Episodes

Mental Illness affects everyone across all domains. It doesn’t matter what your cultural background is, or your socio-economic background. It’s really an equal-opportunity illness that affects everyone. -Gemima St. Louis, Ph.D. A recent survey shows that 90% of Americans believe our country is experiencing a mental health crisis. Fortunately, Gemima St. Louis is leading the way toward solving this problem by creating groundbreaking programs that will train a diverse generation of mental health ...

When we talk about people, it’s very easy to talk about the things we don’t do well. We easily go to our weaknesses. My job is to encourage people to think about their strengths and what makes them a leading product. -Joanna Dutra Today’s story is all about using our gifts, talents, and collective experience to create a new chapter in our lives. Joanna Dutra plays the piano and the violin. She sings and she’s even a stand-up comedian. After spending 20 years developing brand identities for Fort...

It’s hard to Innovate because It’s not a linear process, it’s often circuitous. So if you fail, pick yourself up and learn from it. You might go in a new direction. -Carrie Allen Having a great idea and acting on it, nurturing it into reality, and believing in its merit is a lot like finding buried treasure at the bottom of the ocean. If your idea works, the rewards are huge. Carrie Allen has spent her career focused on innovation: helping people steward new ideas, methods, and products. Her cl...

I don’t need to be a big star. I don’t have to be defined by how much money I’m making. If I’m performing, that is success to me. – Francesca Amari Welcome to part 2 of my conversation with uber-talented cabaret singer Francesca Amari. Recorded in my rental car, in the parking lot of a hotel beside a highway in Thousand Palms, California, this interview is full of wisdom for anyone with a dream. Francesca has been singing for decades and through it all, she has maintained a career as an enterta...

I am an honest singer. I screw up on stage, I own it. I laugh at myself. I look at people when I sing, I don’t sing over them. I’m just really human. -Francesca Amari Our west coast swing continues with an interview that ended up taking place IN MY RENTAL CAR! Francesca Amari is a fabulously talented cabaret singer, so when she agreed to be on the show, we made a plan to do the interview at a television station in Thousand Palms, California where she just happened to be filming that day. At the...

Style is your aura. It’s your energy. -Rosa Hu In the spotlight, creator & designer Rosa Hu. Born in New York City and raised in Southern California, Rosa’s parents escaped communist China and settled in Taiwan. When it was time to go to college, the two came to the United States and never left. As a child, Rosa was obsessed with style and never wanted to do anything but fashion. Armed with a degree from the Fashion Institute of Design & Marketing, she started a career at 19, working her way up...

I knew in the depths of my soul that all of this had a reason. I knew I was going to get to the other side. -Dawn Kohler Last week’s episode was incredibly powerful and so is part 2 of the story of Dawn Kohler, author of the memoir The Messages. www.dawnkohler.com. Now an in-demand executive coach who helps her clients re-awaken their purpose and their passion, Dawn is an incest survivor who has spent decades working through her deep sense of loss and shame. Her testimony in this interview is n...

I raised myself. From a very early age, I knew in my heart I was on my own. Nobody was helping me. -Dawn Kohler What you are about to hear is Part 1 in a series about Dawn Kohler, author of the memoir The Messages. This story needs to be told, but it is also very difficult to hear. If you have children nearby, my strong suggestion is that this episode is not for their ears. Born and raised in San Diego, California, Dawn was the oldest of three children. Her mother was a coal miner’s daughter, o...

If I’m passionate about doing something, I’m not gonna let anybody roadblock me. -Christina Knight In the spotlight, a woman who doesn’t understand the word “no” and probably never will. Meet Christina Knight, Nurse Practitioner and co-founder of Dynamic Evolutions in Health & Beauty at www.dynamicevolutions.com. Together with business partner Dr. Edgar Ballenas, Christina is introducing patients to personalized medicine and the benefits of eastern and western wellness practices with outstandi...

Fashion never ends. Fashion never sleeps. -Daniela Corte Fueled by a passion for fashion and a love of espresso, Argentinian-born women’s clothing designer Daniela Corte wakes up at the crack of dawn ready to create her signature pieces. Voted Best Women’s Clothing Designer by Boston Magazine in 2021, Daniela has been making women feel elegant and beautiful in her clothes since 2000. In this interview, she shares stories of her elegant mother who was always put together, and her father who was...

I used to think that success meant a degree, living on your own, having a car, and your bills paid. My heart feels successful when I am teaching lifeguards how to save a human, when I’m teaching kids how to swim, or when I’m having dinner with the love of my life. That’s success to me. -Chelo Lundquist-Krag Chelo Lundquist-Kragg is an Aquatics Director, an American Red Cross Water Safety Instructor, and a Lifeguard Trainer. We got to talking about our mutual love of swimming one day at the Lon...

My jaw dropped when I learned what was happening to the manufacturing industry. I didn’t realize that everything had been off-shored. So in 2015, I made the commitment to buy only products made in the USA. -Dianna Huff Born and raised in California, Dianna Huff had the kind of childhood that remains difficult to talk about to this day. She was fortunate to have an English teacher who told her she could write and a guidance counselor who insisted she apply to college. Fortunately, Dianna was adm...

