Michael Filosi built a dental practice nobody wanted into one of the most desirable practices in his market. What started with possums in the walls, no computers, and no website eventually grew into a thriving business that attracted four private equity buyers.

In this episode of Success, Rewritten, Michael shares what it took to go from struggling with the technical side of dentistry to becoming an ambitious business owner, obsessed with building something exceptional. But as the practice grew, so did the personal cost. Stress began showing up physically, and Michael eventually had to ask himself whether the success he had worked so hard for was still worth pursuing.

Michael opens up about selling the business in just 81 days, walking away at 41 without knowing exactly what would come next, and redefining success around health, curiosity, fulfillment, and enjoying his life. He also shares why sometimes the drive that makes us successful can become the very thing we need to learn how to manage.

In this episode:

• The Lost Decade of Your Life
• Meet Michael Filosi
• From Dentist to Business Owner
• Buying the Dental Practice Nobody Wanted
• Taking the Practice From Worst to First
• The Drive Behind Michael’s Success
• When Stress Started Making Him Physically Sick
• The Conversation That Made Him Consider Selling
• Avoiding the Lost Decade of His Life
• Asking Why He Was Still Doing It
• Selling His Business in Just 81 Days
• Finding Your Second Act After Success
• Why Knowing You Can Leave Can Keep You Stuck
• The Reality Behind Entrepreneurial Success
• Was Building the Business Worth It?

Resources

• Michael Filosi on LinkedIn

New episodes of Success, Rewritten every Tuesday. Check out the show website for previous episode articles and more about our guests. And check out the show on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SuccessRewrittenShow

To connect with Emily, email [email protected] or follow her on social:

Emily's Instagram, Mental Health Advocacy profile Bipolar Brought Balance, and the show's Instagram: Success, Rewritten

Emily introduces Say the Words, a new event series beginning with a suicide symposium on September 24, 2026, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

She shares how conversations with people who have experienced suicide loss opened her eyes to how much stigma, uncertainty, and discomfort still surround the topic, even within mental health spaces. Emily explains why bringing together practitioners, loss survivors, people with lived experience, and community members can create more open and compassionate conversations.

She also explores why language matters when talking about suicide, how prevention messaging can sometimes unintentionally affect those who have lost someone, and why sharing personal stories can help others feel less alone. The episode offers a look at the purpose behind Say the Words and Emily’s hope to create space for imperfect but meaningful conversations about mental health.

In this episode:

• Introducing the Say the Words Event Series
• Why Suicide Is Still Difficult to Talk About
• Emily’s Personal Mental Health Journey
• Learning From People Who Have Experienced Suicide Loss
• Charlotte Maya’s Story and Sushi Tuesdays
• Realizing How Much Stigma Still Surrounds Suicide
• How Say the Words Became a Suicide Symposium
• Bringing Lived Experience and Professional Perspectives Together
• Creating Space for Loss Survivors and Prevention Conversations
• QPR Training, Crisis Resources, and Neurodiversity
• Why Imperfect Conversations Matter
• Why the Language We Use Around Suicide Matters
• How Sharing Experiences Can Help Others Feel Less Alone
• Different Losses, Shared Ground
• When Prevention Messaging Can Unintentionally Hurt
• The Bigger Vision for Say the Words
• How Sharing Our Stories Can Reduce Stigma

Resources Mentioned

• Say the Words Suicide Symposium
• NAMI Southeast Wisconsin
• Charles E. Kubly Foundation
• Sushi Tuesdays by Charlotte Maya
• QPR Training
• Success, Rewritten keynote

Find me:

Success, Rewritten | Website | Instagram

Emily LoMenzo Washcovick | LinkedIn | Instagram

Bipolar Brought Balance | Instagram

To go deeper on my experience with bipolar disorder, visit bipolarbroughtbalance.com

Dr. Emily Guarnotta is a psychologist, mom of two, and cofounder of Phoenix Health who specializes in supporting families through infertility, pregnancy, postpartum, loss, and parenthood.

