Somewhere between childhood and retirement, play gets treated as something you're supposed to grow out of. The decades in the middle are for being productive and serious. Lara Galante doesn't buy that.

In this episode of A Category of One, I sat down with Lara Galante, the founder of Find Your Inner Parakeet, where she runs creative workshops that help grown adults remember how to play. Her events are low pressure and tactile, with paint pens, feathers, and gem stickers on the table, but the real work happening in the room is permission. Permission to make something imperfect and to stop performing competence for a couple of hours.

Lara is honest about how she got here. The idea sat in her head for years. She took another nonprofit job she already knew wasn't right because it was familiar. It wasn't until she quit, flew to Bhutan to mountain bike with her best friend, and came home wide awake at midnight that the whole business poured out of her in a single night.

We also got into something a lot of people carry: the story someone told you about yourself when you were young. A teacher who said you couldn't sing. A friend who said you weren't creative. Lara and I both got versions of that, and much of this conversation is about deciding that story isn't the one you have to keep.

In this episode:

• Why play stops being "allowed" in adulthood, and what that costs
• How Lara turned an unhappy career detour into Find Your Inner Parakeet
• What actually happens in a room full of adults handed paint and permission
• Rewriting the labels you picked up as a kid about what you're good at
• Why "life is short" stopped being a phrase for Lara and became how she makes decisions

Connect with Lara Galante:
Website: https://www.findyourinnerparakeet.com/

LI: linkedin.com/in/lara-galante-416766196/

IG: https://www.instagram.com/findyourinnerparakeet

Connect with Leslie Silverman:

IG: https://www.instagram.com/lesliesilverman/

LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leslie-silverman-hive180/

FB:  https://www.facebook.com/leslie.a.silverman

Website: https://lesliesilverman.com

Hive180 Branding Agency: https://hive180.com

Chapters:

00:54 Rediscovering Playfulness in Adulthood

01:49 The Journey of Creativity and Chaos

01:51 Finding Your Inner Parakeet

06:55 The Importance of Playfulness

11:34 Creative Expression and Adulting

16:23 Overcoming Self-Doubt

21:28 The Power of Community and Connection

In this episode of A Category of One, I sat down with Grace Secker, a somatic trauma therapist and nervous system coach who healed herself from years of chronic pain and fatigue before building the work she does now. We start with the nervous system, the part of you running in the background of every symptom and reaction, often saying no before your mind has caught up.

Grace's view is that most chronic symptoms aren't random. They're the nervous system responding to stress it never got to resolve, and the way through isn't another pill or specialist. It's taking ownership of your own healing, which is harder than it sounds. She points out often we hand our health to a professional and wait to be told what's wrong, and that keeps us stuck in the same stress response we're trying to escape.

Grace has been an entrepreneur for almost ten years, and she admitted she'd never applied any of this to her business. She talked about being anxiously attached to her company, reactive to its every high and low, and how the tools that healed her body started changing the way she shows up at work.

She was diagnosed with depression at twelve, and that label quietly became her identity for a long time. That thread runs under the conversation. You are not your diagnosis. You're the person underneath the part that's afraid.

In this episode:

• What the nervous system is, and why Grace says almost everything traces back to it
• How chronic symptoms can work as signals instead of malfunctions
• What it looks like to take ownership of your health not handing it off
• The moment Grace realized she was anxiously attached to her business
• How a diagnosis at twelve became an identity, and how she stepped out of it
• Why this kind of healing often goes better in community than alone

Connect with Grace Secker:
Heal with Grace podcast: https://healwithgrace.co/podcast/

Free Nervous System Masterclass -> The science of why your body breaks down under pressure and the first three things to do about it: https://healwithgrace.co/free-masterclass/

IG: https://www.instagram.com/heal.with.grace/

Substack: gracesecker.substack.com

Connect with Leslie Silverman:

IG: https://www.instagram.com/lesliesilverman/

LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leslie-silverman-hive180/

FB:  https://www.facebook.com/leslie.a.silverman

Website: https://lesliesilverman.com

Branding Agency: https://hive180.com

Chapters:

01:07 Understanding the Mind-Body Connection

01:32 Understanding the Nervous System

11:31 Navigating Growth Edges and Ego

21:32 Mind-Body Healing Method

Most marketing advice assumes you already have something exciting to sell.

