The Honest Mic

Jody Layne has spent more than 25 years in digital marketing and business development, building companies, managing teams, and learning firsthand what it takes to turn expertise into a business that actually works. One of her biggest successes was building Barnett & Murphy, a digital marketing agency that grew to more than $3 million in revenue. But she has also experienced what it feels like when...

Venchele Saint Dic has built a career around the power of words, public health, and helping people navigate the moments that can fundamentally change the direction of their lives. She is the author of Journey to Redemption and Faith in the Amazon best-selling Passport to Self-Discovery Volume 2, as well as Why Do I Want to Get Married?, a guided journal designed to help people gain clarity before...

For many women, healing from trauma can feel like an endless process of revisiting the past. But Anissa Hudak challenges the idea that healing has to mean reliving painful experiences for years. A two-time sexual trauma survivor, daughter of a Vietnam Veteran, military spouse, and founder of Phoenix Women Healing, Anissa has dedicated her work to understanding what happens when trauma becomes embe...

Marta Simeonova spent years inside organizations where managers were drowning. Not because they were incompetent, but because the systems around them were chaotic, political, and constantly shifting. She watched talented people burn out, teams collapse under unclear expectations, and leaders get blamed for problems they never had the tools to solve. Eventually, she realized something uncomfortable...

Jocelynn Flowers spent two decades becoming the person people could count on. From community lifeguard to swim coach, office receptionist, professional organizer, event manager, and eventually digital marketing strategist, every role sharpened the same instinct: understand what people need, make their experience better, and build relationships that last. That instinct became the foundation of J. F...

Connor Tyson grew up watching his parents fight under the stress of debt and a failed business. He vowed to break the pattern. He earned a degree in Finance, became a stockbroker on Wall Street, and thought he was doing everything right. Then he ended up $60,000 in debt and couldn't see a way out. That experience forced Connor to confront something he hadn't expected: knowing what to do with money...

Jonathan Brandt and his wife Kristie built GoOutLiving from a journey neither of them expected to take. Kristie was diagnosed with cervical cancer. A little over a year later, Jonathan was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Together, they navigated treatment, recovery, and the lasting effects that came with both experiences. When they couldn't find all the answers they were looking for, they began...

Before 2010, Tim Malm was living the life he'd worked toward for years. A three-time National High School Finals Rodeo qualifier and the 2009 National High School Reserve Champion in Tie-Down Roping, he had built his identity around the arena, his faith, and the cowboy way of life. Then a life-changing accident forced him to imagine a future that looked nothing like the one he'd planned. Instead o...

Leadership is easy to talk about when everything is going according to plan. The real test comes when a decision goes wrong, a mistake becomes visible, the pressure rises, and everyone is watching what you do next. Silvia Rizzo works at the intersection of high-performance sport and business, drawing on years of experience in environments where mistakes are visible, outcomes matter, and performanc...

Most small businesses know cybersecurity matters. The problem is that knowing you should protect your business and knowing where to actually start are two very different things. Michele Novack has spent 30 years working across financial services and cybersecurity, and she founded CardinalsByte to help professionals and small businesses understand the risks they're facing without getting buried in...

Drew Dorenfest spent years doing work for some of the biggest names in entertainment, editing for brands like Netflix, Apple, Warner Bros., and the NFL. Then he decided to bet on himself. Leaving full-time employment and eventually launching his own LLC meant learning a completely different side of business. Suddenly, being good at the work wasn't enough. He was pitching, cold-emailing, posting on...

What if the life you're working so hard to build isn't actually the life you want? Amy Lenius has spent years learning that success isn't just about achieving more. It's about knowing yourself well enough to decide what "more" actually means to you. As Director of Group Coaching at Next Level University, a professional speaker, MC, and personal development and success coach, Amy helps people rebui...

Shaun Dawson didn't start Raising Men because he had all the answers about raising boys. He started it because he was looking for them. As a husband, father of two, and tech leader, Shaun found himself asking a question a lot of parents quietly wrestle with: what does it actually take to raise a boy into a man of strength, character, and emotional resilience in today's world? Rather than pretend t...

