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What happens when anger transforms into acceptance? When betrayal leads to forgiveness? When rage opens the door to healing? This powerful episode brings together three extraordinary individuals who've walked through fire and emerged with wisdom that could change your life.

Bruce Cardenas, a former Marine who built a billion-dollar nutrition brand, shares the gut-wrenching story of business betrayal that would have broken many. Instead of seeking vengeance, he chose forgiveness—a choice informed by asking forgiveness from his own brother and watching his son battle alcoholism. His revelation that "life is extremely short" offers a perspective that makes holding grudges seem like precious time wasted.

Military veteran Amy takes us through her decade-long battle with anger after returning from Afghanistan. When conventional treatments failed, she found breakthrough in ancient plant medicines that allowed her to physically release trauma stored in her body. Her simple yet profound tools for healing—breath work, journaling, and gratitude practice—cost nothing but offer everything.

Actor and former metal band frontman Jacob Wilson courageously reveals his journey from self-hatred to self-acceptance as a gay man in environments that rejected his identity. Now working in Hollywood, he demonstrates how leading with love and authenticity creates genuine connections in an industry known for toxicity and transactional relationships.

The thread connecting these diverse stories? Understanding that beneath anger lies pain—often the pain of a wounded inner child "screaming for help." This perspective shift transforms how we view not just our own anger, but the anger we encounter in others.

Whether you're carrying resentment, battling addiction, healing from trauma, or simply seeking more meaningful connections, these stories remind us that the path forward always involves the choice to default to love. Ready to make that choice in your own life? This episode gives you both the inspiration and practical tools to begin.

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What happens when a successful healthcare professional faces a personal tragedy that forces her to reimagine her entire purpose? Dr. Samantha Harte's raw, vulnerable story takes us from disillusionment with the healthcare system to entrepreneurial success, and ultimately to a profound spiritual awakening following her sister's fatal overdose.

Dr. Harte's journey began when she realized the healthcare system wasn't serving patients or providers. Despite her doctorate in physical therapy, she was earning just $33 an hour while witnessing trainers and yoga instructors making two to five times more. With a combination of necessity (a marital crisis) and vision, she launched a cash-based practice swimming against the current of insurance-driven care. The result? A remarkable 30% profit margin in her first year by simply meeting a need others weren't addressing.

But business success wasn't the end of her story—it was just the beginning. When Dr. Harte received the devastating news of her sister's fatal drug overdose in 2022, everything changed. Despite being 15 years sober herself, this tragedy forced her to confront what she calls "soul sickness" in a new way. She began seeing addictive patterns everywhere—in her wealthy clients' obsession with productivity, martyrdom, and thinness. This awakening led her to write a bestselling book, reconnect with her early dreams of music and performance, and develop a powerful philosophy: "If you want to be a financial mogul, become a spiritual billionaire first."

Ready to transform your relationship with success, recovery, and purpose? This episode offers both practical insights for entrepreneurs and profound wisdom for anyone seeking deeper meaning. Listen now, and discover how facing your darkest moments might reveal your greatest gifts. Share this episode with someone who needs to hear that healing and success can go hand in hand.

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What happens when a Hollywood power broker responsible for managing millions for stars like Beyoncé and Alanis Morissette loses everything through addiction and embezzlement? Jonathan Todd Schwartz takes us on his extraordinary journey from "Diva Whisperer" to federal prison inmate to recovery advocate with unflinching honesty.

Schwartz doesn't shy away from the brutal truth – he stole $7 million from clients to fund his cocaine and gambling addictions, actions that destroyed his career, marriage, and relationship with his children. Yet his story isn't defined by his spectacular fall, but rather by his remarkable redemption. Now celebrating nine years of sobriety, Schwartz reveals how he transformed his greatest failures into a platform for helping others.

The conversation delves deep into the psychology of addiction and recovery, exploring how childhood abandonment created patterns that went unresolved for decades. Schwartz shares powerful insights about making amends (including to yourself), developing self-awareness, and learning to practice compassionate self-talk to break free from shame while maintaining radical accountability. His practical recovery tools – including writing down potential relapse consequences and practicing daily gratitude – offer tangible strategies for anyone struggling with addiction.

Perhaps most compelling is Schwartz's ability to hold two seemingly contradictory truths: complete ownership of his actions without crushing shame. Though some relationships may never be repaired – two of his sons still don't speak to him – he's found purpose as a program director at a treatment center, where his lived experience provides unique insight for clients battling their own demons.

Ready to transform your relationship with yourself? Take Schwartz's powerful advice to heart: "Have the courage to be vulnerable. Ask for help. You're worth it."

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Ryan Zofay's story of transformation from addiction to spiritual abundance is nothing short of miraculous. After losing his sister at age five and being introduced to drugs by his mother at eleven, Ryan spiraled into a destructive path that included multiple felonies and culminated in a near-fatal car accident. That crash became his sobriety date—October 9, 2001—and marked the beginning of his remarkable journey to healing.

