Things Go Sideways copertina

Things Go Sideways

Things Go Sideways

Di: KiKi L'Italien
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A proposito di questo titolo

 When life, leadership, or the world go sideways, certainty doesn't show up on schedule. Things Go Sideways is a podcast for the middle of it — the part where the plan has cracked, but nothing new has fully formed yet. Each episode is a slow, honest conversation with someone living through change: a career ending, an identity shifting, a sense that what used to work no longer fits. We don't rush to lessons or tidy conclusions. We stay with what's real long enough to notice what's true. Hosted by KiKi L'Italien, Things Go Sideways is not pitching you advice, motivation, or transformation content. This podcast is bringing you orientation. A place to make sense of uncertainty without pretending you already know what comes next. (Because most of the time, we don't — and that's not a failure.) This podcast exists to help people stay present long enough to learn when certainty is gone.2026 Economia Ricerca del lavoro Scienze sociali Successo personale
Episodi
  • He Renamed His Disease "Constant State of Adaptation." Then He Got Back to Work.

    He Renamed His Disease "Constant State of Adaptation." Then He Got Back to Work.
    Apr 15 2026
    Mark Wallach was diagnosed with ALS in April 2021. By then, he'd already been losing function in his right arm for years — adapting each time, finding workarounds. He's now a quadriplegic and also a working entrepreneur who recently posted about learning to drive his wheelchair with his eyes. That post reached more than 300 people outside his network. An assistive technology company in Germany reached out to send him equipment. (Could this be what happens when someone stops protecting the image and starts telling the truth about their sideways moment?) In this conversation, host of Things Go Sideways podcast, KiKi L'Italien, and Mark cover what it means to keep building when the losses keep coming — and they don't stop. They talk through the grief that doesn't end (he lost use of his right arm, then his left, then both legs), how ALS clarified rather than collapsed his sense of what matters, and what legacy actually looks like when you have a real timeline. They also get into bandwidth, delegation, AI as a genuine equalizer, and why Mark believes vulnerability isn't a soft concept — it's an access point. Mark has a name for his disease that isn't ALS. He calls it "CSA: Constant State of Adaptation." If you were hoping for tidy resolutions, you won't find them here. This episode doesn't end cleanly. It ends with a man still in the thick of it, still building, still figuring out how to receive what other people offer him. And that's where things get interesting! Timestamps 00:04 — KiKi names the premise: stories about reckoning, not highlight reels 01:45 — Mark shares his mission: earn the right to be the first call 04:01 — Mark renames ALS to CSA: constant state of adaptation 06:07 — Going public with vulnerability: unexpected reach and a $8K technology offer 09:49 — What the disease taught him that anyone could use 14:47 — Outsourcing admin, leaning on AI, and working as a quadriplegic 18:21 — Mind shift: from salesperson stigma to connector with purpose 22:34 — Why building for legacy means learning to replace yourself 26:29 — What legacy actually looks like: his wife, his reputation, pizza nights 29:54 — The first sideways moment: August 2018, a weak right arm at Whole Foods 33:28 — The diagnosis, stopping driving, and doing what he'd been putting off 38:51 — Getting out of a funk: goals matter more than self-pity — with permission for rest 40:45 — The hardest thing he's learned: accepting help and letting go of the how 44:33 — The cave question: learning to receive what others offer Resources 🔗 Mark Wallach on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markwallach/ 🌐 Engagement Mobile Strategies: https://www.engagementmobile.com/ 💙 I Am ALS (advocacy organization): https://www.iamals.org/ 💙 The ALS Association: https://www.als.org/ About the Things Go Sideways Podcast When life or leadership goes sideways, the story's just getting interesting. Things Go Sideways with KiKi L'Italien features honest conversations with leaders, creators, and changemakers navigating disruption, uncertainty, and identity shifts. Each episode explores trust, resilience, and what it means to stay human when certainty breaks down. New episodes share real stories about rebuilding agency and meaning without rushing to quick-fixes, spiritual bypassing, or pretending clarity comes easy.
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    46 min
  • He Built Companies for 30 Years. Here's What Almost Broke Him.

