Life will eventually test your resilience. The question is whether you wait for that moment to discover what you're capable of, or deliberately build that capacity before you need it.

───

Signature Quote

“It just makes everything so much easier when you're intentionally doing hard things, not just waiting for hard things to happen to you.”

Shaun Bemis

───

Why This Quote Matters

This idea sits at the heart of Shaun's story: resilience doesn't have to be something we discover only after adversity arrives. We can train it, strengthen it and prove to ourselves what we're capable of before life demands it.

───

Episode Description

What if doing hard things on purpose could change the way you respond when life gets hard without your permission?

In this episode of The Audacious Living Podcast, Audley sits down with 20-year Navy veteran, strategic execution coach and ultramarathoner Shaun Bemis for a conversation about resilience, leadership, preparation and what happens when we deliberately step beyond what's comfortable. Shaun's experiences span naval intelligence, deployments supporting Navy SEAL teams, business leadership and endurance races that have pushed him physically and mentally.

Yet this isn't a conversation about becoming tougher for the sake of being tough. It's about building confidence through evidence, mastering the basics, learning from what doesn't work, adapting when the plan changes and discovering that progress can be as simple as continuing to move forward. As Shaun puts it: left foot, right foot.

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This Episode Is For You If...

• you're facing something that feels bigger than you

• you're ready to deliberately stretch beyond your comfort zone

• you're leading people and want to become a more empathetic, effective leader

• you're learning how to adapt when the original plan stops working

• you want to pursue ambitious goals without sacrificing everything else that matters

───

Guest Bio

Shaun Bemis is a 20-year U.S. Navy veteran whose career included naval intelligence, deployments alongside Army infantry and years supporting Navy SEAL teams. After leaving military service, he carried those lessons in planning, leadership, adaptability and execution into the business world.

Today, Shaun is a strategic execution coach, speaker and founder of Left Foot Right Foot Consulting. He's also an ultramarathoner who deliberately uses endurance challenges as a laboratory for many of the principles he teaches: prepare well, execute the basics, adjust when reality changes and keep moving forward. His approach isn't about relentless hustle. It's about building systems that work in real life while protecting the people and priorities that matter.

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Guest Links

• Website — Left Foot Right Foot Consulting

• LinkedIn — Shaun Bemis

Shaun also identifies Instagram for his running content and Substack for his deeper writing on choosing hard things, resilience and the emotional side of personal growth.

───

Listen on Major Platforms

🎧 Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/2jVR6V7X2kRiCCDXE0FTyl?si=IR3TsfEWR3WA6BzfBRnVXQ

🍎 Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-audacious-living-podcast/id1547447345

📦 Amazon Music → https://music.amazon.ca/podcasts/9f7902bb-dec8-4bd9-918d-d1fef21b7c67/the-audacious-living-podcast?ref=dm_sh_pGv57yQvAmAQVp2IIaXoDwtFt

───

Call To Action

Enjoying the show?

Share this episode with someone who needs to hear this.

⭐ Leave a review:

👉 https://ratethispodcast.com/audacious

What if the hardest chapter of your life isn't something you need to erase, but something you can use?

Sometimes the experiences we'd most like to leave behind become the very experiences that reveal our purpose, reshape our identity, and allow us to help someone else find their way forward.

───

Signature Quote

«"I needed that experience to become who I am today."»

— Pax Prentiss

───

Why This Quote Matters

Pax doesn't deny the pain of his past or allow it to define his future. His story challenges us to reconsider what becomes possible when we stop viewing our hardest experiences only through regret and begin asking what they can help us become.

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Episode Description

At 26, Pax Prentiss was emerging from a decade-long addiction to heroin, cocaine, and alcohol. During his first week of sobriety, while withdrawing from heroin in a treatment center, an unexpected idea began taking shape: What if the experience that nearly destroyed his life could become the foundation for helping others reclaim theirs?

That idea eventually became Passages Malibu, the treatment center Pax co-founded with his father. In this deeply reflective conversation, Pax and Audley explore why addressing addiction requires looking beyond the substance itself and asking a much more difficult question: What's underneath it?

