"I love hugging people with my words," says Simon T. Bailey. That he does - and so much more. Simon T. Bailey is an exceptional writer, business thinker, and one of the most successful motivational speakers in the world. Simon is a force of nature on stage - a channel of boundless energy coupled with deep and practical wisdom. Simon OWNS the stage - and then Covid momentarily shut down the playground where he excels. Simon has come roaring back, more in demand than ever, as businesses host mega-...
Jan 26, 2023•41 min•Season 2Ep. 90
I originally released my conversation with Lama Karma Chotso in June of 2022. I happily share it again to entice us all to reconnect with timeless spiritual wisdom as we launch into a new year. Since Lama Karma Chotso and I spoke last year, she has decided to let go of her beautiful Buddhist Center in the El Portal section of Miami where she has lived and taught for over 20 years. With the re-release of ths MY FOURTH ACT podcast episode, I invite all of us to embrace the gift of impermanence and...
Jan 19, 2023•38 min•Season 2Ep. 89
I originally released my conversation with Benja Kay Thomas in the summer of 2021, at a time when theatre had ground to a halt. Well, theatre came back with a vengeance, and so did Benja. Benja Kay Thomas is an AUDELCO and OBIE-award winning film, television and stage actress. She fully committed to having a professional acting career later in life, at a time when many actresses say “there just aren’t any roles for me.” The moment Benja committed, she was on a roll. Benja is about to open on BRO...
Jan 12, 2023•34 min•Season 2Ep. 88
As a staff reporter for The Wall Street Journal , James R. Hagerty, known as Bob, writes obituaries, mostly about prominent people in business or economics, Bob has been a reporter and editor for more than 40 years at The Wall Street Journal and the International Herald Tribune , in the U.S,, Europe and Asia. In his just-published book, Yours Truly, An Obituary Writer’s Guide to Telling Your Story, Bob synthesizes what he has learned about a well-lived life by writing obituaries – and he exhorts...
Dec 22, 2022•29 min•Season 2Ep. 87
Suzanne Jewell is a global expert on strategic marketing whose life has increasingly fused her zest for business development with her passion for mindfulness. Her high-flying global career includes a stint as SVP with Cisneros where she helped launch DirectTV in Latin America and multiple years of supporting the efforts of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation . Suzanne was the host of Mindful Mornings Miami , a weekly radio program where she interviewed inspirational luminaries such as Elizabet...
Dec 15, 2022•44 min•Season 2Ep. 86
Franchesca D’Amore is a certified professional life coach, medium, reiki master, card reader and a self-described “goddess extraordinaire.” Franchesca has been a serial entrepreneur in the health and wellness industry where, among many accomplishments, she had her own South Florida salon, The Hair Shop, and was Founding President of the non-for-profit Hairstylists for Humanity. Franchesca is a proudly public trans woman and one of the subjects in the documentary “Open Dialogues: Stories from the...
Dec 08, 2022•39 min•Season 2Ep. 85
Flora Proverbo is an anti-aging activist from Argentina who works to change the current storytelling about post-50 life. Her career in strategic planning and innovation began in Miami and led her to work in NYC, Los Angeles, Shanghai, Madrid, Moscow and Latin America, with major global brands like Nissan, Nestle and eventually serving as Head of Strategic Planning in Buenos Aires for the venerable Saatchi & Saatchi Agency. Today. Flora helps companies and organizations to grow by satisfying ...
Dec 01, 2022•41 min•Season 2Ep. 84
Karen Correa, Ph.D ., has been a professional in the life sciences field for the last 30 years and currently serves as VP and Head of Global Clinical Operations for Takeda . Karen has another foot in the world of beauty pageants. She is a former Miss New Jersey and just this year competed again, and won, the title of Mrs. New Jersey . She continues to happily mentor other pageant contestants. Karen is a committed life-long learner and a passionate champion for health equity . She is outspoken ab...
Nov 24, 2022•40 min•Season 2Ep. 83
Stephan Thieringer is a German-born serial entrepreneur, business thinker, executive coach, investor, TEDx speaker, and the Founder and CEO of the Boston-based Human Innovation Garage . Stephan’s extensive professional expertise includes serving as Senior Lecturer in Management and Entrepreneurship at Suffolk University and, for a little while, as Director of Operations at New York’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel. His numerous awards include being named one of the world’s top 101 Coaching Leaders by the...
Nov 17, 2022•39 min•Season 2Ep. 82
Vitaly Geyman is an explorer who celebrates creativity. Born in the Ukraine, Vitaly has spent large portions of his life in Australia, The United States and currently resides on a small island in Croatia. His career involves substantial work with Amazon, Siemens, and Telecom Australia , serving as a Marketing and Management professor at RMIT University, and funding as well as managing several of his own start-ups in online retailing and online education. Vitaly currently supports CEOs in running...
