In this deeply courageous and honest episode, we explore sibling loss, unspoken grief, epic choices, and the life-altering decision to move from chaos to intention.

In this powerful conversation, Kelly sits down with Zander Sprague, bestselling author, licensed professional clinical counselor, TV host, and acclaimed motivational speaker. Zander's life changed forever on December 9th, 1996 — the day his 30-year-old sister, Lucy, died unexpectedly.

At just 28 years old, Zander found himself navigating a kind of grief that often goes unseen. While parents are supported in the loss of a child, sibling grief is frequently overlooked, minimized, or misunderstood. Not one person asked him how he was doing. And in that silence, he began to question whether his loss even mattered.

It did.

Through years of personal healing and professional work, Zander transformed his pain into purpose. Today, he helps others understand that broken moments are not the end of the story — they are the foundation upon which strength, clarity, and intentional living are built.

In this deeply moving episode, Zander shares:

• 🤍 Why sibling grief is real, significant, and often invisible

• 💔 What it feels like when no one asks how you are doing

• 🧠 Why siblings often do not grieve openly in front of parents

• 📖 The inspiration behind his books Making Lemonade and Why Don't They Cry?

• 🔄 How grief reshapes identity at a young age

• 🎯 What it means to make "epic choices" that create an epic life

• 🌊 Why pain can either harden you or transform you — and how to choose

• 🕊️ The courage it takes to reclaim your narrative after devastating loss

Zander also speaks about the broader nature of grief — not just the loss of a loved one, but the grief of life changes, transitions, and chapters ending before we are ready. He reminds us that grief is not weakness. It is love with nowhere to go.

This conversation is honest, vulnerable, and filled with practical wisdom for anyone who has experienced loss and wondered how to move forward without leaving part of themselves behind.

A compassionate and powerful episode about sibling loss, resilience, intentional living, and the epic courage it takes to choose your life again.

Follow Zander Sprague

Website:

https://zandersprague.com

Books:

Making Lemonade: Choosing a Positive Pathway After Losing Your Sibling

https://www.amazon.com/Making-Lemonade-Choosing-Positive-Pathway/dp/0989017701

Why Don't They Cry? Understanding Your Living Child's Grief

https://www.amazon.com/Why-Dont-They-Cry-Understanding/dp/0989017728

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/zandersprague

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/zandersprague

LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/zandersprague

In this deeply reflective and powerful episode, Kelly sits down with psychologist, grief expert, and author Dr. Mekel Harris for a conversation about loss, leadership, faith, parenting, and the quiet courage it takes to keep your heart open after it has been shattered.

Dr. Harris never expected grief to become her life's work. But after losing her mother to stage four pancreatic cancer in just 30 days, and later losing her father during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, she found herself face to face with the raw reality of loss — personally and professionally.

What she discovered was not just heartbreak, but transformation.

Today, Dr. Harris is a licensed psychologist and CEO of Harris Psychological Services, LLC. She is also co-founder of Bloomwell Partners, a consulting firm equipping organizations to lead with grief-informed care. Through private practice, global speaking engagements, and corporate training, she helps individuals and leaders navigate grief not as a weakness — but as part of our shared humanity.

In this intimate conversation, Dr. Harris shares:

• 🤍 Why grief is not a problem to solve but a companion to learn

• 🌊 What it means to truly "companion" someone in their pain

• 🧠 How children experience grief differently at each developmental stage

• 🏢 Why workplaces must move beyond three days of compassionate leave

• 🌍 The hidden grief of divorce, layoffs, identity shifts, and life transitions

• 🕊️ The profound impact of losing both parents — including during COVID isolation

• 🙏 How faith transformed her grief from knowing about God to knowing God

• 🌿 Why gratitude and grief can coexist — even when it feels impossible

• 💛 The power of self-compassion in a culture obsessed with productivity

• 🐢 Why leaders must learn to move from "lion mode" to "turtle mode" — reflection before reaction

One of the most moving moments in this episode comes when Dr. Harris describes lying on a hotel floor after her mother's death — reaching for her phone to call someone, anyone — and realizing no one answered. In that silence, she experienced something she can only describe as an overwhelming presence.

