Brave Enough to Be

In today’s episode, I’m joined by Katie Hawkins-Gaar.

Katie is a former journalist, freelance writer, and the author behind the popular bi-weekly newsletter, My Sweet Dumb Brain. Her writing has been featured in the New York Times, CNN, Glamour, and more.

Just a few years ago, Katie experienced — and continues to experience — the incredibly tragic and sudden loss of her husband and, as she explains in today’s episode, she began writing, journaling, every day as a way of processing and coping and just getting everything that was going on inside of her out onto the page.

Today Katie and I talk about why it’s so important to share our experiences of grief, the hardest part of sharing her life online — and why she didn’t expect it, and how she’s navigating being in a new relationship.

We also talk about:

• Why she started her newsletter following the death of her husband, Jamie — and why she called it “My Sweet Dumb Brain”
• What grief has taught Katie about her relationship with herself
• Why she decided to start sharing her experiences and processing after Jamie died
• How she takes care of herself while writing about really heavy topics
• How she dealt with the response to her personal story after publishing personal essays in Glamour, The New York Times, CNN, and more
• . . . and so much more goodness.

Katie is a beautiful and honest writer — the kind of writer whose work I love to read and whose talent and prolificness I aspire to model. 

I’m so grateful we shared this conversation together — and I hope you find it as encouraging and inspiring as I did.

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Follow Katie:

• My Sweet Dumb Brain Newsletter
• Instagram
• Twitter
• Treat Your Future Self Workbook

Other Notable Links:

• Don’t Keep Your Day Job Podcast
• Don’t Keep Your Day Job Facebook Group
• Maid by Stephanie Land
• Gretchen Rubin’s The Four Tendencies
• Katie’s Glamour Essay
• Katie’s New York Times Essay
• Katie’s CNN Essay

CREDITS

Editing & Sound Engineering: Jordan Johansen

Music: “Kenton” by Dr Crosby (Licensed via Marmoset)

In today’s episode, I’m joined by Jen Underwood.

Jen is a storyteller, a magician of words, and a connector of humans. 

She does individual and group coaching with people who are ready to face the places they are stuck or avoiding action and fight for the life of their dreams. As Jen says, being stuck sucks. And she loves working to support people with living a life filled with purpose, happiness, and courageous vulnerability. 

Jen has a Masters in Clinical Counseling and likes to combine her psychology and teaching backgrounds with real life experience, mixing emotional intelligence, strategy, and goal-setting with all her clients and programs. 

In addition to her work as a coach, Jen has written for The Washington Post, The Mission, P.S. I Love You, Becoming You, and Elephant Journal. 

Today Jen and I talk about how to feel your negative emotions so that you can actually heal from them, and the specific tools you can use to get unstuck effect real positive change in your life.

We also talk about:

• How Jen and I met and how we’ve both grown since then
• How most people have at least one area of their life — and many of us have more than one — where we feel stuck . . . and what to do about it
• How Jen transitioned from being a poor single mom to social work to starting her own business
• How she went from awareness to action as she worked to change her life
• The value of talk therapy for bringing awareness to your behaviors — and why that’s not enough
• Why she sold everything she owned and moved into a van with her daughter
• How she discovered that she could do the work that she wanted to do in the world — and now, how she’s doing it
• . . . and so much more!

Jen is such an incredible teacher and student and friend, and I think you got to see all of that in this episode. 

I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as I did!

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Follow Jen:

• Website
• Facebook
• Instagram

Other Notable Links:

• COR Workshops

CREDITS

Editing & Sound Engineering: Jordan Johansen

Music: “Kenton” by Dr Crosby (Licensed via Marmoset)

In today’s solo episode, I’m getting personal.

In sharing my word for 2020, I’m also sharing:

• Why I chose this word (hint: it harkens back to some childhood issues)
• What being visible means to me (think authenticity and vulnerability)
• How I’m leaning into it (I’ll be posting a lot more selfies this year)
• And why all of my personal lessons might be valuable to you too.

