Life's Essential Ingredients

Send us Fan Mail

C4 Leaders – the ONLY nonprofit to utilize the pizza making process to create space for our companions to be seen, heard, and loved.   We work with businesses, sports teams, hospitals, churches…anyone looking to RISE TOGETHER.  We also write children’s books and use the most amazing handmade, hand-tossed, sourdough pizza to bring out the best in each other.   Please check out PIZZADAYS.ORG to support our important work. 

Season 5 Episode #18 Jacquie Elliott is coming from Bend, Oregon (inform, inspire, & transform)

You can find via her website jacquieelliottclc.com

About our guest: In 1994, a spiritual awakening set Jacquie on a path of transformation.  Jacquie built a successful business, prioritized fulfilling relationships, and pursued her education to become a certified Life, Relationship, and Spiritual Coach. 

Coaching is her true purpose, through retreats and workshops, Jacquie helps others uncover their true selves and break free from limiting beliefs. Her focus is on helping her clients combat what she calls "Tornado Head of abusive brain chatter." Her spiritual coach training has helped others not only find a loving higher power, but how to walk a spiritual path.

Jacquie, thanks for sharing your many gifts with people all over the world, thanks for continuing to learn, grow and challenge yourself, and thanks for being our guest on life’s essential ingredients.  Welcome to the show!

TOTD – “George Bernard Shaw stated, “Progress is impossible without change; and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”

In this episode:

What was life like growing up?

What are your life’s essential ingredients?

What does a spiritual path mean to you?

Conquering ABCs – abusive brain chatter…

Has ABC gotten worse with technology?

Best part of being a mom to two beautiful sons..

What is normal…

Healing

Forgiveness

Grace

Mindfulness

Red Flag List…love it…

The importance of awareness, beliefs, and challenging core beliefs…

Loving Chatter

I will guide you to the stillness and a sanctuary to which you can retreat at anytime and be yourself. Don’t wait to step into the life you deserve!

Retreats

Legacy 

Send us Fan Mail

C4 Leaders – the ONLY nonprofit to utilize the pizza making process to create space for our companions to be seen, heard, and loved.   We also write children’s books and use the most amazing handmade, hand-tossed, sourdough pizza to bring out the best in each other.   Please check out PIZZADAYS.ORG to support our important work. 

Season 5 Episode #17 Linda Sutton is coming from Austin, Texas (inform, inspire, & transform)

You can find via her website lindadsutton.com and the22tangoshow.com (podcast)

About our guest: Linda Sutton is an international performing artist, inspirational speaker, instructor, and world dance expert with the unique ability to translate relationship dynamics through the lens and practice of tango. She is the host and executive producer of the award-winning television show “The 22Tango Show with Linda Sutton” which has aired for over 12 years in multiple markets, including Roku, and Amazon Fire TV. 

One of Linda’s gifts is in helping her clients, viewers, and listeners create harmony, synergy, and passion in their relationships using the secrets of Argentine tango. In tango, a couple must get in step within seconds in order to have a successful dance - all through non-verbal communication. Linda guides couples in the use of strategies and tactics to create a beautiful dance resulting in harmony on and off the dance floor. 

Linda thanks for sharing your many gifts and talents all over the world, for guiding couples in achieving life harmony thru dance and for being our guest on Life’s Essential Ingredients.  Welcome to the show..

TOTD – “Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”                                                                                             Gandhi

Build a habit - to create intention - to live your purpose!

 In this episode:

What was life like growing up?

What are your life’s essential ingredients?

How did you get into dance…specifically tango…

Define beauty

The importance of trust in dancing and life

How vital is body language on the dance floor… communication and active listening

Leading vs. Following… and following your lead… love the collaboration to achieve harmony

Relationship on the dance floor and in life…

Giving and receiving feedback…

The WE OF TANGO

Congrats on your book… what are some of the highlights

Legacy 

Send us Fan Mail

C4 Leaders – the ONLY nonprofit to utilize the pizza making process to create space for our companions to be seen, heard, and loved.   We also write children’s books and use the most amazing handmade, hand-tossed, sourdough pizza to bring out the best in each other.   Please check out PIZZADAYS.ORG to support our important work. 

Season 5 Episode #16 Joshua Daniel is coming from Bedford, Virginia  (inform, inspire, & transform)

You can find Joshua via his website herogamescharity.com and counterculturesolutions.com

About our guest:  Joshua Daniel is the Founder and President of Hero Games Charity and the Founder and CEO of Counter Culture Solutions. With over 20 years in Special Operations and 9 deployments serving in the 75th Ranger Regiment and Special Forces, Joshua has lived through the toughest situations and learned what it takes to lead, adapt, and dominate. 

