Dreamed It Then Real Lifed It

At the halfway point of my 100-day “Transformation Story” experiment, I share how the project didn’t unfold as planned: instead of daily documenting, I discovered that real-time narration felt performative and split my attention, so I pivoted toward living first and reflecting later. I unpack major lessons from the first 50 days—where I relied on pressure and per...

Host Kelly welcomes flexibility coach Micah Walters, whom she met at his Backbend Breakthroughs workshop in New Orleans, to discuss both entrepreneurship and safe, contortion-level flexibility training. Micah shares his background in artistic gymnastics under old-school Soviet coaching, classical and competitive dance, and later performing contortion with acrobatics, handstands, and aerial. He exp...

Host Kelly interviews Brandon DeBoer, Director of Cultivation at Ilera Holistic Healthcare (flower brand Ayo, meaning “share joy”), about his path from university hemp trials and hydroponics to launching Ilera’s Louisiana operation in 2019—arriving to a 120-degree warehouse with only an 8x16 tent. Brandon explains early regulatory red tape, cannabis production basics (seeds vs. clones, mother...

Driving to the studio, Kelly realizes she has no idea what to talk about—and instead of panicking, she laughs, using it as evidence of growth: preparation can move from external tools (outlines, rules, plans) into embodied capacity and self-trust built through repetition. She contrasts beginner versus seasoned skill in podcasting and other crafts (driving, jazz, yoga teaching, cooking, art), and a...

Kelly reunites with Hillar Moore, East Baton Rouge Parish district attorney, by surprising him with the old Minolta camera Moore gave her at 19—an early doorway into the host’s decades-long creative career. Moore shares how cameras and crime-scene work as a young DA investigator helped shape his path from LSU missteps to criminal justice, law school, defense work, and eventually becoming DA. They...

Kelly welcomes longtime wellness colleague Dr. Keta, founder of Excel Wellness in Baton Rouge, to discuss her evolution from chiropractic physician to functional nutritionist after supporting her mother and navigating her own thyroid decline, later confirmed Hashimoto’s, and perimenopause. Dr. Keta shares how self-experimentation led to a simple, sustainable, food-first approach supported by habit...

Kelly introduces Eddie Davis, volunteer coordinator for Gentiva Hospice, sharing how a chance conversation with a longtime hospice nurse and a library bulletin-board flyer led her to start volunteering. Eddie recounts his path from minister to hospice chaplain and now volunteer coordinator, explaining hospice as comfort care and symptom management delivered by an interdisciplinary team, inclu...

Kelly interviews Katie Guillory, assistant strength and conditioning coach for LSU women’s gymnastics and beach volleyball, about her path from LSU softball to coaching, including stops at Traction, Liberty, and Illinois. Katie breaks down LSU gymnastics’ razor-thin national title loss (.04%) and the team’s “revenge tour” mindset, plus what she tracks in training—force plates, strength foundations...

In episode 100, Kelly reflects on finally launching her podcast on 11/11/24 after first announcing it in early 2020, celebrating 100 episodes built through 95 consecutive weeks of showing up, embracing “done over perfect,” and noting that listeners often browse the archive rather than listen sequentially. She shares her main reasons for podcasting—legacy for her daughters and a free platform to sh...

Host Kelly Jackson sits down with Jordan Gros, founder of Mycocentrics, to explore how mushrooms shaped Jordan’s life, health, and entrepreneurship. Jordan shares her path from biological engineering and early cordyceps cultivation to a serious Mount Shasta accident that led her back to Louisiana, where mushrooms became central to her healing and daily regimen. She explains what tinctures (liquid...

Kelly Jackson explores the “hidden bargain” many people make with action—only doing the thing if the outcome is guaranteed—and why real life never offers that certainty. She shows how staying attached to potential can protect the ego, while execution trades fantasy for information, and explains the crucial distinction between “it didn’t work” and “I didn’t work.” Using examples like launches, even...

Host Kelly Jackson explores why unlimited information still doesn’t translate into follow-through, focusing on the intention–action gap studied in behavioral psychology. Using personal stories—choosing not to “procrastinate” with a perfectly healthy walk before studio time, and delaying an insurance claim after a car accident—she shows how resistance often comes from the costly threshold of starti...

