Podcast
🎙️ 33 CONVERSATIONS PODCAST
Hosted by Michael Abney · EN
33 Conversations Podcast helps mission-driven founders, creators, and leaders in transition turn honest conversation into visible authority.
Each episode goes beneath the polished bio, pitch, or success story to reveal the real person behind the work: the tensions they are navigating, the identity shifts shaping their leadership, and the deeper signal behind what they are building.
This is not performance-driven thought leadership. It is authority built through clarity, presence, and truth.
For listeners, it is a window into the messy middle of meaningful work. For guests, it is a conversation that helps people understand who they are, what they stand for, and why their work matters now.
56episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Treat the Drink, Not Your Body
1w ago00:44:14Tap to summarizePaul Lagerstedt, founder of ALKAA, shares how a personal question about his own physical reactions to alcohol became a multiyear journey of testing, laboratory validation, product development, and category creation.This conversation explores founder courage, imposter syndrome, product proof, mindful drinking, and the harder challenge of helping people trust something they have never seen before.Episode SummaryPaul Lagerstedt did not begin with a plan to create a company.He began with a physical pattern he could not explain.Instead of accepting the usual advice, he approached the problem like a mechanic and began investigating what was happening inside the drink itself. That curiosity eventually led to ALKAA, a patented product built around the concept of treating the drink rather than the body.Paul and Michael discuss experimentation, founder fear, self-trust, product validation, category creation, and why earning trust can be more difficult than developing the product.Content NoteThis episode discusses alcohol and drinking wellness. It does not encourage excessive alcohol use and is not medical advice. Individual responses to alcohol vary, and listeners should consult a qualified healthcare professional regarding personal health concerns, medications, allergies, or alcohol use.
Transcribe →
Healing Is Voltage: Rethinking Fatigue and Hidden Stressors
2w ago00:40:52Tap to summarizeWhat do you do when your body feels wrong, but no one can clearly explain why?Persistent fatigue. Brain fog. Pressure in the jaw. Old injuries that never fully resolve. Symptoms that appear unrelated, yet continue asking for attention.In this special bonus episode of 33 Conversations, Michael Abney speaks with Stephen Heuer, B.S. Nutripath and founder of Synergistic Nutrition, about the personal health experiences that led him to question conventional assumptions about aging, energy, dental health, minerals, and the body’s electrical systems.Stephen shares the framework he describes as “healing is voltage,” along with his experience of jawbone infections, dental procedures, chronic physical pressure, mineral balance, alkalinity, nervous-system stress, and other potential hidden stressors.Michael also opens up about his own experience with failed root canals, jawbone loss, dizziness, fatigue, brain fog, and the frustration of trying to understand symptoms that did not come with clear answers.This is a conversation about curiosity, self-advocacy, and learning to ask deeper questions when something in the body does not feel right.In this episode:• Stephen’s personal experience with dental infections and chronic symptoms• Why he views the body as both biochemical and electrical• Michael’s experience with failed root canals and unexplained health changes• Questions to consider when seeking dental or medical support• Stephen’s perspective on minerals, energy, alkalinity, and structural health• The importance of listening to physical signals• Why aging does not have to mean accepting every symptom as inevitable• The role of curiosity and discernment in personal health decisionsAbout Stephen HeuerStephen Heuer is a B.S. Nutripath and the founder of Synergistic Nutrition. His work explores nutrition, mineral balance, structural health, and alternative approaches to personal wellness.Connect with Stephen:LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-heuer-122535202/Website:[ADD STEPHEN’S WEBSITE]Medical disclaimer:This episode presents personal experiences and the guest’s individual perspectives. It is provided for general informational and conversational purposes only and is not medical or dental advice. Some ideas discussed are non-mainstream, may not reflect established scientific consensus, and have not been independently verified by 33 Conversations.Do not use this episode to diagnose or treat a condition. Consult an appropriately licensed medical or dental professional before making decisions regarding symptoms, diagnoses, medications, supplements, tests, dental procedures, or treatment.33 Conversations is hosted by Michael Abney and explores the inner experiences, difficult questions, and human transformations shaping founders, leaders, experts, and people building meaningful lives.
