Most professionals are told to follow the rules, climb the ladder, and hope their hard work pays off. But that advice rarely holds up in today's workplace. You can do everything right and still feel stuck, burned out, or invisible.

Julia Toothacre is a Career Coach and Strategist with over a decade of experience helping high-achieving mid-career professionals take control of their careers. She's been named among the 10 Best Career Coaching Services for Women, a LinkedIn Top Voice, and her work has been featured in Newsweek, Forbes, and Yahoo! Finance.

In this episode of The Honest Mic, Julia talks about her own experience with burnout and toxic leadership, how to distinguish between a challenging workplace and a truly toxic one, why intentional goals matter, and what career ownership actually looks like.

If you're ready to stop waiting and start taking control, this conversation is for you.

Guest Links

Website: https://ridethetidecollective.com/

Podcast: Control Your Career

Terry Whalin has written more than 60 books and contributed to more than 50 magazines. He's spent decades working with hundreds of authors. And he's seen the same thing play out over and over: most authors have unrealistic expectations about what happens after their book comes out, and much of the publishing process is outside anything they can control.

In this episode of The Honest Mic, Terry talks about the wake-up moment every author needs to have, the biggest myth about publishing, what a platform actually is, and why it matters.

If you're thinking about writing a book, this conversation will save you time, money, and disappointment.

Guest Links

Special Offer: PublishingOffer.com (book + $200 in bonuses)

Book: 10 Publishing Myths

Website: https://terrywhalin.com/

Email: [email protected]

Kimberly Miller's father asked her one question near the end of his life: if God had sent you to the woman at the well, would you have gone?

That question didn't come from ambition. It came from a charge that someone she loved handed her. And she chose to carry it.

Today, Kimberly is the founder and primary Bible teacher of Woman at the Well Ministries. She's a minister, evangelist, Christian author, and certified Biblical Life Coach.

In this episode of The Honest Mic, Kimberly talks about the question her father left her, the tension between comfort and calling, and what it means to meet people where they are and point them to Jesus.

If you're still figuring out what you're called to do, this conversation is for you.

Guest Links

Website: WomanAtTheWellMinistries.org

Podcast: Woman at the Well Ministries

Diane Lampe had just gotten a promotion. She was doing great by every measure. And she walked into her backyard, stood there alone, and said out loud to nobody: 'What is wrong with me?'

Successful by every measure and still knowing something was missing. That moment cracked something open in her. She couldn't sleep that night. She turned on the TV and there was Tony Robbins on an infomercial. She ordered it. She did the whole plan. And something changed.

Diane is a bestselling author, entrepreneur, leadership mentor, and founder of The Lampe Company. She's a certified instructor with the Napoleon Hill Foundation and the host of Be the Leader People Want to Follow.

In this episode of The Honest Mic, Diane talks about the backyard moment that changed everything, how she discovered her own pattern of self-sabotage, what an honest audit of wins and losses revealed, and what it actually means to be a leader people want to follow.

If you've ever wondered why you keep pulling back right before the win, this conversation is for you.

Guest Links

Discovery Call: DianeLampe.com/discoverycall

Book: Identifying Your Wealth Code DNA™

Podcast: Be the Leader People Want to Follow

Theresa Evans spent years as an ICU nurse, witnessing death and dying on a regular basis. She considered it a privilege and an honor to be with someone when they died. And then her own mother chose a date with death after years of suffering at the hands of end-stage heart failure and COPD.

November 15th. Her 80th birthday. That was the day.

In this episode of The Honest Mic, Theresa talks about what it felt like to know the exact day her mother would die, what her nursing career prepared her for and what it didn't, what anticipatory grief really is, and what she learned about showing up for someone at the end of their life.

If you're navigating grief or supporting a loved one through death, this conversation is for you.

Guest Links

Website: TheresaEEvans.com

Book: Choosing to Die

The moments that shape a life rarely arrive with fanfare. They show up quietly. In family conversations. Unexpected detours. Even in a woodshop, shaping a piece of maple.

Chip Scholz describes himself simply as a man with a lathe, a pocketknife, and a few stories. Over the course of a long career in business and coaching, he's come to see that the small decisions accumulate over time, changing how we see, how we live, and eventually what we're willing to let go of.

In this episode of The Honest Mic, Chip talks about the layoff that forced him to reinvent himself, what working with a wood lathe taught him about patience and control, why usefulness matters more than importance, and what to pay attention to when you're in the middle of your own transition.

If you've ever felt like the big moments aren't coming, this conversation will change how you see your own life.

Guest Links

Website: scholzandassociates.com

Books: Small Decisions, Big Shifts | Every Dog Has Its Day | Handoffs

Being told you have a serious health condition can change the way you see your own body overnight.

For Shelli Galvan, being told she had lupus brought fear of symptoms, fear of the future, and fear of what her own body might do next. But after seeking further answers, she discovered she had been misdiagnosed. What stayed with her was something deeper: the transformation in how she understood fear, stress, the nervous system, and her relationship with her body.

Today, Shelli is a Master Transformation Coach and Hypnotherapist who works with women living with autoimmune conditions, helping them explore the connection between stress, safety, and the way they experience their bodies.

