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I love conversations that make you want to show up for people. This is one of them.

Today’s guest is Danni Eickenhorst, the heartbeat behind Hustle Hospitality and some of St. Louis’ most beloved spots: Steve’s Hot Dogs, Steve’s Meltdown, The Fountain on Locust, and The Stardust Room.

Danni and I talk about what it really means to be “a neighborhood place”: paying people with dignity, creating spaces where everyone belongs, and showing up when a tornado rips through the block. You’ll hear how Feed the People began with one donated meal and grew into thousands, why catering and gift cards can literally keep doors open, and how abundance (not fear) guides her leadership.

I walked away reminded that hope is both feeling and practice—served hot, with community at the center.

In this episode you’ll learn

• Simple, concrete ways to help local restaurants & the Delmar Maker District
• Why transparency with your team builds real loyalty
• How to turn a business into a neighborhood’s rally point
• What it looks like to believe it gets better—and act like it

Take a next step
Book catering from a local restaurant, buy a gift card you’ll use later, or say yes to that neighborhood event invite. Little things add up.

Connect with Danni at Hustl Hospitality Group and on LinkedIn.

Thank you for listening to Hope Comes to Visit. If this conversation helps, follow the show, share it with someone who needs hope today, and leave a review - it helps others find their way to these conversations.

New episodes drop every Monday, so you can begin your week with a little light and a lot of hope.

For more stories, reflections, and ways to connect, visit www.DanielleElliottSmith.com or follow along on Instagram @daniellesmithtv and @HopeComestoVisit

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If you’re new—welcome. If you’re back—welcome home. Today I’m sitting down with my friend Melissa Clayton, founder & CEO of Tiny Tags—the personalized jewelry brand born at a kitchen table and now beloved by moms, worn by Meghan Markle, sold in Target stores nationwide, and (pinch-me) featured on Oprah’s Favorite Things 2025.

We talk about the quiet courage behind the milestones: bootstrapping for 15+ years, saying no to shiny objects, building a values-first team, and telling real stories of motherhood (the joyful, the messy, the holy ordinary). Melissa shares what focus actually looks like when you’re self-funded, how she course-corrected her brand to speak directly to moms and their villages, and why “hope” often sounds like one more email, one more DM, one more ask.

In this episode:

• Bootstrapping a jewelry brand without outside funding
• Choosing focus over “do it all”
• Storytelling as Tiny Tags’ secret sauce
• From online shop to 1,600+ Target stores (and how long that really takes)
  Currently
• What Oprah’s Favorite Things moment means to a scrappy team
  Oprah Daily
• Gentle truth-telling about new-mom pressure, comparison, and preparing your heart (and village), not just a nursery

Take this with you: You don’t have to be everything to everyone. Know your why. Build your bench. Keep asking.

Guest: Melissa Clayton — Tiny Tags
Web: tinytags.com • IG: @tinytags

Thank you for listening to Hope Comes to Visit. If this conversation helps, follow the show, share it with someone who needs hope today, and leave a review - it helps others find their way to these conversations.

New episodes drop every Monday, so you can begin your week with a little light and a lot of hope.

For more stories, reflections, and ways to connect, visit www.DanielleElliottSmith.com or follow along on Instagram @daniellesmithtv and @HopeComestoVisit

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If you’re new here—welcome. If you’re back—welcome home. Today I’m sitting with my dear friend of 12+ years, Amanda Willson, a life coach and anxiety expert who has walked this road and now teaches the rest of us how to find steadier ground. This isn’t theory; it’s real tools for real life.

We talk about simple practices that change the moment you’re in: 4-7-8 breathing to settle your nervous system, the 5-4-3-2-1 senses reset to get you out of your head and back into your body, and the surprisingly tender act of naming your anxiety with compassion so it stops driving the car. Amanda shares how movement helps move emotion, why gratitude is brain training (not fluff), how to build an inner safe place you can visit anytime, and what it means to take your thoughts captive—speaking to yourself the way you’d speak to your own child.

I left this conversation feeling calmer, clearer, and more equipped. My hope is you do too. 💙

Listen now and share it with the friend who’s been white-knuckling their days.
Guest: Amanda Willson — Worthy of Love Wellness → worthyoflovewellness.com

Amanda on Instagram → Worthy of Love Wellness

Show highlights

• The breath that helps fast: 4-7-8
• The senses exercise that interrupts spirals
• Why naming anxiety softens it
• Movement as medicine (and why stillness can backfire)
• Gratitude as a daily brain reset
• Your “safe place” visualization (mine is the beach 🌊)
• Bedtime thoughts that program tomorrow’s morning

Thank you for listening to Hope Comes to Visit. If this conversation helps, follow the show, share it with someone who needs hope today, and leave a review - it helps others find their way to these conversations.