Shawn Teasley is a marketing and social media strategist and the founder of Social Tonic, and some of her most interesting projects are the ones nobody would call flashy. One of her clients sells energy efficient building products, the kind of thing that lives behind the drywall where no one ever sees it. No drone footage, no sexy interior reveal. And that's exactly where the story is.

We talked about how she finds it. The owner retrofitted a 1970s house with the same principles he sells, because of his two daughters and what he believes about the energy future. That's not a product feature. That's a reason. What Shawn does well is pull that reason out of people and put it where customers can feel it.

That same instinct runs through the rest of the conversation. We got into being witnessed, the idea that people open up when they feel genuinely seen, and how that shapes everything from a single client relationship to a team spread across three countries. We talked about asking better questions, the difference between collecting LinkedIn connections and actually nurturing a relationship, and why bringing your personal self into your work isn't unprofessional. It's the whole point.

In this episode:

• Why the most unglamorous products often have the best stories
• How to find the reason behind what someone sells, not just the features
• What it means to make a client feel witnessed, and why it changes the work
• The line between collecting LinkedIn connections and building real relationships
• How asking better questions surfaces the story that actually sells
• Why your personal life belongs in your business more than you think

Chapters:

01:16 The Importance of Strategic Marketing for Startups

02:16 Exploring Authenticity in Business

05:14 The Role of AI in Marketing

08:02 Creative Storytelling in Marketing

11:12 Travel and Personal Growth

14:16 Cultural Connections and Team Dynamics

21:04 The Intersection of Personal and Professional Life

29:11 Ideal Clients and Networking Strategies

33:50 Understanding the Mind-Body Connection

Connect with Shawn Teasley:

Website: https://socialtonic.us/

LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawnteasley/

BIZ: https://www.linkedin.com/company/socialtonic/ 

Connect with Leslie Silverman:

IG: https://www.instagram.com/lesliesilverman/

LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leslie-silverman-hive180/

FB:  https://www.facebook.com/leslie.a.silverman

Website: https://lesliesilverman.com

Hive180 Branding Agency: https://hive180.com

In this episode I sat down with Vivian Butler, a licensed therapist turned event planner and founder of Vivian Butler Events. We started with how a counselor ends up running an events business, but it kept circling back to something bigger: what it actually takes to build a room where people feel safe enough to be themselves.

Vivian's path didn't follow a plan. She moved through restaurants, social work, ropes courses, and experiential psychology before she realized events had been the thread running through all of it. She isn't just handling logistics. She's paying attention to how people feel, and whether they can drop the persona long enough to connect.

We got into the loneliness most gatherings quietly produce, where you can be surrounded by people and still feel alone, and what it takes to design against it. We also got honest about the parts of entrepreneurship nobody romanticizes. Pushing past your comfort zone every day. Learning that when you sell a service, you are the product. Trusting that a no is just clearing space for a more aligned yes.

Underneath all of it is a simple idea about permission. The way Vivian sees it, her real job is to build a room where people can stop performing and just be themselves. A couple keeping their wedding theirs instead of everyone else's. Coworkers dropping their titles for an afternoon.

In this episode:

• Why a therapist's lens changes what an event can do for people in the room
• The difference between an event that looks polished and one where people feel safe to be themselves
• What the loneliness epidemic has to do with how we gather, at work and everywhere else
• The daily discomfort of running a solo business, and why Vivian signs up for it anyway
• How "you are the product" reframes the way you sell a service

Connect with Vivian Butler:

LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vivianabutler/

FB: https://www.facebook.com/Vivianbutlerevents

IG: https://www.instagram.com/vivianbutlerevents/

Website: https://www.vivianbutlerevents.com/

Connect with Leslie Silverman:

IG: https://www.instagram.com/lesliesilverman/

LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leslie-silverman-hive180/

FB:  https://www.facebook.com/leslie.a.silverman

Website: https://lesliesilverman.com

Chapters:

02:45 Transition from Counseling to Event Planning

05:38 Embracing the Solopreneur Journey

08:39 The Importance of Authenticity in Business

11:26 Understanding Your 'Why'

14:08 Creating Meaningful Connections at Events

17:10 The Loneliness Epidemic and Authentic Connection

20:00 Unique Approach to Event Planning

22:59 The Value of Hiring an Event Planner

I met Janne Robinson years before this podcast existed. Then, back when I joined the first cohort of her year-long program, Your Truth Is Your Medicine, I was rebuilding myself after a codependent marriage, and she was the first person who truly gave me permission to be who I am.

