The WonderMama Coffee Chat | Real Conversations for Moms

When Kids Have the Words: Raising Emotionally Fluent Children

What happens when a child does not yet have the words for what they are feeling? So often, big emotions come out sideways, as meltdowns, as power struggles, as behavior we misread, simply because a child cannot name what is happening inside them.

In this Coffee Chat, I sit down with DJ Stutz to talk about the quiet power of giving children an emotional vocabulary, and how that one gift can change the way they move through the world.

DJ shares the story behind her children's book series featuring a character named Roman, including Roman is Bigger, Roman is a Bigger Brother, and Roman and Nico Everyday Heroes. Her inspiration came from years teaching in an inner-city school, where she watched so many children struggle to express complex feelings because no one had ever given them the language for it. Her books gently expand a child's emotional world beyond happy and sad, and they come with lesson plans for teachers and parents who want to carry the conversation further.

From there, DJ and I move into purposeful parenting, the kind that raises independent children without sacrificing the relationship. We talk about helping children handle boundaries, instilling values without turning every moment into a power struggle, and reading a child's emotional readiness before we ask them to rise to something new. DJ opens up about navigating her adopted daughter's journey with self-identity, and what it taught her about meeting a child exactly where they are.

We close on something we are both excited about, the possibility of collaborating on a parenting symposium, along with a few honest words about time management for parents who are carrying a lot.

If you are raising a child, teaching one, or simply want to understand the little humans in your life a little better, this is a conversation worth settling in for.

When children have the words, everything changes.

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Connect with DJ Stutz

DJ Stutz — Founder of Imperfect Heroes

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 720-989-6475

Website: imperfectheroes.net

Connect with Leonne

Leonne Sherr

Email: [email protected]

TheWonderMama.com

Community: https://www.skool.com/the-wondermama-cycle-breakers-5827/about

The Lighthouse Era.

The moment motherhood shifts from holding on to learning how to let go.

In this episode of The WonderMama Coffee Chat, Leonne is joined by two remarkable women for one of the most honest and tender conversations this show has held about what it means to be a mom when your children no longer need you the way they once did.

Heather McNally is an Identity and Alignment Activator, keynote speaker, best-selling author, and host of the Life Beyond B.S. podcast. Her work helps women who feel off — even when life looks good on the outside — come back to who they actually are.

Mo Cooper, NASM certified personal trainer and Precision Nutrition coach, joined the conversation as her daughter prepared to leave for college at UT Austin.

Together the three of them explore what Heather calls the Lighthouse Era of motherhood. The season when your child begins steering their own life and your job shifts from being in the boat with them to standing steady on the shore so they always know where to look when they need to find their way back.

This conversation goes deep. They talk about the emotional weight of watching a child grow into independence and what it stirs up in you as a mother. About the critical years from birth to age eight when children are absorbing everything. About how every child needs a different kind of lighthouse. About apologies — the ones we owe our children and the courage it takes to actually give them. About identity and what happens to a mother's sense of self when the daily work of motherhood begins to change shape.

Heather shares the moment her son distanced himself and what she learned about showing up differently. Mo shares what it feels like to send a daughter into her own life. And Leonne reflects on what it meant to learn — sometimes the hard way — that being a lighthouse means letting the ship sail.

This one is for every mom who is somewhere in the middle of this. Whether your children are small or grown the lighthouse era is coming.

This conversation will help you prepare for it with more grace than you think you have.

Topics covered:

* What the Lighthouse Era of motherhood actually means

* The critical years from birth to age eight and what children are absorbing

* How to let go without disappearing

* Adapting your parenting approach to each individual child

* The power and freedom of apologizing to your children

* Maintaining connection as children become independent adults

* Identity shifts in motherhood when the daily work changes

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Connect with Heather McNally:

[email protected]

Free 60-minute consultation: https://calendly.com/heather-heathermcnally/new-meeting

Life Beyond B.S. Podcast | Happy, Healthy, Whole Program

Connect with Mo Cooper:

momindbodysoul.com

Instagram: @mindbodysoulhealthy

Free 5 Minute Morning Reset: https://5mm.mocoopercoaching.com/

Connect with Leonne:

TheWonderMama.com | @thewondermamaplace | Take the Compass Quiz: TheWonderMama.com/quiz | [email protected]

Taking care of yourself is not selfish. It is the foundation everything else is built on.

In this episode of The WonderMama Coffee Chat, Leonne sits down with Farrah Campbell — founder of Waisted Wellness, faith-based wellness coach, speaker, entrepreneur, and author — for one of the most honest and heartfelt conversations this show has ever held.

