Artist Recovery Podcast

Nika Stewart was voted quietest and shyest in elementary school. Today she is a TEDx speaker, personal branding expert, bestselling author, award-winning filmmaker, rock singer, and founder of Shine, a personal branding home for people who refuse to become copy-paste versions of themselves. Her viral cancer journey content has reached hundreds of millions, with one video passing 160 million views.

Host Rich Wright and Nika dive into multi-passionate creativity, self-permission, entrepreneurship, resilience, and the science of following your own rules.Nika shares how a mother who valued looking perfect shaped a childhood of rehearsing every answer before raising her hand, and how a Wizard of Oz school play revealed the performer hiding inside the quiet kid. She talks about singing at her bat mitzvah, opera at a performing arts high school, Broadway musical comedy, and the college dorm party where she knew she wanted to be a rock star.

Her career is built on bold creative pivots: a children’s party entertainment business, a custom window treatment design company, marketing for interior designers, teaching “laptop moms” to grow online businesses during nap time, and decades of social media, visibility, and personal branding work. 

For nearly 25 years, this secular and deeply spiritual woman has also returned each High Holiday season to lead a temple service as its musical leader. Nika opens up about her 2020 cancer diagnosis and her choice to write her own emotional rules: finding the funny every day, documenting the journey, and sharing it online. 

A video about reaching for hair that was no longer there went viral, sparking her book Actually, I Can: Rewriting the Rules of Resilience, a short documentary, an original song, and the Gwendolyn Starshine children’s book series for kids with big feelings and big dreams.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

~“Flighty” actually means multi-passionate

~Artists undercharge because their gift feels easy, and that ease is exactly why it is valuable

~There is no ready. You do it in order to feel readyPush record first, then prepare. You can always edit

~Your skill set travels with you through every career pivot

~A creative outlet gives the mind respite and sparks solutions

~Nika shares research linking humor and laughter to better outcomes for cancer patients

~Consistency online opens doors, including the TEDx stage

~“Figure it out” can be the most powerful vote of confidence: you’re good enough

Nika also shares how her husband’s “figure it out” challenge turned her into an award-winning film editor, her open, trust-based approach to parenting, and her newest venture: a community for dollhouse and miniatures lovers built on small spaces, big joy.

Connect with Nika: 

Website: https://www.shine-365.com

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikastewart

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikastewartshine

Youtube: @NikaStewartSHINE

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

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nikastewartshine

Support and Shop Art Rec Merch: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.artrecshop.com⁠⁠

Join Podmatch: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.joinpodmatch.com/artistre....

Dyslexia Classes: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.skool.com/dyslexia-classe...

#NikaStewart #ArtistRecoveryPodcast #RichWright #ActuallyICan #GwendolynStarshine #PersonalBranding #MultiPassionate #CreativeEntrepreneur #TEDxSpeaker #CancerJourney #Resilience #FindTheFunny #CreativityAndMentalHealth #CreativeOutlet #ArtistBurnout #CareerPivot #Reinvention #SmallBusinessOwner #WomenInBusiness #LaptopMom #SocialMediaMarketing #VideoConfidence #ThereIsNoReady #Perfectionism #ShyKid #Introvert #Broadway #RockSinger #Filmmaker #DollhouseMiniatures #Miniatures #SpiritualNotReligious #FollowYourOwnRules #YoureGoodEnough #CreativePodcast #MentalHealthPodcast #richwrightartist #richwrightunlimited #richwrightunltd 

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Always remember, Listen to your Heart and Be Kind to Your Mind! -Rich Wright

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As a second grader, Michelle Riley turned down plastic surgery for the scar across her face. Her reason: the scar would show her who people really are. That same instinct for seeing past the surface now powers 30 years of healing landscape design and nature-inspired jewelry across Northeast Ohio and beyond.
 
Michelle is a horticulturist, landscape designer, and founder of All About You Signature Landscape and Design Inc. Her story moves through childhood trauma, a father's abuse, her mother's mental health crises, and a gut feeling at age nine that helped police stop a predator stalking neighborhood children. Told to quit the band to stay popular, she kept the band. Two weeks before her high school graduation, her father suffered a major stroke, and Michelle set college aside to become a caregiver.
 
Years later, she filled a legal pad with every interest she had, crossed one off each morning, and landed on horticulture. She enrolled at Kent State with a single $350 credit hour, won grants and scholarships that paid her entire way, and became the only student in her botany professor's career to earn an A.

