What happens when the parts of you that were silenced begin to speak again?

In this episode of GUTS, host Topaz Adizes sits down with award-winning podcaster, empowerment coach, and author Michelle Lamoureux, creator of The Good Life podcast and author of Design a Life You Love.

Michelle reflects on the formative experiences that shaped her: being “othered” as a child, surviving a near abduction, and wearing a scoliosis brace for six years — and how those moments cultivated empathy, resilience, and a drive to create safe spaces for women to reclaim their voice.

Together, they explore:

• Reclaiming your voice after silence

• How early experiences shape identity and empathy

• Success as the courage to try

• Motherhood, safety, and raising a daughter with agency

• Designing a life with intention

This conversation examines what it means to design a life with intention, expand beyond inherited limitations, and stay human in an increasingly AI-driven world.

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Listen GUTS:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1GSiahH3NYTiFKZ4mIGQnJ?si=fce013635cfa4947

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/getting-under-the-skin/id1821276933

Follow GUTS:

Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/guts.podcast/

LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/topazadizes/

Subscribe for updates: topazadizes.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What does leadership look like when certainty falls away?

In this episode of GUTS, host Topaz Adizes sits down with Yoseph Ayele, Ethiopian-born entrepreneur and founder of LAVA, for a wide-ranging conversation about talent, ego, purpose, and the courage to not know. From growing up in Ethiopia to building across borders, Yoseph reflects on what happens when control loosens and attention shifts toward listening, humility, and service.

Moving between leadership, inequality, and self-awareness, this conversation explores talent as energy, not status, contradiction as a source of truth, and why learning to let go may be one of the most important leadership practices of our time.

In this episode, we explore:

• What talent really is and how it develops

• Ego, humility, and self-awareness in leadership

• Inequality, access, and reframing prosperity

• Letting go of control and certainty

• Purpose as service rather than achievement

• Parenting, legacy, and what we pass forward

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Listen GUTS:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1GSiahH3NYTiFKZ4mIGQnJ?si=fce013635cfa4947

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/getting-under-the-skin/id1821276933

Follow GUTS:

Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/guts.podcast/

LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/topazadizes/

Subscribe for updates: topazadizes.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What matters when fear enters your life through the people you love most?

In this episode of GUTS, host Topaz Adizes sits down with Airrion Copeland, a filmmaker, writer, and nonprofit leader, for a raw conversation about fatherhood, fear, and the moments that change how you see everything. After a near-death experience involving his young son, Airrion reflects on what breaks open when control disappears and what’s revealed in its place.

From early trauma and storytelling to compassion, uncertainty, and raising children in an unpredictable world, this conversation explores suffering as a teacher, purpose as service, and why letting go of certainty may be the only honest way forward.

In this episode, we explore:

• Fatherhood and fear

• Near-death experiences and wake-up calls

• Suffering as a teacher

• Letting go of certainty and control

• Purpose as service

• Raising children in an uncertain future

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Listen GUTS:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1GSiahH3NYTiFKZ4mIGQnJ?si=fce013635cfa4947

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/getting-under-the-skin/id1821276933

Follow GUTS:

Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/guts.podcast/

LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/topazadizes/

Subscribe for updates: topazadizes.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.