This transcript was not generated with AI.
Copyright 2025 by Redemptive Solutions LLC. All rights reserved.
www.coachingwithjanel.com
Janel voiceover: Hello! I am so excited to introduce you to my daughters today. But before I do, I wanna give you a little background and let you know that todayâs podcast was actually recorded January of 2024. Weâve had some delays and starts and fits, but youâll find out more about that in the episode. So when we talk about dates like three years, itâs actually four. I just want to give you that little heads-up so things make a little bit more sense. Welcome.
Janel voiceover: [music] Welcome to Transform Your Story. Iâm Janel Guevara. My clients call me their fairy godmother, but actually, Iâm a life coach with a love of words and the women who use them.
Janel voiceover: Join me and my daughters as we have honest conversations about writing, life, and redeeming Happily Ever After in the shadows of the stories we never expected to tell. We recount our experiences as a way to help you see yours in a new light.
Janel voiceover: From content creation to defining your audience and niche, we break down the process into simple steps with practical application. That allows us to nurture hope from ashes, so you can too. Letâs transform your story. [music ends]
Janel: I think this is like the twelfth time we've recorded our first podcast. What are we gonna talk about today gals?
Melinda: Oh, you never know.
Janel: [laughs] Alright. Hey, welcome to transform your story. Iâm Janel Guevara and Iâm here with my daughters Melindaâ
Melinda: Hi
Janel: Arianaâ
Ariana: Hi
Janel: [laughs] Oh my gosh. Like we said, we've been trying to put out this podcast for about three years now, and what I realizedâwhat we all realized, is that three years ago we really had no idea what our message was. And I am so excited to be here today doing this again.
Janel: That sounded so good In my head. Ummâ
Melinda: What's the question?
Janel: Well, you know, one of the things that has stopped us in the podcast is, at least for me, I feel like [pause] All my life I felt like I've had to have the answers, and I think that's part of what's driven me to transform my story, to write, to edit, to everything that I've ever been passionate about is like I felt like I couldn't do the next thing until I understood it all.
Janel: And it's really frustrating because I know they talk about it in the coaching spaces and the business circles it's like âjust do it.â You know, sometimes it's not that easy because the thing that you want to do, you just don't know how. When you have a story like mine and Anaâs and Melindaâs, it's like you can just fight in the dark and be like there's something and I know it's here and I know it's this direction and I know it's over there and I know it's kind of like this, but then when you actually start digging around in the details, none of it makes sense.
Janel: I think where Iâve landed is, if you don't know your story, you can't tell your story. And that's part of the not knowing. And as I sit here today and I want to share the podcast, Iâm like, I still don't have all the answers. I know a huge chunk of my story, and I know how I got here, and I know what it takes to get here, but to actually sit down and go âThis is what you need to do. You need to take step A and step B and step Câ and then do them sequentially, and then add a little bit ofâ
Ariana: Crying
Janel: Crying [laugh] and laughter, laughter and crying. So much crying. Until you actually put it together. And I feel like that's my story. I feel like maybe Melinda's done a little bit of that too.
Melinda: Oh, the terrified hesitation and perfectionism? Yeah, been there.
Janel: [laugh]
Melinda: Live there.
Janel: Live there. Yeah.
Melinda: Iâm so bad that if I don't think I could do something perfectly to a level that I would actually approve of, I won't even do it.
Janel: Yeahâ
Melinda: It's so bad I won't even try. I'll be like, there's no way I'm capable of what I would want to be capable of for that project, so like no. I'm not just gonna disappoint myself. Iâm gonna move on and do something I can actually do.
Janel: Rightâ
Melinda: Which is probably much less important or significant. But I feel better.
Janel: See, that's the problem, you don't. Because when you have this drive in your heart to do something, it's like trying to convince yourself that you really really love the color purple when you know green is really your favorite color. And it's like trying to convince yourself that you want something that you don't. But that's part of the story. That's like so much part of the story.