What you'll hear:
~Why she started as an $8.10 an hour laborer before drawing a single design
~ Helping grow a landscape company from $300,000 to over $1 million and winning the Cascade Business Capital Award during the housing collapse
~ The burnout moment that told her "This job's gonna kill me"
~ Launching her own design and consult business in the middle of the recession
~ Her first garden seminar with one attendee, and growing to rooms of 500
~ Designing with homeowners through grief, trauma, and emotional stories
~ Robert the rhododendron, misfit plants, and becoming the "plant whisperer"
~ Creating Where's Buddy? with her automated mower to find joy after losing her mother during the COVID lockdown
~ How jewelry making helped calm her nervous system after trauma
~ Career advice for plant lovers: master gardener programs, Intro to Horticulture, arboriculture, turf management, and floriculture


About Michelle Riley: Horticulturist and landscape concierge with 30+ years designing gardens, estates, and commercial landscapes across Northeast Ohio. Certified through the National Association of Landscape Professionals as one of only two women among 110 certified professionals in Ohio at the time.

Ohio Landscape Association member and founder of NEOhioGarden.com.
Designed the plant material for the largest heritage garden in Cleveland Heights, with projects in Chicago, New York, Washington, California, the UK, and Kelleys Island. Seven and a half year garden columnist for Joy of Medina County Magazine, creator of Plant Shorts and Where's Buddy?, and jewelry artist behind the Etsy shop Stoned on Nature.


Connect with Michelle:
Website: https://neohiogarden.com
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-riley-6520b027
FB: https://www.facebook.com/mrhorticulturist
Youtube: @MichelleRileyHorticulturist


Connect with Rich:
Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.theartistrecovery.com⁠⁠⁠
⁠⁠Linkedin: @richwrightunltd
Facebook: @richwrightunltd
Instagram: @richwrightunltd
FB: @theartrec
Instagram: @theartrec

Artist Rich Wright’s WOW Essential Spirit Paintings: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.theartistrecovery.com/whi...⁠.

Support and Shop Art Rec Merch: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.artrecshop.com⁠⁠

Join Podmatch: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.joinpodmatch.com/artistre..⁠⁠.
Dyslexia Classes: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.skool.com/dyslexia-classes⁠⁠⁠


#ArtistRecoveryPodcast #MichelleRiley #RichWright #Horticulturist #Horticulture #LandscapeDesign #LandscapeDesigner #HealingGardens #PlantWhisperer #MisfitPlants #GardenDesign #NortheastOhio #WomenInHorticulture #WomenInLandscaping #ChildhoodTrauma #Resilience #TraumaHealing #Intuition #TrustYourGut #Caregiver #Burnout #CreativeBurnout #CareerPivot #KentState #MasterGardener #SmallBusinessOwner #Entrepreneur #GriefAndHealing #JewelryArtist #NatureJewelry #WheresBuddy #RoboticMower #CreativeRecovery #HealingThroughNature 

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Always remember, Listen to your Heart and Be Kind to Your Mind! -Rich Wright

Follow us here: https://www.theartistrecovery.com
Join the Community: https://www,artrecroom.com

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What happens when your own brain rewrites the career you spent decades building? Toronto voice actor Becky Shrimpton, the voice of Funtime Chica and Bon Bon in Five Nights at Freddy’s and Helen Flood in the US dub of Fireman Sam, shares a story she has never told publicly: how atypical migraines ended her path in film and television and opened the door to a thriving voiceover career.

Becky has known she wanted to act since she was four. In Edmonton, Alberta, a childhood trip to Les Misérables set everything in motion. She was working professionally with an agent by age 12 and attended an arts school where a visionary principal transformed one of the city’s most dangerous inner city schools through the arts.

From there, the creative journey refuses to move in a straight line. Becky earned her BFA in Acting from the University of British Columbia, then graduated into the 2008 financial crash as film production left Vancouver. She worked at Science World by day and a liquor store by night, then worked three jobs to fund classical theater training at the British American Drama Academy in Oxford, England, learning from Derek Jacobi and Fiona Shaw.

She sold everything that would not fit into a duffel bag and two Rubbermaid containers and moved across Canada to Toronto, landing a flexible office manager role at a 3D printing company. Then overnight shoots began triggering atypical migraines that blurred her vision and slurred her speech. The pivot to voice acting became the work she was meant to do.

Rich Wright and Becky Shrimpton explore:

• Why acting is a calling, “like being a priest or a nun”
• Why the suffering artist myth is dangerously romanticized against paying artists
• Jealousy versus ambition in competitive creative industries
• Budgeting, credit card debt, and running your art like a business
• What voice acting really demands: full body performance, mic technique, and four hour sessions
• The “black hole” of remote voiceover work and 40 auditions a week
• AI in the voiceover industry and why people still want people
• The O-1 visa, Canada’s artistic brain drain, and breaking into anime dubbing
• Two creative careers in one marriage, gig life, and starting a family
• Writing and producing your own work so you are not waiting for a yes

Powerful moments: “What doesn’t kill me only makes me a better actor.” “You are putting your heart on a plate for someone to devour all the time.” “The only comfort is in discomfort.” “Find the thing that’s enough for you.”

