In this episode, I'm sharing five things to consider when it comes to the rise of artificial intelligence. Including what it actually is, what it can never do and why we should stop doing some things and lean heavily into others! 

If you want support to build a lush, booked-out 1:1 practice, that’s exactly what Ripen is for (apply here). 

And if you want a gentle nudge out of self-doubt, and to play with AI - meet Betty the BeliefBot - a customer GPT that helps coaches get unstuck within 15 minutes!

This week, I’m diving into the Core Four - the four simple, powerful foundations every coach needs to build a thriving practice. 

I’ll share how I’m applying them in my own business (from rewriting the Ripen sales page for the eleventy-seventh time, to jumping back on Instagram with my “how I got here” story), and why clarity on your core client, offer, nurture strategy, and sharing platforms makes everything easier. 

🔗 Links:

Procrastinating? InstallBetty the BeliefBot for FREE and get unstuck FAST! Betty is a custom GPT for Thoughtful Coaches, specifically trained to help you interrupt procrastination, overwhelm, and second-guessing yourself in under 15 minutes! → Meet Betty the BeliefBot 

Tell me about your first step! I'm back on The Gram → @saspetherick

Vix Muldrew's concept of the Girl Band. Vix on Instagram.

If you found this helpful, please Subscribe and Share this podcast with a coach pal who could use a boost of Courage & Spice.

Welcome to Courage and Spice for Coaches! 

In this episode, I share the changes I'm making to focus my work (and the podcast) on holistic support for coaches, what I’m working on right now, and how I’m essentially “starting again” with 13 years of experience behind me. 

If you’re fresh out of coach training, stuck in procrastination, or feeling disheartened because clients aren’t signing yet — this episode is for you. 

I’ll give you one simple, doable takeaway to get moving, and a taste of what’s to come as I share the behind-the-scenes of building a coaching business that feels like a ripe peach. 🍑

🔗 Links:

Procrastinating? InstallBetty the BeliefBot for FREE and get unstuck FAST! Betty is a custom GPT for Thoughtful Coaches, specifically trained to help you interrupt procrastination, overwhelm, and second-guessing yourself in under 15 minutes! → Meet Betty the BeliefBot 

Tell me about your first step! I'm back on The Gram → @saspetherick

If you found this helpful, please Subscribe and Share this podcast with a coach pal who could use a boost of Courage & Spice.

Content note: This episode includes discussions around intentional weight loss and diet culture, and therefore contains swearing.

This episode is part of a podcast series called The Body Stories. I’m joined by my beloved friend and fellow coach, Ali Shapiro. Over the next year, Ali and I will have an occasional and ongoing conversation about the nuanced relationship with our bodies. These are tender conversations, and at times, I will be in the coaching client seat. Our hope is that listening in will spark your own exploration of your body story.

💫 Subscribe below and I’ll send podcasts and posts straight to your inbox:

In this second episode, we talk about:

* Three months in, and the identity shifts are feeling more established!

* How I’m learning to enjoy intentional exercise (after a lifetime of not)

* The unexpected ripple effects of engaging in movement

* Developing the capacity to experience uncomfortable emotions (without eating them)

* How to cultivate self-compassion without resignation

* The Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) and why we underestimate our strength and power

* Why support from others makes the real difference

* The cult of protein is real (the Kardashians are cashing in)

Resources for you:

* Discover more about Ali Shapiro

* Park Run

* Kloud Popcorn

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit saspetherick.substack.com

Sarah Vermunt is a longtime pal, career coach and the founder of Careergasm. She's written books about careers and columns for Forbes, Inc., Entrepreneur, Fortune, and Fast Company. She’s had a regular coaching spot on the tele in Canada.

Three years ago, out of the blue, Sarah started having psychic clairvoyant visions. She did not see this coming. Since then, life-long City-dweller Sarah has moved to a small town with a vibrant community of witches (it sounds a lot like Stars Hollow). She is now helping other newly awakened intuitives through her side quest venture: ‘Psychic Normies’.

Sarah and I chat about:

* The rise of clairvoyance and energy work over the last few years.

* The importance of discernment in the intuitive community.

* The need for energy alignment (especially with mentors).

* How to navigate chaotic times, with Sarah sharing her vision about what 2025 holds for us all.

Resources for you:

* Psychic Normies

* Book a personal energy reading with Sarah

* Sarah’s career coaching work: Careergasm

* Sarah on The Gram

Content note: This episode includes discussions around intentional weight loss and diet culture, and therefore contains swearing.

This episode is part of a podcast series called The Body Stories. I’m joined by my beloved friend and fellow coach, Ali Shapiro. Over the next year, Ali and I will have an occasional and ongoing conversation about the nuanced relationship with our bodies. These are tender conversations, and at times, I will be in the coaching client seat. Our hope is that listening in will spark your own exploration of your body story.

💫 Subscribe below and I’ll send podcasts and posts straight to your inbox:

In this second episode, we talk about:

* Lizzo’s ‘weight release journey’ and the public conversations over private choices.

* This month I realised I didn’t really know what creating long term health looks like, and so I decided to work with a coach.

* The emotional response I had to a community walk (there are tears!).

* A big old protective belief that has shifted for me.

* And the identity level stories about fitness and health that are slowly changing.

Mentioned in this Episode:

* Connect with Ali here.

* Ali’s upcoming program: Your Emotional Eating Blueprint: Why Am I Eating This Now?

