The Small Victories Podcast

Have you ever left a doctor’s appointment feeling like you didn’t say what you needed to say—or worse, not fully understanding what just happened?

In this powerful and practical episode, Pauline sits down with Dana E. Sherwin, founder of The Thinking Patient, to explore what it truly means to take ownership of your health. After spending 35+ years inside the healthcare system—and then facing her own life-threatening illness and stem cell transplant—Dana brings a rare and deeply insightful perspective from both sides of the exam room.

Her message is clear: people are not prepared to be sick—but they can learn how to be.

This conversation equips you with the mindset and tools to become an engaged patient—someone who communicates effectively with doctors, asks better questions, uses available resources wisely (including AI), and ultimately improves their health outcomes.

If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed, intimidated, or unsure how to advocate for yourself in a medical setting, this episode will empower you to step into your role as the CEO of your own health—with clarity, confidence, and courage.

Key Takeaways

• Your health is your responsibility—no one will care more about it than you do.

• Being an “engaged patient” leads to better health outcomes and more empowering medical experiences.

• Preparation transforms appointments—clarity before you walk in leads to confidence while you’re there.

• How you communicate your symptoms can directly impact how well a doctor can diagnose and treat you.

• Asking questions isn’t disrespectful—it’s essential to understanding and participating in your care.

• You don’t need to know everything—you just need to know how to ask better questions.

• Small actions (tracking symptoms, knowing medications, preparing questions) create powerful momentum.

• AI and online research are tools for awareness—not diagnosis—but they can help you ask smarter questions.

• Courage in healthcare isn’t the absence of fear—it’s showing up prepared and willing to speak up anyway.

• The question you’re most afraid to ask your doctor is often the most important one.

Reflection Questions

1. What is one question about your health that you’ve been avoiding—and what would it look like to ask it with courage?

2. How can you better prepare for your next medical appointment so you leave feeling informed, heard, and empowered?

Connect with Dana Sherwin

• 🌐 Website: The Thinking Patient

• 💼 LinkedIn: Dana E. Sherwin

Dana E. Sherwin is the founder of The Thinking Patient LLC, a professional services firm providing consulting, speaking, and training resources to support and enhance patient-physician communication. With over 35 years of experience in healthcare leadership, Dana has worked across hospitals, managed care organizations, and top consulting firms. She holds a Master of Health Services Administration from the University of Michigan and a Bachelor of Science from Cornell University. She is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives and serves as a volunteer advisor with the Blood and Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials Network.

What if grief isn’t something you need to get over, but something asking to be witnessed, tended, and held with compassion?

In this deeply personal episode of The Small Victories Podcast, Pauline sits down with Lori “Sas” Sase—life coach, grief tender, creativity ally, and founder of A Sanctuary for the Soul—for a heartfelt conversation about changing our relationship with grief.

After losing both of her parents to cancer just two months apart, Sas discovered firsthand what can happen when we try to swallow our grief, stay strong, and keep moving. Over time, suppressing her sorrow didn’t just numb her pain—it began to numb her ability to experience joy. Her own healing journey eventually taught her a different way: instead of pushing grief away, we can learn to meet it with warmth, tenderness, ritual, creativity, and connection.

Pauline also shares vulnerably about her own experience working with Sas and how learning to 

give her grief space changed the way she navigated loss.

Together, they explore grief not simply as pain, but as an expression of love—and even as a form of alchemy. When we bring warmth and compassion to our wounds rather than allowing them to harden inside us, what hurts can eventually become wisdom, empathy, connection, and even medicine we carry into the lives of others.

This conversation is an invitation to stop judging yourself for how you grieve and discover that strength and tenderness don't have to be opposites. You can be strong and allow yourself to feel.

Key Takeaways

• Grief is not limited to death. We can grieve people, relationships, dreams, expectations, transitions, and the life we thought we were going to have.

• Grief is often an expression of love. Instead of seeing tears as weakness, we can recognize them as evidence that someone or something mattered deeply to us.

• Suppressing grief can also suppress joy. When we continually shut down painful emotions, we may unintentionally numb our capacity to experience the fuller spectrum of life.

• Grief needs warmth, not judgment. Compassion, tenderness, attention, and acceptance can help soften grief that has been pushed down or left unattended.

• You don't have to choose between strength and vulnerability. True strength can include allowing yourself to cry, feel, ask for support, and acknowledge what hurts.

• Grief needs a vessel. Giving grief boundaries—a trusted person, a 10-minute writing practice, a ritual, creative expression, or intentional time to feel—can help us enter our grief without believing we have to stay there forever.

