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Soul and Stories

by Steve Vannoy

Soul and Stories is a show where you'll be inspired by interviews with diverse guests who are seeking whole-hearted lives. Discover life's potential when you set intentions and take action to align with your soul's purpose. Together, we'll get energized and raise our vibration on the journey to live authentically in flow with our higher purpose.

Episodes

Restart - 014

13m · Published 03 Apr 03:00

A year ago, I gave myself permission to pause everything when my dad was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer. I stopped my podcast for many months. Now, I am back and want to help raise vibrations all around. So much Love and Light to you!

Mel Bridger - Rising - 013

1h 9m · Published 14 Feb 22:25

Mel Bridger became internationally recognized for her success in the Salsa dance industry in her twenties at venues around the world. Her energy and drive commanded a big following. She felt tremendous pressure feeling like she always had to prove herself to people and put on a certain persona. Behind the mask of success, happiness and confidence was Mel’s secret feeling of not being good enough. Years later those feelings worsened as Mel suffered from depression and anxiety that she kept hidden away from everyone around her.

I met Mel in 2017 in London while seated at a table across from her at Chris Ducker’s inaugural Youpreneur Summit among hundreds of entrepreneurs looking to build and grow their businesses. Mel was in the midst of a new journey to become an entrepreneur as the CEO in a fitness business she cofounded with her husband, Steve. Our conversation that day activated Mel’s determination and courage to step out from behind the mask of secrecy about her anxiety and depression.

Mel initiated “her own coming out” experience that started with telling her mom about her decade long struggle with mental health. With this breakthrough, she sparked a personal movement to speak out openly across various social media and professional platforms sharing her story and announced, "it’s ok to not feel ok." Her story quickly circled the globe as people watched and shared her video broadcasts and were inspired to speak about their own stories and struggles.

Mel describes what it was like to let go of her tightly held secret. “It was like I had my hands on a door and I was struggling to keep it closed.”

Within a few months, Mel and husband, Steve, along with the Beatz Fitness team were selected out of thousands of applicants to move forward advancing into the final stages of production with one of the BBC’s most famous TV shows, Dragons' Den. Similar to “Shark Tank” in America, the show receives pitches from new businesses and entrepreneurs seeking to win investment funds. While their appearance before the investor judges (aka “Dragons”) was never aired on the network, the experience was a success in so many ways. Mel stood her ground, pitched the business and claimed huge honors and recognition from five of Britain’s most well-known and influential multimillionaires.

Success is not always about money, especially in the early stages of entrepreneurship. Mel’s journey and personal growth in recent years is a powerful achievement in itself and a great example for us all.

On finally getting closure, Mel offered newfound wisdom, “People think you try to close the door to get closure, but what you need to do is open that sucker wide.” Mel’s personal growth and authenticity landed her on the main stage at Chris Ducker’s second annual Youpreneur Summit in London where she returned from year one and shared her inspirational story in front of 500 fellow entrepreneurs.

To learn more about Mel Bridger, follow @themummytrainer on Facebook, @themummytraineruk on Instagram. Be sure to check out her blog, www.themummytrainer.co.uk and business at www.beatz.fit

Declutter Your Home and Let Go to Spark Joy - 012

21m · Published 23 Jan 03:07

In this episode, I reflect on how downsizing our possessions helped us to upgrade our lives. Our experience moving to China seemed impossible when we first started the process of decluttering and letting go of stuff we had accumulated throughout our lives.

It turned out to be quite liberating and such a freeing experience as it opened up space for us to spark more Joy into our lives.

Imagine that you’ve just been told you need to pack up your house to move to a new home. Just the thought of packing and moving is quite daunting for most of us.

Now, imagine you are ONLY allowed to take what fits inside two checked bags per person in the household (under 50 pounds each) for an intercontinental flight along with your carry-on! That’s exactly what my husband, Azul Terronez, and I committed to when we moved our family from San Diego, California to Shanghai.

It’s perfect timing to remember all the important lessons we learned as we begin to settle into our new home in Puerto Rico. I also share a few of the tips I recently discovered from Marie Kondo’s new show, “Tidying Up” on Netflix.

