The Blow Your Mind Podcast

Emmy-winning journalist and Great Day St. Louis anchor Laura Hettiger knows what it means to show up—literally. After a devastating knee injury ended the identity she had built around being an athlete, Laura found journalism. And when sending resumes across the country led nowhere, she got in her car, walked into 30 television stations in one week, and asked for a job. In this episode, Laura shares the mindset behind chasing what you want, why being told “no” isn’t actually scary, and the reminder that if you’ve been given the opportunity, you already belong in the room. She also takes us behind the scenes of a career in television, opens up about navigating a public life, shares why she finally decided to be fully herself on air, and explains how she uses her “megaphone” to advocate for kids across St. Louis. Plus, Laura shares the moment she turned the disappointment of being passed over for a promotion into the beginning of Laura’s Run for Kids and challenges all of us to stop waiting and simply show up.Follow Laura on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lkhettiger/

Follow Laura on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-hettiger-79489997

Follow Erika on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/erika_sinner/

Check out her website: https://erikasinner.org/

Buy her book, Pets Are Family: https://erikasinner.org/book

Check out TinySuperheroes: https://tinysuperheroes.com/00:00 – Meet Laura Hettiger04:30 – The injury that changed the direction of Laura’s life09:30 – Finding opportunity when life doesn’t go as planned11:30 – Showing up at 30 TV stations to chase her dream14:00 – Why being told “no” isn’t actually scary21:10 – How technology and AI are changing journalism24:40 – Growing up in public and navigating criticism29:20 – If you’re in the room, you already belong34:10 – Gratitude, perspective, and enjoying the life you have now41:00 – Turning rejection into Laura’s Run for Kids

What happens to the people you love when the thing you are building starts requiring almost everything you have? In this episode, Erika is joined by her husband, Chris, for a conversation about protecting your relationships while chasing big dreams. They talk about the seasons when work requires more of you, why they treat those seasons as something they decided to take on together, and the small rituals that have helped them stay connected, from dinners at the table and traveling together to the Post-it notes Erika used to hide around the house before work trips. Chris shares why supporting Erika’s ambition has never meant needing a perfect separation between business and marriage, and Erika explains why having someone who genuinely listens to the details of her work gives her a place to decompress, get perspective, and move forward. 

Follow Erika on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/erika_sinner/

Check out her website: https://erikasinner.org/

Buy her book, Pets Are Family: https://erikasinner.org/book

Check out TinySuperheroes: https://tinysuperheroes.com/

01:00 – When ambition starts taking over your life

02:16 – Building big dreams without losing your relationships

04:20 – The seasons when work requires more from both of you

06:23 – Remembering you are a human while building something big

07:22 – Why they treat the hard seasons as a decision they made together

08:23 – Creating small rituals that keep them connected

11:30 – Why Chris started traveling with Erika more

13:55 – The Post-it notes that kept them connected while Erika traveled

17:22 – Why sharing the details of work can strengthen a relationship

22:03 – The challenge: show someone you love that you still see them

What if the biggest thing standing between you and the life you want isn’t a lack of opportunity, but believing you’re stuck with the choices you’ve already made?

In this episode of The Blow Your Mind Podcast, Erika sits down with Courtney Spritzer, serial entrepreneur, angel investor, author, and co-founder of Entreprenista, to talk about what it actually takes to bet on yourself and build a life bigger than the one that feels safe. Courtney shares why entrepreneurs do not have to build alone, how relationships become even more valuable in a world increasingly shaped by AI, and why preparation has been the foundation behind some of the biggest risks she has taken, including quitting a stable corporate job while carrying more than $100,000 in student debt. They talk about the loneliness and sacrifice behind entrepreneurship, getting better at celebrating the wins, putting yourself in rooms that expand what you believe is possible, and the evidence Courtney has built that she can survive even the worst-case scenario. She closes with a simple challenge to audit how and with whom you are spending your life, decide whether those choices align with where you want to go, and change one thing in the next seven days.

