WAKE UP! with Joni

Welcome to Wake Up! with Joni, the podcast where embodied consciousness meets leadership through awareness — awakening lived, not theorized.

What happens when heartbreak cracks open the identity you spent a lifetime building?

In this deeply honest, funny, and transformational conversation, Joni sits down with Dr. Stephen Paul Edwards — spiritual counselor, speaker, and author of The Venus Flytrap — to explore trauma, toxic relationships, reinvention, emotional healing, and the awakening that can emerge from life's darkest nights.

After childhood trauma, psychiatric hospitalization, addiction, multiple marriages, and profound emotional collapse, Steven shares the wisdom he gained through heartbreak, obsession, boundaries, healing, and remembering who he truly is.

Together, Joni and Steven unpack:

✨ Why we repeat relationship patterns ✨ The hidden gifts inside heartbreak and emotional pain ✨ Trauma, triggers, and emotional healing ✨ Why "toxic" relationships may actually be teachers ✨ The power of boundaries and vulnerability ✨ Attachment, identity, and freedom ✨ Why we keep running — and what happens when we stop ✨ Remembering who you really are beneath the pain

This episode is filled with humor, truth, compassion, and powerful perspective shifts for anyone navigating heartbreak, reinvention, trauma, or personal awakening.

📖 The Venus Flytrap 🌐 VFT23.com 🎙 The Venus Flytrap Podcast

Website: https://vft23.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stephen_sapereaude/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seemiracles/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@vft23_official?lang=en Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61575468609762 X: https://x.com/Stephen_Edwardz

📖 Stephen's channeled book: Communioncating With God

🌐 Wake Up With Joni: WakeUpWithJoni.com 🌿 Solo & Couples Retreats: Paradise Ranch Retreats 📖 Book: Stop, Look, Choose: Your Journey to Peace and Freedom

If this conversation moved you, please subscribe, rate, review, and share it with someone you love.

Beautiful humans — it's your turn to wake up and live your most alive lives.

What if the biggest problem in your business… is the person in the mirror?

In this powerful conversation, business coach, sales leader, and co-founder of The Everyday Leader, Drew Norton joins Joni for a deeply honest discussion about leadership, masculinity, identity, fitness, relationships, and what it actually means to lead yourself before leading anyone else.

After building and leading over $20M+ in sales teams, Drew realized something profound:

Business stagnation is often a mirror of personal stagnation.

Together, Joni and Drew explore: ✨ Why leadership starts with identity, not strategy ✨ The crisis facing modern masculinity and men today ✨ Faith, Family, Fitness & Finance as pillars of alignment ✨ How to rebuild confidence and self-trust ✨ The surprising connection between health and leadership ✨ Communication, relationships, and conscious partnership ✨ The difference between managing people and truly leading them ✨ How beliefs shape success in business, family, and life

Drew also shares his deeply personal story of family crisis, emotional growth, losing 100 pounds, and the mindset shifts that changed everything.

If you've ever felt stuck, burned out, disconnected, or unsure of your next step — this conversation is your invitation to stop drifting and start leading.

📍 Instagram & LinkedIn: @EverydaySalesLeader 📍 Website & Free Assessment: The Abundant Man Project -https://theeverydaysalesleader.com/ 📍 Podcast: The Everyday Leader Podcast

📍 Coaching + Book: WakeUpWithJoni.com 📍 Solo & Couples Retreats: ParadiseRanchRetreat.com 📍 Book: Stop, Look, Choose: Your Journey to Peace and Freedom Barnes & Noble, Amazon

💫 If this episode moved you, please subscribe, rate, review, and share it with someone who needs to hear it.

What if the obstacle isn't blocking your path — but revealing it?

In this deeply nourishing and soul-expanding conversation, Joni sits down with award-winning author, coach, singer, and teacher Marisa Handler to explore what it means to become your own sanctuary in times of uncertainty.

Together, they unpack the relationship between trauma, creativity, nervous system healing, purpose, and personal transformation — and why the very things that break us open may actually be initiating us into who we came here to become.

Marisa shares her powerful personal story of navigating a profound Dark Night of the Soul after what looked like external success, and how that unraveling became a doorway into deeper compassion, spiritual trust, and authentic power.

You'll also hear an honest and grounded conversation about collective awakening, energetic sensitivity, nervous system regulation, creativity as a birthright, and how to move through life's upheavals without losing yourself.

If you've been feeling stuck, overwhelmed, disconnected, or quietly sensing that something deeper is calling you forward — this episode is for you.

✨ The Dark Night of the Soul — personally and collectively ✨ How trauma impacts creativity and purpose ✨ Why safety in the nervous system matters ✨ The hidden medicine inside resistance and obstacles ✨ Creativity as a spiritual practice and birthright ✨ Purpose, passion, heartbreak, and finding your genius ✨ How to stay grounded in uncertain times ✨ Sanctuary, healing, and collective awakening ✨ Supporting highly sensitive and empathic people

Guest: Marisa Handler Award-winning author, coach, teacher, singer, and creator of Live Your Creative Genius.

