All my planning over the past two years fell apart but I know I'm not alone. So many of us are navigating new situations that we couldn't have anticipated. But here we are! Making it work anyway. 

We discussed the messy middle. The things all these business podcasts and storytellers seem to leave when they talk about their return to themselves and their work. We talk about our own journey's from endings to new beginnings. 

Known for her grounded, intuitive approach, Monika supports innovators, change-makers, and dreamers as they navigate transition, clarify who they are now, and step confidently into what’s next.

She founded The Springboard to serve entrepreneurial spirits ready to take risks, reimagine success, and create their next chapter with purpose. Drawing from her experience as a seasoned leader in values-driven companies, Monika blends business savvy with deep personal insight — helping clients overcome challenges, move from stuck to strategic, and build dynamic futures rooted in authenticity.

Whether you're reinventing your career, launching something new, or craving more alignment in your work, Monika is the kind of thought partner who helps you see clearly, act boldly, and trust your inner momentum.

Connect with Monika on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/monikavikunz/, on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thespringboard_/ or visit her website (www.wespringboard.com) to learn more. 

Arianne's passion for equipping women across the country has led her to become a sought-after speaker, providing guidance and mentorship to women across various industries. Her unique approach resonates with her audiences as she combines the experience she's gained in business with the lessons she's learned in life.

We discussed what happens when the big thing you have put everything into doesn't work out. Arianne is insprising and full of wisdom in this conversation. She also just released a new book! The Power of Pressure- From Stuck to Unstoppable. It's available via this link and on Amazon Kindle. 

You can also learn more about Arianne's work here - https://www.ariannecraigjolla.com/

Dr. Tanya discusses the patterns and experiences that we often need to let go of as we enter new chapters. She offers advice on what happens when we want to make significant changes in our lives and how we can move forward without succumbing to toxic positivity or denial. 

Many of my clients at Church Alley Nutrition avoid carbs for a dozen reasons that can be read in a women's magazine. The thing is, we NEED carbohydrates to have a healthy life. And most of us don't really know what a carb is, can't pick it out in a grocery aisle, and/or have no idea what they do for our bodies. Hint: Your brain and every single cell in your body NEEDS carbs to function properly. 

And that's why I'm doing a series on macronutrients to help us all get the basics of why these nutrients are important, what they are, how much to include in each meal, and where do find them. We get a lot of information thrown out at us online and most of it is junk that only confuses us. 

I'm also publishing on Substack, where I go into detail about nutrients, body image, and my research on climate change and autoimmune diseases. You can follow along by clicking here: 

You can learn more about Laura by visiting:

https://laurasanders.fun/

You can learn more about Nicole at: 

https://www.nicoleeiden.com/

In this episode, we discuss Blanchard's journey to owning a specialty knife shop and nearby restaurant in Uptown New Orleans. She even offers some ideas for keeping delicious food on hand when you have no idea what to cook for dinner. 

You can learn more about Jacqueline by visiting:

Coutelier Website: https://couteliernola.com/

Bar Sukaban website: https://www.barsukeban.com/

and their corresponding Instagram handles: https://www.instagram.com/barsukeban/ https://www.instagram.com/couteliernola/ 

You can learn more about Dominique :

At her website: https://dominiquepr.com/

On Instagram: @dominiqueellisrambles

And through her free DIY PR Resources Newsletter, PR Insider: https://dominiquepr.myflodesk.com/g6ub9p1mjq

https://www.brandeisnicole.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brandeisnicole

Email newsletter: https://brandeisnicole.kit.com/d53de7d0c6

Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/styleforsmartcookies

Brandi and spoke about styling yourself to meet who you are and your current lifestyle. This was a great conversation. I've followed Brandi's work for years. I love the simplicity of how she explains styling clothes for how your body feels right now and not being afraid to let go of all those clothes we hold on to for too long. 

Brandi Johnson is personal style expert and body confidence coach, learning and development leader, speaker, and the founder of Brandeis Nicole, a personal style & image coaching firm. 

After earning degrees at Brown University and UC Berkeley, Brandi led a storied career as a learning and development leader and executive at a national consulting firm. She quickly earned a reputation for style along with program design and training, and found herself coaching her colleagues on looking their best. During that time, a dramatic weight gain from an endometriosis medication left her frustrated with ill-fitting clothes and wreaked havoc on her confidence. Determined to find a better way, she was selected to join an intensive, invite-only training with Stacy London from TLC’s What Not to Wear, where she developed her signature methodology for personal styling, focusing on the science of style, body shape and fit.

