Project Candor: Ordinary People. Unexpected Stories

Jeanne Andersen
  • 5.0 (3)
  • Personal Journals

Everyone has a story worth telling. On Project Candor, host Jeanne Andersen sits down with entrepreneurs, veterans, educators, creatives, leaders, and everyday people to explore the moments that shaped who they became.  Through thoughtful conversations and our signature Two Truths and a Lie segment, guests share authentic stories filled with unexpected turns, hard-earned lessons, humor, resilience, and hope.  Learn more at ProjectCandor.com

  1. 2d ago

    She Sails Between Two Worlds with Sharon Madsen | Ship's Log #43

    “Somewhere between surviving and achieving, you forgot you were born sacred. Your soul has been waiting in the stillness of your heart for you to remember.”  Episode Summary  Sharon Madsen has spent 30 years doing work that's hard to put on a business card. She's a regulated health professional, a Reiki Master Teacher, and a self-described psychic medium — and the people who find her are usually the ones who look most put-together from the outside. The house, the marriage, the career, the success. And a quiet, confusing emptiness underneath it all.  In this conversation she and Jeanne trace where that emptiness comes from — what Sharon calls being out of alignment with your soul — and why so many of us learned to tamp down our own intuition until we couldn't hear it anymore. Sharon shares astonishing stories from her practice, including channeling a late father's private nickname for a client in a language she doesn't speak, and offers a deceptively simple daily practice: standing at the mirror and learning to love the person looking back. Jeanne brings her own thread too, from a childhood premonition of her father's car accident to the idea that you can't love your neighbor until you love yourself.  Then it's Two Truths & A Lie — three unforgettable headlines: healing an elephant with her bare hands, a whitewater rafting accident that nearly killed her, and a meditation-retreat moment she believes was the gift of divine healing. Jeanne makes her guess. Sharon walks through each one. And the reveal is not the one you'd bet on. Stay to the end.  Guest Bio  Sharon Madsen helps successful people who've achieved everything but still feel empty inside. A regulated health professional, psychic medium, and Reiki Master Teacher for 30 years, she guides people from racing minds and emotional exhaustion back to inner peace — and back to the wholeness they've been searching for all along.  Guest Links  Website:  https://shineyoursoullight.com  Private Session:  https://shineyoursoullight.com/privatesession  Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/sharonshaymadsen  Instagram:  https://instagram.com/sharonshaymadsen  Email:  Sharon@shineyoursoullight.com  Who do you know who'd make a great guest for the show? Please let us know. Email: info@projectcandor.com Website:   https://www.projectcandor.com Social Media Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/ProjectCandor/ LinkedIn:     https://www.linkedin.com/company/projectcandor/ Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/project.candor/ YouTube:    https://www.youtube.com/@ProjectCandorPodcast

    She Sails Between Two Worlds with Sharon Madsen | Ship's Log #43

  2. 5d ago

    40 Years Navigating Two Worlds, with Dr. Greg Yuen | Ship's Log #42

    “Through mindful touch, we reconnect and restore our wholeness and health.” — Dr. Greg Yuen  Episode Summary  When Dr. Greg Yuen was twelve, his grandmother died — and at the funeral, placing paper money on her coffin and touching her pillow to say goodbye, he was hit by the realization that one day he would die too. He handled the fear the way a kid does (a lot of Snickers bars) and made himself a promise: he was going to find the secret to living forever. That vow launched a forty-year voyage between two worlds of healing.  Greg became a psychiatrist who prescribed pharmaceuticals for his patients while quietly avoiding them in his own life, studying qigong, tai chi, and massage instead. On this episode he and Jeanne dig into Do-in — the practice of mindful self-massage he now teaches — and the idea at its heart: where the mind goes, the chi goes. He walks Jeanne (and the listener) through a hands-on demonstration of feeling your own vital force, makes the case for treating the whole body rather than chasing one sore spot, and explains why the tools for your own healing are already in your two hands.  Then it's Two Truths & A Lie: a medical doctor turned fortune teller, a milk bone dog biscuit that helped heal a staph infection, and a psychiatrist who creates transformation through karaoke. Greg tells all three stories before revealing which one he made up — and closes with a self-healing message and a complimentary gift for listeners.  Guest Bio  After his grandmother died when he was twelve, Dr. Greg Yuen made a vow to find the secret to longevity. More than forty years later — as a psychiatrist, tai chi instructor, and licensed massage therapist — he teaches Do-in, the practice of mindful self-massage for radiant vitality. His message is simple: the tools for your own healing are already in your hands.  Guest Links Website:  https://gregyuenmd.com  Website (Do-in):  https://do-in.us Speaking:  https://gregyuenMDspeaks.com YouTube:  Do-in International LinkedIn:  https://linkedin.com/in/greg-yuen-29423120  Guest CTA Greg is offering Project Candor listeners a complimentary video of his 10 energizing pressure points — his go-to sequence for beating burnout and fatigue. Reach out to him at gregyuen@cs.com to connect and claim it. Speaking Engagement CTA Dr. Yuen leads Do-in workshops and speaks on natural healing, longevity, and the mind-body connection. Learn more at https://gregyuenMDspeaks.com. Who do you know who'd make a great guest for the show? Please let us know. Email: info@projectcandor.com Website:   https://www.projectcandor.com Social Media Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/ProjectCandor/ LinkedIn:     https://www.linkedin.com/company/projectcandor/ Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/project.candor/ YouTube:    https://www.youtube.com/@ProjectCandorPodcast

