Cassandra has been on a journey focused on teaching others to find their authenticity, to have effective/healthy relationships, and to better communicate with those around them. She has been on this journey to help others, in many ways, because she has been on a journey to help herself. Cassandra went through some pretty terrible traumas in her life, including being sexually abused when she was younger, and more recently when being hit by a drunk driver she finally began to realize the importance of figuring out how to be at peace with herself. 

As way of background, Cassandra is an author ("Being Whole"), professor, communication consultant, and motivational speaker. She chose "authenticity" as her most important value because she believes that is the key to dealing with your trauma and ultimately finding peace. What I loved about having her on as a guest was the awareness and raw honesty with which she spoke. At one point she was explaining some difficult times in her life, where she had this overriding feeling that something was wrong with her even though on the surface everything seemed like it should be fine. I think most of us find ourselves with that feeling at some point in our lives, so it really resonated to hear her speak about it and how she worked her way through it.

Towards the end of the show we had a really interesting conversation about kids and parenting; and specifically how much we should try and teach kids these lessons and life tools. We tried to understand the implications of engaging them in this type of deep self reflective and empowering work at a young age, as well as the implications of not doing it. It is obviously a tricky path to navigate, without clear answers, but we both agreed the more we can introduce our children to these concepts at a young age, the better off they and the world will be.