Connect with Marisa: MarisaHandler.com

Connect with Joni: WakeUpWithJoni.com

Interested in retreats? ParadiseRanchRetreat.com

Grab Joni's book: Stop. Look. Choose: Your Journey to Peace and Freedom

In this powerful and deeply honest conversation, Joni sits down with author, speaker, entrepreneur, veteran, and Ironman athlete Scott Lackey to explore what happens when the identities we build our lives around begin to collapse.

From war zones to business success, devastating losses to spiritual awakening, Scott shares the hard-earned wisdom that emerged from confronting failure, broken promises, ego, doubt, and the relentless pursuit of external validation.

Together, Joni and Scott dive into:

• The difference between who we are and the roles we play
• Why success alone never makes us whole
• The quiet inner voice that keeps us stuck
• Learning to trust yourself again
• Small promises vs. massive breakthroughs
• Healthy masculinity and grounded leadership
• The courage required to face collapse instead of running from it
• Why pain can become instruction rather than punishment
• The spiritual meaning behind Scott's book Wake Up to Die Again
• How to reclaim your most alive life

This episode is an invitation to stop performing, stop hiding, and begin the courageous work of becoming whole.

Website: ScottLackey.com Book: Wake Up to Die Again (Available on Amazon)

Website: wakeupwithjoni.com Book: STOP. LOOK. CHOOSE: Your Journey to Peace and Freedom

If this episode moved or inspired you, please subscribe, rate, review, and share it with someone you care about.

In this deeply personal and expansive episode of Wake Up! with Joni, I sit down with poet, author, and spoken word artist Allie Michelle for a conversation that moves beyond performance and into truth.

Together, we explore what it really means to be seen in today's world—where vulnerability can become identity, beauty can be both a gift and a distortion, and creative expression becomes a pathway to healing.

Allie shares openly about:

• The emotional cost of visibility
• Navigating beauty, identity, and depth as a woman in the public eye
• The line between authentic connection and projection
• What she still holds sacred—and why
• Her creative process as both a channel and a discipline

We also step into something more intimate… a mother–daughter conversation about becoming, unlearning, and meeting each other beyond roles.

With her upcoming poetry release Don't Wait to Light the Candles, Allie continues to invite us into a life lived fully—without waiting, without shrinking, and without apology.

This episode is not just a conversation. It's an invitation.

If this episode resonates, please subscribe, rate, review, and share with someone you love.

Where to find Allie Michelle:

Substack:

https://alliemichellel.substack.com

Book: Don't Wait to Light the Candles

https://www.harpercollins.com/products/dont-wait-to-light-the-candles-allie-michelle?variant=44262764806178

Instagram: @alliemichellel

Book Signing: May 5, 2026 @ The Last Bookstore - contact for reservations -

• +1 213 488 0599

WHERE TO FIND JONI:

WAKEUPWITHJONI.COM for coaching or her book STOP LOOK CHOOSE: your journey to peace and freedom

PARADISERANCHRETREAT.COM for solo and couples retreat experiences

#WakeUpWithJoni #AllieMichelle #SpokenWordPoetry #ConsciousLiving #EmotionalHealing #Authenticity #PersonalGrowth #MotherDaughter #CreativeExpression #SelfAwareness #PoetryCommunity #HealingJourney

In this episode of Wake Up! with Joni, we explore a powerful and unconventional journey of healing, resilience, and radical trust in the body.

Karen "ZuZu" Armes shares her experience of living with epilepsy from a young age — navigating seizures, medication, and uncertainty — until a turning point in her life led her to explore a completely different path. What followed was a transformation that would shape not only her own life, but the lives of thousands she now teaches.

As the founder of Holistic Health Educators, ZuZu is passionate about helping people understand the body's innate intelligence and capacity to heal when given the right conditions.

This conversation dives into:

• Reframing the belief that the body is "broken"
• The difference between managing symptoms vs. supporting the body
• Why natural health education has been largely absent from mainstream systems
• The responsibility and empowerment that comes with understanding your body
• What it takes to create lasting change in your health

This conversation offers one person's lived experience with healing. It's not a prescription — but an invitation to explore your own relationship with your body more deeply.

https://zuzuunleashed.com

https://wakeupwithjoni.com Book a 1:1 session: https://calendly.com/wakeupwithjonicoaching/30min

If you're feeling the call to deepen your self-leadership, clarity, and conscious awareness, Joni's work is designed to meet you there. Her approach blends grounded insight with real-life integration — supporting you in not just thinking differently, but living differently.

https://paradiseranchretreats.com

Paradise Ranch Retreats are immersive, soul-centered experiences designed to help you step out of the noise of daily life and reconnect with what's true. Through intentional space, guided experiences, and meaningful connection, these retreats support real transformation — the kind that stays with you long after you leave.

What if business wasn't just transactional—but transformational?

