Born without a choice

What happens when the child who once told you everything suddenly stops talking?

In this episode of Born Without a Choice, I’m joined by Dr. Elizabeth R. Henry, better known as Dr. Liz—a board-certified pediatrician, bestselling author, speaker, and youth advocate with more than 25 years of experience working with young people and families.

We talk about the communication gap between parents and teens, why conflict doesn’t necessarily mean something is broken, and how adults can rebuild trust without trying to control or “fix” young people.

Dr. Liz also shares insights from her SPARK Framework, including practical ways to communicate with empathy, understand what young people are experiencing, and create stronger relationships across generations.

If you’ve ever wondered why communicating with a teenager can feel so difficult—or how to reconnect when the emotional distance has already grown—this conversation offers practical guidance and hope.

📌 Contact / Learn More

Dr. Elizabeth R. Henry (Dr. Liz)
🌐 Dr. Liz Consulting⁠
📧 [email protected]
📞 732-873-1021

Book: SPARK: A Pediatrician’s Guide to Rebuilding Trust, Restoring Connection, and Igniting Youth Potential — currently available on Amazon.

What happens when you stop trying to become the person everyone else expects you to be?

In this episode, Sarah Duncan, a florist turned life coach, joins me for a conversation about perfectionism, self-trust, identity, and the courage to make your own choices.

Sarah shares how a powerful personal realisation helped her break free from the pressure to play a role in someone else’s story and become the main character in her own life. We talk about turning difficult experiences into trust, breaking away from expectations, making bold choices, and discovering what you actually want from life.

This is a conversation about remembering that you may not have chosen where your story began—but you can still choose where it goes.

📞 Contact Details

Sarah Duncan — Living Life Unleashed
📱 Instagram: @livinglife_unleashed⁠

What happens when politics starts shaping not only what we believe, but who we are?

In this episode, Brian Drinkwine—pastor and author of Kingdom Over Empire: Recovering the Gospel from Political Captivity—joins me for a conversation about faith, political identity, fear, outrage, tribalism, and what it means to stay grounded in your beliefs in a deeply divided world.

Brian shares his personal journey from political partisanship to questioning what was truly forming him spiritually. We talk about how the environments we’re born into can shape our beliefs, how political loyalty can influence our relationships and identity, and how we can learn to disagree without losing our compassion or connection.

This is a conversation about asking better questions, thinking beyond the pressure to choose a side, and discovering what truly deserves our deepest allegiance.

📞 Contact Details

Brian Drinkwine
🌐 Website: briandrinkwine.com⁠
📧 Email: [email protected]
📖 Book: Kingdom Over Empire: Recovering the Gospel from Political Captivity

What happens when you realise that the person you’ve become isn’t necessarily the person you were meant to be?

In this episode of Born Without a Choice, I sit down with Leah C. Gardiner, an Obie Award-winning theatre and film director, writer, actor, producer, transformation practitioner, and founder of QSLHealing.

Leah has spent decades helping people uncover what is true beneath the surface. From directing actors in rehearsal rooms to working with individuals through her transformation practice, she believes the process is about recognising who we have become, letting go of patterns that no longer serve us, and reconnecting with our deeper sense of self.

We talk about identity, intuition, inherited patterns, self-trust, transformation, and what it means to stop living according to expectations and start listening to your inner truth.

Leah also shares part of her own journey as an adoptee and how reconnecting with her biological family changed her understanding of intuition and what is possible when we learn to trust what we already know.

This is a conversation about identity, self-discovery, transformation, and finding the courage to become more fully yourself.

📇 Leah C. Gardiner — Contact Details

• QSLHealing: qslhealing.com⁠
• Reclamation™ Assessment / CTA: Take the Reclamation™ Assessment⁠
• Leah’s professional website: leahcgardiner.com⁠
• LinkedIn: Leah C. Gardiner — Quantum Soul Level Healing

What happens when something as natural as connection starts to feel complicated?

In this episode of Born Without a Choice, I sit down with Dr. Lori Davis, a board-certified Family Nurse Practitioner, AASECT Certified Sex Counselor, and sexuality counseling instructor at the University of Michigan.

Dr. Lori brings together medical, body-based, and relational perspectives to help people understand intimacy, connection, and mismatched desire without reducing everything to shame or labels.

We explore what it means to reconnect with yourself, understand your body and emotions, navigate relationship patterns, and approach intimacy with greater awareness and compassion.

This is a conversation about connection, self-understanding, relationships, and learning to be present with yourself and the people you care about.

📇 Dr. Lori Davis — Contact Details

• Website: dr-loridavis.com⁠
• Coaching: Work with Dr. Lori Davis⁠
• Email: [email protected]
• Phone: (607) 269-5773
• Location: Ithaca, New York
• Instagram: @dr.loridavis

What if some of the things we believe about Scripture have meanings we’ve never stopped to question?

In this episode of Born Without a Choice, I sit down with Dror Ben Ami, author of The Vineyard and The Final Jubilee, to explore Biblical metaphors, language, faith, and the possibility of seeing familiar Scripture through a completely different lens.

Dror shares insights from decades of studying Comparative Literature, Biblical language, Torah, and the works of scholar and mystic Maurice Nicoll. We discuss how metaphors can open new ways of understanding Biblical stories and why language matters when we try to understand ancient texts.

