On This Walk

At times when it seems like I’m getting off track or I’m feeling disconnected to myself, I then realize that this sort of imbalance is caused by the various debris that I’ve been carrying around for a long time. 

With everything that’s happening around us, how do we get to that point where we can hold space in such a way that it begins to ground us and the others around us?

That’s what brings us to today’s conversation on holding the peace. 

Many of you may know that I do love spending time in Sedona, and it is in that place where I got to connect with my walking partner for this conversation, Samantha Jackson.

In this episode, we talk about what it means to take a great pause and what that can mean for us, the beauty and healing of being in nature, and finding the balance between busyness and the still.

In This Episode

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Our Guest

Samantha Jackson is a lifelong intuitive, empath and channel of the Divine Collective and her higher self. She is the host of the Soul Journey podcast where she reads her channeled messages and interviews people from around the world who have a unique “soulprint”. She occasionally puts out beautiful channeled writings and messages which include “Holding The Peace”.

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On This Walk

Slow living has never been more relevant in our post-pandemic world.

A lot of us have come to a point where we just want our lives to be centered on what matters the most to us. It may sound very simple, until you realize just how many entanglements and attachments you’ve committed yourself to.

This is a conversation that has come up in a lot of my dialogues with clients, family, friends and colleagues. I’ve certainly experienced this as well, but what I have come to realize is that these entanglements (and releasing them) are just part of the process of reconnecting, to get back on track and learning to allow life to flow.

Today, I’m joined by someone who leads from his head and his heart, someone who gets excited with constant challenges in life – Eric Godoy, along with a very familiar walking partner – Billy Ward.

In This Episode

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Our Guests

Eric Godoy – “I start each day making a choice to lead from my heart and my head. I am incredibly passionate, energetic and strive to be a peacemaker. I am a people pleaser, friendly, trusting, easygoing, empathetic and compassionate. I am blessed to be able to live these values when being a father, husband, son, sibling and true friend. I am a constant learner, reader, sharer, teacher, athlete, real estate investor, coach, listener, joker, striving chef and adapter. The constant challenges in life get me excited. Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass but rather be the eye of the storm for myself and those around me.”

Billy Ward is a motivational speaker, mental health advocate, life coach and former professional football player. His podcast, The Billy Ward Podcast, aims to help people live with greater awareness so that they can experience more peace, freedom, joy and love.

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On This Walk

You can’t connect the dots moving forward – you can only connect them looking backwards. 

During my corporate career, that used to be something I excelled at. Identifying patterns, monitoring their development and tracking where things might lead has always been a strength of mine. 

Yet lately, this has been a struggle. It takes a lot of mental energy and a firm desire for control to try to connect the dots we haven’t reached yet – and leaves little room for wonder, surprise or those little synchronicities of life. 

In our last few episodes, we’ve spoken a lot about the active process of surrendering inner resistance and going where the flow of life takes us. It’s this fiercely personal endeavor that I’ll be exploring today with the help of recent guest and master facilitator, Aaron Kahlow. 

In This Episode

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Our Guest

Aaron Kahlow is an emotional wellbeing advocate, facilitator and leader committed to helping people create more meaningful human connection in our lives through authentic community building, shared learning, healing and personal growth experiences.

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On This Walk

What does your inner voice really sound like? How do we learn to trust it? What happens when we don’t…and more importantly, what happens when we do? 

The search for and process of leaning into our inner guidance is a theme we’ve explored before with guests Drea Bendewald and Alexis Pokorny Kahlow (Ep. #006), whose unique journeys have led them to lead circles and hold space for other women doing their own inner work. 

Today, we turn to the guys. What are the specific challenges that men encounter on the road to listening and trusting your inner guide? How can we as men learn to distinguish our “true” inner voice from all the others? How can we reconnect with this innate guide, and what kind of transformations await us on the other side? 

For this walk, I'm joined by Matt Hogan, and I’m pleased to welcome back Billy Ward.

In This Episode

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Our Guests

Matt Hogan is a life coach, consciousness explorer and breath-work facilitator who helps entrepreneurs and other leaders accelerate their own internal change for greater impact in their work and lives. 

Billy Ward is a motivational speaker, mental health advocate, life coach and former professional football player. His podcast, The Billy Ward Podcast, aims to help people live with greater awareness so that they can experience more peace, freedom, joy and love.

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On This Walk

At the beginning of my career, I started and put together what was at the time called a mastermind. This was not like the coaching programs that are out there today – this was a men’s group where you could show up to talk about the things you were focused on, the things you were working on, and the challenges you were encountering. 

There was a great deal of intimacy that developed among the men in this group. The kind of long lasting support we experienced was a lifeline not only for us, but for many men in similar groups who were struggling to find a place in today’s culture. 