New episodes drop every Monday, so you can begin your week with a little light and a lot of hope.

For more stories, reflections, and ways to connect, visit www.DanielleElliottSmith.com or follow along on Instagram @daniellesmithtv and @HopeComestoVisit

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A gentle heads-up: In this conversation, we name some hard things — including suicide and sexual assault. If that’s tender for you today, please listen with care, skip ahead, or come back when you’re ready. If you need support in the US, call or text 988.

Sometimes hope is a laugh you didn’t expect.

At 10:44 PM on November 2, 2015, Ron “Blake” Blake was ready to end his life. A split-second laugh during The Late Show with Stephen Colbert interrupted the plan—and it changed everything. In this conversation, Blake and I talk about what came next: PTSD after sexual assault, dissociative amnesia, and a 10-year, one-human mission to gather stories on giant foam boards. Today there are 522 boards covered with 34,000+ names, poems, prayers, jokes, and equations. Proof that we belong to each other.

I love this talk because it’s not shiny; it’s honest. We sit with the hard and notice where the light still gets in. If you’re in a long night—or love someone who is—I hope this feels like a hand on your shoulder.

In this episode:

• “10:44 PM” — the laugh that stopped a suicide plan
• What dissociative amnesia felt like from the inside
• 522 boards, 32 Sharpies, and why being heard can be medicine
• A student at SDSU who chose to stay because Blake showed up
• Why his “symbolic goal” (getting on The Late Show) still matters

Find Blake: Instagram @blakelateshow | Documentary I AM (Sinconus Studios)

If you’re in crisis (US): Call/text 988 or visit 988lifeline.org

Thank you for listening to Hope Comes to Visit. If this conversation helps, follow the show, share it with someone who needs hope today, and leave a review - it helps others find their way to these conversations.

New episodes drop every Monday, so you can begin your week with a little light and a lot of hope.

For more stories, reflections, and ways to connect, visit www.DanielleElliottSmith.com or follow along on Instagram @daniellesmithtv and @HopeComestoVisit

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Some seasons of my life, loneliness wasn’t a passing mood—it was the air I breathed. I didn’t always call it by name, but my body did: tight chest, racing thoughts, that sense of being “with people” and still feeling alone. In this conversation, I sit down with Lucy Rose, founder of The Cost of Loneliness Project, to talk honestly about what chronic loneliness does to us—and how we can gently stitch connection back into our days.

We weave together science and story: cortisol and inflammation, yes—but also travel schedules that hollow you out, the “life quakes” that upend everything, and the small, human habits that actually help. If you’ve ever felt unseen in a crowded room (hi, same), this one’s for you.

What we get into:

• Chronic vs. passing lonely: how to tell when it’s a blue day…and when it’s a pattern your body is carrying.
• Stress biology, plainly: why loneliness spikes cortisol, chips away at immunity, and raises risks for heart disease—and possibly dementia.
• Gendered patterns: how many women and men are socialized to buffer loneliness differently (and what to do about it).
• Free connection practices: ask better questions, listen longer, volunteer shoulder-to-shoulder, check on one person today.
• For kids & teens: signs teachers/parents can watch for—and simple ways to bring a child back into the circle.
• Hope with boundaries: when hope fuels healing…and when it keeps us stuck in something that isn’t changing.

If this meets you where you are, share it with someone who might need the language—and the nudge—to reconnect. And as always, I’m glad you’re here.

Connect with Lucy Rose and learn more about the Cost of Loneliness Project.

Thank you for listening to Hope Comes to Visit. If this episode resonated with you, please follow, rate, and share the show — it helps others find their way to these conversations.

New episodes drop every Monday and Friday, so you can begin and end your week with a little light and a lot of hope.

For more stories, reflections, and ways to connect, visit www.DanielleElliottSmith.com or follow along on Instagram @daniellesmithtv and @HopeComestoVisit

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If you’ve ever been told “it’s normal” when you knew it wasn’t—this episode is for you. I’m joined by Dr. Deb Muth—naturopathic doctor, functional medicine expert, and founder of Serenity Health Care Center—to talk about being seen at last: how to advocate for yourself, ask better questions, and get to root causes instead of living on prescriptions that never explain the “why.”