In this powerful episode of Wake Up! with Joni, I sit down with Blaine Bartlett—internationally recognized executive coach, leadership expert, and author of Stop Drifting, Start Living—to explore the deeper truth behind leadership, consciousness, and the soul of business.

With over four decades of global impact, Blaine shares how imagination shapes reality, why most people are unconsciously "drifting" through life, and how true leadership begins with awareness, not control.

We dive into:

• The hidden cost of unconscious leadership
• Why imagination is the gateway to creation
• The difference between motivation and inspiration
• How to move through grief, growth, and transformation consciously
• What it really means to be a "center of distribution" in life and leadership
• The intersection of science, spirituality, and business

This conversation is a masterclass in living and leading from a place of deep alignment, presence, and purpose.

Connect with Blaine:

• Website: https://blainebartlett.com
• Company: https://avatarresources.com
• Podcast: Soul of Business with Blaine Bartlett
• LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook: @blainebartlett

BLAINE'S NEW BOOK: Stop Drifting, Start Living by Blaine Bartlett

Connect with Joni: wakeupwithjoni.com

Joni's Book: STOP, LOOK, CHOOSE: Your Journey to Peace and Freedom

Welcome to Wake Up! with Joni, the podcast where embodied consciousness meets leadership through awareness — awakening lived, not theorized.

In this second conversation with Cliff Beach, we go deeper into the intersection of creativity, leadership, identity, and conscious living.

Cliff is an author, entrepreneur, leadership expert, and accomplished musician whose journey spans boardrooms, stages, and profound inner transformation. In this episode, we explore how music shaped the man he became—and how leadership refined his creative expression.

This conversation is a powerful reflection on:

• Creativity as a spiritual and energetic practice

• The truth about identity vs. expression

• Conscious leadership and self-awareness

• Integration over balance in modern life

• Why alignment—not approval—is the real success

Cliff shares how growing up in a deeply musical and spiritual environment shaped his worldview—and how embracing both discipline and devotion allowed him to live in alignment with his purpose.

This is more than a conversation about music. It's about who you are when you stop performing—and start living from truth.

🎧 Connect with Cliff Beach: Music + Socials: @clbeachmusic

📘 Explore more: Joni's book: Stop. Look. Choose. Your Journey to Peace and Freedom 🌐 https://wakeupwithjoni.com

#WakeUpWithJoni #CliffBeach #ConsciousLeadership #CreativeAwakening #SpiritualPodcast #AuthenticLiving #PurposeDrivenLife #LeadershipDevelopment #CreativityAndConsciousness #InnerWork

What if the biggest thing holding you back… is something you cannot see?

In this powerful episode of Wake Up! with Joni, leadership expert Will Steel shares how hidden beliefs, unconscious patterns, and unspoken stories quietly shape your results in leadership, relationships, and life.

From graduating with top honors at Royal Air Force College Cranwell to flying as a military pilot, to coaching CEOs, world leaders, and high performers across the globe—Will reveals the moment that changed everything: realizing that success does not resolve what's unresolved within.

Together, we explore:

• Why high achievers still feel unfulfilled

• The root of self-sabotage and "proving" behavior

• What ontological coaching really means

• How to identify and shift limiting beliefs

• The power of completion in relationships

• Why authenticity—not strategy—is the real breakthrough

This episode is an invitation to stop performing… and start seeing.

Because when you see clearly—you lead differently.

🌐 Website: https://willsteel.com/about.php 📘 Book: Free to Lead: Unleash Your Hidden Leadership Genius

🌐 https://wakeupwithjoni.com 📘 Stop, Look, Choose: Your Journey to Peace and Freedom

What if your past didn't define you — but prepared you?

In this deeply honest and expansive episode of Wake Up with Joni, I sit down with Deborah Yager — Master Trainer of Neuro-Linguistic Programming, High Performance Coach, and co-founder of Yager Training — for a conversation that bridges transformation, spirituality, and the power of identity.

Deborah shares her extraordinary journey from addiction, toxic relationships, and profound shame… to becoming a leader who now helps others rewire their minds, reclaim their worth, and step into unapologetic freedom.

Together, we explore: ✨ How the language you use shapes your reality ✨ The roots of shame — and how to release it ✨ Rewriting identity at the deepest level ✨ The connection between NLP and spiritual awakening ✨ Why "rock bottom" can be a powerful initiation ✨ Embracing your perfectly imperfect path

This conversation is an invitation to see yourself differently — to move beyond the stories that have kept you small and into the truth of who you really are.

If you've ever felt stuck in your past, struggled with self-worth, or sensed there's more available for your life… this episode is for you.

✨ Learn more about Deborah Yager and her work: yagertraining.com

✨ Connect with me and explore coaching opportunities: wakeupwithjoni.com

📘 And if you're navigating the space between who you've been and who you're becoming, my book: STOP. LOOK. CHOOSE. — Your Journey to Peace and Freedom is available wherever books are sold.