What if joy isn’t something you earn, but something you remember? Larry Kesslin shares how a life-changing trip to Africa dismantled his definition of success and led him back to inner peace, purpose, and conscious connection.
In this episode of Morning Cup of Brand Spark, Gina sits down with entrepreneur, author, and Chief Connector of Five Dots, Larry Kesslin, for a deep reflection on success, identity, and joy.
Larry shares the moment that changed everything — a month in Africa in 2012 where he encountered people with almost nothing… and more joy than he’d ever known. That experience sparked a decade-long unraveling of old identities and a redefinition of success that ultimately led to his book The Joy Molecule.
Together, Gina and Larry explore:
Why success without significance feels empty
How identity can become an illusion we mistake for truth
The role of conscious connection and purpose in real joy
Why inner peace, not achievement, is the true measure of a well-lived life
This is a conversation about unlearning what the world taught us to chase — and remembering who we were before the labels.
Links
Kelsey Green hit physical, mental, and emotional rock bottom. In this Mirror Conversation, she shares how digital boundaries, community, and tiny steps rebuilt her life.
What happens when your life becomes completely untenable (physically, mentally, emotionally) and you finally hit the wall you’ve been sprinting toward for years?
In this raw and generous Mirror Conversation, community strategist and facilitator Kelsey L. Green shares the story of her rock bottom: burnout, a toxic relationship, health crisis, anxiety, and the quiet realization that her life could not continue as it was.
Instead of collapsing inward, she rebuilt outward through therapy, coaching, community, physical healing, and one tiny step at a time.
In this conversation, Kelsey and Gina explore:
The “busy coping mechanism” that masked deeper wounds
How rock bottom becomes a clarity point
Why digital overwhelm fractures our attention, our nervous system, and our ability to reflect
The role of in-person community in healing
The small digital boundaries that change everything
How to start reclaiming your brain, your focus, and your life
Why boundaries aren’t restrictions, they’re reconnections
If you’ve been feeling overwhelmed, overconnected, or overstimulated… this episode is an invitation to breathe again.
🔗 Connect with Kelsey:
Website: https://www.kelseylgreen.com
Instagram: @kelseylgreen
Summit in Six: https://www.kelseylgreen.com/summitin6
Screen-Free Sunday Challenge: https://www.kelseylgreen.com/screenfreesunday
Can you rewrite your past? Merit Kahn says yes, with comedy. A raw and hilarious conversation about reinvention, identity, and reframing your story.
What if the most painful parts of your life became the funniest and most freeing?
This week, Gina sits down with playwright, performer, and keynote speaker Merit Kahn, creator of the one-woman show Optimistic Personality Disorder — a comedic rollercoaster about divorce, narcissists, motherhood, reinvention, and every chaotic plot twist life throws at us.
Together, they explore:
The stand-up workshop that became a life-changing mirror
How comedy reveals the truth therapy sometimes misses
Why laughter loosens the grip of old narratives
Rewriting your past to rewire your future
What “Optimistic Personality Disorder” really means
Why women struggle to reset their story
How beliefs get handed down and how to hand them back
If you need permission to rewrite your next chapter, this is your episode.
☕ Listen and share with someone who needs a reminder that their story is still editable.
Merit Kahn, CSP, is a sales and emotional intelligence expert, keynote speaker and the creative mind behind the one-woman inspiring comedy show Optimistic Personality Disorder. Through keynotes, performances, and her unique WorkShow Experiences, Merit helps people turn real-life drama into powerful breakthroughs... with a side of laughter.
She is on tour across the US with her show and you can get tickets at OPDshow.comWebsite: https://opdshow.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meritkahn/
What do you do when life falls apart at the worst possible moment?
At eight months pregnant, Lauren Cockerell was unexpectedly laid off, and instead of crumbling, she rebuilt her entire career, leadership philosophy, and relationship with visibility.
In this raw, human conversation, Gina and Lauren explore:
The mirror moment that launched Kwedar & Co.
Building a people-first company after toxic workplaces
Visibility myths women need to stop believing
The PR shifts happening in the age of AI
Boundaries, motherhood, and rebuilding with clarity
Why earned media now matters more than ever
How to stay grounded when the world feels loud
A short, powerful episode about reinvention, courage, and the clarity that only arrives when everything else falls away.
☕ Listen now & share with someone who’s navigating their own rebuild.
