A Category of One

Leslie Silverman
  • 5.0 (9)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Updated Weekly

Welcome to A Category of One: deep, honest conversations with entrepreneurs about how we show up as the truest version of ourselves, both personally and professionally. I’m Leslie Silverman, brand strategist and curious human, and this podcast was born from one belief: when we let our light shine, we give others permission to do the same. Each week, I sit down with founders, creatives, and business leaders to explore identity, ambition, doubt, reinvention, and the uncomfortable growth no one talks about. We go beyond tactics and into: -Authentic leadership -Building a brand aligned with who you are -The inner work behind outer success -Navigating ambition without losing yourself -Becoming a category of one, not by trying to stand out, but by telling the truth If you care about meaningful work and living in alignment with who you actually are, you’re in the right place. New episodes every Wednesday.

  1. 2d ago

    How to Build Emotional Safety in Relationships with Erin Berry Bliss

    In this episode of A Category of One, I sat down with Erin Berry Bliss, a relationship and intimacy coach and the creator of the Secure Love Soul Method. We started talking about emotional safety, and it turned into a much longer conversation about how we relate to ourselves first. Erin's work is body-based. She believes lasting change in relationship happens at the nervous system level, not just through insight or mindset. We got into what it actually means to feel safe with another person, physically, emotionally, mentally, energetically, and how easy it is to confuse a quiet relationship with a safe one. We also talked about the parts of this work that don't come up enough. What chemistry actually is, and what your body is telling you about it. Why it's gotten harder to stay authentically yourself online. And why curiosity, not certainty, is what actually closes the gap between men and women. In this episode: What emotional safety actually means, and why most people miss itHow the nervous system shapes our patterns in relationshipThe difference between getting back a connection and trying to create one that was never thereWhy self-acceptance has to come before someone else can meet you fullyHow curiosity closes the gap between men and women instead of certaintyWhat it means to stay authentically yourself in a saturated online space Connect with Erin Berry: IG: https://www.instagram.com/erinberrybliss/ FB: https://www.facebook.com/eberryblissful Website: https://www.erinberrybliss.com/ Connect with Leslie Silverman: IG: https://www.instagram.com/lesliesilverman/ LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leslie-silverman-hive180/ FB:  https://www.facebook.com/leslie.a.silverman Website: https://lesliesilverman.com Hive180 Branding Agency: https://hive180.com Chapters: 01:16 Introduction to Erin Berry and Her Work 03:19 The Secure Love Soul Method Explained 03:32 Introduction and Personal Connection 04:43 Erin's Journey to Relationship Coaching 06:43 The Importance of Self-Understanding in Relationships 10:55 Navigating the Modern Relationship Landscape 14:30 The Role of Emotional Safety in Intimacy 19:26 Understanding Intimacy and Authenticity 22:20 The Interplay of Masculine and Feminine Energies 25:39 Human Design and Personal Growth 28:46 Upcoming Retreats and Community Connection 33:26 Engagement and Closing Thoughts