Connect with Becky:

Website: https://www.beckyshrimpton.com

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/becky-shrimpton-495a3b43

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/caridea_extravaganza

Connect with Rich: 

Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.theartistrecovery.com⁠⁠ 

⁠⁠Linkedin: @richwrightunltd 

Facebook: @richwrightunltd 

Instagram: @richwrightunltd 

FB: @theartrec I

nstagram: @theartrec 

Artist Rich Wright’s WOW Essential Spirit Paintings: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.theartistrecovery.com/whi..⁠⁠.

Support and Shop Art Rec Merch: ⁠⁠https://www.artrecshop.com⁠

Join Podmatch: ⁠⁠https://www.joinpodmatch.com/artistre..⁠.
Dyslexia Classes: ⁠⁠https://www.skool.com/dyslexia-classes⁠⁠

#BeckyShrimpton #VoiceActor #VoiceActing #Voiceover #VoiceoverCareer #FiveNightsAtFreddys #FNAF #FuntimeChica #BonBon #FiremanSam #TorontoVoiceActor #CanadianActor #CharacterActor #AnimationVoiceActing #VideoGameVoiceActing #AnimeDubbing #AIVoiceover #AIandArt #CreativePivot #CareerPivot #ActingCareer #BADA #SufferingArtistMyth #ArtistBurnout #CreativeRecovery #CreativeJourney #ArtistMindset #BudgetingForArtists #BusinessOfActing #Auditions #O1Visa #CreativeCouples #ArtistRecoveryPodcast #RichWright #richwrightartist #richwrightunlimited #richwrightunltd #beaguest #podmatchguest @podmatch 

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Always remember, Listen to your Heart and Be Kind to Your Mind! -Rich Wright

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Join the Community: https://www,artrecroom.com

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Fantasy and horror author Dianna Gunn has known she was a writer since age 8. Writing has carried her through poverty, bullying, the loss of her father at 12, alternative school, chronic illness, and a publishing industry that gets harder every year. 

Rich Wright sits down with the Toronto author, freelance tech writer, and founder of Weeknight Writers for an honest conversation on creative resilience, ADHD, self-publishing, and why writing is who she is.

Dianna grew up in deep poverty in the Toronto suburbs, an only child with two disabled parents. With a learning disability in math and a spatial awareness disorder, she built worlds with stuffed animals, action figures, and inherited Lego. She did her first NaNoWriMo at 11 and finished her first novel 24 hours before her dad's cancer diagnosis. His death shortly after her 12th birthday remains the worst day of her life.

KEY TOPICS

• Growing up poor, bullied, and neurodivergent
• Celtic dance, Clan Gunn heritage, and spreading her father's ashes in Wick, Scotland
• Moving in with her grandmother at 15 and dropping out for two years
• Contact Alternative School and the teacher who made history feel lived in
• Oasis Skateboard Factory: building a skateboard brand, sanding decks, an Anomaly art installation, and workshops at the Art Gallery of Ontario
• ADHD, the interest-based nervous system, and why real-world learning keeps kids from falling through the cracks
• Building a freelance tech writing career to fund a fiction career
• Self-publishing vs. traditional publishing in today's market
• Generative AI, stolen creative work, and the em dash debate
• Building a kind, engaged online writing community

THE BOOKS:The Moonshadow world began as a homebrew tabletop RPG her parents created. Dianna first wrote Moonshadow's Guardian at 15 and published it in 2018. The Moonshadow Rising duology (Moonshadow's Guardian and Moonshadow's Champion) is complete, and a six-book Moonshadow spinoff series is in progress. Woman of Sorrow and Blood, her gothic horror novel, grew from a pre-made book cover a friend gifted her for Christmas. Killer Debt: An Anthology of Murder collects custom-written death scenes commissioned by readers.

WEEKNIGHT WRITERS What began as a Twitter chat is now a social enterprise for fantasy, science fiction, and horror writers, with virtual conferences, a structured Discord, nightly accountability check-ins, weekly write-ins, writing sprints, Story Crafting Sessions, and First Draft Fall.

THE TRUTH ABOUT SELF-PUBLISHING "Go in knowing it is incredibly hard." Dianna explains how shrinking organic reach, paid ads, and AI-generated content changed the indie author landscape, and why most writers need another income stream for years.

ADVICE FOR WRITERS Decide what your writing dream is. Know what you're willing to sacrifice. Then pursue it relentlessly. "You only fail when you give up."

Connect with Dianna:

Website: https://authordiannagunn.com

Support and Shop Art Rec Merch: ⁠https://www.artrecshop.com⁠ 

Join Podmatch: ⁠⁠https://www.joinpodmatch.com/artistre..⁠. 

