It's been an absolute pleasure making small talk with you all the last 5 1/2 years. Here's my goodbye letter to the fans of the podcast. I love you all! - Syd xoxo LET'S MAKE SMALL TALK: Small Talk With Syd STWS Media WWW.SMALLTALKWITHSYD.COM...
In Episode 69 I'm chatting with an incredible human being (& overall just cool girl), Liv Stone, who is a Surfer, Model & Disability Advocate. In just a few short years she has earned the title of 6x Gold Medalist & 3x Para Surf World Champion. Growing up Liv loved the water but it wasn’t until later where she felt the call to pursue surfing. After attending a faith based retreat, hosted by Bethany Hamilton for women with disabilities, Liv’s passion for surfing really took off. In th...
In Episode 68 I'm chatting with a true girls girl - Lauren Hubert who is both a Registered Dietician & the founder of The Sorority Nutritionist . What is so great about Lauren is that she gets it because she's lived it. Determined to lose the 20 pounds she gained freshman year at Florida State University, Lauren began over-exercising and restricting her food to 1000 calories because of what she found on the internet. When Lauren finally began studying nutrition, she realized her approach to ...
In Episode 67 I'm chatting with the bold, beautiful & and pure badass Denise Lee who is the Founder of the athleisure brand, Alala . Alala’s mission is to bring joy to women through sophisticated, high quality clothing, but also seek to advance dialogue around body positivity and diversity. Recently Alala has undergone a major rebrand & in many ways it is reflective of the journey Denise has gone through. At just 18 years old Denise left Singapore & moved to New York to pursue her dr...
In Episode 66 I'm chatting with my first Miami guest, the lovely & beautiful, Mimi Ghandour who is the Founder of Mimi Yoga where she thrives on creating community and holding space for personal transformation. Mimi’s journey is as raw & real as its gets. She shares the story of how she got married at 17 in Saudi Arabia, getting pregnant at 21 with a child who was born with a muscle condition, moving to the United States & eventually leaving a toxic marriage. However, every obstacle ...
In Episode 65 I'm chatting with the Founder & Creative Director of Siegelman Stable along with Forbes 30 Under 30 nominee, Max Siegelman . We all should know by now that every great brand tells a story & that’s exactly what he does. Max was always inspired by his father’s horse training career & farm that helped aid in equine therapy programs for veterans, nurses, doctors, & inner-city youth. One day he came across some of his father's merch & decided to recreate it for close...
In Episode 64, and first episode of 2023, I'm chatting with a friend & also a guest we have had on this show before – the lovely, Neda Varbanova (check out Episode 7)! She is the is the creator of the lifestyle brand Healthy with Nedi, a recipe developer, health coach & now author! Let’s just say that she is an expert at what she does. I have been a fan of her recipes for years now because its REAL food that makes you FEEL GOOD! Today we are talking with Neda about the creation of her ne...
In Episode 63, and my last of 2022, I'm chatting with my good friend, Alexa Rae Ibarra who is a yoga instructor & podcast host of, The Vibe. One thing I love about Alexa is that she is unapologetic about who she is & she’s not afraid of taking the road less traveled. Before discovering her love of yoga, Alexa took on multiple jobs in LA like assisting Madison Beer in the early days of her career, working as Tori Spelling’s stylist & more. However, at 23 she knew that something wasn’t...
In Episode 62 I'm chatting with fellow podcaster Alyssa Amoroso . Alyssa is best known for being the host of Tea with Publyssity but some of you may know her from her funny TikTok content on all things lifestyle & pop culture. We first go into her journey towards creating a podcast, why she decided to leave Barstool to become independent and what she learned from hosting in the last few years. I even share with her some advice from what I learned from my own hosting experience. We then hit o...
In Episode 61 I'm chatting with wealth strategy & business mentor, Hannah Koenig. Today she is a multiple six-figure entrepreneur and Forbes Coaches Council member but her success most certainly comes with a story. Hannah shares with us how her family grew up on food stamps, below the poverty line. As a kid the only thing she understood about money was that her family didn't have it. Her fear of finances carried on into her twenties where she found herself facing eviction, mountains of debt,...
