From Setbacks to Success: The Best ReLaunch Stories of 2024

Welcome to the ReLaunch podcast. And as we prepare to close out 2024 and step into 2025 I am beyond excited to take you on a journey through the top 10 episodes of the relaunch podcast this year, and as we hit 100,000 downloads. Thank you everyone for tuning in, for recommending us to your friends and family. These episodes represent the very best of what it means to relaunch, to embrace life's transitions and the transformations and really create the opportunities to have a life of purpose, fulfillment and success. At the relaunch, we focus on guiding mid lifers through any transition, whether it's business, life, health, wellness or relationships. We got you covered. Our goal is to help you create a lifestyle that aligns with your highest potential, and in every episode, our signature three HQ alignment code is you. So imagine your head, heart and highest self is working together, releasing limiting beliefs, reconnecting with your purpose and having you take bold, inspired action. These are my favorite episodes featuring incredible insights and moments of vulnerability and transformation from remarkable guests. And to make this even more special, I've hand picked my favorite moments from these top 10 episodes to highlight the lessons, the breakthroughs and the inspiration that truly define the essence of the relaunch podcast. So are you ready for the top 10 episodes of 2024 these are in no particular order, and I'm going to give you the episode number in case you want to actually hear the entire episode. Let's begin.

Episode 217, trading stocks for spirituality, the shift to intuitive wisdom with Steph Mahoney For you, were you always kind of in tune to this kind of, this, this ability to connect with source, or did that come on suddenly, what? What was your story? So

I was in a very toxic, abusive relationship, verbally abusive, narcissistic. I lost all of my friendships, my identity. I had no idea who I was, okay. So that was for three years, and one day I finally had the courage to leave. But it was leaving to the path of nowhere because I literally had nothing and nobody to go to. So it was in this deep state of depression that an inner voice came to me, and it said, give your life to me. And I looked at that voice as if I could look at something, but in my mind, I was like this as like I have just left a controlling relationship. I am never going to give my life to anybody anymore, you can just go, is what I said. So then my life continued to downward spiral into new levels of rock bottom, and I was suicidal at that point. I had no reason of wanting to be here anymore. And that voice came back to me, and instead, Stephanie, give your life to me. I'm like, You can have my life because I don't even want it anymore. And what I noticed after very, very slowly, is that I felt like I had a like a spotlight over my life like a flashlight, and it began to help me, moment by moment, decision by decision, untangle this deep web that I was in, and slowly it went deeper, and it went actually into my heart, and It started to help me, like, relieve this pain and this deep, these deep wounds I was holding on to, and it created this road map for me. And many, many years ago, many, many years later, I should say, it transformed nothing that I had into everything I have now finally come true, and it's authentic happiness. It's authentic inner peace, and it's living my purpose, and now stepping into this place where I want to show other people how they could do the same.

Episode 218, redefining fatherhood in the digital age with summer Clayton, i. What triggered you to start with, Hey, let's just go with the shaving thing. I'm gonna there had to be something. There had to be some type of relaunch there that you're like, I'm gonna share this. Was there a family member was there? Like, what happened where you're like, hey, I decided I'm gonna go, go live and I'm gonna shave.

Right? Absolutely. You know, when I first started using the Tick Tock app, there was a lot of self indulgence just either consuming content or making content that was funny that I think is now terribly embarrassing. I have some old videos on my tick tock. Don't even look,

you know, now, go back and look, you don't,

but the people who follow me from the very beginning, they still enjoy it. It was corny, but at some point, when I noticed that people started to follow me, it also felt like an opportunity to kind of lean into the community and just kind of nurture the community that I had. I can't say that there was a point in time where I said, You know what, there's a lot of fatherless kids. Let me capitalize off of this. It was more so I'd like to nurture people. I feel like, God has placed that sort of encouraging vibe or tendency in me, and I get to use it. I get to use both the negative and positive experiences of my upbringing, with my parents and with my peers, and I get to use that to build people up and encourage them. What really helped me to go full fledged into it, what really motivated me to do so, was this idea of younger me who would sit alone during lunch, and I often flash back to those memories of sitting alone, and sometimes whenever I see it in TV or media, or when someone sends me a message and say they ate alone, or they ate me, there's a little bit of excitement there because they're benefiting from My content, but the majority of it is just sadness for them, because I don't want you to have to eat with me. I'm glad that you're getting some encouragement from me, but I want you to people to have your own friends and community. It makes my heart hurt to hear that people are sitting alone or being bullied or going through such horrible stuff. So that's what really to me, motivates me today is when I get those heart wrenching messages or those heart wrenching comments, or I flash back to the times where I was bullied and or the times where I sat alone, and I think to myself, I don't want other people to experience this. And so that's what pushes me to make the content that I do today, the POVs and the tutorials and the reminders about your mental health and the pushing people towards Christ because I only own him so heavily.

