Dare to Be Great, Dare to Be You Hosted by Shawn Langwell

Natalie Gould, coach, storyteller, and retreat leader

What's Bringing You Joy?

Join me and Natalie as we discuss her process of writing her inspiring memoir. She talks about how she nagivated her way through a disabling illness to transform pain into a rich and vibrant life and is now offering workshops to help others live more sustainably and with greater purpose.

 

Natalie Gould is a coach, storyteller, and retreat leader who guides people and organizations
through transformation using embodied practices rooted in nature, narrative, and nervous system regulation.

After a post-viral condition left her disabled, Natalie recovered using somatic and mind-body
approaches. This journey transformed her work—she now helps people make change in their
lives—particularly learning to live more sustainably and with greater purpose.
Her approach integrates her background in theater and outdoor education with extensive training in spiritual formation and leadership development. She spent over a decade in corporate leadership, including as CFO of a small multinational software company, before dedicating herself fully to coaching and retreat work.

Natalie is writing a memoir about her farm and healing journey and publishes a free monthly
newsletter on Substack where she weaves farm stories with practical teachings on nervous
system regulation and living with greater presence and wholeness.

Connect with Natalie: 

natalie@sparrowcrowfarm.com

Website: www.sparrowcrowfarm.com
Social Media links:
• https://www.instagram.com/sparrowcrowfarm/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalie-gould-20b7b3155/
• https://sparrowcrowfarm.substack.com/

 

About the host:

Shawn Langwell is an Inspirational Author, Speaker, Teacher, and Gap Mindset Coach/ Communications Consultant. He has written several transformational books including, Beyond Recovery, Ten Seconds of Boldness and its companion workbook, Morning Motivation, and Chill. He’s also the Past President of The California Writers Club (CWC), Redwood Writers Branch, and Past President of Toastmasters of Petaluma. Shawn lives in Northern California.

Find him at www.shawnlangwell.com.

 

Chris Hennessy, award-winning filmmaker, author, and speaker

Love. Resilience. Undeniable Wit.  And a Heart for Service.

Join me and Chris as we discuss his Memoir Touched by Hannah:

A man with cancer. His one pound newborn. And their fight for life.

 

 

About Chris:

Chris Hennessy is an award-winning filmmaker, author, and speaker. A Rice University graduate, he spent 28 years producing over 1,500 films for major clients including Google, eBay, and the SF 49ers.

Since retiring from commercial filmmaking in 2018, Chris has built a multi-platform creative presence with 6.8 million combined views. His TV series Yolo YoYo's won Best New TV Cable Series in 2019. His documentary Miracles on College Street earned the Film Heals Award at the 2022 Manhattan Film Festival and Top Five Best Documentary honors.

Chris shares monthly essays through his HennSchtick newsletter on Substack, blending humor with unflinching honesty about living with stage IV cancer. His memoir Touched by Hannah—A Man with cancer. His one-pound newborn. And their fight for life—launched to 125 standing-room-only crowd November 2024. Chris and Hannah are planning a 2026 Northern California book tour and national podcast tour.

Member: California Writers Club Sacramento and Elk Grove Writers Guild.

 

Find Chris Here: 

 

Website: https://www.henchris.com

Social Media links: 

https://www.facebook.com/Chris.Hennessy.Uniondale/

https://www.facebook.com/touchedbyhannah/

IG  @chrishennessyfilms

 

About The Host:

Shawn Langwell is an Inspirational Author, Speaker, and Sales & Executive Gap Mindset Coach/Consultant. He has written several transformational books including, Beyond Recovery, Ten Seconds of Boldness and its companion workbook, Morning Motivation, and Chill. He’s also the Past President of The California Writers Club (CWC), Redwood Writers Branch, and Past President of Toastmasters of Petaluma. Shawn lives in Northern California. 

Find him at www.shawnlangwell.com.

 

Karl Kadie. Author, Poet, and daring story teller

A Bold Spanish Conquistador with a Heart for People.

The Adventures of Cabeza de Vaca is an adventure unlike any other and one worth telling in history classes around the world. Karl Kadie bucks the trend of most conquest stories of finding gold and riches of land to discover a new, more fruitful path—one with a much deeper meaning in the landcape of life—winning heart of native americans who lived here long before we did by becoming one of them.

