Spark Something New

What happens when you stop checking boxes and start asking why?

On this episode, Dr. Katie sits down with Wende Whitus — keynote speaker, author, and founder of Personal Retreat Day — for a powerful conversation about breaking free from hustle culture and rediscovering what truly matters.

Wende shares how a stress-induced health scare became her wake-up call to create space for rest, reflection, and reorientation — the foundation of her Personal Retreat Day framework. Together, Katie and Wende explore how asking the deeper why questions can uncover purpose, heal exhaustion, and bring clarity to the chaos of everyday life.

From redefining productivity to embracing stillness, this episode invites you to pause long enough to listen to what your soul’s been trying to say all along.

Key themes:

• The power of asking “why” instead of “what”
• Overcoming fear, shame, and resistance to self-reflection
• How to design your own Personal Retreat Day
• Rest as an act of courage and leadership
• Creating space (Yutori) for peace, creativity, and clarity

If you’ve ever felt stuck on the treadmill of doing, this conversation will remind you that meaning, purpose, and peace live beyond the to-do list.

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Connect with Wende on LinkedIn
• Explore more at Wende's Personal Retreat Day website

GUEST BIO:

Wende Whitus, founder of Personal Retreat Day, helps busy people on the brink of burnout develop a system for deep rest and reflection. Whether it’s through speaking, coaching, or writing, Wende is clearly passionate about teaching others how they can design their best lives by preserving one day each month to reflect, rest, and reorient. Wende is the author of a guided journal called Your Rhythm of Rest and Reflection. She and her husband Greg reside near Charlotte, North Carolina and they are the proud parents of two grown daughters who live nearby. 

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

This episode will challenge everything you've come to believe about rest. Dr. Katie chats with physician, researcher, and bestselling author Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith to explore what it really means to rest—and why most of us are getting it wrong.

Dr. Saundra shares her groundbreaking framework of the Seven Types of Rest—physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, social, sensory, and creative—and explains why sleep alone isn’t enough to truly restore us. Together, they unpack how our culture’s obsession with productivity leaves us depleted and disconnected, and what it looks like to build a new “ethic of rest” that honors our humanity, energy, and wholeness.

You’ll learn:

• The critical difference between cessation and restoration
• How to identify your personal rest deficits using Dr. Saundra’s Rest Quiz
• Why burnout often persists even after sleep or vacation
• Simple, science-based ways to refill your energy across all seven dimensions of rest
• How leaders can foster restoration and resilience within their teams

Dr. Saundra’s insights challenge hustle culture and invite us to reclaim a version of success that actually feels good. As she says, “Don’t just make the honey—stop and taste its sweetness.”

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Connect with Dr. Saundra on LinkedIn
• Take the Rest Quiz
• Explore more Dr. Saundra's website
• Get a copy of "Sacred Rest: Recover Your Life, Renew Your Energy, Restore Your Sanity" by Dr. Saundra 

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

We’ve been sold the wrong version of positivity—the kind that tells us to “look on the bright side” while ignoring the messy, painful, real parts of life. But true positivity isn’t about denial; it’s about discipline. It’s about developing the mental, emotional, and physical strength to keep going when life hits hard.

On this episode, Dr. Katie Sandoe sits down with Sara “Sass” Schaeffer, speaker, community builder, and founder of Practice Your Positive, to reimagine what it really means to “be positive.” Sass shares why positivity is a muscle—not a mood—and how to strengthen it through four daily levers: Mindset, Movement, Expression, and Connection.

Together they explore how positivity and optimism work hand-in-hand (but aren’t the same), where toxic positivity crosses the line, and why discomfort is actually part of the growth process. You’ll learn how small, consistent “reps” of positivity build resilience, deepen connection, and help you show up as your most grounded, powerful self—even when life feels anything but.

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Connect with Sass on LinkedIn 
• Explore Sara's website: Practice Your Positive 
• Connect with Sara on Instagram

GUEST BIO:

Sara (Practice Your Positive) is a speaker, community-builder, and energy strategist who believes positivity isn’t just a mindset—it’s a muscle. She’s the founder of Practice Your Positive and the Team Positive movement, helps people build belonging through rituals and joy, and hosts a podcast that seeks to energize the everyday.

