BECOME Empowered

Latest Episodes:

Traveling with Gumption: Frankfurt, Hamburg, and the Power of Being an Author Sep 24, 2026

Show notes

What are you still waiting to feel ready for?

The book you haven't written. The stage you haven't stepped onto. The bold move you keep postponing. Waiting feels safe, but it's costing you more than you think.

I know, because I waited too. Until one sentence on a Hamburg sidewalk changed everything: "What a shame, Sabine. You are so talented." Within a week, I had auditioned for acting school.

In this solo episode, I share that moment and what it can teach you about the cost of waiting. I also take you inside my upcoming trip to Germany, where I'm flying alone with my memoir GUMPTION in my suitcase: the Frankfurt Book Fair, Hamburg bookstores, the crew of MJ the Musical, and time with family and friends.

And I show you why the story you've been sitting on might be the most valuable thing you own. In a world where AI makes content cheap and endless, your real story is the one thing no one can generate, copy, or fake.

In this episode, you'll discover:

Why waiting to feel ready costs you more than you think
The one sentence that got me to stop waiting, and what it means for you
Why doing the bold thing alone is worth the stress
Three things that change when you become an author
Why your real story matters more than ever in the age of AI
How to become a contributing author in my next anthology, Become Empowered Entrepreneur

Follow the journey: Starting the day I land, I'll share the trip on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook, day by day, with GUMPTION traveling right alongside me.

LINKS 📖 Get GUMPTION at your favorite bookstore or here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HCW45FXJ

✍️ Apply to become a contributing author in Become Empowered Entrepreneur: https://sabinekvenberg.com/book-application

▶️ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/SabineKvenberg

📸 Instagram: [https://www.instagram.com/sabinekvenberg/

👍 Facebook: [https://www.facebook.com/sabine.kvenberg.2025/

🌐 sabinekvenberg.com

If this episode gave you a little extra courage, please follow the show and leave a rating or review. It brings Become Empowered to more people who need to hear it.

Be fearless. Be heard. Be visible. Become Empowered.

From Broadway to the Pulpit: Sandra Bargman on Finding Your Sacred Voice Sep 18, 2026

Show notes

Sandra Bargman popped out of the womb singing, dancing, and acting — and never stopped. But underneath three decades on Broadway, national tours, cruise ships, and cabaret rooms, she carried a quieter question: how could she be of service in a bigger way? One day, scrolling a life-coaching website, she saw two words stacked in the corner — life coach and interfaith minister — and a light bulb went off that changed everything.

In this conversation, Sandra takes us from Carnegie Mellon conservatory to the Broadway National Tour of Cinderella, through a two-year seminary journey that collided with her mother's terminal illness, to the extraordinary ask of officiating her own mother's funeral in her first year of training. She shares how her theatrical training carried her through that "baptism by fire," how the concept of "the edge" — the rough, generative middle ground between polarized extremes — became the heart of her own podcast, and why she now coaches podcasters and speakers on voice presence and storytelling using actor techniques and spiritual counseling.

Connect with Sabine:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/SabineKvenberg

IG: https://www.instagram.com/sabinekvenberg/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sabine-kvenberg/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sabine.kvenberg.2025/

RESOURCES: https://www.sabinekvenberg.com/resources

In this episode, Sandra shares:

The moment two words on a website sparked her interfaith journey
What it actually means to be an interspiritual minister (and why she's moved from "interfaith" to "interspiritual")
Officiating her mother's funeral in her first year of seminary — and what that "baptism by fire" taught her
Why she calls her one-woman show a "cabaritual" and how it became a podcast
Her simple, actor-trained framework for showing up with more presence as a podcast guest or host
The two most underused tools in confident communication: the pause and the breath

A line worth writing down: "Every single thing is an opportunity — a learning opportunity. And everybody's a teacher."

