Friends from Wild Places

Wild Stories of Survival,

• Shireen Botha/Tanya Scotece ft Lisa Zarcone • Season 5 • Episode 10

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In this deeply moving episode, we welcome Lisa Zarcone, an inspiring advocate and survivor of child abuse, to hear her incredible story of resilience and transformation. As she recounts her life experiences, Lisa discusses the challenges she faced as a child, overcoming trauma, and how she now dedicates her life to advocating for awareness around child safety and mental health. The conversation also touches on the tragic White Island disaster, exposing the intricacies of trust between tourism companies and the responsibility they hold for their clients’ safety. 

Lisa Zarcone


Through compelling statistics and personal anecdotes, Lisa sheds light on the urgent need for dialogue around abuse and the importance of giving survivors a voice. This episode is more than just stories; it’s a call to action for empathy, community support, and understanding as essential components in healing. As Lisa shares her mantra, “Embrace the Journey,” listeners are invited to reflect on their own paths and consider how they can engage in conversations that promote healing and safety. 

Join us as we support the National Association of Adult Survivors of Child Abuse this month!

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Voiceover:

Tales from the wild, stories from the heart. A journey into the mind and soul of fired up business professionals, where they share their vision for the future and hear from a different non-profit organization every month as they create awareness of their goals and their needs. Dive into a world of untamed passion as we join our host, Shireen Botha, for this month's episode of Friends from Wild Places.

Shireen Botha:

All right, well, welcome, welcome, Shireen. Here I am your virtual boutique bookkeeper and QuickBooks advisor. Thinking about bookkeeping, it may seem odd to go virtual, but at Shireen's Bookkeeping Services, we redefine what service means. Imagine having a personal finance team that goes above and beyond your expectations every single time. With our virtual approach, you'll enjoy personal life service without the overhead costs of hiring an entire finance department. Our pricing is tailored for small business owners, making expert support more affordable than ever. At Shireen's Bookkeeping Services, we streamline your finances so you can focus on what you do best. Experience the difference today. If you want to know more, go check me out at www. shireensbookkeeping. com and allow me to keep your books clean so you don't have to. Well, welcome back listeners. You are listening to Friends from Wild Places with myself, Shireen, and my lovely co-host, Tanya. Good morning morning, Tanya. How are you this morning?

Tanya Scotece:

Oh, doing great, Shireen. Things are here in sunny Florida. All is well. And how's in South Africa? What's happening?

Shireen Botha:

Lots of flooding, lots of rain and power outages which is quite funny because I've just said that and on goes the power. So this might turn into a successful recording podcast. So, Tanya, would you mind taking a few moments and just sharing with the listeners a little bit more about our extra content that we're creating for our subscribers?

Tanya Scotece:

Sure, I would love to. So. Here at Friends from Wild Places we have some bonus content which is behind a paywall which is to subscribe. It's a minimum of $5 a month. You can do more if you'd like, but for a minimum of $5, you can get some extra deep dive on some content that is would like to learn more about, hear more about or have us explore with you. Just send us a line and be happy to incorporate that with our bonus content behind the paywall at Friends from Wild Places.

Shireen Botha:

Awesome. Thank you so much, tanya. Yes, it's just $5 a month. That's where we just go deep and we share a lot of some of the struggles that we've faced and you might just enjoy it. So, thanks a lot. But first let's get into it and introduce our guest for the month. Today we have Lisa Zarcone. Please tell me I'm saying your last name correctly, Lisa, is it last?

Lisa Zarcone:

name correctly.

Shireen Botha:

Lisa, is it? It's Zarcone Zarcone perfect. Lisa Zarcone is an author, child and health advocate and public speaker. As a survivor of child and sexual abuse, she decided to turn her pain into purpose by sharing her story, written through the eyes of a child, giving the child's perspective of abuse. She also wrote her mother's story about her lifelong battle with mental illness and their complex relationship. Lisa is the Massachusetts National Ambassador and Regional Director of NAASCA, which is the National Association of Adult Survivors of Child Abuse, and she uses her stories and titles a platform to speak publicly to bring awareness and advocate for child safety and mental health. She's also a blogger on her own website, lisazarcone, and a social media influencer. Welcome Lisa, it's so good to have you on the show. Social media influencer. Welcome Lisa.

