Notes from the Edge

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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

  1. 20h ago

    The Money Monster Within: Managing Yourself Before You Manage Your Money | Part 2 with Doug Lynam

    What if your biggest financial obstacle isn’t your money, but the unconscious patterns controlling your decisions?Financial advisor, former monk, and bestselling author Doug Lynam returns to Notes From the Edge for a live Enneagram case study with Lisa Lacy, exploring how personality, trauma, fear, and identity shape our relationship with money.In this episode:Why financial stress activates survival instincts and unconscious emotional patterns.How the nine Enneagram personality types influence spending, saving, control, and financial decisions.A live examination of Lisa’s Type 8 personality, including power, boundaries, anger, and the fear of being controlled.How Type 8 and Type 5 personality patterns affect relationships, communication, and financial behavior.How self-awareness, compassion, and intentional choices can transform destructive money patterns into healthier financial habits.Missed Part 1?The Wealth We Can’t Spend: From Marine to Monk to Money Manager with Douglas Lynam.Find it on Apple Podcasts:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/notes-from-the-edge/id1896943121Connect with Doug Lynam:https://www.douglynam.comConnect with Lisa Lacy | INSIDE THE EDGE Membership:https://www.lisalacy.com/inside-the-edgeWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

    The Money Monster Within: Managing Yourself Before You Manage Your Money | Part 2 with Doug Lynam
  2. 1d ago

    What If One Bed Could Change Everything? Purpose Driven Leadership with Luke Mickelson

    What happens when the life you’ve worked so hard to build no longer feels like the life you’re meant to live?In this episode of Notes From the Edge, host Lisa Lacy sits down with Luke Mickelson, founder of Sleep in Heavenly Peace, to explore purpose-driven leadership, community service, personal identity, vulnerability, and how one small act of kindness can grow into a movement that changes hundreds of thousands of lives.Luke had everything he thought success was supposed to look like. A six-figure career, financial stability, a family, and a comfortable life. But something was missing.Then a simple project to build a bunk bed for children sleeping on the floor changed everything.Luke shares the unforgettable story of Haley, a six-year-old girl who had been sleeping on her school clothes because she didn’t have a bed. When she received her very first bed, she wrapped her arms around it and kissed it.That moment transformed Luke’s understanding of success, service, and what it means to make a difference.What began as a small community project became Sleep in Heavenly Peace, an international nonprofit dedicated to ensuring that no child has to sleep on the floor.But this conversation goes far beyond building beds.Lisa and Luke explore the loneliness that can exist behind professional success, the unexpected fulfillment that comes from helping others, and the personal cost of believing that leadership means always having the answers.Luke also opens up about letting go of pride, ego, and the identity he spent years performing, discovering that vulnerability may be one of the greatest strengths a leader can develop.In this episode:Success vs. Fulfillment: Why achieving everything society calls success can still leave us questioning our purpose.One Bed, Thousands of Lives: How Haley’s story helped ignite a community movement addressing childhood bedlessness.The Five Steps to Finding Purpose: Luke’s approach to meaningful action: see it, feel it, act on it, repeat it, and share it.Community Service and Human Connection: How volunteering creates belonging, shifts our perspective, and reminds us that we’re not meant to navigate life alone.Leadership, Identity, and Vulnerability: Why letting go of the need to be strong, have every answer, and perform for others can be profoundly freeing. This is a conversation about ordinary people doing extraordinary things, not because they have all the resources or answers, but because they decide to act.And perhaps the most powerful reminder is that you don’t have to change the entire world to change someone’s world. Connect with Luke MickelsonLearn about Sleep in Heavenly Peace, find a local chapter, volunteer to build or deliver beds, donate, or start a chapter in your community.https://shpbeds.org/ Connect with Lisa | INSIDE THE EDGEGo beyond the public conversations with exclusive solo episodes, deeper discussions, and monthly live experiences.https://www.lisalacy.com/inside-the-edgeWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

    What If One Bed Could Change Everything? Purpose Driven Leadership with Luke Mickelson
  3. 3d ago

    Edge Note: What if the thing destroying your peace is control?

