Rebels worth knowing podcast
Conversations with people who challenge assumptions, rewrite the rules, and make us rethink what we thought we knew about leadership, business, and being human.
episode 1
The Rooms We Choose:
Trust, Belonging & the New Rules of Connection
What if the things we have been taught to see as weaknesses are actually signals we have been reading wrong?
In the first episode of Rebels Worth Knowing, Janet sits down with Mom Brain Media founders Kristin Merron and Jen McKee for a candid conversation about the assumptions we make, the rooms we choose, and why authenticity, trust, and real human connection matter more than ever.
You may never look at “mom brain,” competition, or the energy of a room quite the same way again.
Why we misread people based on limited behavior
Why trust is becoming more valuable than polish
Why the rooms we choose affect how we show up
episode 2
Clear the Clutter, Change the Recipe, and Make Room for What's Next
What if the thing standing between you and your next chapter is not a lack of ambition, discipline, or another strategy... but all the noise you have been carrying?
Jennifer Russell spent more than 30 years in culinary and hospitality, but some of her biggest lessons had nothing to do with food. In this episode, Jennifer shares how sobriety, entrepreneurship, and a major life reinvention helped her clear the mental clutter, trust herself differently, and create a life that fits who she is now. Janet and Jennifer explore what happens when women stop trying to hold everything together and finally make room for what is next.
Clear the mental clutter. Growth often requires releasing old patterns, identities, and expectations before adding another strategy.
Learn to change the recipe. Flexibility, creativity, and self-trust help us navigate life when the original plan no longer fits.
Your environment shapes what you can see. Stepping outside your normal routines and responsibilities can create the space needed for clarity, connection, and reinvention.
episode 3
The Conversation You Hope to Never Have
What happens when the people who have always taken care of you suddenly need you to take care of them?
In this episode of Rebels Worth Knowing, Janet Bernstein sits down with realtor and Senior Home Coach Robin McCoy for an honest conversation about one of the hardest transitions every family eventually faces.
Robin shares the deeply personal story that transformed her career from selling homes to helping families navigate aging, downsizing, caregiving, and the emotional decisions that come with them. Together, they explore why waiting too long can create unnecessary stress, how to start these conversations before a crisis, and why "clarity is kind" when it comes to planning for the future.
Whether you're helping aging parents, planning for your own future, or simply avoiding a conversation you know needs to happen, this episode offers practical wisdom, compassion, and a reminder that the best time to make a plan is before you're forced to.
In this episode you'll learn:
Why families wait too long to talk about aging
The warning signs it's time to start planning
How to help without taking away independence
Why downsizing is about more than just a house
episode 4
The Leadership Blind Spots Everyone Sees But You
What if the thing holding you back as a leader is something everyone else can see... except you?
We love to talk about confidence, communication, emotional intelligence, and leadership. But knowing the language does not mean we can see our own patterns.
And those patterns are speaking before we ever realize it.
In this episode of Rebels Worth Knowing, I sit down with Andrea Mancuso, a former New York City school psychologist turned emotional intelligence expert, speaker, author, and founder of Intentional Healing & Wellness.
After 14 years inside the NYC public school system, Andrea walked away from a stable six-figure career when she realized the system she was working in no longer aligned with the work she felt called to do.
What followed was a deeper exploration of leadership, human behavior, emotional intelligence, and what happens when leaders have not dealt with their own stuff.
We get into the parts of emotional intelligence that rarely make the LinkedIn quote graphics: triggers, stress tolerance, impulse control, assertiveness, self-awareness, and the uncomfortable gap between how we think we show up and how other people actually experience us.
In this episode you'll learn:
Why great leaders can still have massive blind spots
How unresolved patterns show up in leadership
Why perception matters more than intention
Why emotional intelligence is much bigger than empathy
episode 5
You Don’t Get What You Want. You Get What You Negotiate.
What if the most important negotiation of your life happens before you ever learn how to negotiate?
At 19 years old, Rick Czaplewski was diagnosed with cancer. He went to class, walked to the hospital for radiation, and walked back to his dorm. He did it 50 times without telling anyone. Years later, that experience would become the foundation for his work and his belief that no one should have to walk through difficult situations alone.
But this conversation is about much more than negotiation. It’s about human behavior.
Why do some leaders push too hard while others struggle to ask for what they need?
Why do employees stop speaking up when they no longer feel safe?
In this episode, Rick and Janet cover:
Why self-advocacy may be one of the most important negotiation skills you can develop
The danger of relying on one go-to leadership or negotiation style
Why healthy conflict can actually signal a healthy culture
The psychology behind the "endowment effect" and why we overvalue things we feel personally connected to
episode 6
Your Employees Are Talking. Are You Actually Listening?
What if the biggest problem with employee engagement isn't that people aren't speaking up?
It's that leaders aren't really listening.
In this episode of Rebels Worth Knowing, Janet sits down with Mary Baird, PHR, founder of The Simplifiers and author of Squash the Sunday Scaries, for a candid conversation about what's actually happening inside today's workplaces.
They also dig into Mary's simple but powerful philosophy:
Better employee experience → better customer experience → better business results.
You'll hear:
• Why employee listening has become a lost art
• The question managers should be asking their direct reports every other week
• Why pizza parties, happy hours, and other "culture builders" can sometimes backfire
• How assumptions quietly damage trust
• Why people managers need better training and support
• What leaders can do when an employee tells them something isn't working
• Why your manager's real job may be simpler than we've made it
• How experimentation, iteration, and being willing to get it wrong can actually make you a better leader
