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TRANSCRIPTION WITH SPEAKERS
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[00:00] SPEAKER_00: It's VanCoovers Podcast on the Canada's Podcast Network.
[00:27] SPEAKER_01: Hello, this is Robert Smigel, coming to today with VanCoovers Podcast, a member of the Canada's Podcast Network,
[00:33] SPEAKER_01: where we talk to the entrepreneurs who are making it happen here in Vancouver, British Columbia.
[00:38] SPEAKER_01: Priscilla Stanbury was born in England, but grew up in Vancouver.
[00:43] SPEAKER_01: She taught students with learning disabilities in the post-secondary education sector in England and Vancouver.
[00:52] SPEAKER_01: Following her second kidney failure, she is a first time author of a best-selling award-nominated book,
[00:58] SPEAKER_01: Warriors and Heroes of a different kind, battling kidney failure.
[01:04] SPEAKER_01: Well, Priscilla, welcome to the show. Thanks for taking the time today to be here for our listeners.
[01:09] SPEAKER_02: Oh, thank you so much, Robert, for giving me this opportunity. It's a delight.
[01:14] SPEAKER_01: Okay, I want you to tell us a little bit more about yourself. We know you're from England, but give us the details on this current book.
[01:21] SPEAKER_02: Well, thank you. I guess I started with all of us have a writer behind the scenes we think we have anyway,
[01:31] SPEAKER_02: and there's always been that intention. You'd like to write something down, but never any real passion for it.
[01:37] SPEAKER_02: And it wasn't until I had my second kidney failure here in Vancouver, but I've started meeting other people who are doing hemodalysis.
[01:45] SPEAKER_02: When I had my first kidney failure in 1991, I was doing parotoneal dialysis, which is a different form.
[01:53] SPEAKER_02: It's a form where you do it internally. And this time, it's with you join other people in a clinic where you're sitting side by side or lying bed by bed as you're having your dialysis.
[02:09] SPEAKER_02: And we often meet with people and listen to their stories and hearing about the times, the hardships, the emotional people, the physical people, the disruption to their lives.
[02:24] SPEAKER_02: I thought, I'd better do something. I've got to help them. I couldn't give a kidney, obviously, for all this reasons. I don't have the kidney to give.
[02:32] SPEAKER_02: And then I don't have sufficient funds to make an event. And I thought, what can I do? I was lying in my bed and dialysis thinking about how I could help them.
[02:42] SPEAKER_02: And worrying and worrying and worrying. When towards the end of the week, I happened, one of the researchers assistant happened to come by and asked me if I would be interested in participating in a research questionnaire.
[02:54] SPEAKER_02: And I said, oh, yes, absolutely. And the research questionnaire was to do with how much we patients knew about kidney transplants.
[03:00] SPEAKER_02: Well, obviously, having had a kidney transplant, I knew a bit. But so I was able to do some of the questions very easily.
[03:08] SPEAKER_02: And then they came a little bit harder and a little bit more complex. And it made me think a little bit more. And I had to take it to delve deep into my thoughts about what the ethics of one thing against another.
[03:19] SPEAKER_02: And it certainly came to me. I'll write a book. I'll write a book to help my fellow patients. And that was a Friday, a very next day, Saturday.
[03:29] SPEAKER_02: I opened my computer, not having opened the computer for a long long time. And to my Instagram, I'm not very techy. There it was. There came up not the usual word, but something else called dream whiteers dream cloud or something.
[03:42] SPEAKER_02: And then I started typing and I did not stop typing, given the days I do dialysis or food or whatever, looking after my son can visit me or whatever.
[03:53] SPEAKER_02: But I would I continue typing consistently for three months, nonstop. And then I began to show people what I'd written all along as soon as I started writing the book.
[04:05] SPEAKER_02: I said, I'm writing this book. And this is what my intention is. I deliberately said, said told people so that I would not then give up because there's nothing more than having been telling someone that you're going to do something you have to proceed with it. So I kept telling everybody everybody all sundry.
[04:25] SPEAKER_02: I was writing a book. And then people began to come forward and say, I would like to be part of your book. I'd like to be in it. And so I started accumulating stories of my other fellow patients. And the book actually grew and developed and I became much more involved in research, much more than I ever thought I would.
