Diagnosed with a mood disorder at 14, psychotherapist Dr. Andrea Vassilev lost about 10 years of her life to bipolar before turning her lived experience into her life's work. She joins Success, Rewritten to talk about self-stigma, the bipolar spectrum, and why healing isn't linear.

Paul Gilmartin spent 16 years making people laugh on TBS's Dinner and a Movie while quietly living with depression and addiction. The host of The Mental Illness Happy Hour talks about recovery, childhood adversity, and what actually helps when someone you love is struggling.

Michael Filosi built a dental practice nobody wanted into one four private equity firms fought to buy. From the outside it looked like a clean success story. Then the 3am panic attacks started, and he had to ask whether the success he had built was still worth what it was taking from him.

Dr. Emily Guarnotta treats postpartum depression for a living. That did not stop it from taking her months to recognize and admit her own. She joins Success, Rewritten to talk about motherhood, mental health, and why ambition does not have to disappear when you become a parent.

Craig Smith has spent fifteen years selling to millions on live TV, but the real story is everything he had to unlearn about success to get there. From the golden handcuffs of a sales career to an awards ceremony that changed his direction, to the phone calls after his father’s death that revealed a man he never fully knew, Craig makes the case that the pivots are the whole point. His through line: build a message, and a life, that is clear, real, and repeatable.

Emily thought a packed calendar was proof she was successful, right up until a manic episode at 28 forced a pause she never would have chosen. In this solo reflection on her Pool Nation Women's Summit keynote, she unpacks why busy is not the same as balanced, why no one else will manage your output for you, and how to build a structure you can return to. The takeaway: you don't need a diagnosis or a breaking point to redefine success.

Jordan Kernen had a great childhood and no language for mental health until two traumatic events in college sent her searching for control, and found it in food and exercise. In this episode she traces the full arc, from a two year struggle and a medical crisis that nearly took her life, to three months at Rogers and the classroom she now runs on the belief that all foods fit. Her message for anyone still in it: ask for help sooner, because recovery is worth it.

After 23 years in corporate, a 2023 layoff didn’t just cost Christine Burns a job. It took the identity she’d built her whole life around. She joins Emily to talk about rebuilding from scarcity, getting clear on what you offer, and creating Lady No Kids, a community for women without children by choice, chance, or circumstance.

Ali Schwartz spent over a decade climbing the corporate ladder while writing music on the side, until she left a director role at Fortune Media to pursue music full time. In this episode she talks about running her singing career like a business, why 20 million streams did not feel like the finish line, and building community through Pop Hang NYC. An honest look at betting on yourself and redefining what success means.

Quint Boa spent 25 years keeping his production company ahead of every technology shift, from VHS to generative AI, driven (by his own admission) by anxiety more than ambition. In this episode he opens up about adopting AI without treating his people as replaceable, 12 years of sobriety, and why he’s “out and proud” about being an alcoholic. It’s an honest conversation about evolving through constant change without losing yourself.

Mikel McGee had a master’s in criminal justice, a stable nonprofit job, and no plan to become a florist. On Success, Rewritten, the founder of Milwaukee’s 414loral traces the pivot from human-services work to a Bronzeville flower shop, and how she stopped measuring success in dollars.

J Johnson Jr was the number one ranked track athlete in the country before an ADHD diagnosis sent him looking for an alternative and, eventually, to sound. This is the story of how a skeptical experiment with a frequency video became High Frequency Highway, and how J's definition of success shifted from making money to raising the frequency of the planet.

Most of us freeze up around the topic of suicide because we don't know what to say. Jay Laughrey and Charlotte Maya, who each lost someone to suicide, walk through the practical stuff everyone should know: what to say to someone who is struggling, how to ask directly, what actually helps a grieving family, and why 988 belongs in your phone.

When Charlotte Maya's husband died by suicide in 2007, she was terrified she'd be ostracized by her community. Instead, honesty drew people closer. She joins Success, Rewritten to talk about grief, suicide literacy, and rebuilding a life she never expected.

Jay Laughrey built a thriving pool business, but the road there started with losing his brother and mentor, Jeff, to suicide in 2009. In this episode, Jay talks about grief, men's mental health, and what it actually takes to rebuild after the unthinkable.

I didn't build the habits because I'm disciplined. I built them because I had no other option. In 2018, a manic episode turned into psychosis, and when I came back to work three months later, I had to rebuild everything. Here's what that rebuild looks like — and what it still looks like when life breaks the routine.

Gabe Howard thought about suicide every day for years — and genuinely believed that was just how everyone felt. The mental health speaker and author of Mental Illness Is an Asshole and Other Observations joins Success, Rewritten to talk about what bipolar disorder actually feels like from the inside, why "beating" it is the wrong goal, and what it means to ask about suicide directly.

Mignon Francois started The Cupcake Collection on her last $5. She bought supplies for cupcakes instead of dinner for her family. Eighteen years later, the business has sold over five million cupcakes and crossed $10 million in revenue. On Episode 14 of Success, Rewritten, she talks about what failure actually taught her, why she fires employees who play it safe, and why the favor was in her house all along.

Amy Morin lost her husband at 26. She got three days of bereavement leave. Then she wrote a letter to herself — a list of what not to do — that 50 million people ended up needing. On this episode of Success, Rewritten, she talks about grief, mental strength, and why the two are not the same thing.

On April 2nd, 2025, Alex P. Taylor sent his cookbook proposal to ten publishers. He heard back in a week. On this week's episode of Success, Rewritten, the Nacho King of Connecticut talks mandatory pivoting, the deal with Quarto Books US, and why success and struggle are always neighbors.