Episode 219, Empowering Entrepreneurs through resilience and courage. Shamika tankerson, I want to know what your significant relaunch has been that has brought you to the place you are right now. What would that be? What what has really stood out for you? If

I were to think about a significant, significant relaunch, it would be my first business that I had. So I had my first business, and I thought everything was amazing. We had gotten that business to multiple six figures, and then ended up losing everything, losing the business, losing my house, needing to, like, sell my car, and then finding myself in the welfare office, because that was, like, the last thing that I could think of thing to do, because I needed to feed my babies. And being someone who had already experienced multiple six figures, which, at that time, I figured that was the Holy Grail of everything. Like, if I can get to six figures, I can make my life incredible and amazing, right? Um, having multiple degrees, I never thought I would be in that position. It was 2008 ish, 2008 2009 so if you remember around that time, not saying that I was old enough to remember, but if you but

I'll try to, I'll play along with you.

The economy. We had a, you know, the real estate bust, an economy. And my business was in the real estate industry, so I was a mortgage broker at the time, and so all the banks were going under, and there just literally was nothing more that I could do but try to figure out how to maneuver my business within the industry that I was in with the skill sets that I had. So I tried very hard to like stay in the industry, but it was just very difficult because most of my client base were self employed people, and they just gotten really strict on documentation, and so I couldn't work, and no one would hire me because I was making multiple six figures, and now I'm making nothing, and I'm like, I just need a job, but no one would hire me because they would say that I was over qualified for all the jobs. So it was just a very, very difficult time, and if you remember that. It wasn't just that industry. We actually had an economic, you know, bust at the time. So people weren't even shopping at the time. Jobs are being lost everywhere. And so it wasn't just me going through the thing, but at the time, it felt like just me, when I remember telling the worker who was helping me that I just feel really out of place here, but this is all I can think to do in this moment. And she said this system was made for people like you. And I remember her saying that and and while it was comforting on one end, it wasn't comforting because I'm like, It's not made for people like me. I'm not supposed to be here, right? And I remember sitting there. I think the thing that resonates with me the most is that immense amount of shame that I felt like you shouldn't be here. How, how did you let this happen?

This is resonating so much with me right now. That's shame. Um, I had a company, and there was a board member who did a Ponzi scheme with the company, and I had 63 investors in and he literally took the company down. And at the time, I was fighting to save it, it was, there was a huge amount of shame, and it ended up that he took the company down. And then a couple weeks later, the SEC Security Exchange Commissioner called and said, Hey, I just want to let you know we're going to be we're looking into this guy. And he ended up going to federal prison on a Ponzi scheme for three years. And that was the only time where it was like, the shame turned into like, I'm okay. You talk about this deep shame. How were you able to address it? How are you able to rise above it? You're walking into the welfare office and you're like, I don't belong here, but I'm here. I

feel like it took a long time, but what was feeding me and fueling me was the people that I surrounded myself with. So I took risk. I, you know, made any investments I could to reorient myself, re educate myself, got coaching in the moments where I could get coaching, sometimes at a women's business center where it was free, getting support. But what happened was people were reflecting back to me by greatness. They saw what I had forgotten because the shame had clouded it, reminding me that you're still brilliant, you're still incredible. And so over time, with having that mirror reflected back to me, I started to remember who I was, and then I was willing to come out into the open. And I think there's, there's two pieces to this puzzle that shifted things for me. Actually, I'll give three. So the first one is, remember, when I look at it in hindsight, I remember that even though I had that setback and that failure, it didn't change the value that I brought to the table. It didn't change who I was. I still had in my possession, in my knower, in my cellular memory, all of the experiences, the accomplishments that I had accomplished up until that point. You know, if you think about $100 bill, if I put it on the ground and stomp on it and crumble it up, it's still worth $100 it's just a little bruised and battered, but I can still spend it. It still spends the same so just reminding myself and giving myself permission to own the value that I brought to the table and and really recognize that the battle scars, the shames, the disappointments, the failures actually didn't take any value away, but it actually made me more value

beautiful. That is such a great way to say it.

Episode 216, gluten free, inspiring relaunch with Chef Alina, before we jump into how you came up to be this you know, incredibly talented chef Alina the baker. Can we go back to your significant relaunch story that actually really changed the trajectory of your cooking world.

Chef Alina Eisenhauer: Yeah, so I mean, as you mentioned, I was a conventional I guess we'll call it chef for 20 some odd years, and owning bakeries and restaurants and known mostly for all the things that have, all of the gluten I want, all my awards and everything. We're all for desserts and breads and like, all of the gluten things. But I was diagnosed now it's going on almost now. It's like maybe about eight years ago, with an autoimmune disease, and told that one of the best things I could do would be to go gluten free for my inflammation and for my for all of my symptoms. So that was a, like, a huge change, and for for anyone, it's a huge change, like anybody knows. I'm sure there's lots of people listening like food allergies and food sensitivities are such a big thing and but when. Are told that for a lot of people, it's like a punch in the stomach, like, What do you mean? I have to change my entire like, how to shop, how I cook, all the things I love. I think actually for me, it probably wasn't as devastating it is as it is for some people. Because I'm a chef, I was like, Okay, well, I'll figure it out. Like I knew that there was a way it doesn't have to be horrible, which let me,

let me ask you a question here. Yeah, you get diagnosed with this eight years ago. But was there? I mean, were you living with this your whole life? Is this something that came on later in life? Well, so

Chef Alina Eisenhauer: I was so I have Hashimotos, which is thyroid autoimmune disease, and I had been diagnosed with low thyroid hypothyroidism when I was in my 20s, so yes, my when I was like 19.

