The Empowered Leader Podcast

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Taking about how reinventing ourselves is essential to becoming our best selves

Thank you Will Fullwood, Savio P. Clemente, Nabanita, Sharon Rousseau, RLM, and many others for tuning into my live video with Walter Rhein! Join me for my next live video in the app.

Jason Gael Bio

“Just a man making my way in the universe..”

Jason Gael is an active content creator and writer on Substack, where he shares a mix of live video discussions, musical interests, and personal stories. He frequently hosts live streams, including conversations alongside collaborators.

His profile reflects a strong passion for music and pop culture, featuring posts about classic rock bands like AC/DC, 80s alternative groups like Mary’s Danish, and fond family anecdotes (such as his uncle’s dedication to actor Tim Curry). Additionally, he engages with contemporary political and cultural commentary, noting his interest in NPR programs and political interviews.

Currently, he has an engaged audience of over 300 subscribers on the platform.

We would like to thank all of those in attendance.

Thank you Diane, EG, Shauna Rae, Gilda Johnson, Judith Kipp Norris, and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.

Rebekah Lynn Pierce - Biography

Rebekah Lynn Pierce is an author, playwright, educator, military veteran, and creative entrepreneur. Her writing centers on storytelling, personal transformation, historical fiction, and social justice.

Biographical Details & Career Highlights

· Military Service & Early Life: Raised in Stockton, California, she served in the U.S. Air Force from 1993 to 1999 before settling in Richmond, Virginia.

· Educator & Academic: She has taught English Composition and Literature for over 25 years across public schools, vocational institutions, and universities.

· Entrepreneurship & Creative Projects: She founded The Nourishment Collective and Maggie’s Custom Sweet Treats (formerly Maggie’s Cupcake Cafe), and writes The Lemonade Mindset newsletter on Substack, focusing on affirmations and personal growth.

Published Works:

· Before the Lesson Begins: Using Breath, Reflection, & Affirmations to Inspire Student Learning (Educational Non-Fiction, 2025)

· I Love Me More (Women’s Biographies, 2019)

· The Secret Life of Lucy Bosman (Historical Fiction, 2014)

· On the Cusp of Humanity: A Collection of Short Modern Plays (Drama, 2013)

· Murder on Second Street: The Jackson Ward Murders (Historical Mystery, 2010)

Thank you to everyone who tuned into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.

When what you’re told and what you see don’t match, believe what you see.

He says he’ll change. Nothing changes.

She says she’s happy for you. She hasn’t asked one question about it.

They say the door is always open. You knocked twice and nobody came.

Somebody says “we’re fine,” and you’re lying awake at two in the morning doing math on a life that doesn’t add up.

And underneath all of it, a low grinding in your chest. Two things that cannot both be true, running at the same time.

Hear me on this. That grinding is not anxiety. It’s not oversensitivity. It’s not you being difficult.

It’s you knowing something.

The only question, the one this whole piece turns on, is what you do with what you know.

What It Actually Is

Cognitive dissonance is a psychologist’s phrase for something you already know by feel. The discomfort of holding two contradicting things at once.

What I was told versus what I saw.

What I believe about this person versus how this person treats me.

Who I say I am versus what I keep tolerating.

Here’s what the textbook underplays. The mind can’t stand that grind for long. It’s built to resolve contradiction, and it will, quickly, quietly, and if you’re not watching, in whatever direction is cheapest.

Changing your life is expensive.

Changing your mind about what you saw is free.

So the mind, left alone, edits the evidence. Maybe I misread it. Maybe he meant well. Maybe this is just how it is for everybody.

The discomfort was never the problem. It was the one part of you working exactly right.

The grinding isn’t the malfunction. It’s the truth trying to get your attention. The problem is what we do to make it stop.

What You’re Told, and What You See

Here’s the rule I’d give you if I could only give you one.

When what you’re told and what you see don’t match, believe what you see. Every time.

What you’re told is the words. The promises. The apology that arrives right on schedule. The version of the story somebody repeats until it starts to sound like history.

What you see is the behavior. Who shows up. Who calls back. What happens after the apology. How somebody treats you when there’s nothing in it for them.

Words are cheap and behavior is expensive. That’s the whole reason behavior tells the truth.

Now watch what capable women do with that, because we were trained to do it. We doubt our own eyes before we doubt the words.

