Hard Beautiful Journey - A Podcast For Healing, Personal Growth and Emotional Resilience

Troy Colmer, founder of Sober Athletic Wear, joins us to share his story of addiction and recovery. Learn more about how Troy is helping others who are struggling with addiction and mental health issues. Find Troy at soberathleticwear.com and on Twitter @sober_wear on Instagram @soberathleticwear to learn more about what Troy is doing to help others! Check out my social channels everywhere as @har...

I am so thrilled to welcome Mike Duffy to my podcast.  Mike is an author, philanthropist and founder of the Happiness Hall of Fame.  The Happiness Hall Of Fame is a non-profit that recognizes special people that have advanced the cause of happiness throughout the world. The hall was founded to celebrate and encourage incredible people and organizations that make other people happy. The hall honour...

One of my biggest life lessons I am working on is patience….well, patience has paid off in this case because I finally had the opportunity to sit down with one of the members of Our Collective Journey, also known as OCJ.  My guest is Ryan Oscar who is one of three cofounders of OCJ and the podcast From Darkness To Life.   The goal of Our Collective Journey is to connect people with people, to Stre...

Today's guest is Preston Zeller and I'm really excited for you to meet him and hear his story!  As a creative person, I was immediately interested in learning more about his grief journey. And what I found out about his story, makes me think there was a higher power that wanted us to meet....our stories of loss and grief are very similar.....and we are both wanting to do something meaningful with...

Losing a loved one is beyond painful...it's excruciating.  My big brother Cory passed away on October 27, 2021. This episode is about life after this devastating loss and what the grief journey is looking like for myself and our family.   If you would like to watch the memorial video I made for Cory's celebration of life, it can be viewed at https://vimeo.com/643112317. Check out my social channel...

I have been MIA for awhile hey?!  Yes, I know and I am ready to talk about why that has been in this episode of the podcast.     That's a wrap for Season 3 and I'm still in awe that I have published 50 episodes!!  I can't wait to be back with Season 4 in a couple weeks with more fantastic guest interviews.     Check out my social channels everywhere as @mstiffvaughan and my website www.mstiffvaugh...

My guest today blew my mind at many points in this interview, and I look forward to you hearing these moments.   Jason Matthews is here to talk about two topics: The first part of our discussion is around men and women and how we interact with each other and our peers. Jason and I discuss a few areas, such as distrust and competition of needs.    The second part of our discussion is around Human D...

My guest today is an incredible author and founder of Luv Mrk. Hailima Yates is here to talk with me about her book called "Dissolving The Anchor".  After a suicide attempt, Hailima wanted to stop feeling numb, sad and angry at the world. When life's challenges anchored her down, emotional distress kidnapped her spirit.  She needed to rediscover her power.   To change her life, Hailima faced the s...

I don't know if I can contain my excitement about this episode....I have been lookin' forward to this one being published since the second I hit the stop recording button.....because the topic is SEX and INTIMACY, and let's be really REAL for a minute....both are incredibly important, am I right?!   My guest today knows her stuff and I am still sitting here in a cloud of GRATITUDE that she came on...

You are in for an amazing episode today, let me tell ya! I have the beautiful and inspiring Dr. Jessica Houston here and get ready to have some goosebumps on top of your goosebumps!   Jessica has surmounted experiences with poverty, depression, intimate partner violence and lack of self confidence. It appeared to all that she was living a great life, but underneath, she knew she was operating bene...

The topic my guest and I are discussing today is one I can’t EVER imagine experiencing which is child loss.  Peggy Green is here to talk about the incredibly difficult loss of 2 of her 4 children, one at the age of 9 months old and then recently the loss of her son at the age of 24.  Peggy has taken the loss of her two kids and written a book titled “Life After Child Loss” which outlines 8 simple...

Does the thought of putting your face on video make your armpits start sweating and gives you a mild, or not so mild, case of anxiety? You would think that because I do my podcast and have gotten MUCH more comfortable talking to people (including on camera over Zoom) that I would be fine creating videos or going LIVE on Instagram or Facebook…..but…..NOPE.  I absolutely LOVE putting all your beauti...

