It's All About the Questions

Covid has put health at the top of many minds this past year plus and my guests are no exception. Tracey Welson-Rossman and Dr. Marta Becker were watching what was happening with patients being diagnosed with long-haul covid and decided to do something to help patients and their doctors track symptoms and come up with a common language to work towards healing. The result is an app, Journal My Health, that is being used to track not only long Covid symptoms but also those with other chronic illnesses.

How they developed the app, what it can mean for patient-doctor interactions and why we should all be journaling our health are just some of the questions asked on this episode.

Tracey Welson-Rossman Founder, CEO Journal My Health

Tracey Welson-Rossman brings her years of experience in the technology and entrepreneurial space, along with her own healthcare journey, to create this app for patients.

Marta T. Becker, MD Chief Medical Officer

Marta T. Becker, MD is a board-certified otolaryngologist-Head and Neck surgeon in private practice in the Philadelphia. She graduated from Harvard University and the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology (HST) division of Harvard Medical School and was residency-trained at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

She is a partner at the single-specialty practice Berger Henry ENT Specialty Group. She is passionate about using digital tools and the internet to help improve patients healthcare experience and outcome.

Thomas Kies, or as I know him, Tom, just released his fourth novel in the Geneva Chase Mystery series. Books that you will want to devour from the first page until the last. I know from experience. 

Writing novels is a passion for this former journalist and life experiences have given him lots of stories to tell and complex characters to create. But that is not all he does. His day job is running a Chamber of Commerce in North Carolina and serving on numerous boards about the environment.

Listen as Tom shares how he juggles writing, advocating for small business owners and keeping the barrier island relevant and environmentally sound as it grows.

Author of the Geneva Chase Mystery Series, Thomas Kies lives and writes on a barrier island on the coast of North Carolina with his wife, Cindy.

He has a long career working for newspapers and magazines, primarily in New England and New York, and is currently working on his next novel.

When he’s not writing mysteries, Thomas Kies is the President of the Carteret County Chamber of Commerce. Contact Tom

Illness prevented an earlier post of this episode recorded on June 29, 2021 yet the content is perfectly relevant today and always. giving ourselves permission to "kickass" as Angie Colee puts it is not something easy to do for most people. Many look for outside permission to excel and live full out for their dreams.

Take a listen as guest Angie Colee shares how she learned to give herself permission to live a life she defines including leaving safety behind for a covid duration nomad tour of living her dreams all across America, quitting a dream copywriting job for a major Internet marketer and stepping into being single and loving it. She also shares how you can too.

Angie Colee is a confidence coach and business strategist who works with creative entrepreneurs to help them conquer fears, break through anxiety blocks, and start or grow a business with rockstar confidence. So many would-be freelancers and entrepreneurs let fear stop them before they get started, and Angie's made it her mission to help more people learn how to deal with those fears and confidently step into the spotlight.

Angie knows what it's like to have ideas and a powerful desire to show people what you can do. She's had to sneak smart, proven marketing strategies by clueless corporate know-it-alls... and been yelled at (by those same know-it-alls) when those strategies went on to make the company millions of dollars. She realized how often ego gets in the way at big companies, and that you can't tap into your full potential when you're giving your all to a corporation that won't give its all to you. 

If you're tired of being told what to do by clueless assholes and know you were meant for more, Angie's your girl. She's been coaching and running creative teams for companies like Lowes, Product Launch Formula, Copy Chief, and Orzy Media for years. In that time has helped hundreds of creative freelancers start their own successful businesses. She’s written and strategized dozens of multimillion dollar campaigns (including two during a pandemic) and her work is responsible for more than $50 million in direct to consumer sales.

Angie holds a Master of Entertainment Industry Management from Carnegie Mellon University, which means she understands the unique challenges faced by creatives in business. Her degree blends more traditional MBA expertise with the art of valuing and monetizing creative work. She was in the third graduating class of this creative business hybrid program.

What do you call someone who is a Hip Hop artist, Yoga instructor, helps companies and individual create their brands and tell their stories? I call him Rajiv Nathan.

Known as the Startup Hypeman in the world of startup pitching for funding, Rajiv Nathan AKA RajNation, spends his time helping companies of all sizes tell their stories. Not just for venture capital funding but also to their future customers and existing staff. 