Connect with Sandra:

Website (weddings & ceremonies): sandrabargman.com
Coaching (voice, presence, storytelling): magicthreadmedia.com
YouTube: Sandra Bargman — On the Edge of Every Day
Podcast: The Edge of Everyday, streaming on all platforms

Throw Away Your Bucket List: Teri M. Brown on Adventure, Love & Finding Yourself Again Sep 10, 2026

Show notes

What do you do when life falls apart at 54 and you're convinced there's nothing left for you? If you're Teri M. Brown, you climb onto a tandem bicycle and ride 3,102 miles across America.

In this episode of Become Empowered, author and speaker Teri M. Brown joins Sabine to trace an extraordinary arc — from an emotionally abusive marriage that left her doubting her own worth, to a cross-country tandem ride from Astoria, Oregon to Washington, DC with her husband Bruce, to the grief of losing him to glioblastoma, and finally to the slow, brave work of finding herself again.

Teri shares why worth is intrinsic and never has to be earned, what a tandem bike teaches you about real partnership (you can't go faster than each other), how she rediscovered her humor writing Peg, Unhinged, and why joy and sorrow can live inside the very same moment. It's tender, funny, and deeply human — and it ends with a piece of advice that might change how you look at your own life.

In this conversation:

Why "you already have value" is the belief everything else is built on
What riding a tandem across the country reveals about partnership and trust
Loving and losing Bruce — and what caregiving taught her about herself
How writing brought her voice, and her laughter, back after loss
Why happiness and grief don't cancel each other out
The one piece of advice: get rid of the bucket list and start today

Get in touch with Teri: https://www.terimbrown.com/

Get your copy of Gumption on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HCW45FXJ

Apply to become a contributing author for Sabine's next book: Become Empowered Entrepreneur.

SabineKvenberg.com

The Spotlight You Keep Avoiding: The Courage to Be SEEN Sep 03, 2026

Show notes

There’s a stage somewhere in your life with your name on it — a talk, a camera, a Zoom box, a conversation you keep rehearsing but never walk into. And every time you get close, you slip back into the wings and whisper, “not yet.”

In this solo episode, Sabine takes you back to opening night in Hamburg, where she stepped out as Pippi Longstocking with her mind gone completely blank… and the lines came back. Drawing on thirty years on stages, she hands you a four-part map for stepping into the light before you feel ready — because ready is a feeling that shows up after you move, not before.

Inside this episode:

The courage to be S.E.E.N.™ — See the Spotlight, Evidence over Emotion, Embody Before You Believe, Now, Not Ready
How to name your specific stage — because confidence in the abstract goes nowhere
Why your fear is loud but “a terrible historian” — and how to trade its story for your track record
The breathing reset that overrides stage-fright nerves in seconds
The Competence–Confidence Loop — how one tiny “entrance” this week rewires your subconscious for the next one

If you’ve been circling a stage you know is yours, consider this your permission slip.

▶ Ready to name your spotlight and your very next move? Book a 20 minute clarity call with Sabine: talktosabine.com

Resources: https://sabinekvenberg.com/resources

Share your story in Sabine's new book: Become Empowered Entrepreneur: https://sabinekvenberg.com/book-application

She Was Given 18 Months. She Booked a Flight Instead. Aug 28, 2026

Show notes

When Emma Victoria Johnson sat across from her surgeon in March 2025, the script had already been written for her: stage 4 breast cancer, no surgery, no chemo, no radiation — just two tablets and roughly 18 months. She tore that script up.

Connect with Emma: https://www.instagram.com/emma_victoriaj/

Connect with Sabine: SabineKvenberg.com

https://liveyounger.com/healthyandwealthy

In this deeply moving episode of Become Empowered, host Sabine Kvenberg sits down with Emma, joining "from the future" near Sydney, Australia, to talk about the moment a diagnosis became a decision. Emma shares why she refused to accept a palliative-only prognosis, how her "inner warrior" put her on a plane to seek alternatives, and what it took to close the hair salon she had built and loved for nearly a decade — choosing herself over the business.

