of the most pivotal moments of my life. I feel overwhelmed with gratitude that I showed up on my old boss’s search and he decided to message me, forever grateful indeed. I didn’t even have “open for new opportunities” up on my LinkedIn account which I hardly ever used. A life-changing day indeed. Oh and the perfect time to share that if you are pondering “new opportunities”, make sure you get into your LinkedIn account and put your preferred locations, easier for people like me to find people like you!

Also, don’t get mad when recruiters reach out when you don’t have open to new opportunities on your account either, perhaps you will end up like me, or know of someone ready for their next chapter. I was ready, but not ready enough to take the jump. I am so glad I followed my heart that day and trusted the timing of that message. That’s the funny thing about life, tomorrow our story could be totally different, so ALWAYS choose kindness, there are awesome connections to be made everywhere. Even on the days it’s really hard too, trust the process, trust the timing and try to do so with a smile!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/squirrelysteph/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stephymariebrown
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniebrownrecruits/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuIa8KPoLXYzUrGjcmpXYNQ
• Other: https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2007/oct/03/one-familys-joy-sadness/