What sets Ryan apart isn't just his 24 years of sobriety or his business success, but the profound spiritual consciousness he operates from. While the 12-step program provided a foundation, Ryan found he needed to go deeper to heal his childhood trauma. Through thousands of hours of experiential therapy, he learned that conceptualizing healing isn't enough—you must actually feel the emotions to release them. "In order to truly heal it, you have to feel it," he explains.

Ryan's approach to manifestation is revolutionary. Rather than simply visualizing what he wants, he embodies his future self now, making decisions from that place of abundance. By generating the emotional state of already having achieved his goals, he collapses time and space, bringing those realities into his present experience more quickly. His daily hour-long meditation practice maintains his connection to what he calls God or universal energy, allowing him to stay present and experience divine presence everywhere.

Perhaps most powerful is Ryan's perspective on taking full responsibility: "All the things I don't like in my life, I created them. All the things I do like in my life, I created them." This mindset eliminates victimhood and places the power of change directly in our hands. Through his teaching that "our past perceived voids create our future perceived values," Ryan offers profound insight into why we get stuck in patterns and how we can break free.

Today, Ryan dedicates himself to helping others through speaking engagements, experiential workshops, and treatment programs. Whether you're struggling with addiction, processing grief, or simply seeking to manifest your dreams, his story reminds us that transformation is always possible when we combine spiritual connection with committed action. Follow Ryan @ryanzofay to learn more about his upcoming events and work.

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What happens when life's carefully constructed plans crumble? For Alex Smith, the journey from small-town athlete to Miss Oklahoma to entertainment industry executive has been anything but predictable. In this raw and revealing conversation, Alex shares how she transformed unexpected setbacks into powerful comebacks through the cultivation of faith.

Growing up in a community with just 32 students in her graduating class, Alex had mapped out a future in sports until an injury forced her to reconsider everything. Reluctantly entering the pageant world, she ultimately claimed the Miss Oklahoma crown on her third attempt, launching her into a year of high-profile appearances and opportunities. But when the pageant spotlight dimmed and she didn't place at Miss USA, Alex found herself adrift, wondering what came next.

The turning point arrived through a chance encounter with speaker Tim Story, who offered advice that would become her north star: "You can either sit in the setback, settle in the setback, and cement in the setback, or you can pick yourself up and make your setback into a comeback." This mindset shift propelled Alex forward, eventually leading to her current role as Vice President of Speaker Relations for the Aspire Tour, the world's largest business conference.

Alex doesn't shy away from discussing her darkest moments, including the death of a former boyfriend in a car accident that tested her faith to its limits. Through prayer, journaling, meditation, and sound healing, she's developed daily practices that strengthen her spiritual foundations. Perhaps most compelling is her story of crisis management at her first major event, when a headline speaker canceled at 4 AM, forcing her to mobilize every contact in her network until securing NFL legend Emmitt Smith as a last-minute replacement.

For anyone navigating uncertainty or rebuilding after disappointment, Alex's journey offers a powerful reminder that faith doesn't eliminate fear—it simply needs to be slightly larger than our fears in the moments that matter most.

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Your body is constantly talking to you—a hidden conversation happening beneath your conscious awareness. Yet in our neck-up, screen-focused world, we've disembodied ourselves from this essential wisdom. Meet Alexis, a transformation coach and founder of Soul Sway, who transitioned from working with A-list celebrities in entertainment to helping women globally reclaim their authentic power.

During this captivating live conversation, Alexis takes us through her own "U-turn" moments—those profound wake-up calls that forced her to reevaluate everything. From childhood trauma where her emotional expression was invalidated during a family tragedy to hitting multiple rock bottoms including cancer and postpartum depression, she reveals how these experiences became doorways to transformation rather than destinations of despair.

The most striking revelation? Everyone has some form of addiction. Whether it's scrolling social media, overworking, food behaviors, or the constant need for external validation—these patterns stem from what Alexis calls "untreated shame." Like cockroaches that scatter when exposed to light, shame thrives only in secrecy until we shine awareness upon it. True sobriety isn't just about substances but about awakening to these unconscious patterns and bringing them into consciousness through embodied awareness. As Alexis powerfully states, "If you don't have freedom in your body, you're never going to have freedom in your life." What would your body say if it could speak? This question alone might be the beginning of your own transformative U-turn.

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The simple act of waking up with the sun changed everything for Rick Sugarman. What started as a desperate attempt to create more time during a business crisis transformed into a life philosophy that bridges physical wellbeing, mental clarity, and spiritual growth.

Rick reveals how "beating up the sun"—his term for a morning routine that aligns with sunrise—creates a cascade of benefits far beyond the single hour invested. By shifting just one hour from the end of his day to the beginning, he effectively tripled his productivity while discovering profound inner peace. The magic happens through alignment with our natural circadian rhythms, the solitude of early mornings, and the friction-free nature of simply stepping outside to walk.

As someone who once thought yoga was "weird" and spirituality even "weirder," Rick's journey from skeptic to practitioner carries special weight. His transformation wasn't just physical but sparked a spiritual revolution that helped him recognize and create space from ego-driven thinking. This evolution from resistance to embrace offers hope to anyone questioning whether mindfulness practices are accessible to them.

