Bonnie Phillips has built three businesses: a photography studio serving female founders and families, a fine art portrait brand for schools, and a new venture still in its early stages. In this episode, Bonnie sits down with Ann Marie to talk about what it actually looks like to grow a business while raising a family, including the parts that don't make it onto social media.

Bonnie gets honest about the isolation of solo entrepreneurship, why it took her ten years to become an "overnight success," and how she's learned to say no to the wrong clients. She and Ann Marie dig into a question every ambitious person eventually asks: is success about ambition, or about contentment, and can you have both?

This conversation covers finding your ideal client, building community outside the screen, and knowing your worth after years of chasing the wrong metrics.

Find Bonnie at bonniephillipsphotography.com and on Instagram @bonniephillipsphotos.

Lisa McJunkin, LMFT and co-owner of Daydream MD, joins Ann Marie to talk about running multiple businesses, over-functioning, and what actually regulates a nervous system on a normal Tuesday. Lisa has specialized in complex trauma for two decades and now blends executive coaching with integrative health work, including ketamine-assisted therapy, functional medicine, and trauma recovery. She and Ann Marie get into why business owners run their companies with more structure than their marriages, how high-achieving people mistake action for the whole job, and why over-functioning so often gets mistaken for a personality trait instead of a pattern.

They also dig into what the nervous system actually is, why three conscious exhales a day can shift how intense a moment feels, and why Lisa believes you don't have to choose between taking care of your business and taking care of yourself.

What we cover:

• Why we run our businesses with more structure than our relationships
• The difference between compassion fatigue and burnout, and how to tell them apart
• Over-functioning: what it actually is and how to recognize it in yourself
• A plain-language breakdown of the nervous system and how it drives behavior
• Proactive vs. reactive breathing, and why three exhales a day matters
• Why "get yourself together first, then handle the business" is the wrong order

Lisa McJunkin is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, executive coach, and co-owner of Daydream MD, an integrative health and wellness clinic in San Diego: daydreammd.com

Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

Guest: Lisa McJunkin, LMFT and Executive Coach: daydreammd.com

Alexa Gusman (née Efraimson) spent eight years as a professional runner with Nike, signing at 17 and competing against women years older than her for her entire career. Today she's a registered dietitian with a master's in nutrition and nutrigenomics, working with athletes and everyday clients on performance nutrition, body image, and their relationship with food.

In this episode, Alexa opens up about the body image and confidence struggles that shaped her career and never fully disappeared after she retired. She and Ann Marie talk about the myth that leaner means faster, what actually happens in the body when we under-fuel, and why rest is often the missing piece in performance, not the enemy of it. They also get into the outside comments about weight and bodies that stick with us for years, and how Alexa rebuilt her relationship with food, movement, and confidence on her own terms.

In this episode:

• Why leaner doesn't mean faster or fitter
• What under-fueling really does to the body and brain
• Grind culture, rest, and redefining productivity
• The lasting impact of comments about our bodies
• Rebuilding confidence from the inside out

Guest: Alexa Gusman, Registered Dietitian, M.S. Nutrition and Nutrigenomics
Instagram: @alexagefraimson | Website: fuelingforward.com

In this candid conversation, Laura Sudano is a Certified Mental Performance Consultant® and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist describes a career spent at the intersection of high pressure and high performance. A former collegiate volleyball player, she's worked with collegiate and professional athletes, coaches, and sports medicine teams, including serving as Director of Behavioral Science at Wake Forest Baptist Health. She's also a coach at Rose & Stone, and this episode is an introduction to the work she does with our clients.

In this conversation, Laura breaks down what mental performance actually means and why it's different from general coaching: it's the set of tools, like emotional regulation, visualization, and somatic work, that help people execute under pressure when the margin for error is small. She and Ann Marie talk about why success can hide the exact skills that created it, why the off-season is often the best time to build mental performance habits, and why athletes moving up a level often get exposed in ways that force them to adapt.

Laura also talks about identity, from the shift that comes with being injured or retiring from sport, to the parallel identity shift that comes with becoming a parent. She shares how she brings the same mental performance framework to postpartum and peripartum support, and why she believes the emotional demands of new parenthood deserve to be taken as seriously as those of professional athletes.