This is a conversation about belief, responsibility, and the quiet power of taking your health into your own hands. Emma and Sabine talk candidly about the daily discipline of healing — clean eating, movement, red light, infrared saunas, oxygen, and a home she turned into her own "little wellness clinic" — and the truth that stress is the enemy of healing. And they land somewhere unexpected: purpose. Today Emma wakes to 150+ messages a day from people around the world, walking beside them through their own diagnoses as an ambassador and advocate.

If you or someone you love is standing at a crossroads, this episode is a reminder that when one door closes, another opens — and that belief, backed by action, changes everything.

In this episode:

Why Emma refused the "18 months" prognosis and went looking for another way
The moment surgery was taken off the table — and how she responded
Turning a home into a personal wellness routine on a real-world budget
Why she closed the business she loved, and how she made peace with it
How stress works against healing — and what she protects her energy for now
Finding new purpose in service after one chapter closed

This episode is a personal story, not medical advice. Please consult qualified professionals about your own care.

Connect with Emma: https://www.instagram.com/emma_victoriaj/

Connect with Sabine: SabineKvenberg.com

https://liveyounger.com/healthyandwealthy

Why You Don't Need More Stages — You Need a Clearer Message | Marta Spirk Aug 20, 2026

Show notes

What if the problem isn't that you need more stages — but that your message isn't clear enough to earn them?

In this episode of Become Empowered, Sabine sits down with speaker, author, and coach Marta Spirk — a fellow performer who traded the entertainment stage for a mission of guiding women to find their voice and own the spotlight.

Marta shares her remarkable journey: growing up singing in her mother's church in Brazil, building a career in translation and interpreting, singing the national anthem for pro sports teams across Colorado, and the 2016 "plot twist" that changed everything — learning five weeks into her first pregnancy that she was carrying triplets.

Together, Sabine and Marta explore the abundance mindset that says there is room for every voice, why believing you have something valuable to say is the real starting line, and the patience it takes to build something that lasts.

In this conversation:

Why "what got you here won't get you there" applies to every speaker
The most common belief blocking women from the stage
Why clarity — not more eyeballs — is the key to being remembered
How defeat and lost control became Marta's greatest teachers
Her father's one-word wedding-day advice that still guides her business

Connect with Marta Spirk:
Website: MartaSpirk.com
LinkedIn, Facebook & Instagram: Marta Spirk

Connect with Sabine:
Website: sabinekvenberg.com
Book a call: calendly.com/coachsabine/connect-with-sabine

Order Gumption: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HCW45FXJ

The Dyslexia Professor: Why It's Not a Reading Problem — with Russell Van Brooklyn Aug 13, 2026

Show notes

Imagine walking into a state government internship, handing them an evaluation that says you read and write at a first-grade level — and walking out having earned fifteen credits of A-minus. Now imagine a university committee looking at that same work and flunking you to fifteen credits of F. That's the moment Russell Van Brooklyn stopped waiting for permission and decided to solve dyslexia himself.

On this episode, Sabine sits down with Russell Van Brooklyn — known worldwide as the Dyslexia Professor — to unpack a truth most classrooms miss: dyslexia is not a reading problem. It's a wiring difference, and once you understand where the genius actually lives, everything changes.

Russell walks us through the brain science (the "back" of the brain that struggles with early reading versus the "front" that fires two-and-a-half times over in grad-school-level thinking), and reveals the counterintuitive method that flips the switch: start in the child's area of extreme interest, move from the specific to the general, and use writing as the measurable output that forces the brain to organize itself.

You'll hear the stories that make it real — Casey, who leapt eight grade levels in six months; Reed, who climbed from the 11th to the 64th percentile in reading in under nine months and rejoined his friends in mainstream classes; and Grayson, a 99th-percentile STEM kid being coached toward a peer-reviewed publication and a future terraforming Mars. Russell also shares his sharp take on AI in education: why students shouldn't touch it for academics until they know what good actually looks like.

