Missy has helped hundreds of purpose-driven authors move from an idea to a completed manuscript, publication, launch, platform growth, and bestseller status. Her own author journey began with the deeply personal book Don’t Mess With This Mama: Risking It All to Rescue Our Daughter, which became a number-one Amazon bestseller and received multiple literary honors.

Missy also published Lisa’s Reclaiming Your Savage Sovereignty, which remained a number-one New Release in its category for two months. They are now preparing to release Lisa’s most personal work yet, Notes From a Certified Madwoman.

Together, Lisa and Missy will explore:

• How to know whether you have a book idea or a message you are responsible for sharing

• Why talented writers remain trapped in perfectionism and fear

• What authors misunderstand about publishing, visibility, and book launches

• How to protect your authentic voice during editing

• The difference between publishing a book and building a movement

• How to tell painful stories without exploiting your own wounds

• What makes a publisher believe in an author before the audience or numbers existThis conversation is for aspiring authors, speakers, entrepreneurs, and anyone carrying a story that refuses to remain silent.

Where to Find Missy:

https://www.missymaxwellworton.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/missy-maxwell-worton-898261371/

How to Find Lisa:

https://www.lisalacy.com/

What did you perform in order to survive?

And what might it do for your life to finally put that role, mask, or performance down?

Welcome to the Edge.

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What happens when someone finally tells the whole truth and discovers that the person listening does not panic, turn away, or try to make the story more comfortable?

In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with Sean Wellington, founder and host of the Suicide Noted podcast, for a candid conversation about suicide, survival, silence, and what it means to truly listen.

Since launching Suicide Noted in 2020, Sean has facilitated more than 400 long-form conversations with suicide attempt survivors and people who have experienced suicidal ideation across 47 U.S. states and 27 countries. His mission is to help us become better at talking about the hardest parts of being human so that fewer people are forced to carry them alone.

Together, Lisa and Sean explore:

• What suicide attempt survivors wish more people understood
• The difference between listening and trying to rescue
• Why people often remain silent until they reach a crisis
• What pauses, contradictions, and unfinished sentences reveal
• The responsibility involved in holding another person’s story
• How families, clinicians, leaders, and friends can become safer people to tell the truth to

This is a conversation about radical listening, difficult truths, and the profound relief of being heard without being reduced to a diagnosis, a crisis, or the worst moment of your life.

How to Find Sean:

Home | Suicide Noted - Raw Talks with Attempt Survivorswww.seangwellington.com

The Missing Record

How to Find Lisa:

www.lisalacy.com

Notes From the Edge explores trauma, identity, recovery, leadership, reinvention, and the conversations we should have been having all along.

And as always, we end with the question:

What did you perform in order to survive?

Welcome to the Edge.

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In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with transformational mentor, trauma-informed coach, motivational speaker, former child performer, and Licensed Vocational Nurse Hilary Momberger Powers.

Hilary began working in front of the camera at five years old as the voice of Sally Brown in the Peanuts cartoons. Behind the early success, however, were unresolved childhood wounds that later contributed to addiction, painful choices, and a life that began to unravel.

After entering recovery in 1983, Hilary discovered that putting down the addiction was only the beginning. The deeper work meant confronting the trauma, identity patterns, and emotional wounds that had been leading her life.

Together, Lisa and Hilary explore childhood fame, addiction, inner-child work, recovery, self-advocacy, reinvention, and what it means to stop allowing old pain to make present-day decisions.

This is a conversation about moving from victim to victor, reclaiming your voice, and proving that it is never too late to begin again.

How to Find Hilary:

Hilary Momberger Powers | LinkedIn

HILARY POWERS

How to find Lisa:

Lisa Lacy

Lisa Lacy | LinkedInWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge.

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In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with former client, author, entrepreneur, and radio host Saylor Cooper for an honest conversation about blindness, disability, emotional intelligence, nervous-system awareness, boundaries, and learning how to become the container instead of the sponge.

Saylor shares how understanding his emotional depth helped him become calmer, more grounded, and more connected to who he has always been at his core. We also explore how he moved beyond other people’s expectations to create Real Variety Radio and Hope Without Sight, platforms built around resilience, storytelling, music, and meaningful human connection.

This conversation is about feeling deeply without disappearing inside what you feel, transforming adversity without allowing it to become your entire identity, and recognizing that emotional sensitivity can become a powerful form of leadership when it is supported by self-awareness and boundaries.

Hosted by Lisa Lacy

Featuring Saylor Cooper:

Saylor Cooper | LinkedIn

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/blissful-connections/id1789566162
What did you perform in order to survive?

Welcome to the Edge.

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Six days a week. Sometimes two meetings a day. Inpatient rehabilitation. Outpatient rehabilitation. Sponsors. Step work. Inventories. Confessions. Amends.

I stayed sober.

But I was not becoming healthier.

I was becoming smaller.

In this deeply personal episode of Notes From the Edge, I explore what happens when a recovery model fails to recognize the person sitting in front of it, especially when that person is also carrying childhood trauma, sexual assault, domestic violence, psychiatric diagnoses, shame, and a profoundly dysregulated nervous system.

This is not an attack on AA.

If AA saved your life, I celebrate that. Truly. Keep going.

This is a grief story about realizing that the map I had been given was never designed for the terrain I was walking.

We will talk about:

• The difference between staying sober and actually healing
• When “sharing” becomes uncontained trauma dumping
• Why powerlessness, defect language, and submission may affect traumatized women differently
• The importance of nervous system regulation, boundaries, safety, and co-regulation
• Modern trauma approaches such as EMDR, Internal Family Systems, and somatic therapy
• The evolving science of addiction and neuroplasticity
• Alternatives including SMART Recovery, Women for Sobriety, LifeRing, medication-assisted treatment, recovery coaching, therapy, purpose, community, and connection
• Why informed choice should be part of every recovery conversation

My nervous system did not need another moral inventory.

It needed safety.

Recovery should not require abandoning your intuition or becoming less yourself. It should help you become more yourself.

And if one approach is not helping you heal, that does not automatically mean you are broken.

Maybe you simply need a different map.

This episode reflects personal experience and is intended for education and conversation. It is not a substitute for individualized medical or mental health care.

Learn more about Lisa Lacy and her work at www.lisalacy.com

And before we leave, I want to ask you the question I ask every guest:

What did you perform in order to survive?

Welcome to the Edge.

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Technology can help us reach thousands of people, write polished messages, and build impressive networks.

But it cannot create trust for us.

Beth Granger is a speaker, consultant, trainer, emcee, and LinkedIn and networking strategist who helps professionals communicate more confidently, navigate critical conversations, and turn online connections into meaningful relationships.

Her message is simple and increasingly urgent:

You can’t automate relationships.

In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Beth and Lisa explore the fear beneath professional visibility, why people hesitate to post or speak honestly online, and what separates a connection from an actual relationship.

They also discuss:

• How to become visible without performing a polished professional persona
• The difference between listening and simply waiting to speak
• What artificial intelligence can support, and what should never be outsourced
• Why critical conversations either strengthen trust or quietly destroy it
• How leaders, sales professionals, and teams can communicate with greater clarity and humanity
• Why connection, curiosity, kindness, and community still matter in an algorithm-driven world

This is a conversation about reputation, belonging, confidence, digital communication, and the human work required to make relationships mean something.

Learn more about Beth Granger:
https://www.bethgranger.com

Learn more about Lisa Lacy:
https://www.lisalacy.com

Welcome to the edge.

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In this solo episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy explores the long-term impact of chronic devaluation, especially when it begins in childhood. She shares personal stories of earning straight A’s, leading teams, serving on committees, excelling in performance, and still feeling as though the finish line kept moving.

When you are told to go left and then criticized for not going right, you may stop trusting your own direction. Over time, that confusion can shape your confidence, your relationships, your ambition, and your ability to fully receive your own success.

This conversation explores:

• Why devaluation can create overachievement and overfunctioning
• How moving standards teach children to distrust themselves
• Why accomplished adults may still struggle to feel successful
• How early devaluation can affect romantic and professional relationships
• The difference between creating from self-expression and performing for approval
• How to receive feedback without turning it into a verdict on your worth

Devaluation did not stop Lisa from becoming a leader, performer, entrepreneur, writer, and creator.

She accomplished it anyway.

But the deeper work is learning to accomplish without still carrying the need to prove that she deserves to be valued.

What have you spent your life accomplishing in the hope that someone would finally recognize your value?

And what might you create next if you no longer needed their permission?

Welcome to the Edge.
www.lisalacy.com

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Then an elderly landlord named Elaine chose not to give up on him.

Her belief became a turning point, but Bryan still had to do the work of becoming someone he could believe in, too.

Today, Bryan is sober, a recovery advocate, transformation coach, and the creator of Crab Crew Life, a community built around recovery, resilience, adaptability, accountability, and belief.

Bryan says the crab does not swim. It does not fly. It claws its way forward from the bottom of the ocean floor.

And so did he.

In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Bryan and Lisa explore:

• What homelessness and addiction look like from the inside
• The difference between getting sober and rebuilding your identity
• Why redemption is not a moment, but a daily routine
• The ordinary habits that restore dignity and self-respect
• How one person’s belief can help rewrite a life
• Why community can carry us when willpower is no longer enough
• Who we become when survival is no longer our only identity

This is a conversation about second chances, accountability, human connection, and the courage required to keep clawing forward when life has taken you all the way to the bottom.

Learn more about Bryan Blackmon and Crab Crew Life:
https://crabcrewlif​​e.com

Learn more about Lisa Lacy:
https://www.lisalacy.com

Welcome to the edge.

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Maybe I was never crazy.

Maybe I was wounded, dysregulated, surviving, and just slightly feral.

In this solo episode of Midnight Menopausal Meanderings, I talk about what happens when trauma is mistaken for personality, survival responses are reduced to mental illness, and the context of a person’s life disappears beneath the diagnosis.

This is not an argument against therapy, psychiatry, medication, recovery, or mental health treatment. Those things save lives, including mine.

It is an invitation to ask a fuller question.

Not only:

What is wrong with you?

But also:

What happened to you?

I also share why some details were intentionally left out of my book, why telling the whole truth can sometimes bring consequences from the very people who benefited from your silence, and why this book is not an attempt to explain or defend myself.

It is an exploration of what happens when we forget that context matters.

Because trauma may explain behavior without excusing harm.

Because a diagnosis may describe symptoms without telling the whole story.

And because sometimes the woman everyone called crazy was carrying more than one nervous system should ever have had to carry alone.

