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“If we start and end our day with hope, and sprinkle hope throughout, we will be continually motivated to accomplish all our dreams.”
-Soraya
Welcome to the Weekly Podcast
“Be Convinced! Sharing Lifechanging Stories of Hope” with Soraya
Get a Big Dose of Hope in Just 30 Minutes!
Hope, along with the courage and confidence that arise from that hope, can be yours! For just 30 minutes, listen to each of these lifechanging stories of hope told by ordinary people who overcame life’s obstacles. Soraya engages people from various backgrounds who tell their inspiring stories of how they overcame challenges that wonderfully and often amazingly transformed their lives. She collects and enthusiastically shares their stories with the goal of encouraging, inspiring, and convincing you that we should all believe in, hope for, and work towards a better future for ourselves, our families, our communities, and the world.
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“Let your hopes, not your hurts, shape your future.”
— Robert H. Schuller
Ep. #88 - Author and Personal-Development Specialist Ryan Lindner Wants to Help You to Get Out of Your Head and Into Your Life Before It Slips Away
Ryan Lindner is an author and personal-development specialist who has been a behavioral coach for individual clients and top organizations all over the world. What I find is so impressive is not only Ryan’s ability to successfully cope with many personal challenges, including anorexia, anxiety, and two cardiac arrests, but also his educational background and wealth of professional experience.
Ep. #87 - Speaking Coach Brenden Kumarasamy Shares His Passion for Helping You to Become a Better Communicator
Brenden Kumarasamy is 26-years-old and has already founded a company named Master Talk. His passion is helping persons of all ages to become better communicators. His main question for all of us is “How would your life change if you were a better communicator?” He also has many free trainings via YouTube and on his website rockstarcommunicator.com.
Ep. #86 - Attorney and Author Cara Tuttle Bell Inspires Women to Become Better Advocates for Themselves in All Their Relationships
Cara Tuttle Bell is an author, lawyer, speaker, and activist-educator who has significant professional experience on important women’s issues, such as assertiveness as well as sexual harassment and assault. She shares her years of growing up in a home where domestic violence took place and understands the dynamics of aggressiveness and power in relationships.
Ep. #85 - Author, Father and Husband Tim Dunn Shares His Struggles to be Better in Every Aspect of His Life and His Dedication to Helping Other Men Improve as Well, Especially as Dads
My guest Tim Dunn is a husband and father as well as a very successful insurance executive. His role as a father is what we will primarily discuss. Despite the fact that he had good role models of fatherhood in his life, he found himself struggling to be a better dad and balancing his professional, personal, and family lives. During the Covid pandemic, he sat down and wrote Dad on Purpose: The Busy Dad’s Playbook for Loving Better, Doing More, and Breathing Easier and established a community that is dedicated to helping men become better fathers, and in turn, become better husbands and impact their communities.
Ep. #84 - Author Sherrie Barch’s Children’s Book Helps Families and Others Deal With Loss in a Natural and Productive Way to Bring Healing
Author Sherrie Barch has a very accomplished professional resume in the areas of leadership and team development. Born and raised in Illinois, she earned B.A. and M.A. degrees in communication and has been the CEO of two Forbes’ ranked top executive search firms and leadership consulting companies. Our focus will be on her children’s book titled Heaven’s Bell, which is a fictional story about the friendship between two children and what happens after one of them dies and goes to heaven.
Ep. #83 - Men’s Transformation Coach Mike Forrester Shares His Inspiring Journey from Being Fearful to Becoming Fearless and His Commitment to Helping Men Live Fearless Too
My guest Mike Forrester is passionate about being a men’s transformation coach, helping men to be freed from fear, anxiety, anger, doubt, and depression and to change their lives as well as the lives of their families. He knows all about the journey to freedom as he walked it for over 15 years. He shares about his toxic relationships with his father and mother, who were physically, emotionally, and verbally abusive.
Ep. #82 - Marketing Coach and Author Prithvi Madhukar Shares Her Passion for Helping Small Businesses Develop Long Term Marketing Strategies to Experience Strong Growth
Prithvi Madhukar is a 29-year-old whiz of a marketing strategist with an MBA degree who is passionate about helping small businesses and solopreneurs implement long-term marketing strategies to help them grow their businesses. She was born in India and grew up in Singapore and then returned to India to compete her schooling. She obtained an engineering degree but was unhappy with the direction of her life and truly did not see herself being in that career for decades.
Ep. #81 - Coach and Co-Founder of Next Level University Kevin Palmieri Helps You to Reach the Next Level of Your Life, Love, Health, and Wealth
My guest Kevin Palmieri is a 32-year-old dream chaser who has already achieved some of his dreams, even at his young age, and continues to dream on. He openly shares his struggles of being raised by his mother and grandmother in a financially strapped environment where just being able to pay rent was a significant challenge. He never knew his father when he was growing up, but as a young man eventually met him.