[04:44] SPEAKER_02: And it really took over my life for about two and a half years.
[04:48] SPEAKER_01: Okay. Now, how did you find a publisher? What was that process like?
[04:54] SPEAKER_02: That was interesting because first of all, never having written anything. I didn't know about how to get about how to go about getting editors or how to go about doing anything really.
[05:04] SPEAKER_02: I had about a year into my manuscript. I remember telling someone I thought it was about time. Maybe I needed an editor. So they they said, I've asked me to day know because I knew they were writing a book.
[05:15] SPEAKER_02: No, no, they didn't seem to know it. They knew someone who wasn't now being doing any editing. And so then I went online and I came across a site website. I had no idea what it was Vancouver or where it was.
[05:29] SPEAKER_02: Anyway, through that I put out a call for an editor and I got an editor. And one thing led to another. I worked with my editor for about the over well over a year.
[05:38] SPEAKER_02: And through the editor, my editor, I began to network with other people and it was sort of a process of meeting various people that I then came across the agency, self publishing agency, who then took on my project and helped me get it published.
[05:56] SPEAKER_02: So it was really it was really a community effort in many ways. And I talk about my my editor, my team has been the force behind me really.
[06:06] SPEAKER_02: Could you see yourself writing another book? Well, I certainly could. I having had this experience as an indie writer and not having written it can be boring and finding it such an unknown, unchartered territory.
[06:22] SPEAKER_02: And I thought, well, I'd really like to write a book about what it's like to be a writer, a first time writer, all the pitfalls, all the things that you actually experience, the downsides, the upsides.
[06:36] SPEAKER_02: And I thought I would do that. And I've got a bit way later recently. So that a few little health issues. But that's sort of my next project to share my story of being what it's like to be a writer.
[06:50] SPEAKER_01: Okay, let's talk a little bit about working in Vancouver and being an author in Vancouver. What are the biggest benefits for you and being an author in Vancouver BC?
[06:59] SPEAKER_01: I want you to give us some of the good points about being an author here. And I want you to give us some of the tough things or challenges for listeners so they can keep an eye out for them.
[07:07] SPEAKER_02: Well, I think Vancouver is a wonderful, vibrant city. We have lots of authors in our midst. And I think there are opportunities. I found what once I once I worked through this circuit, I found that everyone was willing to help me.
[07:23] SPEAKER_02: And that one person would be to an open the door to another.
[07:28] SPEAKER_02: First of all, you have to find a contact. And that's the hardest thing. And once one to found the contact. And it was a dream in so far as getting people to help and wanting to help.
[07:40] SPEAKER_02: So really the positive thing is that people do want to want to help you. They open the doors. The key. Everyone's keen to help someone else, gay, a foothold in the door.
[07:53] SPEAKER_02: The downside is that sort of knowing where to start because there are there are there are sort of it can be a little bit of a warring place when you're not sure how to go about doing something.
[08:08] SPEAKER_02: And you don't know what's on the internet or what's what might be available. It can be a bit of a cold city sometimes when when the evening comes if you like that the doors close down.
[08:21] SPEAKER_02: So it can there are pitfalls in that respect.
[08:25] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we're similar weather to England. I would guess a lot of ways too.
[08:31] SPEAKER_01: Same time. Yeah. Okay, we do some of our best work outside the office. Is there a place in the lower mainland close to where you deliver work where you like to go recharge or get inspired with ideas or just think about your business and does it change with the season considering all the rain we get here.
[08:49] SPEAKER_02: In the summertime or in spring or I love going down to the beach and sitting sitting by the beach, especially in Vancouver, we look at the mountains and when you have that that feeling there's a spiritual feeling about watching the ocean and then the mountains behind.
[09:06] SPEAKER_02: And then watching the people go by dogs and families and there's something really wonderful about just just being there. It's being part of nature and watching everything happen.
[09:20] SPEAKER_02: So summertime, wintertime, I love to go to somewhere where there's museum of anthropology is a lovely place to go to where you still have the connection with an outside world but you've got all the natural elements.
[09:34] SPEAKER_02: The history of BC, the history of Vancouver and just watching all looking, reviving all of that, living in that sort of space is really a pleasure.
[09:49] SPEAKER_01: Okay, if you were to start all over again and you just moved here to Vancouver, BC, but this time you don't know anyone knowing what you know now, what would you do and how would you go but starting all over again as an author?
