MindShift Power Podcast

She’s tattooing eyebrows, but what she’s really rebuilding is confidence. We sit down with Tani Dipp, CEO and founder of Sway Brows, to talk about the moment your work stops being “just a job” and starts feeling like purpose. Tani takes us back to the messy beginning of learning microblading and permanent makeup while still working full-time in the fashion industry. The first clients are friends,...

If you’ve ever thought, “Why can everyone else do this so easily and I can’t?”, this conversation is for you. Fatima Bey sits down with Caitlin Fisher, a neurodivergent career coach with Colorful Futures in Ohio, to talk about late diagnosed ADHD, the hidden cost of “still getting it done,” and the moment a name for your brain can turn years of self-blame into real understanding.  We get specific...

A chatbot that always agrees with you can feel like peace, but it can also be a trap. We sit down with Tara Hodgson, an author, teacher, and mom, to talk about how AI companions and “make a friend” apps are changing teen mental health, adult loneliness, and the basic skills we need to function in the real world. We dig into why teens gravitate toward AI that never argues, never judges, and never d...

Your teen is getting career advice from a world that no longer exists and that gap can quietly shape their confidence, choices, and mental health for years. We sit down with Leah C. Murphy, CEO of Career Gems for the Journey, to get honest about what young people need now: a strong identity that is bigger than a job title, and a career strategy that can survive layoffs, industry shifts, bad manage...

You can have a roof over your head and still feel unwanted in your own home, and that kind of rejection doesn’t stay in childhood. It can quietly train you to chase approval, overachieve, and then carry that same hunger for acceptance into every relationship and every room you walk into.  I’m joined by Aisha Berry, a prophetess, author, coach, and speaker, for an honest conversation about childhoo...

Reparations debates often collapse into heat, defensiveness, and shutdown. So we tried something different: we followed the money. I’m joined by Susan Burgess-Lent (author and executive producer), Troy Jones (co-producer and co-director), and Dave Lent (co-producer and co-director) to unpack their documentary series The Invoice, a project that frames 250 years of racial injustice as an economic cr...

Your inbox is empty, rent is due, and every application feels like it vanishes into space. That’s the reality a lot of teens and young adults are living in the 2026 job market, so we brought back Lawrence C. Harris, a 20-year-old author and youth empowerment speaker from Philadelphia, to talk through what it takes to keep building when the door looks closed. We get real about the “grind” people do...

Someone you call “brother” should be the safest person in the room, not the biggest risk. That’s why this conversation hits so hard: Coco (Floco), a relationship and family coach from Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria, tells the story of being 14, home alone, and opening her bedroom door to someone her family trusted completely. What followed was an attempted molestation that only stopped because help happ...

Most people talk about autism. Far fewer can tell you what it actually feels like to walk into a workplace while autistic and wonder if the rules are about to change without warning. We sit down with Sam Mitchell, executive director of Autism Rocks And Rolls, for a raw, practical conversation about fear, literal instructions, and why a job that “looks fine on paper” can become overwhelming the mom...

What would you do if the news you were producing no longer felt like the truth? We sit down with author and activist Susan Burgess Lent, who walked away from broadcast journalism and chose to learn firsthand what conflict and poverty do to people, from post-genocide Rwanda to Darfur and the slums of Nairobi. She doesn’t romanticize humanitarian aid or conflict reporting. She tells the story the wa...

“Aren’t you glad you’re free?” sounds like a celebration, but for many young men coming home from prison it lands like pressure, confusion, and a thousand urgent questions. We sit down with Tavon J. Partlow Sr. from Maryland, founder of Re-entry Recovery and Beyond, to talk about the real first moments after incarceration and the parts most people never think to ask about. We get honest about the...

The “windowless van” story is not what puts most teens at risk. The real danger often looks like attention, gifts, flattery, and a private message that slowly turns into a demand. We sit down with Basil Bass, founder of the Association for the Recovery of Children, former CIA operative, and former U.S. Marine Corps captain, to talk plainly about how trafficking recruitment and grooming work in the...

Your body doesn’t “overreact” for no reason, and your habits aren’t random. We’re joined by Patty Cabot, a New York based author whose story cuts through diet culture and goes straight to the root: how childhood sexual abuse can shape weight, boundaries, self-worth, and the way we show up in relationships for decades. Patty shares how she spent more than 20 years gaining and losing 50 to 75 pounds...

