You Can Do This!

Feeling stuck or stagnant in your career, business, or life? Maybe you’ve simply stopped being curious. When was the last time you asked new questions, challenged old assumptions, or saw a problem from a fresh perspective? In this episode, we explore why curiosity is crucial if you want to keep moving forward.

Birdie Salva is the co-founder of Curiosity, Inc., a boutique design research agency that helps organizations solve problems by understanding people better. An expert in business innovation, systems thinking, UX research, and game design, he has helped startups and global foundations alike tackle real-world challenges by asking the right questions.

If you’ve ever found yourself overanalyzing situations, obsessing over every detail, or worrying about What-ifs that may never happen, you know how exhausting overthinking can be. It’s like a mental hamster wheel that drains your energy, clouds your judgment, and keeps you stuck. Left unchecked, overthinking can leave you feeling overwhelmed, paralyzed by indecision, and too mentally drained to enjoy life.

To help us stop the mental spiral is an executive coach who helps leaders and creatives simplify complex thinking to prevent overthinking and burnout.  A former copywriter and creative director, she blends creativity with strategy to help her clients build trust, authority, and influence through sharp messaging and compelling narratives.

Do you hesitate speaking up in meetings or spend too much time perfecting an email over the fear of committing grammatical errors or mispronouncing words? There’s so much bad English everywhere—in mass media, social media, business correspondence, and even everyday conversations. With Taglish taking over as our lingua franca, AI doing all the writing, and the prevalent smart-shaming of English speakers, does being fluent and articulate in English and upholding high grammatical standards still hold weight? Can communicating clearly and confidently in English still level up your life and career?

Tik Tok’s “Grammar Nazi,” a.k.a “Pepe Word Smith” weighs in. With over 1 million followers on social media, he creates content to provide free, innovative, and unconventional English lessons to Filipinos. A former corporate executive for industry giants like HSBC, Globe Telecom, GCash, and Home Credit, he now does one-and-one English coaching, teaches courses in IELTS ( International English Language Testing System) proficiency and has a column in The Manila Times called “Grammarama.”

Exhausted and overwhelmed trying to keep up with life’s demands? Feel so drained that no amount of vacation leaves seem to recharge you? Must be burnout. In today’s always-on culture, chronic stress has become an all-too-common struggle.

This episode’s guest has a lasting solution: to reset your body and mind from the inside out. A Functional and Integrative Medicine physician and licensed medical acupuncturist, she is the co-founder and medical director of Centro Holistico, where she combines conventional and functional medicine with holistic healing practices to reverse chronic diseases and help her patients regain balance, restore energy, and recover from burnout naturally.

Ever cringe when you hear your own voice? Hesitate to use it in meetings, presentations, recordings, or even conversations? Your best voice ever is achievable, and this episode helps unlock it for you!

Back on the show (check out Ep.113!) are my voice coaches and two of the country’s most iconic voices, certified Vocal Yoga HLM coaches who’ve been teaching their “Best Voice Ever” workshop for over 20 years. You’ll recognize her voice from ads for Dove, Cebu Pacific, Pond’s, Smart, and Second Avenue, and voiceovers for major events like Bb. PIlipinas; and his voice from countless commercials and movie trailers in his 30 years as a broadcaster, event host, and talent trainer. Together, they’re launching Voice Con, a conference designed to help professionals, leaders, and content creators speak with confidence and authority.

How do you rebuild your life when it hits rock bottom? A painful breakup, failed business, or unexpected life crisis can make starting over feel impossible. But our lowest points can become the turning points that lead to something even greater.

After her marriage fell apart when her kids were still young, Cathy transformed her heartbreak into healing—not just for herself, but for others. In 2001, she created a little sanctuary in Tagaytay called Nurture where women could rediscover their self-worth, strength, and resilience. It has since grown into the sprawling Nurture Wellness Village, which she owns with her husband Mike Turvill.

This award-winning spa and wellness pioneer is the President of the Wellness Tourism Association of the Philippines, an internationally certified Health and Wellness Coach, Nutritional Therapist, Chef Coach, Living Foods Educator, and author.

Five years ago, in the midst of the COVID pandemic, she took a massive financial and life-risking leap—flying to London with no guarantees, no safety net, and only her self-belief, resilience, and grit to chase her dream of becoming an international fashion model. Despite setbacks and moments of doubt, her gamble paid off.

A UP Los Baños Chemical Engineering graduate who once wanted to work for NASA, Ella discovered her true passion in modeling. Once pressured to conform to beauty pageant standards, winning a modeling competition led her toward high fashion instead. Today, she’s thriving in London, working with global brands like Rayban Meta, Pandora, Primark, Adidas, Puma, Glenlivet, Sephora, Boots, ASOS, Boohoo, and Nasty Gal, among many others. She has also founded her own mother agency called Eiveren Models to help Filipino models break into the international scene

If fear or doubt has ever held you back from your dreams, this conversation is for you!

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Society tells women to be strong—but not too aggressive. Ambitious—but not too selfish. Nurturing—but never too emotional. Navigating between these conflicting expectations is exhausting and often causes us to second-guess ourselves and play small. Believing these cultural norms holds us back from stepping into our power and fulfilling our biggest potentials.

Helping us unlearn the conventional beliefs we’ve been programmed to accept and harness our strengths as women instead is executive coach and organizational development consultant Sheila Tan, a Neuro-Semantics trainer, NLP Master Practitioner, and licensed Meta-Coach with the International Society of Neuro-Semantics.

With all the challenges women face in leadership—bias, cultural expectations, self-doubt, what does it really take for a woman to rise to the top? Is it about working harder, being more confident, or knowing the right people? And do women really have to be louder, tougher, or more aggressive to get ahead—or is there another way?

Coach Sheila Tan studied how the most successful executives lead their organizations towards success in “The X-Factor of C-Suite Executives,” her thesis for her Master’s of Science In Organization Development at Pepperdine University published in the Transdisciplinary Journal Management. She is a Neuro-Semantics trainer, NLP Master Practitioner, Meta-Coach, executive coach, and organizational development consultant.

Can love really thrive when you’re miles apart, navigating time zones and technology gaps? Long-distance relationships (LDRs) are often seen as challenging, but they can also be a powerful testament to trust, communication, and commitment. Navigating the essentials and intricacies of LDRs is a certified relationship coach from The Relationship School and host of Nuggets of Nikki, a podcast on healthy relationships and the winner of the 2024 Philippine Podcast Search. She previously worked as an editor at Summit Media.