Beyond Better with Stacy Ennis

Many people have an unrealistic idea of self-care as bubble baths and expensive shopping sprees. These can be quick fixes, but they aren’t what truly nourishes us. My conversation with Amber Wardell explores what healthy self-care is all about, which includes confronting self-limiting behaviors and beliefs, challenging our inner demons, and pushing past our comfort zone.

Amber walks us through her own journey, confronting traditional beliefs about settling for what life gives, challenging the notion of reaching for the toxic, unhealthy “potato chips” that are offered by our quick-fix culture. And of course, we talk about how her pursuit of healthy self-care impacted her book-writing journey, including a few tips for aspiring authors.

Amber Wardell is a doctor of cognitive psychology and author of the upcoming book Self-Care Potato Chips: Choosing Nourishing Self-Care in a Quick-Fix Culture. She is also a contributor for Psychology Today where she writes about contemporary feminism, and runs a blog where she tackles topics related to marriage, motherhood, and mental health.

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Here’s part two answering your questions after my recent Katie Couric Media piece. In this episode, I answer a few more questions:

If you’ve ever considered moving abroad, don’t miss this week’s episode!

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After my recent Katie Couric Media piece, I received so many questions about life in Portugal—wow! In this episode, I answer a few of the questions:

Tune in next week for part 2 on taxes, citizenship, and how we picked where we live.

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Bill Gates does a Think Week every year, and I do something similar: Dream Week.

In this episode, I walk through my Dream Week plan and talk you through what I’m doing this year to dream and strategize for 2025. I also share some of the challenges I ran into with this year’s Dream Week, and my plans for later in the month, when I travel to London for another layer of thinking and planning for the year ahead.

Do you do a Dream Week or set aside time for thinking and planning for the next year? Tell me about it in the comments of this week’s episode.

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The moment I met this week’s guest, Ingrid Hu Dahl, I knew we’d create something beautiful together. She was working on a memoir about identity, loss, and living her truth, and needed a coach to walk the author journey with her. Spoiler: it was me. Her beautifully written book comes out next year.

In this episode, we discuss her story growing up mixed-race, including her rock background and current work as the founder and CEO of her coaching and consulting business, specializing in leadership and inclusion, and life transitions. She also shares about her author journey and how she navigated sharing a highly personal story alongside her work as a leadership coach and speaker. And we talk about owning the stage, including some practical tips to show up as your authentic self in front of hundreds of people.

Ingrid’s career journey includes leadership roles at Meta, Gap Inc, Capital One, KQED, and several nonprofit organizations. She is a TEDx speaker; a founding member of the Willie Mae Rock Camp for girls in Brooklyn, NYC; has performed in multiple touring bands; and has written, filmed, and directed two short films on identity and mixed-race experiences. Her memoir, Sun Shining on the Morning Snow, will be published in May 2025 by Page Two Publishing.

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In this episode of the podcast, I talk about accountability and following through on personal and professional goals, particularly when it comes to writing a book. I share a stat on how to increase your success in goal achievement by a massive 95%, and delve into the significance of calendaring and habit formation. I also walk through options to drive accountability to support your success, and how to cultivate a future-focused success mindset.

If you have a big goal you want to make happen, don’t miss this episode.

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This week’s episode is a bit different than others I’ve published—and that’s exactly why I’m excited to share it with you.

In it, I have a conversation with Mara Mureş, an artist traveler who left Portugal by bicycle in February 2024 and is currently in Pakistan. We talk about the logistics of traveling alone as a single female by bicycle, how she captures her experiences through art, and how she’s funding her travels through a book she created about her journeys.

Join us as we look at travel and art from a

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Money. It’s on everyone’s mind but something people rarely have conversations about.

This week, we’re changing that. We’re talking all about money with Samanda Morales, the founder and owner of WellFin360 LLC. Samanda shares her money story and early money challenges, including maxed-out credit and zero dollars in the bank—and how she overcame them to write a new money story. Today, she has built a life of abundance and helps others do the same through her fee-only financial planning and investment advisory boutique firm, offering personalized services to early and mid-career professionals, business owners, and companies seeking alternatives to one-size-fits-all solutions.

If money is on your mind, don’t miss this week’s inspiring, practical episode.

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It’s been a hot minute since I’ve hosted one of these! On October 3, I hosted a live discussion on LinkedIn to talk about the journey of some wonderful authors I had the pleasure of guiding through their book-writing journey.

I can’t wait to introduce you to five incredible future and published authors: Jacquelyn Wright, Ingrid Hu Dahl, Regina Lawless, Joe Pérez, and Mike Green.

This was a fun and valuable talk for anyone who has ever considered writing a book. You’ll get to hear from real authors about how they showed up, put in the work, and dug deeply to achieve their dream of authorhood.

Going it alone is hard—and often leads to countless beautiful books in digital drawers, waiting to see the sunlight. These authors organized both support and community around them to make their dream happen.

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In this episode, I share a replay of my recent master class on proven strategies to write a book, even when you’re busy.

In fact, nearly every client I work with is incredibly busy! Many future authors are surprised to learn that my coaching isn’t just about the skill of book writing and accountability—it’s about lifestyle design too. An optimized schedule equals an optimized brain, which helps you tap into focus and flow faster, helping you 4x your productivity.

In this master class replay episode, I teach strategies to:

And I detail how writing a book is the one thing you can do to move the needle on all your other goals, from personal development to social impact to business revenue growth.

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