If you've checked every box — the title, the salary, the accolades — and still find yourself lying awake wondering why it doesn't feel like enough, this episode was made for you.

Denise sits down with Brooke Taylor, transformational career coach, former Google marketing lead, and author of the newly released Healing the Success Wound, for a clarifying conversation on ambition and identity. Brooke has coached thousands of leaders and what she's found consistently, across all of them, is a root cause that almost no one in professional development is willing to name directly. Brooke calls it the success wound.

We get into the two power sources that drive ambition (only one of them is sustainable), the five archetypes of the success wound, and why the very strategies that made you successful may be exactly what's keeping you from the next level. We also talk honestly about what change actually requires — and why it usually involves hitting your knees before you're willing to do things differently. In this episode, you’ll learn:

The root difference between the success wound, perfectionism, and imposter syndrome

The two power sources of ambition: fear vs. the true self

The 5 archetypes of the success wound — and how to spot yours

Why 65% of adults never reach the self-authoring stage of development

Why readiness is a decision, not a feeling

You can find Brooke at @brookevtaylor and brooketaylorcoaching.com

You can follow this podcast @toomuchwithdlh and Denise @deniselovehewett

Brooke Taylor is a globally recognized transformational career coach, keynote speaker, and the leading authority on a phenomenon she pioneered known as the “Success Wound™.” With a career that began in the high-pressure hallways of Silicon Valley, Brooke spent years as a Marketing Lead at Google, where she was honored with the Google Global Sales Award. Despite her outward accolades, she experienced firsthand the "manic ambition" and burnout that often plague high achievers, leading her to a profound personal transformation and the eventual founding of her coaching practice.

This week, Denise sits down with Philip B, one of the most sought-after hair and scalp treatment experts in the world, for a full masterclass on what actually makes hair healthy, why the beauty industry has been getting it wrong for decades, and how a kid sorting rollers in a 1960s Beverly Hills salon built a brand now sold in 50 countries.

Philip B breaks down the real science of scalp health, including a live pH demo that will change the way you shower , and explains why most haircare products, even the expensive ones, aren't solving your problems. They cover why tap water is the number one enemy of healthy hair, the truth about popular shower filters (they don't change the pH), how to think about haircare like a bank account, and why the "clean beauty" trend may be doing more harm than good.

Philip also shares the story of building his brand from scratch in Beverly Hills, mixing formulas in his kitchen, getting a Vogue feature that crashed his phone line with 500 calls an hour, and landing in Neiman Marcus with a little help from Paula Abdul.

This episode is for anyone who has ever wondered why their hair changed after coloring, why it tangles the second they get out of the shower, or how to actually treat a problem scalp. In this episode:

Why the scalp is the foundation of all hair health (and why most people ignore it)

The pH science behind tangling, frizz, and hair breakage — demonstrated live

Why shower filters don't fix the real problem

How to repair chemically damaged hair using the "bank account" method

The botanical ingredients that actually work on dandruff and psoriasis

Philip's origin story: Beverly Hills, Vogue, and building a global brand from a kitchen

Why your zone of genius feels "too easy" — and why that's the point

Philip B, hair and scalp expert to celebrities, sold in 50 countries, and named by Forbes as one of the products worth every penny, joins Denise for a full masterclass on the science of healthy hair. They cover pH and why tap water is wrecking your hair, how to repair chemically damaged hair, the truth about clean beauty, and Philip's incredible origin story from Beverly Hills kitchen to global brand. This is the episode you send to every woman who's ever been frustrated by her hair.

You can follow him @philipb or philipb.com

You can follow this podcast @toomuchwithdlh and Denise @deniselovehewett

#HairCare #ScalpHealth #PhilipB #HairScience #HealthyHair #HairTips #ScalpTreatment #NaturalHairCare #HairCareRoutine #PhilipBHair #DamageRepair #HairEducation #TooMuchPodcast #HairMasterclass #BeautyScience

What if grief wasn't something to get over — but something to get fluent in?

This week, Denise sits down with psychotherapist, death doula, and author Kara Hoppe for an expansive conversation. Kara works at the bookends of life, supporting new parents and walking alongside those in the dying part of life, and she brings a rare, grounded wisdom to a topic most of us have been taught to avoid.

