Free & Open Mind

Hardy Brooklyn / Stan Nelson
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Feeling stuck? Craving something real? Free & Open Mind is your invitation to break out of old routines and live boldly. Every Friday, join hosts Hardy Brooklyn and Stan Nelson as they dive into unfiltered, inspiring talks with people who’ve dared to reinvent themselves—artists, coaches, and everyday heroes. Get raw stories, honest advice, and that push you need to take the next step. Hit play, shake up your perspective, and start living on your own terms. No judgment! Just real journeys, practical tools, and authentic voices. New episodes drop every Friday! Subscribe so you never miss one.

  1. 18h ago

    Living Authentically After Twenty Years of Hiding, with Kim Lessage - Free & Open Mind

    In this episode of Free & Open Mind, Kim Lessage shares what it cost to keep her perceptions secret for 20 years—and what changed when she began trusting herself. Together, we explore the courage it takes to live authentically, even when family or society doesn’t understand you. Kim offers practical ways to begin: track your experiences, communicate in language others can hear, stop comparing your path to everyone else’s, and set boundaries that protect your energy and your work. She also introduces her “Orders of Information” framework and reflects on how to balance personal beliefs, wellbeing, and everyday life. Stay to the end for Kim’s story of being unexpectedly thrown into a Muay Thai competition—and the lesson it taught her about taking a chance before you feel ready. If you’ve ever gone quiet to keep the peace, this conversation may help you find the courage to show up as yourself. You can find Kim @ kimlessage.com Grab a coffee, get comfortable, and get ready to get real. 🎥 Watch live — Fridays, 9:00 AM Eastern on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLToXR0bXV6I92L3wQ3kChZ8guEomccF9w 🎧 Listen anywhere, anytime — Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and more https://linktr.ee/freeandopenmind Meet your hosts: Hardy Brooklyn → https://boxofrain.com Stan Nelson → https://coachingwithstan.com.au Podcast home: https://linktr.ee/freeandopenmind This show grows one honest conversation at a time. If today's episode landed, follow us, leave a review, and pass it to a friend who needs permission to be real.

  2. 6d ago

    When the Past Shows Up: Staying True to Your Authentic Self | The Free & Open Mind

    What if the most authentic thing you can do is pause—or walk away? In this episode of The Free & Open Mind, Hardy Brooklyn and Stan Nelson explore what it takes to stay true to yourself when others expect you to slip back into an old role. Hardy shares a personal story about running into former friends at a holiday party, feeling pressure to put the “mask” back on, and choosing instead to hold his boundaries and remain authentic. They talk about practical ways to navigate uncomfortable moments: take a breath, give yourself time to think, and decide what you want from the interaction before responding. Hardy also reflects on how personal growth can change the way you show up in familiar environments—and why authenticity may look different over time, across settings, and for different people. The conversation offers thoughtful reminders about learning from old patterns, giving yourself grace when you slip up, and using a pause to respond with intention rather than react automatically. Sometimes, protecting your sense of self means stepping away, taking a break, or simply not feeding into the moment. Listen to the full episode for an honest conversation about authenticity, boundaries, and becoming more comfortable showing up as yourself—even when others expect someone different. Grab a coffee, get comfortable, and get ready to get real. 🎥 Watch live — Fridays, 9:00 AM Eastern on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLToXR0bXV6I92L3wQ3kChZ8guEomccF9w 🎧 Listen anywhere — Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and more https://linktr.ee/freeandopenmind Meet your hosts: Hardy Brooklyn → https://boxofrain.com Stan Nelson → https://coachingwithstan.com.au Podcast home: https://linktr.ee/freeandopenmind This show grows one honest conversation at a time. If today's episode landed, follow us, leave a review, and pass it to a friend who needs permission to be real.

  3. Oct 17

    Whose Story Are You Living? Ellen Lubensky on Reclaiming Your Authentic Self

    What if becoming your authentic self isn’t about changing who you are, but finding your way back to who you were — before the world told you who to be? At 20, Ellen Lubensky was given a diagnosis that shaped how she saw herself for the next 25 years. In this honest, moving conversation, she reflects on losing touch with her sense of self—and the questions, boundaries, and hard-won courage that helped her begin reclaiming it. Ellen joins the hosts to explore the masks we wear to please others, keep the peace, and in the process make ourselves smaller. She shares what it took to trust her own voice, speak openly about her experiences, and rediscover the adventurous spirit she thought she had lost. Stay with us to the end for Ellen’s most powerful reminder: you don’t have to accept someone else’s story as your own. Grab a coffee, get comfortable, and get ready to get real. 🎥 Watch live — Fridays, 9:00 AM Eastern on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLToXR0bXV6I92L3wQ3kChZ8guEomccF9w 🎧 Listen anywhere — Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and more https://linktr.ee/freeandopenmind Meet your hosts: Hardy Brooklyn → https://boxofrain.com Stan Nelson → https://coachingwithstan.com.au Podcast home: https://linktr.ee/freeandopenmind This show grows one honest conversation at a time. If today's episode landed, follow us, leave a review, and pass it to a friend who needs permission to be real.

