In this episode of Stories Across the Table, Bridget Cook-Burch and Steve Ramona welcome Serena Mastin, author of Exposed: You Can't Heal When You Hide, a woman who has spent her life learning that the very pattern that kept her safe as a child was the same one quietly unraveling everything she loved as an adult.

Serena's earliest years were shaped by survival. Her biological father was the leader of a satanic cult, and the abuse she suffered before the age of five set her family on the run, eventually landing her in witness protection and a series of foster homes where she was moved without warning, sometimes in the middle of the night. By fifteen she was living on the streets, enrolling herself in high school, working three jobs, and hiding every bit of it from the world.

Hiding became her armor and her habit. She carried it into her marriage, concealing her husband's affairs and addiction to protect everyone around her until the day he took his own life in 2020. And then, just as she was finishing her book and beginning to step into the light, she lost her fiance Thomas unexpectedly at thirty-six years old, only eight weeks before this conversation was recorded.

What Serena offers through all of it is not a story of being broken, but a story of learning that you cannot earn love, you can only receive it, and that you cannot heal what you are still hiding. Her book began as a private act of healing she planned to keep under her bed. Publishing it was the first time she refused to hide.

Pull up a chair for one of the most raw and honest conversations this podcast has had, and for a reminder that being alone is a state of being, but loneliness is only a state of mind.


BIO:
Serena Mastin is the founder of Pulse Marketing, an award-winning agency blending traditional and digital strategies to help businesses grow. Driven by a passion for entrepreneurship and shaped by her own journey of healing, she is committed to empowering others to embrace resilience and transformation. Through her leadership, Serena fosters connection, growth, and authenticity, guiding both clients and peers to navigate the challenges of business and life with strength and purpose.


LINKS:
Agency Website: www.heartofcreative.com
Author Website: www.serenamastin.com
IG: https://www.instagram.com/heartfeltstories2026/
IG: https://www.instagram.com/pulse_marketing/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PulseMarketingTeam
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heartofcreative/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/serenamastin/
Amazon: amazon.com/author/serenamastin
Audible: https://www.audible.com/pd/Exposed-Audiobook/B0CF3NDWGM?action_code=ASSGB149080119000H&share_location=pdp

• YouTube: @StoriesAcrossTheTable https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHPeekMqKYjBAwO28gLSvRA
• Bridget’s Free Community - Inspired Writers Clubhouse for Writers and Authors: https://www.inspiredwritersclubhouse.com
• Bridget’s Free Newsletter: https://www.yourinspiredstory.com/newsletter
• Steve’s Free Community: https://www.skool.com/steve-ramona-community-9836
• Steve’s Free Newsletter: https://doing-business-with-a-servants-heart.kit.com/steveramona
• Steve’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steveramona/’
• Bridget’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mbridgetcookburch/
• Steve’s X/Twitter: https://x.com/oppbroker
• Bridget’s X/Twitter: @inspiritwriter
• Steve’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bizopportunitynow/
• Bridget’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bridgetcookburch/
• Substack: https://p...

In this episode of Stories Across the Table, Bridget Cook-Burch and Steve Ramona welcome Wendy Hooton, author, advocate, and mom to a young man she describes as the greatest teacher of her life. Her son Matt was born with Down syndrome in 1990, at a time when very little was known or celebrated about what people with Down syndrome could become, and Wendy has spent the thirty-five years since proving the world wrong about him.

When Matt was born, a hospital visitor suggested she consider giving him up for adoption. Her doctor responded by naming the baby Matthew, which means “gift of God”, and telling Wendy she would find her child to be a gift every single day. Those two reactions lit a fire in her that has never gone out. She left that hospital determined to give her son the fullest life possible, and she has done exactly that.

Today Matt is known as Super Matt in the communities that have followed his story. He loves to dance, he is married to Katy Perry (in his own very certain mind), and he has quietly changed the way thousands of people think about Down syndrome simply by being himself! Wendy shares the humor, the hard days, the book signings, the Vegas coming-of-age birthday trip, and the tears she still cries in the laundry room, because she has never pretended the journey is easy. She just keeps showing up for it.

