Empowered & Out

What happens when the life you planned no longer fits the person you are becoming? In this episode of Empowered & Out: The Career Coaching Podcast , Coach Jon sits down with Joshlyn Peace—a multidisciplinary artist, writer, sculptor, published author, model, and creative leader—for an honest conversation about identity, grief, workplace leadership, creativity, and starting over. Joshlyn shares...

What does it actually mean for a church to be LGBTQ+ affirming — not simply welcoming, but genuinely safe, inclusive, and committed to belonging? In this powerful episode of Empowered & Out: The Career Coaching Podcast , Coach Jon is joined by Reverend Liz Patz, pastor of St. Paul’s United Church of Christ in Elgin, Illinois, and returning guest Maya Garner for an open and deeply personal conv...

What happens when the career title you worked so hard to earn no longer reflects who you are—or the life you want to build? In this episode, Coach Jon sits down with Malcolm Chen, an investor relations manager, entrepreneur, career advisor, community builder and proud cat daddy based in Singapore. Malcolm shares how his unconventional career journey took him through hospitality, human resources, m...

What does it really mean to be authentic at work? In this episode of Empowered & Out: The Career Coaching Podcast , Coach Jon sits down with Amanda Millar—lawyer, ADHD coach, leadership consultant, suicide prevention trustee, and the first openly LGBTQ+ President of the Law Society of Scotland—for an honest conversation about authenticity, leadership, inclusion, and mental wellbeing. Together...

What happens when you stop living for everyone else's expectations and finally start living for yourself? In this deeply honest conversation, Coach Jon sits down with Steven Whyte —lawyer, coach, former Mr. Gay Scotland, marathon runner, and confidence coach—to explore what it truly means to reinvent yourself. Steven shares his journey from growing up gay in Scotland during the 1980s, hiding parts...

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...