This week, we’re slowing things down with intention and heart. We’re releasing one episode this week and one next week, and that means newsletters will only go out on Tuesdays until December. With the holiday energy picking up, it feels right to give ourselves and our guests a little more breathing room.
And honestly? This week’s story deserves that space.
Our guest, Angie Hawkins, brings us into the rawest layers of her life—from a childhood shaped by emotional invisibility, to years of people-pleasing, to the moment hopelessness almost took her life. And then the rising. The rebuilding. The boundaries. The fierce return to self-worth.
📅 This episode drops Tuesday, November 18, 2025, at 3 AM ET Surviving a Suicide Attempt & Rebuilding Fierce Self-Worth — with Angie Hawkins
This is an episode about survival, reclamation, and the courage to build yourself from the inside out.
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🚗 What’s Up with G-Rex & Dirty Skittles
Hey fam — G-Rex here. I’m gonna be real because that’s how we roll. It has been a week. One of those emotional tornadoes where you’re doing everything you can to remind yourself, “Hey… it’s not me, it’s the damn economy.” Business has been slow, and I’ve been doing that thing where you spiral, then pep talk yourself out of the spiral, then cry about the spiral, then get mad at the spiral — you know the drill.
After letting myself have a proper Debbie Downer moment (she came in hot), I decided to redirect my energy into what I know is mine to build: • Finishing my book • Working on this badass workplace mental wellness app that I believe will truly shift how small and midsize businesses take care of their people • Pouring love into my course, The Joy Shift
Would I love for money to be flowing in right now? Absolutely. But I’m choosing to trust the timing and trust myself, even when it feels uncomfortable. I turned on my Christmas tree lights this week because they bring me instant joy — and honestly, twinkle lights should be medically prescribed. They work.
I also revisited some of our earlier podcast episodes and was reminded, deeply, that what we’re building matters. I matter. My business matters. The universe keeps nudging me forward, and I’m staying open to the signs, even on the messy days.
Meanwhile, Dirty Skittles is living her best cozy-baker life, tending to her sourdough starter like it’s a firstborn. Every day she gives me updates like she’s raising a tiny bread baby. If I lived closer, I’d be elbows-deep in carbs and weighing four million pounds, and honestly? Worth it.
And here’s something we’re celebrating: We recorded our Season 14 finale a couple weekends ago, and it drops next Tuesday. With the Thanksgiving holiday, we’re releasing just one episode this week and one next, so your newsletters will arrive on Tuesdays only until December.
This was our final season wrap of 2025 — and it’s been a year. Our last recording day is coming up in December, and then we slide right into 2026… which is already fully booked. And yes, we have guests waitlisted for 2027.
We couldn’t do any of this without you. Thank you for showing up the way you do.
💬 Mental Health Quote of the Week
“Hopelessness is dangerous—but the smallest spark of truth can pull you back into your life.” — Angie Hawkins
Some stories are loud. Some are quiet. And some — like Angie’s — settle into your chest and stay there.
Angie Hawkins grew up in a home where emotional connection was scarce. As a child, she interpreted that absence the way so many kids do: “I must not be lovable.”
That belief shaped everything — the people-pleasing, the overachieving, the relationships built on emotional shrinking, the years of chasing validation from places that could never give it.
Life kept stacking weight on her shoulders: grief, loneliness, moving across the ocean, a flooded condo, COVID isolation, a breakup layered with betrayal. And in October 2020, the hopelessness became too heavy to carry. Angie swallowed an entire bottle of anxiety medication, believing her story was done.
But she survived. Barely. Miraculously. Purposefully.
When she woke up, a friend said one sentence that cracked her open just enough to reach for help: “It’s not your time.”
That sentence didn’t fix everything — but it made one breath possible. And then another.
Angie chose to get help in the way she truly needed. She hired a coach who taught her how to regulate emotions, set boundaries, listen to her intuition, and become a functional adult after decades spent in survival mode. She rebuilt her life with truth, tenderness, and courage.
She wrote her memoir, Running in Slippers. She reclaimed her voice — the internal one and the external one. She learned to stop performing for love. She discovered her purpose.
Today, Angie is an Inner Glow Coach helping high-achieving women stop dimming their light and start trusting themselves again. Her work is rooted in real healing: boundaries, intuition, self-respect, and returning to the inner glow the world tries to mute.
This episode is about surviving. But more than that? It’s about rising.
