And then… we’re human.

We lose our patience. We react instead of respond. We say the thing we wish we could take back. Or our face says the thing even when our mouth doesn’t. And then we worry we might have damaged the relationship.

But according to Mary Willcox Smith, those mistakes aren't necessarily what define our relationships. What matters more are what she calls sticky moments—emotionally charged interactions with people who matter to us that, when repeated over time, can shape what we believe about ourselves, other people, and our relationships.

In this episode, Dr. Katie Sandoe and Mary explore how these moments show up not only between parents and children, but in marriages, friendships, workplaces, and leadership.

They talk about why we struggle to access the best version of ourselves when emotions are high, why accepting someone’s experience doesn't mean agreeing with their behavior, and how connection and accountability can exist at the same time.

And perhaps most importantly, they explore what happens when we get the moment completely wrong. Because the screw-up doesn't have to become the sticky moment. The repair can.

KEY LEARNINGS

1. Not every moment carries the same weight.
Sticky moments happen when emotion is high, someone important to us is involved, and a message is reinforced over time. Those messages—spoken and unspoken—can begin shaping how someone sees themselves and what they expect from the relationship.

2. When we're activated, good intentions aren't always enough.
We can know exactly how we want to show up and still react differently when stress takes over. Mary shares simple microsteps that can interrupt those automatic patterns and give us another response to reach for when emotions are running high.

3. Accepting isn't agreeing.
One of the simplest ways to create connection is to let someone know, I see you. I hear you. That doesn't mean agreeing with their choices or abandoning a boundary. We can validate someone's experience while still holding them accountable for their behavior.

4. “I see you. I’ve got you. You’ve got this.”
Mary's framework combines connection, boundaries, and trust. We can acknowledge what someone is experiencing, provide the steadiness and structure they need, and then give them enough space to discover that they can handle hard things.

5. Repair can become its own sticky moment.
We're going to mess up. Mary argues that resilience isn't built by eliminating every rupture, but through what happens when we come back together. Taking accountability, reconnecting, and repairing can create a powerful moment of its own.

LINKS & RESOURCES

• Mary's Website: marywillcoxsmith.com
• Connect with Mary on LinkedIn
• Mary's Book: The Micro Step Method

GUEST INFO

Mary Willcox Smith is a keynote speaker, parenting expert, author, and creator of the MicroStep Method, a practical approach designed to help people navigate the small, emotionally charged moments that can have an outsized impact on relationships.

Drawing from research, lived experience, and her work with parents, Mary helps people move beyond perfectionism and self-blame and instead develop simple, repeatable tools they can access when stress is high and good intentions aren't enough.

She is the author of The MicroStep Method for the Overwhelmed Parent: Small Moments, Big Impact, and her work explores how small shifts in everyday interactions can build greater trust, resilience, confidence, and connection over time.

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

Take away the job title, the accomplishments, the relationship status, the parenting, the caregiving, the things you’re really freaking good at.  Even the things you absolutely love.

Who are you then?

We spend so much of our lives answering "Who am I?" with "What do I do?" ... Answers like I'm a parent, leader, spouse, caregiver, athlete, artist, sports lover.

And none of those answers are wrong.  They’re just incomplete.

Because beneath all those roles is another layer of identity: the qualities you bring into a room.  What you believe.  What you value.  How you move through the world.  The parts of yourself you make visible and the ones you don't.

In this conversation, Dr. Katie and Erin Conlon explore what becomes possible when we loosen our grip on the roles that have defined us and get curious about everything else that's there.

Because an identity can be beautiful, meaningful, and deeply important to you without needing to define you.

Maybe you don't need to become an entirely different person. Maybe there's simply more of you waiting to be discovered.

And that opens up a much more interesting question: Who do you want to become?

KEY LEARNINGS

• You are more than what you do. Roles, accomplishments, jobs, and responsibilities may be part of your identity, but they aren’t the whole of who you are. Your essence also lives in the qualities, energy, and presence you bring into the world.
• Some of our strongest identities were never consciously chosen. We inherit identities from our families, communities, relationships, and culture. Part of becoming more fully ourselves is getting curious about which ones still fit—and which ones we’re simply carrying because we always have.
• What we make invisible matters. There are parts of ourselves we readily show the world and others we protect, suppress, or hide. Making more of ourselves visible requires vulnerability because being truly seen always carries the risk of not being accepted.
• Change can feel like failure when we’ve over-identified with an old version of ourselves. Letting go of a career, role, relationship, community, or long-held way of being can bring real fear and grief. But changing doesn’t erase who you’ve been. It creates room for who you’re becoming.
• Courage is something we practice. We don’t have to magically become brave enough to change our lives. We build courage by taking small actions, surviving the discomfort, and discovering that we can do things differently.
• Identity can be shaped through action. Instead of waiting until you fully believe you’re the person you want to become, start looking for opportunities to practice being that person. Ask yourself: What can I do today to become who I want to be?

LINKS & RESOURCES

Connect with Erin Conlon: erinconlon.com

Try Erin’s identity reflection:
Ask 10–20 people from different parts of your life to describe the qualities you bring when you enter a room. Listen for the patterns—not your accomplishments or roles, but the essence of how people experience you.

Then create two columns:

• What do I do?
• What do I believe about who I am?

Notice where those answers align and where they don’t.

Finally, add one more question: Who do I want to become?

GUEST INFO

Erin Conlon is a writer, strategist, thought partner, former attorney, and... an identity you might not see coming... a comedian. Her work explores the evolving nature of identity, leadership, and personal transformation.

Erin helps people examine the identities they’ve inherited, constructed, hidden, and outgrown so they can live and lead with greater clarity, courage, and choice. Her work challenges the idea that identity is fixed and invites us to see ourselves instead as dynamic, evolving human beings with the power to choose what we carry forward and what we’re finally ready to release.

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

One hundred episodes later, that conversation feels more relevant than ever.

In this milestone episode, Dr. Katie looks back at what nearly 100 conversations with incredible humans have taught her about building a life that doesn’t leave us constantly needing to recover from it. Because maybe the answer to our exhaustion isn’t another productivity hack, better routine, or attempt to squeeze more into already-full lives.

Maybe we need to live differently.

Katie shares four lessons that have emerged again and again throughout the podcast: rest, remember, risk, and release. True restoration requires more than stopping. Coming home to yourself means remembering who you were before all the "shoulds". Building a life that actually feels like yours requires the courage to choose differently. And creating space for what’s next often means releasing expectations, identities, relationships, and definitions of success that no longer fit.

After 100 episodes, Katie has come to believe something different about the “spark” at the heart of this podcast: maybe your spark was never gone. Maybe it has simply been buried underneath everything you’ve been carrying.

So perhaps the question isn’t What else do I need to do?

It’s... What could I put down in order to feel fully alive again?

Key Learnings:

1. REST
Rest is not something you earn after you finish living. It’s part of living.
Restoration isn’t simply the cessation of activity. It also means intentionally filling ourselves back up—with experiences, relationships, practices, and white space that restore our energy. Protecting that restoration through boundaries isn’t selfish; it creates the capacity to show up fully for the people and work that matter. 

2. REMEMBER
Come home to who you were before all the “shoulds.”
We build so much of our lives around expectations: what success should look like, what our careers should become, how our families should operate, or what other people appear to be doing. But just because something looks like a good life doesn’t mean it’s your good life. Building a life you love starts with remembering who you are, what energizes you, and what actually matters to you. 

3. RISK
Knowing what you want isn’t enough—you eventually have to risk choosing it.
Living differently requires choosing differently, and those choices can carry real consequences. Instead of treating life like an arena where we either win or fail, Katie offers another metaphor: step into the lab. Experiment. Try something. Gather data. Adjust. A life that feels like you may be built through a series of small, courageous experiments rather than one giant leap. 

4. RELEASE
You cannot build a different life while carrying everything from the old one.
Sometimes moving toward what’s next requires releasing expectations, obligations, identities, relationships, dreams, or old definitions of success. Letting go can involve real grief, but it also creates capacity. We can't fully step into what could be while desperately clinging to what is. 

5. Your spark may not be gone—it may simply be buried.
We may not be able to control the pace of technology, work, culture, or the world around us. But we still have agency over how we choose to live within it. Perhaps we don't need another habit, practice, app, or thing to add. Perhaps we need to ask: What could I put down to make room for the life I actually want to live?

Links & Resources:

• CDC/NCHS Report — Fatigue in Adults: United States — Research discussed in the episode exploring the prevalence of fatigue among U.S. adults and its relationship to work, social activity, physical health, and mental health. Read the CDC report
• Six Seconds — State of the Heart — Research referenced from the original Human Energy Crisis conversation examining emotional intelligence and wellbeing around the world. Explore State of the Heart research
• Gallup — State of the Global Workplace — Ongoing global research on employee engagement, stress, wellbeing, and the experience of work. Explore Gallup's workplace research
• Spark Something New — Episode 1 — Revisit the conversation that started it all: the Human Energy Crisis and why this podcast was created. Listen to the first episode here.

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

We spend a lot of our lives trying to know what happens next.