[10:03] SPEAKER_02: Well, first of all, I think I would look at newspapers, I would look at good library, I would look at places where books are in bookstores and I would look to see where there might be writing groups or there might be people who are doing readings or anything that might open a door for me, the network.
[10:27] SPEAKER_02: It's the most important thing to be able to meet people and to find out what's going on. So I would go to the most places where books are or people or anybody who might be offering a talk as a starting place.
[10:45] SPEAKER_01: So kind of a networking with other authors and so forth book clubs, things like that.
[10:52] SPEAKER_02: Absolutely, we all need a network, especially if you're new to a city, you don't know where, where, who is, where anybody is or what's watched. So you need to pick out the important places.
[11:02] SPEAKER_01: Okay, what does the first hour look like for you when you get up the more, do you have a specific routine or a ritual that helps you get motivated start your day?
[11:09] SPEAKER_02: Well, on my days when I'm not recovering from dialysis, I like to be up all by nine and have, first thing I have to do is have a shower because I spend so much time lying in bed on the dialysis machine or being on my back.
[11:25] SPEAKER_02: I have to get up and get feel like I'm part of society. I'm normal, I'm healthy. So I need to have a shower and get dressed.
[11:34] SPEAKER_02: Then I have my breakfast. I have a yogurt kind of mixture with protein, I protein powdered mixture that I got enough protein in my body and cereal and an aganto,
[11:48] SPEAKER_02: I got to listen to some water. And then I can't wait to look at my emails or see who's writing to me or what's happened to go on Facebook.
[11:59] SPEAKER_02: The other thing I really like to do is look at the news on my apps, news apps, BBC news, BBC news to see what's happening in the world.
[12:09] SPEAKER_02: Then I usually go down and try and work on a meditation bicycle in a sportsroom, so that I can keep fit. That's a really important thing to do.
[12:20] SPEAKER_02: When you have kidney failure, you tend to lose a lot of muscle. And so it's important to keep fit to offset all the other negative things that are happening to your body.
[12:32] SPEAKER_01: Okay. Do you think entrepreneurs or even authors have to be weird or unique in a positive way or wired differently?
[12:41] SPEAKER_02: Well, I think we're all peculiar, actually. But I think what makes the difference is a driving force. Is it a termination or a desire to change something, desire to have an effect?
[12:54] SPEAKER_02: I know with my writing, I probably had I not had this passion, it was a driving passion, I had to do it. I really needed to do it. But I haven't said that.
[13:05] SPEAKER_02: I think that there is a driving sense in a lot of people who are undertaking new ventures.
[13:13] SPEAKER_02: There's a spirit of adventure, the spirit of challenge, the unknown challenge. So I think that sort of is a driving force.
[13:22] SPEAKER_02: We don't want the humdrum. We want something that's out of you, out of you as well.
[13:28] SPEAKER_01: Okay. What books are you reading now and why are even audio books? And can you recommend any books for our listeners who are also aspiring entrepreneurs or authors?
[13:38] SPEAKER_02: Well, I tend to be fairly eclectic. I belong to a book club. And so some of the books I read are dictated by the book.
[13:47] SPEAKER_02: In fact, the last month, my book club read my books. So that was interesting. But I like to read books where I'm learning something.
[13:57] SPEAKER_02: I like to read books about history. I like to read books about people's lives. I like to read books where you find someone's overcome an obstacle.
[14:09] SPEAKER_02: So I think that's an important thing for me. And I like to read, I guess, motivational books, anything that sort of helps self-help books.
[14:19] SPEAKER_02: I also do like to read surprising enough. This may be sound very weird. But I like to use the Bible, not from the messages, but from the way in which it's written.
[14:32] SPEAKER_02: Some of the sentence are beautifully constructed. And it has a wonderful flow to it. So I like things sort of poetic and lyrical.
[14:43] SPEAKER_01: Okay. Any online or offline tools that you'd like to use on a daily basis?
[14:49] SPEAKER_02: Well, obviously I use the internet a lot. I use Facebook. I'm really how to use Instagram. And I'm learning how to use all the other things like tweets, Twitter, and whatever.