Janne is a poet, author, facilitator, and keynote speaker, and she has built a business by refusing to narrow herself down to one thing. Her anchor isn't a niche or a funnel. It's purpose. She treats every offer she makes as a 50-50 conversation between what excites her and what her audience actually wants, and she's at peace when the answer is no.

There's a thread Janne keeps coming back to around generosity, what she calls sharing the cow. It started at an archaeological site in Sedona and runs through everything from the scholarships she gives away to a whale trip a CEO gifted her, the one she's now turning into a retreat for other people. We talk about what it actually looks like to run a business that way, and why being public carries a real cost she chooses to pay anyway.

In this episode:

• Why purpose works as a filter for what to build next
• What it looks like to run a business as a multi-passionate person vs forcing yourself into one lane
• How Janne handles criticism and the cost of putting your real self in public
• Why your own story, not a tidied-up version of it, is the actual work

Connect with Janne Robinson:

Find Janne's first book This is for the Women Who Don't Give a Fuck here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1945796413

Find Janne's second book There's cobwebs on her Vagina here: https://www.amazon.com/Theres-Cobwebs-Her-Vagina-Collection/dp/1734042109

Book a consultation to do purpose work 1-1 with Janne here: https://hello.dubsado.com/public/form/view/646333e19b539e6b47ed9138

For Organizations (Speaking, Executive Coaching, Culture Repair and Enhancement Work): https://jannerobinson.com/organizations

Swim with the Humpback Whales Retreat (2027): https://janne-robinson.mykajabi.com/2027-retreat

Connect with Leslie Silverman:

IG: https://www.instagram.com/lesliesilverman/

LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leslie-silverman-hive180/

Hive180 Branding Agency: https://hive180.com

Chapters:

01:49 Janne's Methodology and Impact

02:42 Personal Life and Creative Endeavors

02:48 Generosity and Boundaries in Community Living

38:53 Cultural Wisdom and the Power of Prayer

42:00 The Healing Power of Whales and Nature

45:50 Reconnecting with Community and Personal Joy

49:27 The Courage to Share Your Truth in Writing

52:46 Coaching and Retreat Opportunities

In this episode of A Category of One, I sat down with Jessica Millhiser, the founder of J.Mills Consulting and an operations strategist who helps service-based entrepreneurs build businesses that are clear, organized, and intentional. Jessica's work sits at the intersection of structure and intuition, and that combination is rare.

We talked about what it actually takes to build a business you can step away from. Jessica took nine weeks off last year and her business grew 34%. That number tells you something, but the conversation underneath it tells you more. It's about how you design a business in the first place, what you stop chasing, and what you let yourself want.

Jessica wants to bring hospitality back to the forefront of how entrepreneurs run their businesses. Not hospitality as an industry, but as a posture. The way you treat people. The way your back-end operations show up as front-end client experience.

She also opens up about a single intuitive decision she made years ago that changed the entire shape of her life. It's one of those moments in a conversation that you don't see coming.

In this episode:

• Why slowing down is the actual prerequisite for sustainable growth
• What it means to bring hospitality back into a service-based business
• How operational clarity creates space for you to step away from your business
• The difference between time-for-money pricing and value-based pricing, and how to make the shift
• Why your ideal client is probably not you, and what that means for what you charge

Connect with Jessica Millhiser:

Website: https://www.jmillsconsulting.com/

Operations Audit (Free Resource): https://www.jmillsconsulting.com/operations-health-check

LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicamillhiser/

Connect with Leslie Silverman:

IG: https://www.instagram.com/lesliesilverman/

LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leslie-silverman-hive180/

FB:  https://www.facebook.com/leslie.a.silverman

Website: https://lesliesilverman.com

Branding Agency: https://hive180.com

Chapters:

00:49 Strategies for Building Intentional Businesses

01:06 Introduction to Jessica Millhiser's Work

04:02 The Importance of Intentionality in Business

07:00 Defining Success on Your Own Terms

09:57 Client Journey and Strategic Planning

13:09 Systems and Operations in Business

16:01 Bringing Hospitality into Business

18:44 Navigating Client Relationships and Pricing

21:53 The Shift from Time to Value-Based Pricing

24:52 Trusting Intuition in Business Decisions

27:49 Personal Stories and Life Lessons

30:44 Conclusion and Resources

In this episode of A Category of One, I sat down with Kelly O'Connell, founder of the brand studio Kind & Funny, to talk about creativity, self-expression, and what it looks like to stay connected to the version of yourself that existed before the world started shaping you.

