My guest this week is Matt Parkin, founder of The Awesome Ukulele Academy who can teach anyone how to play a song on the ukulele in under 3 sessions! His virtual school was his reaction to the pandemic, which means it’s one of the positive outcomes because Matt is now able to take his expertise anywhere in the world and awaken the musician in those of us who have always wanted to learn to play an instrument.

After playing in “dodgy” rock bands in the late 80’s and 90’s, Matt moved from the UK to Andalusia to raise his 3 children and chickens and to make furniture.

At the age of 45, he discovered a love of teaching, by pure coincidence, which led him to go back to school and get his degree. When the parents realized how much fun their children were having, he started teaching them too. And now, after taking his ukulele teaching talents to the internet, he has a thriving multi-six figure business teaching adults worldwide how to play what he calls “the easiest instrument ever!”

In ...

This week’s interview is with Ryan Lesser, Co-Founder and Life Coach at InnerShift. I met Ryan through his partner, Alex Paulos, who invented a unique personality typing methodology where your genetic characteristics are “read” to tell you who you were really born to be.

This reading includes an overall assessment of your general character as well as your unique personality traits, and lets you know if you’ve been operating in alignment with your inborn personality type or if you’ve been operating with a chosen personality that you’ve adopted, thinking it will help you more easily navigate life.

What happens when you don’t operate as the person you were born to be, you aren’t living in your truth - it’s like you are walking around with a mask on - which will take you off course and away from your true path and purpose. 

People who operate from a chosen personality often find themselves frustrated and feeling stressed, which will ultimately cause health challenges due to the impac...

My guest this week is Jill McCarthy, also known as “The Geeky Grandma”, who has a passion for digital art & encouraging women. Jill has 4 adult sons & 6 grandchildren and has been married for 43 years. Prior to retirement, she taught 2nd graders for 25 years. She says you’ll most often catch her playing on the computer dressed in one of her favorite t-shirts imprinted with a cartoon character.

Jill’s been an avid follower and practitioner of personal development for 50+ years, long before it was a popular topic. She says she realized, about 10 years into her full-time teaching career, that her heart was not into teaching children and that she wanted to organize and run women's retreats. 

Retirement has not slowed her down one bit. In fact, it’s allowed her to fulfill her dreams of advocating personal development to her now adult students. She recently held her 14th retreat. 

In this episode, Jill and I talked about:

• The story behind her brand “The Geeky Grandma”  
• Why she tra...

My guest for this week’s podcast is Valerie Trumbower, a DONA Certified Postpartum Doula, a Certified Lactation Counselor and a mother of three, including identical twins. Her online courses, The Bump-to-Baby Roadmap & Expecting 101...You’re Adopting™ have helped hundreds of families (and grandparents!) prepare for life with their newborns. 

Over the past 8 years Valerie has been helping hundreds of parents adjust to their new family so that they can approach the newborn stage with as much calm confidence as possible. And so that they know what to do with their little newborns.

In this episode, Valerie and I talked about:

• Understanding what a Doula is and what they do
• How she learned about postpartum and birth Doula and how she started
• Best qualities to look out for if you want to be a Doula
• Necessary tips for grandparents to best help our children navigate new babies

Many people are probably not familiar with what a postpartum doula is. You may decide to explore becoming...

My special guest this week is one of my amazing Second Half S.P.A.R.K. School™ students, Denise Hughes. Denise shares her story of signing up at a very low point in her life, when she was suffering from “long” Covid with very little energy and very far from living her best life.

But fortunately, like all of my students who decide to take action, she was finally ready to do something about it and she knew she couldn’t do it on her own… 

Denise’s story is nothing short of remarkable as it shows how our path to the dream life we desire is not always what we think it will be. But Denise shows how once we shift our internal energy by changing our mindset, we begin to attract what we desire. 

She is also a testament to how staying in abundance, no matter how hard your journey gets, and continuing to apply the tools she learned in the Second Half S.P.A.R.K. School™ brought her to where she is today, with more balance and happiness than she’s ever had.

In this episode, Denise and I talk...

