Podcasts about Separate

Some people light up when they find a difficult electrical problem. Others want a wrench in their hand or take real satisfaction in a beautifully planned installation. Those differences can shape how we learn, what frustrates us, and where we find satisfaction in HVAC work. Bryan and Bert explore three overlapping tendencies in the trades: the technician, the mechanic, and the craftsman. In their framework, technicians gravitate toward diagnosing problems and understanding hidden causes. Mechanics engage with the physical work of repairing and assembling equipment. Craftsmen bring careful preparation, spatial planning, and pride in the finished result. Most people have some of each, and experience can build skills across all three. The conversation also covers comfort with chaos and Bryan's distinction between moralizers, who feel a strong pull toward how things should be, and normalizers, who work readily with conditions as they are. Both approaches have strengths and blind spots, especially when a job needs a mix of planning, troubleshooting, and execution. For owners, trainers, and field leaders, the practical question is how to recognize what energizes a person and give them opportunities to use it. Bryan and Bert discuss apprentice training, promotions that move people away from work they enjoy, and the value of building crews with complementary strengths. They close with mentorship and gratitude for the people whose abilities make our own work possible. Key Takeaways Observe apprentices across different tasks. Troubleshooting, assembling a training board, and hands-on installation can reveal different interests. Notice the questions people ask, the work they stay absorbed in, and the details they care about. Separate ability from inclination. A person can develop a skill and still find that work draining. Talk about what brings energy and satisfaction before assuming the next promotion is the right fit. Pay attention to frustration. Uncertainty, interrupted preparation, repetitive work, and physical challenges affect people differently. Use those patterns to start better conversations about training, support, and job assignments. Build complementary teams. A crew benefits from people who can diagnose, people who readily tackle the physical work, and people who plan and execute careful details. Recognize the contribution each person makes. Value mechanical skill alongside technical knowledge. Bryan makes the case that the willingness and ability to get physical work done deserve more recognition as information becomes easier to access. Make room for mentorship. Experienced tradespeople can multiply their impact by helping others develop similar strengths, even as the physical demands of daily fieldwork become harder to sustain. Chapters 00:00 — Three ways to thrive in the trades 10:10 — Chaos tolerance and work preferences 12:45 — Moralizers and normalizers 18:15 — What craftsmen care about 22:15 — Ability, energy, and burnout 24:00 — Recognizing strengths in apprentices 31:20 — The changing value of mechanical skills 39:35 — Building teams with complementary strengths 44:25 — Mentorship and a longer career in the trades 46:05 — Appreciating your strengths and your teammates This episode contains embedded sponsor messages from Refrigeration Technologies, Carrier, NAVAC, Fieldpiece, and the 2027 AHR Expo. Resources HVAC School calculators Submit a podcast question Learn about the GRIT Foundation Purchase your tickets or learn more about the 8th Annual HVACR Training Symposium at https://hvacrschool.com/symposium.

Jerry Cedicci never says, "trust me." He builds trust, then lets the deal speak for itself. This is Part 2 of Kison's conversation with Jerry, The mentor who started with a French bakery and went on to build hundreds of millions in real estate across Chicago and Los Angeles.  Part 1 told the story.  Part 2 is the playbook:  How Jerry gets a seller to hand over a business with no down payment Why he never puts the first number on the table, and Why the phrase "trust me" is the fastest way to lose his Near the end, Kison brings Jerry a live deal: a competitor he's looking to acquire who won't share financials. Jerry works through it in real time, including what to ask for instead of the numbers, how to set a ceiling before you negotiate, and the exact offer he'd make. What you'll learn Remove the seller's downside before you ask for trust. Jerry structured his earliest deals so the seller kept all the leverage and could walk away anytime. He earned trust by giving it up first, not by asking for it. Never say "trust me." Jerry treats those two words as a warning sign. He'd rather let his track record and what other people say about him do the talking. Put a number on your ceiling before you negotiate. When Kison brought him a live acquisition target, Jerry's first question wasn't the asking price. It was Kison's own walk-away number and the value he thought he could create. Ask for the metric a target will actually hand over. When a competitor won't open their books, skip the financials fight. Ask for client count instead, then work backward from what those clients are worth. Treat a lender's "no" as a checklist, not a verdict. Jerry's response to every loan rejection was the same question: what exactly made you say no? Fix those things, then go to the next banker. Separate opportunities from deals. Jerry only calls something a deal once it's closed. Everything before that is an opportunity he has to seize fast, not overthink. Build at the high end so you stop competing on price. Jerry's rule on margin: build something nobody else can match, and you're no longer negotiating against 500 other bidders. --- Turn what you heard into a repeatable M&A practice. Explore the Buyer-Led M&A™ Certification for practical frameworks, tools, and decision-making habits you can apply on your next deal.

Yankees clobber Red Sox in first game of Wild Card series... Hochul is calling for a separate review of Cornell's response to gang rape allegations... The BQE now has a new theme song, thanks to a Brooklyn comic musician full 440 Wed, 30 Sep 2026 09:44:54 +0000 RWluN72jhV0laZeqD94M8rD3jLiITIGI news 1010 WINS ALL LOCAL news Yankees clobber Red Sox in first game of Wild Card series... Hochul is calling for a separate review of Cornell's response to gang rape allegations... The BQE now has a new theme song, thanks to a Brooklyn comic musician The podcast is hyper-focused on local news, issues and events in the New York City area. This podcast's purpose is to give New Yorkers New York news about their neighborhoods and shine a light on the issues happening in their backyard. 2024 © 2021 Audacy, Inc.

This is the noon All Local for Wednesday, September 30, 2026

Host: Michael Fanning, SVP & Co-Owner, Windermere Coaching. Host of the Windermere Ask a Coach podcast.When agents compare companies, the split is the easiest number to see, so it gets all the weight. Michael walks through the difference between price, cost, and value, and the first three pillars of what a company brings its agents: coaching and training, brand and reputation, and culture. It's a serious conversation for agents thinking about a move, agents weighing where to start, and agents who have never stopped to look at what they already have.Separate price, cost, and value when weighing what you pay your companyRecognize the focusing illusion and why the split gets over-weightedCount the coaching, training, and complimentary CE credits that never show up as a line itemUnderstand what a brand does for you, and what it doesn'tTell a mercenary culture from a collaborative one, and why success breeds successEpisode SummaryWhat You'll LearnSeparate price, cost, and value when weighing what you pay your companyRecognize the focusing illusion and why the split gets over-weightedCount the coaching, training, and complimentary CE credits that never show up as a line itemUnderstand what a brand does for you, and what it doesn'tTell a mercenary culture from a collaborative one, and why success breeds successConnectwindermerecoaching.comSubmit a topic: windermerecoaching.com

In Episode #119 of The Executive Commute, Jayson Krause is joined by educator and human flourishing advocate Steve Rice to explore what it means to live, work, and lead from the inside out.   Steve shares how his own path moved from achievement, external validation, and a career that did not feel like an authentic fit toward a life centred on calling, purpose, and work as an expression of who he is. He describes the difference between living from the outside in and the inside out, and why fear often remains present when people move toward meaningful growth.   The conversation explores Steve's faith-informed view of human flourishing, including the shift from achieving to receiving, the role of spirituality and historical wisdom traditions, and his distinction between positional and possessional leadership. Jayson and Steve also examine how those ideas translate into organizations through human empowerment, spaces for ideas, and cultures that help people become more fully themselves.   They discuss the Office of Possibilities, Humanitas, disruptive innovation, and why new ideas may need to be built separately but in service to the larger organization. Steve also explains why human flourishing is not simply self-improvement, using the transformation from caterpillar to butterfly as a metaphor for becoming something fundamentally different rather than polishing the current version of yourself.   The episode closes by connecting human flourishing to AI and the future of work. Steve argues that technological progress should be paired with an equally intentional effort to rediscover what it means to be human, framing this moment as the beginning of a possible human revolution.   Episode timestamps:   00:02 Human flourishing, innovation, and humanpreneurship 00:31 Steve Rice's path to human flourishing 03:16 Learning to listen to your life 04:41 When work becomes joy 05:35 Is your work an expression of who you are? 07:59 Saying yes to a calling 09:58 Making fear your ally 12:39 Preparing people for an unknown future 14:00 Drawing out what is already inside people 16:14 Vertical versus horizontal living 17:49 Spirituality beyond religious language 20:13 The Office of Possibilities 22:47 Rediscovering desires beneath obligation 23:10 A practical 10-minute reflection practice 24:59 Achieving versus receiving 30:15 Agency, participation, and relationship 35:53 Positional versus possessional leadership 37:42 The personal and societal cost of outside-in living 39:25 When the vertical informs the horizontal 43:53 Human empowerment versus exploitation 45:40 Building an expression-driven culture 48:10 An Office of Possibilities inside an organization 49:16 Building a human flourishing academy 51:49 Why the work of flourishing is messy 54:53 Building innovation on the edge 57:35 Separate, but in service to the organization 59:16 What human flourishing actually means 1:03:46 Why a better version of yourself is not enough 1:07:03 Human flourishing and organizational flourishing 1:09:52 Will AI help or hinder human flourishing? 1:11:45 The business case for human flourishing 1:16:38 Exploitation versus expression 1:17:06 The human revolution 1:20:29 Where to learn more about Steve Rice 1:21:29 Leadership through the lens of human flourishing   Prefer to watch? Find the full video episode of The Executive Commute on the Level 52 Inc. YouTube channel.   Subscribe to Level 52 Inc. on YouTube for full conversations, clips, and more leadership content.   Follow Jayson Krause LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayson-krause/

Ceasar Cordon is the outside business development director at Fifth Gear Automotive in North Texas. He entered the automotive industry in 2017 after working in electronics and gained experience in shop management and service advising before moving into business development. At Fifth Gear, he leads a team that builds referral relationships with other repair shops, a channel he says influences approximately 35% of the organization's revenue. His perspective on auto repair shop expansion combines customer service experience with the practical work of reaching new markets.In this episode…Reaching customers in another city does not always require building another repair shop. Fifth Gear Automotive uses satellite service centers to establish a local presence while sending vehicles to existing shops for the actual work.Cordon describes permitting barriers in North Texas that made traditional expansion difficult. The company borrowed the operating model of a dry cleaner: customers use a convenient local storefront, and the service happens elsewhere. Customers also arrange vehicle pickup through these satellite locations.For owners planning their next location, the immediate decision is where to add customer access and where to add repair capacity. Those investments serve different purposes. Cordon reports that some satellite locations receive very little foot traffic, yet their local presence helps generate calls from customers who prefer a business in their own city.The lower overhead comes with operational responsibilities. Vehicles need transportation, calls need ownership, and customers need accurate expectations. Fifth Gear assigns satellite inquiries to an experienced service advisor who understands what its shops deliver. The storefront creates access; the existing operation still has to fulfill the promise.Here's a glimpse of what you'll learn: [01:31] Ceasar Cordon's experience in shop operations and business development[03:54] Building customer trust through clear repair recommendations[06:48] Fifth Gear's specialization in major repairs[09:15] Fifth Gear's satellite model for auto repair shop expansion[15:47] Extending market reach through shop referral partnerships[19:19] Coaching service advisors to convert calls into shop visitsResources mentioned in this episode:Fifth Gear Automotive on LinkedInFifth Gear Automotive WebsiteTread PartnersGain Traction Podcast on YouTubeGain Traction Podcast WebsiteMike Edge on LinkedInQuotable Moments:“We aren't the cheapest, and that's fine.”“We don't know what we don't know, and we're okay with that.”“You overpromise, underdeliver, and that's never what you want to do.”Action Steps:Map one potential satellite market. Plot your existing shops and identify a nearby area you want to serve. Use Fifth Gear's reported five-to-seven-mile range as a starting point for your own evaluation. Check actual drive times and vehicle transport requirements before selecting a location.Separate customer access from repair capacity in your expansion budget. Build a side-by-side estimate for a reception-only satellite and a full repair facility. Include staffing and vehicle transportation in the satellite estimate. Ground your auto repair shop expansion plan in the capacity your existing shops have available.Assign an experienced advisor to satellite inquiries. Choose someone who understands your repair capabilities and internal processes. Document who owns each customer's call, transportation arrangements, and repair updates so the handoff between locations stays clear.Review customer calls with your service advisors. Schedule a session this week and listen to calls that resulted in appointments alongside calls that did not. Identify one specific response to improve, practice it together, and check its use in the next review.Start a focused referral outreach list. Identify nearby shops that do not handle the major repairs your team performs. Contact their managers to explain your capabilities and establish a clear referral contact. Give them a practical reason to trust you with work they send out.

Your kids are growing up—and sometimes, as a working mom, it can feel like you're missing it. You miss the school event because you have to work. You can't make every game or activity. You look at your kids and suddenly realize how quickly the years are passing, and that familiar mom guilt starts creeping in. But missing a moment is not the same thing as missing your child's childhood. In this episode of the Faith Led Working Moms Podcast, we're talking about the emotional weight that can come with being a working mom and feeling like you're not there for enough of your children's lives. Because your child's childhood isn't made up of the handful of moments you couldn't be there for. It's made up of years of relationship—and so much of that relationship is built in the ordinary moments of everyday life. We'll talk about how to: Separate disappointment from mom guilt when you miss something important Stop measuring your motherhood by the moments you couldn't be there for Recognize the ordinary moments of connection that are already happening Resist comparing your motherhood to what other moms seem to be doing Trust God with the moments you can't control Be present for the moments God has actually placed in front of you Psalm 90:12 reminds us: “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” Motherhood isn't about being everywhere or experiencing every moment. It's about asking God for wisdom with the days, responsibilities, and relationships He's entrusted to you. You may have missed a moment. But you are not missing your child's childhood. You're living it with them. Scripture Mentioned Psalm 90:12 “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” A Reminder for the Working Mom You don't have to be present for every moment to be a present mom. You don't have to attend every event, remember every milestone, or make every moment meaningful. Your kids are not measuring your motherhood by a list of moments you attended. They are growing up in relationship with you. So don't spend so much time grieving the moments you missed that you miss the moments happening right in front of you. Receive the childhood your kids are actually having. Trust God with what you can't control. And be fully present for the moments He has given you. You may have missed a moment, but you are not missing your child's childhood.   Continue Growing with Faith Led Ministries If today's episode encouraged you, I'd love to invite you to continue growing with us at FaithLedMinistries.com. There you'll find: Biblical encouragement for everyday life More podcast episodes for overwhelmed Christian working moms Free resources to strengthen your faith Biblical counseling Christian life coaching The Faithfully Balanced course designed to help working Christian moms move from overwhelm to intentional, faith-filled living Our mission is to help you know Christ, apply God's Word, and walk faithfully through every season of life through biblical encouragement, practical strategies, and biblical counseling principles. Email: Lindsay@faithledministries.com Website: www.faithledministries.com Instagram: @faithledworkingmoms Facebook Community: Faith Led Working Moms Community

Mindy Brashears, Ph.D. is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) Under Secretary for Food Safety. She previously served as Under Secretary for Food Safety from 2020–2021, and Deputy Under Secretary in 2019. Dr. Brashears returns to USDA from Texas Tech University, where she was a Paul Whitfield Horn Distinguished Professor of Food Safety and Public Health, the Roth and Letch Family Endowed Chair for Food Safety, and the Director of the International Center for Food Industry Excellence. Dr. Brashears' research program has advanced food safety in meat and poultry production, with a focus on public health. Her work evaluated interventions in pre- and post-harvest environments and antimicrobial drug resistance in animal feeding systems. She has led international research teams across the globe to enhance food safety, security, and sustainable agriculture systems. Her research has resulted in more than 20 patents and patents pending for innovations in food safety. Beyond academia, Dr. Brashears has held leadership roles on boards and advisory committees, including the American Meat Science Association, the Development Council, the International Stockman's Educational Foundation, and the Protein Pact. She was a founding member of the SAFE Think Tank and has chaired the National Alliance for Food Safety and Security and the USDA's multi-state research group. Her contributions have earned national and international recognition, including induction into the Meat Industry Hall of Fame, Fellow status in the American Meat Science Association (AMSA) and the National Academy of Inventors, and numerous awards from leading associations.  Carmen Rottenberg is a leader in food safety and agriculture policy, serving as Managing Director of Groundswell Strategy a Board Member for the Partnership for Food Safety Education. Prior to launching Groundswell Strategy, Carmen served as Administrator of USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service. Over her 13 years with USDA, Carmen held several leadership roles and was credited with spearheading key agency initiatives including modernizing food safety inspection systems and establishing and updating pathogen performance standards. Carmen has extensive experience achieving collaboration across federal, state, and municipal agencies including with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), with state departments of agriculture and across USDA's 29 agencies and offices. Carmen began her federal career in the Federal Trade Commission's Office of General Counsel and has experience working in both the public and private sectors. She holds a B.A. degree in Political Science and Philosophy from Hope College and a J.D. from American University's Washington College of Law. In this episode of Food Safety Matters, we speak with Dr. Brashears and Carmen [4:02] about: Why consumer food safety education remains essential to foodborne illness prevention alongside safeguards throughout food production, processing, inspection, and regulation How USDA approaches its role in educating consumers about safe food handling and what effective consumer food safety education looks like Where consumers fit within the shared responsibility for food safety across the farm-to-fork continuum The respective roles of government, industry, and nonprofit organizations in supporting consumers and advancing food safety education Key challenges in translating established, science-based food safety recommendations, including "Clean, Separate, Cook, and Chill," into consistent consumer behaviors How social media, influencers, news outlets, government agencies, and other information sources are affecting consumer trust and food safety messaging Opportunities to make consumer food safety education more effective and accessible through partnerships, communication strategies, educational resources, and targeted outreach Which safe food handling behaviors deserve greater consumer attention, and how food safety professionals can reinforce those messages beyond National Food Safety Education Month. Resources Partnership for Food Safety Education 2026 IFIC Food and Health Survey: A Focus On Food and Ingredient Safety We Want to Hear from You! Please send us your questions and suggestions to podcast@food-safety.com