They also examine identity, limiting beliefs, purpose, regret, authenticity, and what happens after sobriety. Pax's perspective offers a larger lesson that reaches beyond addiction: your past may be part of your story, but it doesn't have to become the limit you place on your future.

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This Episode Is For You If...

• you're struggling to separate who you are from something you've experienced

• you're carrying regret about choices or chapters from your past

• you're questioning the beliefs and labels that may be keeping you stuck

• you're rebuilding your life and wondering what comes after simply surviving

• you're ready to explore how pain, properly processed, can become purpose

───

Guest Bio

Pax Prentiss is the co-founder of Passages Malibu, a holistic treatment center he started with his father after his own decade-long struggle with heroin, cocaine, and alcohol addiction.

His approach to recovery grew directly from his personal experience. Traditional treatment methods had not worked for him, so Pax and his father began focusing on the underlying reasons behind substance use, including anxiety, depression, trauma, low self-esteem, and unresolved emotional pain.

More than two decades later, Pax remains deeply involved in the work. He still speaks directly with individuals and families seeking help and continues to advocate for an approach centered on the whole person, individual identity, healing, purpose, and the possibility of building a meaningful life beyond addiction.

───

Guest Links

Passages Malibu

https://passagesmalibu.com

───

Listen on Major Platforms

🎧 Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/2jVR6V7X2kRiCCDXE0FTyl?si=IR3TsfEWR3WA6BzfBRnVXQ

🍎 Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-audacious-living-podcast/id1547447345

📦 Amazon Music → https://music.amazon.ca/podcasts/9f7902bb-dec8-4bd9-918d-d1fef21b7c67/the-audacious-living-podcast?ref=dm_sh_pGv57yQvAmAQVp2IIaXoDwtFt

───

Call To Action

Enjoying the show?

Share this episode with someone who needs to hear this.

⭐ Leave a review:

👉 https://ratethispodcast.com/audacious

How do you become bold when you don't feel confident yet? Fred Joyal believes we've been thinking about confidence backwards.

Fred describes himself as a painfully shy introvert who once assumed bold people were simply born differently. Then he began deliberately doing things that made him uncomfortable and discovered that boldness wasn't something he had to wait for. It was something he could practise.

In this episode of The Audacious Living Podcast, Fred and I get into the hidden cost of playing it safe, why failure may deserve a completely different meaning, and what happens when you start building boldness before you actually need it.

Fred's perspective is wonderfully practical: if you want to become more courageous when the stakes are high, start getting uncomfortable while the stakes are low.

We also get into the unlikely story behind 1-800-DENTIST. Fred wasn't a dentist and admits he didn't know whether the business would even become profitable for roughly two and a half years. It eventually grew to nearly $50 million in annual revenue with 250 employees.

Yet one of my favourite moments comes when Fred describes what all that practice with boldness eventually did for him:

“I didn't become a different person. I became the full "

That's where this conversation gets bigger than entrepreneurship.

What could become possible if you stopped waiting to feel completely ready?

Key Insights

• Why boldness is a skill rather than a personality trait

• Why confidence doesn't necessarily need to come first

• How low-stakes discomfort prepares you for high-stakes decisions

• Why failure can become useful information

• The long-term cost of constantly playing it safe

• How missed opportunities can accumulate into regret

• Why becoming bolder doesn't require becoming someone else

About Fred Joyal

Fred Joyal is a longtime entrepreneur, author and advocate for developing boldness as a practical life skill.

He co-created 1-800-DENTIST and ran the company for 28 years. At its peak, Fred says the company generated nearly $50 million annually and employed approximately 250 people.

What makes Fred's work particularly interesting isn't that boldness always came naturally to him. It's the opposite. He describes his younger self as painfully introverted and eventually became fascinated by figuring out how boldness could be deliberately learned and strengthened. That journey became the foundation for his book Superbold.

Connect With Fred Joyal

🌐 Website: FredJoyal.com

📘 Book: Superbold

Fred identifies his website as the main destination for his book, keynote work and boldness programs.