Dyslexia Classes: ⁠⁠https://www.skool.com/dyslexia-classes⁠⁠

#DiannaGunn #ArtistRecoveryPodcast #RichWright #AuthorInterview #IndieAuthor #FantasyAuthor #HorrorAuthor #GothicHorror #WomanOfSorrowAndBlood #MoonshadowsGuardian #MoonshadowsChampion #MoonshadowRising #KillerDebt #WeeknightWriters #WritingCommunity #ADHDWriter #NeurodivergentCreative #AlternativeSchool #OasisSkateboardFactory #TorontoAuthor #CanadianAuthor #FreelanceWriting #NaNoWriMo #FirstDraftFall #TabletopRPG #Worldbuilding #GriefAndCreativity #ClanGunn #Scotland #WritingAdvice #PublishingIndustry #CreativeResilience #CreativeBurnout #AmWriting #BookTok #WriterTok

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Always remember, Listen to your Heart and Be Kind to Your Mind! -Rich Wright

Follow us here: https://www.theartistrecovery.com
Join the Community: https://www,artrecroom.com

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Rodney Carpentier is a New York sheriff's lieutenant, a former criminal investigator, and the crime fiction author R.L. Carpentier III, creator of The Overlook Trilogy and the small-town murder mystery Our Lady of the Overlook. At 2 a.m. on a double shift, one question hit him: what if a DNA test revealed that the birth mother you never knew was the unidentified victim of a cold case homicide? That question launched a police procedural series set in the rural Catskill Mountains and a new life as a self-published novelist.

Rodney joins host Rich Wright for an in-depth author interview on writing a novel while working full time in law enforcement, turning real police experience into fiction, and building an author platform from scratch.

THE STORYTELLER BEFORE THE BADGE:
Raised in a mobile home park in Coeymans, New York, by a welder and pipefitter father and an early COBOL programmer mother, Rodney was the kid who invented stories alone in the woods and wore a suit on ordinary school days. At SUNY New Paltz he earned a BA in English and played guitar in the pop punk band Gone Ashley, named after a line in James Joyce's Finnegans Wake about the phoenix rising from the ashes.

FROM LA TO LAW ENFORCEMENT:
Three days after marrying Laura, his partner of more than 27 years, he drove cross-country to Los Angeles, where a "Join the LAPD" banner on Sunset Boulevard sparked a law enforcement career. Back in New York came the CSX rail yard, New York State corrections, and the county sheriff's office in 2008. As a criminal investigator he worked insurance, welfare, check, and wire fraud cases with state and federal agencies, then rose to sergeant and lieutenant. From a prison yard tower, he filled notebooks planning a novel he wasn't yet ready to write.

HOW REAL POLICE WORK BECOMES CRIME FICTION:
The English major who chased Hemingway, Faulkner, and Fitzgerald once looked down on genre fiction. Years of interviews, fraud cases, overnight shifts, and grief quietly built what he calls a garden of material. His protagonist, rookie officer Mike Ellis, is surrounded by composite characters drawn from the real cops who mentored him.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN:
~How a DNA test premise became a cold case mystery trilogy
~Writing authentic small-town policing without CSI-style resources or backup
~Turning family history and father-son grief into character depth
~Self-publishing lessons from a rushed first launch and letting Patreon readers name book two
~Book marketing for introverts: street fairs, book events, and one reader at a time
~How to present yourself as an author before you feel ready
~Why law enforcement fiction can tell a human story without a political agenda
~Balancing a demanding career, family, and finishing book three
~"If you want people to experience it, you have to let people know it exists." - Rodney Carpentier

For crime fiction readers, aspiring authors, first responders who write, and every creative with a story that has lived in their head for 20 years.

Connect with Rodney:
Website: https://www.rlcarpentierwriter.com
Instagram: ‪https://www.instagram.com/rlcarpentier
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100088602104002
 
Connect with Rich:
Website: ⁠⁠https://www.theartistrecovery.com
⁠⁠Linkedin: @richwrightunltd
Facebook: @richwrightunltd
Instagram: @richwrightunltd
FB: @theartrec
Instagram: @theartrec

Artist Rich Wright’s WOW Essential Spirit Paintings: ⁠⁠https://www.theartistrecovery.com/whi...

Support and Shop Art Rec Merch: https://www.artrecshop.com

Join Podmatch: ⁠https://www.joinpodmatch.com/artistre...
Dyslexia Classes: ⁠https://www.skool.com/dyslexia-classes⁠

#RodneyCarpentier #RLCarpentierIII #TheOverlookTrilogy #OurLadyOfTheOverlook #ArtistRecoveryPodcast #RichWright #CrimeFictionAuthor #PoliceProcedural #ColdCaseMystery #SmallTownMurderMystery #LawEnforcementAuthor #CopTurnedWriter #SheriffLieutenant #WritingANovel #SelfPublishing #IndieAuthor #AuthorInterview #CreativeRecovery #PopPunkBand #GoneAshley #FinnegansWake #JamesJoyce #CatskillMountains #NewYorkAuthor #SUNYNewPaltz #WritingInspiration #AuthorPlatform #BookMarketing #IntrovertAuthor #DNATestMystery #TrueCrimeInspiration #WritersPodcast #CreativeCareerChange #SecondActCareer #GenreFiction #MysteryThrillerBooks #richwrightunlimited #richwrightunltd #richwrightartist #beaguest #podmatchguest  @PodMatch_com ​

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Always remember, Listen to your Heart and Be Kind to Your Mind! -Rich Wright

Follow us here: https://www.theartistrecovery.com
Join the Community: https://www,artrecroom.com

Listen Weekly at: https://www.artistrecoverypodcast.com

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What happens when a curious, bright-eyed kid hears the words "we need to watch him" and quietly decides to stop raising his hand? Dyslexia coach, author, and speaker Willie Blake traces the path from that moment to 500+ stages, 100+ podcast appearances, and a life built on one word: LIGHT.