• We were never meant to grieve entirely alone. Being witnessed and held in safe community can transform the experience of grief and remind us of our shared humanity.

• Your wounds can become medicine. When grief is met with compassion rather than avoidance, the experience can deepen our empathy, wisdom, creativity, and ability to connect with others.

• Joy and sorrow can coexist. Living fully doesn't require eliminating grief. Wholeness comes from making room for both the ascent of joy and the descent into the tender places of our humanity.

Reflection Questions

1. What grief have you been trying to “stay strong” through, and what might change if you gave yourself permission to tend it with compassion instead?

2. What would it look like to create a safe vessel for your grief—through another person, writing, ritual, creativity, or simply giving yourself intentional time and space to feel?

Connect with Lori “Sas” Sase

Website: A Sanctuary for the Soul https://asanctuaryforthesoul.com

Instagram: @lori_sase

Podcast: The Imaginal Podcast

What if the voice holding you back… isn’t the truth?

In this powerful and deeply honest conversation, Pauline sits down with Meghann Dawson—coach, speaker, and host of the Becoming is Messy podcast—to explore the life-changing difference between your inner voice and your inner critic.

From a childhood shaped by trauma, chronic illness, and survival patterns to a high-achieving corporate career that masked deeper pain, Meghann shares her journey of unraveling, healing, and rebuilding a life rooted in self-trust, authenticity, and purpose.

After a defining moment in her daughter’s nursery, Meghann began listening—really listening—to her inner voice. That moment sparked a transformation that led to her Imperfect LEVEL UP™ Framework, a powerful 7-competency approach to help women stop performing their lives and start living them.

This episode is a reminder that growth isn’t clean, healing isn’t linear, and your greatest breakthroughs often begin in the mess.

If you’ve ever felt torn between who you are and who you think you should be—this conversation will meet you right where you are.

Key Takeaways

• Your inner critic often sounds like doubt and questioning—your inner voice feels grounded, clear, and true.

• External success can mask internal misalignment—healing begins when you choose to listen inward.

• The voice you ignore doesn’t go away—it gets louder through burnout, breakdown, or life interruptions.

• Self-trust is built by taking small, aligned steps—not by waiting for certainty.

• Healing requires compassion for your past, not judgment of it.

• Patterns in your life are not random—they are invitations to learn, grow, and choose differently.

• You don’t need a perfect plan—you need the courage to follow what feels true.

• Authentic leadership begins with loving yourself unapologetically.

• When you align internally, your external life begins to reflect that alignment in powerful ways.

• Your story—no matter how messy—is not something to hide, but something that can guide and impact others.

Reflections

1. When you pause and listen, how does your inner voice sound different from your inner critic?

2. What is one small step your inner voice is inviting you to take right now—and what would it look like to trust it?

Connect with Meghann Dawson

Website: Meghanndawson.com

Listener discretion advised: This episode includes discussions of trauma and sensitive experiences. Please take care while listening.

What if the very thing you’ve hidden for decades is the key to your freedom?

In this deeply moving and courageous conversation, Pauline sits down with Darlene Lekowski—speaker, advocate, and author of How Do You Keep a Secret for 50 Years?—to talk about resilience, truth, and what it really means to live forward.

After enduring sibling sexual trauma and abuse as a child, Darlene spent 50 years in silence—compartmentalizing her pain while building a life of success, family, and achievement. But as she shares in this episode, “boxes don’t stay closed… they leak.”

What unfolds is a powerful story of survival, truth, justice, and ultimately, healing—not through revenge or validation, but through releasing what no longer serves and choosing to reclaim her voice.

This conversation is not just about trauma—it’s about hope. It’s about courage. And it’s about the small victories that lead to living victoriously.

Darlene’s message is clear: Never give up. There is always hope. And your story matters.

Key Takeaways

• Healing doesn’t come from silence—what we suppress will eventually surface in our lives.

• Survival strategies that once protected you can later become the very things holding you back.

• You can build a successful life and still carry unhealed pain—achievement is not the same as healing.

• Speaking your truth is not about revenge—it’s about reclaiming your voice and your freedom.

• Justice does not equal healing—true healing comes from releasing anger, shame, and control.

• You are not alone—sharing your story with someone you trust can be life-saving.

• Healing is not a destination—it’s an ongoing journey of choosing what serves your wholeness.

• You have permission to set boundaries—even with family—if it protects your peace and truth.

• Your past may shape you, but it does not get to define your future.

• Living victoriously means choosing hope, truth, and forward movement—one brave step at a time.