Nov 10, 2022•44 min•Season 2Ep. 81
Alan Hughes is an Argentinian-born chef, restaurateur, rock’n roller and inveterate world traveler . He began his career in some of New York’s finest restaurants – The River Café, Sarabeth’s, Union Square Café – and did a stint as private chef in Gracie Mansion, New York City’s mayoral residence, under mayors Ed Koch and David Dinkins. In Miami, Alan founded One Ninety , a pioneering restaurant in the city’s Design District, and The Embassy. Alan hosted an online cooking series for Yahoo en Espa...
Nov 03, 2022•51 min•Season 2Ep. 80
Dr. Rachel Carlton Abrams is a family-practice physician who is also board-certified in holistic medicine. She is the founder and medical director of Santa Cruz Integrative Medicine and Chi Center , where she specializes in holistic approaches to health and sexuality. Rachel has authored and co-authored 5 marvelous books including “The Multi-Orgasmic Woman,” “The Man’s Guide to Women,” “BodyWise,” and “Eight Dates: Essential Conversations for a Lifetime of Love,” the latter co-authored with John...
Oct 27, 2022•48 min•Season 2Ep. 79
When she was 18, Lori Pratico began her artistic career as a billboard artist in her hometown Philadelphia. Lori is self-taught. These days, her artwork is recognized around the country , represented by galleries and shown at Miami’s Art Basel. Her artwork has been published in Marie Claire, Juxtapoz and Professional Artist Magazines. A serial entrepreneur , Lori started her first business at 21, creating in-store merchandising for the second largest home video retailer in the country. Today Lor...
Oct 20, 2022•52 min•Season 2Ep. 78
Jeannine Otis has been a substantial voice in music for over 40 years, effortlessly performing and recording in jazz, classical, dance, gospel and pop genres. She has toured as a vocalist with great musicians who have served as mentors including Grover Washington Jr., Arthur Prysock, Kool and the Gang, Joe Chambers and Donald Byrd, Rudy Mwangozi, Finnish Jazz composer Heikki Sarmanto and Vishnu Wood and his band Safari East. Jeannine appeared on Broadway in "This Joint is Jumpin" and toured thro...
Oct 13, 2022•37 min•Season 2Ep. 77
Andy Ruffner was born just outside of Cincinnati - and other than leaving town for undergraduate study and a M.A. in Community Counseling from the University of Maryland, Andy spent several of his adult decades back in Cincinnati. He worked in Healthcare, Workplace Training, HIV prevention, most recently as Project Director for the Early Intervention Program at the University of Cincinnati's Department of Emergency Medicine. Andy also taught Sociology, Education and Counseling as an Adjunct Prof...
Oct 06, 2022•46 min•Season 2Ep. 76
Runa Bouius is a serial entrepreneur and visionary thinker from Iceland. Her life of adventure and exploration has unfolded in wildly different settings – Reykjavik, Santa Fe, Los Angeles. For 20 years, Runa was a trailblazer and the industry leader in Iceland’s beauty and wellness industry. After her husband’s death, at the height of her commercial success, Runa moved with her sons to Santa Fe and embarked on a no-holds-barred soul journey. These days, Runa resides in LA where she co-founded th...
Sep 22, 2022•48 min•Season 2Ep. 75
Sue Elliott, a seasoned publishing pro , has launched more than a dozen publications from scratch and served as Editor-in-Chief for countless other publications. Her publication “Law of Attraction,” a personal-growth magazine, was sold in ALL major retailers everywhere. In “Overhaulin’: The Magazine,” Sue took fans of the Discovery Channel TV show behind the scenes and helped them learn how to build the cars they loved. Somewhere during this 25-year publishing career , Sue came to understand tha...
Sep 15, 2022•41 min•Season 2Ep. 74
Bill Benda is a seasoned emergency physician , family doctor and integrative physician. His life has been spent practicing medicine in some magical places. For a time, Bill lived in California’s Big Sur region where he served as a physician at the Big Sur Health Center and at Esalen. In recent years, Bill has lived on South Florida’s Gold Coast where he has served as an Emergency Physician in West Palm Beach as well as an Associate Professor of Clinical Medical Bioscience at Florida Atlantic Uni...
Sep 08, 2022•49 min•Season 2Ep. 73
Kathie Klarreich is a journalist and the author of Madame Dread: A Tale of Love, Voodoo and Civil Strife in Haiti. S he spent half of her 24 years as an investigative journalist living in Haiti. Her reports from Haiti have been featured in The New York Times, Time Magazine, The Christian Science Monitor, ABC, CNN and on NPR’s All Things Considered and Fresh Air. In 2014, Kathie founded Exchange for Change, a nonprofit that offers semester-long writing classes in South Florida correctional instit...
Sep 01, 2022•38 min•Season 2Ep. 72
Susan Howell is a former Senior Special Agent who spent 26 years working for both the IRS and the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General. Her career included working many cases, including finance-related crimes. At age 50, with a lifetime of money-knowledge under her belt, Susan retired and stepped into her next act. She founded MoneyMaestra where she teaches people a holistic approach to heal their relationship with money and attain financial freedom. How "Charlie's Angels" inf...
