Jon Goehring spent years behind the mic at Rochester radio stations before leaving it to build StoryTrust Media, a podcast production company built on one idea: your stories build trust with your audience whether you mean them to or not. He joins Fitz at ROC Vox to talk about what radio actually prepares you for, why collaboration beat competition in his business, and how two people running similar races figured out they weren't really competing at all.In this episode, Jon explains why he tells his Brockport students not to marry radio, the moment he stopped auditioning for everything and started referring work to other talent, how faith shapes the way he runs StoryTrust, and what he'd tell his 15-year-old self about ignoring everyone else's formula for success. CONNECT StoryTrust Media (Jon Goehring) → https://storytrust.media LimitlessLeadership Lounge → https://limitlessleadershippodcast.comROC Vox → https://rocvox.comNew episodes every Tuesday.Recorded at ROC Vox Recording & Production in Bushnell's Basin, NY.Learn more at https://rocvox.com

Sarina Morales spent years as an ESPN anchor and Los Angeles Rams sideline reporter before Bally Sports went bankrupt, she became a single mother, and everything she had built changed at once. She surveyed what came next, found WeTheHobby, and landed in the one place where every thread of her career finally connected.In this episode she gets into the psychological techniques she developed for drawing out reluctant NFL players, the framework she built for grieving without getting stuck, why she argued at Newhouse in 2004 that content belongs on YouTube and Facebook before either platform supported video, the near-death experiences that explain why she still has what she calls zest for life, and the Bronx baseball story she used to get into Syracuse, where a 15-year-old girl showed up to practice on Monday after an entire opposing team sat down on the field to protest her.CONNECTSarina Morales on Instagram → @moralesmoralesWeTheHobby → https://wethehobby.comROC Vox → https://rocvox.com

Maria Pascucci-Maciejewski spent over 20 years helping others manage perfectionism and anxiety. She launched a national speaking business at 27, wrote a book, delivered a TEDx talk, and coached hundreds of students through the hidden costs of needing to be perfect. In the summer of 2024, it all caught up with her.In this episode she gets into the childhood bullying that became perfectionism, the 3.92 GPA that came with panic attacks in college bathrooms, and why none of it was enough to stop a complete nervous system breakdown, a suicide attempt, and 34 days in a psychiatric hospital over the holidays. She also talks about what actually pulled her back, why nutrition belongs in every mental health conversation, and what she is building now.CONNECTYou Can Bounce Back → https://youcanbounceback.comCampus Calm → https://campuscalm.comROC Vox → https://rocvox.comNew episodes every Tuesday.Recorded at ROC Vox Recording & Production in Pittsford, NY. Learn more at https://rocvox.com

(00:00:00) Welcome to ROC Vox — Introducing Coach Jim Johnson (00:01:03) Getting Cut and Getting Fired — A Humbling Start to Coaching (00:02:45) Becoming a Leadership Junkie — Zig Ziglar Jim Rohn and the Personal Growth Pivot (00:06:06) The One-Hit Wonder Problem — Staying at the Top Is Harder Than Getting There (00:07:03) Lead by Respect Not Fear — The Wrong Way to Lead (00:08:36) Relationships Relationships Relationships — The Three Rs of Leadership (00:10:06) The Intentional Trust Plan Most Leaders Have Never Built (00:11:24) Always On Stage — Leading by Example and the Tie Story (00:17:48) Advice for New Coaches — Are You In It for the Right Reasons? (00:21:06) How Coaching Young People Has Changed in 35 Years (00:23:51) Purpose Self-Reflection and Personal Mission Statements (00:25:21) The J-Mac Story — February 15 2006 and the Speech Career It Started (00:27:04) Become the Chief Storyteller — Warnings Examples and Reading the Room (00:34:42) Staying Fresh — Intentional Personal Growth and Servant Leadership (00:43:15) What's Next — Books Podcast and How to Find Coach Jim Johnson Coach Jim Johnson spent 35 years coaching high school basketball in Rochester with 428 wins, three programs turned around, and one game on February 15, 2006 that landed him in the Oval Office. In this episode, he gets into what it actually looks like to build trust on purpose, why the leaders who sustain success are doing something most teams never think about, and how the lessons from a gym floor translate directly into any room where someone's trying to lead people.CONNECTCoach Jim Johnson → https://coachjimjohnson.com ROC Vox → https://rocvox.comNew episodes every Tuesday. Recorded at ROC Vox Recording & Production in Bushnell's Basin, NY. Learn more at https://rocvox.com.

