In episode 323 of Gratitude Geek, Kandas Rodarte and LuAnn Buechler explore how gratitude and human connection, especially through hugging, can transform both your personal and professional life.

LuAnn shares how she weaves gratitude into her work, why appreciation can shift your energy and happiness hormones, and how her “iHug” movement grew from a simple idea into a mission centered on community and belonging.

If you’re a Gen X woman solopreneur who wants more joy, connection, and sustainable growth without the hustle culture, this episode is for you.

Listen in and hear about:

Notable quotes

Timestamps

Resources and links

Connect with LuAnn

Connect with Kandas

If this episode rekindled your belief in the power of gratitude and hugs, share it with a friend who needs more connection in her life and business.

Gratitude Geek is the business education podcast for Gen X women solopreneurs who weave gratitude and appreciation into their business strategy. Hosted by metastatic breast cancer thriver, Kandas Rodarte, who co-creates spaces, opportunities, and conversations for women business owners.

• Subscribe to weekly emails: https://kandasrodarte.com/subscribe
• Join the Co-Lab: https://kandasrodarte.com/lab

Gratitude Geek is a member of Marketing Podcasts Network. For network wide advertising options visit: https://marketingpodcasts.net/advertise

Want to be a guest on Gratitude Geek? Send Kandas Rodarte a message on PodMatch here: https://kandasrodarte.com/podmatch

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What if the thing your body needs most is also the thing you stopped letting yourself do?

Award-winning dancer and movement coach Jenny C. Cohen joins Kandas for a conversation about using dance as a healing tool — not as performance, not as exercise, but as a way back to yourself. Jenny danced through chemotherapy, rebuilt her life after cancer, and turned that experience into a business that helps women reconnect with their own instincts through somatic movement.

In this episode you'll hear:

Why dancing to music you love activates most of your brain — and how to use that as a solopreneur reset

The dominant/non-dominant hand writing exercise that bypasses your inner editor and accesses what your body already knows

How to use a five-senses grounding practice to get present fast when you're overwhelmed

What Jenny learned about trusting herself after spending years paying coaches who didn't understand her vision

Why acknowledging hard anniversaries — cancer diagnoses, loss, hard seasons — actually deepens gratitude instead of derailing it

This one is for the Gen X woman who has been through something hard and is still figuring out how to carry it while building something real.

🎁 Free Gift from Jenny:
Jenny is offering Gratitude Geek listeners free admission to her monthly master workshop.
👉 Grab your spot at www.movetobloom.com

Connect with Jenny C. Cohen:
🌐 Website: JennyCCohen.com
🎙️ Podcast: dancetohealpodcast.com
▶️ YouTube: youtube.com/@dancetohealpodcast
💼 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jennyccohen
📸 Instagram: @jennyccohen

Gratitude Geek is the podcast for Gen X women solopreneurs weaving gratitude into business strategy. New episodes drop weekly.
🎧 Listen, subscribe, and leave a review wherever you get your podcasts.

Gratitude Geek is the business education podcast for Gen X women solopreneurs who weave gratitude and appreciation into their business strategy. Hosted by metastatic breast cancer thriver, Kandas Rodarte, who co-creates spaces, opportunities, and conversations for women business owners.

• Subscribe to weekly emails: https://kandasrodarte.com/subscribe
• Join the Co-Lab: https://kandasrodarte.com/lab

Gratitude Geek is a member of Marketing Podcasts Network. For network wide advertising options visit: https://marketingpodcasts.net/advertise

Want to be a guest on Gratitude Geek? Send Kandas Rodarte a message on PodMatch here: https://kandasrodarte.com/podmatch

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The business rules you've been following were never written for you. In this episode, Kandas Rodarte sits down with business coach and author Becky Mollenkamp to explore what it actually looks like to build an ethical, human-centered business as a woman solopreneur — without replicating the extractive system most of us are trying to leave behind.

Becky makes a distinction that will stick with you: capitalism is about more, more, more. Commerce is about enough. What's enough to make you whole? That one reframe changes how you price your work, build your network, and show up for your community.

