Living Your Legacy

After spending more than a decade in the high-pressure world of cardiac surgery, Lauren Velkoff appears to have built the life she was supposed to want. She follows the rules, checks every box, and rises through one of the most demanding careers in healthcare. Yet beneath the success, something feels missing.
In this powerful conversation, Lauren reflects on resilience, reinvention, leadership, and the courage required to step beyond expectations. From navigating life inside operating rooms to launching Lanna Beauty Bar, coaching others through transformation, and creating a new vision for her future, she shares the mindset shifts that changed everything.
Along the way, Lauren explores what it means to trust yourself, embrace uncertainty, and keep moving forward when the path ahead is unclear. For entrepreneurs, healthcare professionals, and anyone facing a major life transition, this episode offers a raw look at growth, self-discovery, and the resilience required to build a legacy that is truly your own.
Key Takeaways
Resilience is a skill that can be developed through intentional action.
Growth happens when you choose progress over safety and comfort.
Major career success does not always equal personal fulfillment.
Self-discovery often begins when you stop living by other people's expectations.
Leadership starts with treating people with respect, empathy, and integrity.

Notable Quotes
"I am my own driving force when it comes to that. I built the resilience."
"I continue to challenge it in many ways just to see how close I get to falling on my face and getting back up."
"Once you get so far out there, there is no going back to shore."
"I'm not deep enough, but I can't see the shoreline."
"Treat others as you want to be treated."

What happens when a professional athlete walks away from the dream she spent years chasing and starts over in an industry where she has no experience, no roadmap, and no guarantees?
In this episode of Living Your Legacy, Kristin Silvestri shares the defining moments that shaped her journey from professional soccer player to fashion entrepreneur, clothing designer, and owner of The Collective Park City. She opens up about taking bold leaps into the unknown, moving to Los Angeles without a plan, building a fashion brand from scratch, showing at New York Fashion Week, and navigating the uncertainty of launching a retail business during COVID-19.
Through stories of resilience, creativity, leadership, and community building, Kristin reveals why success often comes from saying yes before you feel ready. This conversation explores entrepreneurship, fashion design, women's leadership, personal growth, and the mindset required to create a business and life that truly reflect who you are.
Key Takeaways
Fear is often a signal that growth is on the other side.
You do not need all the answers before taking action.
Building a business requires resilience, adaptability, and creativity.
Fashion can be a powerful tool for confidence and self-expression.
Great leaders create environments where their teams can thrive.

Notable Quotes
"Feeling that fear and just going after it."
"Just saying yes without having all the answers."
"Fashion is the armor to survive the realities of everyday life."
"You have to leap towards those big bad audacious things."
"The dream and drive must be there."

Alexia Ramos/Reichel grows up being told she will become another statistic.
Raised in the foster care system, surrounded by abuse, neglect, homelessness, trafficking, and constant adversity, the odds are stacked against her from the beginning. Yet instead of accepting the future others predict for her, she makes a different decision.
In this emotional episode of Living Your Legacy, Alexia shares how education, resilience, entrepreneurship, and an unbreakable belief in herself help her transform pain into purpose. From earning licenses in real estate and cosmetology to building Diamond Redd Artistry LLC, she reveals how every setback became fuel for growth.
Along the way, she discusses breaking generational curses, overcoming self-doubt, investing in personal development, building a business as a single mother, and creating opportunities for other aspiring entrepreneurs. This is a powerful conversation about survival, self-worth, entrepreneurship, and the mindset required to rewrite your future when the world has already written you off.
Key Takeaways
Your past does not determine your future.
Education is one of the most powerful tools for changing your life.
Entrepreneurship can become a pathway to freedom and healing.
Breaking generational curses starts with personal responsibility.
Every setback can become fuel for future success.

Notable Quotes
"We're not following statistics. We're breaking those."
"I want to break generational curses."
"Believe in yourself. Say positive affirmations to yourself daily."
"Every day there's a chance to learn."
"Never give up and always invest in yourself."

What happens when the business you never planned to join becomes the one you're called to protect?
In this episode of Living Your Legacy, Cheri Martinen, owner of Bancorp Insurance, shares the journey from running a successful marketing company to stepping into a family business that spans multiple generations. She opens up about entrepreneurship, leadership, company culture, and the responsibility that comes with carrying forward a legacy built by her father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. Along the way, she challenges common misconceptions about insurance, explains why financial education matters, and reveals how putting people first has shaped both her business and her mission. From sales and customer service to community impact and long-term business growth, this conversation delivers practical lessons for entrepreneurs looking to build something that lasts.
Key Takeaways
Why understanding insurance as a financial product changes everything.
How a strong company culture leads to better customer experiences.
The role sales skills play in entrepreneurial success.
What motivated Cheri to take over her family's insurance agency.
Why education and trust are critical in building long-term client relationships.

Notable Quotes
"Insurance is a financial product."
"People aren't educated on the insurance product, so you don't know what you're buying."
"My staff is extremely important to me in taking care of them so that they can take care of our customers."
"Ideally, they never use my product."
"If it's a brand new business, man, you got to sell stuff."

When Katya Borisova leaves Bulgaria for the United States, she carries little more than ambition, determination, and the belief that there has to be more waiting on the other side of uncertainty.
Without speaking the language and struggling to find her place in a completely unfamiliar culture, she faces the loneliness, self-doubt, and fear that many immigrants know all too well. But instead of allowing those obstacles to define her future, she begins following opportunities wherever they appear.
In this episode of Living Your Legacy, Katya shares how trusting her intuition led her from corporate leadership into entrepreneurship, real estate investing, appraisal services, and even founding a Bulgarian school to preserve culture for future generations. She reveals the lessons she learned about resilience, identity, community, and why some of life's biggest breakthroughs happen when you say yes before you're fully ready.
This is a conversation about courage, reinvention, and the power of taking the next step when you cannot yet see the entire path.
Key Takeaways
• Trust opportunities that appear before the full picture becomes clear.
• Self-belief is often built through action, not confidence.
• Preserving culture can become a powerful form of leadership.
• Entrepreneurship begins by solving problems that matter personally.
• Legacy is built through the people you inspire along the way.
Notable Quotes
• "If something shows up and feels like a stepping stone, you step on it and keep moving."
• "I learned to trust my intuition."
• "If she can do it, I can do it too."
• "You're not good enough. You better tone it down."
• "If I can inspire one person, that's enough."