New York Times bestselling author Ruth Soukup is dedicated to helping women everywhere create a life they love, encouraging her more than 1 million subscribers to follow their dreams and reach their goals. She is the host of the wildly popular Do It Scared podcast, as well as the founder of the Living Well Planner® and Elite Blog Academy®, as well as the author of six books, including her newest bestseller, Do It Scared®: Finding the Courage to Face Your Fears, Overcome Obstacles, and Create a Life You Love. Her practical advice has been featured all over, including Family Circle, Entrepreneur, TIME and Fox News.

Ruth has been on my radar for years.  She is widely known to be a powerhouse of a story teller, creator, and leader.  I was so touched when she said she would be a guest on the show.  And I was deeply honored when she shared what she wanted to talk about.  We dig deep into her past as she uncovers how she went from an extremely hopeless rock bottom season to actively choosing to live. 

Listen in to hear Ruth share:

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Last May, as we approached the end of Mental Health Awareness Month, I decided to share my own story around mental health and, specifically, around my diagnoses of PTSD and General Anxiety Disorder. 

I heard from so many of you who could relate to my story.  A large number of those of you who reached out to say “me too” also shared that you struggled with the same diagnoses. 

Given this feedback, I thought it might be helpful to share what treatment/management modalities have helped me the most since being diagnosed.

Overall, my diagnoses have given me so much clarity.  They have solidified who I am in so many ways.  I really understand why my brain works the way it does and how I can use this in my favor.  This has been such a huge relief.  

As I share some of my tools in this episode, I cover everything from medication to exercise to calendar management to my precious morning coffee routine.  Whether or not you share my diagnoses, I think you’ll find some of these tools essential to managing your mental health as we continue to navigate the state of the world.

If you have any feedback or need any support, please reach out.  I would be honored to be a part of your healing journey.

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Jessica Frew is a wife, ex-wife, mom, stepmom, and BOLD action taker. She has a successful podcast called “Husband in Law” that she records with her husband, Matt, and her ex-husband, Steve. Together they are sharing their stories of love, marriage, coming out, divorce, remarriage, and co-parenting to help others know they are not alone. They also co-own The BOLD Logic. A company devoted to helping people go from living in an “I should” mindset to taking BOLD action toward keeping and reclaiming their sense of self. Jessica is a firm believer that by knowing and understanding what it is you really want in life you can BOLDly create a life you love, no matter what your circumstances.

Listen in to hear Jessica share:

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How often have you made yourself smaller because you didn’t want to make other people feel uncomfortable? You didn’t want to outshine someone, you didn’t want to hold someone responsible, you didn’t want to make someone take a closer look at themself?

Perhaps you find yourself keeping your voice quiet and small because you are worried that your louder, bigger voice would make too much noise for another person.

Sometimes it is absolutely appropriate to make space for others. But sometimes the space you are making for others is at your own expense. That is not appropriate. 

If you are an over-giver or a people pleaser, you probably know well the pain and exhaustion of tiptoeing around someone else. You know the resentment that comes with biting your tongue and taking someone else’s crap. You know the regret that comes with letting someone say or do something gross and not calling them on it. 

I’m giving you permission to use your voice more loudly, more clearly, and more frequently. 

I’m inviting you to set better boundaries that keep the right people out of your life and invite the right people in on your terms.  This is about you having clarity around what you stand for and what you stand against. This is about knowing who you are and who you want to give your energy to. This is about letting other people be responsible for themselves instead of you feeling like you must keep them comfortable at all times.

In today’s episode I walk you through a handful of situations in which you might want to consider how you’re sacrificing yourself in order to make others more comfortable - and how to stop doing that.

Links Mentioned:

• Join my free Hope, Happiness & Mental Health Challenge

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Nicole Lynn Lewis is a mom of 4, a social entrepreneur, and the founder of the nonprofit Generation Hope. As a teen mother, she put herself through the College of William & Mary, starting as a freshman when her daughter was just three months old. She has been named a CNN Hero and won the Roslyn S. Jaffe Award. She has appeared on CNN, NBC Nightly News, “Good Morning America,” and her journey has been covered in the Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, TeenVogue, Chronicle for Higher Education, and others. Her book "PREGNANT GIRL: A Story of Teen Pregnancy, College, and Creating a Better Future for Young Families" is out now.