Reflection Questions

1. What is something you’ve been carrying in silence that might be ready to be acknowledged, shared, or released?

2. What would it look like for you to live forward—without letting your past have the final word?

Connect with Darlene

Website: www.darlene-lekowski.comInstagram: @darlenelekowskiFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61575781889793

Closing Encouragement

If you’re listening to this and quietly carrying something heavy, let this be your reminder:you are not alone, and your story still holds power.

Darlene’s journey shows us that living victoriously isn’t about pretending the pain didn’t happen—it’s about choosing not to let it define you.

You don’t have to have it all figured out.You don’t have to be fully healed.You just have to keep going.

Because there is always hope.And your next chapter can still be powerful.

What if the anxiety, stress, or emotional patterns you’ve been managing for years weren’t something you had to live with forever?

In this powerful episode of The Small Victories Podcast, Pauline Victoria sits down with Edit B Kiss, holistic mentor, success habit coach, and author of The Gap Filler Success, to explore a bold and hope-filled message: you don’t need to suffer—there is always a solution, and you don’t quit until you find it.

Edit shares her deeply personal journey—from experiencing panic attacks in her 20s while building a successful engineering career, to exploring holistic healing modalities and ultimately discovering a path that helped her move from emotional chaos to peace. Through years of integrating energy healing, mindfulness, and what she calls source memory healing, she now helps others transform their lives—often faster than they thought possible.

Together, Pauline and Edit dive into the deeper layers of healing, including subconscious patterns, ancestral and karmic influences, and the idea that many of the struggles we face may not be as random as they seem. This conversation challenges the belief that suffering is “just part of life” and instead invites you into a new possibility—one where healing is not only available, but accessible.

If you’ve ever felt stuck in cycles of anxiety, emotional triggers, or repeating life patterns, this episode will expand your perspective and remind you that transformation is possible.

Key Takeaways

• You don’t have to settle for “managing” your struggles—true healing is possible when you address the root, not just the symptoms.

• What feels “normal” in your environment (stress, anxiety, emotional pain) may actually be a learned pattern—not your natural state.

• Many of your reactions are driven by the subconscious and unconscious mind—not your conscious choices—so healing requires going deeper than surface-level change.

• Unresolved emotional experiences can stay stored in the body and mind, continuing to trigger you until they are consciously released.

• Ancestral patterns and past experiences (whether understood or not) can influence your present-day behaviors, emotions, and challenges.

• Forgiveness is not about excusing others—it’s about freeing yourself from repeating cycles of pain.

• You have more power than you think: by changing your awareness, choices, and responses, you can interrupt long-standing patterns and create a different future.

• Healing doesn’t have to be a lifelong struggle—when you use the right tools, it can be faster, lighter, and more empowering than expected.

Reflection Questions

1. Where in your life have you been “managing” something that might actually be ready to be healed?

2. What patterns, reactions, or emotional triggers keep repeating—and what might they be trying to show you?

Connect with Edit B Kiss

• Instagram: @editbkiss https://www.instagram.com/editbkiss 

• LinkedIn: Edit B Kiss https://www.linkedin.com/in/editbkiss/  

• Facebook: Edit B Kiss  https://www.facebook.com/bkissedit 

• YouTube: Magical Karma Priestess  https://www.youtube.com/@MagicalKarmaPriestess 

Book: The Gap Filler Success  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FVG3RVW3?lv=shuf&bestFormat=true&channelId=704&plpRedirect=mhFallback 

What if the very thing you’ve been taught leads to success… is actually what’s breaking you?

In this powerful episode of The Small Victories Podcast, Pauline Victoria sits down with Garrett Wood, a clinical hypnotherapist, executive functioning specialist, and founder of Gnosis Therapy. Garrett works with executives, founders, and high achievers who appear successful on the outside—but are silently battling burnout, exhaustion, and imposter syndrome.

After experiencing burnout himself and witnessing the devastating consequences of “success at any cost,” Garrett made it his mission to help high performers break the boom-and-bust cycle that so often accompanies achievement. Through somatic regulation, outcome-based coaching, and clinical hypnotherapy, he helps leaders create sustainable high performance built on well-being rather than sacrifice.

In this conversation, Garrett shares the deeper drivers behind burnout, why success without alignment eventually collapses, and how understanding your nervous system and environment can transform the way you live and work.

If you’ve ever felt exhausted despite your achievements—or sensed that something isn’t quite right even while succeeding—this episode will challenge your assumptions and offer a powerful new perspective.

Key Takeaways

• Burnout isn’t caused by a busy calendar—it’s caused by a mismatch between what your nervous system needs and what your environment demands.

• High achievers often tie their self-worth to achievement, which can silently erode health, relationships, and peace of mind.

