The Divorce Awakening

Find out more about Delia's new programme here: https://ashmcdonaldmentoring.com/encore

Most of us wait for the confidence to arrive before we act. Delia says that’s backwards: the confidence comes after the action.

This week Sam and Delia talk about designing your life on purpose rather than letting it happen to you. Delia shares how she takes action even when she’s scared, what that looks like in real life, and the question she’s asking herself heading into next year: what if you went all in on what you really want?

🔥 Why you don’t need to feel ready before you start, and why confidence comes after the action, not before

🔥 How Delia turned a quiet month with no clients into a $10,000 week in under two weeks

🔥 What to do when the “what if it goes wrong?” voice shows up: Delia’s trick for flipping it into “what if this works?”

🔥 Why failing teaches you more than getting it right, and why nobody is watching as closely as you think

🔥 What it would look like to go all in on your life next year, and the three things that help Delia keep moving: knowing your own risk level, having someone who pushes you, and surrounding yourself with people who take action

Work with Delia: She’s launching an 11-month mastermind for entrepreneurs with business strategist and therapist Ash MacDonald, “The Entrepreneur’s Therapist”. There are only 11 spaces, with two group calls a month, quarterly challenges and a five-day luxury retreat in Mexico. Delia would love some of those spaces to go to women rebuilding after divorce. Contact Delia through Instagram for more details.

What if next year was the year you went all in?

Listen now.

Come and say hi to us on Insta!   / delia.monk    / sambrindlecoaching  

A client says no. A triggering message lands. The kids are chaos and you haven’t slept. And suddenly your mind is off — you’re not good enough, what’s the point, why are you even trying.

Sam and Delia have both been there. And over the last few years they’ve built a practice that changes everything. Not toxic positivity. Not pretending it’s fine. A real, repeatable way of choosing how you experience every moment of your day — even when life is doing its absolute worst.

This week they walk you through it. All of it.

🔥 The step that happens before anything else — what Sam does every morning that wards of the spiral before it even gets started

🔥 Why your thoughts are not you — and the moment you realise that is the moment everything gets better

🔥 How to close the door on the inner critic — the exact words both Sam and Delia use when the voice starts up at the worst possible moment

🔥 What to do when you can’t find a better thought — and why asking what your best friend would say right now is more powerful than anything else

🔥 Why this works just as well for tax investigations, financial fear and divorce as it does for four kids and a pile of towels on the bathroom floor

You are not the waves. You are the ocean. This episode is about learning to feel that — not just understand it.

Listen now.

Comment/share/follow us on:

 / delia.monk   / sambrindlecoaching  

Come and say hi to us on Insta! @delia.monk x @sambrindlecoaching

In this episode, Delia and Sam explore the nature of anxiety, how it manifests, and practical strategies to manage and reduce its impact. They share personal experiences, mental models, and actionable tips to help listeners navigate anxiety more effectively.

Listen to find out:

🔥 The first thing to do the second a spiral starts, and how to tell a thought from a fact when your brain is being very convincing

🔥 Why trying to get rid of anxiety for good can make it worse

🔥 How to find what’s really sitting underneath the worry, and the one question to ask once you do

🔥 The seesaw that explains why anxiety rises, and what to put on the other side

🔥 Why “just meditate” can be the worst advice for a noisy mind, and what gets you out of your head instead

🔥 The journal that rebuilds your trust in yourself, built from the times you were sure it was all over

Keywords:

anxiety, mental health, coping strategies, mindfulness, self-awareness, resilience, mental models, emotional health, stress management, personal growth

Chapters;

00:00 Introduction to Anxiety and Its Impact

01:56 Personal Experiences with Anxiety

04:13 Understanding What Anxiety Feels Like

05:55 The Physical and Mental Symptoms of Anxiety

08:00 Sharing and Talking About Anxiety

10:05 Strategies to Recognize and Catch Anxious Thoughts

12:02 Building Self-Trust and Belief in Your Capabilities

15:01 The Role of Faith, Trust, and Hope in Anxiety Management

18:00 Practical Techniques: Breathing, Flow, and Presence

21:03 The Power of Reframing and Positive Mindset

23:48 Personal Stories of Overcoming Anxiety

27:07 The Importance of Sharing and Support

30:02 Next Episode Preview: Overcoming Suffering and Building Resilience

Sam had never lived alone before her divorce. Neither had Delia. And nobody really prepares you for what it’s actually like — the strange mix of liberation and chaos, the bad habits that creep in when no one’s watching, and the surprisingly complicated question of whether you’re actually lonely or just a bit bored.

