We spend years optimizing everything on the outside while ghosting the one relationship running underneath all of it.

This episode kicks off July on The Raw Onion: the relationship between your brain and your body, the one most of us were never taught to notice, let alone tend to.

We get into:

• The vagus nerve and why most of its signals travel from body to brain, not the other way around
• The three nervous system states behind Dr. Stephen Porges' polyvagal theory
• How stress patterns get passed down through generations without a single shared experience
• Why the high achiever who undercharges or overdelivers might be running on inherited wiring rather than a confidence problem

In this episode, you will learn:

• Why your body registers the truth of a room, a person, or a meeting before your conscious mind catches up
• The three nervous system states (green, yellow, red) and how to notice which one you're running on most days
• How epigenetics allows a stress response to travel from one generation to the next
• Why familiar does not always mean safe, and how that shapes who and what we keep choosing
• What it actually takes to start listening to a body you've been overriding for years

🎙️ HOSTS: Stephanie Ohannesian, founder of Triage Coaching and Consulting, and Yoshie Barnett, Crossroads Coach at Lotus Flower Journeys

⏱️ CHAPTERS:

0:00 Welcome to July's series: The Relationship You Can’t Ghost

5:12 The brain and body as a two-way conversation

6:39 The vagus nerve and the 80/20 signal split

9:16 Polyvagal theory and the three nervous system states

11:10 Why so many of us live permanently in yellow

15:56 Epigenetics and inherited stress

20:09 The professional whose body panics before logic can step in

21:27 The entrepreneur who can't stop undercharging

23:49 A simple way to start listening again

25:27 What's ahead this July

🔗 CONNECT WITH THE RAW ONION:

Website: The Raw Onion

Email: hello@therawonionpodcast.com

Subscribe to our YouTube channel

Follow us on Substack

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🔗 CONNECT WITH STEPHANIE:

Website: Triage Balanced Life

Let's Talk: Free 30-min call

🔗 CONNECT WITH YOSHIE:

Website: Lotus Flower Journeys

Let's Connect: Free clarity call

#BrainBodyConnection #NervousSystemRegulation #InheritedStress

We talk about voice like it's a soft skill. It isn't. It's wired into the nervous system, and for a lot of women, being seen has never felt safe.

Marta Spirk is a strategic speaking advisor, TEDx speaker, bestselling author, and professional singer who helps women entrepreneurs use speaking, storytelling, and visibility as tools for authority and business growth. She came on The Raw Onion to talk about what actually happens in the body when a woman tries to take up more space, and why "confidence" was never the real problem.

We get into:

• The neuroscience behind why women hesitate before self-promotion
• The difference between confidence and self-trust
• Why the voice is the only instrument controlled by both the voluntary and autonomic nervous systems
• The signature talk versus the elevator pitch
• Why repetition, not talent, is what actually builds the kind of presence people trust

In this episode, you will learn:

• Why women show higher amygdala activation around visibility, and why that's conditioning, not biology
• The difference between chasing confidence and building self-trust
• How the body gives away a dysregulated nervous system before a word is spoken
• How cultural upbringing shapes a woman's relationship with being seen
• Why repetition, not waiting to feel ready, is the actual bridge to feeling safe

🎙️ GUEST:

Marta Spirk, Strategic Speaking Advisor, TEDx Speaker, Bestselling Author of The Empowered Woman: The Ultimate Roadmap to Business Success, Professional Singer, Host of The Empowered Woman podcast

⏱️ CHAPTERS:

0:00 Meet Marta Spirk

3:44 Growing up loud

5:38 Becoming trilingual

8:21 Women and visibility

12:18 The amygdala and self-promotion

15:02 Confidence versus self-trust

16:52 The signature talk

20:19 The inner critic

23:30 Vulnerability in groups

30:43 Knowing your own content

37:23 The body and language

39:47 Discomfort and the real pain point

44:33 Cultural conditioning and saying no

52:35 Repetition and safety

59:10 Where to find Marta

🔗 CONNECT WITH MARTA SPIRK:

Website: MartaSpirk.com

Book: The Empowered Woman: The Ultimate Roadmap to Business Success

Podcast: The Empowered Woman

LinkedIn: Marta Spirk

Facebook: Marta Spirk

Instagram: MartaSpirk

🔗 CONNECT WITH THE RAW ONION:

therawonionpodcast.com

🔗 CONNECT WITH STEPHANIE:

triagebalancedlife.com

🔗 CONNECT WITH YOSHIE:

lotusflowerjourneys.com

#PermissionToBeSeen #MulticulturalVoices #SelfTrustOverConfidence

You've worked twice as hard to get half the credit. You sat in rooms where no one looked like you, no one led like you, and no one understood what it cost you to show up. And you did it anyway.

Adyna K. Pressley is a global women's leadership architect, award-winning author, keynote speaker, founder of Queens Royale, and host of the Pressley on Purpose podcast. With more than 30 years of corporate leadership experience, she built her life's work on one truth: leading from truth, not performance.

We get into:

• What it felt like to be the only Black woman in executive leadership
• Why performing eventually became physically unsustainable
• The moment she chose to speak up knowing it might cost her everything
• The science underneath why generational elevation happens in the body first
• What it sounds like when Oprah gives you eight minutes she only promised you two

In this episode, you will learn:

• Why the brain learns that performing is safe and authenticity is risky
• How exhaustion signals that two versions of you are running in opposite directions
• Why speaking from truth does not mean starting over

🎙️ GUEST:

Adyna K. Pressley, Global Women's Leadership Architect | Founder, AKP Inventions and Queen's Royale | Author, Rise Into You: Reclaiming Power, Love, Life and Legacy | Host, Presley on Purpose Podcast

⏱️ CHAPTERS:

0:00 Meet Adyna K. Pressley

5:08 Who were you before the title?

7:40 The only Black woman in the room

9:03 When he performed as a teammate

13:40 The system is the problem, not the woman

17:43 Hospitalized. Burned out. Done.

21:07 How she stayed grounded in the chaos

27:32 Never changed who she was, not once

33:17 "If he gets this job, I quit."

40:00 Generational elevation starts in the body

43:39 The science behind what she was already doing

48:22 Queens Royale: identity you can wear

59:43 A solo train ride and a book was born

1:01:52 How she ended up on Oprah

1:06:43 Adyna's closing message

🔗 CONNECT WITH ADYNA K. PRESSLEY:

Book: Rise Into You

Website: adynakpressley.com

Queens Royale: queens-royale.com

LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube: Adyna K Pressley

Podcast: Pressley on Purpose

🔗 CONNECT WITH THE RAW ONION:

Substack: therawonion.substack.com

IG: @therawonionpodcast

Contact: hello@therawonionpodcast.com

Work with Stephanie: Free fit call

Work with Yoshie: Free clarity call

#AuthenticLeadership #TruthOverPerformance #WomenAcrossCultures