Lisa Zarcone:

It's so good to have you on the show. Yes, thank you so much, Shireen and Tanya, for having me today. I'm glad that we can do this.

Shireen Botha:

Right, very excited. Lisa has an amazing inspirational story that we're super excited to get into today. But, as an icebreaker, we always like to start the podcast with a little bit of either a true crime story or a very interesting one, and today I think I've got an interesting one for us. Ladies. So I'm not sure if any one of you have heard of the White Island disaster case disaster case For the listeners out there. The White Island disaster case refers to the legal proceedings following a volcanic eruption on Valkari, white Island, new Zealand, on December the 9th 2019, where 22 people died and many were severely injured when a tour group was present on the island. The case primarily focused on holding tour operations and the island management company accountable for failing to adequately assess and mitigate the risks of a volcanic eruption, resulting in multiple companies being found guilty of health and safety violations and ordered to pay significant fines and reparations to the victims and their families. So it was quite recent that the case closed and it was quite an interesting case. I did send the link to the ladies so we have watched 60 minutes. They did a wonderful covering of the entire case and all the victims and interviewed them all. I also interviewed some of the members from the tourist companies, as well as the rescue team that failed to get there in a timely fashion, which was also quite interesting.

Shireen Botha:

But yeah, so the key points about the case was obviously the eruption. You know the fact that there were 47 tourists on the island when everyone was aware. A tourist company was aware that it was, I think, a level three or it was at the highest level it could be to alert people that the island is extremely dangerous and close to eruption. So the tourist companies were aware of this. And then, obviously, who was charged? That's obviously a number of the tourist companies, including the cruise ship, which the one family, a couple of the families were on the island that came from.

Shireen Botha:

And yeah, so the key findings were, obviously they failed to provide adequate information about the risks and, while many of them were found guilty of health and safety breaches and were fined. So I think that my main question for you, ladies, is, first of all, what did you think of the story and you know what is the one thing that stuck out to you about the disaster, and do you think the cruise ship should have been blamed for or just been held liable for, what happened? Do you want to go first, lisa?

Lisa Zarcone:

Sure, I know. As I'm listening to the story, I'm just like imagining myself being put into that position, because you know when you book, you know trips and adventures like this, you put your trust in, you know the people who are setting this up for you, that you are going to be safe, it's going to be okay, and I can only imagine what these people were thinking when they really got into it and realized that their safety was at risk and lives were lost because of it. I believe they all should be liable, because they have a big responsibility to travelers to keep them safe at all costs, and they were not given the proper information. So I find it very interesting. We've hear a lot of stories, you know, of all these different types of things that are happening, and then you have these national. You know these, these disasters, and we we do need to keep our travelers safe. So I do believe, yes, they should be liable for that.

Shireen Botha:

I agree. Tanya what do you think?

Tanya Scotece:

Yeah, no, I agree, I agree with Lisa.

Tanya Scotece:

I think you know, as far as you know, especially with tourism, you know there's always a big price with money, right, the monetary value and, as far as you know, getting the most in, for you know the amount of people and you know the nature side of things, in addition to just what disasters can go, can happen.

Tanya Scotece:

In my opinion, it's just you know there's so much liability and I serve as expert witness for funeral home and cemetery cases regularly and even there it's like you know there's so much like liability. So I think what ends up happening is sometimes, with the cases, we only hearing like a fraction of what the reality is, and as you get closer to the case, I think you hear the more of the. You know the nitty gritty kinds of things. So I think the media also I mean, I'm not saying I heard you say, shereen, that you know the 60 Minutes did a great job coverage and I'm sure they did I'm just saying a lot of times the media leaves so much out or distorts it or puts it in a way that it's not really what is actually happening. So I think, yeah, I agree with Lisa. I think as far as the liability for keeping the travelers safe, keeping people informed, and you know, obviously you know coming forth with the consequential pay because so many people lost their lives or were injured.

Shireen Botha:

Right, yeah, yeah, ladies, I feel the same. I agree with both you, tanya and Lisa, so I won't reinforce that. But you know, the other thing that stuck out to me is that young girl's life completely changed. She lost her father and her sister that day on the island and she survived. And so she was saying how she has moments where she has that survivor grief, and I mean I can't remember the exact fact, but I think like almost 80 percent of her body was covered with three degree burns, including her face, her head, and she lost most of her fingers. So she's she's a very brave and amazing young woman. I mean mean she's living life now. She was walking around for a good number of years with that mask on and now the mask is off and she's walking around with her scars and everything. And so brave, you know, so brave and such a confident young lady but despite, everything that she went through is absolutely amazing.