We dig into:

• Why women are diagnosed 4–5 years later than men for many conditions—and what to do about it in real time.
• The difference between normal vs. optimal labs (think vitamin D and thyroid) and how ranges can hide what you’re feeling.
• Practical advocacy: what to ask when a provider orders “a full workup,” which tests that usually aren’t included, and how to prepare.
• Hormones 101: broken sleep, irritability, brain fog—how progesterone, thyroid, and nutrient levels actually play together.
• Everyday detox & environment: simple ways to lower exposures (fresh air, air purifiers, lemon water, NAC, vitamin C) and why new homes can make you feel worse before better.
• When to get a second (and third) opinion—and why you should go outside the same hospital system.
• Dr. Deb’s personal story reversing a scary MS diagnosis by uncovering infections, mold, and toxins—and the hope that offers.

If you’re navigating symptoms that don’t add up—or you’ve stopped going to the doctor because you’re tired of being dismissed—this conversation offers language, next steps, and a reminder: you are the expert on your body.

Links

• Dr. Deb Muth: serenityhealthcarecenter.com | FB group “She Knows” | Book: Seen at Last

If this helped, share it with a friend who needs a little light, follow the show, and leave a quick review so more people can find these stories.

Thank you for listening to Hope Comes to Visit. If this episode resonated with you, please follow, rate, and share the show — it helps others find their way to these conversations.

New episodes drop every Monday and Friday, so you can begin and end your week with a little light and a lot of hope.

For more stories, reflections, and ways to connect, visit www.DanielleElliottSmith.com or follow along on Instagram @daniellesmithtv and @HopeComestoVisit

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Pull up a chair and take a breath—then ask the question most of us avoid: who gets a seat at your table, and why? In this solo episode, I treat your table as a living metaphor for your energy, time, and love—and names what it takes to protect that sacred space without apology.

We get practical fast. You’ll hear clear, compassionate scripts for late-night crisis friendships, boundary-pushing relatives, and overflowing workloads, plus a four-part framework to sort who stays, who stands, and who moves to the balcony. We’ll also map the patterns that signal it’s time to edit your guest list (erosion, explosions, stagnation), and explore courageous hope vs. brittle hope—how to tell when optimism fuels growth and when it keeps you auditioning for a relationship that only exists in imagination.

Along the way, we return to three anchors—character, consistency, and care—because chemistry alone can’t carry a connection that refuses to evolve. There’s room here for nuance and grace: some people have good character but limited capacity; “not now” can be an act of love. You’ll hear closure rituals that soothe the nervous system and a reminder not to panic-fill empty chairs—leave space so better fits can find you. And we turn the mirror gently: be the guest you want to host.

Protecting your table is protecting your life. Curate with clarity, and you make room for relationships that truly nourish.

If this resonated, share it with a friend who’s learning to protect their own table, follow the show, and leave a review. Tell us on Instagram @DanielleSmithTV and @HopeComesToVisit which seat you’re reclaiming or which value gets a reserved chair next.

Thank you for listening to Hope Comes to Visit. If this episode resonated with you, please follow, rate, and share the show — it helps others find their way to these conversations.

New episodes drop every Monday and Friday, so you can begin and end your week with a little light and a lot of hope.

For more stories, reflections, and ways to connect, visit www.DanielleElliottSmith.com or follow along on Instagram @daniellesmithtv and @HopeComestoVisit

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Humor doesn’t just make us laugh—it hands us the mic. In this episode, Dr. Gina Barreca—award-winning professor, cultural critic, and bestselling author of Gina School—shows how wit turns grief into agency and outsiderhood into belonging. From losing her mother young to pioneering gender-and-humor studies, Gina traces the path where jokes become bridges and stories transform shame into connection.

We dig into how many women use humor differently—not as a weapon, but as an invitation—and why inclusive laughter thrives in everyday places (yes, even the women’s restroom). Gina is both bold and practical: you can’t live on other people’s praise, and outward confidence is not the same as inner self-esteem. The real fix? Steady self-kindness, cleaning up old messes, and the courage to claim your story.

Gina also takes us inside Gina School, an anti-AI, hand-crafted collaboration with a talented former student—pairing distilled lessons with pen-and-ink illustrations to prove that cross-generational creativity can be both human and timeless. We end with a grounded definition of hope: the belief that change is possible—and often better than we expect.

If you’ve ever felt like the “away team,” this conversation offers language, laughter, and a map back to yourself.

Connect with Gina on her website: GinaBarreca.com

Read more from Gina on Psychology Today.

And head right to grab your copy of Gina School here.

Thank you for listening to Hope Comes to Visit. If this episode resonated with you, please follow, rate, and share the show — it helps others find their way to these conversations.

New episodes drop every Monday and Friday, so you can begin and end your week with a little light and a lot of hope.

For more stories, reflections, and ways to connect, visit www.DanielleElliottSmith.com or follow along on Instagram @daniellesmithtv and @HopeComestoVisit