Follow Courtney on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/courtneyspritzer/

Check out Entreprenista: https://www.entreprenista.com/

Follow Erika on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/erika_sinner/

Check out her website: https://erikasinner.org/

Buy her book, Pets Are Family: https://erikasinner.org/book

Check out TinySuperheroes: https://tinysuperheroes.com/

01:00 – Meet Courtney Spritzer and the power of betting on yourself

02:30 – Why no entrepreneur has to build alone

05:38 – Building relationships that open doors you cannot see yet

07:35 – The human connection AI cannot replace

10:38 – Preparation, confidence, and taking big risks

14:48 – Finding the why that keeps you going when it gets hard

17:17 – Choosing positivity without ignoring reality

22:17 – Courtney’s why and giving herself permission to play big

25:42 – The loneliness, sacrifice, and reality behind entrepreneurship

35:42 – The challenge: audit your life and change one thing

Bravery doesn’t mean you aren’t scared. It means believing you can get through what’s in front of you. In this solo episode, Erika shares the work she is doing with TinySuperheroes and what meeting hundreds of children navigating serious medical journeys has taught her about what bravery actually means. She explains how a simple cape and a collection of patches can transform MRIs, chemo, surgeries, and other difficult experiences into superhero missions, giving kids a new language for talking about the things they have been through. She also opens up about the Angel Squad, the families who have changed her perspective on grief and making memories, and one tiny superhero who responded to a potentially embarrassing moment by simply saying, “That’s where I get my superpowers.” It is a story about the power of identity, play, and belonging, and how reminding someone that they are strong and brave can change the story they tell themselves about what they have survived.Follow Erika on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/erika_sinner/Check out her website: https://erikasinner.org/Buy her book, Pets Are Family: https://erikasinner.org/bookCheck out TinySuperheroes: https://tinysuperheroes.com/01:00 – What do you say to a child facing a difficult medical journey?02:18 – The moment a child becomes a TinySuperhero05:08 – How Erika first discovered TinySuperheroes06:07 – Capes, patches, monthly missions, and sidekicks07:18 – The Angel Squad and the hardest part of the mission08:18 – Bringing TinySuperheroes into hospitals10:38 – What Angel Squad families taught Erika about grief and making memories14:17 – How superhero culture changes difficult conversations16:56 – “That’s where I get my superpowers”21:50 – What bravery actually means

Victoria Hiegel built a community of more than 800,000 people by sharing the job she was once embarrassed to have. In this episode, Erika sits down with the New York City-based creator to trace the path from studying music and working four jobs at once to becoming a full-time content creator and building a team of six. Victoria shares the conversation that made her decide she had to become successful, why doing any job well matters more than the title, how being a personal assistant taught her to surrender her ego and close the loop, and the strategy behind pivoting a social media brand without losing the audience that got you there. From her Tommy Hilfiger mind blown moment to the challenge of being honest with yourself, this episode is about trusting the path that doesn't look like the one you planned, building value before chasing the reward, and refusing to be embarrassed by your own life.

Follow Victoria on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/victoriahiegel/

Follow Victoria on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@victoriahiegel 

Follow Erika on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/erika_sinner/

Check out her website: https://erikasinner.org/

Buy her book, Pets Are Family: https://erikasinner.org/book

Check out TinySuperheroes: https://tinysuperheroes.com/

01:00 Meet Victoria Hegel

05:44 The pressure to have your life figured out

09:13 How being a PA taught Victoria to surrender her ego

11:10 Why she was embarrassed to be a personal assistant

17:58 What Victoria had to believe to put herself online

21:47 Where her willingness to take risks comes from

24:36 The system she still swears by: close the loop

26:14 Treating content creation like a real business

30:58 Victoria’s mind blown moments

37:43 This week’s challenge: be honest with yourself

Some of the biggest decisions get made before anyone says them out loud. Erika Sinner sits down with her husband Chris to unpack how the two of them actually make the calls that reshape their life, and she makes the case that a decision only holds up if your life can support the consequence of it. They trace the display home tour they went on purely to daydream, the house they had no plans to buy, the 30 day move that somehow came together, the Instagram Live in Denver where two bear coat puppies jumped out of a van, and the choice to build a company instead of taking the comfortable consulting money. Chris explains why their disagreements rarely register as fights, and how every yes has matched the season of life they were in. Erika revisits the conversations behind choosing not to have kids, the moves they researched and passed on, and the annual habit of auditing whether they still want the life they are living. She closes with the reminder that a decision made together belongs to both people regardless of the outcome, and a challenge to name the one change in your life that deserves a real conversation.

