Your Kick Ass Life Podcast

I am pumped to share today’s episode with you! Partly because it is a coaching session episode, partly because Tracie, the lovely lady I am coaching, is a longtime coaching client of mine, and partly because I was (and still am) fired up about the topic Tracie brought to our session! Oh and I also am doing something I haven’t done in a loooonnng time. All the details are in this episode, so you will have to listen in.

This week I welcome Nicole Whiting to the podcast. She is a “life pacer” who turned to running during a time of tremendous hardship. Instead of retreating and playing the victim, Nicole picked something extraordinary, ultra-running, to help her process and move the difficulties through her body. Now an ultra-runner and life coach, Nicole meets women “where they are” and gets them across the finish line.  I’ve been looking forward to having Nicole on my show for a long time! I met her in January through a Mastermind group and y’all, she’s kinda stolen my heart.  In this episode, Nicole and I talk about being out of your league, but still committing to being all in, and Nicole’s experience of moving from survival mode to thriving mode. I love Nicole’s story so much because so many people have experienced some kind of life altering event and struggle to move past it. Nicole says, “The race starts, when it starts to hurt.” And some might say, the real work (when it comes to personal development) starts when thing

Solo episode for you this week! Today I’m talking about taking breaks, introversion, and becoming comfortable with the uncomfortable. Recently a friend of mine asked me how she could overcome her introversion. And I was like, “Wait, hold up!” Introversion is a character trait, not something to overcome. It is what makes you, you. Overcoming unwanted behaviors like the kind I talk about in my book, How to Stop Feeling Like Shit, yes absolutely.   Being an introvert, being tall, or having long fingers - those are things you should embrace and never shun away. I go into this further, in this episode. I also talk about being comfortable with the uncomfortable. To sum it up here, life is a series of uncomfortable and awkward events and conversations. Stop waiting for comfortable.  Humans are ever-evolving (now I’m not trying to act like we’re better than everyone else, but I’m just sayin’ if you listen to my podcast you’re out there doing hard work and probably evolving at a faster rate than those who don’t. I mea

Returning guest, Shannon Kaiser joins me this week on the YKAL podcast. She is the bestselling author of five books on the psychology of happiness and fulfillment, including the #1 bestseller, The Self-Love Experiment and Adventures for Your Soul. Her new book, Joy Seeker: Let Go of What's Holding You Back So You Can Live the Life You Were Made For, is available this week! It is always a pleasure to talk to this amazing lady.  Today we talk about joy, spirituality, and authentic living. As you will hear, the underlying message to our conversation is, giving yourself permission to do the things you’ve always wanted to do. We talk about how women can work to trust and believe in themselves, how to live more authentically and how to speak your truth. As Shannon said so perfectly during our time together, “It all comes back to living your life from a place of integrity, a place of truth, and a place of honesty; that is the true joy.” In this episode you’ll hear: What led Shannon to write Joy Seeker and how her e

This week on the podcast I have another coaching episode for you. Long-time YKAL community member and Patron, Corrina joins me. She is a working mom from Toronto who needed help with prioritizing time for her own self-care. Here is what I love about this episode, not only is Corrina a loyal listener of the show, our conversation starts out on one topic and ends up going in a different direction. If you’ve listened to some of my past coaching sessions, you’ve come to learn that’s typically how my sessions go. And I love it.

This week I welcome Chase Chewning to the YKAL podcast. Chase is the creator of the platform Ever Forward and host of the podcast Ever Forward Radio. I’ve been on his podcast twice and y’all, he is an amazing host who is doing phenomenal things in the wellness industry (and wait until you hear his radio voice. Just wait). Today we take on big topics such as mental health, the revolution in masculinity and moving ever forward no matter the circumstance.  Chase shares openly with me the physical, emotional, and spiritual trauma he experienced following a serious hip injury, which led to being medically discharged from the military and having to learn to walk again. And like many of the conversations I have with my guests, ours shifted to topics I did not expect but am so glad they did.  We discussed the stories men (and women) sometimes make up about what it means to be a man (as in hiding one’s emotions) and how a revolution in masculinity is flipping those stories on their heads. As Chase so eloquently stated

I have such a great episode for you this week with my guest Sonya Renee Taylor. Sonya is an author, poet, spoken word artist, speaker, humanitarian, social justice activist, educator, and founder of The Body is Not An Apology. Today, we are talking all about radical self-love, body empowerment and how both can be a foundational tool for global transformation.  When it comes to self-love, especially in the personal development space, it can be made to look easy, light, and fluffy. But as you’ll hear in this episode, Sonya believes, “Nothing grows without discomfort.” 100%, yes! Radical self-love requires us to challenge our deeply held beliefs which are keeping us locked in systems of status quo and latency. True radical self-love can help you see the world in a different way and help you shift it too.  We also talk about body shaming, meta-shame and even a unique and affirming way to spread body empowerment among friends; which can move mountains y’all! I know I say this often, but I truly am excited to share