In this episode of The Honest Mic, Shelli talks about what it felt like to receive a diagnosis that changed everything, how fear can shape the way we experience our bodies, what she learned from discovering she had been misdiagnosed, and why feeling safe can become such an important part of rebuilding confidence in yourself.

This conversation isn't just about health. It's about what happens when fear stops being the thing driving the conversation and you begin learning how to listen to yourself differently.

If you've ever felt trapped between fear of your symptoms and fear of what might happen next, this conversation is for you.

Connect with Shelli Galvan

If you want to learn more about Shelli's work and access her free resource for calming the nervous system and exploring the stress–flare cycle, visit:

https://www.shelligalvan.com/

Email:

[email protected]

Subscribe to The Honest Mic

If you enjoyed this conversation, subscribe to The Honest Mic for more honest conversations with people who have lived through difficult chapters, learned something from them, and are willing to talk about what happened along the way.

Because the most interesting stories usually start where the highlight reel ends.

Connie Davis spent 25 years in payments and fintech before walking away from corporate finance to sit with people whose experiences the financial system rarely accounts for: survivors of human trafficking, trauma, abuse, and violence.

What she found changed the way she understood commerce.

Behind financial distress, money wounds, and economic vulnerability were stories of human value that couldn't be reduced to a transaction or a dollar amount. Connie began exploring the connection between money, trauma, technology, and the systems that determine whose value gets recognized and whose gets overlooked.

In this episode of The Honest Mic, Connie talks about what six years outside traditional finance taught her that 25 years inside it never could, why commerce is about far more than the transaction, and what happens when we start looking at money through a trauma-informed lens.

She also shares why some of the most vulnerable entrepreneurs are often the least understood by traditional financial systems, how trust can reshape the way we think about commerce, and why the future of money and technology needs to account for the human beings behind the numbers.

If you've ever felt like the financial system wasn't built with people like you in mind, this conversation is for you.

Connect with Connie Davis

To hear more of Connie's conversations about commerce, human resilience, money, and the future of financial systems, visit Sacred Ledgers Radio:

https://sacredledgers.com/radio

You can also learn more about Connie's work through Maiden Explorations and her podcast, Unlocking Commerce in Business.

Subscribe to The Honest Mic

If you enjoyed this conversation, subscribe to The Honest Mic for more honest conversations with people who have lived through the hard parts, built something from them, and are willing to talk about what happened along the way.

Because the most interesting stories usually start where the highlight reel ends.

Magic Barclay knows what it means to fight for your life, and not just once.

After surviving cancer, Lyme disease, a stroke, diabetes, a heart attack, and hypoxia, Magic eventually realized that surviving wasn’t the same as being truly well. Years of trauma, stress, and harmful relationships had taken a profound toll on both her body and her relationship with herself.

But instead of accepting that as her story, she went deep into understanding how the body works, how trauma affects health, and what it takes to address the root causes behind illness. That journey eventually led her to become a Mould Toxicity Master Practitioner, an expert in PNEI of Trauma, and an Advanced Immune and Functional Health Practitioner.

In this episode of The Honest Mic, Magic talks about the connection between trauma, stress, and physical health, what she learned about herself after leaving an abusive marriage, why treating symptoms without understanding the root cause can leave people searching for answers, and what rebuilding your health can teach you about rebuilding your life.

This conversation goes beyond health. It’s about what happens when you stop seeing yourself as broken and start taking back ownership of your life.

If you're still carrying the effects of what you've survived, this conversation is for you.

Connect with Magic Barclay

If you want to learn more about Magic’s approach to identifying potential root causes behind health challenges, visit:

https://www.wholisticnaturalhealth.com.au/health-assessment-form/

You can also connect with Magic through her podcast, A Magical Life, where she explores health, wealth, weight loss, and what it takes to create a life that feels truly your own.

Subscribe to The Honest Mic

If this conversation gave you something to think about, subscribe to The Honest Mic for more honest conversations with people who have lived through the hard parts, built something from them, and are willing to talk about what happened along the way.

Because the most interesting stories usually start where the highlight reel ends.

Jody Layne has spent more than 25 years in digital marketing and business development, building companies, managing teams, and learning firsthand what it takes to turn expertise into a business that actually works.

One of her biggest successes was building Barnett & Murphy, a digital marketing agency that grew to more than $3 million in revenue. But she has also experienced what it feels like when an idea doesn't work out. In 2011, Jody and her husband launched a SaaS company called Expect Referrals, and it didn't go the way they hoped. Instead of hiding that chapter, Jody treats it as one of the experiences that shaped how she approaches business today.

Her path eventually led her into the hormone and wellness space, where she saw a recurring problem: incredibly talented providers knew how to help their patients, but many had never been taught how to build and grow a business.

In this episode of The Honest Mic, Jody talks about what successful businesses get right that struggling ones often overlook, what failure taught her about entrepreneurship, why your team may be the most important product your company has, and how she helps hormone and wellness clinics build predictable growth through her POWER Framework: Positioning, Operations, Workforce, Experience, and Revenue.

If you're an entrepreneur with the expertise but struggling to turn it into a business that can actually scale, this conversation is for you.

Connect with Jody Layne

Complimentary Strategy Call:

https://acceleratedmedicalpractices.com/strategy

Email:

[email protected]

If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to The Honest Mic for more honest conversations with people building businesses, learning from the parts that didn't work, and figuring out what it takes to build something that lasts.