For those that don't know Hashimoto, can you tell us a little bit about that? And then we Yeah. So it's

Chef Alina Eisenhauer: a it's an autoimmune disease. In in almost all autoimmune diseases, what it is is your immune system thinks some thing in your body, whether it's a hormone or an organ, something is foreign, and your body attacks itself. So with Hashimotos, my body is constantly destroying my thyroid, so then you're producing less thyroid hormone. And your thyroid runs your entire metabolism. It runs everything, your hormone, your whole endocrine system. So the symptoms of it, and it is one of the most under diagnosed diseases in women in the world. It's getting better, but it has been very under diagnosed for a very long time. For a long time, it was one of those diseases where Doctor would say, it's all in your head and like, because the symptoms are brain fog and fatigue, they cross over with a lot of other things.

There is an actual, yeah, there is an autoimmune disease that finally, what, what did take place? Was it a blood test? Was it what happened

Chef Alina Eisenhauer: was, is I was running my business, so I was still had my business when I was diagnosed, and I was running my business, and I started to have memory issues, like I started forgetting full on conversations I'd had with clients, with we did catering, and we had an event space, and I would forget whole conversations. And I was trying to hide it from my staff. I was trying to hide it from my clients, because I was like, I'm losing my mind this whole time. I'm still thinking, it's because you're over tired. It's because you work too much, whatever. And then I got to a point where I couldn't anymore, and I had to tell told a couple of my managers. I'm like, You guys gotta help. You gotta cover for me, because, like, I'm forgetting stuff. And so then I went, Yeah, and had blood tests done, and that was when they told me, but

things are still going really well, yeah, and then, and then, what happened between

Chef Alina Eisenhauer: getting that diagnosis, my son was in high school, and I opened this my first bakery when he was six months old. So his entire life, I had been working as an entrepreneur. Yeah, he really grew up in my businesses, and I just kind of had that, that moment, I think that a lot of people have where I was, like, what are you doing? Like, I don't want to work 100 hours a week anymore. And in this bit in the restaurant business, maybe not for everybody, but if you're type A, if you really, if you love what you do, and you're detail oriented, like, you can't just pass it off to other people, like, you know, I didn't have to be there. My mind was like, I was always there, yeah. And I decided I didn't want that life anymore. And so how?

Yeah, okay, but this, your health is starting to get to you're starting, you know, you're, you're having all of these, these health issues. Your son was there a moment where you looked at your son and you're like,

Chef Alina Eisenhauer: dang, two years left in high school. And I was like, I don't like, I don't want to miss the last few years that I have to go to all of his lacrosse games and to do all the things and to like, I just want a better life. I want to be able to, you know, I want a better schedule. So I closed my business and I did consulting. I so I wasn't sure what I was going to do. And at that time, this is 2017 so the whole online world was a thing, but for people that do in food it was mostly food bloggers, right? There wasn't, like, all the courses and all this stuff that we do now that digital marketing, it wasn't really a thing yet. So I thought, well, I'll do consulting. So I started consulting for restaurants and bakeries. I would go help other people open or, like, write menus and these kinds of things, and I'll start food blog on the side. So I kept doing the consulting thing, and then I started, I got, I've always been into personal development, but I kind of just was like, dove head first into personal development, which I think a lot of entrepreneurs do, and I think is a big changing point for a lot of us. But what

did that look like for you when you say I dove head first into personal development. Well, I went exactly, did you

Chef Alina Eisenhauer: do? I don't even remember how or where, someone recommended to me. Actually, one of my sales reps that sold had, had been a sales rep that sold food to me from a restaurant that sold supplies to me. Recommended Mike Dooley. I don't know if you know who he is, but he started notes from the universe, and I started following him. And he was coming to do a three day weekend thing at Kripalu, which is a big yoga like retreat place out in the Berkshires, which is where I grew up. And so I just decided I was going to go at the whole the whole premise of that program that he teaches is that happiness is something you just decide to be. He's like, you don't everything. So that's why I get you happy. Like he goes, No, wake up and decide you're gonna be happy.

I also think Chef Alina that we can hear things over and over and over, and when you're really ready to hear it, like that message of, like, wake up today and be happy. It's your choice. You were ready to hear that, right? Were and a lot of times it can be the simplest twist on something that all of a sudden it's like, oh my god, now I understand that concept.

Episode 214 the secret to success in 60 seconds of exercise with Dylan gomai. Can we, kind of, like, turn back time and let's start with that really significant relaunch that's shaped you. We

certainly can. And I'm smiling, because every time I flash back to that place, I realize how many people don't realize that my journey actually started on a Wall Street trading floor like I myself was somebody who was sprinting through 90 hour weeks where I'm looking at the sun right now. I was like, back then, I didn't really do that as much like my day started at six in the morning and they ended after the sun went down. And some people would think like, oh, that just might have, must have meant that you were burnt out. You're functioning. The nature of the Wall Street Life is a lot of people you meet, they are functioning.