As the driving force behind Hero Games Charity, Joshua channels his passion for honoring fallen heroes by creating impactful events that bring the community together in support of Gold Star families. His unique perspective—from the front lines to everyday challenges—offers a no-nonsense approach to life’s hardest lessons. Joshua’s focus is on more than just survival; it’s about thriving in chaos, mastering resilience, and taking control when everything seems stacked against you.  

Joshua, thanks for your dedicated service to protect our country, to using your experience, insight and expertise in creating Hero Games Charity, and for your creativity in bringing Counter Culture Solutions to life as one of life’s great teaching tools.   Welcome to the show.

TOTD – "It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."                                Teddy Roosevelt

In this episode:

What was life like growing up?

What are your life’s essential ingredients?

Military provides an opportunity to see the world… what are some of your memorable places you have been to?

COMMITMENT to being on the team with no intention of leaving the team…

War in Iraq was an inspiration for you at age 17… why?

Dealing with dark periods… what helped you get thru them…

Bedford has a HUGE military history…

Dealing with no access to technology… how did you get thru those challenges…

Hero Games was started in 2017 out of necessity… the games provided an opportunity to give back to your brothers and sisters who have fallen…Tell the story about the Hero Games journey…

Coaching at your brother’s Cross Fit company…what have you learned about people and coaching…

The honor of giving back….and something we should all do…

Books you recommend?

Congrats on your podcast – Hero Games.. interview the families who were the recipient of the Stoicism – what do you appreciate about it…

Hero Games 

SEAR Training– survive, evade, resist, escape…was one funding source for Hero Games which led to Counter Culture Solutions

The Weight We Carry… 

Legacy 

Send us Fan Mail

C4 Leaders – the ONLY nonprofit to utilize the pizza making process to create space for our companions to be seen, heard, and loved.   We also write children’s books and use the most amazing handmade, hand-tossed, sourdough pizza to bring out the best in each other.   Please check out PIZZADAYS.ORG to support our important work. 

Season 5 Episode #15 Nancy Griffin is coming from The County, Canada (inform, inspire, & transform)

You can find Nancy via her website womenworthwellness.com

About our guest: Nancy is a connector and influencer. She attributes her success to personal courage, determination, and joy.  Nancy’s focuses on women’s health and wellness, hence creating Women, Worth & Wellness®. Nancy enjoys every opportunity to inspire and inform women about their personal health and wealth, net worth and self-worth, philanthropy and legacy—so that women feel fabulous, generous, joyful, confident, and on top of their game every day.

Nancy Griffin established Women, Worth & Wellness in 1994 as a Private Client Wealth Advisor for her female clients and their families. Nancy continues to promote and inspire Daring & Caring Leaders, encouraging them to step up and lead in the world, following in the footsteps of many other powerful Women Leaders in the past.

Nancy, thanks for sharing you many gifts and talents with women and people all over the world.   Thanks for being our guest on Life’s Essential Ingredients – welcome to the show.

TOTD – “Authenticity is a collection of choices that we have to make every day. It's about the choice to show up and be real. The choice to be honest. The choice to let our true selves be seen.”  ― Brene Brown

Build a habit - to create intention - to live your purpose!

In this episode:

What was life like growing up?

What are your life’s essential ingredients?

Where did your inspiration come from to CHAMPION women’s movement?

Let’s talk about your career and some of the highlights as well as some of the challenges…

The value of experience and wisdom

The value of experience and wisdom from a younger version of yourself…

Best advice you have been given

Best advice you have given

Life-long learning…

Philanthropy and Legacy Impact

The AGE OF INTEGRITY… what can I do to give back…(listened to you on a podcast)

Earning a seat at the table…

Health and Wealth go hand in hand…explain…

Events to inspire your community…

Generosity and Humor are two characteristics you value…

Books you recommend?

Legacy 

Send us Fan Mail

C4 Leaders – the ONLY nonprofit to utilize the pizza making process to create space for our companions to be seen, heard, and loved.   We also write children’s books and use the most amazing handmade, hand-tossed, sourdough pizza to bring out the best in each other.   Please check out PIZZADAYS.ORG to support our important work. 

Season 5 Episode #14 Michael Pereira is coming from Miami, Florida (inform, inspire, & transform)

You can find Michael via his website theautismvoyage.com

About our guest: After a successful career in Corporate America and after suffering through and surviving a personal encounter with COVID, Michael knew life had something different instore for him.   But he still couldn’t put his finger on it.  Then, in 2022, Michael’s son was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder and from then on, Michael began to look at life through a different lens.

