Notes from the Edge

Lisa Lacy

Notes From the Edge is where polished stories end and the truth begins. Hosted by writer, trauma educator, executive advisor, and author Lisa Lacy, this globally ranked podcast explores survival, identity, trauma, addiction, recovery, leadership, relationships, and reinvention through raw, deeply human conversations. No scripts. No small talk. Just the stories we were taught to hide, the roles we performed to survive, and the truths that set us free. What did you perform in order to survive? Welcome to the edge. www.lisalacy.com

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20 episodes
Updated July 30

Episodes20

Newest first

July 30 · 55 min
The Book Was Never Just the Book: Turning Your Story into Legacy with Missy Maxwell Worton
What if the story that will not leave you alone is not merely asking to be written, but asking to become a message that changes lives?In this live episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with her publisher, award-winning author, publishing strategist, and Light Warrior Publishing founder Missy Maxwell Worton for an honest conversation about writing through fear, publishing with purpose, and turning lived experience into lasting impact.Missy has helped hundreds of purpose-driven autho
July 29 · 1 hr 5 min
Suicide, Radical Listening & the Truths We Leave Unsaid with Sean Wellington
This conversation includes candid discussion of suicide, suicidal ideation, attempts, grief, and the emotional realities carried by survivors and the people who love them.What happens when someone finally tells the whole truth and discovers that the person listening does not panic, turn away, or try to make the story more comfortable?In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with Sean Wellington, founder and host of the Suicide Noted podcast, for a candid conversation about sui
July 29 · 42 min
No Longer Leading With the Wound with Hilary Momberger Powers
What happens when success arrives before you have had the chance to understand who you are?In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with transformational mentor, trauma-informed coach, motivational speaker, former child performer, and Licensed Vocational Nurse Hilary Momberger Powers.Hilary began working in front of the camera at five years old as the voice of Sally Brown in the Peanuts cartoons. Behind the early success, however, were unresolved childhood wounds that later co
July 29 · 38 min
Hope Without Sight: Learning to Feel Deeply Without Losing Yourself with Saylor Cooper
What happens when empathy feels less like a gift and more like carrying everyone else’s emotions inside your own body?In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with former client, author, entrepreneur, and radio host Saylor Cooper for an honest conversation about blindness, disability, emotional intelligence, nervous-system awareness, boundaries, and learning how to become the container instead of the sponge.Saylor shares how understanding his emotional depth helped him become
July 28 · 8 min
I Worked It. But It Didn’t Work. Why Didn’t You Tell Me?
When doing everything “right” in recovery leaves you smaller, sicker, and further away from yourself.For two years, I did exactly what I was told.Six days a week. Sometimes two meetings a day. Inpatient rehabilitation. Outpatient rehabilitation. Sponsors. Step work. Inventories. Confessions. Amends.I stayed sober.But I was not becoming healthier.I was becoming smaller.In this deeply personal episode of Notes From the Edge, I explore what happens when a recovery model fails to recognize the perso
July 27 · 24 min
You Can't Automate Relationships with Beth Granger
Beth Granger on visibility, digital trust, critical conversations, and staying human in an increasingly automated worldTechnology can help us reach thousands of people, write polished messages, and build impressive networks.But it cannot create trust for us.Beth Granger is a speaker, consultant, trainer, emcee, and LinkedIn and networking strategist who helps professionals communicate more confidently, navigate critical conversations, and turn online connections into meaningful relationships.Her
July 27 · 23 min
How Chronic Devaluation Shapes Confidence, Relationships, and Ambition
What happens when nothing you accomplish ever seems to be enough?In this solo episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy explores the long-term impact of chronic devaluation, especially when it begins in childhood. She shares personal stories of earning straight A’s, leading teams, serving on committees, excelling in performance, and still feeling as though the finish line kept moving.When you are told to go left and then criticized for not going right, you may stop trusting your own direction. O
July 27 · 44 min
Clawing Back From the Bottom with Bryan Blackmon
Bryan Blackmon left Texas for California chasing a dream. Instead, he found himself homeless, sleeping in his car, and drowning in alcohol and addiction.Then an elderly landlord named Elaine chose not to give up on him.Her belief became a turning point, but Bryan still had to do the work of becoming someone he could believe in, too.Today, Bryan is sober, a recovery advocate, transformation coach, and the creator of Crab Crew Life, a community built around recovery, resilience, adaptability, acco
July 27 · 12 min
I Was Wounded… and Slightly Feral
It is exactly midnight, I am editing Notes From a Certified Madwoman, and I have finally realized something:Maybe I was never crazy.Maybe I was wounded, dysregulated, surviving, and just slightly feral.In this solo episode of Midnight Menopausal Meanderings, I talk about what happens when trauma is mistaken for personality, survival responses are reduced to mental illness, and the context of a person’s life disappears beneath the diagnosis.This is not an argument against therapy, psychiatry, med
July 27 · 38 min
WATCH ME with Renee Carbone Fleming