This is one of those out-of-the-box conversations that reframes what's possible — for struggling readers, gifted learners, and every parent who's been told their child needs a special school they can't afford.

In this episode:

Why dyslexia is a wiring difference, not a reading deficit
The front-brain vs. back-brain science behind late-blooming genius
The "specific to general" method that organizes the dyslexic mind
How to work inside a child's passion to unlock rapid growth
Real transformations: Casey, Reed, and Grayson
Russell's rule on AI: master the craft before you touch the tool

About the guest: Russell Van Brooklyn is an educator and dyslexia specialist who turns daily reading frustration into confident academic wins for students facing dyslexia. His approach has moved students from the bottom percentiles into mainstream — and advanced — academic success at a fraction of the cost and time of traditional dyslexia programs.

Connect with Russell: Visit dyslexiaclasses.com (with an s), download the free guide, answer three quick questions, and book a complimentary 30-minute call.

Resources mentioned: Overcome Dyslexia by Dr. Sally Shaywitz · The Craft of Research · Russell's upcoming book If You Write You Can Read (with Evelyn Whitebear)

Your voice is your instrument, and so is your child's mind. When you learn how it's tuned, you can make it sing. 🎭

The Voice That Saved Her: Fenix Shepard on Rock Bottom, Faith, and Being Loved Unconditionally Aug 06, 2026

Show notes

Some people find their turning point in a boardroom. Fenix Shepard found hers in a jail cell — where a total stranger looked at her with compassion and asked one question that cracked her life wide open: "Don't you think it's time to heal?"

In this episode, Sabine sits down with Fenix Shepard — spiritual mentor, Navy veteran, trauma survivor, and author of Loved Unconditionally — for a conversation that goes straight to the heart. Fenix walks us back to her last rock bottom at 30, the correctional officer who planted her first seed of hope, and the drive to the VA that became day one of a 15-year healing journey. She shares how she came to be nine years sober, how she forgave the unforgivable, and how a voice she first heard on a beach at 20 has guided and protected her ever since.

Along the way, Sabine and Fenix discover just how much they share — two women who each heard that same still, small voice in their most dangerous moment, and lived to build a life of purpose because of it.

Whether you're carrying old wounds, wrestling with shame, or simply learning to trust your own inner knowing, this episode is a reminder: your rock bottom doesn't get the final word. Your becoming does.

In this episode:

Fenix's last rock bottom — and the stranger whose compassion changed everything
"Enough is enough": the decision that started 15 years of healing
Answering the call to serve, and forgiving what happened along the way
The morning the craving lifted — nine years sober by grace
Hearing the voice at 20, and why she calls it God
Sabine and Fenix's uncanny shared story of being saved as young girls
"Rebuild my church": Fenix's mission to heal religious trauma today
Her unconventional work — personal training and desensitizing traumatic memories

📖 Fenix's book, Loved Unconditionally
🔗 Connect with Fenix: https://www.fenixshepard.com/

✨ Sabine's new memoir, GUMPTION: Sacred Whispers, Bold Moves, and the Courage to Become, is out now.

🔗 Connect with Sabine - Get your Bold Move Kit

🎧 Loved this conversation? Follow Become Empowered, leave a review, and share it with someone who needs to hear that healing is possible.

This episode touches on addiction, abuse, and trauma. If you're struggling, please reach out to a qualified professional or, in the U.S., call or text 988 for confidential support.

⏱️ Timestamped Chapters

0:00   Intro
3:53   A heart-to-heart reconnection
6:26   The last rock bottom
9:34   A stranger's compassion changes everything
12:03  "Enough is enough" — the road to the VA
12:37  Answering the call: serving in the Navy
15:35  Nine years sober — when the craving lifted
18:02  Sacred whispers and the courage to become
21:46  "God, if you're real": the beach and the voice
23:59  Left home at 14 — the voice as protector
24:53  Two women, one voice: Sabine's story
28:14  "Rebuild my church": Fenix's mission now
31:41  Healing body and mind: training & unconventional counseling

From the Savanna to the MJ Stage: Courage, Reinvention & the Invisible Stage — with Dorina Malcheva Jul 30, 2026

Show notes

Thirty-five years ago, Sabine met an 18-year-old dancer in West Africa — talented, a little naïve, and not yet sure she belonged anywhere but the stage. In this episode, that young woman returns as Sabine's guest: Dorina Malcheva, now Artistic Director of MJ – The Michael Jackson Musical in Hamburg, Germany, leading a team of 34.