Read the Audacious Insight

Why Playing It Safe Is the Riskiest Decision You’ll Ever Make

🔗 Blog: https://www.bestaudaciouslife.com/episodes/fred-joyal-build-boldness-confidence

Listen on Major Platforms

🎧 Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/2jVR6V7X2kRiCCDXE0FTyl?si=IR3TsfEWR3WA6BzfBRnVXQ⁠

🍎 Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-audacious-living-podcast/id1547447345⁠

📦 Amazon Music → https://music.amazon.ca/podcasts/9f7902bb-dec8-4bd9-918d-d1fef21b7c67/the-audacious-living-podcast?ref=dm_sh_pGv57yQvAmAQVp2IIaXoDwtFt⁠

Behind the Conversation

There was an immediate connection in this conversation because Fred and I approach audacity from remarkably similar places.

Yet what I particularly enjoyed was his distinction between confidence and boldness. We often think we need the first before attempting the second. Fred makes a compelling argument that we've got the order backwards.

Stay for the Fearless Fast Round too. Fred describing himself as a “ready fire aim guy” tells you quite a bit about how he approaches risk

What if moving forward isn’t about leaving your past behind, but understanding it well enough to know what comes next?

Sometimes the most meaningful new beginning starts by recognizing how far you’ve already come.

“It’s beginning again without starting over because you don’t need to.”

— Jobert E. Abueva

WHY THIS QUOTE MATTERS

Jobert’s words capture the heart of this conversation: growth doesn’t require erasing what came before. Your experiences, setbacks, wins and lessons can become the foundation for what you intentionally choose next.

EPISODE DESCRIPTION

We’re often encouraged to look ahead, set new goals and keep moving. But what if one of the most powerful things you can do before deciding where you’re going is understand where you’ve been?

In this conversation, author and global marketer Jobert E. Abueva introduces The Janus Plan, his approach to pausing at life’s thresholds, reflecting honestly on what has shaped us and using those lessons to move forward with greater intention.

From his own experience with corporate burnout to his “Good, Bad and Ugly” reflection exercise, Jobert challenges us to stop treating every new chapter like we’re starting from zero. Sometimes beginning again simply means carrying the right lessons forward and leaving behind what no longer needs to come with us.

THIS EPISODE IS FOR YOU IF...

• You’re standing at a threshold or transition in your life

• You’re tired of setting goals without understanding what keeps shaping your choices

• You’ve experienced burnout and want to move forward differently

• You’re carrying parts of your past that may need to be reconsidered or released

• You want to approach your next chapter with greater clarity and intention

GUEST BIO

Jobert E. Abueva is a career-long global marketer, writer and author whose work explores reflection, intentional living and the lessons we carry forward from our experiences.

His latest book, The Janus Plan: A No Resolutions Path to Begin Your Year with Intention, grew in part from his own experience with corporate burnout and his realization that meaningful change requires more than simply deciding what comes next.

Drawing inspiration from Janus, the ancient Roman god associated with beginnings, endings and transitions, Jobert encourages people to pause at life’s thresholds, examine where they’ve been and use that perspective to move forward with greater clarity.

GUEST LINKS

Website:

https://joberteabueva.com

Book:

The Janus Plan: A No Resolutions Path to Begin Your Year with Intention

LISTEN ON MAJOR PLATFORMS

🎧 Spotify →

https://open.spotify.com/show/2jVR6V7X2kRiCCDXE0FTyl?si=IR3TsfEWR3WA6BzfBRnVXQ

🍎 Apple Podcasts →

https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-audacious-living-podcast/id1547447345

📦 Amazon Music →

https://music.amazon.ca/podcasts/9f7902bb-dec8-4bd9-918d-d1fef21b7c67/the-audacious-living-podcast?ref=dm_sh_pGv57yQvAmAQVp2IIaXoDwtFt

CALL TO ACTION

Enjoying the show?

Share this episode with someone who needs to hear this.

⭐ Leave a review:

👉 https://ratethispodcast.com/audacious

What if some of the financial decisions shaping your life aren't really decisions anymore, but habits you've stopped noticing?

Sometimes creating more freedom begins with making those invisible choices visible again.

SIGNATURE QUOTE

“Money's a tool and so you don't wanna just sit with it, like what do you want to do with it?”