We make the plan. Calculate the risk. Imagine everything that could go wrong. And sometimes, we stay in a life that doesn't feel particularly good simply because at least we know what to expect.

But what if the unknown isn't something to fear? What if it's actually an invitation?

In 2017, Kristy Halvorsen walked away from a successful career as a firefighter/paramedic, sold her dream home and most of her belongings, bought an Airstream, and headed into the unknown.

And here's the important part: it wasn't immediately wonderful.

In this episode, Kristy and I talk about what happened next—and what she learned when she stopped fighting reality and started trusting what she calls the "tickles of her soul."

We explore why our brains crave certainty, why we'd sometimes rather stay in a "sucky known" than risk an uncertain possibility, and how worry, expectations, scarcity, and our need for control can keep us from the life that's calling us.

Because maybe the goal isn't to create a life that looks impressive.

Maybe it's to create one that feels deeply alive.

Key Learnings:

• The known isn't necessarily better. It's just known. Sometimes we stay in situations that don't feel good simply because uncertainty feels scarier.
• Question the belief underneath the fear. What are you telling yourself about what's possible—or impossible—that may not actually be true?
• Your knowing often arrives before the explanation. Kristy calls them the "tickles of the soul." You might call it intuition, a gut feeling, or the voice of God.
• You don't need the whole blueprint. Your knowing may only give you the next step. Take it. Then listen again.
• Stop fighting reality. Sometimes our suffering isn't coming from what's happening, but from our attachment to how we thought it was supposed to happen.

And when you're really stuck, try Kristy's question: What would I do if I wholeheartedly knew I couldn't get this wrong?

Links & Resources:

• Kristy Halvorsen
  Explore Kristy's writing, coaching, adventures, and her idea of "coddiwompling"—traveling purposefully toward unknown destinations, remaining open to possibility, and "unpredicting" the journey.
• Perfect Unfolding: Seven Years of Life-Changing Solo Adventure, One Year That Broke Me Open
  Kristy's book chronicles her decision to trade her dream home and firefighting career for a solo, off-grid life in an Airstream—and the much deeper journey from her head to her heart.
• The Courage to Be Disliked
  During our conversation, I also reference this book and its exploration of Adlerian psychology, particularly the freedom that can come when we stop organizing our lives around other people's approval.

Guest Info:

Kristy Halvorsen is an author, speaker, coach, mentor, explorer, and self-described wanderer. In 2017, she sold her home and belongings, stepped away from her career as a lieutenant firefighter/paramedic, and set off in an Airstream with no predetermined destination. What began as an adventure became something much bigger: an ongoing experiment in what happens when we loosen our grip on certainty and learn to trust life as it unfolds.

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

I’m stuck.
I don’t know what to do.
There’s no other option.
That person is NEVER going to change.

Yeah. Us too.

But what if the problem isn’t that there are no other possibilities? What if you just can’t see them yet?

In this episode, Dr. Katie sits down with organizational psychologist and executive coach Dr. Irina Cozma to talk about becoming a possibility thinker—someone who refuses to assume that the first answer, the familiar answer, or even the seemingly obvious answer is the only answer.

And this isn’t about toxic positivity or pretending every problem has an easy solution. It’s about getting curious enough to ask: What else could I try?

Irina shares three places to look when you can’t seem to find a way forward: within yourself, within your relationships, and within the process itself. Sometimes possibility means changing your own behavior. Sometimes it means having the conversation you’ve been avoiding. Sometimes it means questioning the way something has always been done.

And sometimes? It means putting a Post-it note on your computer that reminds you to slow the heck down.

From hard conversations and difficult coworkers to career decisions, perfectionism, fear of failure, and our obsession with what other people might think, this conversation is an invitation to loosen your grip on the way it has to be and experiment with what else might be possible.

Because maybe you’re not as stuck as you think. Maybe you just haven’t found your next possibility yet.

Key Learnings:

1. “Stuck” may be a signal that your thinking has narrowed.
When we say things like “There’s nothing I can do,” “They’ll never change,” or “This is just how it is,” we may be treating one interpretation or path as the only one available. A possibility thinker challenges that assumption and asks what else might be available. 

2. Look for possibility in three places: inner, relational, and process.
Sometimes the opportunity is inner—changing how you think, regulate your emotions, or behave. Sometimes it’s relational—changing how you communicate, ask for help, set a boundary, delegate, or influence someone. And sometimes it’s process—changing the approach, structure, sequence, or way something gets done. Looking through all three lenses can reveal options we couldn't see before.

3. A different outcome usually requires trying something different.
Knowing another option exists isn't enough. Irina encourages experimentation—even with something as small as opening a meeting differently, asking a different question, or changing one behavior. Fear of failing, looking ridiculous, or worrying about what others will think can keep us from ever testing the possibilities available to us. 

4. Possibility thinking is a practice, not a personality trait.
Behavior change takes repetition. In one example, Irina shares how a client preparing for emotionally charged conversations used a simple Post-it asking, “Is it worth it?” as a reminder to pause and choose his response. Small experiments, reflection, and repetition gradually create new ways of responding. 

5. Give yourself a chance before deciding something isn't possible.
Irina's simplest starting point is to trust yourself a little more. You have experience, strengths, values, and evidence that you've done hard things before. And as she reminds listeners at the end of the conversation, if another human has found a way to do the thing you want to do, that's evidence that a path exists—even if yours ultimately looks different. 

Try This: The Possibility Post-it

Think about one situation where you currently feel stuck. Instead of trying to solve the whole thing, write one question on a Post-it: “What else might be possible?”

Put it somewhere you'll see it. Then challenge yourself to identify possibilities across three areas:

• ME: What could I think, believe, or do differently?
•  WE: What could change in how I engage with the other person?
•  HOW: What could I change about the approach or process?

You don't need to pursue every possibility. The practice is simply reminding yourself that the first answer isn't necessarily the only answer.

Links & Resources:

• Connect with Irina on LinkedIn
• Explore Irina's Website: www.irinacozma.com

Guest Info:

Dr. Irina Cozma is an organizational psychologist and executive coach who helps accomplished professionals strengthen the human skills that make work—and leadership—better.

After ten years in management consulting and experience with organizations including Salesforce and Wells Fargo, Irina now works with high performers on areas such as emotional regulation, delegation and boundaries, strategic influence, perfectionism, and behavioral change.

At the heart of her work is helping people become possibility thinkers: people who can move beyond “I don't know” and “I'm stuck” to see more options, experiment with new approaches, and become more intentional about how they work, lead, and live.

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

In this episode, Dr. Katie chats with leadership coach, speaker, and author Lisa Kohn to challenge the way we think about self-love. Lisa shares her philosophy of “First, Most, Always”: the belief that when we learn to extend compassion, grace, acceptance, and care toward ourselves, we have more—not less—to offer others.

Together, they explore the difference between self-love and self-centeredness, why so many of us outsource our worth and validation, and what happens when we stop needing other people to prove that we’re enough. They also unpack achievement, people-pleasing, over-functioning, slowing down, and the freedom that comes from being able to say: This is enough. I am enough.

This conversation is an invitation to rethink self-love not as indulgence, but as a foundation for how we live, lead, work, and love.

Key Learnings:

• Self-love and selfishness aren’t the same thing. Loving yourself “first, most, always” doesn’t mean disregarding other people. It means caring for yourself deeply enough that what you give others comes from abundance rather than depletion, obligation, or a need for approval. 
• You can’t outsource your worth. When we don’t believe in our own value, we may look to achievement, relationships, praise, or other people to convince us we’re enough. Developing an internal sense of worth allows us not only to give love more freely, but to actually receive love when it’s offered. 
• Self-love creates choice. Our drive, perfectionism, people-pleasing, control, and over-functioning can all have value—but the question is whether we’re consciously choosing those behaviors or automatically repeating patterns we learned long ago. 
• Enoughness doesn’t require giving up ambition. You can still want the bigger stage, the meaningful goal, or the next challenge while knowing that who you are and what you’ve already done is enough. Contentment and aspiration can exist at the same time. 
• Small practices can change how we experience ourselves and our lives. Breathing, noticing what’s good, receiving a compliment instead of deflecting it, creating moments of joy, resting, playing, and asking What do I need right now? can gradually build a different relationship with ourselves.

Links & Resources:

• Connect with Lisa on LinkedIn
• Explore Lisa's website: lisakohn.com
• Book Recommendations: Author Dr. Rick Hanson

Guest Info:

Lisa Kohn is a leadership coach, keynote speaker, author, and consultant who has spent decades helping leaders and organizations rethink how they show up for themselves and others. She is the creator of “First, Most, Always,” a philosophy rooted in radical self-love and the belief that caring deeply for ourselves allows us to bring more love, compassion, and humanity to the people around us.

Drawing from both her professional experience and her extraordinary personal journey—including growing up in a cult—Lisa helps people recognize old patterns, reconnect with their inherent worth, and move through life and leadership with greater choice, joy, and self-acceptance. Her message is ultimately a simple but powerful one: you are worth your own love.

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

The one everyone can count on. The one who figures it out. Who follows through. Who handles the hard stuff. Who gets. it. done.

Maybe that person is you.