Shireen Botha:

So if you want to go get a little bit more into the story, 60 Minutes does have the YouTube channel listeners so you can go and search on 60 Minutes YouTube the White Island volcanic disaster case and that should automatically bring the coverage up. So thank you, ladies, for just sharing your two cent piece on that story, but let's get into it. So the quote of the day is our very. It's important for us to have the quote of the day because normally there's a lot of people that hang on to a specific saying, a quote that means a lot to them and gets them through a lot of hard times, and so we love to keep the quote of the day as something to share and if it possibly touches someone's threads out there that's listening, they might want to take that with them as encouragement, motivation. So Lisa gave us her quote and it's called Embrace the Journey, and it's such a good one, the journey and it's such a good one.

Lisa Zarcone:

So go ahead, lisa, and tell us what that specific quote means to you and why.

Lisa Zarcone:

Yes, you know to backtrack just slightly on that.

Lisa Zarcone:

So every year I pick a quote or a word to step into a new year, to just give myself that inspiration and encouragement to go forward and do the things I need to do.

Lisa Zarcone:

And back when I first started doing that for myself, the first quote that I ever picked was embrace the journey, because at that time in my life I was going through so many transitions and going forward with writing my book, sharing my unspoken truths of my life, and that, to me, embrace the journey was really powerful because you really think about that, you're embracing all that you're going through. You're embracing all that you've been through and you're stepping forward into a new direction and you never know what life's going to throw at you. You never know what life's going to put in your path. So I always say be strong, be ready and embrace whatever comes and step forward. So embrace the journey is a really big one for me and as I've moved forward and picked different phrases and terms to step into new years, I always keep embrace the journey with me, because that's where it all began for me not just the good times, but the bad times as well.

Shireen Botha:

Cause that I think it gets harder to embrace the journey when things are really not going the way you would like it to go. But I think that's, yeah, that's even more.

Lisa Zarcone:

Absolutely yes, I mean, and for myself definitely, embrace the journey meant embracing everything I had to. When I broke the silence of what happened to me, I had to embrace. When I broke the silence of what happened to me, I had to embrace that part of myself, that part of my life that was hidden and dark and horrendous, and I had to embrace that because that is part of who I am and what I've been through. But saying that that doesn't define who I truly am. But I've embraced that piece, I've worked with it, worked through it and I keep moving forward. So we do. We embrace the good, we embrace the bad, we embrace the ugly. It's all part of the journey.

Tanya Scotece:

I love that Thank you and Lisa, I've been following you for. I'm trying to sit here and remember how many years and I'm thinking, was it on LinkedIn? It has to be. I'm probably on eight years of following your journey. It has to be. I'm probably on eight years of following your journey. I've read your book, the first book and, yeah, just know your story is always just, you know, just kind of shed some light on some, you know just some dark times that you know all of us may have faced and I just find your story inspirational. So I really appreciate your quote of the day for us to quote, of your year for our day and as we move forward.

Lisa Zarcone:

Thank you so much. Yes, we did connect on LinkedIn and that was back when my book really first came out, and you have followed me, so I do appreciate you, Tanya, for always following me and supporting my story and the things that I'm doing, and it is it's a continued journey. We're all on this continued journey as we step forward.

Shireen Botha:

I love that. Thank you, ladies, lisa. So with that, I'd love you to give us a little bit about your background, of who you are.

Lisa Zarcone:

Oh, that's like. That's like a loaded question because I call myself the woman of many hats, because I, I, I'm just in so many places and doing so many things. But so the backstory, um, who I am? I'm Lisa Zarkone, a wife, a mother of three grown children, a grandmother of four, raising two of our grandchildren. My husband and I have stepped up into that role, so doing it all over again, and it's been an amazing, you know, part of our lives to be able to have that opportunity to do it again and we love all of our babies so much. So that's the personal side of me. Who's just? I'm a bird geek. I love nature, I just all of those things. But when you really look at who I am professionally, I am an author, a public speaker, child and mental health advocate. I'm blogging on my own website. I, you know, a social media influencer, because I say that as because I'm always out there pushing inspiration, pushing encouragement, motivation and hope all over the place. So I'm all over.

