Empowered & Out

In this powerful episode of Empowered & Out: The Career Coaching Podcast, Coach Jon sits down with Celeste Warren, a visionary leader, consultant, author, and former Vice President and Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer at a global Fortune 100 company. Celeste brings decades of experience helping organizations create more equitable, inclusive, and human-centered workplaces. She is also th...

In this episode of Empowered & Out: The Career Coaching Podcast, Coach Jon sits down with Ryan DeLuca, Managing Director of 25th Hour Regulatory Consulting, for a powerful conversation about confidence, bias, leadership, allyship, and what it means to navigate professional spaces as an LGBTQ+ person. Ryan brings nearly 20 years of experience in regulation, investigations, compliance, education...

Happy Pride, Everyone! 🌈 In this powerful episode of Empowered & Out: The Career Coaching Podcast, Coach Jon sits down with Andrew, founder of Person First Consulting, for a deeply honest conversation about identity, career transformation, workplace belonging, and what it means to rebuild after professional rejection. Andrew shares their journey from music education to higher education, ed te...

In this powerful episode of Empowered & Out, Coach Jon sits down with Deanna Scaldaferri, a licensed massage and bodywork therapist, to talk about healing, resilience, grief, toxic relationships, body-based healing, and what it really means to reconnect with your light after life has tried to dim it. Deanna shares how her own journey through grief, trauma, narcissistic abuse, and personal heal...

In this special episode of Empowered & Out: The Career Coaching Podcast , the tables are turned as Coach Jane returns — but this time, she is interviewing Coach Jon. This conversation gives listeners a more personal look at who Coach Jon is, why he became a coach, and what led him into the work of helping people rebuild confidence, rediscover purpose, and show up more authentically in their ca...

In this episode of Empowered & Out: The Career Coaching Podcast , Coach Jon sits down with Ken Breniman for a deeply honest, beautifully layered, and delightfully weird conversation about healing, grief, queer identity, mortality, psychedelics, burnout, primates, and what it really means to be human. Ken is a licensed clinical social worker, psychedelic-assisted grief therapist, death doula, p...

In this episode of Empowered & Out: The Career Coaching Podcast , Coach Jon welcomes back Jane Klein, a former corporate leader turned internship coach who helps college students land competitive internships and enter the workforce with more confidence, strategy, and direction. This conversation gets into the real challenges Gen Z students and early-career professionals are facing right now: i...

In this episode of Empowered & Out , Coach Jon sits down with Greg Mazzeo , a leadership psychologist, HR practitioner, consultant, and human-centered performance advocate, for a deep and timely conversation about what it really means to lead people well. Together, Jon and Greg explore the tension between performance and humanity at work — especially when identity, safety, language, and leader...

In this heartfelt episode of Empowered & Out , Coach Jon sits down with Kara Zajac , freelance writer, chiropractor, entrepreneur, musician, and author of The Significance of Curly Hair: A Loving Memoir of Life and Loss . Kara’s memoir takes place during the emotionally loaded week of her grandmother’s funeral — a week that cracked open grief, memory, identity, family history, and the truths w...

What does it really mean to belong at work? In this powerful episode of Empowered & Out , Coach Jon sits down with award-winning author, leadership strategist, and founder of Rhodes Perry Consulting, Rhodes Perry, to unpack leadership, burnout, workplace belonging, and why authenticity is more than just a buzzword—it’s survival. From working inside the White House and the Department of Justice...

What happens when the job that looks impressive on paper is quietly draining the life out of you? In this episode of Empowered & Out, Coach Jon sits down with returning guest Dani Brunetto, a career navigation coach based in Brussels, to talk about burnout in a way that goes far beyond “just being tired.”  Together, they unpack how burnout actually starts, why so many high-performing people mi...

In this powerful episode of Empowered & Out , Coach Jon sits down with returning guest Joseph Federico for a real, honest conversation about visibility, confidence, queer identity, entrepreneurship, and what it actually takes to build a life and career without shrinking yourself to fit in. Together, they unpack how fear, shame, burnout, masking, and old survival patterns keep so many LGBTQ+ pr...

In this deeply important and at times heavy conversation, Coach Jon sits down with Lucas Wilson — researcher, writer, and editor of Shame, Sex, Attraction: Survivor Stories of Conversion Therapy — to talk about the lasting impact of conversion therapy, evangelicalism, white Christian nationalism, and the long road back to self-trust. Luke shares his lived experience growing up in a conservative re...

