Her Story Unscripted

"Behind every craving for alcohol is some unmet need. Alcohol is like a sticking plaster." — Kate Bee

There's a kind of struggling with alcohol that never makes it into the movies. No crash, no rock bottom — just years of feeling like something's a little off every time you reach for a glass of wine.

Kate Bee knows that feeling well. She spent her twenties and most of her adult life before thirty in what she calls the gray area, before finally stopping — for good — thirteen years ago. Since then, she's built The Sober School and helped more than 4,000 women rethink their relationship with alcohol without shame or a lifelong label. Kate and I talk about mommy wine culture, the 100-day mindset shift that finally worked for her, and the confidence that showed up once she stopped numbing it.

If you've ever wondered whether you need permission to question your relationship with alcohol, this conversation might be exactly what you need to hear. New episodes every Thursday on all major podcast platforms.

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Timestamps

• 00:00 — Introduction — Heather welcomes Kate Bee
• 03:12 — Kate's early drinking years and life without a "rock bottom"
• 13:05 — Mommy wine culture and how alcohol gets marketed to women
• 18:33 — The 100-day mindset shift that finally worked
• 20:30 — What changed in Kate's body, career, and confidence
• 23:34 — Heather's own honest reflection on her relationship with wine
• 40:24 — Where to connect with Kate Bee and The Sober School 

About Kate Bee

Kate Bee is the founder of The Sober School, a coaching platform that helps women stop drinking and start living — without shame, labels, or deprivation. A former BBC journalist and certified life coach, Kate now empowers women across the globe to navigate alcohol-free living with confidence and joy. Her flagship program, Getting Unstuck, has supported more than 4,000 women in transforming their relationship with alcohol. Kate lives near Manchester, UK.

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"I was just really in a dark place, and that's when I started Organized 365." — Lisa Woodruff

There's a stack of papers somewhere in your house you've been meaning to deal with. Maybe it's in a drawer, maybe it's a basket by the door. For Lisa Woodruff, that stack of overwhelm became the thing that changed the whole direction of her life.

In this episode, Lisa Woodruff — founder of Organize 365 — joins Heather to share the honest, unscripted story of the recession, the family loss, and the years of invisible overwhelm that led her to build a company around one radical idea: your home is a business, and you're the CEO. They talk about the five levels of work happening in every household, why paper is the hardest thing to let go of, and the Sunday Basket system that's changed how thousands of women run their weeks.

If you've ever felt like the mental load of running a home is quietly running you, this real life story about women, order, and starting over is for you. New episodes every Thursday on all major podcast platforms.

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Timestamps
00:00 — Introduction — Heather welcomes Lisa Woodruff.
02:17 — Lisa's path from stay-at-home mom to founding Organize 365.
08:42 — The recession, her parents' divorce, and losing her dad — all at once.
15:32 — The five levels of work happening in every home.
24:11 — Why paper is the hardest thing to organize, and what to actually keep.
31:46 — What the Sunday Basket is and how it changes your week.
44:18 — Where to connect with Lisa Woodruff.

About Lisa Woodruff

Lisa Woodruff is a productivity specialist, home organization expert, and founder and CEO of Organize 365®. After spending a decade as a stay-at-home mom, she built a company that helps women organize their homes and their paper with functional systems that actually work — including her bestselling Sunday Basket® system. Her top-rated Organize 365® Podcast has surpassed 25 million downloads, and she's the author of several Amazon bestselling books, including The Paper Solution. Lisa is in the final stages of a PhD in Psychology, where her research focuses on operationalizing the definition of housework and testing real interventions for homeowners. Her mission is to free every woman to pursue her unique passion and gift with the world.

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"If you're the caretaker of someone in any way, it will also take a toll on you. And it's okay to then say, I need someone else to help me while I help this person."— Amelia Castillo

There's a version of self-care we've all been sold — bubble baths, candles, a glass of wine we didn't even want. And then there's the real thing, the kind that shows up quietly in your skin when nobody's watching.