An educator at heart, Brandi has styled well over 1,000 clients, has presented to crowds varying from 2500 attendees to round table group discussions, and is known for her transformational approach to style as a pathway to confidence and authentic self-expression. She has been called "style magic" by numerous clients and helps women of all shapes and sizes, especially women navigating changing bodies, find the joy that happens when they confidently step into who they are with an effortless wardrobe to match. 

Brandi enjoys dance, fruity cocktails, gets embarrassed for other people when watching reality shows, and has never met a french fry she didn’t like. A Bay Area native who most recently called Brooklyn home for 15 years, she now resides in Houston, TX and loves the H-town charm.

https://www.mind-coach.com/

Adela and I spoke about entrepreneurship, perimenopause, and other life events when you have a spicy brain. She is full of information and wise advice for those of us who might be Turbo Thinkers. 

Learn More About Adela: 

I began coaching after encountering my first Turbo Thinker© struggling in a neurotypical world: my son. Upon discovering his “race car brain with tricycle brakes,” I had a light bulb moment: If I was going to help my son, I was going to help the world.

I threw myself into understanding the neuroscience behind ADHD, enrolling in a rigorous training program and credentialing process. With the conviction to help my son appreciate and harness his ADHD-diagnosed, Turbo Thinker© mind, I initially began coaching ADHD clients. That was more than a few years ago… 

I now sit on the board of directors of the ADHD Coaches Association (ACO) and serve as a mentor and session leader for the Professional Association of ADHD Coaches (PAAC), making me one of the few coaches worldwide who reviews and sponsors ADHD coaches aspiring to be credentialed.

I first met Joaquin at one of Church Alley Cafe's first popups in 2012. Our families became fast friends. I always loved hearing Joaquin's story of how he became a chef. He started the restaurant Upstairs at Mimi's (the space now called Anna's in the Marigny neighborhood) before Hurricane Katrina and then went to culinary school. 

In this episode, we meander around discussing delicious food, his family, business, and pairing flavors in our kitchen. He gives us some tips on how to make delicious family meals at home. 

Vera Lester knows work is such a big part of our lives that being in the wrong role can turn us into zombies or burn us out. She believes every person has a unique calling and is obsessed with helping passionate professionals find and pursue it. 

In this episode, we discussed the nuts and bolts of strategic planning for small businesses. While we did discuss tactics like when is the right time to put something on the calendar and how to evaluate if that project is really worth your time and money, we also discussed how to connect with your purpose, why celebrating small milestones is important (listen for my groan in being reminded of why this important), and much more. We explored why annual strategic planning is not too corporate or too capitalist for even the smallest of businesses. 

We promised to list several things in the show notes during our discussion. Here they are: 

- The Four Tendencies, which I remembered as "The four personalities" : https://gretchenrubin.com/books/the-four-tendencies/

You can learn more about Vera at her website: https://veralester.com/

Our conversation included the nuts and bolts of what working towards becoming a Registered Dietitian (RD). We also discussed in depth why the lack of diversity in the nutrition field causes real problems that must be faced in our communities. Currently, it is estimated that only 2.6% of RDs are Black. The costs of becoming an RD are high and include an undergraduate degree in Dietetics, a Masters's degree, an unpaid 10-month clinical internship that usually costs roughly $10,000, and a national board exam with a high failure rate. Within this path are continual situations that many have spoken about as being inhospitable to those who are not white. 

Please follow Anjali's writing to learn more about racism in the nutrition field. She is a wealth of knowledge and activism. 

When making a really big change, especially later in life, we often have to let go of who we thought we were, who we wanted to be, and who we thought we would be one day. There is a lot of processing, and it's worth taking risks scared and uncertain. It's just really hard, but not impossible. 

Journal Prompts: 

(1) You deserve the success that you can envision. What you are searching for, is searching for you. You can get there. The world might be throwing you all kinds of challenges, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make the changes you want to make in your life.  Think through ways you can be more in flow with the habits you want to make. What do you keep resisting? What do you keep fighting against? How can you eliminate those things from your life? Hire someone, delegate it out, just stop putting that task you never do on your to do list again. What are the paths to eliminate the tasks you don’t want to do every day? Get the tasks that drain you off your plate.  Find specific ways to eliminate the tasks you don’t like doing. This will free you up to be more in flow with the things that you enjoy doing. 