What we cover:

• What mental performance actually is, and how it's different from typical coaching
• Why success can obscure the process that created it
• The identity shift that comes with injury, retirement, or becoming a parent
• Supporting high performers through the demands of peripartum and postpartum life
• Why humor and honesty matter as much as skill in coaching

Laura is also a coach at Rose & Stone LLC, specializing in mental performance coaching for executives, athletes, and high performing professionals.

Connect with Laura through Rose & Stone at roseandstonellc.com.

Dr. Brittany Chidley talks about running a generalist private practice instead of niching down, and why the "pick one specialty" advice she got in grad school never fit how she likes to work. She and Ann Marie get into what it's actually taken to build and lead a team of therapists, including the ongoing challenge of holding standards like punctuality with grace, and why her team has ended up being all women without ever setting out to make it that way.

They also talk about the harder logistical side of running a therapy practice, like whether to keep taking insurance, and Brittany shares what she's building with EI Corkboard, a free resource hub connecting the community to emotional health resources and connecting providers to each other.

What we cover:

• Why Brittany chose to stay a generalist instead of niching into one specialty
• Leading a team of therapists and navigating accountability with empathy
• The insurance dilemma facing therapists today
• Building EI Corkboard, a resource hub for emotional health
• Why everyone has emotional health, just like physical health

Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

Guest: Dr. Brittany Chidley, licensed psychologist, LMFT, and owner of Trails Therapy: https://trailstherapy.com/ founder of EI Corkboard: andwefeel.com | eicorkboard.com

Katherine Flechaus reframes people-pleasing, perfectionism, and imposter syndrome, not as flaws, but as safeguard strategies we built to cope with something we didn't understand at the time. She and Ann Marie talk about where these patterns actually come from, why they stuck around even after they stopped being useful, and how to recognize the strength underneath them.

They also get into what it looks like to bring these patterns into corporate spaces and leadership roles, why women are so often taught to shrink their instincts for connection, and Katherine's approach to building a resiliency plan instead of expecting a pattern to disappear for good.

What we cover:

• Why people-pleasing, perfectionism, and imposter syndrome are safeguard strategies, not flaws
• Where these patterns actually start, and why they worked at the time
• The difference between fixing someone and taking away their ability to learn
• Why women's relational strengths often get undervalued in corporate spaces
• Building a resiliency plan instead of expecting old patterns to disappear

Katherine Flechaus is an LCSW and founder of Aligned Core Life Coaching, where she helps ambitious women recognize the protective patterns shaping their careers and relationships.

Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

Guest: Katherine Flechaus, LCSW and Core Belief Strategist: alignedcorelifecoaching.com

Dr. Bluma Sapir on Pairs, Acknowledgement, and Why No One Grows Up in the Same Household

Dr. Bluma Sapir has spent her career studying what happens in the space between two people. As a psychologist who's worked with couples, parent-adult child relationships, siblings, and even workplace pairs, she's built a framework she calls "pair work," the idea that so much of our suffering and our healing happens not within one person, but in the dynamic between two.

In this conversation, Bluma traces her own path into this work back to her childhood, where she became the emotional bridge in her family long before she had language for it. She and Ann Marie talk about why one partner in a relationship often carries the emotional labor while the other struggles to express themselves, and the skill it takes to learn both. Bluma introduces her concept of "acknowledgement, not apology," a way of validating someone's pain without taking on blame for intent, and unpacks why she believes respect between parents and adult children has to be earned rather than assumed.

They also get into the cultural moment around family estrangement and "no contact," what Bluma sees in her own practice about who's actually seeking help, and her nightly practice of forgiveness that lets people rebuild the capacity for connection after being hurt.

What we cover:

• Why Bluma calls relationships "pairs" instead of just couples
• The difference between apologizing and truly acknowledging someone's pain
• Why parent-adult child conflict often isn't about what actually happened
• Her honest take on estrangement, respect, and what actually helps repair a relationship
• A simple nightly practice for building the capacity to trust again

Dr. Bluma Sapir is also a contractor at Rose & Stone LLC, serving as the team's in-house relationship expert, specializing in family, sibling, and couples dynamics.

Connect with Dr. Bluma Sapir on Instagram and Facebook, and at thepairinstitute.com (coming soon).