Janel: Ana and I were talking last night and we were talking about recording and, you know, recording today and all of this. And she said to me, she's like, we talk about this, like âyou can't tell your story unless you know your story.â She said something very profound in a very profound way, that it was like, Oh my God, why can't we just do it that way?
Ariana: [laugh] [inaudible] a reenactment! [laughter]
Janel: Anaâs like, âOh my God what did I say?â Essentially, she really didnât say much, but how she said it just made it click. And it's like, you know, let's just get on here and talk about our process and let's brainstorm it. And I don't have all the answers to help you tell your story. I'm still rooting around in details of my own. The difference is, I know the big pieces. And those big pieces? My God, they make so much difference. They just make all the difference because it'sâ
Ariana: You could spend your life rooting around in the details.
Janel: You can find yourself rooting around in the details. And honestly, for the first 45 years of my life, that's what I did, because I saw this kind of abusive in this area of my life. I saw this kind of abusive in this area of my life. I saw the impact of this other thing in my life and I saw this and I saw that and I saw all of these little pieces and I stood there and Iâm like they were disjointed events and none of it made any sense. Andâ
Melinda: Itâs like a puzzle.
Janel: oh it isâ
Melinda: But all the pieces are just scattered all over the table and you donât have a picture to go off of and youâre just sitting there, you know, âcause somebody put a different picture on top of that picture, and theyâre telling you that this is the picture youâre making. Really the picture underneath is completely different. And so thereâs all these scattered pieces and itâs like, I donât know, how big these puzzles get? Thousand pieces? I feel like there are probably even more. But like, lots of pieces puzzle teeny tiny pieces and youâre trying to like, put the colors together, and put things in the right place and you won't because the picture on top isnât the right one because it's something, like someone else convinced you of or even you convince yourself of it, masking from neurodivergence or whatever. You have the puzzle and you have all the pieces but you have the wrong picture to go off of, and they're all over the place and thereâs a lot of them, and itâs overwhelming.
Melinda: Sure sometimes you can string a few together. But if you put them on the upper right-hand corner of the puzzle rather than the bottom left, still not gonna work or fit.
Janel: Oh absolutely. Iâve been talking about puzzle pieces. You know, part of me hates doing puzzles. Ana loves puzzles.
Ariana: Theyâre wonderful.
Janel: Yeah, she'll sit down and do a 500-piece puzzle and justâ
Ariana: They make my autism happy.
Janel: [laugh]
Melinda: I am in the middle with puzzles. I can only go up to like a certain number of pieces or I get overwhelmed and will not do it and even then Iâll probably get bored in the middle.
Janel: ohh I was flipping through social media the other day and I came across a video of this person putting together a 40,000 piece puzzle and Iâm like Oh myâ
Melinda: See thatâs the one. Thatâs the number I needed two minutes ago where were you?
Janel: Well, I mean, most puzzles for kids have like you know 10 or 12 pieces and they're giant you know
Ariana: 50 pieces
Janel: or 50 pieces
Ariana: I have a minions puzzle that has like 25 pieces? Something like that. Itâs wonderful.
Janel: I mean a lot of adult puzzles are between 500 and 1000. So there you go, there's your answer. But the stories of our lives are more like 40,000-piece puzzles. Especially if we've lived through hell or gone on this journey of like, âI don't understand why this happened and that happened and there's another that happened and another thing that happened.â Itâs likeâ
Melinda: It's like any kind of color representation on the puzzle. There's a lot of dark spots that that are gonna be hard to place.
Janel: You know what? At some point, I realized, in the movie The Accountant, Ben Affleck plays an autistic man and one of the scenes that flashes back to his childhood is he's putting together this puzzle, and he freaks out because he can't find the last piece. But if you actually look at the puzzle, he was putting the puzzle together from the backside with no picture.
Ariana: Upside down.