Transcribe →
Money, Legacy & Family: Rebuilding Your Relationship with Money
3w ago00:47:52Tap to summarizeMichael sits down with Gino Barbaro, money coach and co-founder of Barbaro 360, for a powerful conversation about money, legacy, family, and the emotional stories that shape our financial lives. Together, they explore how childhood money memories influence adult decisions, why families avoid honest money conversations, and how to begin rebuilding trust with money one conscious choice at a time.Episode NotesIn this conversation, Michael and Gino explore:Why money is often about fear, safety, love, and identityHow childhood experiences shape adult money patternsWhy financial success without emotional awareness can feel emptyThe role of family culture in building legacyHow couples can stop fighting about money and start understanding each otherThe difference between money as status and money as stewardshipWhy mindfulness matters in rebuilding your relationship with moneyHow financial education can begin with one simple bookPull Quote“Money is not the destination. It is the tool.”Guest BioGino Barbaro is a multifamily investor, certified money coach, financial educator, and co-founder of Barbaro 360. After building and selling his real estate education company, Gino shifted his work toward helping families understand their relationship with money, build financial intelligence, and create legacy through stewardship, purpose, and conscious family conversations.
Transcribe →
Rebuilding Identity After Loss
Jun 2500:40:06Tap to summarizeWhat happens when life removes the physical evidence of who you thought you were?In this episode of 33 Conversations, Michael Abney sits down with Monica Leigh Rodriquez to explore what it means to lose everything and still find a deeper sense of self. After the Eaton fire destroyed Monica’s home, she was forced into a painful but clarifying process of grief, rebuilding, and identity transformation.Together, they talk about loss, self-worth, creative work, sociology, rebuilding a business, and the surprising clarity that can emerge after trauma.This episode is for anyone moving through grief, transition, reinvention, or the slow work of rebuilding a life that feels more aligned than the one that came before.If you’ve ever asked yourself who you are without the things that used to define you, this conversation is worth your time.
Transcribe →
You Built the Life. But Is It Yours?
Jun 2300:21:20Tap to summarizeKenny Zablotsky spent years in corporate facilities and construction, building polished environments for major brands. But the life that looked structured from the outside was no longer aligned with what was happening inside.In this episode of 33 Conversations, Kenny joins Michael Abney to talk about sobriety, leaving corporate identity behind, reconnecting with Jewish heritage, and building JewishJoy.co as a creative business rooted in meaning, memory, and joy.This conversation explores the uncertainty of creative entrepreneurship, the tension between art and profitability, and the deeper process of rebuilding a life from the materials of your own story.For founders, creatives, and anyone in a season of identity reconstruction, this episode is a reminder that clarity often arrives after the exploration, not before it.
Transcribe →
When Uncertainty Feels Unsafe
Jun 1800:32:49Tap to summarizeIn this episode of 33 Conversations, Michael Abney speaks with Mitchell, HR executive consultant, speaker, and founder of The Ember Collective, about uncertainty, anxiety, clarity, and the human side of leadership.Mitchell shares how ambiguity first showed up in his personal life through relationship anxiety and spiraling stories, then how he began to recognize the same pattern inside professional environments. When communication shifts, expectations become unclear, or leaders avoid naming what is happening, people often feel unsafe even when no direct threat has been stated.This conversation explores workplace culture, HR leadership, psychological safety, emotional intelligence, gratitude, difficult conversations, and why leaders need to acknowledge what their teams can already feel.This episode is for founders, executives, HR leaders, managers, consultants, and anyone who has ever sensed that something changed in a relationship or workplace dynamic and struggled to stay clear inside the uncertainty.It is worth listening to because it reframes uncertainty not as something to immediately fix, but as something to stay present with long enough to find clarity.
