Shameless Leadership

Amanda Kingsley is a Certified Life Coach and Doula, and the host of the Speaking Light Into Abortion podcast. After her own unanticipated abortion as a mother of three, she recognized the need for a wider conversation around mental health and the complex emotional landscape of life after abortion. She reminds her audience that it’s okay to feel all the feelings after abortion and that we can honor our decisions by living the life we made our choice for. 

Amanda and I set out to have this conversation in November of 2021. But a series of life events kept pushing out our recording date. How serendipitous that we would end up recording this just days after Roe vs Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court. It was hard to have this conversation as we were both still processing what this means for us - as citizens, women, and moms. But this conversation has never been more crucial. I am so grateful to Amanda for showing up and speaking up in the middle of this devastating season. 

Listen in to hear Amanda share:

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Let your rage be your fuel.  

The rage I have carried over the last 6+ or so years has fueled so much of my work. But rage is not a long-term plan.  

If you want to show up in advocacy, allyship, and activism you need more than rage. Rage will only take you so far. I want your rage to fuel you - it can be the gas that allows you to keep your foot on the pedal. But, I also want you to be able to sustain the long-term fight that is often required to make change. And that will require more than rage.  

In this episode, I walk you through how to let your rage be your fuel while also not letting you get overly caught up in any one moment. The power of pacing yourself in your advocacy, allyship, and activism is what will allow you to stay in the work over the course of the next few decades - and that is what we need from you. 

From the moment Roe vs Wade was decided in 1973, people (white men of privilege, to be exact) have been working to overturn it. They have worked on this diligently for 50 years. 50 years! While I don’t think it will take 50 years to codify abortion rights, I do believe we have a long haul in front of us. This goes for this fight and so many others.  

Advocacy is an ongoing, long-term commitment. In this episode, I talk you through how to stay in this commitment over the long haul as well as how you can take action today. 

We can use our rage for good. We can keep showing up, no matter how long it takes. We can get loud. We can get creative and innovative and scrappy AF. We can and will stay in this as long as is required.  

Link mentioned:

• Take my Shameless Summer Survey and win $100 gift card: shamelessmom.com/survey

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Amy Shlosberg, Ph.D , is an Associate Professor of Criminology and Department Chair at Fairleigh Dickinson University where she teaches courses on Wrongful Conviction, Offender Reentry and Reintegration, Race and Crime, Penology, Comparative Justice Systems, Data Analysis and Research Methods. Her primary research focuses on miscarriages of justice, the negative implications of incarceration and issues surrounding reentry, with an emphasis on policy and procedural reform. She is also the co-host of two podcasts: Women & Crime and Direct Appeal

Amy and I connect via Instagram (where all the best relationships are born) and I immediately knew I wanted to have her on the show. The work she is doing in our criminal justice system is so important. And it’s so important that all of us US citizens understand the way our system works - and repeatedly fails to work. I learned so much in this conversation and I think you will too.  

Listen in to hear Amy share:

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Every time I’ve surveyed you all over the last 6 years, you have shared with me that overwhelm is one of your biggest struggles.  

I HEAR YOU.  

It seems no matter the season of life, if you are parenting, you are overwhelmed. Whether it’s the challenge of the constant caregiving logistics, that challenge of the state of the world, the challenge of holding emotional space for your children, or the challenge of trying to find some semblance of your own sense of self in all of this - IT IS A LOT. And it is CONSTANT. 

Today, I’m giving you permission to start dropping some balls. Maybe one. Maybe two. Maybe, like 13???  

In this episode, I walk you through how to determine which balls to drop and how to restructure time so you can keep the most important balls in the air.  

I hope this episode helps you take a close look at what you can let go of in order to make space for more peace, joy and sanity.  

Link mentioned:

• Take my Shameless Summer Survey and win $100 gift card: shamelessmom.com/survey

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Former litigator Shari Leid currently operates An Imperfectly Perfect Life, LLC, a professional mindset coaching business serving clients who are in those tricky middle age years, helping them create the life of their dreams. She is the author of the Friendship Flow transformational book series, which includes The 50/50 Friendship Flow: Life Lessons From and For My Girlfriends and Make Your Mess Your Message - More Life Lessons From and For My Girlfriends.

Shari’s life has been an incredible journey of identity shifting and identity shaping events that have led her to such a beautiful place of honoring who she is and how she wants to show up in the world and share her life with other women.  

