The 1% Shift with Niyi

What does it take to build a blended family that actually thrives — not just survives?

In this episode of The 1% Shift with Niyi, host Niyi sits down with Dr. Deana Thayer — speaker, podcaster, author, and blended family ministry leader with over two decades of experience in marriage and parenting.

Deana and her husband Scott have drawn on their own stepfamily journey — including her experience leaving an abusive marriage — to build a ministry that helps couples navigate the unique, often overlooked challenges of blending families. She has appeared on FamilyLife Blended with Ron Deal and Building Relationships with Dr. Gary Chapman, and her forthcoming book for stepfamilies with Moody Publishers releases summer 2027.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Deana’s blended family journey and why she calls her love story a picture of the gospel

• What happened on her wedding day that became a cornerstone of her premarital coaching

• The pitfalls dating stepcouples should watch for before merging families

• Mistakes made early in their blended family and what they reveal about new dynamics

• How to navigate holidays, priorities, and the unique pressures stepfamilies face

• Practical ways to support children through the stepfamily transition

• Why educators, ministry leaders, and caring individuals need to understand blended families

Visit deanathayer.com to learn more about Deana’s work and ministry resources for blended families.

What happens when you do everything right — the career, the income, the dream life — and still feel like something is fundamentally off?

In this episode of The 1% Shift with Niyi, host Niyi sits down with Terence Waters — reflective storyteller, entrepreneur, and creator of The Resonance Core Framework™, a model that helps people understand identity, meaning, and what it actually feels like to be aligned from the inside out.

Terence did the corporate life and hated it. Earned six figures and felt empty. Coasted in his dream life and lost himself. That tension drove him into a deep exploration of how identity actually works — not as a fixed label or personality type, but as a dynamic system shaped by the stories we carry, the environments we move through, and the signals our bodies give us.

In this episode, we discuss:

• What identity coherence really means and why most people are living without it

• The difference between thinking you’re aligned and actually knowing it in your body

• How our stories, environments, and body signals shape who we become

• Why doing everything right can still leave you feeling completely empty

• What The Resonance Core Framework™ offers someone who is stuck, misaligned, or unclear

• The small shifts in awareness that begin to bring identity and life into resonance

This is one of those conversations that makes you stop and ask the question you’ve been avoiding.

Visit theresonantidentity.com to explore Terence’s 7-day identity challenges, companion articles, and practical tools for reflection, coherence, and personal transformation.
https://theresonantidentity.com

In this inspiring episode of The 1% Shift with Niyi, host Niyi welcomes Pat and Ralph Wanner — an ordinary couple who, at age 50, left their comfortable life in Colorado to embark on an extraordinary 10,000-mile bicycle adventure from Alaska all the way to Panama.

Their memoir To the End of the Earth is a raw, honest, and often humorous story of grit, marriage, mechanical breakdowns, extreme weather, and midlife reinvention. Through polar bears, remote territories, and countless challenges, they discovered what it really takes to keep going when the road gets tough.

This conversation explores how small daily decisions and 1% shifts in mindset, resilience, and partnership can turn a crazy dream into reality — and why it’s never too late to chase what matters.

Learn more about Pat and Ralph’s journey, their book, and what’s next at: https://patandralphbikeride.carrd.co/

In this episode, we discuss:

• Leaving comfort at 50 to chase a big dream

• The realities of midlife reinvention and long-term marriage on the road

• Building grit and resilience one pedal stroke at a time

• Navigating doubt, conflict, and joy during extreme adventures

• What their story reveals about the road ahead in life

In this inspiring episode of The 1% Shift with Niyi, host Niyi welcomes Pat and Ralph Wanner — an ordinary couple who, at age 50, left their comfortable life in Colorado to embark on an extraordinary 10,000-mile bicycle adventure from Alaska all the way to Panama.

Their memoir To the End of the Earth is a raw, honest, and often humorous story of grit, marriage, mechanical breakdowns, extreme weather, and midlife reinvention. Through polar bears, remote territories, and countless challenges, they discovered what it really takes to keep going when the road gets tough.

This conversation explores how small daily decisions and 1% shifts in mindset, resilience, and partnership can turn a crazy dream into reality — and why it’s never too late to chase what matters.

Learn more about Pat and Ralph’s journey, their book, and what’s next at: https://patandralphbikeride.carrd.co/

In this episode, we discuss:

• Leaving comfort at 50 to chase a big dream

• The realities of midlife reinvention and long-term marriage on the road

• Building grit and resilience one pedal stroke at a time

• Navigating doubt, conflict, and joy during extreme adventures

• What their story reveals about the road ahead in life

What if the most important leadership you’ll ever do isn’t at work — it’s at home?