This conversation is for you if you've ever burned yourself out chasing a finish line that kept moving, felt like the "build your empire" playbook wasn't built for your real life, or wondered whether there's a way to run a sustainable business without becoming the thing you left corporate America to escape.

In this episode:
✅ Why leaving corporate America doesn't automatically free you from hustle culture
✅ The practical difference between capitalism and commerce in your everyday business decisions
✅ What ethical business growth looks like — pricing, visibility, collaboration, and community care
✅ How to build your network like a spider web instead of a personal asset
✅ Why "enough" is not settling — and how to know what enough actually looks like for you

RESOURCES MENTIONED
📚 Liberate Your Business by Becky Mollenkamp: https://amzn.to/4vPgvSB (affiliate link)
🎙️ Feminist Podcasters Collective: https://feministpodcasterscollective.com/
🔗 Becky's website: https://beckymollenkamp.com/
🌴Paradise TV Show: https://www.hulu.com/series/paradise
🌹Nikki the Death Doula: https://www.nikkithedeathdoula.com/

ABOUT BECKY MOLLENKAMP
Becky Mollenkamp (she/they) is a business coach, author of Liberate Your Business, and founder of the Feminist Podcasters Collective. She co-hosts the podcasts Messy Liberation and Feminist Founders.

ABOUT GRATITUDE GEEK
Gratitude Geek is the podcast for Gen X women solopreneurs building genuine, lasting connections with clients, colleagues, and community. Host Kandas Rodarte believes gratitude is a business strategy that transforms how we show up in our work and lives.

🎙️ Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/gratitude-geek/id820738086
🎙️ Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/27dh0T1PbwsWXxfmNWZPy8
🌐 Website: https://kandasrodarte.com
📧 Weekly Email: https://kandasrodarte.com/subscribe

WORK WITH KANDAS
Are you a woman solopreneur over 40 who's experienced something difficult like cancer, divorce, or loss? Kandas helps women rebuild their businesses and lives with strategy, systems, and gratitude as a business tool.
🌐 https://kandasrodarte.com/start-here

Gratitude Geek is the business education podcast for Gen X women solopreneurs who weave gratitude and appreciation into their business strategy. Hosted by metastatic breast cancer thriver, Kandas Rodarte, who co-creates spaces, opportunities, and conversations for women business owners.

• Subscribe to weekly emails: https://kandasrodarte.com/subscribe
• Join the Co-Lab: https://kandasrodarte.com/lab

Gratitude Geek is a member of Marketing Podcasts Network. For network wide advertising options visit: https://marketingpodcasts.net/advertise

Want to be a guest on Gratitude Geek? Send Kandas Rodarte a message on PodMatch here: https://kandasrodarte.com/podmatch

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Lesle Lane wasn't supposed to take over her family's photography business. Her brothers were the obvious choice. Commercial and industrial photography in the early 90s wasn't considered women's work — and her family wanted her shooting weddings instead.

She said no. And then she spent the next 33 years proving that was the right call.

Lesle is the owner of Studio 13 in Indiana, and someone in her family has been taking pictures for 95 years. In this conversation, she talks about what it actually looks like to inherit a family business without a real succession plan, survive every disruption thrown at a small business in one lifetime — recessions, a pandemic, the digital revolution, the sudden death of her longtime employee — and build something flexible enough to outlast all of it.

We also get into the real cost of cheap photography (and what it means for your business when the low-bid vendor bails three weeks before the event), how she transitioned from one W-2 employee to a team of 15 specialized 1099 contractors, what woman-owned certification has — and hasn't — been able to do for her business in the current climate, and why gratitude isn't a mindset practice for Lesle. It's just the only logical response to still being here.

"When you've been on your knees, there's no place to look but up."

Connect with Lesle Lane:
Website: https://studio13online.com
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/studio-thirteen

Mentioned in this episode:

Olan Mills Photography:

Episode with Adam Zuckerman on Succession Planning for Solopreneurs: https://kandasrodarte.com/256

Show notes: https://kandasrodarte.com/320

Gratitude Geek is hosted by Kandas Rodarte — business education for Gen X women solopreneurs who want sustainable growth without the hustle.

