How Did I Go From Radio Talk Show Host To Life Coach?

For nearly two decades of my life I had a microphone in front of my face. Everyday, after consuming way too many cups of coffee, I would chase down the big story, interview interesting people and tell intriguing stories. I was a journalist and I loved it. For the last six years of my news career I cracked the mic as a talk show host. I had transitioned away from just the who, what, where, why, when and how of journalism and now I had to have an opinion on EVERYTHING! Seems easy enough but it’s actually quite hard. In order to have a solid opinion I had to learn a lot, read a lot, consume a lot! I took great pride in educating myself on the stories. That meant knowing some of the biggest tragedies in American history inside and out and living in some very dark spaces for a period of time.

You know when the news gets intense and you just turn it off for a while? Well … that’s when I had to turn it on. And it took its toll.

The beginning of the end of my news career was October 1, 2017. Yes … I know the exact date. That was the night a man sat in his Las Vegas hotel room and rained bullets down on unsuspecting concert goers at a music festival. By the end of the night 60 people would be dead and nearly 1000 shot. I spent the next few weeks covering ‘the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history.’ It took a toll.

By November, I started to get my feet under me again but that steadiness didn’t last long. In December there was another mass shooting. This time in a Texas church. It turned out to be ‘the deadliest shooting in a place of worship in modern American history.’

I barely stopped talking about that senseless tragedy before a teenager and former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, took a semi-automatic rifle on campus and killed 17. Here I was again cracking the mic for the third time in five months, telling my audience about yet another killing spree … this time it was ‘the deadliest high school shooting in American history.’ The toll had been taken. That was February 14, 2018.

Over the next few years I really struggled with my job. I didn’t want to talk about everything that was negative and wrong in the world but that is what I was paid to do. I was paid to talk about the news. It isn’t news when people are happy with their jobs and saving for retirement. It’s news when depression spikes and people are drowning in debt. It isn’t news when people are healthy and fit. It’s news when they are sick and dying. It isn’t news when a plane lands safely. It’s news when it crashes and burns …. and it felt like everything was crashing and burning all around me.

I had a high profile job and made great money at work. I had an amazing husband and fantastic daughter at home … but yet I was unsatisfied. I was STUCK. I shared myself with the world everyday but yet didn’t feel like I knew who I was. I felt like something was wrong with me. I was trying to be the person I thought people wanted me to be at work, the wife I thought my husband wanted at home and the mom I thought my daughter needed after school. I felt like my life wasn’t my own. Like everyone got the best of me and I got what was left over.

I went to therapy to help with the anxiety. It worked … a little … but it was exhausting talking about a past I couldn’t change and definitely couldn’t control. So, I put my head down and just push through the discomfort …. pretending it wasn’t there …. but all that did was make it worse. I knew I had to make a change but I didn’t know where and I didn’t know how. All I knew was that I couldn’t stay STUCK.

That’s when I got a life coach. I admit I didn’t really know what a life coach did at the time but I was open to trying anything to feel better.

Every session I walked away with a new tool, a new skill, a new nugget of awareness I carried into the new life I was slowly creating for myself. The new me.

As I began to learn how to handle negative emotions and manage my mind, I started to feel powerful again. I started to feel confident again. I started to take back control of my life. I started to make decisions in my life instead of just seeing where life took me.

We’re never taught these skills. Sure we learn how to diagram a sentence and algebraic equations, yet we’re never taught how to deal with negative emotions. So, to get away from that pain, we overeat, over drink, over work, over porn, over Facebook … we’re trying to get over our negative emotions by escaping to the bottom of a carton of ice cream or a bottle of wine… but that never fixes anything. In fact, guilt and shame then join the party and you feel worse.

I realized this is what I was talking about everyday. People trying to escape their situations.

Modern emotional health is THE most important thing in your life but yet no one ever teaches you how to manage and achieve it. Until now.

February 14, 2020, Exactly two years to the day after the shooting at Stoneman Douglas, I quit my job. I quit news. I walked away from what people thought I should do and I did what I wanted to do… coach people who are stuck like I was and help them find the relief, awareness and control within themselves.

This was no easy task and I’m not here telling you it was. I had to take full responsibly for where my life was and then decide where I wanted it to go. I had to stop complaining about my situation and do something about it. I had to stop looking for others to validate me and start having my own back. I began to look inside of me for the answers instead of looking outside of me.

I told you it wasn’t easy … but I wouldn’t change one thing about my journey because it lead me right here. To you reading about it, maybe identifying with aspects of it and hopefully being inspired to get UNSTUCK.

Are you stuck?

If you don’t know what you want in life but know … this life isn’t it. I can help you get UNSTUCK in life.

When people talk about following your dreams do you find yourself saying … ‘Dreams? What dream’s? Who’s got time for dreams?’ And then start beating yourself up because you don’t have any? I can help you get UNSTUCK in your career.

If you feel like you know what to do to lose weight and exercise but you just can’t bring yourself to actually do it … I can help you get UNSTUCK in your body.

I’m here to help, to coach, to lead you to the best version of yourself! It’s time to get UNSTUCK. You ready?