Kelly is one of those people who walks into a room and gives everyone else permission to take up more space. She runs a brand studio. She paints over fashion ads. She hosts a monthly Self-Expression Club. She wears a tutu in public sometimes. And underneath all of it is a real practice of meeting herself where she is, of treating creativity as a way home rather than a performance.

We talked about how fashion became her daily check-in with who she is, why we don't see other people in our industry as competition, and what changed when she started building a business around being a human first. We also went into her ADHD diagnosis, what she's learned about shame and self-acceptance, and why parts work has been a quiet game-changer.

This one moves between the playful and the tender. Kelly is luminous, and the conversation reflects it.

In this episode:

• Why self-expression starts with asking "how do I want to feel today"
• The shift from scarcity to abundance with peers in your industry
• What an inner child has to do with how you show up at work
• ADHD, shame, and the practice of not doing it alone
• How parts work creates more grace and more room
• Building a business that sustains you as a human

Connect with Kelly O’Connell:

Website: https://www.kindandfunny.com/

IG: https://www.instagram.com/bekindandfunny/

Connect with Leslie Silverman:

IG: https://www.instagram.com/lesliesilverman/

LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leslie-silverman-hive180/

FB:  https://www.facebook.com/leslie.a.silverman

Website: https://lesliesilverman.com

Hive180 Branding Agency: https://hive180.com

Chapters:

00:49 The Kind and Funny Brand Shop: Empowering Women-Owned Businesses

01:09 Introduction to Kelly O'Connell and Her Vision

01:33 The Art of Self-Expression

04:17 Fashion as a Personal Brand

07:16 The Power of Community and Collaboration

09:53 Embracing Authenticity and Individuality

12:49 The Self-Expression Club Experience

15:39 Creativity Beyond Boundaries

18:41 Navigating the Entrepreneurial Journey

21:36 Understanding ADHD and Self-Care

24:17 Vulnerability and Connection

27:07 The Journey of Self-Discovery

In this episode of A Category of One, I sat down with Paula Friedland, licensed counselor, certified life coach, actress, singer, and creator of Soul Speaks, a program she's been teaching in some form for nearly 20 years. Paula's work starts with public speaking but doesn't stay there. It opens into something most people don't expect: a practice of being fully yourself, with one person, in any room.

We talked about where Soul Speaks came from. A stand-up comedian with stage fright, a grassroots method, and Paula's own background in musical theater and therapy that she eventually stopped trying to keep separate. We got into what it actually means to find your voice versus find your words, why experienced speakers are often the hardest to teach, and what happens when a room full of people breathes together.

There's also a moment in this conversation about showers of appreciation, a practice Paula uses where an audience reflects back the essence they see in a speaker, not the content. It's about receiving. And how hard that is. And why it matters.

In this episode:

• Why finding your voice matters more than finding your words
• The Soul Speaks method: speaking to one person at a time, even in a crowd
• How the "landing breath" changes everything about presence
• What showers of appreciation reveal about self-worth and receiving
• Why experienced speakers are sometimes the hardest to reach
• How authentic networking and authentic speaking come from the same place

Connect with Paula Friedland:

FB: https://www.facebook.com/paula.friedland
LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulafriedland/

Website: https://www.soulspeaks.biz/

Connect with Leslie Silverman:

IG: https://www.instagram.com/lesliesilverman/

LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leslie-silverman-hive180/

FB: https://www.facebook.com/leslie.a.silverman

Website: https://lesliesilverman.com

Hive180 Branding Agency: https://hive180.com

Chapters:

00:00 The Birth of Soul Speaks

02:45 The Intersection of Performance and Authenticity

06:00 Transformational Experiences in Public Speaking

09:02 The Journey from Acting to Coaching

11:52 Growth Mindset and Self-Expression

14:48 The Role of Breath and Somatic Practices

17:50 Receiving Appreciation and Building Connection

21:00 The Importance of Self-Love and Positive Self-Talk

23:44 Competing in Speaking Contests

26:51 Finding Your Voice Over Your Words

29:55 Soul Speaks Salons: A New Networking Approach

Gabby Jockers is a boudoir photographer based in Colorado, but that description doesn't really cover it. What she actually does is help women figure out what's standing between them and feeling at home in their own bodies, and then create an experience built around that. Not around what a boudoir shoot is supposed to look like. Around what each person actually needs.