We were graded our whole lives on being agreeable. On giving the benefit of the doubt. On not making it a thing.

So when the words and the behavior don’t match, we settle it by deciding we’re the one who got it wrong.

We convict the witness. And the witness was us.

You settled it by overruling your own eyes. That’s a win for the story. It has never once been a win for the truth.

How It Gets Used Against You

Understand this clearly. Some of the dissonance in your life is not an accident. It’s manufactured.

Somebody who tells you you’re the most important thing in their life while handing you whatever’s left over isn’t confused. They’re counting on you to settle the contradiction in their favor.

The friend who is warm to your face and silent when it actually counts is running the same play.

And the manipulator’s version is the sharpest of all. Create the gap between what they say and what they do, then punish you for noticing it.

“That never happened.”

“You’re remembering it wrong.”

“You’re too sensitive.”

One goal: keep you so busy doubting what you saw that you never get around to doing anything about it.

Then there’s the dissonance we manufacture ourselves. That one’s harder to admit.

Eleven years into something that stopped fitting eight years ago. The grind in your chest every Sunday night, settled week after week with “but I’ve put so much into this.”

The belief we protect hardest is the one we’ve already paid for. That isn’t loyalty. It’s a story we keep because we’re the one who told it.

Imposed or self-made, the pattern is identical. The evidence threatens something comfortable, so the evidence gets edited.

Whoever talks you out of trusting your own eyes gets to write your story. And whoever writes it decides how it ends.

Settling It in the Right Direction

It always gets settled. The only question is which way.

There are three ways out of the grind. Two of them are honest.

You can change what you believe, because what you saw genuinely showed you something new. That’s learning, and it should happen regularly. Sometimes you had somebody wrong. Sometimes the story you carried about a person, a place, or yourself doesn’t survive the evidence. Changing your mind is strength. It has never been defeat.

You can change your situation, because the belief held up, and it’s the life around it that has to move. You say the hard thing. You set the boundary. You make the call you’ve been putting off. You go. That’s your decision, and nobody can make it for you.

Or you can go numb and change nothing. Keep the belief, keep the situation, and spend your strength holding two incompatible truths apart so they never touch.

That’s the dishonest way out. And it’s the most expensive thing a capable woman can buy. The energy you spend not-knowing something is energy your own life never gets.

The discipline that keeps you honest is one you already know from me. Write it down.

What I’m told, on one line. What I keep seeing, on the next. With the date.

This whole thing survives on fog, on those two sentences never sitting side by side in daylight. Paper ends the fog. Once they’re both on the page, you’ll find it very hard to un-know which one is true.

Change what you believe, or change your situation. Numb is not a third option. It’s surrender on an installment plan.

The Reconciliation

Here’s the quiet work. Not a program. Just a sitting-down with yourself.

Find the grind you’ve been living with. You don’t have to hunt for it — it surfaced while you read this. Somewhere in your life two things cannot both be true, and you’ve been paying to keep from choosing.

Write them as two plain sentences. What I am told. What I see. No softening. No “maybe I’m overreacting.” Just the two of them, side by side, in your own hand.

Then check each one against behavior. Not words. Not intentions. Not potential. Behavior, repeated over time.

One of those sentences has evidence behind it. Sit with which one. And notice how long you’ve known.

Then make the smaller decision first. You don’t have to leave, confront anybody, or overhaul your life by Friday. You have to stop editing the evidence.

Say the true sentence out loud once. To yourself. To your journal. To one person who doesn’t need you to pretend.

That’s the reconciliation. You stop lying to yourself, whatever you decide to do next.

Integration: The Reality

Now turn it around. Because you are somebody else’s evidence.

Every gap between what you say and what you actually do puts that same grinding in somebody who loves you, works for you, or looks up to you. And they’ll settle it the way you learned to, by quietly deciding not to believe you.

You can’t talk your way out of a contradiction you behaved your way into. Say less. Line up more. The people we trust most aren’t the ones with the best words. They’re the ones whose ordinary Tuesday makes the words unnecessary.

And when somebody tells you what they see, that what you say and what you do don’t line up, that person just took a risk for you. If your face punishes her for it, she’ll never say it again. You won’t have solved a thing. You’ll have only made sure you stop hearing about it.

