Shift Happens: From Pain to Purpose

What would I tell you if we sat down together for an hour and you could ask me anything? In this episode of Shift Happens: From Pain to Purpose, we’re switching things up with a candid Q&A about motherhood, therapy, healing, sharing your story, and navigating the messy middle of becoming who you’re meant to be. We’re talking about the things that don’t always have easy answers. How do you know...

How do you know if you’re pursuing a calling—or still trying to prove something? Can you build extraordinary wealth and still stay deeply rooted in your faith? And what does it really look like to balance motherhood, ambition, and trusting God when His plan looks nothing like yours? Today I’m sitting down with Gia Smart, a business consultant, entrepreneur, mother, and woman of faith who helps fem...

What are we really trying to numb when we turn to addiction? Why can something that’s hurting us feel so much like love? And how do you rebuild your life when you’ve survived the very things that once made you believe you might never make it out? Today’s guest is Azadeh—a woman whose story is truly one of survival, healing, and redemption. Azadeh has been sober from meth and alcohol for 24 years a...

What if the thing that broke you at an early age became the very reason you spend your life protecting others? what if your pain wasn't the end of your story, but the assignment? My guest is a Registered Nurse licensed in New York, California, and Florida, with years in emergency medicine and the neonatal intensive care unit. She's a Jiu-Jitsu black belt and academy co-founder, a wife, and a mom o...

Have you ever wanted to share what you've been through but felt held back by "What will my family say?" or "Will people think I just want attention?" In this episode, Alexis gets honest about the fear and fallout that come with telling your story, and why staying silent can cost you more than speaking up. She walks through why your story may make some people uncomfortable (and why their reaction i...

Have you ever wanted to not be seen? To hide — maybe your actual body, or just by not taking up too much space? Have you ever felt like you weren't qualified, so you never even tried? Have you struggled with that feeling in your stomach that you're just not good enough? If any of this hits home, this episode is for you. I'm diving into what it really takes to overcome insecurity and step into your...

Not every story is ready for a microphone, and that's okay. In this episode of Shift Happens, we're talking about how to know when it's time. We break down whether you're sharing from a wound or a scar, and whether your "why" is revenge or service. We also cover the difference between trauma dumping and linking arms with someone to help them carry the load. Your story is powerful. Let's make sure...

At some point in your life, you’ve probably reflected on how the men and women who raised you shaped the way you love. What happens when one parent is more absent? Or when one of the people you feel safest with passes away? How do those experiences follow you into adulthood—into the kind of woman or man you become, the romantic partners you choose, and the way you handle trust, conflict, and ultim...

Have you ever downloaded a dating app and immediately thought… What am I doing here? Or wondered if you can actually find something real in a world of swipes, DMs, endless options, and people who always seem to be looking for the next best thing? Today’s guests are actually  the second couple I’ve ever interviewed together on Shift Happens, and I wanted to bring them on because they didn’t ju...

What happens when following Jesus means walking away from the person you’re attracted to? Saying no when the world tells you it’s normal to say yes? Holding a boundary when no one would blame you for crossing it? Or choosing obedience when compromise would be easier and honestly, more convenient? Faith is easy to talk about when it isn’t costing you anything. Dating in today’s culture is already c...

My friend Erica Tyson has buried a child after unthinkable tragedy. Shes raising a daughter with severe disabilities. She’s walking through divorce. And now she’s doing it all as a single mom. But that’s not her whole story. On this episode of Shift Happens, we’re asking the hard question: who do you become when everything falls apart? we’re talking about relationship patterns, trauma, control, fa...

Katelyn spent much of her life trying to stay quiet, unseen, and out of the way. At 22 years old, she was selling her clothes to just to afford groceries. Today, she’s built a seven-figure personal brand from the ground up—using social media to create opportunities that changed the trajectory of her life. She’s worked with brands like Meta and Adobe, been featured in Forbes, and built a life she o...

