This week’s episode on Happiness through Hardship – The Podcast highlights Laura Saltman, an author, intuitive guidance coach, meditation teacher and TV/Digital Host. Her journey from red carpet reporter to Hollywood Healer began after her life was turned upside down – she lost her brother to cancer, her father to suicide, suffered multiple miscarriages and more. Laura NEEDED tools to help her cope and live beyond the pain, sadness and depression. Laura looked for alternate therapies to heal and then she jumped in…She learned, experienced and became and expert, teacher and soldier in the spiritual game. She has learned how to transform lives through connection to metaphysical intelligence inspiring people to think, live and love better. She’s well-versed in meditation, chakra balancing and intuitive healing.
Episode 8: Laura Saltman – Transformation through Tragedy
Episode 7: Talia Pollack – Party in My Plants and The Silent Struggle with Health Issues
This episode on Happiness through Hardship – The Podcast gives us to a reason to celebrate with guest, Talia Pollock, a well-known author of “Party in Your Plants – 100+ Plant-Based Recipes and Problem Solving Strategies to Help You Eat Healthier Without Hating Your Life.” She’s also a certified plant-based chef, a writer, motivational speaker, TV personality and dynamic health and empowerment coach. She started her career as a comedian and now keeps us laughing and informed with her internationally celebrated Party in My Plants brand.
Though full of positive energy, on this episode Talia talks about how she spent years silently struggling with unknown health issues, which led to depression and low confidence. She TRULY took a journey figuring out how to navigate her own health without being a burden to herself or others. She shares her story and then how she went from health nut hermit to hosting a kombucha fest at a Steeler’s Tailgate. She speaks about being bold and having courage to make changes in our lives to better our health and our selves.
Episode 6: Samantha Harris – Cancer Conversations & Your Healthiest Healthy
This week’s guest on “Happiness through Hardship” – The Podcast has so many incredible achievements it’s hard to know where to start. Samantha Harris is a former co-host of Dancing with the Stars, a two-time Emmy nominated entertainment correspondent and anchor for Entertainment Tonight as well as a guest host on The View, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? and Good Morning America. She’s hosted red carpet shows and starred on Broadway (as Roxy Hart in Chicago) as well as served as an ambassador for both Susan G. Komen, The American Cancer Society and Feeding America. She’s always been a fitness fanatic but after her breast cancer diagnosis, she further educated herself on healthy lifestyle modalities. Now she’s a certified trainer, health coach and author of the award winning book, Your Healthiest Healthy – 8 Easy Ways to Take Control, Help Prevent Cancer, and Live a Longer, Cleaner, Happier Life. Samantha will WOW you with her enthusiasm for life and expertise in healthy living. She shares with us how her cancer journey helped her find mindfulness and dig deeper into her positivity. She talked about how connecting with family and friends far away as well as within the cancer community helped her get through the rough times. And she shares a whole slew of her favorite health tips…and trust me – there are many.
Be sure to listen to the end when we play the Grateful Game. See – Samantha and I grew up together… so we had a few laughs talking about our old stomping grounds including walking around the mall to see Nate Berkus as well as eating fro-yo at the gym.
Episode 5: COVID-19 & Autoimmune Disease – A Recovery Story
When we started the podcast production, taping many episodes, it was before COVID-19 became a global pandemic. Within weeks, even days, the world changed immensely and I wanted to connect with someone who understood the hardship dealing with the virus. Even now as many people are phasing back into socialization, this virus is still a threat and top of mind especially for those touched by a compromised immunity…like myself and today’s guest, Rachel Rosenthal, founder of the professional organizing agency, Rachel and Company. Rachel is an authority focused on home and office organization that’s simple and practical. She left a powerful desk job to follow her passion and now 2500 clients later, has made it into a booming business. In addition to being a successful entrepreneur recognized worldwide, she’s also a mom of identical tween daughters, living a life with Hashimoto’s disease and now a survivor of COVID-19.
Rachel spoke with me just weeks into her recovery from COVID-19. She shares with us how she got through, demonstrates some exercises for COVID-19 chest congestion taught to her by CNN’s Chris Cuomo and how her passion for organizing helped her find a little peace during her journey. We also laugh about meal planning, lipstick and touch upon a few tips along the way.
Episode 4: Roxane Battle – Pockets of Joy – Dad’s Dementia & Life’s Dealings
When life gets tough, it’s easy to crawl into a hole. Today’s podcast guest knows hardship – and thinks differently than you might expect. She found that tapping into “pockets of joy” has helped her. TV personality, author and motivational speaker, Roxane Battle, shares this message with the world. Today’s episode is about that – the importance of connection and finding a little bit of happiness throughout your hardship.
Podcast Episode 3: WNBA’s Katie Smith – Resilience On & Off the Court
Professional athletes can have fame, often good fortune and the great ones take being a role model seriously. Three time Olympian, Women’s Basketball and Naismith Hall of Famer and WNBA superstar, Katie Smith, is that and more. She has always been an authentic spark of positive energy on and off the court. Katie dominated women’s basketball in high school and college as well as the ABL & WNBA professional leagues. In addition, she’s also embraced being a leader and is highly decorated with awards and championships. On top of it all, she’s been a true team player at every level and an advocate to inspire girls to be positive, motivated and strong.
Today on Happiness through Hardship – The Podcast, we talk about resilience…especially during job transitions. Katie Smith, shares her story going from a player to coach in the WNBA. I smiled throughout the interview knowing that so many of her comments were incredibly relatable. We often have to pivot our lives, when something bad happens. When we lose a job, lose a loved one or just lose direction on what we want in life…having some advice on how to handle those hard times can make putting one foot in front of the other easier. Katie Smith has wise words on how she did it in the WNBA…and how we can all do it, as well.