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In this candid conversation on the Thrive with Cate Podcast, Cate Stillman sits down with Sara Sherman — founder of Dandelion Family, therapeutic farm operator, equine-assisted coach, and Alex Hormozi Vantage mastermind member — for a real-time look at what it takes to rebuild a wellness business from the ground up using an AI operating system.
Sara opens up about the collapse most wellness pros never see coming: after 5 years of building her Medicaid-funded therapeutic practice in Minnesota from $200K to $1.3M in revenue (540% growth), state policy changes on May 18, 2025 wiped out her entire operating model overnight. She went from a team of 14 to herself, her husband, and a couple of part-time staff — with 21 families cut off from services through no fault of her own.
What she's built in the months since is remarkable: a virtual group coaching offering for parents of children with complex behaviors, powered entirely by an AI operating system Sara built herself using Claude Cowork, Claude Code, and the Terminal — with zero engineering background and a health condition that limits her screen time.
Cate mirrors the parallel arc: rebuilding Yogahealer into Club Thrive and Wellness Pro Academy with a Claude-based AI operating system for her small team. Together, they name the elephant nobody in the wellness world wants to talk about — the AI shaming quietly silencing the conscious voices that should be leading this technology, not abstaining from it.
This is a conversation for every wellness pro, coach, or holistic practitioner watching the AI revolution from the sidelines — and wondering if there's a way to lean in without losing their integrity.
Together, Cate and Sara explore:
This episode is an invitation for every conscious wellness pro standing on the sidelines of the AI revolution. If you've been quietly experimenting but afraid to say so — or if you've been convinced abstaining is virtuous — this conversation gives you permission and a map.
Notable Quote: "You can't save the planet by abstaining. The judgment is largely coming from the uninformed. If you use AI effectively for your cause, it could actually make a difference."
Connect with Sara Sherman:
Connect with Cate Stillman:
Referenced Resources:
If this episode gave you permission to lean into AI as a conscious wellness pro, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with the practitioner in your life who's been quietly waiting to be told it's okay.
In this deeply personal episode of the Thrive with Cate Podcast, Cate Stillman sits down with Elsie Escobar — Hall of Fame podcaster, co-founder of She Podcasts, former Director of Community and Content at Libsyn for 15+ years, and now founder of Multimodally — for a decade-in-the-making catch-up between two women who first met on yoga mats in the mid-2000s and have been building parallel arcs ever since.
Elsie opens up about the transitions that quietly reshaped her life: stepping down from She Podcasts to be fully present for her teenage daughter's mental health crisis, being let go from Libsyn after a 54-day Catholic novena where she asked the Virgin Mary for clarity, and rebuilding from the ground up through a new brand designed around voice-led leadership and modular life design.
Cate mirrors the parallel arc: cancer, hip replacement, tech stack overhaul, and the deliberate rebuild of Yogahealer into Club Thrive and Wellness Pro Academy. Together, they map the Medusa myth as the truest guide to what midlife identity work actually looks like — and why the offspring of Medusa (Pegasus and Chrysor, prana and tejas) are exactly what emerges when a woman finally leaves the temple, enters the cave, and prostrates to herself.
This is a conversation about what happens when leadership, motherhood, and nervous system collapse all arrive at the same threshold — and what actually gets built on the other side.
Together, Cate and Elsie explore:
This episode is an invitation for every woman standing at the threshold of a career exit, an identity shift, a mothering season she didn't ask for, or a nervous system that finally called time. If you're being asked to release who you've been, this conversation is your permission slip and your map.
Notable Quote: "You have to trust in the sap more than the last version of your identity — because culture wants you to perpetuate that, and your integrity won't let you anymore."
Connect with Elsie Escobar:
Connect with Cate Stillman:
If this episode named something you've been sitting with, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with the woman in your life who is quietly standing at her own threshold
In this special episode of the Thrive with Cate Podcast, Cate Stillman joins Nina Pullella's Wild Woman Collective of Oahu to teach the framework she's spent 25+ years refining — how to translate detox momentum into lifelong evolution, and why the window right after a cleanse is the most important moment of your year.
You did the work. You went into the cave. You ate the simple food, kept the early bedtimes, and sat with your habits long enough to feel what they were really doing to you. Now you're standing at the edge of something — a new identity asking to be claimed.
