Tim Church is a well-known and respected personal trainer here in Charleston, and he’s also the person I talked to right before I left my career in television news. The question he asked me: “What’s your perfect day?” was key in helping me taking a leap of faith that changed my life, and it’s a key scene in my memoir "Girl in the Spotlight."

I’m so happy to talk to Tim today about that moment and the important work he continues to do as a personal trainer. Tim really listens to his clients, and he has a lot of important things to say about why movement is medicine and why it’s so critical to our physical, mental and emotional health. Movement also helps us think clearly, be creative, make decisions, and show up fully for our lives.

If you have a challenging relationship with exercise, want to feel better and more like yourself again, or if you're in the midst of a transition and wondering what’s next this episode is for you.

Key Takeaways:

* Movement is medicine: How exercise changes your neurochemistry to boost creativity, mental clarity, and emotional resilience

* How to find a personalized approach to fitness that actually fits your life, your body, and where you are right now

* Taking small, consistent baby steps is the best starting point, especially when you’re burned out, in pain, or in the middle of a transition

* Committing to exercise isn’t about changing how you look—it’s about who you become when you show up for yourself consistently

Helpful Links and Resources:

Contact Tim Church:

website: definingmomentfitness.com

call/text: 843-303-3488

Grab a copy of my memoir Girl in the Spotlight (affiliate link)

Sign up for my weekly letter Hello Friday

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More Like You with Angie Mizzell s about the pivotal moments and perspective shifts that point us toward a life that feels true. New episodes every Thursday.

The thing that keeps us stuck isn’t the nos—it’s the maybes we keep trying to force into a decision before we’re ready. In this episode, I’m sharing a lesson I stumbled onto while watching my husband clean out his closet in 15 minutes flat, and how it became the framework I use for everything from what stays on my calendar to what I’m actually saying yes to in this season of life.

If you’re craving clarity about what deserves your full attention right now, this episode is for you.

WHAT WE TALK ABOUT IN THIS EPISODE

– Why decision fatigue almost never starts with the hard decisions (and where it actually begins)

– What my husband’s 15-minute closet cleanout revealed about the way I make (and avoid) decisions

– The problem with “if it’s not a hell yes, it’s a no” and when that rule can cost you something you actually wanted

– How to tell the difference between a maybe, a not yet, and a not right now—and why it matters

– Why sorting your yeses first is the thing that finally makes the maybes easier to see clearly

– How this same framework applies to your calendar, your creative work, and the bigger questions you’re carrying

– What it means to file something away for another season—and why that’s not the same as putting it off

If this episode resonated, Hello Friday is my weekly letter and the heart of my work. Subscribe to Hello Friday and get new podcast episodes delivered to your inbox.

ANGIE’S BOOK: Girl in the Spotlight — available wherever books are sold

ANGIE’S WEBSITE: angiemizzell.com

CONNECT WITH ANGIE ON INSTAGRAM: @angiemizzell

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More Like You with Angie Mizzell s about the pivotal moments and perspective shifts that point us toward a life that feels true. New episodes every Thursday.

We don't always have crystal clarity. In fact, most of the time we don't—and yet life keeps asking us to move forward anyway. The questions pile up: big ones, small ones, ones your brain keeps circling back to even after you've tried to release them. In this episode, I share a simple practice for getting those questions out of your head and into a place where they can actually rest, so you can be present for the life that's right in front of you.

If you're in a season where more things feel uncertain than certain, this one is for you.

