Unbound Winners for Life ™ with Lori Darley

Lori Darley
  • 5.0 (2)
  • Self-Improvement

A transformative deep dive into identity, reinvention, and conscious evolution. Each episode explores what it means to outgrow the roles you’ve been performing and step into the version of yourself that feels most true. We unpack the mindset shifts, personal breakthroughs, and courageous decisions required to release what no longer serves you and design a life aligned with your next highest expression.

  1. 5d ago

    The Fig Tree Problem: Choosing One Life When You Could Have Had Them All

    Nibi Ghosh played Division I tennis at Notre Dame and couldn't remember a life without the game. She started at five. A year and a half after her last match, she's choosing who to be next, and she's doing it in public for the first time. In this conversation, Nibi and Lori trace the whole arc of a competitive life: the freshman clinch against Miami with her teammates holding their breath, the grandmother who fled her home during Partition and built everything from nothing, the father who put her in classical piano because "music stays with you." They sit in the hard part too. Nibi names the win she could never fully enjoy, the "what if" she still feels every day watching friends go pro, and the fig tree she keeps picturing, every branch a different life she can't pick without losing the rest. This one is for anyone standing in the same doorway. The athlete, the performer, the founder who built an identity around one thing and now has to find out who they are without it. Nibi's answer by the end isn't a five-year plan. It's a choice: follow her own path, trust herself, and leave something behind that outlasts her. In this episode: Why she fell in love with a sport she can't remember starting Breath as her anchor under championship pressure The grandmother and father who taught her to rely on herself The win she couldn't enjoy, and the growth-mindset trap behind it The fig tree, and the grief of choosing one life Why music stayed a "hobby" while tennis got to be who she was What she's tuning herself toward now Your Second Act — a free masterclass for athletes, performing artists, and founders in transition. One hour, one clear first step. Link and dates in the show notes. If someone you came up with needs this, send it their way.

  2. Oct 7

    Tez Steinberg: The Hardest Storms Are the Ones Inside

    Twelve people have walked on the moon. Six have rowed solo across the Pacific from North America to Australia. Tez Steinberg is one of those six. He spent 197 days alone at sea across two crossings, survived a cyclone and two weeks of thunder and lightning, and still says the hardest storms he faced were mental. In this episode, Tez traces the whole arc: a college depression and the question that wouldn't leave him, "what am I capable of?"; the mentor and the triathlon that pulled him back to life; his father's death by suicide and the film that set him toward the ocean; and what he learned about accountability, enough-ness, and the inner critic over months alone on the water. He shares the practice he built out there, Internal Navigation, and the impact his expeditions funded, including 15 river barriers in Indonesia that have stopped over 125,000 pounds of plastic from reaching the sea. His story is now the Bryan Fogel documentary, The Row. Guest: Tez Steinberg, endurance athlete, keynote speaker, coach, and expedition guide. Founder of United World Challenge. Website: tezsteinberg.com Chapters: 00:00 — Welcome and introduction 01:17 — Falling in love with movement in the Adirondacks 02:04 — Reaching land: two very different crossings 04:49 — Why the ocean: a film, grief, and a space to process 06:21 — The real highlight: the important, not-urgent work of the mind 08:34 — When your own mind becomes the adversary 09:11 — The origin of "what am I capable of?" and his mentor John Lurie 14:45 — The team in the boat: needing encouragement at sea 17:02 — "It's possible I'm wrong": the belief that got him across 18:53 — Back to Deloitte, and choosing the second row 20:09 — The plastic mission and Sungai Watch 24:17 — "The sea won't fix you," and radical accountability 26:22 — What the body said: a year of slowing down 28:11 — Enough-ness, the B-plus, and the inner critic 31:38 — Loving it vs. relief when it was over 32:54 — Internal Navigation, the cyclone, and the static on the antenna 37:03 — What he loves about the ocean 38:24 — The film premiere and what he's choosing now 39:10 — Who he wants to be for the next person at their shoreline 40:17 — The ocean in front of him now 42:17 — Where to find Tez and the film Links: Tez's site: tezsteinberg.com The film, The Row: tezsteinberg.com/the-row Plastic partner: Sungai Watch (Bali, Indonesia)

  3. Oct 1

    "Maybe It's Time to Save Myself Also" Lisa Markland on worth, medals, and the first rescue she chose

