Women Like Me Stories & Business

The Room to Be Brave: April Day Garcia on Trauma Healing, Sobriety, ADHD & Reclaiming Identity

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2083529/fan_mail/new] Some memories don’t feel like “the past.” They feel like rooms we have locked, avoided, and quietly built our lives around without realizing it. In this powerful episode of Women Like Me Stories & Business, Julie Fairhurst sits down with April Day Garcia, author of The Room to Be Brave, to talk about what happens when you finally walk back into the moments that shaped your identity — and decide you do not have to carry the same story out with you. April shares how sobriety and a near-simultaneous ADHD diagnosis forced a new kind of honesty. From the outside, life may look successful, but inside, old wounds can still be quietly running the show. Together, Julie and April explore the patterns that often reveal unhealed pain: waiting for abandonment, accepting behavior you do not deserve, shrinking your voice, believing you are “not enough,” and feeling like you do not belong in rooms you have every right to stand in. April explains why healing can feel safer the second time around — because now you enter with choice, awareness, and the power to leave. She also shares why compassion matters more than judgment when revisiting shame, trauma, and old self-talk. This conversation also offers practical tools for emotional recovery. Therapy can be powerful, but April believes healing often requires a multi-tool approach, including journaling, meditation, yoga, Reiki, acts of service, and intentionally making space for joy. By the end of this episode, you will have simple prompts to help you name the identity you were told to be — and choose the one you are brave enough to live as. If you have been feeling stuck in old self-talk, shame, trauma patterns, or the belief that you are not enough, this conversation will meet you with truth, compassion, and hope. Subscribe, share this episode with a friend who needs it, and leave a review so more women can find these stories and start doing the work too. Reach out to April:  https://www.aprildaygarcia.com/ If this conversation stirred something in you… good. That’s where change begins. Make sure you’re subscribed, share this with someone who needs it, and if you’re ready to tell your story, step into your voice, or build a life that actually feels like yours… You’re in the right place. I’m Julie Fairhurst, and this is where stories turn into power. Go to my website if you would like to be a guest on the Women Like Me Stories & Business in the toolbar click Let's Podcast Julie's Website [https://juliefairhurst.com/]

Unsilenced

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2083529/fan_mail/new] A brand-new book goes live, and a brand-new voice steps forward. In this powerful episode of Women Like Me Stories & Business, Julie Fairhurst is joined by Zainab Akintelu, author of Unsilenced: A Journey From Silence To Voice, written under the author name Queen Zee. Calling in from Nigeria, Zainab shares the heart behind her memoir and the three words that keep showing up for women who are ready to change their lives: healing, becoming, and rising. Get her book on Amazon:   UNSILENCED : A JOURNEY FROM SILENCE TO VOICE Follow Zainab on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/zainab.akintelu If this conversation stirred something in you… good. That’s where change begins. Make sure you’re subscribed, share this with someone who needs it, and if you’re ready to tell your story, step into your voice, or build a life that actually feels like yours… You’re in the right place. I’m Julie Fairhurst, and this is where stories turn into power. Go to my website if you would like to be a guest on the Women Like Me Stories & Business in the toolbar click Let's Podcast Julie's Website [https://juliefairhurst.com/]

Oxygen at 63: Holly Porter’s 70-Day COVID ICU Survival & Near-Death Story

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2083529/fan_mail/new] She thought it was the flu. Then she woke up with a gut-level warning that would not let go: get to the hospital now. Holly Porter’s oxygen was at 63, her organs were shutting down, and what followed was a 70-day fight through COVID, ICU care, intubations, a tracheotomy, sepsis, and the kind of medical uncertainty that changes a person forever. In this powerful episode of Women Like Me Stories & Business, Holly walks us through the disorienting reality of losing her senses, the emotional whiplash of coming back after a near-death experience, and why intuition became more than a buzzword in her life. We also talk about the hard, unglamorous middle — long COVID recovery, rebuilding strength, the mindset shift behind her daily mantra “better is better,” and what it takes to keep moving forward without living in victim mode. From there, we connect the spiritual to the practical. Holly shares how her SHIFT framework — surrender, hope, intuition, faith, and transformation — shapes her leadership, why community accelerates healing, and why she believes retreats can become powerful catalysts for real change. Holly also shares what she would say to any woman who has survived something life-altering but still feels afraid to tell her story. If you are navigating illness, burnout, reinvention, grief, recovery, or a new calling you can’t ignore, this conversation will meet you where you are and challenge you to take one brave next step. Subscribe, share this episode with someone who needs it, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway. https://linktr.ee/hollyporter If this conversation stirred something in you… good. That’s where change begins. Make sure you’re subscribed, share this with someone who needs it, and if you’re ready to tell your story, step into your voice, or build a life that actually feels like yours… You’re in the right place. I’m Julie Fairhurst, and this is where stories turn into power. Go to my website if you would like to be a guest on the Women Like Me Stories & Business in the toolbar click Let's Podcast Julie's Website [https://juliefairhurst.com/]