Keep one honest eye on the story you tell about yourself, too. “I’m a fair person” is a belief, not a fact. It has to hold up against your calendar, your patterns, and who you show up for when it costs you something.

The people who calcify aren’t the ones who had contradictions. They’re the ones who stopped checking.

The Coaching Chair

Come sit a minute. Leave the story at the door. In this chair we only deal in what’s actually happening.

Find the grind. The one you’ve been managing instead of settling.

Put the two sentences in front of you.…

Career & Background

* Corporate Experience: She has over 15 years of program management experience across various domains. Notably, she served as a Senior Program Manager and Amazon Bar Raiser, where she conducted hundreds of candidate interviews for diverse corporate roles.

* Hire Possibilities: She is the founder of Hire Possibilities, a consultancy, publication, and coaching practice dedicated to helping job seekers, hiring managers, and small business owners navigate interviews and career transitions.

* Education: She holds a degree in Communications from the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University.

Author & Publications

* She authored the book The Self-Aware Interview: Essentials for Every Enneagram Type, which combines behavioral interviewing frameworks (such as the STAR method) with Enneagram personality insights to help candidates show up authentically. Publish Date: May 3, 2026. Available in Kindle, hardcover, and paperback.

* She writes the Substack publication Hire Possibilities, focusing on interviewing, career transitions, self-awareness, and workplace dynamics.

Talking Points: Using Enneagram to be Your Authentic Self

The Enneagram can be useful as a framework for self-reflection, but the empirical research on its reliability and validity is mixed. A 2021 systematic review examined 104 independent samples and reached that conclusion. PubMed

· The Enneagram is about awareness, not labels. It can provide a framework for examining recurring personality patterns, motivations, strengths, and areas for development (Daniels & Price, 2009; Riso & Hudson, 1999). Des Moines Public Library Catalog

· Authenticity begins with self-awareness. Using the Enneagram as a reflective tool can encourage individuals to observe habitual patterns and consider how those patterns affect personal and interpersonal functioning (Chestnut, 2013; Riso & Hudson, 1999). Folsom Public Library

· Look beneath behavior to motivation. Enneagram approaches emphasize understanding the motivations and patterns associated with different personality types rather than focusing exclusively on observable behavior (Daniels & Price, 2009). Camden County Library Catalog

· Recognize strengths and blind spots. Self-observation can help individuals recognize both strengths and less productive patterns, creating opportunities for intentional personal development (Chestnut, 2013). Google Books

· Use the Enneagram as a developmental tool, not an excuse. Knowing your type should not become justification for behavior. The greater value comes from recognizing habitual patterns and developing greater flexibility in how you respond (Riso & Hudson, 1999).

· Apply it carefully in coaching and leadership development. Research provides some evidence supporting the Enneagram’s use for personal and spiritual growth, but the overall empirical evidence regarding its reliability and validity remains mixed (Hook et al., 2021). Wiley Online Library

References

Chestnut, B. (2013). The complete Enneagram: 27 paths to greater self-knowledge. She Writes Press. Folsom Public Library

Daniels, D. N., & Price, V. A. (2009). The essential Enneagram: The definitive personality test and self-discovery guide (Rev. ed.). HarperOne. Des Moines Public Library Catalog

Hook, J. N., Hall, T. W., Davis, D. E., Van Tongeren, D. R., & Conner, M. (2021). The Enneagram: A systematic review of the literature and directions for future research. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 77(4), 865–883. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.23097 PubMed

Riso, D. R., & Hudson, R. (1999). The wisdom of the Enneagram: The complete guide to psychological and spiritual growth for the nine personality types. Bantam Books. Sno-Isle Libraries Catalog

Thank you Natasha K., Carolyn Malone, Fatimah Ali, PhD-Lupus Health, Diane, julie elder, Florence Acosta and many others for tuning into my live video with Carolyn Illman! Join me for my next live video in the app.

Robert Danna Bio

Physicist, naval officer, engineer, business leader, and author.

Danna served as an officer in the United States Navy, trained and worked as a physicist, practiced as a consulting engineer, and closed his corporate career as an executive at Deloitte. At Bersin by Deloitte, he served as Director, helping launch the firm’s advisory consulting practice and building its core consulting methodologies. Across more than thirty-five years in management consulting, he concentrated on human capital strategy, adult learning, talent management, leadership development, and veteran recruitment (Danna, n.d.-a). Marquis Who’s Who (2024) recognized him for a career spanning more than fifty years.