  4. Oct 9

    From Dope Dealer to Hope Dealer | The Free & Open Mind Authenticity Podcast

    What does it really mean to live authentically—and how do you begin again when life takes you far from where you hoped to be? On The Free and Open Mind, Hardy and Stan welcome Richard Kaufman for an honest, uplifting conversation about recovery, resilience, and the choices that can change your direction. Richard shares how he moved from addiction and hardship to a life of service as an author, coach, and podcast host. His story offers a powerful reminder: you don’t need to wait for permission or perfect circumstances to take your next step. Connect with Richard: Listen to his Vertical Momentum podcast, available on 35 platforms, or reach out to him by direct message. https://verticalmomentumpodcast.com/ Richard’s books: A Hero’s Journey from Darkness to Light and his guide to podcasting are available on Amazon. Grab a coffee, get comfortable, and get ready to get real. 🎥 Watch live — Fridays, 9:00 AM Eastern on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLToXR0bXV6I92L3wQ3kChZ8guEomccF9w 🎧 Listen anywhere — Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and more https://linktr.ee/freeandopenmind Meet your hosts: Hardy Brooklyn → https://boxofrain.com Stan Nelson → https://coachingwithstan.com.au Podcast home: https://linktr.ee/freeandopenmind This show grows one honest conversation at a time. If today's episode landed, follow us, leave a review, and pass it to a friend who needs permission to be real.

  5. Oct 2

    The Authenticity Crack: When a Perfect Life Isn't the Real Life with Miruna Parchirie

    What if the life that looks perfect on paper doesn’t feel like yours? In this episode of The Free and Open Mind, life coach Miruna Parchirie joins Hardy and Stan for an honest conversation about the hidden gap between outward success and inner truth, and the courage it takes to question a path everyone else applauds. If you’ve ever wondered whether you’re chasing what you truly want or just what you’ve been taught to want, this conversation may help you pause, tune out the noise, and hear yourself more clearly. Listen for a fresh perspective on authenticity, intuition, and finding a version of success that actually feels like your own. Connect with Miruna: WEB: feelaboutlife.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/miruna-parchirie/ Miruna Barkidia Email: miru@feelaboutlife.com 🎥 Watch live — Fridays, 9:00 AM Eastern on YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLToXR0bXV6I92L3wQ3kChZ8guEomccF9w 🎧 Listen anywhere — Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and morehttps://linktr.ee/freeandopenmind Meet your hosts:Hardy Brooklyn → https://boxofrain.comStan Nelson → https://coachingwithstan.com.au Podcast home: https://linktr.ee/freeandopenmind If this episode hits home, follow Free & Open Mind on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, leave a review, and share it with someone who's tired of pretending.

  6. Sep 25

    What Authenticity Actually Costs: DaNajah O'Neal on Living Truthfully, Not Just Successfully

    The Free and Open Mind with Hardy Brooklyn & Stan Nelson On paper, she had it all: a finance career, good benefits, and a clear path up the ladder. Inside, she wore an invisible mask. When coworkers asked if she loved her job, she said yes, "even though inside, I wanted to scream no." DaNajah O'Neal quit accounting, packed two suitcases, and moved to Costa Rica, a country she'd never visited. Then she wrote The Surrender Way while still in the messy middle, before she knew how her story would end. In this episode: The coworker's question she couldn't answerHitting rock bottom in Costa Rica and learning to surrender controlWhy aliveness isn't the same as happinessThe "what have I done?" moment, and the small step that got her through itAdvice for Black women and anyone who's the "only one in the room"Stay until the end. DaNajah's closing idea, "the plot is the point," might change how you see your own hardest chapters. Authenticity isn't something you finish. It's something you keep doing. Listen, subscribe, and share it with someone still wearing the mask. Grab a coffee, get comfortable, and get ready to get real. 🎥 Watch live on YouTube at 9:00 AM Eastern Friday: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLToXR0bXV6I92L3wQ3kChZ8guEomccF9w⁠🎧 Listen on your platform of choice: ⁠https://linktr.ee/freeandopenmind

  7. Sep 18

    The Lady from Maine: Authenticity, Fear, and the 15-Minute Speech That Cost Her Everything

