Live Beautifully: Stories of Reinvention, Resilience, and Becoming

What happens when you stop doubting yourself, embrace your passions, and give yourself permission to fly?

In this heartfelt episode of Live Beautifully: Stories of Reinvention, Resilience, and Becoming, I reconnect with my dear friend Genny, an incredible nail artist, educator, entrepreneur, and mother whose journey is a beautiful reminder that success isn't just about what we accomplish, but the lives we touch along the way.

From working multiple jobs to building her own nail academy in Italy, Genny shares how her love for artistry, devotion to motherhood, and genuine connection with other women inspired her to create a life rooted in passion and purpose.

Our conversation explores the courage to believe in ourselves, the importance of boundaries, the power of supportive partnerships, and the freedom that comes from letting go of judgment and embracing who we truly are. Genny reminds us that empowerment isn't about competing with others. It's about lifting one another up, sharing what we've learned, and creating opportunities for others to flourish.

And in a beautiful full-circle moment, Genny shares how her young daughter celebrated her success in a way that reminded her why every sacrifice, fear, and challenge had been worth it.

After nearly a decade of friendship, Genny became the first guest to bring me to tears on Live Beautifully. Not because of the challenges she overcame, but because of the beautiful legacy she's creating through love, courage, and leading by example.

A conversation about finding your wings, honoring your heart, and showing the next generation what's possible when we dare to become ourselves.

Because sometimes the greatest thing we can give our children isn't a better life. It's the courage to create their own.

She is mother on a mission, who's changing lives daily.To include successfully being my first guest to inspire me into tears. I know her message will inspire you too.Support, inquire, and even learn how to build your own empire on instagram @sofita.gianina_nailtrainerhttps://www.instagram.com/sofita.gian...

Ho avuto l’opportunità di ritrovare la mia cara amica Genny. ❤️Genny è un’artista straordinaria, che ha trovato ispirazione nella sua passione per la nail art e nel desiderio di conciliare la vita professionale con la maternità.Dal nostro primo incontro in Italia, passando per il suo sostegno, il suo incoraggiamento e la sua passione per l’empowerment femminile, Genny ha trovato il modo di trasformare i suoi sogni in realtà!Oggi è un’educatrice e un’imprenditrice che sta costruendo il suo impero. ✨La nostra conversazione esplora in profondità i momenti che hanno segnato il suo percorso: da artista a titolare di un’attività, senza mai perdere di vista l’amore immenso per i suoi figli.È una mamma con una missione, che ogni giorno fa la differenza nella vita delle persone.Ed è stata anche la prima ospite del mio podcast a riuscire a commuovermi fino alle lacrime. Sono certa che il suo messaggio saprà ispirare anche voi.Sostenetela, contattatela per maggiori informazioni e scoprite come costruire anche voi il vostro impero su Instagram! ✨ @sofita.gianina_nailtrainer  / sofita.gian.  . #womenempoweringwomen #entrepreneurs #podcast #motivation

Kim Anderson has built a life around one uncompromising principle: truth.

Raised in a small town in Upstate New York by parents who never graduated high school, Kim grew up with big aspirations but limited expectations of what life could hold. Education became her first ticket to something more, but some of the greatest transformations of her life would come not from carefully laid plans, but from what she and her husband now call their “best worst mistake ever.”

A move south brought financial hardship, near foreclosure, career uncertainty, and moments when simply staying afloat required everything they had. Yet that same chapter eventually opened a door neither of them could have imagined: a life overseas, a career supporting military communities, travel across more than 30 countries, chosen family around the world, and an entirely different understanding of what was possible.

Along the way, Kim learned to trust something larger than herself and, ultimately - to trust herself.

That commitment would be tested again when Kim became a two-time whistleblower over the misuse of federal funds. Doing what she believed was right cost her time, money, peace, and pieces of her career. But it also gave her something she refuses to trade: the ability to live in alignment with herself.

In this deeply personal conversation, Kim and I explore education as freedom, breaking generational patterns, chosen family, self-love, spirituality, the universe, the beautiful alchemy hidden inside our hardest seasons, and what happens when we stop allowing the world to define the boundaries of our lives.

When I ask Kim to describe the essence of her own magic, her answer is immediate: truth.

