The Change Effect - Inspiration and Strategies for Creating Success on Your Own Terms

We often think of change as the risky choice.

➡️  Changing careers.
➡️  Leaving relationships.
➡️  Starting businesses.
➡️  Choosing something new.

But what if staying carries a cost too?

In this episode, we're looking at the quieter risks. The ones that accumulate over time. The energy drain, the erosion of self-trust, the dreams we postpone, and the subtle ways we adjust our expectations to fit our circumstances.

This conversation isn't about convincing you to make a change. It's about helping you see the full picture so whatever decision you make is one you've made consciously.

In this episode:

• Why we underestimate the cost of staying
• How self-trust gets worn down
• The hidden tax of postponing what matters
• Signs you're staying by choice or by default
• Questions to help you honestly assess where you are

Whatever your next step, my hope is that this conversation encourages you to pause and take an honest look at where you are. Sometimes staying is the right decision. Sometimes change is. The important thing is that the choice is yours, and that you make it with clarity, intention, and your eyes wide open.

If you want to go a bit deeper on this, I've attached a simple exercise for you called The Cost of Staying Audit,  to take a closer look at what it may be costing you to stay where you are.

Download: 🖊️ The Cost of Staying Audit HERE

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Some stories take years before they are ready to be told.

Not because they aren’t important, but because they ask something deeper of us before we can bring them into the world. They ask us to live them, make meaning from them, heal through them, and eventually decide - that what we have carried privately may become a source of light for someone else.

In this episode of The Change Effect, a past guest and long time friend of mine, Rebecca Boedges, shares what changed after her first appearance on the podcast, including her early-stage breast cancer diagnosis in January 2024 and how that experience pushed her to finally bring a decade-long book project into the world.

Rebecca is a psychotherapist, coach for artists, consultant, and author of Holding Light: A Life Between Loss and Art a moving memoir that explores pregnancy loss, infertility, motherhood, intuition, trauma, marriage, art, and the quiet courage it takes to build a life after heartbreak.

We talk about the vulnerability of memoir, the strange and beautiful process of becoming an author, the support Rebecca received from her husband Mark, and why creative work often asks us to move through fear before we feel ready. 

Rebecca also shares how her experience supporting Mark’s internationally recognized art career now informs her coaching work with emerging artists.

In this episode, we explore:

• The turning point that helped Rebecca finally publish Holding Light
• Why memoir writing is both deeply personal and creatively challenging
• The fear of being seen, judged, or rejected when sharing your work
• How artists can move through the question, “Am I good enough?”
• Why relationships, courage, and curiosity matter when building a creative career

This conversation is about grief, healing, art, intuition, and the moment when the work you’ve carried privately is finally ready to meet the world.

Connect with Rebecca:

Website

Instagram

The Change Effect Episode 7 with Rebecca

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People pleasing always starts with good intentions

It's a strategy that helped us navigate relationships, workplaces, and expectations throughout our lives. Over time, though, what once served us can become exhausting.

In this episode, we're talking about what happens when you stop arranging yourself around everyone else's needs and begin paying attention to your own.

We'll explore the guilt, the pushback, the identity shifts, and ultimately the freedom that comes from becoming more fully yourself.

In this episode:

• Understanding the roots of people pleasing
• Why guilt is a normal part of growth
• How relationships shift when you change
• Identity after people pleasing
• Building trust in your own judgment

If you've spent years making yourself easy for everyone else, I hope this episode offers a different perspective. Small, honest choices have a way of changing the direction of our lives, and every boundary you set is an opportunity to build a more authentic relationship with yourself and the people around you.

If you want to go a bit deeper on this, I've attached a simple exercise for you called The YES Audit,  to help you see where people pleasing shows up for you and how to overcome it's pull.

Download: 🖊️ The YES Audit HERE

Connect with me:
🌐 https://www.noellevan.com
📸 Instagram: @noellevanbeyond
💼 LinkedIn: Noelle Van

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Sometimes the life we're holding onto is the very thing standing in the way of the life we're meant to live.

This week on The Change Effect, I sit down with Jenny Dreizen to explore the unexpected beauty of new beginnings.

From ending a decade-long relationship to co-founding Fresh Starts Registry and eventually finding love across the world, Jenny's story is a reminder that our biggest transitions often become our greatest opportunities for growth.