Have you ever apologised to furniture? Do you reread a message you sent four hours ago, checking the tone? When someone praises your work, do you find the floor for them before they can get to it? Did you feel guilty resting the last time you were unwell? If more than two of those landed, this one is about you. In this Moment of Awe, we explore the AstroPsychology of self-worth: why the second house is not the money house, what Carl Rogers, Jennifer Crocker, Francis Flynn and Vanessa Bohns can tell us about proving and receiving and three ways to stop answering a question that was never yours. The Second House Is the Room Behind the Door The second house is the house of Taurus, and it is ruled by Venus. On the surface, it looks like the money house: wealth, finance, possessions. It is not. It asks one of the most uncomfortable questions in the entire chart: what do you believe you are worth? Not financially, not professionally, not socially, but at your core. If the first house is the door, this is the room immediately behind it, and it is the harder one. There was a year when I was still at the kitchen bench at eleven o’clock at night, eating something over the sink, answering emails that could comfortably have waited until Tuesday. I told myself this was simply what building something looked like. It was not. It was proof of purchase. Venus Is the Principle of Value Venus is not about what you own. It is about what you value, what you find beautiful and what you allow yourself to take in. Which is exactly why worth and possessions ended up sharing a room. Human beings have always confused what they have with what they are. Carl Rogers called this conditions of worth. As children, we receive love that arrives with terms attached. Be quiet, be good, achieve, do not need too much, do not be difficult. And a child who cannot survive without that love does the only sensible thing available: they work out which parts of themselves are acceptable and quietly exile the rest. So here is the distinction I want you to hold. Your values are what is genuinely important to you. Your usefulness is what you produce. Most people have not looked at the first in about twenty years, and keep an extremely detailed spreadsheet on the second. Proving Is an Unpaid Invoice In shadow, the second house looks like overworking, undervaluing yourself and feeling that you must prove your worth. Sit with that word, prove. You only prove something that is in doubt. Nobody wakes up and proves the sun came up. If you are still proving, at some point you agreed the question was worth asking, and nobody makes that agreement on their own. Somebody asked you first. Jennifer Crocker at the University of Michigan identified seven domains in which people stake their sense of worth: academics, appearance, approval from others, competition, family support, virtue and God’s love. Following students across their first year at university, she found that those who had staked their worth on the external ones were more likely to develop depressive symptoms. The problem was not how much self-esteem they had. It was what they had to keep doing to hold on to it. Proving is not a character strength. It is an unpaid invoice you inherited. Receiving Is a Skill In light, the second house looks like receiving, honouring your value, creating abundance from wholeness and knowing you are enough. Look at that first word: not earning, not achieving, receiving. Across their work, Francis Flynn and Vanessa Bohns have had participants approach more than 14,000 strangers with direct requests. On average, people underestimate the likelihood that somebody will say yes by roughly half. We are so focused on what it will cost the other person to say yes that we never consider how uncomfortable it would be for them to say no. Most of us are walking around with a wildly inaccurate estimate of how welcome we are. For most of my life, I carried the private sense that I was too much. Too intense, too fast, too many ideas arriving at once. So I learned to package myself down. And here is what I did not expect: the thing I spent thirty years apologising for is the thing people actually come to me for. Three Ways to Stop Proving Find the sentence. Finish this honestly: “I am okay as long as I…” Whatever fills the gap is not your worth. It is your condition. You cannot renegotiate a contract you have never actually read. Separate your values from your usefulness. Write down five things you genuinely value, and not one of them may be something you produce, achieve or deliver. If you stall at three, that pause is not a failure of imagination. It is the sound of a life organised entirely around output. Practise receiving. Once this week, ask somebody for something small, real and slightly inconvenient, and take it without paying for it. No favour back, no apology, no explanation. And when somebody compliments you, your entire response is thank you. You Were Not Born Asking This Somebody handed you this question a very long time ago, and you have been answering it ever since. You are not worth what you produce, what you hold together or how little you need from anyone. Those are your receipts. They were never your value. The chart does not tell you what you are worth. It shows you the room where you first agreed to prove it. And you are allowed to stop answering. The work was never to become worth it. It was to stop agreeing to the question. Because the more human we are with each other, the more we all rise. You can watch the video of this episode on YouTube. If you have been having the same conversation with yourself for weeks, meet Bridget, your AI coach. She asks rather than tells, and the thinking stays yours: https://bridget.riseandthriveglobal.com/ If you are a coach, psychologist or therapist and this framework felt like a language you already speak, explore the AstroPsychology Practitioner Programme: https://riseandthriveglobal.com/astropsychology-practitioner-programme/ Or book a 20-minute clarity call, no obligation, just a conversation: https://calendly.com/catherineplano/meet-greet Newsletter: Catherine Plano for transformation. Instagram: @catherineplano for inspiration.

JUDGE JOHN: My Husband Wants To Separate And Charge Me Rent To Live In Our Basement... full 743 Mon, 28 Sep 2026 14:20:08 +0000 K0NT9tMA2zDQco2tJuWpgKS28w194Mdn advice,seperated,exes,exes living together,judge john,music,society & culture,news The Kramer Show On Demand advice,seperated,exes,exes living together,judge john,music,society & culture,news JUDGE JOHN: My Husband Wants To Separate And Charge Me Rent To Live In Our Basement... Highlights from the Kramer Show. © 2026 Audacy, Inc. Music Society & Culture News https://

Send us Fan MailHave you ever missed one class, had one unproductive day, or received no response to a message, and suddenly your brain decided everything was falling apart?One small event can quickly become a much bigger story:“You're getting behind.”“Here we go again.”“You always mess things up.”“You're never going to figure this out.”In this episode, I share a conversation with a college student who worried that she was “slipping” after missing one planned day of classes. Although she already knew how to catch up, her brain connected that one absence to difficult experiences from her past.This is what anxious brains do. They search for possible problems and use old experiences to predict what might happen next. However, the loudest thought in your mind is not necessarily the truth.Using my Perception, Process, and Plan framework, I explain how to:• Separate the facts from the frightening story your brain is creating• Understand what your inner critic is trying to protect you from• Respond to negative thoughts without fighting or believing them• Redirect your mind toward a more helpful thought• Choose one practical next step instead of shutting down• Use your strengths and values to move forwardIntentional thinking is not toxic positivity. It does not mean pretending that nothing is wrong. It means recognizing what is true, removing the extra story your brain has added, and deciding what you want to do next.We cannot always stop anxious or critical thoughts from showing up, but we do not have to give them the steering wheel.If your teen or young adult needs help managing anxious thoughts, overcoming overwhelm, and following through on what matters to them, I provide personalized anxiety coaching for young people ages 14–24.Learn more or contact me here.Subscribe for practical support for teen anxiety, college transitions, emotional regulation, independence, and young adult life.  Find my podcastEmail me:  ccoufal@cynthiacoufalcoaching.comText me:  785-380-2064More information

This week, host Shayla Oulette Stonechild sits down in Treaty 13 territory in Tkaronto with the powerhouse duo behind North of North — Stacey Aglok MacDonald (writer/producer, Qanurli, co-founder of Red Marrow Media) and Alethea Arnaquq-Baril (filmmaker behind Angry Inuk and Tunniit: Retracing the Lines). Together, the two Inuit creators built Red Marrow Media, produced The Grizzlies, and co-created North of North — the CBC, APTN, and Netflix comedy that broke into Netflix's global top 10 and is now filming its highly anticipated second season. Stacey and Alethea open up about growing up in Nunavut, the matriarchs who shaped them, and what "matriarchy" really means when leadership in Inuit communities has always been fluid and situational rather than a single figurehead. They trace their creative partnership back twenty years — including the story of how Stacey "found" Alethea on Google before they ever met — and get candid about the real emotional and logistical weight of following the heavy, important work of The Grizzlies with something joyful, funny, and unapologetically commercial. This conversation covers the wild specifics of building a global show from the Arctic: pitching networks who'd never seen anything like it, budgeting for real Inuit-designed high fashion (no knockoffs allowed), filming in -40°C, working with an intimacy coordinator on that Season one kiss, and watching their communities go from skeptical to fiercely proud. They also dig into resilience essentials — handling criticism, repairing conflict, and why "no regrets" collaborations are built on trust, not just talent. A rich, funny, moving conversation about matriarchal leadership, Indigenous storytelling, and building something the industry never expected. 00:00 Welcome and meet the guests 01:59 Growing up in Iqaluit 03:10 One word for Season 2: mastery 03:59 Stacey's roots and her badass mom 06:39 What matriarchy means to them 09:43 How they met 11:48 Where their love of storytelling began 15:49 Separate paths, sealskin shorts and building skills 19:55 Teaching themselves to produce 23:18 Making film in the North 25:20 The Grizzlies and deciding to co-produce 29:34 Where North of North began: choosing joy 33:29 Pitching a bold, contemporary Arctic show 37:48 That infamous kiss scene 40:05 What's coming in Season 2 43:39 Acting in -40° 44:50 How Nunavut responded to the show 49:34 Real Inuit fashion on screen 53:18 Advice for emerging filmmakers 56:47 The future of Inuit film 59:03 Being a power couple and taking criticism 01:03:10 Walking into the writing room, and where to watch 01:04:41 Follow the guests, and will there be Season 3? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Can you build a strong savings culture even when your income is limited?In this episode of The Ugandan Boy Talk Show, Bonny Kibuuka sits down with Martin Sseguya, Chief Manager of Personal Banking at Centenary Bank, for a practical conversation about saving, financial discipline, and building long-term financial freedom.They discuss how to:• Start saving while living paycheck to paycheck• Balance personal goals with “black tax” and family responsibilities• Build an emergency fund from zero• Protect savings from impulse spending and inflation• Separate personal finances from business revenue• Teach children healthy money habits• Rebuild after losing your savings• Use Centenary Bank's savings and diaspora banking solutions• Access GonzaPay and manage financial responsibilities from abroadWhether you live in Uganda or in the diaspora, this conversation will help you rethink your relationship with money and take practical steps toward a more secure financial future.This episode is proudly sponsored by Centenary Bank.Visit Centenary Bank's official website and social media platforms to learn more about its savings products, GonzaPay, and diaspora banking services.Subscribe to The Ugandan Boy Talk Show for more meaningful African stories and conversations.#SavingMoney #FinancialLiteracy #CentenaryBank

It's YOUR time to #EdUp with Dr. Marcia Conston, President, Tidewater Community CollegeThis episode, President Series #513, is powered by ⁠⁠⁠Ellucian⁠⁠⁠ - Higher Ed's AI-Enriched Platform!This episode is sponsored by⁠ the MSCHE 2026 Annual Conference, where we will be podcasting live, keynoting, & facilitating a pre-conference workshop from December 9-11 in Philadelphia! Early-bird pricing ends October 12, 2026!This episode is also sponsored by 2026 Arizona Community College Administrators Conference where we will be podcasting live from October 7-9 on the campus of Yavapai College!This episode is sponsored by the ⁠InsightsEDU 2027⁠ Conference - focused on attracting & retaining the modern learner - where we will be podcasting live from February 23-25 in Phoenix, AZ! Use code EDUP & save $100! Early-bird pricing ends December 15, 2026!YOUR cohost is Hunter Davis, Chief Executive Officer, Sophia LearningYOUR host is ⁠Dr. Joe Sallustio⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Why does Marcia insist the credit versus noncredit line is the institution's problem, not the student's?What changes when a community college becomes the registered apprenticeship sponsor instead of just a training vendor?If a 3 year 90 credit bachelor's is coming nationally, should it live at the community college or the university?Listen in to #EdUpThank YOU so much for tuning in. Join us on the next episode for YOUR time to EdUp!Connect with YOUR EdUp Team - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Elvin Freytes⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ & ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Dr. Joe Sallustio⁠⁠⁠⁠● Join YOUR EdUp community at The EdUp ExperienceWe make education YOUR business!P.S. Want access to the only intelligence platform built exclusively from presidential conversations in higher ed? Well, we have an app for that!Join EdUp Leadership!

AP correspondent Donna Warder reports on two deadly mass shootings in South Africa.

This is our weekly market update where we start in the US, cross to Europe and Asia and end in Australia, covering commodities and crypto along the way. It's been a volatile week for stocks, with market participants digesting a rally in the artificial intelligence trade, conflicting geopolitical signals, a rise in Federal Reserve rate … Continue reading "Markets Struggle To Separate Signal From Noise As Bond Yields Rise Some More…"

Building a company while working a full-time job can feel like living two completely different lives.In this episode of The Level Up Podcast, Paul Alex breaks down how aspiring entrepreneurs can survive the demanding transition period between depending on a paycheck and building a business capable of replacing it.You'll learn why perfect work-life balance may be unrealistic during this temporary season, how separating your employee responsibilities from your entrepreneurial goals can help you stay focused, and why the discipline developed during this stage can become a major advantage once you finally make the transition.In this episode, you'll learn:• Why the employee-to-entrepreneur transition is meant to be temporary• How to compartmentalize your job and your business• Why protecting your limited after-hours time is critical• How this difficult season can strengthen your discipline for the futureThe truth is simple: Building your freedom while maintaining your current responsibilities will not always feel balanced.Protect your time. Separate the roles. Keep building until the business is strong enough to become your primary focus.Your Network is your NETWORTH!Make sure to add me on all SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS:Instagram: https://jo.my/paulalex2024Facebook: https://jo.my/fbpaulalex2024YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGhDAD1JyGGzSQUPD9lc9HQLinkedIn: https://jo.my/inpaulalex2024Looking for a secondary source of income or want to become an entrepreneur? Check out one of my companies below to see if we can help you:www.CashSwipe.comFREE Copy of my book “Blue to Digital Gold - The New American Dream”www.officialPaulAlex.com

I've had north of a hundred authors on this show. This one stuck with me differently, and it's because of one word: Purgatory.Geoff Curtis spent nearly thirty years building a career in healthcare communications. Title, expertise, platform, the whole thing. Then the company was acquired, his role went redundant, and all of it disappeared at once. What followed wasn't a reinvention arc. It was the discovery that he'd spent his adult life using work to avoid feeling anything.He picked purgatory on purpose. As he puts it, words like transition imply progress, and he wasn't making any.The other choice that makes this book different: most people write about this from the far side, after they've figured it out. Geoff is writing from inside it. Three years out and still working through it. There's no five step plan in here, and some readers are frustrated by that. I think it's the reason the book works.The idea I keep coming back to is his separation of three things we tend to mash together. Livelihood, identity, and self-worth. Livelihood puts food on the table. That's all it has to be. The trouble starts when livelihood quietly becomes identity, and identity becomes self-worth. Then losing the job isn't a financial event, it's an existential one.We also got into something that isn't in the book. Four weeks before we talked, Geoff did the Hoffman Process. Eight days, completely unplugged, thirty nine strangers, fifteen hours of prep work and days running 7:15 in the morning to 9:30 at night, all aimed at understanding which of your behavior patterns you inherited from your parents. He says he wishes he'd written the book afterward.Fair warning, this one is heavier than most. Depression, grief, his father's death, and a lot of honesty about patterns neither of us is done with.In this episode:Why he chose purgatory over transitionLivelihood versus identity versus self-worthThirty years of running on external validationRunning as emotional suppression, and how to tell it from progressNew metrics for happiness, and why the old ones keep coming backInvesting in yourself, therapy, and the Hoffman ProcessWhy people doubt themselves inside corporate, not just outside itThe imposter syndrome nobody on his team ever mentioned to each otherEverything is a choice, and why we only price the downsideABOUT THE GUESTGeoff Curtis spent nearly thirty years in healthcare communications before an acquisition made his role redundant. He's the author of Embracing Your Own Purgatory, written from inside the transition rather than after it, and he now runs a nonprofit he built with his wife that works with college students.LINKSThe book: Embracing Your Own Purgatory — Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and anywhere books are sold Author site: https://geoffreycurtis.com/) LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/geoffreycurtis/THE IDEAS WORTH KEEPINGLivelihood is not identity is not self-worth. Three things, and we let them fuse. "Livelihood puts food on the table. If you don't make the livelihood the identity, then you're good."Transition implies progress. Purgatory doesn't. That's why he picked the harder word.Running versus progressing. Both are fine, but you have to evaluate the ending. Why did you leave? Bored, burned out, actually moving toward something? Skip that and you rinse and repeat for thirty years.Closer to right than quick. The nonprofit took two and a half years instead of the five months his old metrics demanded. That gap is where the real work happened.Realism as a Trojan horse. Geoff's admission that he uses "I'm a realist" to smuggle in negativity is the sharpest self-observation in the episode.You're not your patterns. The Hoffman framing: you absorb your parents' patterns as a kid to stay close to them, rebel against them as a teenager, then repeat them under stress for the rest of your life until somebody shows you where they came from.The conversation nobody has. Geoff and a former direct report both had imposter syndrome the whole time and never said a word. "I always thought you had it together, and I wanted to make sure you thought I had it together."TIMESTAMPSEstimated from the transcript. Spot-check and shift for cold open and sting.00:00 — Why this book landed differently01:31 — Why he chose the word purgatory02:46 — Not brave enough to say we're unfinished02:51 — Brett: I think I was in purgatory while still employed03:53 — His wife knew it was going to hit him before he did05:08 — Identity, self-worth, and what work was really providing05:49 — Thirty years of running on external validation06:48 — Why there's no path out in the book, only questions08:30 — Livelihood is not identity is not self-worth09:35 — Separate the money from the mission10:49 — The college senior who wants success and fun12:36 — First generation college, and the expectations that come with it13:49 — Running when things get uncomfortable14:25 — Evaluate the ending, or you'll repeat it15:45 — Running as emotional suppression, and his father16:35 — Love the process and eventually the process loves you17:30 — Three years out, and building new metrics for happiness18:57 — The old metrics never fully stop flashing back20:00 — Brett talked his way back into a full time job because it was comfortable21:18 — Geoff turns it around: how much was external pressure?22:58 — What changes when you finally become value driven24:20 — Following energy as a compass25:17 — Why the nonprofit took two and a half years, and why that was right26:52 — First dollar out versus being methodical29:41 — Why you'd be a better leader now than you were then30:25 — Gen X and the refusal to invest in ourselves31:25 — The Hoffman Process, eight days unplugged33:06 — The patterns you inherited and repeat under stress35:44 — Getting comfortable being uncomfortable36:58 — Doing the uncomfortable thing, and how the podcast started37:41 — The nonprofit as his uncomfortable thing40:17 — People are doubting themselves inside corporate now41:50 — The imposter syndrome nobody admitted to each other43:00 — Everything is a choice, and we only price the downside44:15 — Negativity as an inherited pattern46:15 — The quarterly business review Brett runs with his wife48:11 — Why most of the book's feedback is coming from men QUOTES"Words like transition mean progress. In purgatory, there's a lot less progress." — Geoff"We're too focused on being finished, and not brave enough to say that we're unfinished." — Geoff"Livelihood puts food on the table. If you don't make the livelihood the identity, then you're good." — Geoff"We're tying how we feel to what somebody else thinks about us. That's an interesting psychological juxtaposition when you sit down to think about it." — Geoff"Things don't need to be quick anymore. They need to be closer to right than quick." — Geoff"I use my realism to mask my negativity. It's almost a Trojan horse." — Geoff"He said, I always thought you had it together, and I wanted to make sure that you thought I had it together." — Geoff, on imposter syndrome with a former direct report"I convinced them to hire me full time. In hindsight it made no sense. But it was comfortable." — Brett"You're not being let go because you don't have the skills. Drop you into any situation and you know more than ninety five percent of the people in the room." — BrettQuestions or guest ideas

Chapel | September 22nd, 2026 | Thomas Ashley | When God Changes Your Direction | Acts 16:6-10

