The Life Shift

What if your greatest teacher had four legs and an endless capacity for love?

When licensed therapist Brianna Laricchia lost her dog Molly, the grief cracked her heart wide open. It wasn’t just about losing a pet — it was about losing a constant, unconditional presence that had shaped who she was. In this conversation, Brianna shares how that loss transformed her both personally and professionally, leading her to specialize in grief counseling for others walking the same tender path.

You’ll hear:

• How loving and losing Molly reshaped Brianna’s understanding of empathy and connection
• What she’s learned about the unique grief of losing a pet
• How she built Omnia Psychotherapy Group to help others heal through compassion, presence, and shared humanity

If you’ve ever loved an animal like family, this episode will feel like a gentle hand on your shoulder.

Listen and subscribe to The Life Shift Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

If you have ever been curious about what actually happens behind the scenes of a meaningful conversation, this livestream is an open door. Not polished. Not rehearsed. Just two hosts sitting together in real time, talking honestly about why we keep doing this work and how it keeps changing us.

This special co-hosted livestream on Riverside brought me together with Angela Hollowell to reflect on podcasting, storytelling, and the quiet evolution that happens when you keep showing up. We talked about how our shows began, how different our approaches are, and how both are rooted in care and intention. We explored the learning curve of hosting, creating safety without scripting everything, and letting conversations breathe. Somewhere in the middle of it all, I said something out loud that surprised even me. That podcasting has softened me. That it has made me more forgiving of myself. And that it might be the best thing I have ever done for me.

This conversation is less about tactics and more about trust. About curiosity. About giving yourself permission to do it your own way. If you joined us live, thank you for being part of that moment. If you are listening now, I hope this reminds you that there is more than one right way to tell a story and you do not have to do it perfectly for it to matter.

What You’ll Hear

• Different podcasting styles grounded in care
• Creating safety without controlling the outcome
• The hosting learning curve and releasing perfection
• How storytelling changes the people holding the space
• Why continuing to show up can quietly change you

Co-Host Bio

Angela Hollowell is the creator of the Please Hustle Responsibly newsletter and the host of the Honey and Hustle podcast. Through both, she highlights North Carolina founders, creators, and nonprofit leaders with care, specificity, and deep respect for the full human story. Her work centers on thoughtful storytelling, community, and creating access to conversations that help people feel less alone in their work and lives.

What if the lowest point in your life was actually your turning point?

Dr. Robb Kelly knows what it means to lose everything, family, home, and even the will to live, and still find a way forward. From playing music at Abbey Road to living on the streets of Manchester, Robb’s story is a raw reminder of what happens when pain becomes purpose. Through science, faith, and relentless honesty, he rebuilt his life and devoted it to helping others recover from addiction and reclaim their worth.

In this conversation, we talk about:

• How childhood trauma quietly shapes the way we cope, connect, and self-destruct
• What it really takes to rebuild a life after addiction and find a new identity
• Why embracing our perfectly imperfect selves is key to healing and helping others

This episode is a powerful reflection on redemption, resilience, and the small moments that can change everything.

What happens when the spotlight fades and you’re left with silence?

Seth Stewart spent years performing on the world’s biggest stages — from Hamilton and In the Heights to touring with Madonna. But at the height of success, something inside him started calling for more. That quiet pull led him away from bright lights and applause, and into the wilderness where he began listening to his own spirit for the first time.

In this conversation, Seth opens up about what it takes to walk away from a dream, why stillness can be louder than any stage, and how rediscovering our connection to nature can help us find our way back to ourselves.

You’ll hear about:

• How leaving Broadway became Seth’s most honest act of creation
• What living off-grid taught him about trust, unity, and peace
• Why listening to your inner voice might be the bravest thing you ever do

If you’ve ever felt called to change direction, this episode is a reminder that there’s life beyond what others expect — and that following your vision is a form of truth.

