What happens when a classically trained pianist ends up spending 30 years in a rock band, recording ambient drone music with her husband, and building a business she never trained for? Juliet Preston joins Becky to talk about growing up different, letting go of comparison, and why "just stay with the beat" might be the most sendy advice you'll hear all year.

Meet Juliet Preston

Juliet has been a piano teacher since she was 13. She's built a career as a working musician - classical recitals, professional theater, church gigs, jazz bands - and for 30 years she's also been the keyboardist in Memory Field, the rock band she and her husband Billy started in Austin, plus Second Moon Theory, an instrumental project set to his drone landscape videos. Juliet co-founded the Collaborative Pianists Guild of Utah and the Utah Valley Monster Concert, and is preparing a fall recital of Prokofiev's 8th Piano Sonata in honor of her teacher, Solveig Lunde Madsen. She lives in Provo, UT. Find her at JulietPrestonMusic.com and @julietpreston.

Takeaways:

- Comparison really is the thief of joy

- You don't have to master every skill

- Growing up "different" can free you from needing to be perfect

- Building a business with your spouse and keeping your relationship takes commitment

- Let your kids choose their own path

- Keep it messy

Chapters:

00:00 Welcome & Why Sendy Mom Feels Like Home

03:27 Memory Field & Second Moon Theory: Building a Rock Band with Your Spouse

08:29 The Breakthrough: Raising Her Hand at Pioneer Theater

15:20 Different Strengths, and Letting Go of Comparison

19:52 The Evolution of Identity

22:59 Raising Kids Without a Script

29:34 Marrying a Rock Star

33:48 Career Changes: Connecting the Dots

35:50 Sharing Your Voice: Being Vulnerable

41:07 Raising Resilient Children

44:51 Steps to a Long, Healthy Marriage

49:52 The Story of Us: A Memoir

54:55 Future Musical Ambitions

1:00:43 Rapid Fire Questions

Resources:
51. Just Keep Playing: How to Keep Moving in Music, Marriage and Business

If you loved this episode, try:

45. Tension, Release, and the Beautiful Mess of a Courageous Life — Christie Skousen

49. The Courage to Fall Apart: Haley Taylor on Eating Disorders, Dropping Out, and Finding Herself Again | Haley Taylor (Pt. 1 of 2)

33. The Recipe for Resilience: Illness, Influence, and Inspiration

Coaching & Subscribe:

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Haley Taylor and her husband built an international art business in a garage. Along the way, she had to relearn what actually makes her valuable. In Part 2, Haley shares marriage and business boundaries, why saying no is an act of love, ditching the need for external validation, and remembering what she loves. Plus rapid fire questions!

Meet Haley Taylor:

Wife, mother of four, and entrepreneur who runs the international art-easel business behind her husband Brian's invention. Coaches beginning riders on her local youth mountain bike team and raises backyard sheep, ducks, and bees. (Missed Part 1? Start there for Haley's teenage mental health crisis and the solo trip to Hong Kong that changed everything.)

Takeaways:

• A business built on talent still needs structure — and that structure can become your own career

• Setting "business meeting" boundaries protects both the business and the marriage

• Starting with almost nothing ($700, an 800-square-foot house) can be the foundation of a thriving family business

• Saying no when you could say yes is an act of deliberate love, not deprivation

• External validation — looks, skill, achievement — is not what creates real connection

• An empty-nest season can feel like losing your identity until you remember what you actually love

• Cutting back on sugar and being deliberate with your body can shift your energy at any age

• Connection with your kids means getting curious about what they love, not directing what they do

Chapters:

00:28 High Expectations and Changing Your Path With Love

05:19 Building an Art Business With Your Husband

09:54 Balancing Affluence and Teaching Values

14:10 Your Job Is To Connect With People

21:58 Connecting With Your Kid's Passions

26:17 Rapid Fire Questions

32:18 Exploring Beliefs: Spirits and Ghosts

Resources found here:

What 16-Year-Old Haley Taylor Learned About Courage From Getting Stranded in an Airport Alone

If you loved this episode, try:

2. Cautiously Crazy with Marty Klinger

22. From $80 to an eBay Business: Sendy Entrepreneurship

31. Planting Positivity: Growing Kids, Gardens, and Relationships

Coaching & Subscribe:

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What happens when a teenager who's never been allowed to say "I'm scared" gets put on a plane alone to Hong Kong? Haley Taylor opens up about a high-achieving childhood, a teenage eating disorder, and dropping out of high school — and the solo international trip that taught her she could trust herself. A raw conversation about courage, mental health, and redefining success.

