Terminally Smiling: How Cinder Shine Finds Joy in the Face of Cancer and Pain -- With Cinder Shine
Release Date: 07/31/2025
Growing Pains: Why it hurts when you get everything you’ve ever wanted.
Channel Your Genius Podcast
What if the very success you’ve been working toward is the thing that hurts the most? In this episode, Mellissa Seaman explores the growing pains of success: those tender, disorienting moments that can arise after you’ve reached the goals you once dreamed of. Inspired by a conversation with a highly successful, world-renowned client, Mellissa shares why big expansion can surface grief, loss, and unexpected emotional challenges. Old relationships may fall away. Long-held identity stories dissolve. Even joy can feel complicated when you outgrow who you once were. This episode is a reminder...
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When Spirit Shows Up Uninvited and Changes Everything -- Venus Castleberg interviewing Mellissa Seaman
Channel Your Genius Podcast
Many of the world’s most impactful healers, mentors, and innovators began life as “the gifted kid”, high-achieving on the outside, deeply sensitive and intuitive on the inside, yet never truly understood the spiritual architecture behind their brilliance. In this special episode, the mic flips. Venus Castleberg, Home Whisperer, healer, and longtime friend and collaborator, interviews Mellissa Seaman about her awakening journey, one that moved her from Stanford-educated attorney and devout Catholic leader into a mystical, multidimensional intuitive strategist serving thousands. Mellissa...
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The Undercover Intuitive in Washington DC -- with Julie Jakopic
Channel Your Genius Podcast
Many of the most powerful leaders on the planet are secretly empathic, intuitive, and deeply sensitive, and have no idea that’s what’s really driving them. In this episode, Mellissa talks with Julie Jakopic, President and CEO of iLead Strategies, who advises policymakers, elected officials, NGO founders, and humanitarian organizations on the political front lines. Julie is highly respected as a strategist and consultant… and she’s also a deep empath, artist, and intuitive. Julie shares how she used to deny her intuition and pay a huge energetic price, how she finally understood that...
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The Secret to Feeling Energized, Valued & Paid Well for Your Purpose
Channel Your Genius Podcast
Leaders who come from their inspired Calling often feel drained, tired, and worn out. They’re doing BIG Work every day, so it kind of makes sense… right? NO, wait! Mellissa has noticed something powerful: if it’s draining you, it means there’s a mismatch. Maybe your focus needs to be updated. Maybe you never found the perfect-fit offering. Maybe your audience isn’t quite right. We see it all the time with the intuitive leaders we serve, when they adjust what they offer, to whom, and how, everything changes. Suddenly they feel energized by their work, their impact grows, and their...
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Confessions from a Private Jet: Luxury, Guilt, and a Golden Toilet
Channel Your Genius Podcast
Not everyone gets to have this kind of behind-the-scenes experience. As a spiritual mentor and intuitive guide to high-net-worth clients, Mellissa Seaman has occasionally been flown on private jets for her work. While she loves the miracle of flying, whether on a commercial airline or a tiny puddle jumper, her first time on a private jet revealed a world most people never get to see. In this episode, Mellissa shares a rare, candid look at what it’s actually like to fly private, and how these luxury experiences illuminate the growing divide between economic realities. Her stories are both...
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The Witch Awakens: The Hidden Power of Midlife Women
Channel Your Genius Podcast
Do you ever feel like midlife has made you invisible? In this heartfelt and empowering episode, Mellissa Seaman reframes one of the most misunderstood transitions in a woman’s life, menopause and midlife, as a portal into power. Far from fading away, women in their 40s, 50s, and 60s are stepping into a deeper visibility; one rooted not in appearance, but in truth, love, and embodied magic. Mellissa explores how this “menno-passage” initiates a profound transformation, revealing your authentic wisdom and intuitive strength. If you’ve ever felt unseen or uncertain about your changing...
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Your Work Is the Antidote: Slaying the 3 Snakes of Our Time
Channel Your Genius Podcast
In this powerful solo episode, Mellissa Seaman calls on every intuitive entrepreneur, healer, and purpose-led professional to stay the course. In a world that feels divided, fearful, and uncertain, she reminds us that your soul-led business isn’t just personal, it’s revolutionary. Mellissa breaks down the three “snakes” of our time: the cultural forces that threaten to suppress wisdom, compassion, and freedom, and how your work as an awakened leader is the antidote. This is a call to action for all spiritual entrepreneurs to double down, not retreat; to lead with heart, not fear; and...
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The Mind Is Mystical and Science Alone Can’t Explain It
Channel Your Genius Podcast
In today’s episode, Mellissa pulls back the curtain on one of the hottest buzzwords in leadership and coaching today: neuroscience. While corporate and executive programs rush to anchor every insight in brain scans and data, Mellissa challenges the obsession with what can be measured and calls us to reclaim the mystery, intuition, and higher intelligence that science alone can’t explain. Drawing on her years of working with intuitive professionals and grounded mystics alike, Mellissa explores how our fixation on “neural hacks” and logical proof can actually limit human potential. True...