    He Built Companies for 30 Years. Here's What Almost Broke Him.
    Apr 8 2026

    Vidar Hokstad has spent more than 30 years building, scaling, and exiting tech companies. He's started price wars he couldn't win, fired people who didn't deserve it, and hit the kind of burnout that doesn't announce itself—it just slowly narrows your field of vision until all you can see is the next task.

    In this conversation, Vidar talks about what it's like when investors override your judgment, when a dot-com crash forces you to cut a team from 50 to 7, and what happens inside you when the company you relocated countries for starts to collapse. He also gets honest about why big corporate jobs felt like a vacation after startup life, why he kept going back to building anyway, and what finally made fractional consulting feel like the right fit—not a fallback.

    This episode is for anyone who's building something that looks successful from the outside but feels quietly unsustainable on the inside. Vidar doesn't offer a clean resolution. He offers what 30 years of sideways moments actually taught him: the sooner you take the break, the shorter it needs to be.
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    30 min
  • She Flatlined Three Times at 28, Then Life Asked Her to Do It All Again

    She Flatlined Three Times at 28, Then Life Asked Her to Do It All Again
    Apr 1 2026

    At 28, Danielle Duran Baron was building the life she'd planned. Master's degree in hand, career moving, future wide open. Then routine blood work uncovered something no one expected: a massive liver tumor that would require emergency surgery within days. She flatlined three times on the operating table. Five years later, married and looking ahead, the cancer came back.

    In this episode, Dani talks about what it's like to be too young for the diagnosis you're given, too healthy for anyone to suspect it, and too early in life to have to tell the people you love that the future isn't guaranteed. She shares how strangers donated blood in record numbers, how her husband navigated a Brazilian hospital in a language he didn't speak, and how a neighbor's words, "it can't rain forever," became the thing she held onto when nothing else worked.

    This conversation sits with the reality that recovery doesn't follow a clean upward line. There are setbacks that feel like starting over. And there's a quiet, stubborn choice to keep making plans anyway...not because the fear goes away, but because the time you're here has to matter.

    Danielle published her debut book, "Viva para Contar," in 2020, becoming the first Portuguese-language author to delve into the topic of fibrolamellar cancer HCC and survivorship.

    Why Listen Now?

    Recovery isn't a montage. It's the days between the hard news and the next thing you try. If you're in that stretch right now, or sitting with someone who is, this conversation doesn't rush past it.

    Highlights

    00:00 KiKi introduces Danielle Duran Baron and her sideways story

    02:23 Dani describes a routine blood test that changed everything

    05:03 How a cosmetic consultation uncovered something serious

    06:43 The ultrasound room where the doctor's face changed

    09:16 A community mobilizes to find the right surgeon

    11:19 Surgery, flatlines, and a record number of blood donors

    14:49 The cancer returns five years later

    18:16 Why honoring the dark moments matters more than staying positive

    25:22 "Make it matter"—how diagnosis reshaped her priorities

    29:01 A secret blog becomes the foundation for a book

    33:26 Why recovery is never the straight line we expect

    35:16 The world keeps moving while yours stops

    40:21 Volunteering with young cancer patients and losing some of them

    43:36 "It can't rain forever"—honest words for a hard season

    Resources

    LinkedIn — Danielle Duran Baron: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielleduranbaron/

    About the Things Go Sideways Podcast

    When life or leadership goes sideways, the story's just getting interesting

    Things Go Sideways with KiKi L'Italien features honest conversations with leaders, creators, and changemakers navigating disruption, uncertainty, and identity shifts. Each episode explores trust, resilience, and what it means to stay human when certainty breaks down.

    New episodes share real stories about rebuilding agency and meaning without rushing to quick-fixes, spiritual bypassing, or pretending clarity comes easy.
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    48 min
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