20 Minutes with Bronwyn

WOW, are you in for a treat with this week’s podcast guest. You are about to meet the LUMINOUS Elizabeth Jameson . Who is this luminous being, you ask? Well, lemme tell ya … Elizabeth Jameson is an artist and writer who explores what it means to live in an imperfect body as part of the universal human experience.   Before her diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, she served as a public interest lawyer...

Have you ever been in a conversation, or in a meeting, and someone says something that feels like a slap? You start asking yourself questions like: “Wait, did she/he just say something mean, or am I imagining this?” I call these moments psychic attacks not because I mean “psychic” in the woo-woo, crystal ball sense, but because these are attacks on our psyches.  Psychologists call them “passive ag...

Well, my friends. In this week’s podcast episode, I had a rather surreal experience. I got to interview someone very special, and “special” not just because of who she is and how much she has accomplished in her life, but “special” because she and I are both named … BRONWYN. People, I am beside myself with joy to be able to introduce to you the marvelous Bronwyn Morgan. Bronwyn is the founder and...

As you may know, Season 4 of this podcast is all about responding to YOUR questions. Your interests. And lately, I have been asked a LOT about my parenting philosophy. Which honestly, I think is RICH because I really don’t know what the hell I’m doing.  BUT, I do have 15 years+ of experience of being a parent, and I have worked EXTREMELY hard at being the best version of myself as a mother, withou...

If you’ve been with me for a while, you will recognize my guest on this week’s episode— the amazing Ben Kiker. I talk about Ben a LOT, because he is one of my sanity secrets. He helps keep the overwhelm at bay, and the energy high. I wanted to create an episode that gives you some thought provoking questions … ways to shape your year. There is just so much we can’t control in this life, but we can...

In the “before times” (AKA pre-Covid), the month of January always brought with it a kind of open-hearted optimism, which acted as fuel propelling us into a new year. But the past two Januaries have been less open-hearted for many of us. Less optimistic.  Maybe like me, you spent the holidays with Omicron.  Or maybe you avoided Covid, but are still carrying the weight of all the uncertainty and bu...

It’s the final countdown … and this week’s podcast episode (the last of 2021!) is dedicated to ONE category of listener: Those who struggle with tricky family dynamics during the Holidays. For many people, the holidays conjure feelings of closeness and long standing traditions that bring joy. But for a whole lot of people, the holidays carry the energy signatures of dread. Anxiety. Avoidance.  Not...

I think it’s safe to say that the politics of the past several years has made us cynical. That’s definitely been my experience. But recently, I attended a fundraiser for an organization called the Service First Women’s Victory Fund. They are on “campaign to elevate the collective voice of elected women leaders who have dedicated their lives to serving our country and who know what it means to put...

One of my FAVORITE songs of the last few years is a little ditty called My Type by a band called Saint Motel . My daughter Stella turned me onto it, and it has been on heavy, heavy rotation in my house (and car) ever since.   So imagine my delight when lead singer A/J Jackson’s team reached out to see if I’d be open to having him on my show to talk about his new project.   You will be able to hear...

In Russian, the word for procrastination is: “provolochka“ In Arabic, they say, “taswif an” In Spanish, it’s aplazar.  In other words, procrastination transcends culture, race, gender, and even transcends time. Seneca was talking about procrastination during the ROMAN Imperial Period, and famously said:  “The fool, with all his other faults, has this also, he is always getting ready to live.” The...

I have historically had a VERY fraught relationship with eating.    I grew up in Orange County, California, where eating disorders were a rite of passage. And I don’t say that flippantly—almost everyone I knew growing up had a disordered relationship to eating, myself included.   I remember pulling into the student parking lot at my high school and seeing some kid’s Volkswagen decorated with a bum...

A few weeks ago, I was giving one of my favorite talks to a team of professionals at one of my favorite clients. The talk is all about how to build a powerful morning ritual. Something that sets you up for excellence, all day long. At one point, a woman in the session asked me a question … as a mother, how do you get over the feeling of guilt that comes with taking all that time for yourself? I ne...

