Dan Smitley got laid off by someone he called a friend. Then he caught himself coaching her on how to do it better.

This Soul Session is about the inflection point that does not come with a clean ending. Dan has been laid off twice, both times by people close to him. The second time, an accidental screen-share showed him what they really thought.

We get into:
- Why the layoff is the easy part, and the chaos after is the real work
- The "five whys" Dan uses to find his core when everything is uncertain
- Separating how you make money from how you add value to people
- Why faith and family drive every decision he makes
- The cost of being the guy who always helps, even when he is the one who needs it

At 21, Tiffany Chen turned down a six figure Wall Street offer on the spot, with no plan for what came next. Six years later, deep inside a fast moving AI startup that looked perfect on paper, she found herself asking the same quiet question: what are we all actually doing here?

In this Soul Sessions, Tiffany walks Damon through two leaps of faith that shaped her life and the inner compass that made both possible. They get into the golden handcuffs that keep high performers stuck, the immigrant household where security came first, the role her Christian faith plays as a compass, and the ten year journaling practice she uses to check in with herself every six months.

This is a conversation about the difference between climbing a ladder and choosing your own direction, and about answering the one question most people in privileged positions never stop to ask: how much is enough?

No bow on the end. Just an honest look at what it costs to bet on yourself.

You already know what's not working. The job, the habit, the relationship, the version of yourself you've outgrown. So why is it so hard to release it?

In this episode of Soul Sessions, Damon sits down with Stephanie Coleman to unpack the uncomfortable truth most people miss: you don't hold onto things that have no value. If you can't let go, it's because something in there is still paying you back, just not in the currency you'd admit out loud.

Inside this conversation:

• The hidden payoff that keeps you stuck in familiar pain • Why your nervous system reads "toxic but known" as safer than "better but unknown" • The single question that exposes what you're actually getting from the thing you say you want to release • How to tell the difference between a season worth protecting and one you've already outgrown

If you've been white-knuckling a chapter that's clearly over, this one is for you.

Connect with Stephanie: stephaniecoleman.com