Send a text

Some stories remind you that it’s not too late. Not for the dream you tucked away. Not for the creative spark you thought you missed. Not for the reinvention you quietly crave.

In this episode I’m joined by Julie Whitney — a self-employed PR professional who, in the middle of the pandemic, found herself standing in a hangar beside a plane she’d never even flown in… and feeling something crack wide open.

When Julie’s husband, “Captain Dan,” unexpectedly lost his job as chief corporate pilot in 2020, the loss wasn’t just professional — it was emotional. Julie personified the Gulfstream jet he flew (Astra), imagining her alone in a dark hangar… and that single moment became the beginning of a brand new chapter.

That night, Julie started writing Astra the Lonely Airplane — and what began as a surprising, heart-led idea became a published children’s book series, award recognition, school readings that move her to tears, and now… the dream of an animated streaming series built around kindness, hope, and helping others.

In this episode, we talk about:

• Reinvention and second acts (especially when life forces a pivot)
• The publishing process and rejection resilience (Julie sent 60–70 queries!)
• What it’s like to read your book to hundreds of kids and watch your message land
• How hope becomes a practice: “It only takes one yes.”
• Why Julie defines hope as never giving up
• Leaving a legacy rooted in goodness, kindness, and non-cynical joy

If you’ve been asking yourself, “Do I still have time?” — let this be your reminder: yes. You do.

Connect with Julie + Astra:
Website: AstraTheLonelyAirplane.com
Email: Julie@AstraTheLonelyAirplane.com

Get the Books - Astra the Lonely Airplane- Amazon....and look for them in the airport when you travel :)

If you loved this conversation, please share the episode, and take a moment to rate + review the show — it helps more than you know.

Thank you for listening to Hope Comes to Visit. If this conversation helps, follow the show, share it with someone who needs hope today, and leave a review - it helps others find their way to these conversations.

New episodes drop every Monday, so you can begin your week with a little light and a lot of hope.

For more stories, reflections, and ways to connect, visit www.DanielleElliottSmith.com or follow along on Instagram @daniellesmithtv and @HopeComestoVisit

Send a text

What if hope isn’t a feeling… but a skill?

This week on Hope Comes to Visit, I’m joined by my longtime friend Ann Imig — MSW, certified coach, and founder of the storytelling phenomenon Listen to Your Mother. Fifteen years after giving motherhood a microphone on stages across North America, Ann now helps burnt-out women retrain their brains for clarity, calm, and joy.

We talk about:

• Why your stress brain dominates your decisions
• How to literally rewire your brain for hope
• The myth of “I’ll be happy when…”
• Achievement addiction and burnout
• Why curiosity is the antidote to anxiety
• How 10-second sensory practices can change your day
• Staying sober, staying open, staying a learner

Ann explains that hope doesn’t require you to feel hopeful first.

You can take hopeful action — and the feeling will follow.

This conversation is practical, grounding, and incredibly timely. Especially if you’ve been feeling overwhelmed, stuck, or unsure of what comes next.

✨ Connect with Ann at listenlifecoaching.com
✨ Take the saboteur assessment at positiveintelligence.com

If this episode resonates, please share it with someone you love and leave a review. It helps more than you know.

Thank you for listening to Hope Comes to Visit. If this conversation helps, follow the show, share it with someone who needs hope today, and leave a review - it helps others find their way to these conversations.

New episodes drop every Monday, so you can begin your week with a little light and a lot of hope.

For more stories, reflections, and ways to connect, visit www.DanielleElliottSmith.com or follow along on Instagram @daniellesmithtv and @HopeComestoVisit

Send a text

What if you don’t have to like someone to love them?

In this powerful and deeply honest conversation, I was honored to sit down down with mindfulness coach, yoga teacher, and master storyteller Oneika Mays to explore what it means to practice loving kindness in the hardest places — including Rikers Island and how these experiences inspired her new book: Sit with Me: A No BS Journey to Mindfulness & Meditation.

Oneika spent years teaching meditation and yoga inside one of the most notorious jails in the country. What she discovered there reshaped her understanding of agency, boundaries, spirituality, and hope.

Together, we discuss:

• Why mindfulness belongs in places we overlook
• The radical power of choice in environments with no agency
• Loving people you disagree with
• Leaving work that no longer aligns with your body
• Grief, hope, and the moment Onika’s father died
• Writing through rejection (15 no’s before a yes)
• And why loving yourself is the first act of activism

Onieka’s new book Sit With Me is part memoir, part field guide, and part meditation on meta — the Buddhist practice of loving kindness. It’s a deeply human invitation to embrace the messy, clunky parts of ourselves.

This episode is a reminder that hope doesn’t require perfection. It requires presence.

✨ Connect with Oneika:
Instagram: @OneikaMays
Substack: Oneika Mays

If this episode moved you, share it with someone you love — and leave a review. It means more than you know.

Thank you for listening to Hope Comes to Visit. If this conversation helps, follow the show, share it with someone who needs hope today, and leave a review - it helps others find their way to these conversations.