Today on the podcast I have an incredible guest, Tyler Foley!  He is an accomplished film and stage performer and has appeared in productions including Freddy Vs Jason, Door to Door, Carrie, and the musical Ragtime.   Tyler is passionate about helping others confidently take the stage and impact an audience with their stories. He is currently the Managing Director of Total Buy In and author of the...

On today's episode I had the opportunity to speak with Erin McCullough! Erin is a thought leader, an in-demand speaker and an international teacher that helps people create IMPENETRABLE JOY so that they can be calm, have peace of mind and meaning in their life, NOW!   Erin had an Anxiety Disorder that had her holed up in her home for nearly a year.  Through that experience she learned how and why...

I had the honor to speak with Shelley Buck and Kathy Curtis about the book they wrote called “Leave Your Light On”.  This book is about Shelley’s son Ryder Buck.  I read the book in about 3 hours, I couldn’t put it down and from the description I give now you will understand why: Rarely does someone so joyfully authentic come along and flash a light so bright you can’t help but feel a rush of hope...

There are two things I hope to come from this episode….the first is that you will get so much value from it for you and your family and the second is that you will SHARE it with as many people as humanly possible. This episode is a “lighthouse” and I don’t know about you, but lighthouses have always signified safety and comfort….Gena Peth is back for the third instalment of our 3 part series to ta...

Today on the show I have Gena back to continue her story and she is joined by her step-son Bradly.  They are here to talk about the step-family dynamic they experienced including some very difficult circumstances.  But they will also share some of the triumphs that have also come out of their journey. I am so honored that they have chosen to share their Hard Beautiful Journey with me and my audien...

I have been wanting to share this story with you for about 8 months! My friend Gena is here - I first heard her story back in August 2020 and knew that it needed to be shared with the world.  When she told me her story I was left speechless (and for me that’s hard)….but it also made me realize how having perseverance and a faith in God, you can survive and thrive in ways you didn’t believe was pos...

Today on the podcast I have my good friend Craig Gustafson on the show and I am so grateful that he is here to share his story and his message.  I met Craig last year in the Made To Do This program and he was in the mini pod group that met on a weekly basis.  He is such an amazing human, I can’t find words to adequately describe his spirit and the love he always shows for his friends and family. C...

It's Season 3 KICKOFF!!  Thanks for being here for Episode 36!   A personal goal of mine for 2021 was to give a speech - so I enrolled in a program called Shine Bootcamp, which is an 8 week program that teaches you the skills to build and deliver a speech in front of real humans - however, due to Covid this took place over a Zoom screen.  You are given a speaking coach and put in pods to practice...

Continuing on from last episode, I am excited to recap episodes 26 to 33 and talk about the lessons that I have learned from these guests! First up is EP26….have you ever ugly snot cried when hearing someone’s story?  Well, let’s just say my guest for this episode got to see a whole bunch of snot crying on our zoom call!  My beautiful friend Alison joined me to talk about her love story with her l...

Over the next two episodes I thought it would be fun to go back through the interviews that I did from this season and pull from them the lessons that I have learned from all of my incredible guests. I have always said and believe that there is something to learn and be grateful for every single day, and doing this podcast has proven that to me over and over again. Everyone has a story, their own...

Have you ever met someone and you instantly felt Pure Joy radiating from them - like there was a giant ball of sunshine surrounding them and lighting everyone up who was in their presence?  I have and wow, it’s pretty damn special when you get these opportunities.  My opportunity came about 1.5 years ago when I attended a videography & photography workshop.  There was this woman in the class with...

Today’s guest is my soul sister and beautiful friend Shannon Pinkston.  She has a 25 year career as a casting director, journalist and writer.  In 2015/2016 Shannon experienced a health crisis that was one of the catalysts for truly realizing her intuitive gifts and exploring them more.  These gifts are now being used to help heal years of trauma and has set her on a path of helping other people (...

Can we talk about 2020 for a minute….what an absolute dumpster fire it was in some ways right?!  I think it’s safe to say everyone went into 2020 with so many amazing goals and visions for an epic year.  When the world started shutting down in March and it continued on and on….I was not in a good head space….but then I made one of the best decisions of my life.  I joined a program called Made To D...