Notes From a Certified Madwoman is coming Fall 2026.

Welcome to the edge.

www.lisalacy.com

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What happens when a woman stops waiting to feel confident, stops explaining every decision, and starts building the life she knows she is capable of creating?

In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with award-winning entrepreneur, author, podcast host, and founder of the Badass Queen™ movement, Renee Carbone Fleming.

Renee filed for bankruptcy. Her marriage ended. She found herself rebuilding from the ground up and made a two-word decision that would shape everything that followed:

Watch me.

That decision became a philosophy, a movement, and the foundation of the WATCH ME Method™, Renee’s five-principle operating system for women who are done seeking permission, shrinking their ambitions, and waiting for approval before taking action.

Renee went on to build a direct-sales organization that generated more than $13 million, lead a team of over 400 people, create a multimillion-dollar brand empire, publish three books, launch the Unapologetically Badass podcast, and see her brand featured on the NASDAQ billboard in Times Square.

In this bold and honest conversation, Lisa and Renee explore:

• What reinvention really looks like before the success story becomes polished
• Why overexplaining quietly weakens a woman’s authority
• The hidden emotional and financial cost of waiting for approval
• Why confidence is the result of execution, not the requirement for it
• How women can become visible before they feel completely ready
• What Renee had to survive, release, and rebuild between bankruptcy and success
• How to stop asking others to approve the future you are creating

This is a conversation for every woman who has ever known she was capable of more but kept waiting for permission to prove it.

Connect with Renee Carbone Fleming:
https://badassqueen.co

Connect with Lisa Lacy:
https://www.lisalacy.com

Welcome to the edge.

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People celebrate strong women until those women get angry, set boundaries, stop apologizing, or remove access.

In this episode of Midnight Menopausal Meanderings, Lisa Lacy explores female anger, menopause, nervous-system overload, and what happens when the emotionally manageable woman begins to disappear. Menopause may not create a new, irrational woman. It may reveal the woman who spent decades swallowing betrayal, exhaustion, grief, emotional labor, and uncomfortable truths to keep everyone else comfortable.

This conversation also holds the harder truth: anger can carry important information, but justified rage can still cause harm. Trauma explains behavior. It does not excuse it. Healing is not about silencing anger or worshipping it. It is about learning to hold truth without destruction, boundaries without cruelty, and power without abandoning our humanity.

This episode draws from Lisa’s upcoming book, Notes of a Certified Madwoman, an exploration of trauma, survival, identity, nervous-system adaptation, and the women we became in order to survive.

Who benefited from the version of you who carried her suffering quietly?

Welcome to the edge.

www,lisalacy.com

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“Rocketman” Dan Schlund is one of the last professionally trained Rocketbelt pilots in the world. For a decade, he flew jet packs at events across 25 countries and six continents, performing hundreds of flights without a parachute and with only seconds of fuel strapped to his back.

But Dan’s most extraordinary story began after the spectacle ended.

Following devastating burns, extensive skin-graft surgeries, and a crash that left him with a broken neck, Dan lost far more than his ability to fly. He lost his income, his marriage, and the identity he had built around being the Rocketman. He also became dependent on pain medication and had to rebuild his life from the ground up.

Dan eventually founded National Set Medics, growing it into a multimillion-dollar company that provides medical professionals for film and television productions nationwide. Ten years after his final flight, he purchased the Rocketbelt and training hangar and returned to the air one more time for his memoir and documentary, The Last Rocketman.

In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy and Dan explore:

• What happens when your identity disappears overnight
• The difference between courage and fearlessness
• How the nervous system responds after catastrophic injury
• Addiction, recovery, and the invisible work behind a comeback
• Calculated risk and decision-making under pressure
• Why Dan believes fear is information, not instruction
• What it took to strap the Rocketbelt on one final time

Dan’s message is not that we should become fearless. It is that courage can be practiced, preparation can change our relationship with fear, and our worst experience does not have to become our final one.

Learn more about Dan, his book, and the documentary:
https://rocketman.tv/

Learn more about Lisa Lacy and Notes From the Edge:
https://www.lisalacy.com/

Welcome to the Edge.

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What happens when a provider sees your psychiatric history before they truly see you?

In this deeply personal solo episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy explores the dangerous gap between being treated as a medically complex human being and being reduced to “the psychiatric patient.”

Drawing from her lived experience inside mental health facilities, jail, addiction recovery, emergency rooms, and repeated life-threatening medical crises, Lisa examines how quickly dignity, autonomy, and credibility can disappear once a diagnosis enters the room.

This episode explores institutionalization, medical gaslighting, hospital trauma, psychiatric bias, and the devastating consequences of being labeled emotional instead of symptomatic, anxious instead of endangered, and crazy instead of sick.

It also offers an early look into Lisa’s forthcoming memoir, Notes From a Certified Madwoman, releasing in October. Part memoir, part cultural critique, and part nervous-system conversation, the book asks a question that could change how we understand trauma and mental illness:

What if the diagnosis was sometimes describing survival?

Mental illness should never cancel physical illness.
A psychiatric record should never erase a patient’s credibility.
Institutionalization should never require the surrender of human dignity.

Learn more about Lisa, the podcast, and her upcoming work at:

https://lisa-lacy.com

Notes From a Certified Madwoman releases in October.

See you at the edge.

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In this deeply personal solo episode of Midnight Menopausal Meanderings, I explore the difference between loving someone and knowing how to experience love.

My parents never told me they loved me. My father wrote the words in letters I would not open until decades later, after he died. My mother never said them. I learned touch through violation rather than comfort, and when I became a mother, I had to consciously teach myself how to hug my daughter and say, “I love you.”

For years, I believed love meant providing. I became the financial provider, the problem-solver, the rescuer, and eventually a workaholic driven by survival.

Now, with the help of transformational coach Steve Barton, I am exploring a different idea:

Love can be wisdom.
Love can be trust.
And love can simply be love.

We also talk about menopause, the disappearing bullshit filter, and the challenge of setting boundaries that are loving, direct, and final. Because you can love someone, understand them, forgive them, and still decide they no longer have access to you.

This next chapter is not about performing love.

It is about finally learning what love feels like when it does not require self-abandonment.

What did you perform in order to survive?

Learn more at lisalacy.com

See you at the edge.

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What happens when competence becomes a survival strategy?

In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with life coach and former technology leader Loren Silverman for an honest conversation about burnout, overthinking, boundaries, self-abandonment, and the hidden cost of always being the capable one.

After nearly two decades working in technology, program management, and digital transformation, Loren realized that the part of his career that mattered most was not the technology. It was helping the people behind it.

He also recognized a difficult truth: persistence can look admirable from the outside while quietly costing us our satisfaction, health, and connection to ourselves.

Today, Loren is the founder of Silverman Coach and the creator of Life Reboot: Nerd Edition, a coaching experience for nerds, geeks, overthinkers, and overwhelmed professionals who are ready to trade chaos for clarity, build meaningful boundaries, and finally follow through on what matters.

Together, Lisa and Loren explore why the most capable person in the room may also be the person closest to the edge, how competence becomes a performance, and why real transformation is often built through small, repeatable choices rather than dramatic overhauls.

They also discuss the difference between persistence and self-abandonment, the role values play in decision-making, and what it takes to stop treating yourself like a problem that needs to be optimized.

Learn more about Loren Silverman and Silverman Coach:
http://silverman.coach

Learn more about Lisa Lacy and Notes From the Edge:
https://www.lisalacy.com

Welcome to the edge.

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Every parent wants to believe their child will know how to recognize danger, make the right decision, and walk away when drugs enter the picture.

But today’s drug landscape is more accessible, potent, and aggressively marketed than many families realize. By the time a parent knows something is wrong, the problem may already be much larger than anyone understood.

In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with author, educator, private investigator, and addiction prevention advocate Dave Kopeny.

Dave grew up in a home consumed by addiction. He was given LSD at eight years old, knew how to roll a joint by nine, and later lost his father, brother, and sister-in-law to alcohol and drug use.

Those experiences became the foundation for more than 30 years of work with adolescents, young adults, and families navigating addiction and other high-risk behaviors. Throughout his career, Dave has served as a school counselor, teacher, probation officer, law enforcement officer, gang investigator, and private investigator specializing in teen addiction and intervention.

Together, Lisa and Dave explore:

• Why the “war on drugs” failed
• How parents can recognize the early warning signs of substance use
• The difference between healthy supervision and destructive surveillance
• How social media and modern drug markets target young people
• What parents should do when they suspect their child is using drugs
• How families can replace fear and helplessness with awareness, action, and hope

Dave is the author of Tip of the Spear: How to Educate, Supervise, and Monitor Your Child in a World of Increasing Drug Abuse and Addiction and the founder of ASAP Community, where he provides parents with practical tools to protect and support their children.

Connect with Dave Kopeny:
https://asapcommunity.org

Connect with Lisa Lacy:
https://www.lisalacy.com

Welcome to the edge.

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The person who got you here may have been exactly who you needed to become.

The achiever. The problem-solver. The founder who never stops moving. The leader who learned how to carry the pressure, meet the expectations, and become whatever the moment required.

But what happens when that identity begins keeping you from where you want to go next?

In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with coach, author, speaker, and Untamed founder Jim Hughes for a conversation about the stories, fears, and deeply rooted beliefs that quietly shape who we become.

Jim has lived in 12 countries, built and led a multimillion-dollar engineering business in Australia, explored an extraordinary range of careers, and even skied the world’s longest giant slalom race wearing only a G-string. For the past decade, he has helped high-achieving founders and leaders stop living as the people they believe they should be and begin becoming the people they genuinely want to be.

Together, Lisa and Jim explore:

• The hidden ways founders and high performers waste energy
• Why motivation may be overrated
• How fear disguises itself as ambition and growth
• Why changing what you do is not enough without examining who is doing it
• The role self-judgment plays in keeping people stuck
• How voices from our past continue influencing decisions they are no longer entitled to make
• What it takes to release the identity that helped you survive

This is a conversation about success, identity, performance, and the courage required to stop obeying the person you once needed to be.

Connect with Jim Hughes and Untamed:
https://www.becomeuntamed.com

Connect with Lisa Lacy:
https://www.lisalacy.com

Notes From the Edge is where we explore trauma, identity, recovery, reinvention, and the deeply human stories underneath the roles we perform.

Welcome to the edge.

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Why do capable, intelligent teams stop taking initiative?

Sometimes it is not because people are lazy, disengaged, or unwilling to contribute. Sometimes they have learned that following directions is safer than asking questions, challenging assumptions, or offering an original idea.