Janel: Upside down. Right. And so the picture was actuallyâthey had it on a glass table and the picture was actually underneathâso he's trying to put this puzzle together with no picture on it just by the shape of the piece and I'm like, Oh my God, I feel like that's so much with my life.
Janel: Honestly up until about two years ago when Melindaâs daughter EJ was diagnosed with a medical condition and Melinda went trying to find research to help her, that she started poking around in the dark and said hey what do you think about this. She ended up turning up videos on Autism and neurodivergence and ADHD and she's like hey we've got these symptoms. And it's like, Oh my God, we're on the neurodivergence spectrum. But of course it took us about a year going, Oh my God is this really us? And so for the last year we've been going, yeah, we totally have the âtism.
Janel: And thatâs just changed our life. But in the process, we've also been looking for these pieces to go wait a minute, what isn't working in my life? How does this fit in? Where does this fit in? WhereâAnd then Shiny Happy People came out in June talking about the Duggars. Gothardâs doctrines and how abusive those doctrines were. And having grown up in conservative Christianity and then listening to those doctrines and knowing the life story and the situation that I have lived, it was like Oh my God, I have been abused in the name of Jesus.
Janel: And when I put that last puzzle piece together with all of the other disjointed stories, something in my life just clicked and it was like, Oh my God, I can breathe.
Janel: Part of transforming your story is knowing your story, so we don't have any profound takeaways. I mean, I definitely know what I did to get here and I've organized it into a program that works with others. But the actual rooting around in your story? You just have to do it. But the thing is if you have a direction to know to look, it makes it so much easier.
Janel: Since y'all don't really know us, we thought that we would share some of the pieces of our story to open up and say âhi,â and âThis Is Us,â and âthis is where we come from.â And if you resonate with these pieces of our story? Well, maybe we have some answers for you. Maybe not answers for you, but the answers that make you go âhmm, oh my goodness. Well, look at that. Maybe this is me too. So. [sigh]
Ariana: She was on a roll until she looked at my face and I was thinking [inaudible] [laughter]
Janel: [inaudible] So. Who wants to tell some pieces of their story?
Ariana: I feel like weâre like the different stages of this advice. Momâs like, really far along telling her story. She knows most of what's going on. Melinda's like, pretty far along she's killing it but she's kind of like, not quite there yet.
Melinda: She got down the road, but she's stuck and trying to get unstuck.
Ariana: Yes. And Iâmâ
Melinda: She followed part of the yellow brick road. She just didnât make it to Emerald City yet.
Ariana: Yeah you got lost in the trees throwing applesâ
Melinda: Yeah Iâm still getting pelted by apple trees for taking an apple. Thatâs where Iâm at.
Janel: [laugh] [spits water] Donât drink water while your daughters are talking. Crack you up. Um. Yeah and thenâ
Ariana: Then thereâs me [laugh].
Janel: Yeah, you feel like youâre just like, oh my god.
Melinda: Anaâs staring at the witch feet under the house going what theâ
Jane: [laugh] Yes those are shoes sticking out from under the houseâ
Melinda: They're on her feet now she's like, âOh, I did not want to take part in this journey at all. Nuh-uh take âem back. Take âem back!â
Ariana: Please can I go barefoot?
Janel: Can you go barefoot [laugh]
Melinda: Youâre like âI wanna get out of this.â Oh, howâs that go? Think of home? Thereâs no place like home, thereâs no place like home. Sheâs trying.
Janel: Yeah. Oh my gosh. But you know what, I'd rather be in Oz and know that I'm in Oz instead of bumping around in the forest and going, Oh my God, where am I?
Ariana: And the trees throwing applesâ
Melinda: Apples hurt.
Janel: [laugh] But you know it is one of those things. And honestly some of these pieces that we have put together, you know, we're not in Kansas anymore and, you know, I feel like that's a big thing because we've been trying to relate to the world and the surroundings like we're in Kansas. But then you wake up one day and you realize youâve been in Oz this whole time and it's like damn it, I want my ruby slippers.
