Your Unstuck Era: Career Change, Side Hustles & Entrepreneurship

If you’ve ever wanted to punch someone for saying, “Find what you’re passionate about and you’ll never work another day in your life,” this one’s for you.

In this episode, Vivian sits down with Lacey Swift, a somatic life coach who left the traditional path to build a career in spirituality and wellness. On paper, Lacey had it all: a fast-tracked rise in advertising, a bold pivot into recruiting, and a climb to COO. At the time, she was helping some of the most reputable private equity and hedge funds hire the best talent in the finance world—thriving in a high-pressure, male-dominated industry where performance was everything. But under the surface, something softer was pulling her in a new direction.

Lacey shares how her spiritual curiosity turned into a full-time career—from landing her first client to growing a coaching business online, and all the messy experiments in between. This is a real, unfiltered look at what it takes to build something meaningful from scratch.

You’ll walk away with a clearer sense of how to listen to your gut, take aligned action, and stop waiting for clarity before you move.

If you’ve ever considered a career in wellness, or you're just trying to figure out what your thing is, this episode is a must.

Resources & Links:

Follow Lacey: @lacey_swift

Learn more about Lacey’s work: laceyswiftcoaching.com

Follow Your Unstuck Era: @yourunstuckera

Enjoyed this episode?

Share it with a friend, leave a review, or tag us on IG. Your support helps this show reach more people who are ready to get unstuck and come home to themselves.

What if the key to getting unstuck isn’t another mindset shift, but a nervous system shift?

In this episode, Vivian Ly sits down with Lacey Swift, a somatic life coach and breathwork practitioner to explore how emotional pain, stuckness, and even identity patterns live in the body, not just the mind.

Together, they break down how somatic breathwork works, why it often feels more like an emotional exorcism than meditation, and what happens when you finally let suppressed feelings like rage, grief, or shame move through you.

They also explore the cultural discomfort with emotions like rage, how those suppressed feelings manifest in daily life, and how somatic practices can help you reclaim your power, build emotional resilience, and reconnect with joy. If you’ve ever felt like talk therapy wasn’t quite enough—or you’re craving emotional release on a soul level—this one’s for you.

You’ll learn:

• ​What somatic work actually is (and how it rewires your nervous system)
• ​How trauma responses like fawn, freeze, and flight show up in everyday life
• ​Why emotional release isn’t about “fixing” yourself—but feeling what’s there
• ​Simple, powerful ways to integrate somatic practices into your routine
• ​How to build capacity for joy—not just survive emotional lows

Whether you’re in a season of grief, burnout, or rebirth, this episode will help you come back to your body and begin again.

Shownotes:

01:36 Lacey’s story: From stuckness to somatic transformation

02:26 The intensity of somatic breathwork

04:01 What emotional release really looks like (and feels like) 06:15 Rage, shame, and emotions we were taught to suppress

08:03 The real purpose of somatic practices

15:24 The science: How somatic work supports emotional healing

16:49 Body-first information processing vs. mental rumination

17:23 Trauma responses explained (fawn, freeze, flight, fight) 18:26 How animals shake off trauma—and why humans don’t 19:17 Somatic release through physical activity & movement 19:52 NLP, body language, and unconscious rewiring

21:29 How to regulate emotions on a daily basis

23:24 What it means to “build tolerance” for big emotions 26:28 Why joy is just as hard to hold as pain

29:48 Communicating needs without collapsing

32:54 Where to find Lacey & how to begin your somatic journey

Resources & Links:

Follow Lacey: @lacey_swift

Learn more about Lacey’s work: laceyswiftcoaching.com Follow Your Unstuck Era: @yourunstuckera

Enjoyed this episode? Share it with a friend, leave a review, or tag us on IG. Your support helps this show reach more people who are ready to get unstuck and come home to themselves.

What if your hardest chapter became the foundation of your life’s work?

In this episode of Your Unstuck Era, host Vivian Ly sits down with Sydney Karmes-Wainer, former Brand Manager at Erewhon, founder of French Squirrel, gut health cookbook author, and host of her own CPG podcast.

