Pockets of Knowledge

There’s a trip on your list. You know the one. Maybe it’s Egypt. Maybe it’s Ireland. Maybe it’s somewhere you’ve never even said out loud. Jewel Rozanski wants to know what’s stopping you. This week’s guest is Jewel Rozanski, founder of Cultured Travel. She spent 14 years teaching Spanish in a rural public school, and led her first student trip to Mexico at 23. Then a dinner invitation from a student’s parents turned into a business partnership. Her first tour was New Orleans in January 2020. You can guess what happened next. Her trips aren’t the flag-waving, bus-hopping kind. They’re built around real local friendships, like the captain of New Orleans’ Joan of Arc Parade, whose parade Jewel’s groups now get to march in. In Belfast, her travelers sat down to lunch with women whose families lived through the Troubles. And that complainer you’re dreading on a group trip? Jewel has a fix. Every traveler checks a box agreeing they’re a generally awesome person who rolls with the punches. Frankly, every family could use a check box like that before a trip. So who actually shows up? Most of her travelers are between 50 and 75, and plenty come solo. Some are widowed, some divorced, some finally doing the thing they waited their whole lives to do. They leave with friends they keep meeting up with long after the trip ends. Her tattoo says it best: beyond fear lies freedom. Her advice is even simpler. Just take the trip. More people regret the trip they didn’t take than the one they did. What’s the trip that’s been on your list the longest? Give this episode a listen and start planning it. Bio:Jewel Rozanski spent 14 years as a public high school Spanish teacher before transitioning to lead Cultured Travel full time. With a Master’s degree in Educational Psychology, she now creates immersive educational journeys that bring history, culture, and meaningful human connections to life. Whether discussing entrepreneurship, travel, lifelong learning, or relationship building, Jewel helps listeners discover how curiosity, authentic connections, and stepping outside their comfort zones can transform the way they learn, lead, and see the world. Connect with Jewel Rozanski: Website | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | YouTube Books mentioned:The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho – Bookshop | AmazonJonathan Livingston Seagull: The Complete Edition by Richard Bach – Bookshop | Amazon Podcasts mentioned: Balance and Breakthroughs | A Lady Well-Travelled ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Enjoyed this episode? Leave a review and share it with a friend. The more we educate, inspire, and empower each other, the further this conversation goes. Questions or just want to say hi? Find me at PocketsofKnowledge.com or on Instagram @desireedstanley. Thanks for listening! This podcast is intended to educate, inspire, and empower you on your personal journey. Guests may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services mentioned. Nothing here is medical advice—I’m not a doctor. Please consult a qualified health professional for any medical concerns.

What do you want to be doing at 8:00 on a Saturday night? For years, Kate Kayaian’s answer was on stage with her cello. Then one day she wanted dinner parties, vacations, a good book. Anywhere but that stage. This week’s guest is Kate Kayaian, author, career strategist, and founder of the Creatives Leadership Academy. She’d built the career most musicians only dream about. Then the nagging started. When she walked away, everyone told her she was making a mistake. Her secret weapon was curiosity. Random skills she’d collected let her build an online music festival in 2020. Everybody said it would flop. It was a huge hit. Her big point: this isn’t reinvention. It’s evolution. Nothing you’ve done is wasted. Her client who made color-coded spreadsheets at Google but secretly wanted to be an artist? Turns out he’d been an artist all along. But the part that really got to me was what Kate calls the way of not here, an idea she borrows from Martha Beck. When you’re tracking an animal, losing the trail is just as useful as finding it, because now you know where it isn’t. Treat your next move the same way and every wrong turn becomes information. Suddenly experimenting feels a lot less scary. She also walks us through her book, Beyond Potential, and its three phases: Reassess, Redefine, Reignite. Including why so many of us can’t even name our favorite color anymore. What’s the nagging feeling you’ve been ignoring? Bio:Kate Kayaian is an author, speaker, and career strategist for high achievers who want to build lives of impact, purpose, and sustainable success. A former professional cellist, Kate performed as a soloist, chamber musician, and recitalist in venues ranging from Boston’s Jordan Hall to leading European concert halls. She trained at the New England Conservatory of Music and held a fellowship with the New World Symphony Orchestra under Michael Tilson Thomas. Today, Kate’s work centers on helping accomplished professionals—creatives, executives, educators, and entrepreneurs—define success on their own terms and create careers that feel as good as they look. Through her 1:1 coaching and her signature group program, the Creatives Leadership Academy, she guides clients to develop clarity, confidence, and the practical strategies needed to lead at the highest level without sacrificing their well-being. She is the author of Beyond Potential, a practical guide for high performers navigating the next chapter of their professional lives, and the host of Tales from The Lane, a podcast exploring the hidden challenges and unexpected joys of success. As a sought-after speaker, Kate delivers keynotes and workshops on leadership presence, mindset transformation, and redefining what’s possible for high achievers across industries. Connect with Kate: Website | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn Free download: Quarterly Retreat Planning Guide Books mentioned:Beyond Potential: A Guide for Creatives Who Want to Re-Assess, Re-Define, and Re-Ignite Their Careers by Kate Kayaian – Bookshop | AmazonEssentialism by Greg McKeown – Bookshop | AmazonThe 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey – Bookshop | AmazonDeep Work by Cal Newport – Bookshop | AmazonAtomic Habits by James Clear – Bookshop | AmazonThe Way of Integrity by Martha Beck – Bookshop | Amazon Podcasts mentioned: Tales From The Lane | The Tim Ferriss Show | Good Life Project ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Enjoyed this episode? Leave a review and share it with a friend. The more we educate, inspire, and empower each other, the further this conversation goes. Questions or just want to say hi? Find me at PocketsofKnowledge.com or on Instagram @desireedstanley. Thanks for listening! This podcast is intended to educate, inspire, and empower you on your personal journey. Guests may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services mentioned. Nothing here is medical advice—I’m not a doctor. Please consult a qualified health professional for any medical concerns.

