The Collide Podcast

There is so much going on in the world right now that it’s safe to say we’re all grieving something. Whether it be our health, our jobs, our routines, or simply the joy of meeting up with friends or gathering for church - we each feel the pain this global pandemic is causing on a global level, but also in our individual lives.

The same is true for our kids. Whatever age they may be, children are experiencing a huge disruption to their norms, and as parents, it’s our job to model faith rather than fear. Now more than ever we need to ground our children and center our lives around the God who never changes. In this episode, we’re sharing practical ways to be intentional parents in a trying time of chaos, so that our kids can come out on the other side healthy, strong, and closer with the Lord.

Have you ever wondered what it really looks like to find your worth when life keeps trying to tell you otherwise?

In this honest episode of the Collide Podcast, we sit down with Jessica Hottle to talk about healing from past wounds, untangling negative thoughts, and rooting our identity in Christ instead of external validation. She shares about her upbringing surrounded by trauma and instability, and how it shaped her self-worth—offering insights on emotional healing, faith, and renewing the mind. Whether you’re navigating insecurity, longing for healing, or struggling to believe you are loved, this episode will remind you that your worth is found in God alone, not in your success, your past, or other people’s opinions.

Jessica is a successful online entrepreneur, podcaster, and author of three books including Know Your Worth, A Worthy Wife, and Own Your Worth. She inspires thousands by vulnerably sharing her personal journey of overcoming trauma, unhealthy thought patterns, and striving for approval. Jessica is passionate about helping women break free from shame, heal emotionally, and live anchored in their true identity in Christ. Her story is a powerful example of how God can turn pain into purpose.

• How childhood pain and trauma can shape our self-worth—and how God can heal it
• Practical ways to renew your mind and replace lies with truth
• What it means to “own your worth” in a world that constantly tells you you’re not enough
• How to invite God into your emotions and allow Him to rewrite your story
• Why slowing down, feeling your feelings, and seeking healing isn’t weakness—but transformation

If you’ve ever felt unworthy, battled negative thoughts, or struggled to believe God could heal your story, this episode will remind you that healing is possible and you don’t have to carry your pain alone. You’ll be encouraged to root your worth in Jesus, embrace your story, and trust that God is able to bring beauty from brokenness.

Check Out These Resources Inspired by This Episode

• Collide Counseling Bundle - This online course tackles the 12 most common issues women face in counseling, offering practical tools, expert advice, and encouragement from licensed mental health professionals. The course also includes a beautifully designed printed workbook (mailed to your door) filled with exercises, reflection space, and helpful resources to guide your healing journey.

Connect with Jessica - Website | Instagram | Facebook

Connect with Willow - Website | Instagram | Facebook

Pre-Order Willow’s New Book! Collide: Running into Healing When Life Hands You Hurt

Follow and Support Collide

🌐 Visit our website for upcoming conferences, helpful resources, and encouragement for women pursuing healing, purpose, and deeper faith.

📲 Follow along on Facebook and Instagram

🛍️ Shop for good at the Collide Store

💛 Give today online or Venmo to impact lives

📬 Subscribe to our Newsletter and be the first to hear about new episodes, blog posts, events, and resources and more!

Do you constantly feel like you’re falling short—no matter how hard you try to get it right?

Perfectionism often disguises itself as high standards, but underneath it can fuel people-pleasing, overthinking, comparison, anxiety, and exhaustion. So many women quietly carry the pressure to be perfect—in their bodies, their work, their relationships, and even their faith—believing anything less is unacceptable.

In this episode of the Collide Podcast, we sit down with Breeze Potts and Kellie Furlan, trusted counselors in the Collide Counseling Network, for an honest and compassionate conversation about the cost of perfectionism and how to begin resisting its grip. Together, we explore why perfectionism takes root, how it impacts emotional and spiritual health, and practical counseling insights for choosing freedom over performance.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

1. How perfectionism shows up as people-pleasing and overthinking
2. Why comparison keeps us stuck and striving
3. The emotional toll of unrealistic expectations
4. Practical counseling insights to help you let go of perfection and find peace

This conversation is an invitation to release the pressure to perform and discover a healthier, more grace-filled way forward.

🎧 Tune in to be encouraged, equipped, and reminded that you don’t have to be perfect to be whole.

Connect with Willow - Website | Instagram | Facebook

Pre-Order Willow’s New Book!

Collide: Running into Healing When Life Hands You Hurt

Follow and Support Collide

🌐 Visit our website for upcoming conferences, helpful resources, and encouragement for women pursuing healing, purpose, and deeper faith.