That moment changed everything.

This episode is about more than grief. It is about courage. It is about staying open. It is about allowing pain to become a teacher instead of something to outrun.

A profound and compassionate conversation about grief, faith, leadership, parenting, resilience, and the wisdom that comes from keeping your heart open.

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About Dr. Mekel Harris

Mekel Harris, Ph.D., NCSP, PMH-C, CAGCS received a B.A. in Psychology from Baylor University, M.A. in Psychology from Houston Baptist University, and a Ph.D. in Clinical/School Psychology from University of Houston. She completed her pre-doctoral internship and two-year post-doctoral fellowship at Children's Hospital Los Angeles.

Dr. Harris has served in higher education, community-based and hospital-based mental health programs. She currently works in private practice as a licensed psychologist and CEO of Harris Psychological Services, LLC, offering mental health support across the lifespan.

She is also co-founder of Bloomwell Partners, LLC, a consulting firm that equips organizations to provide grief-informed leadership and care in the workplace.

Dr. Harris has presented at over 30 domestic and international conferences and has been interviewed globally on topics including grief, trauma, leadership, and community mental health.

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Follow Dr. Mekel Harris

Website:

https://www.harrispsychologicalservices.com/

Bloomwell Partners:

https://www.growwithbloomwell.com/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/drmekel/

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/DrMekel/

LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mekel-harris-phd-ncsp-pmh-c-cagcs-629138104/

Book – Relaxing Into the Pain: My Journey Into Grief and Beyond (Amazon):

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C2QXGZ8V

In this deeply honest and empowering episode, we explore identity, trauma, finding belonging in the wild, and the courage it takes to redefine what a "full life" looks like after the world tells you it's not possible.

In this episode of Broken Beautiful Me, Kelly sits down with Antoinette Lee Toscano, an outdoor industry influencer, writer, speaker, and founder of the American Adventure Sports Club nonprofit. Antoinette is a former IT executive turned adventure sports advocate, whose journey from traumatic injury and anxiety to radical freedom in the outdoors shows us that healing doesn't always look like rest — sometimes it looks like waking up in the middle of a river, choosing life again and again.

After a devastating rappelling accident left her with a traumatic brain injury, spinal injury, PTSD, and nearly immobile, Antoinette didn't just survive — she reimagined what life could mean. Instead of waiting for a "normal" she decided to create a New Normal Big Life — a life filled with rivers, snow, wilderness, and a community for people who felt priced out, rejected, or unseen in outdoor spaces. 

In this heartfelt and expansive conversation, Antoinette and Kelly explore how the outdoors became more than adventure — it became a path to freedom, identity, community, and deep human belonging.

In this episode, Antoinette shares:

• 🌲 How a life-threatening injury became the catalyst for intentional living

• 🌀 Why creating a "new normal" wasn't about escape, but reclamation

• 🧗‍♀️ The power of the outdoors to heal nervous systems and transform self-belief

• 💪 How she built community, accessible adventure, and broke barriers in outdoor recreation

• 📖 Why storytelling and writing helped her reclaim agency over her own narrative

• 🛶 The importance of inclusivity — for people of color, people with disabilities, veterans, and people who've been priced out of outdoor spaces

• 🌊 What water, rivers, and moving wilderness taught her about resilience and joy

• 🤍 How freedom becomes your compass when suffering is no longer the central story

Antoinette also reflects on how helping others create their own Big Life through her nonprofit, her writing, and her outdoor media has become the heart of her purpose — not because she fixed her pain, but because she leaned into it and let it expand her empathy, courage, and leadership.

This is a grounded, courageous, and deeply human episode about redefining normal, living with intention, and building a life that feels truly alive.