(2)

Revisit our two big questions. What if your potential is double what you think it is? What if it all works out? Journal for 30 minutes on these two questions. What does your body feel when you ask yourself these questions? What excuses keep coming up for you? What words keep coming to you? 

The criticism that provokes an emotional response needs to be unpacked and dealt with appropriately. This is a good exercise to start that process. 

You are worthy of every success. You are worthy of good health.

(3) Write for 20 minutes to answer these questions. Why is this the right time to make these changes I want to make? What could go right if I make the changes I want to make? What am i giving up by making the changes I want to make?

Check out Wellness Project New Orleans: https://wpno.org/

Check out Cafe Grumpy: https://www.instagram.com/cafegrumpy/ 

www.churchalley.store

Find Emily on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/too.many.emilys/, and on her website: https://www.emilymakesstuff.com/, interest: https://www.pinterest.com/emilymakesstuff/

Hello friends! Its’ me Renee! Founder and owner of Church Alley Cafe & Grocery. Season three is launching Tuesday September 19 And this time I’m doing it a bit different. 

This season has more episodes. It’s a mix of interviews and educational content. I’ve added shorter episodes on nutrition and health. You may already know this, but during the pandemic, I went back to school to become a registered dietitian and this summer I launched Church Alley’s first nutritional coaching services. 

Over the next year we will add additional nutrition and health services to our menu. And so these short episodes are the first few snippets of how Church Alley will be expanding in the years to come.

 The rest of season 3 will be interviews with folks I find interesting, asking them how they learn and explore the world around us. Including former employee Emily! Shes coming back to tell us about this amazing project shes doing called 30 days of something new. It’s a great challenge to expand your habits, likes (maybe some dislikes), expand your perspectives, and literally just do things you’ve never done before for a month straight. 

I also interview some of my professors about hunger rates in Louisiana, WIC, and sustaining curiosity when you are busy busy busy, like so many of us are these days. 

I hope you’ll listen! Episodes will be released every Tuesday morning 11 minutes after midnight throughout the Fall.

I spoke with three of the founding members of Salon22. Christa, Fey, and Mariska shared their vision for this new women's co-working space and discussed how their own journeys have impacted their mission to create this mission-directed space. 

Salon22's mission is to be an agent of change in New Orleans, shifting the balance of power in our beloved city. This diverse group of women is intent on creating a beautiful space for like-minded women from all walks of life to find commonality, belonging, and opportunities for political, professional, and personal collaboration. Salon22 is a space for speaking up and out.

Their intent is to create an inclusive space for women+ no matter their gender expression (including identifying outside the gender binary), racial and cultural background, sexual orientation, age, physical ability, or economic standing.

Emily is a native of New Orleans and received her undergraduate Bachelor’s degree in Athletic Training at the University of Southern Mississippi. She then went on to attain her Doctorate of Physical Therapy at the University of St. Augustine in St. Augustine, FL.  Emily is a former collegiate runner turned Crossfitter who has a passion for helping people optimize performance. She is highly trained in Sports/Orthopedics and Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy and has first-hand experience modifying HIIT exercises for the pregnant and postpartum athletes to ensure they are able to continue their desired activity injury free. 

You can learn more about Emily's company Pivotal PT and Wellness here! 

It was so interesting talking with her about an industry I really knew nothing about. 

I met Katie while we were both enrolled in the Goldman Sachs 10000 Small Businesses program. 

Anne was born and raised in Lafayette, Louisiana, where many people made their fortunes in the oil industry. She has seen the wealth and the poverty created by oil production and seeks a phase-out of fossil fuels in her lifetime. She has a Masters in International Development from Tulane and has twice testified before Congress. Her work has been recognized by local and national awards, including the Jane Bagley Lehman Award for Public Advocacy and the Robert Wood Johnson Community Health Leader Award.

Ella is a local musician and artist. You can check out her work here: 

https://www.instagram.com/ellabystarlight/

https://www.raymondstreetruckus.com/

You can learn more about all the products Tippy designs and produces at https://www.goodsthatmatter.com/

Check out Pretty Coffee Roasting - https://www.instagram.com/prettycoffeeroasting/

Check out Whatever Coffee - https://www.instagram.com/itswhatevercoffee/

We talk about the struggles of owning a small business in New Orleans and during the pandemic. We also talk about how customers view our businesses and where our industry needs to get it right once and for all. 