But the questions were, isn't that true? Isn't that true? Right? There, they are functioning. They are functioning. We're going through the motions. And it's

not constrained to Wall Street like I meet people every single day that are like I'm surviving, and the question is, do you want to be surviving, or do you want to be thriving? And we are not in this world to just get through each day. And that was the nature of my life, fact that, you know, like I had some wonderful people around me, but the real difference was I just was not living my life to the fullest I never would have expected, as somebody who, like, grew up playing sports, that the unlock that was missing for me was fitness. So Hillary, when somebody was like, Hey, you're gonna go ride bikes in an indoor dungeon in this, like, boutique fitness studio, and the bikes aren't gonna move. I'm like, This sounds like not the right idea. I still have work to do. This is probably not what I should be doing when I'm feeling so stressed about getting my work done. But to make a super you know, like long story short, when I walked out of that class, the endorphin rush that I got from just taking 45 minutes not to work out, but for myself to feel better was the first time that I realized like re harnessing my well being was for me. It wasn't for support. It was in service of me being the best person that I could be to everyone else. And

So Dylan, I have to ask you, because you were on the trading floor, you were working 80 to 90 hour weeks, and how did you like what really got you to that point where I'm going to get on that bike in the dungeon and I'm going to ride it like, what brought you there,

as opposed to well being or fitness being the afterthought? It was a recognition of I feel better, I'm more accomplished. I'm more productive when I do this thing. So it has to go first. It has to be part of my preparation. And it wasn't just the fitness. It's realizing like if for your call, I had to be up before the sun to be able to get to work. That meant that my workouts had to be before the sun, which meant that I had to sleep earlier and be productive the day before to create this whole flywheel of well being in my life, getting to bed at a decent hours allowed me What is what allowed me to do my workout. That's what allowed me to literally

change your habits. You had to create new habits around this, this new getting up early and going and working out.

And I realized that sounds much larger to a lot of people. They're like, Oh, you had to do a complete overhaul. But it's really the little tweaks that made the biggest difference. It was, Oh, if I get to bed an hour earlier, the alarms left the slog. If I still,

I call these micro pops, these, these pops of inspiration, these pops of like, you know, if you did it, it would actually really help you. Just yeah, micro pops, yeah. Real

small. Micro pops. And those became my offensive strategy, where I thought about like, this is how I'm going to get the best out of my individual days. But I also have to think about, like, these bigger moments that I saw on the trading floor, where I kid you not, I saw somebody lose their life, and this was somebody who had a senior title. They were a managing director. So for anyone who's not familiar with finance, it's a very senior title. They'd accomplished all measures of success, wealth, and at a fairly early age, had a heart attack and passed away. What they. Didn't have was their well being. They hadn't had the ability to take these little micro pops, these little 510, minute things that when we think about cardiovascular disease. And in addition to genetics, one of the most preventable things that you can do are these lifestyle factors.

Episode 226, from headbands to mic drops, a journey to empower others with Jess extra I'd like for you to take us down that path before we get into Hey, how you're all going to rock it on stages, how you're all going to have the mic drop moments. We're going to go there. But first, why don't you take us through Jess what you think has been that most significant, most impactful relaunch moment,

one of my biggest relaunches was becoming a mother. I'm, you know, about to have my second, but with my first, I'll be honest, I felt like everything I knew about myself changed and in, in and a lot of the narrative of having, you know, a kid is the purpose and the heart and love that it brings, which is totally true. But I think what also goes not talked about a lot is the loss of who maybe you felt like you were before you should have, and this identity shift. You know, so much of my self worth that I felt like came from my productivity, my achievements, my body, my, you know, hard work ethic, and when you have a kid, all of those things are on pause. And so I really had a tough time feeling worthy in my new role. And so I definitely try to be more vocal about my experience becoming a mother, because it has been the best thing that has ever happened to me, but also one of the things that I questioned myself the most

you when you said that, I remember I was coming home from the hospital with my twins, and they were almost seven weeks premature, and I pull up To our house and my, I remember it was my my mom and her best friend come running out, and my husband is sitting next to me, and they immediately go, and I had had a C section, they immediately go to the back. They pull the twins out. They're doing that, and I'm literally just sitting in the car. And I remember the car getting warmer, it was September, getting warmer and warmer. And I'm like, Oh my God. Like, I mean, nothing like, well, what just happened in that time frame that there is no longer Hillary, like, what happened that used to be, you know, they used to care about me, and I remember sitting there just thinking, like, overwhelming, like, Oh my gosh. I think I just disappeared.

Had a very similar feeling. And you know, now with my second thinking about my maternity leave and being self employed is, you know, I can be a little bit more DIY with it. And one of the things that I'm doing differently this time is I feel like last time I, you know, I do a lot of speaking, and I made sure that there was no speaking on my calendar for like, four or five months, yeah, and I feel like I almost questioned whether or not I could still do it, because I spent so long not getting back in the saddle that I was like, why would anyone pay for what I have to say? Why I will never have a single creative thought again. And so this time, although it might be controversial to some people, you know, I have a speaking engagement a month and a half, you know, after I'm giving birth because I was on this other great podcast by Lindsay Epperly, and she calls it leaving bread crumbs of yourself, like I'm purposely leaving bread crumbs of myself after I give birth to remind myself I can do this and be a mother and still be influential and the other ways that I have worked so hard to be you're

