Spark Something New

What if “I’m good” isn’t actually true?

Think about how many times someone asks, “How are you?” and you automatically respond: “I’m good” or “I’m fine” or “Good… just busy!”

Sometimes the exchange is simply a pleasantry. But sometimes, we’ve repeated “I’m good” for so long that we’ve started believing it ourselves—even when something inside us knows otherwise.

Maybe you have the career. The family. The house. The accomplishments. You’ve checked all the boxes you thought you were supposed to check.

And yet… something feels off.

In this episode. Dr. Katie chats physician, speaker, and author Dr. Michelle Machado to explore how we slowly drift away from ourselves—and why we often don’t recognize the misalignment until our bodies, relationships, energy, or joy begin telling us something needs to change.

Michelle identifies four “invisible pressures” that quietly shape who we become: societal, professional, relational, and internal pressures. Over time, these expectations can become so intertwined with our identity that we stop questioning whether the life we’re living is actually the life we want.

But we don’t have to wait for burnout, crisis, or a breaking point to wake up.

Through a process of awakening, alignment, and intentional action, we can begin asking better questions, listening to ourselves again, and making small choices that move us toward a life that feels like our own.

Because where you are today doesn’t have to be where you stay.

Key Learnings:

• How the four invisible pressures (societal, professional, relational, and internal) can quietly pull us away from who we really are.
•  How to recognize the difference between a difficult season and a life that has become chronically misaligned. 
•  Why creating a life by design starts with examining how you’re living today and asking who you actually want to become. 
•  How small, intentional practices—including stillness, reflection, nature, and Michelle’s Sacred Morning—can help you reconnect with yourself and stay aligned.

Links & Resources:

• Visit Michelle's Website: https://michelledmachado.com/
• Get Michelle's Book: Alive Again
• Connect with Michelle on LinkedIn

Guest Info:

Dr. Michelle Machado is a speaker, author, and strategist whose work explores the invisible pressures that shape our identity, choices, and definitions of success.

Drawing from her professional expertise and her own experience navigating demanding leadership, work, and family roles, Michelle helps people recognize when they’ve slipped into autopilot and begin reconnecting with who they are, how they want to live, and who they want to become.

Her work invites us to stop accepting “this is just how life is” and instead believe that where we are today does not have to determine where we stay.

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

What if the leadership (and maybe life) you've been striving for... isn't actually yours?

Many of us spend our existence performing the version of leadership (and life) we believe others expect—editing our voice, suppressing our instincts, and following blueprints handed to us by family, culture, organizations, or society. From the outside, everything may look great...successful even. But inside, something still feels off.

In this episode, Dr. Katie chats with leadership strategist Dr. Aday Adetosoye, who invites us to examine a simple but profound question: 

Are you living under your own roof?

Using the metaphor of a house, Aday explores what it means to build a life and leadership that reflects your own values, beliefs, convictions, and emotional truths—not someone else's expectations. 

Together, Katie and Aday unpack why so many leaders unknowingly perform instead of lead authentically, how inherited "blueprints" quietly shape our decisions, and why courage isn't about becoming fearless—it's about finally coming home to yourself.

Whether you lead an organization, a family, a community, or simply your own life, this conversation will challenge you to look beyond the "curb appeal" of leadership and step inside the rooms that truly define who you are.

Key Learnings:

• Why authentic leadership begins with understanding whose "blueprint" you're living by. How family, culture, mentors, and organizations quietly shape the way we perform leadership. 
• The hidden cost of editing yourself to fit someone else's expectations. Why success doesn't always mean you're living in alignment with yourself. 
• How to identify the "rooms" of your house—your values, beliefs, convictions, boundaries, and emotional truths. 
• Why resilience acts as the roof that protects your authentic self from outside pressure. 
• How vulnerability becomes less threatening when you're secure in who you are. Why courage isn't the absence of fear, but choosing to live according to your own values despite it. 
• Practical questions to help you determine whether you're living under your own roof—or someone else's.

