The Conversation Podcast

Pamela is an Asheville-based writer and communications strategist who spent much of her career in television news as a writer, feature reporter, and weather anchor. Her work took her across the lower 48, where she covered the weather and got to know the people living through it.

Today, she helps people and organizations tell their stories and shares reflections on her own life through her Substack, Living in Wright Relationship. At the heart of her work is a curiosity I share: What makes people who they are, and what might we learn if we take the time to know them?

Learn more, read more, and join the conversation with Pamela on Substack.

My next Guest, I’m joined by someone who understands that stories are more than words on a page. They can be a bridge, a reflection, a place of belonging, and sometimes, a way of finding ourselves.

Tamara Olmedo is a proud Latina, the owner and co-founder of Cuentos y Cafe, a local pop-up and online bookstore dedicated to highlighting the voices and stories of BIPOC and BIPOC LGBTQIA+ authors.

Tamara has called Asheville home for 15 years, and throughout that time, she’s worked alongside organizations and businesses to make resources more accessible within her community, particularly for the Latino community, where language can sometimes become a barrier to essential services.

But what I found especially interesting about Tamara is that her work isn’t simply about books.

It’s about people.

It’s about who gets to tell their story, who gets to see themselves reflected in someone else’s, and what can happen when we create spaces where people feel recognized and connected.

And today, I wanted to go beyond the bookstore, beyond the work, and talk to Tamara about the woman behind it all. About identity, motherhood, culture, community, and the stories we carry with us as we become who we are.

We talk about motherhood, identity, culture, community, and the things we sometimes don’t realize are missing until we stop long enough to ask.

What’s missing?

Full conversation coming soon.

Preston Blakely is a dedicated public servant and community leader with deep roots in Fletcher, North Carolina. Born in Asheville to Jonathan and Namurah Blakely, he grew up in a family that instilled in him a strong sense of service and community engagement. His upbringing in Western North Carolina shaped his passion for advocacy, equity, and governance.

Preston attended Asheville High School before earning a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and African American and African Diaspora Studies from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He then pursued a Master of Public Affairs at Western Carolina University, where he worked as a graduate assistant in the Public Policy Institute. His capstone project focused on creating performance metrics for the City of Hendersonville’s Public Works Department, and he was recognized as the Outstanding Public Affairs Student in Public Management upon graduation.

Preston Blakely’s passion for public service took shape early, leading him to pursue a career dedicated to advocacy, fairness, and civic leadership. In 2019, he was elected to the Fletcher Town Council, representing District 2. Two years later, in 2021, he was elected as the Mayor of Fletcher and is currently serving a term that expires in 2026. His leadership is defined by a commitment to rural communities, economic development, and disaster recovery, particularly in response to Hurricane Helene, which devastated parts of Western North Carolina.

In addition to his public service, Preston is a manager at his family’s business, Quality Janitorial Group, which was founded by his parents in 1990 and has remained a pillar of the local business community. Preston is actively involved in several boards and commissions, ensuring that his leadership extends beyond the local level. He serves on the AdventHealth Hendersonville’s board, the Board of Delegates for the Land of Sky Regional Council, and the Governor’s Recovery Office for Western North Carolina (GROW NC) Advisory Committee.

Preston Blakely’s commitment to public service and his ability to create meaningful change have earned him numerous recognitions. In 2023, he was named the North Carolina Early Career Public Servant of the Year by the North Carolina Public Administration Alliance, highlighting his dedication to governance and policy solutions. That same year, he received North Carolina Attorney General’s Dogwood Award for his leadership and advocacy. His work has also been recognized nationally, as he was selected as a National League of Cities Centennial Under 40 Impact Award Winner. Additionally, he was chosen as a Hunt Policy Fellow, joining the second cohort of the prestigious leadership program that focuses on innovative public policy solutions.

In this conversation, we’ll talk beyond Preston the mayor, but also Preston the man: identity, leadership, community, and what it means to be a Black man navigating public life while still figuring out leading with intention beyond the title.

My Next guest is Brandy Mills. Her story is one of self-leadership, impact, and the legacy that becomes possible when we learn to face who we are, lead ourselves through what life brings, and use what we’ve learned to make a difference for someone else.