Together, they discuss:
• Why life rarely unfolds according to plan
• Learning to let go of what no longer fits to embrace what's next
• Navigating heartbreak and major life transitions
• Building purpose from personal experience 
• The role of serendipity in shaping our lives and how life can change in an instant 

Jenny also shares the inspiration behind her upcoming book, Divorce Happens: A Compassionate Guide to Starting Fresh, and the lessons she's learned from helping others rebuild after life's unexpected turns.

Whether you're facing a career pivot, the end of a relationship, or simply questioning what's next, this conversation offers hope that endings often become the beginning of something even better.

To Connect with Jenny:

https://freshstartsregistry.com/, 

https://www.instagram.com/genevievedreizen/

https://www.instagram.com/freshstartsregistry

To Stay Connected with Noelle: 

https://www.noellevan.com

https://www.youtube.com/@noellevanv

https://www.instagram.com/noellevanbeyond

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What if your anger isn't a problem to solve?

What if it's information?

In this episode of The Change Effect, we explore one of the most misunderstood emotions women experience and why so many of us have been conditioned to suppress, soften, or explain away our anger.

In this episode you'll learn:

• Why anger is often a signal, not a flaw
• How women are taught to disconnect from their own frustration
• The difference between suppression, explosion, and healthy processing
• What recurring anger may be trying to show you
• How to turn frustration into clarity and action
• Why anger often reveals important values and boundaries

When we stop treating anger as something to avoid and start viewing it as information, it becomes easier to understand what matters, where our boundaries have been crossed, and what may need to change. This episode offers a practical way to work with anger rather than against it.

Download The Anger Inventory Exercise HERE

Connect with Noelle:

https://www.noellevan.com

https://www.youtube.com/@noellevanv

https://www.instagram.com/noellevanbeyond

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One of the themes that comes up often on The Change Effect is the idea that success is not a fixed destination. The definition of ambition that serves us in one season of life may not fit the next, and sometimes the bravest thing we can do is give ourselves permission to redefine it.

In this episode, I sit down with Caru Jones for an honest conversation about burnout, identity, intuition, and the evolving nature of ambition.

Caru Jones is an executive coach, leadership expert, and founder of Soulfulness Philosophy. With more than two decades of experience across coaching, HR, leadership, and talent development, she helps accomplished women and leaders create success that feels sustainable, aligned, and deeply fulfilling.

Drawing from her own journey from a successful global HR career into entrepreneurship, Caru shares the pivotal moments that led her to realize that external achievement alone wasn't enough. 

In this episode, we discuss:

·      The importance of understanding our personal values and using them as a compass for both our professional and personal lives.

·      How fear and excitement can feel remarkably similar and why choosing which voice to listen to matters.

·      The concept of "Ambition Without Self-Abandonment" and what it means to pursue meaningful goals while staying connected to yourself.

·      Why success doesn't have to look the same in every season of life, and how giving ourselves permission to evolve creates space for greater fulfillment.

Together, we explore what happens when high-achieving women begin asking deeper questions about fulfillment, sustainability, and what they truly want for their lives. 

If you are looking for inspiration at the soul level, this is a must listen!

Connect with Caru:

https://www.carujones.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/carujones/

https://www.instagram.com/carujones/

Stay Connected with Noelle:

Website: www.noellevan.com
Instagram: @noellevanbeyond

YouTube: @noellevanv

Linkedin noellev

If you enjoyed this episode of The Change Effect, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who may be navigating their own next chapter.

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As we evolve, our relationships often evolve with us.

In this episode of The Change Effect, we explore what happens when personal growth, career transitions, and major life changes begin to reshape your friendships.

Why do some relationships deepen while others become strained? How do you know the difference between temporary friction and a friendship that has run its course? And how do you let go of relationships that no longer fit without creating unnecessary conflict?

In this episode you'll learn:

• Why change often creates tension in friendships
• How your growth can unintentionally trigger others
• Signs a friendship is worth investing in
• Red flags that a relationship may have reached its natural conclusion
• How to create distance without drama
• Why loneliness during transition is often part of the process

Change often asks more of us than a new plan or a different path. It asks us to examine the relationships surrounding that path as well. 

If you've been feeling disconnected, questioning a friendship, or wondering whether you're simply in a season of transition, this episode offers a thoughtful framework for understanding what's changing and why.