Her book, Big People Don't Pee in the Park, is as honest and joyful as she is, and Bridget Cook-Burch says she was honored to walk with her along the writing process, watching Wendy blossom.

Pull up a chair for a story about choosing to celebrate instead of compare, and learning to live with as much love and as little filter as Super Matt himself.

BIO:
Wendy is an author, mentor, speaker, and Down syndrome advocate, basically multitasking life like it’s an extreme sport. She is on a mission to help others find strength and purpose in their own journey.

In addition to her memoir, she contributed chapters on confidence, resilience, and grief in Share Your Brilliance and Threads of Gold. When she’s not writing or connecting with others, you’ll find her walking in nature enjoying the beautiful world around us, listening to music, and traveling to new destinations. But most of all she enjoys soaking up life’s joyful moments… especially those that include her husband and son.

LINKS:
Website: wendylhooton.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61555146315134
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wendy-hooton-1bb072148/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/peaceowendy/?hl=en
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DownRightFun
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WendyHooton

• YouTube: @StoriesAcrossTheTable https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHPeekMqKYjBAwO28gLSvRA
• Bridget’s Free Community - Inspired Writers Clubhouse for Writers and Authors: https://www.inspiredwritersclubhouse.com
• Bridget’s Free Newsletter: https://www.yourinspiredstory.com/newsletter
• Steve’s Free Community: https://www.skool.com/steve-ramona-community-9836
• Steve’s Free Newsletter: https://doing-business-with-a-servants-heart.kit.com/steveramona
• Steve’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steveramona/’
• Bridget’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mbridgetcookburch/
• Steve’s X/Twitter: https://x.com/oppbroker
• Bridget’s X/Twitter: @inspiritwriter
• Steve’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bizopportunitynow/
• Bridget’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bridgetcookburch/
• Substack: https://p...

In this Good Friday episode of Stories Across the Table, Bridget Cook-Burch and Steve Romano welcome Paula Eve Davis, breast cancer survivor, bodybuilding champion, and founder of the Good Samaritan Project, a national organization inspired by the parable that has shaped her life since childhood.

Paula was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer twenty years ago, just as she’d begun training to become a bodybuilder. Rather than abandoning that dream, she let it carry her through a mastectomy, chemotherapy, and a survival rate she was told hovered around eleven percent. She competed anyway, the med port still visible beneath her skin, as she used sign language in her routines to remind audiences, without needing a microphone, that they are loved and valued exactly as they are.

What emerges is a story about surrender rather than control, about trusting that Grace is sufficient even when healing doesn’t look the way we expect. Paula speaks candidly about the husband who refused to let her quit, the church community who filled hospital waiting rooms like a family picnic, and the athletes and doctors whose lives shifted simply by watching Paula as she kept showing up.

Now author of Grace and Grit, plus a fierce advocate for others, Paula channels that same fierce hope into the Good Samaritan Project, helping others who feel stranded find someone willing to stop.

Pull up a chair for a story of breaking, becoming, and the kind of grit that only grace can produce.

Bio:
Paula Eve Davis is a cancer survivor, 10-year bodybuilding competitor, and 3-time Ms. Indiana Women’s Bodybuilding Champion who transformed personal adversity into a life of purpose. After being diagnosed with breast cancer that spread to 21 lymph nodes, she made a decision to rebuild her life through faith, discipline, and service. She is the founder of the Good Samaritan Project, a nonprofit serving families, youth, and seniors, and owner of Fit 4 Ever Health & Wellness. Through her message of Grace & Grit, she now helps others turn what tried
to break them into a life of purpose.