WHY THIS QUOTE MATTERS

This question captures the heart of the conversation because financial freedom isn't simply about accumulating more. It's about becoming intentional about what your money allows you to build, experience and contribute.

EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Money may look like numbers on a spreadsheet, but our relationship with it is often shaped by something much deeper: our beliefs, experiences, emotions and the stories we've carried with us for years.

Financial coach and author Veronica Deraleau joins Audley Stephenson for a thoughtful conversation about breaking those patterns and becoming more intentional about the trade-offs we make with our money, time and energy. Drawing from her own journey of paying off six figures of debt, Veronica explains how changing the way she thought about money changed what she believed was possible.

This conversation goes beyond budgeting. It's about recognizing the choices happening by default, questioning the beliefs underneath them and deciding what you actually want your resources to make possible.

Because money is a tool. The bigger question is what you want to do with it.

THIS EPISODE IS FOR YOU IF...

• You want greater financial freedom but feel stuck in familiar habits

• You're carrying money beliefs shaped by your past

• You want to become more intentional about where your money, time and energy go

• You're navigating a life or career transition and reconsidering what matters

• You're ready to stop letting default choices quietly determine your future

GUEST BIO

Veronica Deraleau is a financial coach and author whose approach to money was shaped by an unconventional journey spanning music, the military, commercial real estate and financial technology.

After graduating with six figures of debt, Veronica began applying lessons she learned from the way high-net-worth individuals approached money and long-term outcomes. She paid off her debt in three years and eventually began helping others rethink their own financial habits, beliefs and possibilities.

Her book, Making Money Is Simple: Stop Going from Paycheck to Paycheck and Start Living Your Dreams, explores many of those lessons through stories from her own life. At the centre of her work is a simple idea: money becomes far more powerful when we intentionally decide what we want it to help us accomplish.

GUEST LINKS

Website:

makingmoneyissimple.com

Book:

Making Money Is Simple: Stop Going from Paycheck to Paycheck and Start Living Your Dreams

Available through Amazon and MakingMoneyIsSimple.com

Social:

@makingmoneyissimple

LISTEN ON MAJOR PLATFORMS

🎧 Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/2jVR6V7X2kRiCCDXE0FTyl?si=IR3TsfEWR3WA6BzfBRnVXQ

🍎 Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-audacious-living-podcast/id1547447345

📦 Amazon Music → https://music.amazon.ca/podcasts/9f7902bb-dec8-4bd9-918d-d1fef21b7c67/the-audacious-living-podcast?ref=dm_sh_pGv57yQvAmAQVp2IIaXoDwtFt

Enjoying the show?

Share this episode with someone who needs to hear this.

⭐ Leave a review:

👉 ratethispodcast.com/audacious

What if audacity isn't about making the biggest move in the room? After 700 conversations, a different picture emerges: courage can be quiet, deeply personal, and much closer than we think.

───

“Because something that looks incredibly small to me might require everything that you've got.”

───

Why This Quote Matters

This captures one of the most important lessons from 700 conversations: courage cannot be measured from the outside. What appears small to someone else may represent an extraordinary act of courage for you.

───

Episode Description

Episode 700 is more than a milestone. It's an opportunity to look back across hundreds of conversations and ask one deceptively simple question: What does it really mean to live audaciously?

Drawing from the Audacious Wisdom Library, Audley Stephenson revisits voices and moments from across the podcast's journey to uncover three truths that repeatedly emerge: audacity is intentional courage, audacity lives in the small things, and audacity belongs to everyone.

This special episode challenges the idea that courage must be dramatic to count. Sometimes audacity is getting out of bed. Asking the difficult question. Having the conversation. Taking one uncertain step. Each act gives us new evidence about ourselves, and that evidence can change what we believe we're capable of doing next.

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This Episode Is For You If...

• you've been waiting to feel fearless before taking action

• you sometimes dismiss your progress because it feels too small

• you're navigating uncertainty and wondering what your next step should be

• you want to develop greater trust in yourself

• you're ready to rethink what living audaciously can look like in your own life

───

Guest Bio

This milestone episode turns the microphone toward Audley Stephenson, creator and host of The Audacious Living Podcast, as he reflects on what 700 conversations have taught him about courage, growth and the human capacity to move forward.

