BFD with Leslie Jespersen

What if belonging has a lot less to do with fitting in than we’ve been taught?

Recorded live at Everyday Celebrity Live 2026, Leslie sits down for a fireside chat with therapist, international speaker and researcher Dr. Mona Nour to unpack what belonging actually means and why so many people still feel disconnected even when they are surrounded by others.

Introduced by Everyday Celebrity Live MC Michelle Tomko, aka Tomkomedy, the conversation dives into Dr. Mona’s research on human connection, including more than 4,000 interviews and the framework she developed to explain the different ways people experience belonging.

Dr. Mona breaks belonging into three core experiences:

Being seen. Being embraced. Being celebrated.

And those experiences can happen across four different areas: self, interpersonal relationships, community and the larger systems we belong to.

Together, those create 12 different ways we can experience connection.

In this conversation, Leslie and Dr. Mona talk about what happens when one of those pieces is missing, why someone can love you without fully understanding you and how knowing what kind of belonging you actually need can completely change the way you see your relationships, your business and yourself.

They also get into visibility, authenticity and what happens when you stop trying to make yourself more acceptable and start building around who you actually are.

• Why belonging is about more than being accepted
• The difference between being seen, embraced and celebrated
• The 12 ways Dr. Mona says we can experience human connection
• Self-belonging versus community belonging
• Why some relationships can feel loving but still leave you feeling unseen
• How to figure out what kind of connection you actually need
• Why belonging matters in business, leadership and visibility
• How Dr. Mona used her belonging model to build a multimillion-dollar mental health practice
• Why authenticity becomes easier when you stop trying to assimilate
• How other people can help reflect back the parts of yourself you may not see
• Why the people you can fully exhale around may be the people who know you best

Dr. Mona’s work challenges the idea that belonging means blending in.

Sometimes belonging is not about changing yourself so the room accepts you.

Sometimes it starts with knowing yourself clearly enough to decide which rooms actually deserve you.

Dr. Mona Nour is a therapist, international speaker and creator of the Belonging Integration Model, focused on human connection, leadership, visibility and belonging.

What if the answer to better skin after 40 isn’t adding more products?

Danielle Ruess didn’t set out to launch a skincare company.

In her early 40s, she started having severe reactions to products she had used and loved for years. Dermatologists blamed stress. Danielle wasn’t convinced.

So she started researching.

That research eventually led her deep into the science of the skin barrier, how skin changes as we age and why a complicated seven-step routine may not always be the answer.

In this episode of BFD, Leslie sits down with Danielle, founder of Eonian Skincare, to talk about mature skin, damaged skin barriers, skincare trends and why Danielle believes healthy skin should be the goal before chasing every new anti-aging ingredient.

Danielle shares why she created a deliberately small product line, why she refuses to launch products simply because the market expects them and why she would rather grow slowly than make claims she can’t stand behind.

They also get into retinol, hyaluronic acid, skincare trends, the pressure to constantly launch something new and what happens when a founder decides she doesn’t need to be for everyone.

• Why Danielle created Eonian Skincare after struggling with her own skin
• What the skin barrier is and why it becomes more important as we age
• Why skincare over 40 may require a different approach
• Danielle’s experience with prescription retinol and skin irritation
• Why she believes less can be more effective for mature skin
• The difference between chasing wrinkles and supporting healthy skin
• Why Danielle keeps the Eonian product line intentionally small
• The problem with building products around trends
• Why she refuses to launch an eye cream until she finds one she believes actually works
• Bootstrapping a beauty brand and accepting slower growth
• Why knowing exactly who your product is for can make your brand stronger

Danielle’s philosophy is simple: every product needs a job.

No giant routine. No launching something just because everyone else is doing it. No pretending one bottle is going to reverse time.

Just a focus on supporting healthy skin as it changes.

Danielle Ruess is the founder of Eonian Skincare, a skincare line created with mature skin in mind.

Find Eonian Skincare at eonianskincare.com, Amazon and TikTok Shop.

You built the brand. You created the program. You named the offer. You wrote the content. You developed the process.

What do you actually own?

In this episode of BFD, Leslie sits down with patent attorney and intellectual property strategist Angela Coxe to talk about the parts of your business you may be creating every day without realizing they could have intellectual property value.

And with AI making it easier than ever to imitate voices, content, branding and creative work, that conversation is getting a lot more important.

Angela breaks down the differences between patents, trademarks and copyrights, why intellectual property is not just something giant tech companies need to think about and how founders can become more strategic about protecting what they are building before there is a problem.

They also get into online programs, brand names, logos, catchphrases, content and the very real possibility that putting something online before thinking through protection can limit your options later.