    40 Years Navigating Two Worlds, with Dr. Greg Yuen | Ship's Log #42

  3. Sep 10

    The 42-Year Voyage with Chris Donaldson | Ship’s Log #41

    “Home is where the bike is!” — Chris Donaldson  Episode Summary  In 1979 a 21-year-old Chris Donaldson pointed a café-racing Moto Guzzi out of Belfast—a city of checkpoints and bomb scares, where his family’s furniture shop got blown up on the regular—and aimed it at Australia. He never got there. The Iranian revolution closed his road east, and what was meant to be a four-month, 10,000-mile ride became a year and a half and more than 50,000 miles the “wrong” way: across the Sahara on a road bike never built for it, down through Africa to Cape Town, a hitched ride on a yacht race back to Europe, then Canada all the way down to Buenos Aires.  Forty-two years later, Chris is climbing back onto the very same bike to finally finish the ride—this time with Parkinson’s, an old friend named Liam, and a phrase he lives by: “adventure before dementia.” He and Jeanne talk about the Aboriginal walkabout that shaped him, why an unmapped, pre-GPS world made for richer adventure, and the strangers across four decades who fed him, fixed his bike, and once filled his petrol tank for free in Iran and waved off the money.  They close with Two Truths & A Lie—the Sahara, a scooter to Antarctica, and crossing Iran with a canceled visa—and with Chris’s quiet reframe of a lifetime of detours: “It wasn’t the wrong way at all.”  Guest Bio  Chris Donaldson is an adventurer and author from Belfast who set out in 1979 to ride his Moto Guzzi to Australia—and ended up going 50,000 miles the wrong way instead. His memoir of that trip, Going the Wrong Way, is an Amazon best-seller with more than 1,200 five-star reviews. Now in his sixties, he’s back on the same 1977 bike, finally pointing it toward Australia—because it’s always adventure before dementia.  Guest Links Website:  https://chrisdonaldson.world Book:  Going the Wrong Way (Amazon) — https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1838012761 LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisdonaldson1 Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/goingthewrongway.book X / Twitter:  https://twitter.com/ChrisDo69411982 YouTube:  Video on file: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAEPhkadGbc  Guest CTA If you’d like to follow Chris’s journey or read his book Going the Wrong Way, you can find everything at https://chrisdonaldson.world. Who do you know who'd make a great guest for the show? Please let us know. Email: info@projectcandor.com Website:   https://www.projectcandor.com Social Media Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/ProjectCandor/ LinkedIn:     https://www.linkedin.com/company/projectcandor/ Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/project.candor/ YouTube:    https://www.youtube.com/@ProjectCandorPodcast

