Our Team.
Debbie — Creative Director & Co-Host
As Creative Director for Worn But Worthy, Debbie brings warmth, humor, and authenticity to The Velvet Rabbit’s storytelling. As Danielle’s mom and co-host of the podcast, she helps give voice to the emotional, spiritual, and often hilarious sides of life and healing — proving that even the hardest stories can hold moments of laughter and hope.
While Debbie is not in recovery herself, she has walked closely alongside it through her daughter’s journey. That experience has given her a deep understanding of the love, fear, faith, and resilience that families often carry when someone they care about is struggling. Her perspective brings an important voice to the podcast — one that represents the parents, spouses, and loved ones who stand beside those finding their way back to themselves.
Outside of the podcast, Debbie works at Cornerstone Church and has spent many years serving and supporting her community through her faith. Her love for Jesus is at the center of everything she does, and it shapes the encouragement and compassion she brings to the conversations on Worn But Worthy. She also has a deep heart for women who are navigating difficult seasons in life and cares deeply about offering encouragement, understanding, and support whenever she can.
Family is one of Debbie’s greatest joys. She is the proud mom of five daughters — three biological daughters and two “bonus daughters,” as she lovingly calls them. She has been married to her husband Jim for over 18 years, and the two of them are rarely far apart. Together they have built a big, lively family that now includes ten grandchildren who know her best by her favorite title: Mimi.
When Debbie isn’t recording the podcast or working behind the scenes with The Velvet Rabbit, you can usually find her at Panera laughing with friends, serving at Cornerstone Church, or relaxing in her three-season room with her Bible. And if there happen to be gummy snacks nearby, that’s usually a bonus.
Debbie brings heart to everything she does — whether that’s her family, her faith, or the stories shared on Worn But Worthy. Her presence on the podcast reminds listeners that healing doesn’t happen alone, and that love, faith, and a little humor can carry people through even the hardest seasons.
Nikola — Worn but worthy Podcast Editor
Nikola is the audio editor behind the Worn But Worthy podcast. Based in Serbia, he brings a deep love for sound, storytelling, and creative production to the show.
Nikola is a professional musician with more than 15 years of experience playing guitar. He graduated from the Faculty of Music in Belgrade with a focus on Jazz Guitar and has spent years performing and producing music across a wide range of genres including rock, metal, jazz, blues, funk, pop, soul, and electronic music. His background producing records and working in his own studio eventually expanded into broader audio engineering and editing work.
When Danielle and Debbie decided to start the podcast, they quickly realized they would need help with editing. As complete beginners in the podcast world, they knew it could be difficult to find someone who understood that they were still learning and wouldn’t take advantage of that. They put out feelers in a few podcast Facebook groups and created a profile on Upwork — and within just a few days, they were overwhelmed with more than 100 responses.
But from the very beginning, Nikola stood out.
His past work immediately caught their attention, and review after review described him as both incredibly talented and genuinely kind. When they finally connected with him, those reviews proved to be true. Nikola understood right away that Danielle and Debbie were brand new to podcasting, and instead of making things complicated, he helped guide them through the process with patience and encouragement.
Since then, Nikola has become an invaluable part of the Worn But Worthy team. His editing style balances technical precision with emotional awareness. While he keeps the audio sounding clean and tight, he also believes that a great editor knows when not to over-edit.
As Nikola explains, “I like to keep things sounding tight, but there are moments where cutting too much would ruin the emotional impact of the conversation. A good editor needs to know when to edit things out—and when to step back and just let things be.”
That philosophy has been a perfect fit for Worn But Worthy, where some of the most powerful moments come from allowing conversations to breathe and preserving the raw honesty of the stories being shared.
Nikola’s personal philosophy reflects the same spirit behind his work. As he puts it, “My guiding principle in life is creation that stems from love — whether it’s music, relationships, experiences, or creative work.”
Outside of editing and music, Nikola enjoys gardening and dreams of someday giving his large garden the attention it deserves. Every year he has big plans for it — and every year life gets a little busy — but as he says, one step at a time.
Working with Nikola has been one of the biggest blessings of the Worn But Worthy journey. His talent, kindness, and willingness to teach along the way played a huge role in bringing Season 1 to life — and gave Danielle and Debbie the confidence to continue growing the podcast as they head into Season 2 together.