Transcribe →
When Your Strength Becomes Your Ceiling
Jun 1600:36:35Tap to summarizen this episode of 33 Conversations, Michael Abney speaks with Heather Esposito, founder of Movora Strategies, about adult development, leadership identity, values misalignment, and the deeper work of growing beyond the version of yourself that created past success.Heather shares her own transition from working inside organizations to building a purpose-aligned business focused on leadership, human systems, and brain-friendly communication. She also opens up about empty-nest transition, moving across the country, redefining freedom, and learning to trust more than just her cognitive intelligence.Key themes include adult development, values alignment, leadership maturity, identity change, intuition, embodiment, AI and human capability, and the uncomfortable realization that our greatest strengths can become limitations when we enter a new stage of growth.This episode is for founders, executives, coaches, consultants, and leaders who feel successful on paper but sense that something deeper is shifting. It is a conversation about letting go, growing up again, and learning to lead from a more integrated place.
Transcribe →
Doing Good Shouldn’t Require Suffering
Jun 1100:34:10Tap to summarizen this episode of 33 Conversations, Michael Abney sits down with Andy Choi, founder and CEO of DoGood, for a conversation about profit with purpose, social impact, faith, capitalism, nonprofit scarcity, and what it means to build something that serves without losing yourself in the process.Andy shares how growing up in a Korean immigrant family, being shaped by faith, witnessing nonprofit life up close, and building multiple startups led him to question the old separation between making money and doing good.Together, Michael and Andy explore why mission-driven people are often expected to sacrifice, why the nonprofit system can become scarcity-driven, and how business might be redesigned to support human flourishing instead of extracting from it.This episode is for founders, nonprofit leaders, faith-driven entrepreneurs, social impact builders, and anyone who has ever felt torn between ambition and service.It is worth listening to because it challenges a quiet but powerful belief: that doing meaningful work requires suffering. Andy offers a different possibility — one where purpose, profit, and sustainability are not enemies, but parts of a better-designed system.
Transcribe →
The Missing Human Training in Healthcare
Jun 900:32:42Tap to summarizeIn this episode of 33 Conversations, Michael Abney speaks with Shannon Scandozza, a virtual clinical simulation designer, healthcare educator, patient advocate, and founder of Inspirational By Design.Shannon’s work focuses on building psychologically safe, cost-efficient clinical simulation environments where healthcare learners can practice communication, make mistakes, receive feedback, and prepare for real patient care before lives are at risk.Together, Michael and Shannon explore virtual patient simulation, AI patient avatars, healthcare education, patient advocacy, provider burnout, medical communication, and the deeper human issues inside healthcare systems.This episode is for healthcare educators, nurses, medical students, patient advocates, founders, and anyone who has ever felt small, confused, or powerless inside a medical setting.It is worth listening to because it offers a hopeful but grounded view of how healthcare can become more human: not by pretending the system is fine, but by training people differently, building safer spaces, and refusing to wait for permission to solve problems that are already visible.
Transcribe →
Leadership After the Title Disappears
Jun 400:35:37Tap to summarizeWhat happens to your leadership identity when the title, team, structure, and external validation are no longer there?In this episode of 33 Conversations, Michael Abney sits down with Dr. Julie Armstrong, Doctor of Strategic Leadership, leadership development coach, and consultant, for a grounded conversation about career transition, self-leadership, and rebuilding identity after decades inside organizations.Dr. Julie shares what it has been like to move from 30 years of organizational leadership into independent consulting, including the unexpected emotional weight of losing the structures that once reflected her value back to her.Together, Michael and Julie explore external validation, vulnerability, learning in public, relationship-building, local influence, structured reflection, and the difference between excellence and performance.This episode is for executives, consultants, founders, coaches, solopreneurs, and leaders navigating a transition where the old identity no longer fits but the new one is still forming.It is worth listening to if you are learning how to lead yourself when no one else is watching.
Transcribe →