Nicole’s story is going to open your eyes to what it’s like to be a Black teen mom in college, as well as all the ways our current college system is set up to ensure success only for its most privileged students. 

Listen in to hear Nicole share:

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The chaos & clutter are real. Not just in our homes, but in our heads, my friends. 

As we continue to navigate the most challenging and relentless season of most of our lives, it is easy to let our minds get the best of us. 

The overwhelm is real. The fear is palpable. The stress is justified. 

It is in these moments that our minds tend to run away without our permission. We go to worst case scenarios. We write stories with horrific endings. We let all our wiring go haywire as we imagine how bad things could get.

As I’ve been on coaching calls with clients over the last couple weeks, we have been working on calming the mental chaos & clutter. Because, even under the hardest circumstances, you get to choose how you manage your thoughts and how you see your position of power in sticky (if not terrifying) situations.

In today’s episode, I’ll walk you through 6 questions to ask yourself in order to calm the chaos and clear the clutter in your head. This will allow you to create space for “what is true and what is beautiful” (as Glennon Doyle teaches us) in those moments that are keeping you stuck in overwhelm right now. 

Links Mentioned:

Join my Hope Happiness and Mental Health Challenge

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Andrea Owen is the author of 3 books, a global speaker, certified life coach, and hell raiser who helps high-achieving women maximize unshakeable confidence, and master resilience. She has taught hundreds of thousands of women tools and strategies to be able to empower themselves to live their most kick-ass life through speaking, her books, coaching, and her wildly popular podcast, Make Some Noise, with close to 3 million downloads.

Andrea has become one of my favorite COVID voxer buddies. When she told me about her newest book, Make Some Noise: Speak Your Mind and Own Your Strength I immediately told her she had to come back on the show. Andrea talks as fast and as loud as me - so buckle up, friends. This convo is fire.

Listen in to hear Andrea share:

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How did we get here? 12 weeks ago we kicked off our Lead Like A Mother Summer Series. This was back in June when the world was full of hope and it looked like things could be really turning around in this pandemic. 

12 weeks later, we are still here. 

And so is the pandemic. 

As we close out this series, I want to invite you to consider how the lessons of this series apply to you at any time, in any season. 

No matter how hard the world becomes - or how GREAT it becomes, a few things remain true:

In this episode, we will dive into these 3 truths so that you can continue to feel strong, powerful, and capable even when you don’t feel in control of what is happening around you.

We continue to be in this together, my friend. I GOT YOU.

Link mentioned:

• Join for info on my Hope, Happiness & Mental Health Challenge

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Abby Medcalf is a Relationship Maven, psychologist, author, podcast host, and Tedx speaker who has helped thousands of people think differently so they can create connection, ease, and joy in their relationships (especially the one with yourself)! With her unique background in both business and counseling, she brings a fresh, effective perspective to life’s struggles using humor and her direct, no-nonsense style.

With over 30 years of experience, Abby is a recognized authority and sought-after speaker at organizations such as Google, Apple, AT&T, Kaiser, PG&E, American Airlines, and Chevron. She’s been a featured expert on CBS and ABC news, and has been a contributor to Huff Post, Women’s Health, and Bustle.

She’s the author of the #1 Amazon best-selling book, “Be Happily Married, Even if Your Partner Won’t Do a Thing,” and the host of the top-rated “Relationships Made Easy” Podcast. Her new book, "Negative Thinking Sucks (and Not in a Good Way) will be out soon!

Listen in to hear Abby share:

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What if the struggles you shy away from sharing are actually the stories that give way to your superpowers?

When we go through hard things, we often want to move away from them, forget they happened, and continue on our merry way without owning the profound impact of hard circumstances. Of course, this makes a ton of sense. I mean, sitting in hard things is never fun. 

But sometimes when we walk away without owning how our struggles have shaped us, we miss out on the huge opportunity to see how we are made so much stronger by what we have endured.

When you take some time to look closely and critically at your struggles, you can see where there might be loose ends in the final chapters of the story. You might even see where you have left a story unfinished - and let it continue to nag at you, or even plague you.

In this episode, we’ll look at the power you can find in looking closely at your struggles and their corresponding stories. We’ll talk through how you can rewrite the endings to these stories in order to own where you hold power.  This will help you see how that power has you poised to move forward in your life in bold and brave ways. 

Tune in to learn 6 steps you can take to reposition your struggles as stories that pushed you to grow & learn and shaped you into who you are today

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