Farrah's story starts in a place a lot of moms will recognize. A divorce. A health journey. A daughter to raise alone. Sixty pounds lost in less than 90 days not because she had a perfect plan but because the gym became the one place she could go to feel safe at any hour of the day or night. And then the weight came off and she realized her outsides looked better but her insides were still shattered. That is when the real work began.

What grew out of that season became Waisted Wellness — a faith-based wellness platform built on the belief that total health means healing from the waist to the brain, and that God is never absent even when the path feels completely alone.

In this conversation Farrah and Leonne talk about what it actually means to put yourself back on the list when everything and everyone else has been there first.

About consistency as a form of obedience. About the promises we make to ourselves that we quietly break every day and what it costs us when we do.

About building a village when you are doing it alone. And about faith not as a feeling but as a daily practice — one that has to be pushed even on the days when you are not in the mood.

Leonne also shares her own story of that turning point moment as a single mom when she realized nobody was coming to save her. And what she decided to do about it.

This one is warm, real, and full of the kind of truth that only comes from women who have actually lived it.

Topics covered:

*Building a wellness journey from rock bottom after divorce

*Why losing weight on the outside is only the beginning

*Faith as a daily practice and what to do when you are not in the mood

*Consistency as a promise you make to yourself

*Making space for yourself when the list is already full

*Building community and finding your village as a single mom

*Total body wellness from the inside out

Connect with Farrah Campbell:

Waisted Wellness on all social media platforms: @waistedwellness

Free gifts and resources: https://linktr.ee/waistedwellness

Book a free coffee chat with Farrah through her Linktree

Connect with Leonne:

TheWonderMama.com | [email protected] | @thewondermamaplace | The WonderMama Place on Skool

You are never too old. You are never too late. And your inner voice is not the boss of you.

In this episode of The WonderMama Coffee Chat, Leonne sits down with Terry Yoffe — triple certified international business and communications coach, newly certified in the neuroscience of relational trauma, and living proof that growth has no expiration date.

Terry is 83 years old. She has been coaching for more than 20 years. And she is still learning, still building, and still helping people become the master of their own inner world rather than a servant to it.

This conversation goes somewhere real very quickly. Terry shares her own story — a childhood with a narcissistic mother, feeling like she did not belong anywhere, and the long journey from feeling unworthy and unloved to becoming one of the most accomplished coaches in her field. She talks about how she found coaching 22 years ago and how it changed everything.

Not therapy. Coaching. And she draws a clear and powerful distinction between the two.

The heart of Terry's work is this: your inner voice is a protective mechanism. It is not trying to hurt you. But if you let it run the show it will keep you small forever. The work is learning to become the master rather than the servant. And that work, she says, is available to every single one of us — at any age, at any stage, at any point in the story.

Leonne and Terry also talk about what it means to keep growing beyond what society calls retirement. About saying yes to opportunities even when fear is loud. About the internal work that no book can do for you. And about what becomes possible when you finally stop waiting for permission to become who you are meant to be.

This one will stay with you.

Topics covered:

* Why growth has no age limit and purpose has no retirement date

* The inner voice as a protective mechanism and how to become its master

* The real difference between therapy and coaching

* Overcoming a difficult childhood and building a life beyond it

* The neuroscience of relational trauma and why it matters

* Saying yes to opportunities even when you do not feel ready

* What it means to do the inner work that books cannot do for you

Connect with Terry Yoffe:

[email protected]

Connect with Leonne:

TheWonderMama.com | LeonneSherr.com

27 years of marriage. 34 years together. And he still said yes.

This week on The WonderMama Coffee Chat, Leonne celebrated her 27th wedding anniversary by bringing the most important person in her world to the table. Her husband. Her best friend. Scottie Sherr.

What started as a conversation about coaching turned into something much richer. Scottie has spent 15 years coaching youth football and the wisdom he has gathered about people, potential, and what it actually means to help someone grow translates far beyond the field. He talked about why children should play multiple sports before specializing, why teaching the why behind any instruction matters more than the instruction itself, and how the best coaches — and the best partners — learn to meet people where they are instead of forcing them into roles that do not fit.

And then they talked about marriage. Not the version that looks good on paper. The real version. What it takes to choose each other through the hard seasons. Why assuming good intentions changes everything. Why you should never give less than your full effort to the people who matter most. And why family and shared experience are the true measures of a life well built.

This episode is warm, funny, honest, and full of the kind of wisdom that only comes from people who have actually lived it together.

