EP 046: When Joy Becomes Your Compass: On Friendship, Creativity, and Choosing the Slow Life with Michelle Waithe

EP 046: When Joy Becomes Your Compass: On Friendship, Creativity, and Choosing the Slow Life with Michelle Waithe

A conversation with Director of Operations and Human Design Practitioner, Michelle Waithe. Essential listening for anyone who has ever wondered if it is okay to choose a life that simply feels good. What happens when two people follow each other from a distance for over a decade, meet briefly, and then discover their connection runs so much deeper than they ever imagined? Michelle Waithe came into my life through a series of synchronicities so specific and so unlikely that I still get chills thinking about them. She became my director of operations, then my collaborator, and somewhere in there, my soul sister. In this conversation, we go everywhere. From the moment she named her foster ducklings after my grandfathers, to her journey from holistic nutritionist to operations director to off-grid homesteader in Northeastern Ontario. We talk about living with type 1 diabetes, what it really means to acclimatize to a life that most people would find deeply uncomfortable, and why joy is not a luxury. It is the whole point. We also talk about grief, slow living, writing cursive letters, making things with your hands, and what it looks and feels like when you stop performing your life and start actually living it.

EP 045: Stop Holding Back: The Soul Wisdom of Saying Yes, Getting Unmuted, and Living Fully Alive with Rachel Druckenmiller

A conversation with keynote speaker, leadership trainer, and singer-songwriter, Rachel Druckenmiller. Essential listening for anyone ready to stop holding the best parts of themselves back. Some people find their way to a courageous pivot through careful planning. Others get there because life makes the decision for them. And then there's the kind of wisdom that only comes from having done both, and arriving somewhere you never could have mapped. Rachel Druckenmiller is the kind of guest who says things you'll be repeating to yourself for weeks. About what it means to say yes before you feel ready. About the difference between a life that looks successful and one that actually feels alive. About speaking your desires out loud, even the ones that seem too big, too unlikely, too far away. About how the things that fall apart are often quietly clearing the path to what's next. There is a particular kind of courage in letting yourself be seen doing the thing you love most. Rachel has had to find that courage more than once, in more than one arena. What she's discovered on the other side is nothing short of a blueprint for coming home to yourself. Links + Resources * Full show notes [https://fun.meghantelpner.com/blog] * Shop: 30% off Rise + Shine: Guided Path to Heart-Led Living and Leadership [https://fun.meghantelpner.com/offers/Nt3QgZam?coupon_code=PIVOT30]

EP 044: Knowing When to Stop: Identity and the Quiet Life No One Warns You About with Abigail Keeso

A conversation with Registered Nurse turned tech founder and growth leader. Essential listening for anyone who has ever wondered what comes after the win. Abigail Keeso co-founded That Clean Life with her husband in 2014, grew it into a wildly profitable SaaS platform with a 93% profit margin and a team of four, and then sold it. What happened after the sale is the conversation nobody is having. In this episode, Abigail gets honest about the anticlimactic reality of a business acquisition, the identity earthquake that follows when the thing you built for a decade is no longer yours, and what it actually feels like to wake up on the other side with nowhere to be and nothing to prove. We talk about building a bootstrapped business from a nursing break room, naivety as a superpower, the moment she looked at her husband and said "it's time," navigating two years of earn-out inside a private equity world she hadn't quite prepared for, and the quiet life she and her family have landed in on 10 acres in the country. There are real questions about purpose, belonging, and who you are when your title disappears. If you're in a season of transition, sitting with a decision that scares you, or quietly wondering whether success might actually mean slowing all the way down, this one will feel like a deep exhale. Links + Resources * Full show notes [https://fun.meghantelpner.com/blog] * Shop: 30% off Rise + Shine: Guided Path to Heart-Led Living and Leadership [https://fun.meghantelpner.com/offers/Nt3QgZam?coupon_code=PIVOT30]

EP 043: Life at a 10: What It Actually Takes to Build a Business and Life In Alignment with Kristen Gale

A conversation with owner of the THE TEN SPOT® International Franchise, Kristen Gale. Essential listening for anyone who has ever wondered if the same drive that built their business could actually save their life. Kristen Gale was fired on a Friday. By Sunday she had a business plan. By Wednesday, she had signed a lease. Twenty years later, she has 38 locations and a franchise system she built by doing the thing most founders never do: firing herself from her own company. But this conversation goes so much deeper than business. Kristen opens up about the marriage that dimmed her light, the moment she decided to become the CEO of her own life, and how applying the same strategic tools she used to scale The Ten Spot pulled her out of the hardest chapter she had ever lived. We talk core values, confidence, the "perfect day" exercise, and why missions are the secret weapon for getting through literally anything. Oh, and we go there on the tummy tuck too. Kristen and I have known each other for twenty years. This one felt like sitting down with a very old, very wise, very hilarious friend. Which is exactly what it was. Links + Resources * Full show notes [https://fun.meghantelpner.com/blog] * Money Mastery [https://fun.meghantelpner.com/MoneyMastery] - A wildly practical approach to financial literacy, empowered money mindset, and wealth building for a life of joy and freedom (use code PIVOT30 at checkout to save 30% on the course).

EP 042: Rewiring the Mind to Heal the Body: From MS Diagnosis to Full Recovery with Sanjay Parmar

A conversation with mindset coach and Solution Engineer, Sanjay Parmar. Essential listening for anyone who has ever wondered if true healing were possible. Sanjay Parmar was 34, a brand new father, and running on fumes in a toxic work environment when his body finally said enough. An MS attack in 2007 left him dragging himself into the hospital, clutching a stack of prescriptions he never intended to fill. What the doctors didn't account for was his refusal to let that diagnosis become his identity. What followed was nearly two decades of choosing a different path. Anti-inflammatory eating, neuro-linguistic programming, releasing friendships that were quietly draining him, and doing the deep work of healing childhood patterns that had been running the show long before any symptoms appeared. He never took the medication. Nineteen years later, he describes himself as fully optimized. Sanjay and I go way back, and this conversation has the warmth and honesty that only comes from two people who actually know each other. It is funny in places, surprising in others, and genuinely moving throughout. If you have ever wondered whether healing is really possible, this one is for you. Links + Resources * Full show notes [https://fun.meghantelpner.com/blog] * Shop: 30% off Rise + Shine: Guided Path to Heart-Led Living and Leadership [https://fun.meghantelpner.com/offers/Nt3QgZam?coupon_code=PIVOT30]