As you may have heard (since I’ve been talking about it almost non-stop here), I’m still writing my book proposal for my third book. Book proposals are a slightly complicated, gigantic document that contains the summary of your book, who the book is for, and what magic fairies you’re going to conjure to help you sell the book.  It contains other things too, but my point is, the way I describe writing book proposals is it’s like that school project you have that is enormously time-consuming, super boring, a metric shit-ton of work, and 99% of your grade is riding on it. Oh, and the class it’s for is the Big Enchilada Important Class. No big deal.  As I’ve also mentioned before, this book will be slightly different than my first two. Still self-helpy, but it will have an edge. More opinionated. More in tune with what’s going on culturally and politically.  And all of this is scary for me, as this entire year has been about healing, moving through all sorts of old shit, and leveling up.  One of the things I’ve d

Charlie Gilkey is back on the YKAL podcast this week, this time to talk about productivity with a twist. So many listeners offered such great feedback when he joined me on the podcast the first time around, that I knew I had to bring him back. For those of you new to Charlie, he is the founder of Productive Flourishing and the author of the new book, Start Finishing: How to Go From Idea to Done. Charlie helps people finish the stuff that matters. I mean, come on, we all could use a little bit of that in our lives, am I right?  In this latest book, Charlie walks readers through some different perspectives around getting shit done, which we talk about in this episode. We touch on topics such as perfectionism and how it’s holding you back from reaching your goals, what to do when the naysayers or derailers don’t believe in your projects, and how to get motivated for a task you are dreading. Plus we talk understanding that you have moments of choice and how changing the way you talk to yourself (and about yoursel

We like the idea of hiring a life coach, the idea of listening to all the podcasts, the idea of reading all the books and then, many times we don’t actually do the personal development work. Yes, doing this kind of what I call “passive learning” does matter. You are getting it in between your ears (better than your inner-critic!). But, there does come a time when action needs to happen. This week I have another YKAL Coaching episode for you. And Marisa, whom I coach in this episode, is a perfect example of someone doing the work.  Let’s get into this week’s coaching session. Meet Marisa, a new entrepreneur and recruiting agency employee from North Carolina. She came to me because she wanted to learn how to slow down, which we talk about in this episode. But like many coaching sessions, our conversation took a turn. We turned to the topic of values, including the difference between perfectionism and striving for excellence, as well as, Marisa’s values around integrity and patience. And then the conversation zi

This week’s guest is going to knock your socks off, y’all. Kara Loewentheil is Master Certified Coach who has pivoted her law career into a life coaching business, using her background in feminism theory to help women get the patriarchy out of their brains. Kara is also the host of the podcast, Unf*ck Your Brain and simply a stunning individual.  In today’s episode we talk all about the social messaging we receive as women and how this messaging plays into our own self-critical thoughts. Kara also talks about the work she does with women to undo the process and help them to think about themselves the way they want to. I’ve been looking forward to introducing you to Kara and I hope you enjoy our conversation.  In this episode you’ll hear: The reason women’s inner critic or not feeling good is a direct result of the patriarchy (6:00) You can’t suddenly be nicer to yourself (aka inner critic work) (10:30) How Kara addresses thought work and those who have experienced trauma and why thought work is so personal

I am delighted for this week’s episode; for two reasons. First, we are back with an episode of Conversations About Shit That Matters with Unqualified People. And second, the unqualified person joining me is none other than my bestie, Amy E. Smith. If this your first time hearing her, I know you will love her. And if this isn’t the first time hearing Amy, well, welcome back! This week, we’re talking all about money.  Everyone’s experience is different when it comes to money. Our stories vary, our circumstances might be different, but so many of us struggle in the same areas when it comes to money and our emotions. Amy has been on her own money journey for some time now and she even influenced me, gave me pause and helped me realize that I had a lot of money issues I needed to work on too. In this conversation, we share some of our own experiences with money, as well as some tips and tools with doing the work around money. We hope our conversation is hugely eye-opening and helpful. Let’s get on with it!  In thi

Raise your hand if you said yes to something you really didn’t want to do. And in doing so, you are saying no to something you actually WANT to do. It’s another exciting day here over YKAL headquarters, because it’s another coaching session episode.