Meet Haley Taylor:

Wife, mother of four, and entrepreneur who runs the international art-easel business behind her husband Brian's invention. Haley coaches beginning riders on her local youth mountain bike team and raises backyard sheep, ducks, and bees. A teenage mental health crisis and a solo trip to Hong Kong at sixteen shaped her lifelong definition of courage.

Takeaways:

• Being Sendy isn't about being hardcore — it's being brave enough to try

• A fixed mindset of "you're smart so you must succeed" makes it unsafe to attempt anything new

• Tough exteriors often hide fear instead of processing it — and that's not sustainable

• Expressing fear doesn't make you weak; it's part of doing hard things anyway

• A mental health crisis can become the turning point that redefines your sense of worth

• Letting your child have their own breakdown — instead of rescuing them — builds real resilience

• Stepping in to "fix" a child's problem can unintentionally validate their fear instead of their capability

• Redefining success means it's okay to try something and not be the best at it

Chapters

00:00 Exposure Therapy

03:30 Growing Up Cautious in a High-Achieving Home

05:45 The High Dive: Learning to Trust Fear Instead of Hiding It

10:53 A Teenage Eating Disorder, Depression, and Dropping Out of Schoo

13:08 Sent Alone to Hong Kong: A Mother's Leap of Faith

19:50 Showing Up Mediocre: The Courage to Try Anyway

Resources found here:

What 16-Year-Old Haley Taylor Learned About Courage From Getting Stranded in an Airport Alone

If you loved this episode, try:

2. Cautiously Crazy with Marty Klinger

22. From $80 to an eBay Business: Sendy Entrepreneurship

31. Planting Positivity: Growing Kids, Gardens, and Relationships

Coaching & Subscribe:

👉 Subscribe: sendymom.com

👉 Email Becky: [email protected]

If you want help to be more sendy, click here

If you're feeling Sendy and would like to be a guest on the show, please fill out this form

What do you do when the world is literally falling apart around you? Julian of Norwich was born into 14th-century England, survived the Black Plague, twice, possibly lost her family, and then voluntarily sealed herself into a single room for thirty years as an anchoress to the chapel Julian in Norwich, England.

Her theology was considered radical for her time. Her words have survived wars, revolutions, and the burning of libraries to reach us today.

In this Sendy Spotlight, we look into the work of Julian of Norwich. She is believed to be the first woman to write a book in the English language. She had the courage to speak when women were meant to be silent. 

Key Takeaways:

• Stillness can be its own form of courage
• You don’t need credentials to speak truth
• Love is a choice, not a feeling
• God is not counting your failures
• Women have always protected each other’s wisdom
• Being strategic is not the same as compromising

Find resources here

Free Coaching & Subscribe:

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If you want help to be more sendy, click here

What does it look like when divine timing meets radical courage? In Part 2, holistic coach Cherie Burton shares the miraculous stories behind adopting her two youngest children — a son she saw in a spiritual vision years before he arrived, and a daughter who came through six court hearings, a California foster system, and a stranger's recurring dream. Plus rapid fire questions!

Meet Cherie Burton:

Mother of six and female empowerment coach with 20+ years of experience. Certified holistic practitioner and emotional breakthrough trainer, specializing in Aroma Alchemy. Leads retreats worldwide and runs an international wellness business. (Missed Part 1? Start there for shadow work, alchemy & the dark night of the soul.)