On this episode Rajiv shares how he uses all of his own story as a rapper, yoga teacher, MMA emcee and entrepreneur to help others excel in all they do. He exemplifies his belief that you can turn everything you enjoy into a career, without burnout! One key? Understanding and communicating your POV.

Working with staff is not easy. Add into that the long time relationship of a closely knit family who knows how to push each other's buttons and it could end up being a disaster. Or not.

Can a father and daughter work together and perform as a team without drama? When the team is Neal and Tara Johnson the answer is yes.

During this episode Neal and Tara share honest and thoughtful answers on why they started working together, how they handle conflict, how Neal has learned how to push Tara out of her comfort zone and why Tara embraces it now.

We also discuss how they handle being in the mortgage business during an unprecedented market and how they both balance work and play.

Neal Johnson has over 40 years of Financial Services Experience and 20 years specializing in Mortgage Lending. He has the expertise to work with clients to find the right mortgage to fit their individual needs.

Neal has lived in his community for over 50 years. During his professional career, he has served in many Leadership roles including the Economic Development Commission, Melbourne Regional Chamber of Commerce, and AMIKids Space Coast. He is also a member of the Civilian Military Community Relations Council and was the 2018 Member of the Year. Neal spends his free time with his wife Terri, and their standard poodle Cody, taking their RV on trips all over Florida.

Tara Johnson was born and raised in Melbourne Florida and has been in retail banking for 10 years, and Mortgage banking for 4 years. During her professional career, she has honed in her leadership skills, following after her Father’s footsteps in the community. She is the Past Chair for the Melbourne Regional Chamber ENGAGE Young Professionals, and current Chair for the Chamber Ambassadors, as well as on the Board of Directors for the Melbourne Regional Chamber, and LovingNeighbor, a local non-profit. She was recognized as the ENGAGE Young Professional of the year for 2019, Women of Excellence nominee for 2020, as well as 2019 SpaceCoast Business Under 40 winner in the Finance category. When she isn’t spending time at the Disney Parks, she spends her time going on adventures with her close friends, family and boyfriend. Her pride and joy is her Husky Pit mix, Cesar.

When it's your birthday you get to talk about whatever lights you up and gets you excited and for me that is talking all things Star Wars, Star Trek, Marvel, DC and Harry Potter with a few friends.

Take a listen as we debate characters, shows, directors and the shifting timelines of our favorite shows and movies. I am joined by Brits James Adam and Mark Asquith and fellow U.S. woman in tech Janet Schijns as we share what got us into being a Sci-Fi, fantasy, superhero fan, our favorite characters and what we really think about those alternative time lines!

Jennifer Pestikas has lived her life choosing courage and overcoming self doubt to build an amazing career leading others/ Along the way she realized that becoming friends with yourself is one of the best things you can do.

On this episode we talk about self-compassion, how Jennifer is making new boxes to reframe her life and how you can too. She also shares several powerful questions you can ask to thrive no matter your situation.

Jen Pestikas has always been a type-A super achiever. She was the one who got straight A’s in school and was devastated when she got a B. Jen was the one who held herself to such high standards and needed to check all of the boxes in life. After she grew up, that super achieving nature followed her to her career in the corporate world.

After 20 years in corporate, climbing the ladder in financial services from a bank teller to a Senior Vice President and doing “all the right things”, Jen’s health took a turn for the worse in 2019 and she ended in total burnout. After years of striving, she felt like an empty shell – without passion and direction in her career and life.

While the time of healing that followed was so hard, it was also a gift. It made Jen look at herself and realize she didn’t need to be perfect. She could let herself off the hook from checking all those boxes and not try to be a super woman. Jen finally understood what she wanted for the first time in her life. And what she wanted was to give back to women so they could avoid the same traps of striving, perfectionism and not speaking their truth.

Jen currently runs the Brave Women at Work podcast and maintains the bravewomenatwork.com

Kim Meninger is on a mission. A mission to stop imposter syndrome from stopping women from achieving their dreams. Having lived it herself she knows the constant battle of your own mind to tell you you can't possibly be good enough to do something. Her mission is so important to her she even created a podcast called, The Imposter Syndrome Files, and has a free 7 day challenge to greater confidence.

On this episode Kim shares how she learned to not let a fear response be her lead into, or not into, an opportunity, how re-defining your value can help release imposter syndrome and a few more questions she asks herself to keep her mind free of imposter syndrome.