    At 15, a drunk driver nearly killed Lisa Markland. She woke from a coma and started over. She has been starting over ever since. Air Force veteran. Retired clinical social worker. National medalist in tae kwon do. Point guard on a men's wheelchair basketball team. World and national powerlifting records. Top-ranked female Paralympic air rifle athlete in the country, who trained with Team USA ahead of the 2008 Beijing Games before illness ended that run. Now, at 62, she's back on the range and chasing her first Paralympic Games at LA 2028. People call her Superwoman. She hates it. She'll tell you she's as human and as fragile as anyone. This conversation isn't about resilience. It's about worth. Lisa spent a lifetime achieving to earn a love that wasn't there when she was young, and staying busy to outrun the ache. The medals were proof she kept because the people who mattered most never said it. The episode lands on her own turn: maybe the person she's spent 62 years saving everyone but is finally worth saving too. In this episode: (~03:06) The motto that runs her life: "It's not an obstacle, it's an opportunity." (~04:05) Waking from a coma at 15 with no idea what had happened. (~09:41) Both sides of the same windshield: finding the driver decades later, and the full-circle ending neither of them saw coming. (~16:41) Why the medals mean everything and nothing at once. (~19:13) "Maybe it's time to save myself also." (~25:07) The commitments she calls her glue and her nemesis. (~35:00) Her advice to anyone who has spent their life earning their worth and is exhausted. Support Lisa's road to LA 2028: US Olympic and Paralympic athletes fund much of their own training, equipment, and travel. Lisa's campaign runs into six figures. https://ljmarkland.wixsite.com/mysite https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-my-dream-to-represent-team-usa-on-the-medal-stand Share it forward. If this reached you, send it to one person who needs it. That's how this show gets built, one remarkable person at a time.

  4. Sep 23

    The Messy Middle Counts

    No guest this week. Just Lori, a mic, and a pattern she keeps seeing in the people she interviews. Athletes, founders, and performers arrive at the same doorway. They see the story they built to survive, and then they choose what comes next. Some leave and build a new life. Some stay and bring new purpose to the ground they already hold, the way Cassidy turned her elite drive toward changing how the world sees women's sport. Some sit in the messy middle and say so out loud. Lori names where she sits too, from dancer and choreographer to the work that reaches people now. If you feel a self trying to come into focus in your own quiet, this one is for you. Seeing is the turn. Choosing is the work. Ask yourself the real question in the episode: now that I see it, what do I want to choose next?

  5. Sep 17

    You Don't Have to Pick a Lane — Cassidy Lichtman on Impact, Identity, and Trusting the Next Door

    Cassidy Lichtman played volleyball for the U.S. national team, then walked away with no plan. What came next reframes what "transition" even means. She didn't leave her world. She climbed to a higher place inside it: player, then league builder, now board chair of USA Volleyball. In this conversation, Cassidy makes the case for a life built on mission instead of a fixed destination. She talks about the equity work with former U.S. CTO Megan Smith that taught her the limits we live by are "made up," the anger and pride of building Athletes Unlimited's athlete-centered league, and why she keeps saying she's "just getting started" after landing on a most-powerful-women-in-sports list. Lori and Cassidy get into the tension Cassidy names in herself: her biggest impact sits inside one sport, and part of her wants to range wider. They land somewhere useful. You can be fiercely driven by a mission and still let the future stay open. In this episode: The decision keeping her up at night: pay-to-play and access in youth sports Why she came back to volleyball, and why it was never about the game The equity work that changed what she could no longer unsee Building a league with athletes, not just for them The difference between staying open on purpose and drifting What she'd tell a 22-year-old athlete terrified she's nothing without her sport About Cassidy Lichtman: Board chair of USA Volleyball, head of volleyball at Athletes Unlimited, former U.S. national team player, and one of the most powerful women in sports. From Unbound: Two ways to go deeper. The Unbound Identity Lab, a monthly community to test and challenge who you're becoming. And Your Second Act, an eight-week intensive for athletes, founders, and performing artists crossing over into an identity they haven't lived yet.

  6. Sep 14

    Who Are You Without the Game? — Kai Moon on Walking Away at Her Peak

    Episode description (long, for site + Apple/Spotify) Kai Moon was the number one scorer in Division I women's basketball. ESPN's Pardon the Interruption said her name. Then she walked away from the game at the height of it, when nobody expected her to. This conversation is about what happens after the recognition stops. Kai grew up in Bolingbrook, graduated into 2020 with no senior season, talked her way into venture capital knowing nothing about it, and now runs player marketing for WNBA, MLB, and college athletes. A year ago she moved to New York and tore her Achilles in the same stretch. She went from a body that never sat still to months alone in an apartment, in a city built for people who walk everywhere. What she found in that stillness runs through the whole episode. Not an answer. A question. Who are you when the thing you performed is gone? Kai talks about protecting the integrity of her own journey, resisting the chorus of people telling her to be an agent, a manager, a broadcaster, and learning to trust her own voice over the shoulds. She shares the advice Roc Nation's Jay Brown gave her at 22 that she only understood years later: if you want something bad enough, you'll figure it out. If you are crossing over into an identity you can't name yet, this one is for you. In this episode (approximate chapters — re-sync after edit) The exit meeting. The moment a coach asked what Kai really wanted, and she felt like she was failing a test. Saying the goal out loud. Why naming "Player of the Year" felt more dangerous than chasing it. The undefeated run. Flow, a 27-point night she barely remembers, and the surreal moment friends saw her on ESPN. The decision to leave. Turning down the WNBA path to build a life beyond basketball. The Achilles and the stillness. Losing mobility, and the community that showed up. "If you have community, you can make it anywhere." Faith and journaling. The practices that emerged when the physical routine disappeared. Protecting the journey. Saying no to other people's shoulds. "I'm protecting the integrity of my journey." The athlete at the gym. Seeing herself in a young player, and becoming a trusted voice for families navigating pressure for the first time. Who are you without a basketball? The marketing and venture parallel: everyone's resume looks the same, so what makes you different is who you are. What she'd trust her younger self to find. The Jay Brown lesson, and why knowing the answer defeats the purpose of the adversity. What she values now. Community, faith, and the process itself over instant validation. Pull quotes "If you have community, you can make it anywhere." "People can want me to make pizza for the rest of my life. If I don't want to do it, I don't have to." "I'm protecting the integrity of my journey." "There's a lot on the other side of fear that people should experience." "You can't look at somebody else's journey and compare. That's theirs. It's not yours." About the guest Kai Moon leads player marketing at the Travori Agency and Saros Partners, working with WNBA players, a newly drafted MLB client, and college athletes. She started her career in venture capital, played Division I basketball, and was once the nation's leading scorer. She lives in New York. About the show Unbound: Winners for Life explores the messy middle of identity transition. Host Lori Darley spent 26 years in leadership development after a career as a professional dancer and choreographer. She coaches athletes, performing artists, founders, and leaders through the question underneath every transition: who am I now?