Amelia Castillo is a Sonoma County esthetician with 17 years of experience, and in this episode she shares the honest story of what happened to her own skin when her best friend was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer. We talk about the nervous system, perimenopause and hormones, why women carry so much guilt around self-care, and what it really costs to hold someone else's hand through the hardest moment of their life.

If you've ever felt like your body was trying to tell you something, or you've been the strong one for someone else while quietly falling apart, this conversation is for you. New episodes every Thursday on all major podcast platforms.

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Timestamps

00:00 — Introduction — Heather welcomes Amelia Castillo.

01:49 — Amelia's 17 years as an esthetician and how her approach has evolved.

04:05 — The nervous system, the skin, and why it gets overlooked.

08:17 — Redefining self-care beyond bubble baths and wine.

23:29 — Caring for her best friend through stage four breast cancer.

19:41 — Perimenopause, sleep, and the evening routine that changes everything.

47:26 — Where to connect with Amelia. 

About Amelia Castillo

Amelia Castillo is a wife, mom, esthetician, and Integrative Nutrition Health Coach with nearly two decades of experience. As the owner of Bare Skin Beauty, she is passionate about helping women feel confident in their skin through a blend of science, wellness, and real life sustainability.

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"It's totally her minerals, it's not her."— Dori Martin

There's a particular kind of tired that doesn't go away with sleep — the brain fog, the inflammation, the mood swings that make you feel like a stranger in your own body. For years, Dori Martin thought that was just what happens to women in midlife. It wasn't, and what she discovered instead is the heart of this conversation.

Dori Martin is a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner who uses Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis to help midlife women understand what's really going on beneath the surface. We talk about the decade of caretaking that led to her own burnout — from a divorce with two small children, to getting engaged to a man given a terminal diagnosis, to watching her own labs come back worse than his. Dori explains why mineral depletion is so often mistaken for a personality problem, and what it actually takes for a woman's body to feel safe enough to rest and recover.

If you've ever felt exhausted, inflamed, or like your moods aren't quite your own — this one will feel like a mirror. New episodes every Thursday on all major podcast platforms.

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Timestamps

00:00 Introduction — Heather welcomes Dori Martin.

03:25 Dori's 2006 divorce and the start of a decade of holding it all together.

03:25 Getting engaged to a man given a terminal diagnosis.

26:26 The mastermind, the flatline, and the shame of not keeping up.

14:08 What Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis actually shows.

16:11 Sodium, potassium, copper — the minerals behind mood and burnout.

38:13 Nervous system regulation, safety, and functional freeze.

46:54 Where to connect with Dori Martin. 

About Dori Martin

Dori Martin is a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner and Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis specialist who helps midlife women understand the connection between mineral depletion, hormone imbalance, and burnout. After navigating her own years of unrecognized depletion — through single motherhood, caregiving, and building a business from the ground up — she now helps women read their own body's data so they can stop guessing and start healing. She lives in the Bay Area with her husband, three kids, and a whole lot of hard-won wisdom about rest.

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“You are responsible for your own actions, your own behaviors, your own reactions. You cannot control the actions, reactions of others.” — Donna Johnsen

Twenty-three years. That's how long Donna Johnsen was with her husband when an unplanned divorce rewrote everything she thought she knew about her own life. This week on Her Story Unscripted, she shares what happened when the identity she'd built inside a marriage suddenly wasn't there to stand on anymore.

Donna Johnsen talks with me about the messy, real work of rebuilding — journaling her way through the rumination, reading a memoir that gave her permission to stop performing grace, and eventually finding her way to humor as a way to heal out loud instead of hide. We also get into what it's like helping teenagers navigate a divorce without projecting your own feelings onto theirs, and the almost-empty nest she's facing now that her kids are grown.

If you've ever felt like you were standing at the edge of a cliff, unable to go back and scared to go forward, this conversation is for you. New episodes every Thursday on all major podcast platforms.

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Timestamps

00:46 Introduction — Heather welcomes Donna Johnsen.

07:48 Donna opens up about the unplanned end of her 23-year relationship.

