Too Much with Denise Love Hewett

The Brain of a Non-Procrastinator: Understanding Your Neuro-Motivational Strategy with Amina Zamani

Ever wonder why some people execute effortlessly while others struggle with procrastination? In this episode, Denise sits down with neuroplasticity expert Amina Zamani to decode the brain of a non-procrastinator through neurological modeling.
Discover how childhood experiences create neural pathways for execution, why motivation isn't about willpower or habits, and how to overcome limbic friction, the emotional resistance that stops you from taking action. Amina maps Denise's execution strategy, revealing how safety, self-efficacy, and early coding shape our ability to get things done. In this episode, you'll learn:
What neurological modeling is and how to map your brain's motivation patterns
The difference between rewiring your brain and building new neural pathways (neurogenesis)
Why execution is a safety mechanism, not a character trait
How to use the "two-minute rule" to overcome procrastination
Somatic integration techniques to balance execution with ease
The shadow side of high achievement and trauma-driven productivity
Whether you're an oldest daughter who learned to execute through responsibility or someone struggling to finish projects, this conversation offers neuroscience-backed strategies for sustainable productivity, self-trust, and nervous system regulation.
Keywords: procrastination, neuroplasticity, productivity, execution, brain mapping, nervous system regulation, self-efficacy, limbic friction, trauma response, neuroscience, motivation
You can follow her @aminazamani
You can follow this podcast @toomuchwithdlh and Denise @deniselovehewett
Email hello@deniselovehewett.com for any suggestions or advice.
 

Getting Fired Used To Be A Rite Of Passage. Then Came 2025

What happens when getting fired transforms from a painful but growth-inducing experience into a tool of systemic oppression? Denise shares her personal journey through multiple job losses and firings, revealing how she initially viewed these experiences as a "female rite of passage" that ultimately pushed her toward entrepreneurship. But 2025 changed everything.
In this solo episode, Denise unpacks the devastating shift from individual career setbacks to mass purges targeting marginalized workers. She examines the staggering statistic that 300,000 Black women were forced out of the workforce between January and August 2025 and explores the deliberate dismantling of DEI programs that once provided pathways to economic stability. Key topics include:
Personal stories of being fired and the lessons learned from workplace mismatches
Why female entrepreneurship surged 69% in 2025 and what's driving this shift
The rollback of DEI initiatives despite proven profit increases for diverse teams
How Black women are disproportionately affected by federal employment cuts
The stark reality that only 54% of companies now prioritize women's career advancement (down from 91% in 2021)
Why the wage gap persists and what it means for women's economic futures
The cost of mass purges: billions in lost tax revenue and innovation driven underground
This episode is essential listening for anyone navigating workplace dynamics, career transitions, women in business, or understanding the current state of diversity and inclusion in corporate America.
Originally published on Substack with full citations and research links.
#GettingFired #WomenInBusiness #DEI #FemaleEntrepreneurship #WorkplaceDiversity #CareerAdvice #BlackWomenAtWork #CorporateCulture #WomenLeaders #2025WorkforceTrends

Why Millennials Look Younger Than Gen Z: Lynette Astaire on Mindset & Longevity Secrets

Ever wonder why millennials seem to be aging better than Gen Z? In this eye-opening episode, Denise explores the science of longevity with LA-based intuitive wellness expert Lynette Astaire, who specializes in nutrition, mindset, and metabolic health.
With over 20 years of fasting experience, Lynette has worked with Grammy-winning musicians, visionary CEOs, and elite athletes to support sustainable high performance and long-term vitality. She's known for making complex health concepts accessible and asking the uncomfortable questions most people avoid. In this conversation, you'll discover:
Why sleep and hydration are the two most critical factors for anti-aging (not what you'd expect!)
How to identify if you're living in a chronic cortisol loop and what to do about it
Why linen sheets might be the best anti-aging investment you make
How to build wellness habits using "budget and bandwidth" as your framework
The difference between who you want to be and who you actually are (and why it matters)
Habit-stacking strategies for founders and busy professionals
Why you can't outsource your responsibility for wellness
Lynette shares candid insights from her work with high-performers, including how to spot when someone is ready for transformation versus when they need therapy first. If you're tired of wellness advice that doesn't fit your real life, this episode is for you.
🎧 New episodes of Too Much every Monday.
📍 Follow the podcast: @toomuchwithdlh 💫 Follow Denise: @deniselovehewett 🎙 Follow Lynette: @lynette.astaire or lynetteAstaire.com
Download her fasting guide "Reset with Lynette" for structured protocols and special guidance for women.
📨 Questions, reflections, or submissions: hello@deniselovehewett.com
 