you're you're taking you back. You're saying, Hey, this is something that is important to you, and you doing something important for yourself will only add to everything that you're doing with your family. I love it. And

one of the reasons why I love this podcast so much, and I love the the concept of relaunch is because I feel like, especially as women, it's really hard to give ourselves permission to evolve and change. And we it's like this pressure of like, what's your thing? Are you a mom? Or are you a are you working? Are you this? Are you that? And you feel. You need to put yourself in this box. And I feel like one of the biggest struggles I've had over the years has been evolution, not just from being a mother, but also from business to business. You know, the thing that I started, what has led me to this path of thought leadership, being headbands of hope, and then all of a sudden, headbands of hope. You know, I didn't feel that. I didn't feel that spark in that passion, like eight years into running this business, and I had a spark and a passion to run a different business, mic drop workshop, and it took me years to come to terms with the evolution that that is okay, that you can start something and and evolve and move on. Tell us

how this grew into being a business.

So, you know, I call it the dumbest, smartest moment of my life, being 18 years old and totally naive to what starting a business meant. You know, I was interning at Disney World as a photo past photographer, photographing a lot of kids on their wish, through make a wish, and then interning at make a wish and seeing a lot of kids losing their hair to chemotherapy and being on wigs and hats when a lot of them wanted to wear headbands. And I just thought that was such a cool gesture of confidence. I'm like, of course, you all should have headbands, but there was no one providing that. And you know, when I speak about entrepreneurship or write about it, I like to say that that's the moment you become an entrepreneur, when you decide to create something that you wish existed. There's like, a lot of extra talk and fluff around entrepreneurship and ideas and aha moments, but it's really inspiration from frustration. Where do you get frustrated about things? Where do you think something should be done differently or better? And that was a moment where I was like, we shouldn't be telling these kids to cover up their heads with wakes and hats if they want to wear something that just restores their identity, like a headband.

Episode 215, navigating life's unexpected turns, the art of embracing change with have alone. Malone. I had no idea what a badass business woman we were. You were getting recognized for, you know, this incredible actress that you are, and you're, you're in Los Angeles, and you're, you're just dominating the screens now, but you have, you've dominated every area. You're one of those. You've got, you know, that Midas touch, but it wasn't always like that. And there were relaunches along the way, and I'd love to hear from you, what is the most significant relaunch that has really put you where you are today, made you who you are today?

That would have been I had been working for Hewlett Packard in the role of a district sales manager and their spokesperson on like the home shopping network in QVC for nearly a decade, and after a downturn in the economy there, and our entire organization ended up being laid off and in that because that's a pretty significant, you know, time in somebody's life to have dedicated so many years to a certain path, and then that path being basically pulled from your feet. But it was actually a gift. It was such a gift because even though, on paper, I had all the things that would have been indicators of success. I would wake up every day depressed. I would wake up every day and have to, like, put the smile on and go into the world and pull myself into that space. And it wasn't because, like, it was a great job. It was great people, like all, all of that was fine, but I had come to a place, and I had already heard the call inside, it's time for you to move on. There's more for you to do, and it's not here anymore. But my family was like, You better not leave that good job. I was like, I don't know who I am outside of this, you know, company in this position and that title had become my identity. And so

hold on, before you go further. That is so important, the title had become your identity. How many people right now are listening? And when you are introduced to someone, you say, Oh, I am. This is what I do. Identity around the business, it is so easy. It is so easy to get there, but you also said something that I find so fascinating, that you had that voice telling you, but were you, you know that intuition to say you got to be doing it, but you're like. You are hearing it, but you weren't listening. Mm. Hmm, that's, let me tell you, I've done it too many times myself. I get it

because it's like, no, all of these external things are telling you that this is the route that you're supposed to be going. You're experiencing success. So this is where you're supposed to be. But your internal knowing is saying, no, like, this isn't this is one form of success, but I got another form for you that you haven't even touched on yet, that I need you to come out of this space and walk with me on this path. And so because I wouldn't take the initiative and do the hard thing and move on, guy was like, Girl, I got you. I'm gonna just take you right from underneath you,

and what did that look like? What did that look like? That kind of like. It was no luck, because, like, you said, you know, you had your parents family saying, Hey, good job. What are you thinking? You're crazy, and yet, at some point you're like, it's happening, yeah?

I mean, we literally, it was a July. It was in July, and it was a beautiful day. Remember it like it was yesterday. It was a beautiful sun, shining day. I was living in New Orleans at the time, and we get a email, and the email says that there's going to be a conference call later on that afternoon. And for for that to come in like that unexpectedly, it was like something was off, like you could feel it inside, like something why are we on? You knew.

You knew before you went into that meeting. Yes, Doomsday has arrived. Like

something about this feels off, and so we get on, like our entire organization is on this call, and they're basically just like laying down. Here's what's going on in the economy. Here's what's going on in the business. You all have two weeks and you know, severance packages are coming.

The decision has been made. The Gauntlet is coming down.