Links & Resources:

• Connect with Aday on LinkedIn
• Explore 1099 Impact Street: https://www.1099impactstreet.com/

Guest Info:

Dr. Aday Adetosoye is a leadership strategist, keynote speaker, executive coach, and the founder of 1099 Impact Street. She helps leaders move beyond performative leadership by aligning their actions with their authentic values, beliefs, and purpose. Through her signature "living under your own roof" metaphor, Aday equips individuals and organizations to challenge inherited expectations, build resilience, and lead with courage, authenticity, and lasting impact. 

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

We often think of self-awareness as a personal pursuit—something we do to better understand ourselves, improve our mindset, or become the "best version" of who we are. But what if knowing yourself isn't ultimately about you at all?

In this episode, Dr. Katie chats with leadership advisor and author Rajiv Mehta, who challenges the individualistic view of self-awareness and offers a compelling alternative: we come to know ourselves through our relationships with others. 

Drawing from his work with organizations like NASA, the U.S. Navy, and corporate leadership teams, Raj explains why true camaraderie isn't built through team-building exercises or personality assessments, but through the ongoing practice of seeing ourselves—and one another—more clearly.

Together, Katie and Raj explore why many of our assumptions about ourselves simply "ain't so," how simple reflective tools can transform the way we relate to others, and why healing the "soil" of relationships is the foundation for trust, belonging, and sustained high performance.

If you've ever wondered why some teams, families, and communities seem deeply connected while others struggle despite good intentions, this episode offers a refreshing perspective—and practical ways to begin building stronger relationships from the inside out.

Key Learnings:

• Self-awareness isn't an individual pursuit. Knowing yourself is ultimately about showing up more intentionally in relationship with others.
• Camaraderie is more than connection or belonging. It develops when a group shares a common purpose, trusts one another deeply, and is committed to one another's success. 
• Our thoughts aren't always the truth. Many of our reactions are automatic interpretations rather than objective reality. Learning to question those assumptions creates space for healthier relationships. 
• You don't need to become someone new. The skills required for deeper connection already exist within you—they simply need to be noticed, practiced, and strengthened. 
• Trust is built through shared reflection. Simple practices that help people understand themselves often become powerful conversations that strengthen relationships within teams, families, and communities. 
• Great team-building starts before the team-building event. Activities alone can't create lasting culture. Healthy relationships are the soil where collaboration, trust, and shared purpose grow. 
• Leadership begins with you. If you want greater camaraderie in your organization, don't start by asking your team to change. Start by becoming more aware of yourself and sharing what you're learning.

Resources:

• Rajiv Mehta's Book: Mapping Ourselves
• Website: Mapping Ourselves 
• Free Self-Reflection Tools: The Atlas Care Map and additional resources are available on the Mapping Ourselves website. 
• Connect with Rajiv: LinkedIn

Guest Info:

Rajiv Mehta is a leadership advisor, keynote speaker, and author of Mapping Ourselves. His work helps people better understand themselves so they can build stronger relationships, healthier communities, and cultures rooted in trust and camaraderie. Raj has worked with organizations ranging from NASA and the U.S. Navy to Apple and countless leadership teams, bringing together ancient wisdom and practical, research-informed tools that help people see themselves—and one another—with greater clarity. His approach reminds us that self-awareness isn't just a path to personal growth; it's the foundation for living and working well with others.

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

Stress has become so normalized that many of us wear it as a badge of honor. We equate busy with productive, exhaustion with success, and believe the answer is simply to push harder.

In this episode, Dr. Katie sits down with speaker, leadership strategist, and author Jennifer Stanford to challenge one of the biggest misconceptions about stress: pressure and stress are not the same thing. 

Pressure can motivate us and help us perform at our best. Stress becomes harmful when that pressure is sustained without recovery.