    The 42-Year Voyage with Chris Donaldson | Ship’s Log #41

  4. Sep 7

    No Structure. No Problem, with Joanna Zhang | Ship's Log #40

    “Don’t limit yourself with your past experiences. Every challenge is happening for you, not to you. Each experience carries a life lesson, once you’ve learned it, it’s served its purpose.”  — Joanna Zhang  Episode Summary  Joanna Zhang didn’t set out to become a consultant. As a self-employed financial planner drowning in back-office work, she cycled through virtual assistant after virtual assistant and couldn’t find a model that fit — so she built one. That became The Operations Genius and what’s now recognized as the world’s first Fractional VA Service: a whole team of specialists a founder can dial up or down instead of one impossible hire. In 2024 it won a Stevie International Business Award, and in 2025 it was named Company of the Year for the Australia region.  This conversation covers the practical and the personal in equal measure. Joanna explains why “nothing is perfect, but there can be a perfect team,” how she builds a business into an asset in four layers, and why the real job of a business owner is to hold the pivotal parts and let go of the rest. She and Jeanne also get into AI as a “double-sided sword,” the case for a human-plus-AI team, and Joanna’s move to build a fractional C-suite advisory board for small businesses.  Then it turns unexpectedly tender: Joanna describes a three-day “soul awakening” four years ago that moved her from running a business on fear and desire to running it on love — a shift she traces to a single question from her mentor that left her in tears. The episode closes with Two Truths & A Lie, where Jeanne sniffs out the motorcycle story on the first guess (Joanna dropped the bike on her foot and never rode again) and the two of them land on Joanna’s own words: every challenge happens for you, not to you.  Guest Bio  Joanna Zhang is the founder of The Operations Genius and the creator of the world’s first Fractional VA Service. She started by building an operations team to rescue her own business, then opened that model up to other entrepreneurs who needed high-level support without a full-time hire. Her work has been recognized with a 2024 Stevie International Business Award and a 2025 Best in Business “Company of the Year” award for the Australia region. A global speaker, she leads with both systems and soul — helping founders scale sustainably without burning out.  Guest Links  Website:  https://operationsgenius.net  Website 2:  https://entrepreneursoulmate.com  All channels (Linktree):  https://linktr.ee/joannazhang  LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/zhang-joanna  Instagram:  @entrepreneursoulmate  —  https://www.instagram.com/entrepreneursoulmate  Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/share/1Go1CPV7nc  Email:  operationsgenius@entrepreneursoulmate.com  Guest CTA  Listeners can find all of Joanna’s channels for connection in one place: http://inktr.ee/joannazhang Who do you know who'd make a great guest for the show? Please let us know. Email: info@projectcandor.com Website:   https://www.projectcandor.com Social Media Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/ProjectCandor/ LinkedIn:     https://www.linkedin.com/company/projectcandor/ Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/project.candor/ YouTube:    https://www.youtube.com/@ProjectCandorPodcast

    No Structure. No Problem, with Joanna Zhang | Ship's Log #40

  5. Sep 3

    The Dog That Led Me with Dr. Andy Neillie | Ship's Log #39

    Pets don’t respond to titles; they respond to consistency. Turns out, people aren’t much different.” — Andy Neillie  Episode Summary  Dr. Andy Neillie has a doctorate, a bestselling book, and five million frequent-flyer miles spent coaching leaders across Fortune 500 firms — but he’ll be the first to tell you his real education came from a string of rescued dogs. In this conversation, Andy traces his leadership philosophy back to two early bad bosses (one with an anger problem, one with an ego problem) and forward to The Golden Principles, the book a boutique publisher coaxed out of him after hearing him tell a story about a dog named Redford rescued from a puppy mill.  Jeanne and Andy dig into what it actually takes to be “a leader worth following” — the three imperative conversations every leader must be able to have, why managers have easy conversations while leaders have hard ones, and the humbling story of the first person Andy tried to fire. Along the way they talk about “confident uncertainty,” the leader’s hour, and why the best leaders sit at the bottom of the pyramid, not the top. Andy is refreshingly candid that he’s not sure he was ever a great leader himself — just a determined student of it.  Recorded a week after Andy and his wife lost their beloved golden Sawyer, the episode carries a tenderness that sneaks up on you — and a reminder that the day you rescue a dog, you promise to love them well, even at the end. The conversation closes with a loose, funny round of Two Truths & A Lie that proves even a man this thoughtful can still keep you guessing.  Guest Bio   Dr. Andy Neillie is a bestselling author, award-winning speaker, and leadership coach who teaches in Concordia University’s MBA program and has worked with leaders across Fortune 500 companies and small businesses alike. He’s the author of The Golden Principles, a set of life and leadership lessons drawn from the rescued dogs he and his wife have welcomed home over four decades. He lives in Austin, Texas, where his “love language is fur.”  Guest Links  Website: neillieleadership.com  LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/andyneillie  Facebook: facebook.com/andy.neillie  X / Twitter: twitter.com/drneillie  YouTube: youtube.com/@andyneillie1779  eSpeakers: espeakers.com/marketplace/profile/5312  Guest CTA  Contact Andy to learn how The Three Imperative Leadership Conversations help leaders become powerful communicators and lead their teams well. Start at neillieleadership.com. Andy also offers a free 8-page ebook with worksheets on the three conversations. Who do you know who'd make a great guest for the show? Please let us know. Email: info@projectcandor.com Website:   https://www.projectcandor.com Social Media Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/ProjectCandor/ LinkedIn:     https://www.linkedin.com/company/projectcandor/ Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/project.candor/ YouTube:    https://www.youtube.com/@ProjectCandorPodcast