The Price of Waiting for Permission and the Power of Becoming Visible AnywayWhat happens when a woman stops waiting to feel confident, stops explaining every decision, and starts building the life she knows she is capable of creating?In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with award-winning entrepreneur, author, podcast host, and founder of the Badass Queen™ movement, Renee Carbone Fleming.Renee filed for bankruptcy. Her marriage ended. She found herself rebuilding from the
July 26 · 26 min
People Were More Comfortable With My Suffering When I Carried It Quietly
Female Anger, Menopause, and What Happens When the Manageable Woman DisappearsPeople celebrate strong women until those women get angry, set boundaries, stop apologizing, or remove access.In this episode of Midnight Menopausal Meanderings, Lisa Lacy explores female anger, menopause, nervous-system overload, and what happens when the emotionally manageable woman begins to disappear. Menopause may not create a new, irrational woman. It may reveal the woman who spent decades swallowing betrayal, ex
July 25 · 44 min
The Last Rocketman: Fear Is Information Not Instruction with Dan Schlund
What happens when the thing that made you feel most alive nearly kills you?“Rocketman” Dan Schlund is one of the last professionally trained Rocketbelt pilots in the world. For a decade, he flew jet packs at events across 25 countries and six continents, performing hundreds of flights without a parachute and with only seconds of fuel strapped to his back.But Dan’s most extraordinary story began after the spectacle ended.Following devastating burns, extensive skin-graft surgeries, and a crash tha
July 24 · 23 min
When Your Diagnosis Enters the Room Before You Do
Psychiatric labels, medical dismissal, and what happens when a human being becomes paperworkWhat happens when a provider sees your psychiatric history before they truly see you?In this deeply personal solo episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy explores the dangerous gap between being treated as a medically complex human being and being reduced to “the psychiatric patient.”Drawing from her lived experience inside mental health facilities, jail, addiction recovery, emergency rooms, and repeate
July 24 · 22 min
What the Hell is Love?
What happens when you grow up without hearing “I love you,” without being held, and without learning what safe, enduring affection feels like?In this deeply personal solo episode of Midnight Menopausal Meanderings, I explore the difference between loving someone and knowing how to experience love.My parents never told me they loved me. My father wrote the words in letters I would not open until decades later, after he died. My mother never said them. I learned touch through violation rather than
July 24 · 37 min
The Competence Trap with Loren Silverman
Burnout, Boundaries, and Why the Most Capable Person in the Room May Be Closest to the EdgeWhat happens when competence becomes a survival strategy?In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with life coach and former technology leader Loren Silverman for an honest conversation about burnout, overthinking, boundaries, self-abandonment, and the hidden cost of always being the capable one.After nearly two decades working in technology, program management, and digital transformatio
July 23 · 53 min
Before the First Hit with Dave Kopeny
How Parents Can Recognize Risk, Interrupt Addiction, and Become Their Child’s Strongest Protective ForceEvery parent wants to believe their child will know how to recognize danger, make the right decision, and walk away when drugs enter the picture.But today’s drug landscape is more accessible, potent, and aggressively marketed than many families realize. By the time a parent knows something is wrong, the problem may already be much larger than anyone understood.In this episode of Notes From the
July 23 · 46 min
Who Got You Here Won't Get You There
Jim Hughes on Identity, Fear, Self-Judgment, and Becoming the Person Beneath the PerformanceThe person who got you here may have been exactly who you needed to become.The achiever. The problem-solver. The founder who never stops moving. The leader who learned how to carry the pressure, meet the expectations, and become whatever the moment required.But what happens when that identity begins keeping you from where you want to go next?In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with
July 23 · 47 min
When Leadership Stops Developing People with Dr. Katie Trowbridge
Curiosity, Compliance, and Teams That Think.Why do capable, intelligent teams stop taking initiative?Sometimes it is not because people are lazy, disengaged, or unwilling to contribute. Sometimes they have learned that following directions is safer than asking questions, challenging assumptions, or offering an original idea.In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with Dr. Katie Trowbridge, an award-winning educator, TEDx speaker, leadership strategist, author, and CEO of Curi
July 22 · 59 min
When Compassion Is Not Enough
What happens when someone you love is in crisis, refuses help, and waiting for them to become “ready” may cost them their life?In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with attorney, former prosecutor, and family crisis advocate Mark Astor for a necessary and deeply human conversation about addiction, severe mental illness, involuntary treatment, family trauma, and the difficult line between compassion and enabling.Mark is a partner at Astor Simovitch Law, where he helps famil
July 21 · 48 min
The Confidence Beneath the Craving
Addiction, Bipolar Disorder, and Rebuilding a Life with the S.O.B.E.R. MethodWhat happens when you remove the substance, but the pain, pressure, and survival patterns underneath it remain?In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with author, entrepreneur, podcast host, and addiction recovery advocate Massimo Rigotti for an honest conversation about addiction, bipolar disorder, grief, confidence, and the complicated work of rebuilding a life in recovery.After navigating addicti