Just doing this episode on my own was a practice in leaning into visibility and vulnerability for me — and while it was a little scary, it was really fun and exciting too.

I hope you enjoy the show!

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Follow Me:

Sunday Night Newsletter

Website

Instagram

Other Notable Links:

Love Warrior by Glennon Doyle

Brave Enough to Be Instagram

CREDITS

Editing & Sound Engineering: Jordan Johansen

Music: “Kenton” by Dr Crosby (Licensed via Marmoset)

In today’s episode, I’m joined by Erin Claire Jones.

Erin Claire Jones is a leadership coach specializing in Human Design. 

She helps leaders and teams step into their highest potential by offering them the self-knowledge and tools to perform at the top of their personal and professional games. She has consulted for startups all over the world, built companies supporting executives, partnerships and small teams to operate more harmoniously and effectively, and conducted research on leadership challenges at 90+ early-stage companies.

She has been featured in Forbes, Well+Good, Nylon, Culture Trip, The Sunday Times and more.

Today Erin and I talk about the system of Human Design and how it essentially acts as a unique operating manual for your life.

Erin explains how the main types and decision-making “authorities” of Human Design can help every human being build businesses, cultivate relationships, and so much more.

Human Design is a quantum system — meaning it pulls from various different systems  — that acts as a roadmap to who you are and how you can best live your life.

In today’s episode, we talk about:

• The origin of Human Design and the five different types within the system
• How Human Design explains how you’re uniquely wired to live and work
• How Human Design can help you make better decisions
• Why Human Design works whether you “believe” in it or not
• How understanding Human Design can create healthier, happier relationships
• How Erin got started with Human Design and how she uses her design in her business, her relationship, and her life
• How not living my design worked against me in my freelance career — and how I’ve shifted things to explore using Human Design to do my best work
• How to look up and start learning about your own Human Design
• . . . and so much more!

I’ve been following Erin’s work — particularly on Instagram! — for over a year, because it is just so practical and helpful if you want to live a life that feels easy and true to you. I was so excited to talk to her and dig into the details of Human Design to share with all of you.

I hope you enjoy the show!

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Follow Erin:

Website 

Instagram

Other Notable Links:

Look up your Human Design

Order your Human Design Blueprint // For 10% off, use discount code “BRAVE”

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CREDITS

Editing & Sound Engineering: Jordan Johansen

Music: “Kenton” by Dr Crosby (Licensed via Marmoset)

In today’s episode, I’m joined by Laura Peña.

Laura is the founder of She is the Universe, a global platform designed to amplify the voices of teenage girls from around the world. 

For the past year, Laura has put nearly every part of her life on hiatus and has been traveling the globe, creating a video docuseries for She is the Universe. She is on a quest to capture and share the stories, dreams, hopes, struggles and triumphs of 111 teenage girls of all shapes, sizes, colors, languages, cultural and socio-economic backgrounds. Her ultimate goal is to not only offer their unfiltered stories, but also create a place for them to see themselves in others and find a sense of community, mentorship and possibility.

Today Laura and I talk about trusting and surrendering to the big vision for your life — and all of the magic and opportunities that can come from that.

We also talk about what it was like to grow up in the Dominican Republic, how she’s gotten over her fear of sharing and speaking in public, and how all of her life experiences have led to her big vision to empower young girls by sharing their stories and creating a community for them through She Is The Universe.

We also talk about:

• How things won’t be (and can’t be) perfect before you put them out into the world
• Why she’s open to the evolution of her big vision
• How she learns to listen and trust in the process
• The bravery in doing things you’ve never done before
• The power of being seen (even when it’s uncomfortable) and having your story heard
• Overcoming the fear of asking for help & the impact of community on her project
• How focusing on “playing around” over getting things perfect helped Laura get started
• How She Is the Universe has both challenged and healed her
•  . . . and so much more!

Laura has such a tender, empathetic heart and she is clearly creating a movement that is empowering not only girls, but rippling out to empower everyone who comes into contact with these girls’ stories — including me.

