Not Your Average Lives Podcast

Episode 218: From Quitter To Finisher with Children’s Book Author, Cindy Williams Schrauben

career mindset Apr 24, 2022

This week’s guest is Cindy Williams Schrauben. Cindy lives in Michigan where she writes books for kids that range from the truly serious to the seriously silly. Her debut picture book, This Could Be You was released on April 1, 2022.

Becoming a published author at 63 has inspired Cindy to empower other mature adults with the mindset that it is never too late to dream. When not writing or connecting with other authors, Cindy might be found dissecting her grandsons’ shenanigans for story ideas, reading on the floor in the bookstore, or eating ice cream… ideally all at once.

In this episode, Cindy and I talk about:

  • how she became a children’s author
  • her book writing journey - from start to finish
  • the fear of failure that hindered her from pursuing writing for far too long 
  • how her life has changed now that she’s doing what she loves

Cindy admits she’s NOT always been one to persevere – in fact, when she was younger she often...

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Episode 216: From Political Organizer to Energy Healer with Dr. Alison J. Kay

career mindset Apr 17, 2022

This week’s guest is Dr. Alison J. Kay. She has secrets no one else uses to upgrade, inspire and disrupt old paradigms within her community & the collective. She is an award winning, #1 international best selling author and the Founder of the Vibrational UPgrade™ System.

Dr. Alison is an experienced subtle energies practitioner and natural healer with a holistic approach towards helping others thrive in mind, body and spirit. This is reinforced by the ten years she spent in Asia studying these energies & ancient wisdom.

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

  • how connecting to her higher self started at a young age
  • her backstory that started with early work as a political organizer, backpacking in Europe and eventually learning energy medicine
  • her time in Asia and the traditional practices she learned and applied
  • the fascinating topics of energy, vibration and chakras

With 20+ years working in & teaching yoga, meditation, energy medicine, mind/body...

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Episode 214: Same Words, Different Voice, Better Connection, with Katherine Beck

career mindset Apr 10, 2022

This week’s guest is Katherine Beck, a Voice Coach, Voice Actor & host of two globally ranked podcasts. She has coached actors & voiceover artists, broadcast journalists and hosts, and online entrepreneurs how to emotionally connect to their audiences using their voice.

Katherine’s acting career shifted into voice acting after she fell in love with creating characters with her voice. As she was finding her way in a blossoming career, her life in LA changed drastically one night after an encounter with a guy from Australia. Before she knew it she was getting married and relocating her life to Australia. 

In this episode, Katherine shared:

  • how she overcame her fears as an actress and voice coach
  • her career pivot from voice actor to entrepreneur
  • how important our voice is in our communication with others and the ways in which it can impact our ability to connect
  • valuable voice tips on how to communicate and influence others

With her experience of pivoting...

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Episode 211: A Surgeon’s Career Derailed And Revived By Stress with Dr. Tami Berry

career health mindset Apr 03, 2022

This week’s podcast guest is Dr. Tami Berry, a former surgeon and internationally recognized stress resilience expert, who helps people overcome burnout and transform stress into fuel for renewed energy, confidence, and joy. 

Living through her own burnout story, led her to research and develop a process for building stress resilience that helps transform high-levels of stress into a powerful force for life-long fulfillment and success.

In this episode, Dr. Tami shared:

  • Her back story of how she became a surgeon, her love for the work and why she couldn’t continue with it due to the high levels of stress and the destructive behavior the stress caused.
  • What her downward spiral taught her about the mind and body connection and its combined power to both harm and heal.
  • How to recognize the invisible signs of stress.
  • Four quick tips to lower stress.

Dr. Tami’s story is a powerful example of what can happen when there is little understanding about the impact of...

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Episode 209: How To Bounce Back From Big Mistakes with Debbie Colbourn

career mindset Mar 27, 2022

My latest guest is Debbie Colbourn, who calls herself an adventurer, former sport car racer, mountain climber, world traveler and a grandma of 4. Her resume and interests are long and varied and she says she’s filled with a need to always be learning and trying new things.

A combination of 25+ years as a professional accountant and guiding 1 to 25 million dollar companies through their life stages, along with an education in Kinesiology, an active competition life in performance dog sports and a desire to improve her own dogs’ fitness for competition, led her, in 2011, to create The Summit, a 7,000 square foot training facility and her first online business: The Fit Body Fit Mind Dog.

