Empowered Conversations

Hilary Momberger Powers was introduced to drugs and alcohol in her early teens. Her life fell apart. She became a nurse, thinking she could heal her childhood wounds by helping others. But the trauma continued to drive her addiction and every decision she made. ‎‎In 1983, she entered recovery. And that was only the beginning of her healing. ‎‎Through decades of inner child work, therapy, and spiri...

LaTonya Flood is a Servant Leader, Kingdom Strategist, and founder of the True FACE Foundation. She's a Licensed Life Coach, author, and faith-driven entrepreneur who helps high-achieving women reclaim their identity and step into Holy Confidence. ‎‎Her work centers on one powerful truth: If you aren't intentionally becoming who you were designed to be, you slowly become a weaker version o...

She almost died. And then she turned 50. ‎For the first time in her life, Lisa Lacy could not simply "push through" and move on like nothing had happened. Something had shifted permanently. ‎Lisa spent decades in corporate education, healthcare consulting, and performance. She owned one of the only women-led Gracie Jiu-Jitsu training centers in the world. She built a life that looked imp...

Monica Crawford spent years in law enforcement and NCAA Division I gymnastics before building one of the most distinct coaching practices in the leadership space. She works with high-achieving women in leadership who are excelling professionally but running on empty physically. ‎‎Despite being a trained athlete who prioritized her health, chronic stress dismantled her body from the inside out – no...

Dr. Angelo Valenti is a consulting psychologist with over 40 years of experience. He shares the biggest difference between successful and unsuccessful leaders, the downsides of social media, and why people settle in relationships. In this episode of Empowered Conversations, we talk about: ‎‎- The biggest difference between successful and unsuccessful leaders ‎- The biggest changes in business over...

Justin Anderson sat down to write a generic fantasy novel as a side hustle. Four friends, magic swords, beat the villain, cash the check. Then his depression came out. His grandmother's cancer. The things he never talked about. Three months later, he had an entire universe built around grief, survival, and the invisible wounds people carry but never name. That universe is called the VaelorinVe...

Lisa Franz is a nutrition coach with a Master's in Exercise Science who helps people achieve lasting fat loss without giving up the life they love. She shares her own journey with food, why most people gain weight back, and her 'magic' ingredient for fat loss. In this episode of Empowered Conversations, we talk about: ‎‎- Lisa's own journey with food and body image ‎- Why most peop...

Jenny Hornby is a Licensed Professional Counselor who has been working with families for over 15 years to restore connection and heal broken relationships. She is trained in EMDR and play therapy, and she is passionate about bringing connection and compassion into our relationships with ourselves and others. ‎‎She wrote the children's book Made For This, which utilizes a playful approach of st...

Barb Nangle is a boundaries coach, speaker, author, and host of the Fragmented to Whole podcast. After nearly 40 years of therapy and personal development, she entered 12-step recovery at age 52, where she discovered that the real issue wasn't a lack of insight but a lack of internal safety. ‎‎Learning to build healthy boundaries became the turning point that transformed her relationships, emo...

Randy Duran is a mental health advocate who lived a double life of high-functioning self-destruction. He shares how he appeared successful while privately struggling with addiction, emotional instability, and self-destructive behavior. In this episode of Empowered Conversations, we talk about: ‎‎- How he appeared functional while privately struggling ‎- The role of substances, risky behavior, and...

PJ Glassey started personal training in 1987 and has been a research nerd ever since. He is the founder of X Gym, which features his signature 21-minute workout, twice a week – equivalent to about seven hours of traditional training. He is the author of Cracking Your Calorie Code and the inventor of the Brain Type Test, which helps people achieve health and fitness results much faster through tech...

R.L. Malpica, known as The E.A.T. Coach, is a Certified Detoxification Specialist, author, and holistic health advocate helping people reconnect with their natural state of wellness. He has overcome IBS, chronic headaches, eczema, and excessive weight gain through his E.A.T. Philosophy: Energy efficiency, Avoid acid-forming foods, and Toxicity elimination. ‎‎He is the author of Detox Yourself: The...