New episodes drop every Monday, so you can begin your week with a little light and a lot of hope.

For more stories, reflections, and ways to connect, visit www.DanielleElliottSmith.com or follow along on Instagram @daniellesmithtv and @HopeComestoVisit

Send us a text

Season 2, Episode 5

A Missouri girl in a New York world on founding Combs & Company, honoring her father’s legacy, and why hope is the only thing greater than fear.

This week I’m joined by Susan L. Combs—president of Combs & Company, bestselling author, and daughter of Major General Roger E. Combs. We talk about the moment “Pancakes for Roger” was born, the quiet heroism of caregivers, what the military gave her family (and took), and how a single story can ripple into grants, breakfasts, and thousands of tiny acts of hope every February.

What we get into:

• The kitchen-table moment that sparked Pancakes for Roger
• How Susan turned grief into a living legacy (and a nonprofit)
• Mentorship, “slaying dragons,” and finding the lesson in the hard thing
• Caregiving, oxygen levels, and the strange quiet after loss
• Veterans, VA claims, and why tiny actions scale change
• What hope sounds like when you say someone’s name—again and again

About Susan:
Susan L. Combs is the president of Combs & Company, a full-service insurance brokerage in NYC. She launched the Pancakes for Roger book and foundation to honor her father, Major General Roger E. Combs (USMC/Army/Air Force). Every February, thousands post pancake photos to raise funds for veterans’ legal aid and home grants. Missouri roots, New York hustle, heart-first leadership.

Links & ways to support:

• Pancakes for Roger: share your pancake pic + tag @pancakesforroger (feed posts > stories)
• Donate: pancakesforroger.org (button :
• Combs & Company -for her day-job brilliance
• Susan on LinkedIn

Call to action:
Have pancakes this month. Tag your post. Say Roger’s name out loud. Then share this episode with one person who needs a little light.

Chapters
00:00 Intro
02:00 Meet Susan + her dad, Major General Roger E. Combs
07:00 “Pancakes for breakfast” — the spark
12:30 From post to movement to nonprofit
18:20 What the military gave (and cost)
24:50 Mentorship: finding the lesson + slaying dragons
31:30 Hope, grief, and saying the name
39:30 How to join Pancake Month
45:00 What Susan’s building next

Thank you for listening to Hope Comes to Visit. If this conversation helps, follow the show, share it with someone who needs hope today, and leave a review - it helps others find their way to these conversations.

New episodes drop every Monday, so you can begin your week with a little light and a lot of hope.

For more stories, reflections, and ways to connect, visit www.DanielleElliottSmith.com or follow along on Instagram @daniellesmithtv and @HopeComestoVisit

Send us a text

This week on Hope Comes to Visit, I’m joined by my long-time friend Jessica Ashley—the Divorce Coach for Moms (CDC Certified Divorce Coach®), award-winning writer, and pink-haired powerhouse helping women move through divorce with clarity, community, and yes… a little cussing. We talk about identity, grief that resurfaces in tiny moments, and how to be “amicable” with yourself when co-parenting isn’t collaborative.

I have so many favorite moments from this episode - but Jessica helps women move through divorce with grace, creativity, and community. We talk about what it means to put yourself at the center of your life, how to communicate with kids and exes, and why tiny, steady steps matter more than grand gestures.

We cover

• The moment Jessica knew divorce coaching was her calling (“like a bolt of lightning”)
• The 3 buckets of her coaching: logistics, communication strategy, identity
• Why “there’s no such thing as a broken marriage—only an evolving one”
• Being targeted online for empowering women (and why that’s threatening)
• Practical ways to feel less alone in the loud/quiet chaos of divorce

Connect with Jessica

• Website: https://divorcecoachformoms.com
• Instagram: @divorcecoachformoms
• TikTok: @divorcecoachformoms

If this helped, please leave a review and share it with one friend who needs a little light. 💙

Chapters
00:00 Cold open — “Laugh, cry, cuss—it’s all OK here.”
00:30 Welcome + who Jessica is
02:00 The post that changed everything
04:20 “Bolt of lightning”—how coaching chose her
06:45 The 3 buckets: logistics, comms, identity
09:58 Grief that resurfaces in tiny moments
12:40 Empowering women online (and the backlash)
16:20 “Not broken—evolving” co-parenting reality check
20:30 First steps when you’re overwhelmed
23:40 How Jessica defines hope
26:20 Books + what’s next

Thank you for listening to Hope Comes to Visit. If this conversation helps, follow the show, share it with someone who needs hope today, and leave a review - it helps others find their way to these conversations.

New episodes drop every Monday, so you can begin your week with a little light and a lot of hope.

For more stories, reflections, and ways to connect, visit www.DanielleElliottSmith.com or follow along on Instagram @daniellesmithtv and @HopeComestoVisit

Send us a text

Season 2, Episode 3

What does it look like to love someone through addiction—without losing yourself? My dear friend Tina Hamby shares the messy middle of her marriage: the years her husband Adam was drinking, the boundaries that kept her safe, the moment everything changed, and the daily practices that keep their extraordinary family grounded now. We talk faith, community, parenting through guilt, and why “nothing changes if nothing changes.”

