Do you ever let your PERFECTIONISM keep you from inviting people in? Or are you the one who ALWAYS hosts and your perpetual PEOPLE-PLEASING means you never quite know how to say no?

In this episode, Mary sits down with bestselling author Abby Kuykendall to talk about how chasing PERFECT can keep us from doing the real work of SHOWING UP (both in the world and for your people!) as they dig into Abby's brand new book Let the Biscuits Burn: Cultivating Real Life Hospitality in a World Craving Connection

In this episode, you'll discover:

• Why earlier generations had it "easier" when it comes to the lost art of hospitality
• What Martha Stewart (and the Martha of the bible!) can teach us about the pressure to be perfect.. and at what cost
• The crucial difference between true hospitality and entertaining
• The moment when Abby stepped on my toes in the BEST way… and the #1 thing I'm changing about my hosting moving forward!
• Some important BOUNDARIES to put in place now for the upcoming holidays
• and seriously SO much more!

After listening, you'll walk away with a renewed sense of how much the TABLE matters… and what we can do to both get back to it AND make room for more people!

Follow Abby here: https://www.instagram.com/abby.kuykendall

Get her new book here: https://amzn.to/4461OOO

Do you ever feel like you woke up one day in your mid-30s or 40s and it was like everything suddenly stopped working all at once? Brain fog, weight gain, waking up every night at 3am… not to mention the RAGE of a thousand burning suns?

In this episode, Mary sits down with bestselling author and medical doctor, Dr. Mikala Albertson (who is the author of Everything I Wish I Could Tell You About Midlife) as the two talk perfectionism, releasing control, brain fog, fear, anxiety… and navigating how to quit playing small in mid life!

In this episode, you'll discover:

• Why it is so hard for women to even get to a doctor in the first place (let alone be HEARD once they are there)
• The danger of the "the illusory truth effect" and getting all your medical advice from TikTok
• Why Radical Acceptance does not equal Apathy
• How chronic stress must be moved THROUGH the body in order to complete the "stress response cycle"
• What causes anxiety and OCD to spike during perimenopause
• and seriously SO much more!

After listening, you'll walk away on a renewed mission to love the body you have right NOW and to make the changes to best support it. What you do now, TODAY… your 80-something self will thank you for it!

Follow Mikala here: https://www.instagram.com/mikalaalbertsonmd

Get her new book here: https://amzn.to/3JQr44F

Do you ever feel like you are doomed to fail at marriage because that's all you saw growing up? Even if you are nowhere near getting married, do you feel like there are people in your life who just always have a way of bringing out the WORST in you?

In this episode, Mary sits down with bestselling author and podcast host of The Enneagram and Marriage Podcast, Christa Hardin to talk about understanding both our strengths AND our weaknesses so we can show up and shine brighter (GLOW, if you will) in the world!

In this episode, you'll discover:

• Why there are no perfect pairings within the Enneagram system. There are no pairs that are more or less compatible.
• Why Carl Jung said, "The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is ANY reaction at all, both are transformed."
• The 6 Stages of The Enneagram Glow (including the throwing shade stage)
• How the Availability Bias tells us we have reasons we act certain ways, so we are deserving of grace… while others are NOT.
• The tension of "generational layering"- that makes most of us feel like we are doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past- and the free will to forge a new path.
• and seriously SO much more!

After listening, you'll walk away with a renewed mission to love the people right in front of you for ALL the different parts of them, the light and the shadow… and to love YOURSELF like that too!

Follow Christa here: https://www.instagram.com/enneagramandmarriage/

Get her new book here: https://amzn.to/4ojZyLP

Do you ever feel like there are tables that you will NEVER be invited to?

Have you been burned by a "cool girl" circle that left you feeling like it would be better to go it alone than EVER deal with that kind of drama again?