Willie Blake is the author of Dyslexic Achiever's Blueprint, host of the Light Beyond Limits podcast, founder of the quarterly Own Your Dyslexia virtual panels, a Utah Valley University graduate, an Eagle Scout, and a three-year service award recipient as a volunteer counselor at HODIA's camp for teens with Type 1 diabetes. He sits down with host Rich Wright for an honest conversation about dyslexia, neurodiversity, confidence, faith, creativity, and the difference between a diagnosis and a label.

Diagnosed in first grade after a school reading screening, Willie describes how being singled out shaped his voice in the classroom, why he always needs a clear view of the door, and how his dyslexic brain processes the world visually, solving problems in patterns rather than straight lines. He shares how hands-on learning in Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts, 14 years of soccer, and drawing classes built the self-esteem that school could not, and how confidence and sleep directly affect how strongly dyslexia shows up day to day.

The conversation moves through his two-year LDS mission in Nampa, Idaho, where he met his wife and found a faith of his own; switching from accounting to business management to discover the creative side of branding and marketing; and launching a coaching business that had zero clients in year one. Willie explains how a 15-minute daily "Core Four" routine of meditation and breathwork changed his presence at home within two weeks, and why he dropped "William Blake" for "Coach Willie" to remove barriers for the adult dyslexics he serves.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:
~Diagnosis vs. labeling: a diagnosis points to solutions; a label becomes an excuse
~Confidence is built through reps, mentally and emotionally, just like physical strength
~"Adult recess": why creative play belongs in the workday
~Hit record anyway: his first mastermind drew zero people, and he taught it to his phone
~Resources for dyslexic adults drop sharply after age 18, and Willie is working to change that
~THE LIGHT PHILOSOPHY
L: Love (others and yourself)
I: Inspiration
G: Gratitude ("If you wanna change your attitude, change your gratitude")
H: Hope
T: Time

THE DYSLEXIC ACHIEVER'S BLUEPRINT:
~Believe in the possibility
~Define what YOU want
~Reverse engineer the plan
~Take 2% action each day
~Adjust and adapt

Rich and Willie also connect over visual thinking, reading pictures instead of instructions, Human Design, and why dyslexic and neurodivergent minds so often excel in art, design, and entrepreneurship.

This conversation is for dyslexic adults, parents of dyslexic kids, educators, neurodivergent creatives, entrepreneurs, coaches, and anyone who was ever made to feel "watched" instead of believed in.

Connect with Willie:
Website: https://coachwillieblake.com
Youtube:  @WillieBlake_Light
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/willieblake-light

Connect with Rich:
Website: ⁠⁠https://www.theartistrecovery.com
⁠⁠LinkedIn: @richwrightunltd
Instagram: @richwrightunltd
FB: @theartrec
Instagram: @theartrec

Artist Rich Wright’s WOW Essential Spirit Paintings: ⁠⁠https://www.theartistrecovery.com/whi...

Support and Shop Art Rec Merch: https://www.artrecshop.com

Join Podmatch: ⁠https://www.joinpodmatch.com/artistre...
Dyslexia Classes: ⁠https://www.skool.com/dyslexia-classes⁠

#Dyslexia #DyslexiaAwareness #DyslexicAdults #AdultDyslexia #DyslexiaCoach #DyslexicThinking #DyslexiaDiagnosis #DyslexiaInSchool #DyslexiaAndConfidence #DyslexicEntrepreneur #Neurodiversity #Neurodivergent #NeurodivergentCreatives #LearningDifferences #VisualThinking #DiagnosisVsLabeling #SelfEsteem #ConfidenceBuilding #MentalHealth #MentalHealthMatters #Meditation #Breathwork #Gratitude #Anxiety #Mindset #AnalysisParalysis #GoalSetting #PublicSpeaking #Coaching #Entrepreneurship #Creativity #Burnout #Reinvention #Faith #Type1Diabetes #WillieBlake #LightBeyondLimits #DyslexicAchieversBlueprint #LIGHTPhilosophy #OwnYourDyslexia #RichWright #ArtistRecoveryPodcast #richwrightartist #richwrightunlimited #richwrightunltd  @PodMatch_com ​

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Always remember, Listen to your Heart and Be Kind to Your Mind! -Rich Wright

Follow us here: https://www.theartistrecovery.com
Join the Community: https://www,artrecroom.com

Listen Weekly at: https://www.artistrecoverypodcast.com

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Randy Peyser has spent nearly 30 years opening doors for writers, landing book deals with major New York publishers through relationships built on a first-name basis. As the founder of Author One Stop, an author, speaker of 500+ talks, and a lifelong creative across music, art, and the written word, she brings a rare blend of publishing-industry insight and soul-level wisdom to this conversation with Rich Wright.