Sometimes grief arrives before we are old enough to understand it. It lands in the middle of everything familiar and quietly rewrites the map of who we become. Years can pass before we realize how much of ourselves is still standing in that same frozen place.

In this conversation, Kristina Amelong shares what it means to finally face what she could not name as a teenager. After losing her younger brother in a sudden accident, she spent decades searching for ways to numb the ache. What began as survival slowly became a lifelong practice of returning to herself — through healing, sobriety, and the simple act of telling the truth.

This is a story about finding connection after silence. About discovering that grief can open doors as easily as it closes them. And about the power of one question to bring the past back into the light.

What You’ll Hear:

• The day everything changed and the silence that followed
• How addiction became both a shield and a signal for help
• The stranger’s question that opened the path to healing
• What it means to reconnect with people frozen in the same grief
• The sacredness of tears and the wisdom they hold
• Finding peace through storytelling and self-acceptance

Guest Bio

Kristina Amelong is the author of Ten Days to Optimal Health: A Guide to Nutritional Therapy and Colon Cleansing and the newly released memoir What My Brother Knew (She Writes Press, May 27). She is the founder and owner of Optimal Health Network, a holistic health business, and serves as a senior board member for the Center for World Philosophy and Religion, a nonprofit dedicated to reweaving the human story through spirituality and global healing. Kristina has a passion for photography, gardening, and pickleball, and she lives in Madison, Wisconsin, with her three dogs and a brood of chickens.

Have you ever reached a point where the answers you’re given simply stop feeling right? Where you realize that trusting your own instincts might be the only way forward. For Piper, that moment came in a doctor’s office when she was told her son just needed a spanking. Something inside her knew that wasn’t true.

What followed was a full transformation born from love and determination. She went back to school, relearned what she thought she knew about health, and built a life that would help not only her son but hundreds of other families too. Along the way, she found her own healing in the process.

This conversation is about listening to that quiet voice inside you. It’s about the courage to question what you’ve been told and the hope that grows when you refuse to give up. Take your time with this one. It is gentle and full of heart.

What You’ll Hear

• A mother’s turning point after harmful medical advice
• How childhood trauma shaped a life built on self-reliance
• Discovering purpose in the middle of fear and uncertainty
• The surprising ways healing her son led to her own transformation
• The strength found in trusting intuition over authority
• How sharing one story can light the way for others

Guest Bio

Dr. Piper Gibson founded the Tic Disorder Institute: Regenerating Health and Elite Gene Labs, where she empowers families and healthcare professionals to address tic disorders and optimize wellness. She is a Doctor of Functional Medicine, Advanced Holistic Nutrition, and a Board-Certified Doctor of Natural Medicine. She is also the author of Tic Talk: Common Misconceptions, Natural Approaches, and Real Conversations about Tic Disorders.

Connect with Piper:

Sometimes we don’t get to choose when life asks us to begin again. One moment you’re following a dream, and the next you’re rebuilding from the pieces of what used to be. It’s a strange kind of starting over – the kind you never asked for but somehow learn to live inside.

Ava Jones knows that space well. At seventeen, she survived a devastating car accident that took her father’s life and changed everything she knew about herself. Two years later, she was diagnosed with stage four cancer. Through it all, she’s learning what it means to keep moving, to ask for help, and to find gratitude even in the hardest chapters.

This conversation isn’t about silver linings. It’s about choosing to live when the story doesn’t go the way you planned. Ava’s honesty reminds us that starting over doesn’t mean you’ve failed – it means you’re still here.

What You’ll Hear

• The day Ava’s life changed forever
• Learning to walk, talk, and feel again after trauma
• Grieving her father while navigating recovery
• Letting go of the basketball dream that once defined her
• Facing cancer with honesty and faith in her support system
• Rediscovering joy in small, ordinary moments

Listen to the full episode and more conversations like this at:

Some moments stay with us long after they end. The choice we made. The thing we wish we had said. The image that still lingers when the room goes quiet. Cyra’s story begins with one of those moments, the kind that changes everything and asks who we will become after it.