Lisa Zarcone:

But you know, when I think of the back, the backstory to everything, I was a child who was severely abused. I was a child who went through trauma, loss, abandonment, all of it. My story is so complex it's. You know I say this, I don't say this lightly, but it's like it isn't just one thing, it's just not. I say this, I don't say this lightly, but it's like it isn't just one thing, it's just not. I was in, I was abused and that's very broad, because abuse is is abuse and it's always horrendous. But I had so many other things happen along the way and in my story and in my life that it's a very complex, very complex story to all that I've been through and bringing in my mother, you know, with her mental illness and how we had to, you know, go through that and walk the path together, a very complex road together. And you know I stayed close to my mother right out through her whole life. It was very difficult to do so because my mother was one of my main abusers. So I did travel a horrendous path for many years.

Lisa Zarcone:

Then went into my teenage years, which I was very angry, and then I had to make transitions in my life, to make decisions, to move forward. Do I move forward in a positive way or do I stay in this negative space? And I chose to be positive and I chose to be fierce and fight everything that I was up against. So, moving forward from teen years into adulthood, you know, I made the really, you know, very strong choices of what I wanted to do with my life and how I wanted it to unfold.

Lisa Zarcone:

The interesting piece to all of that is that I kept everything silent. I did not share and disclose my abuse to anyone. My husband even didn't know the full extent of what I went through. He knew about my mom, of course, you know, being mentally ill and and those struggles, but he really didn't know about the sexual abuse pieces and how deep the abuse actually went. So all of this fighting that I did, in this fierceness inside of me to keep pushing forward, did actually come back to haunt me as I moved forward in life you know, having my children starting my family because all of my darkness from my past came flooding forward into my present life and I had to make those steps to face it and fight through it and move forward on a healing journey. So that healing journey has brought me here now and what I'm doing, and here today, with both of you ladies sharing all of this.

Shireen Botha:

Right Jeez, that is so many questions.

Tanya Scotece:

Lisa, can you share what are the current like statistics? Lisa, can you share what are the current like statistics? I remember when I got involved with, you know, sexual survivor abuse. You know at that time there was a statistic of one in four women and I believe it was one out of eight men or one out of six men. That was probably back around 2016. Do you have any like current data or more? You know more relevant data than that as far as this, what the statistic is and or how is it defined? Just so for our listeners out there, just so they can kind of get a broader perspective of that topic and as we listen to your, you know your journey of the healing part.

Lisa Zarcone:

Good question, yes it is a good question and the statistics. So, when we came into the pandemic, a lot of things changed, you know, of course, because people are home and there's really no way out, if you want to say it that way. So the numbers did rise significantly with child abuse, sexual abuse, domestic violence, violence, suicide. All those numbers just skyrocketed and and now at this point I think we've kind of leveled off a little bit, but the numbers are still high. I mean, you're still looking at one in three or one in four young women who are being sexually abused. The number for men has changed significantly. So you're talking like one in eight. Now men are down to like one in four or one in five, because men have stepped forward in the past couple of years to disclose their abuse.

Lisa Zarcone:

So the numbers will change because back, when, you know, men did not disclose their abuse, it was more women doing so, but men are now taking those brave steps to, you know, disclose what's happened to them. So the numbers have changed, but it is happening, and it is happening all the time and and this is why I abdicate and this is, you know, why I've, you know, pushed forward to write my books and do the things that I've done is because we still don't know what happens behind closed doors, we still don't talk about it the way we should, and we still need to work on making safe spaces for people to disclose their abuse. So the numbers are still up there and you know, abuse doesn't, you know, choose gender. Abuse comes from both. It's male and female that are being abused. So you always have to be aware of your surroundings and really take notice to what's happening, because it's amazing to think that so much is still going on in this day and age, in 2025. We are still fighting those battles absolutely yeah.

Tanya Scotece:

Tune in next week for part two from friends from wild places

Voiceover:

You've been listening to friends from wild places with shireen Botha.

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Be sure to subscribe to the podcast from the links to catch every episode and unleash your passion.

People on this episode

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Shireen Botha

Host
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Tanya Scotece

Co-host
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Lisa Zarcone

Guest

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