The Soulful Leader Podcast

Do you have a niggling sense in the back of your mind telling you ‘there’s more’?  More to life, more to why you’re here, more to working than making money so that you can retire?  Stephanie and Maren both know what it’s like to have that itch, that knowing, and they’ve invested most of their lives exploring it, getting to know the voice and developing an ongoing conversation with the meaningful l...

Are you ready to completely change your work life? From the old, oppressive, controlling, stressful way of working, to work with a ‘why’, work with meaning and purpose? Then today's podcast, AND learning why a children's book is important for humans, is for you!  What can a leader learn from a children’s book, and why is it critical now? That’s what we discover in today’s podcast as we d...

What are the most transformative moments in your life? Graduation? Getting married? Having children? Career accomplishments?  They very well could be. They might also just be milestones, goal posts, or markers for the powerful small moments that incrementally allowed you to become a new version of you, the person who could do each of those things. We have choices in each moment of our day, how we...

Have you ever wondered, ‘where do I fit?’ or ‘what is the meaning ?’  Then today’s podcast is for you. Shelly Cooper’s early life set her up to seek meaning and a reason for being while most kids her age were just trying to fit in. Her life felt very limiting and she began asking questions like “Why am I here?” and  “What is this all about?” to find a reason to participate in life. Today, as CEO o...

How often do you need a vacation from your vacation? Last week, the podcast was about needs vs. wants and this week Maren and Stephanie take that discussion into the practical realm of vacations. Much of the northern hemisphere takes time off in August - time to spend with families, get away from work, do something for ourselves and to recharge our batteries. And we come home a bit worn down, with...

We don’t give much thought to the difference between needs and wants. We often lump them together. Yet they are significantly different and understanding that difference will change the way you live, and the way you lead.       Humility - asking for what you need instead of manipulating people to get what we want            - from The Big Red Book ACoA Maren and Stephanie start off by covering the...

When there's something that's calling you (i.e. you want something), every issue or challenge between you and that thing will come up. It's so that you grow as a person and evolve as a human, and it can suck. You get stuck. Overwhelmed. Frustrated. You feel like you've done something wrong. And it's easy to get pulled off track. Either pushing through with force -at the ex...

There are 4 levels of communication and most of the time we chatter away at levels 1 & 2. We talk about the weather, TV shows, people and events... it all seems harmless enough, we're polite and fill space, or we vent to get something off our chests, and move on with our day.  But is it really harmless? Especially for us as leaders... are we building the trust, the level of relationships,...

How often as leaders are we inspired, we gather our courage and go for it, an opportunity presents itself... and then a few days, weeks or months later we get plagued by the self-doubts, the fears, the 'what-was-I-thinkings'?  The itty bitty shitty committee comes up, and questions you... Are you sure? Aren't you comfortable being the old you? Wasn't the old you enough? Come on...

"We default to self pity only because we haven't learned any other way." ~ Stephanie J Allen Self pity is inner poverty and seems to come in two extremes:  hiding it or stuffing it. And leaders are NOT immune. When you feel ashamed of the thoughts and feelings inside, you hide it, not wanting to even acknowledge the self pity you’re experiencing to yourself.  When you need comfort a...

Words are thoughts with enough intensity and energy to coalesce and be voiced, this gives them enormous power. We don't give them much consideration and yet, they are the building blocks of our futures. Really? Yes. They are that powerful. And choosing them wisely is one of the fastest way to change your life. It's said that we have 60,000-80,000 thoughts every day - and 90% of them are...

One full year of podcasting!  To celebrate episode 52, Stephanie & Maren go on a journey of self discovery, taking the listeners with them in an engaging way. They share what has happened over the past year, how they've grown as people and their vision for their futures.   As they delve into their own lives, they share their insightful questions, their own personal learnings, the things t...