At sixteen, she lost her brother to suicide and carried the guilt of that day for years. Her healing came slowly, through forgiveness and the power of words. Poetry became a place to lay down her pain and listen to something deeper, something that kept whispering that love was still possible.

What You’ll Hear

• How grief can hold both love and regret at once
• The quiet guidance of a voice that spoke when she needed it most
• Why poetry became her way to understand pain and healing
• What it means to forgive a younger version of yourself
• The long, patient work of turning loss into meaning
• How creativity can become medicine when nothing else fits

Guest Bio

Have you ever been doing everything right and still felt something was missing? Clay Garrett thought he had built the life he was supposed to have. A stable career, a loving family, all the boxes checked. But when life suddenly stopped, he was invited to see what really mattered.

Clay’s story unfolds in the quiet that followed a layoff just before the pandemic. What began as fear became clarity. In that unexpected pause, he found what a good life feels like when presence becomes the priority. This conversation is about slowing down, choosing intention, and discovering that sometimes the hardest endings lead us home to ourselves.

What You’ll Hear:

• The moment a layoff became an unexpected gift
• How time with family reshaped his understanding of success
• Learning to be truly present as a husband and father
• The power of reflection and self-awareness in daily life
• Building a meaningful life through purpose and simplicity
• What it means to live by choice instead of habit

Guest Bio:

Clay Garrett is the founder of Campfire Gentleman, a personal development project that helps men build meaningful lives centered on purpose, family, and personal growth. After 25 years in design and advertising, a COVID-era layoff led Clay to reevaluate his definition of success, ultimately inspiring a new path centered on presence, purpose, and simplicity. Through writing, resources, and honest conversation, he’s creating a space for husbands and fathers who want to slow down and live with intention.

Have you ever realized you were living the life someone else imagined for you?
Andrew Mitch did everything right on paper. He followed the rules, earned the degrees, and chased approval until the weight of it all became too heavy to carry. When he finally walked away from the life others expected, he found the beginning of his own.

What unfolded next was unexpected. A stranger at a restaurant table looked at him through tears and said, “Whatever you have, the world needs to hear it now.” That moment shifted everything. It was the reminder that his voice mattered, and that he no longer needed permission to use it.

This is a story about leaving certainty for something more alive. About learning to be seen, to create honestly, and to trust that your real self is enough.
Take your time with this one. It is tender and real.

What You’ll Hear

• The quiet pressure of chasing someone else’s version of success

• How leaving a PhD program became an act of self-trust

• The beauty of being seen by a stranger who changed everything

• The tension between faith, identity, and authenticity

• Learning to stop asking for permission to create

• What it means to live unapologetically yourself

Guest Bio

From small-town Ohio to Nashville, Andrew Mitch is making waves in country-pop with raw emotion, personal truth, and storytelling. His breakout single “all in my head” went viral, crowdfunded his debut album, and earned features from CMA, CMT, GLAAD, and more. With millions of views, 30K+ followers, and praise from artists like Carly Pearce and Ingrid Andress, Andrew has since released songs like "back home boy" (featured on Nashville's very own WSMV4) and "unapologetic." He continues to prove there’s power in being unapologetically yourself.

Have you ever built a life that looked good from the outside but left you exhausted on the inside? Brooks Bell knows that feeling. At 38, she was the driven CEO who could carry it all until her body told her something wasn’t right. What followed was not only a colon cancer diagnosis but a reckoning with how she had been living.

This story isn’t just about surviving illness. It is about letting go of perfection, rediscovering joy, and realizing that fun is a form of healing, too. Brooks learned to trade achievement for presence and to see connection as the real measure of success.

Take your time with this one. It is tender and full of light.