Together, they explore why high achievers are especially vulnerable to chronic stress, how to recognize the signals your body is sending before burnout, and practical tools to help you manage your energy, reclaim your agency, and lead—and live—with greater resilience.

Key Learnings

• Pressure fuels performance. Stress drains it. Learning the difference is the first step toward sustainable success. 
• Your body is constantly communicating with you. Poor sleep, muscle tension, irritability, headaches, and fatigue are often early warning signs that stress is building. 
• High performers often ignore those signals. Our drive to achieve and serve others can keep us pushing long after our bodies are asking us to slow down. 
• Manage your energy, not just your time. Jennifer shares four energy buckets—intellectual, physical, purposeful, and emotional—that help build resilience and prevent burnout. 
• Protect your calendar before it overwhelms you. Using tools like the Eisenhower Matrix helps prioritize what truly matters while eliminating unnecessary commitments. 
• Small daily practices make a big difference. Box breathing, grounding, and intentional check-ins can help regulate your nervous system and reduce stress before it becomes chronic. 
• You have more agency than you think. While we can't control every demand placed on us, we can choose how we prepare, recover, and care for ourselves along the way. 

Resources

• Connect with Jennifer on LinkedIn
• DE-STRESSED by Jennifer Stanford 
• Learn more at jenstanford.com

Guest Information

Jennifer Stanford is a speaker, leadership strategist, and stress expert who helps leaders and organizations improve performance by reducing chronic stress and building healthier, more resilient workplace cultures. She is the author of DE-STRESSED, where she shares practical tools to help individuals distinguish between healthy pressure and harmful stress so they can thrive both personally and professionally.

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

Episode Snapshot:

What if your hesitation to speak up, share your ideas, or take up space isn't actually a confidence problem?

In this episode, Dr. Katie sits down with mindset coach and former pharmaceutical executive Kapu Patel to explore why visibility is really a nervous system skill. Together, they unpack the subtle ways we "shrink" ourselves—from downplaying our accomplishments to putting everyone else's needs ahead of our own—and why reclaiming our voice begins by creating safety within ourselves. This conversation is a gentle invitation to stop waiting for permission and start trusting that you already belong. 

Summary:

Most of us have been told that confidence is the key to becoming more visible. Speak up. Lean in. Be bold.

But what if confidence isn't the problem?

Drawing from her journey as a scientist, pharmaceutical executive, photographer, and mindset coach, Kapu Patel offers a refreshing perspective: visibility is less about confidence and more about safety. When our nervous system has learned that standing out could lead to rejection, criticism, or shame, shrinking becomes a form of self-protection rather than a lack of capability.

Katie and Kapu explore the subtle patterns of shrinking that many people (especially women) experience every day. Sometimes it looks obvious, like holding back an idea in a meeting or minimizing an accomplishment. Other times it shows up in quieter ways: declining opportunities, avoiding photographs, neglecting self-care, staying silent in group decisions, or believing our contributions aren't significant enough to matter.

Together they discuss how childhood experiences, cultural conditioning, and the stories we've attached to past experiences shape the beliefs we carry into adulthood. Those beliefs often operate beneath our awareness, quietly influencing how we show up in our work, relationships, and leadership.

The conversation also challenges the popular advice to "fake it till you make it," proposing instead a more authentic approach: play it until you become it. Rather than pretending to be someone we're not, growth comes from practicing the fullest expression of who we already are while building the nervous system capacity to feel safe doing so.

Throughout the episode, Kapu shares practical tools for recognizing shrinking patterns, regulating the nervous system, questioning limiting stories using Byron Katie's four questions, and paying attention to the wisdom our bodies offer when something feels misaligned.

Ultimately, this conversation reminds us that taking up space isn't about becoming louder or demanding more attention. It's about giving ourselves permission to stop editing who we are and trusting that we already belong. 

Key Learnings:

1. Visibility is a safety issue before it's a confidence issue.

When our nervous system associates being seen with judgment, rejection, or shame, shrinking becomes a protective response—not a character flaw.

