Unstoppable Mindset

Peter C. DeHaass will tell you he has been a builder of bridges for people in many disenfranchised communities for most of his life. I learned about Peter from AccessiBe’s nonprofit partnerships manager, Sheldon Lewis. Peter does not come directly from a family with any person with a disability. However, his family has produced many educators including Peter.   On this episode, you will learn abou...

Why Seagrams Special? Listen to a remarkable story about Lynn Teatro where she will tell you about not one, but two times she went to high school. During her second stint, she was given the name.   While Lynn was raised to be a farmer’s wife she always wanted more. After her marriage breakup, she chose to try school again as you will discover.   In college, Lynn studied Psychology. She completed a...

It is ok to step out and do something different with your life and career according to our guest on this episode, Tony Pisanelli. However, the people who are most successful at transforming their careers and lives are those who plan and then make informed decisions about where to go and what to do.   Tony tells about his Italian parents who moved while young from Italy to Australia. As he describe...

Shilpa Alimchandani immigrated from India to the United States when only a few months old. As with many immigrants we have interviewed here on Unstoppable Mindset, Shilpa grew up experiencing two worlds. As she describes it, she grew up in a South Asian home experiencing that culture, and later she experienced the wider world around her as she went to school and went out on her own. Her perspectiv...

Homeyra Faghihi is a licensed social worker and psychotherapist. Born in Iran she came to the United States on a student visa obtained with a lot of persistence and commitment. She will tell you her story of immigrating to America after the Iranian revolution.   Homeyra truly is a survivor and someone who works to achieve the goals she sets for herself. Her drive comes through with everyone today...

Jennifer Lieberman comes by her writing and creativity honestly. She has been writing, organizing, and working toward a career in theater writing ever since she was a student in school. She has written her own one-person play as well as a book entitled “Year of the What” based on the play.   As Jennifer tells us about her life, she discusses living in New York City during the terrorist attacks on...

On top of her accomplishments, as mentioned in this episode’s title, Randi-Lee Bowslaugh is also a cancer survivor. Randi began experiencing depression as a teenager due to family challenges. While she did have thoughts that could have sent her spiraling down into greater depression and worse, she began writing poetry. She credits putting down her thoughts to helping her advance. Randi-Lee went to...

Yes, Howard Brown is a two-time cancer survivor. As you will discover in our episode, he grew up with an attitude to thrive and move forward. Throughout his life, he has learned about sales and the concepts of being a successful entrepreneur while twice battling severe cancer.   Howard’s life story is one of those events worth telling and I hope you find it worth listening to. He even has written...

Yes, that is how Donald G. “Skip” Mondragon describes himself. Skip has served as an internal Medicine physician in the Army rising to the rank of colonel.   Throughout much of his life, Skip has also been a wrestler competitor, and he has been good at the sport.   In 2014 Skip discovered that he was suffering from a deep depression. As he worked through his condition and emerged from it he also w...

Lisa Yates, who currently works at Mt. San Jacinto College, enhances the lives of all persons she encounters through her work as a disability counselor/disability specialist. Listen to this episode so Lisa can tell you more about her job and how she is helping to educate everyone about improving perspectives concerning what the concept of “disability” is all about.   Lisa went back to school after...

This is one of those episodes I love to experience because I get to discuss a topic about which I know little. Miyah Sundermeyer was diagnosed as a person who happens to be autistic. She received her diagnosis at age 11. As with many of us who happen to be persons with disabilities, the immediate reaction of medical experts and others was that Miyah could not grow up to accomplish anything. Well,...

Bradley Akubuiro’s parents raised him to have a deep and strong work ethic. His father came to the United States from Nigeria at the age of 17 and worked to put himself through school. As Bradley describes, both about his father as well as about many people in extremely impoverished parts of the world, such individuals develop a strong resilience and wonderful spirit.   Bradley has led media relat...