Azul Terronez - How I Met My Husband - 011

1h 16m · Published 15 Jan 05:34

Azul Terronez is an incredible husband, a wonderful father and my best friend. He lights up my life and many others who have the gift of knowing him. We met just over eleven years ago and have shared a journey and passionate pursuit to live in more alignment with our truth and inspire others to do the same.

In recent years, we became business partners in our efforts to help authors find their unique messages, tap into their creativity and overcome resistance to write and publish their books.

I am beyond words with excitement to be able to introduce you to Azul through this episode. It’s a behind the scenes style conversation that only the two of us can share with you.

This episode picks up from where I left off in Episode #1 titled, My Soul and Story. Azul and I open up about:

The night we met and the synchronicity in that experience
Common misconceptions about coming out as gay men later in life
The struggle of connecting with our true selves in the decades that led up to that moment
Vulnerability that comes with owning our truths and fear of failure
The concept of "Love at First Sight”
How focusing on Love has strengthened our family’s connections, including our former spouses

Azul described what unfolded and the lightning effect that happened between the two of us on the night we first met.

"Once you decided to be vulnerable you just went ALL in and so did I.”

After we said our goodnights, I remember thinking I’ll probably never see this beautiful man who took my breath away. It felt like it was too good to be true and our life circumstances were just too complicated at the time.

The day after we met I boarded my routine cross-country flight and left California. I flew first class to NYC for consulting work where I had been living my own version of Sex and the City, all the while wondering if I’d ever hear the sound of Azul's incredibly sexy voice ever again. After almost three days had passed I got my answer…

Be sure to listen until the end to find out what happened next.

To learn about Azul, visit www.CoachAzul.com and discover more about book coaching programs, his podcast show, Born to Write, and TedX talk, What Makes a Good Teacher Great.
You can find Azul and connect on Facebook @coachazul.

Enlightened Connections - 010

13m · Published 08 Jan 06:30

The New Year is here and there’s so much talk about setting intentions, setting goals for ourselves and moving onward and upward. Yes, it’s true that we only have the present moment and there is no turning back. Yet, we hope for a brighter tomorrow.

In this episode, I take some time to reflect about where I am on my journey and a big lesson I learned that helped me to get here.

I found myself reflecting back to 18 years ago in the days when my favorite TV show, Sex and the City, was a way to escape the day-to-day reality of my life. I dug into my memories back to August 2001 when Season 4 Episode 11 aired on HBO. It was titled, Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda.

Back in those days, I often imagined what my life might be like if only I lived in the City with fabulous friends to hang out with like Carrie Bradshaw, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha. What would it be like to live the Manhattan lifestyle with brunch among friends?

Kinda silly to think about those daydreams now, but it reminded me of an important lesson I learned soon afterward in the days that followed the tragic events of September 11, 2001. Everyone was stunned.

I just remember thinking, I don’t want my life to be filled with a bunch of Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda’s. I didn’t want to wait until someday to start living my life. I still don’t want to wait until someday.

Today, I’m reminding myself of the BIG purpose of life. I am reminded to embrace the present moment. Life is for living right now. I want to keep reminding myself and inspire you to never forget to embrace the present moment, to live fully and shine as brightly as possible.

Don't wait until someday to express your uniqueness.

Seek out new adventures for yourself as soon as possible. Acknowledge any fears or doubts, then choose an intention that will lead you to embrace the brilliant light inside you and share it with the world!

Lots of Love and Light,

Steve

The Time to Create Magic is Now with Dawn Sinclair and Bahia Makhoul - 009

1h 13m · Published 01 Jan 04:31

Who are you?

It’s a common question and often leads to common answers linked to careers, roles and other circumstantial descriptions that help us set ourselves apart from others.

Think about your answer to this question carefully. Who are you?

What if you strip away all the labels, role expectations and conditions attached to your answer? Who would you be left with?

Who are you? The answer is simple yet deeply intricate.

Have you ever considered that we are all equal? That we are all connected?

My guests today for this beautiful conversation are Dawn Sinclair and Bahia Mackoul.

They help others step into their Truth to discover that we are all equal in our essence.

“Truth can only be known through direct experience.” Everybody comes from a different place of understanding and Being. Anything you haven’t experienced is external from yourself. The only truth you have is that which you experience. Dawn and Bahia create experiences for people and allow them to come in their own truth. That creates our world.

