“My daughter was required to be vaccinated at the end of her fifth grade school year at the age of 11 before she could move on to middle school. For the following couple of years, she deteriorated medically, physically, and emotionally at a very frightening level. And in the end, the diagnosis included autism, sensory processing disorder, ADHD, and obsessive compulsive disorder. She had systemic rashes, and severe environmental and food allergies. The sensory processing disorder would make her shut down for up to five days, unable to walk or talk. The list could go on and on, but in the journey to get her to recovery I learned through an occupational therapist about craniosacral therapy and I had never heard of it before. It’s a light touch therapy that improves brain and nervous system functioning. And through that therapy and sensory integration therapy and biomedical supports, my daughter–against all odds–got to a degree of functioning recovery that was literally unheard of.”

Tami Goldstein is Diplomate certified in Upledger Craniosacral Therapy (U-CST), Board Certified and an approved continuing education provider through The National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage & Bodywork. She is a Wisconsin licensed massage therapist. In 2004 she opened A Therapeutic Touch by Tami, LLC. She offers services as a therapist, advocate, international speaker and educator of bodywork specializing in individuals on the autism spectrum and other neurodevelopment disorders. She’s the international award-winning author of “Coming Through the Fog,” an autism recovery journey, a contributing author in a Cutting-Edge Therapies for Autism, and other books & publications. Ms. Goldstein is a 2018 World Massage Festival Hall of Fame inductee, 2019 Teacher of the Year recipient at World Massage Festival, the founder of Wisconsin for Vaccine Choice and the parent of an individual with functioning recovery from autism.

”It was really sort of a Blitzkrieg assault approach where I wrote many, many scripts and emailed everybody I knew, and entered scripts into screenwriting competitions.

“While I was living in New York I paid for a pitch fest in L.A. I flew out there to this event where you had five minutes to pitch different companies, like Lionsgate Motion Pictures. It was like speed dating for screenwriters. Eventually, I got one of my scripts into the hands of The Asylum and that eventually became ‘Born Bad,’ which was a made-for Lifetime TV movie. When they told me they liked that script and they wanted me, well, that was amazing!”

Jared Cohn is a film/TV director, writer, and producer based in Los Angeles, CA. He has directed over 50 films that have been produced and distributed by major studios and distributed by major studios and production companies such as Netflix, Hulu, Showtime, Syfy, Lifetime, and many more.

His new book, 50 Movies Made: Lessons Learned on a Filmmaker’s Journey, chronicles his life through the Hollywood trenches and how he achieved his lifelong dream on the other side. In the book, he discusses all areas of the movie making process, from screenwriting and preproduction to production, post-production and distribution.

“One thing that is unique about my background is that my clients, who are tech entrepreneurs and CEOs, value that I came from a business background, a finance background, and a tech investing background. So they know that not only can I provide a tactical strategy, but I can also address the underlying issues that are behind those challenges for them.”

Victoria Song is a leadership advisor to visionary founders and CEOs of the fastest growing technology companies in Silicon Valley, and celebrities with power, platform and influence. A Forbes 30 Under 30 investor, Yale College and Harvard Business School alumna, Victoria has helped her clients achieve multi-billion dollar exits, write patents in 24 hours, and more. She is the author of  "Bending Reality: How to Make the Impossible Probable." The book is designed to help readers tap into their hidden potential, so they can access extraordinary (seemingly supernatural) abilities they didn’t even know they had.

“I applied to and started the TV program at Haslett High School near Lansing, Michigan and taught TV production there for 13 years. Then at age 38, I began telling my wife that I was not having as much fun at my job any more. This had been my only job. I wanted to do something bigger. I wanted to do something different but still creative. She encouraged me to go for it.

“I resigned from the school on a Friday and got an office at an incubator on Monday. In the beginning I had no idea what I was doing. But I did know that we needed to work on our brand and get our brand messaging out there, networking as much as we possibly could. We talked a lot about how important that creative piece is to our brand. Knowing that was a big help for us to figure out who we were early on.