In this episode of Success, Rewritten, Emily opens up about experiencing postpartum depression after becoming a mother, despite being a mental health professional herself. She shares why she struggled to admit she needed help, the barriers she faced finding care, and how therapy, medication, and hearing other mothers' experiences helped her heal.

They also discuss intrusive thoughts during postpartum, balancing motherhood with ambition, protecting time for self care, navigating the division of labor between partners, and using mindfulness to manage anxiety.

Above all, Emily reminds parents that they don't have to wait until things become unbearable to reach out: it's never too early or too late to seek support.

In this episode:

• Motherhood Didn't Take Away Emily's Ambition
• Meet Dr. Emily Guarnotta
• Expecting Motherhood to Be an Easy Transition
• When Postpartum Depression Started to Surface
• Intrusive Thoughts During Postpartum
• Why Emily Was Afraid to Admit She Needed Help
• Medication, Therapy, and Finding the Right Support
• Preparing for Motherhood the Second Time Around
• How Her Experience Inspired Phoenix Health
• Balancing Motherhood With Ambition
• Making Self Care Nonnegotiable
• Sharing the Mental and Physical Load With Your Partner
• Using Mindfulness and Meditation for Anxiety
• Why It's Never Too Early or Too Late to Seek Help
• Giving Yourself Grace as an Ambitious Parent

Resources

• Phoenix Health
• Postpartum Support International

New episodes of Success, Rewritten every Tuesday. Check out the show website for previous episode articles and more about our guests. And check out the show on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SuccessRewrittenShow

To connect with Emily, email [email protected] or follow her on social:

Emily's Instagram, Mental Health Advocacy profile Bipolar Brought Balance, and the show's Instagram: Success, Rewritten

Craig Smith is a professional speaker and live TV host who has spent more than 15 years learning what makes a message truly connect.

In this episode of Success, Rewritten, Craig shares his journey from sports broadcasting to sales, QVC, and professional speaking. He opens up about chasing money, getting caught in the "golden handcuffs," and eventually realizing that enjoying his work mattered more than external validation.

Craig also shares how losing his father changed his perspective on success, grief, and the impact we have on others. He explains why meaningful connection matters in both life and business and shares his simple framework for creating a message people remember: make it clear, real, and repeatable.

Above all, Craig reminds us that careers and definitions of success will continue to evolve, and sometimes the most important question is simply: What matters most to you?

In this episode:

• Why Your Message Needs to Connect Fast
• Meet Craig Smith
• Why Career Pivots Are the New Normal
• Chasing Money and the Golden Handcuffs
• The Sales Meeting That Changed Craig's Definition of Success
• How Craig Found His Way to QVC
• Why Networking and Real Connections Matter
• What Joan Rivers Taught Craig About Connection
• Losing His Father and Discovering His Legacy
• The Story That Changed Craig's Perspective on Success
• Navigating Grief and Learning What Doesn't Work
• How Grief Created More Compassion for Others
• How to Create a Message That Actually Connects
• Why Being Imperfect Makes You More Relatable
• Can You Explain What Your Business Does Quickly?

Resources

• Craig Smith Speaks on Instagram
• Craig Smith on LinkedIn
• Craig Smith Speaks website

New episodes of Success, Rewritten every Tuesday. Check out the show website for previous episode articles and more about our guests. And check out the show on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SuccessRewrittenShow

To connect with Emily, email [email protected] or follow her on social:

Emily's Instagram, Mental Health Advocacy profile Bipolar Brought Balance, and the show's Instagram: Success, Rewritten

Emily reflects on her experience speaking at the 2026 Pool Nation Women Summit and shares some of the most important lessons from her Success, Rewritten keynote.

Emily looks back at the early years of her career when being constantly busy, needed, and productive felt like proof that she was successful. Behind that success, however, she was slowly burning herself out. She shares how a manic episode and hospitalization at 28 forced her to reconsider her relationship with work, boundaries, mental health, and her own identity.