Today’s guest is Frederica Wagner, (aka "Fred") one of my students from the Second Half S.P.A.R.K. School™, who shares her story about how she transformed her life in record time, finding motivation, energy, and happiness, along with her authentic self who she had lost.

Fred - a 72 year old divorced mom of adult children, and a grandma, who recently celebrated 24 years of sobriety - recognized she had reached a new low point in her life where she had no direction, no focus, and sadly, no desire. In her words, she felt stuck, stagnant and miserable. 

Shortly after admitting to herself that she needed help, she stumbled upon the Second Half S.P.A.R.K. School™ where she found the support she needed. Once she made that commitment, she was ALL IN, and by following the program to a “T”, she got the breakthroughs she needed, becoming an inspiration to her fellow students.

Fred is a great example that if you show up and do the work, you’ll get the results you’re looking for, no matter wh...

Today I have no guest interview because I have an important topic I want to talk about - what it means to be ignited. It’s top of mind because I have a free training on this very subject coming up in a week, and it might just be the right next step for anyone who listens to this episode and feels unignited.

• the definition of ignited
• real life examples of what it feels like when you aren’t ignited
• what I’ve learned about the subject 
• what to know if you’re feeling unignited 

Why is it that so many of us feel guilty for wanting more?  There is nothing wrong with wanting more and wanting to feel more excitement in your life. It’s time to make getting that internal wick lit your #1 priority!

If you’d like to review the words I shared on the episode, I’ve included them here as follows:

Anxious, Average, Ambivalent, Annoyed, Apathetic, Ambiguous, Bored, Beaten, Blah, Behind, Busy, Burned Out, Challenged, Confused Chaotic, Changing, Conflicted, Depressed, Depleted, Discouraged, ...

My guest this week is Dr. Christine Li, a clinical psychologist in New York for the past 20 years and who is known online as the “Procrastination Coach.”. She helps people stop struggling with underperforming at work and at home so they can work smoothly and with high levels of productivity.

Dr. Christine’s unique coaching process is a blend of mindset strategy, time and emotion management tips, and a deep belief in the power we each have when we treat ourselves with love and good self-care. She is the author of the book “5-Minute Self-Discipline Exercises: Stay Motivated, Cultivate Good Habits, and Achieve Your Goals” and the host of the podcast “Make Time for Success.”

In this episode, Dr. Christine and I talked about:

• Her story of struggling with procrastination and a workshop that changed everything for her
• Her 5 letter acronym to help remember how to kick your procrastinating habits
• Tips for how to manage your time, manage stress and be more productive

Through her pra...

In today’s episode I spoke with Dr. Leslie Bosch, a developmental psychologist and a National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach who received her training as an integrative wellness coach from the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine.

As an integrative wellness coach, Dr. Bosch helps busy professionals achieve their wellness goals in 7 core areas of health including sleep, nutrition, movement, relationships, spirituality, and resilience through stress management, especially, during difficult transitions. Through her coaching, Dr. Bosch aims to help clients make a bigger impact without sacrificing their health, well-being, or personal relationships.

In this episode, we talked about:

• how her dream of being a singer shifted to wanting to be a coach
• when she realized she wanted to help people with stress management 
• the pivot point that led her to study integrative medicine
• some interesting facts about developmental psychology

Dr. Leslie believes that “people on...

This week’s guest is Donna Yates Ferris, a yoga and transformation coach as well as the writer of a “I-can’t-put-it-down” book that I had the chance to read before our interview. It was so fun to do this interview because I felt like I was talking to a friend. 

In her memoir “We’ve Got to Stop Meeting Like This,” Donna shares her path to inner peace, one that was sidelined by repeated difficulties - divorce, grief,  illness, addiction, and more. She openly shares the details of a short period in her life that began with the dissolution of her 20+ year marriage after discovering her husband’s affair. This was just the beginning of a 3 year roller coaster that led her to become an expert on resilience. 

If you feel overwhelmed and maybe even defeated by life's changes and challenges and need some inspiration by hearing a true story that proves you never know what the future has in store for you, this conversation is for you.

In this interview, we talk about:

• what prompted her to...