Unleashed

Honey Woods is a mom of 6, a homeschooler, and an author who knows how hard it is to write and publish while life is full. When she started working on her own books, she kept hitting places that were easy to get stuck. Now she helps other people get unstuck and move from a prompting on their heart all the way to a finished book.

Jodi Meza knows what it feels like to carry debt and shame as a believer. After crying out to God, she found freedom, and then she took what she learned and started teaching her church.

Everyone is waiting on God for something. Ryan’s fastest way back to peace is simple: stop and remember every time God has already come through. In this teaching he walks back through more than 40 years of God’s faithfulness, starting with a childhood Bible and Proverbs 3:5–6 printed on a dot matrix printer.

Ryan shares how a prompting to write a memo in a congressional office led to meeting his wife. He tells how a $3,000 course, taken in the scariest financial season of their marriage, turned into a private label business that paid their mortgage for years. And he talks about the long road to becoming parents. Along the way he opens Psalm 37, Hebrews 3 and Psalm 105, and invites listeners to build their own stones of remembrance.

Back in high school, Vanessa Nunez felt God put a book on her heart: Do You Know Who God Is? Years later, after Bible college, children's ministry, and 12 years running a newborn photography business, she still wondered if her gift really mattered. Then God gave her a dream about a key, and she threw it away.

Ryan and Vanessa talk about why "I'm way too busy" is the sneaky lie that keeps so many moms stuck, how she started Courageous Kids Academy during nap times with a newborn, and what it looks like to build a business God's way. Vanessa is a mom of three, a teacher at a private Christian school, and is married to a police officer. She creates books and resources that help kids learn who God is.

Connect with Vanessa:

In 2020, Zach Rippey lost his comedy career to COVID and found Jesus in the Gospel of John. That same year, his best friend Armani was drawn closer to the Lord too. Months later, Armani had a stroke while white-water rafting and never came home.

Zach’s new book, Me, Armani, and Jesus, took him back to the cabin and the river where Armani spent his last days. Ryan and Zach talk about why grief hit hardest in year three, the God moments Zach found at the river, and how Armani’s organ donation saved three lives. Ryan also shares his own story of three miscarriages before his miracle son.

Connect with Zach:

Kim Gilson was teaching her stuffed animals at age ten, and she’s been a teacher ever since: in the classroom, as an assistant principal, as a state accountability consultant, and now on stage. Her message is built on the seven motivational gifts from Romans 12, and her struggle is the one a lot of gifted people share. God wired her to teach and speak. He didn’t wire her to market herself.

On this Igniting Vision call, Ryan and Kim work on that gap. Kim shares what she’s already doing, from weekly AI searches for conference applications to tailoring her talk for librarians and assisted living owners. Ryan offers a way to reach the people who book speakers by serving them first, and a workshop idea that takes her message past her own church to her whole city.

Gary Jepsen resisted going live for a long time. Then he finally hit the button. At his first Friday night Facebook Live, a woman with a torn meniscus was walking without pain or a knee brace by the end of the 45-minute call, and everyone who asked received prayer or a prophetic word.

In this Igniting Vision call, Ryan and Gary build out the strategy behind it. They cover how a single weekly live can become a podcast, YouTube content, and an email-list builder all at once, plus how Gary is moving his coaching from one-on-one sessions to a growing group community. Along the way, Gary shares the story that launched him into ministry and simple, practical teaching on hearing God's voice.

At five years old, Shawn Kennedy pretended her bedroom was full of people, and she was helping them heal. She knew she'd write a book one day. Then came decades of trauma, mental illness, addiction, and a learning disability that convinced her she was "dumb and stupid."

In this episode, Shawn shares how God never let go of that dream, how a lie finally broke, and how she wrote not one but two books, including a Bible study for women healing from trauma. If you've got a story inside you and a voice telling you that you can't, this one's for you.

Content note: This episode includes discussion of sexual abuse, suicide, and addiction.

Lachele Bryant spent 35+ years in law enforcement investigating crimes against children and 11 years sitting on a word from God.