When was the last time you knew exactly what you liked? Not what your partner liked. Not what your kids needed. You. If you had to think about it, you're in good company. This week's guest is Kristen Crabtree, author, Certified Divorce Coach, and creator of Paramour Paradox. After 22 years in a psychologically abusive marriage, Kristen got out with no plan and no clarity. Just the knowing that she had to go. Once out, she realized she didn't even know what furniture she liked. So she started excavating. She pulled out a book she'd written at 30, opened to the first exercise, "Who Am I?", and read it as the reader instead of the writer. That became her whole approach: you're not broken, you adapted. We wear masks to feel loved and safe. That's not wrong. The trouble starts when we forget we're wearing them. The practical stuff is so doable. Quiet the noise by eating the first bite of your food with full attention. Even a drive-thru burger counts. And be okay with it staying at one bite. But the part that really got to me was emotional sobriety. Kristen, who's two and a half years sober, says we can get hooked on the chemistry of our past. Leave a toxic relationship and suddenly you're rereading old emails for that familiar rush. Once you see the bartender mixing that cocktail, you get to decide whether to drink it. And if your future self feels a decade away, she has a shortcut. Ask what that version of you would do. Then do it. Who were you before you started being everything for everyone else? And what if she's still in there, waiting to be dug out? Give this episode a listen and start your own excavation. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Please be aware: This conversation includes a mention of psychological and sexual abuse. Please listen when you feel ready. Support is available at 988 (call or text) in the US, or findahelpline.com internationally. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Bio:Kristen Crabtree is an author and Certified Divorce Coach whose work is grounded in lived experience — not theory. She’s a former hypnotherapist, and lifelong seeker who’s spent decades studying anthropology, psychology, and consciousness. Her work makes complex ideas accessible and personal, guiding people to hear their voice and live in alignment with it. As the creator of Paramour Paradox, a self-recovery ecosystem helping seekers rediscover who they are, and a Divorce Coaching practice, she supports people before, during, or post-divorce. Through her journey of self-recovery, Kristen helps others move from invisibility to authenticity, from adaption to truth—reminding us it’s never too late to feel alive again. Kristen Crabtree helps people who’ve spent decades being steady, dependable, and invisible rediscover who they are—and remember that it’s not too late to feel alive again. She’s the author of Be the You That’s More You Than You’ve Ever Been and the creator of Paramour Paradox, a self-recovery ecosystem born from lived experience, not theory. After 52 years of forgetting who she was—including 22 years in a psychologically abusive marriage—Kristen began rebuilding her life by remembering her truth, one layer at a time. Connect with Kristen Crabtree:Email: [email protected] Website | Facebook | Instagram Free download: Emotional sobriety download Books mentioned:Be the You That's More You Than You've Ever Been by Kristen Crabtree – Amazon ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Enjoyed this episode? Leave a review and share it with a friend. The more we educate, inspire, and empower each other, the further this conversation goes. Questions or just want to say hi? Find me at PocketsofKnowledge.com or on Instagram @desireedstanley. Thanks for listening! This podcast is intended to educate, inspire, and empower you on your personal journey. Guests may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services mentioned. Nothing here is medical advice—I'm not a doctor. Please consult a qualified health professional for any medical concerns.