In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with Dr. Katie Trowbridge, an award-winning educator, TEDx speaker, leadership strategist, author, and CEO of Curiosity 2 Create.

After more than 25 years in the classroom, Katie began bringing the principles of curiosity, trust, and thoughtful questioning into organizations. Her work helps leaders move beyond managing behavior and toward creating cultures where people think deeply, contribute ideas, take ownership, and lead with purpose.

Together, Lisa and Katie explore:

• Why leadership shifted from developing people to managing compliance
• Why capable teams sometimes stop taking initiative
• The leadership habits that unintentionally silence good ideas
• What great teachers understand about human development
• How curiosity and trust create stronger workplace cultures
• The CREATE Method™ and how leaders can build teams that think for themselves

Dr. Katie Trowbridge is the author of Lead Boldly, Think Deeply and the creator of the CREATE Method™, a framework designed to help leaders develop stronger thinkers and more sustainable organizational cultures.

Learn more about Dr. Katie Trowbridge and Curiosity 2 Create:
https://curiosity2create.org

Learn more about Lisa Lacy and Notes From the Edge:
https://www.lisalacy.com

Join us for a human conversation about leadership, curiosity, and what becomes possible when people are trusted to think.

See you at the edge.

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In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with attorney, former prosecutor, and family crisis advocate Mark Astor for a necessary and deeply human conversation about addiction, severe mental illness, involuntary treatment, family trauma, and the difficult line between compassion and enabling.

Mark is a partner at Astor Simovitch Law, where he helps families navigate crises involving psychiatric instability, substance use, failed treatment efforts, medical complexity, and resistance to care. His work includes emergency guardianships, recovery planning, and legal intervention through Florida laws such as the Baker Act and Marchman Act.

This work is not theoretical for Mark.

Two days after burying his father, he stood beside police and paramedics as a member of his own family was involuntarily transported for psychiatric evaluation. That experience gave him a perspective no courtroom ever could and ultimately shaped his mission to help families take informed, lawful, and compassionate action before irreversible harm occurs.

Together, Lisa and Mark explore why “waiting until they are ready” can sometimes be deadly, how cognitive impairment affects a person’s ability to recognize that they need help, and when legal intervention may become an act of love rather than punishment or control.

They also examine the emotional burden carried by parents, spouses, and siblings, the civil-rights questions surrounding involuntary treatment, and how families can preserve a loved one’s dignity while still acting to protect their life.

Behind every diagnosis, arrest, psychiatric hold, or involuntary commitment is a human being trying to survive and a family desperately trying not to lose them.

Learn more about Mark Astor and his work:

https://x.com/AstorSimovitch

https://www.instagram.com/

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

Learn more about Lisa Lacy and Notes From the Edge:
https://www.lisalacy.com

Welcome to the edge.

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What happens when you remove the substance, but the pain, pressure, and survival patterns underneath it remain?

In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with author, entrepreneur, podcast host, and addiction recovery advocate Massimo Rigotti for an honest conversation about addiction, bipolar disorder, grief, confidence, and the complicated work of rebuilding a life in recovery.

After navigating addiction, mental-health challenges, professional upheaval, and devastating personal loss, Massimo created the S.O.B.E.R. Method™, a framework combining Stoic principles, self-observation, behavior modification, the execution of positive habits, and holistic restoration.

Together, Lisa and Massimo explore why abstinence may be only the beginning, what traditional recovery models can sometimes overlook, and how shame, identity, self-trust, and confidence influence a person’s ability to create lasting change.

They also examine the hidden dependencies of high-achieving professionals, the difference between looking functional and genuinely being well, and what it takes to stop escaping yourself and begin building a life you no longer need to numb.

Learn more about Massimo Rigotti and the S.O.B.E.R. Method:

Digital S.O.B.E.R. Method: Beat Phone Addiction and Reclaim Your Attention in 5 Stoic Steps — Available now!  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H93ZTVS9/

 Free gift! Want the tools I use with clients?  https://sobermethod.com/5tools 

Your Future is S.O.B.E.R.™Website: https://sobermethod.com

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

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@sobermethod

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sobermethod

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sobermethod
Learn more about Lisa Lacy and Notes From the Edge:
https://www.lisalacy.com

Welcome to the edge.

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Author Richard Spegal returns to Notes From the Edge for a deeper conversation about the profoundly human truths hiding inside dark fantasy.

Richard creates supernatural worlds filled with danger, moral complexity, and characters who are anything but one-dimensional. Beneath the monsters, battles, curses, and impossible choices are people wrestling with grief, trauma, isolation, identity, loyalty, responsibility, and the war taking place inside their own minds.

Drawing from 21 years of service in the United States Army, including the 82nd Airborne Division and the Pennsylvania National Guard, Richard brings an uncommon understanding of discipline, leadership, sacrifice, survival, and the emotional cost of always being expected to remain strong.

In this conversation, we explore:

• Why fantasy can reveal truths that realism sometimes cannot
• How invisible mental health struggles become visible through monsters, curses, and supernatural transformations
• The influence of military service on Richard’s portrayal of trauma and moral injury
• Why flawed, emotionally complicated characters feel more genuinely human
• What readers may be searching for when they enter darker fictional worlds
• Whether the parts of ourselves we fear most are truly monsters or simply wounded places asking to be understood

Richard is the author of the Wolves and Ravens trilogy and the Eternal Nights series, where paranormal danger collides with questions about humanity, survival, love, and the choices we make when there are no easy answers.

Explore Richard Spegal’s books and work:
https://richardspegal.com

Learn more about Lisa Lacy and Notes From the Edge:
https://www.lisalacy.com

Welcome to the Edge.

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Lisa lives with hereditary antithrombin deficiency, a rare congenital blood disorder that allows her blood to clot even while she is taking medication designed to prevent it. After surviving multiple pulmonary embolisms, permanent lung damage, years of medical dismissal, and surgical menopause, she knows what it means to live inside a body that cannot be completely trusted.

But this episode is about more than illness.

It is about the unbearable loneliness of carrying something no one else can see.

It is about looking capable while quietly monitoring every cramp, pressure, breath, and unfamiliar sensation. It is about needing accommodations without appearing visibly sick, explaining limitations other people cannot understand, and constantly trying to determine whether the danger is physical, hormonal, psychological, or all three.

Invisible illness can turn a person into the patient, investigator, advocate, and frightened witness of their own body. It can make ordinary life feel like a continuous negotiation between vigilance and joy.

Lisa explores medical trauma, mortality, menopause, fear, purpose, and the exhausting expectation that people living with chronic illness should perform strength simply to remain worthy of care.

This is not a story about becoming fearless.

It is a conversation about learning to live fully while acknowledging that fear is sometimes reasonable, uncertainty is real, and invisible does not mean imaginary.

Learn more about Lisa and Notes From the Edge at:
https://www.lisalacy.com

See you at the edge.

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What happens when someone finally finds the courage to ask for help, calls a treatment center, and no one answers?

To an organization, it may look like a missed call or a dead lead. But on the other end of that phone is a human being standing inside a brief and potentially life-changing moment of willingness.

In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with David Sichel, founder of Blueshirt Media and a person in long-term recovery who understands this experience personally.

Before entering recovery, David reached out for help with his addiction and never heard back. Today, he has built a HIPAA-compliant AI platform designed specifically for addiction treatment centers, helping them answer calls around the clock, reconnect with people who previously asked for help, and transfer qualified callers directly to admissions professionals. 

Together, Lisa and David explore:

The performance of appearing okay while actively drowning
What silence communicates when someone finally asks for help
The human being behind every so-called “dead lead”
Whether AI can protect human connection rather than replace it
Where technology must stop and trained professionals must step in
The ethical, emotional, and human cost of an unanswered call

This is not simply a conversation about technology. It is a conversation about timing, shame, recovery, responsibility, and what can happen when someone answers at exactly the right moment.

Host: Lisa Lacy
https://www.lisalacy.com

Guest: David Sichel, Blueshirt Media
https://www.blueshirtmedia.com

What did you perform in order to survive?

Welcome to the edge.

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Her name was Cletha, and she was my grandmother.

She was a poor mother of six whose injuries left her face unrecognizable, yet her death was recorded as natural causes. The man responsible never faced a courtroom. There was no justice, no public outrage, and no lasting headline to make sure the world remembered her.

But her story did not end there.

In this deeply personal episode, I honor my grandmother and confront the generational trauma, domestic violence, silence, and survival that traveled through the women in my family. This is a conversation about what happens when pain is inherited, when women are denied justice, and when one generation finally decides the cycle will end with them.

Cletha, you are the reason I teach trauma-informed martial arts in domestic violence shelters. I cannot help but believe that if you had been given the skills I have today, you might still be here with us.

I pass those skills on to other women so they do not suffer the same fate and so they know how to defend themselves, their bodies, and their lives.

My grandmother may never have received justice, but she will not be forgotten.

Her legacy lives in every woman who learns to protect herself, reclaim her voice, and refuse to disappear quietly.

This one is for Cletha. Welcome to the Edge.

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Content note: This episode includes discussion of childhood sexual abuse, suicide attempts, addiction patterns, abusive relationships, and trauma recovery. Please listen with care.

What happens when the version of you that learned how to survive becomes the identity you no longer know how to remove?

From the outside, high-functioning survival can look like success. It can look like earning degrees, building businesses, raising children, creating projects, and continuing to show up for everyone around you.

Underneath the achievement, however, may be a nervous system still running on fear, people-pleasing, overworking, perfectionism, and the relentless need to prove your worth.

In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with trauma specialist, embodiment coach, author, podcaster, filmmaker, entrepreneur, and founder of Victim 2 Victor, Anu Verma.

Anu has survived childhood trauma, suicide attempts, addiction patterns, abusive relationships, financial manipulation, and years of self-destruction disguised as coping. While appearing successful and capable to the outside world, she was often disconnected from herself and driven by the identities she had created to feel safe.

Today, she helps others understand the unconscious beliefs and survival patterns shaping their lives, rebuild self-trust, regulate their nervous systems, and move toward emotional resilience and lasting transformation.

Together, Lisa and Anu explore:

How high-functioning survival hides beneath achievement
Why people-pleasing and overworking can become trauma responses
What harmful coping mechanisms are trying to protect us from
How childhood trauma can distort love, intimacy, and self-worth
The difference between being desired and being valued
How financial and emotional abuse erode identity and boundaries
What people misunderstand about suicide and hopelessness
Why healing requires compassion for the person you became to survive
What rebuilding yourself actually looks like in the messy middle

This is not a polished transformation story.