Download the Friendship Audit Exercise Here

Connect with Noelle:

https://www.noellevan.com

https://www.youtube.com/@noellevanv

https://www.instagram.com/noellevanbeyond

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Have you ever delayed a decision, opportunity, or next step because you were waiting to feel more ready?

You may not be waiting for the right moment.

You may be waiting for permission.

In this episode, we explore the hidden pattern many successful women carry throughout their careers—the habit of waiting to be chosen, promoted, invited, approved, or validated before making a move.

In this episode you'll learn:

• Why the permission pattern develops
• How high achievers unknowingly outsource their confidence
• The difference between seeking input and seeking approval
• Signs you're waiting for validation instead of acting
• Practical ways to strengthen self-trust
• How to stop giving away your authority

Many women spend years gathering credentials, experience, and evidence before allowing themselves to move forward. At some point, the next step requires something different: trusting your own judgment. 

If you've been sitting on an idea, delaying a decision, or waiting for certainty to arrive, this conversation may help you recognize what you're truly waiting for.

Download The Permission Puzzle Exercise Here

Connect with Noelle:

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This week's encore episode is a listener favorite for so many reasons. Sarah (Brown) Brooks shares with us how the highs and lows in life can help shape who we are and how having the grace to accept what comes our way, can't help but usher in more of the good stuff. 

Change can upend us in ways we never expect, yet so often, our toughest seasons become the fertile ground for our greatest growth. 

Sarah (Brown) Brooks life path has been marked by profound transformation through sobriety, the loss of an 18-year marriage, surviving breast cancer and finding love again through manifestation and the unwavering belief in a new chapter. 

Drawing from her work as an executive coach, her journey along the Camino de Santiago, and her guiding philosophy of amor fati—to love one’s fate—Sarah has emerged not just as a survivor, but as a voice of compassion, wisdom, and hope for others traveling through their own storms.

Get 20% off your Day by Daybook®  with the discount code NEW20 here. 

In this episode, Sarah and I discuss:

• Sarah’s journey of sobriety, the end of her marriage, surviving breast cancer and finding new love. 
• Walking the Camino de Santiago as a spiritual pilgrimage that mirrored her own healing.
• The role of intuition and how listening to her body, even amidst doubt and trauma, shaped every pivotal decision.
• Navigating “the gifts inside suffering,” and how adversity became her soil for new beginnings in love, purpose, and work.
• The power of vision boards, synchronicity, and trusting in the unknown when dreaming a new life into reality.

Whether you’re walking through a difficult chapter, seeking to reframe your pain, or searching for wisdom in your own process of becoming, Sarah’s story is a testament to resilience, radical acceptance, and the healing that comes with embracing our story—no matter how it unfolds.

If you enjoyed this episode don’t forget to follow, rate, and review the podcast and tell me what resonated with you.

Connect with Sarah:

Website | Sarah Brown Coaching

Failing Forward Podcast 

Connect with Noelle:

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https://www.youtube.com/@noellevanv

https://www.instagram.com/noellevanbeyond

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There’s a kind of grief nobody prepares you for. The grief that comes from outgrowing a version of yourself. 

A career you built your identity around.

A relationship that slowly stopped feeling like home.

A future you pictured so clearly,  until life moved in a different direction.

In this episode of The Change Effect, we explore the quiet grief that often hides underneath major life and work transitions especially for high-achieving women who are used to moving quickly into “what’s next” without stopping to process what was lost along the way.

This conversation is about the emotional middle most people skip over. The flatness that can follow a big decision. The strange guilt that comes with moving on. The way unprocessed grief can quietly keep you tethered to an old version of yourself long after you’ve left it behind.

If you’ve been feeling restless, emotionally stuck, disconnected from your next chapter, or quietly mourning something you can’t fully explain… this episode is for you.

In this episode:

• Why grief often shows up during reinvention and identity shifts
• The hidden ways unprocessed grief impacts your ability to move forward
• Signs you may be carrying grief you haven’t acknowledged yet
• Practical ways to process transition without getting stuck in the past

We've attached a powerful reflective exercise below called The Letter You Never Wrote designed to help you process the version of your life you thought you’d have, and begin making space for what comes next. 

🖊️ The Letter You Never Wrote — a guided reflective writing exercise to help you process unspoken grief and release the version of life you thought you’d have.

Worksheet + Exercise Link:

Listener Exercise Worksheet

Connect with Noelle:

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https://www.youtube.com/@noellevanv

https://www.instagram.com/noellevanbeyond

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