Ever walk away from a conversation and think of the perfect thing to say ten minutes later? In the car. In the shower. Stirring something on the stove. You had those words the whole time. You just couldn't reach them. This week's guest is Diane McDowell, therapist, speaker, and founder of Powerful Questions Coaching & Counseling. After 25 years of watching human behavior, nearly two decades of it in psychiatric emergency services, Diane kept seeing the same thing. People under pressure don't turn into someone else; they lose access to the parts of themselves that were there all along: the clarity, the patience, the voice. She calls it access, and her whole point is that it shifts before the emotion ever shows up. Your attention goes first. Then your pacing. Then your language. Diane walks us through the four ways we lose it, control, adaptation, escalation, and disconnection, and why you might escalate with your spouse and go quiet with your boss. The practical stuff is so good. Pretend to take notes. Reach for your water. Go stand in the bathroom and do the power pose if you have to. Anything that buys you the pause. But the part that really got to me: I am responsible for walking away from every conversation proud of how I handled myself. No outsourcing it to whoever else was in the room. She also reframes the guilt. You don't need to forgive yourself for being human. You need to get curious. Stop asking what's wrong with me and start asking what changed. Bio: Diane E. McDowell is a therapist, speaker, and author whose work explores what happens to people in the moments that matter most. Over more than twenty-five years observing human behavior and interaction—including nearly two decades in psychiatric emergency services and later in private practice—Diane began noticing the same pattern across thousands of conversations. People don't become someone else under pressure. They can lose access to qualities that are available to them elsewhere—their clarity, confidence, patience, perspective, and voice. That observation led Diane to a different question: What happened to their access? Her work explores how changing conditions influence what becomes available to us in real time—and why the same person can be clear in one conversation, unable to find their words in another, and know exactly what they wished they had said ten minutes later. Rather than beginning with what's wrong with someone, Diane asks people to look earlier: What changed? What became harder to reach? And when did it become available again? Her work brings this lens to leadership, relationships, parenting, health, and the everyday conversations that shape our lives. At the center of Diane's work is a simple distinction: You can have the capacity without having equal access to it in every moment. Connect with Diane McDowell:Email: [email protected] Website | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | YouTube Free assessment: Access Assessment Books mentioned:Becoming Available to Yourself: Why You Lose Access to Yourself—and How to Find Your Way Back by Diane E. McDowell – Amazon The Four Agreements – Bookshop | Amazon God's Psychiatry – Amazon Podcasts mentioned: Being Well Podcast ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Enjoyed this episode? Leave a review and share it with a friend. The more we educate, inspire, and empower each other, the further this conversation goes. Questions or just want to say hi? Find me at PocketsofKnowledge.com or on Instagram @desireedstanley. Thanks for listening! This podcast is intended to educate, inspire, and empower you on your personal journey. Guests may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services mentioned. Nothing here is medical advice—I'm not a doctor. Please consult a qualified health professional for any medical concerns.

If you have ever felt yourself burning the candle at both ends and calling it dedication, this conversation is your permission slip to stop. Desiree Stanley sits down with Dr. Melanie Gray, PhD, RN, registered nurse, wellness strategist, and creator of the STOP-IT™ Method, who brings a 42-year career, more than 20 of it in healthcare leadership and higher education, to a hard truth most of us know but rarely say out loud: burnout is not a badge of honor, and no one is coming to hand you an award for running yourself into the ground. Dr. Gray shares how her own position being eliminated became the aha moment that reshaped everything. She realized she had spent a career building transferable skills that could work for her rather than for someone else, and she began asking a question all of us should be asking: what do I actually want the rest of my life to look like? Her answer became Melanie Gray Solutions and a body of work rooted in one belief, that healing people heals organizations. At the heart of the conversation is her STOP-IT framework, six steps for reclaiming your life from the noise. Scan your body and your life honestly. Tell yourself the truth about what is not working. Own your change instead of waiting for someone to hand it to you. Prioritize yourself on your own calendar. Then be willing to transform, even when the change comes with pain. Dr. Gray reminds us that transformation is never comfortable, but the outcome is worth the discomfort every time. Perhaps the most sobering thread is her reminder that we spend so much of our lives building an identity around a role that can be dismantled in a day. The programs, the hours, the emails answered on vacation, all of it can be erased ninety days after you walk out the door. Real legacy is what you give to others, the community you build, and the life you actually live. Whether you are deep in the grind or quietly wondering if there is another way, this conversation offers both the wake-up call and the compassionate roadmap out. Bio: Dr. Melanie Gray, PhD, RN, is a nationally recognized expert in Trauma-Informed Leadership, Burnout Prevention, and Workplace Wellness. Dr. Gray is a registered nurse, educator, and wellness strategist with more than twenty years of experience in healthcare leadership and higher education. She helps organizations and individuals heal from burnout, build psychological safety, and cultivate cultures of trust, empathy, and resilience. As the founder of Melanie Gray Solutions, she teaches leaders and women how to move from reaction to regulation, using her signature STOP-IT™ Method to slow down, set boundaries, and lead well while living whole. Her work bridges neuroscience and compassion, offering a trauma-informed roadmap for both professional success and personal healing. Whether she's working with executives, nurses, or women navigating midlife transitions, Dr. Gray's message is clear: healing people heals organizations. Connect with Dr. Melanie Gray:Email: [email protected] Confidence Coach Website | Dr. Melanie Gray | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn Free download: Regulate First, Lead Second: Master Your Biology. Transform Your Leadership. Books mentioned:God's Math by Tiffany Haynes – Bookshop | Amazon Podcasts mentioned: Code Calm with Melanie Gray, Ph.D., RN | Positive Talk Radio ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Enjoyed this episode? Leave a review and share it with a friend. The more we educate, inspire, and empower each other, the further this conversation goes. Questions or just want to say hi? Find me at PocketsofKnowledge.com or on Instagram @desireedstanley. Thanks for listening! This podcast is intended to educate, inspire, and empower you on your personal journey. Guests may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services mentioned. Nothing here is medical advice—I'm not a doctor. Please consult a qualified health professional for any medical concerns.