It's a conversation that moves like a memory: the smell of the airport air, the fires along a dark road, the first show they ever built together in an African club. But underneath the nostalgia is a masterclass in becoming. Dorina and Sabine unpack the sacred whisper — that small voice that says "why not?" — and what it costs to actually answer it. They talk honestly about rejection (Vienna said no to both of them, years apart), about the Invisible Stage™ of unseen practice that makes the visible moment possible, and about the goodwill you quietly bank over a career until, one day, someone trusts you with the whole show.

And in a world racing toward AI, they land on the one thing no algorithm can replicate: your story, told in your voice, on your stage.

Whether you're a performer, an author, a speaker, or an entrepreneur ready to step into your spotlight, this episode is your reminder — try it on, keep going, and connect, connect, connect.

Connect with Dorina on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dorinamaltschewa/

Connect with Sabine:

https://sabinekvenberg.com/resources

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/SabineKvenberg

IG: https://www.instagram.com/sabinekvenberg/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sabine-kvenberg/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sabine.kvenberg.2025/

⏱️ Timestamps / Chapters

0:00 – Introduction
2:45 – Reconnecting after 35 years
5:30 – Inside MJ: The Michael Jackson Musical
7:50 – The lifespan of an artist's career
8:45 – Dorina's origins: raised among artists
11:25 – "It's a shame if you waste it" — Sabine's turning point
12:50 – The sacred whisper: trying life on like a dress
14:55 – Rejection, resilience, and refusing to quit
16:40 – Becoming a triple threat (and a triple threat entrepreneur)
19:30 – The Invisible Stage: the power of unseen practice
22:10 – Reinvention: stepping into artistic director
25:35 – Good vs. perfect and the goodwill bank account
27:45 – Into Africa: first impressions and open arms
31:15 – AI, connection, and the story only you can tell
36:00 – From the stage to the keynote stage
38:45 – Dorina's parting wisdom: connect, connect, connect

From Rock Bottom to Recognized Authority: Jeremy Knauff's Blueprint for Rebuilding Jul 23, 2026

Show notes

Jeremy Knauff spent nearly two decades building a successful marketing agency — until a severe health crisis nearly killed him and took the business down with it. In this raw, unfiltered conversation, the U.S. Marine Corps veteran and founder of Spartan Media shares what it was like to lose everything, the autoimmune condition that brought him to the edge, and the moment a fellow Marine's suicide became the turning point that changed how he showed up in the world.

Jeremy walks us through exactly how he rebuilt his authority from zero: writing his way onto top podcasts and into outlets like Forbes and Entrepreneur, then multiplying every feature into a network of content across social and video. We also dig into what "authority" means now that AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity are the ones vetting experts before a journalist — or a client — ever does, and why pay-to-play media features can quietly work against you.

If you're rebuilding after a setback, or wondering how to be findable and credible in an AI-driven world, this episode is your roadmap.

In this episode:

How a health crisis and years of chronic pain nearly ended Jeremy's career — and his life
The fellow Marine's suicide that became his turning point
The exact content strategy that took him from invisible to Forbes and Entrepreneur
How to turn one media feature into dozens of pieces of content
What "authority" means when AI tools are the ones evaluating you
Why fake/pay-to-play media features can hurt more than they help
The mindset shift that keeps you moving when you want to quit

Connect with Jeremy:

https://spartanmedia.com/

Connect with Sabine:

https://sabinekvenberg.com/resources