This is less about becoming your own lawyer and more about knowing when you should probably call one.

• What intellectual property actually includes
• The difference between patents, trademarks and copyrights
• Why small businesses and personal brands should care about IP
• How AI is changing conversations around ownership and brand protection
• What entrepreneurs may be able to protect inside an online business
• Brand names, logos, catchphrases and digital content
• Why timing matters when you launch or publicly share an idea
• How strategic IP planning differs from simply filing paperwork
• Why founders should think several years ahead when protecting innovation
• How stronger intellectual property can create more options for monetization
• Why protecting your business early can potentially save money and stress later

Angela’s approach is to look beyond one filing or one piece of paperwork and ask a bigger question:

What are you building, where could it go, and what should you be protecting now so you still have options later?

Because discovering the value of your intellectual property after someone else copies it is a very expensive way to learn what IP stands for.

Angela Coxe is a patent attorney and intellectual property strategist at ESCA Legal. Email [email protected] or follow her on Instagram at @yourpatentattorney

Find her on LinkedIn and Instagram, and learn more about ESCA Legal’s intellectual property services and IP audit process.

This episode is for general educational purposes and does not constitute legal advice.

From High-Ticket Sales to Vintage Reselling: How Shay Schindler Replaced Her Income

What if the stuff other people overlook, donate or leave behind could replace your entire income?

Shay Schindler grew up around antique booths, flea markets and estate sales, but like plenty of kids raised around the family business, she wanted absolutely nothing to do with it for a while.

Then she found her way back.

After building a career in sales and online business, Shay started thrifting and reselling on the side. What began as an escape from a sales job she hated eventually became a growing vintage and antique business that replaced her sales income.

And some of the things people will pay serious money for are... unexpected.

Vintage science fiction books. First-edition Stephen King. Old collectibles. Unopened packages of vintage men's underwear selling for hundreds of dollars.

Yes. We also needed a moment after that one.

In this episode of BFD, Leslie and Shay talk about how she learned to spot valuable finds, why older products are becoming more desirable, how her sales experience helped her become a better reseller and why the things you naturally obsess over might be pointing you toward your next business.

Shay also shares how she and her husband are growing the business together and creating content around the strange, overlooked and surprisingly valuable things they find.

• How Shay replaced her sales income through vintage reselling
• Growing up around antiques and eventually finding her way back to them
• How to learn what vintage items and collectibles are actually worth
• Why research is such a huge part of successful reselling
• The weird things people are willing to pay hundreds of dollars for
• First-edition books, estate-sale finds and hidden value
• How high-ticket sales skills translate into a completely different business
• Bringing her husband into the business
• Building content around “weird things that sell online”
• Turning your obsessions and so-called bad habits into something profitable

Shay says her lifelong mission is basically to take her “bad habits,” lean into them and figure out how to make money from them.

Honestly? There are worse business plans.

Follow The Smarter Reseller on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Facebook.

Your business evolved. Your offers changed. You changed.

And meanwhile your website is still over there representing a version of you from two years ago like nobody told it there was a rebrand.

Leslie sits down with Rachel Seid, founder of Brightseid Design, to talk about websites, branding, copy, SEO, digital presence, and why your online brand should actually feel like the person people are about to hire.

Rachel and her team take a holistic approach to digital marketing, combining website design, branding, copywriting, and SEO strategy instead of treating each piece like it exists in its own little internet universe.

Because a beautiful website cannot save confusing positioning.

And great copy can only do so much if the rest of your digital presence doesn’t match.

In this episode, Leslie and Rachel talk about:

• Why your website needs personality
• How your website should reflect what it actually feels like to work with you
• Why branding, copy, website design, and strategy need to work together
• What happens when your business grows faster than your website
• Rachel’s concept of “duct tape web design”
• How often business owners may need to revisit their websites and branding
• Why your digital footprint matters before a producer, journalist, client, or collaborator ever contacts you
• Making sure your online presence matches how you’re positioning yourself in real life
• Whether swearing belongs on your website
• Why authenticity matters more than trying to make your brand look “professional”
• How Rachel built her business after struggling to find the right job
• The networking strategy that helped launch her company
• What happened when she emailed 500 people she had met and generated 25 leads
• Why entrepreneurs cannot build a business while being terrified of hearing “no”
• Staying visible enough that people remember you when they finally need what you offer
• Rachel’s vision for growing Brightseid Design into a larger agency

Rachel also shares one of the biggest things business owners underestimate about their websites:

It should be memorable.

Your website is one of the few pieces of your digital presence that you fully own. It is working for you when you’re asleep, speaking on a stage, meeting someone at an event, or sitting nowhere near your laptop.

