Show Notes

Welcome to Late Talks on Air – episode 122!

Some conversations settle into your bones a little differently. This is one of those.

Tonight I sat down with Larisa Makuch — a Ukrainian dancer, former Pilates studio director, NLP and hypnotherapy practitioner, and founder of Abundance Academy — for a chat that wound its way through more life than I expected in one sitting. We talked about the pole-dance party business that accidentally taught her about group dynamics and human nature. We talked about ten years of trying to get pregnant, and the fog of new motherhood. We talked about the moment her husband stood up and asked her a question she couldn’t answer — one that changed the trajectory of her professional life.

But underneath it all, this episode is really about making hard choices and being better for it. Larisa opens up about walking away from a studio and a community she loved, and the three years it took her to actually make peace with that choice — even though she knew, deep down, it was the right one. She talks about what it means to carry emotional weight you don’t need anymore, why some people cling to their pain because it feels safer than releasing it, and how she’s learned — slowly, imperfectly — to let things go without needing to understand every reason why.

We also get into:

• Why she believes “nothing has ever worked out as I expected, but it’s always worked out the way it was meant to be”
• The quiet cost of procrastination — and the line that stopped her in her tracks: “procrastination is suicide of your dreams on the installment plan”
• Learning to receive a compliment without deflecting it
• Her son’s accidental, AI-assisted anthem, “Love Multiplies Freely,” and why it’s now playing on repeat in her house
• Health as something you grow into, not something you fix overnight

This one’s a little tender, a little funny, and honestly one of my favourite chats in a while. Grab a tea and settle in.

Larisa’s free book, Stop Procrastinating Your Life Away, is available at StopProcrastinatingBook.com — links to all her website and socials are below.

Plus! We announce the winner of Aaron Crippen’s Love at First Fall book from our last episode!!

Enjoy the show!

PS – You can watch the video version of this podcast below – or simply click here.

About this week’s guest, Larisa Makuch

Larisa Makuch is a transformational mentor and founder of Abundance Academy, where she empowers professional women to achieve their dreams with clarity, confidence, and conviction.

Her clients consistently trade stress and overwhelm for lives filled with purpose, success, and fulfillment—doubling their income in five weeks, closing six deals in a single afternoon after just 15 minutes of mentoring, and enjoying their highest income months on repeat.

Larisa draws on a rich background in financial services, performing arts, photography, modelling, post-rehabilitative movement, sales and marketing, business development, and high-performance coaching. As a board-designated trainer of NLP and Hypnotherapy, she knows what works—and what doesn’t. She is also the author of Stop Procrastinating Your Life Away, a practical guide to overcoming inertia and achieving big goals.

When she’s not mentoring, you’ll find Larisa creating magic in the kitchen, recharging in cottage country, and living an active, joy-filled life with her husband and young son.

You can learn more about Larisa and her book here:

• The Abundance Academy

Show Notes

Welcome to Late Talks on Air – episode 121!

Typically, my work requires me to read a lot of non-fiction… reports, studies, and mounds and mounds of research. Such demands leave little time or energy for fiction – or more exciting non-fiction, at least!

But have you ever had an unsuspecting book sneak up on you – and take your senses and imagination by surprise? This week – I spoke with an author whose book brought the stuff of fiction, yet presented reality in a way that only the experiences of risk and adventure could.

Aaron Crippen is a tank – or a cat with well over nine lives. His story immediately brought to mind visions of Fall Guy’s Colt Seavers (played by Lee Majors) hanging from a moving helicopter over a deep ravine. Aaron is the real thing.

When not being dragged by them, he rides horses (standing up, of course, alongside his lovely wife, Monnya). He jumps out of ridiculous heights toward targets I might not even see – and would most likely miss. But his heart? It stays home with something he’s dreamt about, built and now gets to enjoy.

To you, my weary listener, I say, tune in. Aaron’s story will energize your outlook, challenge your fears, and inspire new possibilities.

Enjoy the show!

PS – You can watch the video version of this podcast below – or simply click here.

About this week’s guest, Aaron Crippen

Aaron Crippen is a professional stuntman, coordinator and rigger whose career has taken him from Hollywood blockbusters to international productions. A former U.S. Army Airborne infantry soldier, his life has been defined by high risks, hard falls, and relentless resilience. With more than 150 projects across five countries – and a family at the centre of it all – Aaron shares his most daring role yet: telling the story behind the stunts.

About the Book:

Fifteen years ago, Aaron Crippen was sitting in a freezing truck, holding a spiral notebook as if it might be the only thing that could save him. He had no idea he was beginning a letter his sons wouldn’t read for decades—long before he ever knew their names.

What started as survival scribbles slowly became a breadcrumb trail—a map back to himself. And somewhere, in the middle of all that ink, pain, and duct-tape courage, Aaron realized something.

People wait too long to tell the stories that matter.

Aaron’s lost brothers, friends, and mentors—good men who never said the things they needed to say while they were here. At their funerals, he learned pieces of them he wished he’d known when they were alive. He didn’t want that for his boys or himself.

So, Aaron documented it all—the messy parts, the scared parts, the places he fell hard, and the places he got up louder. He wants his sons to know the man behind their dad. He wants them to know that falling isn’t failure—it’s a direction.

Every crash taught Aaron something worth passing on. Every heartbreak widened the space he had for love. Every faceplant taught him how to rise with a little more grace and a little more grit. Love at First Fall isn’t merely a highlight reel of Aaron’s life. It’s his way of putting a flashlight in his sons’ hands for the nights when life goes dark.

You can learn more about Aaron Crippen and his book here:

• Love at First Fall, A Memoir by Aaron Crippen