Lauren Kwedar Cockerell is the founder and president of Kwedar & Co., a boutique strategic communications firm that helps business owners grow with clarity, confidence, and integrity. Her team provides both the thinking and doing behind thoughtful PR and marketing so clients can focus on building meaningful businesses without losing themselves in the process.At Kwedar & Co., Lauren works with values-driven entrepreneurs across industries like insurance, real estate, and manufacturing to uncover the stories that build trust, reputation, and long-term relevance.
Website: https://www.kwedarco.com/
15 minutes | Leadership | Listening | Integrity
What happens when you stop being heard and start truly listening?
In this episode, Susan Braakman, founder of Listen Consulting, joins Gina Dunn to talk about the moment she walked away from a workplace that no longer reflected her values, and how that choice sparked a life built on empathy and integrity.
When your voice disappears, sometimes it’s the universe asking you to listen.
In this reflective Morning Cup of Brand Spark conversation, Susan Braakman, founder of Listen Consulting, shares how leaving a company that stopped listening became the start of her life’s real work.
She and Gina Dunn talk about:
Why listening is leadership, not silence
How fear-based cultures mute empathy
The difference between hearing and understanding
The courage it takes to walk away from misalignment
🎧 Listen now
☕ Be a guest → https://www.ginadunn.com/morning-cup-of-brand-spark/
15 minutes | Confidence | Presence | Flow
What if confidence wasn’t about being loud — but about being aligned?
In this Morning Cup of Brand Spark conversation, Sara Deacon, martial artist, emcee, and author of Welcome to the Stage, joins Gina Dunn to talk about the discipline of confidence and the art of energy.
They explore:
☕ One cup. One story. One reflection.
🎧 Listen now
🌐 Learn more about Sara’s work → https://saradeacon.com
15 minutes | Reinvention | Identity | Clarity
What happens when the title stops fitting and you realize success was never your own reflection?
In this episode, Shelley McIntyre, founder of Burn the Map Coaching, joins Gina Dunn to talk about leaving corporate life, rediscovering identity, and the quiet rebellion of midlife reinvention.
After decades in corporate strategy and tech, Shelley McIntyre realized her success story wasn’t hers anymore.
Her mirror moment came with the cracks in a mask she’d worn too long — one that demanded she look, act, and lead like someone else.
In this Morning Cup of Brand Spark conversation, Shelley and Gina talk about:
The offgassing phase after leaving a long career
Grief and freedom in reinvention
The “corporate mask” women are told to wear
Finding your identity beneath ambition
🔗 Learn more about Shelley and Burn the Map Consulting → https://burnthemapcoaching.com
☕ Be a guest → https://www.ginadunn.com/morning-cup-of-brand-spark/
15 minutes | Leadership | Collaboration | Clarity
What happens when “doing it all” stops working?
In this conversation, Sabine Hutchison and Gina Dunn talk about partnership, delegation, and the power of finding your person — the one who helps you see what you can’t alone.
Sabine Hutchison, co-CEO of Seuss+, author of Beyond the Ladder, and founder of The Ripple Network, joins Gina Dunn for a conversation about what it really takes to build something meaningful — with others.
They talk about the myth of independence, the exhaustion of doing it all, and the magic that happens when you finally let the right people in.
From the power squad to the ripple effect, this episode is a reflection on clarity, collaboration, and creative leadership.
🎧 Listen on Spotify / Apple Podcasts / YouTube
☕ Want to be a guest → https://www.ginadunn.com/morning-cup-of-brand-spark/
💫 Connect with Sabine Hutchison on sabinehutchison.com and theripplenetwork.com
15 minutes | Creativity | Reflection | Art
What happens when your childhood refuge disappears, and creativity becomes your way home?
In this reflective Morning Cup of Brand Spark conversation, Patrick Williams joins Gina Dunn to talk about loss, memory, and the moment creativity becomes remembrance.
When artist and educator Patrick Williams was ten, bulldozers destroyed the woods behind his childhood home, his sanctuary of imagination and solitude.
That loss became the start of his lifelong creative journey.
In this Morning Cup of Brand Spark conversation, Patrick shares the story behind his TEDx talk “The Loss of My Woods” and explores how creativity, nature, and memory shape the human spirit.
Together, he and Gina discuss how creativity isn’t something we master - it’s something we remember.
🔗 Find Patrick’s work:
🎥 Watch his TEDx talk: Creativity: Lost and Found
☕ Be a guest → https://bookme.name/ogsolutions/lite/morning-cup-podcast
15 minutes | Branding | Creativity | Reflection
What happens when your work defines you, until your body makes you stop?
In this conversation, T. Christian Helms and Gina Dunn talk about illness, creativity, and rebuilding meaning in both branding and life.