In this episode, Mary sits down with USA Today Bestselling Author Natalie Runion to talk comparison, competitiveness, and SHRINKING ourselves down so that others don't feel INTIMIDATED as they dig into her BRAND NEW book I Don't Even Like Women (And Other Lies That Get In the Way of Sacred Sisterhood)

In this episode, you'll discover:

• The different scripts the world tells us to believe about other women
• The scarcity that is born out of the lie that women "age out" of positions of leadership and relevancy
• Why the knee-jerk reaction of "she's probably just jealous" isn't actually helping you
• The well-intentioned advice to be less intimidating that is actually fueling our loneliness epidemic
• The tension between "doing everything right" and still being rejected that keeps most of us hiding
• and seriously SO much more!

After listening, you'll walk away with a renewed mission to surround yourself with the kind of women who CLAP for you when you win… AND to BE that kind of woman for others.

Follow Natalie here: https://www.instagram.com/raisedtostay

Get her new book here: https://amzn.to/48QC38q

Do you ever find yourself believing the lie that says if you're not hustling you must be LAZY? What about the ones that tell you "I missed my shot" or "I messed it all up" or "I'll be happy when ____"? Or maybe the worst one of all, "It's happening for everyone BUT me." In this episode, Mary sits down with fellow author and her good friend Erica Ligenza Gwynn to talk FEAR, hustling, hiding, shrinking, and the LIES that keep us stuck year after year as they dig into Erica's BRAND NEW book That's Just Not True: How to Replace the Lies You Didn't Know You Believed with God's Unchanging Truth (which Mary had the HUGE honor of endorsing!) In this episode, you'll discover: The Lie BENEATH the Lie… what's really driving our Fears Two Truths and a Lie: how Erica uses the literary technique of "breaking trust" with the reader right off the bat to illustrate one very important point The difference between contentment and becoming addicted to the "small ponds" we feel safe in The well-intentioned advice that is one of the biggest LIES about God The tension between purpose and free will that resides in the fear that we might mess up God's plan for us and seriously SO much more! After listening, you'll walk away on FIRE to call FEAR out mid-syllable and get moving on the GOOD WORK that was prepared for you in advance! Follow Erica here: https://www.instagram.com/ericaligenza Get her new book here: https://amzn.to/4hqIHVk

Do you find yourself in the midst of a never-ending overwhelming season? Have you bought into the lie that all the conditions to begin (not to mention yourself!) must be PERFECT before you can even start?

In this episode, Mary sits down with fellow author and good friend Jillian Benfield to talk disappointment, resilience, living in awe, the BOTH/AND life we need to embrace if we are ever going to stop waiting on perfect.… and her brand new book Overwhelmed and Grateful: The Key to Finding God's Goodness in All Life's Ups and Downs.

In this episode, you'll discover:

• Why one of Fear's favorite whispers is "until life is perfect, you can't even begin"
• Why we are WIRED to focus on the negative and how "noticing" is a radical act of rebellion
• The difference between the BOTH/AND life and toxic positivity
• The SCIENCE behind why gratitude might save your life
• The biblical rhythms of order, disorder, and re-order we can EXPECT to see in our lives
• and seriously SO much more!

After listening, you'll walk away with a whole new appreciation for the hard AND the holy, the joy AND the grief, the messy AND the miraculous… and a fire in your belly to start NOTICING this perfectly imperfect life all around you! Remember: We never asked you to be perfect… we just asked you to SHOW UP!

Follow Jillian here: https://www.instagram.com/jillianbenfieldblog

Get her new book here: https://amzn.to/4mPsR7y

Do you ever find yourself lashing out at even the smallest slight, and you're not even sure why it had you so upset? Do you ever feel like you're walking around in the world like one raw, exposed nerve-ending… one minute you're fine and the next you're spiraling out?

In this episode, Mary sits down with pastor, podcaster and leadership coach Tony Miltenberger (who is focused on creating leaders worth following!) to discuss how some of our deepest wounds in fact give rise to our greatest gifts… and his brand new book Wisdom in the Wound: How God Uses Your Past to Shape Who You're Becoming

In this episode, you'll discover:

• The difference between Big-T and little-t trauma
• Why the "wounds" Tony is talking about rarely come with a villain
• The 5 most common wounds we are all walking around with
• What the emotional intensity scale can tell us about our triggers
• The Paradox of how our wounds can give rise to our gifts
• and seriously SO much more!