Follow Erika on Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/erika_sinner/⁠⁠⁠

Check out her website: ⁠⁠⁠https://erikasinner.org/⁠⁠⁠

Buy her book, Pets Are Family: ⁠⁠⁠https://erikasinner.org/book⁠⁠⁠

Check out TinySuperheroes: ⁠⁠⁠https://tinysuperheroes.com/⁠⁠

00:00 The house tour that was never supposed to happen

03:07 The gasp, the deer, and two separate drives home

05:10 Both of them trying to convince the other of the same thing

06:41 Why their disagreements never turn into fights

08:23 How two dogs turned into five

09:55 The Instagram Live where Teddy showed up

14:02 "We always wanted a bear coat"

15:58 Making decisions your life can actually support

17:18 Kids, Boston, and auditing your life on purpose

20:19 Mind blown moment and the challenge

Cindy Dodd was given a second chance at five years old, after chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant, and she has spent every day since refusing to shrink. In this episode of The Blow Your Mind Podcast, the co-founder and COO of PEMA.io sits down with Erika to talk about the belief work underneath visibility, self worth as the foundation of everything that follows, and why so many capable people disqualify themselves from the rooms they want to be in. She opens up about the week her business quietly collapsed during her honeymoon, how she and her husband rebuilt it into an Inc. 5000 company by leaning into complementary strengths, and what it means to be the only Black woman in a male-dominated industry. Along the way she shares the daily habits that anchor her belief, the flow blocks that protect her sharpest hours, and a reframe that turns nerves into fuel. It is a conversation about resilience, self trust, and the quiet decision to bet on yourself before you feel ready.

Cindy’s Website: www.cindydodd.com

Follow Cindy on Instagram: @thecindydodd

Follow Cindy on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/cindymdodd

Cindy’s YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/@thecindydodd

Check out PEMA.io

Follow Erika on Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/erika_sinner/⁠⁠⁠

Check out her website: ⁠⁠⁠https://erikasinner.org/⁠⁠⁠

Buy her book, Pets Are Family: ⁠⁠⁠https://erikasinner.org/book⁠⁠⁠

Check out TinySuperheroes: ⁠⁠⁠https://tinysuperheroes.com/⁠⁠

00:20 Meet Cindy Dodd

02:18 The story we tell ourselves about why we do not belong

03:42 Relabeling nervousness as the feeling before something big

05:22 Why staying small online costs more than you think

07:19 A second chance at five: sickle cell, chemo, and a transplant

09:55 Self worth as the foundation of getting seen

13:07 The honeymoon that revealed a collapsing business

16:57 Believing it was figureoutable, and rebuilding together

19:36 Flow blocks and the corporate athlete

25:58 Mind Blown Moment: walking past NYU during Tech Week

In this solo episode, Erika goes back to the beeping switchboard of her receptionist days at a pharmaceutical company, when she was working full time, paying her own bills, and putting herself through night school to earn the degree she knew she needed. She tells the story of how she stopped waiting to be noticed and built her own opening instead, inventing a fake marketing project and talking her way into feedback from the VP of marketing. What started as a bluff turned into a page of red-pen notes, a real skill she could prove, and eventually a seat on the marketing team. It is a story about creating your own opportunities, doing the work to back up your ask, and the truth that no one is coming to save you, so you get to change your life yourself.

