The Books That Shaped Me

What if the book that shaped your entire career was one you picked up at age 10 — from the wrong section of the bookstore? That's exactly what happened to Steph Spector, writer, editor, and business writing coach, and it set her on a path that's anything but conventional. Steph helps professionals and creatives find their voice on the page — not the corporate, buttoned-up version, but the real one...

Episode Title: From the Marines to the Courtroom to the Boardroom | Michael Ciccolone, Blackline GC Description: What happens when an attorney decides the billable hour model is broken and builds something completely different? You get Michael Ciccolone. Michael is a Marine veteran, former Chief Legal Officer, and the founder of Blackline GC — a fractional general counsel firm offering flat-fee, s...

This episode is proudly sponsored by WinStar Insurance Group, owned and operated by Stephanie Dew out of Cedar Park, Texas. Real coverage, real integrity, and a heart for the people they serve. I'm joined by PJ Diamond, a leadership voice with Leadership Austin and a genuine global citizen. PJ walks me through the books that built her, starting with a poem her sisters passed down before she could...

Finding Your Voice, Your Tribe, and Yourself with Kat Rector In this episode of The Books That Shaped Me, I sit down with Kat Rector, a tech leader and mom of two boys who I've admired from afar since we first connected on LinkedIn. Kat opens up about her divorce, years of burnout she didn't recognize until she named it, and the slow work of reconnecting with herself. We talk through the books tha...

Dave Leon, an executive, business, and life coach based in Austin who spent 34 years in corporate America first, seven years on Wall Street, then 27 years in enterprise tech and SaaS sales, including over a decade selling cloud and AI services for a major hyperscaler. Dave was laid off twice. The second time, at 56, he sat with himself for three months until he ran out of excuses. In the years tha...

My guest is Carrie Davis, VP of Patient and Employee Experience at Hanger, Inc., born without her left arm and wearing a prosthesis since she was nine months old. We talk about growing up as an empath, the difference between performative confidence and the real thing, and why she's letting go of the five-year plan at 55. Carrie also opens up about the day she traded a plain prosthetic hook for one...

Nichola Cotto — Founder & CEO of Women Who Govern, the first career navigation platform for women pursuing leadership in municipal government. Also serves on the CAPCOG Economic Development Advisory Board. Based in Austin, TX. Background spans real estate, nonprofit leadership (Director & CEO of We Are Not Broken), and grant writing before founding Women Who Govern in 2026. Currently an MP...

Diana Sawyers has spent almost 30 years leading enterprise transformation for the State of Texas. She's also a saxophone player, a guitar student who's played Stubb's and Antone's, a political junkie, and a mom launching two sons into the world. In this episode we talk about all of it, and the books that helped her hold it together along the way. Diana shares the moment she froze on stage with sti...

Loree Tamayo built a life running hospitals and long-term care facilities, one that looked polished from the outside. Underneath it was a lifetime of psychological abuse she didn't even have language for, generational patterns passed down from her great-grandmother to her grandmother to her mother, and finally to her. In this episode, Loree walks through the moment she surrendered her life to God...

Today I'm sitting down with Jennifer Buaas. We first connected at work conferences over the years, and I knew there was a story here worth telling. Jennifer's path took her from driving a beverage cart at a golf course to the Texas Workers Compensation Commission, then to the Texas Department of Information Resources, and now to KPMG. Every door that opened came through a person who saw something...

Valentina MacGregor has lived on four continents, survived a body brace that reshaped her whole life, and turned heartbreak into one of the most meaningful projects of her career. Born in Buenos Aires, raised in Venezuela, and shaped by stints in Italy, London, Glasgow, and Madrid, Valentina joins Angie to talk about what happens when you stop asking permission to be different. At 10 years old, a...

Season 2 kicks off with Carrie Kass, founder, CEO, and TEDx Round Rock Women speaker. Carrie and Angie became friends through the multi-author book Pieces to Purpose, and this conversation picks up right where that friendship started. Carrie opens up about the moment she hit send on her first published story, the trauma she'd buried for decades, and what it cost her to finally speak it out loud on...

0:00 – Sponsor Message A quick thank-you to Windstar Insurance Group out of Cedar Park, owned by Angie's friend Stephanie Dew, for backing this season. 1:02 – Welcome to the Season 1 Finale Angie kicks off episode 10 with Vidya Moorthy, calling her "the crown jewel" to close out the first season. 2:22 – Vidya's Story: Detroit to Austin An MBA in finance, a master's in PR, a career that took her fr...

0:00 – Intro: Angie welcomes Veronica Seaver, a woman she's known and admired for over a decade, back for Episode 9. 3:21 – Career Journey: Veronica traces her path from the restaurant industry at Hyatt to HR, to running her own nurseries, to becoming Elgin Chamber president. Every stop taught her the same skill: how to create buy-in. 8:55 – Choosing Honesty Over the Mask: Veronica gets real about...

Ep. 8 | Anne Grady: Evolvability, the Inner Critic, and Why Your Brain Would Rather Be Predictably Unhappy What happens when the life you planned falls completely apart — and you end up more yourself than you ever would have been otherwise? Anne Grady is a bestselling author, keynote speaker, and resilience expert who has spent two decades learning — the hard way — how to not just survive tough ci...

Kathy Wetzel is a tech executive, long-time SIM leader, and one of those people who has quietly shaped rooms full of leaders for decades. Armed with both an accounting and computer science degree, her career took her from Honeywell to Great Clips to TASB, the Texas Association of School Board Services, with a few wild pivots in between. This conversation is packed with real leadership wisdom. Kath...

What do you do when everything you built — suddenly disappears overnight? That's the real conversation in Episode 6 of The Books That Shaped Me. Melinda Quiroz spent 11 years building a massive insurance book of business. Then, on March 17th, 2026, that chapter ended — without warning, without a choice. She calls it her "captive to called" season. And what she says next stopped me in my tracks: "I...

Brandon is a well-read servant leader. He has served our country and continues in public service in IT at TX Facilities Commission. He shared about "radical accountability" and how these lessons, that have been hard earned have shown him how to be empathetic while maintaining grit in the face of adversity. Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek Extreme Ownership and The Dichotomy of Leadership by Jacko W...

What do Spartan Races have to do with getting a CIO job at a space agency? Everything, it turns out. Episode 3 of The Books That Shaped Me drops this week — and Rafael Pimentel Pinto brought a book that changed how he sees obstacles, careers, and the moment your mind says "I can't." Spoiler: he learned to ignore that voice.

Join me in this conversation with Brooke, she shares her journey with vulnerability and beauty. The Sacrament of Happy by Lisa Harper Girl Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis I Do Feelings by Havilah Cunnington

Theresa Pore is a Business Coach, Motivational Speaker and Entrepreneur. Theresa’s passion in business is to help individuals become the best version of themselves while teaching them how to bring their authentic self, their personal strengths and gifts towards becoming independently wealthy in business and in life. The life that they design. Activator by Dr. Jason Jones

Introduction discussion with podcast host Angie Smith and long-time bestie Gina Dodd. Together the vision for the podcast is set along with the guiding concepts for further conversations. Books are like teachers, showing up at the right time to aide us on our journey of life.