🧩 From the Conversation
💬 The heartbeat of this episode
Rebuilding self-worth doesn’t start with a plan. It starts with one breath, one truth, one moment of being seen when you’ve forgotten how to see yourself.
🫂 A quote that stuck with us
“I didn’t need someone with a degree—I just needed someone I could finally tell the truth to.” — Angie Hawkins
🎙️ Real Talk from Us
“When Angie described that moment of hopelessness, I felt it in my bones. I’ve been there. And hearing her talk about turning pain into purpose reminded me we survive for a reason—even if we don’t know what it is yet.” — G-Rex
“When she said boundaries were her first act of self-respect, I wanted to stand up and clap. That’s the work. That’s the rebuilding. And she’s proof that you can rise from the darkest places with so much light.” — Dirty Skittles
📓 Reflection Prompts to Sit With
• Where in your life are you still performing for approval you don’t need? • What boundary would protect your peace if you honored it? • What truth have you been afraid to say out loud? • What does self-worth look like without an audience?
🌱 Gentle Reminder
You don’t have to be healed to deserve support. You just have to be willing to take the next breath — and let someone sit beside you while you do.
👤 Meet Our Guest — Angie Hawkins
If you’ve ever wondered what it looks like for a woman to completely rebuild herself from the inside out, let us introduce you to Angie Hawkins — Inner Glow Coach, author, truth-teller, and walking proof that resilience isn’t something you’re born with… it’s something you reclaim, piece by piece.
Before she became a coach, Angie spent decades shrinking herself to earn love — people-pleasing, overperforming, and carrying the weight of everyone else’s expectations until she had nothing left for herself. Her journey led her through emotional rock bottom and a suicide attempt that nearly ended her life, and then into a rebirth defined by courage, boundaries, and rediscovering her worth.
Today, Angie is the creator of Shine From the Inside, a coaching program designed for high-achieving women who have forgotten their own worth while tending to everyone else’s needs. She helps her clients move out of self-criticism and into self-trust, boundaries, and a kind of confidence that radiates from the soul outward. Her work isn’t surface-level — it’s deep, intuitive, emotionally honest, and rooted in helping women feel at home in themselves again.
Her memoir, Running in Slippers, is a raw, beautifully written account of the five years that reshaped her life. It chronicles grief, heartbreak, survival, healing, and the kind of quiet strength that doesn’t scream — it whispers, “Get up. You’re not done yet.”
And if you think her inner transformation is powerful, her outer adventures prove she’s fearless in other ways, too. Angie has moved from Chicago to Hawaii on her own, bungee jumped, skydived, cliff jumped, and even leapt from a helicopter Navy SEAL–style into the ocean. But as she says, the most daring leap she ever took was allowing herself to be fully seen.
Angie embodies everything this podcast stands for: honesty, healing, boundaries, intuition, and the courage to tell the truth about your life.
1️⃣ Set one boundary this week, even if it scares you. 2️⃣ Tell one person the honest truth about how you’re doing. 3️⃣ Notice where you’re chasing external validation. 4️⃣ Create a “Hope List” — tiny reasons to keep going. 5️⃣ Take 10 minutes to check in with your intuition.
📚 Resources for Safety & Support
• 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline — Call, text, or chat anytime • NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) • Local support groups • Trauma-informed therapists/coaches • Running in Slippers by Angie Hawkins • Shine From the Inside coaching program
You do not have to navigate the hard moments alone.
💬 Listener Engagement
What part of Angie’s story spoke to your soul? Reply to this email or tag us on Instagram @grex_and_dirtyskittles with your reflections. We read every message — always.
⭐ Subscribe, Rate & Review
If Angie’s story helped you feel less alone, please subscribe, rate, and review on Apple or Spotify. Your words help others find the stories that might save their lives.
❤️ Closing Remarks
If you’re reading this, take a moment — right now — to pause. Put a hand on your chest. Feel that quiet drumbeat.
That alone is proof you’re still here, still trying, still becoming.
Angie’s story is the reminder so many of us need: You are not broken. You are not too much. You are not beyond repair.
There is a thread pulling you forward — thin, steady, unbreakable — even on the days you can’t feel it.
Wherever you are right now, whatever weight you’re carrying, we’re proud of you for being here. Proud of you for choosing another breath. Proud of you for showing up to your life, even when it’s hard.
We’re walking this messy, beautiful world right beside you.
With so much love, G-Rex & Dirty Skittles Changing the way we talk about mental health, one real convo at a time.
G-Rex & Dirty Skittles
It's ok to be not ok, just make sure you're talking to someone