Karl Kadie is the author of two poetry collections, Revenge of Nature and The Burning House. In this episode we discuss his latest work, The Adventures of Cabeza de Vaca, a fictional depiction of the life of a Spanish conquistador.

 

About the Host: 

Shawn Langwell is an Inspirational Author, Speaker, and Sales & Executive Gap Mindset Coach/Consultant. He has written several transformational books including, Beyond Recovery, Ten Seconds of Boldness and its companion workbook, Morning Motivation, and Chill. He’s also the Past President of The California Writers Club (CWC), Redwood Writers Branch, and Past President of Toastmasters of Petaluma. Shawn lives in Northern California. 

Find him at www.shawnlangwell.com.

 

 

 

 

Shawn Langwell Presents: Workshop Series Becoming Bold and Trusting your Gut

Join me for a series of impactful workshops to guide you through the minefields of doubt to close your mindset gap and begin feeling like you're winning again.

This is a promo for a series of virtual workshops I'll be presenting over the next few months specifically designed to help you identify what you really want and to give you precise tools you can start using immediately to manifest the meaningful changes you say you want.

 

Warm-Up: Three Free introductory workshops: 1/10, 2/7 and 3/7 

SHAWN LANGWELL PRESENTS- FREE MASTERCLASS: BEYOND GOALSETTING

 

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/shawn-langwell-presents-free-masterclass-beyond-goalsetting-tickets-1979676005223?aff=oddtdtcreator

 

What This Series Is About

This is a practical, live workshop series designed to help you:

• Slow down when everything feels urgent
  • Get clear about what actually matters right now
  • Take a real next step without overthinking or burnout

Each workshop stands on its own.
Together, they form a simple, repeatable path forward.

You’re welcome to attend one, two, or all of them.

 

NOTE: Due to scheduling conflicts, some of the workshops mentioned in this podcast have been postponed. Below are the ones avaialble for registration and there will be different ones inthe future.

Visit my website for the most current list: https://shawnlangwell.com/events/

APRIL — Integration & Bold Action

Saturday, April 11 | 10:00 AM PDT
The Art of Presence
Hosted by the Napa Valley Writers Club
Registration details coming soon:
https://www.napavalleywriters.org/

Saturday, April 25 | 10:00 AM PDT
One Bold Move
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1979458584913?aff=oddtdtcreator

 

About the Facilitator

Shawn Langwell is an Inspirational Author, Teacher, and Sales & Executive Gap Mindset Coach/Consultant (NLP Certified) with more than three decades of sales experience and real-world application of the principles he teaches to create meaningful, lasting results.

He is the author of Beyond Recovery, Ten Seconds of Boldness (and its companion workbook), Morning Motivation, and Chill, and is the Past President of the California Writers Club (Redwood Writers) and Past President of Toastmasters of Petaluma.

His work is grounded, practical, and focused on real change — without hype, dogma, or pressure. And he gets results.

Learn more at www.shawnlangwell.com

 

Michelle Leopold, Emmy-Award winner for One Pill, Mom, and Business Owner of Five Ace Hardware Stores

Michelle and Trevor Leopold (Michelle Leopold / Fox News)

One Tough Momma

 

No words can ease the pain of a mother who's lost her son. 

I know what this is like having lost my brother in 1999.

Please join me and Michelle in this hopeful heartache of a story that has given her a new purpose worth fighting for: Love and Life

Michelle shares about her beloved son honestly and completely, to prevent other parents from joining this horrific club none of us chose to be in.

Sadly, Michelle is now her son Trevor’s voice, and often shares this quote when she speaks publicly:

 “I thought I’d be teaching my son about the world. I never imagined I’d be teaching the world about my son.”

Michelle Leopold is a Mom in all her efforts – and a tough mom at that.

She is the Mom and CMO/Charitable Contributions at six Mom & Pop Ace Hardware Stores in the SF Bay Area.

She’s been a serial Mom Volunteer in everything from Mother’s Club to Cub Scouts, Little League, and especially the PTA.