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Why Your Dog Might Be Your Greatest Spiritual Teacher
Channel Your Genius Podcast
What if your dog is more than “just a pet”? In this heartfelt solo episode, Mellissa explores the sacred role our animals play in our spiritual lives as teachers, mirrors, and bridges between the human and the wild. Drawing from her own Apache ceremonial experience, her work with intuitive veterinarian Dr. Vanessa Gafferrer, and her deep connection with her dog Lucy, Mellissa shares how our animal companions help us remember our primal selves, model unconditional love, and guide us through seasons of change and grief. You’ll also meet Louie, the newest (and most mischievous) member of...
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The Spiritual Download Everyone’s Getting (And Why You Can’t Ignore It) - with Ragan Thomson
Channel Your Genius Podcast
In this inspiring conversation, Mellissa Seaman sits down with Ragan Thomson, a global spiritual teacher, healer, and philanthropist, whose work bridges the worlds of divine feminine wisdom, conscious leadership, and global collaboration. From her early life as an intuitive empath to her current mission guiding healers, women, and changemakers into deeper connection with Spirit, Ragan shares the journey of awakening that brought her into her soul’s purpose. Together, Mellissa and Ragan explore how to balance deep spiritual calling with worldly impact, the power of collaboration...
info_outlineIn today's episode of Channel Your Genius, Mellissa Seaman is joined by the radiant and irreverent Cinder Shine, author, musician, and longtime wellness coach, who lives and teaches what she calls rainbow resilience: a joyful, grounded philosophy for navigating life, death, and everything in between.
Diagnosed with terminal cancer and still grinning, Cinder shares her hilarious, heartfelt, and deeply real perspective on living fully in the face of pain. From riding motorcycles with brittle bones to being lifted out of a hot tub by trees (yep, really), this episode is a love letter to radical joy, irreverent wisdom, and the power of choosing life even when it hurts.
Her new book Terminally Smiling blends memoir, music, and meaning-making in the face of cancer and transformation. This conversation is a must-listen for anyone facing hard things, and craving a little more light.
Talked about in today’s episode:
00:01:10 – From Knee Pain to Rainbow Resilience
Cinder’s journey from body-positive fitness coach to two-time cancer survivor and joy rebel.
00:05:29 – The “F* You Sundial” and Finding Gratitude
Cinder shares her irreverent tool for moving from hopelessness to joy, even on the hardest days.
00:08:45 – How to Live Fully with a Terminal Diagnosis
What it really means to walk the line between life and death and choose joy anyway.
00:12:33 – Feel Like a Rainbow in the Eye of the Storm
The inspiration behind her new song and how she channels emotion through music.
00:14:38 – Death, Ceremony & the Power of Facing the End
Mellissa and Cinder explore death as a teacher, and what it means to live fearlessly.
00:21:16 – Hot Tubs, Trees, and the Magic of Asking for Help
A story you won’t forget, how nature and spirit literally lifted Cinder when she couldn’t lift herself.
Guest Bio:
Cinder Shine is an author, musician, and irreverent wellness guide who’s been helping people move through pain with humor and grit for over 30 years. A two-time cancer survivor and lifelong joy-seeker, she’s the author of Plus Size Knee Pain Solution and her latest book, Terminally Smiling, a poignant, playful memoir on living and healing through life’s hardest moments. Cinder brings fierce honesty, goofy wisdom, and unapologetic joy to every stage, page, and platform she graces.
Connect with Cinder Shine:
Website: https://www.cindershine.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cinder.shine.ernst
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cinder_shine_ernst
Unlock Your Genius with Mellissa Seaman:
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Discover Your Soul Gift: Take Mellissa’s free Soul Gift Quiz to uncover which of the five soul gifts is driving your life's purpose.
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Dive Deeper into Growth: Explore the Channel Your Genius Academy at channelyourgenius.com for personal and professional development resources.
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Stay Inspired: Connect with Mellissa on Instagram @channelyourgenius for ongoing wisdom and insights to help you live your purpose, expand your influence, and thrive in your business and personal life as a WiseWoman.
Keywords:
Radical Joy, Cancer Survivor, Terminal Illness, Rainbow Resilience, Feminine Leaders, Wellness Coach, Intuitive Guidance, Healing, Humor, Death Ceremony, Living Fully, Emotional Resilience, Channeling Wisdom, Spiritual Growth, Embodied Joy, Creative Healing, Facing Death, Life After Diagnosis, Nature as Healer, Grief and Laughter