Listen for:
• The difference between fixing and loving
• Boundaries that protect you (and your relationship)
• Finding your recovery “thing” ( prayer, movement, community, AA)
• Talking with kids—and letting hope grow at home

00:00 Cold open: “It’s okay not to be okay…”
01:20 Meet Tina & why this conversation matters
03:30 The love story (and the first red flags)
05:55 “Unpredictable weather”: what living with addiction felt like
08:40 Trying to lead by example—and why it backfired
12:10 Triggers, safety, and setting real boundaries
17:20 The turning point: prayer, “Chainbreaker,” and choosing life
20:30 Early sobriety at home: money, peace, presence
24:00 Parenting through guilt; making room for both gratitude and ache
28:10 What she’d do differently; therapy for the partner
31:00 “Find your thing”: AA, faith, movement, community (Kava)
35:15 The boundary that held: love and consequences
40:10 From storm to rainbow: family now
44:10 Tina’s message to partners who want to stay
45:30 Hope, defined

Special Guest: Tina Marie Hamby — IG/FB: @TinaHambyMUA (hair/makeup & wedding officiant)

Thank you for listening to Hope Comes to Visit. If this conversation helps, follow the show, share it with someone who needs hope today, and leave a review - it helps others find their way to these conversations.

New episodes drop every Monday, so you can begin your week with a little light and a lot of hope.

For more stories, reflections, and ways to connect, visit www.DanielleElliottSmith.com or follow along on Instagram @daniellesmithtv and @HopeComestoVisit

Send us a text

When the marriage ends but the season isn’t over, what does it look like to stay on the same team? In this candid conversation, I sit down with my ex-husband (and friend) Jeff Smith to share the co-parenting playbook that’s worked for us: kids-first decisions, private huddles + public alignment, respect over ego, and informed support through recovery. No trick plays—just fundamentals we run every day.

Today’s game plan

• Kids-First Offense: decisions that put the children on the scoreboard, not our egos
• The Huddle Rule: disagree in private, align in front of the kids
• Support in Recovery: why addiction isn’t a decision—and what real support sounds like
• Forgiveness = Fitness: how letting go brings you peace (and better play)
• Launching the Rookies: why we pushed for out-of-state schools and independence

Chapters
00:00 Why this conversation now
01:04 What made co-parenting work
06:02 Supporting sobriety (for real)
10:46 Pride, growth, modeling for our kids
12:10 Advice for families walking with addiction
16:47 Forgiveness that brings peace
24:41 Our top co-parenting rules
30:27 Launching kids far from home
33:21 Choosing happiness & team mentality
35:34 Don’t bad-mouth the other parent
36:48 Jeff’s definition of hope
37:30 Close

Links & resources mentioned

Atomic Habits — James Clear

Elizabeth Vargas, Between Breaths (for loved ones of someone struggling with addiction)

Connect with Jeff - LinkedIn

Thank you for listening to Hope Comes to Visit. If this conversation helps, follow the show, share it with someone who needs hope today, and leave a review - it helps others find their way to these conversations.

New episodes drop every Monday, so you can begin your week with a little light and a lot of hope.

For more stories, reflections, and ways to connect, visit www.DanielleElliottSmith.com or follow along on Instagram @daniellesmithtv and @HopeComestoVisit

Send us a text

This year, my word of the year is Audacity—not the loud kind, the tender kind that says: I’m still here, and I’m going to live like it.

If you are here right now and/or planning to press play today, thank you. You’ve taken a chance on me—and on this new season.

I’m choosing Audacity for its tiny brave steps, presence over perfection, and hope that shows up.

Season 2 starts officially starts here. Season one left us with FORTY-THREE episodes of hope and I am damn proud of that.
Here and now, I have the AUDACITY to believe there are more extraordinary and epic, challenging and beautiful, inspired AND inspiring stories of hope yet to be shared and life that is worth showing up for.

So, in this first episode, I share my word of the year—Audacity—and why I'm choosing the tender, steady kind of bold: showing up, taking tiny consistent action, and letting hope light the way....as well as the AUDACITY framework that is lighting and igniting my path for 2026, as well as lessons from sobriety and, of course, a loving nudge to pick YOUR word for 2026.

Mentioned in the podcast: Atomic Habits by James Clear and Hell Yeah or No by Derek Sivers

xo, Danielle

Thank you for listening to Hope Comes to Visit. If this conversation helps, follow the show, share it with someone who needs hope today, and leave a review - it helps others find their way to these conversations.

New episodes drop every Monday, so you can begin your week with a little light and a lot of hope.

For more stories, reflections, and ways to connect, visit www.DanielleElliottSmith.com or follow along on Instagram @daniellesmithtv and @HopeComestoVisit