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

We all say we want “better communication,” whether at work, at home, or in our closest relationships. But here’s the twist: most of us are looking in the wrong place. On this episode of Spark Something New, I sat down with the wise and compassionate Collette Revere to explore why communication is so notoriously difficult—and what to do about it.

Instead of framing communication as something “out there” and wishing that other people would change, Collette invites us to turn inward. She explains how our earliest family patterns shape our “communication history,” why many of us stop developing after that first phase of survival learning, and how blind spots form when we mistake feeling right for actually being right.

We dive into the difference between psychological safety (structures leaders try to create) and emotional safety (the responsibility each of us has to know and voice what we need). We challenge the myth that good communication is about control or compliance—and instead uncover how truth is more layered, how multiple realities can exist at once, and why accountability means putting problem-solving back where it belongs.

This isn’t another “tips and tricks” talk about communication styles. It’s a provocative look at how deeper self-awareness, emotional safety, and personal responsibility shift the entire conversation. Whether you’re leading a team, raising a family, or navigating relationships, this episode will spark new ways of seeing your role in how connection—and disconnection—really happens.

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Connect with Collette on LinkedIn
• Learn more about Open360

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

What if the secret to a meaningful life isn’t found in success, but in the simple, joyful things that light you up? 

On this this episode, Dr. Katie sits down with neuroscientist, bestselling author, and broadcaster Ken Mogi to explore the fascinating connection between the brain and ikigai—the Japanese concept of “a life worth living.” 

Ken shows us how purpose literally rewires the brain—and why ikigai might be the missing piece to living with both success and serenity. He explains how living with ikigai doesn’t just feel good—it’s wired into our brain’s architecture. He breaks down how purpose activates the prefrontal cortex, why joy and childlike play are essential for a healthy emotional base, and how Ikigai acts as a secure foundation that allows us to embrace uncertainty, creativity, and growth without burning out.

Together, Katie and Ken unpack how purpose fuels calm, why relaxation and authenticity are critical for sustainable success, and even the surprising ways AI could threaten our sense of meaning if we’re not careful.

This conversation is part science, part soul—and a full invitation to live more deeply, joyfully, and authentically.

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Follow Ken on Instagram
• Purchase Ken's book in English "Awakening Your Ikigai: How the Japanese Wake Up to Joy and Purpose Every Day"
• Explore Ken's other books
• Explore Ken's "Collective Intelligence Research Laboratory" website

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

We talk a lot about men’s strength—their work, their leadership, their roles, their physical presence. But rarely do we talk about their souls (the essence of who they are as human beings).

In this conversation with my friend Ray Taylor (aka “Raymond James” if you catch me slipping into his nickname), we get real about what men are actually hungry for in this season of life—and why so many don’t know how to ask for it.

Ray brings the unique perspective of a pastor, a husband, a father, and someone who has walked the road of wrestling with his own mental and emotional health. We go deep into the quiet longings of men’s souls: the need to be loved, to be seen, to be heard, to belong. We also shine a light on the painful truth—men are dying by suicide at four times the rate of women, often suffering in silence, unseen and unsupported.

This episode isn’t about fixing men. It’s about acknowledging a reality we too often overlook: if we want thriving families, thriving workplaces, thriving communities, then we can’t ignore men’s mental, emotional, and soul health. We need to create space for vulnerability, healing, and connection.

Whether you identify as a man, love a man, or are raising one—the questions and stories we unpack here will challenge the way you think about masculinity, mental health, and what it really means to be strong.

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Connect with Ray on LinkedIn
• Learn more at National Alliance on Mental Illness - Men's Mental Health

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

What do you do when you realize you’re out of alignment—with your work, your relationships, or even with yourself? Most of us can name the misalignment, but we freeze when it comes to what to actually do about it.

In this conversation with Candice Van Dertholen, holistic practitioner and founder of Warrior Within Healing, we explore what she calls grounded spirituality—a practice of coming out of your head, back into your body, and reconnecting with who you really are (not just what you do).

We dig into questions most of us avoid because the answers might change everything:

• How do you trust your intuition when you’ve been told for years it isn’t reliable?
• What’s the difference between fear, conditioning, and true inner wisdom?
• Why do so many of us actually fear success more than failure?
• And how can you learn to see yourself fully—even the parts you’d rather avoid?

This isn’t a fluffy “find your center” chat. It’s a call to stop hiding in overthinking, busy calendars, and surface-level roles—and instead create the stillness to ask: Who am I, really? What do I need right now?

