Empowered Team Podcast

What do you really need to build a life worth living? It’s probably not the car, the job title, the retirement account, or another milestone you can check off a list. In this episode of the Empowered Team Podcast, Kari Schneider explores three things she believes you want by 40—but absolutely need by 50: an accomplice, a fight worth losing, and a clock you can hear. This is a conversation about wh...

Why do entrepreneurs love what they do... and sometimes want to burn it all down? In this solo episode of the Empowered Team Podcast, Kari Schneider explores the hidden tension behind entrepreneurship—the paradox that the greatest strengths of entrepreneurs often become their greatest sources of stress. Drawing from her experience coaching leaders and business owners, Kari unpacks the three bigges...

Have you ever hit the deadline, met the standard, and still felt like the project wasn't actually finished? In this episode of the Empowered Team Podcast, Kari Schneider explores "The Completion Trap"—the frustrating cycle where goals, projects, and dreams remain perpetually 90% complete. Drawing from the six-year restoration and launch of Wick Cliff Lodge, Kari shares why unfinished work silently...

What if the biggest opportunities in your career don't come from being the most qualified—but from being willing to step forward before you feel completely ready? Barry Moline spent 29 years as a CEO leading two organizations, but his leadership journey didn't begin in the boardroom. It began as a 16-year-old hockey referee who unexpectedly found himself responsible for a high-stakes game he never...

We've all heard the advice: Never quit. But what if that's exactly what's keeping you from the life and leadership you want? In this episode of the Empowered Team Podcast, Kari Schneider challenges one of the most deeply held beliefs about success. Drawing from leadership psychology, decision-making research, and personal experiences navigating entrepreneurship, caregiving, illness, and major life...

In this powerful short episode of the Empowered Team Podcast, host Kari Schneider explores what may be the most important skill for leadership, emotional intelligence, and self-mastery: learning to separate facts from thoughts. Most people unknowingly treat their thoughts as truth. But thoughts are often interpretations, assumptions, and predictions—not objective reality. When leaders fail to reco...

In this powerful episode of the Empowered Team Podcast, Kari Schneider sits down with Kelsey Aida—best-selling author, energetic alignment coach, and co-host of the top 1% podcast High Vibin’ It. Kelsey helps people uncover the hidden resistance keeping them stuck so they can align with the life they truly want. From the outside, high achievers often look successful—but internally many are battlin...

End Strong. Finish Like It Matters—Because It Does. What if the way you end a conversation matters more than everything that happened before it? In this solo episode of the Empowered Team Podcast, Kari Schneider explores the powerful psychology behind the Peak-End Rule, a research-backed principle from Daniel Kahneman and Barbara Fredrickson showing that people don’t remember the entire experience...

We all experience pain. Physical pain. Emotional pain. Loss. Grief. Fear. Disappointment. But what if much of what keeps us stuck isn't the pain itself? In this final episode of the Clean Pain Series, Kari Schneider explores the critical distinction between clean pain and suffering, revealing why suffering is often the result of what we build around our pain—not the pain itself. Drawing from psych...

In Part 2 of the Clean Pain Series, Kari Schneider explores the hidden cost of emotional suppression — and why avoiding difficult emotions may be creating more suffering, stress, and even physical illness than we realize. Drawing from personal experience, leadership coaching, neuroscience, and the work of researchers like Dr. Susan David, Brené Brown, and Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, Kari breaks down...

In this deeply personal and eye-opening solo episode of the Empowered Team Podcast, host Kari Schneider shares a harrowing experience after being kicked by a horse—and the profound lessons it revealed about pain, awareness, and self-leadership. Drawing from both lived experience and her background in athletic therapy and physiology, Kari unpacks the true role of physical pain—not as something to a...

What happens when the dream you've carried for years finally becomes reality? After the grand opening of Wick Cliff Lodge, Kari Schneider reflects on the six-year journey that transformed far more than a lakeside property—it transformed the leader behind it. Through honest stories, unexpected setbacks (including one unforgettable antique jug), and deeply personal moments of navigating approval, pa...

What if the biggest factor influencing your leadership, focus, and emotional resilience happens before 9:00 AM? In this episode of the Empowered Team Podcast, Kari Schneider shares the five morning habits she refuses to skip because they directly impact her energy, mental clarity, physical health, and long-term performance. After years of observing what strengthens—or drains—her energy, Kari ident...