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Follow Antoinette Lee Toscano

Website & Blog – New Normal Big Life - https://nnbl.blog/ 

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/antoinetteleetoscano/ 

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/antoinettelee.toscano

WhitewaterTV / AdventureTV - https://xotv.me/channels/359-whitewatertv 

Paddling Magazine Contributor Page - https://paddlingmag.com/author/antoinette-lee-toscano/ 

Diversify Whitewater (Co-Founded Project) - https://diversifywhitewater.org/

American Adventure Sports Club (Nonprofit) - https://nnbl.blog/american-adventure-sports-club/ 

Book Feature – Women and Water (Antoinette's story contributor)

Available wherever books are sold (search "Women and Water She Explores") 

In this deeply intimate and soul-opening episode, we explore grief, self-trust, journaling, and the quiet courage it takes to return to yourself after unimaginable loss.

In this profoundly moving conversation, Kelly sits down with Marie Cruz, a coach, speaker, and retreat facilitator whose life has been shaped by resilience, reinvention, and radical self-honesty. Marie's story is not one of bypassing pain, but of learning how to sit with it, listen to it, and allow it to transform her from the inside out.

Raised in poverty in rural Louisiana, Marie became a young single mother and later built a successful corporate career. But her life shifted forever after the sudden loss of her mother, followed by the devastating loss of her son just two years later. What followed was not a search for answers outside herself, but a return inward.

Through years of journaling, spiritual inquiry, and deep emotional work, Marie developed what would become her signature process, The Nautilus Way, a guided journaling and self-inquiry method that helps women uncover truth, heal trauma, and reconnect with their essence.

In this episode of Broken Beautiful Me, Marie and Kelly speak openly about grief that rearranges everything, the loneliness of loss, and the power of creating spaces where women no longer have to protect others from their pain.

In this episode, Marie shares:

• 🌿 How grief reshapes identity and simplifies what truly matters

• 💔 Why losing a child changes the nervous system, the soul, and the way we see the world

• 📖 How journaling became a sacred portal for healing and self-connection

• 🌀 The four stages of her journaling process: reveal, review, rewrite, and rewire

• 🤍 Why women struggle to love themselves and how self-abandonment is learned early

• ✨ How intuition and inner guidance emerge when we stop silencing ourselves

• 🕊️ Why healing is layered and why we never "arrive" at the end

• 🌊 The power of women-only spaces, especially for bereaved mothers, to exhale fully

Marie also speaks candidly about her women's retreats, her work with grieving mothers, and why holding space without fixing is often the most powerful form of healing. She reflects on the courage it takes to trust inner wisdom, to stop editing ourselves, and to choose self-love even when it feels unfamiliar.

This is not a conversation about getting over grief.

It is about learning how to live alongside it with grace, truth, and presence.

A compassionate, grounding, and deeply human episode about loss, journaling, intuition, and the beauty that can emerge when we honor the cracks instead of hiding them.

Follow Marie Cruz

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/marieeurecrews

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/mariecrewsempowers

TikTok:

https://www.tiktok.com/@empowermentandgriefguide

Book – Even When She Rose (Amazon):

https://a.co/d/dayGabK

In this powerful and reflective episode, we explore loss, achievement, identity, and the courage it takes to stop measuring life from the outside in.

In this episode of Broken Beautiful Me, Kelly sits down with Alan Lazaros, CEO and co-founder of Next Level University, a globally ranked Top 100 podcast with over 2,300 episodes listened to in more than 180 countries.

Alan's story begins with profound loss. His father died when Alan was just two years old. Years later, his stepfather left, taking with him an entire extended family and financial stability. What followed was a childhood shaped by abandonment, pressure, and an unspoken belief that achievement could replace safety.

Driven to prove his worth, Alan became a high achiever. He excelled academically, rose quickly in corporate America, and achieved financial success at a young age. From the outside, his life looked like the definition of success. Inside, something was missing.

A near-fatal car accident at age 26 became a turning point. It forced Alan to confront a question many avoid: If this were the end, would I be proud of the life I lived? That moment cracked open a deeper journey, one focused not on external validation, but on meaning, alignment, and internal fulfillment.

In this deeply honest conversation, Alan shares how achievement without purpose can become another form of avoidance, and how personal growth, self-awareness, and meaning must come before lasting success.