If you’ve been feeling stuck, disconnected, or just “off,” this episode might rattle you—in the best way.

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Connect with Candice on LinkedIn
• Visit Candice's website
• Follow Candice on Instagram

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

This isn’t just a podcast anniversary — it’s an invitation to reimagine what anniversaries really mean.

In this episode, Dr. Katie reflects on one year of the Spark Something New podcast series — nearly 50 conversations that have sparked insights, touched souls, and expanded what’s possible. But this isn’t just a celebration of the podcast. It’s a reframing of anniversaries themselves: not as endings, but as markers in time.

Anniversaries can hold joy, grief, growth, or gratitude. They remind us who we were, invite us to reflect on who we are now, and challenge us to choose who we’re becoming. Katie offers reflective prompts you can use to make your own anniversaries — whether personal, relational, or professional — more meaningful.

You’ll hear about:

• The lessons Katie learned from one year of curating soulful conversations.
• Why anniversaries are powerful opportunities for inner work.
• How to shift from celebration-as-performance to celebration-as-purpose.
• Reflective questions to help you see your own anniversaries differently.

This isn’t just about one year of a podcast. It’s about how you mark the chapters of your life — and how you want to live with purpose and on purpose in the next one.

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

What if nature wasn’t just something on your “to-do” list—but a vital part of your sense of belonging? And y'all that means more than buying a few plants for your  office, cutting some flowers for your dinner table, or keeping a manicured lawn. 

On this episode, Dr. Katie chats with environmental scientist, keynote speaker, and space sustainability strategist (yes, you read that correctly) Sheryl Barbosa, we explore a powerful shift in perspective: the role of nature in building not just healthier lives, but a stronger sense of self and connection to each other.

Sheryl shares her own personal story of burnout and healing, where reconnecting with the natural world became a doorway back to belonging. Together, we challenge the idea that nature is just a backdrop for our busy lives or something reserved for “tree huggers.” Instead, we imagine that nature becomes a living partner in our everyday rhythm, a connector of people, and the place where our sense of community begins.

From high-five trees and park bench conversations with strangers, to the science of lowered cortisol and collective healing in shared outdoor spaces, this episode invites you to reimagine community itself—where people, place, and planet are intertwined.

It’s not about adding “go outside” to your checklist. It’s about remembering that we are nature, and when we make it a part of our community at home, at work, and in all the spaces where we seek belonging, we unlock connection, joy, and resilience in ways technology alone can’t provide.

This conversation might just spark how you view your morning walk, your neighborhood trees, or even the act of picking up litter as more than small moments. They’re acts of community building, memory making, and healing—together.

EPISODE RESOURCES

• Connect with Sheryl on LinkedIn
• Learn more about Sheryl her website

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

We’ve all heard the advice: Do what you love and the rest will follow. It’s on coffee mugs, wall art, and every #MondayMotivation post. But there's a truth that people ignore, this advice is half-baked at best and downright dangerous at worst.

So in this episode, Emily Green and I unpack the three myths behind this mantra and explore what it really means to pour yourself into something that truly matters.

Emily is a TEDx speaker, entrepreneur, and founder of Love Means Business — and she knows what it takes to build, sell, and reinvent a company. And together we rip apart the romanticized notion that passion alone guarantees success, money, or fulfillment. Spoiler: it doesn’t.

We debunk three major lies of the “do what you love” gospel:

1. Passion = instant profit. Nope. Strategy, systems, and stamina matter more than hopes and dreams.
2. You’ll only do what you love. Wrong again. If you can’t stomach the unsexy parts—sales, bookkeeping, rejection—you won’t make it.
3. It’s easier. Hard truth: it’s a different kind of hard. You’re not escaping difficulty; you’re choosing your version of it.

This episode isn’t here to crush dreams—it’s here to focus them. Because loving your work is powerful, but if you confuse “passion” with “paycheck,” you’re setting yourself up for burnout and heartbreak.

If you’ve ever wondered whether to turn your side hustle into a business, leave corporate life to start your own thing, or finally leap into entrepreneurship—this conversation will challenge how you think about passion, purpose, and the price of doing what you love.

EPISODE RESOURCES

• Connect with Emily on LinkedIn
• Explore Emily's website
• Listen to Emily's podcast

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.