Topics covered:

* Why multi-sport participation builds better athletes and better kids

* How great coaching focuses on strengths rather than forcing fit

* Teaching the why as the foundation of real growth

* What 27 years of marriage actually looks like

* Assuming positive intent as a relationship practice

* Advice for parents introducing young children to team sports

Connect with Leonne:

LeonneSherr.com | TheWonderMama.com | @thewondermamaplace | The WonderMama Place on Skool

Being full of yourself is not the problem. It never was.

In this episode of The WonderMama Coffee Chat, Leonne sits down with Renee Jackson-Smith, Leadership Development Strategist, executive coach, and founder of Soar2Win, for a conversation that reframes something women have been taught to see as a flaw their entire lives.

What does it actually mean to be full of yourself? Not arrogant. Not self-absorbed. But genuinely, unapologetically aware of your own value and willing to let it show.

Renee has spent more than three decades in leadership and talent development. She knows what it costs to suppress your confidence to keep other people comfortable. She has lived the experience of performing well while quietly losing herself in the process. And she brings all of it to this conversation.

Together Leonne and Renee explore how childhood messages about self-celebration shape the women we become. Why people pleasing is not a personality trait but a survival strategy. What it looks like to stop waiting for recognition and start claiming it. And how surrounding yourself with the right community changes everything about how you show up.

They also introduce a simple practice that will stay with you. Write down your flow moments. The times this week when you feel most like yourself. Most in your element. Most full of yourself. That list is where your next chapter begins.

This is a conversation about confidence, identity, leadership, and the quiet cost of always being the one everyone else can count on.

Topics covered:

Redefining what it means to be full of yourself

How suppressing confidence leads to losing your identity

People pleasing as a survival strategy and how to move beyond it

What real leadership looks like for women and mothers

The flow list practice and why it matters

Building community that elevates instead of diminishes

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Connect with Renee Jackson-Smith:

Email: [email protected]

Leadership PowerShift Clarity Check: https://link.beyondthestage.me/qr/hjXPIaKvHQME

***

Connect with Leonne:

TheWonderMama.com | @thewondermamaplace | The WonderMama Place on Skool

In this episode of The WonderMama Coffee Chat, Leonne sits down with Tiffany J. Artis — Master Certified Professional Coach, Certified Neuroscience Coach, mental wellness educator, author, speaker, and founder of Le'Femme Training and Consulting Solutions — for one of the most honest conversations this show has ever held.

Tiffany did not come with a polished presentation. She came with her life. And she used every bit of it.

With nearly three decades of executive leadership experience and deep training in neuroscience, cognitive and behavioral therapy, and emotional regulation, Tiffany brings something most wellness conversations skip entirely — the science of what is actually happening inside a woman who has learned to carry everything for everyone and was never taught how to put it down.

She talked about what she sees when she looks beneath the surface of a mom who is functioning, showing up, and getting things done. She talked about where we learned the version of ourselves we are currently running on.

About the difference between managing your life and actually feeling it. About what emotional regulation really means and why it is not a luxury — it is the foundation everything else is built on.

And she brought her own story. Her own deep work. Her own lived experience as the evidence.

This is a conversation for the mom who knows something is off but cannot quite name it. The one who has been surviving so long she has forgotten what being well actually feels like.

Topics covered:

* What is really happening beneath the surface of a high capacity mom

* Where we learned to carry everything without asking for help

* The difference between surviving and being well

* Emotional regulation, nervous system awareness, and what they mean for real life

* Using lived experience as the foundation for transformation

* What becomes possible when you stop managing and start healing

Free resource from Tiffany:

20% off Love Foundations — contact Tiffany at [email protected]

Connect with Leonne:

TheWonderMama.com | @thewondermamaplace | The WonderMama Place on Skool

What if the shift you have been looking for does not require you to do more — but to remember who you already are?

This week on The WonderMama Coffee Chat, I welcomed Ami Maikoski — Quantum Catalyst, Transformational Facilitator, and Speaker who works with high-performing leaders to expand their internal capacity so they can lead, live, and succeed without carrying the constant weight of holding everything together.

Ami has spent over two decades guiding individuals from children to top-level executives. She understands something that most people feel but rarely say out loud — you can be capable, driven, and fully committed, showing up and holding everything together, and still feel the weight of it quietly pressing down. Not because you are doing anything wrong. Because the way you got here required more from you than what you actually need now.

This conversation is not about doing more. It is about evolving how you operate so that leadership — in your business, your home, and your relationships — becomes cleaner, more aligned, and sustainable.