📲 Follow along on Facebook and Instagram

🛍️ Shop for good at the Collide Store

💛 Give today online or Venmo to impact lives

📬 Subscribe to our Newsletter and be the first to hear about new episodes, blog posts, events, and resources and more!

The power of laughter and joy in a painful world is truly amazing, and today we’re having a conversation with David Westerlund about the incredible effects applied improv can have on teams and individuals. David is the founder of Be Present Discover Joy Consulting and we’re excited to share this interview with him about his inspirational outlook on life and his creative approach to facilitating collaborative, safe, engaging cultures amongst everyone from corporate teams to prison inmates.

What if the closed door in front of you isn’t a setback, but God inviting you to change directions?

Heidi Hull went to college to become an art teacher. But while student teaching in New Zealand, she was paired with a teacher who wouldn’t actually let her teach. Looking for another way to connect with students, Heidi started making jewelry with girls during their lunch breaks—even though she had never made jewelry before. Before long, teachers were asking to buy her pieces, and an unexpected detour began changing the trajectory of Heidi’s life.

In this conversation, Heidi joins Willow to talk about recognizing when God may be calling us to change directions, reframing closed doors, knowing when to stop pushing and rest, and finding the courage to follow God into something we never planned.

Heidi’s story is a reminder that changing directions doesn’t necessarily mean you got the original plan wrong. Sometimes God uses everything along the way—the education, disappointment, closed doors, gifts, relationships, and even the people who doubt us—to prepare us for a calling we couldn’t see coming.

Heidi Hull is a wife, mom, business owner, jewelry designer, and former member of the Collide ministry team. She unexpectedly founded Heidi Hull Designs after discovering a love for jewelry-making while student teaching in New Zealand. Her company creates minimalist, timeless everyday and bridal jewelry and has grown from a small side business into a brand carried by retailers across the United States.

At the heart of Heidi’s story is a desire to let God lead both her life and her business. Today, that includes pursuing opportunities for her bridal line to create meaningful work and new beginnings for women who have experienced trafficking.

• When your plans get interrupted: Pay attention. The frustrating detour you never wanted may become the very thing God uses to redirect your life.
• When something comes easily to you: Don’t assume it has no value. Heidi almost overlooked her artistic gifts because they felt as natural as breathing.
• When an opportunity comes your way: Ask three questions: How will this affect my family? How will it benefit the business? Is there Kingdom purpose in it?
• When you need direction: Seek wise counsel—but continue listening to God for yourself. Heidi relies on trusted women for prayer and perspective while remembering that even wise people won’t always understand what God is asking of you.
• When your dream feels impossible: Start small anyway. Sometimes the fact that you can’t see how something could possibly work is exactly what makes room for God to show up.

Maybe you’re staring at a closed door right now. Maybe you’re frustrated because something isn’t growing fast enough. Or maybe you have a dream so big that you’re afraid to say it out loud because you don’t know what you’ll do if it fails.

Heidi’s story reminds us that God’s direction doesn’t always look like forward momentum.

Sometimes He redirects. Sometimes He says no. Sometimes He gives us a season to rest. Sometimes He asks us to take a risk without knowing the outcome.

And sometimes the only thing we need to do is start small.

You don’t need the entire plan before taking the first step. You don’t need to prove yourself to the people who have misunderstood you. And you don’t need a guaranteed outcome before being obedient.

As Heidi says, we were created “perfectly imperfect” so that we would rely on God and seek Him for the path ahead.

Start with what’s in front of you. Trust God with what isn’t. And let Him keep writing the story.

Follow Willow: Website | Instagram | Facebook

💑Check out Collide’s website for info on upcoming conferences, events, and resources.

📲Follow Collide on Facebook and Instagram for encouragement, inspo and a fun peek into our ministry.

📰Plus, subscribe to our newsletter to stay up-to-date on all things Collide!

Willow Weston sits down with longtime friend and mentor Heidi Price for an honest conversation about grief, loss, faith, anger, anxiety, and finding hope again. Heidi shares how losing her mother at 23 first shook her trust in God, and how the sudden death of her husband years later forced her to decide whether she would run from God or keep talking to Him—even when she was angry.

Together, Willow and Heidi explore why grief rarely looks neat or predictable, why Christians can unintentionally make loss harder by trying to explain it away, and why one of the greatest gifts we can give a grieving person is simply our presence.

This conversation gives you permission to let grief be messy while continuing to take small steps toward life, community, healing, and hope.