In this episode of The 1% Shift with Niyi, host Niyi sits down with Olaolu Ogunyemi — U.S. Marine Officer, award-winning author of Crow From the Shadow, and founder of Parent-Child-Connect.

Olaolu grew up as a young Black man who had every opportunity to become a statistic. Instead, he became a Marine, a father, a mentor, and an author whose work is opening up conversations in thousands of families about emotions, choices, and self-worth.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Growing up and choosing a different path

• How military discipline shapes parenting and leadership

• What Crow From the Shadow teaches families about emotions and self-worth

• Bridging the gap between parents and the next generation

• What it means to Lead Last — serving before seeking the spotlight

• Raising confident, compassionate kids in a world working against them

Whether you’re a parent, mentor, educator, or leader — this conversation will challenge and inspire you.

Head over to Parent-Child-Connect.com/free-resources where you’ll find practical, free tools including conversation guides, worksheets, and leadership reflections to help you lead better at home and in life.

What does it look like to live with purpose when the world sometimes sees your wheelchair before it sees you?

In this episode of The 1% Shift with Niyi, host Niyi sits down with Elisa Neven-Pugh — motivational speaker, advocate, and woman of faith living with Cerebral Palsy Quadriplegia. Elisa grew up in a family of service, came to Christ in 2021, and hasn’t looked back since.

Her message is simple but powerful: challenges don’t have to define you — they can transform you. Through her platform Positively Adaptive, Elisa helps people develop a Christ-centred growth mindset that acknowledges pain with compassion and turns it into something that heals.

In this episode we talk about:

• Growing up with Cerebral Palsy and what it taught her about resilience

• How coming to Christ in 2021 changed everything

• What a Christ-centred growth mindset really looks like in practice

• How to turn your biggest challenge into your greatest contribution

• Why being seen — truly seen — matters more than most people realise

This is one of those conversations that will stay with you long after it ends.

In this episode of The 1% Shift with Niyi, host Niyi sits down with Gaylen Wilson — heart transplant survivor, 20-years-sober former alcoholic, relationship author, erectile dysfunction advocate, Certified Thriving Relationship Coach, and founder of The Monument Method Institute with his wife Heather.

Gaylen’s life has not been one comeback. It has been a series of forced reinventions — farm failure, a collapsed stockbroker career, alcoholism, sobriety, rebuilding after 9/11, and then in 2014, a virus that attacked his heart and left him in end-stage heart failure.

On June 19, 2018, he sat his wife Heather down and told her he probably had only a few months left. Thirty minutes later, the transplant center called. The next morning, he received a new heart.

In this episode we talk about:

• What those three and a half years of uncertainty did to Gaylen and Heather as a couple

• How he used his second chance to serve 60,000 men through erectile dysfunction support communities

• Why there can be no sexual desire without emotional safety

• What the Sanctuary Bond is and how any couple can build it

• What you do with years you were never supposed to have

This is one of those episodes that stays with you long after it ends.

🔗 Visit www.monumentmethodinstitute.com to explore books, programs, and resources for building stronger relationships.

What if the fear, self-doubt, guilt, and shame holding you back aren’t character flaws — but a game you unknowingly learned to play?

In this episode of The 1% Shift with Niyi, I sit down with Steve Barton — executive coach, author, and creator of The Game of Ten®, a US-registered awareness-based framework helping leaders and high achievers operate at their highest level of clarity, confidence, and performance.

Steve spent over 47 years in business, scaled a company from $200K to $2 million, and presented his coaching process to the Harvard Business School Case Study Team. But the real turning point wasn’t the revenue — it was realising that success alone doesn’t guarantee peace of mind, strong relationships, or a sense of purpose.

In this conversation we talk about:

• Why high achievers unknowingly sabotage their own success

• The difference between reacting from pressure and leading from awareness

• How intuition becomes a measurable leadership advantage

• What it really takes to overcome fear and self-doubt without years of therapy

• How to create extraordinary results without sacrificing your inner peace

If you’re tired of performing at a high level on the outside while running on empty on the inside, this episode is for you.

🔗 Learn more and book a Discovery Call with Steve at www.stevebartoncoaching.com

This is where it all begins.

In this intro episode, Niyi introduces The 1% Shift — the podcast for people who are done waiting and ready to start moving. Learn what this show is about, who it’s for, and the one simple idea that can change everything: that you don’t need a massive breakthrough to transform your life. You just need a 1% shift.

If you’re ready to level up your mindset, your habits, and your life — one small shift at a time — you’re in the right place.

Subscribe now so you never miss an episode.