    In 1950, a mill-town girl from Maine stood on the Senate floor and said what every man in the room was too afraid to say. Senate custom wouldn't let her name Joseph McCarthy. So she described him instead — until nobody needed the name. It took fifteen minutes. It cost her everything Washington could take. Back home in Maine, the mail ran eight to one in her favor (the reckoning). This week, Hardy Brooklyn and Stan tell the story of Margaret Chase Smith. And then turn it on you — because this isn't a history show. It's a show about authenticity: what it really costs, and whether you'd pay that. There's a moment in a Senate subway car you won't forget. There's the difference between real authenticity and just being blunt — and why only one of those makes you a jerk. There's Hardy's own bill for walking away from a career everyone told him not to leave (he doesn't soften it). And there's the question waiting at the end, harder than anything McCarthy ever asked: Margaret was right. What about everyone who stands alone and isn't? "Standing alone does not make you correct. It just makes you alone." (sit with that) Five questions. Three masks. One woman who never wore any of them — and authenticity that held for 32 years. Stay inquisitive. Stay honest. Be a little bit dangerous. Grab a coffee, get comfortable, and get ready to get real. 🎥 Watch live on YouTube at 9:00 AM Eastern Friday: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLToXR0bXV6I92L3wQ3kChZ8guEomccF9w🎧 Listen on your platform of choice: https://linktr.ee/freeandopenmind

  8. Sep 11

    Authenticity Without Apology — Alexi Bracey on Living True When Everything Falls Away - Free & Open Mind

    Most of us build an identity out of a job title. Alexi Bracey spent 30 years building hers over a stove — chef, feeder of people, the one who walked out of the kitchen at a remote fishing lodge to make the guests laugh because she had nothing to say about fishing. Then a car hit her head-on. She walked away from it. Two weeks later her balance failed, she fell, and she broke her femur — and with it, the career. No more hauling 30-pound sacks of flour off a shelf. No income. No plan. She couch-surfed for a stretch, never sure night to night where she'd be sleeping. What she says she never lost was the thing underneath the job: "I had the joy in my back pocket." In this conversation with Hardy Brooklyn and Stan Nelson, Alexi traces the whole arc without flinching — the cancer diagnosis she says she beat in a year through raw food, meditation, forgiveness work, and sheer refusal to doubt herself; the glamorous, shoe-and-jewelry marriage she left and the humbling that followed; the homelessness that permanently rewired how she sees the person holding a cardboard sign at the intersection. "It's not because they deserve it," she says. "Everybody has a story. Everybody's trying to do their best." Out of that wreckage she built the Leave People Better movement — the practice of ending every single interaction with the other person feeling more human than when it started. Not grand gestures. Reading a barista's name tag and using it. A physical phone call instead of a text asking to schedule a phone call. A paper card. A hand on a stranger's arm. Asking the man holding the door whether his mother is still alive, so you can tell him she did a good job. She tells one story in this episode — about a young Filipino man she met while walking her dogs, his brother's funeral, and a woman who stopped her on the street weeks later — that she says she'll take to her grave. It's worth the listen on its own. You'll also hear: Why she believes your taste buds, not your willpower, are what finally end the fight with food — and the "anchor meal" trick that gets you through a diet transitionThe acid-and-iron tip that explains why every salad dressing on earth has vinegar in itWhy she hugs trees on dog walks, and the "nuggets" she says arrive when she doesThe Christopher Reeve reframe: how the best years can come after the worst thingHer one piece of advice for anyone in free fall right now: it starts with don't be a solo playerThe 10-day challenge she leaves listeners with: one person, every day, made betterThis one isn't a polished comeback story. It's a woman who lost the thing that made her her, went looking for what was underneath, and found out it was never the job in the first place. Ask yourself Stan's question while you listen: who are you, when every role you've built your identity around is stripped away? Grab a coffee, get comfortable, and get ready to get real. 🎥 Watch live on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLToXR0bXV6I92L3wQ3kChZ8guEomccF9w🎧 Listen on your platform of choice: https://linktr.ee/freeandopenmind

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About

Feeling stuck? Craving something real? Free & Open Mind is your invitation to break out of old routines and live boldly. Every Friday, join hosts Hardy Brooklyn and Stan Nelson as they dive into unfiltered, inspiring talks with people who’ve dared to reinvent themselves—artists, coaches, and everyday heroes. Get raw stories, honest advice, and that push you need to take the next step. Hit play, shake up your perspective, and start living on your own terms. No judgment! Just real journeys, practical tools, and authentic voices. New episodes drop every Friday! Subscribe so you never miss one.

Information

  • Creator
    Hardy Brooklyn / Stan Nelson
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    43
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Hardy Brooklyn / Stan Nelson
  • Show Website
    Free & Open Mind