(00:00:00) Cold Open: What is the Eclipse Effect? (00:00:45) Welcome Back and the Non-Conformist Oath (00:03:47) Ella's Five-Year Plan and the 2017 Missouri Eclipse (00:06:00) Building Rochester's Eclipse Task force: 750 Volunteers, No Budget (00:12:00) Co-Chairing the National Eclipse Task Force (00:14:27) The Dreadful Lack of Agency and What To Do About It (00:17:21) Bonding vs. Bridging: The Two Kinds of Social Capital (00:21:09) The Network Graph: Making Invisible Connections Visible (00:28:51) Stories From the National Eclipse Effort (00:39:09) On Failure, Grade, and Raising Kids Outside the System Deborah Ross watched the 2017 solar eclipse from a field in Kimmswick, Missouri and came home convinced of two things: Rochester needed to be ready for 2024, and it was going to be her job to make that happen. What she built with 750 volunteers, no budget, and six years of monthly meetings became both a defining moment for this region and the foundation of a book.In this episode, she breaks down how an eclipse becomes a community organizing tool, what servant leadership actually looks like when you're asking hundreds of people to work for free, and why the principles behind The Eclipse Effect apply to any catalyst, a natural disaster, a federal funding cut, or the Olympics coming to your town. CONNECT The Eclipse Effect → https://theeclipseeffect.comKids Out and About → https://kidsoutandabout.comROC Vox → https://rocvox.comNew episodes every Tuesday.Recorded at ROC Vox Recording & Production in Pittsford, NY. Learn more at https://rocvox.com

Melissa Suchodolski told someone once that getting into construction was "absurd." That was 25 years ago. Today, she runs USC Builds, a 140-person Rochester contracting firm, and a workforce development nonprofit that Governor Hochul wants to replicate across New York State.In this episode, she gets into what it actually looks like to build a company culture most firms won't even try, what it cost to fire a client who represented a third of her annual revenue, and why the construction industry's labor crisis is a competitive advantage for anyone who started this work early.CHAPTERS00:12 Welcome and the Non-Conformist Oath01:09 How Fitz and Melissa Met at the Jewish Home of Rochester11:25 Why More Americans Should Travel Abroad12:23 Meet USC Builds: 25 Years Building People Through Construction13:31 From History Major to Construction President16:26 Why a Skilled Trade Can Never Be Taken Away19:33 What a Trauma-Informed Workplace Looks Like in Construction27:43 Why She Fired Her Second-Biggest Client Over Racism on the Job Site30:42 The Construction Labor Crisis and Who's Already Positioned to Win34:39 Ascend Workforce Solutions and the Governor's Attention41:20 Trauma as a Superpower42:51 This or ThatCONNECTUSC Builds → https://uscbuilds.comROC Vox → https://rocvox.comNew episodes every Tuesday.Recorded at ROC Vox Recording & Production in Pittsford, NY. Learn more at https://rocvox.com.

