The Moxie Podcast

If you’re willing to try something new and listen to the wisdom others offer, you can do anything. Yann Ilunga, our guest this week, has used this philosophy to do incredible things, particularly in the podcasting space. He’s interviewed renowned guests, organized global conferences, and seen extraordinary success - all while enjoying the freedom and flexibility that comes with running his own business.

Yann took us through his freelance journey, sharing how he found his strengths and the steps he took to keep growing and learning. Fresh from his first work-free vacation, he gave us some great tips for making sure you can unplug and refresh on your breaks. Having conversations with people is the best way to learn, so we’re excited to have had this opportunity to hear everything Yann has to share!

In this episode, you’ll learn:

1. Why vacationing is often so hard for freelancers and entrepreneurs.
2. The important lessons Yann learned before, during, and after his time away.
3. His journey from working as a journalist to making a name for himself in podcasting and lead generation.
4. That freedom isn’t sipping cocktails on the beach but following a schedule that produces his best work.
5. About the three Ts and how to use them to find your strengths.
6. To listen to and be curious about people, using their insights and connections to succeed in your pursuits.
7. How Yann’s podcasts started as a way to build connections and grew into the work he does today.
8. That differences in age and experience won’t matter if you see those you’re curious about as just people.
9. To look at unpopular or emerging spaces as opportunities to experiment and establish yourself in them before anyone else.
10. How you can take elements from one space and use them to pioneer a new market in another.

Find Yann through LinkedIn to grow your professional network as you learn more from him. Just be sure to mention that you heard him on the Hectic Podcast when you reach out!

Dee Dee Bridgewater is the jazz artist that Yann mentions in the episode.

Katherine Barner, our guest this week, is committed to helping others live the lives they desire and deserve. Though she loves her work as a trauma and grief counselor, she is so much more than this role. During our conversation, Katherine helps us understand how to separate your calling from who you are in the specific season you’re in.

Recognizing and claiming the life you desire and deserve is often seen as a negative, but it shouldn’t be. In this episode, we explore the ways self care can help you do and be your best in every part of life. Katherine also shows us how grace and space work hand-in-hand to reveal and nurture our fullest selves.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

1. Why motorcycles (but not mopeds), talking to fish, and numerous daily FaceTime sessions with her granddaughter are essential to who Katherine is.
2. The many reasons she loves her work and feels called to it.
3. That self care is a bit selfish and that’s okay, plus how it helps you show up better for everyone and everything in your life.
4. How your triumphs over the other hard things in life will help you get through the scary discomfort of self work.
5. To appreciate the ways your childhood coping skills helped you get to this point and how to develop more positive options.
6. Why giving yourself grace and giving yourself space have to work together.
7. That turning off your cell phone is the first step to understanding what you want and need.
8. Practical ways to take care of yourself without feeling guilty about getting the renewal you need.
9. How to love your work and calling without making it your identity.
10. To understand that different seasons in life have their own needs, but you can still carve out the space required to find joy and margin.

Find Katherine on her website, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Are you dissatisfied with your life or the season you’re in? Do you wish you could just pinpoint the reason you’re stuck so you can change it? If so, this is the episode for you. 

This week, we were joined by Madeleine Dore, the author of one of our favorite books, “I Didn’t Do the Thing Today.” During our conversation, we explored the ways routines can take over our lives and how ruts can show us what we need to change. Madeleine shared how curiosity can be our greatest weapon. We also got a great reminder that resting for rest’s sake is just as important as the things we do.

This conversation was filled with warmth and laughter from the moment we met. Madeleine has so much to share from what she’s learned and how she’s living it out. After listening, don’t forget to check out the link to the book below so you can keep finding your own way of being in the world!

In this episode, you’ll learn:

1. About our weekly ruts and routines and what we’re learning from them.
2. How to get curious about your ruts and routines so you can see the value in both.
3. Why routines often lead to feelings of failure rather than the control they’re supposed to create.
4. How to find your own way of being when it’s not supported by the world around you.
5. Plus, how trying to be the person you want to be can become its own illusion of perfection.
6. The importance of being a sponge and embracing the sweetness of doing nothing.
7. Why we need these periods of absorption to have seasons of squeeze.
8. Tips for letting go of the guilt that comes with rest and appreciating downtime as an opportunity to absorb.
9. That comparison can be the flipside to curiosity, using what you learn from others to deplete you rather than feed you.
10. Why Madeleine wants to inspire people to be more curious about each other, ourselves, and our stories.

Find Madeleine on Instagram and on her website, where you’ll also find her book, “I Didn’t Do the Thing Today.”

The "Flexible checkbox" approach of Austin Kleon can be found here.
You can find “Master Your Emotions” here.

It might take a while to learn who this week’s guest is and what she does, but it won’t take long to see the passion she has for her life’s mission. Cynthia Pesantez strives every day to use compassion and accountability to work toward justice. She is challenging the dominant culture and societal hierarchies from the ground up, focusing on community relationships first to achieve lasting change.

