Embracing Enough

Have you ever wondered whether men are having their own conversations about confidence, enoughness, and unlearning toxic narratives that they have been raised with? I wondered! And if you were, too then this episode is for you!  This week, I sit down with my two friends, Carson and Eddy, to unpack what they have been consciously working to unlearn around expectations of manhood and masculinit...

In this solo episode, I talk through my current unlearning of the belief that there is something "broken" about me and that I need fixing. A couple of weeks, I got some UNSOLICITED feedback from someone who called me out for being a coach and helping women out on their journey because I was clearly SO broken. Did it hurt when I heard it? Duh. I'm human. But I also didn't need to internalize it as...

In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Sylvia Kalcinski, a family and marriage therapist and the host of the Dr. Sylvia K podcast. She currently lives in Miami with her husband and son and has made it her mission to support people in finding courage, strength and the right tools to feel better through therapy.  Sylvia and I met during our book proposal group and felt this instant connection. We...

This week, I sit down with Carla Marconi and talk about the need to unlearn the outdated belief that we need to hustle and grind it out in order to be successful. After spending 10 years playing it safe and doing what she felt she was “supposed to” as a Marketing and Sales Specialist, she finally took the leap into a life she loves. And now, she is teaching other women how to do the same. Using he...

This week, I share my thoughts about the inextricable link between validation and belonging. It's no secret that so many women struggle with chasing external validation in everything they can reach for - in the jobs we covet, in the partners we seek out to the friendship circles we gravitate towards. But what I have found is that it has very little to do with craving acceptance and approval and mo...

In this week's episode, we sit down with Kristen D. Boice, a licensed marriage and family therapist and host of the Close the Chapter podcast. Based in Indiana, Kristen has spent the last 18 years as a psychotherapist helping people build healthy relationships, make life transitions, navigate grief and deal with the hard stuff life throws at us. She share her journey about what it took to become a...

In this week's episode, we unpack a topic that is so close to the bone for me and for so many of my sisters out there - and that is the need to be liked. I know that it has been the very thing that robs so many of us of the confidence we are building in ourselves because of our desperate need to know that others like us or approve of our decisions. Whether it shows up in continuous efforts to plea...

In this first episode of Season 3 of Embracing Enough (yay!), we're talking about the topic that I'm literally obsessed with and that is UNLEARNING. And I'm so obsessed with it that I've decided to dedicate an entire season of the podcast to unpacking all of the things that we have unlearned and still need to unlearn. Now, when I talk about unlearning, I’m talking about letting go of all of the st...

I'm re-releasing this special episode that I recorded from the beaches of Cartagena. I actually recorded this special episode as I walked on the white sands in quiet reflection. In fact, I recorded the episode on a day that I was having the MOST fun and realizing that my confidence has gotten a serious boost not from working on myself, but allowing myself to experience the fullness of this beautif...

In this episode, Dina sits down with fellow coach and friend Andrea Mancuso. Andrea was born, raised and currently resides in Brooklyn. She's a lover of psychology, a mental health advocate and has loved supporting people for as long as she can remember. But through it all, she has had her own share of hurdles to overcome that have all boiled down to her ability to trust herself enough to be vulne...

There are friends. There's family. And then there are friends who become family. In this episode, I sit down with Janet, Katrina and Roberta - three women I met in the most serendipitous of ways on a recent trip to Cartagena, Colombia.  On a day trip to a private island I went solo to for no other reason then to embrace my own fabulosity, I met four incredible women who just oozed confidence,...

In this episode, I reflect on the better part of the last year and all that I have made a conscious choice to let go of. Letting go was my intention for 2021 and it was the first time I tried on setting an intention as opposed to a resolution. Truth be told, I thought that 2021 was going to be different somehow. I began this year with so much hope along with a deep belief that it was going to be a...

In this week's episode, Dina sits down with Dr. Kinga Mnich, a social psychologist and executive coach who believes fiercely in the power of people.  Dr. Mnich has navigated living between cultures - from being a Polish refugee living in Germany, to studying in South Africa, to now living in the US. Her global perspective and her bonafide status as a global nomad has afforded her a unique per...