And for a long time, that identity may have served you really well. It helped you build a career, care for the people you love, earn the trust of others, and accomplish things you're genuinely proud of.

But what happens when one of your greatest strengths starts costing you something?

In this episode, Dr. Katie chats with coach and keynote speaker Christine Knapp to explore the hidden side of high achievement—and why exhaustion, overwhelm, and burnout may have less to do with everything on your calendar and more to do with the beliefs and patterns underneath it.

Key Learnings:

• Your strengths can have a shadow side. The question isn't whether achievement is good or bad. It's whether the way you're achieving is costing you something you're no longer willing to give up.
• Exhaustion isn't always about how much you're doing. Two people can have equally full lives and experience them completely differently. Fulfillment, meaning, alignment, and emotional capacity matter.
• Restoration and recovery aren't quite the same thing. Self-care practices matter. But if every evening, weekend, vacation, or day off is primarily about recovering enough to return to a life that continually depletes you, there may be something deeper asking for your attention.
• “I get things done” is an identity, not just a behavior. When achievement becomes connected to worth, changing our behavior can feel like changing who we are. Sustainable change asks us to examine the beliefs underneath our patterns and intentionally decide who else we want to become.
• Change doesn't have to happen all at once. Your brain likes what's familiar, even when what's familiar isn't necessarily serving you anymore. Small changes give us new evidence. Set the boundary. Say the no. Make the different choice. Then do it again.

Links & Resources:

• Connect with Christine on LinkedIn
• Explore Christine's website: https://mindwirecoaching.com/

Guest Info:

Christine Knapp is a coach and keynote speaker who helps high-achieving individuals stop simply managing burnout and begin addressing the deeper patterns that keep them stuck in cycles of overwork and exhaustion. Her work explores the beliefs, behaviors, boundaries, and identities that shape how we show up in our lives, helping people create greater alignment, reclaim their energy, and build lives that don’t require them to constantly recover. 

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

Think about how many times someone asks, “How are you?” and you automatically respond: “I’m good” or “I’m fine” or “Good… just busy!”

Sometimes the exchange is simply a pleasantry. But sometimes, we’ve repeated “I’m good” for so long that we’ve started believing it ourselves—even when something inside us knows otherwise.

Maybe you have the career. The family. The house. The accomplishments. You’ve checked all the boxes you thought you were supposed to check.

And yet… something feels off.

In this episode. Dr. Katie chats physician, speaker, and author Dr. Michelle Machado to explore how we slowly drift away from ourselves—and why we often don’t recognize the misalignment until our bodies, relationships, energy, or joy begin telling us something needs to change.

Michelle identifies four “invisible pressures” that quietly shape who we become: societal, professional, relational, and internal pressures. Over time, these expectations can become so intertwined with our identity that we stop questioning whether the life we’re living is actually the life we want.

But we don’t have to wait for burnout, crisis, or a breaking point to wake up.

Through a process of awakening, alignment, and intentional action, we can begin asking better questions, listening to ourselves again, and making small choices that move us toward a life that feels like our own.

Because where you are today doesn’t have to be where you stay.

Key Learnings:

• How the four invisible pressures (societal, professional, relational, and internal) can quietly pull us away from who we really are.
•  How to recognize the difference between a difficult season and a life that has become chronically misaligned. 
•  Why creating a life by design starts with examining how you’re living today and asking who you actually want to become. 
•  How small, intentional practices—including stillness, reflection, nature, and Michelle’s Sacred Morning—can help you reconnect with yourself and stay aligned.

Links & Resources:

• Visit Michelle's Website: https://michelledmachado.com/
• Get Michelle's Book: Alive Again
• Connect with Michelle on LinkedIn

Guest Info:

Dr. Michelle Machado is a speaker, author, and strategist whose work explores the invisible pressures that shape our identity, choices, and definitions of success.

Drawing from her professional expertise and her own experience navigating demanding leadership, work, and family roles, Michelle helps people recognize when they’ve slipped into autopilot and begin reconnecting with who they are, how they want to live, and who they want to become.

Her work invites us to stop accepting “this is just how life is” and instead believe that where we are today does not have to determine where we stay.

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

Many of us spend our existence performing the version of leadership (and life) we believe others expect—editing our voice, suppressing our instincts, and following blueprints handed to us by family, culture, organizations, or society. From the outside, everything may look great...successful even. But inside, something still feels off.

In this episode, Dr. Katie chats with leadership strategist Dr. Aday Adetosoye, who invites us to examine a simple but profound question: 

Are you living under your own roof?

Using the metaphor of a house, Aday explores what it means to build a life and leadership that reflects your own values, beliefs, convictions, and emotional truths—not someone else's expectations. 

Together, Katie and Aday unpack why so many leaders unknowingly perform instead of lead authentically, how inherited "blueprints" quietly shape our decisions, and why courage isn't about becoming fearless—it's about finally coming home to yourself.

Whether you lead an organization, a family, a community, or simply your own life, this conversation will challenge you to look beyond the "curb appeal" of leadership and step inside the rooms that truly define who you are.

Key Learnings:

• Why authentic leadership begins with understanding whose "blueprint" you're living by. How family, culture, mentors, and organizations quietly shape the way we perform leadership. 
• The hidden cost of editing yourself to fit someone else's expectations. Why success doesn't always mean you're living in alignment with yourself. 
• How to identify the "rooms" of your house—your values, beliefs, convictions, boundaries, and emotional truths. 
• Why resilience acts as the roof that protects your authentic self from outside pressure. 
• How vulnerability becomes less threatening when you're secure in who you are. Why courage isn't the absence of fear, but choosing to live according to your own values despite it. 
• Practical questions to help you determine whether you're living under your own roof—or someone else's.

Links & Resources:

• Connect with Aday on LinkedIn
• Explore 1099 Impact Street: https://www.1099impactstreet.com/

Guest Info:

Dr. Aday Adetosoye is a leadership strategist, keynote speaker, executive coach, and the founder of 1099 Impact Street. She helps leaders move beyond performative leadership by aligning their actions with their authentic values, beliefs, and purpose. Through her signature "living under your own roof" metaphor, Aday equips individuals and organizations to challenge inherited expectations, build resilience, and lead with courage, authenticity, and lasting impact. 

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

In this episode, Dr. Katie chats with leadership advisor and author Rajiv Mehta, who challenges the individualistic view of self-awareness and offers a compelling alternative: we come to know ourselves through our relationships with others. 

Drawing from his work with organizations like NASA, the U.S. Navy, and corporate leadership teams, Raj explains why true camaraderie isn't built through team-building exercises or personality assessments, but through the ongoing practice of seeing ourselves—and one another—more clearly.

Together, Katie and Raj explore why many of our assumptions about ourselves simply "ain't so," how simple reflective tools can transform the way we relate to others, and why healing the "soil" of relationships is the foundation for trust, belonging, and sustained high performance.

If you've ever wondered why some teams, families, and communities seem deeply connected while others struggle despite good intentions, this episode offers a refreshing perspective—and practical ways to begin building stronger relationships from the inside out.

Key Learnings:

• Self-awareness isn't an individual pursuit. Knowing yourself is ultimately about showing up more intentionally in relationship with others.
• Camaraderie is more than connection or belonging. It develops when a group shares a common purpose, trusts one another deeply, and is committed to one another's success. 
• Our thoughts aren't always the truth. Many of our reactions are automatic interpretations rather than objective reality. Learning to question those assumptions creates space for healthier relationships. 
• You don't need to become someone new. The skills required for deeper connection already exist within you—they simply need to be noticed, practiced, and strengthened. 
• Trust is built through shared reflection. Simple practices that help people understand themselves often become powerful conversations that strengthen relationships within teams, families, and communities. 
• Great team-building starts before the team-building event. Activities alone can't create lasting culture. Healthy relationships are the soil where collaboration, trust, and shared purpose grow. 
• Leadership begins with you. If you want greater camaraderie in your organization, don't start by asking your team to change. Start by becoming more aware of yourself and sharing what you're learning.

Resources:

• Rajiv Mehta's Book: Mapping Ourselves
• Website: Mapping Ourselves 
• Free Self-Reflection Tools: The Atlas Care Map and additional resources are available on the Mapping Ourselves website. 
• Connect with Rajiv: LinkedIn

Guest Info:

Rajiv Mehta is a leadership advisor, keynote speaker, and author of Mapping Ourselves. His work helps people better understand themselves so they can build stronger relationships, healthier communities, and cultures rooted in trust and camaraderie. Raj has worked with organizations ranging from NASA and the U.S. Navy to Apple and countless leadership teams, bringing together ancient wisdom and practical, research-informed tools that help people see themselves—and one another—with greater clarity. His approach reminds us that self-awareness isn't just a path to personal growth; it's the foundation for living and working well with others.

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

In this episode, Dr. Katie sits down with speaker, leadership strategist, and author Jennifer Stanford to challenge one of the biggest misconceptions about stress: pressure and stress are not the same thing. 

Pressure can motivate us and help us perform at our best. Stress becomes harmful when that pressure is sustained without recovery.

Together, they explore why high achievers are especially vulnerable to chronic stress, how to recognize the signals your body is sending before burnout, and practical tools to help you manage your energy, reclaim your agency, and lead—and live—with greater resilience.

