In this episode of Stories Across the Table, Bridget Cook-Burch and Steve Ramona welcome Jason Palmer, professional horseman, coach, and author of The Finish Line, a man who found his way back to himself through the one relationship that never required him to be anything other than who he was.

At ten years old, Jason survived a life-threatening chainsaw accident that left him disfigured and, in the years that followed, a target for relentless bullying. His parents, watching him withdraw from the world, introduced him to competing on horses. What he discovered in that arena changed everything. Horses never judged him. They looked straight through to who he was, and in that space of unconditional acceptance, Jason found he could not only compete but win. Eventually the bullying stopped, because the same people who once mocked him needed him to do what he did best.

He went on to ride as a jockey from age fourteen, training and racing some of the fastest horses in the country alongside legendary figures in the industry, before retiring at twenty-four and eventually finding his next calling in the reining horse world. Over a career spanning decades, Jason estimates he has ridden more than thirty thousand horses, each one teaching him something about trust, patience, and the art of rebuilding a broken spirit.

His book, written with Bridget Cook-Burch and Hannah Lyon, reached someone he had never met just two weeks after it launched. That story, told here for the first time, is reason enough to listen.

Pull up a chair for a conversation about finding your footing in a world that knocked you down, and the extraordinary things that happen when you choose to keep going.

• YouTube: @StoriesAcrossTheTable https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHPeekMqKYjBAwO28gLSvRA
• Bridget’s Free Community - Inspired Writers Clubhouse for Writers and Authors: https://www.inspiredwritersclubhouse.com
• Bridget’s Free Newsletter: https://www.yourinspiredstory.com/newsletter
• Steve’s Free Community: https://www.skool.com/steve-ramona-community-9836
• Steve’s Free Newsletter: https://doing-business-with-a-servants-heart.kit.com/steveramona
• Steve’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steveramona/’
• Bridget’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mbridgetcookburch/
• Steve’s X/Twitter: https://x.com/oppbroker
• Bridget’s X/Twitter: @inspiritwriter
• Steve’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bizopportunitynow/
• Bridget’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bridgetcookburch/
• Substack: https://p...

In this episode of Stories Across the Table, Bridget Cook-Burch and Steve Ramona welcome Serena Mastin, author of Exposed: You Can't Heal When You Hide, a woman who has spent her life learning that the very pattern that kept her safe as a child was the same one quietly unraveling everything she loved as an adult.

Serena's earliest years were shaped by survival. Her biological father was the leader of a satanic cult, and the abuse she suffered before the age of five set her family on the run, eventually landing her in witness protection and a series of foster homes where she was moved without warning, sometimes in the middle of the night. By fifteen she was living on the streets, enrolling herself in high school, working three jobs, and hiding every bit of it from the world.

Hiding became her armor and her habit. She carried it into her marriage, concealing her husband's affairs and addiction to protect everyone around her until the day he took his own life in 2020. And then, just as she was finishing her book and beginning to step into the light, she lost her fiance Thomas unexpectedly at thirty-six years old, only eight weeks before this conversation was recorded.

What Serena offers through all of it is not a story of being broken, but a story of learning that you cannot earn love, you can only receive it, and that you cannot heal what you are still hiding. Her book began as a private act of healing she planned to keep under her bed. Publishing it was the first time she refused to hide.

Pull up a chair for one of the most raw and honest conversations this podcast has had, and for a reminder that being alone is a state of being, but loneliness is only a state of mind.


BIO:
Serena Mastin is the founder of Pulse Marketing, an award-winning agency blending traditional and digital strategies to help businesses grow. Driven by a passion for entrepreneurship and shaped by her own journey of healing, she is committed to empowering others to embrace resilience and transformation. Through her leadership, Serena fosters connection, growth, and authenticity, guiding both clients and peers to navigate the challenges of business and life with strength and purpose.


