Episode 8: Meet Christina Simos - Your Healing Is Our Liberation: From Friendly House Client to CEO of America's Oldest Women's Recovery Program in Los Angeles

Episode 8: Meet Christina Simos - Your Healing Is Our Liberation: From Friendly House Client to CEO of America's Oldest Women's Recovery Program in Los Angeles

Twenty years ago, Christina Simos walked into Friendly House Los Angeles not wanting to live. Today, she runs it. Christina is the CEO of the oldest women's alcohol and drug recovery program in the country. But before she was a CEO, she was a girl from the Queens projects who wanted to be Beyonce. She was an MTV VJ finalist. She was talking to the VP of Sony Records when she found out she was pregnant. She was a woman who crossed an invisible line with cocaine and couldn't find her way back. Until Friendly House found her. In this episode, Christina tells the whole story: the music dreams, the rock bottom, the 12 days at Cedars-Sinai, and the moment a woman named Peggy Albrecht looked into her soul and said "Welcome home." She talks about working her way from client to tech to director to CEO, inheriting a board of all white men at a women's recovery organization, and spending five years fighting to decolonize treatment and make space for every woman who shows up at the door. This is a conversation about healing, yes. But it is also about systems, courage, and what it means to build something that was never built for you. Friendly House 75th Anniversary Gala: October 17, 2026 at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel.To donate or get involved: info@friendlyhousela.org [info@friendlyhousela.org] Follow along: @design2manifest | www.design2manifest.com [http://www.design2manifest.com]

Episode 7: Meet Adam Waldman - The Art Behind the Movies: The Story of The Refinery Creative, One Design at a Time

You know the movie poster that stopped you mid-scroll. The one that made you buy the ticket before you even knew what the movie was about. There's a person behind that. In Episode 7 of Design2Manifest, Kat sits down with Adam Waldman, owner and creative director of The Refinery Creative, the entertainment marketing agency behind some of your favorite movie posters and digital campaigns for every major studio and streamer. Adam's story is the design2manifest ethos in action. An only child of divorced hippie parents, raised between Oakland, Mendocino, and an ashram in India, he taught himself graphic design by obsessing over album covers, then bootstrapped his way into Hollywood by faking a movie poster portfolio over a single three-day weekend. Twenty years ago, he and his partner Brad Hochberg double-mortgaged their houses, set up eight computers in Adam's living room (which got so hot they nicknamed it "the refinery"), and started designing the visuals that sell movies to the world. Today The Refinery Creative is a 95-person powerhouse with work running everywhere from Disney+ to billboards in Tokyo. In this conversation, Adam shares: The pivotal moment a fake portfolio over one long weekend changed his careerWhy he double-mortgaged his house to bet on himself and his partnerThe advice he gives every creative entrepreneur about staying in your zoneHow YPO became his trusted peer group for the lonely parts of ownershipHis passion for ending homelessness in LA through LA Family Housing and Dignity MovesWhat he's manifesting in 2026 in an industry being reshaped by AI A masterclass in pragmatic creativity, calculated risk, and trusting that the work you love can also be the work that sustains you. Connect with Adam:Website: therefinerycreative.comSocials: @refinedadam Connect with Design2Manifest:Website: www.design2manifest.com [http://www.design2manifest.com]Instagram: @design2manifest If you can hold it in your head, you can hold it in your hand. Now go out and manifest something beautiful.

Episode 6: Meet Princess Superstar - Rapper Turned DJ's Delight: Perfect Timing & Art of the Comeback

