Empowered Conversations

Shang Olsen is a Danish clinical psychologist, author, and chairwoman of the MCT Institute Denmark, specializing in overthinking, anxiety, and emotional regulation. She used to be a big overthinker herself, so she knows firsthand how exhausting it can be to feel caught in your own mind. Through her clinical work and research in metacognition, attachment, and overthinking, she helps people step out...

Laura Sharp-Waites is a licensed minister and the voice behind At the Counter with the Baking Pastor. She creates space for people to slow down, breathe, and reconnect with God in the middle of everyday life – especially in seasons that feel heavy, uncertain, or hard to name. Through gentle conversations and honest reflection, she walks alongside those navigating burnout, grief, and life's in-...

Shannon Curtis is the founder of Angel Goddess Healing, a sanctuary that helps individuals heal from trauma, break free from addiction, and deepen their spiritual connection to their higher self. She is the author of No More Monsters Under the Bed: Shining Your Light on the Dark, a heart-led children's book designed to gently guide young readers and their caregivers through healing from fear a...

Daniel McDavid is a financial transformation speaker, entrepreneur, and author of The Psychology of Bad Credit. He helps people understand the behavioral, emotional, and psychological patterns that often keep them financially stuck – long before those struggles appear on a credit report. His message goes far beyond credit scores and dispute strategies – focusing instead on shame, discipline, emoti...

Dr. Tim Hill is a licensed professional counselor, educator, speaker, and storyteller who has spent his career at the intersection of mental health, relationships, and real life. He holds a Doctor of Education degree and works daily with individuals, couples, and families – bringing cultural fluency into every room. He is the creator of the Video Game Leadership Lab, STUCK, and the D.O.P.E.R. Toge...

Dennis McCurdy started working at 12 years old and barely made it through high school – graduating eighth from the bottom. At 24, he failed in real estate and had to reboot his career. By 36, he had accumulated a net worth of over a million dollars. He is a financial advisor, entrepreneur, author, Air Force veteran, and seasoned business owner who has successfully launched ten businesses and autho...

He was released from the U.S. prison system in 2004. Over twenty years later, he's a certified trauma-informed coach, author, and founder of Shame Free Life Coaching. His mission is to help men breathe again and resurrect spiritual strength when life throws bricks at them. Ronald "Zion" Roseboro is a certified trauma-informed coach, professional life coach, and inventor of the "...

Allen Imbarrato has spent more than 30 years building software that helps businesses run smarter – and over the past decade, he has turned his focus to creating tools that help people live better. He is a CEO, author, speaker, and veteran software developer. But he also spent a decade living in an ashram, practicing and teaching mindfulness-based meditation. His latest innovation is KiFlow, a mobi...

Massimo Rigotti is an acclaimed addiction recovery advocate and the creator of the groundbreaking SOBER Method™. His own battle with both bipolar disorder and addiction led him to discover the hidden reserves of confidence within himself – propelling him towards recovery and personal growth. He is the author of Flavors of Confidence: A Reflection for Those in Need. In this episode of Empowered Con...

Stephan Alheim is the founder of TA4 Fitness and a health and performance coach who works with adults over 40. After 20 years in IT, he now helps busy professionals reverse stiffness, rebuild strength, and train for the next 30 years – not just for the mirror or aesthetics like most traditional fitness programs. His work is deeply personal. The sudden loss of his father in 2015 forced him to reass...

Byron Athene is a philosopher, counselling psychotherapist, certified mindset coach, NLP practitioner, clinical supervisor, trainer, hypnotherapist, and author. He has been interested in philosophy and psychology since 1991. He has lived with a debilitating stutter his whole life – and found refuge in office jobs until he developed a growth mindset and decided to put what he had learned into pract...

Meme Mulugeta is the founder of The Legacy Project and CEO of The 1 and Only Publishing Company. After nearly 20 years in business and finance, she had a divine interruption – God placed it on her heart to write her own book, and that single act of obedience unlocked a greater calling to help others do the same. The Legacy Project helps individuals preserve their life story through professional do...