She also explains why no one else can manage your output for you, why protecting time at the beginning and end of your day matters, and how having boundaries gives you a structure to return to when life gets off track.

The episode is a reminder that you do not need to wait for a diagnosis or breaking point to make a change. Sustainable success means learning when to step away, reset, protect your energy, and create a definition of success that can support you for the long haul.

In this episode:

• When Physical Symptoms May Actually Be Stress and Anxiety
• Reflecting on the Pool Nation Women Summit
• The Power of Being in a Supportive Room of Women
• The Story Behind Emily's Success Rewritten Keynote
• How Boundaries Help Emily Maintain Balance
• When Career Success Was Actually Burnout
• How Work Became Part of Emily's Identity
• When Mania Looked Like Productivity
• Why No One Else Is Going to Manage Your Output
• Redefining Success After a Mental Health Crisis
• Why You Shouldn't Wait for a Breaking Point to Rest
• Building a Structure You Can Return To
• Protecting the Beginning and End of Your Day
• Learning to Cancel or Reschedule Without Spiraling
• You Don't Need a Diagnosis to Set Better Boundaries
• The Personal Impact of the Pool Nation Women Summit
• Bringing the Success Rewritten Keynote to More Audiences
• Why Human Connection Cannot Be Replaced
• Learning From Other People's Stories and Pivot Points

Resources Mentioned

• Pool Nation Women Summit
• Success, Rewritten keynote

Find me:

Success, Rewritten | Website | Instagram

Emily LoMenzo Washcovick | LinkedIn | Instagram

Bipolar Brought Balance | Instagram

To go deeper on my experience with bipolar disorder, visit bipolarbroughtbalance.com

Jordan Kernen is a teacher and mental health advocate who knows firsthand how difficult it can be to recognize when you need help, and how powerful life can become when you finally accept it.

In this episode of Success, Rewritten, Jordan shares her experience with anxiety, depression, OCD, and anorexia, tracing her mental health journey back to college when two traumatic events left her searching for something she could control. Food and exercise became that outlet, eventually developing into an eating disorder that she initially struggled to recognize as a problem.

Jordan opens up about reaching a life threatening point in her eating disorder, entering inpatient and residential treatment at Rogers Behavioral Health, and discovering through treatment that she wasn't alone. She and Emily discuss exposure therapy, challenging disordered thoughts, finding the gray area between black and white thinking, and why recovery doesn't necessarily mean never struggling again.

The conversation also explores Jordan's work as a teacher and how her own recovery shapes the way she talks to children about food, bodies, emotions, and mental health. Jordan explains why adults need to be mindful of the messages children absorb around dieting, calories, body image, and emotional expression, and why creating spaces where kids can safely be themselves matters.

Above all, Jordan shares the message she wishes she had heard sooner: asking for help can be terrifying, but once you realize you have people in your corner, recovery becomes possible.

In this episode:

• Why Jordan Wishes She Had Asked for Help Sooner
• Meet Jordan Kernen
• When Anxiety and Mental Health Struggles First Appeared
• Recognizing That Something Wasn't Right
• How Trauma Led to Controlling Food and Exercise
• When "Healthy" Behaviors Become Warning Signs
• Disordered Eating vs. Eating Disorders
• Red Flags That Someone You Love May Be Struggling
• Finding Mental Health Support in College
• Being Diagnosed With Anorexia, Anxiety, Depression, and OCD
• The Two Year Struggle Before Entering Treatment
• The Medical Crisis That Changed Everything
• Entering Inpatient and Residential Treatment
• Realizing She Wasn't Alone at Rogers
• Challenging Anxious Thoughts and Choosing the Opposite Action
• What Eating Disorder Recovery Actually Looks Like
• Creating Food and Body Positivity in the Classroom
• Why Comments About Bodies Can Be Triggering
• Why Eight and Nine Year Olds Are Already Talking About Calories
• How Adults' Relationships With Food Influence Children
• Why Asking for Help Makes Recovery Possible
• Teaching Kids That It's Okay to Feel Their Emotions
• Resources for Eating Disorder Support
• You Are Not Alone and Recovery Is Worth It

