My Fourth Act Podcast

Franchesca D’Amore is a  certified professional life coach, medium, reiki master, card reader  and a self-described  “goddess extraordinaire.”  Franchesca has been a  serial entrepreneur in the health and wellness industry  where, among many accomplishments, she had her own South Florida salon, The Hair Shop, and was Founding President of the non-for-profit...

Flora Proverbo  is an  anti-aging activist from Argentina  who works to change the current storytelling about post-50 life. Her career in  strategic planning and innovation  began in Miami and led her to work in NYC, Los Angeles, Shanghai, Madrid, Moscow and Latin America, with major global brands like Nissan, Nestle and eventually serving as Head of Strateg...

Karen Correa, Ph. D ., has been a professional in the life sciences field for the last 30 years and currently serves as  VP and Head of Global Clinical Operations for Takeda . Karen has another foot in the world of beauty pageants. She is a former  Miss New Jersey  and just this year competed again, and won, the title of  Mrs. New Jersey . She continues to happily mentor other...

Stephan Thieringer  is a German-born serial entrepreneur, business thinker, executive coach, investor, TEDx speaker, and the Founder and CEO of the Boston-based  Human Innovation Garage . Stephan’s extensive professional expertise includes serving as Senior Lecturer in Management and Entrepreneurship at  Suffolk University  and, for a little while, as Director of Oper...

Vitaly Geyman is an  explorer  who celebrates creativity. Born in the Ukraine, Vitaly has spent large portions of his life in Australia, The United States and currently resides on a small island in Croatia. His career involves substantial  work with Amazon, Siemens, and Telecom Australia , serving as a  Marketing and Management professor  at RMIT University, and funding as...

Alan Hughes is an  Argentinian-born chef, restaurateur, rock’n roller and inveterate world traveler . He began his career in some of New York’s finest restaurants – The River Café, Sarabeth’s, Union Square Café – and did a stint as private chef in Gracie Mansion, New York City’s mayoral residence, under mayors Ed Koch and David Dinkins. In Miami, Alan  founded One Ninety , a pioneering r...

Dr. Rachel Carlton Abrams is a  family-practice physician  who is also board-certified in holistic medicine. She is the  founder and medical director of Santa Cruz Integrative Medicine and Chi Center , where she specializes in holistic approaches to health and sexuality. Rachel has  authored and co-authored 5 marvelous books  including “The Multi-Orgasmic Woman,” “The Man’...

When she was 18, Lori Pratico began her artistic career as a  billboard artist  in her hometown Philadelphia. Lori is self-taught. These days, her artwork is  recognized around the country , represented by galleries and shown at Miami’s Art Basel. Her artwork has been  published in Marie Claire, Juxtapoz and Professional Artist Magazines.   A serial entrepreneur , Lor...

Jeannine Otis has been a substantial voice in music for over 40 years, effortlessly performing and recording in jazz, classical, dance, gospel and pop genres. She has toured as a vocalist with great musicians who have served as mentors including Grover Washington Jr., Arthur Prysock, Kool and the Gang, Joe Chambers and Donald Byrd, Rudy Mwangozi, Finnish Jazz composer Heikki Sarmanto and Vish...

Andy Ruffner was born just outside of Cincinnati - and other than leaving town for undergraduate study and a M.A. in Community Counseling from the University of Maryland, Andy spent several of his adult decades back in Cincinnati. He worked in Healthcare, Workplace Training, HIV prevention, most recently as Project Director for the Early Intervention Program at t...

Runa Bouius is a serial  entrepreneur and visionary thinker from Iceland.  Her life of adventure and exploration has unfolded in wildly different settings – Reykjavik, Santa Fe, Los Angeles. For 20 years, Runa was a  trailblazer and the industry leader in Iceland’s beauty and wellness industry.  After her husband’s death, at the height of her commercial success, Runa moved with...

Sue Elliott, a  seasoned publishing pro , has  launched more than a dozen publications  from scratch and served as Editor-in-Chief for countless other publications. Her publication “Law of Attraction,” a personal-growth magazine, was sold in ALL major retailers everywhere. In “Overhaulin’: The Magazine,” Sue took fans of the Discovery Channel TV show behind the scenes and helpe...