After years designing for brands like Jack Daniel’s, Hershey, and Austin Beerworks, T. Christian Helms was forced to confront the ultimate rebrand — his own.
When illness took him out of the game, he learned that creativity isn’t control, it’s connection.
In this reflective Morning Cup of Brand Spark, he and Gina Dunn explore:
How illness reshapes identity and creative purpose
Why empathy became his secret design tool
The link between brand building and life rebuilding
How slowing down can make your work (and self) stronger
☕ Be a guest → https://bookme.name/ogsolutions/lite/morning-cup-podcast
☕ Learn more about Christian → https://helmsworkshop.com/
15 min | Creativity | AI | Authenticity
Season 2 of Morning Cup of Brand Spark — The Mirror Season — begins here.
When AI starts speaking your language, do you lose it—or take it back?
In this raw opener to Mirror Season, Gina Dunn and Natalie de Groot talk about buzzword burnout, the fear of losing your voice to algorithms, and the power of reclaiming the words that still mean something.
In this first Mirror Conversation, Gina Dunn sits down with creative technologist and AI artist Natalie De Groot, the original “Mirror Sparker.”
What begins as a chat about AI and language theft turns into a deeper reflection on identity, creativity, and rebellion.
They unpack:
Why our words feel hijacked in the AI era
The mirror moment that made Natalie question her originality
How reflection, not resistance, helps us reclaim what’s ours
Why rebellion is sometimes the most authentic brand strategy
☕ Be a guest → https://bookme.name/ogsolutions/lite/morning-cup-podcast
☕ Connect with Natalie → https://www.authenticaimarketing.com/
The Morning Cup is back - slower, deeper, truer. ☕
In this short prelude to Season 2 of Morning Cup of Brand Spark, host Gina Dunn shares what’s changing and what’s staying lit.
This season, the daily sparks evolve into Mirror Conversations. These are 15-minute coffee chats with founders, creatives, and leaders about the truths they had to burn for before they could really be seen.
No scripts. Just voice, visibility, and vulnerability - one cup of coffee at a time.
🔹 New Episodes: Every other Friday
🔹 Want to be a guest? → gina@ogsolutions.nl hit me up!
Because visibility isn’t performance, it’s reflection.
Most founders wait too long to say the sentence that actually starts the spiral.
This isn’t about storytelling. It’s about anchoring. And today’s Brand Spark will help you find the line that holds your whole message in miniature.
Forget the hero’s journey. The best brand arcs don’t follow a myth. They follow truth.
Today we enter Week 2 of Echoflare and look at the three-phase arc that actually creates resonance. It’s not linear. It’s alive. And your clarity begins at the middle.
Start your arc recalibration here: https://ogsolutions.nl/brand-glow-up-audit/
It’s not what you post. It’s what echoes.
Today we close out Week 1 of Echoflare with a quiet but potent reflection: what does your brand sound like when you’re not there to speak it?
The blog is live: https://ogsolutions.nl/why-being-seen-isnt-enough/
Start your brand clarity journey: https://ogsolutions.nl/brand-glow-up-audit/
You don’t need more content today. You need a challenge:
Find one place in your brand where your message is hiding… and bring it to the front.
This is your Saturday challenge to end Week 1 of Echoflare strong. And yes — the blog is live.
Read it now: https://ogsolutions.nl/why-being-seen-isnt-enough/
Do the deeper work here: https://ogsolutions.nl/brand-glow-up-audit/
Before the weekend hits, here’s your Friday Brand Challenge: Find the one line in your brand that carries.
The sentence that actually sparks response, invites memory, and echoes when you're not in the room. Not the fluff. Not the filler. The line.
Need help sharpening it? https://ogsolutions.nl/brand-glow-up-audit/
Under the noise, there’s a voice you’re not using — yet.
Today’s Brand Spark takes us beneath the surface of “loud” content and into the quiet truth of brand resonance. It’s not about shouting. It’s about what happens when your real voice finally speaks.
If you’re ready to find yours:
https://ogsolutions.nl/brand-glow-up-audit/
Just because you’re loud doesn’t mean it’s you.
Today’s Brand Spark slices through the misconception that big energy = strong voice. Because volume can be a costume. But voice? Voice is clarity in your tone, in your timing, and in your truth.
Want help finding yours? https://ogsolutions.nl/brand-glow-up-audit/
Posting daily won’t save a foggy brand.
Today’s Brand Spark is your midweek calibration: content frequency isn’t the same as brand clarity. If you’re showing up every day but still not converting, let’s take a closer look at what you’re actually saying — and how to fix it.
Start with the root: https://ogsolutions.nl/brand-glow-up-audit/