Episode 227 turning pain into purpose, lessons in resilience with Brandon Peacock,

I got hit a third time, and that was where all of my problems started to happen. So the third bullet that hit me, it severed the femoral artery in my right leg, so it hit me right in the quad, and because the arteries of your right leg is one of the it's the second worst spot that you can get hit, because you bleed out so quickly, the only way to stop a bullet from the femoral artery from killing you is to get a tourniquet on your leg immediately, right so after I was hit with all three bullets, I was able, I was lucky enough, in the process, to shield a woman from being shot. So lucky is a weird word to use

there. She was actually the target. No,

no, so she wasn't the target of the shooting. Happened to own a store that was attached to the barber shop, so she was holding the door open for me. I'm about 1012, feet from the door, walking up, and he's sitting on the bench about five feet from the door, so he sees two cars pull up. He knows that they're after him. He sprints through the door that's being opened for me, and then I was able to, kind of like, hesitate and grab the woman who was holding the door open for me, launched the two of us into the shop, and I'm like six to 190 pounds, so I'm a little bit bigger than she was, and I was able to shield her with my body, and I took the three bullets, kind of for her, and then she was able to immediately return the favor for me. As I was laying on the ground inside the shop bleeding out, she began compressing my wounds, particularly she compressed the the right leg wound that was bleeding pretty bad, and I was compressed

my own chest, that was the femoral that was the artery. And we were like, those, those arteries, you can die like, within minutes, because it just bleeds out so

fast, exactly. So I was told that by like the doctors that I saw that night, what ended up happening was there was a police officer on scene in four minutes, and he got a tourniquet in my leg, on my leg in that four minute window, and he was able to stop the bleeding enough for me to make it to the hospital. But I was told that have been four minutes and 30 seconds that he showed up and got the tourniquet on my leg. It could have been a very different story for me. So that extra 30 seconds quite literally saved my life in the response time. And then when I was able to make it to the hospital, they told my parents that there was about a 5050, shot that I was going to survive the night because of the massive blood loss, and they prepared them for me to wake up as an amputee. So they said there was about a 10 10% chance I would keep my right leg due to the blood pooling. What they did is they did a double fasciotomy, and then they did an eight hour femoral bypass surgery. But very fortunately, I was in that 10% who was lucky enough to keep both my leg in my life. So I. On. It worked out in my favor, all things considered. So

before you continue, I got to go back to you're going out to get your hair cut. What comes to you when you think about it right now? How when you're walking and you're about to, like, get through that door, and all of a sudden, did you feel that first bullet, and then you kind of dove on the woman, like, what? Because you're, you're, you are truly a hero.

I think for me, is more fight or flight than anything else, right? And I've actually, I didn't know that I shielded her until she told me. So I guess there's video footage of everything, and in those moments, what I do remember is I remember very clearly turning around, noticing there was a threat, right? Like seeing the shooters kind of propped up outside of the car. I'd love to say that I've been waiting this moment my whole life, that it was, you know, my opportunity to to shield a woman from gunfire. But the reality of the situation is, it was just a fight or flight reaction from me to use my body to shield her, you know, I wasn't going to just throw her to the side and leave her out there in the middle of gunfire, right? So it was just as instinctual as it could be, and I didn't really feel the bullets when they hit me too much, which is another interesting thing, and I've spoken to a lot of gunshot survivors, and the experiences do vary, for sure, but for me, I didn't realize I'd been shot until I was in the barber shop. I actually kept running on the leg that took a bullet to the febrile artery for probably about 10 steps before passing to the ground. So So

now take me to the hospital, and as you said, that your parents had been told, Hey, most likely, 90% chance you're gonna have to lose your leg, it's gonna be amputated. And you wake up from this, from this traumatic experience, you know what happened?

When I did realize that I was alive, that was good. And then I remember the first thing I did is I looked down at my leg and realized that I still had my leg attached to my body, and now it was pretty beat up, right? I had massive holes in both sides. It was super swollen. I was not in good condition by any means, but I felt like I'd won the lottery, right? Because in my mind, I was still here. I still had a chance, and all I needed was a 1% chance to be able to get back to the version of myself that I previously was, and in my mind, that was enough.

Episode 225, embracing vulnerability and authenticity for success with Marley Jaxx you are where you are because of that path, because of the hardships, but we need to understand what was the relaunch journey that you went

through? I would say 2020, which was a relaunch for a lot of people, that when the world fell apart and we had to find a new normal and then get back to normal, the new normal again. I was going through a divorce. I did not feel comfortable in my hometown, where, where I had my marriage. And so I moved to America. And it's funny. I mean, I made up papers that said that I was an essential worker to go to America in the middle of the pandemic while we still had no idea what was going on. And the the most interesting part, and this has become such a framework for my life, I went to Omaha to be with a guy that I was in a brand new relationship with, which certainly, looking back, was definitely a rebound. But back then, it's like, no, I'm healed. I already did the hardest part of leaving my marriage, and I actually verbally said I will never be heartbroken again, because I really believed that leaving the marriage was the hardest thing, and that I'd done all the work, and that I I'd even, you know, a lot, a lot of times for women during a breakup, the they're they're grieving during the breakup, that by the time it's over, it's like, really over.

But I really had no idea, how you How long were you married?

We were together for six years, married for three, and

you said it was during the pandemic that you decided to make that decision, that not just I'm going to get divorced, but I'm going to move to to the United States. But what really caused you because I think there's a lot of women out there that are having tough relationships, and there's that moment of like, when do you know you're really done? When do you know that it's over?