Key Learnings

• Pressure fuels performance. Stress drains it. Learning the difference is the first step toward sustainable success. 
• Your body is constantly communicating with you. Poor sleep, muscle tension, irritability, headaches, and fatigue are often early warning signs that stress is building. 
• High performers often ignore those signals. Our drive to achieve and serve others can keep us pushing long after our bodies are asking us to slow down. 
• Manage your energy, not just your time. Jennifer shares four energy buckets—intellectual, physical, purposeful, and emotional—that help build resilience and prevent burnout. 
• Protect your calendar before it overwhelms you. Using tools like the Eisenhower Matrix helps prioritize what truly matters while eliminating unnecessary commitments. 
• Small daily practices make a big difference. Box breathing, grounding, and intentional check-ins can help regulate your nervous system and reduce stress before it becomes chronic. 
• You have more agency than you think. While we can't control every demand placed on us, we can choose how we prepare, recover, and care for ourselves along the way. 

Resources

• Connect with Jennifer on LinkedIn
• DE-STRESSED by Jennifer Stanford 
• Learn more at jenstanford.com

Guest Information

Jennifer Stanford is a speaker, leadership strategist, and stress expert who helps leaders and organizations improve performance by reducing chronic stress and building healthier, more resilient workplace cultures. She is the author of DE-STRESSED, where she shares practical tools to help individuals distinguish between healthy pressure and harmful stress so they can thrive both personally and professionally.

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

What if your hesitation to speak up, share your ideas, or take up space isn't actually a confidence problem?

In this episode, Dr. Katie sits down with mindset coach and former pharmaceutical executive Kapu Patel to explore why visibility is really a nervous system skill. Together, they unpack the subtle ways we "shrink" ourselves—from downplaying our accomplishments to putting everyone else's needs ahead of our own—and why reclaiming our voice begins by creating safety within ourselves. This conversation is a gentle invitation to stop waiting for permission and start trusting that you already belong. 

Summary:

Most of us have been told that confidence is the key to becoming more visible. Speak up. Lean in. Be bold.

But what if confidence isn't the problem?

Drawing from her journey as a scientist, pharmaceutical executive, photographer, and mindset coach, Kapu Patel offers a refreshing perspective: visibility is less about confidence and more about safety. When our nervous system has learned that standing out could lead to rejection, criticism, or shame, shrinking becomes a form of self-protection rather than a lack of capability.

Katie and Kapu explore the subtle patterns of shrinking that many people (especially women) experience every day. Sometimes it looks obvious, like holding back an idea in a meeting or minimizing an accomplishment. Other times it shows up in quieter ways: declining opportunities, avoiding photographs, neglecting self-care, staying silent in group decisions, or believing our contributions aren't significant enough to matter.

Together they discuss how childhood experiences, cultural conditioning, and the stories we've attached to past experiences shape the beliefs we carry into adulthood. Those beliefs often operate beneath our awareness, quietly influencing how we show up in our work, relationships, and leadership.

The conversation also challenges the popular advice to "fake it till you make it," proposing instead a more authentic approach: play it until you become it. Rather than pretending to be someone we're not, growth comes from practicing the fullest expression of who we already are while building the nervous system capacity to feel safe doing so.

Throughout the episode, Kapu shares practical tools for recognizing shrinking patterns, regulating the nervous system, questioning limiting stories using Byron Katie's four questions, and paying attention to the wisdom our bodies offer when something feels misaligned.

Ultimately, this conversation reminds us that taking up space isn't about becoming louder or demanding more attention. It's about giving ourselves permission to stop editing who we are and trusting that we already belong. 

Key Learnings:

1. Visibility is a safety issue before it's a confidence issue.

When our nervous system associates being seen with judgment, rejection, or shame, shrinking becomes a protective response—not a character flaw.

2. Shrinking shows up in more places than we realize.

It's not only speaking less in meetings. It can look like downplaying accomplishments, avoiding recognition, neglecting self-care, deferring to others, or believing your needs matter less than everyone else's.

3. Our conditioning shapes our stories.

The words we've repeatedly heard, the environments we've grown up in, and the meaning we've assigned to those experiences become subconscious beliefs that influence how we show up today.

4. Authentic visibility isn't about "faking it."

Rather than pretending to be confident, we can practice becoming more fully ourselves by expanding our capacity to feel safe while taking courageous action.

5. The stories we beieve deserve to be questioned.

Simple questions like Is it true? Is it absolutely true? Who would I be if it weren't true? can create powerful shifts in how we relate to ourselves and our potential.

Resources:

• Website: https://www.youshinemindsetcoaching.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kapu-kalpana-patel/

Guest Info:

Kapu Patel is a mindset coach who helps women overcome the invisible patterns that keep them playing small so they can become more visible, confident, and authentic in their work and lives.

Before launching her coaching practice, Kapu built a successful career as a pharmaceutical researcher and executive after earning her PhD in the sciences. She later transitioned into professional photography, where she discovered that many accomplished women struggled not with how they looked, but with allowing themselves to be seen.

Today, she combines neuroscience, mindset coaching, and her own lived experiences to help women move from permission-seeking to space-claiming. Her work focuses on building the internal safety that allows authentic confidence and visibility to emerge.

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

What if midlife isn't a crisis to survive, but an invitation to come home to yourself?

In this episode, Dr. Katie Sandoe sits down with transformational guide and midlife mentor Andrea Mancuso to challenge one of our culture's most enduring narratives. Together, they explore why the restlessness many people experience in midlife isn't a sign that something is wrong—it's often a signal that something deeper is asking to emerge. Through the beautiful metaphor of shedding and renewal, they discuss what it means to let go of identities, expectations, and patterns that no longer fit so you can move toward a life of greater freedom, authenticity, and alignment. 

Summary: 

For decades, we've been taught to fear (or laugh at) the "midlife crisis"—the season where everything seems to fall apart. But what if we've misunderstood it all along?

Andrea Mancuso invites us to see midlife not as a breakdown, but as a homecoming. She explains how many of us spend the first half of life building identities around achievement, approval, perfectionism, and the expectations of others. Eventually, those identities feel restrictive. The life that once looked successful on paper may suddenly feel disconnected from who we truly are.

Rather than resisting that discomfort, Andrea encourages listeners to see it as an invitation. The exhaustion, restlessness, and quiet longing for "something more" aren't signs of failure—they're often evidence that our most authentic self is asking to be seen.

Throughout the conversation, Katie and Andrea explore the courage required to release limiting beliefs, heal old wounds, navigate fear, and let go of relationships, roles, and expectations that no longer serve us. They also acknowledge the messy middle of transformation, reminding listeners that freedom is rarely found by avoiding discomfort. Instead, it comes through moving toward it with intention and self-compassion.

Whether you're in the middle of a life transition or simply sensing that something feels "off," this episode offers hope that the next chapter of your life isn't about reinventing yourself, it's about returning to the person that feels like home.

Key Learnings:

• Midlife is not a crisis—it's a homecoming. What often feels like unraveling is actually an invitation to reconnect with your most authentic self.
• The lives we outgrow aren't failures. They simply may no longer reflect who we've become, making change an act of alignment rather than regret. 
• Freedom requires shedding. Healing often involves releasing limiting beliefs, people-pleasing, shame, perfectionism, and identities that no longer fit. 
• Transformation includes grief. Letting go of old versions of ourselves, relationships, and expectations is difficult, but it creates space for a richer, more meaningful life. 
• The greatest commitment we can make is to ourselves. Returning home begins with the simple decision to honor what is true for us, even when the path feels uncertain.

Guest Resources:

• Website: iamandreamancuso.com
• LinkedIn: Andrea Mancuso 
• YouTube: @IAmAndreaMancuso

Guest Bio:

Andrea Mancuso is a transformational guide, leadership coach, licensed mental health counselor, speaker, and midlife mentor who helps people reimagine one of life's most misunderstood seasons. Through her work, she guides individuals in releasing patterns of people-pleasing, perfectionism, fear, and performance so they can reconnect with their authentic selves and build lives rooted in truth, freedom, and alignment. Known for her warmth, vulnerability, and unmistakable New York honesty, Andrea empowers people to see healing not as something to fear, but as the pathway home. 

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

What if building a life you love isn't just an individual pursuit—but something you intentionally create with the person you're sharing it with?

In this episode, Dr. Katie sits down with Rebecca and James Lockwood, founders of The Thriving Couple, to explore how the same intentional practices that help businesses thrive—shared vision, strategic planning, regular check-ins, and meaningful conversations—can transform your marriage and family. Together, they share how becoming more intentional at home helped them stop simply managing life and start building a future they were excited to create together. 

Summary:

Many of us spend years investing in our careers. We attend conferences, hire coaches, create strategic plans, set ambitious goals, and work tirelessly to build successful organizations.

But how often do we invest that same level of intention into building the life we actually want to live?

In this conversation, Katie sits down with Rebecca and James Lockwood to explore what happens when you begin treating your marriage (or life partnership)—not like a business—but like one of the most important investments of your life.

