AMPstigator

To many people, Dr. Alex Jahangir was the face of COVID in Nashville. He was the one who said “stay at home” or “wear a mask” and he faced hostility for it. But despite any ideas you have about his upbringing or his privilege, he’s endured the kind of life-defining hardship most of us will never understand.
At 6 years old, his family abandoned their life on the other side of the world when war made them refugees. He came to America speaking zero English and was bullied for his heritage and his real name (which is Amir, not Alex). Despite it all, he's devoted his life to improving his community through his work as a trauma surgeon at Vanderbilt Health since 2009.

This episode is for you if:
-You want to understand the man behind the mask
-You're interested in how he's devoted his life to Nashville and his family
-You already love Dr. Alex Jahangir and you want to hear about the experiences that made him who he is

What's in this episode?
In this episode, you'll learn about Dr. Alex Jahangir's commitment to his role as an orthopaedic trauma surgeon with a specialty in saving limbs. He downplays his role with humility, using his phrase "don't believe the hype."
Dr. Jahangir talks at length about being an immigrant, moving to the US at age 6 to escape the Iran-Iraq war in 1984. His parents gave up everything to give Alex and his brother a better life. Dr. J describes being bullied and doing everything he can to honor his parents and the sacrifice they made.
In this episode, he also covers how he decompresses from his most challenging days, clinically, and the weight he felt in March 2020 as he announced the city was putting into place a "Safer at Home" order which would shut down most in-person operations. He also covers the physical response people had to that order.
We end the episode with everyone's favorite AMPstigator game, Best Time/Worst Time where we cover some life defining moments and how he's changed just since COVID.

📝 Show Notes & Mentions 📝
Find the full transcript by going here: https://www.ampstigator.com/blog/alex-jahangir-show-notes

Katelyn and Derek Drye are a singing/songwriting duo in Nashville. They’ve been writing and performing music together since they first started dating 16 years ago. What sets them apart is the emotions they capture in their music, touching poignantly on love and loss.

Recently, CMT began playing their music videos and the reception has been huge for songs like Dolly Would and House on Fire. But their path hasn’t been easy. They’ve struggled with loss and an industry that isn’t quite sure what to do with them. But they aren’t deterred because they’re doing it together.

This episode is for you if:
-You love stories of couples who are doing incredible things together
-Want to know what it's like starting out in the music industry in Nashville
-Need encouragement in your creative process
-Want to hear music that makes you feel less alone

What's in this episode?
Starting out in the music biz isn't easy. Katelyn and Derek describe the help from family and friends when they first moved to Nashville. They also discuss writing and performing together as a married couple and the level of trust it requires.

The pair has also experienced a great deal of loss, which comes through in their music. At the age of 8 months old, Derek's mother died by suicide. He had never heard his mother's voice until they found old video tapes of her a few years ago. It inspired the song "War" which has garnered millions of streams.

Katelyn also describes the feeling she gets when a song is particularly vulnerable. It's often how she knows the song will touch the hearts of their fans. The Dryes also play the AMPstigator Best Time/Worst Time game where they describe their purpose here and now.

📝 Show Notes & Mentions 📝
Find the full transcript by going here: https://www.ampstigator.com/blog/the-dryes-show-notes

Amy Porterfield is an internationally known expert in digital marketing. She’s been named one of the top 50 most influential people in social media in the world. In the last 10 years, she’s helped hundreds of thousands of subscribers through her multi-million dollar online course empire.

But at her core, Amy stands for freedom. Freedom to be your own boss and make your own rules. On top of that, she teaches and encourages with love, because she’s been there and knows what it takes to create the life you really want.

This episode is for you if:
-You love stories about make-it-happen women
-You need encouragement as you plan to transition out of your corporate career
-You want to know you're not alone in taking the leap to entrepreneurship
-You're obsessed with Amy Porterfield (because who isn't?!?)

What's in this episode?
Amy takes us back to her years as a corporate marketing and content expert for Tony Robbins before she left her job around 2010 to strike out on her own. In this episode she talks at length about making the choice to pursue freedom in her work and how that played out the first few years as an entrepreneur.

Amy discusses the way she knows she's making the right or wrong choices in her business. She talks about the physical feelings of constriction or expansion in her chest and how she's learned to follow it. She also describes the worst time in her life and business when she ended a partnership that was financially lucrative, but had steered her away from choices that felt representative of who she really is.

Amy digs deep into her purpose, which she only just discovered in the last couple years.“In my business, something I feel is my purpose is to be an example to women of what’s possible,” says Amy.