In this special (unplanned) episode in honor of Halloween, Dina unpacks the thing that she feels is truly scary (and no, we're not talking ghost stories). We talk about being stuck in the same place or situation for longer than you would like to admit - months, a year, hell, even YEARS! And she chooses to go deep in a topic that she typically shies away from - relationships, and more specifically,...

In this episode, Dina sits down with Marta Tomtas, a Quality of Life Coach who runs her own coaching practice Elevating Wellness Coaching. Marta shares her story of how she learned to fall in love with her body and what it took to get there. She also lets us into what she struggled the most with - people pleasing; and how ultimately she had to learn that the most important person worth pleasing wa...

In this week's episode, Dina sits down with Founder of Date Brazen, Lily Womble, an unconventional dating coach dedicated to helping women build a clear path to the best relationship of their life. Born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama and having moved to New York City where she calls home, Lily has always been deeply committed to supporting women and helping them thrive.  From starting a no...

As part of my #40to40 countdown, I'm bringing you another one of my lessons that I've learned through my almost 40 years on the planet. The lesson: be grateful for some solitude. Why are we so scared to be with ourselves. I unpack the real questions and what can be possible when we just get still.  Before the pandemic, I was constantly running. Running to happy hours with friends, teaching mu...

As part of my #40to40 countdown, I'm bringing you another one of my lessons that I've learned through my almost 40 years on the planet. The lesson: nobody ACTUALLY cares about your goals. The real question we need to be asking more consistently are not how will we achieve our goals, but what goals ACTUALLY matter to us? I've spent the majority of my life feeling safe and "on track" when I have had...

Let's talk about SEX baby! Wait, what?? If you ask a teen-aged boy what constitutes bad sex, he’s likely to talk about the fact that he wasn’t all that attracted or that he didn’t have an orgasm. If you ask a girl of similar age about bad sex, she’s going to talk about pain, humiliation, or degradation — something that just doesn’t come up with boys. She probably won’t even mention affirmative lac...

In this episode, Dina sits down with Vasavi Kumar, Founder of the Real Rich Community and the host of the Being Human with Vasavi podcast. Vasavi lets you know exactly who she is, because she has put in the work to really know herself. Through her membership coaching community, Vasavi helps women own their voice, story and message with confidence. She has built a space to help people who have visi...

The relationship a daughter has with her father is a special one. I think we could agree that a father has the potential to influence his daughter's life in a ton of ways - from her self-esteem, to her confidence, to self-image, and ultimately the relationships she forms with a partner. In today's episode, my Dad (Rocco Scippa) aka the Comeback Kid shares his reflections on his fair share of succe...

We all have to shake things up from time to time. In this episode, I decided to do something different and just speak from my heart. No script, no research, just me. Recording from my family's home in Massachusetts, I explore what has been my dirty little payoff to staying stuck in certain patterns with my family and how they come back in full FUEGO whenever I come home. Something about this trip...

Growing up in the Amish culture, Emily always questioned why her family and community lived differently. She always felt a little different growing up, not all that interested in the traditional roles of sewing, cooking and cleaning that Amish girls are taught to do. And yet, she always found herself wondering was there more to life out there? At 17, she found out, taking the decision to leave the...

I'm not a fan of uncertainty, but I've had to get real comfortable with the discomfort of not always knowing what is to come. In this episode, I unpack the real reasons why you hate uncertainty - one of the reasons being is because your brain hates uncertainty. Uncertainty equals danger; and when your brain doesn't know what’s around the corner, it can’t keep you out of harm’s way. It always assum...

I am a big proponent of forgiving yourself, but I get how much easier it is said than done. This week's episode unpacks how to get to a place where you can truly accept that things that have happened to you are not your fault; however it is your responsibility to forgive. And forgiveness always begins with yourself. It can be difficult to stop faulting others for how their faults have impacted our...