Takeaways

• Adoptees are "bridge souls" who choose their families to heal lineage wounds

• Divine timing rarely looks like what we expect — trust the process

• Birth mothers carry deep shame that needs compassion, not judgment

• The primal wound in adoptees is real and worth understanding

• We are never fully healed — just learning to love exactly where we are

• The most courageous thing is sometimes to wait, stay open, and trust

• Connection is the foundation of all healing work

Chapters

00:00 Cherie's Adoption Journey

00:15:00 The Importance of Connection

00:17:04 Rapid Fire Questions

Resources found here:

The Art of Emotional Alchemy: 4 Courageous Lessons from Cherie Burton on Healing Your Shadows, Your Lineage, and Your Life

If you loved this episode, try:

33. The Recipe for Resilience: Illness, Influence, and Inspiration

38. Digital Detox and Upload Humanity with Amy Antonelli of HXP

1. Radical Acceptance with Miriam Wood

Coaching & Subscribe:

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If you want help to be more sendy, click here

If you're feeling Sendy and would like to be a guest on the show, please fill out this form

What if your darkest shadows held your greatest wisdom? Holistic coach Cherie Burton joins Becky to explore shadow work, emotional alchemy, and breaking generational trauma cycles—sharing her profound journey through loss, a seven-year dark night of the soul, and two miraculous adoptions.

Meet Cherie Burton

Mother of six and female empowerment coach with 20+ years of experience in mind-body science, holistic emotional healing, philosophy, and depth psychology. Certified holistic practitioner and emotional breakthrough trainer. Since 2008, specializing in Aroma Alchemy—mind/heart/soul coherence through breathwork, anointing, and essential oils. Leads retreats worldwide.

Takeaways

• Shadow work means embracing your darkness, not eliminating it
• Alchemy transmutes emotional pain into wisdom—not suppression
• Feel emotions fully (even 90 seconds) to prevent physical illness
• A dark night of the soul is a spiritual initiation, not a breakdown
• Surrender is letting go of what you know so your body can teach you
• Adoptees are "bridge souls" healing family lineage wounds
• Inner authority activates when you admit "I don't know"
• Healing yourself heals your entire lineage—past and future

Chapters

00:00 Introducing Cherie Burton: Female Empowerment Coach

05:45 When You Can Change The Family Dynamic

12:32 Pivoting from Traditional Methods for Mental Health Help

15:11 Epigenetics and Alchemy Explained

21:06 Shadow Work Through Alchemy

29:33 Real Experience with Ayahuasca

35:09 The Journey of Self-Discovery

40:33 Practical Ways to Process Emotion

42:03 The Dark Night Of The Soul

Resources found here:

The Art of Emotional Alchemy: 4 Courageous Lessons from Cherie Burton on Healing Your Shadows, Your Lineage, and Your Life

If you loved this episode, try:

33. The Recipe for Resilience: Illness, Influence, and Inspiration

38. Digital Detox and Upload Humanity with Amy Antonelli of HXP

1. Radical Acceptance with Miriam Wood

Coaching & Subscribe:

👉 Subscribe: sendymom.com

👉 Email Becky: [email protected]

If you want help to be more sendy, click here

If you're feeling Sendy and would like to be a guest on the show, please fill out this form

What happens when a woman built for intensity has no outlet for it? For Christie Skousen, the answer was redirecting all of it toward her five-month-old — and quickly realizing that wasn't going to work. Part 2 picks up with Christie rebuilding: starting the Peery Piano Academy from scratch, writing a curriculum for the San Francisco Conservatory prep program, and slowly figuring out who she was beyond the piano.

But this half of the conversation goes somewhere deeper. Christie talks about the cycles she's noticed throughout her life — expansion and contraction, like musical phrasing — and how the blow-ups she never would have chosen (her parents' divorce at 23, losing her older brother to colon cancer at 48, her own 26-year marriage ending) have each broken her open into something bigger. She shares what she's learned about separating her identity from her children's outcomes, why living abroad changed everything about how she parents, and where she's headed next now that her youngest is off to Sydney for a year abroad.

Rapid fire answers, a beautiful musical analogy for life that will stay with you, and Christie's honest, grounded take on doing divorce well — Part 2 is the kind of conversation you want to go on forever.

Meet Christie Skousen, Founder of the Peery Piano Academy and author of the Peery Method. Trained under Dr. Irene Peery-Fox, Dmitri Boshkirov, and Leon Fleisher at Peabody. An international competition winner and soloist, her students have gone on to Harvard, Yale, Juilliard, UC Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, and more.