Rewriting Your Story: Why the Arts are Essential for Well-Being with Dr. Tasha Golden

What happens when the story you built your life around no longer holds?
This week, we sit down with Dr. Tasha Golden behavioral scientist, former touring musician, published poet, and one of the leading voices at the intersection of creativity, mental health, and systems change to explore what it means to outgrow an identity, confront burnout, and imagine new ways of being well in a world that often makes that feel impossible.
Dr. Golden’s path spans both sides of the brain: from international touring as a singer-songwriter to pioneering research on creativity-driven growth, wellbeing, and innovation. After severe burnout and depression ended her music career, she began asking deeper questions about mental health, meaning, and the role of the arts in human survival—questions that ultimately led her to a PhD in public health and global work at the forefront of arts-and-health research. Together, we unpack:
Why burnout is not a personal failure, but often a structural oneHow capitalist systems push creatives into false “all or nothing” narrativesWhy wellbeing is more than the absence of suffering—and why suffering doesn’t negate meaning or beautyThe limits of language when describing grief, growth, and resilienceCreativity as an act of refusal, not escapismImagination as a practical tool for survival, agency, and changeWhat it means to “go upstream” and question the systems that keep us dysregulated and stuck
We also explore post-traumatic growth, the myth of resilience as “bouncing back,” and why some of the most transformative growth comes not from optimism, but from a grounded refusal to accept the world exactly as it is.
This conversation is for creatives, thinkers, and anyone navigating grief, transition, or burnout, especially those who feel caught between survival and meaning, realism and hope, science and soul.
Listen to the full episode to explore how creativity doesn’t just help us cope but also helps us reimagine what’s possible.
🎧 New episodes of Too Much every Monday.
📍 Follow the podcast: @toomuchwithdlh 💫 Follow Denise: @deniselovehewett 🎙 Follow Dr. Golden: @tasha.golden
Go to https://www.tashagolden.com/toomuch for free resources and information on how to work with her
📨 Questions, reflections, or submissions: hello@deniselovehewett.com

Curiosity, Creative Confidence & Becoming the Main Character with Anna Howard

What happens when you stop waiting to be “ready” and start trusting your curiosity?
Denise sits down with podcast host, editor, and creative strategist Anna Howard, the creator of Wild Geese, a podcast inspired by Mary Oliver’s iconic poem and the liberating idea that you do not have to be good to begin.
Anna’s work centers on curiosity as a creative force. After years working behind the scenes producing and editing podcasts, she stepped out of the shadows and launched Wild Geese, growing it from zero to over 170,000 listeners in under a year by rejecting rigid marketing rules and building from self-trust instead.
Together, Denise and Anna explore what it means to become the main character of your creative life, why being a beginner is essential to growth, and how learning, creativity, and success actually unfold outside traditional systems. This conversation dives into:
Why you don’t hate learning, you hate schoolThe courage it takes to step out of “shadow artist” roles and claim your voiceLetting go of perfectionism and allowing yourself to be bad at firstHow curiosity fuels creativity more than strategy or productivityThe difference between artist timelines and marketing timelinesCreative process as digital gardening, research, and synthesisTrusting when an idea is ready and when it needs more timeWhy nurturing ideas is as powerful as inventing new onesHow podcasting and long-form thinking reshape how we learn and live
Anna also shares her behind-the-scenes creative process, from researching as leisure to connecting disparate ideas over time, and why giving your work space to mature often leads to deeper, more sustainable success.
This episode is for creatives, thinkers, podcasters, writers, and anyone who feels pressure to rush, monetize, or perfect their ideas before they’ve had time to breathe.
New episodes of Too Much every Monday.
📍 Follow the podcast: @toomuchwithdlh 💫 Follow Denise: @deniselovehewett 🎙 Follow Anna: @wildgeesepod and @iamannacorinne on youtube
📨 Questions, reflections, or submissions: hello@deniselovehewett.com