It is an honest conversation about the masks we wear, the pain we numb, the roles we perform, and the courage it takes to reclaim the person underneath them all.

Host: Lisa Lacy

https://www.lisalacy.com

Guest: Anu Verma, Victim 2 Victor
https://linktr.ee/healing.journeyy

What did you perform in order to survive?

Welcome to the edge.

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In this episode of Midnight Menopausal Meanderings, we are talking about the biology behind menopause-related insomnia, including hormonal changes, temperature dysregulation, nervous-system activation, and why one small interruption can leave you staring at the ceiling for hours.

But this conversation goes deeper than sleep.

What happens when exhaustion, hormonal changes, and limited emotional bandwidth make it harder to keep performing, accommodating, and pretending everything is fine?

Maybe menopause does not create a new woman.

Maybe it reveals the woman who no longer has the neurological energy to tolerate bullshit.

We explore:

• Why sleep becomes more difficult during menopause
• How estrogen and progesterone changes affect the brain
• Why hot flashes and nighttime awakenings can trigger hypervigilance
• How sleep deprivation affects emotional regulation
• Why your tolerance for emotional labor may suddenly disappear
• How to listen to the truths that surface at midnight without immediately blowing up your entire life before breakfast

You are not failing at sleep.

Your biology has changed, your nervous system is adapting, and your body may finally be refusing to finance the performance.

 Learn more about Lisa Lacy:
https://www.lisalacy.com

Notes From the Edge is where we have the conversations we should have been having all along.

Welcome to the edge.

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Many of us learned early how to stay quiet, become useful, keep the peace, earn approval, and make ourselves smaller so other people would remain comfortable. Those adaptations may have helped us survive childhood, but they can follow us into our relationships, our faith, our work, and the way we understand our own worth.

In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with international award-winning author, speaker, trauma-informed, faith-aware self-love coach, and relationship repair specialist Danielle Bernock.

Danielle is a childhood trauma survivor who did not fully come into her own until her fifties. After publishing her memoir, Emerging With Wings, she transformed the story she was once afraid to tell into a body of work helping others move from survival into a life rooted in freedom, value, connection, and love.

Together, Lisa and Danielle explore childhood emotional neglect, trauma that remains invisible, church hurt, spiritual bypassing, self-abandonment, relationship repair, and what it truly means to love yourself after years of performing for acceptance.

They also discuss:

How childhood trauma shapes adult identity and relationships
Why emotional neglect can be so difficult to recognize
What happens when pain is minimized or invalidated
How to separate faith from the harm caused by religious institutions
Why self-love can feel unsafe for trauma survivors
How to tell your story without allowing trauma to become your entire identity
Why it is never too late to finally take up space in your own life

Perhaps healing does not begin when we finally become worthy of love.

Perhaps it begins when we realize we were worthy all along.

Host: Lisa Lacy
https://www.lisalacy.com

Guest: Danielle Bernock
https://www.daniellebernock.com

https://dani-daniellebernock-com.kit.com/de9e550f64

https://dani-daniellebernock-com.kit.com/074c8b6335

What did you perform in order to survive?

Welcome to the edge.

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Join me for a new live episode of Notes From the Edge with author, legal nurse consultant, hospice specialist, teacher, and multi-genre storyteller Nancy Jasin Ensley.

Nancy has spent decades working in professions that require empathy, discernment, and the ability to remain present during some of life’s most critical moments. Those experiences now inform the stories she writes across memoir, literary fiction, science fiction, mystery, thrillers, action and adventure, and children’s literature.

Together, we’ll explore:

• How nursing and hospice shape the way we understand life, loss, and what truly matters
• Why writing can help us process the experiences that leave a mark
• How family, faith, service, and lived experience become powerful stories
• The identity of being the helper, the strong one, or the person everyone depends on
• How writers turn real-life experiences into fiction, memoir, and meaningful conversations
• What it means to preserve memory and make sense of life through storytelling

This is a conversation about caregiving, creativity, resilience, reflection, and the stories that are quietly being written through each of us.

Host: Lisa Lacy
Writer, trauma educator, speaker, and host of Notes From the Edge
 https://www.lisalacy.com

Guest: Nancy Jasin Ensley
Author, legal nurse, hospice specialist, teacher, and storyteller
 https://nancyjasinensley.com/

What did you perform in order to survive, and is it still serving you?

Welcome to the edge.

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Clinicians are trained to make life-or-death decisions, perform under extraordinary pressure, and remain calm when everything is at stake. But they are rarely taught how to process the emotional aftermath when an outcome goes wrong.

In this live episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with trauma and acute care surgeon, educator, author, and healthcare leader Dr. Daniel Eiferman for an honest conversation about the side of medicine most people never see.

Dr. Eiferman is a tenured professor of surgery at The Ohio State University and a Castle Connolly Top Doctor. His book, Cut Open: A Surgeon’s Stories of Loss, Resilience, and Growth, explores the complications, difficult decisions, grief, leadership challenges, and moments of self-doubt that exist behind the operating-room doors.

Together, we will explore:

• Why clinicians often experience complications as personal failure
• The psychological toll of a bad surgical outcome
• How the culture of perfection creates shame and isolation
• What it takes to rebuild confidence after failure
• How clinicians can recover without becoming hardened or disengaged
• What healthcare leadership owes the people working under relentless pressure

This conversation is not only for surgeons. It is for anyone who has worked in a high-stakes environment, experienced an outcome they could not entirely control, and quietly wondered whether they still belonged in the work.

Dr. Eiferman will also share practical tools for clinicians who are expected to remain steady, even when they do not feel steady inside.

Access his complimentary guide at:

https://integritysurgery.org/signup/

What did you perform in order to survive?

Welcome to the edge.

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Marc Hopkins has completed the Bigfoot 200, eight Ironman-distance triathlons, and more than 200 endurance events. But the most difficult terrain he has ever crossed was the landscape inside himself.

In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Marc joins Lisa Lacy for a raw conversation about the difference between true endurance and simply enduring life. Together, they explore what happens when grit becomes avoidance, achievement becomes identity, and pushing through becomes the only way we know how to survive.

Marc shares how a grueling 200-mile ultramarathon forced him to confront the anxiety, family patterns, relationship dynamics, and need to prove his worth that had followed him for decades. His memoir, Hard Things, is not simply a story about surviving an extreme race. It is about uncovering the deeper reasons we keep choosing hard things and learning when strength requires us to stop running.

This conversation explores:

• The difference between endurance and enduring
• When grit becomes a form of emotional avoidance
• The hidden motivations behind extreme achievement
• How family patterns shape relationships and parenting
• Who we become when we stop proving our worth
• Why vulnerability may be the hardest form of strength

Learn more about Marc, explore Hard Things, and read the first chapter at HardThingsBook.com.

What did you perform in order to survive?

Welcome to the edge.

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In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with relationship coach, author, speaker, and ordained minister Andre Paradis for an honest conversation about love, communication, commitment, intimacy, and the survival patterns we unknowingly carry into our relationships.

Before becoming a relationship coach, Andre lived an extraordinary life as a professional dancer, performing alongside artists including Michael Jackson, Prince, Paula Abdul, and Julio Iglesias. He later became a husband, father, and successful business owner before discovering a deeper calling to help people build healthier, more fulfilling relationships.

Together, Lisa and Andre explore:

• Why modern relationships feel so complicated
• How childhood wounds influence adult intimacy
• What men and women misunderstand about each other
• What makes someone commit or walk away
• Masculine and feminine energy without rigid stereotypes
• How trauma and protective behaviors can sabotage love
• What emotional safety looks like in a lasting relationship

Learn more about Andre and Project Equinox Coaching:
http://www.projectequinox.net

Learn more about Lisa Lacy:
https://www.lisalacy.com

What did you perform in order to survive, and is it still serving you?

Subscribe for more honest conversations about trauma, identity, relationships, recovery, leadership, and what it means to be human.

See you at the edge.

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So why do some people feel purposeful while others feel overwhelmed?

Join me for a live conversation with keynote speaker, author, and time strategy coach C.W. Hawley as we explore the hidden relationship between leadership, identity, and the way we experience time.

Rather than offering another productivity system, C.W. challenges us to rethink the beliefs, habits, and expectations that keep high performers feeling constantly behind.

Together we’ll discuss:

• Why burnout is often a symptom of misalignment rather than a lack of time.
• How our relationship with time shapes the way we lead, work, and live.
• The connection between identity, expectations, and overwhelm.
• Practical strategies for creating sustainable leadership rhythms.
• How to pursue meaningful success without sacrificing your well-being.

Whether you’re an executive, entrepreneur, leader, or simply someone trying to balance competing priorities, this conversation will leave you thinking differently about what it means to truly own your time.

What did you perform in order to survive?

Welcome to the Edge.

www.lisalacy.com

How to work with C.W.:

Lets Talk Time - Let's Talk TimeC.W. Hawley | LinkedIn

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In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with James Lang, Managing Partner and co-founder of OverLang Venture Partners, for a conversation about ambition, identity, leadership, medical crisis, and the human cost of high performance.

Before launching OverLang, James served as COO of a MedTech startup, where he helped grow the company to more than $20 million in revenue, built a global team of 60 people, and helped lead the organization toward a successful exit.

Then a serious medical crisis changed everything.

James was forced to reconsider what he believed about work, leadership, success, and the life he was building. Today, he helps American companies grow through strategy, operations, culture, and artificial intelligence, while challenging leaders to remember that growth must support the humans carrying it, not just improve the numbers on a dashboard.

In this conversation, we explore:

• The hidden internal cost of outward success
• How a medical crisis reshaped James’s identity and ambition
• What human-centered growth looks like inside an organization
• Why company culture matters when scaling quickly
• What businesses are getting wrong about artificial intelligence
• How leaders can separate sustainable AI from expensive hype

Learn more about James and OverLang Venture Partners:
https://OverLang.com

Learn more about Lisa Lacy:
https://www.lisalacy.com

What did you perform in order to survive, and is it still serving you?

Subscribe for more honest conversations about trauma, identity, recovery, leadership, reinvention, and what it means to be human.

See you at the edge.

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In this episode of Notes From the Edge, I’m joined by dystopian thriller author T.A. Thompson, creator of The Mark, to explore the fascinating intersection of survival, morality, power, and human nature.

Through the lens of fiction, we’ll discuss why stories about collapse often reveal uncomfortable truths about ourselves. From morally complex characters and impossible choices to leadership, identity, and what happens when consequences begin to disappear, this conversation goes far beyond writing a novel.

