What if your "glow up" isn't a makeover… it's freedom?

In this episode of Surviving Roots, Cari Fund sits down with Michelle Fairburn—mother of two, creator, and living proof that rebuilding a life doesn't happen overnight (and doesn't need to look polished to be powerful).

Michelle became a mom at 20, navigated profound loss and a mother wound, and later survived a fast-moving relationship that turned abusive after marriage. Together, Cari and Michelle unpack the real behind-the-scenes of healing: self-forgiveness, faith, identity, parenting while evolving, and what it takes to break cycles without pretending it's "easy."

In this episode, we talk about:

• Becoming a mom at 20—and why her kids were planned.

• The "mother wound," abandonment, grief, and missing pieces you can't Google.

• How love-bombing can look like a fairy tale… until it doesn't.

• Red flags: moving too fast, isolation, jealousy, identity erasure ("my wife").

• Self-forgiveness as the moment you finally unlock your life.

• Faith as a turning point (and the difference between healing and pretending).

• Parenting with grace: not bashing dads, letting kids see truth for themselves.

• Creating content with her daughter as a business: impact + income.

• Handling trolls (and what happens when someone comes for your kid).

Michelle's story is honest, funny, raw, and deeply human—and it'll leave you thinking about what "freedom" really means.

Find Michelle: @michellefairburn (on all platforms)

Find Cari: @cari.fund

If this episode hits home, share it with a friend—and don't forget to follow, rate, and review.

Check out my Estrangment Survival Mini-Guide

What does it really take to leave a narcissistic relationship—without losing your finances, your children, or yourself?

In this powerful episode of Surviving Roots, I sit down with Camille Zhuk, founder of The Breaking Free Project, a strategic support platform designed to help individuals—especially parents—safely exit narcissistic relationships.

With a background in business and finance and specialized training in narcissistic abuse recovery, coercive control, domestic violence advocacy, and behavioral profiling, Camille offers something rare: clear, logical strategy paired with deep compassion—without pretending to be a therapist.

In this conversation, we unpack:

• How to protect your finances when leaving a narcissistic spouse

• Why you must plan quietly—and what happens if you don't

• How to protect children from emotional harm and parental alienation

• The importance of evidence documentation and legal strategy

• Early red flags like mirroring, moving too fast, and refusal to accept "no"

• Why calm and control—not confrontation—are your greatest tools

This episode is not about labels or trends. It's about education, safety, and reclaiming your peace.

If you're asking yourself, "Am I married to a narcissist?" Camille also shares a free first step: you can take an assessment on their website to help you identify narcissistic patterns and clarify what you're dealing with.

🎧 Listen now and learn more at breakingfreeproject.com

Follow Cari Fund at @cari.fund

Motherhood isn't just hard — it's heavy. And one of the biggest invisible weights? Feeding everyone… every single day.

In this episode of Surviving Roots, Cari Fund sits down with Diana Arango, co-founder + CEO of Chefpost, a platform connecting busy families with vetted personal chefs on demand. Diana shares the real story behind Chefpost: how her own burnout as a working mom sparked a mission to help families reclaim time, presence, and connection at home.

In this conversation, we cover:

• The mental load of meal planning (and why it's exhausting)

• Why "balance" is a myth — and what actually works for moms

• How to shift from a suffering mindset to a supported life

• Why asking for help is strength, not failure

• How Chefpost makes personal chef support accessible and flexible

Explore Chefpost: chefpost.com

Subscribe for more conversations on healing, motherhood, boundaries, and building a life that actually feels good. www.instagram.com/cari.fund

If the holidays bring up complicated feelings about family, you're not broken — you're human.
My Estrangement Survival Mini Guide is for adult children navigating distance, boundaries, or no-contact with a parent while still wanting peace, clarity, and self-trust. It's not about blame or cutting people off. It's about understanding your nervous system, releasing guilt, and choosing what supports your healing — whatever that looks like for you.

Click here: https://cari-fund.myshopify.com/

At twenty, she found her father after a fatal accident.
At forty, she lost her husband to cancer.
And somehow—she found herself again.

In this deeply human conversation, lifestyle and beauty creator Rachael Potash shares how she turned unimaginable loss into a story of reinvention, healing, and hope. Now a mom of two and a bonus mom to four, she's helping women over 40 feel seen, confident, and hopeful again through fashion, beauty, and honest storytelling.

Rachael opens up about:

💔 Losing her husband at 40 and rebuilding her life from scratch
💫 Navigating motherhood, grief, and a blended family of six kids
💋 Finding love again — and redefining beauty, confidence, and identity in midlife
🧠 Choosing better instead of bitter, and learning to honor both joy and loss

This is not a story about tragedy.
It's a story about rebirth — the kind that happens when you decide your second act will be your strongest.

Listen to Reinvention After Loss: Confidence, Healing, and Finding Love Again at 40 on the Surviving Roots Podcast with host Cari Fund.

Follow @rachaelpotash, @survivingrootspod, and @cari.fund on Instagram for more real conversations on healing, motherhood, and starting over.