[15:15] Melinda: Yeah. Get me outta here. Whereâs the hot air balloon?
Janel: I know.
Melinda: Whereâs that big pink lady?
Janel: I always wondered, about 10 years ago, when I got to go to the Smithsonian and actually see Dorothy's slippersâOh may have been 15 years by nowâ
Ariana: It was it was a while ago.
Janel: It was a while ago. Ana was really little. So it was probably about 15 years ago. I remember being so enamored by Dorothy's ruby slippers on display at the Smithsonian. And I'm going Oh my God, all my life Iâve been living in Oz and I just need the Ruby Slippers.
[inaudible] Speaker: Who knew?
Janel: Who knew? But I mean that's part of the story. I thinkâ
Melinda: Um, you guys. I just realized at the end of this conversation that my middle name is Dorothy. [laughter]
Ariana: Nice.
Janel: She came with it. For thoseâ
Melinda: Yeah, I was born into it.
Janel: Yeah, we joke about when Melinda says stuff thatâs a little bit eh, like Thor says of Loki âsheâs adopted.â
Janel: Melinda came into my life a little over 15 years ago. Essentially, her mother dropped her off at my door and said âI don't know what to do with her. Do something with her,â and I said, OK, and Melinda's been in my life ever since. One of the first projects we didâtalking about fantasy and living in an alternate realityâis we created the Taylor Swift Love Story dress. Our mutual love of fashion bonded us and just opened a door to our relationship to grow.
Jane: You know, it's funny howâwell, Melinda and Ana are both huge huge huge fiction readers. They love the same kind of fantasy and romanceâ
Ariana: Kind ofâ
Janel: Kind of, well yeah.
Melinda: Kind of. Anaâs still on the PG level. Whereas I'm a little higher on the scale. Butâ
Janel: Yeah theyâll argue aboutâ
Melinda: âsame idea.
Janel: Mm-hmm. And so they have a lot in common but I'm the oddball out. I am the nonfiction writer. I've always written nonfiction. I feel like part of thatâs because, you know, my life has been stranger than fiction. Yeah, it's been stranger than fiction. Sometimes there are no words and I just sit here grasping because it's like, how do you explain the insanity that you live in to people who have zero reference point or very little reference point? Because here's what I figured out a while ago, it's bad enough when somebody lives in an abusive situation, you have all of everything that goes with it. But then when you have generational trauma that it brings a whole layer of stuff and I mean honestlyâ
Melinda: Oh my God! The generational trauma on top of everything else, it's like when you're trying to do that puzzle we talked about with a bunch of pieces and then there's a different picture of the box because *they* gave you the top of the box with different puzzle and it's only 750 pieces. But youâre sitting there looking at thousands of pieces, and they're like, âWhat's taking you so long, it's only 750 pieces?â
Janel: Yesâ
Melinda: But it's not. Itâs not.
Janel: Absolutely.
Melinda: They lied to you.
Janel: [laughs] They did. And thatâs where I started out. I mean, my family story, and it is generational. Generational trauma. You know, my momâs mom, my grandmother, had a nervous breakdown when my mom was 18 months old and they took her and put her in a mental institute. This was back in the early 1940s. It was years later that my mom found out from the cousins that her family put her in the mental institution and told everybody that she died. And that right there just [inaudible] and reverberates. But my mom and her sister finally dug through all of the stuff that was going on, talked to other people, and finally worked through the circumstances and figured out what happened that actually put her in the mental institute in the first place. My grandfather was having an affair. My grandmother was so distraught over it, because she loved him, that she's like no. She left him, and then in her distress her family was like, âwe don't wanna deal with thisâ and put her in a mental institute and took the kids from her and raised the kids. And my mother got raised in such a horrible situation by people who didn't even love her and loved them. And it's just like, Oh my God, the trauma of that is just unreal.