Together, they explore grief not as an emotion that happens to you, but as a practice you can cultivate. A skill that, when developed, doesn't just help you survive loss, it expands your entire capacity to be alive. They get into:

Why the people who disappear when you're sick aren't bad friends — they just don't have the tools yet

How befriending your mortality might be the most life-affirming thing you ever do

The surprising link between expanding your grief container and expanding your capacity for joy

What the dying actually regret (it's not what you think)

Why grief was never meant to be a solo act — and what it looks like to carry it communally

The relational filter Denise uses in dating: have you been taken to your knees?

What legacy actually means, and why it doesn't belong to us

This episode will change how you love, how you show up, and how you think about the time you have.

Kara Hoppe is the co-author of Baby Bomb and the creator of the We Are Mortal course.

Find her at karahoppe.com or @karahoppe on Instagram.

You can follow this podcast @toomuchwithdlh and Denise @deniselovehewett

“Not to think of grief as a journey we finish but grief as a language, it's to become fluent.” Jon Onwuchekwa

Something shifted when AI got good at writing.

You started wondering: did my coworker write that apology — or did the machine? Is this birthday message from my friend, or was it generated? Does it matter if you can't tell?

Bob Hutchins has a name for what you've been feeling. He calls it proxy failure — and it may be the most important concept for understanding what AI is actually doing to human relationships, creativity, and trust.

Bob is an executive AI consultant, doctoral researcher, and one of the rare thinkers who approaches artificial intelligence not with hype or doom, but with genuine psychological depth. In this conversation with Denise, he breaks down why this moment in history is different from every other technological disruption and what we actually have to do about it. In this episode, you'll hear:

Proxy failure — why AI has broken the oldest social contract humans have: the assumption that language comes from a living, feeling person

The University of Pittsburgh poem study: AI-generated poems outscored Shakespeare until readers were told which was which. What that reveals about where meaning actually lives.

Why AI is different from every other technology wave (the printing press, the internet, the smartphone) and the one thing those waves never threatened

The rise of the generalist: why being told to "stay in your lane" may have been the worst career advice of the last 20 years

AI literacy vs. AI fluency and why knowing how to use it is completely different from knowing how it works on you

How to use AI as a thinking partner without outsourcing your thinking

Bob draws from media ecology, behavioral psychology, and systems thinking to offer something the AI conversation desperately needs right now: nuance. This is a conversation about what it means to be human when the machines get very, very good at pretending to be one.

Subscribe to Bob's Substack for his ongoing research: https://bobhutchins.substack.com/ and follow him on IG: @bwhutchins

You can follow this podcast @toomuchwithdlh and Denise @deniselovehewett

In this episode, Denise sits down with Jessica Norwood, founder of Runway and one of the most visionary financial activists working today, to explore what it really means to move money in "right relationship" — and why reparative capital may be the blueprint for the economy we actually want to live in.

Jessica unpacks why the traditional venture capital model was never built for Black entrepreneurs, women founders, or community-rooted businesses...and what she did about it. From pioneering the "believe-in-you money" framework (the pre-seed capital that friends-and-family wealth was always supposed to represent) to sending $1,000/month to 80 portfolio companies with no payback required at the height of COVID-19, Jessica and Runway are proving that a different system is not only possible, it's already working. In this conversation, you'll hear:

 Why the only real indicator of wealth is already having it — and what that means for who gets to build generational wealth in America

What reparative capital actually looks like in practice: patient debt, community-led loan committees, and a Funders Manifesto that flips the power dynamic 

How Runway kept 100% of its portfolio companies open during the pandemic with a radical UBI experiment 

Why most businesses should never have pursued venture capital in the first place 

The advice every founder needs before they walk into a capital conversation

Jessica Norwood is a Center for Economic Democracy Fellow, a Harvard Hip Hop Archive Political Power Fellow, and has been profiled in Fast Company, the New York Times, and Essence Magazine. Her work has been called "medicine for modern philanthropy and investment."

If you've ever felt like the system wasn't built for you — this episode is proof that someone is already building a better one.

You can find Jessica Norwood and Runway at runway.family, @jessicanorwood, and @runway.family

You can follow this podcast @toomuchwithdlh and Denise @deniselovehewett

What if you are not just a person moving through the universe — but a universe moving through itself? This week, Denise sits down with musician and artist Jon Bates, known as Big Black Delta, for one of the most expansive conversations the podcast has ever had. From sacred geometry and Jungian archetypes to ego, alchemy, and the nature of consciousness — this episode will make you see yourself, and your creative life, completely differently.