In this episode, Alan shares:

• 🌱 How early loss shaped his drive, ambition, and fear of abandonment

• 💔 Why achievement can become a survival strategy rather than a source of fulfillment

• 🧠 The difference between external success and internal alignment

• 🔄 The Four Buckets of Life and why most people get stuck in the wrong one

• ⚖️ How to balance health, wealth, love, and purpose without burning out

• 🧩 Why inaccurate self-perception keeps people stuck, even when they work hard

• 🎯 The "glass and rubber balls" metaphor for focus, boundaries, and leadership

• ✨ Why meaning, not status, is the true driver of long-term fulfillment

Alan also speaks candidly about coaching, humility, and the uncomfortable truth that growth requires seeing ourselves clearly. He challenges listeners to rethink what they chase, why they chase it, and whether their success actually reflects who they are.

This episode is a reminder that healing doesn't always look like slowing down. Sometimes it looks like realigning. Letting go of who you thought you had to be. And choosing a life built from meaning, not expectation.

A grounded, insightful, and deeply human conversation about loss, ambition, self-awareness, and the courage it takes to build a life that feels true.

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Follow Alan Lazaros

Website: https://www.nextleveluniverse.com

Podcast – Next Level University:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/next-level-university/id1227858278

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

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alanlazarosllc

Welcome to Season Four of Broken Beautiful Me.

In this deeply grounding and compassionate episode, we explore healing not through willpower or escape, but through presence, surrender, and learning to feel safe inside your own body.

In this intimate conversation, Kelly sits down with Hans Andreas Weygoldt, a transformational coach and breathwork facilitator whose journey from addiction to emotional freedom reshaped not only his life, but his understanding of what true healing requires.

After spending eight years caught in opioid addiction, Hans learned that what he was really trying to numb were unexpressed emotions, unresolved trauma, and a nervous system stuck in survival mode. His healing began not with force or discipline, but with surrender, curiosity, and breath.

Through his work today, Hans helps high-performing leaders and individuals uncover the hidden emotional patterns beneath stress, success, and self-sabotage. His approach blends neuroscience, breathwork, and consciousness-based coaching to support emotional regulation, presence, and authentic leadership.

In this thoughtful and heart-centered episode of Broken Beautiful Me, Hans and Kelly explore how healing unfolds when we stop running from discomfort and learn how to stay.

In this episode, Hans shares:

• 🌿 How suppressed emotions live in the nervous system, not the mind

• 🧠 Why success and achievement can become a form of emotional avoidance

• 💔 How generational trauma quietly shapes our relationship with anger, grief, and vulnerability

• 🌬️ Why breathwork creates safety for emotional release without substances

• 🤍 How shame begins to dissolve when it is witnessed without judgment

• 🔁 Why healing is not about fixing yourself, but learning to trust your inner experience

• ✨ How gratitude can transform guilt, regret, and pain into purpose

• 🕊️ Simple breath practices that can be used anytime to return to calm and presence

Hans also reflects on the importance of community, sharing, and connection in the healing process. He explains why healing is not meant to be done alone and how safe spaces allow the nervous system to finally let go of what it has been holding for years.

This is a gentle, powerful conversation about addiction, emotional liberation, breath, and the courage it takes to feel deeply in a world that often teaches us to shut down.

A compassionate, grounding, and deeply human episode about healing the nervous system, breaking generational cycles, and discovering peace through presence.

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Follow Hans Andreas Weygoldt

LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/hans-andreas-weygoldt-151777356/

Website

https://pneumorphosis.com

Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/hans.andreas.weygoldt

Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/hansandreasweygoldt

What if the bravest thing you ever do isn't surviving what happened to you… but choosing to stop hiding it?

Welcome to Season Four of Broken Beautiful Me.

We begin this new season with a deeply honest and compassionate conversation about grief, trauma, therapy, and the courage it takes to live openly after years of silence.

In this profoundly moving episode of Broken Beautiful Me, Kelly sits down with Linda Feig Knipe, a retired high school counselor and first-time author who spent decades helping others through trauma while quietly carrying her own. After the death of her husband, Linda found herself at a crossroads that would change the way she lived, healed, and told the truth about her life.