Janel: And so, I started back when I was 16, 17, and 18, I knew that this was part of my story. And so I started from a place of generational trauma so I presumed for years, I mean, decades, you know, like a decade and a half, that the stuff that I was experiencing that I didn't understand was simply generational trauma. You know, I knew that certain thingsâI intuitively knew, even as a teenager, that this stuff affected people because, you know, you can't watch something unfold and not have insecurities from it. And, I mean, I knew just naturally that the grief of losing your mother, and then when they finally got my grandmother out of the mental institute when my mom was 21, my mom was like âlisten I'm taking her out and bringing her home I'll take responsibility for her.â She died of uterine cancer because she was âcrazyâ and said âI have something wrong,â and they didn't believe her. When they finally were able to palpate the tumor that was the size of a four-month pregnancy they went in and operated and found out it was really bad. It was malignant and she died two weeks later. So that is part of my legacy.
Janel: So when you started out with something that significant you just know it can't not affect who you are and how you view the world and I was determined to, you know, do better. But then, you know, I thought âOh, all I have to do is find a good Christian man and raise some babies, and take them to church, and sing Jesus Loves You, and teach them about God,â and things would be OK. But it wasn't, and that's a whole whole whole other layer.
Janel: But yeah, so you have the generational trauma and some people see it in their life. Yeah it can't not affect you. But then when you don't realize that you go to school when you're five and the social dynamics and things like that are hard, and you realize that you've been autistic all your life and that's why nothing in school made sense, that's why the social dynamics didn't make sense, that's why school was so hard. I mean when you have A's and B's and you're super smart, people overlook you. âOh, social skills? Well, she's just awkwardâ and it's like âNo! I'm not just awkward thanks. I'm autistic.â
Melinda: [inaudible] Toe walks
Janel: [laugh] I know. Let's go to the doctor and have the doctor yell at you because you walk on your toes and tell you âstop walking on your toes.â And it's like, you know, I look back, and my life has just been a train wreck and one of the words I've always gravitated towards is âcrazy.â I mean I've always used that and when you start digging into trauma recovery and family dynamics and, Oh my God, everything that goes into it. I don't know I've lost count at this point of how many books I have read on trauma and oh God, all of it. And when youâ
Ariana: Like 7 bookshelves worth.
Janel: Thereâs like 7 bookshelves worth. [laugh] It was about a year and a half ago when I looked at my bookshelves and I'm like, Oh my God. Yeah, when I saw the etiquette books, the how to say it, and the personality, and temperament, and enneagram types, I'm looking at this bookshelf and I start laughing because, Oh my God, what screams neurodivergence? Normal people don't need 30 books on how to say things properly and with proper etiquette. And yeah, so that was a clue. Iâm like yeah no, weâre on the right direction. So part our storyâ
Melinda: Itâs such a crazy whirlwind when I first started. Like, I think it actually stems from PTSD videos. Like honestly, it was like TikTok diagnosed us. It was insane. But we were also looking at EJâs disability and then I got diagnosed with a disability, and when we actually pulled back and looked at it, the more were looking at, the more things that we find are actually connected and linked. So it was really just like following a chain down like everything just loops back together. It all makes sense. Let me tell you, that was an insane time period like, oh hey look. Oh hey look. It's another and I'll be checking them out let*** [inaudible]??
Janel: Mm-hmm. Itâs like Hansel and Gretel and the breadcrumbs. Seriously. Youâre walking around and you're picking up bread crumbs and you're going, Oh my God, wow how did we get here? We followed the bread crumbs and it's like next thing you know you're standing in front of this huge gingerbread house and you're going âIs this a good thing or is this a bad thing?â Is some witch gonna come out and eat us, or is this like the keys to the castle?
Melinda: Yeah we did so much research. Like so much research after that.