[15:02] SPEAKER_02: But basically it's some, I'm still a bit old-fashioned in some ways. And I'm still, I'm still very much, I guess, a telephone person or a conversation person, a face-to-face person.
[15:15] SPEAKER_02: But definitely Facebook is my go-to place.
[15:20] SPEAKER_01: Okay. How do you balance work and how do you relax and not think about work or writing? And what are your favorite activities to do here in BC? Do you ski? Do you bike, kayak, golf, hike, or simply go for a drive?
[15:33] SPEAKER_02: Well, I guess going for a drive or walking, I'm a bit limited. I have an incapacity. So I'm unable to do a lot of, I can't walk very far. I can't read ski.
[15:47] SPEAKER_02: So it's walking. It's to unwind. I also like when I'm feeling up to cooking and cooking for other people having dinner parties is a wonderful relaxation for me.
[16:00] SPEAKER_02: Up until the time before I can start panicking. But before that it's a wonderful thing to look at recipes, to see what else is out there.
[16:12] SPEAKER_02: Try new things.
[16:14] SPEAKER_01: Okay. If you were doing what you do now, what would you like to do for a profession?
[16:20] SPEAKER_02: Well, I love my teaching. I loved working with my students. I loved being in that kind of environment that I think if I were to do it over again, I would love to do something like art history.
[16:34] SPEAKER_02: I'd love to be a museum curator or a fine arts professional where you're looking at pictures and maybe even restoring pictures is something along those lines. That includes me.
[16:50] SPEAKER_01: What kind of a job would you not like to do? Couldn't do it.
[16:54] SPEAKER_02: Having I don't wish to undermine anyone because I think all jobs are important for whatever reason. But I having now spent the time I have a dialysis, I don't think I could be a nurse.
[17:07] SPEAKER_02: I think that they're so it's a wonderful profession that I just don't think I would have the ability to do that.
[17:18] SPEAKER_01: Okay. In business, what is your favorite word, quote, or sentence that you like to use?
[17:25] SPEAKER_02: I think to buy no self be true. Really, it's about being ourselves and being who we are and being honest with ourselves.
[17:35] SPEAKER_02: And also trying to do the best we can at all stages of our life, work, whatever.
[17:46] SPEAKER_01: So is that a particular word or sentence that you would use like do you find yourself saying it a lot?
[17:53] SPEAKER_02: I would probably say to buy no self be true. Yes.
[17:56] SPEAKER_01: Okay. What is your least favorite word or sentence you do not like to hear?
[18:01] SPEAKER_02: You can't do that.
[18:04] SPEAKER_01: That's a typical entrepreneur slash author statement, isn't it?
[18:09] SPEAKER_02: Well, it immediately closes. You just want to rebelling against it. Why not? Why can't I do that? Why not?
[18:17] SPEAKER_02: You know, it's the unknown. Let me try.
[18:21] SPEAKER_01: Okay. If you had to pick one or two words to describe yourself, what would it be and why?
[18:28] SPEAKER_02: I think I would like to say integrity is one. It's really important to me that what I say is what I do.
[18:39] SPEAKER_02: And what I do is what I say. I think that's the other thing I think is determination is to really try and do something to want to improve a situation to.
[18:52] SPEAKER_02: And against all odds and I mean, working living now with an autoimmune disease, a stardom for many years and kidney failure and also the spinal cord injury.
[19:03] SPEAKER_02: And it just makes me all the more determined to really try and do something not just to sit back and say, well, I'm, I am a patient.
[19:12] SPEAKER_02: I am a, I am not someone who's ill. I want, I don't want to be ill. I want to be, I want, I'm determined to be healthy. I guess healthy.
[19:23] SPEAKER_01: And lead a normal life.
[19:24] SPEAKER_02: And lead a normal life absolutely.
[19:27] SPEAKER_01: Okay. What keeps you up at night if anything?
[19:33] SPEAKER_02: Well, really, once I, once the team hits me, I'm gone. But if anything were to keep me up, what have I, what would have I done today?
[19:44] SPEAKER_02: What have I accomplished that has made something better? Really? I guess.
[19:50] SPEAKER_01: Okay. I want you to give us the top three things on your inspired lifeless. This could be whether you want to travel more or whether you want to do a TEDx talk for philanthropy.
[20:02] SPEAKER_01: Anything like that?