2. Shrinking shows up in more places than we realize.

It's not only speaking less in meetings. It can look like downplaying accomplishments, avoiding recognition, neglecting self-care, deferring to others, or believing your needs matter less than everyone else's.

3. Our conditioning shapes our stories.

The words we've repeatedly heard, the environments we've grown up in, and the meaning we've assigned to those experiences become subconscious beliefs that influence how we show up today.

4. Authentic visibility isn't about "faking it."

Rather than pretending to be confident, we can practice becoming more fully ourselves by expanding our capacity to feel safe while taking courageous action.

5. The stories we beieve deserve to be questioned.

Simple questions like Is it true? Is it absolutely true? Who would I be if it weren't true? can create powerful shifts in how we relate to ourselves and our potential.

Resources:

• Website: https://www.youshinemindsetcoaching.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kapu-kalpana-patel/

Guest Info:

Kapu Patel is a mindset coach who helps women overcome the invisible patterns that keep them playing small so they can become more visible, confident, and authentic in their work and lives.

Before launching her coaching practice, Kapu built a successful career as a pharmaceutical researcher and executive after earning her PhD in the sciences. She later transitioned into professional photography, where she discovered that many accomplished women struggled not with how they looked, but with allowing themselves to be seen.

Today, she combines neuroscience, mindset coaching, and her own lived experiences to help women move from permission-seeking to space-claiming. Her work focuses on building the internal safety that allows authentic confidence and visibility to emerge.

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

Episode Snapshot:

What if midlife isn't a crisis to survive, but an invitation to come home to yourself?

In this episode, Dr. Katie Sandoe sits down with transformational guide and midlife mentor Andrea Mancuso to challenge one of our culture's most enduring narratives. Together, they explore why the restlessness many people experience in midlife isn't a sign that something is wrong—it's often a signal that something deeper is asking to emerge. Through the beautiful metaphor of shedding and renewal, they discuss what it means to let go of identities, expectations, and patterns that no longer fit so you can move toward a life of greater freedom, authenticity, and alignment. 

Summary: 

For decades, we've been taught to fear (or laugh at) the "midlife crisis"—the season where everything seems to fall apart. But what if we've misunderstood it all along?

Andrea Mancuso invites us to see midlife not as a breakdown, but as a homecoming. She explains how many of us spend the first half of life building identities around achievement, approval, perfectionism, and the expectations of others. Eventually, those identities feel restrictive. The life that once looked successful on paper may suddenly feel disconnected from who we truly are.

Rather than resisting that discomfort, Andrea encourages listeners to see it as an invitation. The exhaustion, restlessness, and quiet longing for "something more" aren't signs of failure—they're often evidence that our most authentic self is asking to be seen.

Throughout the conversation, Katie and Andrea explore the courage required to release limiting beliefs, heal old wounds, navigate fear, and let go of relationships, roles, and expectations that no longer serve us. They also acknowledge the messy middle of transformation, reminding listeners that freedom is rarely found by avoiding discomfort. Instead, it comes through moving toward it with intention and self-compassion.

Whether you're in the middle of a life transition or simply sensing that something feels "off," this episode offers hope that the next chapter of your life isn't about reinventing yourself, it's about returning to the person that feels like home.

Key Learnings:

• Midlife is not a crisis—it's a homecoming. What often feels like unraveling is actually an invitation to reconnect with your most authentic self.
• The lives we outgrow aren't failures. They simply may no longer reflect who we've become, making change an act of alignment rather than regret. 
• Freedom requires shedding. Healing often involves releasing limiting beliefs, people-pleasing, shame, perfectionism, and identities that no longer fit. 
• Transformation includes grief. Letting go of old versions of ourselves, relationships, and expectations is difficult, but it creates space for a richer, more meaningful life. 
• The greatest commitment we can make is to ourselves. Returning home begins with the simple decision to honor what is true for us, even when the path feels uncertain.