Links:
● Learn more about her community work: https://www.goodsamaritanproject.net
● Train with Paula: https://www.fit4everhealthandwellness.com
● Facebook (Paula Eve Davis):
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063859038309
● Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fit4everhealth

• YouTube: @StoriesAcrossTheTable https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHPeekMqKYjBAwO28gLSvRA
• Bridget’s Free Community - Inspired Writers Clubhouse for Writers and Authors: https://www.inspiredwritersclubhouse.com
• Bridget’s Free Newsletter: https://www.yourinspiredstory.com/newsletter
• Steve’s Free Community: https://www.skool.com/steve-ramona-community-9836
• Steve’s Free Newsletter: https://doing-business-with-a-servants-heart.kit.com/steveramona
• Steve’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steveramona/’
• Bridget’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mbridgetcookburch/
• Steve’s X/Twitter: https://x.com/oppbroker
• Bridget’s X/Twitter: @inspiritwriter
• Steve’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bizopportunitynow/
• Bridget’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bridgetcookburch/
• Substack: https://p...

LINKS: https://www.elainedamschen.com
Facebook: Elaine Damschen - Author
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elaine.damschenauthor/
LinkedIn: Elaine Damschen

In this episode of Stories Across the Table, Bridget Cook-Burch and Steve Romano welcome Elaine Damschen, author of Made in Vietnam: My Epic American Journey, a businesswoman, speaker, and daughter of a story she didn’t fully understand until adulthood.

Elaine was conceived in Vietnam during the War, born in the United States, and raised in the mountains of North Idaho by a mother whose pain she couldn’t yet name. It wasn’t until a trip back to Vietnam at thirty-six that her parents finally shared the truth: her mother had survived being trafficked as a teenager, and the journey that brought Elaine to America as a citizen was nothing short of a miracle.

That revelation cracked Elaine’s heart wide open. Instead of resentment, she found compassion, and instead of distance, she found a deeper love for the mother she’d misunderstood for so long. That same resilience carried into her marriage, where she and her husband built a small electrical apprenticeship into Mainstream Electric Heating, Cooling and Plumbing, a company they grew for over twenty years and eventually sold.

Now retired, Elaine is far from finished. Between speaking engagements, a children’s book in progress, and a new swimwear line, she continues to live in the gratitude she discovered standing outside a hotel in Vietnam decades ago.

Pull up a chair for a story of inherited pain transformed into understanding, and proof that the most unexpected beginnings can still lead to a beautiful, vibrant and abundant life.


Bio:
Elaine Damschen is a #1 international best selling author, speaker, and mastermind host who believes in "Love in Action." She is a passionate advocate for women entrepreneurs and leaders, as well as the skilled trades.

Elaine was named "Woman of the Year" and "Top Entrepreneur of the Year" for co-founding Mainstream Home Services in 2000, a company named in the Inc 5000 list three times. Elaine has since sold her company. She has been married for over thirty years to her husband Todd and enjoys spending time with her children, daughters-in-law, and grandchildren.

• YouTube: @StoriesAcrossTheTable https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHPeekMqKYjBAwO28gLSvRA
• Bridget’s Free Community - Inspired Writers Clubhouse for Writers and Authors: https://www.inspiredwritersclubhouse.com
• Bridget’s Free Newsletter: https://www.yourinspiredstory.com/newsletter
• Steve’s Free Community: https://www.skool.com/steve-ramona-community-9836
• Steve’s Free Newsletter: https://doing-business-with-a-servants-heart.kit.com/steveramona
• Steve’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steveramona/’
• Bridget’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mbridgetcookburch/
• Steve’s X/Twitter: https://x.com/oppbroker
• Bridget’s X/Twitter: @inspiritwriter
• Steve’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bizopportunitynow/
• Bridget’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bridgetcookburch/
• Substack: https://p...

LINKS: www.Genshai.com

AUTHOR: The Genshai Effect

In this episode of Stories Across the Table, Bridget Cook-Burch and Steve Romano welcome Lance Schiffman, CEO of Genshai and a man who has spent decades turning his own lowest moments into a mission of radical kindness. Genshai is more than a nonprofit. It’s a calling, built around one unforgettable idea: never treat anyone in a manner that makes them feel small, including yourself.

Lance traces that calling back to his teenage years, when he had to grow up fast and move out at seventeen, and to a defining moment at eighteen when a skeptical Utah governor looked him in the eyes, believed in him, and changed the course of his life. Decades later, struggling again and pedaling through his pain on a bicycle, Lance received the word Genshai from a mentor, and something in him shifted for good.