[20:04] SPEAKER_02: Well, first of all, I'd love to be able to walk better. It sounds very, very mundane. But if you don't walk well, that would be, for me, that would be wonderful.
[20:13] SPEAKER_02: The next thing I would like to do, of course, is have a kidney. But and then if I could, I would love to travel.
[20:21] SPEAKER_02: A place I've always wanted to go to is the Savannah, for some reason. I don't know why, but it appeals to me. But then so does Egypt.
[20:29] SPEAKER_02: I would, I would love to have more opportunities to see the people, to see the parts of the world. There's so much out there that I haven't seen.
[20:37] SPEAKER_01: Okay. Do you have any advice that you may have received that you can pass on to entrepreneurs or authors throughout British Columbia?
[20:45] SPEAKER_02: I think what I would say is do it. It really follow your heart. Years and years ago, when I was in school, and our head teacher would say to us,
[20:58] SPEAKER_02: do, don't go out after the money, go out after what you want. And really it is. The money would come in. I mean, we obviously have to live.
[21:08] SPEAKER_02: But it's more about if you're doing something you love, then you're really, really fulfilling yourself. So don't be afraid. Take that first step. And really, really open doors.
[21:21] SPEAKER_02: If I can do it, you can do it. That would be what I would say.
[21:26] SPEAKER_01: Okay. Okay. Priscilla, you ready to have some fun?
[21:29] SPEAKER_02: Yes.
[21:30] SPEAKER_01: Great. Okay. Well, you know, authors and or entrepreneurs are very, very busy people. We're always connected. Like you said earlier, you're always on the internet, you're online with social media, things like that.
[21:42] SPEAKER_01: But we're going to take you away from all that. There's a small tropical island just off the Fiji that only has one phone booth there. There is no internet. This place does exist.
[21:50] SPEAKER_01: We're going to drop you off there. You won't have a computer or a smartphone or tablet. You can use the phone booth located there to call the boat.
[21:57] SPEAKER_01: We'll come pick you up. How long would you last before you made that call? And what would you do while you were there?
[22:03] SPEAKER_02: Well, it's really interesting question. First of all, I've got to be realistic with kidney failure by immediate need would be to find somewhere where I could get dialysis.
[22:15] SPEAKER_02: So I would have to spend I can have two days without beating dialysis. So if I were if I were still without a kidney transplant, then I would have to do all it all.
[22:27] SPEAKER_02: But every effort I could into in defining people and finding resources to see if there's any possible way I could I could have a dialysis.
[22:35] SPEAKER_02: If that was possible, then I would be quite happy to live on the island for as long as I could. But failing that that I'm afraid it's it's you know games up for me. I would have to have to leave the island much to my my sorrow if I couldn't couldn't get support there.
[22:54] SPEAKER_01: Okay, Priscilla, we're going to wrap things up for us. How can our listeners get hold of you and is there anything you'd like to add before you leave us today?
[23:02] SPEAKER_02: Well, I'd like to say again that there's there's always something out there that we can do. And really if you if you find that spirit of whatever it is, then you'll do it. It will come.
[23:16] SPEAKER_02: And if people want to get hold of me, they can get getting touch with me at priscilla's down rate gmail dot com. I would not that's okay.
[23:29] SPEAKER_02: Or find my book on Amazon.
[23:31] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and your book is is it can be for just it doesn't necessarily need to be for people with kidney failure can be really beat for anyone who wants to.
[23:41] SPEAKER_01: But anybody who's interested in health. Yeah, I think the message here is take care of yourself and don't don't take your health for granted.
[23:57] SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, you never know. We never know when when something might go a fall. Yeah, okay. Well, thank you for coming on the show. I've learned a lot about you and I'm sure our listeners have as well.
[24:08] SPEAKER_02: Well, thank you very much for giving us opportunity. Okay, we'll see you next time. Okay, thanks. Bye.
[24:16] SPEAKER_00: Hey there. Thanks for taking the time today to listen to back to this podcast on the Canada podcast network.
[24:22] SPEAKER_00: We hope you enjoyed the show today. Make sure you sign up for our newsletter and write a review for us on iTunes. Then connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn at Canada's podcast.
[24:33] SPEAKER_00: You can also check out what other entrepreneurs are doing across the country. See you next time.