We’ll also explore:

• Why dystopian fiction continues to resonate today
• Building unforgettable anti-heroes readers love and hate
• The psychology of survival under extreme circumstances
• How a career built around risk shaped an entirely fictional world
• What fiction can teach us about who we become when everything changes

Whether you’re a reader, writer, or simply fascinated by the psychology behind great stories, this is a conversation you won’t want to miss.

Join us live, bring your questions, and be part of another meaningful conversation.

Welcome to the Edge.

www.lisalacy.com

How to find T.A. Thompson's Work:

https://www.tathompsonwriter.com/

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How do we talk about suicide, grief, and mental health in ways that bring healing instead of silence?

Join me for a powerful live episode of Notes From the Edge as I sit down with author, nationally syndicated columnist, founder of The HelpHUB™, Trevor Project crisis counselor, and three-time suicide loss survivor Lisa Sugarman.

Together we’ll explore what it means to survive profound loss, why the language we use around suicide matters, how to support someone in crisis, and how honest conversations can save lives.

This is a conversation about resilience, compassion, hope, and the courage to speak openly about the experiences so many families carry in silence.

Whether you’ve experienced loss personally, support others professionally, or simply want to better understand mental health, this episode offers insight, humanity, and practical wisdom.

What did you perform in order to survive?

Welcome to the Edge.

www.lisalacy.com

How to Find Lisa's Resources:

https://www.thehelphub.co/

Lisa Sugarman (she/her/hers) | LinkedIn

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In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with Australian visionary author Eugene Samolin to explore the intersection of spirituality, consciousness, creativity, and purpose. After a profound spiritual experience reshaped his understanding of reality, Eugene dedicated his life to writing stories that bridge science, faith, philosophy, and the shared human search for meaning.

Together, they discuss identity, awakening, religious traditions, creativity, healing from trauma, and how our deepest experiences can transform the stories we tell about ourselves.

Whether you’re deeply spiritual, cautiously skeptical, or simply curious, this conversation invites you to think beyond labels and explore the questions that unite us all.

In this episode, we discuss:
• The experience that changed Eugene’s life forever
• Spiritual awakening and personal transformation
• Bridging science and faith
• Identity, purpose, and conscious evolution
• Healing trauma through meaning and story
• Why curiosity may be more important than certainty

If this conversation resonates with you, please like, subscribe, and share it with someone who values thoughtful conversations.

What did you perform in order to survive?

Welcome to the Edge.

How to find Eugene's Work:

Eugene Samolin | LinkedIn

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Sometimes it’s evidence of how well we’ve learned to survive.

In this episode of Notes From the Edge, I’m joined by internationally recognized stress management expert, speaker, coach, and six-time Amazon #1 bestselling author Lolita Guarin for a conversation about burnout, nervous system health, boundaries, and the hidden cost of high achievement.

Together we’ll explore why so many successful people confuse chronic stress with resilience, how trauma and overperformance become intertwined, and what it really takes to rebuild self-trust before burnout forces us to stop.

If you’ve ever felt like you’re accomplishing everything while quietly falling apart inside, this conversation is for you.

We’ll discuss:
• The difference between stress and survival mode
• The hidden signs of burnout most people miss
• Why high achievers struggle with boundaries
• Rebuilding self-trust after chronic stress
• Creating sustainable success without sacrificing your wellbeing

Join us live for another honest, human conversation about the stories we perform to survive and what becomes possible when we stop performing.

Welcome to the Edge.

www.lisalacy.com

How to Work with Lolita:

Be Amazing You - Stress Management

Lolita Guarin | LinkedIn

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Whether the betrayal came from a partner, family member, workplace, friendship, your health, or even life itself, chronic stress and betrayal don’t just break trust. They can change the way your brain processes safety, relationships, and decision-making.

In this solo episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy explores the neuroscience behind betrayal, trauma, and survival without shame or jargon. You’ll learn why you second-guess yourself, overthink everything, struggle to trust your instincts, and why those responses may be signs of adaptation rather than weakness.

In this episode, you’ll discover:
• How betrayal affects the brain and nervous system
• Why you’re not “crazy” or broken
• The role of the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex in survival
• Why insight alone doesn’t create healing
• Practical steps to begin rebuilding self-trust
• How neuroplasticity gives us hope for lasting change

If this conversation resonates with you, you’re invited to Betrayal Rewired™, a complimentary live experiential workshop on Sunday, August 2, where we’ll move beyond information and experience practical tools for nervous system regulation, self-trust, and healing.

Because maybe the problem isn’t that you’re broken.

Maybe your brain simply learned to survive.

If this episode speaks to you, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who needs the reminder that they are not alone.

What did you perform in order to survive?

Welcome to the edge.

Betrayal Rewired: Register Here

https://calendly.com/contact-lisa-lacy/betrayal-rewired

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Join me for a powerful live episode of Notes From the Edge with Jessie Hannah, creator of Bare Becoming, as we explore the neuroscience behind body-focused repetitive behaviors (BFRBs), trichotillomania, shame, nervous system regulation, and the path from self-judgment to self-understanding.

After hiding her hair-pulling disorder for more than 25 years, Jessie made the courageous decision to shave her head publicly and share her story. Today, her work has reached millions of people by helping them replace the question, “What’s wrong with me?” with a far more compassionate one: “What is this behavior trying to protect me from?”

In this conversation, we’ll explore:

• The hidden reality of body-focused repetitive behaviors (BFRBs)
• The neuroscience behind habits that are so difficult to stop
• Why shame rarely leads to healing
• The connection between coping behaviors, identity, and the nervous system
• How curiosity can become the beginning of lasting change
• What it means to truly understand yourself instead of judging yourself

Whether you’ve struggled with anxiety, perfectionism, compulsive behaviors, or simply want to better understand how the brain protects us, this conversation will leave you seeing yourself and others through a more compassionate lens.

Welcome to the Edge.

www.lisalacy.com

Where to find Jesse:

https://www.tiktok.com/@barebecoming?_r=1&_t=ZT-97wP30W0zOA

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What if they’re about survival?

Join me for a live episode of Notes From the Edge with licensed marriage and family therapist Kayla Crane as we explore the hidden ways trauma, attachment, and past experiences shape the way we love, fight, trust, and connect.

Together we’ll discuss:

• Why communication alone doesn’t solve relationship problems
• How trauma silently affects even healthy relationships
• Healing after infidelity and rebuilding trust
• The role of attachment styles in adult relationships
• Why couples keep having the same arguments
• What authentic connection looks like after survival mode

This conversation is for anyone who has ever wondered why relationships can feel so hard, even when love is present.

Welcome to the Edge.

How to Find Kayla:

https://www.southdenvertherapy.com/

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Join me live for an honest conversation with Ted Kopecko, #1 international bestselling author of Finding JOY… Journey of You, as we explore why so many accomplished professionals still feel burned out, disconnected, and unfulfilled despite doing everything “right.”

After more than 30 years in business, architecture, entrepreneurship, and commercial real estate, Ted discovered a common pattern: people were building successful careers while quietly losing themselves in the process.

Together, we’ll explore:

• The difference between being Life-Led and JOY-Led
• Why achievement doesn’t always create fulfillment
• How identity shapes every decision we make
• The hidden cost of living on autopilot
• Practical ways to align your mindset, purpose, and time
• What it really means to rewrite your story

This conversation is for entrepreneurs, executives, leaders, creators, and anyone who has ever wondered:

“I’ve built the life I thought I wanted… so why doesn’t it feel the way I expected?”

Welcome to the Edge.

www.lisalacy.com

How to Work with Ted:

Ted Kopecko Author "Finding JOY... Journey Of You" | LinkedIn

Home | Finding Joy

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Join me for a powerful live conversation with author, artist, environmental advocate, and longtime meditation and yoga practitioner TeZa Lord as we explore the connection between recovery, spirituality, resilience, and our relationship with the natural world.

After overcoming addiction and transforming her own life, TeZa has dedicated her work to helping others rediscover purpose, inner peace, and a deeper sense of connection. Together, we’ll discuss what it means to move beyond survival, navigate life’s hardest seasons, and find hope even when everything seems to be falling apart.

In this conversation, we’ll explore:

• The hidden gifts of recovery and personal transformation

• Why healing ourselves may be the greatest act of service

• The relationship between nature, spirituality, and mental well being

• Finding meaning during grief, loss, burnout, and major life transitions

• How to stay compassionate in a divided world without losing yourself

Whether you’re navigating your own healing journey or simply looking for a thoughtful conversation about what it means to be fully human, this episode is for you.

Welcome to the Edge.

www.lisalacy.com

How to Work with TeZa:

teZa Lord | LinkedIn

ZLORD podcastteZa Lord

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Go to therapy.
Journal.
Meditate.
Read the books.
Do the inner work.

But what happens when you’ve done all of that and something still feels stuck?

Join me for a live conversation with Cheryl Stelte, bestselling author, speaker, and founder of the Azarias Energy Healing Certification Program, as we explore why awareness doesn’t always lead to transformation and what it takes to create lasting change.

Together we’ll discuss the intersection of trauma, subconscious conditioning, nervous system regulation, identity, spirituality, and the survival patterns that quietly shape our lives.

Whether you’re a clinician, coach, leader, survivor, or simply someone curious about the human experience, this conversation will challenge you to think beyond insight and toward embodied transformation.

We’ll explore:
• Why insight alone often isn’t enough
• Trauma and subconscious survival patterns
• Cheryl’s near-death experience and its impact on her work
• The difference between knowing and becoming
• What authentic transformation actually looks like

Bring your questions. Join us live. Let’s have another human conversation that matters.

Notes From the Edge™
Where high performers stop performing and start having the conversations they should have had all along.

www.lisalacy.com

How to Work with Cheryl:

Home Page V4 - Star of Divine Light Institute

Cheryl Stelte | LinkedIn

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Entrepreneur, speaker, and business strategist Gini Trask has spent decades helping companies grow into multi-million-dollar organizations. But behind every business challenge she encountered was something much deeper: people searching for purpose, alignment, and a way to succeed without sacrificing themselves.

In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy and Gini explore:

• Why success and fulfillment aren’t always the same thing
• How entrepreneurs unknowingly build businesses around survival patterns
• What “WIN WIN WIN” really means
• The power of solving problems forward
• How alignment changes leadership, relationships, and business
• The question every high achiever should ask themselves

And, as always, the conversation ends with the signature Notes From the Edge question:

What did you perform in order to survive… and what happened when you finally let it go?

If you’ve ever wondered whether you’ve built a life that truly belongs to you, this conversation is for you.