That pivotal experience shifted Michael’s priorities from corporate achievements to creating a secure future for his family, sparking the inception of The Autism Voyage®.  Michael decided to embark on a mission to share specialized knowledge of financial planning and support for special needs families.  Driven by his firsthand understanding of planning for the future - financially, Michael is all in on using his talents to aid families and their unique challenges with raising and caring for a special needs child.

Michael, thanks for sharing your many talents, for being an advocate for autism, for providing valuable resources to help families with special needs children, and for being our guest on Life’s Essential Ingredients – welcome to the show!

TOTD – “All advocacy is, at its core, an exercise in empathy.”  Samantha Power

Build a habit - to create intention - to live your purpose!

In this episode:

What was life like growing up?

What are your life’s essential ingredients?

I know you have traveled throughout your career… what do you love about traveling…

What life lessons did you take away from your travels/life experiences…

How has having a child with special needs affected your family and friends?

Has it been difficult balancing your time, care, love, energy with your daughter who is not a special needs child.

Asperger’s Syndrome – insights into indicators?

Aphantasia and Autism and distinct ways they intersect

Group Homes for special needs adults…

Planning for a special needs future

Special Needs siblings

The financial side of raising a child with special needs..

Food texture sensitivity… tips to help?

Challenges and balance of raising a special needs family…

Books or other resources you recommend?

Best resources you have found for your family?

The Autism Voyage…blog, website with resources for families of special needs children…

Long Term Care…

Legacy 

Send us Fan Mail

C4 Leaders – the ONLY nonprofit to utilize the pizza making process to create space for our companions to be seen, heard, and loved.   We also write children’s books and use the most amazing handmade, hand-tossed, sourdough pizza to bring out the best in each other.   Please check out PIZZADAYS.ORG to support our important work. 

Season 5 Episode #13 Ted Santos is coming from New Jersey (inform, inspire, & transform)

You can find Ted via his website turnaroundip.com (investment partners)

About our guest:   Who is Ted Santos?  Ted Santos is The Leadership Disruptor Who Turns Chaos into Breakthroughs. Ted is not your typical business strategist—he challenges the status quo through training and developing  CEOs, executives, and entrepreneurs to create problems instead of solving them.  This strategy ignites the greatness in Ted’s clients that in return, provides the fuel for transformative and breakthrough growth. 

Ted’s expertise extends beyond boardrooms—Ted’s groundbreaking book, "Here’s Why You Can’t Find Love," reveals how personal struggles, like broken relationships, cost U.S. businesses over $300 billion annually and provides tools for leaders to fix the hidden leaks that sabotage success.

Ted doesn’t just talk about breakthroughs—he creates them. Whether it’s scaling during rapid growth, transforming culture, or leading through chaos, Ted brings game-changing insights that resonate deeply with high-achievers looking to think bigger, act bolder, and dominate their industries.

Thanks for sharing your many gifts with people all over the world, for continuing to push yourself in the service of others and for being our guest on Life’s Essential Ingredients.  Welcome to the show!

TOTD – “The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice.  And because we fail to notice that we fail to notice, there is little we can do to change until we notice how failing to notice shapes our thoughts and deeds.”                           R.D. Laing

Build a habit - to create intention - to live your purpose!

In this episode:

What was life like growing up?

What are your life’s essential ingredients?

Change – using it as an asset..

Meeting the needs of employees and the consumer…

Corporate culture…how do you develop it?

You created the Disruptive Leadership Model…what is it…

Define success personally and for a business you are consulting for?

You frequently mentioned BREAKTHROUGH initiatives and how most fail…why?

If you were in charge of our education system…what would be some of the first changes your would implement.

Dealing with disruptive employees?

Helping employees play to their strengths?  When do you say, enough is enough when an employee is not performing…

EMBRACING CHAOS and engineering transformations so big, they feel impossible…until they happen…love that…

In your article, you mentioned that in two short years up to 75% of S&P companies will be replaced…let’s explore that statement.

Congrats on your book – Here’s Why You Can’t Find Love…let’s talk about it…300 billion a year of hidden leaks draining productivity, focus, and innovation.

Helping businesses REIMAGINE what their business could look like…

Legacy 

Send us Fan Mail

C4 Leaders – the ONLY nonprofit to utilize the pizza making process to create space for our companions to be seen, heard, and loved.   We also write children’s books, host this podcast, and use the most amazing handmade, hand-tossed, sourdough pizza to bring out the best in each other.   Please check out PIZZADAYS.ORG to support our important work. 