Ami introduced the Pregnant Pause™ and the Power Pose™. This is not something she learned. It is something she lived. It brought her back from fractured and burned out into full alignment with who she truly is. And she walked every person watching through how to use it in real time.

This is the kind of conversation that shifts something.

In this episode:

* The Pregnant Pause™ and Power Pose™ — what they are and how to use them today

* Why leading from presence changes everything

* How to stop operating from pressure and return to yourself

* Why you do not need to become more — you need to remember who you are

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Connect with Ami Maikoski:

Website: amimaikoski.com

IG: @BeTrueToYourBestYou

______________________________

Join The WonderMama Place:

skool.com/thewondermamaplace

Take the Compass Quiz:

thewondermama.com/quiz

Book a Discovery Call with Leonne:

calendly.com/thewondermama/coffee-with-leonne

The quiet decline. You are not in crisis. But you are not yourself either.

In this episode of The WonderMama Coffee Chat, Leonne sits down with Alisa St. Georges — mother of six, grandmother of four, and a woman who knows firsthand what it looks like to keep showing up for everyone while something quietly shifts inside you.

This is not a conversation about burnout. It is not about hitting rock bottom. It is about something harder to name and easier to ignore — the slow, subtle changes that high-capacity women brush off because life is full and things are still getting done. The sleep that is not quite restoring you. The strength that is not quite there. The activities you used to love that you have quietly stopped doing. The version of yourself you keep meaning to get back to.

Alisa's journey began after cancer treatment in her late thirties. Facing financial constraints and a medical system that did not have the answers she needed, she turned to natural wellness — grounding, fasting, holistic modalities — and began rebuilding herself from the inside out. What she found on the other side became the foundation for the work she does today.

She also created a capacity audit — a simple tool that helps women see where their energy, recovery, and resilience are not keeping up with the life they are living, often before it becomes something bigger. Because awareness, she says, is always the first step.

This conversation covers the things most women are not saying out loud. The quiet shifts that start in the mid to late forties. What it means to stop accepting a slow fade as the new normal. How imposter syndrome and self-trust are more connected than most people realize. And why this chapter of life should feel like an expansion — not a goodbye to the woman you used to be.

This one is for the mom who does not feel like herself and cannot quite explain why.

Topics covered:

*The quiet decline and why it is different from burnout or crisis

*What the body tries to tell you before things become serious

*Natural wellness and rebuilding health after cancer

*The capacity audit and how awareness changes everything

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Free resource from Alisa:

Capacity Audit and Results Call — a simple wellness check-in to see where your body needs support

Contact Alisa at [email protected]

***

Connect with Leonne:

TheWonderMama.com | @thewondermamaplace | The WonderMama Place on Skool

In this episode of The WonderMama Coffee Chat, Leonne sits down with Wendy Hushon, founder of UpLevel Wellness, for a conversation that reframes everything most moms have been told about why they keep starting over.

Wendy knows this story from the inside. After relocating for her husband's career and pouring everything she had into early motherhood, she found herself nearly 50 pounds postpartum and completely disconnected from who she was. From the outside things looked fine. Inside she was exhausted, running on empty, and slowly disappearing into her roles. She tried harder.

She made plans. She started over more times than she can count. And none of it stuck — because she was solving the wrong problem.

What she eventually discovered was that it was not a discipline problem. It was not a motivation problem. It was a regulation problem. Her nervous system was in overdrive every single day, draining her energy before it even started. And nobody had ever framed it that way for her before.

In this conversation Wendy and Leonne dig into what it actually means to get well — not just physically, but mentally and spiritually. Why identity is the tool that changes everything when goal setting keeps falling short. What happens in a family when a mom finally starts showing up for herself the way she shows up for everyone else. And why the most powerful thing any mom can model for her children is not perfection. It is becoming.

This is a conversation for the mom who is tired of white-knuckling it and ready to understand why.

Topics covered:

* Why willpower is not the problem and what actually is

* Nervous system regulation and what it means for moms

* The identity shift that makes consistency finally possible

* What getting well — really well — does for your kids, your marriage, and your sense of self

* How to stop performing and start becoming

Free resource from Wendy:

* Protect Your Energy — Micro Habits for Moms Who Give Everything

uplevelwellness.org/empower-guides

Connect with Wendy:

UpLevel Wellness | uplevelwellness.org

Connect with Leonne:

TheWonderMama.com | @thewondermamaplace | The WonderMama Place on Skool