What follows is the story of how one word became a movement. Lance now travels the world sharing silver Genshai coins, engraved with the word’s ancient meaning, as a way to help people honor the mentors who once believed in them, and to remind themselves that they are never too small to matter. Bridget shares her own connection to the word through author Rebecca Musser, whose courage in the face of cruelty became a testament to its power.

This conversation moves through vulnerability, gratitude, fatherhood, friendship, and the quiet bravery it takes to tell someone, while they’re still alive, exactly what they meant to you.

Pull up a chair for a story about turning smallness into strength, and discovering that every person you meet, including yourself, is the gift.

BIO:

Lance’s endeavors read like a roll call: philanthropist, entrepreneur, adventurer, investor, author, speaker, consultant, coach, humanitarian, advisor, and closest to his heart a father to three beautiful girls, grandchildren and a young son.

He has served as the angel investor to companies grown to multiple billions, created wealth in real estate, healthcare, repaired his body after intense cycling incidents, climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Elbrus among many peaks, authored books, serves on various boards.

• YouTube: @StoriesAcrossTheTable https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHPeekMqKYjBAwO28gLSvRA
• Bridget’s Free Community - Inspired Writers Clubhouse for Writers and Authors: https://www.inspiredwritersclubhouse.com
• Bridget’s Free Newsletter: https://www.yourinspiredstory.com/newsletter
• Steve’s Free Community: https://www.skool.com/steve-ramona-community-9836
• Steve’s Free Newsletter: https://doing-business-with-a-servants-heart.kit.com/steveramona
• Steve’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steveramona/’
• Bridget’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mbridgetcookburch/
• Steve’s X/Twitter: https://x.com/oppbroker
• Bridget’s X/Twitter: @inspiritwriter
• Steve’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bizopportunitynow/
• Bridget’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bridgetcookburch/
• Substack: https://p...

In this episode of Stories Across the Table, Bridget Cook-Burch and Steve Ramona welcome Gary and Leesa Price, a power couple whose lives together have been shaped by loss, survival, and an unwavering belief that tragedy can be transformed into something that lifts the entire world.

Gary's story begins at six years old, when he witnessed the murder-suicide of his mother and stepfather in Germany, then spent seven years enduring abuse after being moved to rural Idaho. What pulled him through was art. His first grade teacher, Mrs. Anderson, held up his drawings in front of the class again and again, giving a shattered little boy an identity and a reason to keep going. Decades later, Gary became an internationally acclaimed sculptor, and Stephen R. Covey commissioned him to give visual form to Victor Frankl's lifelong dream: a Statue of Responsibility to stand 305 feet tall on the West Coast as a counterpart to the Statue of Liberty.

Leesa's story begins from the opposite end of the pendulum. Raised with deep confidence by a father who always told her she could do it, she needed every ounce of that belief at twenty-six, when she was widowed with four children, the youngest only six months old. That voice carried her through, and eventually into a life of advocating for women and helping others find their footing in impossible circumstances.

Together, Gary and Leesa also share the story behind their book, Divine Turbulence, co-authored with Bridget Cook-Burch, and why every dollar of its proceeds goes toward making the Statue of Responsibility a reality.

Pull up a chair for a story about two hands reaching toward each other, and what becomes possible when someone simply chooses to believe in you.

• YouTube: @StoriesAcrossTheTable https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHPeekMqKYjBAwO28gLSvRA
• Bridget’s Free Community - Inspired Writers Clubhouse for Writers and Authors: https://www.inspiredwritersclubhouse.com
• Bridget’s Free Newsletter: https://www.yourinspiredstory.com/newsletter
• Steve’s Free Community: https://www.skool.com/steve-ramona-community-9836
• Steve’s Free Newsletter: https://doing-business-with-a-servants-heart.kit.com/steveramona
• Steve’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steveramona/’
• Bridget’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mbridgetcookburch/
• Steve’s X/Twitter: https://x.com/oppbroker
• Bridget’s X/Twitter: @inspiritwriter
• Steve’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bizopportunitynow/
• Bridget’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bridgetcookburch/
• Substack: https://p...