In this interview Debbie and I talked about:

  • How she created boundaries in her corporate work that supported her adventurous lifestyle
  • Her very different and interesting hobbies
  • Her biggest fear is and the event in her life that created it
  • The ‘bounce back-ability’ that is so...
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Episode 207: Creating Possibility From Challenging Circumstances with The Youthful Granny

My guest this week is Liberty A. Baldovino, also known as The Youthful Granny, a content marketer who specializes in writing ebooks, whitepapers, case studies, blogs, emails, and assisting clients with content strategies.

Despite Liberty’s busy schedule, she still finds time for her advocacies - encouraging people in her age group to venture into freelancing and teaching writing to kids and adults.

In this episode, Liberty and I talked about:

  • The culture she grew up with and what it’s like living in a 3rd world country
  • How she transitioned from a low paying Private School Teacher job to a lucrative online freelancing career
  • Her plans for her future and her passion for helping other people her age get started with their own businesses.

Liberty is a great example to other people her age that a late-in-life career shift is possible no matter what your circumstances. Her freelancing journey has also inspired her to start an online community she calls, Freelancing for the...

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Episode 205: Slow Down, Worry Less, & Live More With Lorna Green

This week is an interview with Lorna Green, who is a yoga teacher and wellness mentor. Lorna uses a combination of yogic wisdom and science-backed mindset techniques to help burnt-out professionals, who can’t stop hustling, slow down so they can stay on top of their game without sacrificing their health, personal life, and mental wellbeing.

Refusing to take life seriously, but serious about the right things, she is on a mission to show people how to worry less and live more.

In this episode, Lorna shared:

  • Her early career in the beauty industry and a valuable tool she learned from that experience - a tool more people need to use. 
  • Her experience of illness, bankruptcy and the loss of a 16 year relationship and how she overcame these obstacles.
  • How she found Yoga and all the wisdom she learned from her that journey.
  • Her great tips on how to worry less.

Lorna’s mantra is: “slow is strong, busy isn’t cool and age is just a number.”  Let Lorna...

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Episode 203: Putting Others First Led to TWO Heart Attacks with Christina Rozema

career health mindset Mar 06, 2022

My guest this week is Christina Rozema who worked in the non-profit and healthcare fields for 20+ years in a variety of leadership roles. Her background is developing strong, authentic teams that can lead organizations forward, supporting teams and leaders in their development, ensuring that change is rooted in shared values, and successfully delivering complicated projects.

Christina refers to herself as a people-first person, but unfortunately that behavior put her last and likely led to her first stress-induced heart attack that happened at work. It was a wake-up call, especially since she was in the healthcare field.

In this episode, Christina and I talked about:

  • Her TWO heart attack experiences and what caused them
  • Her biggest lesson from those experiences and her resulting perspective shift.
  • Important tips on how to reduce the likelihood of a heart attack and what signs to look for if you think you may be experiencing one. 

Christina committed to her personal recovery...

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Episode 201: Finding Passion In Helping Parents Of Middle Schoolers with Amy Kelly

career mindset Feb 27, 2022

In this week’s episode, my guest Amy Kelly, is the creator and host of In the Middle of It Podcast. She’s a born-and-raised Texas girl with a passion for the next generation. She’s also a Mom, a writer, an educator, and a voracious reader who is dedicated to helping people connect with the teens in their life.

Amy is passionate about supporting middle school parents and teachers on the front lines with teens. shares actionable strategies and relevant resources that create results for the teens in your life. She also loves discovering the stories of teens and what’s shaped them so far.

In this episode, Amy and I talked about:

  • How helping her husband with his dream, made her realize she needed her own dream
  • The importance of good boundaries
  • Helpful tips for all parents (and grandparents!)

Amy lives with her husband and two teens. You can find her listening to U2, watching Gilmore Girls for the millionth time, or hanging on the patio with...

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Episode 199: Building An Online Community You Love With Elizabeth Henson

career mindset Feb 20, 2022

In this episode, I had a wonderful chat with Elizabeth Henson, founder of The Messy Success Podcast, and Shine The Light Society membership, who has become the go-to expert in community management and leadership.

If you have an online business or are thinking about starting one, or just have a desire to create a like-minded community of people you share similar interests with, Elizabeth wants to help you feel confident and excited about creating and growing your own Facebook Group and spending more time on Facebook to build that community.

In this episode, Elizabeth and I talked about:

- How she ended up becoming a Facebook groups expert

- The most important tip to growing your audience and keeping them interested

- An important trick about Facebook groups and engagement you don’t want to miss

- Great ideas for how to build your Facebook group

Elizabeth believes in the power of relationships and finding our own version of success and desires to be creative and operate from...

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