Jon's journey from a self-taught Miami kid who couldn't play sports, to a critically acclaimed experimental artist who channels music from "higher beings," is a masterclass in following your own signal. His latest album is his most precise work yet — and this conversation is just as layered. In this episode, you'll explore:

How to quiet the ego long enough to create something real — and why it's less about silencing it and more about giving it a seat on the couch

Sacred geometry, Jungian archetypes, and why astrology might be more profound than your meme feed suggests

Why earth is a "soul training school" — and what that means for how we treat each other (and ourselves)

The alchemy of sitting with hard emotions: naming jealousy, bitterness, and resentment so they lose their power

Phone addiction, stillness, and why 5 minutes without your screen in the morning might be the most radical thing you do today

Why being "too many things" isn't a flaw — it's the universe experiencing itself through you

This is a conversation for the seekers, the creatives, the spiritually curious, and anyone who's ever felt pressured to be just one thing. Jon doesn't preach — he just reminds you that nobody agreed to the rules, and nobody has to follow them.

You can find him on Spotify and Instagram @big_black_delta 

You can follow this podcast @toomuchwithdlh and Denise @deniselovehewett

Loved this episode? Leave a review and share it with a friend who's been questioning everything lately — this one is for them.

Photo credit: @sterlingptaylor

What would your life look like if you stopped following someone else's blueprint and started living your own? In this solo episode, Denise announces the launch of the Too Much Workbook: Tools to Build a Life You Love — a 40-page, self-guided workbook designed to help you break free from societal timelines, discover your core values, and design a life that actually feels like yours.

Born out of Denise's own journey after a startup failure in her early thirties, this workbook captures the exact questions she asked and steps she took to rebuild her life from the inside out. The result? A life she genuinely loves — and a practical, accessible toolkit to help you do the same. In this episode, you'll learn:

Why reflection and journaling alone aren't enough — and what "practical integration" actually looks like

How to track your energy across a week to identify what truly lights you up vs. what drains you

The joyful framework for building a life in alignment

A powerful manifestation exercise: how to feel your dream into reality before it happens

Why getting clear on your "why" is the single most important first step

The workbook is available on April 20th for just $20. Whether you're feeling stuck, burned out, or like something in your life is quietly off — this is your permission slip to begin again.

Get the Too Much Workbook: Available April 20th at the link in bio on Instagram and YouTube, or at Denise's website. It's never too late to start living a life that's fully yours.

#lifealignment #self-discovery #workbook #findyourpurpose #personaldevelopment #podcast #corevalues #exercise #manifestation #practice #burnout #recovery #buildalifeyoulove #zoneofgenius #neuroplasticity #mindset #TooMuch #TooMuchWorkbook 

What if the secret to glowing, youthful skin had nothing to do with fillers, Botox, or the latest serums — and everything to do with your inner health, energy, and essence? In this episode, Denise sits down with Sandra Lanshin Chiu, licensed acupuncturist, TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) practitioner, and founder of Treatment by Lanshin, to explore a transformative concept that's redefining beauty from the inside out: the Original Face Theory.

Sandra shares how nearly two decades of treating patients with Chinese herbal medicine and facial acupuncture led her to a profound realization — that true skin rejuvenation begins at the level of the body's health, not at the surface. Together, Denise and Sandra unpack the ancient Taoist and Buddhist roots of the Original Face philosophy, what it means to return to the face nature gave you, and why the modern beauty industry may be leading us in exactly the wrong direction. In this episode, you'll learn:

What the Original Face Theory is and where it comes from in Taoist and TCM tradition

How acupuncture and Chinese medicine can visibly transform skin health and facial appearance — without invasive procedures

The connection between gut health, emotional wellbeing, and the way your face looks and ages

How TCM approaches chronic skin conditions like acne, rosacea, eczema, and psoriasis differently than Western medicine

The three "treasures" — essence, qi, and spirit — and how they shape your face at every stage of life

Why Sandra's mentor and master face reader Lillian Bridges believed your true face doesn't emerge until after 25

How living in alignment with your purpose can literally change how you look

This conversation is for anyone curious about holistic skincare, TCM beauty, facial rejuvenation without surgery, or simply searching for a deeper, more meaningful relationship with aging, identity, and self-expression.