She covers creating an encouraging community of women entrepreneurs looking for freedom to be and create the life they want.

By the end, Amy plays the AMPstigator game, "Best Time/Worst Time" and gives a window into her life and business empire.

📝 Show Notes & Mentions 📝
Find the full transcript by going here: https://www.ampstigator.com/blog/amy-porterfield-show-notes

Mary Gauthier is a Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter who moved to Nashville at the age of 39 to start her career in music. She battled addiction early in life and overcame it with the help of writing and performing music. She's been named one of the greatest songwriters of her generation because her work pierces and transcends with its grit and honesty.

This episode is for you if:
-You struggled with addiction
-You love incredibly deep and introspective conversations with artists
-You appreciate a good story with a late-bloomer main character
-You're obsessed with Mary Gauthier (as is Host Lauren Lowrey)

 
What's in this episode?
Mary does a deep dive into the healing power of music and the role it plays in helping people know they're not alone. She goes into great detail about her struggles with drugs and alcohol and how she found her purpose.

Mary's story expresses two powerful ideas. First, that purpose can call at any time. She was a head chef who opened and owned restaurants around Boston in her 20's and 30's. At age 39 -and eleven years sober- she left it all to move to Nashville to write songs full time. Mary's story also illustrates the way her soul's purpose communicated with her, describing it as "a whisper."

Best of all, Mary uses her guitar to show how she translates emotion from a story to a song and her process of co-writing songs with people who need the most healing: combat veterans.

📝 SHOW NOTES 📝
Direct link to full show notes, including transcription and mentions here:
https://www.ampstigator.com/blog/mary-gauthier-show-notes

Lauren Sikes is the founder and CEO of Truth Collective, a company that helps companies and employees create a vision for how they want to live and work. She asks questions like ‘who are you today and who do you want to be” to get people to their answers. Their truth.
This episode is girl talk between two recovering perfectionists. Grab a glass of wine and listen to (basically) live therapy. 

This episode is for you if: 
 -You're a recovering perfectionist
-You grew up in a southern-, achiever-, purity-culture family
-You like podcast episodes that feel like therapy sessions
-You want to hear host Lauren Lowrey be pretty vulnerable

 
What's in this episode?
Lauren Sikes typically asks the questions to help people uncover a deeper part of themselves. She steps away from that to be vulnerable with her own story. Lauren shares how she got into this life-changing work -- from her own struggle with perfectionism. 

At age 10, Lauren Sikes was a competitive swimmer who ranked 3rd in the world for her age group. She went on to swim in college but admits to never enjoying it. Sikes taught school for 13 years until she felt compelled to start a business to help companies and their employees get clear on their vision. 

📝 SHOW NOTES 📝
Direct link to full show notes, including transcription and mentions here:
https://www.ampstigator.com/blog/lauren-sikes-show-notes

 Frank Castellano is a well-known precognitive clairvoyant and clairaudient psychic  medium. It means he can see and hear in the future and communicate with those who have passed on. In this episode he explains his gifts and abilities, plus spells out what purpose is for people.

This episode is for you if: 
-You want to understand what a precognitive clairvoyant psychic medium is
-You want to hear about Frank's gift
-You're really into spirituality

What's in this episode?
This episode is a deep dive into the psychic abilities of Frank Castellano, the well-known psychic in Nashville who people wait more than a year to get a reading.

You'll be mesmerized as he describes what it's like each day in his head. Frank also details how he straddles the two worlds: physical and spiritual.

In his Best Time/Worst Time section, Frank explains how he got into the military and began a difficult time in his life where he was disconnected from purpose and his abilities.

It's a fascinating episode!

📝 SHOW NOTES 📝
Direct link to full show notes, including transcription and mentions here:
https://www.ampstigator.com/blog/frank-castellano-show-notes
https://www.ampstigator.com/blog/kristoffer-carter-show-notes

DeLisa Guerrier is a real estate developer with nearly a quarter-billion dollars of property under construction right now (Feb.'22). In 2016 she began having a series of dreams about building a community park. When she learned of the abysmal literacy rates in America, she focused her energy toward making a park that would encourage kids to read for fun. Storyville Gardens emerged, the $1 billion theme park opening in 2025.

💥 This episode is for you if 💥
-You resonate with a strong Christian message
-You like business-women with real estate backgrounds
-You want to learn the full story behind Storyville Gardens, opening in 2025

DeLisa Guerrier is an everyday example of purpose, but her story is far from typical. In her early 20s she began working for her husband’s business which she helped grow from $100,000 a year to $10 million annually. At the same time she began selling homes as a 23-year old realtor, helping friends nearing foreclosure to update and sell their homes. You’ll hear how she went from realtor to developer.