* Lizzo’s conversation with Jay Shetty: YouTube

* Jay Shetty backstory: Guardian article

* Let’s Get Triggered: Oprah, Ozempic and our Outrage

* The Body Stories Ep 1: Can you love yourself and want to lose weight?

As a highly sensitive person, Sam Dhu believes it is possible to be deeply ambitious and successful AND soft and sensitive at the same time.

Sam is a Psychotherapist, Mentor, and Facilitator of Permission. Mum to eight-year-old, Amelie and two-year-old Frankie, and passionate advocate for being radically kind and compassionate to yourself.

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We chat about how to acknowledge our individual capacity to create a life that feels "soft and successful." Many of us don’t have time, the capacity (and maybe even the desire!) for traditional approaches to achieving success, and rather than making ourselves wrong, we can be much more creative in how we do this on our terms.

Sam shares her journey of embracing her ADHD diagnosis and how the more she has accepted that her brain and nervous system have unique needs, the more successful she has become.

This is where things get really fun: being compassionate with yourself when something isn't working or it's feeling hard, opens you up to your individual, unique needs, so you can get curious about what does work.

This is such a reassuring and nurturing conversation for anyone who wants to create success on their terms. I just know you’re going to love Sam!

Resources for you:

Sam mentioned these assessment tools for sensitivity and neurodivergence:

* Highly Sensitive Test self-report

* ADHD self-report

To connect further with Sam:

* Website

* Find Sam on The Gram

* If you are looking for support, this looks delicious: Slow: the Mastermind

Content note: This episode includes discussions around intentional weight loss and diet culture, and contains swearing.

This is the first in a new podcast series called The Body Stories with my beloved friend and fellow coach, Ali Shapiro. Over the next year, Ali and I will have an occasional and ongoing conversation about the nuanced relationship with our bodies.

Ali is a deeply experienced coach whose work sits at the intersection of food, psychology, and behaviour change. Ali holds multiple certifications in integrated nutrition, and her master’s degree is in human behaviour. She has over a decade of work with clients and founded the ‘Truce with Food’ coaching methodology. This work is Ali’s love language!

To give you some context for this episode: I first went to Weight Watchers aged 11, thus began my on-off ‘its complicated’ situationship with the worst of bad boyfriends: diet culture. It’s been hard won, but these days, I have an appreciative and compassionate relationship with my body, and I feel so free of diet mentality.

I also have a complex heart condition, and losing body fat will reduce the burden on my heart. At age 51, I want to lose weight in order to build a strong body that my 81-year-old self will be so proud of. As I embark on this process of intentional weight loss, a lot of old stuff has come up. So far, this process has contained a lot of surprising realisations, story rewrites, and tentative healing.

In this first episode, we set the scene for this ongoing conversation. We talk about:

* Diet culture as “thin at all costs”

* Feeling peace within our bodies

* What does it mean to trust your appetite?

* How I’ve changed my eating habits

* Why restriction is different from deprivation

* Doing the “good thing” vs actually feeling good

* Finding satisfaction in our day-to-day

* Letting go of the Weight Watchers “walk of shame”

This podcast series was sparked by our private chats where Ali’s support has been rich with insight. Our conversations felt so nourishing I invited Ali to make this a public chat.

These are tender conversations, and at times, I will be in the coaching client seat. Our hope is that listening in will spark your own exploration of your body story.

Mentioned in this Episode:

* Connect with Ali here.

* Ali’s upcoming program: Your Emotional Eating Blueprint: Why Am I Eating This Now?

* That Sugar Film

Tamu Thomas is a transformational somatic leadership coach, the eldest daughter of West African immigrants, a mother, a speaker, and now a published author!

Tamu’s first book, Women Who Work Too Much, helps overachieving, overfunctioning women set boundaries, find joy, and flourish.

This conversation was a balm, and I suspect fellow Gen X women in particular, will feel seen and understood. We are the generation that grew up being told we could have it all. Now, we find ourselves in our 40s and 50s—often our most creatively fulfilling years - doing too much during menopause while parenting teens and caring for parents and wondering why we are so bloody tired.

In this conversation, we discuss natural (rather than toxic) productivity, radical rest, and why work (not overwork) can be a positive thing.

This is such an important conversation for those of us who have blurred the boundaries between work, rest, and play (me, too!).

Resources for you:

Women Who Work Too Much by Tamu Thomas

Tamu on Instagram @tamu.thomas

Tamu on TikTok @tamu_thomas

Have you ever daydreamed about a different potential future for yourself?

Perhaps your imagination offers you an entirely different job, country, or relationship?

It might be that your life looks the same on the inside but feels entirely different to you.

This might be a creative way to spend time on a drive or in a queue, and it could also point you towards an entirely new direction.

In this episode of Courage and Spice, we are exploring this sometimes magical connection with Your Future Self. We explore:

* How to connect to yourself years from now

* How to use this envisioning exercise when we want to make a life change

* When this exercise isn’t helpful

* How to decode the breadcrumb trail your imagination offers.

I also share a quite magical experience of connecting to my future self years before I even knew what it was, and how my vision was a giant metaphor for life now.

If you have a feeling that something new wants to emerge in your life, this episode is for you!

Please do share in the comments what your Future Self is up to ✨

Resources for you:

* Self-belief Journalling: make a cosy date with yourself and your journal to explore a topic designed to help you grow self-belief. Our next topic is intention!

* Write a letter to your future self.

* Wishcraft by Barbara Sher

* Rethinking positive thinking: Inside the new science of motivation by

Gabriele Oettingen

* Hal Hershfield in conversation with Scott Barry Kaufman: The Psychology Podcast