Kelsey Green hit physical, mental, and emotional rock bottom. In this Mirror Conversation, she shares how digital boundaries, community, and tiny steps rebuilt her life.

What happens when your life becomes completely untenable (physically, mentally, emotionally) and you finally hit the wall you’ve been sprinting toward for years?

In this raw and generous Mirror Conversation, community strategist and facilitator Kelsey L. Green shares the story of her rock bottom: burnout, a toxic relationship, health crisis, anxiety, and the quiet realization that her life could not continue as it was.

Instead of collapsing inward, she rebuilt outward through therapy, coaching, community, physical healing, and one tiny step at a time.

In this conversation, Kelsey and Gina explore:

• The “busy coping mechanism” that masked deeper wounds

• How rock bottom becomes a clarity point

• Why digital overwhelm fractures our attention, our nervous system, and our ability to reflect

• The role of in-person community in healing

• The small digital boundaries that change everything

• How to start reclaiming your brain, your focus, and your life

• Why boundaries aren’t restrictions, they’re reconnections

If you’ve been feeling overwhelmed, overconnected, or overstimulated… this episode is an invitation to breathe again.

🔗 Connect with Kelsey:

Website: https://www.kelseylgreen.com

Instagram: @kelseylgreen

Summit in Six: https://www.kelseylgreen.com/summitin6

Screen-Free Sunday Challenge: https://www.kelseylgreen.com/screenfreesunday

Can you rewrite your past? Merit Kahn says yes, with comedy. A raw and hilarious conversation about reinvention, identity, and reframing your story.

What if the most painful parts of your life became the funniest and most freeing?

This week, Gina sits down with playwright, performer, and keynote speaker Merit Kahn, creator of the one-woman show Optimistic Personality Disorder — a comedic rollercoaster about divorce, narcissists, motherhood, reinvention, and every chaotic plot twist life throws at us.

Together, they explore:

• The stand-up workshop that became a life-changing mirror

• How comedy reveals the truth therapy sometimes misses

• Why laughter loosens the grip of old narratives

• Rewriting your past to rewire your future

• What “Optimistic Personality Disorder” really means

• Why women struggle to reset their story

• How beliefs get handed down and how to hand them back

If you need permission to rewrite your next chapter, this is your episode.

☕ Listen and share with someone who needs a reminder that their story is still editable.

Merit Kahn, CSP, is a sales and emotional intelligence expert, keynote speaker and the creative mind behind the one-woman inspiring comedy show Optimistic Personality Disorder. Through keynotes, performances, and her unique WorkShow Experiences, Merit helps people turn real-life drama into powerful breakthroughs... with a side of laughter.

She is on tour across the US with her show and you can get tickets at OPDshow.comWebsite: https://opdshow.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meritkahn/

What do you do when life falls apart at the worst possible moment?

At eight months pregnant, Lauren Cockerell was unexpectedly laid off, and instead of crumbling, she rebuilt her entire career, leadership philosophy, and relationship with visibility.

In this raw, human conversation, Gina and Lauren explore:

• The mirror moment that launched Kwedar & Co.

• Building a people-first company after toxic workplaces

• Visibility myths women need to stop believing

• The PR shifts happening in the age of AI

• Boundaries, motherhood, and rebuilding with clarity

• Why earned media now matters more than ever

• How to stay grounded when the world feels loud

A short, powerful episode about reinvention, courage, and the clarity that only arrives when everything else falls away.

☕ Listen now & share with someone who’s navigating their own rebuild.

Lauren Kwedar Cockerell is the founder and president of Kwedar & Co., a boutique strategic communications firm that helps business owners grow with clarity, confidence, and integrity. Her team provides both the thinking and doing behind thoughtful PR and marketing so clients can focus on building meaningful businesses without losing themselves in the process.At Kwedar & Co., Lauren works with values-driven entrepreneurs across industries like insurance, real estate, and manufacturing to uncover the stories that build trust, reputation, and long-term relevance.

Website: https://www.kwedarco.com/

Connect: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurenkwedar/

15 minutes | Leadership | Listening | Integrity

What happens when you stop being heard and start truly listening?

In this episode, Susan Braakman, founder of Listen Consulting, joins Gina Dunn to talk about the moment she walked away from a workplace that no longer reflected her values, and how that choice sparked a life built on empathy and integrity.