He describes himself as "a progressive, secular humanist… lover of science and reason" and adds, without apology, "You are forewarned" (Danna, n.d.-b, The Authentic Bob Danna section). He lives in Las Vegas, Nevada, with his long-term partner, Laci Loew.

The Book: My Curious Life: If My Grandkids Ask About Me, Tell Them This

It was published April 8, 2024 (Danna, 2024). It began as a private record for his grandchildren and became a public one, structured in four parts: a five-act life narrative, a deconstruction of his professional selves, a section on self-knowledge, and a closing section on sustained curiosity.

Chapter titles include "Growing Up in a Low-Income Home" and "Let’s Talk About Reason, Logic and Being a Skeptic." Kirkus Reviews (2024) called it "an engaging, curiosity-driven journey from the 1960s to the present." It received an International Impact Book Award in April 2025 (Danna, n.d.-b).

Laci Loew Bio

Laci Loew is a global HR analyst, people scientist, and enterprise talent strategist based in Las Vegas, Nevada. She serves as an executive advisor guiding organizations, CEOs, and corporate boards through complex business transformations, leadership alignment, and talent architecture redesigns.

Current Leadership Roles

* Fellow at the Global Curiosity Institute, co-developing the Curiosity Maturity Model to help organizations measure and scale curiosity as a driver for innovation and resilience.

* Board Member at the AI Learning Alliance (AILA), focusing on human-AI collaboration and integrating agentic AI into modern workflows.

* Member of the Harvard Business Review Advisory Council and member of the Senior Executive HR Think Tank.

Senior Executive

Professional Experience

With over 30 to 40 years of workforce experience, Loew has held senior HR leadership, principal analyst, and strategic advisory roles across major global enterprise organizations.

Key Areas of Focus & Expertise

* Future of Work & AI Partnering: Advising executive teams on deploying agentic AI tools as collaborative working partners alongside employees.

* Organizational Strategy & Change: Utilizing evidence-based maturity models to resolve cultural bottlenecks, elevate executive team dynamics, and improve performance management.

Senior Executive

* Workplace Culture & Inclusion: Promoting psychological safety, equity, and modern workforce engagement strategies.

Education & Publications

* Education: Holds a Bachelor of Science in Education and Psychology, along with an MBA with a concentration in Human Resources.

Senior Executive

* Publications: Frequently contributes insights on talent management, leadership, and workplace trends to outlets including Harvard Business Review, Forbes, and the Talent Management Handbook.

Walter Rhein’s Bio

Walter Rhein is an American author, writer, and teacher known for his work spanning fantasy fiction, non-fiction travel writing, and sports memoirs.

Early Life & Travel

* Background: Raised in northern Wisconsin, he earned a degree in English literature before traveling and living abroad.

* Time in Peru: Lived in Lima, Peru, for a decade working as an English teacher, translator, and writer. He currently splits his time between Wisconsin and South America.

* Athletics: An avid cross-country skier, he regularly participates in the American Birkebeiner 50km ski race in Hayward, Wisconsin.

Notable Works

* Beyond Birkie Fever (2010): A sports memoir focused on his experiences with cross-country skiing and the culture surrounding the American Birkebeiner race.

* The Reader of Acheron & The Literate Thief (Slaves of Erafor Series): Fantasy novels exploring themes of forbidden literacy and rebellion against oppression.

* Reckless Traveler (2015): A non-fiction travel book drawing on his experiences living and traveling in South America.

* The Bone Sword & Paperclip: Fantasy and collaborative fiction works (co-authored Paperclip with Dan Woll).

Writing & Commentary

Rhein publishes I’d Rather Be Writing on Substack, which has an audience of over 19,000 subscribers, and a second publication, Rise Together. His writing addresses antiracism, race, tolerance, integrity, women’s rights, and the conditions children are being raised into. He states that his newsletter contains no AI-generated content (Rhein, n.d.).

Thank you Dr. Yamicia Connor, LeftieProf, Stuart Cohen, Donna, EG, Humor and Hummus by Brandon Ellrich, Mandy Ohman and many others for tuning into my live video with Walter Rhein, Laci Loew and Robert Danna! Join me for my next live video in the app