Randy traces her path from a hypersensitive, perfectionist child writing spelling words like "conflagration" in second grade, through a psychology degree and years of low-paid recreation work with disabled children and seniors, into the New Age magazine world of 1990s San Francisco, and finally into her calling as a book coach, ghostwriter, and proposal writer who gets authors published.

At the heart of the conversation is her philosophy of staying in the flow: following the question "What's the most loving thing I can do for me right now?" through a dark night of the soul, and trusting that unexpected opportunities often carry more than the thing you were chasing. Her first book, Crappy to Happy: Small Steps to Big Happiness Now, was famously featured in the film Eat, Pray, Love, held up by Julia Roberts on screen without Randy knowing in advance.

WHAT WE COVER:
~Why every creative project "births self" and how to give yourself permission to experiment without self-censorship
~Growing up in a Holocaust survivor family and the resilience passed down through generations
~How working for embezzlers led to her one-woman show and her first traditional book deal
~The "Author Seeks Publisher" freeway sign stunt that changed everything
~WAIT training: why delays mean lessons still to learn or people still to line up
~How to "pitch like a five-year-old" with a clear, visual ask and no compromise on your value
~Linear vs. process-oriented creators and why goal-planning isn't for everyone
~Interviewing legends like Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra, Carolyn Myss, and Bernie Siegel
~Getting past the gatekeepers to the genuinely warm humans behind the fame
~Vulnerability as the strongest place of strength, and visitations from beyond the veil
~Her newest book, Bald Courage: Gentle Wisdom on the Cancer ~Journey, and the sponsorship mission to gift it to chemo patients

Rich and Randy also share honest, moving reflections on grief, forgiveness, sensitivity as a gift rather than a weakness, and the cycles of death and rebirth every creative moves through. As Randy puts it: "Sorrow digs the well and joy fills it."

Connect with Randy:
Website: https://authoronestop.com
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/randypeyserbookeditor

Connect with Rich:
Website: ⁠⁠https://www.theartistrecovery.com
⁠⁠LinkedIn: @richwrightunltd
Instagram: @richwrightunltd
FB: @theartrec
Instagram: @theartrec

Artist Rich Wright’s WOW Essential Spirit Paintings: ⁠⁠https://www.theartistrecovery.com/whi...

Support and Shop Art Rec Merch: https://www.artrecshop.com

Join Podmatch: ⁠https://www.joinpodmatch.com/artistre...
Dyslexia Classes: ⁠https://www.skool.com/dyslexia-classes⁠

#RandyPeyser #ArtistRecoveryPodcast #RichWright #BookPublishing #HowToGetABookDeal #BookCoach #AuthorOneStop #BookProposal #Ghostwriting #TraditionalPublishing #CreativeEntrepreneur #HighlySensitivePerson #DarkNightOfTheSoul #StayInTheFlow #CrappyToHappy #EatPrayLove #BaldCourage #CancerJourney #WritingCommunity #AuthorPlatform #CreativeBurnout #Reinvention #AuthenticExpression #Vulnerability #Forgiveness #Manifesting #WaitTraining #PitchTips #Perseverance #WayneDyer #DeepakChopra #CarolynMyss #MindBodySpirit #Intuition #Spirituality #BeyondTheVeil #Resilience #SelfBelief #CreativeProcess #Podcast #AspiringAuthor #richwrightartist #richwrightunlimited #richwrightunltd

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Always remember, Listen to your Heart and Be Kind to Your Mind! -Rich Wright

Follow us here: https://www.theartistrecovery.com
Join the Community: https://www,artrecroom.com

Listen Weekly at: https://www.artistrecoverypodcast.com

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Singer-songwriter, author, and traveling musician John Voelz sits down with Rich Wright for a long-form conversation that traces one of the most winding creative paths you'll hear — from a boat yard in Richmond, California to a jukebox-soundtracked childhood in a family bar, through a three-month VW bus tour across America, into the fire of a rigid fundamentalist church, and out the other side as a full-time creative living on the road in an Airstream.

John opens up about growing up with a father who couldn't read but out-worked everyone, learning to build a life from raw ingenuity and provision. He shares how teachers who believed in him — choir directors, speech coaches, English teachers — carved the inroads that shaped his voice, and how a strict church experience tried to burn it all down, literally, when his albums went up in flames.

