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This episode includes honest discussion of addiction and legal consequences.

What does recovery look like when the compulsion won’t let go? In this conversation, I am privileged to sit with Kelli Bauer, who lives with kleptomania—an often-hidden addiction—and has paid steep personal and legal costs. This conversation is brave and vulnerable. We talk about the difference between “shoplifting” and a clinical compulsion, how shame and secrecy keep us sick, what (actually) helps day-to-day, and why, for Kelli, hope looks like refusing to give up—one hour, one errand, one decision at a time.

We cover:

• Kleptomania vs. “casual shoplifting” (compulsion, not character)
• Consequences: arrests, career loss, media fallout—and rebuilding anyway
• Supports that help: meetings, service, meds, accountability
• Real-life tactics: don’t shop alone, stay in the same aisle, phone-in support
• Triggers everywhere (stores on every route) and how to plan around them
• Redefining hope when relapse happens

Resources & Links

• CASA (Kleptomania & Shoplifters Anonymous) — weekly meeting info
• Terry Shulman’s counseling/resources for theft & compulsive behaviors
• Instagram and TikTok: @twoliveswithkel

If you or someone you love is struggling, please reach out to a licensed professional or a local support line.

Thank you for listening to Hope Comes to Visit. If this conversation helps, follow the show, share it with someone who needs hope today, and leave a review - it helps others find their way to these conversations.

New episodes drop every Monday, so you can begin your week with a little light and a lot of hope.

For more stories, reflections, and ways to connect, visit www.DanielleElliottSmith.com or follow along on Instagram @daniellesmithtv and @HopeComestoVisit

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Gentle note: we talk honestly about grief and child loss—please listen with care and kindness for yourself.

What does healing look like when the unthinkable happens? In this episode, I’m sitting with Melissa Hull—author, speaker, coach, fierce advocate, and Drew’s mom. After losing her son in a tragic drowning, Melissa has worked to choose a different ending for herself: love in motion, faith as a daily practice, grief as a path that can still lead to purpose.

In this conversation, we get real about:

• why presence over platitude matters when you don’t know what to say
• practical water safety Melissa teaches in classrooms (and why it saves lives)
• the letter that became her lighthouse—and how choice + agency help us heal
• self-forgiveness as parents, especially around the holidays
• tangible ways to support grieving friends (and how to ask for what you need)

If you’re in a tender season, consider this a steady hand to hold.

Resources & Links for Connecting with Melissa
Guest: melissahull.com
Book: Dear Drew: Creating a Life Bigger Than Grief
Earlier memoir: Lessons from Neverland

Thank you for listening to Hope Comes to Visit. If this conversation helps, follow the show, share it with someone who needs hope today, and leave a review - it helps others find their way to these conversations.

New episodes drop every Monday, so you can begin your week with a little light and a lot of hope.

For more stories, reflections, and ways to connect, visit www.DanielleElliottSmith.com or follow along on Instagram @daniellesmithtv and @HopeComestoVisit

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Gentle heads-up: mentions of grief and loss.

If you’re new—welcome, I am so grateful you are here. If you’re back again for hope to visit—welcome home.
In this episode, I'm delighted to be chatting with K.T. Jay—the Amazon bestselling author of Inkbound Inheritance—to talk about imagination, healing through story, and the courage it takes to begin. We explore how grief shapes us, why stories can steady us, and what it’s really like to indie-publish a debut that lands on the charts.

In this episode

• The spark behind Inkbound Inheritance (a storyworld you can inherit!)
• Grief as a teacher: what young K.T. learned vs. adult K.T. carrying others
• Practical creative tools: finding your why, building a support circle, starting small
• Indie publishing 101: timelines, control, and the long game
• Hope, defined—when it feels like the ocean keeps crashing over you

Guest: K.T. Jay — Website: KTJAuthor.com | IG: @KTJAuthor
Book: Inkbound Inheritance (Amazon) & on (Barnes & Noble)

Share this episode with a friend who’s been meaning to start, but needs a little light.

Thank you for listening to Hope Comes to Visit. If this conversation helps, follow the show, share it with someone who needs hope today, and leave a review - it helps others find their way to these conversations.

New episodes drop every Monday, so you can begin your week with a little light and a lot of hope.

For more stories, reflections, and ways to connect, visit www.DanielleElliottSmith.com or follow along on Instagram @daniellesmithtv and @HopeComestoVisit

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I love conversations that make you want to show up for people. This is one of them.