Janel: So much research. Not only that, but you know, I've had at that point like 250 credit hours of life coach training and all the courses that I went through, I'm like, I feel like something is missing. I feel like something is missing. I feel like something is missing. And I'm going âokay.â One of the things that I did is because two years after a 20-year marriage ended, one of the kids' therapists identified my ex-husband as a covert narcissistic abuser. Now whether he has narcissism or not, he's not officially diagnosed, but the symptoms, the signs, the stories, whatever, the therapist said, âNo this was covert narcissistic abuse.â When you look at thatâ[sigh] I lost my train of thought, where I was going with that. [laugh] Dang it.
Ariana: I thought all narcissistic abuse was covert. I thought that was kind of the point.
Janel: Well, thereâs narcissists who are openly narcissistic but then there's covert narcissist that are much more subtle. And that's what this was. [sigh] I lost my train of thought. I hate it when that happens.
Ariana: I was so busy following your train of thought, I forgot what the last train of thought was.
Melinda: oh man.
Janel: Welcome to ourâ
Melinda: Edit! Edit.
Janel: [laugh] You know what, this is part of the process. This is part of our story though. We don't want to edit it out. I feel like that's where weâve made the mistake.
Ariana: Part of our story is telling things and then forgetting what we were saying? [laugh]
Melinda: Part of our story is oh yeah, ADHD? See thatâs where that kicks in. Right there.
Janel: Yeah.
Ariana: Wait! You were talking about life coaching.
Janel: Yes! Thank you, thank you, thank you, yes. 215 credit hours of life coaching courses because I had been in a covert narcissistic relationship and I was trying to figure out what it looked like to live a ânormal life.â So I'm looking at this, I'm learning coaching techniques and I'm like âwhat is healthy behavior?â So I'm approaching these courses 1) to help my clients, but 2) to really help myself and go âWhat does healthy behavior actually look like?â because clearly I have not had it modeled. So it was like fascinating.
Janel: It wasn't until we put together this neurodivergent piece that I was like, Oh my God, this is why life has been so hard because it's not the abuse, itâs that we simply think differently. Itâs like a massive part of the story because I approached things and I didn'tâ you know, if you had told me this 20 years ago, I would laughed at you.
Melinda: Thereâs so many things that we do now that 20 years ago we would have laughed at.
Janel: Oh my God. [laugh] We're laughing at nowâ
Ariana: We would probably gasp in horror, but laugh if someone suggested that we might have done it. [laughter]
Janel: The gasp in horror part. Absolutely.
Melinda: Uh-huh.
Janel: You know, and here we are though. Yeah, I donât even wanna touch that
Melinda: Sorry that was my fault.
Janel: But this is part of the story. Oh God. You know, with Ana saying that last night to me and realizing that this is part of the process. This back and forth, this forgetting, this backtracking, this looking for that piece of the puzzle is sometimes what you need. You need those people in your circle. I mean sometimes when you're in this abuseâmost of usâwell, for 20 plus years, well, 40 years, you know if you don't have an outside person coming in and going âHey this is not OK. Have you considered this?â becauseâtell your fishball story Melinda, becauseâ
Melinda: Me? Itâs not a fishbowl story. Itâs an extension of a theory. There's the theory of the frog in boiling water. If you put a frog in cold water and then you slowly heat it up, the frog doesn't notice, so it doesnât jump out. And that's how abusive relationships start, but my theory is that there's also like, a frog that was born into a dirty pond doesnât know the pond is dirty. You know, if you took a frog out of a clean pond and put it in a dirty pond it would be like âHey this pond is muddy.â I mean, itâs a frog, itâs not gonna care, but the point is there if you're used to muddy water and you've never been in another pond and you donât realize that clear water existsâ
Janel: Yeah
Melinda: Then you think itâs just normal water. Like thereâs no other example. The habitat you were raised in.