You can be “high functioning” on the outside and barely surviving on the inside. That’s why this conversation hits so hard: Randy Lee Boslaw, an author, YouTube host, mental health advocate, and former high-level kickboxer, shares what it’s like to fight depression for decades before discovering in her mid-30s that she’s autistic. One sentence from her child set the whole thing in motion, and sudd...

Phones didn’t just change how teens communicate, they changed what it feels like to grow up. When a device becomes your social currency, your identity mirror, and your constant audience, pressure stops being an occasional thing and turns into a 24/7 weight you carry everywhere. We talk with Tara Hodgson, a teacher and young adult author from Alberta, Canada, about what she sees in the classroom th...

Someone you trust hurts you. You reach for the person who should protect you. Instead, you hear disbelief and blame. That moment can change how you move through the world, and it can take years to name what it stole from you. We sit down with Jojo Campbell, host of No Hard Feelings Kinda, to tell a story that’s painfully common and still rarely spoken out loud: sexual assault followed by family de...

A single college decision can feel like a verdict, and that pressure is warping how teens see themselves. We sit down with Linda Decker and Lisa Ruff, co-founders of the College Admissions Collective and authors of The Calm College Method, to name what’s really happening in modern college admissions: a high-anxiety system fueled by rankings, scarcity marketing, and social media noise that convince...

A teen who can’t read well isn’t just “behind in English” they’re locked out of vocabulary that fuels confidence, self expression, and real opportunity. That’s why this conversation with UK teen success coach and Switched On founder Claire Ford goes straight at the uncomfortable question: what are schools actually producing when reading for pleasure is at a 20 year low and students keep getting pu...

Your life can pivot on a decision you make in ten seconds and you usually feel the warning before you can explain it. I’m Fatima Bey, and I’m speaking straight to everyone under 21 with a rare solo message that’s raw, direct, and meant to keep you alive, free, and moving forward. I talk about the moment you ignore your inner voice because you don’t want to feel left out, you want to be wanted, or...

Grief doesn’t fade on a schedule, and it often hits hardest after everyone else has “gone back to normal.” I’m joined by Kelly Edmondson, a nurse, mother, and the founder and CEO of Timely Presence, to talk about the stretch of time most people overlook: the weeks and months after the funeral, when the texts slow down, sleep gets harder, and a teen can feel forgotten. We get specific about teen gr...

She didn’t just write a memoir about surviving foster care, abuse, addiction, and homelessness. She posted the records. Adrienne Caldwell joins us to talk about Unbroken, Life Outside the Lines and the decision to put her Children’s Protective Services case files, psychological evaluations, and counselor reports online as proof, context, and a public reclaiming of truth. We get into the uncomforta...

Someone taught a lot of us to get quiet. Not always with words, but with a look, a dismissal, a “you don’t know enough yet.” That lesson follows kids into adulthood, where low confidence turns into smaller choices and muted leadership. I sit down with Jackie Bailey, an international conversation coach and the executive director of the Speak Feed Lead nonprofit, to name the moment silence gets lear...

Think you need a title to lead? Think bigger. Leadership starts in small, daily choices—how you show up when no one is watching, how you treat people, and how boldly you stretch toward your potential. With leadership coach Leslie Nelson of Pivotal Connections, we dig into why growth isn’t optional, how to spot leaders in the making, and what to do once responsibility lands on your desk. We unpack...

What if fear isn’t failure—it’s silence before the first word comes out? We sit down with 13-year-old TEDx speaker Tanoushri Shriram to explore how tiny, consistent risks can transform a quiet voice into a confident one, even in a world where judgment feels nonstop. Tanoushri shares the moment a mentor nudged her to the front of a room without warning, and how that single push rewired her idea of...

Grief doesn’t hand out maps. We sat down with Guardian AIngels founder John Cammer to explore a simple but radical idea: what if your journal talked back with compassion, structure, and a voice that feels familiar enough to help you open up? John lost three close friends and spent years numbing the pain, until building an AI-guided journaling tool helped him finally cry and start the hard work of...