Timothy Allen is a pastor and prison chaplain of 20+ years, author of Before The Fall, and founder of the Romans10Nine Bible study app. With a background in engineering and a successful corporate career, he helps believers move past surface-level faith into a deeper walk with Christ. He has sat with believers at every stage – from new converts wrestling with hard questions to long-time church memb...

Dr. Natalie Luke is a PhD executive, Senior Vice President, and host of UnCeiling You. She is on a mission to fix the real cause of burnout in high performers – not the workload, but the broken responsibility structures underneath it. The year her house burned down, her organization asked her to publish fifteen peer-reviewed papers. Most professors produce one or two. She had a destroyed home, a f...

Ulrike Seminati knows what it means to lead as an introvert and to thrive by communicating with authenticity, not volume. Before becoming a globally active coach, she navigated the corporate world herself, rising to a C-level executive position in the healthcare industry. She helps introverted professionals find their voice, strengthen their presence, and build influence – without having to "...

For years, Kathleen White thought the problem was everyone else. Raised in a dysfunctional family, she developed deeply ingrained codependent patterns that followed her into friendships, work, family dynamics, and eventually a marriage to a narcissist. On the outside, she looked caring and dependable. Internally, she was exhausted and constantly trying to earn love. Now she is the founder of Phoen...

Niki Borger moved to the US in 2018 to pursue acting. Over 7.5 years, she lost all her parents and grandparents in tragic ways. Instead of falling into depression, she turned her grief into creativity. She wrote In-Between: Eight Gender-Neutral One-Act Plays Between Life and Death – a collection of interconnected plays set in the liminal spaces between life and death. She is an international write...

Melissa Smith spent nearly twenty years inside organizations trying to solve one problem: why capable people stop performing. Most of the time, the issue wasn't attitude or talent – it was the environment and what it had stopped demanding from people over time. Then she started noticing the same thing in families. Kids with supportive parents, good schools, and every opportunity – yet still st...

Patti Comeau-Simonson doesn't speak from a podium. She pulls up a chair, pours you something warm and nourishing, and tells you the truth: grief is hard. Healing is a long road, and there is hope. There is a way back to finding joy. She is a Peer Grief Specialist and author who turned the worst years of her life into a career helping others survive loss, death, and the weight of grief. In this...

Dr. MonaLisa Coburn is a lifelong teacher whose work bridges consciousness, spirituality, and practical personal transformation. After years of teaching in the physical world, her spirit team asked her to begin teaching the principles of One Consciousness – a request that opened an entirely new chapter of her life and work. She is the Amazon-bestselling author of Downloads From One Consciousness a...

Dr. Katie Eastman helps people answer one powerful question: Where's the peace in this? Through her work in grief, change, and leadership, she guides others to find clarity, purpose, and peace, even in life's hardest moments. She has over 35 years of experience helping people move through loss and change. She is the creator of The Percolate Peace Project and the author of The Peace Guidebo...

Jonathan Brandt and his wife Kristie were diagnosed with cancer within a year of each other – she with Cervical Cancer, he with Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Together, with the attitude of "GoOutLiving," they fought through treatments and side effects by utilizing modern medicine and a holistic approach. After surviving, Jonathan found himself dealing with weight gain and gut issues. Not findi...

After a 20-plus-year marriage ended, Trena Briscoe Matthews found herself asking the question she now hears from every client: what does my life look like now? With three children, a career that took her through the CIA and Cisco Systems, and a future that looked nothing like she planned, she had to find her own way through. That journey became the Phoenix Protocol – the framework she now uses to...

Beth Brookhart is living proof that it is never too late to achieve a lifelong goal. At age 67, she published her first book – the humorous historical fiction The Four Queens of the Buttonbush Museum. Drawing on seventeen years serving on her local historical museum board, she highlights the ways volunteers can save an organization – or wreck it. She is a former agricultural journalist, and she an...

Eric Robinson spent 12 years in Christian ministry – pastoring a Baptist church in Western New York – and then served 24 years as an FBI special agent. He worked white-collar crime, counterterrorism, crimes against children, gangs, drugs, and public corruption. He was a SWAT operator for 15 years, a firearms instructor, and a tactics instructor. He will soon release his first book, a collection of...