J. Rosemarie Francis is a mentor, author, and podcast host dedicated to redefining single motherhood. She shares her six-year journey to starting her podcast, the most damaging misconceptions about single moms, and the missing millions of mother-led households. In this episode of Empowered Conversations, we talk about: ‎ ‎- What was happening in the six years of waiting ‎- The most damaging miscon...

Tijana Tucic is a trauma survivor who transformed her pain into abundance. She shares her journey through sexual abuse, war, poverty, and an abusive family – and how she rewired her brain and built a successful life. She discusses what "rewiring her brain" looked like, how she transformed trauma into personal power, and what inspired her personal development journey. In this episode of E...

Jean Kropper combines the teaching of practical mental health skills and creativity to help people heal from stress, trauma, and PTSD in a way that is both highly effective and fun. She is the creator of the Meditative Drawing Workshop, a unique 30-day program that combines mindfulness with beginner-level art, breathwork, and grounding exercises. ‎‎Her journey began with her personal struggle with...

Darci Frankel is an Ayurvedic practitioner and founder of the Serious Cleanse Method with over 32 years of experience in detoxification and wellness. She explains why people still feel off despite eating healthy and exercising, the most common toxins affecting modern health, overlooked sources of toxic exposure, and the body's main detoxification pathways. In this episode of Empowered Conversa...

Briana Bass is a Christian romance and romantasy author who creates resources for women in tender seasons of faith. She shares how her faith journey shaped her writing, what she learned from fifteen years of youth ministry, and what the Church needs to understand about women quietly wrestling with their faith. She discusses what it means to be "in the middle," how to stay connected to Go...

Dr. Nicole Hayre is a board-certified dermatologist, MIT alum, and the researcher behind the "love hormone" glow. She specializes in the skin-brain axis and coding emotional biology into skincare. Her journey into science began at MIT, followed by medical school at GW, and research at Merck and the NIH, where she worked on the Human Genome Project. ‎‎She has discovered a direct clinical...

Steve Barton is an executive coach, author, and creator of The Game of Ten® – a powerful awareness-based framework helping leaders operate at their highest level of clarity, confidence, and performance. He has over 47 years of business experience, growing a company from $200,000 to $2 million in annual revenue, and has presented his coaching process to the Harvard Business School Case Study Team....

Tomide Akinola is the co-founder of Reviel, a proactive emotional intelligence platform helping people recognize stress patterns, prevent burnout, and regain control of their wellbeing before they hit a breaking point. After years of relentless pressure pushed him into burnout himself – nothing looked wrong from the outside, but internally, the constant drive and stress had taken a serious toll –...

Caroline Hood is a certified sex therapist, licensed clinical social worker, and author of the forthcoming book Sex Begets Sex: Reclaiming Desire as an Act of Female Empowerment. She holds a BA from Columbia University, an MSW from USC, and an executive certificate from Harvard Kennedy School. She is also a mother of three and has been in a committed partnership for eighteen years. ‎‎She challenge...

Stacey and Justin are professional mindset coaches who help high-capacity women stop fighting themselves and start operating from clarity instead of pressure. Their work goes beyond surface-level mindset shifts – they focus on behavior change, nervous system regulation, and pattern interruption because insight alone doesn't change behavior under stress. ‎‎They are the co-founders of The Fortif...

Steve Gamlin is The Motivational Firewood® Guy and Vision Board Guy who blew up his life at 35 and rebuilt it better than before. He shares his rock bottom moment – hitting golf balls in a thunderstorm – and how that became the turning point. He discusses vision boards, finding purpose, gratitude, positive self-talk, and the importance of knowing WHY you want something. He also shares how he found...

Christopher Castagnoli is the editor and publisher of Our Catholic Prayers, a website devoted to helping people in their spiritual journeys with Jesus and Mary through many different prayers for all occasions. He converted to Catholicism in 1999, baptized by John Cardinal O'Connor at Saint Patrick's Cathedral in New York City, and has served as an instructor for the Cathedral's RCIA pr...

Jacqueline Kelly is a Certified Mental Performance Coach and Strength and Conditioning Coach who helps athletes unlock their full potential. She blends mental coaching, strength training, hypnosis, and sleep science – because she believes that thriving in sports and in life requires a balance of mindset and physical readiness. ‎‎She has worked with athletes from high school competitors to elite pe...