Guest Resources:

• Website: iamandreamancuso.com
• LinkedIn: Andrea Mancuso 
• YouTube: @IAmAndreaMancuso

Guest Bio:

Andrea Mancuso is a transformational guide, leadership coach, licensed mental health counselor, speaker, and midlife mentor who helps people reimagine one of life's most misunderstood seasons. Through her work, she guides individuals in releasing patterns of people-pleasing, perfectionism, fear, and performance so they can reconnect with their authentic selves and build lives rooted in truth, freedom, and alignment. Known for her warmth, vulnerability, and unmistakable New York honesty, Andrea empowers people to see healing not as something to fear, but as the pathway home. 

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

Episode Snapshot:

What if building a life you love isn't just an individual pursuit—but something you intentionally create with the person you're sharing it with?

In this episode, Dr. Katie sits down with Rebecca and James Lockwood, founders of The Thriving Couple, to explore how the same intentional practices that help businesses thrive—shared vision, strategic planning, regular check-ins, and meaningful conversations—can transform your marriage and family. Together, they share how becoming more intentional at home helped them stop simply managing life and start building a future they were excited to create together. 

Summary:

Many of us spend years investing in our careers. We attend conferences, hire coaches, create strategic plans, set ambitious goals, and work tirelessly to build successful organizations.

But how often do we invest that same level of intention into building the life we actually want to live?

In this conversation, Katie sits down with Rebecca and James Lockwood to explore what happens when you begin treating your marriage (or life partnership)—not like a business—but like one of the most important investments of your life.

After realizing they were succeeding professionally while struggling personally, Rebecca and James began applying the same principles Rebecca taught to growing companies—clarifying vision, establishing rhythms, setting goals, creating accountability, and making time for meaningful conversations—to their relationship. What emerged wasn't a more structured marriage; it was a more connected one.

Together, they discuss why so many couples drift into reactive living, how shared dreams create deeper connection, and why working on your relationship is just as important as working in it. Along the way, Katie shares her own experience using personal strategic planning to intentionally design a life she loves, creating a rich conversation about bringing purpose, clarity, and intention into every area of life—not just work.

If you've ever felt like your career receives your best energy while your relationships get what's left over, this episode offers a hopeful invitation to slow down, dream together again, and intentionally build a life you truly love. 

Key Learnings:

• A meaningful life doesn't happen by accident. The same intentionality we bring to our work can help us create stronger marriages, healthier families, and richer lives.
• Your relationship deserves more than your leftovers. Prioritizing shared vision, regular conversations, and intentional time together strengthens both your partnership and your individual wellbeing. 
• Dream together again. Shared goals and meaningful conversations create hope, deepen connection, and help couples move beyond simply surviving the demands of everyday life. 
• Structure creates freedom. Weekly check-ins, quarterly planning, annual retreats, and intentional rituals provide space for honest conversations, better decisions, and greater alignment. 
• Build your life one small step at a time. Lasting change comes from consistently investing in the habits and conversations that move you toward the life—and relationship—you want to create together.

Resources:

• Website: The Thriving Couple
• Book: The Cohesive Couple
• Free Resources: Couple Vision & Planning Guide, Bucket List, and book excerpts available through their website. Click here to connect directly.

Guest Bio:

James and Rebecca Lockwood are the founders of The Thriving Couple, where they help high-performing couples bring the same intentionality to their relationships that they bring to their careers. Rebecca is a business coach who spent years helping organizations build strategy and systems for growth before realizing those same principles could transform life at home. Together, they developed a practical framework centered on shared vision, intentional planning, and meaningful connection, which has helped nearly 100 couples strengthen their marriages, dream together again, and build thriving lives together. They are also the authors of The Cohesive Couple. 

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

Episode Snapshot:

We don't just inherit stories. We choose which ones we carry forward. 

