Empowered Conversations

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...

Ryan Reichert served 23 years in the U.S. Army, retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel after forty-two months in combat. After military service, he translated his skills into the Fortune 500 world. But behind the accolades, Ryan struggled with alcohol addiction – and found his way through faith, recovery, and a relentless commitment to transformation. ‎‎He is a professional speaker, mindset trainer, exe...

Jihane Laraichi is a coach, therapist, and energy healer who helps people identify and release the invisible blocks holding them back – personally, professionally, or physically. She blends coaching, therapy, and energy work to guide clients through deep transformation. ‎‎She helps listeners understand the root causes of their challenges – whether they stem from birth circumstances, past-life impr...

Shaun Dawson is a husband, father of two, and tech leader who – like many dads – is figuring out what it really means to raise boys in today's world. He is the creator of the Raising Men podcast, which began as his own search for guidance while raising his son in a world that often misdefines masculinity. ‎He sits down with leading voices in parenting, mental health, leadership, and boyhood de...

Russell Anders is a science fiction and cyberpunk author who spent decades finding his voice. He shares his path to publication, including the bloated manuscript he wrote over a decade and the rejection he faced. In this episode of Empowered Conversations, we talk about: ‎- Russell's path to getting published – and what it taught him about persistence ‎- The bloated manuscript he wrote over a...

Julie Hutton has been a success coach for 39 years. She helps people experience a profound, irreversible realization of their own beauty and inner brilliance – the kind that changes how they live forever. She believes that true self-love solves everything. Not egoic arrogance – but true self-love. ‎‎She offers one free scholarship each month for her 3-day private retreats (normally $4,000) to supp...

Kimberly Miller is the founder and primary Bible teacher of Woman at the Well Ministries – a ministry rooted in the encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman in John 4. She is a minister, evangelist, Christian author, and certified Biblical Life Coach. Called to ministry from a young age, she is devoted to helping others deepen their relationship with God and apply Biblical truth in everyday...

Vesta Hurlbutt is an empowerment strategist, cardiovascular technologist, Ho'oponopono practitioner, health coach, and single mother. She works with strong women and men who have forgotten their power and want it back. As a single mother and provider, she has tested the tools that cultivate self-love and compassion in the throes of stress and responsibility. ‎ ‎In this episode of Empowered Con...