Listen in to hear Shari share:

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As I’ve worked with moms over the last 19 (!!) years, I’ve noticed how quickly society sells us short. And how often we, in turn, sell ourselves short.  

I want to invite you to cross more finish lines - BUT - not by working more or working harder. I want you to cross more finish lines, reach more goals, and live more of your dreams by simply owning and honoring who you are, where you’ve been and how that journey makes you completely magical, uniquely talented, and tough as nails.  

Motherhood makes you a better leader, advocate, and citizen. Motherhood allows you to hone skills you never knew you’d need and maybe never wanted - master negotiator, thoughtful persuasionist, quick adaptor, highly efficient productivityist, and intentional & considerate champion of others. Motherhood positions you as an expert and an authority on compassion, connection, and unconditional love. 

If you can own and honor these skills, the world opens up for you. But, we aren’t taught to own and honor these skills. Let’s change that.  

In this episode, I’ll talk you through 4 ways you can leverage the gifts of motherhood in ways that can be mutually beneficial for you and for the world. 

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Jessica Sinarski is a highly sought-after therapist, speaker, and change-maker. Extensive post-graduate training and 15+ years as a clinician and educator led her to create the resource and training platform–BraveBrains. She makes brain science practical, helping parents and professionals become healers for hurting children. She is the author of the award-winning Riley the Brave series, Hello, Anger, and more.

This is Jessica’s third time on the show! Anytime she has a new book, I’m dying to get her back on the SMA. Jessica’s ability to help kids and parents understand brain science in order to support emotional management is incredible. I walk away from every conversation with Jessica feeling like I have a ton of new tools to support my child and myself. 

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I have spent the last year co-chairing the Parent Association at Vinnie’s school. I have learned so much from this experience. I’ve stretched myself in new ways and humbled myself more than once. I’ve made incredible new friends and led in ways I never saw coming.  

You may recall many occasions in which I encouraged moms to “Get off the PTA! Stop volunteering so much!” So, yes, I feel like a bit of a hypocrite sharing my commitment to our school’s Parent Association. But hear me out… 

While I stand by the fact that moms over give and it’s a big problem, I am so grateful for this opportunity to show up and lead in new ways. I believe it has qualified me to lead in other new ways down the road. This role has allowed me to see myself as capable and qualified to do new things in my community that I never previously considered and that feels like a huge win and huge gift. 

I’m not at all suggesting that you all go out and become Volunteer of the Year at your kids school. But, if you do choose to step into leadership in your community in a similar way, I think my lessons might help you. 

To anyone from Vinnie’s school who might tune into this one, thank you for the opportunity to lead in this way and for affording me constant grace. I feel so fortunate to be a part of this community. It has been an honor to serve in this way. 

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As a speaker, teacher, podcast host and author, Miranda Anderson provides tools and inspiration for women to live a creative, adventurous, and intentional life. Starting out as a lifestyle blogger in 2007, Miranda now offers thousands of weekly listeners of the Live Free Creative podcast something new to think about, feel and DO as they move toward living the life of their dreams. In 2018, she published ‘More Than Enough’ to chronicle her family’s 12-month no-shopping challenge that both shaped their perspective and family culture, and informed some of her most popular content on sustainability and intentionality. Since then, she’s hosted online courses, creative retreats, and in-person workshops in her efforts to help those ‘go-getter at heart’ women who feel stuck by circumstances live a life more aligned with their dreams and values.

Listen in to hear Miranda share:

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Fear is a beast. Don’t get me wrong, fear can be functional. It can protect us from great harm. But, it can also hold us back from taking action. It can paralyze our heads and our hearts. It can prevent us from dreaming, doing, and becoming.  

There are some very real reasons to carry fear right now. That will continue to be the case. So, how will you learn to navigate fear and all the internal and external noise that accompanies it?

Fear keeps us stuck. 

Fear allows our inner critic to grow louder each and every day. 

Fear keeps us stuck in inaction.  

Right now, we cannot afford to sit in fear. 

When we are feeling fear, everything constricts - our ability to see possibility and potential, our ability to be nimble and adaptive, our ability to see what else is true beyond our fear. 

In this episode, I walk you through the ways that your fear might show up. Then, I share how to see it, listen to it, and continue to move through it - with it at your side instead of in your driver's seat. 

Link mentioned:

• Enroll in Momentum Mamas: shamelessmom.com/momentum

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