The past 18 months have brought a LOT of change and adaptation.   Some of the ways we adapted during the pandemic have been incredibly useful. We took a long, hard look at what we say yes to. What we say no to. If we weren’t already great at washing our hands, we sure as hell are now.   But there is one adaptation that makes me nervous.    That my friends … is our increased consumption of alcohol....

Welcome to Season 4! To kick things off, I wanted to focus on the toxic communication pattern of martyrdom. Why? Because as communication patterns go, few are as unnerving and damaging to our relationships as martyrdom, AND as communication patterns go, few are as EFFECTIVE in a twisted sense as playing the role of martyr. As they say, we repeat behaviors because on some level, they WORK. Which is...

As you may already know, authenticity is kind of a big deal to me. It’s the cornerstone of my work in the world. As a communication coach, I’m NEVER interested in “polishing” someone as a communicator. I’m interested in revealing someone in their truest most beautiful form. And I’ve been doing this for a LONG time. The good thing about being devoted to a practice, to a craft, is that you feel quit...

This episode is dedicated 100% to pulling back the curtain of my journaling practice, not because I think it’s unique or special, but because it is probably the single most important ritual I have. My journaling practice is more important to me than therapy. Exercise. Diet. Even church. Truly, if you asked me to sacrifice any of my rituals, you would have to pry journaling from my cold dead hands....

June of 2014, for the first time in its history, a trans woman—the luminous Laverne Cox— was featured on the cover of Time Magazine, with the headline: The Transgender Tipping Point. Just this April, Elliot Page became the first trans man to grace the cover of the magazine. Whether 2014 marked the “tipping point” for popular culture’s reckoning with the transgender community is debatable … because...

In a post-vaccinated population, it's open season for socializing and it's ... awkward. Wonderful. Exhausting. And also terribly anxiety producing for some of us. As a communication coach, I’m fascinated by all of it, and have been taking field notes on what is the most challenging, the most excruciating parts of "peopling," and why. In this episode I offer solutions to the three biggest communica...

We talk a lot on this show about the power of story. But what we haven’t yet covered is storytelling in the context of how we talk about our businesses. If you are an entrepreneur running a startup, or trying to raise money in the venture capital community ... If you are a solo-preneur or coach building your business ... If you are someone trying to create momentum and generate more revenue in you...

Our capacity to handle tough moments at work can mean the difference between upward mobility and infuriating stagnation. But for too many of us, conflict is our kryptonite. In this episode, I will walk you through my favorite exercise for transforming our relationship to conflict.

There are some stories that stop us in our tracks. That make us forget our own dramas and traumas long enough to feel into someone else’s experience. My guest today is Ana Jones, and she has exactly that kind of story. Ana is the founder of Plex65, which is a labor market for caregivers of older adults. It is the first of its kind to use technology as a hiring platform for caregivers using “Rydesh...

Fun fact: I would rather give a speech to thousands of people than say "no" to someone. Seriously. But the better I get at saying NO, the better my life gets. With a high quality NO, comes the opportunity to say YES to the invitations and adventures that add up to the life I want vs. the life that just kinda happened to me. And in case you can relate, and in case you’re curious to see how your lif...

If you were to ask me: What is the single most important skill to have as a communicator? I wouldn’t hesitate to answer. The single most important skill to have as a communicator is storytelling. Here’s the thing: Facts are important. The ability to make a cogent argument is important. But STORY is what changes people. STORY is probably the ONLY thing that can get someone to see the world through...

I am a BIG believer in personal development. And, many self-help proponents equate personal power with accepting full responsibility for one’s own life. I don’t disagree. But there’s something missing there. Acceptance is not enough. Authentic personal power must include the capacity to articulate what we need and what we want. And yet, too many of us avoid doing the work of owning and articulatin...

If there’s one thing i’ve learned in this life, it is this: Everyone you meet has a backstory. Everyone has a history full of highs and lows, celebration and tragedy. And it’s so easy to forget this when we’re in our 500th meeting of the day. That each face (or name if cameras are off) has a story. In our minds, we think in terms of title. Or position in the power hierarchy. Well, my friend, you a...