What does it actually mean to be successful? Albert Butler has spent more than 25 years as a CPA, advising businesses and leaders on the numbers that determine where they've been, where they stand, and whether they're prepared for what's ahead. But after a career built around financial strategy, he came to understand that the most important numbers in life aren't always found on a balance sheet. A...

For most of her life, Ania Hulsman thought something was wrong with her. Too intense. Too weird. Too much going on inside. So she learned to adapt. To read the room. To become whoever the room needed her to be. She became very good at performing competence, even when the effort of doing so was quietly exhausting her. Then, when her five-year-old son was flagged as potentially autistic or ADHD, Ani...

At 50, Pat and Ralph Wanner had built a comfortable life in Colorado. Then they decided to leave it behind. Together, they set off on bicycles from Alaska toward Panama, navigating thousands of miles with paper maps, mechanical failures, extreme weather, polar bear territory, and the kind of pressure that can test even the strongest relationship. What started as an extraordinary adventure became s...

For a lot of growing businesses, investing in employees sounds like something to worry about later. First, you need revenue. Then you need growth. Then, once the business is big enough, you can finally start thinking seriously about your people. Sandra Coker thinks that's backwards. As the founder and CEO of Human Power Solutions, Sandra has spent more than two decades helping organizations build...

Some leaders don't struggle because they lack capability. They struggle because they're trying to lead inside a system that wasn't built for how they think. Judith Germain has spent more than 25 years helping senior leaders, business owners, and leadership teams navigate exactly that tension. As a multi-award-winning leadership consultant, trainer, keynote speaker, and creator of Maverick Leadersh...

Being great at what you do doesn't automatically make you great at leading people. Po'okela Mossman learned that the hard way. He started his career as a carpenter, eventually building his own contracting business. He knew how to work hard, solve problems, and deliver. But when he hired his first business coach, he encountered a realization that changed the way he thought about success: technical...

The world of work has changed. But most people are still following a career playbook that no longer exists. Julie Gartell has spent more than 20 years on the other side of the hiring table, leading Talent Acquisition for brands including Saks Fifth Avenue, Coach, kate spade, Stuart Weitzman, and MediaCom. She's reviewed thousands of resumes and interviewed candidates ranging from interns to CEOs....

Most people assume success has an expiration date. They believe that if they haven't achieved their biggest goals by 30, 40, or even 50, they missed their opportunity. Chad Betz knows that feeling because he lived it. Years ago, Chad was sitting alone in his car in a parking garage after work. On paper, he looked successful. Yet he found himself asking: 'After all this work, why doesn'...

Ellen Lubensky is a Stanford-educated attorney who practiced Social Security Disability and medical malpractice law. She spent 20 years physically disabled by tardive dystonia caused by psychiatric medications. The very medications meant to help her caused the harm. That's not a story. That's a betrayal. Today, Ellen speaks publicly about psychiatric medication harm, withdrawal, and the le...

What holds us back in the workplace is rarely our ability to do the work itself. It's the fears, doubts, and insecurities we bring to our interactions with others. The worry that someone will discover you're not as capable as they think you are. The anxiety that you have nothing valuable to contribute. The fear of asking for help because it might expose you as unqualified. Kim Meninger is a leader...

Tijana Tucic was born in Yugoslavia in 1977. Before she ever discovered healing, she endured sexual abuse, civil war, bombings, poverty, and years of life without basic comforts. She grew up in a house made of hay and mud without electricity, lived without a bathroom for 37 years, and married at 21 to escape an abusive father, only to find herself in another difficult situation. By the time she be...

JonRobert Tartaglione has spent more than a decade pursuing one question: What moves people? Not in a manipulative way. Not in a sales pitch. But genuinely. What makes people think differently, behave differently, and choose differently? JonRobert is a psychologist and behavioral scientist, as well as the Founder and CEO of Influence 51. He is an expert on influence, persuasion, and strategic comm...