Takeaways from this episode:

-Why your brain keeps trying to solve problems that aren't ready to be solved — and what to do instead of fighting it

-The difference between letting a question go and lightening the load — and why only one of them actually works

-How writing down your open questions creates space for the ones that really deserve your attention

-What it looks like to revisit those questions over time — and why so many of them were resolved in the living, not the forcing

-Why "I don't know yet" is a complete answer, and what changes when you let it be one

Links Mentioned

Girl in the Spotlight audiobook — available at angiemizzell.com/book

Subscribe to my weekly letter Hello Friday on Substack — angiemizzell.substack.com

More Like You is now on Substack—comment on this episode

I'D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU! SEND ME TEXT FOR A CHANCE TO BE FEATURED ON THE SHOW

Get Angie's Book: Girl in the Spotlight — available in print and audio 

Subscribe to Angie's weekly letter Hello Friday

Instagram: @angiemizzell

More Like You with Angie Mizzell s about the pivotal moments and perspective shifts that point us toward a life that feels true. New episodes every Thursday.

When writing a eulogy feels impossible, the way in isn't through the grief—it's through a song. That's what I discovered after losing my mom fifteen months after my memoir, "Girl in the Spotlight" was published, a book in which our mother-daughter story was woven all the way through. I'm sharing her eulogy today because music does something that even a writer reaches for when words aren't enough, and I want to show you how it can help you connect to your own story too.

Who this is for: You don't need to know my mom or read my book to feel this one. You just need to have songs—the ones that keep you connected to your own story.

What We Talk About In This Episode:

• Why good stories start and end with the same image — and how a Rod Stewart song became both the opening and the closing of a whole relationship
• What it looks like to find your way into a piece of writing when the subject feels impossible to hold
• A eulogy read aloud—a love letter to a woman who made every place feel like home and danced to beach music anywhere she stood
• How music bypasses the places where words get stuck and what that means for the stories we tell
• The moment I realized I wasn't just writing about my mom, I was living out the lyrics in real time
• What the act of searching for the story actually reveals about storytelling itself
• Three reflection questions to help you find your own way in to the piece of writing, the hard conversation, or the story you've been carrying
• The playlist I made while writing Girl in the Spotlight and where to find it

Songs from this episode:

You're in My Heart — Rod Stewart 

Me and Bobby McGee — Janis Joplin 

PYT (Pretty Young Thing) — Michael Jackson 

Silver Springs — Fleetwood Mac 

I Love Beach Music — The Embers 

Carolina Girls — General Johnson 

Electric Slide — Marcia Griffiths 

Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae) — Silentó 

Ain't No Mountain High Enough — Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell 

Three Little Birds — Bob Marley 

You Are My Sunshine — traditional 

Everything I Do (I Do It For You) — Bryan Adams 

Calling All Angels — Train 

Forever Young — Rod Stewart

Fight Song — Rachel Platten 

Angel — Sarah McLachlan

Mentioned in this episode: 

E27: Girl in the Spotlight Is Now an Audiobook (And Why the Story Still Matters)

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More Like You with Angie Mizzell s about the pivotal moments and perspective shifts that point us toward a life that feels true. New episodes every Thursday.

You can do the inner work. You can read the books, see the therapist, write the memoir. And then you become a parent — and the work starts all over again, just with smaller people watching.

This episode is a conversation with James Moffitt of the Parenting Adult Children podcast, and it's for anyone who thought healing was something you finished — and then discovered it's actually something you practice, relationship by relationship, season by season.

What We Talk About In This Episode

• Why leaving a rising career in TV news turned out to be the beginning of the real work, not the end of it
• External validation: how the need to be seen can quietly become the thing running your life
• What Angie noticed the moment she became a parent, and how quickly her own unfinished healing showed up
• The idea of "emptying out" — why your kids (and your partner) can't really hear you until they feel heard first
• How Angie's oldest son shifted when she told him the truth: I've never been the parent of someone your age before. I'm figuring this out too.
• The tightrope of launching adult children—being a safe place without becoming a safety net
• What losing her mom taught Angie about what she had needed from that relationship all along—and what she's trying to do differently with her own kids

Guest Links

ABCs of Parenting Adult Children podcast with James Moffitt:

Website: https://www.parentingadultchildren.org/

Instagram: @parentingadultchildren125

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Get Angie's Book: Girl in the Spotlight — available in print and audio 

Subscribe to Angie's weekly letter Hello Friday

Instagram: @angiemizzell

More Like You with Angie Mizzell s about the pivotal moments and perspective shifts that point us toward a life that feels true. New episodes every Thursday.