Season 5 Episode #12 Bern Mendez is coming from Austin, Texas (inform, inspire, & transform)

You can find Bern via his website bernmendez.com

About our guest: For over 30 years Bern Mendez has been on a path dedicated to helping others.  Bern’s  journey into coaching began at one of the lowest points of his life. He was struggling with depression until a mentor stepped in and guided him out of the darkness. Experiencing such a profound shift, especially after nothing else had worked, ignited something deep and lasting within Bern. In that moment, he knew he had to devote his life to helping others experience that same freedom.

Bern had no idea his path would lead specifically into relationship and intimacy coaching. For the past 14 years Bern’s expertise has been focused on helping smart women to attract conscious, devotionally committed partners in record time, by guiding them to become the most radiant, authentic, and emotionally grounded version of themselves. Bern has been featured on CNN, Univision, Shine, Huff Post Live and his You Tube videos have been seen by more than 30 million people.  

Bern thanks for sharing your many gifts with the world, for helping thousands of people find love, and for being our guest on Life’s Essential Ingredients.  Welcome to the Show!

TOTD – “Helping one person might not change the whole world, but it could change the world for one person.”                         Anonymous

Build a habit - to create intention - to live your purpose!

In this episode:

What was life like growing up?

What are your life’s essential ingredients?

Secret sauce…what is yours?

5% Principle from your site…what is it?

Subconscious emotional barriers that inhibit deeply committed partnerships…

Skill that is not necessarily taught…Getting reps of learning how to 

Listening

Communicating

Trusting

Intimacy

Love

The importance of clarity in seeking what you want…

Becoming the person you want to become and attracting the person you want to become…

Filling a void…

If you want to be in a relationship, be in a relationship… get reps and work on your relationship skills or values or essential ingredients…

What is radiance and how do you develop it?

Attracting a partner

Quiz on Hidden Attraction Blindspot (website)

“sisters in growth” from your website… what is it?

Developing confidence… how do you help your clients develop it…

Legacy 

Send us Fan Mail

C4 Leaders – the ONLY nonprofit to utilize the pizza making process to create space for our companions to be seen, heard, and loved.   We also write children’s books and use the most amazing handmade, hand-tossed, sourdough pizza to bring out the best in each other.   Please check out PIZZADAYS.ORG to support our important work. 

Season 5 Episode #11 Tay and Trev are coming from Austin, Texas (inform, inspire, & transform)

About our guests: I have had the good fortune of spending some of the best weeks of my life with our guests today.   We have the honor of working a life-changing and transformational leadership camp.   The camp is sponsored by Rotary Club District 5160 and lead by the one and only Lain Hensley.   

Learning about leadership, love, sadness, joy, pain, triumph, and all the emotions that surface when you peel down the layers of this thing we call life… with these two incredible people - like I mentioned –is  one of the best weeks of my life.

The time we have spent together have led to a wonderful friendship and I am so fortunate to have Tay and Trev in my life. Words to describe Tay include: beautiful, strong, organized, driven, compassionate, caring, assertive, great communicator, athletic, in love, and someone still yet undefined.

Words to describe Trev include: artistic, creative, strong, athletic, kind, helpful, courageous, bighearted, hard-working, talented, curious, inquisitive, in love, and someone still yet undefined.

Tay and Trev, thanks for all you do for the Austin community, for the campers of Camp Royal, for your family and friends, for me and my family and for being our guests on Life’s Essential Ingredients – Welcome to the Show!

 TOTD – “Developing a powerful relationship isn’t about “finding” but collaboratively creating and becoming new people together, through the relationship.”                            Benjamin Hardy

Build a habit - to create intention - to live your purpose!

In this episode:

What was life like growing up?

What are your life’s essential ingredients? Individually and as a to be newly married couple.

Camp Royal experience…what do you love most about it…

Can’t mention camp without mentioning Lain and Grandma K…

Recently moved to Austin, what have you noticed most about it?

Let’s tell the listeners how your love story began..

What is love at this point in your life and your relationship?

Been together for three beautiful years…I know you have traveled the country during that time…where are some of the cool places you ventured together?

Trust – Covey’s definition and in application of rock climbing…how does it play out when  you are hundreds of feet off the ground…

Rock Climbing, Artist, Biking, and Backpacking

Thing Tay does that you love the most – same for Trev

Any routines or rituals you have noticed in each other

Nursing School…most excited about and who inspired you?

Legacy Been married for 71 years and you both are ready to go home.  You are in the beautiful HOME you built together and are surrounded by family and close friends.  You are holding hands and getting ready to take your last breath…what is it you want to leave behind for your children, grandkids, great grandkids….