• Your body often signals burnout long before your mind recognizes it, showing up as chronic pain, sleep issues, irritability, or emotional exhaustion.

• Cynicism is often a hidden symptom of burnout, signaling a loss of belief that things can improve.

• Sustainable success is built through your well-being, not at its expense. When you take care of your nervous system and environment, performance actually improves.

• Your sensory environment matters more than you think. Productivity, focus, and emotional regulation are deeply influenced by the spaces you work and live in.

• Burnout recovery doesn’t start with doing more—it starts with the minimum effective change that restores energy and alignment.

• Small adjustments to sleep, environment, emotional regulation, and values alignment can create ripple effects across your career, relationships, and health.

• True high performance happens when your body, mind, and purpose are working together—not when you override your limits.

Reflection Questions

1. Where in your life might you be sacrificing your well-being in the pursuit of success?

2. What is one signal your body may be giving you right now that you’ve been ignoring?

Connect with Garrett Wood

Websitewww.gnosistherapy.com

Facebookhttps://m.facebook.com/wood.garrett/

Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/gnosistherapy/

LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/gnosistherapy/

What happens when the career you’ve spent nearly your entire life building suddenly comes to an end?

For Alexandra Dotcheva, that moment forced a complete reinvention. After 29 years as a professional violinist with doctoral degrees in music, Alexandra found herself facing a reality she never expected—she had to start over.

Instead of letting fear define her future, she used that moment as a catalyst for transformation.

In this powerful conversation, Alexandra shares how she rebuilt her life from the ground up—transitioning into nursing, building multiple real estate businesses, and eventually becoming a coach helping others develop holistic self-confidence.

Together, we explore why real change requires radical responsibility, why many people stay stuck in lives they secretly dislike, and how courage, discipline, and action can unlock opportunities that once seemed impossible.

If you’ve ever felt stuck in a career, relationship, or mindset that no longer serves you, this episode will challenge you to rethink what’s possible.

Alexandra reminds us that reinvention is not reserved for a select few—it’s available to anyone willing to act.

Key Takeaways

• Reinvention often begins when you accept that the path you’ve followed for years may no longer serve your future.

• Self-confidence is holistic—it grows when your health, finances, relationships, and career are aligned with your values.

• Many people remain stuck not because change is impossible, but because fear makes the familiar pain feel safer than the unknown.

• Radical responsibility is the turning point for transformation—your life improves when you stop blaming circumstances and start changing your choices.

• Opportunities become visible only after you develop the mindset to recognize and pursue them.

• Discipline and persistence matter more than motivation—success is built through sustained action over time.

• Failure isn’t proof you can’t succeed—it’s evidence that you’re actively pursuing growth.

Reflection Questions

1. Where in your life are you holding onto something that no longer aligns with who you’re becoming?

2. What is one action you could take today that would move you closer to the life you truly want to create?

About Alexandra Dotcheva

Alexandra Dotcheva is a Doctor of Musical Arts, registered nurse, real estate entrepreneur, author, and coach.

Her work focuses on holistic confidence building, integrative health, functional medicine, and plant-based nutrition. Through her coaching and writing, Alexandra helps people embrace change, build financial independence, and recognize the opportunities available to transform their lives.

Her book, It Really Is Simple: A Holistic Approach to Self-Confidence, explores how health, wealth, career, relationships, and mindset all work together to build lasting confidence and success.

Connect with Alexandra

Websitehttps://www.holisticselfconfidence.com/

Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/HolisticSelfConfidenceMethod

LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra-dotcheva/

YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/@alexandradotcheva

X (Twitter)https://x.com/HolisticSelfCo1

What if the very traits that helped you succeed are also the ones silently exhausting you?

In this powerful episode of The Small Victories Podcast, Pauline Victoria sits down with Adaku Mbagwu, founder of HEAL and creator of the Strategic Vulnerability™ method, to unpack the deeply relatable concept of eldest daughter syndrome. Together, they explore how firstborn daughters often become the responsible one, the achiever, the peacemaker, and the strong one—while carrying pressure that was never meant to be theirs.

Adaku shares her personal journey through depression, suicide attempts, and rebuilding her life from limiting beliefs into freedom, purpose, and seven-figure success. She explains how vulnerability is not weakness—it is the pathway to healing, authentic power, thriving relationships, and sustainable success.

Whether you are a firstborn daughter or simply someone who has learned to survive through perfectionism, people-pleasing, or hyper-independence, this conversation will help you release what no longer serves you and step into a more peaceful, powerful life.

Key Takeaways

• Success built on self-abandonment eventually becomes unsustainable.