In this episode, Dr. Katie welcomes genealogist, speaker, and Rich Roots founder Rich Venezia for a conversation about identity, belonging, and the powerful act of returning to our roots. Together, they explore how family history is not simply about dates, records, or distant relatives — it is about understanding the stories, choices, migrations, traditions, and relationships that shaped who we are today.

Summary:

For many of us, especially in the United States, identity can feel fragmented. We may know pieces of where we come from — Irish, Italian, Pennsylvania Dutch, German, Canadian, or something else entirely — but we may not know the people, stories, sacrifices, and lived experiences behind those labels.

Rich Venezia helps people uncover those deeper stories.

In this conversation, Rich shares how his own journey into genealogy began as a way to stay connected to his grandmother and grew into a lifelong calling. He explains why understanding family history can help us feel more grounded, more connected, and more resilient — not because our past defines us, but because it gives us a larger story to belong to.

Katie and Rich also explore the idea of the “intergenerational self,” the importance of asking sensory questions of loved ones, and how family stories can help us better understand both inherited identity and chosen identity. Whether we are exploring our biological lineage, adopted family, chosen family, or the people who shaped us along the way, this conversation reminds us that our roots are not just behind us — they are part of what helps us move forward.

Key Learnings:

1. Looking back can help us feel more grounded moving forward.
Understanding our roots can give us a deeper sense of identity, resilience, and connection to something bigger than ourselves.

2. Family history is more than names and dates.
The richest discoveries often come through stories, traditions, food, memories, photographs, places, and sensory details.

3. Identity is both inherited and created.
Our bloodline may shape part of who we are, but so do the people who raised us, loved us, mentored us, and helped us become ourselves.

4. The stories we carry forward are a choice.
Learning about the past gives us agency. We can honor what came before while choosing what values, traditions, and stories we want to continue.

5. Curiosity is a doorway to belonging.
Even a few questions, photos, or records can open up a deeper connection to family, heritage, and self-understanding.

Guest Resources

Learn more about Rich Venezia and his work at Rich Roots:
https://www.richroots.net/

Guest Bio:

Rich Venezia is a genealogist, keynote speaker, and founder of Rich Roots, where he helps people uncover their family history and reconnect with where they come from. Through his research, storytelling, and speaking, Rich helps individuals and families discover the people, places, and stories that shaped their identity — and reminds us that looking back can be a powerful way to better understand who we are today.

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

Episode Snapshot:

Your life can look great on paper and still not feel right in your body.

In this episode, Dr. Katie chats with speaker and coach Nisha Patel to unpack what it really means to live in alignment. Together, they explore why so many high-achievers feel fragmented, anxious, or disconnected despite checking all the boxes—and how reconnecting with your values, your body, and your purpose can help you build a life that feels peaceful, grounded, and authentically your own.

Summary:

Success doesn't always feel the way we think it should.

Many people spend years building beautiful lives on paper—careers, families, accomplishments, responsibilities—only to discover that something still feels off. They're productive but exhausted. Successful but disconnected. Surrounded by good things, yet strangely numb.

In this conversation, speaker and coach Nisha Patel offers a refreshing definition of alignment: knowing your core values and allowing your life to reflect them. She and Katie explore how misalignment often shows up in the body long before we recognize it in our minds through anxiety, tension, numbness, overworking, addictive patterns, and the constant need for noise and distraction.

Drawing from her own sobriety journey and her work in mindfulness and nervous system regulation, Nisha shares how purpose became louder than the fear of being judged, and why healing isn't about becoming someone new—it's about reconnecting with who you are.

Together, they discuss practical ways to cultivate greater alignment through movement, mindfulness, journaling, core values, and one deceptively simple question: What do I need?

Ultimately, this conversation is an invitation to stop performing success and come back to yourself. Because building a meaningful life isn't about adding more—it may be about returning to what has always mattered most and creating a life that simply feels right.