    The Dog That Led Me with Dr. Andy Neillie | Ship's Log #39

  6. Aug 31

    Normal Was Not Being There with Jim Sabellico | Ship's Log #38

    "Live in such a way that you would not be embarrassed to sell your parrot to the town gossip."   EPISODE SUMMARY  Jim Sabellico built businesses at a level most people only read about — seven figures, eight figures, the cars, the house, the bank account. Then one night he came home late to find his son's birthday cake already half gone. His six-year-old wasn't devastated. He wasn't even surprised. That was just normal. And that quiet, ordinary moment cracked something open.  In this conversation, Jim talks honestly about the gap between external success and internal life — being on the edge of divorce, being overweight, having kids who didn't really know him, all while the business looked great from the outside. He shares what it took to stop hiding from that truth, find a mentor who showed him a different picture of possibility, and start redefining what success actually meant.  Jim also shares the story behind his now-signature quote about the parrot, his daughter on the diving board, and why so many high achievers are still that little kid waiting for someone to look up and notice. Plus — Two Truths and a Lie: did Jim really learn Mandarin to expand his business in Asia?   GUEST BIO  Jim Sabellico is an entrepreneur, marketing expert, and host of the No Half Cakes podcast. After building multiple 7- and 8-figure businesses, he discovered that real success means building a life you won't regret — not just a business you're proud of. He now helps high achievers simplify their growth and align their business with their purpose.   GUEST LINKS  Website:  https://nohalfcakes.com LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimsabellico/ Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/jimsabellico Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/jsabellico Twitter/X:  https://x.com/JimSabellico YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/@JimSabellico TikTok:  https://www.tiktok.com/@jimsabellico Threads:  https://www.threads.net/@jimsabellico Who do you know who'd make a great guest for the show? Please let us know. Email: info@projectcandor.com Website:   https://www.projectcandor.com Social Media Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/ProjectCandor/ LinkedIn:     https://www.linkedin.com/company/projectcandor/ Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/project.candor/ YouTube:    https://www.youtube.com/@ProjectCandorPodcast

    Normal Was Not Being There with Jim Sabellico | Ship's Log #38

  7. Aug 27

    Where Peace Anchors with Dr. Alphonso Buie | Ship's Log #37

    “Do it right or don’t do it at all.”  - Dr. Alphonso Buie Episode Summary Becoming an interior designer “wasn’t on my bingo card,” Alphonso Buie says. Yet here he is in his 40s, building a new career in Atlanta, running Place of Peace, and loving it. The name came from his grandmother, who always told him that a home should be a place of peace—“and if it’s not, you need to figure it out.” For years, Alphonso didn’t fully understand what she meant. Then he created a home of his own that finally felt calm. Now he helps other people find that same feeling. His conversation with Jeanne moves easily from why your bedroom—not your office—should be your sanctuary to the healing that can come from letting go. Alphonso shares the story of a client who finally released child-support paperwork she had carried for 27 years. They also talk about mixing metals and colors because “anything matches if you design it right,” Peppercorn accent walls, grasscloth wallpaper, and fabric-and-furniture pilgrimages to Gayle K and High Point. Beneath the design talk runs a deeper theme: reinvention, letting go, and making room for other people to succeed. As Alphonso puts it, “There’s more than enough for us to eat.” The conversation gets candid, too. Alphonso opens up about the panic attacks and medical leave he experienced after a workplace rumor involving—of all things—a Beyoncé concert spiraled into an investigation. Then it’s time for Two Truths & A Lie. Alphonso’s three stories involve teaching in Beijing, being fired over Beyoncé, and winning a million-dollar penny-slots jackpot. One of them isn’t true. You’ll have to listen to the end to discover which one. Guest Bio Alphonso Buie is an Atlanta-based interior designer, entrepreneur, and former hospitality professor who once taught business in Beijing. His design career began unexpectedly when an accidental Instagram post grew into a thriving business. As the founder of Place of Peace, Alphonso specializes in creating “museum-style” homes that allow the art to tell the story. He also does much of the hands-on work himself. Part designer and part therapist, Alphonso helps his clients decide what to keep, what to release, and how to create a space that finally feels like home. Guest Links Website: www.placeofpeace.co LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/drbuie Instagram: @place_of_peace_llc Guest CTA Let’s figure out what we can do to get you to a Place of Peace.  Who do you know who'd make a great guest for the show? Please let us know. Email: info@projectcandor.com Website:   https://www.projectcandor.com Social Media Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/ProjectCandor/ LinkedIn:     https://www.linkedin.com/company/projectcandor/ Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/project.candor/ YouTube:    https://www.youtube.com/@ProjectCandorPodcast