The Truth About Being a Working Creative in a Capitalist World

What does it really mean to be a working creative in today’s world?
In this solo career episode of Too Much, Denise Love Hewett breaks down the realities of building a creative life without burning out, going broke, or forcing yourself into someone else’s timeline. Drawing from her own experience starting over at 33 after her company shut down, Denise shares what it actually takes to sustain creativity in a capitalist system that rarely supports artists.
This episode is an honest, practical roadmap for creatives who feel behind, conflicted, or pressured to “go all in” before they’re financially ready. Denise challenges the myth that you must quit your job to be taken seriously and offers a grounded framework for building a creative life that honors both ambition and well-being. In this episode, Denise explores:
What it means to start over in your 30s and relinquish societal timelines
Why failure can free you creatively instead of breaking you
The myth of “going all in” and why it’s often rooted in privilege
How to balance financial security with creative fulfillment
The difference between energetically positive, neutral, and draining work
How to build a creative life with side hustles, freelance work, or a salary job
Why discipline, not inspiration, sustains creativity long-term
How to time block your days as a creative and treat your work like a real job
How to stop waiting for more money, followers, or permission to begin
Why being a creative today also means being the CEO of your own life
Denise also shares the behind-the-scenes structure of her own creative process, from podcasting and DJing to writing, speaking, and building long-term infrastructure for creative freedom. This episode is especially valuable for artists, writers, performers, entrepreneurs, and anyone navigating career pivots or questioning their creative path.
If you’ve ever felt behind, afraid to start, or unsure how to make creativity sustainable, this episode will help you trust your timing and commit to your work without self-betrayal.
New episodes every Monday.
You can follow this podcast @toomuchwithdlh and Denise @deniselovehewett
Email hello@deniselovehewett.com for any suggestions or advice.
Subscribe to the Substack for deeper frameworks and essays supporting an independent creative life.
 

Sacred Rage Isn’t Destructive, It’s Informational with Joy Donnell

What if rage isn’t something to suppress but something sacred trying to guide you home? In this powerful episode, Denise sits down with writer, poet, and cultural thinker Joy Donnell to explore sacred rage, devotion over discipline, and how discomfort can become the blueprint for a more honest, liberated life.
This conversation explores how anger can be informational rather than destructive, how grief and rage signal what we are devoted to, and why many of us feel an unshakable knowing that “we deserve better than this.” Together, Denise and Joy unpack how transformation happens when we stop numbing discomfort and start listening to it. In this episode, we explore:
Why sacred rage is a signal for change, not something to repress
How devotion is more sustainable than discipline
The difference between healing and bypassing discomfort
How creative work becomes a vessel for transmuting rage into vision
Why remembering who you are is a political, personal, and spiritual act
How to stop shaping your life around survival and start shaping it around meaning
This episode is for anyone who feels unsettled by the status quo, exhausted by self-abandonment, or quietly aware that a truer life is calling.
Joy Donnell is a wordsmith of well-being. Her short fiction has appeared in Grist and Short Edition, and her poetry has been honored by the Science Fiction Poetry Association. Her first book, Beyond Brand, explores personal branding through the lens of personal development. Joy’s short documentary, Inseparable from the Sunlight, illuminates how our health is connected to plants, the Earth, and the cosmos. Her poetry collection, Show Us Your Fire, celebrates disruption as a path to ease and our birthright to inner peace.
You can follow her @doitinpublic
You can follow this podcast @toomuchwithdlh and Denise @deniselovehewett
Email hello@deniselovehewett.com for any suggestions or advice.