What You’ll Hear

• How ignoring small signs can change everything

• The moment Brooks finally let herself feel

• Why fun and play became her new measure of joy

• What happens when identity is no longer tied to success

• The power of turning pain into purpose through connection

Guest Bio

Brooks Bell is a cancer survivor, entrepreneur, and co-founder of World Class Clothing, a nonprofit brand raising awareness about colonoscopies and funding screenings for underinsured communities. After being diagnosed with colon cancer at 38, Brooks turned her experience into a mission to normalize conversations about prevention while also creating more space for fun, connection, and joy.

Connect with Brooks

I’ve never been great at journaling.
I’d start strong, buy the nice notebook, write for a few days – then stop.

But through The Life Shift Podcast, I learned how powerful reflection can be when it’s real, not forced. So I created something I’d actually use.

It’s called The Life Shift Journal.
A 12-week guided reflection with one simple prompt each day – designed to help you slow down, pay attention, and see how you’re changing along the way.

The rhythm repeats every four weeks – awareness, letting go, connection, becoming – three full cycles that help you notice how your answers evolve with you.

Sometimes the story we never wanted becomes the one that shapes who we are. When the people we love disappear too soon, we begin to understand how fragile and precious it all is.

Ricardo was only ten when his mother dropped him and his brother at the bowling alley and promised she would be right back. She never came back. That moment changed the way he saw the world. Through grief, silence, and eventually cancer, he learned that joy is not something that just arrives. It is something we build through intention, practice, and the quiet decision to keep living.

This conversation holds space for grief that never fully leaves but grows lighter with care. It is about learning to carry what is heavy without losing sight of what is still beautiful.
Take your time with this one. It is tender and real.

What You’ll Hear:

• The moment that changed everything for a ten-year-old boy

• How two brothers carried the same loss in completely different ways

• The lessons Ricardo learned about speaking grief instead of burying it

• What cancer taught him about time, fear, and perspective

• The daily practice of building joy after loss

• How choosing presence can soften even the hardest memories

Guest Bio

Ricardo Viso is a global entrepreneur, speaker, podcaster, and former executive who’s turned life’s toughest moments into powerful lessons on joy and resilience—and he’s got the scars (and stories) to prove it. Born in Denver, raised in Mexico City, and now calling Austin home, he’s been through it all—losing his mother to suicide at 10, overcoming a stint of incarceration, and even battling cancer. But instead of letting life break him, he used these experiences to build something incredible.

Now, he’s on a mission to help others break free from autopilot, shift their mindset, and create real joy in their lives and daily activities—without waiting for a life-altering wake-up call. As the founder of Joyful Living Lounge, Viso created a space where people can unwind, laugh, and soak up all the good vibes. No pressure, no perfection—just real people sharing stories, tips, and moments of joy.

As developer of the RIC Method, Viso has created a game-changing approach that helps individuals and teams rediscover passion and purpose in their work and lives. Imagine a workplace where people actually love what they do—engaged, thriving, and delivering incredible results. That’s the magic Viso brings.

Have you ever looked back on your childhood and realized how much you learned to keep inside? How the silence around you became something you carried, long after you left the place that taught it to you.

Shigeko Ito grew up in a home that looked perfect from the outside but felt empty inside. Years later, after a moment of betrayal that changed everything, she began the long work of finding her way back to herself. Her story moves from isolation to understanding, from blame to compassion, and from surviving to healing.

This conversation is about what it means to stop a generational pattern of silence and choose honesty instead. It is about finding language for pain that never had words. Take your time with this one. It is tender and real.

What You’ll Hear:

• How emotional neglect can shape a child’s sense of safety

• A moment of awakening that changed everything

• The long journey toward naming trauma and reclaiming self compassion

• The quiet power of writing as a tool for healing

• What it means to end generational silence

• Finding freedom through vulnerability and truth

If you grew up carrying things no one else could see, you may feel yourself in this story. Maria Gallucci was a bridge from the very beginning. As a child of deaf adults, she learned early how to interpret not just words, but emotion, context, and belonging. She understood how small acts of inclusion can change the way someone feels in a room. And later, she found herself interpreting the hardest words a person can hear when she had to tell her mom she was dying.