  2. Jul 15

    How to Use AI Without Outsourcing Your Thinking with Elijah Evynn

    In this episode of A Category of One, I sat down with Elijah Evynn, who spends his days helping small and medium businesses build AI automations without losing the human parts of their work. This conversation started as a discussion about tools and quickly became about what AI is actually for and what it should never touch. Elijah has spent years managing large tech organizations, and now runs Guides of AI, where he helps business owners figure out what to automate and what to protect. His rule for every client is simple. Don't outsource the thinking. The taste, the opinions, the judgment calls, those stay human. Everything else is fair game. We talked about why AI is a bigger opportunity for small businesses than large ones, why the fear so many people carry about AI is worth questioning, and what changed for Elijah the moment he became a father. He also walked me through Gabbian, his client portal system, and a new project that lets AI skills move between different tools instead of staying locked in one. In this episode: Why AI favors the small and medium business, not the enterpriseThe difference between outsourcing tasks vs. thinkingHow to know what parts of your business are safe to automateWhy balance, not adoption or avoidance, is the real answer Connect with Elijah Evynn: IG: https://www.instagram.com/elijahevynn/ LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elijah-evynn/ https://www.guidesof.ai https://www.gabbian.com https://www.sharelume.ai/ Connect with Leslie Silverman: IG: https://www.instagram.com/lesliesilverman/ LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leslie-silverman-hive180/ FB:  https://www.facebook.com/leslie.a.silverman Website: https://lesliesilverman.com Chapters: 01:11 Introduction to Elijah Evan and His Ventures 02:27 Empowering Small and Medium-Sized Businesses with AI 02:48 Embracing AI: The Human Element 05:46 AI as an Efficiency Tool for Small Businesses 08:51 The Importance of Context in AI Engagement 11:39 Liberating Humanity Through Automation 14:28 Navigating the Digital Landscape with AI 17:17 Understanding Your 'Why' in the AI Era 19:54 Case Study: Empowering Small Businesses with AI 24:24 Understanding Automation in Different Industries 26:56 The Importance of Branding and Marketing 31:17 Innovations in AI and Client Management 32:09 The Meaning Behind Gabbian 32:53 Developing a Marketplace for AI Skills 35:29 Parenting in the Age of AI

  3. Jul 8

    How to Bring Play and Creativity Back Into Your Adult Life with Lara Galante

    Somewhere between childhood and retirement, play gets treated as something you're supposed to grow out of. The decades in the middle are for being productive and serious. Lara Galante doesn't buy that. In this episode of A Category of One, I sat down with Lara Galante, the founder of Find Your Inner Parakeet, where she runs creative workshops that help grown adults remember how to play. Her events are low pressure and tactile, with paint pens, feathers, and gem stickers on the table, but the real work happening in the room is permission. Permission to make something imperfect and to stop performing competence for a couple of hours. Lara is honest about how she got here. The idea sat in her head for years. She took another nonprofit job she already knew wasn't right because it was familiar. It wasn't until she quit, flew to Bhutan to mountain bike with her best friend, and came home wide awake at midnight that the whole business poured out of her in a single night. We also got into something a lot of people carry: the story someone told you about yourself when you were young. A teacher who said you couldn't sing. A friend who said you weren't creative. Lara and I both got versions of that, and much of this conversation is about deciding that story isn't the one you have to keep. In this episode: Why play stops being "allowed" in adulthood, and what that costsHow Lara turned an unhappy career detour into Find Your Inner ParakeetWhat actually happens in a room full of adults handed paint and permissionRewriting the labels you picked up as a kid about what you're good atWhy "life is short" stopped being a phrase for Lara and became how she makes decisions Connect with Lara Galante: Website: https://www.findyourinnerparakeet.com/ LI: linkedin.com/in/lara-galante-416766196/ IG: https://www.instagram.com/findyourinnerparakeet Connect with Leslie Silverman: IG: https://www.instagram.com/lesliesilverman/ LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leslie-silverman-hive180/ FB:  https://www.facebook.com/leslie.a.silverman Website: https://lesliesilverman.com Hive180 Branding Agency: https://hive180.com Chapters: 00:54 Rediscovering Playfulness in Adulthood 01:49 The Journey of Creativity and Chaos 01:51 Finding Your Inner Parakeet 06:55 The Importance of Playfulness 11:34 Creative Expression and Adulting 16:23 Overcoming Self-Doubt 21:28 The Power of Community and Connection

