Make Life Less Difficult

Send us a message! My guest today is Chris Luth. Chris is from and lives in The Netherlands and his passion is how we think, especially through creative and (self)reflective processes. He lives his passion by coaching and facilitating workshops on vision, strategy, and organizational development – with local communities, world- class universities and Fortune 500 companies. Chris studied business a...

Send us a message! My guest today is Nicole Webb. Nicole is a journalist, writer, and speaker.  She has spent more than 20 years in Australian television as a reporter, producer and presenter.  She’s also a spouse who has moved abroad to support her partner in his career… sometimes known a trailing spouse, although I don’t love that term, being one myself! I first connected with Nicole through FB...

Send us a message! My guest today is Emily Cornell. Emily is a strategist + coach who helps women really show up authentically and unapologetically. Emily and I connected through the network of the Foreign Service, in which we are both spouses of US Diplomats.  Our paths also overlap at coaches and business owners finding creative ways to build our professional lives while moving around the world....

Send us a message! My guest today is Yun Rhee. Yun is a real estate agent and investor, and a Wealth and Success Coach.  Yun first came to the United States with her parents at age five from South Korea. Moving to a ‘free country’ was a concept she didn’t fully understand at the time, but she did see the struggle her parents faced and witnessed how hard they both worked to build a life for their f...

Send us a message! My guest today is Ellen Grealish. I was introduced to Ellen by Brenda Harrington, my guest from episode 7.  I know I say this more and more, but I am so appreciative of the connections made through this podcast! Ellen is one of the founders and partners of FlexProfessionals , a business that focuses of finding meaningful part-time employment for people who have been out of the w...

Send us a message! My guest today is Liz Doyle Harmer.   Liz helps women and leaders from other minority groups dominate both their inner mental game and outer corporate career.  She is a somatic leadership coach, certified with the International Coach Federation, an emotional intelligence practitioner, a Yoga and Mindfulness teacher and also has an MBA from McGill University. As a transformative...

Send us a message! My guest today is Adele Fedorak. I met Adele through Miranda Holder, a guest on episode 38, who I met through Brian Levenson, my guest on episode 27.  I love how the network and connections grow as we share our stories! Adele is a storyteller and works with her clients to help them increase their story intelligence.  If you aren’t sure what story intelligence is, keep listening...

Send us a message! My guest today is Arianne Rice.  Arianne is an Episcopal priest, Certified Daring Way Facilitator, and Leadership Coach.  She’s also a returning guest to the Make Life Less Difficult podcast! Our first conversation is captured on episode 17, so please listen there to hear more about Arianne and her journey. Since our first conversation, I’ve had it in mind to ask Arianne to come...

Send us a message! My guest today is Grace Aduroja Kolker.   I met Grace through Brian Levinson, my guest on episode 27.  Grace and I had a list of things we were looking forward to talking about and that was disrupted at the last minute.  In fact, we almost didn’t record a conversation at all, but then decided to go for it.  Here’s what happened: our scheduled call to record the podcast was the e...

Send us a message! My guest today is GG.   GG runs an American Bakery in Pokhara, Nepal, a beautiful town in the foothills of the Himalayan Mountain Range.  I recently had the amazing experience of visiting Nepal for the first time.  For years, John and I have heard about Pokhara from our paragliding friends and acquaintances, and we were finally able to check it out ourselves. I went for two week...

Send us a message! My guest today is Mike Meydenbauer.   Mike is an executive coach focusing on helping leaders and teams stay ahead in volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous times. He works with leaders to help them remember their innate capability to lead with passion, make bold decisions, and develop the mindset to achieve the impossible. Mike’s father’s untimely death from cancer thrust hi...

Send us a message! My guest today is Russ Watts. Russ is a repeat guest on the Make Life Less Difficult podcast and if you haven’t heard his previous episodes, please check out Episodes 4 and 26.  You don’t want to miss his stories! In today’s podcast Russ and I have a conversation about plant medicines and psychedelics.  These elements are becoming more popular and part of mainstream conversation...