Recording your own memoir means reading the hard parts out loud. The grief. The loss. The moments you'd almost forgotten. In this episode I'm taking you behind the scenes of recording Girl in the Spotlight as an audiobook — from the bedroom closet recording studio I built out of blankets and pillows, to the moment I finally started sounding like myself.

I'm also sharing my full conversation with Ian Levitt of Studio Americana, the producer who made it happen from Minneapolis while I recorded in Charleston.

What We Talk About In This Episode

• How I turned my bedroom closet into a recording studio — and why it worked better than a professional studio
• Recording one hour at a time: why a slower pace made this one of the most meaningful creative experiences I've had
• The moment I stopped feeling nervous and finally started sounding like myself
• What it's like to read emotionally heavy parts of your own story out loud
• Why I chose wide distribution over going exclusive with Audible
• Ian Levitt: 20 years in radio, pivoting to podcasting, and why audiobooks are now his favorite work
• What Ian said about listening to my story as the father of an eight-year-old — and why it reminded me exactly why this story matters

LINKS:

Angie's memoir Girl in the Spotlight now availabe in print and audio anywhere you buy books or listen to audiobooks. GET THE BOOK →

Audiobook production by Ian Levitt at Studio Americana

Episode 27: Girl in the Spotlight Is Now an Audiobook (And Why This Story Still Matters)

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Get Angie's Book: Girl in the Spotlight — available in print and audio 

Subscribe to Angie's weekly letter Hello Friday

Instagram: @angiemizzell

More Like You with Angie Mizzell s about the pivotal moments and perspective shifts that point us toward a life that feels true. New episodes every Thursday.

E27: Girl in the Spotlight Is Now an Audiobook — And Why This Story Still Matters

Two years after publication, my memoir Girl in the Spotlight is now an audiobook. In this episode I'm sharing the full story behind the book, why the timing of this audiobook is exactly right, and why I believe this coming-of-age story is still so important for the woman who is standing at a crossroads right now.

If you're new here, start with this one. It's everything you need to know about why I do this work — and why it might matter to you.

What We Talk About In This Episode

• Why Girl in the Spotlight is my origin story — and the anchor for everything I create
• The woman this book was written for: she's built a life that looks fine on the outside but feels off on the inside
• The season of grief and loss that delayed the audiobook — and made the timing exactly right
• My mother: her influence on my ambition, our complicated relationship, and the moment she told me you have more power than you realize
• The ticking clock — how fear of time keeps us trapped in lives we don't want, and how to reframe it
• How success became my remedy for loss — and why that made leaving so hard
• Breaking family cycles: the unhealed things we carry from childhood into adulthood
• What the book is really asking: What would you do if you weren't afraid?
• Why creating a life that feels like home is mostly an inside job

Mentioned in This Episode

• Girl in the Spotlight — available now in print and audio
• Hello Friday — Angie's weekly letter, delivered every Friday morning

I'D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU! SEND ME TEXT FOR A CHANCE TO BE FEATURED ON THE SHOW

Get Angie's Book: Girl in the Spotlight — available in print and audio 

Subscribe to Angie's weekly letter Hello Friday

Instagram: @angiemizzell

More Like You with Angie Mizzell s about the pivotal moments and perspective shifts that point us toward a life that feels true. New episodes every Thursday.

We live in a culture that's always pushing us toward the next thing. But what if the most important move you can make right now is to pause and look back?

In this episode, I'm sharing the simple reflection practice I did with my family on New Year's Eve — the exact questions we used, what surprised me about how my kids showed up, and why I believe you can't really trust yourself moving forward if you haven't taken time to understand the season you just lived.

This one is for anyone who skipped the year-end reflection and is wondering where to begin.