“I still say this to my staff all the time: ‘I think we're all creative here at Michigan Creative even if, for example, you wouldn't want me doing your graphic design. But I love to write, I love to shoot videos. A lot of people don't have that creative piece of their brain and we shouldn’t take our creative abilities for granted.’

“Now we're also helping other companies establish who they are and how they go out into the world. As I think you know, in today's world it's more important than ever to establish a brand and brand message.”

Brian Town is an author, speaker, educator, and the founder of Michigan Creative, an award-winning branding and marketing agency specializing in web development, video, branding, and social media marketing, designed to help businesses systematize their lead generation and scale their profits.

As a fractional CEO, Brian works with dozens of clients who want to scale without building out an entire marketing department so that they can stay focused on their areas of expertise and serve their clients and customers.

In his forthcoming book, "The Lonely CEO," Brian shares his insights and best strategies for avoiding resistance, solidifying your belief in yourself as the right person to run your company, and systematizing your marketing and hiring processes to grow and scale a sustainable business.

“I went to law school at age 49 at Washington University School of Law, which is an Ivy League-level law school. I graduated with a 4.0, the highest GPA in my class. When people ask me how I did that while doing all this other stuff at the same time, I like to joke and say ‘I cheated.’ At Orientation they told us we should spend four hours per class per week preparing for lectures. I spent eight hours preparing. Most people say, that’s not cheating. Yes, but nobody does it. If you want to be the smartest person in the room, you have to be the most prepared person in the room. See, there’s nothing extra-ordinary about me. I was a below average student in high school. I just start with the conviction that failure is not an option and I cannot be outworked. Then I move on to: ‘I’m going to out prepare everyone.’ You see, the harder you work, the luckier you get.”

Stephen Nalley is the owner and Managing Partner of Black Briar Advisors, which is a Small Business Administration and Veteran’s Affairs Certified-Disabled Service-Connected Veteran-Owned Company. He has owned and operated over 200 hotels across the United States and has managed over $2 billion in Hotel & Resort Assets. He is the author of "Relentless Pursuit," where he describes the secret to success as knowing what you want and having a compelling reason why and the discipline to sacrifice what we want right now for what we really want later.

“We ended up with over 2,000 recruiting firms buying our training model. But after 2 years, I was just bored out of my mind! Once a month we were doing the exact same 5-day training. I missed doing the executive searches myself. That’s just what my passion was, that’s what I loved doing and where my talent was. So, we ended up re-acquiring our old company. I think one of the goals every human should have is to find something they sincerely love doing, and then doing it well enough that they can make a living from it. I found that! I found that in the executive search business.”

Gene Rice’s business career includes working for a Fortune 100 firm–where he was promoted 5 times in 7 years–to co-founding Rice Cohen International, a successful executive search firm. He has placed over 1,000 C-level executives while mentoring many young professionals. In 2008, Gene and his wife started a nonprofit charity, The Plant a Seed Inspire a Dream Foundation, which has enabled over 800 children from low-income households to pursue their passions. Gene and his daughter, a teacher, have recently co-authored the book “Grad to Grown-Up.”

Guest James Cloud: "I guess you could say I might unconsciously have developed a mission that I hope that my books will help throw light onto the question of how did the Holocaust happen in a developed, civilized country like Germany.”

James Cloud is a retired educator with more than 30 years of experience. He was born and brought up in Las Vegas, New Mexico, shortly before the outbreak of World War II. In 1942, he entered Miss Cone's first grade class, a Jewish teacher that would spark his interest in the war and understanding the people struggling on both sides.

As a young adult, he traveled to Germany, learned the language, and was accepted into the Institute of Arts in West Berlin. While living in Germany, he worked as an interpreter for the British military mission during the Cold War years and developed an intimate knowledge of both East and West Berlin.