  4. Jul 1

    How to Heal Chronic Symptoms by Regulating Your Nervous System with Grace Secker

    In this episode of A Category of One, I sat down with Grace Secker, a somatic trauma therapist and nervous system coach who healed herself from years of chronic pain and fatigue before building the work she does now. We start with the nervous system, the part of you running in the background of every symptom and reaction, often saying no before your mind has caught up. Grace's view is that most chronic symptoms aren't random. They're the nervous system responding to stress it never got to resolve, and the way through isn't another pill or specialist. It's taking ownership of your own healing, which is harder than it sounds. She points out often we hand our health to a professional and wait to be told what's wrong, and that keeps us stuck in the same stress response we're trying to escape. Grace has been an entrepreneur for almost ten years, and she admitted she'd never applied any of this to her business. She talked about being anxiously attached to her company, reactive to its every high and low, and how the tools that healed her body started changing the way she shows up at work. She was diagnosed with depression at twelve, and that label quietly became her identity for a long time. That thread runs under the conversation. You are not your diagnosis. You're the person underneath the part that's afraid. In this episode: What the nervous system is, and why Grace says almost everything traces back to itHow chronic symptoms can work as signals instead of malfunctionsWhat it looks like to take ownership of your health not handing it offThe moment Grace realized she was anxiously attached to her businessHow a diagnosis at twelve became an identity, and how she stepped out of itWhy this kind of healing often goes better in community than alone Connect with Grace Secker: Heal with Grace podcast: https://healwithgrace.co/podcast/ Free Nervous System Masterclass -> The science of why your body breaks down under pressure and the first three things to do about it: https://healwithgrace.co/free-masterclass/ IG: https://www.instagram.com/heal.with.grace/ Substack: gracesecker.substack.com Connect with Leslie Silverman: IG: https://www.instagram.com/lesliesilverman/ LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leslie-silverman-hive180/ FB:  https://www.facebook.com/leslie.a.silverman Website: https://lesliesilverman.com Branding Agency: https://hive180.com Chapters: 01:07 Understanding the Mind-Body Connection 01:32 Understanding the Nervous System 11:31 Navigating Growth Edges and Ego 21:32 Mind-Body Healing Method

  5. Jun 24

    How to Find the Story Behind a Hard-to-Sell Product with Shawn Teasley

    Most marketing advice assumes you already have something exciting to sell. Shawn Teasley is a marketing and social media strategist and the founder of Social Tonic, and some of her most interesting projects are the ones nobody would call flashy. One of her clients sells energy efficient building products, the kind of thing that lives behind the drywall where no one ever sees it. No drone footage, no sexy interior reveal. And that's exactly where the story is. We talked about how she finds it. The owner retrofitted a 1970s house with the same principles he sells, because of his two daughters and what he believes about the energy future. That's not a product feature. That's a reason. What Shawn does well is pull that reason out of people and put it where customers can feel it. That same instinct runs through the rest of the conversation. We got into being witnessed, the idea that people open up when they feel genuinely seen, and how that shapes everything from a single client relationship to a team spread across three countries. We talked about asking better questions, the difference between collecting LinkedIn connections and actually nurturing a relationship, and why bringing your personal self into your work isn't unprofessional. It's the whole point. In this episode: Why the most unglamorous products often have the best storiesHow to find the reason behind what someone sells, not just the featuresWhat it means to make a client feel witnessed, and why it changes the workThe line between collecting LinkedIn connections and building real relationshipsHow asking better questions surfaces the story that actually sellsWhy your personal life belongs in your business more than you think Chapters: 01:16 The Importance of Strategic Marketing for Startups 02:16 Exploring Authenticity in Business 05:14 The Role of AI in Marketing 08:02 Creative Storytelling in Marketing 11:12 Travel and Personal Growth 14:16 Cultural Connections and Team Dynamics 21:04 The Intersection of Personal and Professional Life 29:11 Ideal Clients and Networking Strategies 33:50 Understanding the Mind-Body Connection Connect with Shawn Teasley: Website: https://socialtonic.us/ LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawnteasley/ BIZ: https://www.linkedin.com/company/socialtonic/  Connect with Leslie Silverman: IG: https://www.instagram.com/lesliesilverman/ LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leslie-silverman-hive180/ FB:  https://www.facebook.com/leslie.a.silverman Website: https://lesliesilverman.com Hive180 Branding Agency: https://hive180.com