    Where Peace Anchors with Dr. Alphonso Buie | Ship's Log #37

  8. Aug 24

    No Ramps. Just Stairs. No Way In. | With Ken Kunken | Ship's Log 36

    Guest Quote “Some men see things as they are, and say why. I dream of things that never were, and say why not.” (Originally attributed to George Bernard Shaw; frequently cited by Senator Robert Kennedy. Ken received this quote inscribed on a glass paperweight from Senator Edward Kennedy following his Senate testimony.) Episode Summary In 1970, Ken Kunken was a junior at Cornell University, studying engineering and playing lightweight football. A single tackle during a kickoff play broke his neck, leaving him paralyzed from the shoulders down. He spent the next nine months and twenty days in hospitals and rehabilitation centers. The Rusk Institute’s career guidance for someone with his level of injury: sell magazine subscriptions over the telephone. Ken couldn’t even dial a rotary phone. That pamphlet became the fuel. What happened next is one of the most quietly staggering stories you’ll hear. Ken returned to Cornell—a campus with no ramps, no curb cuts, no accessibility—being pulled up and bounced down nearly 100 steps on his first day back. He earned his engineering degree, then two master’s degrees from Cornell and Columbia, then a Juris Doctor from Hofstra Law. He mailed over 200 resumes and was rejected by everyone. He was the first quadriplegic to graduate from Cornell, the first to earn a graduate degree there, and the first to serve as an assistant district attorney on Long Island. He practiced law for more than 40 years. The DA’s office later named its annual award for outstanding prosecutors after him. Then there’s the personal side. In his fifties, more than 30 years after his injury, Ken married Anna—the woman who had originally been hired as his personal care attendant. She proposed. And it was her idea to try for children through in vitro fertilization. On January 24th, 2005, Ken watched from his wheelchair as triplets—Joey, Jimmy, and Timmy—entered the world. The Two Truths and a Lie segment lands with a twist: the story everyone assumed was the lie turned out to be the most complicated truth of all. In 2023, Ken published his memoir, “I Dream of Things That Never Were: The Ken Kunken Story.” Guest Bio Kenneth James Kunken is a Cornell-educated engineer turned attorney who practiced law in Nassau County, New York for over 40 years—as a quadriplegic, after breaking his neck in a college football game in 1970. He was the first quadriplegic to graduate from Cornell and the first to serve as an assistant district attorney on Long Island. In 2023, he published his memoir, I Dream of Things That Never Were: The Ken Kunken Story. Guest Links •       Website: https://kenkunken.com/ •       Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61566473121422 •       Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ken.kunken/ •       LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenneth-j-kunken-b4b0a9a8/ •       YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdUUa2hyQF8ubUmEARY9WKA •       Memoir on Amazon: https://a.co/d/1t1UWIN Who do you know who'd make a great guest for the show? Please let us know. Email: info@projectcandor.com Website:   https://www.projectcandor.com Social Media Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/ProjectCandor/ LinkedIn:     https://www.linkedin.com/company/projectcandor/ Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/project.candor/ YouTube:    https://www.youtube.com/@ProjectCandorPodcast

    No Ramps. Just Stairs. No Way In. | With Ken Kunken | Ship's Log 36
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Everyone has a story worth telling. On Project Candor, host Jeanne Andersen sits down with entrepreneurs, veterans, educators, creatives, leaders, and everyday people to explore the moments that shaped who they became.  Through thoughtful conversations and our signature Two Truths and a Lie segment, guests share authentic stories filled with unexpected turns, hard-earned lessons, humor, resilience, and hope.  Learn more at ProjectCandor.com

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