After realizing they were succeeding professionally while struggling personally, Rebecca and James began applying the same principles Rebecca taught to growing companies—clarifying vision, establishing rhythms, setting goals, creating accountability, and making time for meaningful conversations—to their relationship. What emerged wasn't a more structured marriage; it was a more connected one.

Together, they discuss why so many couples drift into reactive living, how shared dreams create deeper connection, and why working on your relationship is just as important as working in it. Along the way, Katie shares her own experience using personal strategic planning to intentionally design a life she loves, creating a rich conversation about bringing purpose, clarity, and intention into every area of life—not just work.

If you've ever felt like your career receives your best energy while your relationships get what's left over, this episode offers a hopeful invitation to slow down, dream together again, and intentionally build a life you truly love. 

Key Learnings:

• A meaningful life doesn't happen by accident. The same intentionality we bring to our work can help us create stronger marriages, healthier families, and richer lives.
• Your relationship deserves more than your leftovers. Prioritizing shared vision, regular conversations, and intentional time together strengthens both your partnership and your individual wellbeing. 
• Dream together again. Shared goals and meaningful conversations create hope, deepen connection, and help couples move beyond simply surviving the demands of everyday life. 
• Structure creates freedom. Weekly check-ins, quarterly planning, annual retreats, and intentional rituals provide space for honest conversations, better decisions, and greater alignment. 
• Build your life one small step at a time. Lasting change comes from consistently investing in the habits and conversations that move you toward the life—and relationship—you want to create together.

Resources:

• Website: The Thriving Couple
• Book: The Cohesive Couple
• Free Resources: Couple Vision & Planning Guide, Bucket List, and book excerpts available through their website. Click here to connect directly.

Guest Bio:

James and Rebecca Lockwood are the founders of The Thriving Couple, where they help high-performing couples bring the same intentionality to their relationships that they bring to their careers. Rebecca is a business coach who spent years helping organizations build strategy and systems for growth before realizing those same principles could transform life at home. Together, they developed a practical framework centered on shared vision, intentional planning, and meaningful connection, which has helped nearly 100 couples strengthen their marriages, dream together again, and build thriving lives together. They are also the authors of The Cohesive Couple. 

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

We don't just inherit stories. We choose which ones we carry forward. 

In this episode, Dr. Katie welcomes genealogist, speaker, and Rich Roots founder Rich Venezia for a conversation about identity, belonging, and the powerful act of returning to our roots. Together, they explore how family history is not simply about dates, records, or distant relatives — it is about understanding the stories, choices, migrations, traditions, and relationships that shaped who we are today.

Summary:

For many of us, especially in the United States, identity can feel fragmented. We may know pieces of where we come from — Irish, Italian, Pennsylvania Dutch, German, Canadian, or something else entirely — but we may not know the people, stories, sacrifices, and lived experiences behind those labels.

Rich Venezia helps people uncover those deeper stories.

In this conversation, Rich shares how his own journey into genealogy began as a way to stay connected to his grandmother and grew into a lifelong calling. He explains why understanding family history can help us feel more grounded, more connected, and more resilient — not because our past defines us, but because it gives us a larger story to belong to.

Katie and Rich also explore the idea of the “intergenerational self,” the importance of asking sensory questions of loved ones, and how family stories can help us better understand both inherited identity and chosen identity. Whether we are exploring our biological lineage, adopted family, chosen family, or the people who shaped us along the way, this conversation reminds us that our roots are not just behind us — they are part of what helps us move forward.

Key Learnings:

1. Looking back can help us feel more grounded moving forward.
Understanding our roots can give us a deeper sense of identity, resilience, and connection to something bigger than ourselves.

2. Family history is more than names and dates.
The richest discoveries often come through stories, traditions, food, memories, photographs, places, and sensory details.

3. Identity is both inherited and created.
Our bloodline may shape part of who we are, but so do the people who raised us, loved us, mentored us, and helped us become ourselves.

4. The stories we carry forward are a choice.
Learning about the past gives us agency. We can honor what came before while choosing what values, traditions, and stories we want to continue.

5. Curiosity is a doorway to belonging.
Even a few questions, photos, or records can open up a deeper connection to family, heritage, and self-understanding.

Guest Resources

Learn more about Rich Venezia and his work at Rich Roots:
https://www.richroots.net/

Guest Bio:

Rich Venezia is a genealogist, keynote speaker, and founder of Rich Roots, where he helps people uncover their family history and reconnect with where they come from. Through his research, storytelling, and speaking, Rich helps individuals and families discover the people, places, and stories that shaped their identity — and reminds us that looking back can be a powerful way to better understand who we are today.

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

Your life can look great on paper and still not feel right in your body.

In this episode, Dr. Katie chats with speaker and coach Nisha Patel to unpack what it really means to live in alignment. Together, they explore why so many high-achievers feel fragmented, anxious, or disconnected despite checking all the boxes—and how reconnecting with your values, your body, and your purpose can help you build a life that feels peaceful, grounded, and authentically your own.

Summary:

Success doesn't always feel the way we think it should.

Many people spend years building beautiful lives on paper—careers, families, accomplishments, responsibilities—only to discover that something still feels off. They're productive but exhausted. Successful but disconnected. Surrounded by good things, yet strangely numb.

In this conversation, speaker and coach Nisha Patel offers a refreshing definition of alignment: knowing your core values and allowing your life to reflect them. She and Katie explore how misalignment often shows up in the body long before we recognize it in our minds through anxiety, tension, numbness, overworking, addictive patterns, and the constant need for noise and distraction.

Drawing from her own sobriety journey and her work in mindfulness and nervous system regulation, Nisha shares how purpose became louder than the fear of being judged, and why healing isn't about becoming someone new—it's about reconnecting with who you are.

Together, they discuss practical ways to cultivate greater alignment through movement, mindfulness, journaling, core values, and one deceptively simple question: What do I need?

Ultimately, this conversation is an invitation to stop performing success and come back to yourself. Because building a meaningful life isn't about adding more—it may be about returning to what has always mattered most and creating a life that simply feels right.

Key Learnings:

1. Your life can look good on the outside and still not feel right on the inside.
2. Alignment begins with knowing your core values and allowing your life to reflect them.
3. Your body often recognizes misalignment before your mind does.
4. Purpose can become louder than fear when you are grounded in what matters most.
5. Sometimes the path back to yourself starts with one simple question: "What do I need?"

Guest Resources:

LinkedIn: @NishaJPatel
Instagram: @Nishapatelcoaching
Website: The Nishe

Guest Bio:

Nisha Patel is a speaker and coach who helps high achievers stop performing and start living in alignment. Drawing from her work in addiction, mindfulness, and nervous system regulation, she challenges the idea that success equals wellness. Nisha guides people back to their values, their purpose, and their truth — so their purpose becomes louder than their fear.

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

What if the thing you were taught to hide became the very thing that helped you build something meaningful?

In this episode, Dr. Katie is joined by sisters Nicol Varona Cancelmo and Cory Varona Corniel, co-founders of OCOA, a clean curl care brand rooted in Dominican heritage, identity, confidence, and community. Together, they explore what it means to build a business for good — one that serves people, creates impact, honors culture, and succeeds in the marketplace without losing its soul.

Summary:

Nicol and Cory grew up hearing messages that their natural curls were “too much,” “unruly,” or “pelo malo” — bad hair. Like so many girls and women, they absorbed the belief that something about them needed to be fixed in order to be accepted, beautiful, or professional.

But their journey toward embracing their curls became much more than a beauty transformation. It became a reclamation of identity.

Through curiosity, research, motherhood, health concerns, and a desire for cleaner, more nourishing products, Nicol and Cory began creating what they couldn’t find. What started in a kitchen eventually became OCOA — a purpose-driven haircare brand built to help people love their curls and themselves.

This conversation is about natural beauty, cultural identity, sisterhood, entrepreneurship, perseverance, and the courage it takes to build something that reflects who you are. Nicol and Cory remind us that business can be more than a transaction. It can be an act of healing, representation, and service.

Key Learnings:

1. Sometimes the thing you were taught to hide is actually part of your power.
Nicol and Cory share how childhood messages about their hair shaped their confidence, identity, and sense of belonging — and how reclaiming their curls helped them reclaim themselves.

2. Business for good begins with a deeply human problem.
OCOA wasn’t born from chasing a trend. It came from lived experience, cultural messaging, health concerns, and a desire to create something better for their community.

3. Purpose can fuel perseverance, but it doesn’t erase the hard.
Building a values-driven business required sacrifice, patience, trial and error, and years of learning while balancing full-time work, motherhood, family, and growth.

4. Representation is not just about being seen — it’s about feeling worthy.
By rooting OCOA in Dominican heritage, bilingual storytelling, and authentic cultural pride, Nicol and Cory are helping others see their beauty, identity, and story reflected back with dignity.

5. Authenticity is a business strategy — but more importantly, it’s a way of living.
Their brand truly clicked when they stopped trying to look like everyone else and leaned fully into who they are.