I saw that when men find a way of coming together, in a way that’s open and vulnerable and even perhaps contrary to the stereotypes of masculinity perpetuated in our world, we are able to connect with ourselves, our loved ones and our communities in ways we never before thought possible.  

My guests today, Brendon Pardington and Alex Neustein, are two men who have been part of this experience themselves, and who join me today to talk about what this kind of men’s work looks like, what it can do for us, and why it’s so important today more than ever. 

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Our Guests

Brendon Pardington is a father, husband, spiritual seeker, and men’s relationship coach. A midlife crisis, job loss and near divorce forced him to start doing the work necessary to create a more meaningful life – and now he helps other men do the same. 

Alex Neustein is an attorney, software developer and graphic designer who has been involved in men’s work for over four years. He is beginning to train as a psychotherapist in order to help others conquer self-defeating patterns, negative self-talk, and social anxiety. 

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On This Walk

We spend so much of our lives on the periphery. What matters most is at the center—and yet we get pulled away, time and time again.

This was a perpetual state for me for too long. I would get lost in life’s demands and obligations. I thought I was chasing the most important thing – success, achievement, image – but that was just my conditioning. 

So how do we come back? How do we not only wake up to the pursuits that pull us away, but also go deeper into what needs these pursuits pretend to fulfill?

For that to occur, we need both space and an understanding of the many patterns at work.

I was fortunate to quite literally find myself journeying next to a fellow explorer, Andrea Bendewald. She exudes both an aliveness and also a deeper centeredness you can sense in her gaze. And it’s no wonder, based on the past couple decades of her journey and the practice at the core of her work. 

And as I pictured stepping into this conversation with Drea, I could see our other sister, Alexis Pokorny Kahlow, who one could say has spent time traveling in similar circles!

In This Episode

Notable Quotes

Our Guests

Known originally as an actress, Andrea Bendewald is also a mindfulness coach, circle facilitator and founder of The Art of Circling, a spiritual practice based on ancient ritual that uses group mindfulness to empower individuals, strengthen communities and enhance productivity. Through sharing stories, deep listening and interconnected meditation, The Art of Circling heals and transforms lives. 

Alexis Pokorny Kahlow is a performance-based mindfulness expert, author and CEO of Open Deltas. Before launching her own company, Alexis spent over a decade as a top-performing corporate sales leader at Cisco, where she first introduced mindfulness to her own team. She is the author of a book called “Out of the Grind and Into the Flow” and currently works with Fortune 500 companies to provide corporate mindfulness training. 

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On This Walk

I’ve arrived at a place where central to my purpose in life is peace — when I connect to and from peace, I settle deeply into life, regardless of its perceived ups and downs. 

However, in discussions with others, I often get the same response: “Okay, that sounds nice. But how do you get things done? Isn’t that a bit passive? Do you just bliss out and let stuff go by?”

If I read between the lines, those questions are really asking: Do you bypass life? Do you avoid problems? Do you get anything done?

Actually, peace can be quite active and is anything but a spiritually lazy way of being. 

And I think my two guests know this quite well. 

I’m very fortunate to be joined today by my dear friend and former colleague, Jenny Wiley, who’s been creatively and socially engaged for even longer than I’ve known her! 

I’m also joined by Reggie Hubbard, whom I found through one of our recent guests, Aaron Kahlow (Episode #003). Reggie created Active Peace Yoga, and I think that phrase sums up the duality and intention of today’s walk.

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Our Guests

Reggie Hubbard is an RYT-500 certified yoga teacher and the founder of Active Peace Yoga. He has taught yoga to elected officials, activists and people from all walks of life. His practice is built on the idea that miracles happen when we commit to our personal peace and wellbeing.

Jenny Wiley specializes in creating group experiences for those who want to leverage the power of community. She currently serves as Community Manager for Zencity, which works exclusively with local governments to provide consulting services for data-driven community engagement. 

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On This Walk

Over our first three episodes, I’ve noticed that there’s an inescapable common theme: courage. 

It takes courage to walk away from old patterns, old ways of being, old aspects of identity by which others know you, and by which you’ve known yourself your entire life.

It takes courage to step into the unknown, the in between, to find steady footing on the shaky ground of transition. 

(In fact, if a transition feels too easy, it might be because we moved too quickly, trying to fill up the emptiness inherent to the unknown, to new beginnings.) 

This show is going to place The Courage It Takes front and center. We’ll talk about the various stages we encounter as we instigate and cycle through change within our lives. I believe there’s value in paying close attention to the “in between” — that wonderful stage I have come to know so well, of  being “no longer” in one place and “not yet” in the next.