 Connect with Gini Trask:
Gini Trask | LinkedIn

Gini's Meditation:

https://form.jotform.com/toptiertravel/your-magic-meditation-VOW

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But what if the biggest obstacle to financial freedom isn’t your bank account?

What if it’s the unconscious story you’re living?

Join me for Part II of my conversation with financial advisor, former Benedictine monk, TEDx speaker, and bestselling author Douglas Lynam as we take a deeper look into the psychology of money through the lens of the Enneagram.

This time, we’re making it personal.

Doug will use my own relationship with money as a live case study to demonstrate how our unconscious patterns, what he calls our “Money Monsters”, shape everything from spending and saving to self-worth, generosity, success, and fear.

Together, we’ll explore:
• Why traditional financial advice often falls short
• How the Enneagram reveals hidden financial patterns
• The connection between trauma, identity, and money
• Why intelligent people continue making the same financial decisions
• What lasting financial transformation actually looks like

If you’ve ever wondered why knowing what to do isn’t always enough to change what you do, this conversation is for you.

Bring your questions and join us live for another honest, human conversation.

Notes From the Edge™
Where high performers stop performing and start having the conversations they should have had all along.

www.lisalacy.com

How to work with Doug:

Doug Lynam

Douglas Lynam | LinkedIn

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In this deeply personal episode of Midnight Menopausal Meanderings, Lisa Lacy explores the reality of loving people with neurodivergence, trauma histories, and mental health challenges while navigating your own. Sharing stories from her own family, Lisa discusses her daughter’s late autism diagnosis, her husband’s ADHD and neurodivergence, and her own journey through diagnoses including bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, complex PTSD, and addiction recovery.

This isn’t an episode about fixing people.

It’s about learning to understand them.

Together, we’ll explore why conflict often begins with misunderstood nervous systems rather than bad intentions, how menopause adds another layer of complexity to emotional regulation, and why one simple question has transformed the way Lisa’s family communicates:

“How’s your brain today?”

You’ll also walk away with five practical ways to better support the people you love without losing yourself in the process.

If you’ve ever felt like everyone in your family speaks a different emotional language, this conversation is for you.

Because healing doesn’t always happen when we become more alike.

Sometimes it begins when we learn to understand each other’s differences.

In this episode, you’ll learn:
• Why different brains experience the same event differently
• The hidden role of trauma, ADHD, autism, and menopause in everyday conflict
• How curiosity can replace defensiveness in difficult conversations
• Five practical ways to support loved ones with different nervous systems
• Why repair matters more than perfection in healthy relationships

Put the coffee on, settle into the quiet, and join us for another late-night conversation where curiosity meets compassion and healing begins one honest conversation at a time.

Midnight Menopausal Meanderings is part of the Notes From the Edge podcast network, hosted by Lisa Lacy, writer, trauma educator, and executive advisor. Every episode explores the conversations that keep us awake at night—and the insights that help us greet the morning with a little more understanding.

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What if it’s happening because we’ve stopped listening?

In this solo episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy explores the overlooked intersection of menopause, depression, neuroscience, and women’s mental health. Drawing from current research and her own lived experience of surgical menopause, Lisa examines why so many women in their 40s and 50s suddenly struggle with anxiety, depression, memory changes, identity loss, and, for some, suicidal thoughts.

This isn’t a conversation about hot flashes.

It’s a conversation about biology, hormones, the brain, and what happens when women are told to “just push through” one of the biggest neurological and hormonal transitions of their lives.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Why menopause is far more than a reproductive transition
• The connection between hormonal changes, depression, and suicidal ideation
• What current research says about mental health during perimenopause and menopause
• Why so many women are dismissed, misdiagnosed, or told it’s “just stress”
• The importance of understanding the nervous system during midlife
• How language, education, and compassion can change outcomes

Whether you’re navigating menopause yourself, love someone who is, or work with women in healthcare or mental health, this episode offers an evidence-informed perspective on a conversation that is long overdue.

If you or someone you know is experiencing thoughts of suicide or is in emotional crisis, please reach out to a trusted person or contact your local emergency services or crisis resources immediately. Help is available, and you do not have to go through it alone.

If this conversation resonates with you, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who needs to hear it.

Welcome to the Edge. Where we stop performing, start asking better questions, and have the conversations we should have been having all along.

www.lisalacy.com

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Why do painful relationship patterns continue long after we’ve left the original wounds behind?

Join me for a powerful live conversation with healer, teacher, and author Ben Oofana, whose work bridges decades of study in Native American healing traditions, Taoist internal arts, meditation, and emotional transformation.

Together, we’ll explore:

• Why we unconsciously repeat familiar relationship patterns
• How childhood adaptations become adult identities
• Why awareness alone often isn’t enough to create lasting change
• The connection between trauma, attachment, and emotional healing
• What ancient healing traditions can teach us about becoming whole
• How to stop performing survival and begin living from your authentic self

At Notes From the Edge, we ask one question that changes everything:

What did you perform in order to survive?

If you’ve ever wondered why you keep repeating the same emotional cycles, this conversation is for you.

Welcome to the Edge.

www.lisalacy.com

How to Find Ben's Work:

Main Website
benoofana.com

Teach Me to Meditate
teachmetomeditate.com

Heartache Hotline
heartachehotline.com

Breakup First Aid
breakupfirstaid.com

Heal My Heartache
healmyheartache.com

YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/@benoofana

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

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In this live episode of Notes From the Edge, we’ll explore one of the most important conversations happening in psychology today.

Why has ADHD become increasingly accepted in boardrooms, businesses, and everyday conversations while diagnoses like Bipolar Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder, and Complex PTSD continue to carry so much stigma?

Together we’ll explore:

 The surprising overlap in symptoms and neuroscience

 Why trauma can sometimes resemble ADHD—and why ADHD can increase vulnerability to trauma

 The science of emotional regulation, executive functioning, and nervous system adaptation

 How diagnoses can provide understanding without becoming our identity

 Why some labels invite compassion while others still trigger judgment

 What healing looks like when we move beyond labels and begin asking a different question:

“What happened to me… and what did I become in order to survive?”

This isn’t about dismissing diagnoses.

It’s about understanding the human being behind them.

Whether you’re a clinician, executive, entrepreneur, therapist, coach, someone living with a diagnosis, or simply curious about the intersection of psychology, trauma, neuroscience, and identity, this conversation is for you.

 Hosted by Lisa Lacy
Writer • Trauma Educator • Executive Intuitive Advisor • Host of Notes From the Edge

These are the conversations we should have been having all along.

Welcome to the Edge.

www.lisalacy.com

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What if the story that changes your life isn’t found in a psychology textbook… but in a fantasy novel?

This week on Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with author and world-builder Justin Anderson to explore how fiction can become a bridge to healing for people who struggle to put their pain into words.

Justin never intended to build a mythology around grief, trauma, and resilience. What began as an attempt to write a fantasy novel became an entire universe where invisible wounds become visible, pain becomes power, and storytelling becomes a form of emotional processing.

Together, Lisa and Justin explore why some people connect more deeply with stories than self-help, how labels can become cages, the psychology of externalizing trauma, and why imagination sometimes opens doors that logic cannot.

Whether you’re a reader, writer, therapist, first responder, caregiver, or someone carrying an invisible weight, this conversation asks a powerful question:

Can fiction become the language our nervous systems have been waiting to hear?

Join us for a thoughtful conversation about trauma, identity, healing, and the stories that quietly reshape our lives.

Welcome to the Edge.

www.lisalacy.com

How to find Justin's Work:

World of Shadow Sword - VaelorinVerse — Forged by Grit & Grace

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This conversation isn’t about horses. It’s about the hidden ways we communicate, the blind spots we all carry, and why genuine leadership begins with self-awareness rather than control.

Together we’ll explore:• Why our relationships often reveal the parts of ourselves we cannot see.• What horses can teach us about communication and trust.• Leadership without fear, force, or dominance.• Parenting through connection instead of control.• Setting boundaries that strengthen relationships rather than damage them.• How becoming more intentional can change every relationship in your life. If you’ve ever wondered why the same patterns keep showing up in your work, family, or relationships, this conversation may change the way you see yourself.

Real stories. Raw truth. Real change.

Welcome to the Edge.

www.lisalacy.com

How to Work with Maria:

https://www.horseandpeopleproject.com

Maria Alessandri | LinkedIn

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Money is one of the most emotionally charged languages we speak, yet few of us were ever taught how to understand it.

In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with Douglas Lynam, whose extraordinary journey spans Marine Corps Officer Candidate School, twenty years as a Benedictine monk, and a career as a financial advisor and bestselling author. Together, they explore the deeper psychology behind money, scarcity, self-worth, attachment, and the stories we inherit long before we ever earn our first paycheck.

This isn’t a conversation about budgeting or investment strategies.

It’s about why intelligent, capable people often struggle to receive, why childhood experiences shape our relationship with wealth, and how money can become a mirror reflecting our fears, identity, and sense of enough.

If you’ve ever wondered why financial success doesn’t always bring peace, or why some patterns seem impossible to break, this conversation invites you to look beneath the numbers and into the human story they reveal.

Because sometimes money isn’t the problem.

It’s simply the language.

Welcome to the Edge. 

How to Work with Doug:

Doug Lynam

Douglas Lynam | LinkedIn

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What if your brain is trying to adapt to one of the biggest neurological transitions of your life?

Millions of women enter perimenopause and menopause believing they’re losing themselves. Motivation disappears. Anxiety gets louder. Depression returns after years of stability. Relationships suffer. Careers become harder. Many begin wondering if they’re simply becoming “too emotional.”

But science tells a different story.

In this episode, Lisa Lacy explores the biology behind menopause, why estrogen matters far beyond reproduction, what happens inside the brain during this transition, and why women with previous trauma, depression, anxiety, ADHD, bipolar disorder, or addiction often experience menopause differently.

This isn’t about weakness.

It’s about neuroscience.

Welcome to the Edge.

www.lisalacy.com

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After multiple combat deployments as an Air Force Explosive Ordnance Disposal technician, Benjamin J. Lee came home carrying invisible wounds that led to addiction, depression, and one life-altering question:

Who am I without the uniform?

In this powerful episode of Notes From the Edge, host Lisa Lacy sits down with Benjamin for an honest conversation about identity, trauma, recovery, and what it truly means to reinvent yourself after life falls apart.

Together, they explore:

• Why so many people struggle with identity instead of motivation
• The masks we wear to survive trauma and adversity
• Life after military service and addiction
• Shadow work without the jargon
• Reinvention after divorce, career loss, illness, or major life transitions
• How to reconnect with the person beneath the roles you’ve been playing

This episode isn’t just for veterans.