Your Truth is your Belief. Nobody can tell you that it’s not your truth. It is your truth. No matter what your truth is. Together, Dawn and Bahia open up the space and hold the space for others no matter what their truth is and nobody has the right to tell anybody else that their truth is wrong.

At one point, I asked a burning question in my curiosity. How does the Universe pull us together?

Dawn replied, “Well that’s the thing. When you start living in your flow it just does. It just is.”

Bahia expanded, "That’s the Magic. That’s the Truth. I feel like when you make that conscious effort to walk in your Truth and to honor your true feelings and live from a place of vulnerability and from a place of Love you will just naturally attract those people in your life that are going to be there to reflect that back to you."

Several years ago, Dawn and Bahia put down all the identity labels and masks. It happened independently as their lives were undergoing separate transitions. During that time in their lives, they came together in what became a sacred interaction where they walked into their own Truth simultaneously. They connected on such a deep level and knew in that moment they had to bring their newfound secret to the world.

The secret of knowing someone at their soul level is available to everyone. To allow one's self to be. They knew they had tapped into something truly special and what followed was their co-creation to write and publish a book titled Self. The feeling that comes from Self, is what came through Dawn following this sacred connection with Bahia. It is unexplainable how it happened, yet Dawn wrote the book all at once so clear, pure and untouched. She also created all of the colorful and inspiring illustrations in the book by hand.

Self came to be in a way that just flowed. It is an absolute divine expression to remind all who read it to remember to embrace their soul. The book has made its way into every school in Nova Scotia, Canada, as a part of character development for children.

Bahia described the experience of how reflection of Self works in our lives in this way. “What you are now going to experience in the world is that which exists within you. Your belief systems, your conditioning, the way that you feel about yourself is how situations in your life are going to be presented to you. That’s how we learn and grow. That’s how we begin to identify patterns in our lives that are no longer serving us.”

Lee Harris, the globally acclaimed intuitive messenger and transformational leader, described Self as a seed rather than a book.

I agree wholeheartedly. I believe Self will help us all to replace the seeds of fear with seeds of Love.

To learn more about how to foster deeper connections, you can find Bahia and Dawn on Facebook @1EqualEssence, on Instagram @BeYourEssence and visit their website www.equalessence.ca to learn more about Self and more.

Koes Bong - The Best Gift of All is Self-Love - 008

48m · Published 25 Dec 08:00

Koes Bong was born and raised in Indonesia until he moved to the US for college in 2000. He currently lives in Portland, Oregon, with his wife, Lindsay, and their two children.

In this episode, Koes shares what it was like being unemployed after years of working in the software industry. Being highly educated and highly skilled had given him a false sense of security when his pursuit to land another job left him empty-handed for many months.

Doorway after doorway failed to open and after more than 100 rejections from job interviews he began to reevaluate the meaning of success for his own life.

Koes shared, "I was able to truly see who I am on the inside without all the labels."

Professionally, Koes had been working in the tech industry for over 12 years where the competition can get fierce and there is no room for failure. Progress is tracked based on the work you output, often at the risk of experiencing a burnout.

As Koes progressed through his career and became a manager, he slowly noticed how this kind of mindset is not sustainable. He has his wife, Lindsay, to thank for shining the light on the idea of using self-love and self-compassion in cultivating empathy and wonder in his own life and in the lives of the people he worked with.

For Koes, this journey has transformed his mindset in realizing that what he does or doesn't do does not change who he truly is.

With his new beliefs about success in life, Koes is now open to taking more risks and putting less attention toward the return on investment. Koes, along with his wife, Lindsay, and their close friend, Samantha Thomas partnered on creating a podcast called You are Infinitely Loved. They are 3 friends who have separately practiced self-love and self-compassion and have experienced what it feels like to live out this belief that we are infinitely loved. The more conversations they have around this topic, the more they see how it lights them up. They put this project out in the world because this is the mindset they want to keep growing in and they want share it with everyone they encounter.