Resources

• Rogers Behavioral Health
• National Eating Disorders Association, NEDA
• NEDA Walks
• Jordan Kernen on Instagram

New episodes of Success, Rewritten every Tuesday. Check out the show website for previous episode articles and more about our guests. And check out the show on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SuccessRewrittenShow

To connect with Emily, email [email protected] or follow her on social:

Emily's Instagram, Mental Health Advocacy profile Bipolar Brought Balance, and the show's Instagram: Success, Rewritten

Christine Burns spent more than two decades building a corporate career before a layoff forced her to confront a difficult question: who was she without the job title, salary, and professional identity that had defined so much of her life?

In this episode of Success, Rewritten, Christine shares how panic attacks, career pivots, money scarcity, and eventually losing her corporate role pushed her to rethink what success was supposed to look like. She opens up about moving from accounting and consulting into HR, becoming an entrepreneur, and learning why clarity about what you offer matters when building a business.

Christine also shares the story behind Lady No Kids, the community she is building for women without children, whether by choice, chance, or circumstance. She and Emily discuss friendship, identity, finding community as other people's lives shift toward parenthood, and why women without children deserve spaces centered on connection, opportunity, learning, and celebration rather than judgment or division.

The conversation closes with an honest look at burnout, therapy, hyper-independence, and learning to ask for help instead of carrying everything alone.

In this episode:

• Meet Christine Burns
• Building Lady No Kids
• Following the Traditional Corporate Success Path
• When Anxiety Became a Wake-Up Call
• From Accounting to HR and Leadership
• The Layoff That Changed Her Identity
• Starting Over as an Entrepreneur
• Unrealistic Timelines and Money Scarcity
• Why Entrepreneurs Need a Clear Position
• Validating the Idea for Lady No Kids
• Moving to Toronto, Sailing, and Finding Community
• Creating a Community Without Being Anti-Mom or Anti-Kid
• How Motherhood Changed Her Friendships
• Burnout, Mental Health, and Asking for Help
• What's Next for Lady No Kids

Connect with Christine

• Lady No Kids
• Lady No Kids Newsletter
• Lady No Kids on Instagram
• Christine Burns on LinkedIn

New episodes of Success, Rewritten every Tuesday. Check out the show website for previous episode articles and more about our guests. And check out the show on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SuccessRewrittenShow

To connect with Emily, email [email protected] or follow her on social:

Emily's Instagram, Mental Health Advocacy profile Bipolar Brought Balance, and the show's Instagram: Success, Rewritten

Ali Schwartz spent years building a successful corporate career while treating singing, songwriting, and dance as a side passion. Eventually, she realized the creative work she was doing outside her day job was what truly energized her.

In this episode of Success, Rewritten, Ali shares how she went from working at Yelp and Fortune Media to pursuing music full time. She discusses treating creativity like a business, using skills from her corporate career to build her music career, and why streaming numbers and social media views are not the best measures of success.

Ali also talks about earning income through songwriting and vocal work, developing a more authentic creative identity, and building Pop Hang, a community connecting artists, producers, and songwriters in New York.

The conversation is a practical look at entrepreneurship, creativity, community building, and why meaningful progress often happens much more slowly than social media makes it appear.