Send us a message! My guest today is Chris Thyberg. Chris is the founder and principal of The Serving Way, a leadership coaching practice dedicated to partnering with experienced and emerging leaders in all sectors as they pursue great purposes for results that really matter. It is his calling and privilege to journey alongside clients as they develop new capacities to achieve exceptional performa...

Send us a message! My guest today is Larry Center.  Larry served as the Assistant Dean for Continuing Legal Education at Georgetown University Law Center for over 30 years.  He’s now shifted to leadership coaching and brings a wealth of knowledge from his own leadership journey and development. In our conversation, Larry shares pieces of his journey that started with being born extremely premature...

Send us a message! My guest today is Devon ONeil.   I first met Devon through an article he wrote called, “ What it Takes and Why it’s Worth it ,” that was published in The Adventure Journal .   Devon shared his experience of moving to Colorado to pursue his dreams of living in the outdoors and having near-constant connection with nature and the sports he loves.  That wasn’t the part of the articl...

Send us a message! My guest today is Elizabeth Tilstra.   Elizabeth describes herself as a perfectionist who found herself in the physically-demanding career of professional ballet, later becoming a Doctor of Physical Therapy.  As a PT she is dedicated to working with people committed to being hard on their bodies – just as she was as a professional dancer. She works with clients from all backgrou...

Send us a message! My guest today is my niece!  Sarah Cole joins me to discuss conflict and how we can make dealing with conflict a little less difficult. In Episode 16, I shared strategies for approaching and managing conflict based off the Thomas-Kilmann Model of Conflict Management.  After listening to this episode, Sarah reached out to me and asked me several questions including, how can someo...

Send us a message! My guest today is Kris Burbank. Kris’s website begins with the phrase: Learn to Bloom.  Kris embodies this admonition in a deep way and helps others learn to bloom amidst the challenges of life.   As the proud mother of three grown children, including a son born four months premature with severe cerebral palsy, Kris loves working with parents to help them figure out how to make...

Send us a message! My guest today is Miranda Holder. Miranda is a leadership coach who began her career as an endurance athlete.  At 25, while training for the US Olympic Rowing Team, she found out she had a congenital heart condition that abruptly ended her career as an athlete. She transitioned to coaching and served as the Head Coach for the Georgetown University’s Women’s Rowing Team but found...

Send us a message! My guest today is Aaron Brown. Aaron has over two decades of experience in law enforcement, Army Special Operations, national security, and intelligence.  His work has taken him to challenging and remote places around the world.  And he has advised senior government officials on matters of national security and now consults in the private sector. I first met Aaron when we were l...

Send us a message! My guest today is Melina Cordero. If you Google Melina Cordero, you’ll find page after page of Melina in the news, on podcasts, and highlighted in prestigious corporate publications for her quick rise in her firm, breaking glass ceilings and being the youngest executive ever in her position. On her own website, Melina describes herself as a “former box-ticking corporate exec who...

Send us a message! My guest today is Gavin McClurg. It’s difficult to know how to introduce Gavin.  He’s had more adventures, close-calls, and epic expeditions than anyone I know.  He’s also one of the most driven and passionate humans out there.   I met Gavin through the paragliding community by listening to his podcast, Cloudbase Mayhem.  After learning to paraglide, I got the crazy idea to reac...

Send us a message! Anna Sparks returns for another great conversation exploring the book we read: Unbound, A Woman's Guide to Power by Kasia Urbaniak. Unbound is described as, "The ultimate guide to owning your power – and mastering how to use it.  Part manual, part manifesto for a woman of the pivot, Unbound   is a how-to guide to the impossible, the outrageous, the unimaginable--a fiel...

Send us a message! My guest today is Madeha Al Ajroush.   Madeha has been a dedicated psychotherapist for over 25 years.  She’s passionate about her work helping clients on their journey toward greater personal fulfillment. She describes therapy as an effective process of self-discover.  And creates a safe, respected place for people to explore their pasts, present, and futures. Madeha was mention...

Send us a message! My guest today is Dr. Lisa Clark Diller.  Lisa is an historian of the early modern world and the chair of the History Department at Southern Adventist University.  Lisa is passionate about teaching because she believes that education expands the heart and mind and helps people better become who they were created to be.  It gives them the tools and perspectives and dispositions t...