Seeing Something in it's Mess, You can See the Potential

Lori Gano is a speaker, teacher, and author.  Lori has a passion for broken women and she goes into the trenches to help restore these women in rebuilding their shattered lives.

Lori's career as a licensed general contractor and owner of a residential design and build construction company is what inspired her to help restore broken lives.

Lori was born into a difficult family life whose parents were alcohol dependent and severely mentally ill.  She struggled through abuse, neglect, panic disorder, PTSD, and anorexia. But she was determined to make something of her life which led her to help others less fortunate.

Marrying at 23, she was still suffering through panic disorder and anorexia.  She lost her mother-in-law to leukemia, became pregnant with twins but one was lost.  She lost her ability to work due to the high-risk pregnancy and they lost their home, cars and all their belongings.  They had to file bankruptcy and begin the process of starting over.  

How to Live Fully the Life You Did Not Plan - No Matter What

 

Rebecca Faye Smith Galli is an author and columnist who writes about love, loss, and healing. Surviving significant losses—her seventeen-year-old brother’s death; her son’s degenerative disease and subsequent death; her daughter’s autism; her divorce; and nine days later, her paralysis from transverse myelitis, a rare spinal cord inflammation that began as the flu—has fostered an unexpected but prolific writing career. 







The Baltimore Sun published her first column about playing soccer with her son—from the wheelchair. 400 published columns later, she launched Thoughtful Thursdays—Lessons from a Resilient Heart, a weekly column that shares what’s inspired her to stay positive.

Becky Galli was born into a family that valued the power of having a plan. With a pastor father and a stay-at-home mother, her 1960s southern upbringing was bucolic--even enviable. But when her brothe­r, only seventeen, died in a waterskiing accident, the slow unraveling of her perfect family began.

Though grief overwhelmed the family, twenty-year-old Galli forged onward with her life plans–marriag­e, career, and raising a family of her own–one she hoped would be as idyllic as the fam­ily she once knew.

Never Give Up On Your Dreams

Simone Pond is an award-winning USA Today bestselling author of dystopian fiction and urban fantasy. As a young girl, she loved writing in her journal and making up stories, though it took several years before she published her first novel. Since then she hasn’t looked back. Pond currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband and their Boston Terrier. 

As a young girl, Simone felt overwhelmed with hopelessness, starting from the age of twelve when she realized her father was a drug addict and was selling drugs from our house. Her severely depressed mother locked herself in her room for about a year, while Simone muddled her way through puberty. She wanted to disappear. The shame was too heavy. She lived in the constant fear of her family being arrested.  She watched her father fading away before her eyes and at one point wished him dead.  

In rebellion she became an alcoholic who was severely depressed and manic. Simone went through two divorces which left her suicidal. This devastating event was the pivot point in her life when she made the decision to take control, get help and she turned her entire life around.  Now, she has a passion to help other young women who may be going through similar circumstances.