10:15 The memoir that gave her permission to move beyond society's expectations after divorce.

13:02 Why she started journaling in her Notes app to stop the constant rumination.

17:30 How humor became part of her healing journey.

31:19 Navigating teenagers through divorce and letting them have their own feelings.

40:33 The almost-empty nest, midlife reinvention, and becoming "Mama D."

42:22 Where to connect with Donna Johnsen. 

About Donna Johnsen

Donna Johnsen is the voice behind Laugh Lines and Life Goals, where she shares an honest, funny, and refreshingly unfiltered take on midlife, motherhood, and reinvention. After an unplanned divorce ended a 23-year relationship, Donna turned to journaling — and eventually to social media — as a way to process what she was going through, and has since built a community of women who find comfort in her humor and her honesty. She's the mom of two, with one child already away at college and the other headed there this fall.

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"The opposite is always the medicine. You people-please to others — so how do you people-please to you?" — Kari Brunson Wright

There's a particular kind of exhaustion that comes from bending yourself into whatever shape a room needs you to be. Kari Brunson Wright knows it well — from a ballet stage, to a restaurant line, to running her own businesses. It took three full reinventions before she learned how to stop.

In this episode, Kari shares the honest story of walking away from a decade-long career as a professional ballerina, building and eventually selling a cafe and an ice cream company, and becoming a Psycho-Spiritual Leadership Coach. This is real conversation and authentic storytelling about identity, boundaries, and the whispers that show up long before the big changes do — the kind of personal growth for women that doesn't come with a tidy bow.

If you've ever bent yourself into a shape that wasn't really yours, this one's for you. New episodes every Thursday on all major podcast platforms.

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Timestamps

00:00 — Introduction — Heather welcomes Kari Brunson Wright

6:02 — Kari's decade as a professional ballerina and the injury that led her to walk away

12:52 — From the ballet stage to the restaurant line — falling into food

16:20 — Building a cafe and an ice cream company, and the decision to finally sell her shares

19:43 — "I want to be you" — the moment coaching became the next chapter

29:48 — Boundaries, energy, and what it means to "keep your shape"

About Kari Brunson Wright

Kari Brunson Wright is a psycho-spiritual leadership coach and regenerative business consultant who works with founders, executives, and leaders navigating the gap between who they've become and how they're actually living. Her work centers on alignment, integrity, and self-trust — helping people make decisions they can actually stand behind. She brings fifteen years of experience working alongside people through growth, pressure, and change, plus her own background as a co-founder of multiple businesses. Kari writes the Substack newsletter The Recipe for Being Well, and lives in Seattle, Washington, with her husband, their two kids, and a Great Pyrenees/Lab mix puppy named Bean.

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"Growth happens when you're uncomfortable, because you push yourself into things you wouldn't normally do." — Dr. Shola Sulaimon

There's a kind of tiredness that comes from being everything to everyone — and never quite getting around to asking what fills your own cup. For Dr. Shola Sulaimon, that question sat quietly for almost 20 years before she finally let herself answer it.

In this episode, Dr. Shola shares what it was like being the first Black woman PhD student in her program, the quiet weight of representing more than herself in corporate America, and the slow internal pull that eventually led her to step away from nearly two decades of corporate leadership. We talk about the difference between being nice and being kind, what it means to leave something on your own terms, and why finding an outlet outside of work and family might be the thing that saves you.

If you've ever wondered whether it's safe to want something different than what you built, this one's for you. New episodes every Thursday on all major podcast platforms.