LINKS:
Agency Website: www.heartofcreative.com
Author Website: www.serenamastin.com
IG: https://www.instagram.com/heartfeltstories2026/
IG: https://www.instagram.com/pulse_marketing/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PulseMarketingTeam
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heartofcreative/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/serenamastin/
Amazon: amazon.com/author/serenamastin
Audible: https://www.audible.com/pd/Exposed-Audiobook/B0CF3NDWGM?action_code=ASSGB149080119000H&share_location=pdp

• YouTube: @StoriesAcrossTheTable https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHPeekMqKYjBAwO28gLSvRA
• Bridget’s Free Community - Inspired Writers Clubhouse for Writers and Authors: https://www.inspiredwritersclubhouse.com
• Bridget’s Free Newsletter: https://www.yourinspiredstory.com/newsletter
• Steve’s Free Community: https://www.skool.com/steve-ramona-community-9836
• Steve’s Free Newsletter: https://doing-business-with-a-servants-heart.kit.com/steveramona
• Steve’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steveramona/’
• Bridget’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mbridgetcookburch/
• Steve’s X/Twitter: https://x.com/oppbroker
• Bridget’s X/Twitter: @inspiritwriter
• Steve’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bizopportunitynow/
• Bridget’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bridgetcookburch/
• Substack: https://p...

In this episode of Stories Across the Table, Bridget Cook-Burch and Steve Ramona welcome Wendy Hooton, author, advocate, and mom to a young man she describes as the greatest teacher of her life. Her son Matt was born with Down syndrome in 1990, at a time when very little was known or celebrated about what people with Down syndrome could become, and Wendy has spent the thirty-five years since proving the world wrong about him.

When Matt was born, a hospital visitor suggested she consider giving him up for adoption. Her doctor responded by naming the baby Matthew, which means “gift of God”, and telling Wendy she would find her child to be a gift every single day. Those two reactions lit a fire in her that has never gone out. She left that hospital determined to give her son the fullest life possible, and she has done exactly that.

Today Matt is known as Super Matt in the communities that have followed his story. He loves to dance, he is married to Katy Perry (in his own very certain mind), and he has quietly changed the way thousands of people think about Down syndrome simply by being himself! Wendy shares the humor, the hard days, the book signings, the Vegas coming-of-age birthday trip, and the tears she still cries in the laundry room, because she has never pretended the journey is easy. She just keeps showing up for it.

Her book, Big People Don't Pee in the Park, is as honest and joyful as she is, and Bridget Cook-Burch says she was honored to walk with her along the writing process, watching Wendy blossom.

Pull up a chair for a story about choosing to celebrate instead of compare, and learning to live with as much love and as little filter as Super Matt himself.

BIO:
Wendy is an author, mentor, speaker, and Down syndrome advocate, basically multitasking life like it’s an extreme sport. She is on a mission to help others find strength and purpose in their own journey.

In addition to her memoir, she contributed chapters on confidence, resilience, and grief in Share Your Brilliance and Threads of Gold. When she’s not writing or connecting with others, you’ll find her walking in nature enjoying the beautiful world around us, listening to music, and traveling to new destinations. But most of all she enjoys soaking up life’s joyful moments… especially those that include her husband and son.

LINKS:
Website: wendylhooton.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61555146315134
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wendy-hooton-1bb072148/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/peaceowendy/?hl=en
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DownRightFun
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WendyHooton

• YouTube: @StoriesAcrossTheTable https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHPeekMqKYjBAwO28gLSvRA
• Bridget’s Free Community - Inspired Writers Clubhouse for Writers and Authors: https://www.inspiredwritersclubhouse.com
• Bridget’s Free Newsletter: https://www.yourinspiredstory.com/newsletter
• Steve’s Free Community: https://www.skool.com/steve-ramona-community-9836
• Steve’s Free Newsletter: https://doing-business-with-a-servants-heart.kit.com/steveramona
• Steve’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steveramona/’
• Bridget’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mbridgetcookburch/
• Steve’s X/Twitter: https://x.com/oppbroker
• Bridget’s X/Twitter: @inspiritwriter
• Steve’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bizopportunitynow/
• Bridget’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bridgetcookburch/
• Substack: https://p...