Check out Kin on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/kinfordindin/

"New Orleans is bound to sink into your soul and belly, and I'm here to help you navigate our food scene! I believe that New Orleans has the greatest food in the country (yup, I said it). We have a rich food history that began with the indigenous people who thrived in the Crescent City before Bienville even stumbled upon us and then got mixed with the cultural traditions of Africans, Creoles, Cajuns, France, and Spain to create our current food scene. New Orleans is also known as the Northernmost point of the Caribbean and as a Cuban-American, I can attest to the similarities. " - Dr Nicole Caridad Ralston

Check out her instagram here - https://www.instagram.com/eatenpathnola/

Check out her website here - https://www.eatenpathnola.com/

Laughing Buddha Nursery

Check out all things Heartsleeve! 

MaCCNO is celebrating its 10th anniversary on November 20, 2022, at Zony Mash with a star line up! Check out all the details on this amazing event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/787259485803139/ 

In this episode, I spoke with Renard Bridgewater, MACCNOs Community Engagement Coordinator, about the organization's origin, purpose, and how they met the moment when the COVID-19 pandemic hit our city's musicians and artists hard. 

Since 2012, the Music and Culture Coalition of New Orleans (MACCNO) has been organizing, empowering, and advocating with New Orleans musicians, artists, traditional culture bearers, and other members and allies of the cultural community.

Renard Bridgewater is a native New Orleanian and graduate of both Holy Cross High School and the University of New Orleans. As a tenured veteran in the city's Hip-Hop community (performing under the moniker Slangston Hughes) and previous participant in Sweet Home New Orleans' Accessing Artist Revenue Streams course, he has a passion for live music and artist empowerment and continues to pass on the knowledge he has gained to help empower his peers. This is utilized in his Uniquity (yoo-knik-wi-tee) Music imprint, which provides a performance platform for regional/touring bands and local Hip-Hop, R&B, and Spoken Word artists, as well as providing music publishing for local artists and facilitating workshops that cultivate professional development in the music industry. He joins us after nearly fourteen years with The Times-Picayune, where he worked in HR and production.

Ella joined me again for this season's final episode. We talked about my book "Focused & Flexible: Strategic Planning for Small Business".

Ella and Renee discuss how our small businesses help us grow and evolve into better friends, lovers, and leaders. The challenges we find for ourselves stretch us beyond just being able to do the nuts and bolts of our everyday tasks. But cracks us open to the people we know we can become. We also talk the importance of more compassionate communication by explaining how we love with the people we love the most. 

So, yes, we got pretty deep into what it takes to create change in your own life, boundaries with friends and family members, and the "just do it anyway" philosophy I made up within the conversation.  It's an emotionally honest conversation about the challenges and great joy of making significant changes in your life. 

Books mentioned in this episode: 

Intuitive Eating, 4th Edition

Anti-Diet

Decolonizing Wellness

More Than A Body

Body of Truth

Belly of the Beast 

As founder of Ochsner Eat Fit, a nonprofit initiative that collaborates with local restaurants and chefs to develop and feature menu items that are nutritious and delicious, we’re always cooking up a blend of nutritious + delicious dishes. Our Eat Fit team has expanded beyond Eat Fit NOLA, offering Eat Fit in six regions throughout the state, driven by our talented team of registered dietitians.

"Magnolia Yoga Studio is a state-of-the-art Beginners Hot Yoga Studio located in downtown New Orleans, LA. Our business model is based on Diversity in Yoga, Inclusivity in Yoga & Affordability in Yoga. We offer daily classes including our therapeutic The Hot 26&2 Yoga Series, Warm Vinyasa & Warm Vinyasa/Yin." 

WeHelp NOLA is the only company in New Orleans working to build a partnership between the restaurant employer and the mental health care community.  Restaurant and hospitality industry-related jobs are found to be, in the high stress- low control career categories, the most physically and emotionally taxing jobs within the marketplace.  Couple that emotional distress with long hours, poor sleep, a workplace driven by alcohol and drug abuse, and little to no provided health care access or support provided by your employer, and you find yourself in the reality of restaurant industry life within New Orleans.

Dr. Tanya is also my therapist of 5 years. Given the complexity of the past year and the emotional toll the pandemic has taken on hospitality workers in particular, I wanted to make space for a discussion about the feelings we are all experiencing right now both collectively and individually. There is even a meditation at the end of the episode! 

You can learn more about Louisiana Community of Emotionally Focused Therapy here - https://louisianaeft.org/

You can get a copy of Dr. Tanya's book here - "Perspectives of Divorced Therapists"