Resources:

• Learn more about OCOA: ocoabeauty.com
• Follow OCOA on Instagram: @ocoabeauty
• Connect with OCOA on LinkedIn: OCOA - Curly Hair Care
• Shop OCOA at Ulta Beauty

Guest Info:

Nicol Varona Cancelmo and Cory Varona Corniel are sisters, entrepreneurs, and the co-founders of OCOA, a clean curl care brand created to help people embrace their natural beauty with confidence. Inspired by their Dominican heritage and their own journeys of reclaiming their curls, Nicol and Cory built OCOA to offer high-performing, nourishing products while creating a larger movement around identity, representation, sisterhood, and self-love.

As Dominican American founders, they are redefining what curly haircare can look and feel like — bringing culture, clean ingredients, and community together in a brand designed to help people be exactly who they were born to be.

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

What if purpose isn't something you find—but something you practice every day? In this conversation, Dr. Katie welcomes back ikigai expert Nick Kemp to discuss his new book, A Year of Ikigai, and explores how the Japanese philosophy of ikigai invites us to stop living for the weekend and start savoring the small moments that make life worth living.

Summary: 

Many people believe that purpose is a destination—a calling to discover or a milestone to achieve. But according to Nick Kemp, that's one of the biggest misconceptions about ikigai.

In this episode, Katie and Nick unpack the Japanese philosophy of ikigai as a way of living rather than a destination. Rather than chasing happiness through promotions, vacations, or retirement, they explore how meaning is cultivated through everyday experiences, relationships, growth, and intentional action.

Nick explains that ikigai exists in the ordinary moments we often overlook: sharing coffee with a friend, walking a loved one to the train station, learning something new, or overcoming a meaningful challenge. He introduces a simple framework of awareness, agency, and action, encouraging listeners to notice what matters, choose how they want to live, and actively engage with life.

The conversation also examines the unintended consequences of modern technology and constant distraction, arguing that fulfillment comes not from passive consumption but from embodied experiences and genuine human connection. Drawing from his new book, A Year of Ikigai, Nick shares why small daily reflections and micro-practices can profoundly reshape how we experience our lives.

Ultimately, the episode offers a hopeful reminder: purpose is not something waiting for you in the future. It is something you choose and cultivate today.

Key Learnings:

• Ikigai is a way of living, not a destination. Rather than searching for one grand purpose, we can cultivate meaning through everyday experiences and intentional choices. 
• The small moments matter. We often chase major milestones while overlooking the ordinary moments that make life rich, joyful, and deeply meaningful. 
• Meaning requires awareness, agency, and action. We must first recognize what matters, believe we can shape our lives, and then actively choose behaviors that align with those values. 
• Purpose is something you choose. Instead of waiting to "find" your purpose, commit to a role, a cause, or a way of contributing that reflects who you want to become. 
• Ask yourself one powerful question: "How do I want to use my life today?"
  The answer shapes not only your purpose but how you show up in your relationships, work, and everyday moments.

Resources:

• Nick's Website: Ikigai Tribe — https://ikigaitribe.com/
• Connect with Nick on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickkempikigai/
• Nick's New Book: A Year of Ikigai: Finding Everyday Purpose through Japanese Wisdom — https://ikigaitribe.com/a-year-of-ikigai-book/

Guest Info:

Nick Kemp is the founder of Ikigai Tribe and a leading voice in bringing the Japanese philosophy of ikigai to a global audience. Having lived in Japan for many years, he has dedicated his work to helping individuals and organizations understand ikigai not as something to discover, but as a daily practice of living with meaning, joy, and intention. Through his coaching, speaking, workshops, podcast, and his book A Year of Ikigai: Finding Everyday Purpose through Japanese Wisdom, Nick invites people to reconnect with the small moments and relationships that make life worth living.

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

What if the moments that change your life aren't random at all?

In this episode, speaker, entrepreneur, and author Joel Steele introduces his concept of Life Switches—those sparks of clarity, urgency, and conviction that move us from drifting through life to actively creating it. While many people wait for a watershed moment or external event to force change in their lives, Joel believes we can become more intentional about recognizing and activating the moments that ignite our passion, purpose, and potential.

Dr. Katie and Joel explore why so many people live with their "switch" turned off, what keeps us stuck in ordinary patterns, and how small, intentional actions can reignite the pilot light when life's challenges leave us feeling disconnected from ourselves.

Summary:

Many of us spend years following expectations, checking boxes, and doing what we think we're supposed to do—only to discover that success doesn't automatically create fulfillment. Joel Steele argues that the difference between merely existing and truly living lies in our ability to recognize and respond to what he calls Life Switch Moments: experiences, realizations, and sparks of insight that challenge us to move in a new direction. These moments can arise from triumph or tragedy, but their purpose is the same: to activate us.

Throughout the conversation, Joel shares how life switch moments helped him move from feeling disconnected and directionless to building a life fueled by passion, purpose, and possibility. He emphasizes that while these moments often arrive unexpectedly, we can cultivate the conditions for them by creating space for reflection, asking better questions, and becoming deeply honest with ourselves about what we truly want.

Katie and Joel also explore the barriers that keep people from acting on these moments. Fear, self-doubt, instant gratification, and the desire to fit in often prevent us from pursuing the extraordinary life we desire. Yet Joel argues that confidence isn't something we're born with—it's something we build through a series of small promises kept to ourselves. By taking intentional action, creating momentum, and learning to trust our own inner wisdom, we begin to see new possibilities emerge.

The conversation culminates in Joel's belief that each person possesses untapped potential waiting to be activated. The challenge isn't finding the answers outside ourselves—it's learning to look within, flip the switch, and begin living with greater intention, energy, and purpose. 

Key Learnings:

• Life switch moments are sparks of clarity and energy that push us toward action. They help transform ideas into reality and often signal that something in our lives needs attention, change, or expansion. 
• Many people spend their lives reacting to expectations rather than intentionally choosing their path. Living "on" requires awareness, purpose, and a willingness to actively shape your life rather than simply go through the motions. 
• Life switches become easier to recognize when we create uninterrupted space to think. Honest self-reflection helps us identify where we are, where we want to go, and what might be standing in the way. 
• Belief in yourself isn't created by waiting until you're fearless. It grows when you consistently do what you say you're going to do, creating evidence that you can trust yourself and follow through. 
• Living an extraordinary life isn't about status, money, or recognition. It's about defining success for yourself and building a life that feels deeply aligned with who you are and what matters most.

Resources:

• Connect with Joel on LinkedIn
• Visit Joel's Website
• Read Joel's Book: Life Switch

Guest Info:

Joel Steele is a speaker, entrepreneur, author, and leadership mentor who helps individuals unlock their potential through his Life Switch framework. Drawing from his own experiences with failure, reinvention, and success, Joel teaches people how to move from drifting through life to living with intention, passion, and purpose. Through speaking, coaching, and his writing, he empowers others to recognize the moments that can change their lives—and take action when they arrive. 

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

We’ve never been more connected… and yet so many people feel painfully alone. Why? In this episode, Dr. Katie and Rachel Rozen unpack the modern crisis of belonging — from surface-level networking and curated identities to the exhaustion of adult friendships and the fear of rejection that keeps us from truly being seen. Together, they explore what it actually takes to find “your people,” build sticky relationships, and create meaningful connection in a world that often rewards performance over authenticity.

Summary: 

We live in a paradoxical time: more opportunities to connect than ever before, yet many people feel profoundly lonely. Surrounded by people, yet not fully seen. In this conversation, Rachel Rozen shares how social media, performance culture, and the fear of rejection often prevent adults from building authentic relationships rooted in vulnerability and belonging. 

Together, Katie and Rachel explore the difference between surface-level connection and true belonging — the kind where people feel seen, heard, valued, and emotionally safe. 

The conversation dives into the realities of adult friendship: friendships changing across seasons of life, the myth of the lifelong “ride or die” friend, and why making friends as adults can feel surprisingly vulnerable. 

Most importantly, this episode is a reminder that belonging is not something we accidentally stumble into. It’s something we intentionally cultivate through curiosity, vulnerability, presence, and care... one conversation at a time. 

Key Learnings:

• Connection (surface friendships) and belonging are not the same thing — belonging requires feeling seen, heard, valued, and emotionally safe. 
• Adult friendships often require intentionality and vulnerability, along with invitations and consistent follow-through. 
• Many people struggle to build authentic relationships because they are performing rather than showing up as their true selves. 
• Workplace belonging is possible when leaders foster psychological safety, curiosity, and genuine human connection beyond productivity. 
• One of the simplest ways to deepen connection is to reach out and tell someone you’re thinking about them.

Resources:

• Rachel on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachel-rozen/
• Rachel's Website: https://www.connectioncatalyst.me/
• Free Networking Webinar: https://www.connectioncatalyst.me/freewebinar
• NYC Executive Dinners: https://www.connectioncatalyst.me/dinners 

Guest Info:

From Chief Customer Officer to Connection Coach, Rachel Rozen transforms professional networking from "icky" to "sticky." She's on a mission to help professionals build authentic connections, drawing from her journey of connecting with 300 people in a year. Her coaching strategies empower professionals to turn networking challenges into lasting relationships. When not coaching, she's cheering for the NY Mets and Syracuse Orange, reading, and experimenting in the kitchen.