He began writing his first novel, Brandenburg, A Story of Berlin, at the age of 80, bringing together his impressions gained over a lifetime of teaching and interacting with many nationalities and cultures, most especially with German Jewish people. The second novel, Brandenburg II, The Ninth Circle of Hell, came shortly after, and he is currently (2024) working on his third novel in the series.

Guest Dawn Cook Causey:  “Empathy, which is the key dimension of EQ–emotional intelligence–has been until quite recently so dramatically underutilized in our day-to-day communications, in spite of the fact that it is the root cause of so many communications issues. With almost every client I have worked with over the many years I have been coaching, I find that I spend a large amount of time helping them understand and then improve their capacity for empathy. A while back I even coined the idea, ‘Empathy is the difference between compliance and commitment.’ I truly believe that. If you are unable to meet somebody half-way during a discussion or debate, you will find it exceptionally difficult to influence them.”

Dawn Cook Causey is an ICF certified professional executive coach with six certifications in emotional intelligence. Her mission in life is to raise the bar on emotional intelligence in leaders around the world. She likes to say she is in the polishing business, helping leaders and teams shine their brightest by making the best choices every moment of every day. Her personal motto is, it’s your choice, so make it count.

"The challenge for most people is figuring out where is the intersection of 1) what they love to do, 2) what they are also really good at doing, and 3) what will people legitimately pay for."

Jennifer Allwood has built her business in phases into what she considers a dream life. It all began with her fascination with HGTV, her love of decorating, and a trip to a Home Show. And yes, from being laid off her job as a software analyst. A passionate cheerleader of women, she adds biblical truth to the modern day “dream big” mantra. Her no-nonsense approach to doing things you are scared to do and saying yes to God is helping women everywhere build the life and business of their dreams. When she’s not coaching her nearly 3,000 clients each month, she’s living the dream in Kansas City with Mr. Magic (her husband, Jason) and their four wild kiddos—Noah, Easton, Ava Grace, and Ariana. Oh, and their Goldendoodles, Stella and Lola, the best dogs on earth.

"The New York office asked me if I’d like to transfer there as supervisor and a pay raise that was literally three times greater than what I was earning at the time as a 25-year-old ‘newbie' in the world of advertising. My immediate response was: 'No thank you, I want to make movies.' Soon thereafter I accepted a job as a production assistant on a TV show called 'Dream On' which was featured on HBO, for a tiny fraction of the salary I was offered in the ad business. My gut told me that if I took that high-paying job, I would be shackled by the proverbial ‘golden handcuffs’ and never be able to pursue my passion for the film and TV industry. My gut was spot on and I have been creating a career that I love every day ever since.” Tim Tortora has spent his impressive career in the entertainment industry garnering extensive financial and producing experience before releasing his second book “An Effective Guide to Build Your Path in The Film and TV Industry.” His latest book and companion Community guides aspiring filmmakers through the black box that is building a durable network in film and TV production.

Anthony Schembri is a distinguished former police commissioner with a background in homicide and forensic evidence. He has held several leadership positions in law enforcement. Schembri’s dynamic career and accolades include an Innovations in Government award from Harvard. He is a Fulbright scholar and the author of several books on criminal law and leadership. His first novel, In Russia: A Brooklyn Solution, follows Lieutenant Anthony Migali of the NYPD on an international web of deceit and murder as he is tasked with solving Moscow’s first-ever serial killer case. The book is full of Schembri's real life adventures.

A Few More Interesting Facts

• Anthony Schembri was a NYC police commissioner for almost 15 years.
• ABC’s 1990s crime drama “The Commish” is based on his life. He wrote several episodes for the series. (The first season of the TV show is available through Amazon.)
• He took a professorship at the University of Florida to teach courses on serial crime.
• Governor Bush asked him to take the job of Secretary of the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice (the juvenile prison system) where at that time they admitted 128,000 juveniles a year. His responsibilities also included 26 detention centers, 1,400 probation officers, and 164 prevention programs.