I’m sort of like the Oprah Winfrey of banking. I like to ask a thousand questions and figure out where everyone is going and how I can help. -Lisa Murray Lisa Murray knows banking. She’s been involved in the industry since she graduated from the University of Connecticut and has been climbing the ladder to the top ever since. As the President of Citizens Bank of Massachusetts, she represents the bank in an official capacity with civic, business, and community leaders across the state. You would...

Music is my first language. It’s the way I learned to express and process my feelings. -Kala Farnham Kala Farnham is a gifted musician, singer, and songwriter who grew up in a house full of music. Her parents were a successful folk duo who encouraged musical exploration and weren’t at all surprised when Kala started playing the piano at three. As she grew up, Kala added guitar, banjo, dulcimer, harp, and more. In this interview, she reveals being very shy and says that her early songwriting wa...

As long as love infuses everything I do, I’m in the place I want to be. -Anita Silvey Armed with a firm belief that children’s books change lives, Anita Silvey has spent her entire career in children’s literature as an editor, a literary critic, and as an author. Raised in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Anita recalls being one of those kids whose idea of heaven involved a cozy chair and a pile of books from the local library. The daughter of a college-educated teacher and the former head of communication...

At the moment that it happened, when I could see into the eyes of that shark, and then it veered away, my first emotion was not fear. It was fascination and wonder. -Laura DeSisto I’m always on the lookout for stories that will inspire and motivate you, and the story of Laura DeSisto checks all the boxes! Raised around the water every summer on Martha’s Vineyard, Laura begged her parents to let her see the movie Jaws and that experience instilled a lifelong fear of sharks in her. Flash forward ...

My books are like Nancy Drew for grownups. -PK Norton Meet PK (Paula) Norton, murder mystery author extraordinaire. She spent most of her career in the insurance business, first as an agent and then as an insurance investigator, sniffing out fraud and looking for clues. Paula and her late husband loved to travel and over dinner, would concoct unique ways to kill people. Jack died of Parkinsons’ disease but before he passed, he urged Paula to finally press START on a writing career that flourish...

Pursue your dreams, even if someone says “you’re crazy”. Do it anyway! -Yolanda Cellucci We’re on location for this episode in the penthouse of Yolanda Cellucci: a fashion icon with a passion for Swarovski crystals, feathers, fur, sequins, and every shade of white. Known as the Goddess of Glitz, she is the author of the book Beyond the Glitz & Glamour which chronicles the story of a girl who grew up at the end of an alleyway, across the street from a junkyard, in a humble home full of love wher...

I’ve gone from creating something that millions of people around the world will want, to creating something that is individual to the woman who wears it. -Betsy Ferg Wood In the spotlight, Betsy Ferg Wood. She spent much of her career focused on brand identity and product design where job #1 was to communicate the essence of major brands to consumers worldwide. She was living large…from New York, City to L.A, from London to Paris, working for Liz Claiborne, and was even a part of the legendary ...

Turning my pain into my passion. That’s what is most important to me. – Morgan Dzicek Morgan Dzicek is a beautiful young woman who is loaded with talent. A singer, songwriter, violinist and former New England Patriots Cheerleader, Morgan has had the experience of singing the National Anthem and cheering for the Patriots as they won their 5th Super Bowl. But life has not been all sunshine and super bowls for this week’s guest. Raised on a farm in Northbridge, Massachusetts where her mother raise...

I thank God that He has allowed me to be strong enough to endure this and to show my family and friends that I am a “she cancer warrior”. -Tona Hines October is breast cancer awareness month and sadly, the statistics have not improved. 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime and this is a disease that affects the woman and her whole family. In this episode, we’re shining a spotlight on two-time breast cancer survivor Tona Hines. Diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer a...

I have MS. MS does not have me. I prefer to be Bridget the mother, the wife, the career driven woman. -Bridget Snell In this episode, we meet Bridget Snell, co-founder of Waiting Room Media and Chief Editor of the company’s flagship print magazine, Living Crue. Diagnosed with Relapsing Remitting Multiple Sclerosis in 2015, Bridget made a choice not to allow the disease to rule her life. When traditional medications failed to work, she dove into every medical journal and discovered HSCT, a stem ...

What means the most to me is building community, finding safe spaces for the lonely and the elderly. -Nikki Shults Nikki Shults grew up on a family compound in rural Connecticut. At the center of this compound, in the humble, makeshift home lived her grandmother whom she called “Meme”. This wise, matriarch of the family lived to be 95, surrounded by generations of the people she loved. It was on this compound where Nikki learned some of her first lessons about the elderly, community and compan...

If I can push my body to the limit physically, what can I do mentally in other parts of my life? -Kathleen Ralls, PhD We’re back with another season of stories about women doing great things with their lives. If you need a dose of get up and go, this episode is for you. Kathleen Ralls is a lifelong athlete who is also an award-winning educator, a high school sports coach and a Fullbright Scholar whose doctoral research on gender equity sports and voice empowerment brought her to 20 countries a...