To navigate this walk, I’ve invited a new guest to our show, and invited back a familiar face from Episode 1. 

In This Episode

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Our Guests

Transformational leader and coach Marni Battista is the founder of The Institute for Living Courageously and Dating with Dignity. She is also the host of the podcast Life Check Yourself and author of memoir/self-help book “How to Find a Quality Guy Without Going on 200 Dates.” Marni’s work has been featured in Glamour, Cosmopolitan, The Oprah Magazine and on Dr. Phil. 

Doctoral-trained therapist and healing practitioner Michael Smith is the founder of Empath Connection. As a leader in mind-body holistic healing for nearly two decades, Michael has personally coached thousands of individuals to make stronger connections between mind, body, and spirit. 

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On This Walk

How often does the mask we wear–at work, with our friends, even our loved ones–match what’s going on underneath? 

The face we show to the world isn't necessarily the face we show ourselves. There's often a disconnect between the way we see ourselves and the way we present ourselves to the world. 

The more we aim to please, rise or shrink to fit given situations and expectations, the more we lose sight of who we are.

But who is that, really? It's time to pull down the masks, challenge what's real and what's illusion, and stop hiding. It's vulnerability time.

On today’s episode, I’m honored to welcome guests Ashanti Branch and Aaron Kahlow. The origins of Ashanti's work were featured in the documentary, “The Mask You Live In,” which looks at how traditional notions of masculinity are affecting our young men. 

Aaron is a social health and emotional wellbeing advocate and facilitator whose experience creating space for people to safely take down their masks makes him an incredible source of wisdom for today’s topic.

In This Episode

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Our Guests

Ashanti Branch is the founder and executive director of The Ever Forward Club, which he started in 2004 to provide underserved middle and high school boys with a safe community to build character and transform lives. Since then, The Ever Forward Club has become a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that serves both young men and women. It has helped 100% of its members graduate high school, and 93% of them have gone on to attend college.

Aaron Kahlow is an emotional wellbeing advocate, facilitator and leader committed to helping people create more meaningful human connection in our lives through authentic community building, shared learning, healing and personal growth experiences.

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On This Walk

When something major happens – death of a loved one, loss of a career, identity crisis, or other significant worldview shift – how do we figure out how to just “be” again? 

On my journey, I’m realizing that to find that purpose, we have to peel back a lot of layers – the societal norms, cultural expectations, family pressures; the fears, doubts, confidence-shaking beliefs. 

We have to learn to turn down the outside voices and listen for that small, still voice within each of us that's been saying, "I've got you. Just listen."

For this episode, I wanted to tag in two marvelous colleagues, coaches and friends, inspirations, Billy Ward and Tambre Leighn. Both of these beautiful souls have devoted themselves to the hard work of Being True to Your Self/Your Soul.

As we talked about purpose (which I have a strong feeling we'll be returning to often on this show), we also talked about humility, faith, peace, frustration, ego, and much more.

I hope you'll walk with us for this one.

In This Episode

Notable Quotes

• “After Gary passed, I realized for the first time he wasn't walking back through the door and I was sitting in broad daylight in the house, on our couch and everything literally went black. I could not see a thing. And I panicked and was like, what is this? What is this blackness? What is this nothingness? Is this all there is? And there was some little spark in me that said, There has to be some pinprick of light here somewhere. If you find it, it will be the thread that leads you back. And I did finally, you know, see a little bit of light, you know, came through that, but where that thread led was into six years of absolute utter darkness. I suffered from grief related depression. This journey was not easy. I only continued on it because I got up every morning and I was breathing for a while. You know, it took a lot to come out of it. And I did.” – Tambre (13:41)

• “All my life, I had tried to pretend that I had all my sh*t together and what I found in the void and the darkness was that in my brokenness and in sharing my brokenness and admitting that I was broken, I felt more whole and more free. And I was like, this is actually kind of a funny dance. I'm telling people that I'm a f*cking mess…and I feel better about where I'm at. And people seem to be sharing from the bottom and the depths of their heart too. And so it was kind of like a funny thing was happening even though I was feeling so low, I was starting to connect in a really meaningful way.” – Billy (16:16) 

Our Guests

Certified professional coach Tambre Leighn is the founder of Well Beyond Ordinary, a consulting company that helps healthcare clients use coaching skills to improve communication, patient engagement, and build trust. Tambre’s work integrating coaching into patient support was inspired by her experience as a caregiver for her late husband. 

Billy Ward is a motivational speaker, mental health advocate, life coach and former professional football player. His podcast, The Billy Ward Podcast, aims to help people live with greater awareness so that they can experience more peace, freedom, joy and love.

Resources & Links

On This Walk