Today's podcast, on the surface, may seem like a departure from Soulful Leadership, and it's not.  When you look closer, it's leadership at its most powerful and inspiring. Maren opens her heart and shares how she followed the threads in her life and trusted her guidance despite her chronic breathing condition getting worse. Maren & Stephanie had a different subject planned for...

"There is a state within us that literally turns on certain chemicals that you normally would get from a street chemical or a street drug." - Stephanie J Allen Do you know how to tap into this state?  It starts with finding your personal flow state, and gets even richer when you go deeply into your personal why, when you connect to the internal meaning that's behind it all. That&apo...

Your life has been defined by someone else's version of success. You know this. You may deny it, and part of you knows the truth. Your definition of success was being shaped for you before you could form a sentence. Some of the influences were subtle, some glaringly obvious. As you've become more aware of yourself, you've started to question your own assumptions. ~ Maybe you've...

You want more. To do more, to be more, to have more - time, energy, joy, peace, abundance… but you’re running from thing to thing, barely keeping up as it is. You're trapped in the world you've created. How can you get from where you are to where you want to be? How do you bridge that gap? Maren and Stephanie dive into this compelling subject and share the secret to making the shift: mak...

Be forewarned, this episode is deeply moving.  Tamera Sutton's story resonates deeply. There are many universal truths that were unearthed in this recording. As an overworked, undervalued mom of two, trying to do it all, Tamera found a lump on her breast. She wasn't given a break, and instead was asked to do more, come in and work overtime to catch up, plus see her doctors, try to heal a...

You've been trained to live based on your past. You react to a co-worker, you make a decision on a project, you snap at your child. Each of those events happened because of a past learning, a past training. And more importantly, it has a ripple effect into the future. Science is now showing that the wave pulling from future is STRONGER than the wave coming from the past.  What would it be lik...

What are YOU here to give?  What’s inside of you, that if you died, the music would be still there, left inside of you? Is there more of your song yet to be played? We consume, consume, consume, and we're stuffed; we're overweight, we're overburdened, we're overstressed. When we give, we actually make space in ourselves.  Today, Maren & Stephanie talk about giving and its r...

You’ve done all the ‘stuff’. You’ve read the books, you have a coach, you’ve done all the work and applied everything you’ve learned… and it’s not changing. If anything, you feel more trapped than before. You wonder, what am I doing wrong? What MORE do I need to do? What’s wrong with me? It’s not you. Society wired us backward. We’re taught to ‘do’ all the outer in order to ‘have’ and then to ‘be’...

What does community mean to you? How much are you longing for connection with others, with yourself, with something greater? As soulful leaders, are we asking the questions we really need to ask... how is our community? How are you connecting with our community?  Most importantly, what would it look like for all of us to be more intentional about creating safe spaces for both community and connect...

More. We all seem to want more time and money, that's the most common element that's discussed in regards to either... Getting more. Of both. It's a core element to our society. Consumerism preys on it. It's the driving force of most of what we do. So is changing the dialog even possible? Can you envision having the space in you life to experience 'enough' and 'f...

Why would we need a handbook, or a manual?  We are born human, it's who we are. A tree doesn't need a handbook on how to be a tree. And yet, when you look around, you have to ask yourself if this is really the best we can do. We have everything we could want, the greatest creations, the most advanced technology and yet, there's still war, poverty and injustice. Is this the best we c...

You have that moment ... you feel stuck, you've lost your mojo and you are most certainly out of flow. What do you do? Today's guest is a master of getting unstuck. Meet Jake Lang of The Entrepreneur Ride Along . He has 8 successful online businesses, is the author of Step One and he's now helping others find the keys they need for their 'next step'. Throughout his success...

"It has to be perfect!"  How many times has your inner voice chided you with that, or some version of it? How often has it kept you from finishing something, or even starting it? Perfection can be overwhelming for leaders. The buck stops with you, so does the judgment... AND the pressure. It seems like there are only two options, both completely toxic:  take it on yourself (consuming and...