SummaryIn this episode, Ian Paget discusses his journey as a logo designer and the evolution of his brand, Logo Geek. He introduces his new book, Seed, and the corresponding Seed framework, a structured approach to help businesses establish a solid foundation for growth. Ian emphasizes the importance of preparation and understanding client needs before diving into design work. He explores the intersection of strategy and design, highlighting the significance of differentiation and lifestyle design for entrepreneurs. The conversation provides valuable insights for anyone looking to build a successful business. TakeawaysA logo shouldn't be step one—the business foundation comes first.SEED = Spark, Edge, Expression, Destiny.Build a business that fits the life you actually want to live.Find your edge by understanding the customer, the problem, and the alternatives.Define how the brand should feel, sound, and behave before designing how it looks.Separate what you know from what you're assuming, then test and refine.Start with the long-term destination and reverse-engineer the steps to get there.As AI makes execution easier, original thinking, judgment, and human perspective become more valuable.Chapters00:00 Introduction to Ian Paget and His Journey03:04 The Evolution of Logo Geek and Brand Strategy06:00 Introducing the Seed Framework08:54 Understanding the Importance of Preparation12:09 The Role of Strategy in Design14:50 Identifying Client Needs and Differentiation18:13 Implementing the Seed Framework21:06 The Spark Stage of Business Development23:59 Creating a Unique Edge in Business26:51 Understanding Your Target Audience30:00 Lifestyle Design and Business Intentionality34:54 Building a Feasible Business Lifestyle36:34 Understanding Competition and Alternatives38:03 The Importance of Expression in Business42:39 Creating a Consistent Business Identity55:25 Defining Long-Term Business Destiny01:10:16 Building a Brand Strategy01:12:33 The Interconnection of Brand and Business01:14:53 Evolving Beyond Logo Design01:17:06 The Importance of Sharing Knowledge01:18:40 Creating a Proprietary Framework01:22:14 Strategy vs. Procrastination01:26:08 The Human Element in Business01:29:39 Adapting to AI in Design01:31:28 Engaging with the CommunityLearn more: Support the book launch! https://www.logogeek.uk/seedhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/ianpaget/Credits:Hosted by Ryan RoghaarProduced by Ryan RoghaarTheme music: "Perfect Day" by OPM  The Eggs Podcast Spotify playlist:bit.ly/eggstunesThe Plugs:The Show: eggsthepodcast.com@eggsthepodcast on X and InstagramMike "DJ Ontic": Shows and info: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠djontic.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@djontic on twitterRyan Roghaar:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠rogha.ar⁠⁠

If We Were Buying a House Today: What Real Estate Professionals Would Look For When you're touring a home with your real estate agent and you really like it, there's a good chance you've considered asking: “Would you buy this house?” Or, when it comes time to write an offer: “What would you offer?” They're understandable questions. After all, your real estate agent sees homes every day. They understand the market, recognize potential concerns, know what features buyers tend to value, and have watched countless transactions unfold. But here's the catch: The house your real estate agent would buy isn't necessarily the house you should buy. That's exactly what Melissa Wallace and Boston Connect Real Estate agent Kristen Howlett explored during an episode of Talk Real Estate Roundtable. They turned the tables and asked themselves what they would do if they were buying a home today. What would matter most? What would they compromise on? What wouldn't bother them? What might make them walk away? And perhaps most importantly, how should a real estate professional respond when a client asks, “Would you buy this house?” The answers reveal an important lesson for anyone beginning a home search: the goal isn't to find a universally perfect house. It's to find the house that makes sense for you. Before You Look at Houses, Figure Out What You're Actually Looking For It's tempting to begin a home search by opening your favorite real estate app and scrolling through listings. But before falling in love with photos, start with a conversation. What do you need? What do you want? What are you willing to compromise on? And what would you absolutely regret compromising on? Kristen discussed the importance of becoming knowledgeable about your own priorities before jumping into the search. A feature that's a non-negotiable for one buyer may be something another buyer barely considers. Think of it as creating your own buyer box. That might include: Location Budget Number of bedrooms and bathrooms Commute Yard size Privacy Garage Basement First-floor bedroom Updated kitchen Central air Heating system Septic versus sewer Well versus town water Proximity to family Neighborhood style Outdoor living space Future flexibility And don't be surprised when that list changes. One of the benefits of actually touring homes is discovering things you didn't realize mattered to you. You may walk into your first few houses convinced that you need a huge primary bedroom and eventually realize you'd rather have a smaller bedroom and a finished basement. You might think you need a garage until you find a home in the perfect location without one. Or you may discover that something you thought was a minor preference is actually a dealbreaker. Your home search should teach you something about yourself. Location May Matter More Than the House When Melissa asked Kristen what she would prioritize if she started house hunting tomorrow, Kristen's first answer was simple: Location. It's one of the oldest sayings in real estate for a reason. You can renovate a kitchen. You can paint walls. You can replace flooring. You may be able to add central air, redesign a bathroom, finish a basement, improve landscaping, or build a patio. But you can't pick up the house and move it somewhere else. Melissa and Kristen considered a hypothetical choice: House A: Almost everything you want, but the location isn't your first choice. House B: The location is perfect, but the house needs work and doesn't check every box. Both chose House B. Their reasoning was that many aspects of a property can potentially be improved over time, while the location stays the same. Of course, that doesn't mean every buyer should make the same choice. It means buyers should understand how much location matters to them before making an offer. “Location” Means Something Different to Everyone Location doesn't necessarily mean choosing the most popular town. For one buyer, location may mean being close to the highway. For another, it means being far away from it. It might mean an eight-minute commute to work. Being near the water. Living close to parents who help with childcare. Being able to walk into town. Having privacy. Living on a cul-de-sac. Being near restaurants and shopping. Or having enough land that you can't see your neighbors. Melissa pointed out that while she loves her short commute to work, getting to the highway takes significantly longer. That experience would influence what she considered if she were searching for another home. That's why buyers need to look beyond the house itself. Ask yourself: What will living here actually look like every day? Your Priorities Should Match the Season of Life You're In What matters to you at 30 may be completely different from what matters at 55. A busy road may feel like a dealbreaker when you're raising young children but become much less important later. A four-bedroom Colonial may have been perfect when all the kids were home, but buying another four-bedroom Colonial after they leave may not make sense. Kristen discussed wanting a first-floor bedroom or at least a space that could eventually become one because she was thinking beyond what she needs today. She also emphasized outdoor living space while noting that an outdated kitchen wouldn't necessarily prevent her from purchasing the right home. That's a great way to approach a home search. Don't only ask: “Does this work for me today?” Also ask: “Could this continue working for me if my life changes?” You can't predict everything, but you can think ahead. Don't Automatically Rule Out Cosmetic Updates Buyers frequently say they want something move-in ready. There's nothing wrong with that. But if everything else about a house works, it may be worth separating cosmetic problems from fundamental problems. Dated kitchen? Old bathroom? Paint colors you hate? No central air? Small bedrooms? Those things may or may not matter depending on the buyer. During their rapid-fire discussion, Melissa and Kristen found themselves willing to compromise on several features. A dated kitchen wasn't necessarily a problem. A smaller bedroom could work if there were other living spaces. A garage wasn't necessarily a requirement. This is where buyers can benefit from asking: Can I change this? And if the answer is yes: How difficult or expensive would it be? There is a significant difference between disliking kitchen cabinets and disliking where the house is located. Sometimes You Don't Know What Matters Until You Have It One of the more interesting parts of a home search is discovering preferences you didn't know you had. Melissa talked about how much she values the land and privacy she has at her current home. With approximately 2.7 acres, wooded surroundings and plenty of wildlife, privacy has become something she has grown accustomed to and something she would now consider when purchasing another property. That illustrates why your criteria may evolve. Living somewhere teaches you what you appreciate. Maybe your current home has a basement and you've never thought much about it. Then you tour a home built on a slab and suddenly wonder where you're going to put everything currently stored downstairs. Maybe you've never had a garage and don't care about one. Maybe you've always had central air and can't imagine living without it. Maybe you never thought outdoor space mattered until you had a deck or patio you used every evening. Experience changes priorities. Think About the Function of the Entire House Buyers can become overly focused on individual rooms. The bedrooms are too small. The kitchen isn't big enough. There's only one closet in the primary bedroom. Instead, consider how the entire home functions. Melissa discussed having relatively smaller bedrooms but additional living areas, including a finished basement and another lounge space. Because the house provides those additional areas, bedroom size matters less to her. That's an important distinction. Square footage alone doesn't tell you how a house lives. A smaller, thoughtfully designed home may function better for you than a larger property with wasted space. As you tour, imagine your daily routine. Where does everyone watch TV? Where would you work? Where do coats and shoes go? Where would guests stay? Where would you store holiday decorations? Where does the dog sleep? Where would the kids do homework? Where would everyone gather? The floor plan needs to work for your life, not simply look good in listing photos. What Would Make a Real Estate Professional Walk Away? This is where the conversation became particularly interesting. Melissa and Kristen discussed issues they personally might be unwilling to take on. Water concerns were high on Melissa's list. Significant foundation or structural concerns were another example. Location could also be enough to walk away if the property simply wasn't where they wanted to live. But their larger point was important: Not every red flag automatically means you shouldn't buy the house. Sometimes a red flag simply means: We need more information. A Concern Isn't Always a Dealbreaker Imagine an inspection identifies an electrical concern. That doesn't necessarily mean you immediately walk away. It may mean you consult an electrician. Concern about plumbing? Call a plumber. Possible mold? Talk with the appropriate specialist. Structural question? Seek additional professional guidance. As Melissa explained during the episode, inspectors, attorneys, lenders, insurance professionals, contractors, and other specialists can help buyers gather the information they need before making a decision. That's an important distinction between reacting to a problem and investigating a problem. Your agent's role isn't necessarily to say, “Don't buy this house.” It's to help you recognize when additional information may be appropriate so you can make a more informed choice. Don't Keep Looking at Houses That Violate Your True Non-Negotiables There's value in seeing different types of homes early in your search. It helps you learn. But eventually, you need to stop torturing yourself. If you've decided something is genuinely non-negotiable, continually touring homes that don't meet that requirement can create unnecessary frustration. Melissa and Kristen discussed how the list buyers begin with may change as they see properties. Something that begins as non-negotiable can become negotiable and vice versa. But once you've identified a true dealbreaker, your search can become more focused. The goal isn't to see every house. The goal is to see the right houses. So…Would Your Agent Buy This House? Now we're back to the original question. You're standing in the kitchen. You love the house. You turn to your agent and ask: “Would you buy it?” A good agent may not give you the simple yes or no you're hoping for. Instead, they may ask: Does this property meet the goals you gave me? Do you understand its condition? Can you comfortably afford the property beyond the purchase price? Are you overlooking something because you're emotionally attached to the house? Are you dismissing an otherwise good property because of something relatively easy to change? Are there future resale considerations worth discussing? Those were some of the questions Melissa and Kristen identified as being more useful than simply inserting their personal preferences into a client's decision. Because your agent isn't buying the house. You are. “What Would You Offer?” Is Personal, Too This is another question agents hear all the time. “What would you offer?” Your agent can help you understand comparable sales, asking price, market activity, property condition, competition, conversations with the listing agent, and other information that may help you structure an offer. But there's another component that is much harder to calculate: What is the house worth to you? Melissa described the difference between market value and the emotional value a buyer places on a property. An agent can help explain the market and whether a multiple-offer situation appears likely, but the buyer ultimately has to determine what they're comfortable offering. One helpful question Kristen raised was essentially this: If you offered one amount and later discovered the property sold for slightly more, would you regret not offering more? That's not a formula for determining an offer. It's a way to think about your own comfort level. There should be a number where, if someone else is willing to pay more, you're comfortable saying: “Then it was their house, not mine.” Your Agent's Job Isn't to Choose Your House Perhaps the most important takeaway from the entire conversation came toward the end of the show. A real estate professional's role isn't to make the decision for the buyer. It's to provide the information the buyer needs to make an informed decision. That's the difference between guidance and personal preference. Your agent may personally hate HOAs. You may love the idea of having exterior maintenance taken care of. Your agent may not care about having a garage. You may consider it non-negotiable. Your agent may love an antique home. You may want new construction. None of those personal preferences make one choice right and another wrong. The question isn't: “Would my real estate agent buy this house?” The better question is: “Based on everything we know, does this house make sense for me?” If We Were Buying a House Today... We'd start with the same advice we'd give our clients: Know your budget. Understand your lifestyle. Think about location. Separate needs from wants. Identify true non-negotiables. Be willing to reconsider assumptions. Think about your future without trying to predict it perfectly. Don't dismiss a good property solely because of something you can reasonably change. Don't ignore a major concern simply because you've fallen in love with the house. Ask questions. Bring in additional professionals when you need more information. And lean on your real estate agent for guidance not to make the decision for you, but to help you understand the decision you're making. At Boston Connect Real Estate, that's what we believe buyer representation should look like. Buying a home isn't about finding the house that your agent would choose. It's about finding the home that fits your finances, your priorities, your lifestyle, and the next chapter of your life. If you're thinking about buying a home in Boston, the South Shore, the South Coast, Cape Cod, or surrounding Massachusetts communities, the experienced agents at Boston Connect Real Estate are here to help you navigate the process, ask the right questions, and make an informed decision with confidence. The firm serves buyers and sellers throughout these Massachusetts markets with a holistic approach to real estate. Every move should be a moving experience. Watch our live video on Youtube!

THE DEVIL WITHIN THE NEW MONSTERS: THE LOVELAND FROGMAN Episode Two — The Creature Gets a Name Before the Loveland Frogman became one of America's strangest regional cryptids, it may have been something else entirely. The story takes us back to Loveland, Ohio, in 1955, where a businessman or traveling salesman supposedly encountered three small humanoid figures beside a country road near the Little Miami River. Later versions describe creatures standing three or four feet tall, with leathery skin, deeply wrinkled heads and vaguely frog-like faces. Then one of them reportedly raised a strange metal rod above its head—and sparks began shooting from it. A Frogman is strange enough. A Frogman with a magic wand requires considerably more explanation. In Episode Two of The New Monsters, we investigate how a handful of separate encounters gradually became the mythology of the Loveland Frogman—and why the creature's bizarre origins may have more in common with America's flying-saucer obsession than traditional cryptozoology. The problem begins with the 1955 encounter itself. Unlike the better-documented police sightings that followed seventeen years later, there is no readily available contemporary police report establishing the version of the story we know today. Its famous details reach us largely through later researchers, paranormal literature and decades of retelling, meaning the Frogman's origin story belongs much more securely to folklore than verified history. And then there's that wand. America in 1955 was deep in the first great age of flying-saucer fascination. UFO reports were multiplying, science-fiction theaters were filled with extraterrestrial visitors, and stories of strange humanoids carrying mysterious technology occupied a very different corner of the American imagination. Three small beings beside a road carrying a sparking device don't necessarily sound like unknown amphibians at all. They sound suspiciously like visitors. The documentary trail is too weak to conclude that the Frogman began as a UFO story, but the possibility reveals just how dramatically a story can change depending upon the name we eventually give its creature. Then came 1972. Loveland police officers Ray Shockey and Mark Mathews encountered unusual animals near the Little Miami River seventeen years after the alleged 1955 incident. Suddenly, the older story had something it had previously lacked: recognizable witnesses and the authority of a police uniform. Three mysterious humanoids from 1955 could become earlier examples of the same creature encountered by police in 1972, while those later encounters appeared to prove that something had been returning to the river for decades. Separate stories became sightings. Sightings became a pattern. And eventually, the pattern became a monster. Once the name Loveland Frogman took hold, the transformation accelerated. Paranormal books, cryptozoology collections and eventually the internet standardized a creature that eyewitness testimony had left frustratingly incomplete. Artists supplied enormous eyes, long limbs, webbed hands and unmistakably amphibian features until generations of people who had never seen the creature nevertheless knew exactly what a Loveland Frogman was supposed to look like. And somehow, through every transformation, the sparking wand survived. This week on The Devil Within, we follow one of America's strangest cryptids from an uncertain roadside encounter through police reports, paranormal publishing and the internet, examining how folklore can create a coherent history from stories that may never have belonged together in the first place. Because the Loveland Frogman wasn't simply discovered. It was assembled. Next time, the Frogman enters the smartphone age when teenagers playing Pokémon Go near Loveland encounter something strange beside the water. We'll also meet the police officer who publicly tried to kill his own legend by insisting that the Frogman he encountered in 1972 was actually a tailless iguana—and discover why Loveland kept its monster anyway. Listen & Follow: Follow The Devil Within wherever you get your podcasts. Rate & Review: Leave us a 5-star rating and review to help new listeners discover the show. Watch & Subscribe: Watch The Devil Within on the Evio Creative YouTube channel. Subscribe and turn on notifications so you never miss a new episode. Join the Conversation: Follow @thedevilwithinpod and send your stories, sightings and tips to info@eviocreative.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Week 4 could start separating the Big 12 contenders from the pretenders as conference play heats up across the league.Heartland College Sports' Pete Mundo breaks down and predicts the biggest games on the Big 12 Week 4 schedule, including the matchups that could tell us which teams are legitimate threats, and which ones still have plenty to prove.Who makes a statement? Who is on upset alert? And which Week 4 results could have the biggest impact on the Big 12 race moving forward?Pete gives his predictions, picks and biggest storylines for another important weekend of Big 12 football.Join the FREE Heartland College Sports newsletter — Pete gives you one exclusive Big 12 take that doesn't appear on the show or website: https://app.e2ma.net/app2/audience/signup/2013905/1964875/Subscribe if you are SICK of the SEC and Big Ten bias in college football media!Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