For Kim, truth isn't simply something she believes. It is something she has chosen to live, even when living it came at a cost. And through that choice, she found what she had been searching for all along: peace in her own heart.

This is a story about hardship becoming possibility, integrity becoming freedom, and remembering that sometimes the life beyond our wildest dreams begins with the chapter we never would have chosen.

What happens when the life you've worked so hard to build becomes the very thing you need to step away from?

At what appeared from the outside to be the pinnacle of her career, Mary Polanco was experiencing profound burnout, anxiety, depression, and cognitive struggles. After decades of achievement, structure, and following the path laid out before her, Mary made a choice that would change the trajectory of her life: she stepped off what she calls the “conveyor belt of expectation” and made her own well-being the priority. 

After retiring from the U.S. Air Force in 2022, Mary chose not to follow the traditional path into another full-time career. Instead, she leaned into two areas that had become increasingly important to her: creativity and wellness. Today, she is the founder of Live and Lead Well, a leadership development company, while also running a crafting business where she teaches monthly live virtual classes. She is currently completing a four-year doctoral program, with research focused on leadership psychology and neuroscience.

In this episode of Live Beautifully, Mary and Lacey explore what happens when we stop measuring our lives by productivity, titles, income, and other people's definitions of success—and begin asking what actually matters to us.

Mary shares how her study of neuroscience helped her better understand her own experience with prolonged stress and begin replacing some of the guilt and shame she carried with self-compassion. She also discovered parts of herself that had been dulled beneath years of striving: creativity, curiosity, connection, and the simple experience of being fully present. 

One of the most powerful realizations came through her children. After months of prioritizing her wellness, Mary sat peacefully watching them ride their bikes when her young daughter stopped and asked if she was dying. When Mary asked why, her daughter answered:

“You're just so at peace.”

Years later, that same daughter now expects her mother's presence—a beautiful reminder that changing the way we live can also change what the people we love learn to expect from us. 

Now, as Mary approaches the end of her doctoral program, she finds herself standing at the edge of another transition. But this time, uncertainty feels different. Rather than rushing to fill the space with another title or predetermined path, she's intentionally giving herself time to listen, reflect, and ask what work truly inspires her. 

Together, Mary and Lacey talk about defining what “enough” means for ourselves, choosing inspired work, identifying the values that actually belong to us, becoming curious about the beliefs running through our minds, and recognizing that success doesn't have to cost us our peace. 

And Mary leaves us with a beautiful challenge:

“Why not be the first soft place to fall rather than the first battleground?”

Preparing to transition? Check out Mary's book: Your Final Debrief: Break Free from the Military Mindset and Design the Post-Service Life You Want https://amzn.to/4iEZwyg

https://www.liveandleadwell.org

https://www.youtube.com/@UCLWk06I4om9uoezE1WgarvQ 

https://www.youtube.com/@marypolancodesigns 

marypolancodesigns.com

What if success isn't about earning more—but having more of your life to actually live?

After 23 years in the U.S. Air Force, Martin Foster reached a crossroads. The conventional next step was clear: transition into a government or contracting career, continue building financial security, and follow the path many military retirees take.

Instead, Martin chose himself.

In this episode of Live Beautifully, Martin joins Lacey for a deeply personal conversation about stepping away from the expected path and going all-in on the work that makes him feel most alive: podcasting.

Martin shares how losing his father at just 11 years old continues to shape the way he thinks about time, why retiring at 44 changed his definition of wealth, and how he traded some financial comfort for something he values even more—being “time rich and purpose rich.”

Together, Lacey and Martin explore the invisible progress that comes with betting on yourself, learning to set boundaries after a lifetime of service, choosing presence with family, and letting go of the need to explain a life other people may not understand. 

The conversation also brings their story full circle. Years ago, Martin invited Lacey onto his podcast and asked her to choose one word to describe her life. Her answer—fluid—stayed with her long after their conversation ended. Now, sitting on the other side of the microphone, Lacey returns the question.

Martin's word?

Outlier.

Because sometimes living beautifully means leaving the mapped road behind—not because you know exactly where it leads, but because you've finally learned to trust where you want to go.

Check out Martin's Podcast, Passing the Torch, https://www.youtube.com/@torchmartinhttps://open.spotify.com/show/47ZwWTJWETz5SwEfcuPQwF?si=3973ba39efba4960https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-passing-the-torch-with-mar-93389497

What happens when the life that once gave you purpose, structure, and identity ends...and you’re left to figure out who you are without it?