  7. Sep 3

    How Volleyball Taught This Athlete About Identity When Her Dream Was Shattered

    Most athletes fear losing their identity once the game is over — Jacquelyn Ortegon reveals how she transitioned from volleyball to neuroscience and mental health work, turning her biggest challenge into her greatest growth. After her promising volleyball career was cut short by the pandemic, Jacquelyn faced the raw question: Who am I without this? She shares how she navigated the emotional rollercoaster of uncertainty, discovering that her true strength lay in character, faith, and the relentless pursuit of internal stability. From touring Italy through visualization to working with homeless youth and mental health patients, her journey is a masterclass in resilience, self-awareness, and purpose. You'll discover how a deep dive into behavioral neuroscience reshaped her perspective on the mind, and why understanding money’s behavioral side is crucial for lasting wealth and generosity. We break down the power of character over accolades, the importance of leaving behind a sport identity to embrace who you truly are, and how faith anchors us in times of transition. Jacquelyn also shares practical insights for young athletes facing change, urging them to enjoy the journey, focus on character development, and trust that their real growth begins after the scoreboard stops. This episode is perfect for current and former athletes, young women eager to redefine success, and anyone seeking clarity amid upheaval. If you’ve ever wondered if your worth extends beyond your performance, this conversation will inspire you to see that the greatest victory is becoming the fullest version of yourself—regardless of the scoreboard. Jacquelyn Ortegon is a behavioral neuroscience graduate, mental health advocate, and now a community builder dedicated to empowering the next generation. Her story proves that the path to stability and purpose isn’t linear but rooted in inner growth, faith, and character. Reflections on faith, resilience, and self-identity make this episode a transformative listen for those ready to cross over from the game to the greatness within. Share this with a young athlete in transition or anyone seeking their true north—you’ll leave inspired, grounded, and equipped to handle life’s next serve..

  8. Aug 27

    Fired More Times Than He Can Count: Kevin Cone on the Transition Nobody Plans For

    Kevin Cone got cut four times in one season and never lost himself. The Georgia Tech engineer turned five-year NFL receiver walked on to a Division I team, planned his own exit from the game, and now helps young athletes cross the same bridge. A conversation about identity, preparation, and the transition nobody warns you about. Kevin Cone spent five years in the NFL and one in the CFL on the edge of the roster, the guy who was "52 or 53 depending on the day." He got released four times in a single season, lived out of a suitcase, and made the Atlanta Falcons a week before preseason during the 2011 lockout. He practiced Thursday and played Saturday. What makes his story different is what came before and after. Kevin walked on to the Georgia Tech football team as a mechanical engineering student who wanted to design Lego sets. Football was one path. It was never the only one. So when a shoulder injury and a new marriage met the writing on the wall, he left on his own terms, a choice most athletes never get. Kevin now leads student-athlete development at Georgia Tech and is finishing a doctorate in business administration. In this conversation with Lori Darley, he unpacks the preparation behind "luck," why he learned every position on the field, and the gap almost nobody addresses: athletes are never taught the real timeline of transition, so the walls close in fast. He closes with the cold-water rule and three moves for anyone crossing over right now. Give yourself grace. Get to work.

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About

A transformative deep dive into identity, reinvention, and conscious evolution. Each episode explores what it means to outgrow the roles you’ve been performing and step into the version of yourself that feels most true. We unpack the mindset shifts, personal breakthroughs, and courageous decisions required to release what no longer serves you and design a life aligned with your next highest expression.

Information

  • Creator
    Lori Darley
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    18
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Lori Darley