Gratitude Geek is the business education podcast for Gen X women solopreneurs who weave gratitude and appreciation into their business strategy. Hosted by metastatic breast cancer thriver, Kandas Rodarte, who co-creates spaces, opportunities, and conversations for women business owners.

• Subscribe to weekly emails: https://kandasrodarte.com/subscribe
• Join the Co-Lab: https://kandasrodarte.com/lab

Gratitude Geek is a member of Marketing Podcasts Network. For network wide advertising options visit: https://marketingpodcasts.net/advertise

Want to be a guest on Gratitude Geek? Send Kandas Rodarte a message on PodMatch here: https://kandasrodarte.com/podmatch

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Do you think your story is too boring to share? PR strategist Lauren Kwedar Cockerell has spent 23 years helping purpose-driven businesses uncover the story only they can tell — and she's here to help you do the same.

In this episode of Gratitude Geek, Lauren breaks down what public relations for small business owners actually means (hint: it's not social media), how to stop leading with the surface-level answer everyone else in your industry gives, and how to build a "why now" hook that gets media and podcast hosts to pay attention.

We cover:

Why earned media is worth 3–10x more than a paid ad

Lauren's Thread methodology for excavating your real story

The one question that unlocks your most compelling pitch

5 reasons to actually send a press release

How to pitch podcasts the right way — and what not to do

If you're a Gen X woman solopreneur who's ready to get visible without feeling like you're bragging, this one's for you.

🎁 Lauren's free podcast pitch guide: https://www.kwedarco.com/freebies
🔗 Connect with Lauren: https://www.kwedarco.com
📖 The 5 Whys method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrlYkx41wEE
🎧 Full show notes: https://kandasrodarte.com/319

Gratitude Geek is the business education podcast for Gen X women solopreneurs who weave gratitude and appreciation into their business strategy. Hosted by metastatic breast cancer thriver, Kandas Rodarte, who co-creates spaces, opportunities, and conversations for women business owners.

• Subscribe to weekly emails: https://kandasrodarte.com/subscribe
• Join the Co-Lab: https://kandasrodarte.com/lab

Gratitude Geek is a member of Marketing Podcasts Network. For network wide advertising options visit: https://marketingpodcasts.net/advertise

Want to be a guest on Gratitude Geek? Send Kandas Rodarte a message on PodMatch here: https://kandasrodarte.com/podmatch

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

If you're a woman solopreneur who's been through cancer, divorce, or a major life disruption, your body is keeping score. Chronic stress doesn't just feel bad — it rewires your gut microbiome, tanks your sleep, and quietly undermines your ability to run a business. And most of us were raised to push through it alone.

Dr. Sara Love is a licensed naturopathic physician in Oregon with 16 years of practice. She's also the founder of Lichen & Leaf, a small-batch herbal tea company she built specifically because her patients were too stressed to take a break — so she gave them something worth stopping for.

In this conversation, Dr. Sara breaks down the stress-gut connection most doctors never talk about, why women solopreneurs are carrying so much of this physically and not just emotionally, and what you can actually do about it without spending money or overhauling your life.

She shares her three non-negotiables for stress management: getting outside for 30 minutes a day, building a real sleep routine, and taking actual breaks — scheduled ones, on your calendar, with no screens. We also talk about the Pomodoro method, the ritual of a proper tea break, and why accepting help is a health strategy, not a character flaw.

Topics covered in this episode include chronic stress and gut health, stress management for women solopreneurs, naturopathic medicine and lifestyle strategies, sleep hygiene for women over 40, time in nature as medicine, burnout prevention for solopreneurs, and building community after a life crisis.

