Beyond the Draft

What happens when a lifelong writer spends twenty-five years building a legal career instead, and then a global pandemic forces the choice back into his hands? H. A. Callum is a writer, poet, and educator from Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Before becoming an author, he spent over twenty-five years as a legal professional, working on some of the largest environmental, pharmaceutical, and financial ca...

Have you had your daily D.O.S.E. today, dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins? For Cathy Nesbitt, that's not a rhetorical question, it's a mission. Cathy Nesbitt is a multi award-winning environmental innovator and the founder of Cathy's Crawly Composters, Cathy's Sprouters, and Cathy's Laughter Club. For over two decades, she's been on a mission to put worms in every living space, growing...

What does it actually feel like to look in the mirror and not recognize your own face? Rowan Vale, writing under a pen name to protect his family's privacy, is the author of ENOUGH, a memoir about losing himself to addiction and the slow, unglamorous climb back. Seven months sober and still doing the daily work, he doesn't offer a tidy redemption arc, just the honest account of how a person actual...

What happens when you stop trying to be "good" and start listening to what your nervous system has been trying to tell you all along? Gazit Chaya Nkosi is an Autistic, AFAB trans/nonbinary, neurocomplex mystic and Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) provider who blends somatic parts work with nervous system regulation to help people who've tried every modality and still feel stuck in reactivity or disso...

What was it really like to be in a garage rock band chasing stardom in the mid-sixties, before any of it was called "classic rock"? Manny Freiser is the author of Tracks in the Sands of Time, Volume I, a memoir about his life in rock and roll. He co-wrote garage rock classics "Let's Talk About Girls" and "Cry a Little Longer" as a member of The Grodes, a band that rocked Tucson, Arizona from 1965...

What if your next podcast episode wasn't just downloaded, but experienced live, on a stage, with a real audience cheering you on? Jeff Revilla is the founder of Poduty Live, a podcast theater in Tarentum, PA, where creators turn their shows into live, monetizable events. With over 20 years in digital marketing and a decade in podcasting and live streaming, he's the author of The New Business Model...

What do you do when a cancer diagnosis, a failing relationship, and a decade of feeling like you're heading in the wrong direction all collide at once? For Janet Roberts, it became the beginning of not one, but two, complete career reinventions. Janet Roberts is a former global leader in cybersecurity education and an award-winning novelist. At 39, facing a cancer diagnosis with even odds of survi...

What if seeing the world had nothing to do with how much money you had, and everything to do with how smart you were with what you had? Linda King is the founder of The Smart Travelista, an author, travel writer, and travel coach with a background in travel agency work and banking. Her mission is simple: travel the world for less. Her latest book, Antics from Abroad: Hot Mess, brings her entertain...

What does professional wrestling have to do with writing a novel? More than you'd think. Chad Martin has lived more than one story worth telling, as an author, podcast host, certified personal trainer, internet radio station owner, and professional wrestler known as Big Daddy Storm. It took him fourteen years of writing, rewriting, and refusing to quit before he finally published his first novel,...

What does producing history with the Beatles have in common with writing a novel about Sasquatch? For Maxim Langstaff, it's the same instinct: chasing a great story wherever it leads. Maxim Langstaff is a Grammy- and Emmy-nominated writer and producer whose work has reached millions worldwide, from producing The Making of Sgt. Pepper with Sir George Martin, to creating John Denver's acclaimed Wild...

Nataliya Falevich immigrated to the United States from Russia at 22 and spent the next two decades building what most people would call a successful life, three master's degrees, a thriving business in New York City, and three children. By every external measure, she'd achieved everything she was supposed to want. But beneath it lived a deeper question: what happens when the life you've built no l...

What if finding your voice could become a lifelong adventure? In this episode of Beyond the Draft, Imma sits down with narrator, actor, voice actor, writer, and storyteller Kris Keppeler. Kris discovered her singing voice in junior high choir—and never stopped exploring what her voice could do. From musical theatre and acting to film, voice acting, podcasting, writing, and narrating more than 50 a...

She spent her career as an ICU nurse standing beside strangers in their final moments. And then the person in that bed was her mother. Theresa Evans is the author of Choosing to Die — a deeply compassionate memoir about supporting her mother through medical assistance in dying. For three months she tended her mother's garden while navigating anticipatory grief, and that garden became the most powe...