Today’s guest is Laura Higgins—entrepreneur, branding expert, and business owner who built a multi-million dollar company helping women grow their visibility, content, and personal brands online. From the outside, Laura had every marker of success: the business, the ambition, and the image of someone who had figured it all out.   But behind the scenes, the constant pressure to achieve, perform, an...

Today’s guest is Natalia Benson—podcast host, and coach helping women step into abundance, financial empowerment, and deeper alignment within themselves. Through her work in astrology, spirituality, Natalia has built a platform centered around self-awareness, healing, and personal transformation.   But behind the wisdom she shares online is also a woman who has had to navigate profound change in h...

Today’s guest lida was born into physical adversity—before she even had the language to understand it. Surgeries, comparison, and learning how to navigate a body that didn’t move like everyone else shaped her early years in ways most people never see. And while resilience may be easy to name now… back then, it felt like something else entirely. As she stepped into adulthood, marriage, and the drea...

At just 16 years old, Samantha Harper was living on her own—no safety net, no roadmap—just figuring out how to survive. Before she was a speaker… and Before she was a CEO She was a girl trying to understand what love, stability, and her future looked like. In this episode, we talk about What survival actually felt like… The beliefs she formed about herself… How those stories showed up in her marri...

My guest today is Margot Miller, and her story is one of those stories. From a young age, Margot faced things that forced her to wrestle with identity and pain in ways most people never have to. That path eventually led her into addiction at a young age, and later into a devastating neurological condition that left her bedridden for nearly a decade. For ten years, life as she knew it stopped. But...

Like the clarity fades, the momentum slows, and you’re left wondering— is this resistance because I’m growing… or because something’s off? Today’s conversation is real-time. I’m sitting down with my friend Beatrice— and our paths look really similar. We both started in creative fields, pivoted into coaching, started podcasts… and we’re both in seasons of building something with purpose. But we’re...

Today’s guest, Chellie Carlson, is an LA-based stylist and creative entrepreneur who has built her brand around one powerful belief: when a woman feels confident and magnetic in how she presents herself, everything in her life begins to shift—including her income. But Chellie’s path wasn’t conventional. She started her business at 40 years old with less than $10,000—proving that it’s never too lat...

If you answered yes to any of those questions today’s conversation is for you. On this episode of Shift Happens, I’m sitting down with Maeva — founder of Flying Cat Marketing, and a third culture kid who spent 15 years living abroad, and a woman navigating who she is as her business changes and as she prepares to be a mom.  We talk about what it means to grow up between cultures and how that shape...

Today, Haelie Queen is taking us inside her story. Growing up without her biological father, she met him at 18, only to face abuse. That trauma led her into addiction—Adderall, alcohol—and it nearly dismantled her life and marriage. But Haelie found a way out. Now sober, she and her husband have rebuilt everything and are helping others do the same. Let’s dive into the truth of addiction, rock bot...

From being bullied by the same group of girls from middle school through high school… to surviving third-degree burns as a young child… Lauren knows what it feels like to walk through pain early in life and carry the weight of those experiences. And like so many women, life didn’t stop throwing curveballs. In this conversation, we talk about how those early wounds shape confidence, what it really...

So many of us have learned to measure our worth by how much we produce, how much we achieve, how much we can hold together. From the outside, it can look like everything is working. But internally… there’s a quiet tension. A lack of peace. A feeling that something is missing. Today’s conversation is for the woman who’s doing everything “right”— and still feels unfulfilled. I’m sitting down with Ka...

On today’s episode of Shift Happens I sit down with Savannah — a pastor’s kid, the oldest daughter, and someone who learned early that being “good” often meant being exceptional. Excellence wasn’t just encouraged in her world — it was expected. And over time, that striving didn’t just shape who she was personally… it shaped how she showed up professionally. That same drive for precision, performan...

Ada moved to America from China at just seven years old. She entered the second grade without speaking English and grew up in an immigrant household where success meant stability — a secure job, a predictable path, something safe. Creativity wasn’t part of the plan. She was doing everything right but still felt felt completely disconnected from herself. So, she took a risk. Bought a camera. And bu...