AI is moving faster than the headlines can explain, so how do you sort fiction from fact? Tech analyst Dan Ives has spent more than 25 years on Wall Street doing exactly that. In this episode, he shares what the future could look like if the U.S. keeps its edge over China, what his biggest worry about AI is right now, and why AI's major PR problem is making people underestimate the opportunity ahead. Topics discussed: (00:00) Introduction (02:11) How he built a tech career with no tech background (04:28) His biggest worry and the fight over data centers (07:09) Why AI has a perception problem (08:57) The case for AI creating more jobs (11:28) Why he sees a young bull market (14:04) What we can learn from the SpaceX IPO (17:25) What it will take to keep the tech lead over China (20:42) Tech regulation, gridlock and the politics around AI (23:44) Dan's colorful style and Snow Milk collab (27:53) What brought you JOY today? If you're a writer who wants to take control of your finances, read Mitlin Financial's  Write Your Financial Future: A Financial Guide for Authors: https://www.mitlinfinancial.com/insights/blog/write-your-financial-future-a-financial-guide-for-authors/ Resources: Sending your child to college will always be emotional but are you financially ready? Take the College Readiness Quiz for Parents: https://www.mitlinfinancial.com/college-readiness-quiz/ Doing your taxes might not be enJOYable but being more organized can make the process less painful. Get Your Gathering Your Tax Documents Checklist: https://www.mitlinfinancial.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Mitlin_ChecklistForGatheringYourTaxDocuments_Form_062424_v2.pdf Will you be able to enJOY the Retirement you envision? Take the Retirement Ready Quiz: https://www.mitlinfinancial.com/retirement-planning-quiz/ Connect with Larry Sprung: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lawrencesprung/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/larry_sprung/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LawrenceDSprung/ X (Twitter): https://x.com/Lawrence_Sprung About Our Guest: Daniel Ives is a Partner and Senior Managing Director at Yorkville Ives. Dan was a Managing Director, Global Head of Tech Research, and Senior Equity Research Analyst that covered the Technology sector at Wedbush Securities from August 2018 until July 2026. Dan has been a tech analyst on Wall Street for over 25 years covering the software and the broader technology sector. He spent the first few years of his career as a financial analyst at HBO and then received his MBA in Finance before becoming a globally known technology equity research analyst and Managing Director with FBR Capital Markets for 16 years, focusing on the enterprise software/hardware sectors including cyber security, cloud computing, big data technology, and the mobile landscape. A major area of his research focus is the AI Revolution and disruptive technology over the next decade. Dan is a regularly sought after tech expert around the world, has been a keynote speaker across the US, Europe, Australia, Africa, and Asia and regularly makes television appearances on networks such as CNBC, Bloomberg, CNN, Fox News, BBC, and many networks around the world to provide commentary related to his technology expertise. Dan has also appeared on The Today Show, Good Morning America, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, and The Daily Show. Dan can be heard regularly doing radio on the tech sector for Bloomberg, ABC News, NPR, BBC, and other radio programs. Dan is often cited globally by publications such as The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Financial Times, The Washington Post, Time Magazine, Barron's, and New York Times, among many others. Named by the New York Post in 2024 as the "Best Dressed Man on Wall Street." He holds a BS in Finance from Penn State University and an MBA from the University of Maryland. Connect with Dan Ives: X (Twitter): https://x.com/DivesTech LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-ives-542321a8/ Website: https://danivesclothing.com/ Disclosure: Guests on the Mitlin Money Mindset are not affiliated with CWM, LLC, and opinions expressed herein may not be representative of CWM, LLC. CWM, LLC is not responsible for the guest's content linked on this site.   This episode was produced by Podcast Boutique https://www.podcastboutique.com

This is episode 875. Read the complete transcription on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. Watch the video of this podcast on YouTube here. The Sales Game Changers Podcast was recognized by YesWare as the top sales podcast. Read the announcement here. FeedSpot named the Sales Game Changers Podcast at a top 20 Sales Podcast and top 8 Sales Leadership Podcast! Subscribe to the Sales Game Changers Podcast now on Apple Podcasts! Purchase Fred Diamond's best-sellers Love, Hope, Lyme: What Family Members, Partners, and Friends Who Love a Chronic Lyme Survivor Need to Know and Insights for Sales Game Changers now! The Institute for Effective Professional Selling has launched the Partner Revenue Academy for partner account managers who are looking to become more effective active sellers. The next 6-session cohort launches on October 2nd. Learn more here. Today's show featured an interview with Andy Hershey, Vice President of Strategic Sales, Americas at Cribl. Find Andy on LinkedIn. ANDY'S TIP: "Research, who's the best seller you or anyone in your network knows, who's the most successful person that's mid-career or late-career, and reach out to them. Ask them to mentor you."

An operation planned around the electromagnetic spectrum as an afterthought works right up until the enemy adapts to it.For today's conversation, Ken Miller sits down with retired Colonel Dr. William "Dollar" Young, AOC Board Member Scott “Sherm” Oliver, and Booz Allen Director of Defense Technology Group Jarod Patton to break down what came out of INFOPAC 2026. Together, they discuss why false certainty is dangerous in AI-enabled systems and how double-loop learning helps commanders test their own assumptions before committing to a theory of victory. The conversation also gets into what lessons from Ukraine mean for rapid reprogramming and scalable EW systems.We invite you to share your thoughts, questions, or suggestions for future episodes by emailing host Ken Miller at host@fromthecrowsnest.org or by visiting us on our Instagram @fromthecrowsnestpodcast.To learn more about today's topics or to stay updated on EMSO and EW developments, visit our homepage.

Kyle Blankenhorn is co-owner of Ken's Tire, a 50-year tire and automotive service business with three locations in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, plus a commercial truck tire center and road service operation. Its stores have warehouse space and carry roughly 2,500 to 3,000 tires per location.Kyle brings an operator's perspective to tire inventory management, supplier relationships, customer retention, and hiring. He also helps lead a team of about 50 employees and reports very little turnover across the business.In this episode…Tire inventory creates two expensive problems: empty racks send time-sensitive customers elsewhere, while slow-moving stock consumes cash and warehouse space. Strong tire inventory management requires enough size and price-point coverage to serve the local market without treating every available tire as a necessary purchase.New vehicles continue to introduce additional tire sizes, making broad coverage harder for shops and distributors. Kyle's position is practical: customers often buy the tire that is available because waiting until the next day interferes with work and daily responsibilities. The shop with the tire on hand often gets the sale, regardless of brand.First tire sales also shape the long-term customer relationship, at Ken's Tire, repair work follows the trust built through tire sales, consistent service, and quality work. Customers return over time, and entire families continue using the business.The same operating discipline extends to hiring. Kyle prioritizes consistent work history over formal credentials because technical skills can be taught. A dependable employment record gives him greater confidence in the time, energy, and money required to train someone properly.Here's a glimpse of what you'll learn: [03:33] From career pivot to tire business leadership[05:38] Strategic tire buying and supplier relationships[08:06] Inventory capacity, product mix, and sales[11:36] Aging vehicles and rising repair demand[13:37] How tire sales build long-term customer relationships[16:55] A retention-focused approach to technician hiring[21:22] Hands-on experience as a technician training standardResources mentioned in this episode:Ken's Tire WebsiteTread PartnersGain Traction Podcast on YouTubeGain Traction Podcast WebsiteMike Edge on LinkedInQuotable Moments:“The more you have, the more you sell.”“Bottom line, can't sell from an empty cart.”“But he who has it is going to sell it.”“The only thing that matters to me is work history.”“I can teach you the rest of the way through.”“I do not want to train new people every six months.”Action Steps:Strengthen tire inventory management with a location-level report covering the past 12 months of sales. Separate high-volume sizes, steady sellers, aging inventory, and products with no recent movement.Track every lost sale caused by unavailable inventory for 30 days. Record the requested size, preferred price point, available substitute, and whether another location had the tire.Set minimum and maximum stocking levels for each store based on local sales history. Transfer existing inventory between locations before placing another order.Build a supplier reference sheet covering primary contacts, alternate sources, lead times, payment terms, and direct-buy opportunities. Review the list with every store manager.Add consistent work history to the technician screening process. Ask candidates how long they stayed in previous roles, then invest training resources in people who have demonstrated reliability.

Paulina's baby Gigi threw her baby doll at a airport worker! Jeff is concerned because his wife wants to have her own bedroom to improve her sleep. She insists that it has nothing to do with him and she just wants to have better sleep.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jeff is concerned because his wife wants to have her own bedroom to improve her sleep. She insists that it has nothing to do with him and she just wants to have better sleep. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Would you hide the Cheez-Its from your own spouse, or just dole them out like a dorm RA?Sandy opens from the shadow of the 360 bridge with Minute to Win It climbing to five hundred, HAM Music Festival day all over Austin, and a later chat with HAM CEO Paul Scott. Then Tricia's first laugh lands on snack-loud subtitles, pantry bag raids, orange Cheez-It fingers, dorm-style fridge sides, and the best decision ever: separate beds.If you love The JB and Sandy Show, subscribe, leave a review, and share it with a snack thief.

AI isn't just a chatbot anymore, and the headlines are starting to sound like science fiction for a reason. We kick things off with a sober warning from Microsoft's AI leadership about advanced systems evolving into a “new silicon species” and what that could mean when autonomy, incentives, and real-world resources like electricity collide. We push past the buzzwords and ask the question that actually matters: who sets the boundaries, and how do we prove they work?From there, we jump into a very near-term privacy fight: Apple Watch “Live Rewind”, a feature that can show a transcript of the last 15 seconds of conversation. Even with opt-in settings and indicators, transcription changes the social rules for everyone nearby. We talk through the everyday impact, the consent and legal gray areas, and why “helpful” can still feel invasive when tech gets more ambient and less noticeable.Cybersecurity gets a spotlight when Google's Gemini demonstrates it can gain access to systems during a controlled test. That's not a victory lap, it's a preview of a world where AI can assist defenders and attackers with the same core skills. We also play Two Truths and a Lie to stress-test tech hype, then Mike the AI Guy breaks down how an old “smart TV is spying” story got resurrected with AI-generated videos and missing context, and how to spot misinformation before you share it.If you like smart takes with a little whiskey on the side, subscribe, share the show with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find Tech Time Radio.Send us Fan MailSupport the show

Do we have the endless energy you need to be a college head coach...Jaxson Dart went down early and so did the Giants' chances in LA...Is it now impossible to enjoy the games during college football season without worrying about the business of NIL for your roster.

Rahul Gandhi to Bring OBC Act in UP If He Forms the Govt | Separate Manifestos On The Cards

Wesley Henderson is more than just a business attorney—he's an entrepreneur who understands firsthand the challenges and opportunities of running a business. As the founder of multiple ventures, including Henderson & Henderson, Driving for Downs, Inc., and Drafted Legal, he brings real-world experience to his legal practice. Wesley helps business owners across South Carolina navigate complex legal issues, from startup formation and partnership agreements to employment law and business litigation.With a passion for serving business owners, Wesley believes these businesses are the backbone of our communities—delivering the best services and creating meaningful local impact. His goal is to provide practical, business-minded legal solutions that help entrepreneurs protect and grow their companies with confidence.A magna cum laude graduate of Wofford College, Wesley earned his law degree from the University of South Carolina School of Law, where he was awarded the prestigious Justice J.B. Ness Scholarship. He is also a South Carolina Bar Certified Mediator, helping businesses resolve disputes efficiently.Outside the office, Wesley enjoys spending time with his wife, Mary Katherine, and their three energetic sons on James Island. When he's not keeping up with them, you'll likely find him on the golf course with friends.Wesley's conversation with David traces the gap between being good at legal work and learning to run the business behind it — a shift that took years, and a fractional COO, to fully take hold. He talks about the hires he wishes he'd made sooner, the weekly leadership meeting that turned good ideas into actual decisions, and the partnership dynamics he sees go wrong most often with clients. The conversation also gets into where AI genuinely helps in a law practice and where it still requires a careful, responsible hand.Wesley and I discuss:[02:13] – Building Henderson & Henderson with his brother, and growing the firm from two people to more than twenty[06:46] – The hires he wishes he'd made sooner, and the fear that held him back from bringing in help earlier[08:47] – Learning to treat the business as its own project, with a rolling plan that starts at ten years and narrows down to the quarter[09:15] – Why stepping out of the office for a weekly leadership meeting changed how decisions actually got made[11:38] – The recurring theme behind the partnership disputes he sees most often between clients[13:45] – Building compensation structures flexible enough to adjust as partners' life circumstances change[15:05] – Clearing up the confusion between LLCs and S corps for people starting a business[15:44– Where AI genuinely helps with contracts and client work, and where it still requires careful review[21:17] – Where he turns for outside perspective, from friends to a fractional COOLearn more about Wesley at: https://draftedlegal.com/legalbundle/ and https://hhlawsc.com/______________________________________________________________About Smashing the PlateauSmashing the Plateau features candid conversations with experienced professionals who are building businesses around their expertise and creating greater control over their work and their lives.Each episode explores the decisions, challenges, and opportunities that come with independent work, drawing on the experiences and perspectives of people who have navigated them firsthand.Take the Next StepBetter decisions begin with seeing your situation more clearly. Get the free SMASH System™ Self-Assessment at SmashingThePlateau.com/clarity.