Follow Erika on Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/erika_sinner/⁠⁠⁠

Check out her website: ⁠⁠⁠https://erikasinner.org/⁠⁠⁠

Buy her book, Pets Are Family: ⁠⁠⁠https://erikasinner.org/book⁠⁠⁠

Check out TinySuperheroes: ⁠⁠⁠https://tinysuperheroes.com/⁠⁠

00:00 The sound that haunted her, life at the switchboard

02:20 From hotels to knowing she needed a degree

05:29 Taking the stepping stone job to fund night school

08:28 Refusing to just be the receptionist, building a reputation

11:04 Inventing a fake marketing project to get noticed

13:25 The lie she told the VP of marketing

15:19 A page of red-pen feedback and what she learned from it

17:31 Two weeks later, an opening on the marketing team

19:35 The fight to get her hired without a degree

25:40 Luck is where opportunity meets preparation

Cate Luzio spent 20 years leading multi-billion dollar businesses at HSBC and JP Morgan before she walked away in 2018 to self-fund a company nobody had asked her to build. In this episode she makes the case that nobody will ever care about your career or your business more than you do, and that betting on yourself starts long before anyone hands you proof it will work. Cate and Erika get into the two months Cate spent depressed on her bathroom floor after handing in her notice, the partner who told her to write it down when she thought she was only venting, the mentor feedback early in her finance career that knocked her back ten pegs, the breast cancer diagnosis that turned reading fiction into a non-negotiable, and why she still asks herself seven years later whether she made the right decision. She closes with her go-to tool for anyone waiting on permission to move, a personal SWOT analysis, and a challenge to start with your weaknesses first.

Check out Cate’s website: cateluzio.com

Follow Cate on Instagram: instagram.com/cateluzio/ or instagram.com/weareluminary/

Follow Cate on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cluzio/

Follow Erika on Instagram: ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/erika_sinner/⁠⁠

Check out her website: ⁠⁠https://erikasinner.org/⁠⁠

Buy her book, Pets Are Family: ⁠⁠https://erikasinner.org/book⁠⁠

Check out TinySuperheroes: ⁠⁠https://tinysuperheroes.com/⁠

0:00 — "Did I make the right decision?"

3:39 — Confidence isn't a feeling, it's built by getting back up

6:05 — The "power middle" and the story people carry before they say it out loud

11:30 — Holding your own in rooms where you weren't sure you belonged

15:21 — The mentor who told her she was "too emotional"

17:33 — Handing in her notice, and the two months on the bathroom floor

19:30 — "Write it down," and the business plan that followed

26:52 — Non-negotiables, breast cancer, and reading fiction at night

34:06 — Mind blown moment: making it through the pandemic with her team

38:39 — The challenge: a personal SWOT, weaknesses first

What do you do when the person you are meant to be with is sitting across the classroom, and you are both married to someone else? Erika and Chris met in night school, two divorces and a lot of growing up before they became each other's person. In this duo episode they get honest about the marriage lessons nobody handed them: how to tell growing apart from growing up, why Chris gave himself a full year of saying yes to everything, and what happened the day he told Erika she did not seem very maternal. It is a conversation about becoming someone new without losing the people who love you, and how much a marriage can actually hold once you say the hard thing out loud.

Follow Erika on Instagram: ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/erika_sinner/⁠⁠Check out her website: ⁠⁠https://erikasinner.org/⁠⁠Buy her book, Pets Are Family: ⁠⁠https://erikasinner.org/book⁠⁠Check out TinySuperheroes: ⁠⁠https://tinysuperheroes.com/⁠

00:00 Welcome back

01:11 How they actually met at night school

02:22 Chris's "I'm going to make a friend" phase

05:33 Both marriages end, and growing apart versus growing together

07:20 The Facebook poll and the half marathon

08:48 Chris's hot takes on tanning, the ocean, and drinking

13:20 "You don't seem very maternal" and rethinking kids

16:22 Welcoming a partner's growth instead of fearing it

19:24 The advice they ignored, including "happy wife, happy life"

26:15 Mind blown moment and the challenge question for new couples