The Inside Story Podcast with April Adams Pertuis

Successful people often display the same qualities: passion, persistence, self-discipline, creativity, and commitment. But they also have one more thing in common and that is their willingness to fail. So many of us get stuck and never move forward with our plans and goals because we’re scared of not being able to do it right the first time. We’re scared to make mistakes because failure hurts. It...

Are you waiting for that perfect moment to start something? Have you painted an imaginary starting line that’s supposed to mark just the right point in your life to begin doing what you’ve always wanted to do? So many of us (myself included!) believe we should first get to a starting line — where everything is all lined up and completely ideal — before we work on a project or pursue a goal. My fri...

What do you do when you’re at mid-life, thrown a curve ball at work, decide to start your own business, and find out it’s not easy? You take the experience, seek out and support others who are in the same boat, and never look back. When Colleen Kochannek found herself wildly unprepared to start and run an online business at her age, she realized there were others like her. And this is where she fo...

In the work that I do, I help women dig out their story and amplify their visibility as they share it. But speaking your mind, telling your story and becoming more visible along the way can be quite hard — especially when you’re a woman who’s expected by society to stay small and stay quiet. In today’s episode, I am talking to Diann Wingert — a therapist turned coach who works with women who have...

There will always be 2 sides to life: the beautiful and exhilarating one, and the other that’s messy and difficult. You can’t have one without the other, and even the most successful people I know who seem to have it all have gone through both. In fact, most success stories become even more fascinating and extraordinary because of the obstacles that had to be overcome. But what does it take to nav...

What I’m sharing with you today is something I have not openly talked about with other people. It’s not so much that I’m ashamed of it. It’s because I don’t want it to define me as a person, and I don’t want to offend somebody dealing with this differently from me… so much so that as a result, I’ve been keeping myself from discussing it. It’s about my life-long battle with Rheumatoid Arthritis. Le...

I’m fresh off 2 events that have left me feeling energized and truly inspired! And the relevant insights I took away were not just for the way I do my work as a Storytelling coach, but also for how I live my personal life. On both occasions, one valuable truth struck me: we have to make the conscious effort of putting ourselves in the room and allowing ourselves to be transformed when we do that....

It’s a pretty special day at The Inside Story Podcast because today, we have our very first gentleman on the show! Dan Mangena is a motivational speaker, best-selling author & Wall Street Journal “Master of Success”. He is a multiple 7-figure business owner who has had his share of ups and downs before getting to where he is now. And as he and I take a look back at his journey, he shares some pret...

When you’re an entrepreneur trying to build and elevate your business, surrounding yourself with like-minded individuals has a transformative effect not only on how you work, but also how you live your personal life. When I met Hayley Hunter Hines in 2018, she was already sharing stories of the women she was helping, and her passion for what she was doing was evident. And when I approached her to...

If there’s one thing I have always considered to be a blessing in my personal life and my business, it would be the gift of Community. But the significance of having and being part of a Community has not stood out more to me than during my very recent experience with Covid. What I went through emphasized clearly how my wonderful tribe of LIGHTbeamers plays such a big role in my life. Whether you’r...

Last week, I posted a story prompt inside my LIGHTbeamers Community on Facebook and it went like this: What is something positive in your life now that you didn’t have a year ago? Today, as I sit in a quiet spot by the beach — on a much-needed break with my family — I am sharing with you by way of this podcast episode, my own reflection and response to this significant question. Learn more about y...

Sometimes, life takes you on a path that’s way different from the one you thought you’d be on. For Melonie DeRose, being a corporate lawyer was a big check mark on her to-do list. She was doing what she thought she was meant to do, and what everyone else said she was supposed to do. But when she realized most of her days were just spent on autopilot and not making her feel alive, Melonie knew ther...

Today’s episode with international keynote speaker and public speaking trainer Melanie Spring is such a good one! She takes us on her journey from being a brand strategist interviewing companies and finding out what made them work (hint: it has something to do with stories!), to becoming a public speaker and trainer who helps other people bring their stories to the big stage. Learn more about your...

Whether it be in our personal lives or in business, creating connections and building relationships get easier when we openly share stories with our audience. A work presentation, a social media post, or even just an email to a friend becomes more interesting when injected with relevant stories. But it isn’t always easy to dig up stories we can use to engage with others. Sometimes, we feel our sto...

Stories are powerful. They can teach us, give us hope and encouragement, provide comfort, inspire people, and transform lives. On the other end of the spectrum, these same stories can also leave us feeling defeated, ashamed, and tied to an invisible chain. After years of doing storytelling work, I’ve discovered far too many people are on the latter side of the scale: shying away from telling their...

It has been a while since my last solo episode so this one right here is pretty special! In all honesty, it took me some time to get around to recording this, which is ironic because as you will find out, the reason I’ve been holding off is actually what our topic today covers and addresses. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When life gives you a series of unfortunate events, throwing in the towel seems like the easiest thing to do. But for Brittany Clayborne, admitting defeat wasn’t an option. She chose to push through everything that was put in her path and as a result, is now living out her soul’s purpose. She’s using her voice to tell her incredible story, and create awareness and intention in those who hear her w...

Denice Chenault is one of the most powerful women in network marketing. But she will also be the first one to tell you that she never thought of herself as a sales person, let alone imagined she could build a meaningful career people tend to associate with selling. On today’s episode, we go beyond the basics of network marketing and look at the heart of it through the eyes of Denice. Listen in as...

We all have money stories. Yet this topic is one that most of us shy away from and are even discouraged from discussing. Whether it’s from being told that it’s not polite to talk about money, or we’re too ashamed to discuss our own financial status, we do not talk about wealth as much as we should. But more than just the amount that’s sitting in your bank account (although this matters quite a lot...

Inspirational author Shannon L. Alder said: “There is no perfection, only beautiful versions of brokenness.” That’s the truth. All of us have gone through heartbreak at some point, experienced difficult moments, and had dark days we thought would never end. And while our individual life stories may be woven uniquely, we ultimately have the same story elements and patterns such as love lost and fou...

When you hear the words, “Today is a GIFT”, what does it mean to you? Does it strike a chord with you or stirs something in your soul? If there’s anything that 2020 taught us, it is that truly, every day is a gift. “Tomorrow is not promised” might be a cliché, but it is a reality that should teach us one thing: there’s no better time than today to take action and be the best version of ourselves,...

We’re all familiar with the old adage: “Laughter is the best medicine”. But how does humor actually tie in with healing trauma that we go through at some point in our lives? Today’s episode of The Inside Story Podcast introduces us to Pasha Marlowe — life and laughter coach, and holistic personal trainer. As Pasha shares with me, she started out like any other marriage and family therapist who use...

The only thing that's constant ... is change. And no one is more familiar with change than my good friend — certified life and leadership coach Deb Cummins Stellato. As the Princess of Pivots, Deb is a lover of change, having gone through major shifts in her life that have defined who she is. Change means letting go of something familiar and can therefore be a scary thing. But Deb has embraced cha...

In just a couple of days, a new year will begin. And with everything that has happened in 2020, it just begs the question: what do we want this coming year to be like? If we were free to imagine the best life for ourselves this 2021 and even beyond, would it feel unlimited? The internal exercise I share with you on today’s episode for choosing your word of the year is meant to be an intentional pr...

We’ve all been there: days when our creativity just flows so naturally -- even magically! -- and we are so inspired that the ideas come one after the other without any effort. Then one day, it all disappears. We lose the enthusiasm to create anything, we feel uninspired, and we don’t know how to get back into our groove again. This is the ebb and flow of creativity and yes, my friends, I say “we”...