I can’t wait for you to hear more!

Follow Laura:

Website

Patreon

Instagram

Facebook

Other Notable Links:

Laura’s TEDx Talk

Mariposa Foundation

Laura’s CreativeMornings Portland Talk

CREDITS

Editing & Sound Engineering: Jordan Johansen

Music: “Kenton” by Dr Crosby (Licensed via Marmoset)

In today's episode, I'm joined by Stephanie St. Claire, a writer and personal adviser, whose words and work have had a significant impact on my life for several years now.

Like many of us, Stephanie has been through a lot in her life — but what sets her apart is how she learns and grows and teaches from her experience. In this episode, Stephanie offers insight and tangible tips into how we can create our lives — as opposed to just letting life happen to us — from a place of intention and contribution.

In today’s episode, we talk about:

• The importance of taking total responsibility for your life
• How to recognize the stories you’ve made up in your life — and how to create a different, more empowering one
• Why being nervous means that you’re doing something right
• Why it’s important not to assign your happiness to other people’s instincts — and how to do that
• And the road that led to Stephanie being super courageous

Stephanie is such a wise and empathetic person, who is clearly living from her true human design — and I learned so much from our conversation. I hope you do too! Enjoy the show :)

Follow Stephanie:

• Website
• Medium
• Instagram

Other Notable Links:

• Stephanie’s Medium Article, “11 Things I Wish I Knew When I Started My Business”
• Human Design

CREDITS

Editing & Sound Engineering: Jordan Johansen

Music: “Kenton” by Dr Crosby (Licensed via Marmoset)

In today's episode, I'm joined by Adrian Granzella Larssen, a friend, client, and my former editor at The Muse.

Today Adrian reminds us that the bravest steps don't happen all at once — they're usually a cumulative series of small steps adding up over time. She also offers tangible insight into how she took the brave step of taking a year off to travel the world.

In today’s episode, we talk about:

• What it was like to be the first employee hired at The Muse, and work there through the first seven years of rapid growth
• How you don’t have to shake up your whole life to make a career change
• Why she would advise against people following the same brave step that she made early in her career
• How she was able to take a year off to travel the world
• Why we have no idea where our careers will be 10, 20 years from now
• . . . and so much more!

Adrian is one of the strongest writers, one of the kindest editors, and one of the smartest people I know. And she’s pretty fun to spend time with too :) Enjoy the show! 

Follow Adrian:

• Websites: Sweet Spot Content // Your Year Off
• Twitter
• Instagram

Other Notable Links:

• The Muse

CREDITS

Editing & Sound Engineering: Jordan Johansen

Music: “Kenton” by Dr Crosby (Licensed via Marmoset)

In today's episode, I'm joined by Liz Zuluaga, a commercial-editorial and branding photographer based in Seattle, but originally from Los Angeles (like me!).

Today Liz shares why following your soul’s calling is so terrifying (hint: it’s supposed to be!) and offers her top tips for being brave through hard situations. 

In today’s episode, we also talk about:

• Liz’s journey to becoming a full-time commercial and branding photographer
• How she used her last full-time job to fund her transition into entrepreneurship
• The question Liz asks herself to get through any hard situation
• How (and why!) she moved to Seattle without having ever set foot in her new home
• How Liz let down her walls with her now-fiance after years of horrible dating experiences
• How Liz has manifested — and continues to manifest — the life she wants (great advice for the woo and non-woo listeners among us)
• Liz’s advice to her younger self . . .
• . . . and so much more goodness.

Liz is hilarious and creative and wise and just all heart, and I think in just a little under an hour, you’ll quickly love her as much as I do.

Follow Liz:

• Website
• Instagram
• Facebook

Other Notable Links:

• #100MiniPods
• P.O.W.E.R. Community
• Don't Keep Your Day Job Podcast

CREDITS

Editing & Sound Engineering: Jordan Johansen

Music: “Kenton” by Dr Crosby (Licensed via Marmoset)

Blue Yeti Mic: Steven Ziegler