Episode 21 — Being Trustworthy: The Foundation of Everything You Are Building

Fair warning — this episode may step on your toes a little. But stay with Kristen. It is a good one.

Trustworthiness is one of those qualities most of us believe we already have. And yet when we look honestly across four specific areas, our relationship with God, with ourselves, with others, and in our leadership, most of us find there is genuine room to grow.

In this warm and personally honest episode, Kristen Ivanov walks through each area with conviction and grace. She includes herself in this conversation too, making this an invitation rather than a lecture. This is the kind of episode that asks you some questions you may not have been asking yourself.

In this episode you will discover:

Four Areas of Trustworthiness:

Scriptures referenced in this episode (Amplified Bible):

Mentioned in this episode:

Your action step from this episode:

Did this episode challenge you?

Choose Brave. Lead with Intention. 

Episode 20 — Calendar Blocking: Your Time Reflects Your Values

Life happens. Seasons get busy. Calendars fall apart. And there is absolutely no shame in that.

But every once in a while it is worth pausing, looking honestly at where your time is actually going, and doing a gentle reset. In this practical and grace-filled episode, Kristen invites you into exactly that, a 30-day calendar reset that starts with honesty and ends with more peace, more accomplishment, and more presence than you have felt in a long time.

This episode also makes a distinction worth sitting with: your calendar is not just a scheduling tool. It is a values statement. And when you look at it honestly, it tells you what you are actually saying yes to, which may or may not match what you say matters most.

In this episode you will discover:

The 30-Day Calendar Challenge — Five Steps:

Want Kristen’s personal time-blocking template?

Scriptures referenced in this episode:

Mentioned in this episode:

Your action step from this episode:

Did this episode help you?

Choose Brave. Lead with Intention. 

Episode 19 — Is Complaining Blocking Your Blessings?

This episode might get a little uncomfortable. And everything in it comes from a place of love and genuine desire for your growth.

The honest answer for most of us, if we are truly willing to look, is that complaining may be blocking more than we realize. In this longer and deeply layered episode, Kristen addresses complaining honestly and directly across four dimensions: what it actually is, what it does to your brain and your faith, what Scripture says about it, and the leadership responsibility of what you model and what you allow around you.

This episode also makes the important distinction between seeking wise counsel, which is healthy and necessary, and chronic complaining, which is a habit that keeps you exactly where you are. And it introduces the gut check, when that twinge comes, that is conviction from the Holy Spirit. Honor it.

In this episode you will discover:

The Seven-Day Complaint Fast — Five Steps:

Scriptures referenced in this episode:

Also referenced in this episode:

Mentioned in this episode:

Your action step from this episode:

Did this episode challenge you?

Choose Brave. Lead with Intention. 

Episode 18 — Waiting Seasons: How to Wait Well 

You have prayed. You have shown up faithfully. You have done the work. And the breakthrough, the answer, the thing you have been believing for, is nowhere to be found. Just crickets.

In this deeply personal and honest episode, Kristen speaks directly to the woman in the middle of a hard waiting season. Not from a place of having it all figured out — but from the middle of the waiting herself. With real vulnerability, genuine faith, and five practical tools for waiting well.

This episode also makes an important distinction: some waiting seasons are the result of correction or consequence, and if you feel conviction about something specific, that is worth addressing. But the waiting seasons Kristen focuses on here are the ones where you are doing everything right and God seems quiet. Those seasons are not punishment. They are preparation.

In this episode you will discover:

Five things your waiting season is producing:

Five ways to wait well:

Scriptures referenced in this episode:

Also mentioned in this episode:

Did this episode encourage you?

Choose Brave. Lead with Intention. 

Episode 17 — Taking Responsibility: The Most Empowering Decision You Will Ever Make

Taking responsibility is not about blame or shame. And, it is not about beating yourself up for anything that has already happened.

In this episode Kristen reframes personal responsibility as one of the most freeing and empowering decisions a woman can make. Because when you take genuine ownership of who you are, where you are, and what you are going to do next, you reclaim the agency that was always yours.

This conversation is for the woman who has been waiting for circumstances to change or waiting for someone else to go first. This episode will challenge you to stop waiting and start deciding. Because the life you want does not happen through waiting on someone else. It happens through you choosing.

In this episode you will discover:

You stop letting life dictate your decisions and start directing your own life

Your Three Ownership Questions:

Scriptures referenced in this episode:

Mentioned in this episode:

Your action step from this episode:

Did this episode challenge you?

Choose Brave. Lead with Intention. 

