Grateful Living

Karl Omar Lawrence has published 3 poetry books so far in his young career. Topics Covered in this Interview: - Karl's upbringing growing up in the Bronx, NY and his Jamaican background - Karl's low points in life and how he mentally got himself in a better place - Karl's introduction to writing poetry, his influences and when he started writing - The topics and themes of Karl's 3 books - Karl's c...

Samuel P. Lalanne is an Executive Director at Morgan Stanley and the Global Head of Diversity & Inclusion for the firm's Institutional Securities Group (ISG). Previously, Sam spent 19 years at Citi in various leadership roles including as a Senior Vice President of Citi’s Global Diversity and Talent Management team, an HR corporate center function. Topics Covered in this Interview: - Sam's fam...

Stanley Crooke is the founder and former CEO of Ionis Pharmaceuticals for over 30 years. He has published more than 500 scientific publications, edited more than 20 books, has numerous patents, and led the development of more than 23 drugs that have been commercialized. He is also the founder and CEO of n-Lorem foundation, a non-profit looking to create individual treatments for patients with ultr...

Katie Diasti is the Founder of Viv, an earth-friendly direct-to-consumer period care brand innovating in the sustainable consumer goods space. In this interview, I talk to Katie about her life and business journey. Topics Covered: - Katie's background as an Egyptian American - Katie's respect for her mom being a single mom and how that's shaped her - Katie's experience with her period, what she's...

Triston Francis is currently a Consultant at Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in the Singapore Office.    He is a Harvard MBA Graduate of 2019 and a Wharton graduate of 2014.   Triston's prior experience also includes working at Morgan Stanley for 6 years in Investment Banking, Sales & Trading Associate, Client Strategy and Human Resources.    Topics Covered in this Interview:  - Triston's Biracial B...

Fei is a 1st generation immigrant from China to the United States.    After studying at Northeastern University, she worked in the corporate world for 10 years.   Throughout her journey in the corporate, she knew at some point she wanted to start her own company. In February of 2016, she formed Feisworld LLC.   Among the many things Fei has done - she has her own podcast, produ...

Stop worrying about what others think of you   Instead, think   Am I taking the actions that are putting myself in a position to make myself happy and to better myself?

5 years ago Jenny’s husband lost his battle with glioblastoma, a type of brain cancer. In the years following her husband’s passing, Jenny searched for resources/communities for widowed parents and found there weren’t that many resources/communities to help those going through this experience. So, in November of 2018, she launched the Widowed Parent Podcast to help those in this grieving processes...

Christine O'Donnell is the Owner of Beacon Gallery, a contemporary art gallery in Boston's South End which showcases emerging and mid-career artists working in the contemporary arts.    Some topics we covered: Christine’s love for travel and foreign languages and where that came from Christine’s experience living abroad for 10 years in France, Hong Kong and Singapore Christine’s experien...

Keith Benson, Ed. D. started his career as a social studies teacher for 8 years in Camden, New Jersey, he then worked as an education program specialist for 6 years for the Camden City School District, and then in August of 2017 he was elected President of the Camden Education Association.    In this interview, Keith talks about: - His Life Journey and Juggling Multiple Identities (he lived in a p...

Osamase Ekhator is a poet, writer and author of "Situationship" - a collection of poems detailing his journey with love and race as an African American. “Situationship” was invited to the 2019 Brooklyn Book Festival on behalf of AZURE Literary Group. Topics Hit On In the Interview: - Osamase describes his upbringing and life story: his Nigerian background, going to a charter school for high school...

After working as a Residential Coordinator in the private mental heath field, Sean saw that though they were doing great work, the work was only available to those with access to a tremendous amount of money (for example, a 3 months stay at these facilities could cost $90,000).    Sean felt economic standing should not determine whether people had access to these services.   So, in 2017 he co-foun...

Kaliya Johnson is a former women's professional hockey player (Kaliya played for Connecticut Whale and the Boston Pride) and a former Division 1 Hockey player at Boston College but she's a rare breed in the sport as an African American.    Kaliya talks about her journey in the hockey world and what it was like often being the only African American on the ice rink. We also dive into a bunch of othe...

Kwani A. Lunis is multimedia journalist - she is currently the Social Media Producer at NBC 10 Boston & NECN. Previously, she was at NBC Sports Boston for 4 years - she started as a Production Assistant for TV/Digital and then later was Social Media Coordinator. In this interview, Kwani and I talk about her life journey - growing up in Orange, New Jersey, the influence of her Haitian background, g...

Ado Kawuba is a former Division 1 Soccer player at Boston College and now currently runs Dope Promotions Group, a premier integrated marketing, promotions and events activation company that specializes in entertainment and hospitality. Ado talks about being born in Uganda, living in the Netherlands from ages  2-7 and then moving to the United States, and what those transitions were like. Ado then...

Jon Feinman is the founder and executive director of InnerCity Weightlifting, a non-profit that helps at risk-youth by providing meaningful career tracks in and beyond personal training.    InnerCity Weightlifting, founded in 2010, now has 15 employees supporting 199 students.    In light of George Floyd's death and the protests going on, Jon also provides his own perspective to people on his own...

Adam Burak is currently a Consultant at the Winkler Group.   Adam dealt with substance abuse, an alcohol addiction and binge drinking in his high school and college years. He talks about his journey of how always wanting to be the entertainer in his group led to binge drinking, what led him to  acknowledge the problem, the steps he took to become sober and maintain his sobriety, how supp...

I speak to A. Sherrod Blakely about his professional journey from print journalism to digital journalism to TV journalism.    Blakely has worked for the Post-Standard in Syracuse, the ACC Writer in North Carolina, MLive.com as the Detroit Pistons NBA Writer, and now is a Digital Media NBA Reporter at NBC Sports Boston.    Blakely talks about how he initially thought he would go to school for chemi...

Crossover Basketball and Scholars Academy is an international basketball program in India committed to going beyond the teaching of the sport and into providing educational opportunities for all students regardless of socio-economic status.   I talk to Shaun about his journey growing up in Canada and then later in the United States in the 1980s and 1990s as a brown-kid and the differences between...

Kerri is currently President and COO of Playeasy and is a color commentatorfor the ACC Digital Network ! She is also a former Boston College Women's basketball star (she finished with over 1000 points in her 4 year career at Boston College).  Playeasy Website: https://www.playeasy.com/ Kerri's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kerrishields10/?hl=en Grateful Living Website: gratefulliving4.com ...

I sit down with actress, model, comedian and singer Caroline Portu.  We talked about her journey in college of doing theatre at Boston College, her journey doing auditions in the film industry and being cast in Blood and Money featuring Tom Berenger, and I Feel Pretty with Amy Schumer, her comedy sketches on Youtube, and her singing career.

For those going through the loss of a loved one, or through tough economic times, I try to give my thoughts on how to practice gratefulness through it. 

I talk to Ben Stevens about growing up in a multicultural household, his experience trying out for the Voice, the formation of Juice as a band at Boston College and how the group decided not to take the “safe route” of taking corporate jobs after graduating and instead became full-time with the band. We also talked about the effects of being a full-time artist on Ben's personal life and his hopes...

I talked to Obi about being the son of Nigerian immigrants, what it was like going through his parents’ getting divorced at a young age, his amazing track and field career at Boston College breaking 10 school records, and then his journey of leaving a corporate job to becoming a successful full-time model and actor.

I give 6 pieces of advice to think about before starting a relationship