  6. Jun 17

    How to Plan Events That Help People Show Up as Themselves with Vivian Butler

    In this episode I sat down with Vivian Butler, a licensed therapist turned event planner and founder of Vivian Butler Events. We started with how a counselor ends up running an events business, but it kept circling back to something bigger: what it actually takes to build a room where people feel safe enough to be themselves. Vivian's path didn't follow a plan. She moved through restaurants, social work, ropes courses, and experiential psychology before she realized events had been the thread running through all of it. She isn't just handling logistics. She's paying attention to how people feel, and whether they can drop the persona long enough to connect. We got into the loneliness most gatherings quietly produce, where you can be surrounded by people and still feel alone, and what it takes to design against it. We also got honest about the parts of entrepreneurship nobody romanticizes. Pushing past your comfort zone every day. Learning that when you sell a service, you are the product. Trusting that a no is just clearing space for a more aligned yes. Underneath all of it is a simple idea about permission. The way Vivian sees it, her real job is to build a room where people can stop performing and just be themselves. A couple keeping their wedding theirs instead of everyone else's. Coworkers dropping their titles for an afternoon. In this episode: Why a therapist's lens changes what an event can do for people in the roomThe difference between an event that looks polished and one where people feel safe to be themselvesWhat the loneliness epidemic has to do with how we gather, at work and everywhere elseThe daily discomfort of running a solo business, and why Vivian signs up for it anywayHow "you are the product" reframes the way you sell a service Connect with Vivian Butler: LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vivianabutler/ FB: https://www.facebook.com/Vivianbutlerevents IG: https://www.instagram.com/vivianbutlerevents/ Website: https://www.vivianbutlerevents.com/ Connect with Leslie Silverman: IG: https://www.instagram.com/lesliesilverman/ LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leslie-silverman-hive180/ FB:  https://www.facebook.com/leslie.a.silverman Website: https://lesliesilverman.com Chapters: 02:45 Transition from Counseling to Event Planning 05:38 Embracing the Solopreneur Journey 08:39 The Importance of Authenticity in Business 11:26 Understanding Your 'Why' 14:08 Creating Meaningful Connections at Events 17:10 The Loneliness Epidemic and Authentic Connection 20:00 Unique Approach to Event Planning 22:59 The Value of Hiring an Event Planner

  7. Jun 10

    How to Use Generosity as a Business Mantra with Janne Robinson

    I met Janne Robinson years before this podcast existed. Then, back when I joined the first cohort of her year-long program, Your Truth Is Your Medicine, I was rebuilding myself after a codependent marriage, and she was the first person who truly gave me permission to be who I am. Janne is a poet, author, facilitator, and keynote speaker, and she has built a business by refusing to narrow herself down to one thing. Her anchor isn't a niche or a funnel. It's purpose. She treats every offer she makes as a 50-50 conversation between what excites her and what her audience actually wants, and she's at peace when the answer is no. There's a thread Janne keeps coming back to around generosity, what she calls sharing the cow. It started at an archaeological site in Sedona and runs through everything from the scholarships she gives away to a whale trip a CEO gifted her, the one she's now turning into a retreat for other people. We talk about what it actually looks like to run a business that way, and why being public carries a real cost she chooses to pay anyway. In this episode: Why purpose works as a filter for what to build nextWhat it looks like to run a business as a multi-passionate person vs forcing yourself into one laneHow Janne handles criticism and the cost of putting your real self in publicWhy your own story, not a tidied-up version of it, is the actual work Connect with Janne Robinson: Find Janne's first book This is for the Women Who Don't Give a F**k here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1945796413 Find Janne's second book There's cobwebs on her Vagina here: https://www.amazon.com/Theres-Cobwebs-Her-Vagina-Collection/dp/1734042109 Book a consultation to do purpose work 1-1 with Janne here: https://hello.dubsado.com/public/form/view/646333e19b539e6b47ed9138 For Organizations (Speaking, Executive Coaching, Culture Repair and Enhancement Work): https://jannerobinson.com/organizations Swim with the Humpback Whales Retreat (2027): https://janne-robinson.mykajabi.com/2027-retreat Connect with Leslie Silverman: IG: https://www.instagram.com/lesliesilverman/ LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leslie-silverman-hive180/ Hive180 Branding Agency: https://hive180.com Chapters: 01:49 Janne's Methodology and Impact 02:42 Personal Life and Creative Endeavors 02:48 Generosity and Boundaries in Community Living 38:53 Cultural Wisdom and the Power of Prayer 42:00 The Healing Power of Whales and Nature 45:50 Reconnecting with Community and Personal Joy 49:27 The Courage to Share Your Truth in Writing 52:46 Coaching and Retreat Opportunities

