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Many women in particular aspire to a certain size.  Size Zero or Two is an ideal among movie stars and models, yet the average American woman stands at 5 feet, 4 inches, and wears a size 14 to 16.  We have a love/hate relationship with food, and categorize what we eat as 'good' or 'bad'.  Fitness programs abound, yet we have an assortment of maladies -- high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, allergies -- because of waning physical activity. Let's ditch the 'all or nothing' mentality around what we eat, aka 'diets' and feed the body we have.  Let's dress and honor our bodies and learn to have a healthier self-regard. Lisa Dahl is here to help us find a kinder way.

Lisa is a certified Intuitive Eating and Body Image Health Coach.  Through Intuitive Eating, she helps women make peace with their food and body. Lisa teaches women to listen, trust, and respect their bodies to be happy, healthy, and confident at any size. At Lisa Dahl Wellness, she offers her premier program Body Peace & Food Freedom. She has certifications in Intuitive Eating, health and wellness coaching, personal training, and group facilitation from Be Body Positive and Gratefulness.org

 Arts and culture value far exceeds the price of admission to theatre, concert, or museum exhibit. From the Uber ride to the venue, to dinner before, or cocktails after an event, that ticket you buy to an event stimulates the economy in myriad ways.  An active arts scene transforms a city or town into cultural and economic hubs where we can together for a shared human experience, through  a wide range of artistic expression and diversity of thought. Creating the conditions for a diverse and thriving cultural community takes vision and leadership. Michael Bobbitt and I discuss the necessity of culture to our emotional and economic health, how to make entertainment and the arts accessible to more people, and why he considers himself an artist with a 'Small A.'

Michael J. Bobbitt has dedicated his professional career to arts leadership. He is a theatre director, choreographer, and playwright. On February 1, 2021, he joined Mass Cultural Council as Executive Director, becoming the highest-ranking cultural official in Massachusetts. At the same time, Bobbitt was invited and agreed to serve on the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA) Board of Directors.

He has served as the Artistic Director of the New Repertory Theatre in Watertown, MA and Adventure Theatre-MTC in Maryland. At Adventure Theatre Bobbitt led the organization to be a respected theatre/training company in the DC region, and nationally influential professional Theatre for Young Audiences. He led a merger with Musical Theater Center, increased the organizational budget and audience, commissioned new works by noted playwrights, transferred two shows to Off-Broadway, built an academy, and earned dozens of Helen Hayes Award Nominations, garnering eight wins.

Bobbitt studied at Harvard Business School’s Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management, The National Arts Strategies Chief Executive Program, and Cornell University’s Diversity and Inclusion Certification Program. An Associate Professor of Theatre at both the Boston Conservatory at Berklee and Howard University, Bobbitt has also volunteered on numerous nonprofit boards, including Maryland Citizens for the Arts, Weissberg Foundation and ArtsBoston.

Bobbitt has directed/choreographed at Arena Stage, Ford’s Theatre, The Shakespeare Theatre Company, Olney Theatre Center, Studio Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Center Stage, Roundhouse Theatre, The Kennedy Center, and the Washington National Opera. His national and international credits include the NY Musical Theatre Festival, Mel Tillis 2001, La Jolla Playhouse, Children’s Theatre of Charlotte, Jefferson Performing Arts Center, and the Olympics. As a writer his work was chosen for the NYC International Fringe Festival and The New York and Musical Theatre Festival. He has plays published by Concord Theatricals/Rodgers and Hammerstein Theatricals, Broadway Publishing and Plays for Young Audiences. Bobbitt has received the Excel Leadership Award (Center for Nonprofit Advancement), the Emerging Leader Award (County Executive’s Excellence in the Arts and Humanities), and Maryland Theatre Guide’s Person of the Year Award. 

Are you embarking on a new adventure and bumping into Naysayers?   Our guest,  Liz O'Neil shows how to manage well-meaning critics. She talks to Rebecca Moore about her journey from married pre-school administrator, to single working law student to Estate Attorney. All while raising four children.
Her one-step-at-a-time approach brought her clarity, a modicum of sanity, and a career that satisfies her smarts, ambition and that social advocacy streak that drives her to help and serve help others people.

Liz O'Neil is currently an Associate Attorney at Constant Law Group, P.C. Liz graduated cum laude from New England Law | Boston (2020). She received the Boston Service Award at graduation as voted on by the faculty at New England Law. While in law school, Liz interned at the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office Trial Division and was an Honors Judicial Intern with the Suffolk County Juvenile Court.  She also worked at a Legal Aid clinic and for a domestic relations attorney. She is a member of the Women's, Massachusetts, Boston, and the American Bar Associations. In addition to her Juris Doctorate, Liz has a Master's Degree in Education from Harvard University (1992)  and a Bachelor of Arts Degree with a major in Psychology from Swarthmore College (1990). Liz was the Director of Community Nursery School in Lexington, MA, for thirteen years prior to law school. Outside of work, Liz keeps active in the Lexington community and busy with her four children and their puppy, Charlie.

Do you suffer from 'Compare and Despair Syndrome'?  Well, give up that nasty habit. Confidence coach Pauline Cheung is back to talk about five common comparison traps, and how you can work to free yourself from them. 

We also talk about how different people perceive courage, and courageous public acts and the subsequent consequences, as we saw played out during the  Olympics, when gymnast Simone Biles pressed pause during  the competition.

We take a look at the benefits of growing organizations that make room for a variety of backgrounds, ideas and lifestyles, as well as thoughts on how we're doing with inclusion in those organizations.

If we teach what we need to learn, Pauline Cheung learned confidence the hard way. As one of the few Asians in a predominantly white town in England, she felt like an outsider, and not free to be herself.  Her college experience introduced her to a world where she found more acceptance, and people who also looked like her.