This is what Cate calls your New Floor.
After 24 years of guiding twice-yearly detoxes, Cate noticed a pattern her advanced Ayurvedic training never taught her: people in community heal faster than her premium one-on-one clients doing the same protocols. That insight became Body Thrive, then Master of You, then Club Thrive — and the spine of everything she now teaches inside Wellness Pro Academy, where Nina Pullella built her own thriving Wild Woman Collective.
Together, Cate and Nina explore:
This episode is an invitation to stop treating the cleanse as the destination — and start using it as the doorway. Whether you've just finished a detox, you're an Ayurvedic practitioner guiding others through one, or you're simply ready to name your next identity, this conversation gives you the map.
Notable Quote: "The new floor is sacred. The old floor is the sacrifice."
Connect with Nina Pullella:
Connect with Cate Stillman:
If this episode named something you've been feeling, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with the woman in your life who just finished a cleanse and is wondering what's next.
In this honest and timely conversation, I sit down with Marcus Fernandez—homeopath, educator, and host of Beyond the Shed—to unpack what women between 35 and 70 truly need to know about the men in their lives. Marcus reveals a pattern he's seen across 30+ years of clinical practice: it's almost always the women who bring the men into wellness, and far too often, they arrive only after something has already broken.
After three decades treating Gen X men in his London clinic and working in a cardiology ward early in his career, Marcus pivoted to creating Beyond the Shed—a therapeutic podcast space where men finally talk about the things they've been carrying in silence. He now bridges natural medicine, masculine psychology, and practical lifestyle design to help families heal together.
Together, we explore:
The Suppressed Emotion–Heart Attack Connection: Why "tough guy" conditioning lands Gen X men in cardiology wards at 55, and what the mind-body link reveals about grief stored in the chest.
The MEDS Framework: Meditation, Exercise, Diet, Sleep—Marcus's four non-negotiables that work for any man, regardless of budget or starting point.
The Driveway Ritual: A simple 2-minute box breathing practice that helps men transition from "work mode" to being emotionally present fathers and partners.
The Silent Epidemic: Why suicide is the #1 cause of death for men under 50 in the UK and US—and why nobody is talking about it.
The Cave & The Shed: Understanding why men retreat, how to create the right environment for them to open up, and why women are Beyond the Shed's biggest fans.
Generational Shifts: Why Gen Z boys are skipping the pub, questioning authority, and starving for genuine male mentorship.
The 56-Year-Old Crisis: Disappointment, purpose loss, and why this midlife threshold mirrors the ancient Vanaprastha stage of stepping back from worldly life.
Reclaiming Human Connection: How AI slop is creating a craving for real, in-person, kinesthetic experience—and why collaborative intelligence beats chitter-chatter every time.
This episode is an invitation for women to understand the men they love with more depth, and for men to recognize themselves in patterns they've never had language for. Whether you're a wellness professional, a wife wondering how to reach your partner, or a man quietly running out of fuel, this conversation offers practical tools and permission to start somewhere small.
Notable Quote: "What's a heart attack? It's like the heart breaking. All that emotion that was behind it—these really tough guys just kept it in, kept it in, and then something physically happens."
Connect with Marcus Fernandez:
Website: marcus-fernandez.com
Podcast: Beyond the Shed
Book: Homeopathy at Home
Centre for Homeopathic Medicine (London)
Connect with Cate Stillman:
Website: https://clubthrive.global/
Podcast: Thrive with Cate
If this episode opens a new conversation in your home or relationship, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with the woman—or the man—who needs to hear it.
About this episode: In this closing episode of the Thrive with Cate Stillman Gut Health Challenge series, Cate brings everything full circle — from her healing condo in Mexico, fresh from osteopathic bodywork that finally released post-surgical swelling — to guide members through the most important question of the entire week: What are you ready to release for good?
Drawing on Pareto's 80/20 principle, Cate leads members through a powerful breakout room exercise to identify what is clearly outdated in their lives — the patterns, habits, mindsets, and identities that no longer belong on the next floor — and what is genuinely emergent in the 20% that will carry them forward.
This session weaves together Ayurvedic wisdom on Agni, Ama, and Svastha with behavioral psychology concepts like mental rehearsal, first attempts at learning, and the dangers of Pragnaparada — the failure to live into embodied wisdom. Members share real breakthroughs: from rediscovering the joy of sprouting and fermented foods, to finally hearing the body's hunger signals clearly after years of externally driven eating rules.
