What happens when the story you've believed for 35 years turns out to be incomplete? When Lisa Sugarman was ten, she was told her father died of a heart attack. But decades later, one unexpected question revealed a long-held secret that shifted everything. In this open and emotionally honest conversation,…
At 45, everything changed for Lisa Sugarman. The revelation that their father died by suicide, and not the way she believed, shattered everything. “It just absolutely shattered me.” A family member's question opened a door to a hidden past and a shocking secret. #MentalHealth #SuicideAwareness #FamilySecrets #Trauma #MentalHealthMatters
Ryan hit a breaking point and walked away from the career that defined him. After realizing that time with his daughter is the most valuable thing, he texts his wife: 'I need to leave teaching.' This decision brings grief and unexpected freedom. TheLifeShiftPodcast.com/193 #TeacherLife #CareerChange #ParentingStruggles #WorkLifeBalance #NewBeginnings
Embrace your child’s unique needs and let go of expectations. It was an emotional journey: “We want Sarah to feel loved… and don't need her to change at all.” The power of acceptance. #parenting #specialneeds #acceptance #love #family #neurodiversity
What happens when your life splits in two — more than once? Ash Perrow thought he had it all mapped out. A career in teaching. A family. A future. But everything changed when his daughter was stillborn. And just as he began rebuilding, a surgical complication led to a near-death…
What if the perfect time never comes? Katie Svoboda-Rini's life was shaped by caregiving, personal loss, body image struggles, and a wildfire that left her house standing but nearly everything inside destroyed. In this honest and emotionally rich conversation, Katie shares how she finally stopped waiting for things to settle…
What do you do when the truth arrives decades too late? @lisa_sugarman believed one version of her father’s death for 35 years. Then a single question unraveled everything. We talked about what it means to grieve the same loss twice. About how silence protects but also isolates. And about the…
There's something beautiful about the moment you stop trying to fix everything. In Jennifer's story on The Life Shift Podcast, that shift changed how she showed up as a mom, and how she saw herself. For years, Jennifer carried invisible bricks of guilt while raising her daughter with special needs,…
What if the life you've built with such care and dedication no longer fits who you've become? Ryan faced this question as a dedicated teacher who still loved his students but found himself slowly burning out. This conversation is for anyone standing at that crossroads – where you recognize that…
What do you do when the life you dreamed of looks nothing like the one you’re living? Jenny always knew she wanted to be a mom. But when her first child, Sarah, was born with special needs, the parenting story she had imagined began to unravel. For years, she carried…
What if burnout wasn't the end—but the beginning of your most authentic life? After ten years in the classroom, Ryan Hennessey realized he was running on fumes. A powerful moment at a heart-led business retreat cracked something open in him and gave him the clarity he’d been chasing. He didn’t…
What if one letter could pull you back from the edge? Michael Allison is a U.S. Marine Combat Veteran, Purple Heart recipient, and resilience coach — but before any of that, he was a survivor. A survivor of childhood abuse, war, grief, and the kind of silence that can swallow…
Some moments split your life in two. There’s the before. And then the after. Donna Kendrick knows that feeling in her bones. The day her husband died, she was left with three young kids, a brand-new house, and a future she hadn’t planned for. No time to fall apart. No…
What do you do when your life changes in an instant? When Donna Kendrick lost her husband to suicide, she was left standing at a painful crossroads – three young kids, a new house, and a future she could no longer picture. But by the light of a backyard bonfire,…
We all have a “before” – a version of ourselves that existed before the loss, before the diagnosis, before the breakup, before the shift. And sometimes, we miss that version of ourselves more than we know how to say. This short reflection is a reminder that it’s okay to feel…
Sometimes the most profound endings happen in the most ordinary places. In this week's episode of The Life Shift, money coach Mikelann Valterra shares the moment her marriage ended with a simple handshake across a table at their favorite sushi restaurant. www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/191
At 17, Miron Pingasov made the difficult decision to walk away from professional racing - a sport he'd been dedicated to since age 5. Sometimes the most powerful life shifts occur when we dare to walk away, even from something we've invested years in. www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/190
Can one quiet moment change everything you thought your future would be? When Mikelann Valterra sat across from her husband at their favorite sushi spot, she didn’t plan to end her marriage with a handshake. But that one act, quiet and deeply human, cracked open the life she had built…
What do you do when the dream you’ve chased your entire life suddenly stops feeling right? By the age of 17, Miron Pingasov had raced at 150 mph, broken bones, lost a close friend on the track, and watched his childhood passion for racing turn into something more political than…
What if the story you believed your whole life wasn’t the whole truth? In this episode of The Life Shift Podcast, writer and mental health advocate Lisa Sugarman shares the moment that changed everything — learning 35 years after her father's death that he had died by suicide. What followed…
What if the thing you’ve been trying to fix wasn’t broken to begin with? In this emotional and eye-opening episode, Jennifer Celeste Briggs shares her journey of parenting a child with special needs – and the moment she gave herself permission to stop striving and start loving. From early diagnoses…
After a decade as a dedicated middle school teacher, Ryan Hennessey realized something wasn’t right. Burnout had crept in slowly, and despite still loving his students, the system no longer supported who he was becoming. A moment of clarity at a heart-led retreat changed everything — and gave him the…