  8. Jun 3

    How to Build a Business That Runs Without You with Jessica Millhiser

    In this episode of A Category of One, I sat down with Jessica Millhiser, the founder of J.Mills Consulting and an operations strategist who helps service-based entrepreneurs build businesses that are clear, organized, and intentional. Jessica's work sits at the intersection of structure and intuition, and that combination is rare. We talked about what it actually takes to build a business you can step away from. Jessica took nine weeks off last year and her business grew 34%. That number tells you something, but the conversation underneath it tells you more. It's about how you design a business in the first place, what you stop chasing, and what you let yourself want. Jessica wants to bring hospitality back to the forefront of how entrepreneurs run their businesses. Not hospitality as an industry, but as a posture. The way you treat people. The way your back-end operations show up as front-end client experience. She also opens up about a single intuitive decision she made years ago that changed the entire shape of her life. It's one of those moments in a conversation that you don't see coming. In this episode: Why slowing down is the actual prerequisite for sustainable growthWhat it means to bring hospitality back into a service-based businessHow operational clarity creates space for you to step away from your businessThe difference between time-for-money pricing and value-based pricing, and how to make the shiftWhy your ideal client is probably not you, and what that means for what you charge Connect with Jessica Millhiser: Website: https://www.jmillsconsulting.com/ Operations Audit (Free Resource): https://www.jmillsconsulting.com/operations-health-check LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicamillhiser/ Connect with Leslie Silverman: IG: https://www.instagram.com/lesliesilverman/ LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leslie-silverman-hive180/ FB:  https://www.facebook.com/leslie.a.silverman Website: https://lesliesilverman.com Branding Agency: https://hive180.com Chapters: 00:49 Strategies for Building Intentional Businesses 01:06 Introduction to Jessica Millhiser's Work 04:02 The Importance of Intentionality in Business 07:00 Defining Success on Your Own Terms 09:57 Client Journey and Strategic Planning 13:09 Systems and Operations in Business 16:01 Bringing Hospitality into Business 18:44 Navigating Client Relationships and Pricing 21:53 The Shift from Time to Value-Based Pricing 24:52 Trusting Intuition in Business Decisions 27:49 Personal Stories and Life Lessons 30:44 Conclusion and Resources

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About

Welcome to A Category of One: deep, honest conversations with entrepreneurs about how we show up as the truest version of ourselves, both personally and professionally. I’m Leslie Silverman, brand strategist and curious human, and this podcast was born from one belief: when we let our light shine, we give others permission to do the same. Each week, I sit down with founders, creatives, and business leaders to explore identity, ambition, doubt, reinvention, and the uncomfortable growth no one talks about. We go beyond tactics and into: -Authentic leadership -Building a brand aligned with who you are -The inner work behind outer success -Navigating ambition without losing yourself -Becoming a category of one, not by trying to stand out, but by telling the truth If you care about meaningful work and living in alignment with who you actually are, you’re in the right place. New episodes every Wednesday.

Information

  • Creator
    Leslie Silverman
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    21
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Leslie Silverman
  • Show Website
    A Category of One