Key Learnings:

1. Your life can look good on the outside and still not feel right on the inside.
2. Alignment begins with knowing your core values and allowing your life to reflect them.
3. Your body often recognizes misalignment before your mind does.
4. Purpose can become louder than fear when you are grounded in what matters most.
5. Sometimes the path back to yourself starts with one simple question: "What do I need?"

Guest Resources:

LinkedIn: @NishaJPatel
Instagram: @Nishapatelcoaching
Website: The Nishe

Guest Bio:

Nisha Patel is a speaker and coach who helps high achievers stop performing and start living in alignment. Drawing from her work in addiction, mindfulness, and nervous system regulation, she challenges the idea that success equals wellness. Nisha guides people back to their values, their purpose, and their truth — so their purpose becomes louder than their fear.

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

Episode Snapshot:

What if the thing you were taught to hide became the very thing that helped you build something meaningful?

In this episode, Dr. Katie is joined by sisters Nicol Varona Cancelmo and Cory Varona Corniel, co-founders of OCOA, a clean curl care brand rooted in Dominican heritage, identity, confidence, and community. Together, they explore what it means to build a business for good — one that serves people, creates impact, honors culture, and succeeds in the marketplace without losing its soul.

Summary:

Nicol and Cory grew up hearing messages that their natural curls were “too much,” “unruly,” or “pelo malo” — bad hair. Like so many girls and women, they absorbed the belief that something about them needed to be fixed in order to be accepted, beautiful, or professional.

But their journey toward embracing their curls became much more than a beauty transformation. It became a reclamation of identity.

Through curiosity, research, motherhood, health concerns, and a desire for cleaner, more nourishing products, Nicol and Cory began creating what they couldn’t find. What started in a kitchen eventually became OCOA — a purpose-driven haircare brand built to help people love their curls and themselves.

This conversation is about natural beauty, cultural identity, sisterhood, entrepreneurship, perseverance, and the courage it takes to build something that reflects who you are. Nicol and Cory remind us that business can be more than a transaction. It can be an act of healing, representation, and service.

Key Learnings:

1. Sometimes the thing you were taught to hide is actually part of your power.
Nicol and Cory share how childhood messages about their hair shaped their confidence, identity, and sense of belonging — and how reclaiming their curls helped them reclaim themselves.

2. Business for good begins with a deeply human problem.
OCOA wasn’t born from chasing a trend. It came from lived experience, cultural messaging, health concerns, and a desire to create something better for their community.

3. Purpose can fuel perseverance, but it doesn’t erase the hard.
Building a values-driven business required sacrifice, patience, trial and error, and years of learning while balancing full-time work, motherhood, family, and growth.

4. Representation is not just about being seen — it’s about feeling worthy.
By rooting OCOA in Dominican heritage, bilingual storytelling, and authentic cultural pride, Nicol and Cory are helping others see their beauty, identity, and story reflected back with dignity.

5. Authenticity is a business strategy — but more importantly, it’s a way of living.
Their brand truly clicked when they stopped trying to look like everyone else and leaned fully into who they are.

Resources:

• Learn more about OCOA: ocoabeauty.com
• Follow OCOA on Instagram: @ocoabeauty
• Connect with OCOA on LinkedIn: OCOA - Curly Hair Care
• Shop OCOA at Ulta Beauty

Guest Info:

Nicol Varona Cancelmo and Cory Varona Corniel are sisters, entrepreneurs, and the co-founders of OCOA, a clean curl care brand created to help people embrace their natural beauty with confidence. Inspired by their Dominican heritage and their own journeys of reclaiming their curls, Nicol and Cory built OCOA to offer high-performing, nourishing products while creating a larger movement around identity, representation, sisterhood, and self-love.

As Dominican American founders, they are redefining what curly haircare can look and feel like — bringing culture, clean ingredients, and community together in a brand designed to help people be exactly who they were born to be.

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.