Kelly Jackson reflects on what happens when the “frequency” of life shifts—when relationships, routines, roles, dreams, and responsibilities that once fit become incompatible without anyone being wrong. Using the story of Pongo, a foster dog who unexpectedly became part of her family for over three and a half years and left six months ago, she explores how repetition turns conscious choices into d...

Kelly Jackson shares a behind-the-scenes mishap where an audio “clipping” error cut off half the original recording, prompting her to return and finish the episode later. She then spotlights a major milestone: on July 10, 2026, she unveiled Calma, the first guide of Mis Sombras’ second generation, at Tell a Vision—an exhibition of 21 artists transforming reclaimed TV frames—on view in downtown Bat...

Kelly shares reflections after “harvesting” (not breaking down) her Festival of Whatchawant in quiet solitude, using the takedown to sort what worked, what moves forward, and what belongs in each part of her creative ecosystem. The process sparks a core realization: she may have been documenting her life not to build an audience, but to build an archive her future self would need—proof of consiste...

Host Kelly Jackson welcomes Kelvin Kelly, a Baton Rouge resident she met unexpectedly at an art show, for a wide-ranging conversation connecting athletics, art, and purpose. Kelvin shares formative experiences—growing up in a single-parent home, caregiving at 12, early track setbacks, and finding his lane through hurdles—then reflects on humility, empathy, and returning to uplift the communit...

Host Kelly Jackson makes a hard pivot from recent personal episodes to a broader look at “bin stores” and what they reveal about overproduction, impulse buying, dopamine shopping, clutter, and environmental impact. After stumbling into one expecting a thrift store, she describes the chaotic glove-on, dig-through-bins experience and explains the business model: truckloads of overstock, returns, she...

Kelly Jackson opens by previewing the 10-day Festival of Whatchawant in Baton Rouge (July 7–16) and then welcomes back Chloe, her podcast apprentice, for a candid conversation about “conscious becoming” in the liminal space between college and full adulthood. Chloe shares how graduating early challenged her expectations, why uncertainty can be fertile ground for possibility, and how her career int...

Host Kelly Jackson explores why the teenage years feel like a confusing in-between: teens crave autonomy and respect while still needing support, and parents see responsibilities and long-term consequences that teens—whose prefrontal cortex is still developing—often can’t yet track. Drawing from raising two teenage daughters, she reframes teen “resistance” as healthy developmental separation and e...

Host Kelly Jackson announces that the June 22 episode leads into her newest project: a 10-day immersive storefront takeover in Baton Rouge called the Festival of Whatchawant (July 7–16 at 11445 Coursey Blvd, Suite M). What began with a frustrating attempt to rent a pressure washer surface cleaner unexpectedly led her to notice vacant spaces, call a landlord, and quickly secure a better location—tu...

In episode 88, host Kelly Jackson shares why the number 88 is meaningful to her, then spotlights a “podcast project” created by her high school freshman daughter and a classmate called True to You, focused on peer pressure, self-love, boundaries, and the line “fitting in should never cost you your safety.” Kelly reads their transcript, including a cautionary story about two girls pressured into me...

Host Kelly Jackson shares how a fallen closet rod and an unexpected nine-drawer dresser sparked a full closet renovation and a bigger realization: sometimes your “inventory” changes, and old systems—whether closets, schedules, business models, relationships, or self-concepts—can’t support who you are now. She walks through the messy, overwhelming week of pulling everything out, taking a true inven...

Kelly Jackson shares a “student driver” traffic moment that sparked a fresh way to view emotional growth: adults often lack the visible “sticker,” yet many were never taught skills like regulation, communication, boundaries, conflict repair, or self-soothing. She explains how shame tends to cluster where people feel least experienced, why “functional” isn’t the same as emotionally integrated, and...

Host Kelly Jackson introduces the topic of rejection therapy as intentional exposure to hearing “no” to reduce fear, shame, and nervous-system reactivity, and then takes it deeper: it’s really about uncoupling outcomes from identity, becoming less approval dependent, and staying self-connected while being visible. She explains why rejection hurts (humans are wired for belonging), how social media...

Host Kelly Jackson shares a story from a hot day in Southern Louisiana when she tried repeatedly to outrun horseflies—only to later learn they can fly up to 90 mph—turning the experience into a memorable lesson about how humans keep using ineffective strategies because they feel productive. She connects the “running loop” to modern hustle culture and overstimulation, and to coping patterns like ov...