Identity After Stroke: Who Are You When Your Career Is Gone? Cassie Jewell got back from Iceland on a Monday. On Wednesday, she was demoted from the job she had built her life around. On Friday, she was in an ambulance with a stroke. She was 42, a licensed counsellor supervising behavioural health programs inside a US jail. She loved working with inmates and took two or three extra hours of work home most nights. “My entire identity was my career,” she told me. Within a single week, she lost the role and nearly lost her life. Her story shows something many survivors struggle to name: identity after stroke isn’t only about what your body can still do. It’s about who you are when the roles you relied on are gone. The Week Everything Changed On the Thursday night after the demotion, Cassie stayed up writing a book, determined to prove she still mattered. As she typed, her left hand stopped working. She put it down to tiredness and went to bed. She woke the next afternoon knowing something was wrong but not what. She decided it was a panic attack. Then she remembered her hand. She texted her mum, a nurse practitioner, who told her to call 911 and ask for a hospital with a stroke centre. When the paramedics arrived asking for the stroke patient, Cassie was the one who had answered the door. One side of her face was drooping and her left side was weakening. The diagnosis was an ischaemic stroke in the right basal ganglia, a deep brain region involved in movement, balance and, as she discovered, emotional regulation. If you want to understand this area of the brain better, our episode on lower basal ganglia stroke (https://recoveryafterstroke.com/lower-basal-ganglia-stroke/) goes deeper. Her doctors told her stress contributes to stroke rather than causing it directly, and her cardiologist is still monitoring her heart rhythm. Cassie has her own view: “I was literally burning myself to the ground… and then my brain was like, okay, we’ve had enough. We’re gonna stop you.” It’s a theme we’ve explored before in stroke and stress (https://recoveryafterstroke.com/stroke-and-stress-darren-walker/). When Your Brain Tells You You’re Fine The day after her stroke, Cassie tried to go to work. Her mum stopped her. Later, before she was cleared to drive, she got behind the wheel and bumped another car on her first day out. There’s a name for part of what was happening: anosognosia. It describes reduced awareness of your own deficits after a brain injury, and it’s more often associated with right-hemisphere strokes like Cassie’s. It isn’t stubbornness or denial; it’s a symptom of the injury itself, which is why a survivor can sincerely insist they’re okay while the people around them can see otherwise. Cassie summed up that period in one line: “It’s fine, it’s gonna be fine, even though it clearly, you know, wasn’t fine.” For families, understanding it can turn an argument into patience. Why Identity After Stroke Hits So Hard Identity is built from what we do, the roles we hold, and the stories we tell about ourselves, and a stroke can remove several at once. The more tightly your sense of self is tied to a single role, the larger the gap it leaves. “I lost my career and myself at the same time,” Cassie said. Her first job after returning to work didn’t last. She found she wasn’t as quick as she used to be, and that raised a harder question: “When you measure your self-worth in the things that you do… and then all of a sudden you don’t have your career anymore, who are you?” I recognised that question. Before my own strokes, I was a business owner and a dad, and I couldn’t have told you anything about myself beyond those labels. I didn’t have the vocabulary for identity loss. Guests such as Adam Wolfers (https://recoveryafterstroke.com/cerebral-vasculitis-stroke-identity-change-adam-wolfers/) have described the same collision between who they were and who they now are, and anyone weighing up work decisions may find our episode on changing career after stroke (https://recoveryafterstroke.com/change-career-after-stroke/) useful. The emotional side can catch even a professional off guard. “You’d think as a therapist I would be good with it,” Cassie said, “but I’d prefer to deal with other people’s emotions, not my own.” Our conversation about emotional changes after stroke (https://recoveryafterstroke.com/emotional-changes-after-stroke-sam-hanes/) explores this further. Choosing Who You Become Eighteen months on, Cassie doesn’t have an elevator pitch for who she is. She’s clearer about who she isn’t: someone driven by work. She values free time, her partner, and her dogs. She works full time doing intake assessments and sees private clients, and she describes herself this way: “I’m not as sharp as I was before, but I think I’m kinder.” A stroke, she says, “strips away everything else so you have nothing left but yourself,” and then “you can also choose what your new identity is gonna be.” That choice matters most. For most of my life I did what I’d been trained to do; it took a stroke to show me I could choose differently. Researchers Richard Tedeschi and Lawrence Calhoun called this post-traumatic growth: positive change that comes from the struggle with a traumatic event, not from the event itself. Cassie put it in her own words: “It’s not about the stroke. It’s about, okay, what am I gonna choose to do now?” It’s the idea at the centre of my book, The Unexpected Way That A Stroke Became The Best Thing That Happened (https://recoveryafterstroke.com/book). Practical Ways to Rebuild Identity After Stroke Drawing on Cassie’s story, here are a few starting points: Separate what you do from who you are. Write down your values, not your job titles. Values survive a stroke better than roles do. Give it time. For me, it took a few years before I could say I liked the person I’d become. Early recovery is rarely the time to decide who you’ll be forever. Let people you trust be your early-warning system. Cassie’s partner noticed her overwork long before she did, and her mum recognised the stroke symptoms. With anosognosia in the picture, other people’s observations matter. Replace old coping habits, don’t just remove them. Recovery is a chance to swap quick fixes for stress for ones that last. Use time as a lens. Cassie is reading Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman and aims to visit all 195 countries. Find people who understand. Other survivors often give you the words for your experience. Our episode on finding purpose after stroke (https://recoveryafterstroke.com/finding-purpose-after-stroke/) is a good next listen. Listen to Cassie’s Full Story Watch or listen to the full conversation with Cassie Jewell. You can find more of her work at cassie-jewell.com (https://cassie-jewell.com). If a stroke has left your world feeling smaller, my new book, Your World Doesn’t Have to Stay This Small (https://mybook.to/yourworld), is a practical guide to rebuilding your life after trauma, even when you’re not ready. If this show has helped you, you can support it at patreon.com/recoveryafterstroke. This blog is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Please consult your doctor before making any changes to your health or recovery plan. Losing My Career and Myself, Then Choosing Who I’d Be – Cassie Jewell (Interview) A stroke at 42 took Cassie Jewell’s career and the identity built on it. What she found underneath changed how she works, loves, and travels. Highlights: 00:00 Introduction – Cassie’s Identity After Stroke01:08 Life Before the Stroke09:35 The Day of the Stroke23:02 Aftermath and Recovery28:41 Hospitalization and Rehabilitation Journey32:04 Dissociation and Identity Post-Stroke38:12 Life After Stroke: Adjusting to New Realities50:32 How Stroke Forced Me to Discover Who I Really Am01:02:14 The Dual Nature of Stroke Experiences Transcript: Introduction – Cassie’s Identity After Stroke Bill Gasiamis (00:00)Hi everyone, welcome back to Recovery After Stroke. I’m Bill Gassiamis. My guest today is Cassie Jewell, a counselor and author from the United States, who in February of 2025 at 42 had an ischemic stroke in the right basal ganglia. In the same week, she was moved out of the role she had built her whole identity around. We talk about perfectionism and the overwork loop that’s so hard to step out of. Why she tried to go back to work the day after her stroke, a condition called anosognosia. And the question at the heart of this episode: who are you when your career is gone? Now, if stroke has made your world feel smaller, my book is written for you. It’s called Your World Doesn’t Have to Stay This Small: A Practical Guide to Rebuilding Your Life After Trauma, Even When You’re Not Ready. Search for it on Amazon or tap the link in the show notes. And if this show has helped you, you can support it at patreon.com/recoveryafterstroke. And a massive thank you to everyone who already supports the show. You’re the reason these conversations keep happening. And now it’s time for the interview. Life Before the Stroke Bill Gasiamis (01:08)Cassie Jewell, welcome to the podcast. Cassie (01:10)Hi, how are you? Bill Gasiamis (01:12)I’m well. Thank you. Great to see you here. I really appreciate you joining me. I want to ask you a little bit about what your life was like before the stroke. What did you get up to? How did you occupy your time? Cassie (01:26)So my life was out of control before the stroke. I was working at a jail and it was a super stressful position. it was just stress all the time. I had a really bad supervisor too, a micromanager. but I also that wasn’t the only part of my life. I traveled a lot. I don’t know. It’s hard to even think about it now, honestly. Bill Gasiamis (01:54)How long ago was the stroke? Cassie (01:57)So the stroke was it’s been about a year and a half. It was February twenty first, twenty twenty five. Bill Gasiamis (02:02)Mm-hmm. w were you in a relationship? Were what’s the living arrangements like? What were you doing like personally? Cassie (02:12)Yes, I was in a relationship. I’m still in the same relationship. but I guess I was talking about work first because that was my entire life. It like revolved around my job. And I actually loved my job. It was just some of the stress part that I didn’t love. Bill Gasiamis (02:29)You loved your job, so you’re working in a jail with inmates? Cassie (02:33)Yes, I’m a therapist. Bill Gasiamis (02:36)okay. Cassie (02:38)And so I was working as a behavioral health supervisor at the jail. I didn’t have a lot of client contact, but when I did, those were the good days. But a lot of it was just inputting data, which was not fun. Bill Gasiamis (02:54)just all about reporting things to the bodies governing the jails or to Cassie (03:00)Yes. So specifically I worked with the when I say MAT, do you know what I mean by that? Medication Bill Gasiamis (03:06)No. Cassie (03:07)assisted treatment. So for the inmates who had opioid use disorders, they would start taking medication to help with that. It’s called Suboxone or buprenorfin is the name of the medication. Suboxon is the brand name. Bill Gasiamis (03:24)Mm-hmm. Cassie (03:25)But it helps with cravings, so a lot of the inmates were on the medication. My role was to track all of the inmates who were on medication. And so that was the data piece, like spreadsheets and just that was a lot. I kind of Bill Gasiamis (03:42)So you Cassie (03:43)sorry, go ahead. Bill Gasiamis (03:44)I was gonna say you became a counsellor or a therapist to have one-on-one contact with people, but you’re finding Cassie (03:53)Right. Bill Gasiamis (03:53)yourself in a situation where it’s all about statistics, data and a whole bunch of other things that you really w didn’t sign up for when you first started out to be a therapist. Cassie (04:03)Exactly. Like it was a good day if I got to spend time with clients or inmates. And a bad day would be me just at my desk, like hunched over till my neck was aching and just like I said, spreadsheets and data. Bill Gasiamis (04:18)Your world kind of revolved around work. How many hours a a week did you work? Cassie (04:24)I mean technically I was supposed to work forty hours, but I would stay late and I would work from home. So like that’s the worst thing about, you know, since the pandemic everybody works from home. I was able to bring it home with me, so if I didn’t finish something at work, I would just I’d be sitting on my couch make Bill Gasiamis (04:45)Is it that the workload was too too high or was it just the nature of the job? Cassie (04:51)So to be honest, well the workload was definitely too high and I I’m sharp enough to know like if it was or wasn’t and it definitely was, but at the same time I’m a perfectionist and I wanted things to be perfect and so that played a lot into it. And this is what I realized in hindsight, ’cause at the time I would have told you that the workload was ridiculous and like I didn’t play any role in it, but I did. Bill Gasiamis (05:20)Wow. So that’s an awareness Cassie (05:21)I wanted it. Bill Gasiamis (05:22)you’ve had recently. The perfectionism thing is a real what is it like a real barrier? Cassie (05:30)Yeah, it’s I’ve dealt with it my entire life. But when it comes to employment with certain things, you can’t be a perfectionist ’cause it’s just going to kill you eventually. And for me it almost did. Like I believe my stroke was in part caused by stress because that was the only thing in my life that was like different. I’m a pretty healthy person. Bill Gasiamis (05:56)Yeah. At home, when you were working at home, how many additional hours would you be doing if you had a regular day at work and then came home? How much additional time would you be spending? Cassie (06:06)Like two or three. Bill Gasiamis (06:08)Yeah. Okay. And then are your employers noticing? Are they going, Well, congratulations, you’ve got the best notes in the world or the best statistics or data? Cassie (06:17)Nope, nobody noticed. My manager also worked from home and I know this because she would send emails like at ten PM and be like she’s doing the same thing because I think it’s probably in America like jails are not well staffed and not well run. And it’s probably just widespread. You have people who are overworking and no wonder nobody wants to work in a jail. I loved it though. I loved the like I said, I loved working with the inmates. I like people. Bill Gasiamis (06:49)Yeah. Cassie (06:50)I like working with people. Doesn’t matter if they’re an inmate or not an inmate, like that’s why I became a therapist. Bill Gasiamis (06:57)Yeah. Ideal candidates for support therapy, Cassie (07:00)Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (07:01)learning new skills, understanding how their behavior impacts their life and other people and all that type of thing. And maybe some of the first times that they’ve ever come across a therapist, would you say for s for a lot of the people that end up in jail? Cassie (07:17)Possibly. And a lot of the people who were addicted to opiates or they maybe h not b have been addicted, but who used opiates didn’t even recognize how deadly it was. They Bill Gasiamis (07:30)Mm-hmm. Cassie (07:30)had just been like they were young, like I said, children is how I see it. Like I’m in my forties now, but so everybody’s a child to me, but you know, eighteen, nineteen year olds in jail because Bill Gasiamis (07:42)Yeah, they yell. Cassie (07:43)they were using with a friend or something and they didn’t know what they were getting themselves into. Bill Gasiamis (07:47)No, that’s perfectly fine. They’re children. in my mind as well, I know they’re technically an adult, but it’s such a small gap between childhood and adulthood when you’re eighteen. Like I Cassie (08:01)Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (08:02)mean, as if there’s a a year when it’s definitely an adult now. I know that the law is a little more kind of restri harsh on that definition, but The truth Cassie (08:15)Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (08:15)is is this is very hard to kind of fit people into. Cassie (08:18)Their brains are still developing. Bill Gasiamis (08:19)Yeah, till twenty five or something, like many Cassie (08:22)Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (08:23)of the lobes haven’t come one of the lobes at least hasn’t come online. I think it’s the frontal lobe. Cassie (08:27)That I don’t know, but I’m sure Bill Gasiamis (08:28)Yeah. Yeah. I might be wrong, but that’s okay. so life was pretty hectic, pretty full on, lots of work at home as well as at the office or in the jail. And then Cassie (08:41)Mm-hmm. Bill Gasiamis (08:42)how is that impacting kind of your just regular life in that switching off part, that doing things that you loved, or going out with your partner, or taking the dogs for a walk? How did it affect that part of it? Did it eat into that? Cassie (08:57)It did. I was not a great person to be around ’cause I was cranky all the time. I was tired all the time and thinking about work all the time. But I’ve always traveled and so I made a point to travel still. So I was still traveling the world. so that piece was good. Bill Gasiamis (09:14)Like the circuit breaker that you at least always did for a period of time. How long would those trips last? Cassie (09:22)I travel whenever I can, so sometimes it would be like a three day trip, sometimes it would be like a ten day trip. Bill Gasiamis (09:29)Uhhuh. So squeeze in whatever you can just to get out and about. Cassie (09:32)Mm-hmm. Yep. The Day of the Stroke Bill Gasiamis (09:35)So what happened on the day of the stroke? Do you have any recollection of that, any awareness of the lead up to that? Cassie (09:43)So I can tell you the story. There’s not like a anything that seemed to lead up to it. It was just living my life as normal. I had just gotten back from Iceland, but you know, like I said, that was travel was my norm. And So this is still hard for me to talk about. This was like a horrible thing that happened to me. This is like sometimes I think it’s worse than the stroke. I don’t know. If it is or not, but I was demoted from my position. And so this position is, you know, it’s everything. And then at the same time, it’s like the worst thing in the world because I’m so I’m overworked. I’m exhausted. I have a a manager who’s not supportive. And I could almost see it coming, but I was still still shocked and like. I put my like everything into my career. Like that’s who I am. Like my entire identity was my career. And so being demoted was was is maybe the worst thing that has ever happened to me. And so that happened on a Wednesday and then the stroke happened on a Friday. So it was a very busy week for me. And I had gotten back from Iceland on a Monday. So it was in one week that all these things happened. Bill Gasiamis (11:07)Intense so you’re back at work after traveling, jet lag, you know, holiday mode, all those things. Then two days later you get called into the office, you get demoted from the role that you’re in into a different position. You take Cassie (11:22)Mm-hmm. Bill Gasiamis (11:22)a bad lib by the sound of things. Cassie (11:25)I think I was very professional when it happened but it was absolutely like devastating. It’s Bill Gasiamis (11:31)Yeah. Cassie (11:32)not something I talk about because it’s still like very painful. Bill Gasiamis (11:35)Raw. Yeah. And then two days later, what happens on the Friday? How does that play out? Cassie (11:43)So it was Thursday night and I was I had just stayed up and been writing. I was working on a a book that I never ended up publishing, but it was a book that I was working on. And it was kind of like a well, let me show that I still matter, that I’m still worth something by I’m gonna write this book and so I was just driven by like spite and like my whatever, who knows. So I hadn’t gone to sleep at all, and it’s Thursday night, and I’m still up and I’m still writing, and I’m drinking wine and I’m on the couch. so leading up to it was the demotion, and had been traveling, and then I’m typing, and as I’m typing, like my left hand just stops working, and I didn’t think anything of it. I was like, that’s Weird. This is weird. And I was like, I’m gonna go to bed. I’ve had too much to drink. And so like I get up and just kinda stumble to bed. And it’s not until the next morning, well it’s a afternoon by then, when I finally wake up or I get up and I know that something’s like wrong and I don’t know what’s wrong. I’m just like I can tell that something is off with me. And I’m saying this to my partner. He’s like in the other room, but I’m still in bed. I’m like, something is wrong with me. Something is wrong with me. And I just keep on repeating that over and over again. And I couldn’t figure out what was wrong. And I was like, I decided that I was having a panic attack because I’m familiar with that. And it fit because I felt like I was dying, but I knew I wasn’t actually dying. And then I remembered, I was like, wait a minute. Last night was weird. That was weird. That thing happened. And so I don’t call 911. I text my mom. And I’m like, mom, this happened to me. My mom is a nurse practitioner, so it makes sense that I texted her instead of calling 911. And she was like, Those are stroke symptoms. Call 911 now and ask me to take you to a stroke center or to a hospital with a stroke center. So my partner ends up calling. He makes the phone call. I don’t know what I’m doing at that point. And he’s like, Yeah, maybe you should get ready. And I don’t know how I did because apparently I’m paralyzed on my left side. I don’t know when that actually s like settled in, but I was able to function enough until the ambulance arrived. And they’re like, Where’s the victim? Where’s the stroke victim? And I’m like, it’s it’s me. Cause I’m still standing, I answered the door and everything. But my Bill Gasiamis (14:21)Wow. Cassie (14:24)And I don’t know this of course, but like later I’m told one half of my face is drooping. So it was obvious, even though I’m still like walking and talking. Bill Gasiamis (14:34)And there Cassie (14:34)And I had I had pictures of it, like how bad it was, like how pronounced it was, but I deleted them all because I’m very vain and I don’t want anybody to ever see how awful it looked. Bill Gasiamis (14:44)Wow. Cassie (14:44)Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (14:45)Do you prefer that you hadn’t deleted that now or are you happy that they’re gone? Cassie (14:51)I have there’s one picture left. Somebody else took the picture actually. And like looking back on it’s just I mean, I probably it probably would be good to have those pictures because I would be able to like remind myself of how far I’ve come, but it’s also like really d uncomfortable and disorienting to see yourself look like that. I don’t know if you Bill Gasiamis (15:13)Mm-hmm. Yeah. Cassie (15:15)if you have that experience if there were pictures taken of you after your stroke. Bill Gasiamis (15:20)There was, not a lot of them, only because it wasn’t the first thing on our mind. Cassie (15:26)Mm-hmm. Bill Gasiamis (15:27)but I had pictures taken when I was in the rehab facility where w I was strapped in and I was attached to the ceiling and I was walking along trying to rehabilitate my leg Cassie (15:39)Mm-hmm. Bill Gasiamis (15:40)like like a marionette. so that’s about it. And I’ve got some pictures of my scar, which were pretty epic. The surgery scar was pretty epic. Cassie (15:52)Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (15:54)and and then that’s about it. and they’re Cassie (15:58)So how do you feel when you look at those pictures? Bill Gasiamis (16:01)The thing, Cassie, with me is I don’t relive the experience when I talk about it. Whereas I know people who have had something challenging happen to them that th when they’re re expi when they’re talking about it, it’s like they’re reliving it. So I kind of really understand why it’s difficult for them to talk about it or to see a photo. And when I talk about that, there’s a disassociation with it. And it’s not a disassociation that I’ve made from the perspective of I don’t want to think or remember or etc. It’s just that I I’ve spoken about it so much that it’s like I’m telling a story about somebody else. Now, Cassie (16:44)Yeah, that’s healthy. Bill Gasiamis (16:45)yeah, it’s me, but it’s not really. Cassie (16:48)Right. Bill Gasiamis (16:48)I see the pictures, but it’s 12 years since brain surgery. Like I don’t connect me to that. day, even though it’s definitely me and I have the deficits and I live with the, you know, injury and all the things that it did to me. Like, I don’t know, like I I don’t get triggered by in a negative way, but I understand when I’ve seen people talk about experiences that they get triggered by, it’s because they’re reliving it and that somehow they haven’t separated their current self to the the self that went through that part of the experience. Cassie (17:25)I also think that just the passage of time helps with it, like ’cause you’re so far removed from it. It’s Bill Gasiamis (17:30)Indeed. Cassie (17:31)like I believe that people change, like almost every decade we become new people. Not like every decade on the, you know, like at right at thirty and then forty, but like approximately every decade we become relatively Bill Gasiamis (17:44)Yeah. Cassie (17:44)different people than we were before. And so it’s like looking back Bill Gasiamis (17:49)I agree. Cassie (17:49)at a different person almost when you see that. Bill Gasiamis (17:52)I I agree. And a different person in many ways. Like not a podcaster, not an author, you know, not a speaker. a very different person, you know, and That one that the person that I was was just basically a guy not dissimilar to what you described, just getting through, you know, like working as much as possible, at home, at work, too many hours, the phone always on, people reaching me any time of the day. It was mental. and it was the best time and the worst time. I’m gonna interrupt you for a second ’cause I’m expecting a phone call. From my dad’s appointment at the hospital. One moment, please. Hello. Hey, is that Bill? Yes. Yeah, he’s done with that injunction. He’s ready to be collected. Okay. well we’ll get there as soon as we can if that’s all right. Yeah, sure. Shouldn’t be too late. Okay, no worries. I’ll just organise someone. Thank you so much. Bye bye. My dad had a little procedure. Cassie (18:58)Si okay. Bill Gasiamis (18:59)Yeah. And he just needs to get picked up. And of course I bet you’ve his grandson who was meant to pick him up has forgotten. And we’ll edit all this out anyway, so Let’s see what it says. All right. let’s see what it says. Awesome, he’s going now. yeah, so as I was saying, so I I I I put a lot of work into being a different person as well. Like that was important. I couldn’t be the same guy that came out of all of that stroke stuff because that guy was not heading in the right direction. He was gonna be unwell again. Right. And and what you said kind of reminds me of how I was. perfectionism might not have been my thing, but it was there was a thing, you know, that I bought into that I needed to do that I couldn’t do any other way, that if it didn’t happen like that it was gonna be wrong. You know? And it was for me it was I can’t outsource it to anyone else because nobody’s ever gonna do what I do, how I do it, make the customer happy so we can get paid. It yeah, it’s kind of it kind Cassie (20:08)That’s perfectionism, maybe. In a sense. Bill Gasiamis (20:11)of is. Yeah. I see perfectionism in my wife differently ’cause she described what you described at her cause she’s a she’s studying and just finished her masters in psychology. Yeah, and she does Cassie (20:27)good. It’s awesome. Bill Gasiamis (20:28)case notes and my gosh. It’s like you’ve done a day’s work. Yeah, I honestly like she does a day’s work. And then I’m like, how long did it does it need to take to do case notes after a day’s work? And she’s like, as long as it takes. And I’m like, Well, it as an outsider, somebody who doesn’t understand what you’re doing. It seems like it’s taking way too long after the session with your client to d to do the case notes. It’s it’s what it seems like to me. And and she’s not denying it, but she is kind of saying, Well, I’m early on in my career and I have to make sure that the case notes are done well, et cetera. And I’m like, How have you ever compared them to other people’s case notes to know what’s good enough or acceptable? And that’s kind of what I didn’t do either. Like I never understood that when you’re delivering a painting project to a client, ninety percent is good enough. If the client says it’s a pass, it’s a pass. And then you get paid. Trying to overdeliver to ensure payment, because I was concerned. I think it it was more for me, it was about getting paid rather than me being a stickler for perfection. It was about if I don’t do it. To the client’s expectation, then I won’t get paid. And that was kind of what it was. But it’s a similar ailment, you know, like it gets in the way of spare time and hours for me to do something other than work, but I I didn’t know it at the time. It was just the way that it was. Cassie (22:10)Yeah. Well it’s hard to know when you’re in the middle of it also. And my partner would point it out like how insane I was being and I didn’t see it. Like I said at the time I just I didn’t well Bill Gasiamis (22:26)Yeah. Cassie (22:27)I did to an extent, but not enough to make me stop. Bill Gasiamis (22:33)Yeah. And you then have maybe the exit part of the loop. Like, where do I get off the loop? You know, like how do I jump out of here? I know he’s told me, and I know somebody else might have mentioned it. And I know I’m working too many hours, but like how do I get out of it? Like what’s the the exit? I get that too. That’s kind of how I was. The stroke became that for me. Is that how you kind of experienced your stroke afterwards? Was it a circuit breaker as well as this illness? Aftermath and Recovery Cassie (23:02)Yeah, I feel like that, like the way you said it. Like I feel like I was literally burning myself to the ground, like I was burnt out and just wasn’t gonna stop and was gonna keep on going and going and going. And then my brain was like, Okay, we’ve had enough. We’re gonna stop you. And I had a stroke. Bill Gasiamis (23:21)Mm. Cassie (23:22)And they say that stress doesn’t directly cause strokes, like it contributes to it. But like I mentioned, like I’m pretty healthy. And I was I’m forty three now. I was only forty two. And that’s not normal. Like it’s usually age sixty five and older that have the strokes. Definitely Bill Gasiamis (23:42)Yeah. Cassie (23:42)wasn’t expecting it. Bill Gasiamis (23:44)What kind of a stroke was it? Cassie (23:46)It was an ischemic stroke. It was a right hemisphere stroke in the basal ganglia, which I didn’t know what they were. I learned about it after my stroke. Bill Gasiamis (23:55)And did they have Cassie (23:55)They apparently do a lot with like has to do with your motion and balance, but also emotional regulation, which that was a huge thing when I was recovering, like having to deal with emotions. You’d think as a therapist Bill Gasiamis (24:10)Just crying. Cassie (24:11)I would be good with it, but I’d prefer to deal with other people’s emotions, not my own. Bill Gasiamis (24:16)And you’re human as well, right? So yeah. Just because you Cassie (24:17)yeah, I forgot about that. Yes. That too. Bill Gasiamis (24:20)learnt about it doesn’t mean that you’re the epitome of the perfectly emotionally regulated human just because you learned about it or studied it. Cassie (24:28)Yeah, absolutely not. Bill Gasiamis (24:31)Yeah. and do they know what the underlying cause of the ischemic stroke was? Was there an underlying cause? Cassie (24:40)They still I have like a little heart thing in still. It’s they’re like, maybe it was AFib and I told my cardiologist I was like, it’s not, it’s stress. I know it was stress. And he was like, it might be AFib. We’re gonna still check for this. So it’s like it can stay in for up to four years. I don’t know when they’re gonna take it out. but so far no AFib, which kind of doesn’t mean that my theory is correct, but it seems more plausible that there was they can’t figure out Anything else? I probably drank too much. I was drinking the night of my stroke, but they said that didn’t cause it. Who knows? Combination of Bill Gasiamis (25:16)Hmm. What Cassie (25:18)alcohol and stress. Bill Gasiamis (25:20)Yeah. Or when you say you drink too much as in what are you doing, a bottle a day or just a couple of glasses or Cassie (25:28)So before my stroke I was probably drinking more than a bottle of wine a day. Bill Gasiamis (25:33)Okay. Yeah, that’s too much. Cassie (25:34)So that’s like four to five drinks. And for women, you shouldn’t have more than one drink of alcohol per day. Bill Gasiamis (25:43)Yeah, it is too much for any person really. Yeah. Cassie (25:46)It is. That was my way of coping with stress. Bill Gasiamis (25:51)Yeah, takes the edge off, right? Cassie (25:53)Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (25:53)Yeah. It’s not uncommon. Like it’s so many I’m not hearing anything new here, you know, like it’s Cassie (26:00)Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (26:00)we’re all the same pretty much everywhere. It doesn’t matter where you live. And everyone needs a way to cope. And sometimes the easiest thing is whatever’s at arm’s reach. And it could be for it could be a piece of bread. It could be a piece of you know, sweet cake or whatever, it could be alcohol. There’s so many ways that we Cope and it’s really useful, especially if you can cope. Yeah. If you Yeah. Yeah. The problem Cassie (26:25)It works so well it just kills you at the same time. Bill Gasiamis (26:30)is it’s short lived coping and it’s not learning or teaching you how to cope ongoing and without it. And that’s the the challenge, right? Is how do we cope with that? I used to smoke. And I would tell you still today that I loved smoking. It was one of the most amazing, most enjoyable things to do. It also came with alcohol and it came after a meal and it came with a coffee. Like all the things I loved to do happened together and smoking was one of them. And I’m sure, I’m certain it was, you know, the nicotine hit and all the things that you get from a cigarette, good, bad, were all contributing to my coping mechanism. But I also was creating the perfect storm for being unwell and Cassie (27:17)Right. Bill Gasiamis (27:18)stress at work, Not enough me time, always thinking about the job, the phone always being on, all that kind of stuff. And then it’s like, okay, well, what do I need? What do I need? What do you I know what I need? I need another coffee and a cigarette. Let me go and grab one. That’s gonna make things better. And it did, like just for that small amount of time. But not enough to be use supportive or not enough to be healthy. It was not healthy, but that’s okay. I learnt and I don’t do that anymore. I don’t smoke anymore. Although I love walking past people who are smoking. Cassie (27:57)That’s funny. I hate the smell of I think a lot of people do, the smell of cigarettes. Bill Gasiamis (28:01)Yeah. I love the smell of cigarettes. Not in the ashtray part, just in the air, kind of wafting around. You know, there was nothing better than being at a really smoky club or whatever. I don’t like the smell in my clothes the next day. But I’m old enough that when we were smok when we were going out to nightclubs and dancing and all that kind stuff, smoking was still allowed indoors in Australia. Whereas now it’s not. it was so cool. man. so how long did you end up in hospital for and how did you manage to deal with the deficits that it was causing before you went home? Hospitalization and Rehabilitation Journey Cassie (28:41)So I was in the like the actual hospital, like in the hospital on the stroke unit for a week. And then they moved me to inpatient rehab for a little over a week. So altogether it was a little over two weeks, so not that long. I was paralyzed for about a week, although it’s crazy, I barely remember it. you’d think like something huge like that you would remember, but I just remember the doctors coming in and being like, Okay pull on my hands, now push on my hands or do this, do that and like I just remember my left hand wasn’t working as well, but it didn’t it didn’t feel like being paralyzed, but I don’t guess I don’t know who would know what that feels like if you’ve never been paralyzed, or you wouldn’t Bill Gasiamis (29:23)Mm-hmm. Cassie (29:24)feel anything, I guess. Bill Gasiamis (29:25)Mm-hmm. Cassie (29:26)And I was able to walk, so my rehab wasn’t that like intensive. It was focusing on I had this weird like kind of like lean where I would like lean left and like veer off to the left. Like if there was nobody to direct me, I would have just like walked off into the walls. so two weeks and then for a month I did like outpatient OT and PT. But I also like I took a look at my drinking and I was like, I need to stop drinking. And so I went to treatment like a month after my stroke, or it was like six weeks after my stroke. So that interrupted my OT and PT. But two weeks to answer your question about two weeks in the hospital and in rehab, which was they were basically the same thing. I was in a bed, an alarmed bed, because I was a fall risk. Which was awful ’cause I’m super independent, so having that taken away from me was like I couldn’t I wasn’t even allowed to get up. I would get scolded like a naughty child when I did. It didn’t stop me from getting up, but I got some scoldings. The nurses I was not a favorite among the nurses, I suspect. Bill Gasiamis (30:38)Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, they were looking up for you. Yeah. They were they were looking out for you but they needed to get the point across as much as possible. I I kinda get it, but yeah, it’s also not nice to be told you shouldn’t do something. but when you can’t do it and it’s a risk to your health, then maybe it’s maybe it’s all right to be told don’t do that in no uncertain terms. Cassie (31:13)They so they taught my partner how to like unarm the bed. And I have to give him credit here because I like begged him to teach me the trick to unarm it and he never did. Yeah. Which was I didn’t care for it at the time, but he realized that maybe I might hurt myself, so Bill Gasiamis (31:26)Ha ha ha. Cassie (31:35)didn’t let me have my way on that. Bill Gasiamis (31:38)I’m gonna have to interrupt us again, my dad’s calling. Cassie (31:41)Okay. Bill Gasiamis (31:44)I don’t like cancelling appointments when we’ve made a a appointment for a podcast. So anyhow I’ll get this Dissociation and Identity Post-Stroke Bill Gasiamis (32:03)to that. Bill Gasiamis (32:12)Is He’s just went in for a little procedure where they injected some cortisol into his back ’cause he’s got some pain. And they put him under so they need him to be picked up. And he’s getting picked up, but he just doesn’t know it and w now we’re going backwards and forwards between between us and the nurses, but I did tell him and he does know but he’s eighty two and he doesn’t listen. If he rings back I’ll just interrupt us again. I’m so sorry. Cassie (32:46)No, it’s fine. Bill Gasiamis (32:49)so Your time in hospital other than being scolded. How do you come to terms with what has happened? Do you come to terms with it? Are you thinking about what this means for you now? Cassie (33:06)Not once. It didn’t even cross my mind. My world like when I look back on it, like my world shrank just to like the hospital bed in the room that I was in. And it just that was the only thing that existed. I didn’t think about, well, how is this gonna impact me long term? Am I gonna be able to go back to work? Like they gave me they told me I couldn’t go back for four months. But I actually tried to go back to work. I was Bill Gasiamis (33:19)at work, Cassie (33:34)working overtime, I was also working at a different location, doing like some overnight shifts. And the day after my stroke I tried to go to work. I was going to just go and not tell anybody and then come back. But they found out my mom was there. She found out. She’s like, Cassie, you can’t you can’t go. You can’t work. You can’t even walk. And I was like, I mostly would just sit at a desk. It should be fine. I’m sure it will be fine. That was kind of my motto the entire time, like, it’s fine, it’s gonna be fine, even though it clearly, you know, wasn’t fine. Bill Gasiamis (34:09)just there was that stroke brain? N like normal Cassie wouldn’t do that. You would know not to do that normally, would wouldn’t you? Like somebody is unwell, that’s not what we do when we’re unwell. Or was it just Cassie (34:21)I don’t Bill Gasiamis (34:21)the stroke playing up on you? Cassie (34:24)So it’s both. Like I didn’t feel unwell for one thing. Like I felt or I thought that I was normal. I thought I was still myself then. But then with right brain stroke especially, there’s I forget the word for it, but you become overconfident in your abilities and you think that you can do things that you can’t do. And so Bill Gasiamis (34:47)Wow. Cassie (34:47)that was a part of it too. I do you know the word for that? Bill Gasiamis (34:51)I don’t. Cassie (34:52)There’s like a very specific word for it. It also happens to people with severe mental illness where they think that they’re okay when they’re not. But it’s specific to right brainstroke. And so I thought it was fine. And then also like me, I’m pretty stubborn and think Bill Gasiamis (35:06)Yeah. Cassie (35:13)I know better than doctors. So there was that too. Bill Gasiamis (35:20)I’m gonna check what it is. I wonder if I can ask Chat GPT what it is, w what is it when somebody’s overconfident after a brain injury or a stroke, right? Is that’s kind of what the search will be. Let’s see what Cassie (35:32)Probably starts with an A. Bill Gasiamis (35:36)wonder what Chat GPT’s got to say about it. Yeah. Cassie (35:39)But it’s being completely unaware of your Bill Gasiamis (35:44)Anosognosia. Anosognosia. It’s a Greek word by the sound of it. from my background. And it is the Cassie (35:45)That sounds familiar. Bill Gasiamis (36:00)Anosognosia is impaired awareness of one’s neurological deficits following brain injury or a stroke. A person may genuinely not recognize or may substantially underestimate. their problems with movement, cognition, communication, behavior, or other abilities. Does that sound like it was your thing? Yeah, wow. Cassie (36:19)That’s exactly what it was. And But then that kind of like followed me after my stroke. Like I was like, wait a minute, am I completely like disabled and I just have no idea? Like so that was difficult. That piece of it, like where I felt like I was doing okay. I mean I was walking and talking still, you know, after my stroke. Bill Gasiamis (36:37)Mm-hmm. See? So you have cognitive awareness of the deficit, but yet the deficit still plays out. This overconfidence in your ability still played out, but you’re still kind of have awareness of it somehow. Cassie (37:06)Yeah, but I don’t know like to this day, like I don’t know, maybe I was completely not functioning at all and I have a memory that I was, who knows. It’s really weird, it kinda messes with your head. Bill Gasiamis (37:18)Yeah. How we it is it’s so weird. I know. I I remember being in all s sort of weird out of brain spaces and experiences and trying to work out w is this actually happening or am I imagining this happening? Is this reality or is it a dream? Like what is it? had a lot of those moments and then people observing me doing that was the most interesting part ’cause then I had to explain to them what I Cassie (37:35)Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (37:47)what I was ha happening to me and I was like I was unable to even you know verbalize that like how do I explain that to them when I don’t even know what’s going on. It was just really freaky. and then you ended up going home at some point and what was that like? What was the transition from rehab and care like when you ended up home? How do you manage that? Life After Stroke: Adjusting to New Realities Cassie (38:12)It was really underwhelming. Like I had to do training beforehand. They’re like, Okay, you have to learn how to get in and out of the shower and in and out of a car. So I had to do like training for that, which was silly because Well, like I said, I thought I was functioning fine. But I’ve never fallen once, not once, which I think says that maybe I was functioning to an extent. The physical disability was never really that big of an issue. It was more like the the cognitive stuff and then like the emotional piece. That was what was my big struggle. But yeah, they I had to they had to put me in a wheelchair to leave the hospital, even though I insisted I was fine. They were like, No, we don’t just let people get up and go, you have to do this. So they wheeled me out and my sister picked me up and took me home and that was it. And then I was home and I expected life to go back to normal, but it did not. Like that was probably I guess being home was like the wake up call when I was like, my life is gonna be different now. Very different. Bill Gasiamis (39:25)Yeah. Cybering. Cassie (39:28)Exactly. Bill Gasiamis (39:30)Hm. You weren’t working. Were you allowed to drive or go out and about were you up to that? Cassie (39:36)You know what? I was really, really, really tired for I’m still tired all the time, but like so I wasn’t like really up to doing anything. I wasn’t allowed to drive for six months, but I did. I got into an accident, I think, my first my first day behind the wheel. It was just a tiny little accident. I just tapped somebody’s bumper and they got very upset about it. They were overreacting, I think. Bill Gasiamis (40:07)People tend to do that with car. Cassie (40:09)They do. Bill Gasiamis (40:10)Yeah. I don’t know why. Cassie (40:12)Yeah, she was upset. Bill Gasiamis (40:14)you wouldn’t it how how we act in a car when we’re in the car, when somebody Cassie (40:21)Mm-hmm. Bill Gasiamis (40:22)does something minor on the road, we would never act outside of the car in the real world in public when somebody crossed our Cassie (40:29)Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (40:30)path or bumped into us or whatever. It’s just strange what happens when people get in a car. Yeah. Cassie (40:34)wild. Same thing online, people act w in ways they never would in real life. Bill Gasiamis (40:40)Yeah, it’s a little bubble of false sort of bravado or security or something, I don’t know what, and people just change their behavior. I’ve become aware of that recently and I’ve made a massive effort to not be that way. And I did a lot of work around actually not reacting when I’m in the car to Cassie (41:00)That’s amazing. Bill Gasiamis (41:01)yeah, incidences that are so insignificant because every time you drive there is an insignificant incident and if you’re just freaking out about it all the time, all you’re doing is making yourself unwell. It’s just another negative Cassie (41:13)Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (41:13)thing that you do, right? So I’ve made a concerted effort about a year ago to make sure that I do not react by yelling and screaming to people in a car when they’re just driving on the road. I’m doing exactly the same thing. I don’t know where I get off being the guy. who thinks that my driving is so much better that that I I am if within my rights to be aggressive or act out or yelling or screaming at the person in the other car who actually can’t hear me anyway and doesn’t even know what they did wrong. Cassie (41:56)That’s so one thing that like I could be a bit of a jerk before when driving. Not that anybody would know. I was just in my car yelling and cursing, but you know But since the stroke I’ve actually I have more patience because I’m much I’m slower and that’s just in like life in general, but also behind the wheel. I’m I’m much slower. And Bill Gasiamis (42:07)Yeah. Cassie (42:21)so then when somebody starts tailing me, I get super frustrated with it, but I’m like when I think somebody’s going too slow, now I’m like, Well, there’s probably a reason for that so I can chill and just drive slow. I probably need to anyway. So Bill Gasiamis (42:36)awareness, yeah. Like it’s like maybe they’re recovering from something, maybe they’re just more careful. Maybe they have a you know, more more kind of anxiousness about them and they want to make sure that they’re paying more attention, you know, it’s all all sorts of things going on. And judging people without having any idea was s so getting in the way of my just five minute trip down the road, you know, to pick up something. What’s the point of going for a drive and being angry for no reason? Like it’s ridiculous. Cassie (43:05)Yeah. The wild thing is is I had all these skills before my stroke. Like I could have I’m a therapist, you know. I understand these things. I empathize with people, but I would get so mad at other drivers. But now I I’m just like, somebody they’re probably like me. And that’s in not just in driving, in like all areas of my life. I’m more empathetic. I think I’m a better therapist in some ways. I’m not as sharp as I was before, but I think I’m kinder. Bill Gasiamis (43:40)You have more insight. Cassie (43:42)More insight, yes, for sure. Bill Gasiamis (43:43)more life experience. Cassie (43:47)Yeah. Exactly. Bill Gasiamis (43:50)Yeah. so did you kind of find a way back to work? Are you working again? Cassie (44:00)I’m working I’m working at a very different like paced job. I’m doing intake assessments now, so it’s Bill Gasiamis (44:08)manage to deal with the deficits that it was causing before you went home? Cassie (44:12)I get more like FaceTime, which is nice, but it’s also it’s not a very challenging job. And before it was the work was very challenging. So it’s different pace of life. But I’m back to work. I’m working full time. And then I see clients on the side and my and it’s not my practice, it’s a group practice, so private practice clients too. Bill Gasiamis (44:36)Sounds like it’s more alig aligned with the whole intention of becoming a counsellor, a therapist, like at the beginning. Cassie (44:42)Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (44:44)Yeah. Less statistically based and more client focused. Cassie (44:49)Yeah. I do miss the population ’cause like I really liked working with the inmates. But Bill Gasiamis (44:55)Yeah. Cassie (44:56)I just I wouldn’t go back into that environment. Bill Gasiamis (45:00)Yeah. E especially when you’re you know, the people you’re reporting to are also maybe, you know, a bit difficult to handle as well or highly, you know, tense or whatever. They’re we’ve got to also understand like they’re living in a environment where they’re working in a jail as well and God knows Cassie (45:18)Yes. Bill Gasiamis (45:19)what they’re dealing with and putting up with as well and how they’re able to personally manage it. And if everyone’s kind of dysfunctional, you wanna not Cassie (45:27)Mm. Bill Gasiamis (45:28)be there, even though that’s where people are needed, you need to kind of do your time and get out. Cassie (45:35)Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (45:36)’cause ongoing dysfunction just becomes traumatic for everybody who’s involved, even though you’re going there to do good work, you’re coming out and then you’re not well, you’re not healthy, and it leads to illness and what’s the point of that? your website is cassiejewell.com and there’s a couple of things on there that you talk about and promote and There’s a very cool photo of you on the home page. Like I love that photo. It’s Cassie (46:03)Hello, thanks. Bill Gasiamis (46:05)so cool. and it says Cassie Jewell is a counselor and an author exploring psychology of change, resilience, regret, and identity. Cassie (46:14)Mm-hmm. Bill Gasiamis (46:15)Change, resilience, regret, and identity. Huge. Cassie (46:18)That’s all from my stroke. Bill Gasiamis (46:20)Huge words. Okay. I was gonna ask you whether that may have been on there previously or whether that is the new thing that you’re interested in. Cassie (46:28)That is something I’ve definitely focused on more since the stroke, especially identity. because before I identified just completely like with my career, or more so with my job, not my career, but my job. But that I was just completely wrapped up in that. And now I’ve had to well, I went through I had another job when I first started back to work, that didn’t work out. It’s ’cause I’m not as competent as I used to be. It’s really hard. I’m still dealing with that. But when you measure your self-worth in the things that you do, like in your career, and then all of a sudden you don’t have your career anymore, who are you? I had to figure that out. And I like who I am now. I think Or I I don’t know if I’m the same person or if I’m a different person. It’s hard to gauge that. I think I it took me some time, but I think I finally just adjusted to who I am now and I’m choosing to like who I am now. I’m a Bill Gasiamis (47:37)Yeah. Cassie (47:37)different person, probably, but I’m the only you know, this brain is the only one I’ve got, so I might as well invest in it and like it. Don’t Bill Gasiamis (47:47)Yeah. Cassie (47:48)have any other choice. Bill Gasiamis (47:50)No. and yet i your your identity, like do you i if I was to ask you what it is or how would you like what how do you identify? Like how can do you have a elevator pitch? Can you say that to to me now? Cassie (48:10)I do not have an elevator pitch. I have no idea. I don’t know how to describe it. I just I know more what I’m not and I’m not driven by work. Like I value free time more in my personal life and my loved ones, my dogs. I don’t have kids, I have dogs. They’re my kids. Bill Gasiamis (48:30)Yeah. Yep. Cassie (48:34)and like I would be okay if I didn’t have my career. I would still know who I was without my career. Where before I didn’t, and so losing that was like losing everything. That’s why the stroke hit so hard is because I lost I lost my career and myself at the same time, almost my life, but it was more the losing of like my identity and so My new identity is part like having lost that I’m no longer that career woman that I was and then also who I am since the stroke. So Bill Gasiamis (49:11)Mm-hmm. When I was younger, I didn’t have an opportunity to work out my identity. I just got stuck into the tasks that I needed to do. Cassie (49:21)Mm-hmm. Bill Gasiamis (49:21)To pay the bills, to feed the kids, to put through school, to pay the mortgage, to do all that stuff. And it was never a conversation like, how do I who am I, who do I identify as? Or if somebody asked me the question, I wouldn’t even know what it meant. Like they’d what are you talking about? Like, I just go to work and I do all these things. You know, but beyond what you do, who are you? That’s such a bizarre thing to have to contemplate. I think that’s what I found difficult about it as well, was that not only did I lose all those things that I did who I thought I was, I actually didn’t have the vocabulary or the insight about the topic or anything. I had nothing. And I’m starting from completely scratch. And that would have been the hardest question in the world for somebody to ask. Now I stumbled into identity loss and all that kind of stuff just by interviewing people and realizing that other people are going through that and they had a word for it. But before that, if I if I was asked, I wouldn’t have a clue how to begin a conversation with that. I wouldn’t be able to get off telling somebody that I was a business owner and I was a dad and it was all about other people. Cassie (50:35)Do you feel like did it take you a long time to like yourself, like your new self after the stroke? How Stroke Forced Me to Discover Who I Really Am Bill Gasiamis (50:42)A a few years, yeah. I think I realized Cassie (50:44)Few years. Bill Gasiamis (50:45)that so my whole thing started in twenty twelve and then out I was at home out of surgery in twenty in December twenty fourteen. And then I was at home alone from late December twenty fourteen for the first five or six months of the following year, twenty fifteen. Twenty fifteen, around twenty fifteen is when I started the podcast, but there was only a few episodes. And they were intermittent and I wasn’t well. I had fatigue. I was dealing with and all the things. And then by around early 2016, maybe middle of the year, something like that, would have been the first time when I said, I think stroke was the best thing that happened to me. And and it you know what why I said that. It wasn’t because I I loved the experience of being unwell, nearly dying, brain surgery, all of that. It’s because I realized that I had grown as a person. And that my identity had shifted from somebody who was caught up in all the labels and all of the what is it like all of the barriers that I put up in between, you know, from in my own way that I created in my own mind about myself. And then I realized I was on a podcast interview and I said that with the the person who I was interviewing. I think stroke’s the best thing that happened to me, and they said the same thing back. And then it’s like, wow, how did you get here? And I realized how I got there was I how I was speaking on a stage, sharing information about stroke awareness. I was meeting stroke survivors who I really got along with and we understood each other and we were able to appreciate what what both of us had been through. I felt understood for the first time. you know, so I was doing all these things that were different that were actually bringing a different kind of joy into my life. Cassie (52:36)Yeah, fulfillment meaning. Bill Gasiamis (52:37)Yeah. Purpose, meaning. And I never knew those things existed before that. I didn’t know that my purpose and meaning needed to be refined and it shouldn’t have been about making as much money as possible as quickly as possible. Because apparently my kids needed the new pair of sneakers or, you know, the new console or whatever it was that they needed. And I thought I should work harder to make possible for them. So yeah, it was Cassie (53:08)I think it kind Bill Gasiamis (53:08)Unbelievable. Cassie (53:09)of I’m thinking about it now, like it strips away everything else so you have nothing left but yourself and you have to take a look at yourself and then that’s when you can really decide who am I and am I gonna choose to like this person? And you can also choose what your new identity is gonna be. Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (53:28)That’s the best part about it. Choice. I never had that before. Well, I did, but I didn’t think I did. Cassie (53:35)Right. Bill Gasiamis (53:36)I did what my parents told me to do. I did what other people told me to do. I never did what I wanted to do. I was always doing stuff that I’d been trained my entire life to do. You know, you go to school, d do X amount of hours Monday to Friday for your primary years and then your secondary years doing a certain amount of hours. 13 years later, you’re spat out. And it’s like, okay, what else do you guys want me to do? Okay, I’ll just do that. And I envy Maybe envy’s not the word ’cause it’s a little bit harsh, but I I kind of I maybe it is envy and jealousy. Like of people who were twenty or eighteen or nineteen and knew what they wanted to do somehow. And they just went and did it. Now I know they’ve got their own issues and they’re probably struggling in other ways. Yeah. Maybe maybe. Cassie (54:20)They probably didn’t know. I don’t think anybody does. I think you have to have something like a stroke happen to you to really know what you want and to be able to have this different perspective on life. So I get how like it can be it can be the worst thing that’s happened to you and the best thing that’s happened to you at the same time because it’s not about the stroke. It’s about okay, what am I gonna choose to do now? And you can do anything. Bill Gasiamis (54:48)Yeah. And that was Cassie (54:49)And that’s amazing. Bill Gasiamis (54:51)such a gift. Cassie (54:52)Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (54:53)And it came from this Crappy path, like whatever. Like such a massive, difficult thing. I have a couple of people who I coach through stroke recovery and whatever. Like I I’m not not not in a doctor way, just like we talk about things that they perhaps don’t get to talk about with other people who are not stroke survivors, right? And one of the things that really happened to me recently was the person who I’m coaching at the moment just came on on board, signed up, and their first session. The person’s still in rehab. And they’re very emotional and it’s very challenging and very difficult. And it’s so fresh between having gone from their regular life to what their life looks like now. Cassie (55:37)Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (55:38)And that was in my mind a little bit triggering in that, I had forgotten that feeling. Now I remember what that was like. And then it’s trying to keep somebody in a space of remain calm, you know, be What Bruce Lee used to say, you know, be the boat on the wave, you know, like just go with the flow and all that kind of stuff. And it’s the time to practice all those things, but it’s also the most difficult time to practice all those things because you’ve had a stroke and your brain is not working optimally and you know, there’s yeah. Cassie (56:12)It’s so traumatic and like it’s great too. Bill Gasiamis (56:15)It’s traumatic, it’s grief, it’s identity, it’s loss, it’s everything all together, all in one lump sum. And then I&#