We hit the ground running in this powerful conversation. Cynthia shows us how everyone’s contribution is needed for change, from being a leading voice for justice to supporting others through childcare and growing food to intentionally engaging curiosity about race. By putting your humanity and vulnerability first, you can make a difference for those around you and everyone who comes after you.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

1. How George Floyd’s death sparked a turning point in her life and approach to racial justice work.
2. Why she focuses on building real human connections first to create sustainable, lasting change in our communities and the world.
3. That it took all kinds to build an oppressive system and it will take the same to break it down and create new ones.
4. Tips for talking about race every day in a way that promotes curiosity instead of judgment.
5. To honor where limited survival tactics like judgment come from and use compassion to make them something expansive.
6. How to be curious about everyone and everything so you can learn to critically imagine how the world could be.
7. The importance of lived experiences and vulnerability in both work and life, plus how they defeat the exclusivity of credentialism.
8. That systems of oppression take something from all of us, even those in supposed power.
9. How society forces you to deny your humanity and compassion toward others to survive.
10. About Comadre Speakers, Cynthia’s newly birthed speaker’s bureau that is bringing her values into the world.

Find Cynthia on her website, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
The 21 Day Equity Challenge can be found here.

When you have a question about workplace wellness or need some productivity tips, Kat Boogaard is your girl. Over the past eight years, she’s built a thriving career as a freelance writer. She spends her days completing projects, sharing everything she’s learned with other freelancers, and enjoying time with her growing family.

But it wasn’t always this way.

Kat joins us this week to share the realities of starting out as a freelancer and learning to balance work and family today. From big wins to Hot Cheeto cryfests, she takes us deep into her journey. Whether you need encouragement for your own freelance experience or want to know how to live a life aligned with your values, this is one conversation you don’t want to miss.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

1. Why you should let writers know that their work made an impact, plus the best ways to do it.
2. What led Kat to pursue freelance writing when she wanted to venture out on her own.
3. How she went from lifestyle blogging to writing about storage units to finding her niche in career-focused content.
4. Her struggle to find clients and paying work in the first few years of freelancing.
5. To recognize the hard moments, your decision to keep trying, and everything you learned in those struggles.
6. How Kat learned to trust herself and have confidence in her ability to do hard things.
7. That success may require hard work, skills, connections, and grit, but sometimes you just have to be in the right place at the right time.
8. The ways freelancing tests your relationship with surrender.
9. To know your values so you can find fulfillment and contentment in the work you do.
10. About the hard decisions you have to make every day to shape a work-life balance that brings you joy.

Find Kat on her website, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.

Colleen Welsch focuses on actions, not outcome. Whether she’s working on her freelance writing work, coaching freelancers, creating social media content as an influencer, writing music, or performing comedy, she is driven by the joy these passions bring, not the money they might make.

Though she has a lot going on, Colleen is careful to separate her businesses from her identity. She believes that using her gifts to their greatest potential is how she lives a purposeful, authentic life. This mindset has helped her find incredible success, as well as a desire to help others do the same.

In this week’s episode, you’ll get a chance to learn more about Colleen, her journey, and how she is able to do it all in a 10-hour work week. 

In this episode, you’ll hear:

1. How Colleen went from working a stressful corporate job to charging hundreds of dollars per hour as a freelance copywriter.
2. The ways that your financial mindset might be limiting your success.
3. Why you should unlearn the traditional 9-to-5 so you can find the structure that works for you.
4. About Colleen’s “Jesus Year” and how it’s changed her perspective on life.
5. That doing scary things as a joke can help you get past the obstacles you create for yourself.
6. Tips for letting negative things go so they don’t drive reactionary decisions.
7. Why doing things with the right intentions leads to your best work.
8. That everything is figureoutable if you’re willing to research and reach out to people who are already succeeding in your interests.
9. Why her authenticity is what Colleen is most proud of from her career.
10. How to find success through your natural gifts rather than being defined by a high-status career.

Find Colleen on Instagram and TikTok. For her freelance course and coaching resources, visit her website, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.

The book Colleen read is Book Yourself Solid by Michael Port.
Find more about Human Design Type here.
"Everything is figureoutable" is from Marie Forleo's work.
Alex Fasulo is not Colleen's mean commenter. Her TikTok is lovely.
More of Colleen's music can be found on Spotify.

If we could use one word to describe our guest this week, it would be generous. For Austin Church, life is about giving everything he can give rather than taking everything he can get. That might mean freely sharing the lessons he’s learned in business or simply giving someone the benefit of the doubt. 

Throughout his journey, Austin has learned a lot about himself, the importance of play, the power of relationships, and how to approach life with a mindset of abundance. You’ll get to hear these lessons, plus easy ways to discover the same things about yourself. 

Austin would be the first person to tell you that he doesn’t have it all figured out, but we know you’ll learn just as much as we did from everything he so generously shares!