What We Talk About In This Episode

• The family New Year's Eve retreat I organized — and why I was nervous to suggest it
• The exact reflection questions we used (feel free to steal them)
• Why looking back isn't about staying stuck in the past — it's how you create doorways forward
• How reflection helps you break old patterns, build self-trust, and live more presently
• Why true transformation happens in a series of small moments, not one big leap

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I'D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU! SEND ME TEXT FOR A CHANCE TO BE FEATURED ON THE SHOW

Get Angie's Book: Girl in the Spotlight — available in print and audio 

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Instagram: @angiemizzell

More Like You with Angie Mizzell s about the pivotal moments and perspective shifts that point us toward a life that feels true. New episodes every Thursday.

Some conversations find you at exactly the right moment. This one found me in a gift shop.

I met Gina Moore at the register of her store Pluff Mud Mercantile in Charleston on a day when I was grieving more than I realized. What started as help finding a birthday gift for a friend turned into a thirty-minute conversation that shifted something in me. I left feeling more like myself than I had in weeks.

In this episode Gina and I finally have the broader conversation I knew we needed to have — about the moments that pull us out of our heads and back into our hearts, what it means to stand at a threshold, and how to keep moving when you're not sure what's next.

What We Talk About In This Episode

• The day we met — and why that conversation at the register changed my whole afternoon
• What Gina calls holy instants: the moments when two people's hearts are open and something real happens
• How identity loss shows up in transitions — and why grief is a natural part of change
• The difference between doing and being — and why we exhaust ourselves choosing the wrong one
• What happened when Gina closed her store and stepped into an unknown next chapter
• How to sit with stillness when every instinct tells you to keep moving
• Why staying connected to yourself is what allows you to truly show up for others
• Gina's children's book Fiona the Firefly Finds Her Light

Connect with Gina Moore

Instagram: @moorelightintuitive
Website: https://www.kaiwylde.com/pages/moore-light-intuitive
Her book: Fiona the Firefly Finds Her Light (available on Amazon)

I'D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU! SEND ME TEXT FOR A CHANCE TO BE FEATURED ON THE SHOW

Get Angie's Book: Girl in the Spotlight — available in print and audio 

Subscribe to Angie's weekly letter Hello Friday

Instagram: @angiemizzell

More Like You with Angie Mizzell s about the pivotal moments and perspective shifts that point us toward a life that feels true. New episodes every Thursday.

When I read the title of Jaclyn Michelle Smith's memoir I had to know the story behind it. When I read the book I understood completely.

I'm Sorry I Cremated You captures what it's really like to love and care for an aging parent — the heartbreak, the impossible decisions, the guilt, and the unexpected moments of humor that show up right beside the tears. Jaclyn became her father's sole caregiver almost overnight, and she wrote everything down. What came out was a book that makes you feel less alone in one of the most universal experiences we face.

This conversation will meet you right where you are — whether you've walked this road, are walking it now, or know you will.

What We Talk About In This Episode

• How Jaclyn's life changed almost overnight when her father's health collapsed
• What the caregiving year actually looked like — and why exhaustion barely covers it
• The long goodbye: watching a parent disappear to dementia before they're gone
• How improv comedy became her unexpected lifeline and therapy
• The guilt that comes with caregiving — and how to start making peace with it
• What her father always believed about her — and how it became true
• My own experience of losing my mom and what this conversation gave me

Connect with Jaclyn Michelle Smith

Learn more about Jaclyn Michelle Smith and her memoir, "I'm Sorry I Cremated You," visit jaclynmichellesmith.com.

I'D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU! SEND ME TEXT FOR A CHANCE TO BE FEATURED ON THE SHOW

Get Angie's Book: Girl in the Spotlight — available in print and audio 

Subscribe to Angie's weekly letter Hello Friday

Instagram: @angiemizzell

More Like You with Angie Mizzell s about the pivotal moments and perspective shifts that point us toward a life that feels true. New episodes every Thursday.