Ep. #80 - Author, Speaker, and Entrepreneur Sandy Joy Weston Motivates You to Tap into the Power That is Already in You
My guest Sandy Joy Weston is a woman who is on a mission to spread joy and inspire others. Sandy shares her compelling story of growing up in a home where her mother suffered from mental illness and was in and out of mental institutions. Because of the very high costs of her mother’s medical treatments, her family was eventually evicted from their home and moved into low-income housing.
Ep. #79 - Entrepreneur Coach Peter Lynch Shares His Passion to Empower You to Share Your Special Gift with the World
Peter Lynch is on a mission to empower entrepreneurs to succeed as their true selves. He promotes peace and alignment within yourself and at your inner core with who you are and who God made you to be so that you can grow your business and flourish personally and financially. He shares his journey from self-doubt and depression to financial success by understanding and accepting himself at the core of who he is.
Ep. #78 - Gen Z Rotarian Devankar Mukhi Inspires Persons of All Ages to Promote Peace and Understanding in Their Communities
My guest Devankar Mukhi is an amazing 24-year-old young man who has immersed himself in studying and promoting peace and conflict resolution. He is currently a student at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan and the past president for 4 years of an organization known as Rotaract, which is short for “Rotary in Action”.
Ep. #77 - Author Kenneth Earl Shares His Inspiring Story from Growing Up in the Jim Crow South to His Successful Career as a U.S. Navy Master Chief Cryptologist and After
My guest Kenneth Earl tells the inspiring and heart-warming story of his humble beginnings growing up in the Jim Crow South to having a very successful career as a U.S. Navy master chief cryptologist and working in various positions in the federal government. He credits his many exemplary achievements to his mother. Despite her struggles to raise 4 children on her own, she ensured that they were raised in the Christian faith and were taught the importance of good character, integrity, honesty, and the golden rule of treating others how you would like to be treated.
Ep. #76 - E. A. Csolkovits Helps You to Develop the “Giver’s Mindset” so that You Can Live a More Fulfilling and Accomplished Life
Did you know that there are generally speaking two groups of people – those who are givers and those who are takers? In order to have successful lives with fulfilling relationships – with your family, in business, and socially – you should surround yourself with givers. My guest E. A. Csolkovits knows all about that as he founded Givers University to help you discern who are givers and who are takers.
Ep. #75 - Author Chris Odegard Shares Why and How He Invested in Alternative Investments and How His Financial Portfolio Has Increased Significantly
Are you interested in learning about how you can invest your money in profitable alternative investments? My guest Chris Odegard is the author of the book titled Get Off You’re A$$ and Manage Your Money: Why You Need Alternative Investments and is filled with knowledge and experience that he loves to share with others. He was just another average guy with a white-collar job, a beautiful wife, a home in the suburbs, and two children, waiting to retire at age 65 with the usual retirement investments.
Ep. #74 - Author and Pastor Dr. Karen V. Johnson Shares Her Inspiring Journey of Love, Forgiveness, and Faith After Her Husband was Unfaithful
My guest Dr. Karen Johnson says that she gave her heart to the love of her life, and he crushed it into a million pieces. How did she survive the discovery that her husband had been unfaithful and then given her a sexually transmitted disease?
Ep. #73 - Money Mentor and Financial Coach Leah Ellis Is Passionate About Helping You and Others, Including Children, Learn to Make Wise Money Decisions
How do you go from having your mother-in-law loan you money to help you pay your rent and also pay for your meal at a fast-food restaurant to establishing your own financial coaching business? It takes a lot of determination and financial education! My guest Leah Ellis will motivate and inspire you not to give up when it comes to learning about making wise decisions with your money.
Ep. #72 - Author and Burnout Expert Michael Levitt Assists You with How to Prevent or Treat Burnout After He Was Given a Second Chance at Life
If you think you are suffering from burnout or want to prevent it, my guest Michael Levitt is here to help. He shares his own burnout journey that lasted over a year and realized that he was given a second chance after an almost fatal heart attack. He lost his job; his car was repossessed because he could not make the payments; and his home was foreclosed.
Ep. #71 - Poet, Author and Philosopher Rob White Inspires You to Defeat Those Negative Thoughts That Hold You Back
Poet, author and philosopher Rob White inspires you to develop your true self and defeat the negative thoughts that will hold you back from achieving your greatest potential and dreams. He encourages you to become the “maestro” or the leader of your destiny, orchestrating your life so that it is a beautiful symphony.
Ep. #70 - Author Phil Barth Encourages You to Celebrate All the Great Things That Happen Every Day – From Small to Large – and Add Humor
My guest Phil Barth shares his journey toward living a fuller life and reducing stress after suffering a heart attack which his doctor described as “small” but Phil felt was huge. He began writing and posting a daily list of “great things that happened today”, celebrating the wonderful things that happen daily but are often overlooked.
Ep. #69 - Author Emily Johnson Shares Her Inspiring Story of a Mother’s and Daughter's Love and Her Struggles During Her Mother’s 17-Year Battle with Cancer
You will be so inspired by Emily Johnson’s story of the profound love that a mother and daughter share! She shares how her mother found the strength and motivation to live after being diagnosed with cancer when Emily was just a young teenager and her courageous 17-year battle with various forms of that disease.