Also Mentioned:

🔗Radical Remission by Kelly Turner, PhD: https://amzn.to/3OkFso8 (affiliate link)

🔗Pomodoro Co-Working on Mondays inside Gratitude Geek Lab: https://kandasrodarte.com/lab

Continue the conversation at https://kandasrodarte.com/318

Gratitude Geek is the business education podcast for Gen X women solopreneurs who weave gratitude and appreciation into their business strategy. Hosted by metastatic breast cancer thriver, Kandas Rodarte, who co-creates spaces, opportunities, and conversations for women business owners.

• Subscribe to weekly emails: https://kandasrodarte.com/subscribe
• Join the Co-Lab: https://kandasrodarte.com/lab

Gratitude Geek is a member of Marketing Podcasts Network. For network wide advertising options visit: https://marketingpodcasts.net/advertise

Want to be a guest on Gratitude Geek? Send Kandas Rodarte a message on PodMatch here: https://kandasrodarte.com/podmatch

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You’re feeling stressed and scattered in your business, but gratitude feels too woo to help. In this episode of Gratitude Geek, Heather Vickery and Kandas Rodarte break down how gratitude builds real clarity and ease—not just forced positivity—for Gen X women solopreneurs.

Heather, a transformation coach who’s used gratitude through major life transitions, shows how it fits into business as a practical tool, backed by positive psychology and neuroscience.

You’ll learn:

How gratitude shifts stress into problem-solving perspective

Why specific, honest gratitude beats vague “thankfulness”

Simple habit stacking to make gratitude doable in real life

How speaking gratitude out loud amplifies the effect

If you’re a Gen X woman solopreneur wanting gratitude as a business strategy, this is your starting point.

Timestamps
00:00 – Introduction and Heather's story
03:15 – Gratitude as a business tool
07:40 – Science of gratitude and mindset shifts
12:10 – Practical exercises and habit stacking
18:55 – EFT tapping and emotional tools
24:30 – Implementing gratitude daily
30:05 – Final takeaways

Links & resources
Full show notes and resources: https://kandasrodarte.com/317
Heather's gratitude journals: https://amzn.to/4v1y7du (affiliate)

Stay connected
Listen on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@gratitudegeek
Join the Gratitude Geek Lab: https://kandasrodarte.com/lab
Connect with Kandas on Threads: https://threads.com/gratitudegeek

Gratitude Geek is the business education podcast for Gen X women solopreneurs who weave gratitude and appreciation into their business strategy. Hosted by metastatic breast cancer thriver, Kandas Rodarte, who co-creates spaces, opportunities, and conversations for women business owners.

• Subscribe to weekly emails: https://kandasrodarte.com/subscribe
• Join the Co-Lab: https://kandasrodarte.com/lab

Gratitude Geek is a member of Marketing Podcasts Network. For network wide advertising options visit: https://marketingpodcasts.net/advertise

Want to be a guest on Gratitude Geek? Send Kandas Rodarte a message on PodMatch here: https://kandasrodarte.com/podmatch

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Thinking about starting a podcast? Before you buy the mic and set up the hosting account, you need to hear this conversation.

Julie Marty-Pearson has been in podcasting for nearly five years. She helps people launch shows, coaches podcast guests, and hosts three podcasts herself. She also tells people no when a podcast isn't right for them yet. That kind of honesty is exactly why this conversation matters.

In this episode, we get into the real reasons people want to start podcasts, why most of them aren't ready, and what to do instead. We talk about the actual costs of launching in 2026 versus what it cost back when I started in 2014. We dig into the power of being a strategic podcast guest, how collaboration is changing the game, and why guesting might be all you ever need to move the needle in your business.

We also go there on what it's like to be a woman putting her voice out in the world, dealing with trolls, bad reviews, and the freedom that comes from running out of Fs to give.

If you have been on the fence about podcasting, this episode will help you get clear.

Connect with Julie Marty-Pearson:

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Subscribe and Listen:

Connect with Kandas:

Support the Show:

Work with Kandas:

Gratitude Geek is the business education podcast for Gen X women solopreneurs who weave gratitude and appreciation into their business strategy. Hosted by metastatic breast cancer thriver, Kandas Rodarte, who co-creates spaces, opportunities, and conversations for women business owners.