A true original, Princess Superstar has spent three decades turning bold vision into iconic reality. From a shy kid dancing to Led Zeppelin in her parents' living room, to an NYU acting student who traded scripts for samplers, to the voice behind UK top 20 hit Bad Babysitter and platinum smash Perfect, she has lived more creative lifetimes than most artists ever dream of. In this episode, Kat and Princess Superstar go deep on the 1990s New York indie scene, her first solo show at the legendary Pyramid Club in 1994, and how a homemade demo tape called Mitch Better Have My Bunny landed her in CMJ Magazine and on the phone with major labels. She shares the terrifying moment she quit her band to go solo, the leap from hip hop to electronica that redefined her sound, and the wild true story of how Perfect went viral in 2007 thanks to a mystery DJ mashup with Mason's Exceeder. They also get real about the roller coaster: sobriety, motherhood, losing her manager and booking agent, and the 13 year fallow period where she kept creating music even when the world went quiet. Then Saltburn sent Perfect back up the charts, earned it gold status in the US, and handed her career back on a silver platter. This conversation is for every creative who has ever wondered if the dream is still possible. Princess Superstar reminds us that manifestation runs on its own timeline, that resilience is the real superpower, and that the universe rewards the ones who keep showing up. In this episode: * Choosing music over acting at NYU * The story behind the name Princess Superstar * Starting her own indie label in 1997 * Breaking through with Bad Babysitter at age 30 * Falling in love with dance music at the Berlin Love Parade * Working with Stuart Price, Armand Van Helden, Felix the Housecat, and Arthur Baker * The Perfect viral moment and the lip syncing scandal that followed * Sobriety, motherhood, and rebuilding from the ground up * Her upcoming album, her first in 13 years * Her 26 date tour with Lords of Acid, LA Pride 2026, and summer shows in London and Barcelona Connect with Princess Superstar: @princesssuperstar on Instagram, @therealprincesssuperstar on TikTok, Princess Superstar on Spotify. Follow Design2Manifest: www.design2manifest.com [http://www.design2manifest.com] | @design2manifest on Instagram

Episode 5: Meet Adam Michaels, Enrollify CEO - Built to Manifest: How a Lifelong Entrepreneur Turns Every Setback Into His Next Big Build

Some people are just born to build. Adam Michaels was selling bubble gum on the back of the school bus, running a snow blowing business at 13, and promoting nightclubs in college before most people figure out what they want to be. Today he is the CEO and co-founder of Enrollify, a platform using AI and a gig economy of 6,000 credentialed benefit counselors to help employers and employees navigate the complexity of benefits. In this episode, Adam shares the unfiltered story of going from stockbroker at 19 with no salary and a phone book, to building three agencies worth $5M, $20M and $50M across three cities, to getting fired from a corporate role he calls one of the best things that ever happened to him. We talk about the abundance mindset, his seven-year life cycle theory, why partnerships need a prenup, and what it really means to burn the boats and start over. If you are an entrepreneur, a dreamer, or someone who has ever had to begin again, this one is for you. Follow Adam Michaels: @adammichaelsLearn more about Enrollify: www.enrollify.com [http://www.enrollify.com] Website: www.design2manifest.com [http://www.design2manifest.com]Instagram: @design2manifest

Episode 4: Meet Andrea Witt - Dream Twang: Strings, Steel, and the Sound of a Life Designed to Flow

What happens when you fall in love with a sound so deeply you can't imagine living without it? For Andrea Witt, that feeling hit twice - first with the viola at age 9, and again when she spotted a pedal steel guitar backstage on Shania Twain's Las Vegas residency. She ordered one off eBay and had it sent to her hotel room. The rest is history. In this episode, Andrea and I dive into her extraordinary journey as a multi-instrumental musician, visual artist, and founder of the creative brand Boho Bunny. She has toured the world with some of the biggest names in music, including Shania Twain, Moby, and Jelly Roll. She shares what it really takes to build a life in music: resilience when contracts fall through at the last minute, the art of going with the flow on tour, and why the doors that open are almost always better than the ones that close. We also talk about her upcoming solo debut, Dream Twang, a lush, vibe-y blend of pedal steel and strings that she describes as Mazzy Star meets Lana Del Rey. Plus her go-to self-care rituals on the road, manifesting through clarity and gratitude, and the vision board that just might include Stevie Nicks. This one is for every creative soul who is building something that does not fit neatly into a box. Find Andrea: www.andreawhitt.com | @bohobunnie Find us: www.design2manifest.com [http://www.design2manifest.com] | @design2manifest