In Episode 60 I'm chatting with the stunning model & actress, Emelina Adams . Emelina is truly a force to be reckoned with from winning Miss Nevada in 2016, to becoming the face of GUESS to even landing a role in the 2022 film, Bullet Train , alongside stars like Brad Pitt & Sandra Bullock. After learning about Emelina’s journey I discovered that this is a woman who goes after what she wants & there are multiple examples throughout the episode. It was a great reminder that patience &...
For this Bonus Episode 59 I'm chatting with Meditation & Breathwork Coach, Dominique Perkowski. In this episode Dom walks us through a 20 minute meditation session that gives us a sneak peak into her program, The Shift. The meditation starts around the 5 min mark if you want to fast forward. ENJOY! SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS: NED: Use code SMALL TALK at checkout for 15% off GUEST INFO: Dom's IG Join The Shift All Her Links! LET'S MAKE SMALL TALK: Small Talk With Syd STWS Media WWW.SMALLTALKWITHSYD...
In Episode 58 I'm chatting with Meditation & Breathwork Coach, Dominique Perkowski . After my first phone call with Dom I knew that I wanted to learn more about her journey. In this episode we talk about how to find your identity when you feel lost & how to show up exactly as you are. Dom’s journey began when she had an identity crisis after discovering that the fashion industry, an industry she always dreamed about, no longer aligned with what she was truly seeking. Then after listening...
In Episode 57 I'm chatting the beautiful & talented, Kelsey Floyd who is best known for her unique take on pottery & the calming way she showcases her work on social. In fact, her chainmail work has gone viral on TikTok with some videos having over 10 Million views. She says her work is “ inspired by the natural and ancient elements of our world.” With that said, Kelsey’s pottery journey began to take root during the pandemic & right after the birth of her son where she experienced p...
In Episode 56 I’m chatting with Courtney Somer, the Founder of Lake & Skye . Lake & Skye is an award winning, modern and conscious beauty brand. Focused on fragrance, home and body their products are unisex, vegan and PETA certified. L&S has won 4 beauty awards include Allure's Best of Beauty and most recently been nominated for Brand of the Year. Courtney’s journey from working at Vogue to become a fragrance founder is a pretty remarkable one. After a health scare in her 20s & c...
In Episode 55 I'm chatting with the lovely 25 year-old, Best-Selling Author, Grace Valentine, who wrote three books with her newest one being “Am I Enough? Embracing the Truth About Who You Are” . Talking to Grace is truly like a breath of fresh air & we get into so much like the internal struggles she faced growing up, overcoming difficulties with body image & how she is currently navigating adult life. Through the lens of faith, Grace is also here to help redefine what it means to be a...
In Episode 54 I'm chatting with the real life mad hatter & creative genius, Teressa Foglia. With her brand being well-known in the hat world and worn amongst celebs like John Mayer & Miranda Lambert I wanted to hear the story of this cool chick that I met in Malibu came to be. In 2011, after feeling major burnout from running a freelance social media company, along with a devastating breakup, Teressa decided to leave it all behind & head to Europe to just focus on herself. Shortly af...
In Episode 53 I'm chatting digital creator & storyteller, Hunter Prosper. If you’re an avid TikTok user like myself then there’s a high chance you scrolled past one of his videos before. Hunter’s story started as an ICU nurse where he began to take in interest in the stories of his patients; however, after the pandemic he began to feel major burnout, so he decided to take his passion for sharing other people’s stories to the streets. In just a little over a year Hunter has amassed 4.7MM TikT...
In Episode 52 I'm chatting with the Kim Johnson who is the Head of Community at, Geneva a new all-in-one group chat app for communities, clubs, and social groups. Kim is one of the pioneering thought leaders behind digital community. She started her career at Glossier and built their community from the ground up for 5 years. However, it took her some time & wearing few different hats to discover her true passion. This episode is great for people who are interested in building communities onl...
In Episode 51 I am chatting with the amazing female founders of Culina Health , Vanessa Rissetto & Tamar Samuels . These two registered dietitians decided to bring their powers together just 18 months ago to create the most amazing company that is all about the facts on none of the BS. Culina Health is a personalized nutrition platform powered by registered dietitians, that you can actually trust, to help you prioritize the way you want to live. They are also in-network with most major insur...