Aug 25, 2022•38 min•Season 2Ep. 71
Suzanne Evans is a mom, wife, sister, entrepreneur and risk taker from North Carolina. She went from working as a secretary in Manhattan to surpassing the seven figure mark as her own business woman in just over 3 years . Suzanne’s business hit the Inc 500/5000 for five years straight , and she wrote a NY Times best-selling book along the way. Suzanne’s current firm, Driven Inc , blends business, strategy, lifestyle and storytelling to help people build vibrant businesses, fueled by Suzanne’s no...
Aug 18, 2022•39 min•Season 2Ep. 70
Jaime Manrique is a Colombian-born novelist, poet, essayist, and translator who writes both in English and Spanish. The Washington Post hailed him as “the preeminent Gay Latino writyer of his generation. ” His work has been translated into fifteen languages and includes the novels Latin Moon in Manhattan , Twilight at the Equator , Our Lives Are the Rivers , and Cervantes Street ; as well as the memoir Eminent Maricones: Arenas, Lorca, Puig, and Me . Jaime’s honors include Colombia’s National Po...
Aug 11, 2022•44 min•Season 2Ep. 69
Marta Sanders is a celebrated cabaret performer who this spring was awarded a MAC Lifetime Achievement Award (MAC awards are the Tonys and Oscars of the professional cabaret world). Marta is also a licensed New York City tour guide . She has fashioned a life that allows her to combine her exceptional guiding skills with her celebrated cabaret artistry. Marta moved to New York City in 1969 to study musical theatre. She went on to sing in night clubs and cabarets around the world. Marta made her B...
Aug 04, 2022•37 min•Season 2Ep. 68
In 1963, smack in the thick of the civil rights movement , Neal Goodman, Ph.D. found his passion for social justice while attending high school in New Jersey. Neal served as Professor of Sociology at St. Peter’s University for 33 years before retiring in 2005. Along the way, Neal Goodman has become an internationally recognized authority on global mindset development and cultural competence Global Dynamics , the company he co-founded in 1983 with his wife Varda Goodman , implements programs that...
Jul 28, 2022•39 min•Season 2Ep. 67
Jim Zupancic had an exceptional career as an Operational Excellence executive with renowned manufacturing companies. By the time he was 34, Jim was the VP of Operational Excellence for a billion-dollar global enterprise. And then, Jim walked away from this life. Jim taught math in a public school in North Carolina. He married his husband Christopher. They adopted their son Xavier. And at the height of the pandemic, without the promise of work, Jim and Christopher sold their house and belongings ...
Jul 21, 2022•48 min•Season 2Ep. 66
The daughter of Filipino immigrants, vicki abadesco! has become an internationally recognized leader in the field of social-emotional learning, anti-bullying, and creating a more empathy-based world. Vicki brings over 35 years of experience teaching life skills to young people and adults. More importantly perhaps, vicki is a gatherer, storyteller, leader and community builder. She is a fellow for the Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values at MIT. In 2000, vicki co-founded an extr...
Jul 14, 2022•40 min•Season 2Ep. 65
Melanie Roche is an internationally renowned energy healer in private practice who integrates mind-body healing, meditation, therapy, and movement. Melanie served on the faculty of the Barbara Brennan School of Healing in Miami and Tokyo, and she helped inaugurate the Integrative Health and Wellness Program at Canyon Ranch Miami Beach. A cancer survivor, Melanie is the author of “Thriving Through Cancer: Tools and Practices to Feel Better and Improve Your Quality of Life During Cancer and Beyond...
Jul 07, 2022•48 min•Season 2Ep. 64
Blair Glaser is a former actress, writer, executive and organizational consultant , and a leadership mentor . She specializes in helping leaders step into their authority and create truly collaborative cultures that move the mission and the bottom line forward. Blair’s life includes multiple acts – living in an ashram , getting a graduate degree in drama therapy , becoming a licensed psychotherapist , entering her first marriage in middle age, and after decades of living in New York City and ups...
Jun 30, 2022•42 min•Season 2Ep. 63
Lama Karma Chötso is a fully ordained Tibetan Buddhist lama. She began to study and practice the Kagyu Lineage of Tibetan Buddhism in 1982 after meeting Dorje Chang Kalu Rinpoche in New York City. She took refuge with him there, and 4 years later he ordained her as a novice nun. In 1986, Lama Karma Chötso entered a three-year, three-month meditation retreat held in strict seclusion. Lama Karma Chötso’s sangha, the Open Awareness Buddhist Center , convenes at a beautiful sanctuary in the El Porta...
Jun 23, 2022•38 min•Season 2Ep. 62
Martina McGowan, MD is a seasoned physician, mother, grandmother, poet, writer, ceramicist, public speaker, and an activist in the fight against social, racial, and sexual injustices. A celebrated leadership blogger for more than a decade, Martina released her debut poetry collection in 2021. “i am the rage: a black poetry collection” is a poetic exploration of living inside injustice. Her book has received several awards – Nautilus Book Award (silver, poetry), International Book (winner, poetry...
Jun 16, 2022•30 min•Season 2Ep. 61
