Jump Start Your Joy®

In this interview, I'm delighted to be joined by life coach Mackenzie Eason. She is a love and relationship coach who specializes in helping her clients break free from toxic dynamics, develop emotional mastery, clear up communication, reclaim their power, and cultivate unshakable self love. In other words, she's the most amazing person to have on to talk about how we look at love, how we can learn to love ourselves, and how we can talk about Valentine's Day in a very different way. In this episode we are talking all about how to love yourself first, and looking at how COVID and shelter in place has taken a toll on existing relationships.

Kenzie and I met through life coach training, and it's a real treat to have her on the show. She fully embodies joy and love and she's one of the most genuine and lovely people you'll ever meet. I love that she's dedicated her work to helping womxn through the breakups, and that she holds space for them to find transformation and joy on the other side of those hard times. I'm so excited to have her on Jump Start Your Joy.

Get all the show notes and a full transcript at the website.

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Purchase my book, Jump Start Your Joy: Heart-Centered Ways to Find Joy in The Messy Middle

Barron Steffen is a Siddha Yoga practitioner, a big band crooner, and a widower. He is also the author of the book, "The Final Gift of the Beloved: Her Disappearance - 13 Days," where he shares the story of the death of his wife Dr. Seana Lowe Steffen and the 13 days that follow. It is a joy to speak with him, and it is an honor to have him share his journey of saying goodbye to the love of his life, and the peace and joy that came with that journey. Barron now focuses his life's work on "The Yoga of Mindset," a program that helps children and other people to give them the "tools necessary to live harmoniously among our thoughts," and spread the art of mindfulness.

Get all the show notes and a full transcript at the website.

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Purchase my book, Jump Start Your Joy: Heart-Centered Ways to Find Joy in The Messy Middle

How do we welcome in a new year, after 2020 was full of so many difficult things? In this first interview of 2021, I'm so delighted to be joined by the five podcasters behind "The Best Parts Podcast:" Louise Neil, Nikki Baker Wulf, Laura Lively, Sara Doell, and Kim Romain. Their philosophy is that all parts of our lives are the best parts. I know that there is a really big desire to slam the door on 2020, and call it a dumpster fire. Instead, I want to focus on what is going on for each of us as we enter into a new year

That said, there's something that's really juicy about the middle of all of this, because:

One: I don't think all the problems that we've come up with and seen in 2020 are just going to end. We've already seen that that isn't true.

Two: Much of the turmoil that's been put into motion across the board is also going to stay in play.

Get all the show notes and a full transcript at the website.

Sign up for Newsletter on my website.

Purchase my book, Jump Start Your Joy: Heart-Centered Ways to Find Joy in The Messy Middle

In this episode, we'll be looking at how to bring joy into your life, even when it's hard. Many of us are sitting in the midst of extremes right now: feeling isolated and wishing for connection, being overwhelmed and wishing for calm. We are sad over the current situation of the world, and also want to feel joy. In this episode I'll share how you can integrate these things in your life, by looking for the "and."

Finding Joy in The Messy Middle

When we get into a place like the pandemic, and things have been difficult for a sustained amount of time, finding joy becomes a practice. And, it becomes more important than ever before. One way of doing this is to make sure that you become mindful of adding joy into your day, and scheduling in time (or taking the time) to do something that helps to connect you to joy each day.

Get all the show notes and a full transcript at the website.

Sign up for Newsletter on my website.

Purchase my book, Jump Start Your Joy: Heart-Centered Ways to Find Joy in The Messy Middle

I could not be more excited to share this week's interview with John McEuen of Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. John is one of the most celebrated and best known banjo players in the world, and has had a long and exciting career in music. It was amazing to get to speak with him about his book, "The Life I've Picked," his early days at the magic shop in Disneyland (where he became friends with Steve Martin), and about being the first American musical group to tour Russia in 1977.

I also loved getting to hear about John's creative process, and how much he delights in creating music to share with others. You can hear the joy in his voice as he talks about his experiences. Plus, he talks about "bone records" which made to bootleg music into Russia in the 70s, and that is not something you are gonna hear on any other podcast today.

Get all the show notes and a full transcript at the website.

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In this interview, I'm joined by Lan Cao and Harlan Margaret Van Cao, who are the mother and daughter team who have written the beautiful duet memoir, "Family in Six Tones: A Refugee Mother, an American Daughter." Lan Cao immigrated to the United States in 1975, after the end of the Vietnam War. She raised her daughter, Harlan, in the US. In their beautiful memoir, they both share about their journey in growing up.

In this interview, we talk about:

• Lan and Harlan's experiences growing up
• The importance of the role of both of their fathers in their lives
• How they wrote a duet memoir as mother and daughter
• The relationships between mothers and daughters
• The awkwardness of high school
• Dealing with isolation and the longing to belong
• Vietnam, the war, and what it was like to move to the US as a Vietnamese immigrant

Get all the show notes and a full transcript at the website.

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This episode's interview is with Marsha Flowers of Five Blessings Candles in Leavenworth, Kansas. She's been an entrepreneur for years, making candles and creating "Happiness in a Flicker" with unique scents and joyful names. She has had both a brick and mortar version of her business, and she is now all online.

Marsha and I talk about:

• Her earliest sparks of joy: playing as the candlemaker
• How she and her sister started making candles and began their entrepreneurial
• Why Marsha left the business for a bit, and why she's back
• Going from brick and mortar to online sales (and why that's great during COVID)
• The magic that's happened along the way to discovering the pieces that have made her business work
• Ways to make the holidays feel a little merrier this year, even during COVID
• Her favorite scents and how she makes and names them

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The author of "You Were Not Born to Suffer," Blake Bauer and Paula talk about the themes of initiation, struggle, and hardship as a path to knowing yourself and finding your purpose wove through the conversation and finding joy in the messy middle.

In this episode, Blake and I talk about:

• Early joys of falling in love
• His "initiation" into adulthood in high school, when he was arrested for a DUI and was deep into addiction and drug use.
• How he found his way back to his own purpose and center after a rough time in his teen years
• Getting curious about your interests, and giving yourself permission to follow them
• What to do when you feel that your energy, blood, or emotions are stuck

Get all the show notes and a full transcript at the website.

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This week's podcast is a new solocast all about the courage and joy … and I also share some of my favorite things that might not seem to all match at first glance. Princess Diaries, Battlestar Galactica, and Brené Brown ?!?! Well, they all have a thing or two to say about courage, about facing our fears, and about being vulnerable and embracing joy.

Get all the show notes and a full transcript at the website.

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This week, Molly McGlynn Knoderer joins me on the podcast. Molly is the co-founder of Legacy Concierge Services in Northern California. She also recently published a chapter in her first book, "Awakening and Deepening to Truth." She has deep experience as an entrepreneur, and has followed her own curiosity and passion in her career in elder services after graduating from UC Davis. In the last year, she also wrote about her own journey and truth and so many powerful things to say about the writing process, and how to overcome shame that was present in her life and in so many of our lives.

Get all the show notes and a full transcript at the website.

Sign up for "Three Joyful Things" Newsletter on my website.

In this episode we talk about:

• Molly reflects on her work with elderly people and families who are looking for elder care for people they love.
• The importance of being part of a team, even when you're not on a "winning" team.
• Curiosity of trying things out, like when she shared what she wanted to do and then did an internship.
• Listening to other people's stories and recognizing and learning from the history they share
• Being very present in others lives to really hear them.
• Sharing your story, even when it's hard, and the freedom that it brings.
• The evolution and transformation that comes from sharing the fullness of your story.
• Understanding the legacy we want to create and the legacy elders in our life want to create.