Takeaways:

• Know where your intensity is going.
• Life has phrasing, just like music.
• Big blow-ups break you open.
• Separate your identity from your kids' outcomes.
• Travel expands your world — and your parenting.

Chapters:

00:00 Teaching as a Path to Independence

03:43 Parenting with Intensity and Balance

05:07 Make Your Money Work For You

07:06 The Peery Method is Born

09:26 Writing New Chapters in Motherhood

11:07 Navigating Life's Expansions and Contractions

13:44 The Impact of Divorce on Personal Growth

18:06 Embracing Change and New Beginnings

19:02 Parenting Young Adults

25:48 How Living Abroad Broadens Your Horizon

27:57 Rapid Fire Questions

Resources:

How to Survive Life's Blow-Ups: Lessons from a World-Class Pianist and Mom

If You Loved This Episode, Try:

• 12. Music, Disability Parenting, and Playing for the Love of It
• 29. How to Push Past Limits and Find Your "Current Perfect"
• 37. Resilient Parenting, Risk-Taking, and Medical Aesthetics Done Right

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Becky’s Free Coaching Calendar

Christie Skousen grew up in a household where practicing piano two hours a day was as non-negotiable as brushing your teeth — the daughter of the legendary Irene Peery Fox, who was performing at Carnegie Hall while pregnant with Christie. By age nine, Christie was teaching piano to pay her own way. By eighteen, she was on her own. And by the time she walked into Leon Fleischer's studio at Peabody as the only freshman he admitted that year, she had already learned the lesson that would define her life: if you do the work, you can do whatever.

In Part 1, Becky and Christie dig into what it was really like to grow up inside competitive classical piano — the strategy, the brutality, the subjective judging, and the complicated relationship between talent, hard work, and identity. Christie gets refreshingly honest about how she survived competitions not by leading with her love of music, but by leading with her competitive fire. She shares what she'd tell any kid whose heart is in music but who keeps walking away from competitions empty-handed. And she lays out the philosophy behind the Peery Method — the step-by-step system that has since taken her students to Juilliard, Eastman, and conservatories around the world. Also: she bought a cockatoo in junior high with her own money.

Meet Christie Skousen, Founder of the Peery Piano Academy and author of the Peery Method. Trained under Dr. Irene Peery-Fox, Dmitri Boshkirov, and Leon Fleisher at Peabody. An international competition winner and soloist, her students have gone on to Harvard, Yale, Juilliard, UC Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, and more.

Key Takeaways:

• Process beats destination — always
• Competitiveness is a tool, not a character flaw
• Let your kids own their stuff
• The journey IS the reward
• Don't quit

Chapters:

00:00 Meet Christie

01:13 The Peery Music Academy

03:04 What? Kids Can Pay For School?

05:19 How Many Kids Buy a Cockatoo for a Pet?

08:10 High-Capacity Parenting with Irene Peery Fox

11:55 Navigating Competitive Classical Piano 

19:03 Performance Anxiety and Personal Growth

25:40 The Toll of Exactness

34:43 The Long Game of Music Education

Resources:

Peery Piano Academy

How to Survive Life's Blow-Ups: Lessons from a World-Class Pianist and Mom

If You Loved This Episode, Try:

• 12. Music, Disability Parenting, and Playing for the Love of It
• 29. How to Push Past Limits and Find Your "Current Perfect"
• 37. Resilient Parenting, Risk-Taking, and Medical Aesthetics Done Right

Subscribe & Connect:

👉 Subscribe: sendymom.com
👉 Email Becky: [email protected] 

Becky’s Free Coaching Calendar

What would happen if your spouse died tomorrow — do you know where the accounts are? The passwords? The beneficiaries? Most of us don't, and that silence has a price.

Becky sits down with neighbor and longtime friend Mindy Stevens, creator of Invested Mother — a course teaching women the financial basics too often left unspoken in marriage. What starts as a money conversation becomes something bigger: resilience, lifelong learning, family, and what it truly means to prepare for your future.

Mindy is a mother of four, a student for more than two decades, and an entrepreneur. She attended the UN Commission on the Status of Women as a student representative, witnessed firsthand the global battle over family protection, and spent 20 years weaving her education through the chaos of motherhood. Her mission is urgent: finance is the number one driver of divorce because of what lives underneath it. We unpack that today.