Send us Fan Mail

C4 Leaders – the ONLY nonprofit to utilize the pizza making process to create space for our companions to be seen, heard, and loved.   We also write children’s books, host this podcast, and use the most amazing handmade, hand-tossed, sourdough pizza to bring out the best in each other.   Please check out PIZZADAYS.ORG to support our important work. 

Season 5 Episode #10 Dana and Colleen are coming from Burnaby, British Columbia (inform, inspire, & transform)

You can find our guests via their website: thedigitaldojo.net

About our guests: Dana Pemberton and Colleen Robinson bring partnership to a whole new level in their life changing work together. Vastly different in many ways, they deliver their own brand of magic to groups, companies, and individuals they work with across North America. 

Colleen’s experience as a Chinese Medicine Practitioner, fascination with the intersection between science and spirituality, and focus on healing combines with Dana’s “boots on the ground” approach based on a lifetime of martial arts training and several decades of coaching. Together, their focus is to help their clients find and clear the old patterns that are holding them back, and replace them with simple applicable concepts.

Dana and Colleen thanks for sharing your many gifs with the world, the people you serve and for being our guests on Life’s Essential Ingredients – welcome to the show.

TOTD – “Between stimulus and response there is a space.  In that space is our power to choose our response.  In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”                                                                                                                                                   Viktor Frankl

Build a habit - to create intention - to live your purpose!

In this episode:

What was life like growing up?

What are your life’s essential ingredients?

The Mindset Reset…what is so important about mindset?

NAP – New Agreement Process…101, 6 week class, practitioner training,

NAP is a repeat after me process that tracks trauma to it’s roots.   Rooted in the TRIPLE A process.  Tactical integration of  traditional Chinese medicine and essential concepts of the nervous system + aspects of the Black Belt Mind…

The White Belt Mind

The Power of a Breath

Unraveling Inherited Trauma

Weight, body image, body composition, exercise and food…

First steps you would advise for the listeners, should they seek to change some aspect of their life…

Classes you would recommend to the listeners?

You are launching your podcast – From Surviving to Thriving… tell the listeners about it…

Book or books you recommend?

Legacy 

Send us Fan Mail

C4 Leaders – the ONLY nonprofit to utilize the pizza making process to create space for our companions to be seen, heard, and loved.   We also write children’s books and use the most amazing handmade, hand-tossed, sourdough pizza to bring out the best in each other.   Please check out PIZZADAYS.ORG to support our important work. 

Season 5 Episode #9 Chandler Stroud is coming from Darien, Connectitcut (inform, inspire, & transform)

You can find Chandler via her website healingheroespodcast.com and same for Insta

About our guest:  A few years ago, Chandler was traveling for work and became curious about her past traumas and the impact they were having on her present life.  A 4 a.m. inspirational wake-up led Chandler to her current journey as the host of Healing Heroes Podcast.  That early morning, Chandler sprung out of bed and transcribed her vision for the show and since that time, has been building her team of heroes who have the mission to empower women all over the world.  

Chandler is a wife, mother, and former corporate marketing executive who is ALL IN on seeking her quest for her transformative journey of self-discovery.   Chandler has surrounded herself with her heroes who represent not just experts in their fields, but her own healers and advisors, who serve as guides along her path to peace, happiness, and ultimately living the life she was meant to be living.

Chandler thanks for taking a leap of faith in your self-discovery, thanks for putting an incredible team of healers together that have in a short time, impacted women all over the world and thanks for being our guest on Life’s Essential Ingredients – Welcome to the Show!

TOTD – “I am not what happened to me. I am what I choose to become.” —Carl Jung

Build a habit - to create intention - to live your purpose!

In this episode:

What was life like growing up?

Mother of two…

What is happiness? Joy? Healing?  Steps to enhancing joy…past, present, future self…vision leads to road map…

Mind, Body, and Spirit… make body feel safe…

What are your life’s essential ingredients?

Being in nature and being quiet…

Somatic practices – breath work, meditation, myofascial release… to heal the body and then  to get to the inner knowing…

NOT ALONE… the power of a tribe, community, 

Broken Crayons Still Color…Last book or books you recommend?

How do our early years shape our later years?

Digestive issues growing up…

Body keeps the score…great book

What is holistic well-being?

How much happier can I get?

The POWER OF CURIOUSITY?  5 whys… 

Taking a leap of faith… leaving your corporate career…

Been working with your heroes for the past few years…

Courageous and Kind…

Legacy