This is a story about freedom — the word John tattooed on his body — and about what it costs to chase an unconventional creative life. He talks candidly about becoming a pastor to redeem the church's ugliness, building a decentralized ministry rooted in community, funding a charity wine for a struggling art school, and eventually getting fired over "a difference of vision." Then came the dream: a coffee shop, beer-and-wine bar, and live music venue that opened six days before the COVID shutdowns — and the three-year fight that followed, ending with selling the house, the business, and everything else to hit the road.

Through it all, music remained the thread. John reflects on his surprising second act as a professional Santa — turning down 700 appearances in a single season — and how slipping into that suit pulled him back from cynicism and reminded him how beautiful people really are. The conversation closes on the darker side of the creative life: mental health, perseverance, the song he wrote in the Airstream the night Betty White died, and why creatives need each other to make it through.

A raw, funny, deeply human episode about pivots, provision, faith, reinvention, and the unshakable pull of making things.

John Voelz is the author of "Becoming an Idea Mentalist," "Quirky Leadership: Permission Granted," "Broken Record," and the "Because I Wear the Suit" series. He hosts the Gig to Live podcast for working musicians and performs Americana, country, folk, rock, and pop across a wide regional circuit.

Connect with John:
Website: https://johnvoelz.com
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-voelz-b953264/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johnvoelzmedia/
Youtube:  @johnvoelzmusic

Artist Rich Wright’s WOW Essential Spirit Paintings: ⁠⁠https://www.theartistrecovery.com/whi...

Support and Shop Art Rec Merch: https://www.artrecshop.com

Join Podmatch: ⁠https://www.joinpodmatch.com/artistre...
Dyslexia Classes: ⁠https://www.skool.com/dyslexia-classes⁠

#JohnVoelz #ArtistRecoveryPodcast #RichWright #CreativeLife #MusicianInterview #SingerSongwriter #WorkingMusician #IndependentMusician #GiggingMusician #CreativeReinvention #CareerPivots #FaithDeconstruction #LeavingTheChurch #ProfessionalSanta #GigSalad #LiveMusicVenue #SmallBusiness #AirstreamLiving #LifeOnTheRoad #CreativeEntrepreneur #ArtistBurnout #MentalHealthForArtists #FollowYourHeart #Storytelling #Americana #FolkMusic #CreativePerseverance #Freedom #MusicIndustry #VenueOwner #LongFormPodcast #ArtistMindset #CreativeStruggle #RedemptionStory #GigToLive #AuthorInterview #richwrightartist #richwrightunlimited #richwrightunltd  @PodMatch_com ​

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Always remember, Listen to your Heart and Be Kind to Your Mind! -Rich Wright

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Brheanna Myers is the founder of Light & Breezy Coaching, creator of the Awaken Your Potential method, and author of "Awaken Your Potential: Healing Frequencies Made Easy" and "Awakening From the Inside Out" — sits down with Rich Wright for one of the most expansive conversations Season 2 has held. Born on Nellis Air Force Base, raised across nine elementary schools, and out on her own at 15, Brheanna traces a path of pure resilience: from survival mode and street hustle to a bachelor's, a psychology degree, and a doctorate in holistic healing medicine.

At the center of it all is her 2020 near-death experience — contracting fungal pneumonia during COVID, collapsing, stepping outside her body, and returning with a soul contract, exit clauses, and a mission she never saw coming. She and Rich go deep into what that experience revealed: that separation is an illusion, that we are infinitely divine creators, and that unconditional love is the frequency underneath everything.

This is a raw, wide-ranging talk about spiritual awakening, energy healing, and reclaiming creativity through the body's own systems.

WHAT WE GET INTO:
~Growing up chaotic — a stripper mother, an absent businessman father, and the childhood that became the building blocks
~"Apple Pie" — the imaginary friend who turned out to be a lifelong spiritual guide
~Breaking generational cycles: "It ran through my family until it ran into me"
~The near-death experience in full — leaving the body, meeting guides, the DNA activation, and the life review where every moment connected
~Why Brheanna doesn't believe in free will the way most people do
~Reading natal charts, Chiron the wounded healer, and the Taurus transition ahead
~The spontaneous kundalini awakening of March 2023 — 30 days without sleep
~Frequency healing, tuning forks, chakras, and how trapped emotion lands in the physical body
~Jehovian seals, DNA manipulation, and what the elite teach their children
~Why organic farming isn't what you think, and how trauma embeds in the food you eat
~The art of detachment, dropping the weight that isn't yours to carry, and unconditional love vs. unconditional access
~Learning to spot opportunity everywhere — and why nothing is a coincidence
~How color palettes in your art mirror your chakra system
!Rich and Brheanna on collecting tools instead of counting failures, the power of the pivot, and why creatives carry too much

Connect with Brheanna:
Website: https://www.lightandbreezycoaching.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lightandbreezy1111
Youtube:  @Brheanna1111

Artist Rich Wright’s WOW Essential Spirit Paintings: ⁠⁠https://www.theartistrecovery.com/whi...