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

What happens after we become aware that modern systems are intentionally designed to keep us scrolling, consuming, reacting, and constantly engaged?

Following last week’s conversation (E81 with Dr. Mitika Kanabar) about why these systems are so psychologically sticky, this episode with Elizabeth Ross explores the lived human impact of living in an “always-on” world — and how we begin reclaiming our peace, presence, and humanity within it.

Summary:

In a culture optimized for speed, stimulation, and nonstop engagement, many people feel exhausted, fragmented, overwhelmed, and disconnected from themselves. Yet we often blame ourselves for it — believing we simply lack discipline, balance, or better habits.

Elizabeth Ross invites us to see things differently.

Building on the previous episode — which explored the neuroscience and addictive nature of modern attention systems — this conversation focuses on what those systems are actually doing to our daily lives, relationships, nervous systems, and sense of self.

Elizabeth reframes distraction and burnout not as personal failures, but as predictable outcomes of technological and cultural systems designed to keep us constantly engaged. Together, we explore how hustle culture, productivity obsession, constant notifications, and the pressure to always be available slowly pull us away from presence, creativity, rest, and genuine human connection.

But this episode is not anti-technology or fear-based. Instead, it is a hopeful and deeply practical conversation about how we begin coming back to ourselves.

Elizabeth shares powerful insights around nervous system regulation, sensory awareness, intentional pauses, and her “To Me / By Me / Through Me” framework for navigating stress and emotional energy. We also explore the shift from FOMO (fear of missing out) to JOMO (joy of missing out), the growing desire for analogue experiences, and why reconnecting with nature may be one of the simplest ways to reconnect with ourselves.

Ultimately, this conversation reminds us that reclaiming our attention is not just about reducing screen time — it’s about reclaiming our ability to fully experience our lives.

Key Learnings:

• Burnout and distraction are often systemic issues, not personal failures 
• Our brains require stillness, boredom, and space to process and create 
• Presence is a practice that begins with intentional pauses throughout the day 
• Sensory awareness helps reconnect us to ourselves and the present moment 
• The “To Me / By Me / Through Me” framework offers a healthier way to navigate stress and emotional energy 
• FOMO can shift into JOMO when we intentionally reconnect to what truly matters 
• Nature remains one of the most powerful tools for nervous system regulation and human connection 

Resources:

• Connect with Elizabeth on LinkedIn
• Elizabeth's Website: www.mindfulemployer-us.com

Guest Info:

Elizabeth Ross is a speaker and master facilitator focused on systems awareness and business evolution in alignment with nature. Her work sits at the intersection of sensory intelligence, energy awareness, and conscious leadership — helping individuals and organizations move out of distraction and burnout and into more regenerative ways of being and working.

With over two decades of mindfulness and leadership experience — and her own stress-induced health collapse as a turning point — Elizabeth speaks from lived experience, not just theory. She creates powerful experiences that reconnect people to their bodies, their senses, and the clarity that emerges when we pause.

She’s also a co-founder of DisruptHR Portland, Conscious Capitalism Portland, and Mindful Employer.

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

What if the issue isn’t that we lack discipline but that we’re living in a world intentionally designed to keep us hooked? In this episode, Dr. Katie Sandoe chats with Stanford-trained addiction medicine physician Dr. Mitika Kanabar to explore the growing reality of behavioral (or non-substance) addiction, which includes everything from social media, to binge-watching TV shows, to gaming, to shopping, to AI, and online gambling. Together, they unpack why awareness alone often isn’t enough to change behavior, how dopamine-driven systems shape our habits, and what it looks like to reclaim our personal agency in a world built around constant stimulation.

Summary:

Many of us know we’re spending too much time on screens, scrolling social media, checking work email, binge-watching shows, or chasing the next notification. But knowing something isn’t healthy and actually changing it are two very different things. In this conversation, Katie and Mitika explore why behavioral addictions are so difficult to break and why the answer is far more nuanced than simply “having more willpower.” 

Drawing from both modern neuroscience and Eastern wisdom traditions, Mitika shares compassionate and practical ways people can begin rebuilding healthier relationships with technology, stimulation, and themselves. Rather than approaching change through shame or rigid perfectionism, she encourages listeners to begin with awareness, acceptance, intentional boundaries, and reconnecting the mind and body through presence-based practices.

Key Learnings:

• Behavioral addictions activate many of the same brain reward systems as substance addictions. 
• Social media, gaming, and online gambling are intentionally designed around “variable reward” psychology. 
• Overuse is often connected to stress, loneliness, boredom, emotional overwhelm, and disconnection. 
• Addiction is marked by patterns like craving, compulsive behavior, loss of control, and continued use despite consequences. 
• Awareness without shame is essential for meaningful change. 
• Small boundaries—like delaying social media use in the morning or practicing “digital fasting”—can create significant shifts in wellbeing. 
• Eastern practices like mindfulness, breathwork, and yoga are about far more than relaxation; they help reconnect the mind and body. 
• Online gambling among teens is increasing rapidly and often goes unnoticed by parents. 
• Healing begins with compassionate awareness and intentional choices, not perfection. 

Resources:

• Connect with Mitika on LinkedIn
• Visit Mitika's website: https://mitikakanabar.com/

Guest Info:

Dr. Mitika Kanabar is a Stanford-trained addiction medicine physician, speaker, and educator whose work focuses on helping people better understand behavioral health, technology overuse, and the deeper patterns that shape how we cope, connect, and live. Drawing from both modern psychology and Eastern wisdom traditions, she specializes in helping individuals navigate behavioral and non-substance addictions—including social media, gaming, online gambling, and digital overuse—with greater awareness, compassion, and agency.

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

What if the exhaustion so many of us feel isn’t because we’re broken—but because we’ve been trying to live in perpetual summer? In this episode, Dr. Katie sits down with Dr. Stephanie Grunewald to explore what nature can teach us about being human. Together, they unpack the wisdom of living in seasons instead of constant productivity mode and why humans were never designed to endlessly push, perform, and produce without rest and renewal. 

Summary:

Katie and Stephanie explore the growing reality of chronic exhaustion, overstimulation, and burnout in modern life. Stephanie shares how constant accessibility, technology, and productivity culture keep people trapped in ongoing stress cycles without meaningful recovery. Rather than asking “What’s wrong with me?”, they invite listeners to consider a different question: What if the way we are living is no longer working?

Using nature as a guide, they discuss how humans—like nature—need cycles of growth, execution, release, reflection, and restoration. Yet modern culture rewards only constant execution. The conversation explores how fear, identity, obligation, and societal expectations keep people stuck in endless “summer,” unable to honor the quieter but necessary seasons of rest and recalibration. 

Stephanie also shares practical ways listeners can begin interrupting chronic stress patterns through small moments of presence, intentional downshifting, and micro shifts in daily life. Ultimately, this episode is an invitation to stop resisting the winters of life—and instead recognize the wisdom, restoration, and transformation they can offer.

Key Learnings:

• Humans need cycles of growth, execution, reflection, and recovery. 
• Chronic stress is often fueled by nonstop stimulation and disconnection. 
• Purpose helps people navigate difficult seasons with greater resilience. 
• Small moments of presence can interrupt accumulated stress. 
• Intentional “downshifting” is about alignment, not abandoning ambition. 
• Instead of asking “What’s wrong with me?”, ask: “What is no longer working?”

Resources:

• Stephanie's LinkedIn
• Stephanie's Website: stephaniegrunewald.com

Guest Info:

Stephanie Grunewald is a psychologist turned transformational coach known as the “Marie Kondo for your life.” She helps high-achieving women release what no longer fits, reconnect to purpose, and create more aligned and sustainable lives through coaching, retreats, and psychology-informed workshops.

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

What if the success you’ve been chasing was never really about success at all, but protection? In this deeply honest conversation, Jonathan White shares how the survival strategies that once helped him navigate a chaotic childhood eventually led him toward burnout, disconnection, and a marriage in crisis. This episode explores the hidden emotional drivers beneath high achievement and what it means to stop running long enough to truly examine your life. 

Summary:

In this episode, Dr. Katie sits down with founder, attorney, and speaker Jonathan White for a powerful conversation about high achievement, hustle culture, masculinity, vulnerability, and the courage it takes to live authentically. Jonathan opens up about growing up in a home shaped by addiction and how early survival strategies — achievement, constant movement, control, and performance — became the foundation of his identity and success. But beneath the accomplishments was a deeper truth: he wasn’t chasing success, he was chasing safety. 

After a personal breaking point in 2014 nearly cost him his marriage and family, Jonathan began a profound journey of self-reflection through therapy and a men’s group that challenged everything he believed about strength and vulnerability. From that experience, he developed four guiding principles that transformed his life: show up, tell the truth, let go of the outcome, and be vulnerable. Together, Katie and Jonathan unpack the difference between survival-driven striving and authentic ambition — revealing how it’s possible to pursue growth, leadership, and success without abandoning yourself in the process. 

