A simple Instagram hashtag search for writers led Alexandra Checa to Aalia Lanuis. 

After Lanius gifted Checa with a copy of her debut novel “Tough Love”, a genuine relationship began to form between two women at vastly different stages in their lives. 

With over two decades of business and speaking experience, Lanius is at an almost polar opposite stage of life than Checa, a woman just two years removed from the campus of California State University-Long Beach. 

“You’re always skeptical about people and how they can be superficial, but I was so pleased to see what a deep and amazing person Alexandra is,” raved Lanius. 

As their relationship began to shape into a friendship, the two began to realize the power of their different perspectives and decided to turn that into a podcast that could potentially uplift listeners. 

“The podcast is all about empowerment,” said Checa. “It’s going to be EmpowerCon but in a podcast.” 

EmpowerCon, an annual event held by Unsugarcoated Media, a 501(c)3 nonprofit media organization, is detailed as a one-day elevating experience that sets out to have a lifelong impact on all those in attendance. The inaugural EmpowerCon event kicked off earlier this year and featured savvy speakers and professionals like the accredited producer of all Batman films Michael Uslan and World Record breaker Norma Bastidas.

Lanius, the founder of Unsugarcoated Media and EmpowerCon, is looking to bring the same formula that changed lives at EmpowerCon to Unsugarcoated with Aalia and Alex.  As producers and hosts, she and Checa already have their eyes set on several transformative artists, celebrities and musicians as guests, including producer and sibling to Keanu Reeves, Karina Miller.  

“We’re going to have people from different perspectives appear as guests,” promised Lanius. “We’re looking to make it both thought provoking and light hearted, but also, we will have those hard-to-swallow conversations.” 

Unsugarcoated with Aalia and Alex is intended to be both educational and entertaining, as the two set out to use their different backgrounds and experiences to tackle both day-to-day issues like health and wellness as well as hard-hitting subjects like trauma, addiction and trafficking.

“We want people to be educated and entertained, while also feeling committed to what we want to do,” said Lanius. “We want listeners to become more unsugarcoated in their approach to living life.”

Lanius, an award-winning author and proven businesswoman, paired with Checa, a certified nutritionist and proud tech junkie, will be able to provide valuable viewpoints to a potential audience that they view as boundless. 

“Our target audience is everyone, not just women,” said Lanius. “You can’t have certain conversations and get progress if you don’t bring everyone to the table. We want this to be universal.” 

The desire for a universal podcast is automatically achieved age-wise from the two co-hosts alone, with topics like love life and career choices set to be explored by two women with contrasting points of view and experiences in both fields.

“One of the themes of our podcast is that Aalia has been there before and done that, and I am the one that’s doing it,” said Checa.

Lanius and Checa will be debuting the Unsugarcoated with Aalia and Alex in the upcoming weeks and will provide episodes on a seasonal schedule. Audio episodes will be available on Spotify, Spreaker, Apple Podcasts, Deezer, Podcast Addict, Google Podcasts, Podchaser, Castbox, and iHeart Radio.  A visual version of each episode will be available on YouTube channel, Unsugarcoated with Aalia and Alex.  For more information on the podcast follow Aalia Lanius here, Alexandra Checa here, and check www.unsugarcoatedmedia.com/podcast for updates.