Personal Empowerment

Twenty-one years ago, Trudi Roth stood on my lawn + told me I needed to write a book. I didn’t write the book. I started this show instead. Trudi + I have been friends through all of it. Raising kids. Building businesses. Supporting our spouses. Living full, complicated lives. There were seasons we were deep […]

I’m back. After more than two years away, I’m returning to the podcast I’ve been hosting since 2006. What I thought would be a two-month pause became a much longer journey through frustration, perfectionism, identity shifts, and learning how to let go of who I thought I was supposed to be. This episode is an […]

Last year, I found myself on a retreat utterly exhausted. I knew I was craving more space in my life and business, which sounds counterintuitive for a go-getter and high achiever like me, but sometimes, even the most driven individuals need to hit the pause button and allow themselves the luxury of space. So in […]

As children, we had parents, teachers and other authoritative figures to lead the way. But as we make our move into adulthood, it can become difficult to step into leadership roles – in any aspect of our lives. In fact, this is a topic I discuss with my clients regularly. So I’d like to emphasize […]

As a leadership coach, one of the things I do a lot of coaching on is communication. Communication can be scary and intimidating. Maybe it’s something you think you should know how to do, but let me tell you, it’s a learnable skill. And one of the things I talk a lot about with my […]

Pursuing things that you want and work hard for can evoke fear when the outcome is uncertain. That feeling also resonates with people awaiting a diagnosis, whether it’s for themselves or their loved ones. Sometimes, when you become so anxious about what’s going to happen, you may start to under-function, allowing the unknown to manage […]

Are any of your expectations influenced by fear, shame, or magical thinking? These are called stealth expectations and they usually are overlooked and unexpressed. They will go unnoticed until they resurface when challenges occur. It’s crucial to be aware of them and to know how to recognize if you have stealth expectations. In this episode, […]

How amazing would it be to go back in time and change the way you did things? Recently, during multiple sessions with clients, the topic of how wonderful it would be to be a freshman in college again came up. It made me think about the fantasy of going back in time with the knowledge […]

When you were younger, did you ever believe that having money or a specific job would shield you from life’s challenges? Do you ever find yourself thinking that once you get what you’re working towards, things will be easier? As we navigate through life, we face unexpected difficulties. Loss, empty nesting, challenges at work – […]

There are things we often refrain from doing because we don’t know how to do them. I recently read a book that opened a new window of possibilities for me, helping me see things I wouldn’t have been able to see before. I am thrilled to welcome Karen Walrond back to the show this week. […]

Sometimes emotions come unexpectedly and surprise us. When they do, it can be tempting to run away from them and keep ourselves busy with work or seek artificial happiness. This week, I talk about emotions and authenticity, a topic that has become more personal to me due to an unexpected loss. I share a moment […]

Whether it’s at home or in the workplace, we are all leading different aspects of our lives. One of the responsibilities of a leader is to provide feedback, which takes a lot of courage and is very vulnerable. In this week’s episode, I talk about what you need to bring into the room as a […]

There was a time in my life when I felt a lot of shame about how I lived day-to-day and had many judgments about what was supposed to be, instead of examining why it was this way. Oftentimes, we have an all-or-nothing mindset that makes us believe that if we can’t make a full change […]

Last week, I discussed how to grow self-awareness through mindset. On today’s episode, we look at emotions. While we are all emotional beings, some of us don’t have a language for emotions or maybe we’ve been told that emotions are weak. One thing you can do to grow your self-awareness is to learn the language […]

Some of our beliefs are shaped by what our parents have told us, by our family origins, or by something we pick up culturally or in a television show. Our beliefs guide us into thinking in a way that is not necessarily aligned with our true mindset. They can also make us do what we […]

As the new year approaches, there’s a lot of talk about being your best self for 2024.  While the definition varies from one person to another, something high achievers all have in common is setting unrealistic standards for what it means to be our best selves.  This week, I discuss what being your best self […]

At this point in the turn of the year, there is a lot of messaging about what we can do to live better in the new year to come. As high achievers, we have the expectation that we can continuously add to our list. What we don’t consider is that if we add something, we […]

During the holiday season, we try to do everything that is expected from us, but there is one important thing that we don’t always take the time for: ourselves. What it means to take care of yourself varies from person to person. For some of my clients, it involves scheduling every holiday preparation. For myself, […]

Our brains have the capacity to make up stories and to create tragedies in which we are the main character. While some stories are happy, the thoughts we entertain can also contribute directly to the pain in our lives. Often, there is something underneath those stories worth exploring. In this episode, we explore another action […]

Do you ever get home from work and find yourself dwelling on the one thing that went bad that day rather than celebrating the many good things you achieved? It doesn’t take long to acknowledge ourselves, yet it’s something perfectionists rarely do. Focusing on thriving is a survival instinct, but let me tell you, you […]

Now that Thanksgiving has passed, paving the way for the holidays, it is normal to feel excitement as well as resentment. After all, we often look forward to an idealized notion of the holidays, rather than the reality of what we may experience at that time of the year. It can bring us joy to […]

I dislike the cold, and even though I live in California, I can say that I have never enjoyed cold weather. For a long time, I put myself in a situation that didn’t make my life more enjoyable during that season: I didn’t turn on the heat. We sometimes make choices that cause us unnecessary […]

Why are our achievements overshadowed by our perception of the time taken to reach them? Too often, we judge ourselves or compare our journey to that of others before celebrating our victories. The truth is, we often only see other people’s achievements from the outside and don’t see the invisible structure behind their wins. In […]

Do you sometimes feel like you can’t help but be bittersweet when things come to an end? Endings certainly come with a lot of mixed and competing feelings. Accepting the reality that some things have ended puts us in a vulnerable place. We can feel left to ourselves with our fear of the unknown. At […]

Communication in relationships can sometimes feel murky. This week, we emphasize the significance of honest and vulnerable communication. I’ll share a mantra and an example of my daughter’s candid communication during her childhood. It’s true that communication in relationships can lead to expectations, moments of overwhelm, and discomfort. However, in the end, nurturing communic...