• Subscribe to weekly emails: https://kandasrodarte.com/subscribe
• Join the Co-Lab: https://kandasrodarte.com/lab

Gratitude Geek is a member of Marketing Podcasts Network. For network wide advertising options visit: https://marketingpodcasts.net/advertise

Want to be a guest on Gratitude Geek? Send Kandas Rodarte a message on PodMatch here: https://kandasrodarte.com/podmatch

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Most women don't find out what breast cancer support resources are available until they're already in crisis. In this episode, Kandas sits down with Gretchen Awad, Executive Director of Susan G. Komen Northwest Ohio and Detroit, for an honest conversation about what Komen actually does on the ground — and how to access it.

Full show notes + resources: https://kandasrodarte.com/315

Gretchen walks through Komen's four pillars — advocacy, research, financial assistance, and community education — and explains how to get help regardless of your zip code or financial situation. She's joined by Dr. Michelle D. Clark, a breast cancer survivor and board member for Susan G. Komen Detroit, whose own story brings the human side of everything Komen exists to do.

Because this is Gratitude Geek, we also dig into something the medical community rarely talks about — how gratitude functions as a survival tool when your world has been turned upside down.

This episode is part of Podcasthon, an international movement where podcasters around the globe spotlight their charity of choice during the same week.

Resources mentioned:

Gratitude Geek is the business education podcast for Gen X women solopreneurs who weave gratitude and appreciation into their business strategy. Hosted by metastatic breast cancer thriver, Kandas Rodarte, who co-creates spaces, opportunities, and conversations for women business owners.

• Subscribe to weekly emails: https://kandasrodarte.com/subscribe
• Join the Co-Lab: https://kandasrodarte.com/lab

Gratitude Geek is a member of Marketing Podcasts Network. For network wide advertising options visit: https://marketingpodcasts.net/advertise

Want to be a guest on Gratitude Geek? Send Kandas Rodarte a message on PodMatch here: https://kandasrodarte.com/podmatch

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Your broken money story is robbing you blind — and most women solopreneurs don't even know it's happening. In this episode, Bill Cates, author of The Hidden Heist, helps you understand why your money mindset is the real thing holding your business back, not your strategy, not your marketing, and not the economy.

Bill has spent 34 years helping financial professionals grow through referrals and has built and sold multiple businesses himself. He knows both sides of financial success and financial struggle, and he brings that hard-won experience directly to this conversation.

Together we dig into why so many women over 40 undercharge, undervalue themselves, and wait to feel "ready" before they take profit or show generosity. Bill walks through how your earliest money beliefs are still running the show today, how to start rewriting that story, and why gratitude and generosity are actually wealth-building tools, not just feel-good habits.

If your relationship with money needs therapy, this episode is a great place to start.

Full show notes + links: https://kandasrodarte.com/314

Chapters:

0:00 - Breaking the money mindset holding women entrepreneurs back

1:45 - Bill's background: building, selling, and surviving bad partnerships

8:30 - Your broken money story and where financial beliefs come from

16:00 - Why women solopreneurs undercharge and undervalue themselves

22:30 - The wealth mindset shift: generosity and profit start NOW

28:00 - Borrowed trust, referrals, and rebuilding after a major life disruption

34:15 - Radical relevance: getting clear on your who to fix your money blocks

40:30 - Bill's moment of gratitude

Gratitude Geek is the business education podcast for Gen X women solopreneurs who weave gratitude and appreciation into their business strategy. Hosted by metastatic breast cancer thriver, Kandas Rodarte, who co-creates spaces, opportunities, and conversations for women business owners.

• Subscribe to weekly emails: https://kandasrodarte.com/subscribe
• Join the Co-Lab: https://kandasrodarte.com/lab

Gratitude Geek is a member of Marketing Podcasts Network. For network wide advertising options visit: https://marketingpodcasts.net/advertise

Want to be a guest on Gratitude Geek? Send Kandas Rodarte a message on PodMatch here: https://kandasrodarte.com/podmatch

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.