It’s for anyone who has ever wondered:

Who am I when the life I built no longer exists?

If you’ve ever felt lost, stuck, or disconnected from yourself, this conversation offers hope, perspective, and practical wisdom for finding your way back.

 Guest: Benjamin J. Lee
Combat Veteran | Recovery Advocate | Author | Identity Coach | Speaker

www.theinitiationsource.com

 Hosted by: Lisa Lacy
Writer | Trauma Educator | Executive Advisor

www.lisalacy.com

If this conversation resonated with you, please like, subscribe, and share it with someone who needs to hear it.

Subscribe for more conversations on trauma, psychology, identity, recovery, resilience, and reinvention.

#NotesFromTheEdge #Identity #TraumaRecovery #MentalHealth #Veterans #PersonalGrowth #Recovery #Psychology #Healing #Purpose

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In one of the most important conversations we’ve had on Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with Harold Walter Azmann, Founder and CEO of the World Mental Health Forum, for a compassionate discussion about chronic suicidal thoughts, depression, suffering, hope, and what it truly means to be human.

Together, they explore:
• Why suicidal thoughts are often misunderstood
• The difference between wanting life to end and wanting pain to end
• How depression can become a messenger rather than just a diagnosis
• What loved ones can do when someone is struggling
• Why curiosity and compassion matter more than judgment
• Finding hope even when life feels impossibly heavy

This conversation is for anyone who has ever struggled, loved someone who has, or wants to better understand the human experience behind mental health challenges.

If today’s conversation resonates with you, please consider sharing it. You never know who may need to hear these words today.

If you or someone you know is in immediate danger or thinking about acting on suicidal thoughts, contact your local emergency services or a suicide crisis service in your country right away. You don’t have to face it alone.

If you found this conversation meaningful:
 Like the video
 Share your thoughts in the comments
 Subscribe for more conversations about trauma, identity, resilience, healing, and the stories that shape us.

Notes From the Edge
The conversations we should’ve had all along.

#MentalHealth #Hope #Depression #Healing #SuicidePrevention #MentalWellness #TraumaRecovery #Psychology #NotesFromTheEdge #LisaLacy

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What if the thing you’ve been chasing your entire life… was never the thing you actually needed?

In this episode of Lessons for Lisa: Notes to My Future Self, a reflective series under the Notes From the Edge podcast, I explore a question that caught me completely off guard:

If success doesn’t guarantee peace… what have I actually been chasing?

After a day filled with exciting milestones, podcast growth, and incredible opportunities, I found myself sitting alone in my office after one in the morning with a heart that still hurt.

That’s when I realized something.

Achievement and fulfillment are not the same thing.

In this deeply personal episode, we explore:

• Why high-functioning survival can look like success.
• The hidden cost of constantly moving the finish line.
• Achievement versus inner peace.
• Why ambitious people often confuse progress with fulfillment.
• The difference between proving your worth and knowing your worth.
• What it means to stop performing your life and finally come home to yourself.

This isn’t a lecture.

It’s a letter to my future self.

And if you’re an entrepreneur, leader, creative, caregiver, or someone who’s spent years believing that the next accomplishment would finally make everything feel okay…

I hope you’ll find a piece of yourself in this conversation.

If this episode resonates with you, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments. What does “enough” mean to you?

If you’re enjoying these conversations, please consider subscribing, liking this video, and sharing it with someone who needs to hear that peace isn’t something we earn… it’s something we practice.

Welcome to the Edge.

www.lisalacy.com

#NotesFromTheEdge #LessonsForLisa #PersonalGrowth #HealingJourney #TraumaRecovery #MentalHealth #HighAchievers #SelfWorth #MidlifeTransformation #PeaceOverPerformance

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What happens when you stop looking at your life through the lens of your problems… and start looking at it through the lens of the universe?

In this episode of Midnight Menopausal Meanderings, I’m reflecting on a conversation that reminded me of something I’d forgotten.

We’re not just people trying to survive another Monday.

We are energy. We are consciousness. We are spiritual beings having an intensely human experience.

There are more than two billion galaxies we know of. We’re living on a spinning rock orbiting a flaming ball of fire, with another rock lighting our night sky. When you zoom out far enough, something extraordinary happens.

Your problems don’t disappear.

They simply find their proper size.

Drawing from my background studying theology, years of recovery, trauma work, and my own search for meaning, we’ll explore what science, spirituality, and awe have in common, and why remembering how small we are can actually make us feel more connected instead of less.

This isn’t about escaping reality.

It’s about expanding it.

If you’ve been overwhelmed, exhausted, grieving, or feeling trapped inside your own mind, this conversation is an invitation to look up.

Sometimes the perspective we’ve been searching for has been above us all along.

Welcome to the Edge.

www.lisalacy.com

#Menopause #Spirituality #Consciousness #Perspective #Healing #Energy #TraumaRecovery #Mindset #PersonalGrowth #NotesFromTheEdge #MidnightMenopausalMeanderings #LisaLacy

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This isn’t just a conversation about menopause. It’s a conversation about identity.

In this deeply personal solo episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy explores the grief of watching your body change, the unexpected humor that helps us survive it, and the profound psychological shift that happens when you no longer recognize the person staring back at you in the mirror.

From hot flashes and sleepless nights to changing curves, aching joints, brain fog, and the emotional impact of losing the body you once knew, this episode is an honest reflection on what so many women experience but few feel safe enough to say out loud.

Lisa also shares her own journey through surgical menopause after an unexpected oophorectomy, navigating those changes while living with a life-threatening congenital clotting disorder that makes hormone replacement therapy impossible.

This isn’t a medical lecture.

It’s a late-night conversation about grief, resilience, humor, self-compassion, and learning to make peace with a body that is still carrying you forward.

If you’ve ever looked in the mirror and thought, Who is this woman?, this episode is for you.

Welcome to the conversation.

Welcome to the edge.

www.lisalacy.com

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These aren’t lectures.

They aren’t polished TED Talks.

They’re honest conversations with the woman I’m still becoming.

Each episode is a letter to my future self, exploring the lessons I’m learning in real time about healing, identity, recovery, relationships, resilience, and what it means to keep choosing growth over performance.

In Episode 001, The Hidden Cost of Keeping Score, I explore the emotional ledger so many of us carry.

The people who never apologized.

The conversations we keep replaying.

The betrayals we can’t seem to release.

The silent calculations that quietly steal our peace.

What if letting go isn’t about saying what happened was okay?

What if it isn’t permission, approval, or forgetting?

What if it’s simply deciding that yesterday no longer gets to write today’s story?

If you’ve ever found yourself replaying old conversations, carrying resentment, or struggling to release what someone else never acknowledged, this conversation is for you.

Welcome to Lessons for Lisa: Notes to My Future Self.

Perhaps you’ll find a few notes to your future self along the way.

Welcome to the Edge. 

—

Notes From the Edge is a podcast exploring trauma, psychology, identity, recovery, leadership, creativity, and what it means to be fully human through honest conversations and reflective storytelling.

Connect with Lisa Lacy

 Website: www.lisalacy.com

 LinkedIn: https://linkedin/in/lisalacycalm/

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This series is where the polished masks come off. It’s part storytelling, part philosophy, part neuroscience, part marriage counseling you didn’t ask for, and occasionally… it starts with something as ridiculous as biscuits and gravy. 

In this deeply personal solo episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy explores what happens when two people in recovery, both neurodivergent creatives, both living with mental health challenges, try to build a life together while carrying very different histories.

This isn’t really about biscuits and gravy.

It’s about survival, menopause, addiction and recovery, love after trauma, a 16-year age gap, living with life-threatening illness and about the strange ways ordinary disagreements uncover extraordinary truths.

Sometimes the people we love most become our greatest teachers, not because they’re easy to live with, but because they illuminate the places where we still have healing to do.

This episode is a reminder that the real conversation is almost never the one we think we’re having.

Where ordinary moments become extraordinary conversations, and where healing often begins with asking a better question.

Welcome to the Edge.

www.lisalacy.com

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In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy explores the biology of betrayal and why healing is about so much more than “letting it go.”

Together, we’ll explore:
• Why trust is a biological prediction, not just an emotion
• What happens inside the brain and body after betrayal
• Why attachment and fear can exist at the same time
• How survival strategies become identities
• Why hypervigilance, people-pleasing, and emotional numbness are often adaptations rather than personality traits
• How trust can be rebuilt one safe experience at a time

If you’ve ever questioned yourself after infidelity, emotional abuse, manipulation, or repeated violations of trust, this conversation is for you.

You are not broken.

Your survival system has simply been trying protect you. 

What did you perform in order to survive?

These are the conversations we should have been having all along.

Welcome to the Edge.

www.lisalacy.com

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What if it’s about having the courage to finally tell yourself the truth?

In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with counselor Teddy Engels for a thoughtful conversation about self-awareness, personal responsibility, and the questions that shape our lives. Together they explore what it means to know yourself without judgment, why curiosity is more powerful than certainty, and how genuine healing begins when we stop trying to be fixed and start becoming fully seen.

Rather than offering easy answers, this conversation invites listeners to ask better questions about who they are, what they’re carrying, and what they’re ready to release.

If you’ve ever wondered what real personal work looks like, this episode is an invitation to begin.

In this episode:
• What it really means to know yourself
• Why healing starts with curiosity instead of judgment
• The difference between being “fixed” and being understood
• What we should expect from therapy and from ourselves
• How honesty creates lasting transformation
• Lisa’s signature question: “What did you perform in order to survive?”

www.lisalacy.com

About Notes From the Edge

These are the conversations we should have been having all along.

Hosted by Lisa Lacy, writer, trauma educator, and executive advisor, Notes From the Edge explores trauma, identity, recovery, leadership, and the psychology of performing our lives.

Subscribe for new conversations that challenge assumptions, inspire reflection, and invite you to stop performing your life.™

Teddy Engels | LinkedIn

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In this unscripted solo conversation, Lisa Lacy explores the masks we wear to survive and the identities we often mistake for who we really are.

From mom guilt and relationships to the growing misuse of the term “narcissist,” Lisa challenges listeners to look beneath the labels and ask deeper questions. Why do we perform certain roles? What happens when survival becomes identity? And how do we begin returning to ourselves?

This episode is part reflection, part conversation, and part invitation to become curious about the stories we’ve been telling ourselves.