Mindy Stevens is the creator of Invested Mother, where she teaches women financial basics to strengthen marriages and families. She holds a Bachelor's in Marriage and Family Studies and is starting her Master's in Social Work at Boise State University. Mindy is, without a doubt, a Sendy Mom. → investedmother.com

Key Takeaways:

• Know your financial picture
• Finance fights aren't about money.
• Resilience is learning to pivot.
• Education is never wasted, no matter when you do it.
• Women are more financially vulnerable than they realize
• You don't have to have it all figured out to start.
• Strong families are the bedrock of stable communities.
• Modeling perseverance matters more than perfection.

Chapters:

00:00 Introducing Mindy Stevens

02:05 Embracing Risk and Resilience

03:36 Learning to Pivot with Resilience

07:16 When Your Kid Gets a Sports Injury

10:47 Finding Inspiration and Purpose

12:01 Supporting Families at the United Nations

20:51 Invested Mother: Empowering Women Financially

21:55 The Top Financial Conversations to Have With Your Spouse

29:42 Future Goals and Family Experiences

30:52 Rapid Fire Questions

40:57 Creating Stronger Families Through Partnership

If you loved this episode, try:

Natural Healing Roots

How to Connect with Your Children

Normalize the Risk

Find all the Resources Here:

From the UN to Your Kitchen Table: How Mindy Stevens Is Teaching Women to Own Their Financial Future

Free Coaching & Subscribe:

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👉 Email Becky: [email protected] 

Becky’s Free Coaching Calendar

At fifteen, Leslie Morley boarded a plane to Nepal alone. She lived in a rural village, served in an orphanage, and came home with a worldview she’s still unpacking. But the bravest thing she’s ever done wasn’t Nepal—or starting her art business painting Heavenly Mother.

The bravest thing is staying: showing up for her kids, her faith, her creativity, and the work of being known.

In this episode, artist Leslie Morley joins Becky to talk about faith and courage, creative motherhood, and how to raise brave kids without losing connection. They explore imposter syndrome, gratitude vs. guilt, and what it means to live “alive and awake in Christ.” This conversation weaves together Latter-day Saint faith, sacred art, and the daily courage it takes to stay connected to God, your family, your community, and yourself.

If you’ve ever felt afraid to share your gifts, unsure in motherhood, or disconnected from your faith, this episode will ground and encourage you.

Meet My Guest:
Leslie Morley is a Christian artist known for paintings of the Divine Family—Heavenly Father, Heavenly Mother, and Jesus Christ. She studied art at Southern Utah University and art history in Italy. Her work invites a deeper relationship with God through sacred art. A mother of two, Leslie believes creativity is a form of testimony: you are known, you are held, and heaven is closer than you think. Find her at LeslieMorley.com and @lesliemorleyarts.

Key Takeaways:
• How to raise brave, resilient kids through daily connection
• Faith over fear: turning belief into action
• Creativity as grounding for overwhelmed moms
• Gratitude vs. guilt and overcoming comparison
• Imposter syndrome in motherhood and creative work
• Emotional vulnerability as real courage
• Connecting with God, family, self, and community
• Using your gifts without fear

Chapters:
00:00 Who is Leslie Morley?
04:40 On Being an Imposter
09:06 Lessons from India: Gratitude and Humility
15:28 Oregon Nomads: A Year of Free Range Learning
16:57 Connecting with Nature as a Grounding Force
23:06 Building Love in Your Family
25:11 Connecting with Children
29:12 Midway
30:39 Connecting with Yourself through Creating
34:14 Out From the Bushel Blog
36:22 Family Mottos
38:23 Leslie Morley Art
45:42 Mosaic of Christ
47:08 Savoring Moments of Motherhood
49:38 Rapid Fire Questions

Resources:
The Four Connections That Make a Life Feel Whole

Subscribe & Connect:
👉 sendymom.com
👉 [email protected]
Becky’s Free Coaching Calendar

If you loved this episode, try:
How To Not Die in the Wilderness and Learning to Smell the Daisies
How to Connect with Your Children: The Science of “Good Enough” Parenting
Art After Motherhood: Creating Without Guilt