• Being the “strong one” can hide unhealed pain and unmet needs.

• Perfectionism is often rooted in the desire to earn love and approval.

• Vulnerability is not weakness—it is access to freedom, connection, and growth.

• Hyper-independence can look powerful while quietly creating loneliness.

• Boundaries do not make you selfish; they make healthy relationships possible.

• Self-awareness begins when you stop saying “I don’t know” and start asking better questions.

• You do not have to keep carrying roles that no longer belong to you.

• Authenticity becomes magnetic when you stop performing and start being real.

• Living victoriously means releasing what was never yours to carry.

  
  

Reflection Questions

1. What roles or responsibilities have you been carrying that are no longer yours to hold?

2. Where might vulnerability be the doorway to the next level of peace, success, or connection in your life?

   
   

Connect with Adaku Mbagwu

🌐 Website: HEAL https://healedhero.com/

What if your stories didn’t fade with time… but continued to speak, guide, and connect long after you’re gone?

In this powerful and thought-provoking episode, Pauline Victoria sits down with Miles Spencer, CEO and co-founder of Reflekta.ai, to explore the future of storytelling, memory, and legacy in the age of AI.

Miles shares how a deeply personal moment—his father’s passing and the desire to stay connected—sparked the creation of Reflekta, a platform that transforms stories, voice, and lived experiences into interactive, evolving digital legacies. Through what he calls “Soul Tech,” Miles is bridging generations in a way that’s never been possible before.

This conversation dives into the beauty, complexity, and even controversy of preserving human connection through technology. From grief and healing to curiosity and courage, you’ll walk away with a new perspective on what it truly means to live—and leave—something meaningful.

This isn’t just about what happens after you’re gone.It’s about how you choose to live, remember, and share your story—right now.

Key Takeaways

• Your story is your legacy—and if you don’t preserve it, it risks being forgotten.

• Technology, when used intentionally, can deepen human connection rather than replace it.

• Legacy isn’t about wealth or achievements—it’s about voice, values, and lived experiences.

• Grief doesn’t disappear; it evolves—and meaningful connection can support healing.

• You don’t need perfect memories; you need a way to capture and revisit what matters.

• Curiosity is a lifelong driver of innovation, purpose, and meaningful work.

• The stories you think are ordinary may be the most valuable to future generations.

• You can begin preserving your legacy while you’re still alive—and continue shaping it over time.

• Human memory fades, but intentional storytelling can keep wisdom alive across generations.

• Living victoriously means honoring your life in real-time—not waiting until the end to reflect on it.

  
  

Reflection Questions

1. What stories, values, or lessons from your life would you want future generations to remember—and have you taken steps to preserve them?

2. If your voice could continue to guide someone you love in the future, what would you want it to say?

   
   

🔗 Connect with Miles Spencer

• Website: https://reflekta.ai/

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/milesspencer/

What if products don’t fail because of bad ideas—but because of missing fundamentals?

In this episode of The Small Victories Podcast, Pauline Victoria sits down with David Fradin, a former HP Product Manager and Apple business unit leader, to unpack the real reasons why so many products—and businesses—don’t succeed.

Drawing from decades of experience and his book, Building Insanely Great Products, David introduces the SPICE framework—five essential keys to product success: Strategy, Process, Information, Customers, and Employees.

Whether you’re building a product, scaling a service, or growing your message as a speaker or entrepreneur, this conversation will challenge you to think differently about how success is truly created—from the inside out.

Key Takeaways

• Success doesn’t start with execution—it starts with strategy rooted in what your customer actually wants to do, not just what you think they need.

• A great idea without a clear product-market strategy is often just an expensive experiment.

• “Ready, fire, aim” thinking leads to wasted time, money, and missed opportunities.

• Repeatable processes don’t limit creativity—they increase your chances of success and eliminate a culture of blame.

• If you don’t have the right information, you’re not making decisions—you’re guessing.

• Customers can’t always tell you what they want—but they can reveal the problem they’re trying to solve.

• Innovation isn’t about creating something new—it’s about improving how people already do things.

• The success of your product (or business) is only as strong as the skills and alignment of your team.

• Missing even one of the five SPICE elements can derail an otherwise brilliant idea.

• Building something impactful requires intention, alignment, and a willingness to refine—not just hustle.

Reflection Questions

1. Am I building based on what I think people want—or what they are actually trying to do and solve?

2. Which of the five keys (Strategy, Process, Information, Customers, Employees) am I currently overlooking in my business or visibility?

Connect with David Fradin

• LinkedIn: David Fradin

• Website: Spice Catalyst