In this conversation, Maria reflects on growing up between worlds, the weight and beauty of being the one who explains life to others, and how grief continues to shape us long after the moment of loss. She also shares how parenting through grief deepened her sense of compassion and clarified her commitment to building a more inclusive world. This is a story about love, responsibility, and learning how to stay soft while carrying so much.

Take your time with this one. It is tender and real.

What you’ll hear in this episode

• What it feels like to grow up as the bridge in your family

• The moment Maria had to interpret her mother’s terminal diagnosis

• How grief reshapes identity and relationships

• Parenting while grieving

• Why small acts of inclusion matter

• A reminder that your story matters too

Guest Bio

Maria Gallucci is a multi-award-winning real estate agent and proud CODA (Child of Deaf Adults). Growing up as one of six hearing children raised by Deaf parents, she learned ASL before English and helped her parents buy a home at just 12 years old. This experience shaped her passion for inclusive communication and helping those who are often overlooked.

For over 30 years, Maria has supported homebuyers from all walks of life, with special focus on the Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and LGBTQ+ communities. She’s the founder of Uptown Realty Group, Gallucci Homes, ASL @ Compass Affinity Group, and ASL Realty, a national platform connecting Deaf & Hard of Hearing clients with signing agents. She ranks in the top 1% of agents in Colorado and top 1.5% nationwide.

Maria also serves on boards for Rocky Mountain Deaf School, DOVE, and Colorado Association of the Deaf. Her motto, "just try," reflects her belief that meaningful connection starts with one small step. Her debut book, Raised in Silence, is both a love letter to the Deaf & Hard of Hearing community and a guide for bridging communication gaps.

Connect with Maria:

What happens when one choice alters the course of your life?

At 20 years old, Cheryl Wilder made a decision that led to a devastating accident and decades of shame, guilt, and self-questioning. For years, she carried the weight of what she now calls moral injury, unsure if she even deserved healing.

In this candid conversation, Cheryl opens up about the accident, the long and layered path toward forgiveness, and how poetry and storytelling became her lifelines.

• How one night reshaped the way she saw herself and the world
• Why shame felt easier to carry than forgiveness
• The moments and practices that helped her reclaim her worth

This episode is about accountability, healing, and the courage it takes to finally believe you are worth good things.

Guest Bio

Cheryl Wilder is an author, coach, and motivational speaker. She helps clients connect their personal lives with their skills and knowledge to create a professional presence aligned with their values. A natural mediator and believer in the journey as a destination, Cheryl has an instinct to understand people, anticipate their needs, and listen to unvoiced questions. She’s passionate about helping clients see purpose and connections in everyday occurrences.

Have you ever felt the quiet pull to change everything you thought you were building?

For Marty Ross-Dolen, that moment came on September 11, 2001. She had devoted her entire life to psychiatry, but as she watched the towers fall with her children nearby, something in her said it was time to let go. That decision set her on a new course — one that led to motherhood, teaching, and eventually a memoir that uncovered the silence of multi-generational grief.

In this conversation, Marty shares what it means to step away from a lifelong identity and find a new one through writing and reflection.

• Why listening to the voice inside matters more than the expectations you were raised to follow
• How unspoken grief can ripple through generations and quietly shape a family’s story
• What happens when you allow yourself to change your mind, even after decades of commitment

Marty’s journey is both personal and universal, a reminder that it’s never too late to begin again.

👉 Listen to the full conversation and support more stories like this.

Guest Bio

What happens when life forces you to stop fighting and finally let go?

For years, Isabelle Daikeler lived in pain and fear, holding tightly to identities that no longer fit. It all came to a breaking point on the floor of a bedroom in Hawaii, when surrender became her only option. What unfolded was not instant healing, but the start of a transformation that continues to this day.