In this episode, you’ll learn:

1. Why relationships, not money, are the part of his career that he’s most proud of.
2. Austin’s internal scorecard for evaluating his life and what led to this value-driven perspective.
3. How he moved from serving out of guilt to letting love and generosity motivate everything he does.
4. The truth about leading with skepticism and the benefits of assuming positive intent instead.
5. About self-acceptance and how loving yourself helps you love others too.
6. Plus, practical tips for understanding who you are, what you need, and when you’re not in a good place.
7. To have fun in play through toys, books, and anything else that brings you joy.
8. That resilience isn’t denying your needs but finding strategic ways to prop yourself up in your weaknesses.
9. How recognizing the end of his control and the start of his limitations helps Austin recenter himself and enjoy life more.
10. About the people he depends on and the ways they’ve helped him along his journey.

Find Austin on his website, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

More on the book Austin is writing in public here.
Austin references Peter Kaufman, CEO of Glenair and his thoughts on reciprocity. You can read/hear more in this speech of his.
The podcast episode that had Austin in tears with Jim Dethmer is from this episode of Shane Parrish's podcast The Knowledge Project.

Marley Parker has been swimming with sharks, skydived, and traveled to the icy oceans of Antarctica, but leaving her stable job to start freelancing is by far the most scary and extreme thing she’s ever done. Now, as a successful photographer, videographer, and science writer, she knows it’s also the best decision she could have made.

Join us this week to hear how Marley found her childhood dream job and the realities (both hard and rewarding) of pursuing it. Above all, she wants others to know that it’s okay to want more from your life and okay to not have it all figured out. If you keep an open mind about your opportunities and prepare yourself to take the leap, there’s no limit to what you can do.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

1. About the opportunity that led Marley to quit her job and start freelancing.
2. How she foreshadowed her adventurous life in the stories she wrote as a child.
3. Why she pursued writing as a career and how that led to the work she does now.
4. To keep an open mind about your career path because you never know how your skills will lead to incredible opportunities.
5. The intentional steps Marley took to prepare for her freelance career, long before she even left her job.
6. How this careful preparation can help anyone do big things, no matter where they’re starting from.
7. That it will never be the perfect time to try something new so it’s better to prepare as you can and just do it.
8. How using her story to help others pursue adventure is helping her see how far she’s come on her own journey.
9. About the experience that has left her most in awe during her adventures.
10. Which impact, above all others, she wants to leave as her legacy.

Find Marley on her website, Instagram, Twitter, and by email at [email protected].

Nautilus Live is the ship Marley works on most frequently, and they are always looking to hire new, adventurous people! Also, here's her Nautilus bio which includes some info about how she got into ocean expedition work.

Association of Science Communicators  is great community/resource for anyone interested in pursuing a career or side hustle in science communication.

Her Wild Vision is a directory that makes it easy to find and hire women and women-identifying photographers working in environmental conservation. And here's the link to Marley's page there.

Few things are as awe-inspiringly beautiful as someone who uses the hardships they’ve endured to help others. In this week’s episode, you’ll get to meet Amber Malone, a person who fully personifies this beauty. As she takes us through her journey, you’ll hear how she’s been affected by the stigma of mental health, how she’s healing from it, and why she is committed to helping others through her experiences.

This episode shows why these conversations are so important and why this podcast exists in the first place. It’s such a privilege to hear and share Amber’s story, helping her process and heal through it. In doing so, we hope we can inspire others to honor every part of themselves and see each other more fully.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

1. How approaching each day with intention helps Amber be more compassionate towards herself. (Hint: It’s all about ease and flow.)
2. That everyone’s 24 hours looks different, so you should be mindful of what you’re asking of yourself and others.
3. About Amber’s gift of intuition, how it shaped her early life, and how she uses it to help her clients.
4. Why she is so passionate about helping others end the stigma of mental health and free themselves of toxic shame.
5. The ways sharing your story can help you process and heal from the experiences that hold power over you.
6. Plus, how doing so publicly through blogs, videos, podcasts, and social media may save someone’s life.
7. Better language around mental health and why it matters.
8. Why you should always be open to failing excellently in life and business.
9. That the internet is a tool of abundance, full of free knowledge that you can use to do anything you want to do.
10. How to access the special gift Amber created for our listeners!

Find Amber on her website, Instagram, and Twitter.

My guest this week sees life as a journey. With over 20 years of freelancing and entrepreneurship under his belt, Justin Park has learned the value of perseverance as he works toward his goals. He never knows what each day will bring, but he knows he will reach the top of the mountain if he never gives up.

In this week’s episode, Justin shares the processes he uses to keep moving toward his destination. More importantly, we dive into the unique tool he has created to help others stay on-track as they pursue their own goals.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

1. How losing his biggest client helped change his perspective on pursuing life’s goals.
2. Why time is one of the most important parts of the journey, as long as you pay attention to what it’s teaching you.
3. The ways Justin is using his experiences to help others achieve their goals.
4. To accept the process and be patient with yourself, even when things don’t go as planned.
5. About Trailhead Journals and the concept behind the name. 
6. Why regularly re-evaluating your progress and direction is the only way to get where you want to go.
7. Simple ways to examine your journey and make sure you’re still on the right path.
8. How Justin learned to be okay with how things work, particularly through the ups and downs of freelancing.
9. That the journey is going to be hard, but holding onto your values makes it worthwhile.
10. What Justin sees as his biggest win, despite the hardships that came with it.

Find Justin's design work here and Trailhead Journals here.