Another relaunch. I was a dental hygienist when we got married, which is very different than what I do today,

but still, when you say it, it still blows my mind. It was

the job first I was, I mean, I growing up like my dream was to make movies in Hollywood, and I'm a very creative person. Even before that, I worked in event management. I worked in radio and television, so I was very much in creative businesses. But in those industries, it was very, very ego driven and not the nicest people. To be around. So when I kind of had enough of that, had my heart broken enough, there, went back to dental as my fallback plan. Let me figure out what I really want to be when I grow up after spending some time in Dental. So I started this little side business as a social media manager, which I didn't know at the time was going to be a big trigger for my divorce, because I think that when we got married, I was a dental hygienist, and that was the lifestyle he signed up for, and then I changed. I wanted to run a business. I wanted to travel and do speaking engagements and be very social with that business, which was not what he wanted, and at times, was very threatening, and I was the one that changed. And so as a result, that led to the big dismantling of,

how long were you doing social media, when all of a sudden you're like, Listen, this is what I really want to do.

I started the social media business around the time we got married. So we'd been together for three years, got married, and then three years later, got the divorce. But it was in the time that I was like slowly leaving dental and building my business more, that red flag started to come up of him not agreeing with it, not really wanting this direction of life, and it just got to the place at the end of the marriage where it was just very clear that the more that I wanted to grow the business and travel and explore my ambitions, it was just it was constant butting heads over just different desires for lifestyle. And unfortunately, at the time, we were not mature enough to be able to do the conscious uncoupling it. You know, when you feel threatened over losing what you thought was your life, it just it came out very unfortunately, you know, lots of lots of fighting.

This is so incredible. Where we're going with this and how you can doesn't matter what it is that is your passion going full force, is something that you have to be willing and I did this with my own life, with my first husband, I was married for almost 13 years, and you realize that at some point you got to go for your dreams. And you have said many times that I have heard, that you finally are in this place where it is, you know, it's not the decoupling, it's not that conscious. It's the it's the being present in where you are.

Episode 224, resilient branding, the path to global success in digital marketing with Rhonda swan. And here's the thing, what I want to talk about first and foremost is the most significant relaunch story in your life that has truly shaped Rhonda Swan into the woman, the Phenom that you are today.

My biggest one is in I, you know, I went to, I was in corporate. I was working for a Fortune 100 company running half a billion dollars of advertising. And I, I had a really big shift. And many probably of your followers will resonate with this. I went to a meeting at 7am on a Monday. It was our, you know, Monday morning start, and I'm sitting there. And my boss name was Jane, and she had that perfect bobbed hair where her shoes matched her bag, her perfect blonde Bob, and she was very uptight to her Chanel suit every day. And I wanted to be Jane, right? So,

you know, my middle name is Jane Hillary.

You're nothing like Jane, well, you might have been before.

We're not gonna go down that boat. Okay.

So anyway, so I'm sitting in this meeting, and this woman walks in 15 minutes late to the meeting, and Jane is that's doesn't happen. So everyone you could tell, like, How dare she do this? And she's like, you're late. And the woman's face started to, you know, shut her, you could see her lip quivering, and she said, I'm so sorry. This was the first day I dropped my six week old baby at daycare. And, you know, anyone's a mother would body and you know, you just drop in like, whoa. And that's what I did. That's a big that's a big thing, right? And she said, I don't care if you know, you want to put food in this baby's plate, you will be on time. And I looked at this Jane, and I thought, What a bitch. What a bitch. Like, are you kidding me? And then I thought to myself, Oh, you're gonna be that bitch,

right? If you keep going down this path, it will happen. Yeah, exactly.

And I literally switched that day, and I went home and you know, my husband, Brian. I said, Hey, Brian, um, honey, we need to have a talk. I'm gonna quit my job. And he's like, You are crazy. I just bought a five bedroom house in La Jolla. How are you gonna afford this? And I said, I don't care. I'm gonna figure it out. Yeah. And so that brought me to searching and looking for other ways to replace my six figure income. And at the time, I would never consider typing in work, at home, mom, like I was corporate. I was like, you know, 30 I was killing it, and but I did. And, you know, something popped up, and it was and I started to learn about the digital marketing and digital marketing world. I answered an ad, and I spoke to this lady, and she said, you know, you need to learn from some of the best. And I started looking and working with Perry Marshall, who wrote the algorithms for Google. And so Perry Marshall, he's like the godfather of Google. He taught me Google ads. I started taking products from like Tony Robbins, Robert Kiyosaki, Jim Rohn, packaging them up and selling them on Google ads, how to help you make more money quicker, your career, all these things. And I would call these, I know this is super aging me. This was in 2003 so this is before any social media,

this that long. That is incredible. I know. I

know, wow, yeah, so, I mean, it worked. I watched, actually, this documentary with Steve Jobs, right? And he was like, if you don't figure this out, you're trouble. So I'm like, Well, I gotta figure it out. And Perry Marshall was the number one at the time, and I don't even know how I found him, but I knew he was the right guy. So I was selling these products, and I literally called 3000 leads and so but just a long story short, in there is that I literally built the first funnel. I made a million dollars with the sales funnel. And I was taking people from an ad to a website to an 800 number, because this is an oh three and oh four. So this is before you know, you had any other way digitally to sell. You're not going