Rather than celebrating the milestone simply by looking backward, Audley draws upon voices from throughout the podcast's journey to explore the many ways audacity shows up in ordinary lives. The result is both a celebration of 700 episodes and a reminder that living audaciously isn't reserved for extraordinary people. It belongs to all of us.

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Listen on Major Platforms

🎧 Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/2jVR6V7X2kRiCCDXE0FTyl?si=IR3TsfEWR3WA6BzfBRnVXQ⁠

🍎 Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-audacious-living-podcast/id1547447345⁠

📦 Amazon Music → https://music.amazon.ca/podcasts/9f7902bb-dec8-4bd9-918d-d1fef21b7c67/the-audacious-living-podcast?ref=dm_sh_pGv57yQvAmAQVp2IIaXoDwtFt⁠

───

Call To Action

Enjoying the show?

Share this episode with someone who needs to hear this.

⭐ Leave a review:

👉 https://ratethispodcast.com/audacious⁠

What if creating a more inclusive world begins with something much simpler than having all the answers?

Sometimes it starts with being willing to ask, listen, speak up and recognize that everyone deserves to have their needs seen and respected.

───

Signature Quote

“We know better, so now we need to do better.”

───

Why This Quote Matters

Jenna's words capture the heart of this conversation: awareness is only the beginning. Real inclusion requires us to turn what we know into action and have the courage to challenge systems that can do better.

───

Episode Description

What does it really mean to build a world where people's needs aren't treated as "special," but simply human?

Jenna Udenberg has been a manual wheelchair user since childhood, and her experiences with disability, accessibility and advocacy have shaped how she thinks about resilience, relationships and the responsibility we have to one another. Rather than simply accepting inaccessible systems, Jenna has learned to ask better questions, speak up and challenge people with the power to create change.

In this conversation, Jenna and Audley explore the courage required to ask for help, the difference between happiness and hard-fought joy, the importance of community, and why inclusion begins with authentic communication. Jenna reminds us that progress doesn't happen simply because we recognize what's wrong. It happens when we decide to do something about it.

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This Episode Is For You If...

• you want to better understand accessibility and inclusion

• you're learning how to advocate for yourself or others

• you've struggled with asking for help

• you're navigating adversity while trying to hold onto joy

• you believe awareness should lead to meaningful action

───

Guest Bio

Jenna Udenberg is the founder of Above and Beyond With U, a Minnesota-based nonprofit focused on increasing accessibility and inclusion, both physically and attitudinally. Diagnosed with juvenile arthritis at age seven and a manual wheelchair user since age eight, Jenna brings lived experience to conversations about disability, access and belonging.

Before moving more deeply into accessibility education and advocacy, Jenna spent 19 years as a music educator. Her journey eventually led her into community leadership, where she discovered the power of using her experiences not simply to tell her own story, but to challenge assumptions and help create better systems for others.

At the centre of Jenna's work is a deeply human idea: leave spaces and people better than you found them. Her approach to advocacy is rooted in relationships, honest conversations and the belief that creating a more inclusive world is something we have to do together.

───

Guest Links

🌐 Above and Beyond With U → https://aboveandbeyondwithu.org

📖 Memoir: Within My Spokes → Available on Amazon and wherever books are sold

Jenna also shares her work through Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.

───

Listen on Major Platforms

🎧 Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/2jVR6V7X2kRiCCDXE0FTyl?si=IR3TsfEWR3WA6BzfBRnVXQ

🍎 Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-audacious-living-podcast/id1547447345

📦 Amazon Music → https://music.amazon.ca/podcasts/9f7902bb-dec8-4bd9-918d-d1fef21b7c67/the-audacious-living-podcast?ref=dm_sh_pGv57yQvAmAQVp2IIaXoDwtFt

───

Call To Action

Enjoying the show?

Share this episode with someone who needs to hear this.