After listening, you'll walk away with a whole new appreciation of how the hard things you've walked through have prepared you for such a time as this… and a fire in your belly to finally STOP playing small on your gifts so you can become a leader worth following!

Follow Tony here: https://www.instagram.com/twmilt

Get his new book here: https://amzn.to/4gGnJRZ

Do you find yourself constantly shrinking back just to make others comfortable? Do you refuse to raise your hand because it means you might have to give up the "safety" of your hidden corners? In this episode, Mary sits down with POWERHOUSE author Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith to discuss all the ways we twist ourselves up in knots just to have a seat at the table, as explored in her new book Being Fully Known: The Joyful Satisfaction of Beholding, Becoming, and Belonging

In this episode, you'll discover:

• How to to stop holding back and instead reveal who you really are—known, talented, and NEEDED
• The difference between Being vs. Doing and why we need BOTH
• Why STRIVING is such soul-sickening territory
• How our authenticity can IRRITATE the masks other people wear
• Why we can only rest at the level of our trust in God
• and seriously SO much more!

After listening, you'll walk away with a whole new sense of what it means to be FULLY known… and a fire in you to finally STOP holding back and shrinking yourself once and for all!

Follow Dr. Saundra here: https://www.instagram.com/drdaltonsmith

Get her new book here: https://amzn.to/4pfVDk7

I wrote recently that one of the most brutal things about being a grown up is that we develop this muscle memory for disappointment… we've been here before, we tried that before, we got our hopes up and it didn't work out. And that instant sting of "let down" and can turn into a chronic case of "give up" if we're not careful.

This week I sat down with one of my DEAREST friends— author and host of the In Joy Life Podcast, Mattie Jackson— to dig into grief, disappointment, and the radical act of courage it takes to get our HOPES up again after heartbreak, as explored in Mattie's new book Through the Valley of Grief: A 365 Day Devotional of Spiritual Practices for Hope in Suffering

In this episode, you'll discover:

• The 4 Essential Practices Mattie outlines for navigating grief
• Why Wail > Denial, Connect > Isolation, Worship > Bitterness & Doubt, and Hope > Despair
• The spiritual practice of LAMENT and why "Everything happens for a reason" is not always the best advice.
• How to WORSHIP even in the midst of your greatest heartbreaks
• Why suffering takes us places that comfort never will
• Why Hope feels like such a DANGEROUS thing
• …and SO much more!

After listening, you'll walk away with a whole new outlook on the hardest seasons you've walked through (maybe you're walking through them right now)…and a renewed courage to get your HOPES up again, once you know where your true hope comes from!

Follow Mattie here: https://www.instagram.com/mattiejackson/?hl=en

Get her new book here: https://amzn.to/45KfWib

Are you in a place where you feel like you are STARTING OVER and you aren't sure you have the strength to begin again? In this episode, Mary sits down with entrepreneurial unicorn and legendary dress designer, Miss Hayley Paige to dig in to how we face down the disappointment of losing everything we've built so far… only to build back better. After a very public legal battle to win back her name (quite literally!) Hayley knows a thing or two about picking herself up and showing the world why it would be wise to NEVER underestimate her!

In this episode, you'll discover:

• What it looks like to find your own "sui generis" voice as a creative… a voice that is like no other
• Why "what if this is all a waste of time" is one of Fear's most effective lies… and starting over is blistering to slow growth.
• Why "It's all been done" can actually be the lie that pushes you to find the gaps in your market and innovate like never before
• How to become a person who doesn't have to always follow the "safe, set, supposed to" life
• Using your setbacks to BECOME the guide who fights for others so they don't make the same mistakes you did

After listening, you'll walk away with a whole new determination to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and once again begin the long slow climb. As Hayley says, "Let your protagonist be tested." It's time to channel all our main character energy and face starting over HEAD ON!

Follow Hayley here: https://www.instagram.com/misshayleypaige/?hl=en

Check out her BRAND NEW "Twice Upon a Time" Collection here: https://hayleypaige.com/