Through hard work, curiosity and risk taking, Pauline worked as  an international executive working directly with C-suite and senior level executives at leading Fortune 500 companies, including The Walt Disney Company and Ralph Lauren Corporation, in the areas of strategy, marketing and business development.  She now supports professional women to develop the mindset and the skillset to trust their own voice and create professional and personal success,  without conceding to people-pleasing and perfectionism.

https://paulinecheungcoaching.com
https://www.linkedin.com/company/pauline-cheung-coaching

Confidence. It can be an elusive quality. Especially when we feel like an outsider, or 'other'.  Pauline Cheung knows what it feels like to not fit in, and not feel good enough.  Raised in a white working class town in England, Pauline felt the barbs hurled at her for her Asian heritage. Bullied by peers, she wanted to please her teachers by excelling in academics, and please her parents by taking care of her younger siblings. She discovered her compliance with other people's expectations were not enough. Pauline and I discuss what it takes to develop confidence, how to work with fear to achieve our goals and the value of inclusion in this week's episode. Thanks for listening.

About Pauline:  Cheung,  a women’s leadership speaker and coach is on a mission to show professional women how to trust their voices and create professional and personal success – without conceding to people-pleasing and perfectionism. 

Despite 12+ years as an international executive working with Fortune 500 C-suite and senior-level leaders in the areas of strategy, marketing and business development, Pauline comes from humble beginnings. She knows how challenging it is to step into the unknown and navigate the fear of failure and judgment. Her deep compassion for women wrestling with similar desires and demons helps her coaching clients and audience members break out of their fears and step into full visibility as their unique and brilliant selves. 

Pauline is a professionally certified coach with the Co-Active Training Institute, a leading ICF-accredited organization, and she holds an MBA from Cass Business School. She also serves on the coaching faculty for the LEAP Organization (Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics). 

Hi and welcome to Embark. Today Elizabeth 'Beth' Splaine is in studio to talk about her latest novel  The Devil's Grace.  Aside from her excellent writing, we talk about healthcare, ghosts and the grace that comes with true forgiveness.

A woman of remarkable and varied achievements, you can read more about Elizabeth on her website.

A few details about her book in these liner notes:

0.63 seconds. That’s the amount of time Angela Brennan has to process the oncoming truck that destroys half of her family and irrevocably alters her life. Not long after the accident, death intervenes once more and snatches her remaining family member. Facing life alone, Angela returns to work as a cardiac surgeon, saving other people’s lives, but questioning why hers was spared. Desperate and distraught, Angela makes the decision to join her family by taking her own life. Before she acts on her plan, however, she receives an anonymous note indicating that her daughter’s death could have been avoided. The information provides Angela with renewed purpose and she becomes determined to find meaning in her catastrophic loss. Angela confronts the healthcare power brokers and discovers lies, complicity, and corruption at the highest levels. As she uncovers the truth about her daughter’s death, barriers are thrown in her way that threaten to destroy all she has left: her career and reputation. Devil’s Grace follows Angela’s path from devastation to redemption, as her decision to choose hope over despair and kindness over cruelty tells a timeless, yet timely tale. 

Elizabeth B. Splaine wrote the Dr. Julian Stryker series of “Blind” thrillers (Blind Order and Blind Knowledge), as well as Devil’s Grace, the winner of the When Words Count writing competition, released through Greenwriters Press. Her next book, Swan Song, an historical fiction novel, will be released in October 2021 through Woodhall Press.

Prior to writing, Elizabeth earned an AB in Psychology from Duke University and an MHA from University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She spent eleven years working in health care before switching careers to become a professional opera singer and voice teacher.

When not writing, Elizabeth teaches classical voice in Rhode Island where she lives with her husband, sons, and dogs.

We like to mix it up a little on Embark, so every third Thursday of the month, we'll Embark on Your Third Act. InANutshell Consulting's Rebecca More and Third Act Quest's Diana Place join me to ponder what's on our minds as we enter that phase of life where we hopefully have a little more wisdom, while we hold onto that joie de vivre to follow our hearts.

After a short conversation about what Diana, Rebecca and I  we wish we knew when about finances when we were younger,  we bring in expert help to talk about what we can do to stay financial -- and emotionally -- healthy.  Welcome Nancy Butler from Above All Else.

Nancy built a business from scratch as a single parent with no other source of income, from $2,000 to $200 million in assets under management. Since selling the business she has coached businesses in different industries assisting them in providing a better level of service for their clients and customers while increasing their business an average of 300%. 

Nancy is a professional motivational speaker and award-winning author with over 40 years of experience managing businesses and helping individuals live happier more successful lives. Nancy was appointed a delegate to The United Nations for The Commission on The Status of Women in 2018, 2019 and 2020 and has been quoted in many local and national publications, including Money magazine, USA Today, Forbes, US News and World Report, The Financial Planning Association magazine, AARP, The Chicago Tribune, The New England Real Estate Journal, and many more. 

One of Bobbie Carlton's missions is to transform the 'manel,' what she calls the 'all-male, all pale and all stale conference panels. In a quest for more diversity, and promote women as thought leaders, she has established Innovation Women. We talk about the job market, VC funding,  how to get those sought-after speaking gigs, and when to trade your value as an expert for long-term opportunity.


Bobbie Carlton is the founder of Carlton PR & Marketing, Innovation Nights and Innovation Women, or, as she calls them, the day job, the night job and the dream job. She’s an award-winning marketing and PR professional who speaks regularly on marketing, public speaking, startups and women’s issues. During the pandemic, she engaged in some retail therapy and bought two additional companies, My Speaker Leads, and Lioness Magazine. She still gets the occasional comment on having an “NPR” radio voice when she appears on a podcast and still remembers all her call signs from her years as a DJ and radio newsperson during the 80s.