The Mica Miller case is forcing people around JP Miller to define exactly how close they really were. Mark Kaufman was best man at JP and Mica's 2017 wedding, but his September 2026 statement says JP was never part of the core friend group with whom he regularly spent his time. That statement arrived after Netflix's Death of the Pastor's Wife showed Kaufman repeatedly inside the story. Wedding footage captured him joking that JP forced him to be his friend and best man. The morning after Mica's death, JP stood in front of Solid Rock Church and introduced Kaufman to the congregation as his best friend before Kaufman sang. Kaufman says the public picture of that friendship is inaccurate. He denies helping JP pursue another woman, denies witnessing mistreatment of Mica, and says he has severed ties with JP and the church. Separate reporting says JP once held a minority share in Kaufman's Crocodile Rocks piano bar and that the remaining interest was bought out in late 2025. The episode also returns to JP's own words at Mica's May 5, 2024 memorial. He told the congregation he had gone to spend time beside her body multiple times and claimed he tried to raise her from the dead. Robin Dreeke, a former FBI Special Agent and behavioral analyst, examines what loyalty, social pressure, coercive-control allegations, and public separation can look like inside a close religious community. The legal case is separate from Mica's death. A federal grand jury charged JP with cyberstalking and making false statements, and he pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors allege tracking, repeated unwanted contacts, financial interference, an intimate image posted without consent, and conduct involving her vehicle between November 2022 and April 27, 2024. JP has not been charged in Mica's death. His federal trial has been continued to the October 2026 term. Listen Anywhere You Get Podcasts: https://pod.link/1655749292 Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspod?sub_confirmation=1 Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/tonybpod This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. #MicaMiller #JPMiller #HiddenKillers #MarkKaufman #RobinDreeke #DeathOfThePastorsWife #SolidRockChurch #FederalTrial #CoerciveControl #TrueCrimePodcast 

