French Kissing Life

Picture this. You're thirty seconds into the talk you've been building toward for months, and your mind goes completely blank. You've forgotten your own story, live, on stage. That's exactly what happened to today's guest, Ashley Bryant, founder of AB Strategy, where she helps mission-driven brands trade vague messaging for clear communication that builds trust and inspire...

Imagine packing up your entire life, selling your house, bringing your dogs, and moving halfway around the world, only to discover that the biggest transformation had nothing to do with the actual destination. That is exactly what happened to Jennifer Yates. You may remember her from one of my earliest episodes, and she is back on the mic to give us every scoop on uprooting her life in Michigan an...

There's a version of summer where the light makes everything feel more possible, and I'm fully in it right now. Longer days, warm evenings, the whole thing. But here's what I keep noticing underneath all that brightness. Most of us are still living from the neck up. We think and analyze and push through, and meanwhile, the body is down there quietly trying to get a word in. This epi...

Picture this. March 3rd, 2026, Paris. The Palais Garnier, all gilded ceilings and red velvet and history, and onto the runway walks the first model in a corseted gown made from a French military parachute. The designer who built it had turned 10 years old two days before. This month, I am completely obsessed with a kid named Max Alexander. He holds the Guinness World Record for youngest runway fas...

Time is one of the only things we all share equally, and somehow it's also the thing so many of us feel like we're constantly running out of. We say "I don't have time" almost on autopilot. But what if that phrase is hiding something deeper? What if it isn't really about time at all, but about what we value, what we avoid, and maybe what we're afraid to face if t...

Have you ever walked away from a conversation thinking, "I know what I meant to say, but somehow it just did not land the way I had hoped"? Maybe it was a pitch, a hard conversation, an interview, or just trying to explain your value in a way another person could actually understand. This episode is all about that space between what we mean and what actually gets received. My guest is Cl...

Memorial Day has come and gone, which officially means summer has entered the group chat. And today, my niece Sarah is back on the mic, which means things get unhinged very quickly. We go through our highs and lows for the season, from sweet corn and pool days and the smell of a good thunderstorm to chiggers, birds at 5 AM, and the absolute audacity of assless bikini bottoms at the public pool. We...

Something has shifted. I don't know exactly when it happened, and it wasn't one moment. It was more like a slow accumulation, small disappointments that added up to something much bigger. Social media used to feel like a peek into someone's real life. Somewhere along the way, it started feeling like performance, like everyone, myself included, was packaging themselves. The more poli...

A few weeks ago, something happened in the world that I genuinely could not stop thinking about. Couldn't sleep. Sending voice memos to friends at weird hours. And even though the news cycle has absolutely moved on, I sure haven't, and I don't think you will either. Four humans flew to the moon and came back completely undone by how much they love Earth. That's it. That's...

Starting a business gets this very shiny reputation: freedom, flexibility, being your own boss. And then there's the version nobody talks about as loudly, the one where you're thinking about your business at 2 am because the to-do list is never actually done. My former professor, Tom Swartwood, has spent decades working with entrepreneurs across industries, countries, and stages of busin...

Plants have names for a reason. And once you start learning what those names actually mean, you can't walk past a dandelion or a hawthorn tree the same way again. In this episode, I'm joined again by Kim Gros, a New York City-based clinical herbalist, educator, and founder of an organic herbal product line. Kim leads plant walks in Central Park and has a gift for making the natural world...

Something has been sitting with me lately, a contradiction I couldn't quite shake. I've always thought of myself as someone who loves change. Enneagram Seven, chases novelty, has a podcast called French Kissing Life. And yet when change actually shows up uninvited, I freeze. What I've landed on is that I'm not actually afraid of change. I'm afraid of uncertainty. And once...

Sometimes life gets so full of hard that you forget you're even allowed to want something light. That's where Lori Blachford found herself after seven years of caregiving and loss, and it's what led her to start snatching up small, slightly unpredictable experiences just to feel alive again. What started as "bucket list quickies" got a necessary rebrand and became bucket l...