    In this Edge Note solo episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy gets personal about Bipolar I, trauma, uncertainty, and the exhausting need to control outcomes when your nervous system learned early that powerlessness could be dangerous.This is not another “just let it go” conversation. Lisa explores what control actually looks like when you live with mental illness, why uncertainty can feel threatening even when you are clinically supported and properly medicated, and how to separate what requires action from what simply requires us to tolerate not knowing yet.In this episode:Why trauma and mental illness can make uncertainty feel like dangerThe difference between taking responsible action and trying to control an outcomeHow hypervigilance can disguise itself as preparation, responsibility, and problem-solvingHow to separate facts from catastrophic predictions when your mind is activatedPractical tools for grounding, shrinking time, regulating your body, and deciding what actually needs your attention right now If you have ever done everything you could and still found yourself obsessing over what happens next, this conversation is for you.The goal is not to stop caring about outcomes.It is to trust yourself enough to know that you can survive the uncertainty between action and outcome. Connect with Lisa Lacy Inside the Edge:https://www.lisalacy.com/inside-the-edgeWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

    Edge Note: What if the thing destroying your peace is control?
  4. 4d ago

    Edge Note: What if your mind understands the trauma, but your body is still surviving it?

    You can understand your patterns. You can know where they came from. You can spend years learning the language of trauma and healing, and still find your body reacting as if the danger never ended.In this Edge Note episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with registered somatic movement therapist and educator Katy Slany for a conversation about somatic therapy, nervous system regulation, embodied healing, and why insight alone does not always create lasting change.Katy explains why trauma is a whole-body experience, what people actually mean when they talk about “regulating the nervous system,” and how learning to tolerate and understand our physical sensations can change the way we respond to anxiety, fear, relationships, and the world around us. She also shares her own healing journey and how survival, illness, isolation, and the fear of connection became deeply intertwined.This conversation is ultimately about something bigger than regulation. It is about recovering choice, autonomy, and the ability to listen to the wisdom of your own body. In this episode:• Why understanding trauma intellectually may not change the body’s response• What nervous system regulation actually means and why it is often oversimplified• How somatic work can help us reconnect with sensations we have learned to avoid• Why healing is not a destination, but a changing relationship with our experiences• How inherited beliefs, survival patterns, and conditioning can disconnect us from our autonomy and power Connect with Katy Slany:Katy Slany | Transformative Somatic Education Connect with Lisa Lacy Inside the Edge:https://www.lisalacy.com/inside-the-edge What did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

    Edge Note: What if your mind understands the trauma, but your body is still surviving it?
  5. 4d ago

    What if it's still not enough? Achievement Addiction, Human Performance & Finding Meaning with Dr. Jack Groppel

    What happens when you achieve everything you thought you wanted and discover it still doesn’t feel like enough?Dr. Jack Groppel is a pioneering sports scientist and co-founder of the Human Performance Institute whose work reveals a powerful truth: peak performance and a meaningful life are not necessarily the same thing.In this conversation, Jack and Lisa explore how achievement can become addictive, why our need for approval can hide underneath ambition, and what decades of studying elite human performance taught him about energy, recovery, and fulfillment. Jack also shares how adopting his son and climbing Mount Kilimanjaro together ultimately forced him to reconsider his definitions of strength, fatherhood, success, and what matters most. In this episode:Human performance and sports scienceAchievement addiction and overachievementThe need for approval and people pleasingBurnout, energy management, and recoveryFatherhood and adoptionLeadership and high performancePurpose, meaning, and fulfillmentMount Kilimanjaro and Mountains WithinRedefining success  Learn more about Dr. Jack Groppel and Mountains Within:https://jackgroppel.net Explore more from Lisa Lacy Inside the Edge:Inside The Edge — Lisa Lacy What did you perform in order to survive? Welcome to the Edge.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

    What if it's still not enough? Achievement Addiction, Human Performance & Finding Meaning with Dr. Jack Groppel
  6. 5d ago

    What If Pushing Through Is the Problem? Burnout, Autoimmunity & Healing with Kristen Renee Appleby