Episode 16 — Gratitude as a Spiritual Practice: How Thankfulness Rewires Your Brain and Your Faith

You have probably heard that keeping a gratitude list is a good practice. And it is. But in this episode Kristen  takes gratitude somewhere deeper, into the difference between listing and truly receiving, the neuroscience behind how genuine thankfulness rewires the brain, and the profound faith dimension of giving thanks not just when life is good but in the middle of the hard things too.

Kristen also shares something deeply personal in this episode, a real and moving example of what it looks like when gratitude moves beyond a list and lands fully in the heart. It is one of the most genuine moments she has shared on the podcast.

In this episode you will discover:

Your Three-Step Gratitude Practice:

Scriptures referenced in this episode:

Mentioned in this episode:

Your action step from this episode:

Did this episode move you?

Choose Brave. Lead with Intention.

Episode 15 — The Power of Play: Giving Yourself Permission to Have Fun

You are really good at working. Really good at serving. Really good at showing up for everyone around you and getting things done.

But when did you last do something purely because it was fun?

In this lighter and life-giving episode, Kristen makes a compelling and science-backed case for why play is not frivolous, it is essential to your health, your creativity, your relationships, and your ability to lead well. She also brings faith into the conversation in a way that will make you laugh and think at the same time.

Joy is mentioned over 300 times in Scripture. A cheerful heart is called good medicine. And you were not created to endure your life. You were created to live it.

In this episode you will discover:

What play and laughter actually do to your body and brain:

Your two reflection questions:

Your four practical invitations for this week:

Scriptures referenced in this episode:

Mentioned in this episode:

Your action step from this episode:

Did this episode encourage you?

Choose Brave. Lead with Intention. 

Your earliest relationship with your father, or the absence of one, shaped something fundamental in you. Your sense of what you are worth. Whether you are safe in the world. What you believe you deserve. And in the deepest and most significant way, what you believe about your Heavenly Father.

In this deeply personal and faith-rooted episode, Kristen addresses the father wound with the same compassion and clarity she brought to the mother wound in Episode 13. This conversation is not about dishonoring our fathers. It is about bringing what was formed in us into the light so we can receive the healing that is available and step into the fullness of who God created us to be.

Kristen shares honestly from her own ongoing journey with this work, names the specific ways the father wound shows up in worth, income, relationships, and faith, and offers a five-step healing practice that includes a spoken declaration of forgiveness and a reminder of who you truly are: a Daughter of the King.

In this episode you will discover:

How the father wound may be shaping your relationship with God:

Your Five-Step Healing Practice:

Scriptures referenced in this episode:

Mentioned in this episode:

Your action step from this episode:

Did this episode move you?

Choose Brave. Lead with Intention. 

Episode 13 — The Mother Wound: Healing What Shapes How You Love, Lead, and Connect

Your earliest female relationship became the template through which you understand love, worth, belonging, and what it means to be in relationship with another woman. When that relationship carried pain, unmet needs, or simply the limitations of a mother who could not give what she never received, those gaps do not just disappear. They travel forward into every area of your life.

In this deeply tender and honest episode, Kristen Ivanov addresses the mother wound with compassion, clarity, and genuine hope. This is not a conversation about blame or dishonoring your mother. It is about understanding what you absorbed, naming where it has been showing up, and receiving the healing that is fully available to you.

Whether your mother did her very best and still left gaps, or whether her absence or harm was real and significant — this episode holds space for all of it. And it ends with one of the most powerful declarations you will ever speak over yourself and over her.

In this episode you will discover:

Eight ways the mother wound may be showing up in your life:

Your Five-Step Healing Practice:

Scripture referenced in this episode:

Mentioned in this episode:

Your action step from this episode:

Did this episode move you?

Choose Brave. Lead with Intention. 

Hard seasons are not a sign that something has gone wrong. They are part of every woman’s story. The question is not whether you will face them but whether you have the faith, the tools, and the daily practices to carry you through them without losing yourself in the process.

In this deeply practical and faith-rooted episode, Kristen redefines what emotional resilience actually is and gives you eight specific practices for navigating a challenging season with your faith and your sense of self fully intact.

Kristen draws a clear distinction between toughness — which disconnects you from what you are feeling — and genuine resilience, which allows you to feel what is real, process it with honesty and grace, and keep moving forward. Hard seasons navigated well do not just leave you surviving. They leave you with more depth, more wisdom, more compassion, and more capacity than you had going in.

In this episode you will discover:

Your Eight Practices for a Challenging Season:

Scriptures referenced in this episode:

Mentioned in this episode:

Did this episode encourage you?

Choose Brave. Lead with Intention.