This week Sam and Delia get into all of it.

🔥 The first night in a new house — what it actually felt like for both of them and why it didn’t feel real for months

🔥 What happens to your habits when no one is watching — and the rules both Sam and Delia have had to make for themselves to stop the spiral

🔥 Why living alone is the ultimate test of self-trust — and what Sam did to become the person she actually wants to be when no one else is there

🔥 The difference between loneliness, boredom, jealousy and missing your kids — and why lumping them all together as loneliness isn’t helping you

🔥 Why living alone for the first time isn’t something to survive — it’s an invitation to design exactly the life you want when no one else is watching

Also: an honest conversation about beer, cigarettes, late nights and bad habits — and the moment both of them realised that looking after yourself when no one is watching is actually the whole point.

Listen now.

Send us your question via Insta —   / delia.monk     / sambrindlecoaching  

Sam lives around the corner from her ex-husband. They share the school runs, the sports weekends, the WhatsApp group. They went on holiday together this summer. And some people think that's a problem.

This week Delia asks her about it — and Sam talks through what it actually took to get here, what the early days really looked like, and why she genuinely believes that the closer divorced parents can be, the better it is for everyone. Especially the kids.

🔥 What a child psychologist told Delia about the four levels of post-divorce parenting — and where a good co-parenting relationship sits on that list

🔥 Why being close to your ex actually reduces the chance of your kids wanting you back together — not the other way around

🔥 How Sam and her ex stay on the same page with four kids so there's no room for anyone to play one parent off against the other

🔥 The honest truth about how long it took to get here — and what she'd say to anyone who can't imagine it from where they're standing right now

🔥 Why any future partner would need to be completely on board with this — and why that feels like a filter rather than a problem

This one is for anyone who's been told the way they're doing divorce is wrong. There are no rules. There is only what works for your family.

Listen now.

Send us your question via Insta — / delia.monk / sambrindlecoaching

This week on Divorce Awakening, Sam and Delia answer a listener stuck with an ex who won't reply to anything — not the after-school club form, not the budget question, not a single message.

So they get into what actually works when you're co-parenting with someone who's checked out.

Listen to find out:

🔥 5 different strategies to regain your peace (and power) when your ex is being truly impossible
🔥 The parenting style you switch to the second co-parenting stops working — and how to know you're already there
🔥 Why "of course he has" might be the most useful phrase in a high-conflict divorce
🔥 The importance of boundaries (and how to use them) when dealing with tricky exes

Send us your question via Insta — @delia.monk x @sambrindlecoaching

Timestamps

00:24 — Introduction and listener question

00:50 — Listener describes her high-conflict divorce

03:24 — Making decisions when an ex does not respond

04:01 — Introduction to parallel parenting

05:25 — Setting communication boundaries and deadlines

07:07 — Treating communication like a business transaction 0

08:35 — The “business partner” analogy

10:02 — Accepting what you cannot control

13:34 — Understanding the ego’s need for justice

15:06 — Avoiding angry texts and voice notes

16:42 — Episode summary and key takeaways

Delia and Sam share a mix of awkward, funny, and genuinely hopeful post-divorce dating stories (yes, there is hope!). 

Listen to find out:

🔥 The terrible “get me out of here” line that Delia used on her worst ever date post divorce (we recommend you try something else!)

🔥 How a breakup text (even after a couple of dates) will reveal the true nature of a person — pity we can’t test this so easily on the ones we like!

🔥 The awful date that even “fun Sam” couldn’t save

🔥 The best date that Delia’s had post-divorce — and why it’s thanks to Sam that she even went on it in the first place

🔥 The resistance that comes up with dating and why it might just be worth pushing yourself through it anyway