Think you've got what it takes to solve some seriously tricky riddles?

JP Miller and Mica Miller's relationship did not begin with a marriage license. Years earlier, JP was the pastor at Solid Rock Church and the man standing at the altar when Mica married her first husband, Jeremy Deas. Mica began attending Solid Rock as a teenager and became deeply involved in the church. JP was about fifteen years older and occupied several positions of authority in her life. He was her pastor and spiritual mentor. He officiated her first wedding. Public records and reporting later place Mica working for JP's family before the two eventually married in November 2017. That progression is the first half of the story. The second is the federal case. Prosecutors charged JP in December 2025 with cyberstalking and making false statements. The indictment alleges a course of conduct beginning in November 2022 that included unwanted communications, tracking devices placed on Mica's vehicle, interference with her finances and daily activities, tire damage and an intimate image posted without her consent. JP has pleaded not guilty. He has not been charged in connection with Mica's April 27, 2024 death, and the federal case is set for the October 2026 trial term. Jennifer Coffindaffer, a former FBI Special Agent, examines what investigators look for when authority, access and surveillance overlap. Psychotherapist Shavaun Scott focuses on the people around a powerful figure and why loyalty to a leader can become stronger than the impulse to question what is happening. That distinction matters. The indictment alleges JP caused tracking devices to be placed, but it does not charge church members with cyberstalking. Separate public accounts from former congregants describe concerns about JP being raised inside Solid Rock and dismissed. Together, those records create a harder question about what the institution saw, what it accepted and when anyone decided to push back. Listen Anywhere You Get Podcasts: https://pod.link/1655749292 Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspod?sub_confirmation=1 Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/tonybpod This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. #MicaMiller #JPMiller #HiddenKillers #SolidRockChurch #DeathOfThePastorsWife #Cyberstalking #JenniferCoffindaffer #ShavaunScott #MyrtleBeach #TrueCrime 

“Are you sure you should be eating that?” If you've ever changed your nutrition only to discover that suddenly EVERYONE has an opinion about what's on your plate, this Friday Extra Credit episode of FAT LOSS SCHOOL is for you! Maybe a family member questions your carbs, a coworker raises an eyebrow at your lunch, or a well-meaning friend wants to tell you about the diet THEY think you should be following. Even comments like, “But you don't need to diet!” can leave you questioning yourself. In this quick lesson, we're talking about how to handle unsolicited diet and nutrition advice without letting other people's opinions derail your healthy habits or fat-loss progress. You'll learn how to: Stop feeling like you have to defend or explain what's on your plate. Separate someone's intentions from the actual advice they're giving you. Prepare a few simple responses for uncomfortable food conversations. Trust the nutrition approach that's working for YOU. Stay confident when friends or family follow very different diets. Recognize when someone's comments may be more about their own food beliefs than yours. Lean on a coach and supportive community instead of trying to navigate your health journey alone. Especially for women over 50, sustainable nutrition isn't about eating as little as possible or following every new diet trend. It's about fueling your body, preserving muscle, getting stronger, supporting your health, and creating habits you can actually maintain. And having the right people in your corner makes that so much easier. If you're ready to learn the foundational strategies, join my 6-week FASTer Way class for women 50+. Use code BURN50 to save here at this link: https://www.fasterway.com/pages/6-week?aid=AMYBRYAN  Or, if you're ready for ongoing nutrition, fitness, accountability, coaching, and community, come join us in VIP membership. Use code VIP2026 to lock in a lower rate. https://www.fasterway.com?aid=AMYBRYAN  To contact Amy Bryan, join the free community, or grab a freebie, go here:  www.linktr.ee/amybryanfasterway 

Ever notice an idea gets a cold reception the moment it comes from another team? That's Not Invented Here. This week I dig into why our brains treat “not ours” as “not good,” what it cost teams I worked on at GE, and how to catch it early.When your team says an outside idea “won't work for us,” are you evaluating the idea, or just the team it came from?Not Invented Here is the tendency to reject or undervalue ideas, tools, and research that come from outside your own team, while overvaluing the stuff you built yourselves. The catch is that it never announces itself. It feels like you have standards, or you know your users, when really the source of the idea is doing the evaluating for you in the background. The term goes back to a 1982 study by Ralph Katz and Thomas Allen at MIT, who tracked fifty R&D groups and found that the longer a team stayed together, the less it talked to the outside sources it most needed to hear from. Performance slid as a result. Later work from David Antons and Frank Piller reframed it as an attitude rather than a behavior, a standing negative feeling toward anything labeled “external,” whether that label comes from a different company, department, discipline, or just a different job title.On product teams, this shows up everywhere once you start looking. Engineers' UX suggestions get waved off because usability is “our lane.” Agency research gets its methodology questioned the second it contradicts the team's assumptions, while a single hallway conversation gets treated as solid evidence. Ten squads rebuild nearly the same component ten different ways because the shared version doesn't quite work for us, and then nobody trusts the design system anymore.If your team has ever quietly shelved a good finding because it came from the wrong people, this one's for you. Give it a listen.Topics:• 00:00 - The reflex that rejects an idea before you've even looked at it• 03:00 - The GE story: a mandate to adopt one design system called Cirrus• 04:00 - Every team pushes back with the same "that won't work for us"• 05:00 - Defining not invented here and the 1982 Katz and Allen study• 06:00 - Why long-tenured teams stop talking outward, and the shift from behavior to attitude• 07:00 - Why your brain does it: ownership, effort, identity, and the IKEA effect connection• 08:00 - The measurable cost, and Spolsky's defense of building in-house• 09:00 - How the bias hides behind "our context is different"• 10:00 - How it hits research and design systems, and where the IKEA effect sneaks in• 11:00 - Engineering rewrites, competitor patterns, and acquired teams• 12:00 - Turning the bias around with "proudly found elsewhere"• 13:00 - Separate the source from the substance, and watch your team's own boundaries• 14:00 - Give ownership before adoption, and treat build versus adopt as a real decision• 15:00 - Audit your outside input, and back to the Cirrus lesson—Thanks for listening! We hope you dug today's episode. If you liked what you heard, be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts! And if you really enjoyed today's episode, why don't you leave a five-star review? Or tell some friends! It will help us out a ton.If you haven't already, sign up for our email list. We won't spam you. Pinky swear.• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Get a FREE audiobook AND support the show⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Support the show on Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Check out show transcripts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Check out our website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on Stitcher⁠

Wealth Wednesday: Stacey & Angela break down how a monthly money date can help couples feel more comfortable talking about finances. Tell Us A Secret See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Shelley McIntyre is back on the show, and her first appearance is still one of the most downloaded episodes I've done.She was a grief counselor before she was a coach, which is why she talks about layoffs differently than anyone else I know. We opened on the Oracle news, because the math on it is ugly. Twenty years in, fifty or sixty hour weeks, and what shows up is an automated email at 6 a.m. that doesn't say thank you.Her point stuck with me: you spend a career radiating loyalty outward, and at the very end, when it matters most, you don't get any of it back.Then we get into the trap almost nobody sees coming. You leave, you go independent, and because you're wired for comfort and you just absorbed six losses at once, you rebuild the exact role you escaped. Director of sales, but fractional. Same work, same frustrations, now with no benefits. As Shelley put it, you built the same box you just got out of, and you can't figure out how you ended up back inside it.I did a version of this myself. I had a good contract gig that paid well doing work I liked. Instead of building on it, I talked the company into hiring me full time, because the title felt safer. I was miserable within months.The back half is her method for getting unstuck, and it's the opposite of what most people do. You don't sit down and list your skills. You don't mine your performance reviews. When you've just been laid off, you are the least qualified person in your own life to describe how good you are, because you're operating from doubt.So you go gather evidence instead.In this episode:Why the coldness of a modern layoff lands harder than people admitIdentity, job titles, and the shorthand you loseThe comfort trap, and why rebuilding the old job is a normal human response, not a failureThe physical toll nobody talks aboutWhy performance reviews are useless for thisHow to ask people who know you what you're like at your bestTurning what comes back into five words, and using them as a filterThe portfolio approach when one opportunity only delivers part of what you needThe guilt of not being busy, and why you were never productive nine hours a day anywayTHE EXERCISE, ASSEMBLEDWe covered this across the conversation but never laid it out in one piece. Here it is.Pick five to ten people who know you well and who you genuinely trust. Mix of personal and professional. The trust part matters more than the title.Ask one question: "Can you describe what I'm like when I'm operating at my best?"Let them go long. Most people won't give you adjectives, they'll tell you a story about a specific time you showed up. Those stories are the useful part.Read all of it together. If you find yourself doubting it, notice what that means. You'd be calling people who love you liars.Synthesize it down to five words that describe how you show up at your best.Use the five as a filter. For any opportunity, job or client or project, ask whether it not only allows but requires you to show up that way. If it only hits three, go find the other two somewhere else in your life.ABOUT THE GUESTShelley McIntyre is a coach for Gen X professionals in transition, and a former grief counselor, which is where a lot of her perspective on identity loss comes from. She hosts Burn the Map, a podcast built around short episodes, and works with clients on figuring out who they are outside a job title.Podcast: Burn the MapSite: https://burnthemapcoaching.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shelley-mcintyre/TIMESTAMPSEstimated from the transcript. Spot-check and shift for cold open and sting.00:00 — Welcome back, and why her first episode still gets downloads01:00 — The Oracle layoffs, and the severance math02:08 — Getting numb to the coldness of it02:40 — You radiate loyalty your whole career and don't get it back03:41 — The 6 a.m. automated email that doesn't say thank you04:22 — Why identity and job title get intertwined05:08 — "I'm a VP of marketing" as shorthand for who you are06:11 — Title, industry, company. The trifecta.07:18 — The trap: going independent and rebuilding the same role08:16 — "I built the same box I just escaped"09:29 — Brett talked his way back into a full time job and hated it10:26 — We are wired for comfort, and that's not a character flaw11:38 — The losses stack up all at once12:17 — Remembering who you are underneath all of it14:02 — Why skills lists and performance reviews don't work here14:58 — When the doubt spreads to things you were always good at15:50 — The physical toll: illness, accidents, the hospital16:32 — Usefulness, and being told you're not needed17:25 — You're not the most qualified person to say how great you are18:23 — Becoming a detective of your best self19:16 — Why corporate feedback is performative20:00 — What actually happens when you ask21:07 — "Let me tell you a story"23:00 — The surprise birthday party nobody would have predicted24:00 — If you don't believe it, you're calling them liars24:51 — What to do with it: five words26:08 — Using the five as a filter for every opportunity27:00 — But what if nobody has anything good to say?28:19 — The portfolio: when one thing only delivers three of five29:01 — Separate the mission from the money29:55 — "What do you do for fun?" "Fun?"32:15 — What if you could do something you're good at and it's fun33:11 — Ideas need space. You can't rest and be busy at the same time.34:38 — Nine hours in the chair, maybe four of real work35:41 — It nets out the same. You're just doing it on your terms.36:33 — A walk in the park beats a useless meeting40:00 — The former client who'd never go back40:28 — Take a part-time job and watch all your time disappear40:43 — The real hourly math on a hundred thousand dollar salary43:03 — Burn the Map, and where to find ShelleyKEY QUOTES"You're radiating this love and loyalty out throughout your career, and then you don't get it back. At the very end, when it matters the absolute most, you don't get it back." — Shelley"I have built the same box for myself that I just escaped. And how is it that I'm back inside of it?" — Shelley"You're not actually the most qualified person to talk about how great you are. Because you're in a world of doubt." — Shelley"If you don't believe that, then you're calling these people liars and you're out of integrity." — Shelley"You can't rest and be busy at the same time. It doesn't work." — Shelley"You might have been in the chair for nine hours a day, but you did not do productive work for nine hours a day. So why are we beating ourselves up when we're being equally productive? We're just doing it on our terms." — Shelley"Instead of going to a useless meeting, what if you could go for a walk in the park?" — Shelley"I had a good contract gig. Instead of building off of that, I convinced the company to bring me back full time, because it was the title and it was more comfortable. I was absolutely miserable." — Brett

