The Refined Collective is back this week with the lovely Joanne Encarnacion. She is a wife, mother of two, and editor and founder of gofitjo.com, a blog dedicated to redefining health and wellness, and it a newly integrative health and life coach. You guys, Arianna Huffington named her one of San Francisco’s top 20 wellness role models. How amazing is that? In this episode we get real about moving through struggles both within and with others, and body diversity.

This week I’m talking to my longtime friend from Dallas, Lauren Scruggs Kennedy, who now lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Jason. Lauren has a lifestyle brand with an intentional social strategy.  She focuses on her health and wellness journey, personal development, faith, and navigating marriage.

The First Steps to Wellness

• Lauren has been on a journey of recovery after an accident involving an airplane propeller back in 2011 that left her with one eye and one arm.
• She learned to say no to outings without feeling the pressure to people-please. Instead, she takes the time to intentionally think on if she has the time.

The Learning Curve of Marriage

• She gets real about the conflicts that happen in marriage. She and Jason had productive fights, but she had to learn how to open up about her struggles and frustrations, particularly regarding her accident because when the accident happened she didn’t know Jason. In a way, this made her relive the struggle.

I can’t talk about this episode without mentioning the advice Lauren would give her younger self, because this is advice for her younger self, your younger self, and all of our present selves. “Live fully in who you are.”

Thanks for tuning in! This episode was sponsored by Branch Basics, a brand created by women with the goal of revolutionizing the home with non-toxic cleaning products. These products bring simplicity and functionality into your life and I’m all about that. What’s amazing is you use one product to create everything from hand soap to laundry detergent. They gave me a special code to share with you for 20% off your first order: (refinedwoman). Thanks, Branch Basics!

 

 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week I’m talking with longtime friend Lauren Scruggs Kennedy, who now lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Jason. Lauren has a lifestyle brand with an intentional social strategy.  She focuses on her health and wellness journey, personal development, faith, and navigating marriage.

On this first episode of The Refined Collective podcast, I welcome Nikia Phoenix--founder of Black Girl Beautiful, content creator and model--to leave the pressure to be perfect at the door and have a meaningful dialogue with me, and all of you. She’s talking with me from sunny Los Angeles where the birds are chirping loud enough for us to hear.

Her love for others radiates from everything she does, including Black Girl Beautiful—her love letter to women of African descent.

We talk about moving through anxiety and healing community.  One of the most profound moments of the episode was when we transitioned into talking about race.  Nikia says, “When it comes to talking about race, we don’t want to offend. We are so PC that instead of actually opening up and saying something that may be a bit off, we just don’t say it it all. And in not saying it we’re missing a teachable moment.”

I am so honored to have shared this episode with Nikia Phoenix and hope you have enjoyed listening. 

 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this first episode of The Refined Collective podcast, I welcome Nikia Phoenix--founder of Black Girl Beautiful, content creator and model--to leave the pressure to be perfect at the door and have a meaningful dialogue with me, and all of you. She’s talking with me from sunny Los Angeles where the birds are chirping loud enough for us to hear.