to tell me there's an info commercial here. No, but there should be, because

it was that ridiculous, like, literally, I had, I have a picture and I'll, I can show you it is so funny. And I would put these signs out in my Drive, drive my Mercedes around, and I would put these signs out. CEO income, working from home. Don't believe me, don't call it's really good, I know. And it worked. It was my that was my Google ad, and that was my sign. So I would drive around in my Mercedes, and I had already quit my job, made it for, you know, six figures in the first year retired my husband, after like 18 months, you know, made multiple six figures, and everything was crushing it, right? So I was like, yes, I've made it. I've done my thing. And then I started really learning more digitally. However, that was like a big relaunch for me, right? Is to go from corporate to starting a new company online. But then, but then the biggest one happens, because we all will have many relaunches. I think in our life, I absolutely do. I was, you know, we were killing it. I was decided that, okay, now it's time for me to I'm gonna have a baby, and I'm gonna set this whole family up for the long term, my legacy, we're gonna invest in a lot of properties.

Episode 228, being remarkable with Seth Godin and Simon Sinek, I had to throw this one in it is so off the charts guide. So hopefully you'll enjoy this one as well. How does one become remarkable in your mind? And let's, let's go with Seth. Since we've been we've been carrying on for a little bit here. Just what do you think? How does one start to become remarkable in today's world?

Remarkable has nothing to do with gimmicks and it has nothing to do with what you want. Remarkable requires empathy, because remarkable means worth making a remark about, not that you're going to make a remark about it, but that the people the people you serve will make a remark about it. So what people fail to mention about Simon's TED talk is it's not a TED talk, it's a TEDx talk. It's a TEDx talk that he wasn't picked by the powers that be to be on the main stage in front of all the fancy people. It's a TEDx talk of which there are many, many. So how did it end up with 400 million views? And the answer is, because people sent it to someone else. Did they do that because they like Simon? Like I like Simon? No, they did it because it would make their life better if someone they cared about saw this. It's worth remarking on. And so where people get stuck is they get trapped in hustle because it's so hard to do their work. They get trapped in social media thinking that their job is to work for Tiktok or LinkedIn or whatever. No, your job is to help people get to where they're going.

And what do you think Simon, just

to underscore what Seth said. You know, the most common compliment I would get when I first started doing the start with white talk was thank you so much. I've been trying to say that for years and and being remarkable means that it's not about the person doing the talking, it's about the person doing the listening. You know, that's it. That's what I've been trying. Trying to say, and as Seth said, I'm gonna send it to my friends, like he said, what I've been trying to tell you, and that's what makes it remarkable, is that it's helping other people either put something into words or capture a feeling or communicate an idea, whatever it is, what you'll see is a lot of the great ideas that spread help us spread our ideas less about spreading their ideas. It's always an act of service. It's always an act of service. Those those ideas that are remarkable. And I love

what you're saying, because it's like, you know, he said what I'm thinking, and I felt that same way when I heard it 100 different times. And so I always do this at the beginning of our relaunch podcast I like to understand. And Simon, I start with you in reading so much more. And yes, I've taken your why course I noticed that you always talk about your optimism and silver linings. And what you probably don't know is this podcast years ago, started out as the Silver Line podcast, the Silver Line relaunch podcast. And the reason I did it was we all have relaunches in our lives. We all have transitions. We have health relaunches, global relaunches, personal relaunches and professional relaunches. And out of the 220 relaunch it podcast I've done, I've never had one person say, if they could go back and redo something, change something, not one person has said I would do it. And so when I was listening to more of what you're talking about, what I found captivating was in a significant relaunch that you've had, probably one of your most significant it started you down this whole path of why. So I'd love to hear from you your relaunch story and how it literally has allowed you to be the man you are today.

That's a very interesting insight in 200 plus podcasts, yeah, that nobody, I've never heard that we do something. I find that fascinating. And

we're talking, we're talking the, you know, some of the worst relaunches that you can imagine, where, you know, not just death, but I had a woman that was zipped up in a body bag. I had, you know, I mean, I've had incest and rapes, and everybody that has gone through some of the literally worst things have always said now I wouldn't change a thing, because that's who I am today, and I

think that's what it is, it's sliding doors, right? Which is any of those details would change, then everything that changes after that that I wouldn't be who I am today and and, you know, I at least like the person I am today. People are thinking, or at least I like the journey I'm on. And so I don't want to, and I think that's true for me too, which is some of those tragedies and difficulties, I don't want to ever go through them again, but I'm glad they're but I'm glad they happen.

All right, that is a wrap of 2024 and thank you again for all of your commitment to the relaunch podcast, for showing up weekly, for sharing it with your friends family. I am excited to be going into 2025 we have a remarkable lineup of new guests to bring to you, and I'd ask you, who do you know that we should also be highlighting on the relaunch podcast? Go over to Instagram, under Hillary DeCesare and DM me, because this is what makes this show so incredible, to your success, to your relaunches, live now, love now and relaunch now, see you again next year.