DeLisa also tells the full story of the inception of Storyville Gardens, a park concept that came to her in a dream. You'll also hear the way she chose her lead park designer and what she’s had to battle to bring the park to life. This episode brings life lessons from a person who has focused and achieved so much with a steady resolve. How she overcame doubters and followed her heart in the pursuit of purpose.

📝 SHOW NOTES 📝
Direct link to full show notes, including transcription and mentions here: https://www.ampstigator.com/blog/delisa-guerrier-show-notes

There’s nothing normal about Charlie Nelson’s story of finding purpose. He was 21 years old when  he and his brother discovered a roadside historical marker 25 miles north of where they were raised. The historical marker had his name on it. It was the first time he’d ever heard that his triple-great grandfather was a whiskey mogul in the late 1800s and ran one of the largest whiskey producers in the country. All the history was lost in prohibition. So, Charlie spent his entire 20s and 30s rebuilding that family legacy.

This episode is for you if: 
-You're a sucker for wild stories
-You're a big fan of Belle Meade Bourbon (NGB's best-selling spirit)
-You resonate with the winding path Charlie Nelson took to finding purpose

What's in this episode?
Charlie talks at length about some pretty wild stories, like how he got a bartending job in Paris without really speaking French and backpacking in Southeast Asia near the Mekong.

He also details the moment he realized his purpose in life: to resurrect a rich family history in distilled spirits that lie dormant for nearly 100 years.

Between his family stories and his personal journey, he'll have you hanging on every word.

📝 SHOW NOTES 📝
Direct link to full show notes, including transcription and mentions here:
https://www.ampstigator.com/blog/charlie-nelson-show-notes

Mattie Jackson Selecman has all the titles. She’s a best-selling author, a podcaster, a sommelier, a former restaurant owner, a current non-profit Co-Owner and the oldest daughter of Country Superstar Alan Jackson. But there’s one title she has that she doesn’t want: widow. In 2018 at the age of 28, she lost her husband Ben during their first year of marriage.

The journey through grief was excruciating. And because so much of her life is public, she wasn’t given the space to grieve like you might expect. But COVID lockdown in 2020 proved to be the time-out she needed to process that grief in a new book titled “Lemons on Friday.” It’s about how to honestly process grief in all of life’s trials, without losing hope. 

 
This episode is for you if:
-You’re interested in Mattie’s personal grief journey
-You need encouragement from someone who knows the pain of loss
-You like a Christian-centered message of hope

What's in this episode?
In this episode, Mattie discusses finding purposes in the greatest loss. In 2018 at the age of 28, she lost her husband Ben in their first year of marriage. She details how the situation devolved in less than two weeks and how she had to process grief in her darkest moments.

Mattie talks at length about what she learned in these last three years and how she brings hope to people now through her podcast, NaSHEville organization and through her new book Lemon’s On Friday. 

She walks you through the format of the book, including the questions she asked in her darkest times and the spiritual and emotional resolutions to those questions. Each chapter is a way Mattie transformed her suffering.

📝 SHOW NOTES 📝
Direct link to full show notes, including transcription and mentions here:
https://www.ampstigator.com/blog/mattie-jackson-selecman-show-notes

 Zulfat Suara is a Nigerian immigrant living in the American Christian south. She's the first Nigerian woman elected to public office in the United States and created a movement in Nashville, Tenn. that mobilized people around her causes. She's an expert at building power and relationships in places some people would think she doesn't belong.

This episode is for you if: 
-You're captivated by Zulfat's story of immigration and activism
-You're interested in a Muslim woman's experience in the American Christian south
-You want to hear stories from Z's personal life that shaped who she is today

What's in this episode?
Zulfat Suara is an activist and politician who is all about faith, family and advocacy. Suara’s father was the driving force for not only her career, but the way in which she lives a fulfilled and purposeful life. In this episode, she tells us how she took those teachings while growing up and has implemented them in the lives of her own five children.  

Zulfat details growing up in a household with multiple religions and what that taught her about life. She shares her passion for changing the education system which she sees as the way to fix a broken justice system.   Her infectious laugh and smile will have you hooked as she talks about everything from life in Nigeria to advocating for women in America.

📝 SHOW NOTES 📝
Direct link to full show notes, including transcription and mentions here:
https://www.ampstigator.com/blog/zulfat-suara-show-notes