Bren Marrick

Author of Dicks I’ve Met Online | Exploring Self-Discovery Through Uncomfortable Experiences

I didn’t set out to tell a story like this. I set out to tell the truth—about what happens when the life you built no longer fits, the quiet courage it takes to open doors you thought would stay closed, and the unexpected humor you find while figuring it out.

At a certain point, I realized my life had been shaped more by habit than choice. So I started paying attention—to what I wanted, what I avoided, and what I kept explaining away. Writing became a way to look at things honestly, without judgment, and with a little more compassion for every version of myself along the way.

That reflection became my book, Dicks I’ve Met Online: How I Turned Casual Meetups Into a Journey of Discovery.

It’s not a guidebook. It’s an honest account—sometimes funny, sometimes uncomfortable—about connection, self-discovery, and what our experiences reveal when we actually pay attention to them.

In my writing and in conversation, I’m drawn to intimacy, identity, and the messy truths of everyday life—because those are the stories that actually connect us.

If something in this conversation resonates, I hope it leaves listeners feeling a little more seen, and a little less alone in figuring things out.

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Mark Kollar

Retirement Income Specialist | Helping Retirees Avoid Running Out of Money | Author of The Retirement Navigator”

Our guest today is Mark Kollar, a retirement income specialist and the author of The Retirement Navigator. Mark is the owner of Kollar Wealth Advisors, a Registered Investment Advisory Firm, and has spent more than 34 years helping retirees protect their assets and create reliable income streams.

He’s been featured in major media outlets including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, CNBC, The Washington Post, and Fox Business, and as the host of Retirement & Income Radio in Chicago.

Mark specializes in helping retirees avoid one of the biggest risks they face—running out of money in retirement—and today he’s going to share some of the most common mistakes people make and how to protect yourself from them.

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Book 101 Review in its sixth season features Paula Panariello as my guest. Join us for a captivating and insightful conversation as Paula shares her journey as an author, the inspiration behind her work, and the experiences that have shaped her personal and professional life. Through thoughtful discussion, we explore the creative process, the challenges and rewards of writing, and the powerful role that storytelling plays in educating, inspiring, and connecting people across different backgrounds and experiences.

In this episode, Paula offers valuable perspectives on perseverance, personal growth, and the importance of following one's passion despite obstacles and uncertainty. We delve into the themes and messages found within her work, the lessons she hopes readers will take away, and the impact that literature can have on fostering understanding, empathy, and meaningful change. Whether you are an aspiring writer, an avid reader, or someone seeking inspiration from a remarkable journey, this conversation provides wisdom, encouragement, and a deeper appreciation for the transformative power of books and storytelling.

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Michelle Masters 

A Personal Development Trainer and Coach since 1995, Michelle Masters’

work is an innovative alchemy of Neuro-Science based change techniques, Family Constellation work, and quantum healing modalities, combined with profound understandings of what creates transformation and lasting change for people.

Her popular Money Magic workshop, and the book that followed, have helped people all over the world to transform their lives and money. She has been nicknamed The Coaches’ Coach because so many of the top coaches and trainers have worked with her.

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Ryan Wiksell

NEW BOOK! The Last Seder of James: A Journey Through Passover

Dr. Lon Wiksell founded Our Father Abraham in 2016 to promote awareness of the Jewishness of Jesus and Christianity, as well as to educate churchgoers about Jewish festivals like Passover. This just so happens to be the topic of their first published work, a fiction/nonfiction hybrid entitled The Last Seder of James: A Journey Through Passover, published by Morgan James out of New York, and hitting bookstores everywhere August 5, 2025.

The Last Seder of James combines historical fiction and expert biblical teaching to shine a light on the centrality of Passover to the Christian faith. In the Story, John the Apostle visits James the brother of Jesus in prison, the night before his execution. Together, they celebrate Passover with a Seder, or ceremonial Passover meal. The Teaching that follows provides commentary on the Story, and goes on to explore the densely symbolic 15 steps of the Passover Seder. Ultimately, Passover reveals God’s eternal covenant promises, and their fulfillment in Jesus from the Nativity, to the Last Supper, to the Cross.