Chad Marks was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison at 24 years old — and from his cell, he wrote the legal argument that freed thousands.Chad Marks — Rochester native, published author, paralegal, and founder of Blood on the Razor Wire — joins Fitz at ROC Vox to tell the full story: growing up poor on Lyle Avenue, the drug dealing, the 40-year federal sentence, the First Step Act argument that no attorney believed in, and what he's built since walking out — a paralegal practice, a sober living house, a YouTube channel, a book, and a possible Netflix series.In this episode: how federal prison actually works, what a 40-year sentence does to your psychology, 14 months in solitary, the PTSD nobody talks about, what's most broken in the system, and why your worst day on the outside still beats your best day in there.CHAPTERS0:00 Cold Open and Introduction2:10 Growing Up Poor in Rochester: How It Started3:19 The First Step Act and the Argument That Freed Thousands6:26 The Reality of Federal Prison: Big Sandy and the Violence10:18 The 40-Year Sentence and Judge Larimer15:49 Life After Release: Giving Back to the Community19:01 Writing Motions From His Cell and Getting 20 Out24:40 The Mission: Blood on the Razor Wire28:11 What's Most Broken in the Prison System34:24 Misconceptions: What Prison Actually Does to You35:14 PTSD, Counseling, and Relearning Normal Life43:49 The SHU: 14 Months in SolitaryCONNECTBlood on the Razor Wire (book) → https://www.amazon.com/Blood-Razor-Wire-journey-through/dp/B08N9DP62BBlood on the Razor Wire TV → https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2BfsAN7eb-76zlPmVbetgQFreedom Fighters PC → https://www.freedomfighterspc.comThe First Step Act ruling → https://www.criminallegalnews.org/news/2020/may/15/federal-judge-issues-order-reducing-40-year-stacked-924c-sentence-based-first-step-act-changes-compassionate-release/ROC Vox → https://rocvox.comNew episodes every Tuesday.#BloodOnTheRazorWire #FirstStepAct #FederalPrison #PrisonReform #JailhouseLawyer #CriminalJusticeReform #PositiveBlatherings #ROCVox #PositivePodcast

EFT tapping might be the most powerful business tool your competitors have never heard of — and Raeanne Lacatena has been quietly putting it to work with billionaires, burned-out founders, and entrepreneurs who've run out of runway on the grind-and-push model.Raeanne Lacatena — licensed clinical social worker, certified professional coach, reiki master, and five-time #1 bestselling author of The Integrated Entrepreneur — joins Fitz at ROC Vox to explain why burned-out entrepreneurs aren't failing because of bad strategy. They're failing because nobody ever taught them how to manage what's happening inside their own nervous system.In this episode: what EFT tapping is and why it works, how Raeanne gets skeptical clients — including billionaires — to try it, why stress literally shuts down your best thinking, the Maslow tier most people have never heard of, and what it cost Raeanne personally to put her full story into a book.CHAPTERS0:00 Cold Open: Tapping in Traffic1:17 Raeanne's Path: From Helper to Integrated Coach7:50 What Entrepreneurs Struggle With Most9:00 EFT Tapping: What It Is and Why It Works13:02 Raising Self-Regulating Kids With EFT15:26 The Lizard Brain: Why Stress Kills Clear Thinking19:37 EFT Meridian Points: Nausea, Anxiety, and Golf26:04 Writing the Book: Vulnerability and Bestseller28:55 Self-Transcendence: Mission Over Ego36:37 Pediatric Palliative Care: Where Reiki Began40:50 What Schools Don't Teach: Emotional IntelligenceCONNECTThe Integrated Entrepreneur → https://www.theintegratedentrepreneur.comROC Vox → https://rocvox.comNew episodes every Tuesday.#EFTTapping #EmotionalFreedomTechnique #Burnout #EntrepreneurMindset #NervousSystemRegulation #SelfTranscendence #PositiveBlatherings #ROCVox #PositivePodcast