Janel: Yeah. And until somebody or something makes you stop, hoist yourself up over the edge of the bowl and go wait a minute there's something more. And actually, you used the analogy of a goldfish which I like even more because the goldfish literally can't get itself out of the bowl and so unless somebody reaches in picks it up and puts it in the clean water. But yeah, when we're born into the muddy water, that's all we know. And if you're not on the outside it's likeâOh I'm trying to remember who it was that said they were color blind for like half of their life and they didn't know it and they just kinda played along for a long time.
Ariana: It's ___ wasnât it?
Janel: I don't remember.
Ariana: Weâll have to edit that out. [laughter] Weâre name-dropping here. âCause you know, the stop lights. I remember him talking about the stoplights were like, red and green.
Janel: Yeah, and so here you go, you've got somebody who's 14, 15, 18 years old and never knew they were colorblind. Like when you finally realize that it's kind of jolting.
Ariana: But then it's relieving because you're like, oh there's nothing wrong with me.
Janel: Well.
Ariana: Oh. Well. Somethingâs wrong with me, but itâs something different.
Janel: Well and that's the thing with autism and the neurodivergence background. Well, you're not normal because society has said that autism, you know, has issues. And yeah, there's people with high support needs autism versus, you know, smart women like us who are high masking, you know, function in spurts and whatnot.
Janel: But it's still, you know, when you walk around in society and youâre trying to do daily life and you don't realize that something is wrong because you think what you're experiencing is normal. Whether it's abuse, whether it's autism, whether it's some other type of neurodivergence. If you're little and nobody picks up the symptoms and you just live with them, you don't know any different. And I think that is, right there, the core and the essence of why so many content creators struggle. Because theyâre like, âI wanna do this,â but the problem is, they don't know how to step back and go that's a symptom, that's not actually the reason that you're struggling with the problem you're trying to sell an answer to. You cannot tell your story, you cannot use your story for sales, or marketing, or to simply encourage others if you don't know what your story is.
Janel: You know, back when I was still bloggingâwhen I was actively writing before 2008, I started writing online in 1998 and those 10 years I tried to offer solutions and ideas and very practical things. But my heart has always been in helping women heal. So when I would offer ideas and suggestions, it was simply how to manage red flags. Not what the issue was. And I worked with enough women to know that one of the reason they can't find their niche, that they can't narrow down what they have to offer because you have not found your golden thread. You can't tell your story, you can't use your story to tell your story, because you don't really know your story.
Janel: Next week, we're gonna talk about how to finally figure out how to know your story. So we've rambled on about Oz, and puzzles, [laugh] frogs. But those puzzles and frogs and Oz, those things? Those things are the key to transforming your story. Any wrap-up thought ladies?
Ariana: No thoughts. Empty brain. [laughter]
Janel: Melinda?
Melinda: Empty brain? Really? Okay. Um, no.
Ariana: Yeah, see? None.
Janel: None. [laughter] Alright. Well, welcome to the first episode with all three of us. If you resonate with this conversation you might be our people. And if you are, welcome, and all. We just watched Hunger Games and Iâm like wellâ
Ariana: May the odds be ever in your favor.
Janel: [laugh]
Melinda: I was gonna say, itâs okay, weâre all weird here like,
Janel: yeah
Melinda: If youâre weird like our weird, we should be weird together.
Janel: Alice in Wonderland, we're all mad here. Absolutely.
Melinda: Yeah that one.
Janel: A hundred percent. Well, ladies, welcome. We don't have all the answers. We've got some really funny stories. Some really tragic stories. We're right beside you but we're putting the pieces together and we are glad you're here.
Janel voiceover: [music] Thanks so much for joining us today! Iâm Janel Guevara. I hope you caught a glimmer of hope, a glimpse of possibility, and a sprinkle of fairy dust. Join us next time when we take another step towards Transforming Your Story.
Janel voiceover: Content for educational purposes only. Our stories are not your stories Please be cautious and contact your local domestic violence hotline if you need support. [music ends]