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Raeanne Johnson

Faith-rooted support for Mamas and Minds

Raeanne is a Pediatric Mental Health Specialist, Nurse Practitioner and homeschooling mother of three. Her superpower is taking hard neuroscience concepts and pairing them with core Biblical truths and sharing that in a way that feels approachable and understandable.

I am equal parts Biblical, practical and clinical and I desire to provide tools and resources to support mams and minds.

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Roberta Ravella

Founder and Creator of The Joy Experiment The Heart and Science of Creating Joy, Ease & Flow in Your Life and Business

Roberta Ravella is a speaker, strategist, and founder of The Joy Experiment™, a framework designed to help women align their energy, values, and business growth without sacrificing themselves in the process. With a background in trust-based marketing and energetic alignment, Roberta brings two decades of experience helping entrepreneurs shift from hustle and overwhelm into clarity, ease, and resonance. Her workshops and writing invite ambitious women to build joyful, values-driven businesses that feel as good as they look.

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Dan Leiva

Founder | Strategic Advisor |Best-Selling Author

Every week, another company announces they are replacing people with AI. Six months later, customers stop trusting the experience, employees stop exercising judgment, and nobody can explain who is responsible for what the system is doing.

Dan Leiva has spent 25 years inside that problem at Apple, Intuit, eBay, and Travelers. His new book #1 Best-Seller on Amazon in two categories, AMPLIFIED, is not about whether to use AI. It is about what most organizations skip: the governance, accountability, and decision design that determine whether AI makes you stronger or more fragile.

He is a calm, direct interview. No hype. Just the operating reality and what to do about it.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

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Rohit Bassi

Originator of PQ — The Third Quotient. #1 International Bestselling Author. Offering a distinctive perspective from being a Founder, Operator, Investor, and Advisor who has lived in 7 countries.

I grew up as a military kid in India. My father served in the Indian Air Force for 21 years. We moved every two to three years. New schools, new friends, new everything — then start again. I didn't have a single friend from childhood by the time I was an adult. But I gained something more valuable. I learned to adapt, read rooms, and build trust quickly. I just didn't know those were skills yet.

At 17, my family moved to New Zealand. We experienced racism and bullying the moment we arrived. Not just me — the whole family. It was the first time in my life I felt like an outsider in a way I couldn't understand. What got us through was simple: work hard, pay your dues, do the right thing, stick to your values.

I was always a nerd. Back then that wasn't cool. I finished engineering near the top of my class, went back to teach it at 22 — only a year out of university — and realized quickly that theory without practice has limits. I had a professor in a research meeting who asked how the work was going. I told him honestly: nothing you taught me is actually useful. He laughed and offered me a teaching role on the spot.

I had a boss who offered me an engineering promotion to Singapore. I told him I wanted to be sitting in his chair at half his age. He laughed but my comment made him want me to stay even more. I left and applied to six business schools having never been to America. Got into five. Chose Wharton. Showed up in Philadelphia having never set foot in the country let alone on campus. Fell in love with the city.

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Christopher Mckeithen

Founder and Combat Veteran Teaching Companies to See Their Own Blind Spots.

Spent 7 years serving in the U.S. Army, including a combat deployment to Iraq. When I came home, I brought with me the same discipline, mission focus, and zero-tolerance for blind spots that kept people alive downrange and after years of figuring things out and reintegrating back to civilian life I chose to apply it to cybersecurity. What I found when I entered the security world surprised me. Most small and mid-sized businesses are completely exposed and have no idea. Not because they don't care but because nobody has ever shown them what their external attack surface actually looks like. They think they have a vulnerability problem. They actually have a visibility problem. They have come accustomed to being reactive instead of proactive. That gap is why I built Aegis Cyber Defense. I founded the company in 2026 as a Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business, and I built the platform from scratch while attending cybersecurity school full time and raising a newborn at home. Aegis gives IT Directors and Security Managers at companies with no dedicated security team the same exposure intelligence that enterprise organizations pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for. I'm not a vendor. I'm a practitioner and a founder who has lived the mission. I talk about security the way real IT professionals think about it without the jargon, without the fear mongering, and without pretending this stuff is harder than it needs to be. What I bring to your audience: a combat veteran's perspective on risk and resilience, a founder's honest account of building a cybersecurity company from zero, and a contrarian take on why most security advice misses the real problem entirely.

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