Today’s guest is Danni Eickenhorst, the heartbeat behind Hustle Hospitality and some of St. Louis’ most beloved spots: Steve’s Hot Dogs, Steve’s Meltdown, The Fountain on Locust, and The Stardust Room.

Danni and I talk about what it really means to be “a neighborhood place”: paying people with dignity, creating spaces where everyone belongs, and showing up when a tornado rips through the block. You’ll hear how Feed the People began with one donated meal and grew into thousands, why catering and gift cards can literally keep doors open, and how abundance (not fear) guides her leadership.

I walked away reminded that hope is both feeling and practice—served hot, with community at the center.

In this episode you’ll learn

• Simple, concrete ways to help local restaurants & the Delmar Maker District
• Why transparency with your team builds real loyalty
• How to turn a business into a neighborhood’s rally point
• What it looks like to believe it gets better—and act like it

Take a next step
Book catering from a local restaurant, buy a gift card you’ll use later, or say yes to that neighborhood event invite. Little things add up.

Connect with Danni at Hustl Hospitality Group and on LinkedIn.

Thank you for listening to Hope Comes to Visit. If this conversation helps, follow the show, share it with someone who needs hope today, and leave a review - it helps others find their way to these conversations.

New episodes drop every Monday, so you can begin your week with a little light and a lot of hope.

For more stories, reflections, and ways to connect, visit www.DanielleElliottSmith.com or follow along on Instagram @daniellesmithtv and @HopeComestoVisit

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If you’re new—welcome. If you’re back—welcome home. Today I’m sitting down with my friend Melissa Clayton, founder & CEO of Tiny Tags—the personalized jewelry brand born at a kitchen table and now beloved by moms, worn by Meghan Markle, sold in Target stores nationwide, and (pinch-me) featured on Oprah’s Favorite Things 2025.

We talk about the quiet courage behind the milestones: bootstrapping for 15+ years, saying no to shiny objects, building a values-first team, and telling real stories of motherhood (the joyful, the messy, the holy ordinary). Melissa shares what focus actually looks like when you’re self-funded, how she course-corrected her brand to speak directly to moms and their villages, and why “hope” often sounds like one more email, one more DM, one more ask.

In this episode:

• Bootstrapping a jewelry brand without outside funding
• Choosing focus over “do it all”
• Storytelling as Tiny Tags’ secret sauce
• From online shop to 1,600+ Target stores (and how long that really takes)
  Currently
• What Oprah’s Favorite Things moment means to a scrappy team
  Oprah Daily
• Gentle truth-telling about new-mom pressure, comparison, and preparing your heart (and village), not just a nursery

Take this with you: You don’t have to be everything to everyone. Know your why. Build your bench. Keep asking.

Guest: Melissa Clayton — Tiny Tags
Web: tinytags.com • IG: @tinytags

Thank you for listening to Hope Comes to Visit. If this conversation helps, follow the show, share it with someone who needs hope today, and leave a review - it helps others find their way to these conversations.

New episodes drop every Monday, so you can begin your week with a little light and a lot of hope.

For more stories, reflections, and ways to connect, visit www.DanielleElliottSmith.com or follow along on Instagram @daniellesmithtv and @HopeComestoVisit

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If you’re new here—welcome. If you’re back—welcome home. Today I’m sitting with my dear friend of 12+ years, Amanda Willson, a life coach and anxiety expert who has walked this road and now teaches the rest of us how to find steadier ground. This isn’t theory; it’s real tools for real life.

We talk about simple practices that change the moment you’re in: 4-7-8 breathing to settle your nervous system, the 5-4-3-2-1 senses reset to get you out of your head and back into your body, and the surprisingly tender act of naming your anxiety with compassion so it stops driving the car. Amanda shares how movement helps move emotion, why gratitude is brain training (not fluff), how to build an inner safe place you can visit anytime, and what it means to take your thoughts captive—speaking to yourself the way you’d speak to your own child.

