The Soul Stories Podcast

What happens when you spend a decade helping other women step into their power while quietly abandoning your own?Diane is away with the family for the Queensland school holidays, so co-author and long-time ThoseSisters community member Suzanne Read takes the host's chair. She kicks off our Beyond the Book series, where we sit down with the 10 co-authors of Diane's sixth book, The Rich Lady Revolution: The Embodied Era.Our first guest is Alfina Lofaro, author of Chapter 9 (page 130). Alfina is a relationship expert, kinesiologist, speaker and author of Love Deliberately: How to Be Less Shit at Relationships. She is also one of Diane's very first coaches, 13 years before ThoseSisters existed.In this raw and generous conversation, Alfina shares:The full-circle moment when Diane brought her on stage and called her "the reason I wanted to do this", and how it healed years of hidden shameThe exhaustion of being one of the hardest-working and lowest-paid coaches in a company she gave 10 years toWhat it cost her: two best friends walking away in the same week, 40 kilograms regained and not recognising the woman in the mirrorWhy the muscle test said "it's not the money, it's your relationship with yourself"How she became someone she enjoys spending time with, and the simple rule that changed everything: never break a promise to yourselfGrowing up as one of four competitive sisters, and the anonymous gift at a ThoseSisters retreat that redefined sisterhood for herWhy the richest person in the room might not have the most money, but the richest relationshipsMemorable lines:"I had spent 10 years helping other people step into their power while quietly abandoning my own.""If I chose that, then I could choose something else.""I don't break promises to me anymore.""When you get good at relationships, you get a rich life."📖 Rich Lady Revolution: The Embodied Era - Order it here: ⁠www.those2sisters.com/product-page/the-rich-lady-revolution-the-embodied-era⁠Connect with Suzanne Read, Owner of Coolabine Retreat and Life Beyond the Grief:🌐Website: ⁠suzannegomes.com.au/⁠📲 Facebook: ⁠www.facebook.com/sread.btw⁠📲 Instagram: ⁠www.instagram.com/suzanne.e.read/⁠Connect with Alfina Lofaro, Kinesiology and Coaching:🌐Website: ⁠www.alfinalofaro.com/⁠📲 Facebook: ⁠www.facebook.com/alfina.lofaro⁠📲 Instagram: ⁠www.instagram.com/alfinalofaro/⁠Connect with Diane and Michelle Anne, thosesisters:🌐 Website: ⁠www.those2sisters.com/⁠🔗 Join the Rich Lady Membership: ⁠www.those2sisters.au/membership⁠🔗 All the links: ⁠www.those2sisters.au/t2s-quick-links⁠

I have an amazing guest for you today, and if you were with me for the last episode, you'll know it was a big one too, One Kilogram of Cocaine for Two Months. This one connects in a way I didn't expect, because my guest today, Evie King, was a police officer as well, same as me.Evie is the author of a chapter in our latest book, The Rich Lady Revolution: The Embodied Era, but these days she's known as Evie K Fit, helping professional women over 40 rebuild strength, metabolic health and body shape. Badge to barbells, as she puts it, and I love that.I get her to take me back to how she met Diane, and then into what happened at our book launch. Evie was meant to read one section of her chapter, and halfway through realised she was reading a completely different, far more raw passage about anxiety, motherhood and feeling disconnected from her own kids. She couldn't get the words out, and Diane had to step in and finish reading it for her. Afterwards, two women she'd never met came up to her in tears telling her how much those words had hit them. That's exactly why she said yes to writing her chapter in the first place.We talk about what it actually took for her to leave a 16 year policing career, the mental grind that slowly pulled her away from herself, and how she rebuilt her life around her own Lotus Effect framework, de-patterning, boundaries, energetic control and recalibration. She also opens up, for the first time publicly, about performing CPR for 45 minutes on an 18 year old motorcycle rider while off duty with her husband, and what it's like to carry that.This is Self Belief, Support and Spirituality in action. If what you're doing is leaving you exhausted and disconnected from what matters most to you, it's not working, and it's robbing you of your peace.Connect with us:Website: ⁠www.those2sisters.com⁠The Embodied Era book launch: ⁠www.those2sisters.au/the-embodied-era-book-launch⁠Queens Club: ⁠www.those2sisters.au/queens-club⁠Retreats: ⁠www.those2sisters.com/retreats⁠Connect with Evie King, MJ Communications: Instagram: ⁠@mjcomms.media⁠Website: ⁠https://mjcommunications.com.au/⁠Email: ⁠[email protected]