When your voice disappears, sometimes it’s the universe asking you to listen.

In this reflective Morning Cup of Brand Spark conversation, Susan Braakman, founder of Listen Consulting, shares how leaving a company that stopped listening became the start of her life’s real work.

She and Gina Dunn talk about:

• Why listening is leadership, not silence

• How fear-based cultures mute empathy

• The difference between hearing and understanding

• The courage it takes to walk away from misalignment

🎧 Listen now

☕ Be a guest → https://www.ginadunn.com/morning-cup-of-brand-spark/

15 minutes | Confidence | Presence | Flow

What if confidence wasn’t about being loud — but about being aligned?

In this Morning Cup of Brand Spark conversation, Sara Deacon, martial artist, emcee, and author of Welcome to the Stage, joins Gina Dunn to talk about the discipline of confidence and the art of energy.

They explore:

• How martial arts teaches presence through repetition and awareness
• The energy exchange between a stage and its audience
• Why real confidence feels grounded, not performed
• How to show up as yourself, without the armor

• 
  

• ☕ One cup. One story. One reflection.

  🎧 Listen now

  🌐 Learn more about Sara’s work → https://saradeacon.com

15 minutes | Reinvention | Identity | Clarity

What happens when the title stops fitting and you realize success was never your own reflection?

In this episode, Shelley McIntyre, founder of Burn the Map Coaching, joins Gina Dunn to talk about leaving corporate life, rediscovering identity, and the quiet rebellion of midlife reinvention.

After decades in corporate strategy and tech, Shelley McIntyre realized her success story wasn’t hers anymore.
Her mirror moment came with the cracks in a mask she’d worn too long — one that demanded she look, act, and lead like someone else.

In this Morning Cup of Brand Spark conversation, Shelley and Gina talk about:

• The offgassing phase after leaving a long career

• Grief and freedom in reinvention

• The “corporate mask” women are told to wear

• Finding your identity beneath ambition

🔗 Learn more about Shelley and Burn the Map Consulting → https://burnthemapcoaching.com
☕ Be a guest → https://www.ginadunn.com/morning-cup-of-brand-spark/

15 minutes | Leadership | Collaboration | Clarity

What happens when “doing it all” stops working?

In this conversation, Sabine Hutchison and Gina Dunn talk about partnership, delegation, and the power of finding your person — the one who helps you see what you can’t alone.

Sabine Hutchison, co-CEO of Seuss+, author of Beyond the Ladder, and founder of The Ripple Network, joins Gina Dunn for a conversation about what it really takes to build something meaningful — with others.

They talk about the myth of independence, the exhaustion of doing it all, and the magic that happens when you finally let the right people in.

From the power squad to the ripple effect, this episode is a reflection on clarity, collaboration, and creative leadership.

🎧 Listen on Spotify / Apple Podcasts / YouTube

☕ Want to be a guest → https://www.ginadunn.com/morning-cup-of-brand-spark/

💫 Connect with Sabine Hutchison on sabinehutchison.com and theripplenetwork.com

15 minutes | Creativity | Reflection | Art

What happens when your childhood refuge disappears, and creativity becomes your way home?

In this reflective Morning Cup of Brand Spark conversation, Patrick Williams joins Gina Dunn to talk about loss, memory, and the moment creativity becomes remembrance.

When artist and educator Patrick Williams was ten, bulldozers destroyed the woods behind his childhood home, his sanctuary of imagination and solitude.

That loss became the start of his lifelong creative journey.

In this Morning Cup of Brand Spark conversation, Patrick shares the story behind his TEDx talk “The Loss of My Woods” and explores how creativity, nature, and memory shape the human spirit.
Together, he and Gina discuss how creativity isn’t something we master - it’s something we remember.

🔗 Find Patrick’s work:

• 🎨 PatrickWilliams.com
• 🌸 CelebrationFlowerPaintings.com
• 💡 PatrickWilliamsStayCreative.com
• 📰 Substack: How to Make a Painting
  

🎥 Watch his TEDx talk: Creativity: Lost and Found

☕ Be a guest → https://bookme.name/ogsolutions/lite/morning-cup-podcast