In this episode of Empowered and Out, Coach Jon sits down with Phillip Hargrove, instructor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of Central Florida and former NASA Kennedy Space Center engineer, for a deeply honest conversation about authenticity, identity, and what it means to return to yourself. Phillip shares his journey from working at NASA to making a bold career pivot in...

What happens when your style, voice, or presence gets judged before your leadership ever does? In this episode of Empowered and Out, Coach Jon sits down with Aaron Roberts, an operations director at a leading fertility hospital in central London, to talk about leadership, identity, performance, and what it means to succeed without shrinking yourself to fit someone else’s version of professionalism...

What does it mean to come out later in life — and then learn how to live, work, and lead from that truth? In this powerful returning guest episode of Empowered & Out, Coach Jon welcomes back Aime Hutton for a deeper conversation about identity, self-acceptance, coming out in adulthood, and what it takes to feel safe and seen in the workplace. Aime shares her personal journey of coming out in h...

What does it look like to lead with integrity in an industry that still clings to outdated assumptions about masculinity and who “belongs”? In this episode of Empowered & Out, Coach Jon sits down with Chris Malden, owner of Prestige Security, to talk about coming out at 19, building credibility in a male-dominated field, and what real workplace inclusion actually requires. Chris gets honest ab...

What happens when you stop living on autopilot… and finally tell yourself the truth? In this episode of Empowered & Out, Coach Jon sits down with Mark Dembo — business leader, executive education professional at Cornell University, coach, and co-host of Coming Inside Out — to talk about the chapter so many people live quietly: coming out later in life, and what that changes in your confidence,...

In this episode of Empowered & Out, Coach Jon sits down with Dr. Steve Yacovelli (aka The Gay Leadership Dude) for a powerful conversation about what leadership looks like right now—especially for LGBTQ+ professionals navigating workplace change, performative allyship, burnout, and the rise of AI. Steve brings decades of experience in leadership development, organizational change, belonging, a...

In this episode of Empowered & Out, Coach Jon sits down with Ryan M. McCarthy for a sharp, honest, and surprisingly funny conversation about radical authenticity, visibility as strategy, and what it really takes to stay human inside high-pressure work cultures. 🧠✨ Ryan shares what it means to “translate yourself” across cultures and power structures, how identity can feel like a mask we’re c...

What does it really cost to keep editing yourself at work? In this episode of Empowered & Out , host Jonathan Barbe sits down with Dr. Ty McKinney (Calgary, Alberta) to talk about the brain-and-body toll of staying “less than fully you” on the job — especially for LGBTQ+ professionals. Dr. Ty lives at the intersection of neuroscience, psychology, leadership, and queer entrepreneurship, and he...

Queer Time, Becoming, and the Courage to Stay Visible — with Colin Belcourt What does it mean to live in the in-between? In this expansive and deeply honest episode of Empowered & Out , Jonathan sits down with writer and former HR/DEI leader Colin Belcourt , author of the forthcoming memoir The Blue Hour Gospel —a lyrical, fragmented exploration of queer time, self-erasure, survival, and the s...

What happens when you reach midlife and realize there’s more inside you waiting to be expressed? In this episode of Empowered & Out , Jonathan sits down with Emmanuel Denizot — a longtime film and television subtitler who spent over 25 years translating stories across cultures before choosing to rewrite his own. After turning 50, Emmanuel stepped into a bold pivot, launching Partant , a series...

What happens when a Gen Zer walks into a workplace that wasn’t built for them… and decides to remix the whole thing? 👀 In this episode, Jonathan sits down with Zach Conklin — a 3+1 business student at Elon University earning three degrees in four years (casual flex), juggling multiple jobs, entrepreneurial projects, and a front-row seat to how Gen Z is changing the future of work. They get into:...

What happens when authenticity isn’t just a buzzword — but a way of leading, parenting, and living? In this powerful episode of Empowered & Out , Jonathan Barbe sits down with Susan Cameron-Jung — a queer leader, foster parent, yogi, and Business Development & Inclusion Manager at Auscare Support in Sydney — for a deeply honest conversation about what it truly means to lead with heart. Sus...