⭐ Leave a review:

👉 https://ratethispodcast.com/audacious

The moment you feel pressured to make a decision may be the exact moment you need to make none at all. What if learning to recognize what you’re feeling could protect your money, your trust, and your judgment?

───

Signature Quote

“The moment you feel that emotional reluctance is the moment that you've got to find a way to buy some time.”

— Dale Cardwell

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4. Why This Quote Matters

Scammers don’t simply target your money. They target the emotional space between pressure and decision. Dale’s message is that creating even a little distance can give clear thinking a chance to catch up.

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5. Episode Description

You probably think you’d recognize a scam when you see one. That belief, according to former investigative reporter Dale Cardwell, may be one of the very things that makes people vulnerable. As Dale explains, the biggest hurdle is believing it could never happen to you.

In this conversation, Dale reveals why today’s most effective scams aren’t necessarily built around obvious deception. They’re built around emotion, urgency and trust. Instead of trying to memorize an ever-changing list of scams, he teaches people to recognize the emotional triggers that signal when something may be wrong.

Perhaps most powerfully, Dale admits that even after decades of investigative work, he was scammed himself. His experience is a reminder that intelligence and experience don’t make us invulnerable. Awareness, verification and the willingness to slow down just might.

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This Episode Is For You If...

You’ve ever thought, “I would never fall for a scam.”

You want to recognize manipulation before emotion takes over.

You tend to trust people and don’t want fear to turn that strength into cynicism.

You make significant purchasing, hiring or financial decisions and want a smarter way to evaluate them.

You want practical tools to protect yourself and the people you care about.

───

Guest Bio

Dale Cardwell spent 25 years as an investigative television reporter, telling the stories of people who had been deceived, financially harmed or taken advantage of. After seeing the same patterns repeatedly, he realized he could do more than report what happened after the fact. He could help people prevent it from happening in the first place.

That realization led him to create TrustDALE, a consumer-protection platform designed to vet businesses and give consumers greater confidence in the companies they hire. Dale describes this work as his life’s work, rooted in a desire he has carried since childhood to stand up to bullies and help turn bad situations into something better.

He is also the author of Don’t Get Scammed, Get Smart, which shares practical steps for becoming a savvier consumer and recognizing modern scams before they succeed.

───

Guest Links

Website: TrustDALE.com

Book: Don’t Get Scammed, Get Smart: Seven Steps to Outsmart Today’s Most Dangerous Post-COVID Scams

───

9Listen on Major Platforms

🎧 Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/2jVR6V7X2kRiCCDXE0FTyl?si=IR3TsfEWR3WA6BzfBRnVXQ⁠

🍎 Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-audacious-living-podcast/id1547447345⁠

📦 Amazon Music → https://music.amazon.ca/podcasts/9f7902bb-dec8-4bd9-918d-d1fef21b7c67/the-audacious-living-podcast?ref=dm_sh_pGv57yQvAmAQVp2IIaXoDwtFt⁠

───

Call To Action

Enjoying the show? Share this episode with someone who needs to hear this.

⭐ Leave a review:

👉 https://ratethispodcast.com/audacious⁠

How often do we wait to have everything figured out before we're willing to begin?

Sometimes the path doesn't become clear until we have the courage to take the first step.

Signature Quote

Confidence doesn't always arrive before action. Sometimes we find it through the people around us, keep moving long enough to build our own, and eventually become that source of belief for someone else.

When Elina Panteleyeva was laid off from her job in tech, she didn't have an e-commerce background, manufacturing experience or even a clear business idea. What she had was an unexpected opportunity to ask a different question: What if I just try?

That decision eventually led her to build an e-commerce brand generating more than $600,000 in its first year. Yet this conversation isn't really about the number. It's about what happens before the success, when you're staring at uncertainty, questioning yourself and trying to move forward without knowing exactly where you're going.

Elina and Audley explore why thinking 10,000 steps ahead can make the journey feel impossible, the power of building an audience before building a product, what it means to "borrow confidence," and why taking a risk doesn't have to mean being reckless. It's a refreshing reminder that you don't need the whole staircase. You just need enough courage to take the next step.