Cate also speaks to the importance of not disrupting the body's reset before it's complete, how your people set replaces willpower, and why the emergent self is not something you build — it's something you uncover by releasing what no longer fits.
Key Takeaways:
Resources & Links: Wellness Pro Academy: https://wellnesspro.academy Yogahealer: https://www.yogahealer.com Gut Health Challenge: https://guthealthchallenge.scoreapp.com
About the Host – Cate Stillman: Cate Stillman is an Ayurvedic practitioner, author, and founder of Yogahealer and Wellness Pro Academy. For over 25 years, she has guided wellness professionals and individuals to align their habits, health, and business with natural intelligence and sustainable practices.
About this episode: In this episode of the Thrive with Cate Stillman Podcast, Cate shows up on her 53rd birthday — fresh from surgery and fresh from an all-night mission helping a neighbor navigate a financial and legal crisis — and delivers one of the most honest, layered conversations in the Gut Health Challenge series.
What begins as a reflection on Maslow's lesser-known final insight — that self-transcendence, not self-actualization, sits at the true peak of human development — unfolds into a rich exploration of how gut health, identity, and meaning are all deeply interconnected. Cate draws a direct line between the health of your microbiome and the personality you inhabit, introducing the concept of the microbiome signature and what loss of microbial diversity actually costs you at an identity level.
She also explores the gut-brain-vagus nerve connection through the lens of her own surgical recovery, the emotional and psychological layers that surface during fasting, and why waking at 3am with memories and gut noise during a reset is not a problem to fix — but information to receive.
This session also features a powerful long-term member share from Michelle, a Waldorf teacher who reflects on cycles of deep self-care, dissolution, and return — and what it means to serve others from a genuinely fuller self.
Key Takeaways:
Resources & Links: Wellness Pro Academy: https://wellnesspro.academy Yogahealer: https://www.yogahealer.com Gut Health Challenge: https://guthealthchallenge.scoreapp.com
About the Host – Cate Stillman: Cate Stillman is an Ayurvedic practitioner, author, and founder of Yogahealer and Wellness Pro Academy. For over 25 years, she has guided wellness professionals and individuals to align their habits, health, and business with natural intelligence and sustainable practices.
About this episode: In this episode of the Thrive with Cate Stillman Podcast, Club Thrive mentor Lynn steps in to lead a mid-challenge check-in session — and delivers one of the most grounding, identity-focused conversations of the Gut Health Challenge series.
While the first two sessions explored the physiology of fasting and liver regeneration, this one asks a different question entirely: Who are you becoming? Using the Future You Framework — a core practice inside Club Thrive — Lynn guides members through a structured worksheet and breakout room experience designed to help them see, name, and begin speaking as their future self.
What emerges is a beautiful parallel: as the gut clears, the external environment naturally wants to follow. Members find themselves reorganizing drawers, clearing closets, and reaching for the workout equipment that's been sitting in the garage — not because they forced it, but because internal clarity creates external momentum.
This session also explores the connection between identity and environment — what future you wears, what's no longer in her kitchen, and why those details matter more than they seem. As Lynn shares from her own years inside Club Thrive: when you speak your future self into the present tense, she arrives faster than you'd think.
Key Takeaways:
Resources & Links: Wellness Pro Academy: https://wellnesspro.academy Yogahealer: https://www.yogahealer.com Gut Health Challenge: https://guthealthchallenge.scoreapp.com
About the Host – Cate Stillman: Cate Stillman is an Ayurvedic practitioner, author, and founder of Yogahealer and Wellness Pro Academy. For over 25 years, she has guided wellness professionals and individuals to align their habits, health, and business with natural intelligence and sustainable practices.
About this episode: In this episode of the Thrive with Cate Stillman Podcast, Cate leads a live Club Thrive session recorded mid-fast alongside members deep in their own 72-hour water fast or Fast Mimicking Diet (FMD) cycles — delivering one of the most scientifically rich and practically grounded conversations in the series.
Cate walks through a research-backed slide deck — built with AI and Perplexity — that maps exactly what happens inside your liver, cells, and brain from hour zero to hour 72 of a fast. From the sharp insulin drop at hour 12 to the ketogenesis threshold at hour 18, through to peak autophagy and mitochondrial pruning at hours 48 to 72, this session makes the invisible visible.