Jocelynn Flowers is the founder and CEO of J. Flowers Marketing, helping entrepreneurs scale without sacrificing connection or the heart behind their brand. In this episode, Jocelynn shares the unexpected marketing lesson she learned outside of marketing itself, what human-first marketing looks like in a world of AI and automation, and a sign that someone might be optimizing for the wrong kind of...

Sometimes the most beautiful words are born in the hardest seasons. In this episode of Beyond the Draft, Imma welcomes poet and author Autumn Williams, whose bestselling, Kirkus-praised collection Clouds on the Ground and chapbook WAVES transform deeply personal experiences into powerful reflections on resilience, hope, motherhood, creativity, and life with chronic illness. Autumn opens up about h...

What happens when a corporate marketing strategist and a children’s storyteller live in the same person? In this episode of Beyond the Draft, Imma sits down with Annie Wyatt, an author, illustrator, marketing executive, and storyteller whose world beautifully blends data, AI, business, creativity, and imagination. Annie shares how her work helping global technology companies build smarter marketin...

What happens when you stop living according to everyone else's expectations and start listening to your own voice? In this episode of Beyond the Draft, Imma sits down with Lynda Leonce, authenticity coach, author, mentor, and speaker. Lynda shares her journey of questioning, healing, and reconnecting with the person she truly was beneath fear, limiting beliefs, and expectations. They explore authe...

Dick Wybrow spent years in major-market radio and as a writer and producer for CNN before becoming a bestselling author of humorous science fiction and fantasy. He now lives and writes in New Zealand, helping aspiring writers get their books out of their heads and onto the page. In this episode, Dick shares what radio, television, and fiction each taught him about holding an audience's attention,...

Amy Lou Jenkins is an award-winning, best-selling author of four books, including Every Natural Fact. For years she mistook compliance for kindness and silence for respect, until nature taught her a different story. In this episode, Amy Lou shares the moment in the woods that helped her realize her voice was never "too much," where the cultural scripts that silence people, especially women, actual...

Corwin "CJ Moneyway" Johnson is a media entrepreneur, bestselling author, and host of The CJ Moneyway Show, ranked among the top 39 entrepreneurship podcasts in the United States. He's the author of Both Eyes Open and Both Eyes Shut, with his upcoming release, Faith Through Trials, exploring faith, discernment, and resilience through life's hardest seasons. Beyond his podcast, CJ is building Money...

Megan Lynch is the author of the upcoming psychological thriller HYMN FOR THE FORSAKEN, an American Gothic story about a girl's fight to protect her land, family, and identity when the tech giants move in. After surviving cancer and years of writing without finding the wide readership she believed her work deserved, Megan decided this would finally be the year her book reaches a bestseller list. I...

Pablo Yanez spent over a decade as a photographer before founding BeYourCover, an AI-powered tool that helps self-published authors create professional, print-ready book covers in minutes, no designer required. As a book cover photographer, he kept seeing the same problem: authors pouring months into their manuscripts, only to get stopped cold by a cover that felt too expensive or too hard to get...

Sometimes the storms we desperately want to escape become the experiences that transform us. In this episode of Beyond the Draft, Imma speaks with Bill Derrick, business leader, author, speaker, and President of Derrick Companies. After more than 50 years in the construction industry, Bill faced the Great Recession while leading his family business—and later received a diagnosis of multiple myelom...

Menopause doesn't have to mean the end of confidence, health, or joy. In this episode of Beyond the Draft, Imma speaks with Alison Bladh, award-winning Registered Nutritional Therapist, Beauty Therapist, international bestselling author of Have a Magnificent Menopause, and a leading voice in women's midlife health. Alison shares practical insights on nutrition, lifestyle, confidence, and changing...

What if talking about death could actually help us live more fully? In this thought-provoking episode of Beyond the Draft, Imma sits down with Liz Scott, a psychologist with nearly 50 years of experience, to explore one of humanity’s most uncomfortable subjects: mortality. Liz shares the deeply personal journey behind her book, You’re Going to Die But Not Me, including her long-standing fear of de...