This is one of the most confronting conversations we've ever put on Soul Stories.In this episode, Michelle Anne sits down with American author Austin Rampt, whose memoir One Last Hit lays out a life that went from a Tampa childhood, to nine years of hard won sobriety, to a relapse that ended with him living inside the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico. Austin talks openly about the neurological tics and family trauma that shaped him as a kid, the addiction that followed him from age 12, the overdoses, the eight rehabs, and the renal failure that nearly took his life. He also talks about what came after Mexico. Coming home with nothing left, and the slow, uncomfortable work of learning that he was worthy of love without having to achieve anything to earn it.What makes this one land isn't the chaos, even though there's plenty of it. It's what Austin learned about vulnerability on the other side. He talks candidly about rebuilding his marriage, parenting two teenagers who mirror parts of himself back at him, and staying honest about his sobriety date even when the honest answer is complicated. This is Self Belief, Support and Spirituality in action, a reminder that the mask we think keeps us safe is usually the very thing keeping us from the connection we're starving for.Connect with us:Those Sisters, website https://www.those2sisters.comJoin the thosesisters retreat: https://www.those2sisters.com/retreatsJoin the Membership: https://www.those2sisters.au/membershipConnect with  Austin Rampt, One Last Hit Website: https://onelasthitbook.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/OneLastHitBookInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/onelasthitbook/

Feeling everything deeply was never Morgan Jannusch's weakness, it turned out to be the thing that built her. In this episode of Soul Stories, Michelle Anne sits down with Morgan, founder of MJ Communications and creator of The Story Lounge, and a co-author in our sixth book, The Rich Lady Revolution: The Embodied Era.Morgan takes us back to her decade as a journalist, including the eleven days she spent covering the Wieambilla siege, and the PTSD like symptoms that eventually led her to hand in her notice and start again. She opens up about the guilt that came with the job, the fear of writing her chapter for the book, and how she learned the difference between moving on and moving forward, with grief beside her rather than behind her.We also talk about imposter syndrome, pricing yourself for who you are becoming rather than who you used to be, and a recent collective photoshoot that reminded a room full of women what their own confidence actually looks like. Morgan closes out with our rapid fire spiritual questions, and her answer on intuition is one worth sitting with.This is Self Belief and Spirituality in action, because your story was never something to apologise for.Connect with us:Website: www.those2sisters.comThe Embodied Era book launch: www.those2sisters.au/the-embodied-era-book-launchQueens Club: www.those2sisters.au/queens-clubRetreats: www.those2sisters.com/retreatsConnect with Morgan Jannusch, MJ Communications: Instagram: @mjcomms.mediaWebsite: https://mjcommunications.com.au/Email: [email protected]

What could you do with 5, 8 or 12 unexpected minutes?Instead of waiting for a big block of uninterrupted time, what if you started making the most of the little pockets that appear throughout your day?In this short and sweet episode, Michelle shares a real-life example from waiting for her daughter’s school interview - 25 minutes that could easily have been spent scrolling or simply waiting. Instead, she walked around the oval, got her steps in and recorded this podcast.Because sometimes the moments that seem too small to matter are exactly where we can create momentum.This episode is a little invitation to pause and ask yourself: What could I do with the time I have, instead of wishing I had more?12 minutes. A few questions to ponder. And maybe a whole new way of looking at your day.