Why You Shouldn’t Fear Being a Beginner: Career Growth Through Learning New Skills

In this solo episode, I’m diving deep into two things:
How to confidently advocate for yourself in interviews, pitches, and career transitions
Why being a beginner is actually your greatest superpower
After changing industries four times, taking big swings, failing publicly, and starting again, I’ve learned a lot about identity, reinvention, intuition, and believing you’re allowed to take up space. We talk about: 
Why you’re the expert of your own story
Getting over the fear of “bragging” in interviews
Letting yourself be bad at something new
How to build confidence through consistent practice over time
Turning perceived weaknesses into unexpected strengths
The power of intuition in shaping your career
If you’ve ever felt behind, unqualified, or scared to start — this episode is your reminder that small steps create massive impact. If this resonated, leave a comment with your own six-word memoir — where you are now, and where you want to be.
Keywords: career confidence, how to pitch yourself, self advocacy tips, being a beginner, fear of starting, career advice for women, early career tips, interview confidence, intuition and creativity, reinventing yourself, personal growth podcast, self development motivation

From Survivor to Advocate: Jimanekia Eborn on Trauma-Informed Healing and Reclaiming Your Life

In this powerful episode, Denise sits down with trauma specialist and educator Jimanekia Eborn to discuss healing from sexual assault, navigating complex trauma, and finding safety in uncertain times. Jimanekia, founder of Tending the Garden nonprofit and host of the Trauma Queen Podcast, shares her personal journey as a survivor and expert with over 17 years of experience in mental health and sexuality education. This conversation covers essential topics including:
Understanding trauma: Complex trauma vs. acute trauma and how it shapes our lives
The difference between somatic therapy and talk therapy for trauma recovery
Practical grounding techniques using your five senses
The trauma response of "fawning" and why it's a valid survival mechanism
How to ask for support from your community during triggering moments
Finding the right trauma-informed therapist (and why not all therapists are equipped for trauma work)
Building resilience and safety during politically turbulent times
The importance of joy and community connection in healing
Why anger is informational and how to use it for positive change
Listeners will learn actionable tools for regulation, how to create a personal grounding kit, the importance of interviewing therapists, and ways to show up for social justice work based on individual skills and comfort levels.
This episode includes discussions of sexual assault and may be triggering for some listeners. Please practice self-care while listening.
Jimanekia Eborn is a trauma specialist, educator, and strategist with over 17 years of experience in mental health, sexuality education, and survivor advocacy. She is the founder of Tending the Garden, a nonprofit organization that supports survivors of sexual assault from marginalized communities, and the host of the Trauma Queen podcast. Jimanekia’s work bridges care, culture, and systems change consulting with media, education, and wellness organizations on trauma-informed practices and equity-driven leadership. She is also the co-founder of CINTIMA, expanding representation in intimacy coordination across film and TV.
You can follow her  @jimanekia
You can follow this podcast @toomuchwithdlh and Denise @deniselovehewett
Email hello@deniselovehewett.com for any suggestions or advice.
 

From Wounded to Healthy Ambition

 In this solo episode, Denise explores the critical difference between wounded ambition and healthy ambition and how understanding this distinction can transform your entire approach to work and success. In this episode, you'll discover:
What wounded ambition is and how to recognize it in your own life
The psychological concept of the hedonic treadmill and why external achievements never satisfy
How to identify your core values using proven methodologies (including free tools)
The difference between hedonistic and eudemonic pleasure—and why it matters for lasting fulfillment
Practical steps to transition from burnout-driven achievement to purpose-driven success
Why successful people are often unhappy and how to avoid the same trap
How to maintain big dreams while prioritizing relationships and well-being
Perfect for ambitious professionals, recovering workaholics, entrepreneurs experiencing burnout, anyone feeling like success is coming at too high a personal cost, and career-driven individuals seeking more alignment and fulfillment.
Key concepts discussed: Values alignment, sustainable leadership, work-life integration, nervous system regulation, purpose-driven career development, and building success without self-betrayal.
Whether you're in the middle of a career crisis or simply sensing that your ambition is costing you too much, this episode offers a roadmap for transformation, proof that you can still achieve your biggest dreams while becoming more present, loving, and fulfilled.
Works referenced:
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
Gallup CliftonStrengths (StrengthsFinder) Assessment
The Values Bridge by Suzy Welch