Before Peter Conners ran one of America's most respected poetry presses, he was following the Grateful Dead across the country in a van.Conners is the Publisher and Executive Director of BOA Editions — a Rochester-based nonprofit that has quietly won Pulitzer Prizes, national awards, and the respect of the entire literary world for 50 years, while most Rochesterians have no idea it exists. He joins Fitz at ROC Vox to talk about how a self-described troublemaker from Sutherland High School ended up running an institution — and why, at its 50th anniversary, losing its federal funding isn't going to stop it.In this episode: BOA's controversial first book by a Pulitzer Prize winner no one else would publish, why nonprofit publishers are the only thing standing between the world and the end of new poetry, the brutal economics of audiobooks (sell 1,000 copies, make $100), and what a decade of sobriety taught Peter about what publishing is really for.CHAPTERS00:00 Welcome to Positive Blatherings00:56 Meet Peter Conners and BOA Editions02:18 The Founding Story: First Book to First Pulitzer07:44 Why Poetry Needs Nonprofit Publishers09:09 20 Years of Publishing's Digital Revolution13:28 The Hard Truth About Audiobook Economics18:28 From Troublemaker to Writer: Peter's Origin Story22:00 A Family Defined by Service25:20 How Peter Became BOA's Publisher31:49 Going Public: Writing His Own Story36:38 Sobriety, Recovery, and Giving Back42:05 BOA's Future: Surviving the NEA CutCONNECTBOA Editions → https://www.boaeditions.orgPeter Conners → https://www.peterconners.netGrowing Up Dead: The Hallucinated Confessions of a Teenage Deadhead → https://www.amazon.com/Growing-Up-Dead-Hallucinated-Confessions/dp/0306817330Merch Table Blues → https://www.amazon.com/Merch-Table-Blues-Peter-Conners/dp/1945665319Box of Rain documentary → https://www.amazon.com/Grateful-Dead-Box-Rain/dp/B0D19TCPPMWriters & Books Rochester → https://wab.orgROC Vox → https://rocvox.comNew episodes every Tuesday.#BOAEditions #Poetry #IndependentPublishing #Rochester #RochesterNY #LiteraryPublishing #PoetryBooks #NonprofitArts #GratefulDead #PeterConners #PositiveBlatherings #ROCVox #Memoir #BookPublishing #IndependentPress #ArtsAdvocacy #SmallPress #WritingLife #AuthorInterview #BookCommunity #LiteraryWorld #ReadMorePoetry #RochesterArts #Deadhead #GratefulDeadCommunity #NEAFunding #PoetryLovers #WritersAndBooks #Sobriety #PublishingIndustry

Most conversations — at work, across the dinner table, across the political divide — are failing. Executive coach Keith Greer says the reason is simple: we're all addicted to being right.Keith Greer, Executive Coach and leadership development specialist, joins Fitz at ROC Vox for a return visit six years in the making. With 40+ years spanning clinical social work, family therapy, and executive coaching, Keith brings the full weight of his career to one question: why do most conversations miss the mark — and what actually works? In this episode you'll hear the neuroscience behind why certain leadership behaviors destroy team trust, how Conversational Intelligence explains what happens in your team's brain during that conference room pitch, and why the single most powerful thing any of us can do right now — in the office, at the Thanksgiving table, or across the political divide — is stop talking and listen.CHAPTERS00:00 Intro: Keith Returns After Six Years01:23 The Grandpa Gig: Love, Fun, and Three Grandsons07:50 Building a Coaching Practice on His Own Terms10:00 Why Technical Brilliance Doesn't Make a Leader14:51 Family Businesses: Where Bloodlines Meet Business20:44 Why You Can't Inject Motivation Into Someone22:38 Conversational Intelligence and the Neuroscience of Trust26:23 The "Addiction to Being Right" Kills Conversations33:50 Self-Awareness Is Courageous Work, Not "Touchy-Feely"35:04 Shut Up and Listen: The #1 Conversation Strategy38:40 Productive Disagreement Across the Political Divide46:21 Finding Common Ground Through Shared HumanityCONNECTKeith Greer Coaching → https://www.keithgreercoaching.comROC Vox → https://www.rocvox.comFresh doses of Positivity every Tuesday and Wednesday.#ConversationalIntelligence #LeadershipDevelopment #ExecutiveCoaching #MotivationalInterviewing #LeadershipSkills #FamilyBusiness #SelfAwareness #ActiveListening #NeuroscienceOfLeadership #PositiveBlatherings #ROCVox #Rochester #CommunicationSkills #TeamBuilding #LeadershipCoaching #PersonalDevelopment #MindsetShift #WorkplaceWellness #ProductiveConversations #EmotionalIntelligence