Author · Speaker · Hope Hooker
Author of From Sh*t to Sunshine and keynote speaker. She built the Sh*t to Sunshine Quick Shift over the fifteen years it took to get her mind, her health, and her faith back. Now she hands it to audiences who would rather turn their mess into their compost than sit in it, and she makes them laugh on the way up.
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The memoir
Raylynn didn't meet the charismatic preacher in a pew. She met him in a fast food restaurant. Raised on a childhood of control and loss, Raylynn had already been taught to mistake intensity for purpose. So when the preacher asked Raylynn to run his campaign, and then his ministry, it landed on ground that was ready for it. What followed was years of spiritual abuse, manipulation, and coercive control.
The next free breath Raylynn would take would be in a jail cell. She didn't escape the cult. She was removed from it. Arrested. She may have been a felon, but she was finally free of the cult that ruined her life.
But getting out wasn't the end of it. And neither was the death of the preacher. What followed were fifteen years of escape. From a cult, from a chilling mindset, and from a body that was quitting on her. Raylynn was told she was running out of time.
From Sh*t to Sunshine is one woman's gut-wrenching and unexpectedly bizarre answer to what leads a woman of ordinary intelligence to join a cult, and what it took to get out. It's the harrowing and honest account of how a woman with nothing left found God, and grew into the Hope Hooker.
The people and places behind the book. Placeholder caption. Raylynn writes the real one, one line per photo, in her own words. This is the single cheapest way to make the site feel like a person instead of a brand.
For readers
The memoir behind the keynote. A charismatic preacher, an arrest that set her free, and the fifteen years of undoing that came after.
For meeting planners and producers
Four signature keynotes about what happens after the worst of it is over and you still have to get up and live, plus the five-step method for doing it. Thirty, forty-five, or sixty minutes, with workshop versions available.
Signature talks
The signature keynote. Raylynn's full origin story plus the 5-Step Quick Shift that teaches a room how to hook hope into the middle of the mess, in real time.
Waiting for your life to change before you change your mind about yourself has the order backwards. A tactical talk about the words you use to describe what happened, and what changes when they do.
For anyone tired of being introduced by the worst thing that happened to them. A workshop-style talk on rebuilding identity after abuse, coercive control, or trauma.
A lighter, story-rich talk about resilience, faith, and finding the fertilizer in seasons that smell terrible. Failed bodies, failed plans, failed people, and what grew out of each one. For rooms that want humor with a spine in it.
Your story is powerful beyond imagination. This is one of the most gripping books I've ever read. You write with amazing power, your descriptions are unutterably vivid and real, and you even mix in, every once in a while, a side-splitting moment of humor.
Mitzi Perdue Philanthropist and award-winning author of Relentless: Mark Victor Hansen
We are praising God with you for the stunning, deep work He has done in your heart and life. We believe God is going to bless your obedience to write and share your story for His glory.
Levi and Jennie Lusko
Raylynn Van Oort's memoir is an intensely gripping tale. The torment she endured is almost beyond comprehension, yet she recounts her journey with eloquence and a sharp, unforgettable survivor's humor. I was utterly captivated and couldn't put it down.
John Perricone Keynote speaker and educational consultant, award-winning educator
Raylynn's voice is powerful. Her courage in telling this truth will stay with me for a long time. This is a light for anyone seeking meaning in the mess, and faith in the middle of the fire.
Brenda Hukel Award-winning author, keynote speaker
Listen
Raylynn is an easy guest and a generous one. She shows up prepared, she goes where you take her, and she sends the episode to her own list when it drops.
Halfway to Sunday
On hope that refuses to sit down, no matter what you are walking through.
ListenYour Book, Your Voice
Raylynn tells her inspiring story of resilience and hope, proving you CAN rise above whatever life throws at you. The Hope Hooker reveals the hard-earned lessons that can help you transform your life.
ListenThe best review she ever got
Lily and her mom read From Sh*t to Sunshine together. Then Lily wrote Raylynn a letter. She said the story changed the way she sees things. She told her friends about it at Bible camp. And she asked how to talk about God with friends who don't know Him.
She didn't just read the story. She caught the hope in it, and now she wants to pass it on.
I told all my friends about you and your book. They thought it was amazing that God could do things like that. Keep doing what your doing, you have changed so many lives.
Lily, age 12 Kalispell, Montana
If From Sh*t to Sunshine helps even one person believe God is still there in the middle of the mess, and gives them the courage to shine a little light for someone else, then every hard word I wrote was worth it.
Free gift from Raylynn
Six worksheets built on the Sh*t to Sunshine Quick Shift, the same tactical framework Raylynn used to interrupt the spiral, separate facts from fear, reclaim her identity, find the fertilizer, and take one power move. Chapter one of From Sh*t to Sunshine comes with it.
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About the author
Raylynn Van Oort is the author of From Sh*t to Sunshine and creator of the Sh*t to Sunshine Quick Shift. Drawing on her own years inside spiritual abuse and manipulation, and the fifteen it took to undo them, in therapy, in doctors' offices, and in the slow work of getting her own faith back, she helps people recognize unhealthy patterns, reclaim their identities, and find out they don't have to stay stuck.
She lives in Helena, Montana, with her husband, Daryl, a beautifully blended family that now includes four children, nine grandchildren, and two cats who are convinced they run the household.
In her own words
Hope is not soft.Hope is defiant.
Nothing is wastedunless you waste it.
Sunshine isn't the absence of manure.It's what grows because of it.
Refuse to stay buriedin what was meant to grow you.