To learn more, visit www.youareinfinitelyloved.com

Becky Lindstrom - It’s Time for a New Perspective - 007

1h 12m · Published 18 Dec 08:00

On a recent trip back to my hometown, I was reminded of my love-hate relationship with the place where I grew up. I attribute most of my negative viewpoint to the widespread homophobia I faced there as a deeply repressed gay kid, the closed-mindedness and traditional beliefs. I never felt I could be my authentic self under the cultural and societal pressures and chose to stay hidden for many years. Return visits always seem to stir up these old feelings for me.

This time, my trip home was different. I went with a strong intention and chose to see myself and my connection to “home” from a different perspective. I chose to see everything through a lens of LOVE and I experienced a powerful sign of growth in honoring my self-worth and stepping into authenticity.

As someone who is sensitive and empathic, I fell into the tendency to put others needs before mine at an early age.

In this episode, I share a story from the past that stirs up my deep affection for all the wild, wonderful things I love about West Virginia, Bluefield (my hometown), and my family’s old set of encyclopedias.

My guest today, Becky Lindstrom, is a life coach, teacher and writer. She is an expert on the topic of perspective and the power it holds in our own personal fulfillment.

Becky’s journey took her from Mishawaka, Indiana, to studies at Purdue University and then on to about a dozen careers in some of the most beautiful settings around the country. Prior to becoming a UC Davis-certified life coach, she experienced panic attacks and suffered from anxiety and depression. Becky’s path led her to discover that she is the teacher she was always seeking and everything shifted when she found a new perspective.

Becky now serves as a compassionate, collaborative partner for those who embark on their own journey of self-realization. Her mission in life is to empower selfless perfectionists to change the world by changing their perspective first. Becky's vision for the world is a place where everyone has the clarity and self-worth to find authentic fulfillment, even in the midst of life's most daunting challenges.

To learn more about Becky, visit www.everpresentlife.com

Kathe Crawford Part 2: Living with an Open Heart - 006

45m · Published 11 Dec 08:30

This episode really took me by surprise. It wasn’t how I planned it to be and it was definitely not an accident that Kathe Crawford showed up to talk with me at this particular moment in my journey.

Please note: This is Part 2 of my continued conversation with Kathe Crawford.

You are exactly where you are supposed to be on your own path to living in divine alignment with your truest self.

Recap from Part 1:

While there were some unexpected turns, I have no doubts our conversation landed exactly where it was supposed to and will have lasting impact for someone out there who is having a bad day and needed to hear it.

Ever wonder about this?

"If they only knew who I really am, my real story. If they only knew the truth…"

What might happen if I can just be open and honest about the real story going on in my life? What if I just get honest, vulnerable, allow the hurt and honor the pain? What if I met my demons and opened my heart?

Fear and shame can keep any of us locked inside a never-ending loop of a story. Kathe Crawford knows this in a profound, heart-shattering way…

Kathe Crawford is the author of Unlocking Secrets My Journey to an Open Heart.

She is a master Integrative coach, speaker and teacher.

Kathe managed to build a successful career working with global luxury brands, while struggling and overwhelmed by caring for two children and her terminally sick husband. Keeping his controversial illness a secret for years was terrifying. Kathe wanted to live differently—but couldn’t see a way out.

Until she admitted the truth.

And that’s when it got eye-opening, heart-opening and very, very real!

In her moving and soul inspiring memoir Kathe shares her story of hiding behind a protective wall of secrets and shame that led her on a brave and courageous journey of self-discovery and love.

Following a successful corporate career in the luxury industry, she is the founder of Your Truth(full) Life a supportive community dedicated to liberating and inspiring women to unleash their truth to live a fully expressed life.

To learn more about Kathe, visit her website: www.kathecrawford.com

Kathe Crawford Part 1: Tapping into Your Truth - 005

42m · Published 11 Dec 08:00

I was having a tough day before we started our conversation. I just couldn’t shake it off and pull myself together. I almost canceled, last-minute. I am so glad I just leaned into my fear and pressed onward to do the show.

I feel so close and connected to Kathe. She is a sacred soul sister. Her voice is like a hug that invites me to just be myself. I’m truly grateful for Kathe's willingness to have this conversation and hold space for me.

I opened up to her in a raw, vulnerable way about my own doubts and shame. Kathe and I took the opportunity to just go with it and talk openly and honestly about the challenges that come with real life.