In this episode:

• Meet Ali Schwartz
• Life as a Singer, Songwriter, and Entrepreneur
• Turning a Creative Hobby Into a Career
• How Corporate Skills Helped Her Music Career
• Redefining Success Beyond Views and Streams
• Why Relationships Create Opportunities
• Lessons From Building Community at Yelp
• Kindness, Boundaries, and Handling Difficult People
• Learning to Adapt When Events Go Wrong
• How the Pandemic Changed Her Corporate Career
• Leaving Corporate and Choosing Music
• Making Money Through Songwriting and Vocals
• Finding an Authentic Creative Identity
• Building Community Through Pop Hang
• Why Progress Is Like an Ice Cube Melting

Connect with Ali

• Ali’s website
• Ali on Instagram
• Ali's Youtube Channel
• Ali on Spotify

New episodes of Success, Rewritten every Tuesday. Check out the show website for previous episode articles and more about our guests. And check out the show on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SuccessRewrittenShow

To connect with Emily, email [email protected] or follow her on social:

Emily's Instagram, Mental Health Advocacy profile Bipolar Brought Balance, and the show's Instagram: Success, Rewritten

In this solo episode of Success, Rewritten, Emily shares why sleep has become one of the most important foundations of her mental health, productivity, and long-term success. She reflects on how she once viewed needing less sleep as a strength, and how that mindset changed after experiencing a manic episode and hospitalization in 2018.

Emily explains how consistent sleep habits, earlier wind-down times, a better sleep environment, and tracking her sleep have helped her feel sharper, calmer, and more focused. She also challenges the idea that sacrificing sleep is necessary to be productive or successful.

The episode is a reminder that better sleep is not about slowing down. It is about creating the energy, stability, and focus needed to keep going without constantly running on empty.

In this episode:

• Why Emily Used to See Less Sleep as a Strength
• Why Sleep Became Essential to Her Mental Health
• Emily's Experience With Severe Sleep Loss and Mania
• Challenging Hustle Culture and the "Sleep When You're Dead" Mindset
• Why Consistent Sleep Habits Matter
• Practical Habits That Help Emily Sleep Better
• Creating a Consistent Sleep and Wake Window
• Why Winding Down Before Bed Matters
• Creating a Better Sleep Environment
• Using an Oura Ring to Track Sleep Patterns
• How More Sleep Improved Emily's Productivity
• Protecting Sleep as an Entrepreneur
• Why Sleep Loss Affects Mood and Mental Performance
• Redefining Success Without Sacrificing Sleep
• Going Back to Basics When Your Sleep Gets Off Track

Find me:

Success, Rewritten | Website | Instagram

Emily LoMenzo Washcovick | LinkedIn | Instagram

Bipolar Brought Balance | Instagram

To go deeper on my experience with bipolar disorder, visit bipolarbroughtbalance.com

Quint Boa has spent more than 25 years building a global video and animation production company through constant changes in technology, from VHS tapes and DVDs to social media, animation, and generative AI.

In this episode of Success, Rewritten, Quint shares how anxiety often pushed him to stay ahead of industry changes, how his background in psychotherapy shapes the way he approaches storytelling, and why animation is such a powerful tool for explaining complex ideas in healthcare, finance, and technology.

He also discusses the difficult decisions that come with adopting AI, including helping creative teams adapt without treating people as replaceable. Later in the conversation, Quint opens up about his experience with alcoholism, 12 years of sobriety, and how recovery gave him more freedom, empathy, and clarity about what truly matters.

This episode is an honest conversation about innovation, mental health, leadership, addiction, and learning how to keep evolving without losing yourself along the way.

In this episode:

• Meet Quint Boa
• Building a Video Production Company From the Ground Up
• The Anxiety Behind Constant Innovation
• How Psychotherapy Connects With Visual Storytelling
• Using AI and Animation to Explain Healthcare
• The Difficult Reality of Adopting AI
• Leading Employees as People, Not Numbers
• Quint’s Journey With Alcoholism
• What You Learn When You Stop Drinking
• Mental Health, Therapy, and Reducing Stigma

New episodes of Success, Rewritten every Tuesday. Check out the show website for previous episode articles and more about our guests. And check out the show on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SuccessRewrittenShow

To connect with Emily, email [email protected] or follow her on social:

Emily's Instagram, Mental Health Advocacy profile Bipolar Brought Balance, and the show's Instagram: Success, Rewritten