Heidi Price is a longtime mentor, teacher, woman of faith, and friend of Collide founder Willow Weston. Born in the jungles of Indonesia to pioneer missionary parents, Heidi’s childhood shaped her faith, love of teaching, global perspective, and desire to make a difference in the world.

• What do you do when grief makes you angry with God? Heidi explains why keeping the conversation with God open—even when it is messy, questioning, or angry—became essential to her healing.
• Why does grief make everything feel unsafe? Sudden loss can create anxiety and fear that something terrible will happen again, and Heidi shares honestly about the lasting effects of that fear.
• How can you support someone who is grieving without saying the wrong thing? Stop trying to fix or explain their pain. Show up, listen, remember what they lost, and make room for whatever emotions are present.

If grief has stripped the color from your life, you do not have to rush yourself into feeling better. You can tell the truth about what hurts, invite people into it, keep talking to God, and trust that color can slowly return.

If you’re walking through grief and don’t know where to begin, Collide would love to help connect you with support and resources. And if this conversation reminds you of someone who needs permission to grieve honestly, share this episode with her.

Collide Book

Follow Willow: Website | Instagram | Facebook

💑Check out Collide’s website for info on upcoming conferences, events, and resources.

📲Follow Collide on Facebook and Instagram for encouragement, inspo and a fun peek into our ministry.

📰Plus, subscribe to our newsletter to stay up-to-date on all things Collide!

Have you ever faced a loss so deep it shook your world—and wondered how to find hope again?

In this inspiring episode of the Collide Podcast, we sit down with Tammy Trent to talk about navigating grief, finding restoration, and discovering hope after unimaginable loss. She shares about the sudden death of her husband, offering insights on healing, resilience, and how God can bring beauty through brokenness. Whether you’re navigating heartbreak, searching for peace, or longing for encouragement, this episode will remind you that even in the darkest seasons, hope and joy can be found.

Meet Tammy Trent

Tammy Trent became a familiar voice on Christian radio in 1995 with hits like “Welcome Home” and “Run to the Cross.” She is also a sought-after speaker, performer, and author, inspiring thousands through her music and personal story. Tammy is passionate about encouraging others to find strength and joy in the midst of pain. Her story is a powerful example of how faith and perseverance can transform grief into hope.

In This Episode, You’ll Learn

1. How Tammy navigated the sudden loss of her husband and the journey through grief
2. Ways to find restoration and healing in seasons of deep pain
3. How music and faith can provide comfort and strength across generations
4. Practical insights for walking through loss while inspiring hope in others

How This Episode Will Encourage You

This conversation will offer renewed hope, encouragement, and practical tools for anyone facing loss, showing that even after heartbreak, life and joy can bloom again.

Connect with Tammy - Website | YouTube

Connect with Willow - Website | Instagram | Facebook

Order Willow’s New Book!

Collide: Running into Healing When Life Hands You Hurt

Follow and Support Collide

🌐 Visit our website for upcoming conferences, helpful resources, and encouragement for women pursuing healing, purpose, and deeper faith.

📲 Follow along on Facebook and Instagram

🛍️ Shop for good at the Collide Store

💛 Give today online or Venmo to impact lives

📬 Subscribe to our Newsletter and be the first to hear about new episodes, blog posts, events, and resources and more!

Collide didn’t begin with a business plan or a vision for a women’s ministry—it began with one woman hiding in a closet, confronting her own pain, and allowing Jesus to meet her there.

How did Collide get started?

In this special solo episode, founder and director Willow Weston takes us back to the very beginning of Collide—a story that didn’t start with a conference, a nonprofit, or even an idea for a ministry. It started in a closet.

Years ago, Willow was home with her baby when someone connected to deep wounds from her past showed up at her door. Overcome by fear, anger, and unresolved pain, Willow hid upstairs with her baby. In that moment, she realized that although she had experienced tremendous healing since giving her life to Jesus, there were still wounded places in her story that needed attention. She sensed God inviting her to come out of hiding and pursue deeper healing. The next week, she made an appointment with a Christian counselor.

It was in that counseling office that the idea behind Collide was born. Willow began describing how wounded people move through life colliding with other wounded people—and how easily our unhealed pain can wound those around us. But when she looked at Jesus in Scripture, she saw a different kind of collision. When Jesus collided with wounded people, they were left more whole than broken.

Soon after, one college student asked Willow to mentor her. A couple of friends turned into more than 20 young women packed into Willow’s living room studying the people Jesus encountered in Scripture and asking what happened when their broken stories collided with Him. What started as the Wounded Collision Bible Study eventually became an experiment simply called Collide.