I left this conversation feeling calmer, clearer, and more equipped. My hope is you do too. 💙

Listen now and share it with the friend who’s been white-knuckling their days.
Guest: Amanda Willson — Worthy of Love Wellness → worthyoflovewellness.com

Amanda on Instagram → Worthy of Love Wellness

Show highlights

• The breath that helps fast: 4-7-8
• The senses exercise that interrupts spirals
• Why naming anxiety softens it
• Movement as medicine (and why stillness can backfire)
• Gratitude as a daily brain reset
• Your “safe place” visualization (mine is the beach 🌊)
• Bedtime thoughts that program tomorrow’s morning

Thank you for listening to Hope Comes to Visit. If this conversation helps, follow the show, share it with someone who needs hope today, and leave a review - it helps others find their way to these conversations.

New episodes drop every Monday, so you can begin your week with a little light and a lot of hope.

For more stories, reflections, and ways to connect, visit www.DanielleElliottSmith.com or follow along on Instagram @daniellesmithtv and @HopeComestoVisit

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A gentle heads-up: In this conversation, we name some hard things — including suicide and sexual assault. If that’s tender for you today, please listen with care, skip ahead, or come back when you’re ready. If you need support in the US, call or text 988.

Sometimes hope is a laugh you didn’t expect.

At 10:44 PM on November 2, 2015, Ron “Blake” Blake was ready to end his life. A split-second laugh during The Late Show with Stephen Colbert interrupted the plan—and it changed everything. In this conversation, Blake and I talk about what came next: PTSD after sexual assault, dissociative amnesia, and a 10-year, one-human mission to gather stories on giant foam boards. Today there are 522 boards covered with 34,000+ names, poems, prayers, jokes, and equations. Proof that we belong to each other.

I love this talk because it’s not shiny; it’s honest. We sit with the hard and notice where the light still gets in. If you’re in a long night—or love someone who is—I hope this feels like a hand on your shoulder.

In this episode:

• “10:44 PM” — the laugh that stopped a suicide plan
• What dissociative amnesia felt like from the inside
• 522 boards, 32 Sharpies, and why being heard can be medicine
• A student at SDSU who chose to stay because Blake showed up
• Why his “symbolic goal” (getting on The Late Show) still matters

Find Blake: Instagram @blakelateshow | Documentary I AM (Sinconus Studios)

If you’re in crisis (US): Call/text 988 or visit 988lifeline.org

Thank you for listening to Hope Comes to Visit. If this conversation helps, follow the show, share it with someone who needs hope today, and leave a review - it helps others find their way to these conversations.

New episodes drop every Monday, so you can begin your week with a little light and a lot of hope.

For more stories, reflections, and ways to connect, visit www.DanielleElliottSmith.com or follow along on Instagram @daniellesmithtv and @HopeComestoVisit

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Hope isn’t the absence of fear—it’s the light that keeps you moving when fear won’t leave.
In this tender, no-fluff conversation, I sit with Sam Bonizzi, co-author of The Losses We Keep, as she shares how two missed miscarriages upended everything: the shock of hard news in an ultrasound room, the moment she fired a clinic that wouldn’t test her partner, and how she built a real support web—REI + acupuncture + therapy + a circle of women who “got it.”

We wade through conflicting advice, why testing doesn’t always hand you tidy answers, and how Sam chose IVF with genetic screening to reduce risk (not promise outcomes). We also name the complicated reality of pregnancy after loss—milestones as checkpoints, waiting rooms as triggers, and the slow release of tension week by week.

If you’re walking this road (or loving someone who is), you’ll leave with language, next steps, and permission to hold hope and fear at the same time.

You’ll hear:

• What a missed miscarriage is—and why it can feel so blindsiding
• How to advocate for yourself (and when to switch clinics) so both partners are evaluated
• Building a support team: medical care, acupuncture, therapy, community
• When testing gives no clear diagnosis—and how to choose your next best step
• IVF + genetic screening: risk reduction, not guarantees
• Pregnancy after loss: navigating triggers, milestones, mixed emotions
• How to support a loved one without toxic positivity

Check out Sam's Book - The Losses We Keep, Our Journey of Fertility, Loss and Never-Ending Hope - Her Chapter is 'If Nothing is Wrong, Then How Do We Fix It?"

Thank you for listening to Hope Comes to Visit. If this conversation helps, follow the show, share it with someone who needs hope today, and leave a review - it helps others find their way to these conversations.

New episodes drop every Monday, so you can begin your week with a little light and a lot of hope.

For more stories, reflections, and ways to connect, visit www.DanielleElliottSmith.com or follow along on Instagram @daniellesmithtv and @HopeComestoVisit