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Highlights

00:00 Cold open — Dr. Shola on finding an outlet outside work and family
 0:54 Heather welcomes listeners to Her Story Unscripted
 1:20 Heather introduces Dr. Shola and the story of how they met
 4:23 The phases of a woman's life — and what it feels like to hit “stuck”
 9:24 Heather opens up about feeling stuck in her own routine
 11:19 Leaving things on your own terms, and knowing who your tribe is
 12:36 Kindness vs. niceness — and learning not to be a pushover
 16:07 Where her boldness came from — her mother's influence
 19:00 Being a woman of color in corporate, and the pressure of representation
 23:05 What's within your influence vs. what's out of your control
 25:57 The slow build toward finally leaving corporate after almost 20 years
 31:50 Advice for moms re-entering the workforce after raising kids
 37:39 Advice for women who feel stuck but are afraid to leave
 47:15 What she's building now — ShoTune Medical Consulting Group and Voice to Value
 51:28 Closing reflection — “you are not alone”
 53:48 Outro

About Dr. Shola Sulaimon

Dr. Shola Sulaimon was born and raised in Nigeria, trained and practiced as a veterinarian, then moved to the United States to pursue her PhD at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign — where she became the first Black woman to do so in her program. She spent close to 20 years in corporate leadership in clinical, regulatory, and quality roles before founding ShoTune Medical Consulting Group, where she advises medical device companies on regulatory, clinical quality, and commercialization risk. She's now building Voice to Value, a Sonoma County community and coaching space for professional women centered on leadership, mentorship, and helping women find the confidence to speak up in rooms where they once stayed quiet.

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"You get back up and build better — it is going to be 10x more than you can believe." — Darcey Elizabeth 

Four years ago, Darcey sat in what she now calls one of the darkest seasons of her life — a newly single mom who had just moved four hours from home, left corporate, and was trying to build something from scratch. She had no guarantee any of it would work. She just kept going.

In this episode of Her Story Unscripted, Darcey is back to share the honest, unscripted version of what those four years actually held. She talks about the grief of losing her mom, the ego hit of going back to corporate in 2024, building a team of 33 women, and the night she missed a major business goal by $2,000 and had to decide who she wanted to be on the other side of it. It's a real conversation about personal growth, resilience, and what it looks like when belief finally catches up with your effort.

If you're a woman in the middle of something hard — or on the other side of it trying to make sense of how you got there — this one is for you. New episodes every Thursday on all major podcast platforms.

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Highlights

0:00 Introduction — Heather welcomes Darcey back, four years later
1:57  Where Darcey was when they first met — single mom, new city, uncertain chapter
4:35 The decision to go back to corporate and why it felt like failure
7:29 Jumping into Arbonne, pairing it with personal training, and growing fast
20:28 Missing the rank by $2,000 — the setback, the tears, and the comeback
24:14 Walking across the stage and watching her team do the same
27:22 Both shows rebranding — the conversation about what's next

About Darcey Elizabeth 

Darcey Elizabeth Burke is a Regional Vice President with Arbonne, certified personal trainer, nutrition coach, corporate finance professional, boy mom, and host of The Undeniable Expansion Podcast. She built her business to the Top 2% of Arbonne within just 13 months by focusing on authentic relationships, community, and helping women create real results in their health and lives. Through wellness, leadership, and entrepreneurship, Darcey is passionate about empowering women to expand beyond their current circumstances, build confidence, and create a life they truly love.

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"I woke up one day and I started to feel. And what I felt, it wasn't pretty. I was like, I'm not happy. And that was the very first time I put myself first." — Mercedes Hernandez

Mercedes Hernandez built The SoCo Markets from scratch — 11 vendors on a closed-off side street, a vision, and no guarantee it would work. Six years later, it's one of Sonoma County's most beloved community events, drawing vendors from across the Bay Area and bringing thousands of people together every year. But this episode isn't really a business story. It's a story about what happens when you finally stop building for everyone else and start building for yourself.

In this episode of Her Story Unscripted, Mercedes shares her full journey — from a 15-year-old retail worker discovering a passion, to opening her first brick-and-mortar at 20, to creating experiences like Fork'n Good Food Festival and Roast & Rhythm. Then she gets real about the personal chapter she's been walking through: ending a 15-year relationship, living completely alone for the first time in her life, sitting with the loneliness instead of running from it, and slowly coming back to herself through counseling and a whole lot of self-honesty. This is an authentic storytelling conversation about identity, codependency, personal growth for women, and what freedom actually feels like when you finally choose it.

