Ever found yourself hesitating to speak up in meetings, during heated family discussions, or when having to confront a bully? Are you the quiet one in your group, too self-conscious to express your thoughts or opinions? You are not alone. I was that person, too, for a long time.

In this episode, Coach Gidgette Faustino helps you unlock the power of your voice and discover the freedom that comes from confidently expressing and asserting yourself in any situation. With more than 20 years of communication experience in advertising and media, she is an expert in creating, strategizing and executing and conveying important messages to the public. As an ICF Associate Certified Coach (ACC), she helps people communicate courageously and strategically to achieve their desired success.

What happened to your goals? Did bad habits or real life get in their way? Or did you procrastinate and wallow in inertia? Good news: You can still hit the reset button, refresh, and reclaim your resolutions and plans.

Coach Nikka Santos works with clients to sharpen their focus and increase their mental and emotional agility. An International Coaching Federation-certified and credentialed-leadership coach, she is the founder of The Future Leaders Program and a Care Coach for the world’s leading coaching platform, BetterUp, where she provides resilience coaching to drive employee engagement, productivity, innovation and business growth for companies like Google, Warner Media, Chevron, and NASA.  

Whether you’re 20, 40, 60, or 80, you won’t really get to know yourself until you’ve journeyed into unfamiliar territory on your own. More importantly, it’s never too late! Traveling solo changes your life in meaningful ways. It allows you to discover your inner strength and capabilities, and is a powerful catalyst for self-confidence, self-empowerment, and true independence.

Helping us navigate this is writer and host Kate Alvarez, founder of the travel blog, YouTube channel, and Plus Network show Kate Was Here where she chronicles her adventures and stories as a solo female traveler of over 15 years. Kate has written for Smile, http://Spot.ph , Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, http://Femalenetwork.com , and the Philippine Daily Inquirer. She is also a mental health and animal rights advocate, actress, and commercial model.

Our fathers raised us in the best way they knew, and we hold them in high regard with love, gratitude, and respect for their efforts. The way they formed bonds with us during our upbringing greatly influences our sense of security, stability, courage, confidence, and self-worth—even into adulthood. These deep-rooted influences often manifest in certain struggles we face in our relationships, and can be traced to "Father Wounds" or "Daddy's Issues" (a term preferable to "Daddy Issues" which unfairly places blame on women for the dysfunction). Thus, the first step towards healing and triumphing over these wounds is to explore our past experiences that were less than ideal. 

Sharing her expertise in this episode is Aileen Santos, an internationally certified relationship coach, life skills and conflict resolution trainer and counselor who has a Master's degree in Counseling Psychology and is a Certified Neuro-Linguistic Programming Practitioner.

Whether you're dreaming of starting your own business or want to advance your career, building a strong personal brand is essential And these days, it’s no longer projecting perfection or hiding one’s “flaws” or “failures” that resonates, but being authentic and embracing your unique identity and experiences are what can actually set you apart and build a personal brand that's genuine, relatable, and credible.

Cece Asuncion is an award-winning Filipino-American director, producer, and filmmaker and the founder, owner and director of Slay Models L.A., the first all-transgender agency in the world. His reality series Strut about his models at Slay, which he co-produced with Whoopi Goldberg, won a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Reality Series in 2017. In 2023, he co-produced and mounted the first Slay Model Search Asia in the Philippines with ABS-CBN. He continues to break ground and barriers for himself and others, reframing people’s minds about what is beautiful and allyship with the transgender community.

For anyone who’s ever struggled with being different and being denied their goals and dreams for not conforming with the norm, Miss Mela Habijan’s message for you is: “No matter how the world sees us, being different is a gift, and even if the world keeps saying no to us, we need to keep saying yes to ourselves.” You, too, can use whatever makes you different to transform your life and make it flourish and shine—whatever your gender identity, sexual orientation, life choices, race, shape, size, or economic status.

Do we really still need to uphold high standards of English language fluency when audio and video are replacing reading and writing and when the consensus seems to be “it doesn’t matter how you say it, as long as your message is understood”?

There’s no such thing as being too old to achieve anything, proves this former stay-at-home mom who made a name for herself in at age 49 as the first female and first Filipino-American executive chef at Hollywood’s iconic Yamashiro restaurant. There, she enjoyed fame and success cooking for celebrities such as Bruno Mars, Cardi B, Jojo Siwa, Paris Hilton, H.E.R., Jennifer Hudson, and JoKoy. In 2023, she moved back to the Philippines after over 30 years after she was named Philippine Airlines’ Assistant Vice President for Catering Operations.

Struggling with abandonment or trust issues? Anger management problems? Perfectionistic and obsessive tendencies? A lack of assertiveness or people-pleasing patterns? All these can be manifestations of childhood trauma, which, when left unhealed, can damage our self-esteem and well-being and debilitate us from living our best lives.

Diplomats are masters at negotiation, conflict mediation and resolution, and communicating effectively with tact and grace—essential life skills that can help us get ahead in life and improve our personal relationships while still standing up for ourselves and our beliefs and values.