We also explore Dror’s interpretations of Jesus as a plowman and sower, the idea of the Torah as the Tree of Life, and the questions that arise when we challenge interpretations that have been accepted for centuries.

This is a thought-provoking conversation about faith, interpretation, language, tradition, and the courage to read Scripture with new eyes.

📇 Dror Ben Ami — Contact Details

• Website: Final Jubilee⁠
• Substack: Dror Ben Ami on Substack⁠
• Book: The Vineyard — Assessing the Biblical Landscape Through Metaphors
• Book: The Final Jubilee — The Restoration of Israel
• Amazon: The Vineyard — Amazon book page⁠

What happens when success starts to cost you your peace?

In this episode of Born Without a Choice, I sit down with Dr. Cynthia Coy, Founder and CEO of Uncaged Solutions, retired U.S. Air Force officer, certified John Maxwell Coach, and leadership strategist.

We talk about the pressure to achieve, leadership fatigue, self-worth, boundaries, authentic communication, and what happens when you spend so much time meeting expectations that you lose connection with yourself.

Dr. Coy shares insights from her military and corporate leadership experience and introduces her F.R.E.S.H. framework—Financial, Relational, Emotional, Spiritual, and Holistic—which encourages leaders to look at the whole person rather than just their professional success. Her message is simple but powerful: leadership should not have to cost you your peace or your purpose.

This conversation is for anyone who has ever felt overwhelmed, pressured to prove themselves, or successful on the outside but disconnected on the inside.

📇 Dr. Cynthia Coy — Contact Details

• Website: Uncaged Solutions⁠
• Personal/Professional Website: Dr. Cynthia Coy⁠
• Email: [email protected]
• Phone: +1 (571) 494-5625
• LinkedIn: Dr. Cynthia Coy on LinkedIn⁠

What happens when experiences from our past shape parts of us we never fully understood?

In this episode, I sit down with Carolyn Sherrow, author, speaker, survivor, and founder of Cords of Grace, to explore healing, identity, faith, emotional health, and the journey toward becoming whole.

Carolyn brings a unique perspective from both her personal experience and her 23 years as a physician assistant. We talk about the ways difficult experiences can affect the mind, the importance of compassionate support, the role of faith in healing, and why our past does not have to define who we become.

This is a powerful conversation about identity, forgiveness, resilience, faith, and hope—and a reminder that even when life gives us circumstances we never chose, we can still move toward healing and discover who we were meant to be.

📇 Carolyn Sherrow — Contact Details

• Website: Cords of Grace — Carolyn Sherrow⁠
• Email: [email protected]
• Book: My Personal Holocaust: Triumphing Over the Devastation of Trauma-Based Mind Control
• Ministry: Cords of Grace

What happens when a disagreement becomes something much bigger?

In this episode, I sit down with Rodney Phillips, author of Dissension: A Disagreement That Leads to Discord, to talk about ambition, loyalty, betrayal, communication, trust, and the choices that can change everything.

Rodney shares the remarkable story behind Dissension—a story he first began writing at 19, only to leave the manuscript untouched for 37 years before returning to it later in life. His experiences in leadership, the pharmaceutical industry, and more than 20 years of mentoring young athletes all shaped the lessons behind his work.

We explore what happens when communication breaks down, how disagreements can fracture trust, the thin line between loyalty and betrayal, and why unfinished dreams sometimes simply wait for the right moment.

This is a conversation about choices, consequences, character, communication, and finding the courage to finish what you started.

📇 Rodney Phillips — Contact Details

• Website: Rodney Phillips Author⁠
• Book: Dissension: A Disagreement That Leads to Discord
• Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

What happens when the career you’ve built no longer feels like the life you want?

In this episode of Born Without a Choice, I’m joined by Maggie Perotin, an international business and leadership coach, entrepreneur, former corporate operations leader, and host of The Diamond Effect Podcast.

Maggie spent more than a decade building a successful corporate career, eventually reaching Director-level leadership while overseeing complex teams and operations across North America. But after experiencing burnout, she began asking a bigger question: What if success could look different?

In 2019, Maggie started building her coaching business on the side while balancing a full-time career, an Executive MBA, and homeschooling during the pandemic. By 2022, she was ready to leave her corporate career and pursue her business full-time.

Today, she helps service-based business owners start, grow, and scale businesses without sacrificing their time, wellbeing, or quality of life. Through her DREAM-PLAN-DO approach, Maggie combines mindset, strategy, and high-performance habits to help entrepreneurs turn unreliable businesses into sustainable, client-attracting companies.

We talk about burnout, courage, purpose, entrepreneurship, leadership, taking control of your future, and what it means to build a life that actually belongs to you.

If you’ve ever felt trapped by a career, dreamed about building something of your own, or wondered whether success really has to come at the cost of your freedom, this conversation is for you.

📲 Contact Details

Maggie Perotin
Business & Leadership Coach | Founder of Stairway to Leadership | Host of The Diamond Effect Podcast

🌐 Website: Stairway to Leadership⁠
📧 Email:
💼 LinkedIn: Maggie Perotin on LinkedIn⁠
📸 Instagram: @maggie.perotin.s2l⁠
🎙️ Podcast: The Diamond Effect Podcast⁠

Maggie’s website also lists her business contact information, including her email and phone number.

CTA for listeners: Visit stairwaytoleadership.com⁠ to learn more about Maggie’s coaching, leadership work, and resources for building a successful business without burnout.