She explains why beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) — the primary ketone body produced during fasting — is not just fuel for the brain, but a powerful signaling molecule that regulates gene expression, reduces inflammation, and suppresses appetite. She also presents clinical trial data showing that three FMD cycles can reduce liver fat by nearly 50% — and connects all of it back to Ayurvedic frameworks around liver health, Kapha-Pitta imbalance, and the ancient concept of internal surgery through fasting.
Beyond the science, this session explores the cultural conditioning around food, why hunger resistance is often inherited rather than biological, and how to use the fasted state as a window for deep mental and emotional processing.
Key Takeaways:
Resources & Links: Wellness Pro Academy: https://wellnesspro.academy Yogahealer: https://www.yogahealer.com Gut Health Challenge: https://guthealthchallenge.scoreapp.com
About the Host – Cate Stillman: Cate Stillman is an Ayurvedic practitioner, author, and founder of Yogahealer and Wellness Pro Academy. For over 25 years, she has guided wellness professionals and individuals to align their habits, health, and business with natural intelligence and sustainable practices.
About this episode:
In this episode of the Thrive with Cate Stillman Podcast, Cate Stillman leads a live session from Club Thrive, sharing insights from her own recovery after hip replacement surgery while guiding participants through a gut health and fasting reset.
This conversation dives deep into the relationship between fasting, the microbiome, and adipose (fat) tissue—revealing how the body naturally detoxifies and regenerates when given the right conditions. Cate explains how practices like the fast mimicking diet, microbiome reset, and 72-hour fasting activate autophagy, improve metabolic health, and reshape cravings at their root.
Through a blend of modern science and Ayurvedic wisdom, she reframes fat tissue as an active endocrine organ and highlights how stored toxins, microbes, and inflammation influence behavior, energy, and long-term health.
Beyond the physiology, this session also explores the mental and emotional aspects of fasting—how to navigate cravings, build awareness, and use community support to move through resistance and create lasting change.
Key Takeaways:
Autophagy & Detoxification: How fasting allows the body to "upcycle" itself by breaking down and recycling damaged cells for optimal function.
Adipose Tissue as an Endocrine Organ: Why fat tissue plays a central role in hormones, cravings, and overall metabolic health.
Microbiome Reset: Understanding the "battle" between good and bad microbes—and how diet and fasting shift the balance.
Cravings Explained: How detoxing fat tissue and starving dysbiotic microbes can temporarily intensify cravings—and why that's a sign of progress.
Fasting as a Skill: Why practicing fasting regularly builds resilience, clarity, and even prepares the body for deeper states of healing and integration.
Community & Repetition: How doing this work in a group setting makes transformation easier, more sustainable, and more impactful over time.
Resources & Links:
Wellness Pro Academy: https://wellnesspro.academy Yogahealer: https://www.yogahealer.com
About the Host – Cate Stillman: Cate Stillman is an Ayurvedic practitioner, author, and founder of Yogahealer and Wellness Pro Academy. For over 25 years, she has guided wellness professionals and individuals to align their habits, health, and business with natural intelligence and sustainable practices.
Tune in and reflect: "What would shift in your body and mind if you trusted its natural ability to reset, detox, and renew?"
In this fascinating conversation, I sit down with Julie Ryan, a serial entrepreneur and inventor of surgical devices, to explore the "buffet of psychicness." Julie reveals that psychic ability isn't a rare gift for the "chosen few"—it is a physiological part of our anatomy that anyone can learn to activate.
After years in the medical supply industry, Julie pivoted to mastering medical intuition and mediumship. She now teaches students globally how to scan the human body like a "human MRI" and communicate with spirits instantly, bypassing the need for long meditations or complex rituals. Together, we explore:This episode is an invitation to move beyond doubt and fear and reclaim a lost part of your human anatomy. Whether you are a wellness professional or simply curious about the "woo-way," this conversation provides the bridge between practical science and spiritual wisdom.
Notable Quote: "Everybody has the ability. You don't need any special skills. We all come in with the hardware."
Connect with Julie Ryan:
Connect with Cate Stillman:
If this episode opens a new door for you, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone ready to awaken their own intuitive buffet.
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