Inside-Out Personal Branding with Chanoa Inez | Build a Brand That Feels Safe to Be Seen

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2083529/fan_mail/new] A beautiful website is not enough if your brand does not feel safe to be seen. In this powerful episode, Julie Fairhurst sits down with author and personal brand strategist Chanoa Inez to talk about inside-out personal branding, self-trust, visibility, grief, reinvention, and building a brand that feels deeply aligned. Chanoa shares why the most magnetic personal brands are not built from copying trends, chasing validation, or trying to look perfect online. Instead, they begin with inner work, clarity, purpose, values, boundaries, and the courage to show up as yourself. Together, Julie and Chanoa explore the mindset traps that hold women entrepreneurs back, including fear of judgment, comparison, and the pressure to follow what everyone else is doing. Chanoa also opens up about the devastating loss of her boyfriend shortly after moving to Europe and how grief shaped her identity, her body, her healing, and her path to reinvention. She shares insights from her book, Dream On: How to Create the New Life After Upheaval or Loss, offering hope to women learning to dream again after life changes everything. This episode is for women entrepreneurs, coaches, authors, speakers, and business owners who want to build a personal brand that feels honest, sustainable, and true. Reach out to learn more and grab her book:  https://www.chanoainez.com/ If this conversation stirred something in you… good. That’s where change begins. Make sure you’re subscribed, share this with someone who needs it, and if you’re ready to tell your story, step into your voice, or build a life that actually feels like yours… You’re in the right place. I’m Julie Fairhurst, and this is where stories turn into power. Go to my website if you would like to be a guest on the Women Like Me Stories & Business in the toolbar click Let's Podcast Julie's Website [https://juliefairhurst.com/]

When Ancestors Call: Brigid Kennedy on Family History, Dreams & Writing the Book

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2083529/fan_mail/new] A grandmother shows up in a vivid 2 a.m. dream with one urgent message: write our real family history before it disappears. That dream becomes the spark that sends Brigid Kennedy, a professional violinist, violin teacher, and longtime “behind the scenes” supporter of her husband’s academic career, into a completely new identity as a published author and storyteller. In this episode of the Women Like Me Stories & Business Podcast, Julie Fairhurst sits down with Brigid Kennedy to talk about family history, ancestral stories, spiritual guidance, writing, courage, and the calling to preserve the stories that could vanish if no one writes them down. Brigid shares how she began with the practical steps of genealogy research — names, dates, places, and the familiar chaos of unlabeled family photos — before her family narrative hit a hard stop. Her research led to the extraordinary story of her great-grandfather’s journey from Ireland to Peru, a monastery wedding in 1910, and his later disappearance into the Amazon rainforest. With the historical record incomplete, Brigid made a brave, creative decision: she wrote into the gap. By weaving Irish myths and Incan legends into the missing pieces of her family story, Brigid created something more than fiction. Her book became a reclamation of roots, a way to restore connection, and a form of healing for a family that had carried unanswered questions for generations. Julie and Brigid also talk about the real work behind writing a book when you do not have a writing degree, an agent, or a roadmap. They explore handling critique, fighting imposter syndrome, carving out time while juggling motherhood and work, and navigating the visibility of becoming an author in the age of TikTok and Instagram. This conversation is for anyone who has been searching for motivation to preserve family history, start a memoir, write a novel, or finally begin the story that keeps tugging at their heart. Sometimes the story chooses you before you feel ready to choose it. If this episode speaks to you, subscribe, share it with a friend who has “one day” plans, and leave a review so more listeners can find Women Like Me Stories & Business. What family story do you want to save before it is gone? Learn more about Brigid Kennedy: Website:  https://www.brigidkennedybooks.com/ YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/@BrigidKennedyBooks Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/BrigidKennedyBooks/ TikTok:  https://www.tiktok.com/@brigidkennedybooks If this conversation stirred something in you… good. That’s where change begins. Make sure you’re subscribed, share this with someone who needs it, and if you’re ready to tell your story, step into your voice, or build a life that actually feels like yours… You’re in the right place. I’m Julie Fairhurst, and this is where stories turn into power. Go to my website if you would like to be a guest on the Women Like Me Stories & Business in the toolbar click Let's Podcast Julie's Website [https://juliefairhurst.com/]