Linda's story is one of resilience shaped over a lifetime. In her twenties, she survived sexual assault and lived for years with unprocessed trauma, shame, and PTSD. Later, while training to become a counselor, she was unexpectedly triggered and forced to confront what she had spent years burying. Therapy became not only a place of healing, but a turning point that transformed how she understood herself, her work, and her relationships.

Writing her book Braving Therapy later in life required Linda to face a new fear — the fear of being fully seen. For the first time, she chose honesty over protection, openness over silence, and courage over comfort.

In this intimate and thoughtful conversation, Linda shares:

• 🌿 How grief became a gateway to personal transformation

• 💔 The long-term impact of trauma and why silence can become toxic

• 🧠 What therapy really feels like from the inside — and why it's so hard to begin

• 🕊️ How shame shapes our inner lives and keeps us disconnected

• 💬 Why healing doesn't mean going back to who you were, but becoming someone new

• 🤍 The power of sharing our stories and learning we are not meant to do life alone

• 🔍 Why human connection matters more than ever in an increasingly digital world

Linda also discusses her book Braving Therapy, written as a companion for anyone who has ever wondered whether therapy might help but felt afraid to take the first step. Her message is clear: healing takes courage, honesty, and support — and no one has to do it alone.

A compassionate, grounding, and deeply human conversation about grief, trauma, therapy, and the freedom that comes from finally telling the truth.

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Follow Linda Feig Knipe

Website: https://lfeigknipe.com/

Book – Braving Therapy (Amazon): https://a.co/d/4f8FwWF

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/l._feig_knipe

FB: https://www.facebook.com/p/L-Feig-Knipe-100086436326648/

What if the moment that changes your entire life isn't a single event… but a series of wake-up calls your soul keeps sending until you finally pay attention?

In this profoundly moving episode of Broken Beautiful Me, Kelly sits down with Simon Lüthi, a former high-performing corporate executive who nearly died multiple times before discovering the spiritual path that would transform his entire existence. Today he is known as The Rocket Shaman — a healer, energy medicine practitioner, and end-of-life doula whose work blends ancient wisdom with modern suffering.

Simon's story begins long before adulthood: three near-death experiences as a child and teen, followed by years of pushing himself through perfectionism, pressure, and the relentless grind of corporate life. But everything began to unravel when he developed a mysterious autoimmune illness so severe he could barely get out of bed. Doctors couldn't explain it. Treatments failed. And then came cancer.

These crises didn't break him — they opened him.

Through shamanic training, energy medicine, ancestral healing, and an intense spiritual awakening, Simon discovered a deeper truth about illness, trauma, consciousness, and the unseen forces that shape our lives. His experiences guiding people through the final hours of life — and witnessing what happens in the moments just after — reshaped his understanding of love, death, and the continuation of the soul.

In this intimate conversation, Simon shares:

• ✨ The near-death experiences that marked him long before he understood them

• 🔥 How chronic illness and cancer became the catalysts for his spiritual awakening

• 🌿 The moment energy medicine finally shifted what modern medicine couldn't

• 💫 Why he believes with absolute certainty that life continues after death

• 🕊️ The signs and messages he's witnessed from loved ones who have crossed over

• 🌀 How trauma can live in the body across generations — and even past lives

• 🌙 What it means to guide someone through their final transition with peace and dignity

• 💛 Why self-talk, intention, and inner authority are essential to true healing

Simon also discusses his book, Becoming the Rocket Shaman, and how we can all begin reclaiming our power, our intuition, and the healing potential that lives inside us.

A powerful, healing, deeply spiritual exploration of illness, awakening, and the invisible threads connecting us to something much bigger than ourselves.

Follow Simon Lüthi

Website: https://www.therocketshaman.com

Book – Becoming the Rocket Shaman (Amazon):

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FFPBNKSM

Book – Becoming the Rocket Shaman (Barnes & Noble):

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/becoming-the-rocket-shaman-simon-luthi/1148299305