Everyone talks about managing time. But what if time is not the problem? In this episode of the Empowered Team Podcast, Kari Schneider explores one of the biggest challenges facing leaders, professionals, and high performers today: the erosion of attention. Research shows that our average screen attention span has dropped from 2.5 minutes to just 47 seconds. Meanwhile, every interruption can requi...

In this solo episode, Kari Schneider breaks down a powerful mindset shift that can transform your follow-through, leadership, and self-mastery: the critical difference between wanting something and liking the process of getting there. Drawing on neuroscience research from Kent Berridge and Terry Robinson, Kari explains how the brain’s dopamine (desire) and opioid (pleasure) systems operate separat...

What if the biggest risk of AI isn’t the technology—but how we lead through it? In this powerful episode of the Empowered Team Podcast, Kari Schneider sits down with Dr. Kelly Monahan—organizational psychologist, former leader at Meta, Deloitte, and Accenture, bestselling author of Essential, and upcoming author of Reclaim the Plot. Kelly has spent the last decade studying the intersection of AI,...

 In this milestone 400th episode of the Empowered Team Podcast, Kari Schneider pulls back the curtain on what it really takes to stay consistent—not for weeks or months, but for years. Drawing from 8 years of showing up every single week, Kari shares the five most powerful lessons consistency has taught her—lessons that challenge the common belief that discipline and willpower are the answer. This...

In this deeply personal and unforgettable episode of the Empowered Team Podcast, host Kari Schneider shares the harrowing story of a life-threatening accident that left her with eight fractured ribs, a punctured lung, and a critical wake-up call about leadership, systems, and self-trust. What began as a normal day quickly turned into a fight for survival—and ultimately, a masterclass in leadership...

What if the real reason you’re not taking action isn’t about motivation, time, or strategy—but about who you believe you are? In this powerful solo episode of the Empowered Team Podcast, Kari Schneider dives into the hidden force driving every action you take (or don’t take): your identity. Backed by research and real-life experience, Kari unpacks how identity-based thinking shapes behavior, influ...

Are you constantly busy, yet somehow not moving forward on what matters most to you? In this solo episode of the Empowered Team Podcast, Kari Schneider breaks down the three powerful (and often uncomfortable) reasons high performers prioritize others over themselves—and how it’s quietly leading to burnout, frustration, and self-abandonment. This episode is part of the Action Game Series, designed...

Welcome to the kickoff of the Action Game series on The Empowered Team Podcast—where Kari Schneider dives into what actually drives results: action. In this solo episode, Kari unpacks the surprising science behind why high achievers and intelligent leaders are more likely to procrastinate—and what to do about it. What You’ll Learn: Why overthinking is a strength (and how it turns into a trap) Lear...

In this powerful episode of the Empowered Team Podcast, Kari Schneider sits down with Arielle Tayar to explore what it really takes to build a thriving, human-centered business in a world that often prioritizes strategy, scale, and rigid frameworks. Arielle shares her unconventional journey from theater and documentary storytelling to building a seven-figure global creative agency without investor...

In this episode of the Empowered Team Podcast, Kari Schneider sits down with Lee Caraher—CEO of Double Forte PR, bestselling author of Millennials & Management and The Boomerang Principle, and a leading expert in leadership communication. Lee has spent decades helping leaders say what they actually mean—and in this conversation, she reveals why most workplace dysfunction isn’t about people… it...

In this powerful episode of the Empowered Team Podcast, Kari Schneider sits down with Dr. Robin Hills, business psychologist, Director of EI4Change, and global leader in emotional intelligence training with over 500,000 students across 200+ countries. Together, they unpack the real meaning of emotional intelligence—and why it’s not about controlling emotions, but learning how to interpret and use...

Ever catch yourself being abrupt, impatient, or snapping at someone and think… “Where did that come from?” Most high-performing leaders assume it’s a personality flaw or a moment of poor control. But the truth is far more empowering. In this episode of the Empowered Team Podcast, Kari Schneider reveals the three hidden physiological and psychological triggers that quietly drive impatience, irritab...