As a women’s leadership coach, Kim Meninger is passionate about empowering women to become more confident, visible and influential leaders. Having spent over 10 years in the high-tech industry, she experienced first-hand the unique challenges and opportunities facing women in traditionally male-dominated environments. She strives to be the resource to women that she did not have during her own corporate career.

Kim has a BA in psychology and an MBA from Boston College. She is an ICF Associate Certified Coach and CCE Board Certified Coach with certifications in career, executive and leadership development coaching. The Impostor Syndrome Files Podcast: https://impostorsyndrome.buzzsprout.com/ Free Impostor Syndrome Challenge – 7 Days to Greater Confidence: https://yourcareersuccess.com/impostor-syndrome-challenge/

When all your competitors are merging or being bought outright, what do you do? Do you stay independent or do you look to do the same as them? When they all lock into one business focus, do you do the same or do you carve your own path?

Jason Bystrak and Peter DiMarco, Vice Presidents at D&H Distributing (104 year old family owned company), join me on this episode to talk about how to know what you should do for your business. They know firsthand the questions you need to ask yourself and whether you should care what your competitors are doing.

The conversation also goes into how a $5 billion company operates with 36% employee ownership versus a $50 billion company. I especially loved the conversation about egos, complicating things and the bottoms-up versus top-down method of deciding your businesses next steps.

If you have employees, or are thinking about adding staff for the first time, Peter's insights into hiring practices will open your eyes.

Jason Bystrak is the vice president of the cloud and services business unit for D&H Distributing, and leads a team of cross-functional experts responsible for the strategy and execution of the company’s XaaS ("Everything as a Service") business, helping channel partners deliver total solutions in a subscription model. He oversees technology practice areas including cloud, professional services, security and unified communications.

He is the chair of the Channel Development Advisory Council for CompTIA, previously served as chair for CompTIA’s cloud community, and has been named to ChannelPro-SMB’s list of 20/20 Visionaries, as well as CRN’s 100 People You Don’t Know But Should. He frequently offers insight into the opportunity and future of cloud at strategic industry events, including CompTIA’s ChannelCon, Channel Partners and IT Nation.

Peter DiMarco joined D&H in 2015 as vice president of VAR sales, Computer Products Division (CPD). He oversees sales teams working with all value-added resellers that sell through the CPD division, including commercial, government and education solution providers as well as managed service providers. Peter manages the inside and outside sales teams, solutions and Cloud support teams focused on new market growth strategies, aimed at helping its SMB solution providers evolve towards larger mid-market sales opportunities and solutions. He is focused on driving VAR engagement efforts including the VAR Track events at D&H's trade shows, and a new K-12 Advisory Board focusing on this vertical market, in addition to driving new programs and support services.

Peter previously served as an IT channel development leader at EarthLink, and has coordinated sales initiatives with partners such as Microsoft, Cisco, Dell, Lenovo, VMware, Apple, Juniper, Citrix and HP. His IT distribution experience includes a vice president of VAR sales position at Ingram Micro.

There were some audio issues for two minutes. I apologize.

My mom always told me don't borrow worry from tomorrow. I've not been really great about letting go worry. Do I obsessively worry? No. But many do. Any many others get into worry cycles.

Rene Brent has written a powerful Book, Breaking Your Worry Agreement. On this episode Rene shares strategies and tactics she has developed over the course of her career to help her clients break their personal worry agreements and live a life filled with increased joy and connection to those around you.

We also answer questions around, Is worry ever helpful? Can you worry too little? and what happens in your body when you worry about worrying.

Rene has been a RN for 30 years and has worked in ICU, Trauma/ER and the Recovery Room. In her experience, she was inspired by the powerful mind/body connection and how self-awareness and reframing negative thoughts helps us heal emotionally and physically.

It was a natural transition for Rene Brent to go from being a healer of the body to a healer of the mind. She is passionate about helping her clients use the power of the mind and move forward in their lives and reach personal and professional goals.

Rene Brent’s solo practice is located in Maitland, Florida. She is certified as a Clinical and Transpersonal Hypnotherapist. 

Rene Brent is an International speaker and a #1 International Best Selling Author of  “How Big Is Your BUT?”. On March 16th, 2021 Rene released her latest book “Breaking the Worry Agreement” and has already reached International Best Seller status on Amazon.

Rene Brent is a registered member of The American Council of Hypnotherapist (ACHE) and the International Association of Interpersonal Hypnotherapist (IAIH)