• you're waiting until you have everything figured out before starting
• you're navigating an unexpected career or life transition
• you're considering building something of your own
• you're struggling with overwhelm or uncertainty
• you're ready to stop thinking 10,000 steps ahead and focus on what's next

Elina Panteleyeva is an entrepreneur who turned an unexpected layoff into an opportunity to build something entirely new.

With no previous experience in e-commerce or manufacturing, she started by choosing an audience she understood: doodle owners. Instead of guessing what they needed, she listened to their challenges, identified a problem worth solving and began building a product and community around it.

That experiment grew into an e-commerce business generating more than $600,000 in its first year and an audience of approximately 60,000 across its channels and email list. Today, Elina continues building her business while sharing what she's learning with other entrepreneurs who are figuring things out one step at a time.

Instagram: @ECOMMWithElina

Listen on Major Platforms

🎧 Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/2jVR6V7X2kRiCCDXE0FTyl?si=IR3TsfEWR3WA6BzfBRnVXQ

🍎 Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-audacious-living-podcast/id1547447345

📦 Amazon Music → https://music.amazon.ca/podcasts/9f7902bb-dec8-4bd9-918d-d1fef21b7c67/the-audacious-living-podcast?ref=dm_sh_pGv57yQvAmAQVp2IIaXoDwtFt

Enjoying the show?

Share this episode with someone who needs to hear this.

⭐ Leave a review:

👉 https://ratethispodcast.com/audacious

What if the life you’ve become good at living isn’t the life you truly want? Sometimes the hardest change isn’t starting over. It’s giving yourself permission to become who you’ve always been underneath the expectations.

───

Signature Quote

“At 42 years old, I gave myself permission to be who I wanted to be on the inside.”

Todd Malloy

───

Why This Quote Matters

Todd’s words capture the heart of this conversation: the freedom that comes when we stop living according to inherited expectations and start making intentional choices about who we want to become.

───

Episode Description

How much of the life you’re living today was actually chosen by you?

In this deeply reflective conversation, psychotherapist Todd Malloy joins Audley Stephenson to explore intentional living, self-awareness, identity, emotional neglect, the stories we inherit and the courage required to let go of what no longer serves us. Todd challenges us to examine the narratives underneath our choices and recognize that being successful on the outside doesn’t necessarily mean we’re fulfilled on the inside.

Drawing from his own journey from engineering to ministry to psychotherapy, Todd shares how he eventually gave himself permission to pursue the life he had wanted all along. Together, Todd and Audley unpack what it means to choose yourself, redefine success on your own terms and trust the next step even when you can’t yet see the entire bridge ahead.

───

This Episode Is For You If...

You’ve built a life that looks successful but doesn’t completely feel like yours

You’re questioning old beliefs, expectations or stories that no longer serve you

You’re standing at a crossroads and struggling to trust your next move

You’re learning to choose yourself without guilt

You’re ready to define success on your own terms

───

Guest Bio

Todd Malloy is a psychotherapist, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, certified sex therapist and certified sexuality educator whose work centers on helping people become more fully who they are. At the heart of his approach is intentionality: understanding yourself, examining the narratives shaping your life and making conscious choices about where you want to go.

Todd’s perspective is deeply personal. Raised in a single-parent household, he took on adult responsibilities at a young age before eventually building a successful career in engineering. Yet professional achievement couldn’t silence the realization that he wanted his work to directly impact people’s lives. His path eventually took him through seminary, seven years as a senior pastor and, at age 42, back to the calling he had felt years earlier: becoming a therapist.

Today, Todd brings those experiences together to help people better understand themselves, communicate more honestly and build lives and relationships rooted in authenticity, intention and self-awareness.

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Guest Links

ToddMalloy.com

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Listen on Major Platforms

🎧 Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/2jVR6V7X2kRiCCDXE0FTyl?si=IR3TsfEWR3WA6BzfBRnVXQ

🍎 Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-audacious-living-podcast/id1547447345

📦 Amazon Music → https://music.amazon.ca/podcasts/9f7902bb-dec8-4bd9-918d-d1fef21b7c67/the-audacious-living-podcast?ref=dm_sh_pGv57yQvAmAQVp2IIaXoDwtFt

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