Before building a brand sold in Erewhon, Sydney was quietly struggling with body image, and disordered eating. What started as a personal journey toward healing slowly transformed into a mission to help others, one that now lives inside every product, post, and podcast she shares.

This episode isn’t just about starting a snack company. It’s about turning pain into purpose, building in public, and trusting your gut even when the path is unclear.

Shownotes:

00:00 Intro

01:02 The Power of Authenticity in Business

04:50 Sydney’s Personal Health Journey

14:26 The Birth of French Squirrel

14:47 From Personal Struggles to Public Sharing

24:05 The Turning Point: From Homemade Snacks to a Business Idea

27:26 Launching French Squirrel: A Leap of Faith

28:35 The Journey Begins: From Alias to Distribution

29:17 Challenges in the Food Business

30:01 Understanding Food Distribution

32:17 Lessons from Erewhon: Brand Management and Partnerships

36:16 Trusting Your Gut and Overcoming Mistakes

41:05 Pricing Strategies and Business Growth

47:24 Future Goals and Aspirations

49:42 Final Thoughts and Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

Connect with Sydney Karmes-Wainer

→ ⁠@sydney_kw

→ Follow French Squirrel: ⁠⁠@french.squirrel

→ Follow @candidaqueen444 for gut health tips!

Follow Your Unstuck Era→ ⁠@yourunstuckera for more expander stories, bold pivots, and behind-the-scenes moments

What if the power and prestige you worked so hard for… was never actually yours?

In this episode of Your Unstuck Era, host Vivian Ly sits down with Sophie Dewaal, a former Wall Street investment banker who spent 10 years at Bank of America before realizing the job she once dreamed of no longer fit who she was becoming.

After working closely with founders and CEOs, Sophie started to see something most people miss: the ones with the most power were the ones who built something of their own. That realization sparked a quiet, radical shift.

Now, she’s the founder of Arya Tea Bar—a concept she hopes will become the Starbucks of tea. But this episode isn’t just about building a beverage brand. It’s about unlearning the illusion of safety, tuning into what you really want, and taking action before you have it all figured out.

We talk about:

• how to identify the real signals that it’s time to pivot

• why emotional connection is the new metric for business

• what building “your thing” actually requires (and what it doesn’t)

• how trauma, space, and joy shape the future of community

If you’ve been waiting for clarity or a sign that it’s time to go… consider this it.

Shownotes:

00:00 Welcome to Your Unstuck Era

00:28 Sophie Dewaal’s Origin Story: From Wall Street to Entrepreneur

01:07 What a Decade in Banking Really Taught Her

03:36 Who Really Holds the Power: CEOs vs. Builders

09:10 The Shift: When the Dream Stopped Fitting

10:58 What the Stillness of COVID Cracked Open

16:40 The Moment She Chose Herself Over the Title

21:44 How Arya Tea Bar Was Born—One Brave Step at a Time

35:53 Collective Trauma, Personal Awakening

38:57 Designing Spaces That Invite Belonging

48:44 Rethinking Money: Funding and Financial Freedom

54:05 Building a Business That Feels Like You

01:04:19 Why Sophie’s Story Is an Expander

01:09:06 Final Reflections & What She'd Tell Her Younger Self

Connect with Sophie Dewaal
→ @skdewaal
→ Follow Arya Tea Bar: @aryateabar

Follow Your Unstuck Era
→ @yourunstuckera for more expander stories, bold pivots, and behind-the-scenes moments

Welcome to Your Unstuck Era—a podcast for ambitious humans breaking free from the lives they’ve outgrown. I’m Vivian, a marketing strategist still in corporate while building what’s next. If you’ve ever thought, “I did everything right… so why does it still feel wrong?”—this is for you. Each week, we explore what it takes to build a life that feels true. Through raw solo episodes and honest convos with creatives, professionals, and founders, this show is your permission slip to stop settling—and start building a life that fits.