You can find her instagram: @treatmentbylanshin,  TikTok: @lasnhinskin, YouTube: @Lanshin  and website, lanshin.com

You can follow this podcast @toomuchwithdlh and Denise @deniselovehewett

What if the key to unlocking your fullest potential lies at the intersection of spiritual intelligence and trauma-informed coaching? In this episode, Denise sits down with Bonnie Wirth — transformative coach, medium, and spiritual mentor — to explore what it truly means to step into your personal power and close the gap between who you are and who you were meant to be.

Bonnie shares her lifelong journey as a medium, from suppressing her gifts in childhood to building a practice that weaves together mediumship, spiritual psychology, trauma recovery, astrology, and energetic intelligence into a uniquely powerful coaching approach. Together, Denise and Bonnie unpack why so many women remain stuck in cycles of self-abandonment, people-pleasing, and not-enoughness — and what it takes to finally break free. In this episode, you'll discover:

How Bonnie discovered and ultimately embraced her gifts as a medium after years of hiding them

What "energetic intelligence" is and how every person can access it

Why rewiring your internal operating system — not fixing your external circumstances — is the real path to lasting change

How past-life karmic patterns, inherited conditioning, and nervous system dysregulation keep us trapped in suffering

The powerful connection between self-love, self-responsibility, and the relationships we attract

Simple, accessible practices to regulate your nervous system and begin coming home to yourself

Whether you're spiritually curious, deeply on your path, or simply searching for more meaning and agency in your life, this episode offers a stunning roadmap for what conscious evolution can look like when spirit, mind, and body work together.

You can follow her @wirthbonnie

You can follow this podcast @toomuchwithdlh and Denise @deniselovehewett

Bonnie Wirth is a transformative coach, medium, and spiritual mentor who guides conscious women to close the gap between who they are and who they are meant to be. Rooted in the belief that true expansion requires a regulated and safe foundation, Bonnie specializes in helping others shift from survival into mastery. Her work focuses on the integration of Spirit-Mind-Body; higher identity into the physical experience. An expert in spiritual communication and trauma recovery through energetic intelligence, she is dedicated to empowering her clients to master their internal world and step into a life aligned with their true capacity—to elevate their life and serve with purpose.

What if your ambition is actually working against you?

In this episode, host Denise sits down with executive coach and bestselling author Amina AlTai (The Ambition Trap: How to Stop Chasing and Start Living) to unpack one of the most misunderstood forces driving high achievers — ambition itself.

Amina breaks down the difference between painful ambition (driven by unhealed core wounds) and purposeful ambition (rooted in your truth and zone of genius) — and why so many of us are unknowingly stuck in the former. After working herself to the brink of illness, Amina radically rethought her relationship to success, achievement, and what it really means to thrive. In this episode, we cover:

The five core wounds (rejection, abandonment, humiliation, betrayal, injustice) and the masks we wear to hide them

The key traits of painful ambition — self-imposed urgency, scarcity mindset, instrumentalizing yourself, and toxic positivity

What high-functioning codependency actually looks like (hint: you might not recognize yourself in the traditional definition)

The myth of the passion principle — and why purpose is more stable than passion to build a life on

How to take aligned action without micromanaging outcomes or falling into spiritual bypassing

Whether you're a high achiever burning out in a corporate system that wasn't built for you, an entrepreneur questioning your path, or someone who has never felt like enough — this conversation will give you a new framework and a new vocabulary for your ambition.

You can follow Amina AlTai at aminaaltai.com

The Ambition Trap — available wherever books are sold 

Instagram: @aminaaltai

You can follow this podcast @toomuchwithdlh and Denise @deniselovehewett

Amina AITai is an executive coach and leadership trainer, proud immigrant and chronic illness advocate.  A leading coach to notable leaders, executives, and founders—Amina's mastery is in connecting us to our brilliance and teaching us to live and lead from it each day. She is the bestselling author of The Ambition Trap: How to Stop Chasing and Start Living, with Penguin/The Open Field.

Amina has partnered with progressive companies such as Google, Meta, Roku, Snap, Outdoor Voices, NYU and HUGE. She's an Entrepreneur Magazine expert-in-residence, a Forbes contributor and was named one of Success Magazine’s Women of Influence. Additionally, she's been featured in goop, Well+Good, The New York Times, Yahoo, NBC, Adam Grant’s Next Big Idea Club and more.