So if someone lands there after Googling you, it should immediately make sense who you are, what you do, and why they should keep paying attention.

Learn more about Rachel and Brightseid Design at brightseiddesign.com.

You can also find her on Instagram at @MrsBrightseid and on LinkedIn under Rachel Seid.

The business conference world has created its own rules for speaking, sponsorships, event production, ticket sales and “collaboration,” and somehow convinced everyone those rules are normal.

Leslie has notes.

In this special solo episode of BFD, Leslie is breaking down what she has watched happen inside the business conference and coaching-event world, from speakers being expected to sell tickets to sponsored stages being presented like earned speaking opportunities to massive attendance numbers that don’t necessarily tell you who is actually in the room.

And to be very clear: this is not an anti-profit, anti-conference or even anti-pay-to-play episode.

Paying for the right stage can be a legitimate marketing strategy. Selling from the stage is a legitimate business model. Sponsors should get ROI. Event producers should make money.

The problem is when nobody calls the relationship what it actually is.

Leslie shares her perspective as an event producer, professional performer, speaker, talent developer and someone who has worked behind the scenes of major live productions, while also owning the mistakes she has made producing her own events.

In this episode:

• Why “pay-to-play” speaking is not automatically bad, but lack of transparency is
• The difference between a keynote speaker, sponsored speaker, presenter, affiliate and sponsor with stage time
• Why speakers are not responsible for solving an event producer’s ticket-sales problem
• How the word “collaboration” can become a sales quota
• Why massive attendance numbers don't necessarily equal impact or ROI
• What good event production actually requires behind the scenes
• Why flashy activations, celebrity speakers and expensive production can’t replace substance
• The difference between creating an emotional experience and creating actual transformation
• Why great performers don’t need spectacle to hold a room
• What speakers, sponsors and attendees should ask before saying yes to an event

Because a beautiful stage does not automatically mean a well-produced event, a packed room does not automatically mean the right audience, and being “selected to speak” means something very different if there is an invoice attached.

It might be time to stop outsourcing your discernment to follower counts, revenue screenshots, celebrity proximity and giant stages.

Sometimes the chandelier is gorgeous.

You should probably still check the foundation.

Learn more: www.theeverydaycelebrity.com

Follow Leslie: instagram.com/lesliejespersen

What if your birth chart gave you permission to become more of who you already know you are?

Leslie sits down with intuitive astrologer Danielle Rosado for a conversation about astrology, identity, visibility, grief, business, and what happens when life pulls you into a season where you barely recognize yourself.

Danielle shares how understanding her own chart, including her Leo Rising, helped her stop dimming herself and embrace the fact that she was meant to take up space. But that confidence was tested when a major breakup, changing friendships, and multiple personal transitions sent her into what she describes as a years-long grief portal.

At the same time, her business was growing.

Which creates a pretty complicated situation when your work requires you to be visible online and personally you would very much like to crawl into a cave and become a civilian.

In this episode, Leslie and Danielle talk about:

• How astrology can help you better understand your identity
• Danielle’s experience moving through heartbreak, grief, and an “ego death”
• What happens when your personal life and business growth are moving in completely different directions
• Giving yourself permission to slow down during major transitions
• Why difficult seasons aren’t necessarily signs that something has gone wrong
• Using your birth chart to understand the bigger picture of what’s happening in your life
• How astrology can support business decisions, launches, goals, and planning
• Why collective astrology advice doesn’t apply to everyone in the same way
• The problem with relying on AI to interpret something as nuanced as your birth chart
• Why two people experiencing the exact same astrological transit may have completely different experiences
• Letting go of the pressure to constantly create momentum
• Reconnecting with yourself after a season where you’ve felt disconnected, hidden, or unsure of who you are
• Building a healthier relationship with astrology without fear-mongering every time a planet goes retrograde

Danielle’s approach to astrology is deeply personal. Instead of using it to predict doom or tell people what they should be doing, she helps clients understand their own chart, current season, and unique life path so they can make more intentional decisions.

Because maybe you aren’t behind.

Maybe you’re in a transition.

And maybe the thing you keep trying to force needs a minute.

Learn more about Danielle, book a birth chart reading, or explore her seasonal and quarterly astrology readings at daniellerosado.com.

You can also find her on Instagram at alignedwithdanielle

What happens when the workouts that worked for you at 25 suddenly stop working?

Leslie sits down with Laura Smestad, personal trainer, women’s fitness coach, and founder of Strong Sisters Slay, for a deeper conversation about strength training, perimenopause, longevity, and why women may need to completely rethink the way they approach fitness as they get older.