What makes Rick's approach uniquely powerful is its emphasis on making personal growth easy rather than heroic. Most of us are already stretched thin with responsibilities—we don't need another demanding regimen. Instead, Rick advocates for extending timeframes, maintaining curiosity, and finding sustainable practices we genuinely enjoy. This philosophy forms the foundation of his books about creating lasting change without superhuman discipline.

Whether you're facing uncertainty, seeking productivity hacks, or simply longing for more peace in your daily life, this conversation illuminates how small, aligned actions can create dramatic shifts in both inner experience and outer results. Try rising with the sun—you might just discover a whole new relationship with time, self, and the world around you.

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Sometimes our deepest pain becomes our greatest catalyst for transformation. In this raw, vulnerable solo episode, you'll hear the inspiring journey of how rock bottom moments became the foundation for an extraordinary life of purpose and healing.

Dr. Samantha Harte takes us through her evolution from cocaine addict to doctor of physical therapy, revealing how her near-fatal overdose occurred on the very day she was accepted into her doctoral program. With unflinching honesty, she shares how her marital crisis—born from the aftermath of addiction—pushed her to spiritual rock bottom while simultaneously birthing her successful business, Strong Heart Fitness.

The turning point came through an unexpected source: self-forgiveness. After years of self-laceration and shame, learning to make amends to herself unlocked a loving inner voice that had been silenced for decades. This voice became her guide, helping her navigate professional challenges and personal heartbreak, including the devastating loss of her sister to drug overdose in 2022.

What makes this story so powerful is how each crisis became a doorway to greater purpose—from building a thriving wellness practice to writing a bestselling book and reconnecting with her passion for music at age 40. Dr. Harte's message resonates with anyone facing seemingly insurmountable challenges: "Everything good that has happened to me is a direct result of me leaning headfirst into my pain."

You'll leave this episode understanding that rock bottom isn't physical—it's spiritual. And with courage to confront our hardest truths, we discover what Brené Brown so eloquently stated: "Only when we are brave enough to explore the dark will we know the infinite power of our light."

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What if true healing demands we explore beyond conventional wisdom? In this deeply personal conversation, John Borden shares his extraordinary journey from cocaine addiction to profound transformation through the therapeutic use of psilocybin mushrooms.

John's story begins in a familiar place - trapped in cycles of control, substance abuse, and destructive patterns stemming from childhood bullying and deep-seated unworthiness. But when conventional paths failed him, an unexpected psychedelic experience cracked open his perception, revealing emotions and connections he'd suppressed for years.

We explore the pivotal moment when John reconnected with his brother's inspiring recovery journey - something his pre-psilocybin self couldn't access emotionally. This emotional awakening led him to question everything about his life choices, eventually guiding him to leave corporate America behind and embrace his calling as a personal trainer and psychedelic integration coach.

The conversation challenges our cultural tendency to judge recovery paths different from our own. John's perspective isn't presented as the only way, but as a powerful alternative worth considering. We discuss how his "mindset is your reality" philosophy transformed not just his substance use but his entire relationship with himself and others. From the man who couldn't feel to the ultramarathon runner who connects deeply with clients, his metamorphosis demonstrates how addressing root causes, rather than just symptoms, creates lasting change.

Whether you're struggling with addiction, supporting someone who is, or simply curious about psychedelic medicine's therapeutic potential, this episode offers a judgment-free space to consider expanded possibilities for healing. What might be possible if we approached recovery with open hearts and minds? John's journey suggests the answer might be more beautiful than we imagine.

Ready to challenge your assumptions about addiction and healing? Listen now, and consider sharing this episode with someone who might benefit from hearing that unconventional paths can lead to profound transformation.

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Kay Hanley, the remarkable Emmy and Peabody award-winning songwriter, joins us for a candid conversation on embracing powerlessness and its profound impact on her life and career. From her pivotal decision to get sober in 2011, Kay opens up about how letting go of control has shaped her journey, particularly in her relationships. She shares the deeply transformative experience of surrendering in the face of personal challenges, leading to a more authentic and fulfilling way of living. Listen as Kay recounts the powerful shift that occurred when she stopped trying to manage everything around her, ultimately strengthening her bond with her daughter, who now follows her own path as a social worker.

Navigating the complexities of relinquishing control, especially in the context of recovery, is no small feat. Kay delves into the emotional hurdles of allowing loved ones to carve their own paths and the universal struggle with uncertainty. Through heartfelt anecdotes, she offers insight into the creative process of shaping one's understanding of higher powers and embracing a power greater than oneself. This conversation encourages listeners to consider what the most loving version of themselves would do in moments of doubt, emphasizing the transformative power of patience, love, and kindness in decision-making.

In the chaotic world of the music industry, maintaining emotional sobriety is both a challenge and a gift. Kay discusses the importance of physical sobriety in enhancing her performance and work ethic, enabling her to deliver high-energy shows while prioritizing her well-being. By breaking free from negative patterns and silencing the inner critic, she illustrates the journey towards self-compassion and growth. This episode is a thoughtful exploration of how embracing change and faking confidence, until it becomes genuine, can create a life truly worth living. Kay's insights offer a compassionate framework for overcoming personal struggles and forging a path towards self-acceptance and transformation.

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