    What happens when the thing that made you successful, your ability to push through, perform, achieve, and keep going, becomes the very thing your body can no longer sustain?In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with author, transformational coach, and founder of The Rebuild Collective, Kristen Renee Appleby, for a conversation about burnout, autoimmune illness, the mind-body connection, and what it really means to rebuild your life from the foundation up.Kristen spent years searching for answers while navigating autoimmune illness, chronic inflammation, demanding work, financial stress, emotional suppression, and the expectation that she should simply keep functioning. Eventually, she began questioning whether all of those pieces were actually separate.We talk about what happens when achievement becomes intertwined with survival, why changing a protocol without changing the environment may not be enough, and how our relationships with work, money, emotions, purpose, and ourselves can influence the way we experience our lives.This conversation isn’t about abandoning ambition. It’s about asking whether the life you’re building actually has a foundation strong enough to hold it. In this episode:• How burnout and high-achiever survival patterns can hide behind capability and success• Autoimmune illness, chronic inflammation, emotional suppression, and the mind-body connection• Workplace stress, unhealthy environments, and what happens when pushing through stops working• Financial stress, money wounds, limiting beliefs, and the connection between physical and financial wellness• Kristen’s Healthy Foundation approach to rebuilding self-trust, authenticity, purpose, and a life that doesn’t require abandoning ambition Connect with Kristen Renee Appleby:https://www.kristenreneerebuilding.com Connect with Lisa | Inside the Edge:https://www.lisalacy.com/inside-the-edgeWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

    What If Pushing Through Is the Problem? Burnout, Autoimmunity & Healing with Kristen Renee Appleby
  7. 6d ago

    What If Being Capable Doesn’t Mean You’re Okay? Chronic Illness & Survival with Jenna Schutt

    What happens when the strength everyone sees is actually survival mode?Jenna Schutt, former cardiac registered nurse and stem cell transplant survivor, joins Lisa Lacy for a deeply human conversation about chronic illness, faith, fear, motherhood, and what happens when being incredibly capable convinces everyone around you that you must be okay.Diagnosed with a rare, incurable disease at 30 while raising two children still in diapers, Jenna endured ten rounds of chemotherapy, serious medical complications, a stem cell transplant, and ongoing graft-versus-host disease. But this conversation goes beyond what happened medically. Jenna and Lisa explore the identity shift from nurse to patient, grieving the life you thought you would have, learning to listen to your body, and recognizing when strength has become a performance.In this episode:Chronic illness and survival modePerforming strength while struggling internallyFear, faith and emotional resilienceMotherhood during a medical crisisGrief, identity and uncertainty after diagnosisStem cell transplant and graft-versus-host diseaseWhy being capable does not mean being okayLearning that rest is medicineThe Joy Reflex and retraining your response to fear Connect with Jenna Schutt:https://www.jennaschutt.com/ Connect with Lisa Lacy Inside the Edge:https://www.lisalacy.com/inside-the-edge What did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

    What If Being Capable Doesn’t Mean You’re Okay? Chronic Illness & Survival with Jenna Schutt
  8. Oct 7

    SPECIAL EDITION: Mental Health Awareness Week | The Psychotic Trifecta

    What happens when your mind creates a reality so convincing that everyone else can tell you it isn’t real, and you still know what you saw, heard, felt, and lived?In this Special Edition of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy opens up about living with Bipolar I Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder, and Complex PTSD, including what psychosis actually felt like from inside of it.“The Psychotic Trifecta” is Lisa’s personal description of the collision of these conditions, not a clinical term. Bipolar I can include psychosis, while BPD and CPTSD can involve dissociation, hypervigilance, emotional dysregulation, and disturbances in how we experience ourselves and other people.This is not a clinical lecture.This is what it feels like to live it.Lisa also talks candidly about spending much of her life running on mania, why mania can masquerade as extraordinary productivity, and what happened when menopause brought a kind of depression she had never experienced before.In this Special Edition:• What Bipolar I mania and psychosis can actually feel like from the inside• Why Bipolar I and Borderline Personality Disorder are often confused, but are fundamentally different• How CPTSD, hypervigilance, dissociation, and trauma responses can overlap with both• Why being highly functional does not necessarily mean someone is mentally well• What Lisa has learned about reality-checking, treatment, self-awareness, and recognizing when her own mind may not be a reliable narratorMental illness does not remove intelligence.Psychosis does not make someone stupid.Trauma does not make someone weak.And a diagnosis does not erase the human being living underneath it.Connect with Lisa Inside the Edge:https://www.lisalacy.com/inside-the-edgeWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

    SPECIAL EDITION: Mental Health Awareness Week | The Psychotic Trifecta

About

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