To finish up the summer archived episodes run, I bring to you my conversation with Kate Courageous. This episode originally aired in May of last year - but the content is very much still applicable today! If you already heard it, it is worth listening to again. Kate is a dear friend of mine, as well, and I am thrilled that I can share this episode with you again, as it includes her thoughts on fear, courage, and the inner-critic.   Kate is also the author of The Courage Habit: How to Accept Your Fears, Release the Past, and Live Your Courageous Life. I am so happy her book is available! Today, we cover the brain science behind courage habits, and identifying and then dealing with habits that are holding you back.   In this episode you’ll hear: Four fear patterns that get people stuck  Some ways we try to deal with fear  The more you go into the things you fear, the wider your comfort zone becomes  Reaching out and creating a community, courage-based values, and being vulnerable  Fear is a wound and needs

We are back this week with another archived episode that is from a long time ago. In it, my friend and associate Amy Ahlers, author of, Big Fat Lies Women Tell Themselves and Reform Your Inner Mean Girl, talks about all things inner mean girl (aka inner critic)!  Since the original airing of this episode, I have really gotten to know Amy. She has so much experience and tenure in the personal development industry, this woman knows her stuff, so I am happy to re-share this episode with you.  We all love formulas and processes, right? Well, Amy has come up with a 3-step process for transforming your inner mean girl, which she talks about in the episode.  In this episode, you’ll also hear: What exactly is inner-wisdom and what to do if we don’t know where to start when it comes to listening to it.  I ask Amy what is the most common big fat lie women tell themselves. (The answer doesn’t surprise me at all!)  Amy tells us what her biggest trigger is and what are the steps she actually takes to manage her own inn

Hey Ass Kickers! I hope you are having a happy summer. This week on the podcast, Rebekah “Bex” Borucki is back! For those of you who are new to Rebekah, she is a mother of five, TV host, a meditation and yoga guide, and, a birth Doula. She is also the author of two books, You Have 4 Minutes to Change Your Life and her newest book, Managing the Motherload.   Rebekah’s mission is to make mental health support and stress management tools accessible to all, especially black and indigenous people of Color, LGBTQ plus folks and other marginalized communities. And I am super pumped to bring my conversation with Rebekah to you today.  We discuss her new book, including some of the lessons she’s learned over the years from being a mother. But let’s be clear, before you check out of this episode, Rebekah states both in her book and in this episode, Managing the Motherload is not a parenting book. So if you aren’t a parent, today’s episode still applies to you. We discuss topics related to being a parent, but the same t

This week I am sharing an archived episode, because ALL of us, including me, need to take a break every now and again. And I vowed to do just that this July. Today, I welcome you to listen to an oldie but goodie, my conversation with long-time friend, master certified life coach and as of this year, my coach, Susan Hyatt! Susan has been coaching for well over a decade and has thousands of fans, including Dr. Martha Beck and Maria Shriver!  One of the things that has won her many fans is the fact that this woman walks her talk. She’s used coaching techniques to drop 35 pounds, revitalize her marriage and uplevel her career. We discuss a mishmash of topics including why body issues are holding women back from leading big lives, what we can do right now to make peace with our bodies, and why it’s so important to take big risks! In this episode, you’ll also hear: Pay gap, not thigh gap: why body concerns are distracting us from our real work. Why you’ll only reap big rewards if you risk something. What's the #

This week we are back with part two of my coaching session around money with Melanie. The last time we left Melanie, she was going to be diving into some big work around money stories, core beliefs and self-worth. Today we are jumping right back into some big topics around money such as resentment, healing from the patriarchy, and getting to the bottom of unwanted identities. If you missed the first part of our conversation, you definitely want to listen to before checking out today’s episode.  In this session, Melanie shares how she has been doing with some of the personal development homework assignments I gave her, including what has been working and what she has been resisting (and why). Oh and hey, I would love to know if you are liking these coaching episodes. It’s important for me to know which kind of episodes you love (or don’t), so I can continue to bring you the content you enjoy most! Thank you for joining us for this conclusion of Melanie’s coaching session on self-worth and money issues.  In thi

Hi Ass Kickers! We have another YKAL Coaching session episode this week. We received a lot of great feedback last month when I coached Rachel on the show. I am excited to be back again, this time with a two-part coaching episode featuring Melanie.  If you can walk away from this culture without having any hangups around money, sex, or body image, you’re a-okay. But that’s the trifecta of women’s issues and most of us are feeling “meh”, or at least trying to do the work to resolve these issues. Such is the case with this week’s client, Melanie; a dog mom, working in the dental industry in Colorado.  During today’s session, she opens up about some issues she has been having around money, including managing money, self-worth, and her core beliefs about what it means to be wealthy. I am so appreciative of women like Melanie for coming on the podcast and sharing their lives with us. At the end of the day, we are having conversations around the big topics that are hard for all of us. So, thank you, Melanie, for sha