In this episode of Live Beautifully, I reconnect with Suzanne Roe, a former Air Force leader and mentor whose influence changed the trajectory of my own life nearly twenty years ago. Suzanne shares a side of herself I never knew: from being a rebellious teenager who joined the military determined to see the world and earn an education, to surviving the Khobar Towers bombing, building a successful military career, and eventually confronting experiences she had spent years simply pushing aside. 

We talk about the complicated transition from a highly accomplished military career into motherhood and civilian life, the loss of structure and identity that can come with starting over, and the realization that being high-functioning doesn’t necessarily mean everything beneath the surface has been resolved. Suzanne reflects on learning to separate who she is from what she accomplished, and finding meaning beyond the titles, awards, and rank that once defined success. 

Now studying homeopathy, Suzanne is once again following her curiosity toward work centered on helping others; this time through an individualized approach to wellness and healing. Her future isn’t perfectly mapped out, and perhaps that’s part of the lesson: reinvention doesn’t always require knowing exactly where you’re going. Sometimes it means following the next meaningful step and trusting that the pieces will eventually come together. 

And in a beautiful full-circle moment, we reflect on something Suzanne taught me long before either of us realized its impact: sometimes someone sees a possibility in you before you’re ready to see it yourself. A seed planted today may take years to become the life you were meant to grow into. 

Suzanne leaves us with a reminder worth carrying:

“You can do anything and it may not be exactly how you think it's going to turn out, but you can totally do it. And don't let anybody tell you, you can't.” 

Growing up in Morocco’s Atlas Mountains, Sanae Alikouch learned early what was expected of girls: follow the rules, protect the family’s reputation, marry, and build a life that fit within the boundaries society had created for you. But even as a child, Sanae felt something inside her resisting. She imagined another kind of life. One shaped by education, independence, freedom, and the ability to decide for herself who she wanted to become. 

In this deeply candid conversation, Sanae shares how those expectations followed her into adulthood and ultimately influenced her decision to marry at 21. What followed were five difficult years in a marriage marked by control, emotional abuse, infidelity, and the growing realization that the life she was living was not her own. Motherhood brought that truth into sharper focus: she began asking not only what kind of life she wanted for herself, but what kind of example she wanted her daughter to inherit. 

Choosing divorce became Sanae's turning point. She found work, secured childcare for her daughter, rebuilt her financial independence, returned to learning, invested in her career, and began the much deeper work of accepting herself without needing permission or approval from anyone else. 

Today, Sanae is an English teacher, author, mother, traveler, and advocate for education and opportunity—especially for girls whose lives may still be constrained by the expectations she once faced. And perhaps one of the most beautiful parts of her transformation is watching her intentionally raise her daughter with something Sanae had to fight to discover for herself: the freedom to have a voice, express her feelings, and know that her worth does not depend on someone else's opinion.

This is a conversation about breaking inherited patterns, the power of education and financial independence, learning to stop living through other people's expectations, and the extraordinary freedom that can come when you finally decide:

I am allowed to be myself.

And Sanae's story carries an especially beautiful generational message. As she describes it, the work isn't simply about blaming the people who came before us; it's recognizing what we inherited, changing what we can, and refusing to pass the things that hurt us on to the next generation.

What happens when reinvention becomes more than a career decision and becomes a way of approaching life?

In this episode of Live Beautifully, I sit down with Dr. Loubna Erraji, a neuroscientist by training, management professor, executive and career coach, school managing director, and author of Career Reinventors: From Stuck to Soaring: A Guide to Career Reinvention.

Having built a life across France, Morocco, and the United States, Loubna knows something about change. Her journey has required resilience, adaptability, curiosity, and the willingness to begin again.

We talk about the experiences that shaped her, the choices that changed her trajectory, and her belief that people have the capacity to grow beyond where they feel stuck and create lives that more fully reflect who they are.

This is a conversation about change, but even more, it's about identity, possibility, and the courage to keep becoming.

Continue Loubna's story:
Loubna is the author of Career Reinventors: From Stuck to Soaring: A Guide to Career Reinvention, a guide for those ready to move beyond feeling stuck and begin imagining what's possible next. Purchase here: https://amzn.to/4r4zPtn