Spring doesn't always arrive the way we expect it to. One day it's a blizzard, the next it's pushing 80 degrees, and somewhere in the middle of all that, we're supposed to feel refreshed and ready. But what if the transition itself is the invitation, not a problem to push through? I'm excited to welcome back expressive arts therapist and trauma-informed care consultant Emm...

What if the first signs of spring have been whispering to us all along? In this episode, I’m joined by clinical herbalist and educator Kim Gros for a gentle conversation about the plants that quietly announce spring’s arrival. We explore the stories behind these early bloomers, the nourishment found in seasonal greens, and how paying attention to nature can reconnect us with our own rhythms of res...

Color analysis has been having a major moment lately, and after seeing it everywhere online, I finally decided to try it for myself. What started as simple curiosity quickly turned into a bit of a plot twist when my results left me with more questions than answers. So I brought those questions to someone I trust. In this episode, I’m joined again by Christy Meaux of Cohesive Confidence to talk abo...

Grief has a way of sneaking into the smallest corners of our day. It shows up in the empty space at the end of the bed, in the leash you no longer reach for, in the routines your nervous system still expects to keep. In this episode, I sit down with Ellen Laura to talk about pet grief, why it can feel so piercing, and why it deserves to be honored rather than minimized. We explore how love with ou...

There’s a particular kind of vulnerability that comes with wanting love after 40. You’ve built a life. You’ve done the inner work. You know you don’t need someone to complete you. And yet, there is still that quiet, steady longing to share your life with a partner who chooses you, and whom you choose right back. In this episode, I’m joined by dating and relationship coach Sibylle Ansley to talk ab...

If you have ever felt like you were gripping the reins of your life while the horse had other plans, this one is for you. My personal history with horses includes chaos, near collisions with tree branches, and at least one very stubborn fruit snack situation in Hawaii. So talking about Fire Horse energy feels both poetic and slightly hilarious. In this conversation with Jillian Rothschild-Scholar,...

If the last year left you feeling tired, reflective, or changed in ways you can’t quite explain, you’re not imagining it. Many of us have been moving through a long season of endings, letting go of identities, relationships, beliefs, and versions of ourselves that once made sense but no longer fit. In this episode, I’m joined by Meaghan Alton, a professional numerologist and former economist turne...

I promised myself when I started this show that I wouldn’t turn pain into a performance or force hope where it doesn’t belong. This episode is me keeping that promise. It’s short, it’s quiet, and it’s an invitation to pause with what feels heavy without trying to make it neater or easier to digest. I share a moment that left me feeling unsteady and out of control, and how it opened a much bigger a...

It’s 2026, and January has already asked a lot of us. Everything feels a little louder lately, a little heavier, like there’s a low hum of intensity moving beneath our everyday lives. I wanted to pause in that space and speak to it honestly, without trying to fix it or rush past it. This episode grew out of noticing how deeply we’re all craving steadiness, softness, and something to hold onto when...

The beginning of a new year can quietly bring up more reflection than motivation. Instead of doubling down on hustle and pressure, I wanted to offer something softer, deeper, and far more honest. A way of creating change that comes from clarity, self-trust, and joy, not force. I’m joined by Anna Bates, who made a bold pivot at age 44 after running a successful swim school franchise, stepping into...

The start of a new year doesn’t always feel light or clean. Sometimes it feels tender, heavy, or quietly hopeful all at once. As 2026 begins, I wanted to create space for something softer than resolutions, something more honest than reinvention. In this episode, I’m joined by Kristine Genovese, creator of the Soul Intelligence Method, for a conversation about energetic clearing, subconscious patte...

As the year winds down, I find myself in that tender in-between space, reflective, a little emotional, and quietly aware of all that has ended. This episode grew out of that feeling, the question of how we release what no longer fits without hardening ourselves or rushing the process. In this episode, I’m joined by Christy for an honest, soulful conversation about letting go with grace. We talk ab...