This conversation goes a lot of places. We talk about how Gabby built a business by asking different questions than her industry was asking: the cookie-cutter shot lists, the heavy editing, the assumption that every woman wants to feel "sexy" in the same way. We talk about body neutrality versus body positivity, and why the difference matters more than most people realize. And we talk about something Gabby brings into her work that most photographers don't: the embodiment practices that help women quiet the inner critic long enough to actually be present for the experience.

We also get into what Gabby figured out when she scaled back her bookings. More space didn't mean less. It meant more energy, more creativity, and more passion for the work itself. And why she thinks the pressure to constantly produce is something worth questioning, not just managing.

In this episode:

• Why "empowering" became a word Gabby stopped using and what she does instead
• The difference between body positivity and body neutrality, and why it matters
• How meditation and embodiment practice became part of a photo shoot
• What happens when women see their images and realize the session was for them all along
• Why your worth isn't measured by your output and how to actually live that way

Connect with Gabby Jockers:

Website: https://embodiedartboudoir.com/

The Body Deck: https://embodiedartboudoir.com/the-body-deck/

IG: https://www.instagram.com/embodiedartboudoir/

Connect with Leslie Silverman:

IG: https://www.instagram.com/lesliesilverman/

LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leslie-silverman-hive180/

FB:  https://www.facebook.com/leslie.a.silverman

Website: https://lesliesilverman.com

Hive180 Branding Agency: https://hive180.com

Chapters:

00:00 Understanding Boudoir Photography

03:13 The Unique Approach to Boudoir

06:02 Gabby's Origin Story

12:14 Empowerment and Body Image

17:56 The Body Deck and Affirmations

25:00 Work-Life Balance and Intentional Living

Marie Mack showed up to one online networking event, and that's where Leslie met her. One time. The universe was paying attention.

In this episode of A Category of One, Leslie sits down with Marie Mack, a business strategist, partnerships expert, and operations consultant who runs two complementary businesses entirely remotely. This conversation covers a lot of ground: how Marie went from blogging in 2014 to building a partnerships methodology, why she stopped copying what worked for other people, and what it actually looks like to show up as yourself in business when the platforms and strategies everyone else is using feel flat.

Marie's two businesses reflect two sides of the same instinct. Powerful Online Partnerships (POP) helps consultants, coaches, speakers, and authors grow their visibility through strategic referral partnerships, not ad spend, not cold outreach. Her consulting firm works at the operations level inside larger companies, where she functions more like a chief of staff than a COO: getting the whole orchestra to play together.

What runs underneath both is a specific kind of thinking: the belief that abundance is the operating system, not scarcity. That a referral you send out comes back. That the right collaboration doesn't cost you a lead; it multiplies them.

In this episode:

• Why Marie tried every business model that was working for others, and why none of them fit
• What strategic partnerships actually are (and what they're not)
• How referrals, list swaps, and podcast swaps work as a visibility strategy
• The difference between a chief of staff and a COO, and why it matters
• What it takes to be ready for partnerships, and the honest signs you're not yet

Connect with Marie Mack:

Website: https://powerfulonlinepartnerships.com/

LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marie-mack/

Connect with Leslie Silverman:

IG: https://www.instagram.com/lesliesilverman/

LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leslie-silverman-hive180/

FB:  https://www.facebook.com/leslie.a.silverman

Website: https://lesliesilverman.com

Hive180 Branding Agency: https://hive180.com

Chapters:

00:00 Embracing Change: The Move to Idaho

04:57 The Power of Purging: Creating Space for New Beginnings

08:02 Building a Business Ecosystem: Marie's Entrepreneurial Journey

14:00 Finding Your Flow: The Importance of Intuition in Business

19:56 Powerful Online Partnerships: Collaborating for Success

26:53 Navigating Business Relationships: Referrals and Collaborations

31:45 Conducting Business: The Role of Operations in Success