If you've ever lost yourself in a role — a relationship, a business, a version of who you thought you were supposed to be — this conversation will meet you right where you are. New episodes every Thursday on all major podcast platforms.

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Highlights

0:00 Opening quote — Mercedes on identity

0:39 Heather's intro + welcome to Her Story Unscripted

1:05 Welcome, Mercedes — how Heather found her

3:31 How Mercedes started in retail and discovered her passion

4:21 Opening Bow & Arrow Clothing at 20, the JC entrepreneurship program

6:07 SoCo Markets is born — from 11 vendors to 90

8:53 Growing the market calendar: Fork'n Good, Roast & Rhythm, Closet Clean Outs

10:50 What it really takes to run a successful community market

18:30 The personal pivot — ending her marriage and stepping into the unknown

21:40 Codependency, people-pleasing, and going numb

27:48 Living alone for the first time — and what she found there

32:39 Identity, worth, and what she'd leave listeners with

About Mercedes Hernandez

Mercedes Hernandez is a serial entrepreneur and community builder based in Sonoma County, California. She opened her first retail store, Bow & Arrow Clothing, at 20 years old, and went on to build SoCo Markets — a thriving platform for small businesses and local vendors that now hosts events across the Bay Area. From the Fork'n Good Food Festival to Roast & Rhythm to monthly Closet Clean Out pop-ups, Mercedes has become one of the most creative event minds in Northern California. She's passionate about giving small businesses a platform, and about building the kinds of experiences that bring communities together in real, meaningful ways.

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"We only get one life, and we don't know when that invisible clock is gonna run out. So you have to make time for people and for things that are important to you." — Christina Alonzo

It started as a normal weekend. By Tuesday, Christina Alonzo was sitting in an ER telling the doctor everything she had been quietly noticing for days. By Wednesday, the diagnosis was in: glioblastoma — an aggressive, inoperable brain cancer. Her husband Kurtis was 44 years old and had never even had a cold. From the date of diagnosis to the date of his death was four months.

In this episode of Her Story Unscripted, Christina Alonzo returns to the podcast three years after her first appearance to share the story of the year that changed everything. She opens up about becoming Kurtis's full-time caregiver while raising a toddler, navigating impossible medical decisions, and the termination email from his employer that arrived the very night he died. She also shares the story of her 200-pound weight loss journey — and how losing the weight became something far more significant than she ever expected when Kurtis got sick. This is an honest conversation about grief, love, and what it actually looks like to keep living when someone you love is gone.

For any woman who has ever taken time for granted, avoided a hard conversation, or wondered how anyone survives something this big — this episode is an unscripted reminder that life is shorter and more sacred than we let ourselves believe. New episodes every Thursday on all major podcast platforms.

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Highlights:

00:00 Cold open — Christina on the invisible clock

00:49 Heather introduces Her Story Unscripted

01:15 Welcoming Christina back — three years and a lot of life later

02:21 The normal weekend that wasn't — Curtis gets sick

5:28 The ER visit and the diagnosis — glioblastoma

7:15 Choosing chemo and radiation — a hail mary for a 44-year-old in perfect health

12:18 How quickly he declined, and what caregiving looked like at home

14:18 Curtis's death in March 2025 — four months after diagnosis

18:55 What helped Christina survive this season

22:13 The termination email the night he died

27:22 200 pounds lost — and how the GLP-1 journey intersected with Curtis's care

25:10 How to actually show up for someone in grief

36:10 Life now — Addie, memory-keeping, and saying yes

38:03 Christina's one takeaway for the listener 

About Christina Alonzo

Christina Alonzo is a mother, content creator, and Sonoma County local who has walked through more grief in the last few years than most people face in a lifetime. From losing babies to navigating a sudden and devastating brain cancer diagnosis in her husband Curtis, she has shown up with remarkable honesty and grace at every turn. In the past year and a half, she has also completed a transformative 200-pound weight loss journey that changed not just her body, but the way she moves through the world. She is raising her daughter Addie with Curtis's love still at the center of their home

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