Bill Benda is a  seasoned emergency physician , family doctor and integrative physician. His life has been spent practicing medicine in some magical places. For a time,  Bill lived in California’s Big Sur region where he served as a physician at the Big Sur Health Center and at Esalen. In recent years,  Bill has lived on South Florida’s Gold Coast where he has served as an Emergency...

Kathie Klarreich is a  journalist and the author of  Madame Dread: A Tale of Love, Voodoo and Civil Strife in Haiti.  S he spent half of her 24 years as an investigative journalist living in Haiti. Her reports from Haiti have been featured in  The New York Times, Time Magazine, The Christian Science Monitor,  ABC, CNN and on NPR’s All Things Considered and Fresh...

Susan Howell is a former  Senior Special Agent  who spent 26 years working for both the IRS and the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General.  Her career included working many cases, including finance-related crimes.  At age 50, with a lifetime of money-knowledge under her belt, Susan retired and stepped into her next act.  She founded MoneyMaestra wher...

Suzanne Evans  is a mom, wife, sister, entrepreneur and risk taker from North Carolina. She went from working as a secretary in Manhattan to surpassing the  seven figure mark as her own business woman in just over 3 years . Suzanne’s business hit the  Inc 500/5000 for five years straight , and she wrote a  NY Times best-selling book  along the way. Suzanne’s current firm,&...

Jaime Manrique  is a Colombian-born  novelist, poet, essayist, and translator  who writes both in English and Spanish.  The Washington Post  hailed him as  “the preeminent Gay Latino writyer of his generation. ” His work has been translated into fifteen languages and includes the novels  Latin Moon in Manhattan ,  Twilight at the Equator ,  Our Lives Ar...

Marta Sanders  is a celebrated cabaret performer who this spring was awarded a  MAC Lifetime Achievement Award  (MAC awards are the Tonys and Oscars of the professional cabaret world). Marta is also a licensed  New York City tour guide . She has fashioned a life that allows her to combine her exceptional guiding skills with her celebrated cabaret artistry. Marta moved to New Yo...

In 1963,  smack in the thick of the civil rights movement , Neal Goodman, Ph. D. found his passion for social justice while attending high school in New Jersey. Neal served as  Professor of Sociology at St. Peter’s University  for 33 years before retiring in 2005. Along the way, Neal Goodman has become an  internationally recognized authority on global minds...

Jim Zupancic had an exceptional career as an  Operational Excellence executive with renowned manufacturing companies.  By the time he was 34, Jim was the  VP of Operational Excellence for a billion-dollar global enterprise.  And then, Jim walked away from this life. Jim taught math in a public school in North Carolina. He married his husband Christopher. They ado...

The daughter of Filipino immigrants, vicki abadesco! has become an  internationally recognized leader in the field of social-emotional learning, anti-bullying, and creating a more empathy-based world.  Vicki brings over 35 years of experience teaching life skills to young people and adults. More importantly perhaps, vicki is  a gatherer, storyteller, leader and community builder. &n...

Melanie Roche is an internationally renowned  energy healer  in private practice who integrates mind-body healing, meditation, therapy, and movement. Melanie  served on the faculty of the Barbara Brennan School of Healing in Miami and Tokyo, and she helped inaugurate the Integrative Health and Wellness Program at Canyon Ranch Miami Beach. A  cancer survivor,  Melanie is th...

Blair Glaser is a former actress, writer, executive and  organizational consultant , and a  leadership mentor . She specializes in helping leaders step into their authority and create truly  collaborative cultures  that move the mission and the bottom line forward.  Blair’s life includes multiple acts – living in an  ashram , getting a graduate degree in  drama t...

Lama Karma Chötso  is a fully ordained  Tibetan Buddhist lama.  She began to study and practice the  Kagyu Lineage of Tibetan Buddhism  in 1982 after meeting  Dorje Chang Kalu Rinpoche  in New York City. She took refuge with him there, and 4 years later he ordained her as a novice nun. In 1986, Lama Karma Chötso entered a  three-year, three-month meditation...

Martina McGowan, MD  is a seasoned physician, mother, grandmother, poet, writer, ceramicist, public speaker, and an activist in the fight against social, racial, and sexual injustices. A  celebrated leadership blogger  for more than a decade, Martina  released her debut poetry collection  in 2021. “i am the rage: a black poetry collection” is a poetic exploration of living...