Empowered Team Podcast

Why do entrepreneurs love what they do... and sometimes want to burn it all down?

In this solo episode of the Empowered Team Podcast, Kari Schneider explores the hidden tension behind entrepreneurship—the paradox that the greatest strengths of entrepreneurs often become their greatest sources of stress. Drawing from her experience coaching leaders and business owners, Kari unpacks the three biggest areas of entrepreneurial friction and the practical shifts that help you thrive instead of simply survive.

In this episode you'll discover:

Whether you're an entrepreneur, lead alongside one, or support someone building a business, this episode offers a fresh perspective on navigating the emotional realities of entrepreneurship with greater clarity, resilience, and purpose.

Key Takeaway: The goal isn't to eliminate friction—it's to understand it. When you recognize the tension between ideas and discipline, autonomy and accountability, identity and values, you can build a business that serves your purpose without consuming who you are.

Have you ever hit the deadline, met the standard, and still felt like the project wasn't actually finished?

In this episode of the Empowered Team Podcast, Kari Schneider explores "The Completion Trap"—the frustrating cycle where goals, projects, and dreams remain perpetually 90% complete. Drawing from the six-year restoration and launch of Wick Cliff Lodge, Kari shares why unfinished work silently steals our energy and how leaders can break free from the "almost done" mindset.

You'll discover:

This episode will help you recognize where you're caught in the completion trap and give you the tools to create clarity, strengthen leadership, and reclaim momentum.

Key takeaway: Completion doesn't happen by accident. Leaders must intentionally define what "done" means, decide what trade-offs they're willing to make, and create ownership around the finish line.

If you've been carrying something that's always "almost done," this conversation will help you finally let it go—and move on to what matters most.

What if the biggest opportunities in your career don't come from being the most qualified—but from being willing to step forward before you feel completely ready?

Barry Moline spent 29 years as a CEO leading two organizations, but his leadership journey didn't begin in the boardroom. It began as a 16-year-old hockey referee who unexpectedly found himself responsible for a high-stakes game he never planned to officiate.

That single decision to step up became a pattern that shaped an extraordinary career.

In this conversation, Barry shares why leadership is less about confidence and more about responsibility, why the people around you often recognize your leadership potential before you do, and how mentors can transform someone's future with just a few words of belief.

We also pull back the curtain on what leadership really feels like behind the scenes—the invisible emotional labor, the constant decision-making, and why even CEOs need trusted advisors they can speak honestly with.

Whether you're leading a team, building a business, or simply wondering if you're ready for the next opportunity, this episode will challenge the way you think about growth, courage, and influence.

In this episode you'll discover:

Sometimes the opportunity that changes your life doesn't arrive when you're prepared.

It arrives when you're willing to raise your hand.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/barry-moline/ 

Website: https://barrymoline.com/ 

Email: [email protected] 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@barrymoline6530  

We've all heard the advice: Never quit.

But what if that's exactly what's keeping you from the life and leadership you want?

In this episode of the Empowered Team Podcast, Kari Schneider challenges one of the most deeply held beliefs about success. Drawing from leadership psychology, decision-making research, and personal experiences navigating entrepreneurship, caregiving, illness, and major life transitions, Kari explores why the real danger isn't quitting—it's quitting for the wrong reasons or refusing to walk away when wisdom is calling you forward.

You'll discover:

Whether you're leading a business, navigating a relationship, making a career decision, or pursuing a personal goal, this episode will give you a completely different framework for evaluating success, failure, and courage.

If you've ever wondered whether to keep going or let go, this conversation may provide the clarity you've been searching for.

Key Topics

Resource List — Researchers Cited

In this powerful short episode of the Empowered Team Podcast, host Kari Schneider explores what may be the most important skill for leadership, emotional intelligence, and self-mastery: learning to separate facts from thoughts.

Most people unknowingly treat their thoughts as truth. But thoughts are often interpretations, assumptions, and predictions—not objective reality. When leaders fail to recognize this distinction, they make decisions based on stories rather than facts, creating unnecessary stress, conflict, and emotional reactivity.

Kari breaks down the neuroscience behind why this happens, drawing from thought leaders like Daniel Kahneman, Eckhart Tolle, Byron Katie, Tony Robbins, Brooke Castillo, and Dan Siegel.

You are not your thoughts.

You are the one observing them.

The moment you stop treating every thought as truth, you gain access to greater clarity, stronger leadership, better communication, and deeper emotional freedom.

Catch one automatic thought and ask yourself:

Is this a fact… or just a thought?

That single question can change everything.

Leadership mindset, emotional intelligence, thought awareness, self-mastery, neuroscience, mindset coaching, cognitive defusion, leadership development, intentional thinking, empowered leadership

Learn more at: theempowered.ca

In this powerful episode of the Empowered Team Podcast, Kari Schneider sits down with Kelsey Aida—best-selling author, energetic alignment coach, and co-host of the top 1% podcast High Vibin’ It.

Kelsey helps people uncover the hidden resistance keeping them stuck so they can align with the life they truly want.

From the outside, high achievers often look successful—but internally many are battling fear, self-doubt, identity loss, and subconscious resistance.

Kelsey shares her own journey from elite ballerina to a devastating career-ending injury that triggered a deep identity crisis and depression. That dark season became the catalyst for her healing work and ultimately led her to teaching manifestation, emotional healing, and energetic alignment.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

“The safety piece is the ultimate cure.”