In this episode, Willow shares the unexpected story of how those living-room gatherings grew into events for women of all ages, how wise leaders encouraged her to allow Collide to become bigger than any one church, and how the ministry eventually took a huge leap of faith to become a nonprofit—even without money, staff, an office, or a clear roadmap for what came next.

Willow also shares some of the women whose stories shaped Collide along the way, including a grieving mother who had walked away from church after losing her son to suicide. At a Collide event, she discovered she didn’t have to pretend she was okay—and that God could handle the depth of her pain. Her story became part of the fuel behind Collide’s commitment to creating spaces where women can show up authentically and encounter Jesus in the places that hurt.

From conferences and counseling support to mentoring, Bible studies, classes, leadership development, and this very podcast, everything that followed grew from that same invitation: bring Jesus the real story, including the broken parts, and see what He can do with it.

Collide began with one woman discovering that God could meet her in her brokenness—and then use that very brokenness to bring beauty into someone else’s life. And as Willow shares, this is only the beginning of the story.

Willow Weston is the founder and director of Collide and host of The Collide Podcast. Her passion for Collide was born out of her own experience of encountering Jesus in places of pain and discovering that healing doesn’t require us to hide our brokenness.

In this solo episode, Willow pulls back the curtain on Collide’s beginnings, sharing the unexpected moments, people, risks, and invitations from God that transformed a small Bible study in her living room into a growing movement of women daring to believe that God not only meets us in our brokenness—He can use us there.

• Healing can begin when we stop hiding. Collide’s story began when Willow recognized that unresolved wounds were still affecting her life and chose to get help.
• Your brokenness doesn’t disqualify you. God didn’t wait until Willow had everything healed and figured out before He began using her story.
• Jesus can handle the real story. Pain, shame, grief, addiction, disappointment, and questions don’t have to be hidden before we come to Him.
• Healing changes how we collide with others. Unhealed wounds can spill into our relationships, but encountering Jesus can change what we bring into our interactions with others.
• Pay attention to what God is already doing. Much of Collide’s growth wasn’t carefully planned. Willow and the early team kept noticing where God was moving and taking the next step.
• You don’t have to have everything you need before you say yes. Collide became a nonprofit without staff, an office, event supplies, or financial security. Its growth required continual leaps of faith.
• Getting help matters. As more women shared their stories, Collide developed counseling support to help remove obstacles that kept women from receiving professional care.
• God can use ordinary people to do extraordinary things. Collide’s leadership model grew around giving women opportunities to learn Scripture, discover their gifts, and serve even while carrying insecurities and weaknesses.

Maybe you’ve looked at Collide from the outside and wondered how it all began. This episode gives you the answer—but it’s also about much more than the history of a ministry.

It’s about what can happen when one person stops hiding.

Willow didn’t come out of that closet with a five-year plan. She came out knowing she needed help. She went to counseling. She began looking at Jesus differently. She shared what she was learning with a few young women. Then she kept paying attention to what God was doing and saying yes to the next invitation.

If you’re in your own version of the closet right now—hurting, hiding, afraid, or convinced your brokenness means God couldn’t possibly use you—Collide’s story offers another possibility.

God can meet you there. He can bring healing there. And He can use your story from there.

Collide Book

Follow Willow: Website | Instagram | Facebook

💑Check out Collide’s website for info on upcoming conferences, events, and resources.

📲Follow Collide on Facebook and Instagram for encouragement, inspo and a fun peek into our ministry.

📰Plus, subscribe to our newsletter to stay up-to-date on all things Collide!

Today on the We Collide Podcast we got the pleasure of interviewing Pastor Scott Garber, author of White as Sin: A New Paradigm for Racial Healing. Scott has dedicated his life to church ministry, theological training, and writing. He is the Founder and Executive Director of Overcoming, a non-profit dedicated to racial justice. In this episode, we spoke with Scott about racial haughtiness, christian responsibility, and internal transformation.

Jason Houtsma a musical genius. We are BIG fans of this Co-founder of Worship Artistry, which is an online resource that equips musicians of all different skill levels to bring their best in worship. Jason has been leading worship and writing music since he was 15 years old and teaching guitar since the age of 20. In 2011 he co-founded Worship Artistry and his heart for worship, teaching and helping musicians bring their best is written into the DNA of the Worship Artistry community. Today we’re talking to Jason about trusting the doors God opens and how he built a dream that now reaches hundreds of thousands of people all over the world and gives them the tools to worship freely and beautifully through music.