What happens when the "good daughter" wakes up to the truth?

In this week's Surviving Roots episode, Cari Fund sits down with Lauren Smallcomb — certified mind-body practitioner, trauma survivor, and author of Golden Child: My Descent to Scapegoat and Rise to Freedom.

Lauren shares her journey from being the adored "golden child" in a rigid, religious family to becoming the scapegoat when faith, politics, and identity collided. Together, Cari and Lauren explore what it means to break free from high-control systems, redefine forgiveness, and rebuild a life rooted in freedom, grief, and authenticity.

You'll hear:
✨ The painful shift from golden child to scapegoat
✨ How patriarchy and religion shaped her silence
✨ Why acceptance (not forgiveness) is where healing begins
✨ What parenting looks like after breaking generational cycles

Grab Golden Child wherever books are sold and follow Lauren's work at @flourish_therapy and @goldenchildbook.

🎧 Listen to Surviving Roots Podcast on all major platforms — and don't forget to leave a review and share this episode with someone who's healing from a family that couldn't hold their truth.

Follow Cari Fund at @cari.fund on Istagram.

What if setting boundaries isn't about pushing people away — but about finally choosing yourself?

In this powerful and deeply relatable conversation, Harvard-trained clinical psychologist Dr. Sabrina Romanoff joins Surviving Roots host Cari Fund to unpack the hidden patterns that shape our relationships — from friendship breakups and people-pleasing to the repetition of childhood wounds in our adult lives.

Together they explore:

• Why boundaries are acts of preservation, not rejection.

• How self-abandonment begins in childhood — and how to stop repeating it.

• The psychology behind friendship breakups and envy.

• What "getting comfortable in the uncomfortable" really looks like.

• How to know if someone is a battery or a generator in your life.

• Why guilt can actually be a sign of healing.

Whether you're untangling toxic dynamics or learning to stand in your worth, this episode will help you reconnect with the version of yourself you've been betraying just to keep the peace.

✨ Connect with Dr. Sabrina Romanoff: @drsabrinaromanoff
🎧 Listen to more episodes of Surviving Roots — streaming now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major platforms.
📘 Download The Bold Self-Healing Guide — your free resource for turning pain into potential, linked in Cari's bio at @cari.fund

In this raw and soul-stirring episode of Surviving Roots, Cari Fund sits down with Michelle Garside—co-founder of Soul Camp Creative, a sacred strategy house helping purpose-driven people and organizations tell their most authentic stories.

Michelle has spent her career creating transformative spaces like Soul Camp, The Enchantment Experience, and The Connecticut Women's Club. But beneath all that success is a story of radical truth-telling, recovery, and what it really means to belong.

Together, Cari and Michelle dive deep into the loneliness that hides beneath high achievement, the spiritual disconnection that fuels addiction, and the messy, beautiful process of coming home to yourself.

Michelle opens up about her recovery from bulimia, addiction, and alcoholism—and how shame became the doorway to her power. She shares the story behind her upcoming 2027 book, Not Awakened, which challenges the illusion of "perfect enlightenment" and invites us to embrace our full, human messiness instead.

✨ Inside the episode:

• The loneliness that success can't fill

• Motherhood as a spiritual practice of imperfection

• Recovery and radical truth-telling

• The healing power of community and belonging

• "God comes through guys"—how love can become a mirror for awakening

• The anti-guru message behind Not Awakened

💬 "Loneliness is a spiritual hole."
💬 "We become the choices that we make."
💬 "Maybe we're not meant to be enlightened—maybe we're meant to be human."

Follow @cari.fund and @survivingrootspod for more stories about truth, healing, and becoming who you were meant to be.

🌿 Get My Free Guide:
Ready to start your own journey of self-discovery and healing?
Download my free Bold Self-Growth Guide at www.cari.fund — your roadmap to reconnecting with yourself, setting boundaries, and creating the life you actually want.

Writer, mother, and reluctant socialite Asha Elias joins Cari to talk about reinvention, resilience, and the real story behind her rapid rise as a novelist. From launching Pink Glass Houses to celebrating the release of The Namaste Club, Asha opens up about writing, grief, raising two kids post-divorce, and how dating a younger man has taught her about love and softness in relationships.

Asha has contributed to Cosmopolitan magazine and is a regular columnist for Miami New Times. She lives in Miami Beach.

This conversation is honest, inspiring, hilarious, and packed with reminders that you can start over at any time — and do it loudly.

This episode explores:

Writing books faster than people have babies

• Reclaiming your voice after family childhood dysfunction

• Dating younger and being loved how you've always wanted

• Grieving a complicated relationship with her late mother

• Letting go of shame and the power of trying again

If you're standing at the edge of reinvention, this one's your permission slip to leap.

Books discussed: Pink Glass Houses & The Namaste Club

Connect with Asha on Instagram @asha.sue.elias

Connect with Cari on Instagram @cari.fund

Listen to Surviving Roots wherever you get your podcasts.