Support and Shop Art Rec Merch: https://www.artrecshop.com

Join Podmatch: ⁠https://www.joinpodmatch.com/artistre...
Dyslexia Classes: ⁠https://www.skool.com/dyslexia-classes⁠

#neardeathexperience #NDE #spiritualawakening #energyhealing #DNAactivation #kundalini #kundaliniawakening #soulcontract #lifereview #chakrahealing #frequencyhealing #tuningforks #pastliferegression #QHHT #natalchart #astrology #chiron #woundedhealer #higherself #consciouscreator #manifestation #lawofattraction #traumahealing #innerchildhealing #generationalcycles #highlysensitiveperson #empath #intuitivehealing #remoteviewing #quantumfield #consciousness #unconditionallove #detachment #breakingcycles #survivalmode #resilience #creativementalhealth #artistmentalhealth #spiritualcoach #mindbodyspirit #awakeningjourney #meditation #holistichealing #selfworth #solarplexus #crownchakra #thirdeye #ascension #5D #spiritguides #telepathy #artistrecoverypodcast #richwrightartist #richwrightunlimited #richwrightunltd #beaguest #podmatchguest  @PodMatch_com ​

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Always remember, Listen to your Heart and Be Kind to Your Mind! -Rich Wright

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Dr. Fred Moss—known as The Undoctor—joins Rich Wright for a raw, sweeping conversation that runs from the streets of 1970s Detroit to four decades inside modern psychiatry and out the other side. A board-certified psychiatrist with an MD from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a biology degree from Wayne State, Dr. Moss has treated over 30,000 patients across private practice, tele-health, correctional healthcare, and nursing homes. He walked away from diagnosis-and-protocol psychiatry to pursue what actually heals human beings: real human connection.

Rich and Dr. Moss share deep Metro Detroit roots, and this conversation is soaked in it—Oak Park and Southfield, the 12th Street riots, Motown, Bob Seger and Ted Nugent, Tiger Stadium, the Bad Boy Pistons, and a chance front-row night with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band before anyone knew his name. Those roots frame a much larger story about grief, identity, and the human drive to keep moving.

Dr. Moss opens up about being born to "bring unity" to a family in chaos, losing his first love and a close friend at 13, dropping out of college more than once, and stumbling into the mental health field on a three-week orientation he expected to quit—46 years ago. He traces the moment Prozac reshaped how the world thinks about being human, and why he came to believe modern medicine was never designed to heal.

Rich shares his own hard-earned perspective as a patient—years cycling through medications, a suicide attempt, hospitalization, and being told by one of the country's top depression centers that they couldn't help him. Two Metro Detroiters, two sides of the same broken system, finding common ground on what real healing requires.

What you'll hear:
– Why "there's nothing wrong with you" sits at the center of Dr. Moss's work
– How a diagnosis can become a cage rather than an answer
– The Moss Method: 20 time-tested, age-old ways to get grounded without a prescription
– The Creative Eight—how art, music, dance, cooking, gardening, writing, and everyday creativity dissolve so-called symptoms in real time
– Why misery is a choice we're trained to make, not an inevitability– Honest talk on Ibogaine, ketamine, and plant medicines—their promise and their paradox
– Relationship and authentic conversation as the most powerful medicine ever discovered

Dr. Moss is the author of "Creative Eight: Healing Through Creativity and Self-Expression" and "Find Your True Voice," creator of the Creative Eight and True Voice methodologies, and host and guest across 600+ podcast episodes. His memoir, "Welcome to Humanity," tells the full story of how he became who he is.
This is a conversation about listening to your heart while being kind to your mind—and about the radical idea that healing was never something wrong with you to begin with.

Connect with Dr. Moss:
Website: https://welcometohumanity.net
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drfredmoss

Artist Rich Wright’s WOW Essential Spirit Paintings: ⁠⁠https://www.theartistrecovery.com/white-owl-wisdom-1

Support and Shop Art Rec Merch: https://www.artrecshop.com

Join Podmatch: ⁠https://www.joinpodmatch.com/artistrecovery
Dyslexia Classes: ⁠https://www.skool.com/dyslexia-classes⁠

#DrFredMoss #TheUndoctor #ArtistRecoveryPodcast #RichWright #Psychiatry #MentalHealth #HealingWithoutMedication #Deprescribing #Antipsychiatry #CreativeEight #MossMethod #TrueVoice #HumanConnection #AuthenticSelf #DepressionRecovery #Anxiety #AddictionRecovery #Ibogaine #KetamineTherapy #PlantMedicine #TraumaHealing #AlternativeMentalHealth #HolisticHealing #SelfExpression #CreativityAsMedicine #Mindset #richwrightartist #richwrightunlimited #richwrightunltd #beaguest #podmatchguest  ⁨@PodMatch_com⁩  

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Always remember, Listen to your Heart and Be Kind to Your Mind! -Rich Wright

Follow us here: https://www.theartistrecovery.com
Join the Community: https://www,artrecroom.com

Listen Weekly at: https://www.artistrecoverypodcast.com

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