Long before she had language for that, Brandy was the woman people called. The one they trusted with their struggles, their decisions, their dreams, and sometimes the parts of themselves they weren’t quite sure what to do with. Her own journey through fear, rejection, self-doubt, and questions of worth eventually inspired Woman Strong, a movement created to Engage, Uplift, Equip, Empower, and Transform women. She later put that same philosophy on paper as the self-published author of Woman, You Are Strong: A 21-Day Face It So You Can Fix It Journey, and now brings it to life through The Room Where We All Faced It, where women gather for honest conversations, guided by sections of the book, about what they’ve had to face, and what it takes to fix it.

But Brandy’s ability to pour into others was being shaped by her own unlikely journey. The first in her family in decades to graduate from high school and the first to attend college, she found pride, culture, and possibility during her undergraduate studies at Winston-Salem State University. From the emergency room to travel nursing, a college professor, to healthcare leadership and executive operations, Brandy spent more than two decades learning people, leadership, and what it means to be responsible for impact beyond yourself.

Then she walked into entrepreneurship, blindly as she’ll tell you, with a brick-and-mortar business, a willingness to learn, and no idea that the lessons ahead would eventually help shape Brandy Mills Consulting. Today, her work brings those experiences together as she challenges conventional thinking and says out loud some of the things others have only been thinking.

Brandy has received numerous honors, but those closest to her soul say more about who she is than what she has achieved: the Spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. Award, presented during a celebration keynoted by Dr. Maya Angelou, honored her character and service; the Nexstar Remarkable Woman Award reflected the impact of Woman Strong; two Tzedek Social Justice Impact Awards and the Our Turn to Play Trailblazer Award recognized her community impact; and the Together We Are More Humanitarian Leadership Award honored her leadership through the pandemic.

Today, Brandy can look back at the nurse, the professor, the leader, the entrepreneur, the author, the woman who has had to face some things herself, and the woman others continue to trust with theirs, and finally name the thread connecting it all: It was self-leadership all along. She now uses what each chapter has taught her to create impact beyond herself, and for her, that’s where leadership becomes legacy.

My next guest is Jessica Campbell, a Western North Carolina native, mother, advocate, and nonprofit professional whose journey is deeply connected to both her personal experiences and her passion for helping others.

After spending more than twenty years working in healthcare, primarily in long-term and skilled nursing care, Jessica found herself on a new path after her family began navigating a Duchenne diagnosis. Through organizations like Jett Foundation, she and her family found support, resources, and community. Those experiences would eventually inspire Jessica to continue her education in social work and become part of the work that supports other families navigating similar journeys.

Jessica is also a self-proclaimed lover of gardening, random clearance plants, and all things snow. And yes, she can say the alphabet backwards!

Join me as I sit down with Jessica Campbell to talk about family, advocacy, purpose, lived experience, and what happens when the journey you never expected becomes part of the work you are called to do.

My next guest is someone who seems to have found a way to make a life out of all the things she loves, while never being afraid to challenge the things she thinks need to change.

Elizabeth McCorvey is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, social worker, psychotherapist, anti-racism educator, and self-described change-agent and pot-stirrer. She plays fiddle, violin, banjo, and cello, and brings those sounds together through her original Americana, roots, and “bluesgrass” music.

But music is only one part of Elizabeth’s story. Her work also takes her into mental health, anti-oppression education, and even therapeutic work with horses, creating spaces for people to explore healing, identity, and change in unexpected ways.

In 2025, she released her album Songs I Sent You, recorded at Out There Studios here in Western North Carolina.

Today, we’re talking about music, mental health, identity, community, and what it means to be willing to stir the pot when something needs to change.

My next guest is someone who understands that community is not simply where we live. It is something we create, care for, and show up for, especially when things fall apart.

Heather Laine Talley is a writer, strategist, facilitator, consultant, and mother living in Asheville, North Carolina. Her work helps nonprofit, philanthropic, and mission-driven organizations create cultures where people can flourish and turn their values into meaningful action.

But Heather also brings the perspective of someone who has experienced climate catastrophe firsthand. After Hurricane Helene, she helped tell the story through the Wailing Earth docuseries and continues to work alongside women in Swannanoa Communities Together to mobilize resources for long-term recovery.

Today, we’re talking about motherhood, disaster, grief, community, resilience, and what it really means to heal and rebuild after the immediate crisis is over.

When the alerts meant climbing to higher ground and relying on strangers.

In this upcoming episode of Can I Ask? The Conversation, I sit down with Heather Laine Talley for a powerful conversation about what happens when life changes in an instant.

What does it mean to trust the people around you when everything familiar is suddenly uncertain? What do we discover about ourselves, our neighbors, and our communities when we have no choice but to rely on one another?

This clip is just a glimpse of the conversation.