Kayla Shurson never planned on owning a business. She was five years into working at a small tax and accounting firm when the founder decided to retire and offered to sell it to her. Kayla said yes, took over ownership on January 1, 2020, and then spent the next several months learning what it actually means to lead a team through a global crisis while running a seasonal business that depends on cash flow discipline all year round.

In this conversation, Kayla talks about the early scramble of those first six months as an owner, why she sought out business coaching almost immediately, and the slower, harder transition of becoming the boss to people who used to be her peers. She and Ann Marie get into what it actually looks like to build a family-style team culture while still holding people accountable, why Kayla doesn't like saying sorry (and what she's learned about doing it anyway), and how she's grown her team from six people to seventeen.

They also talk candidly about money: the gender gap in financial confidence, why so many business owners avoid looking at their numbers, and Kayla's own advice for anyone who feels behind on understanding their finances. Kayla shares what she needs support with right now, even after nearly doubling her team and building a brand-new office space for her firm.

In this episode:

• Buying an existing business versus building one from scratch
• Learning to lead a team that used to be your peers
• Building a family-style culture while holding boundaries as a leader
• Why proactive communication is Shurson Group's top value
• Advice for business owners who avoid looking at their numbers

Connect with Kayla at shursongroup.com or @shursongroup.
Connect with Ann Marie at roseandstonellc.com or @roseandstonellc.
Kayla's Podcast Recommendations: Her Money w/ Jean Chatzky; Netwoth and Chill w/ Vivian Tu; Financial Feminist w/ Tori Dunlap
Kayla's Favorite IG Financial Gurus: Haley Sacks - Mrs. Down Jones; Tori Dunlap - Her First 100k; Vivian Tu - Your Rich BFF
Shout-out to our Executive Leadership Coach Kris Plachy who's guided both Kayla and Ann Marie through many twists and turns in their businesses.
Photos of Kayla by https://www.1210.photography/ and https://mckenziellaphotography.mypixieset.com/

It's the start of Q3, and if you're anything like most business owners, you're probably looking at your revenue and your goals and thinking it's not enough. In this episode, Ann Marie walks through a mid-year reflection practice, looking back at January and tracing everything that's actually changed since then.

She shares an honest look at her own last six months, including the grief that showed up when she returned to Arizona a year after selling her first business, the identity shift that came with stepping away from a company she built for almost a decade, and the decision to move from therapy into business coaching. She talks about getting certified as a coach, building a small team of licensed therapists turned coaches, launching the Four Pillars course, and what it's actually looked like to start over in a completely different business landscape than the one she started in ten years ago.

This episode is an invitation to take stock of your own year so far. What did you try? What didn't work? What did you learn? And how are you talking to yourself about the person you were in January?

In this episode:

• A guided mid-year reflection for founders and leaders
• Ann Marie's own six months, from grief to rebuilding
• Why she moved from therapy to business coaching
• Building a team of licensed therapist-coaches at Rose & Stone
• The Four Pillars framework: know your numbers, establish your vision and values, set clear expectations, know yourself

Connect with Ann Marie at roseandstonellc.com or @roseandstonellc.

This episode is something a little different: an actual recorded coaching call with Lauren Stephens, co-founder and CEO of Dudley Stephens, the fleece apparel brand she built with her sister Kaki into an eight-figure business.

Lauren and Ann Marie have been friends since college, which means this conversation goes deep fast. Lauren talks openly about the shame she's carried around never raising outside capital, what it felt like to watch her company's explosive early growth level off, and the identity crisis that came with learning to manage a team for the first time. She also gets into something most founders don't say out loud: the guilt of being pulled in two directions, one part of her chasing bigger and faster growth, the other deeply protective of the autonomy and family-first business she actually built.

This is a real coaching session, not a polished interview, and it shows what it actually looks like to work through the mental chatter that holds founders back.

What we cover:

• Why staying self-funded isn't a failure, even when it feels that way
• The shame cycle that comes with comparing your business to others who raised money
• Learning to manage people and lead through conflict without taking everything personally
• Reconnecting with the original reason you started your business in the first place

Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

Guest: Lauren Stephens, co-founder and CEO of Dudley Stephens: www.dudley-stephens.com
Special Shout-Out: Kris Plachy, our fabulous business coach and CEO of The Visionary CEO: https://www.thevisionary.ceo/