EPISODE 1

Beyond with Heather Tesch PODCAST on YouTube: @Beyond_with_Heather_Tesch
https://www.youtube.com/@Beyond_with_Heather_Tesch

In this luminous first episode of Stories Across the Table, Bridget Cook-Burch and Steve Ramona welcome Heather Tesch -- former Weather Channel meteorologist, lifelong seeker, and host of “BEYOND with Heather Tesch” podcast devoted to near-death and spiritually transformative experiences.

Heather spent years helping people understand the storms moving across the sky. Now, she helps us make meaning of the storms that move through the soul -- the storms of grief, wonder, life, death, and whatever astonishing mystery may wait beyond the horizon.
With warmth, curiosity, and a beautifully open heart, Heather shares how her early fascination with the unseen world, her career in broadcast journalism, and her deep desire to offer hope eventually converged into a calling: giving voice to stories that soften fear, expand compassion, and remind us that love is not a theory. It is the weather system beneath everything.

Around the table, Bridget, Steve, and Heather explore why near-death experiences can bring comfort to the grieving, courage to the questioning, and a wider sense of humanity to a world too often divided by headlines, opinions, and fear. In Heather’s telling, these stories are not escapist clouds floating somewhere far away. They are lightning flashes of truth -- illuminating how sacred this life really is.

This episode is for anyone who has lost someone, wondered what comes next, felt alone in a spiritual experience, or simply longed for a conversation that brings the soul back into the room.

Pull up a chair. This is a story of weathering the unknown, listening for love in the thunder, and discovering that even at the edge of life and death, there may be more light than we ever imagined.

• YouTube: @StoriesAcrossTheTable https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHPeekMqKYjBAwO28gLSvRA
• Bridget’s Free Community - Inspired Writers Clubhouse for Writers and Authors: https://www.inspiredwritersclubhouse.com
• Bridget’s Free Newsletter: https://www.yourinspiredstory.com/newsletter
• Steve’s Free Community: https://www.skool.com/steve-ramona-community-9836
• Steve’s Free Newsletter: https://doing-business-with-a-servants-heart.kit.com/steveramona
• Steve’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steveramona/’
• Bridget’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mbridgetcookburch/
• Steve’s X/Twitter: https://x.com/oppbroker
• Bridget’s X/Twitter: @inspiritwriter
• Steve’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bizopportunitynow/
• Bridget’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bridgetcookburch/
• Substack: https://p...

Introducing your co-hosts, Steve Ramona and Bridget Cook-Burch, who have seen first-hand the power of story to shape people's destinies.

Stories Across the Table is a podcast where meaningful conversations unfold—one story at a time. Each episode brings guests from diverse backgrounds “across the table” to share the moments that shaped them: the challenges they faced, the lessons they learned, and the purpose that continues to guide their journey.

These are not scripted interviews. They are real, heartfelt discussions about life, business, leadership, faith, service, and the human experience. From entrepreneurs and leaders to everyday people doing extraordinary things, each guest offers insight that inspires growth, reflection, and connection.

Whether the conversation sparks courage, clarity, or compassion, Stories Across the Table reminds us that when we slow down, listen deeply, and learn from one another, transformation begins.

Pull up a chair. The table is set.

• YouTube: @StoriesAcrossTheTable https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHPeekMqKYjBAwO28gLSvRA
• Bridget’s Free Community - Inspired Writers Clubhouse for Writers and Authors: https://www.inspiredwritersclubhouse.com
• Bridget’s Free Newsletter: https://www.yourinspiredstory.com/newsletter
• Steve’s Free Community: https://www.skool.com/steve-ramona-community-9836
• Steve’s Free Newsletter: https://doing-business-with-a-servants-heart.kit.com/steveramona
• Steve’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steveramona/’
• Bridget’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mbridgetcookburch/
• Steve’s X/Twitter: https://x.com/oppbroker
• Bridget’s X/Twitter: @inspiritwriter
• Steve’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bizopportunitynow/
• Bridget’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bridgetcookburch/
• Substack: https://p...