In this episode we explore:

• Why we overuse psychological labels
• Mom guilt and carrying responsibility that isn’t ours alone
• The difference between survival and identity
• The masks we wear in relationships and at work
• Finding congruence instead of performance
• The question that sits at the heart of Notes From the Edge:

What did you perform in order to survive?

If this conversation resonates with you, subscribe, share it with someone who needs to hear it, and join us live for future episodes where we have the conversations we should have been having all along.

Welcome to the Edge.

www.lisalacy.com

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In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with Steve Barton to explore trauma bonds through the often-overlooked male perspective. Together, they unpack how childhood conditioning, identity, fear, shame, and the need to earn love can keep people locked in unhealthy relationship patterns long after they know they need to leave.

Steve introduces his Game of Ten® framework, explaining how awareness becomes entangled with fear, self-doubt, guilt, and shame, and how healing begins not by finding a different relationship, but by returning to ourselves. The conversation expands beyond romantic relationships into leadership, personal growth, recovery, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive.  

If you’ve ever asked yourself:

• Why is it so hard to leave?
• Why do I keep repeating the same patterns?
• What did I learn about love that no longer serves me?
• What did I perform in order to survive?

…this conversation is for you.

Website: www.stevebartoncoaching.com

Website: www.lisalacy.com

Lisa Lacy is a writer, trauma educator, executive advisor, and host of Notes From the Edge, where we explore the conversations we should have been having all along. Her work focuses on high-functioning survival, identity, leadership, recovery, and the hidden performances people develop to navigate difficult environments.

If this episode resonated with you, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who may need to hear it.

Until next time… stop performing your life, tell the truth about your story, and we’ll meet you back here on the edge.

Connect with Steve BartonConnect with Lisa Lacy

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In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with author and former military officer Richard Spegal for an honest conversation about leadership, identity, creativity, mental health, and the stories we build around ourselves to survive.

Richard shares his journey from serving in the military to becoming an award-winning fantasy and paranormal author, explaining how writing became more than a career. It became a lifeline.

Together, they explore:

• Why creativity can become a survival strategy
• The difference between media myths and the reality of living with bipolar disorder
• Why morality is rarely black and white
• How fiction can reveal deeper truths about the human experience
• The importance of talking openly about mental health instead of relying on stereotypes
• The question at the heart of Notes From the Edge: What did you perform in order to survive?

Whether you’re interested in psychology, leadership, trauma, storytelling, or simply understanding people a little better, this conversation offers a thoughtful look at the complexities that make us human.

Find Richard Spegal and his work:
 Website: https://richardspegal.com
 Explore his novels, including Eternal Nights and the Wolves & Ravens Trilogy, along with book trailers, updates, and upcoming releases.

If this conversation resonated with you, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who needs to hear it.

I’m Lisa Lacy, Writer, Trauma Educator, Executive Advisor, and author of the upcoming memoir Notes From a Certified Madwoman.

Learn more at: www.lisalacy.com

Welcome to the Edge.

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In this powerful episode of Notes From the Edge, I sit down with Gaylen Wilson, heart transplant survivor, relationship coach, author, and founder of The Monument Method Institute. Gaylen’s story is one of extraordinary reinvention. From farm failure and alcoholism to career collapse, heart failure, and ultimately receiving a life-saving heart transplant, his journey is a masterclass in resilience, purpose, and starting over.

But what struck me most wasn’t just his survival story.

It was the beautifully simple relationship framework he and his wife Heather developed through decades of hardship, recovery, healing, and love.

Together, we explore what Gaylen calls the Sanctuary Bond: the idea that our relationships should become a refuge from life’s chaos rather than another source of stress.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• How emotional safety transforms relationships
• Why most relationship problems aren’t really communication problems
• The simple habits that strengthen connection and trust
• Reinvention after loss, failure, illness, and identity collapse
• Twenty years of sobriety and the lessons that came with it
• Men’s mental health, shame, and vulnerability
• Building a meaningful next chapter at any age

Gaylen’s wisdom is practical, accessible, and immediately applicable. His zest for life is contagious, and his perspective is a reminder that no matter where you are today, your story is not over.

If you’re struggling in a relationship, navigating a difficult season, wondering what’s next for your life, or simply need a dose of hope and inspiration, this episode is for you.

Sometimes the strongest relationships aren’t built by extraordinary people.

They’re built by ordinary people who learn how to become a safe place for one another.

I’m Lisa Lacy, and these are the conversations we should have been having all along.

Welcome to the Edge.

www.Lisa Lacy.com

Where to find Gaylens’ Books and Work:

http://www.monumentmethodinstitute.com/

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In this thought-provoking conversation, Lisa sits down with executive coach, author, and creator of The Game of Ten®, Steve Barton. Drawing from nearly five decades of business and leadership experience, Steve shares a powerful framework for helping high achievers move beyond fear, self-doubt, guilt, and shame so they can lead, perform, and live with greater clarity and confidence.

Together, they explore why so many successful people still struggle internally, the difference between operating from fear versus awareness, and how the belief that “I am enough” can transform leadership, relationships, and personal fulfillment.

More than a conversation about performance, this is a conversation about freedom.

Steve’s wisdom is practical, profound, and deeply human. His zest for life is contagious, his perspective refreshing, and his message one we could all benefit from hearing.

In this episode:
• Why success alone doesn’t create peace of mind
• The hidden mental patterns that keep high achievers stuck
• How awareness improves decision-making and leadership
• The connection between self-worth and sustainable success
• Practical steps for moving from overthinking into clarity and action

If you’ve ever felt successful on the outside but uncertain on the inside, this conversation is for you.

I’m Lisa Lacy, writer, trauma educator, executive advisor, and author of the upcoming memoir Notes From a Certified Madwoman and its field guide companion The Psychology of Performing™.

Welcome to the Edge.

www.lisalacy.com

How to Work with Steve: https://www.stevebartoncoaching.com/
https://www.linkedin/in/coach-steve-barton/

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In this powerful conversation, Lisa Lacy sits down with relationship and embodiment coach Tracy Allyn to explore performative sex, disconnection from the body, and the hidden ways survival strategies shape our relationships, leadership, creativity, and sense of self.

Together, they discuss the difference between performance and genuine connection, why so many high-achieving people become disconnected from desire and pleasure, the role of orgasm and sensual energy in overall well-being, and how reclaiming embodiment can unlock greater creativity, confidence, authenticity, and personal power.

From the bedroom to the boardroom, this conversation challenges the idea that success requires performance and invites listeners to consider what becomes possible when we stop performing and start living.

Notes From the Edge
Things we should be talking about, but don’t.
The conversations we’ve been having all along.

www.lisalacy.com

How to Work with Tracy:

Tracy Allyn: Unabashedly Embodied

Tracy Allyn | LinkedIn

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For many women, it isn’t a communication problem. It’s a survival strategy.

In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa explores the psychology of people pleasing, the conditioning that teaches women to prioritize everyone else’s comfort over their own, and the hidden costs of a life built around approval, usefulness, and performance.

Together, we’ll unpack why boundaries can feel unsafe, why guilt is often mistaken for danger, and how the survival roles many of us adopted as children continue to shape our relationships, careers, and identities as adults.

Through 15 practical steps, Lisa offers a compassionate framework for understanding people pleasing, reclaiming your voice, and learning how to say no without abandoning yourself.

If you’ve ever found yourself exhausted, overwhelmed, resentful, overcommitted, or wondering why everyone else’s needs seem to come before your own, this conversation is for you.

Because the question isn’t simply:

“How do I say no?”

The question is:

“What did I learn would happen if I did?”

In this episode:
• Why people pleasing is often about safety, not weakness
• The difference between guilt and danger
• How survival roles shape our boundaries
• Why being needed is not the same as being loved
• The hidden control beneath people pleasing
• 15 steps to begin reclaiming your voice and your time

“Most people pleasers don’t struggle to say no. They struggle to believe they’ll still be loved after they do.”

Welcome to the Edge.

www.lisalacy.com

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The responsibilities.

The accomplishments.

The smile.

Everyone thinks she’s doing fine.

But what if competence has become camouflage?

In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa explores the hidden world of high-functioning survival, the adaptations, identities, and performances that help people survive difficult circumstances while quietly disconnecting them from themselves.

Drawing from her own experience as a healthcare executive, trauma survivor, and woman who spent decades performing strength while struggling privately, Lisa examines why so many high achievers appear successful on the outside while feeling exhausted, overwhelmed, or invisible on the inside.

If you’ve ever been called resilient, strong, capable, or “the one who always has it together,” this conversation is for you.

Because functioning is not the same thing as thriving.

And sometimes the people everyone worries about least are carrying the most.

Core Question:
What did you perform in order to survive?

www.lisalacy.com

#HighFunctioningSurvival #Trauma #MentalHealth #Resilience #Recovery #Identity #Women #ThePsychologyOfPerforming #NotesFromTheEdge

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In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa explores Good Girl Conditioning through the lens of survival, adaptation, and identity. What happens when being agreeable, helpful, accommodating, and responsible stops being a choice and becomes a performance?

From people-pleasing and perfectionism to high-functioning survival, this episode examines the hidden cost of earning approval and the question many women eventually face:

Who am I if I stop being who everyone expects me to be?

If you’ve ever struggled with boundaries, overachievement, self-erasure, or the pressure to hold everything together, this conversation is for you.

Reflection Question:
What did being a good girl cost you?

Notes From the Edge is hosted by Lisa Lacy, writer, trauma educator, executive advisor, author of the upcoming memoir Notes From a Certified Madwoman, and its field guide companion The Psychology of Performing™.

What did you perform in order to survive?

www.lisalacy.com

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In this episode, Lisa explores the hidden cost of attaching ourselves to labels and why many of the things we call personality may have begun as survival adaptations.

The question isn’t whether a label is accurate.

The question is whether it still serves you.

www.lisalacy.com

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I’m Lisa Lacy, writer, trauma educator, executive advisor, author of the upcoming memoir Notes From a Certified Madwoman, and its field guide companion, The Psychology of Performing™.

In this opening episode, I share why this podcast exists, the question that changed my life, and the conversations we’ll be having here. Together, we’ll explore high-functioning survival, identity, trauma, addiction, recovery, leadership, relationships, mental health, reinvention, and the roles people perform in order to survive.

Because sometimes what looks like personality is adaptation.

Sometimes what gets labeled as dysfunction is survival.

And sometimes the life that saved you becomes the life that confines you.

The question at the center of it all:

What did you perform in order to survive?

Human conversations about the things people don’t talk about… but need to.

Welcome to the Edge.

www.lisalacy.com

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