Our guest this episode is Alissa Bartlett. Harnessing the power of marketing, technology, supply chain, and leadership development, Alissa ensures that startups and small businesses are putting out quality products that are needed in the marketplace. More important, especially for Alissa over the past few years she has become a staunch advocate for inclusion and diversity. I was singularly impress...

Keith Stump is the executive director of a nonprofit organization, Able Inc., that serves mostly persons with learning and development disabilities. Keith really began his career of service as an intern in Cambodia where he saw first-hand the challenges faced by disenfranchised persons who happen to have disabilities.   Eventually, Keith arrived at Able Inc. where he is helping the agency take cli...

Yes, our guest on this episode, Delmar MacLean, happens to be blind. Does it really matter if Delmar is blind or not? No not at all. Some may ask then why I even mention blindness? It is because Delmar typifies the fact that happening to be blind does not in any way define him. Delmar’s philosophy is that while he has a disability, he is not disabled.   Delmar completed a Bachelor of Arts degree w...

Diann Floyd Boehm has lived in various parts of the world. She brings her international life knowledge to the children’s books and, so far, one adult book she has written. As you will find in this episode, Diann puts an incredible of amount of research and thought to everything she creates.   Diann gives a number of suggestions to anyone who might wish to write and get published. She encourages al...

Lisa Wilson’s life started out as a pretty normal one. She went to school. As she graduated college she chose a career path and she was successful with her choice.   After 17 years working in the human resources field working mostly as an HR manager, she finally decided to leave the field after working for three years for a company that didn’t value what a good HR manager could do to help the comp...

I love interviewing other authors because every time I get to speak to one on Unstoppable Mindset I learn new concepts I hope I can use. I hope you feel the same way.   Our guest on this episode is Natasha Deen. She is an author of over 40 books written for youth, adults and everyone else in between. She made an interesting observation I love and which led to this episode’s title. She observed tha...

Kelly Brakenhoff is an author of six books and an ASL interpreter from Nebraska. She has served as an interpreter for deaf and hard of hearing persons now for over 30 years. You can tell how much she likes her chosen professions by listening to her as you get to do in this episode.   Kelly is especially excited by a series of books she has started involving Duke the Deaf Dog where she introduces r...

So what is a “polymath”? Come on in and listen to this week’s episode to find out from our guest, Pat Daily. After hearing my conversation with Pat, not only will you know the definition of the word, but you will see why Pat fits the Polymath mold.   In his life, Pat has served as a pilot in the military, a pilot for a commercial airline, a successful employee at Honeywell, participated in startin...

Prolific author among other things. Diane Bator has written 13 mysteries and has five more in process. In addition, she works for a theater where she lives which has given her the opportunity to begin work on her first play.   Diane is a mother of three adult children. She is extremely active in the writer’s community in Canada.   If you were to ask her about writing your own book Diane would enco...

What do a Rubik’s Cube and leadership have in common? Hint, think about the title of this episode.   Meet Donovan Nichols who describes himself as a values-based, recovering workaholic. Donovan always felt his mind seemed to work differently than those around him, but it was not until his late thirties that he discovered he not only was an ADHD individual but that he also had a reading disability....

Wayne Tuttle has been a self-described communicator his whole life. Even before he lost his eyesight, he wanted to go into broadcasting but could never get hired. However, ironically as he lost sight more jobs opened for him, not in radio but in areas such as the financial world and then later in the telecommunications industry.   Along the way, after losing his eyesight he first discovered the wo...

Meet Melanie Taddeo. Her parents always encouraged her to be the best that she could be. That attitude shined through when, at the age of 21, she experienced a stroke that left her paralyzed on her left side and totally blind. Her drive helped her to regain the ability to walk. Also, she regained some of her eyesight.   Melanie will tell you that she is a teacher and loves to impart knowledge. In...

Beyond 120 is a program housed at the University of Florida. Our guest on this episode, Brittany Grubbs-Hodges is a part of this program designed to help college students look beyond the minimum of 120 units of college credits required to graduate. Brittany helps students look at their possible career choices and helps them learn more than they ever thought they could discover about what really go...