“You are not what you do.”

“The only difference between you and the people you admire is that they got better at handling resistance.”

Success isn’t only about strategy or discipline.

Often, the greatest breakthrough comes from recognizing the inner resistance that keeps you playing small.

When you learn to create safety in your mind and body, feel your emotions, and stop fighting yourself—you unlock a new level of leadership, performance, and self-mastery.

Connect with Kelsey:

Pre-order The Manifesting Fix: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250432674/themanifestingfix/ 

Listen now and discover how to stop getting in your own way.

What if the way you end a conversation matters more than everything that happened before it?

In this solo episode of the Empowered Team Podcast, Kari Schneider explores the powerful psychology behind the Peak-End Rule, a research-backed principle from Daniel Kahneman and Barbara Fredrickson showing that people don’t remember the entire experience—they remember the most intense moment and how it ended.

That means whether you’re leading a team meeting, coaching an athlete, navigating conflict in a relationship, or ending your workday, your final moments shape what people carry forward.

Kari shares powerful examples from:

✔ Name the win — Anchor attention on what went right

You may not control every moment of an interaction…

And that ending may determine whether people feel defeated, motivated, connected, or ready to return stronger.

Your challenge:

Because the ending matters.

Fredrickson, B.L. & Kahneman, D. (1993). Duration neglect in retrospective evaluations of affective episodes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65(1), 45–55.

Kahneman, D., Fredrickson, B.L., Schreiber, C.A., & Redelmeier, D.A. (1993). When more pain is preferred to less: Adding a better end. Psychological Science, 4(6), 401–405.

Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, Fast and Slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Gottman, J.M. & Silver, N. (1999). The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work. Crown Publishers.

Gottman, J.M. (2015). Principia Amoris: The New Science of Love. Routledge.

Bastos, V., Ekkekakis, P., Andrade, A.J., & Teixeira, D.S. (2025). The peak and end rule, affect-related cognitions, enjoyment, and exercise frequency: A randomized controlled trial ancillary study. Psychology of Sport and Exercise. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2025.102963

Bandura, A. (1997). Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control. W.H. Freeman.

We all experience pain. Physical pain. Emotional pain. Loss. Grief. Fear. Disappointment.

But what if much of what keeps us stuck isn't the pain itself?

In this final episode of the Clean Pain Series, Kari Schneider explores the critical distinction between clean pain and suffering, revealing why suffering is often the result of what we build around our pain—not the pain itself.

Drawing from psychological research, Viktor Frankl's teachings, Buddhist philosophy, and her own experiences navigating Graves' disease, injury, grief, and divorce, Kari shares a powerful framework for recognizing and releasing unnecessary suffering.

You'll learn how common patterns like rumination, catastrophizing, identity fusion, and comparison create "dirty pain" and keep us trapped in cycles that drain our energy and limit our growth.

You cannot always control the pain life brings.

You can choose whether you build a life around it.

When you learn to recognize suffering for what it is, you reclaim your ability to respond intentionally, align with your values, and move forward with greater freedom.

"Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional."

#Leadership #SelfMastery #EmotionalIntelligence #Resilience #PersonalGrowth #EmpoweredTeamPodcast #MentalFitness #CleanPain #Mindset #ViktorFrankl

In Part 2 of the Clean Pain Series, Kari Schneider explores the hidden cost of emotional suppression — and why avoiding difficult emotions may be creating more suffering, stress, and even physical illness than we realize.

Drawing from personal experience, leadership coaching, neuroscience, and the work of researchers like Dr. Susan David, Brené Brown, and Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, Kari breaks down the difference between clean emotional pain and the unnecessary suffering we create when we resist what we feel.

This episode dives into:

Kari also shares deeply personal reflections on grief, divorce, healing from Graves Disease, and learning how to process emotions after years of pushing through pain.

If you’re a leader, high achiever, entrepreneur, athlete, or someone who’s exhausted from “holding it together,” this episode offers a new framework for emotional strength and authentic fulfillment.

“The emotions we most want to avoid are often the emotions that contain the greatest wisdom.”

#EmotionalIntelligence #LeadershipDevelopment #SelfMastery #MentalHealth #EmotionalResilience #EmpoweredTeamPodcast #KariSchneider #CleanPain

In this deeply personal and eye-opening solo episode of the Empowered Team Podcast, host Kari Schneider shares a harrowing experience after being kicked by a horse—and the profound lessons it revealed about pain, awareness, and self-leadership.

Drawing from both lived experience and her background in athletic therapy and physiology, Kari unpacks the true role of physical pain—not as something to avoid, but as critical data your body is trying to communicate.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

Kari also shares the shocking reality of her misdiagnosis, internal injuries, and how tuning into her body ultimately protected her life.

Key takeaway: Pain is not the enemy—it’s a question. Your job is to get curious enough to answer it.

This episode kicks off a powerful 3-part series exploring:

If you’ve ever pushed through pain, ignored your body, or felt disconnected from what it’s trying to tell you—this episode is your wake-up call.

🎧 Listen now and learn how to turn pain into insight, awareness, and better decisions for your health and life.

REFERENCES:

Dr. Lorimer Moseley

Steven Hayes — ACT Therapy

Dr. Bessel van der Kolk

Buddhist Second Arrow — Sallatha Sutta

Epictetus

Chronic Pain Statistics