She’s the Dog Mom to two furbabies, Marley and Maverick, who insist they are smaller than 225# combined.

Most importantly, she’s the Mom to Parker (who just graduated from CSU Channel Islands), age 23, and his older brother Trevor, forever 18. 

And Michelle even had “One Tough Mother” tattooed recently on her ankle.

 

Additional information:

When Michelle realized Trevor had become addicted to today’s high-potency THC, she put all she learned about today’s cannabis in an anonymous website she created in 2016:  My Kid Smokes Pot – now what?

When Trevor died, she and her husband immediately decided not to hide behind the shame and stigma usually reserved for substance use deaths – especially since Trevor’s death was likely fentanyl poisoning (confirmed, he had taken a Blue M 30 Oxycodone – not knowing it was a “Dirty 30” laced with what proved to be a lethal amount of fentanyl. This was a poisoning, not an overdose.)

Since then, Michelle has been an outspoken activist, especially in two areas:

1. It’s not “just pot”: today’s high-potency THC is dangerous, especially when regularly used by young adults.
2. #OnePillCanKill - The danger of today’s street pills to teens, many of whom don’t know about the harms of fentanyl in today’s street drugs, and/or think they are invincible. 

Michelle’s efforts have resulted in an emmy-award-winning mini-documentary, One Pill 

She started a website in 2021, WeAreNotAlone.Community focusing on education and support for families with similar stories to Trevor’s, but she has been too busy advocating and speaking in these areas to complete & keep the website updated as she’d like. 

Additionally, five months after Trevor’s death, Michelle spearheaded the Nar-Anon online family group Hope After Loss, specifically for those who have lost a loved one to the disease of addiction. Almost six years later, over 1,200 Nar-Anon members have come through the virtual Zoom doors of this international support group, currently offering four meetings a week. Michelle recently received her 9-Year Virtual Chip in Nar-Anon.

 

Trevor London Leopold: Sunrise 1/30/01 – Sunset 11/17/19 – Forever 18 from a fentapill

 

Find Michelle Here:

Facebook: Michelle Saevke Leopold

Twitter: @50RandomActs

IG: @Michelle94904

BlueSky: @Michelle94904

Resources/Links:

NarAnonHopeAfterLoss.org 

WeAreNotAlone.community

StansHardware.com

Also visit Michelle’s Emmy-award winning documentary One Pill and her Ace Heartware video Ending The Stigma.

____________________________________________________________________

About Shawn Langwell:

Shawn Langwell is an Inspirational Author, Speaker, and Sales & Executive Gap Mindset Coach/Consultant. He has written several transformational books including, Beyond Recovery, Ten Seconds of Boldness and its companion workbook, Morning Motivation, and Chill. He’s also the Past President of The California Writers Club (CWC), Redwood Writers Branch, and Past President of Toastmasters of Petaluma. Shawn lives in Northern California with his wife Crissi, and Maine Coon cat Cleo.

Find him at www.shawnlangwell.com.

Lauren Scott, Pushcart Prize Nominee, Poet, Author, and lover of dogs, especially chocolate labs

For the love of dogs!

From my first conversation with Lauren as a client, to this podcast, I knew Lauren had something profound to share.

Writing though our grief is one of the most cathartic things we can do whether we wish to be published poets, memoirists, or just want to use writing as a tool to process deep emotions.

If you love dogs and poetry and writing/journalling, or have recently expienced loss, this podcast and Lauren's recent book, King Copper, is an ideal prompt for deep refelection through heartfelt poetry.

Find it at Amazon or at Copperfield's Books in San Rafael, CA.

About Lauren:

Author and poet, Lauren Scott, enjoys small-town living in the Bay Area with her husband, Matt, of thirty-seven years. Their adult son and daughter live out of state, and with frequent visits and technology, the family of four remains close. Lauren has published four poetry collections, a memoir, and her first children's book. Her latest poetry collection is a tribute to her family’s Chocolate Labrador who crossed over the Rainbow Bridge in spring 2025. Lauren is a recent Pushcart Prize Nominee and has been a guest on several podcasts. Her writing is featured on Spillwords Press where she was voted Author of the Month and garnered Publication of the Month awards. She is a contributing author in several anthologies, and her work is shared bimonthly on Gobblers and Masticadores. Her muse discovers inspiration from her family, spending time outdoors, reveling in simple things, and marveling at the mysteries of life.

