Exposing the Hidden Reality: Where Real Conversations Happen in Real Time
- Nov 18, 2025
- 3 min read
By Annette Garsteck and Sandra Wint
When Sandra and Annette started going live on LinkedIn every week, they weren't trying to build a podcast empire. They were trying to have the kind of conversation that most women have in parking lots after meetings, in texts that start with"Can I ask you something?" or over wine when someone finally says what everyone's been thinking.
The difference was that they hit "Go Live" and invited everyone into the conversation!
Exposing the Hidden Reality isn't a typical leadership podcast. There are no 10-step frameworks, no productivity hacks, and definitely no promises that if you just lean in a little harder, everything will click into place.
Instead, what you get is two women: Sandra Wint (a Gestalt-certified life and leadership coach) and Annette Garsteck (a Master Career Reinvention coach and published author). Together they ask the questions that don't usually make it onto polished LinkedIn feeds or the latest self-help book.
Questions like: “Why do we apologize before we speak?” “Who decided what ‘professional’ even means?” and “Why are some of the biggest barriers we face as women put there by other women?”
But this isn't about blaming men. It's about exposing the systems, stereotypes, and unspoken expectations that shape all of us. Annette and Sandra explore not just gender bias, but also cultural conditioning, religious expectations, family pressure, and the invisible weight of being the "good girl" or the "strong one" or the woman who never complains.
And they do it live.
That's not just a format choice. It has been an intentional and strategic decision they’ve embraced even when the technology doesn’t cooperate or life gets in the way and they’re still putting on lipstick and mascara two minutes before “showtime.”
Going live means the conversations are raw, unscripted, and responsive. When a guest pauses, when something lands hard, when the chat lights up with "YES, THIS,” that's all part of it. Listeners don't just hear the episode later; they shape it as it unfolds. Those live sessions are then uploaded to podcast platforms so the conversation keeps going, reaching women wherever they are.
Over five seasons, “Exposing the Hidden Reality” has welcomed an array of founders, coaches, and everyday women navigating extraordinary circumstances. They've explored what happens when power is withheld at work, how high-achieving women become targets for narcissistic abuse, how COVID or changes in marital status have caused career pivots, and what it really takes to reinvent yourself when the old story stops fitting.
But this isn't just talk. Every episode is grounded in something deeper: the belief that change doesn't happen in whispers. It happens when we name what's hidden, reclaim what's ours, and do it together.
Sandra brings her gift for the messy, emotional truth that women are so often told to hide. Annette brings strategy, advocacy, and a fierce belief that women don't need to wait to be noticed, they need to build what reflects them. Together, they create a space that's part therapy session, part think tank, part sisterhood.
For guests, Exposing the Hidden Reality offers something rare: a trauma-informed platform where lived experience and vulnerability aren't weaknesses, they’re the entire point! For listeners, it's a weekly reminder that they're not imagining it, they're not alone, and they're not too much.
As the podcast moves into expanded platforms—including a dedicated YouTube channel launching this fall—the mission remains the same: pull back the curtain, get real, and walk this path together.
Because when women tell the truth, change begins. And when they do it out loud, in real time, in community? That's when the hidden becomes undeniable.
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