In Episode 50 I'm chatting with Kennedy Crichlow & Mary Ralph Lawson of the amazing fashion label, Daily Drills. Their mission is to simplify getting dressed and blur the lines between workout-wear, lounge-wear, business-wear, and everything in between. These two best friends in the midst of the 2020 global pandemic decided to follow their instincts, combine their talents & take a leap of faith by designing a clothing brand. Their organic growth, along with some genius marketing ideas, a...
In Episode 49 I’m chatting with real estate agent & cast member on both Netflix’s Million Dollar Beach House on & Selling The Hamptons on Discovery Plus, Peggy Zabakolas . Peggy’s real estate career began back she was on Ryan Serhant’s first team on Bravo’s Million Dollar Listing. Now, about a decade later, she has made quite a name for herself in the world of New York luxury real estate. We talk about how she grew her own team, key tips on expanding her network, being a woman in real es...
In Episode 48 I'm chatting with celebrity stylist, Tiffany Briseno . Some of her clients include Kane Brown, Angus Cloud from Euphoria & oh yea Shawn Mendes - just to name a few! We chat about her organic journey towards becoming a stylist, where she draws inspiration from, what it's like working with celebrity clientele, how to make yourself stand out in an ultra competitive industry & of course some fashion tips. Tiff shares a few really fun stories but I think my favorite is the fact ...
In Episode 47 & the first of 2022 I am chatting with an OG food influencer & native New Yorker, Jeremy Jacobowitz. We talk about his former work as a television producer, being a personal assistant to celebrity chef Bobby Flay (this is a pretty funny story), designing the well-known mouth-watering food blog, Brunch Boys, & how today all of his past lives have come into one. We even go into how content creation has shifted in the past decade while providing some great insight along th...
In Episode 46, & my last of 2021, I am chatting with both a friend & fellow Long Island native Ms. Bella DeNapoli ! Bella & I chat about it all including her recent experience being a contestant on NBC's The Voice Season 21 & what it was like working with Ariana Grande as her coach (no big deal) – something you don’t want to miss. But we also talk about her amazing journey of perseverance & the hard work it took to even get to this position in the first place. We also discuss...
In Episode 45 I chat with licensed clinical psychologist and coach, Dr. Elizabeth Lombardo who is on a mission to help people get out of their own way to create a life they love. Dr. E is regular media contributor to outlets such as the Today Show & Good Morning America. She has personally helped celebrities (Shaq calls her his “head coach of happiness”) & high power performing executives, entrepreneurs and athletes to crush their inner critic and access untapped, practically limitless, ...
In Episode 44 I'm chatting with comedian & tv writer, Lisa Curry (not to be confused with famous Australian swimmer lol). Lisa is an incredibly funny & talented comedian who is currently the opening act on the Jim Jeffries "Moist" tour. With that, Lisa has quite the story & we get into it all! We talk about how she got her start in comedy, how she booked 51 shows in 9 countries across Europe all on her own, her experience in writing a debut comedy album (& getting Grammy nominate...
In Episode 43 I chat with Batsheva Haart . Some of you might know her from the hit show on Netflix, My Unorthodox Life , which tells the story of Julia Haart, Elite World Group CEO and a former member of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, and her children. On the other hand some of you might know her from TikTok where she has over 1.4M followers. Batsheva & I dive into her experience on the show, how she grew such a large social media following & what it takes to be a content creator. W...
In Episode 42 I chat with Dr. Darcy Sterling who is a Relationship Expert and the host of E! Network’s Famously Single. She’s the former Global Ambassador of Tinder, and her private practice, Alternatives Counseling in New York City, specializes in helping people thrive in their relationships. In addition to providing counseling services, Dr. Darcy teaches online courses on the psychology and science of Love and Relationships: Her newest course tackles one of the biggest relationship challenges ...
In Episode 41 I'm chatting with Peng-Peng Lee who is a Chinese-Canadian Olympic gymnast & content creator. Peng made her gymnastics debut in 2004 at the age of eleven, competing in Elite Canada. Her gymnastics career quickly took off at a junior level, receiving multiple accolades. In 2012 she qualified for the Summer Olympics in London but unfortunately had to pull out due to an ACL injury. Not letting that keep her down, she went on to join the Olympic team as acting captain. Peng later tu...