https://media.blubrry.com/thesuccessfulmindpodcast/media.blubrry.com/thesuccessfulmindpodcast/ins.blubrry.com/thesuccessfulmindpodcast/TSM746_SBS_Series_Ep5_Catalyst.mp3   The catalyst blind spot is the one that gets you right when things start going well. I’ve watched salespeople climb out of a slump, build real momentum, and then quietly hand it back — not because anything went wrong, but because everything finally started going right. Steph and I close out our five-part series on this exact pattern. Catalyst Blind Spot: How Winning Turns Into SleepingHere’s what makes this one sneaky. You start asking better questions, you stay quiet instead of talking a prospect out of the sale, and your numbers move. Conversion goes up, confidence goes up, income gets more consistent. Somewhere in that stretch of good months, a quiet thought creeps in: I’ve got this figured out. That thought is the whole problem. The moment you decide you’ve arrived is the moment you stop doing what got you there, and your best stretch turns into your worst month. Why I Never Believe My Own Press ClippingsEarly in my career I was one sale away from a huge bonus with hours left on the clock. I’d spent three weeks certain I’d smoke past the number, then spent the last three days unable to get anyone on the phone. My mentor asked if there’d been a night that month I’d told myself I already had it won and taken off early. There had been three. He said it’s just as easy to be one over as one away. It wasn’t really about sales — it was about believing your own press clippings. Catalyst Blind Spot: Why There’s No Finish Line In SalesThis one survives on destination thinking — the idea that once you hit a number, you’ll finally have it figured out. There is no such place. Buyer behavior changes, and markets change. Fifty years ago a stranger could knock on your door and get invited in for coffee; today that same knock gets posted to a neighborhood group as a warning. You will always need to keep learning how the person in front of you thinks, because the day you believe you’re finished learning is the day your results prove you wrong. How to Catch Yourself Before You Fall OffThe catalyst blind spot loses its grip the moment you get honest with yourself. Record your sales conversations and listen back like a coach, not a critic — notice where your confidence slipped or you skipped a question you needed to ask. Separate what someone actually said from what you wish they’d said, then find the question that gets you there honestly. Take the Sales Blind Spot Detector if you haven’t; it will name which pattern, catalyst included, is quietly running your results. It’s a good problem to have — it only shows up once you’re already winning. Left unchecked, though, it can undo everything the other four helped you fix. Episode 745 – The Convincer: Why Pushing Harder Backfires Episode 744 – The People Pleaser: Why You Undersell Yourself Episode 743 – The Reluctant Seller: Why Selling Feels Wrong Episode 742 – The Sales Conversation You’re Losing Before It Starts HERE'S THE TRUTH: YOUR BUSINESS ISN'T BROKEN. YOUR MINDSET IS.You've built something real. You've got clients, revenue, maybe even a team. But every morning, you wake up feeling like you're pushing a boulder uphill — working harder for smaller wins, watching others leap ahead while you grind in place.This September, I'm opening the doors to The Elite Mind, a proven daily practice that rewires the mental patterns keeping you stuck in the feast-or-famine cycle, and transforms your relationship with success from the inside out.We'll strip away the self-sabotage, the fear of your own potential, and the unconscious limits you've accepted as “just how business is.” You'll discover why strategy alone never works (and what actually does), and walk away with the mental framework that separates those who sustain success from those who chase it forever.Ready to stop working harder and start thinking differently?Click here to learn more. If you like the show, would you be so kind as to leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts? It takes less than a minute and really makes a difference in helping me spread the Successful Mind message around the globe.  LEAVE A REVIEW Check out David's book! Get Your Copy Today! Miss anything? Don't forget to subscribe to the show to keep up with your own successful mindset. We're available wherever you listen to podcasts:   Apple Podcasts Spotify Pandora iHeartRadio Amazon Music Life is Now wants you to get SOCIAL! You can find us on the following platforms:  Facebook X-twitter Instagram Linkedin Youtube The post The Catalyst Blind Spot: Why Winning Breeds Complacency appeared first on The Successful Mind Podcast.

Women Leaders Psychological Safety: How Kerry Siggins Turned "You're Erratic" Into Her Best Leadership Lesson Last updated: September 3, 2026 Trusted by leaders at Stanford University, Ernst & Young, Autodesk, MGM Grand Resorts, and Farmers Insurance Executive Summary: The word that stung most in StoneAge CEO Kerry Siggins' toughest feedback moment was the word that was true. Here's her litmus test for real feedback, how she builds psychological safety without losing accountability, and how women leaders navigate the double bind. Quick Takeaways: If feedback "stings," there's probably truth in it worth examining Psychological safety and accountability aren't opposites — done right, they build each other The double bind is real: women who are direct risk being called aggressive Influence matters more than being right — and it changes how feedback lands U.S. employee engagement hit a decade-low of 31% in early 2026 Jump to:The Feedback Story · Spotting Valid Feedback ·Safety vs. Accountability · The Double Bind ·Action Plan · FAQ As an executive leadership coach with over 30 years of experience (MA, MFT, PCC) working with Fortune 50–1000 companies, I've watched brilliant women leaders freeze in two different ways: some can't tell which feedback to take seriously and which to release, and others have been burned so badly by being called "too direct" that they've gone quiet. Both patterns erode psychological safety — theirs, and their team's. This is Part Two of my conversation with Kerry Siggins, CEO of StoneAge and author of Talk With Trust: How to Own Feedback, Spark Growth, and Build Stronger Teams. In Part One, we walked through her SHARES framework for difficult conversations. Here, we go deeper into the moment that started it all — the day a trusted colleague told her she was "erratic" — and what she's learned since about telling real feedback from noise, building psychological safety without losing accountability, and the double bind that so many women leaders still navigate every day. The Feedback That Almost Cost Kerry Siggins Her COO — And Changed Her Leadership Kerry had spent a year having what she thought were deep, honest conversations with her COO. Then, in a discussion about his role and growth path, it came out all at once: "You think you're this inspiring CEO who disrupts the industry, but really what you are is erratic, and you're really hard to work for. You're the problem." Kerry's first instinct was to fire him. She paused instead — because, as she told me, "I don't want to react in the moment." That pause is the whole story. Kerry went home, sat with the feedback, and asked herself a simple question: what's true about this? She landed on one word — erratic — and traced it back to something real: her fast pace and love of new ideas could look, from the outside, like constant direction-changing. She decided, in that moment, to become a "cool, calm, and collected, unflappable leader." It changed how she led. It also cost her the relationship — the way the feedback was delivered damaged the trust between them beyond repair, and her COO eventually left the company. Both things were true at once: the feedback was a gift, and the delivery broke something. That tension is exactly why psychological safety matters — not as comfort, but as the structure that lets hard truths get said before they explode. How to Tell Valid Feedback From Noise Kerry's litmus test is disarmingly simple: if it stings, there's probably some truth to it. She described being called "disingenuous" by someone recently and letting it go completely — because it didn't sting. She knows who she is on that dimension. But "erratic" stung, because some part of her recognized it. That sting is data. The follow-up question matters just as much: is this feedback about who I am, or about someone else's perception and unmet need? "Just because something hits your identity," Kerry said, "doesn't mean that person is right or wrong — it just means they're seeing things differently." Her advice for women leaders receiving feedback that challenges their identity: get curious, ask for examples, and then decide. "Do you want to be right, or do you want to be accurate?" Accuracy requires asking questions. Being right just requires defending your position. She also named something every leader has lived: most of what reaches you has already been filtered. The brain can only process a tiny fraction of available information, and the person giving you feedback is filtering it further through their own fear of your reaction. The fix is direct: ask "what are you not saying right now?" and genuinely invite the rest. Psychological Safety vs. Accountability: Why They're Not Opposites Most leaders treat psychological safety and accountability as a tradeoff — soft versus firm, safe versus serious. Kerry rejects that framing entirely. "There can be accountability in how you're addressing any kind of challenge through dialogue," she said. Her practice: after a hard conversation, put recurring check-ins on the calendar — not as a punishment, but as a standing space to talk about progress, struggles, and wins. "My manager really cares about me" and "I'm being held accountable" become the same sentence, not opposite ones. Accountability only becomes destructive to psychological safety when it's used as a weapon instead of a rhythm. This is the same territory I mapped out recently in a LinkedIn post on the three pillars of trust — and two of them apply directly here. Trust isn't built in one big moment. It's built in the small moments people learn they can count on you. — Sabrina Braham, MA, MFT, PCC Authenticity breaks when a leader hides a mistake to protect their image instead of admitting when they're wrong — exactly what Kerry avoided by sitting with "erratic" instead of dismissing it. And reliability breaks when accountability only shows up when something goes wrong instead of on a consistent rhythm — which is precisely why Kerry's recurring check-ins work: the consistency itself is what makes accountability feel like care instead of a threat. The Double Bind: When Direct Reads as Aggressive I asked Kerry directly: women leaders often face a double bind — direct enough to be respected reads as aggressive; warm enough to be liked reads as weak. How do you navigate it? Her answer came from experience: a fellow board member once told her, in front of a long-time customer, that she was "aggressive" and an "overachiever" — framed as a flaw. "There's no way he would have ever said that to a man," she said. This isn't just anecdote. New 2026 research out of INSEAD confirms the bind is still fully intact: promotion-focused language — bold, action-oriented, opportunity-framed — tends to clash with gendered expectations for women leaders, while prevention-focused, risk-aware language can reinforce perceptions of low competence, a tension that gets sharper under crisis or high pressure. Separate research on women serving as corporate board directors found something even more troubling: the constant work of switching between "warmth" tactics and "competence" tactics to avoid backlash is itself a driver of the disproportionate burnout many women in leadership report — the double bind isn't just unfair, it's exhausting in a measurable way. Kerry's shift wasn't to soften herself — it was to change what she was optimizing for. "I changed my perspective: do I want to be right, or do I want to influence?" When someone in a meeting takes her idea and repeats it as their own, she no longer takes it personally. "That's a great idea, let's build on that" gets her further than proving the idea was hers first. Influence, not being right, became her north star — and it's a reframe available to any woman leader caught in the double bind. You don't have to shrink to be trusted. The FREE Leading Before You're Ready Playbook gives you language and a framework for navigating exactly this — leading with directness and building the trust that gets you promoted. GET THE FREE PLAYBOOK  Implement This Week: Building Psychological Safety Without Losing Accountability (10 minutes) Recall the last piece of feedback that stung. Write down exactly why it stung — what did it touch that you believe about yourself? (15 minutes) Separate what's accurate from what's someone else's unmet expectation. Ask: is this something I need to work on, or a relationship I need to manage? (5 minutes) Identify one relationship where you suspect you're only getting filtered information. Plan to ask directly: "What are you not telling me?" (20 minutes) Put one recurring check-in on the calendar with a direct report — framed around progress and support, not correction. (This week) Bring one piece of feedback to your own team: "I'm working on X, and I'd love one honest thing I could do better." Modeling receptivity is the fastest way to build a feedback culture. (Ongoing) The next time you're told you're "too direct," ask for a specific example before deciding whether to change anything. Success metric: you leave with clarity, not just a feeling. Common Mistakes Leaders Make With Feedback and Safety Treating every sting as truth. Not all feedback that hurts is accurate — some reflects the other person's ego or fear, not your reality. Examine it before you internalize it. Defending instead of asking. Over-explaining your intentions in the moment shuts down the other person's willingness to keep talking, even if it doesn't feel defensive to you. Using accountability as punishment. If check-ins only happen when something goes wrong, people stop seeing them as safe — and stop bringing you the truth early. Softening yourself to avoid the double bind. Shrinking your directness doesn't resolve the bind — it just trades one cost for another, and the research suggests the constant self-regulation itself carries a burnout cost. Shift toward influence instead of retreat. Reading body language as neutral....

Sean Grande is the voice of the Boston Celtics for the Boston Celtics Radio Network. Sean joins the program to discuss being a C's historian, how the Jaylen Brown trade can be viewed as a success, and why the Paul George-Mitchell Robinson press conference took so long to announce. X: @SeanGrandepbp 4:14 Being a historian of the Celtics 19:45 Barometer of whether the Jaylen trade is a success 29:03 Being a fan versus being a homer as a broadcaster 38:02 Robinson, George press conference coming finally Available for download on iTunes and Spotify on Saturday, September 12th, 2026. Celtics Beat is powered by Prize Picks! Prize Picks is the official daily fantasy sponsor of CLNS Media. Download the app and use the promo code CLNS for $150 instantly when you win your first $5 lineup! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Before Lindsay Clancy's murder trial reached a jury, defense attorney Kevin Reddington says prosecutors never offered a plea deal. The case proceeded on three first-degree murder counts, exposing Clancy to mandatory life without parole if jurors convicted her of first-degree murder.The central trial dispute was criminal responsibility. The defense argued that postpartum psychosis prevented Clancy from meeting Massachusetts' standard for criminal responsibility. The prosecution argued she understood what she was doing, knew it was wrong, and retained the ability to act differently.The jury did not reach a unanimous verdict, and Judge William Sullivan declared a mistrial on September 4, 2026. A September 29 status hearing is scheduled while prosecutors consider the next step.Separate civil litigation is asking a different question about the months before the deaths. Patrick Clancy filed a wrongful-death action against four of Lindsay's medical providers and their employers. Lindsay filed her own malpractice case naming those same four defendants plus additional clinicians and hospitals. The complaints allege failures to diagnose, monitor, and coordinate her psychiatric care as her condition worsened.Patrick's lawsuit also alleges that Lindsay received eight different medication prescriptions within a three-week window. The civil cases address provider negligence, while the mistrial leaves Lindsay Clancy's criminal responsibility unresolved. Tony Brueski, Bob Motta, and Robin Dreeke put those two tracks beside each other and ask what the system is trying to accomplish with each one. When prison, secure psychiatric treatment, and civil accountability are all part of the conversation, which outcome actually answers the failures this case exposed?Listen Anywhere You Get Podcasts: https://pod.link/1655749292Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspod?sub_confirmation=1Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspodX Twitter https://x.com/tonybpodThis publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.#LindsayClancy #KevinReddington #TrueCrimeToday #BobMotta #RobinDreeke #PatrickClancy #PostpartumPsychosis #MedicalMalpractice #MassachusettsCourt #TrueCrimeNews

By God's sovereign grace, the very things that threaten to separate us from Christ are tools in His hands to make us more like Him. Today, Sinclair Ferguson concludes his reflections on the closing words of Romans 8. Read the transcript: https://ligonier.org/podcasts/things-unseen-with-sinclair-ferguson/who-shall-separate-us/ A donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Donate: https://donate.ligonier.org/ Explore all of our podcasts: https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts

Note: this one was recorded the same day as the previous release, so mentions of Tom in the hospital are related to that time period! Heath and Anne join Thomas and Eli for a very special Ask the Enwrights Anything! It all starts with a lovely rendition of "Rip Into It" and it only goes up from there honestly. Then, just for our incredible patrons, Kai joins stepdad Heath, Thomas, and Eli to...mainly torture Heath. Fun was had! Join the Facebook Group! facebook.com/groups/dearolddads For comments, email thedads@dearolddads.com

Something happens… and within about three seconds, you turn it into a statement about who you are. You procrastinated → "I'm so lazy." You overspent → "I'm terrible with money." You missed the workout → "See? I can never stick to anything." You felt awkward → "I'm just not confident." The behavior happened. But then you made the behavior mean something about your identity. In this episode, Allie breaks down why the language you repeatedly use about yourself matters, how your self-talk can keep rehearsing an old identity, and what to do instead without forcing yourself into fake positivity or affirmations you don't actually believe. You'll hear: • Why your brain is listening to the language you repeatedly use about yourself • The difference between describing something you did and turning it into who you are • How phrases like "I always," "I never," "I'm just," and "that's how I am" can reveal the identity you're still rehearsing • What research on self-talk and emotional labeling can teach us about the way language affects your brain • Why replacing one negative statement with a positive statement you don't believe isn't the answer • How to use Allie's three-step process: Catch it. Separate it. Recode it. • How to choose language that is accurate, believable, and points toward the version of you you actually want to become You do not need perfect thoughts. You do not need to monitor every sentence that comes out of your mouth. But what you repeatedly say about yourself matters. Because you can consciously be trying to become more consistent, confident, or intentional while spending the rest of your day casually narrating yourself back into the identity you're trying to leave behind. So for the next 24 hours: Watch your mouth. Catch it. Separate it. Recode it. And start noticing which version of you is getting the most airtime. Ready to stop starting over? Join Allie's free live class: Stop Starting Over