In this episode of The Life Shift Podcast, Isabelle shares:

• How years of pain, illness, and lost identity led her to a wall she could not push past
• The night she surrendered in prayer, her body released decades of fear and trauma
• Why befriending the unknown has allowed her to step into deeper authenticity and self-worth

This is a story of patience, surrender, and learning that strength often shows up in ways we don’t expect.

👉 Listen now and feel less alone in your own process of change.

Guest Bio:

What happens when you realize you don’t actually believe you can heal?

Heidi Blackie spent a decade battling chronic illness, grief, and perfectionism until one raw moment in her kitchen changed everything. She asked herself a simple but life-altering question: What am I believing about my ability to heal?

In this conversation, Heidi shares how that vow to believe in herself shifted her relationship with her body, her perfectionism, and her sense of self. Her story will resonate with anyone who has felt trapped by patterns, weighed down by loss, or unsure how to move forward.

You’ll hear about:

• The moment Heidi realized disbelief was keeping her stuck in illness
• How grief, trauma, and perfectionism built the conditions for collapse
• The practices and reframes that helped her connect to her “unshakable me”

Healing isn’t quick or easy, but it starts with belief.

Guest Bio:

Heidi Blackie is a speaker, consultant, and creator of UnshakableMe®, a science-meets-soul program helping women dismantle limiting beliefs and reclaim their inner power. After chronic illness brought her to rock bottom, she made a radical choice to believe in her body’s ability to heal — a turning point that reshaped her life from the inside out.

With 25 years as an Occupational Therapist and hard-won lived experience, she now guides others to meet adversity with clarity, connection, and self-trust. Her story is an invitation to anyone facing personal challenges, offering grounded hope, actionable tools, and a powerful reminder that we are far more capable than we think.

Connect with Heidi:

What does it mean to live a life that is never dull?

For Chris Jordan, the answer has been unfolding since he was twelve years old, standing in front of his grandfather’s headstone. Etched into the stone were six words his grandmother chose: It was never dull. What started as a simple phrase became a mantra that shaped every risk, every leap, and every choice Chris has made since.

• How a childhood visit to a cemetery planted a lifelong guidepost
• Why dropping out of college and leaving comfort behind felt more true than staying safe
• The ways creativity, storytelling, and encouragement became his life’s real work

Chris shows us how even small words can carry us through fear and uncertainty, helping us choose the path that feels alive. His story is a reminder that our lives don’t have to be perfect to be meaningful.

Listen now and consider what phrase you’d want etched on your own life.

Guest Bio:

What happens when the life you built suddenly unravels?

Dan Boettcher had the degrees, the career path, and the promise of a future in diplomacy. On paper, it looked perfect. But inside, he was falling apart – and one surreal moment in an airport lounge sent his world in an entirely different direction.

In this conversation, Dan shares what it means to start over when the future you planned is no longer possible. His story is not just about survival but about transformation, and how meaning can show up in unexpected places.

• How a mental health crisis forced him to step away from the identity he built
• The moment he found meaning in unexpected grace and healing
• Why jewelry, storytelling, and transformation became his new way forward

This is a conversation about breaking open, rediscovering purpose, and finding beauty in places you never thought to look.

Guest Bio

Daniel Boettcher is the founder of The Intrepid Wendell and a Graduate Gemologist (GIA) with academic degrees from Yale, Georgetown, and American Universities. He began his career in law while preparing for a future in diplomacy, but a serious mental health crisis ultimately altered that path. Unable to pursue government work due to clearance restrictions, Daniel set out on a journey to rediscover meaning and passion – leading him back to a childhood love of gems and minerals. Today, he travels the globe sourcing rare gemstones and precious metals to craft custom jewelry that reflects the personal stories of his clients. A digital nomad, seasoned world traveler, and polyglot, he has visited over 100 countries and finds inspiration in every culture he encounters.