Laura has been coaching women for 25 years and now focuses much of her work on women 35+, particularly through perimenopause and beyond. She shares why endless cardio, cutting calories, and pushing harder aren’t always the answer, and why strength training, recovery, mobility, and sustainable habits are becoming increasingly important.

And no, you do not need to suddenly become a person who lives at the gym.

Laura’s philosophy is simple: forget “all or nothing.” What if you went all or something?

In this episode, Leslie and Laura talk about:

• Why workouts that worked in your 20s may stop giving you the same results in your 30s, 40s, and beyond
• The role strength training can play during perimenopause and menopause
• Why Laura calls strength training the “fountain of youth”
• Building strength for longevity, independence, bone health, and everyday life
• Starting with 15-minute workouts instead of trying to overhaul your entire life overnight
• Why recovery and mobility deserve more attention as we age
• The physical, hormonal, emotional, and lifestyle pressures women are juggling during this stage of life
• Laura’s “all or something” approach to creating sustainable habits
• Her 14-day challenge for busy women and the power of stacking tiny habits
• Why prioritizing five minutes for yourself can be more powerful than it sounds
• Laura’s current dissertation studying the effects of weight training on women in perimenopause and beyond
• Why she’s especially interested in studying vitality, not only strength or body composition
• How the conversation around menopause and hormone therapy has changed over the last two decades
• The importance of women advocating for themselves and asking better questions about their health
• Why trying something you’re terrible at can still be ridiculously fun, including Laura’s ongoing mission to become a surfer

Laura also shares why fitness at this stage of life has become less about looking good in a bikini and much more about having the energy, strength, mobility, and independence to keep doing the things you love for decades to come.

Follow @StrongSistersSlay on Instagram for strength training, fitness, perimenopause education, and Laura’s latest programs and challenges.

BFD is where big personalities, bold ideas, interesting humans, and conversations worth having get the microphone.

Hosted by Leslie Jespersen

Kathryn Butler is a professional makeup artist who spent years behind the scenes glamming celebrities, traveling with JWOWW, and working award shows and TV before reinventing herself as a mom of two, a business owner, and the founder of the Paradise lip gloss line. Leslie pulls her out from behind the chair and into the talent seat to talk about what she's learned on set, the professionalism that separates a real BFD from a D-lister, and her years-long journey growing up inside Leslie's ecosystem.

In this episode:

Why the talent who's truly a BFD never leads with ego, and how the ones who do give themselves away

The unfiltered do's and don'ts of being on set (including what NOT to do while the cameras are rolling)

Years in JWOWW's makeup chair: friendship vs. professionalism, and knowing the difference

Kathryn's reinvention from celebrity MUA to doula to grounded mom who's allowed to love both makeup and motherhood

Leaving the all-or-nothing extremes (and the crunchy-mom rabbit hole) for nuance and autonomy

How motherhood checked her ego and made her better at the work

Her arc through Leslie's world: the first event, Brunch with Babes, Summer's Point, Nashville, Headliners Week

Building the Paradise lip gloss line, and why "Bombshell" is the bestseller that works on every skin tone

Connect with Kathryn Butler:💄 GlambyKathrynXO (Instagram) — best way to book or buy is a DM🏖️

Paradise — @welcometoparadisexo on Instagram

Connect with The BFD Show:

📺 Watch the network: watchbfdtv.com

📩 [email protected]

Carly Melchert is the founder of The Restored Soul, a certified keynote speaker, and one of the original BFDs. She and Leslie connected online during the pandemic, back when Carly was running a nonprofit and hiding every gift she had out of fear it would cost the organization donations. In this episode Carly traces her arc from hidden to headliner: trusting her intuition at every fork, leaving a stable job to bet on herself, and learning the hard way that finding your voice on stage is never a straight line.

In this episode:

• The "accidental" Instagram poll vote that started Carly's whole transformation
• Going from yoga to tarot to Reiki and sound healing, and learning to talk about her gifts out loud
• Why she left a good, rewarding, stable job, and how she helped the people around her feel safe about it
• The keynote that fell apart because the trauma wasn't as healed as she thought
• Her husband's gut-check: "if you're selling something, I'm not buying it, you don't seem safe"
• Doing the deep work in a safe container BEFORE the stage, not on it
• Owning what you share and what stays yours when life keeps happening mid-journey
• The open question of where her voice goes next: podcast, stage, sound baths, group Reiki
• The eagle in her yard, and the unapologetically real version of herself she shows online

Connect with Carly Melchert:

🔮 The Restored Soul

Connect with The BFD Show:

🎓 Apply to be a guest / find your stage: bfdshow.com

📺 Watch the network: watchbfdtv.com

📩 [email protected]

Famous is a frequency™.