Find Lauren at: 

https://baydreamerwrites.com/

https://www.amazon.com/stores/Lauren-Scott/author/B08NCRH4MK

 

About Shawn Langwell:

Shawn Langwell is an Inspirational Author, Speaker, and Sales & Executive Gap Mindset Coach/Consultant. He has written several transformational books including, Beyond Recovery, Ten Seconds of Boldness and its companion workbook, Morning Motivation, and Chill. He’s also the Past President of The California Writers Club (CWC), Redwood Writers Branch, and Past President of Toastmasters of Petaluma. Shawn lives in Northern California with his wife Crissi, and Maine Coon cat Cleo.

Find him at www.shawnlangwell.com.

John Crowley, Owner, Aqus Cafe, and Connector/Social Capital Catalyzer

 

From Lonliness to Connection

John Crowley builds community wherever he goes. As founder of Aqus Café and the Aqus Community in Petaluma, he creates spaces where neighbors meet, talk, collaborate, and belong. He leads initiatives like Cool Petaluma, the Joiners movement, social crawls, mixers, and community dinners—each designed to strengthen local connection and resilience. John focuses on practical ways people can rebuild social capital in everyday life.

I invite you into a rich conversation with John about building community and shared bonds that enrich the lives of all.

Articulate, thoughtful, and humble, John leads with compassion because he truly cares about people.

Join us in another real and unscripted conversation about bridging the divide bewteen isolation and belonging—especially for the younger generation that is feeling more alone than ever before. 

Find John here:

Website: Aqus.com, Aquscafe.com, CoolPetaluma.org

Social Media links: FB: Aqusnews

 

About the Host:

Shawn Langwell is an Inspirational Author, Speaker, and Sales & Executive Gap Mindset Coach/Consultant. He has written several transformational books including, Beyond Recovery, Ten Seconds of Boldness and its companion workbook, Morning Motivation, and Chill. He’s also the Past President of The California Writers Club (CWC), Redwood Writers and Past President of Toastmasters of Petaluma. Shawn lives in Northern California with his wife Crissi, and Maine Coon cat Cleo.

Find him at www.shawnlangwell.com.

 

 

 

 

Mindi Levine, Award-Winning DJ, Mindi in the Morning Show Host / Program Director / 95.9 KRSH / The Krush

Mindi Levine is a winner!

 

Recently Mindi Levine of Mindi in the Morning won the Best Radio DJ in the 2025 North Bay Bohemian Music Awards and “Best Media Personality: Radio/Print/TV” 2016 by readers of The Bohemian.

Join us as she gets to be in the guest seat for a change, on this Podcast! 

We talk about her early years as a relationship marketing guru, what drove her to become a DJ, and her humble beginnings and advice for anyone else looking to get into radio or Marketing or PR...

 She even shares a vulnerable moment from her "other life" as a Teacher / Advisor / Garfield HS / East Los Angeles, CA. 

Like most of my guests, Mindi is a delight. I'm honored to have her as my guest... Enjoy the show.

Be sure to tune into Mindi in  the Morning from 6-10 weekdays, and listen in on Tuesdays at 8:45 am through January 2026, for Get lit- a partnership with Copperfield’s Books and Redwood Writers.

Find her here:

krsh.com Mindi in the Morning
Social Media links: https://www.facebook.com/mindi.levine/
https://www.instagram.com/mindiinthemorning/

______________________________________________

About Shawn Langwell:

Shawn Langwell is an Inspirational Author, Speaker, and Sales & Executive Gap Mindset Coach/Consultant. He has written several transformational books including, Beyond Recovery, Ten Seconds of Boldness and its companion workbook, Morning Motivation, and Chill. He’s also the Past President of The California Writers Club (CWC), Redwood Writers and Past President of Toastmasters of Petaluma. Shawn lives in Northern California with his wife Crissi, and Maine Coon cat Cleo.

Find him at www.shawnlangwell.com.