Timestamps

00:00 - Prepping the episode and introducing the dating theme
01:06 - Why listeners wanted more dating stories after divorce
02:20 - Starting with the worst dates first
07:16 - How to end a date politely when there’s no chemistry
08:16 - What people’s replies reveal about maturity
10:47 - Sam’s most awkward date
18:49 - Moving from worst dates to best dates
19:08 - Sam’s best date ever on a foggy hilltop
23:36 - Why low-pressure activity dates can feel more natural
24:42 - Delia’s best date and the call that convinced her to go
26:10 - Immediate good energy and an easy first kiss on the cheek
27:13 - Why being low-stakes and unbothered makes dating easier
29:42 - Meeting people organically
31:40 - Lingering eye contact before the first conversation
33:40 - A walk, a snog, and feeling like teenagers again
35:03 - Why eye contact in real life can be so powerful
36:24 - Final encouragement to keep trying, even when dating feels hard
37:15 - Leaving bad dates quickly and using exit excuses if needed

Last week was the mindset. This week Sam and Delia get into the practical stuff, and they do not hold back.

Delia sat down and wrote a list of 50 ways to start making money right now. No judgment, no idea too small, no option off the table. And this episode they go through it together — the sensible ones, the inspired ones, and the ones that somehow end up in a conversation about the surprisingly lucrative market for foot pics.

It's that kind of episode. And also genuinely one of the most useful ones they've done.

🔥 The 50-idea exercise Delia does with every client in financial transition — and why writing everything down before you edit yourself is the whole point

🔥 How one of Sam's clients went from nearly losing her house to building a savings pot — using two skills she already had

🔥 Why the best side hustle is almost always hiding in something you already do naturally — and the questions to ask yourself to find it

🔥 The more creative options nobody thinks of — renting yourself out as a friend, AI training jobs, Airbnb experiences, erotic fiction — yes, really

🔥 Why going wide before you go narrow matters — and how a "silly" idea on a list can lead to something that actually changes your financial situation

Your financial situation right now is not your financial situation forever. This episode is proof of that.

Listen now.

Get in touch with Sam & Delia through Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/sambrindlecoaching/
https://www.instagram.com/delia.monk/

Money is one of those things nobody talks about. Not really. You don't tell your friends what you earn. You don't admit how bad it got. You just quietly carry it — the fear, the shame, the 3am spiral about the bank balance. This week Sam and Delia are done with that.

This is the honest money conversation every divorced woman needs but rarely gets. What it really feels like to manage it solo, why worrying about it is making everything worse, and what actually shifts when you finally change your relationship with it.

In this episode you'll hear about:

🔥 Sam's honest money story — two financial rock bottoms, four kids, and what she did both times to pull herself out

🔥 Why worrying about money isn't protecting you, it's just keeping you up at night and stopping you from thinking straight

🔥 The moment Sam realised she was allowed to have more money, and why that belief was the thing that changed everything

🔥 What Delia did when her income dropped dramatically, and the mindset shift that pulled her out of it

🔥 How to stop the money spiral before it takes over your whole day — the exact technique Sam & Delia use when the thoughts start coming in

🔥 Why women don't talk about money enough, and what happens when we start

These are some of the books that shifted both of their money mindsets completely:

You Are a Badass at Making Money by Jen Sincero

Happy Money by Ken Honda

Expat Millionaire by Andrew Hallam

Part two is coming and it's packed with practical ideas for earning more money whatever your situation. But Sam and Delia are clear: none of those ideas work until you sort this bit first.

So, listen now!

Get in touch with Sam & Delia through Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/delia.monk/

https://www.instagram.com/sambrindlecoaching/

Come and say hi to us on Insta! @delia.monk x @sambrindlecoaching

"Everyone presumes someone must have cheated. Everyone." But no one cheated, he wasn't a bad guy, Sam just wasn't happy. That was it. No affair, no scandal, no proof. Just a gut that knew.

This week on Divorce Awakening, Sam and Delia go there — what happens when you leave a marriage that wasn't bad, just wrong.

Listen to hear more about:

🔥 The two years Sam spent quietly wishing her husband would cheat — just so she'd finally have "enough reason" to go

🔥 What her ex called her the moment she chose herself for the first time in her life — and why it nearly broke her

🔥 The holiday moment, months after the split, that convinced Sam she'd made the biggest mistake of her life

🔥 The decision-making rule Sam heard once and never forgot — the one that has nothing to do with knowing the right answer

🔥 Why Sam believes the guilt nearly kept her stuck for good, and what finally moved her through it

You don't need a villain to leave. You don't need proof, a paper trail, or a story people will nod along to. Sometimes the only evidence you get is a feeling that won't quit — and that has to be enough.