Key Learnings:

• Drive itself is not the problem, it's what is driving the drive?
• Many high achievers unknowingly pursue success as a form of emotional protection or safe validation. 
• External recognition can never heal internal disconnection or unresolved pain. 
• Constant striving can become a way to avoid vulnerability, stillness, and self-examination. 
• Authentic ambition allows you to pursue growth and excellence without abandoning yourself in the process. 
• Vulnerability is not weakness; it is a courageous act of emotional honesty and connection. 
• Real transformation begins when we stop running long enough to ask ourselves why we’re running at all.

Resources:

• Jonathan’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-white-77b61310/
• Jonathan’s website: https://www.jonathanwhitespeaks.com/

Guest Bio:

Jonathan White is a founder, attorney, and keynote speaker who helps leaders and high performers understand how early survival strategies — like achievement, control, and staying constantly busy — can fuel success at first, but quietly limit growth and fulfillment over time. After a personal and relational breaking point forced him to reevaluate the patterns driving his life, Jonathan began redefining success through courage, vulnerability, and intentional living. Today, he helps ambitious professionals pursue meaningful success without self-abandonment by teaching the principles of presence, honesty, emotional courage, and authentic leadership. 

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

What if competition isn’t the problem—but how we’ve been taught to compete is? In this episode, Dr. Katie sits down with Jake Thompson to challenge the “me vs. you” mindset and explore how competing with yourself can unlock growth, confidence, and fulfillment. 

Summary:

Competition often gets a bad reputation—triggering comparison, self-doubt, and the constant pressure to measure up. But what if competition was never meant to be about beating others in the first place?

In this conversation, Jake Thompson, founder of Compete Every Day, reframes competition as an internal pursuit—one rooted in growth, intentionality, and becoming better than you were yesterday. Together, Katie and Jake unpack how comparison can either hold us back or fuel our growth, depending on how we use it. They explore why so many of us tie our worth to outcomes we can’t control, and how shifting our focus to daily inputs can change everything.

From redefining success to building your own “personal scoreboard,” this episode is a powerful reminder that the goal isn’t to win against others—it’s to show up, do the work, and compete for the life you actually want. 

Key Learnings:

• Competition isn’t about beating others—it’s about striving toward growth and improvement.
• Comparison can be harmful or helpful depending on how you frame/use it.
• Most people focus too much on outcomes, instead of the daily inputs that create them.
• Clarity is everything—when you know the game you’re playing, you stop chasing someone else’s. 
• Growth comes from consistency and intentionality, not quick wins or “secret formulas”.

Resources:

• Jake Thompson’s website: https://www.jakeathompson.com/
• Compete Every Day Podcast (Spotify): https://open.spotify.com/show/0o4cJkMH3OBBb5NmJ6Ij7J

Guest Info:

Jake Thompson is a speaker, coach, and founder of Compete Every Day, where he helps individuals and teams redefine competition by focusing on continuous personal growth. His work challenges the traditional “me vs. you” mindset, empowering people to compete with themselves, build stronger habits, and pursue meaningful, lasting success. 

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

You won’t always be welcomed into the room—but you can still lead it. Natasha Ryan shares the hard-earned lessons of standing tall among giants: claiming your space, leading with courage, and becoming the person others need to see. This is mentorship, leadership, and service—without the filter. 

Summary:

After 26 years as a Blackhawk MEDEVAC pilot in the United States Army, Natasha Ryan knows what it means to lead when the stakes are high and the pressure is real. But some of her most defining moments didn’t happen in the cockpit—they happened in rooms where she wasn’t fully welcomed, in systems that weren’t built for her, and in the quiet decisions to show up anyway. 

In this conversation, Natasha pulls back the curtain on what real mentorship looks like—not a formal program or polished process, but intentional moments of presence, honesty, and belief that can change the trajectory of someone’s life. From the moment she saw two women pilots and realized what was possible, to the way she now creates those same moments for others, this episode is a powerful reminder: representation doesn’t just inspire—it activates. 

Together, we explore what it takes to belong before you’re accepted, how to lead with both strength and emotional intelligence, and why mentorship isn’t optional—it’s your legacy. This is a conversation about courage: the courage to take up space, to stay true to who you are in environments that challenge you, and to lift others as you rise.

Key Learnings:

• You don’t have to be welcomed to belong. Sometimes leadership starts with claiming your space before others recognize it. 
• Mentorship happens in moments. A single conversation, gesture, or example can change someone’s entire life. 
• Representation activates possibility. Seeing someone like you can unlock a future you didn’t know was available. 
• Emotional intelligence is a leadership advantage. You can’t remove emotion—you must learn to read it, regulate it, and respond to it. 
• Lifting others is the work. Your leadership isn’t just about what you achieve—it’s about who you bring with you.

Resources:

• Natasha's LinkedIn
• Natasha's Tillman Scholar Bio

Guest Info:

Natasha Ryan is a Chief Warrant Officer Four in the United States Army, currently transitioning into retirement after 26 years of service. As a Blackhawk MEDEVAC pilot, she has flown life-saving missions in high-stakes combat environments and served in roles supporting hostage recovery and humanitarian efforts. Natasha is a Tillman Scholar and a passionate advocate for mentorship, service, and leadership grounded in emotional intelligence, and she is committed to helping others see what’s possible—especially in spaces where they may not yet feel they belong. 

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

What if resilience isn’t about pushing through — but about how you live before the hard moments arrive? In this episode, Tissa Richards shares a powerful reframe — moving from reactive resilience to intentional, energy-aligned living. Learn practical tools to build sustainable strength, avoid burnout, and navigate both challenges and opportunities with clarity and confidence. 

Summary:

Dr. Katie sits down with Tissa Richards to challenge the cultural narrative that resilience is about grit, endurance, and “bouncing back.” Instead, Tissa introduces a powerful reframe: what most of us have been practicing is reactive resilience — constantly responding to what’s happening to us — which keeps us stuck in survival mode. 

Together, they explore the shift to intentional resilience — a proactive, energy-aligned way of living that helps you build the internal capacity to handle both challenges and opportunities. Through practical tools, real-life examples, and deeply reflective questions, this conversation invites you to move from asking “Why is this happening to me?” to “What is happening through me?” — unlocking clarity, agency, and sustainable strength in how you live, work, and lead.

Key Learnings:

• Resilience has been misunderstood. Most people equate it with endurance and survival, but that mindset keeps us stuck in reactive mode. 
• Shift from reactive → intentional resilience. True resilience is something you build proactively through habits, boundaries, and self-awareness — not something you access only in crisis. 
• Reframe your perspective. Asking “What’s happening through me?” instead of “to me?” creates meaning, ownership, and forward momentum. 
• Micro-moments build the muscle. Small, everyday decisions — like pausing, setting boundaries, and aligning your calendar with your priorities — create long-term resilience. 
• Energy fuels resilience. Noticing “glimmers” (small moments of joy or connection) helps replenish your capacity and sustain strength over time. 

Resources:

• Rethinking Resilience: Fueling Sustainable Strength in a Fast-Paced World by Tissa Richards
•  Website: https://www.tissarichards.com/
•  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tissa-richards/
•  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Tissa_richards

Guest Info:

Tissa Richards is a resilience strategist, keynote speaker, and author of Rethinking Resilience. She works with leaders and organizations to move beyond hustle culture and redefine resilience as an intentional, energy-aligned way of living and leading. Known for her “aggressively pragmatic” approach, Tissa blends bold perspective shifts with actionable tools to help people build sustainable strength and thrive in a fast-paced world. 

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

What if your exhaustion isn’t a sign that you’re failing—but proof that you’re managing far more than anyone sees? This episode reframes the chaos of everyday life as something you can actually lead—with intention, clarity, and systems. 

Summary:

In this episode, Dr. Katie sits down with Lisa Woodruff, founder of Organize 365, to explore what it truly means to run your home—and your life—like a CEO. Together, they unpack the concept of the “invisible CEO,” the often-unseen mental load carried by women and primary household leaders, and why traditional approaches to productivity fall short in the personal space.

Lisa challenges the idea that doing more is the answer. Instead, she introduces a systems-based approach to managing life—one that mirrors how successful organizations operate. From distinguishing between visible and invisible work to implementing tools like the Sunday Basket, this conversation highlights how externalizing tasks frees up cognitive capacity for higher-level thinking, planning, and creativity.

Ultimately, this episode is about reclaiming agency. When you stop reacting to the endless demands of life and start leading with intention, you create space—not just for efficiency—but for purpose, growth, and the things that truly matter.

Key Learnings

• You are already the CEO of your life—the shift is recognizing your agency and leading instead of reacting. 
• The invisible load is real—and it’s often the most exhausting part of running a household. 
• Systems > willpower—externalizing tasks reduces decision fatigue and frees up mental capacity. 
• Perfection is the trap; excellence is the goal—grace replaces judgment when you shift your standards. 
• You don’t have to do everything you see—permission granted to opt out of expectations that don’t serve you.

Resources:

• Explore Lisa's website: Organize 365
• Explore Lisa's book: Escaping Quicksand

Guest Info:

Lisa Woodruff is the founder and CEO of Organize 365, where she helps women reduce overwhelm by creating practical systems for home and life. A former professional organizer, Lisa specializes in helping people manage the invisible mental load that comes with running a household. Her work focuses on increasing capacity, clarity, and freedom—not through perfection, but through sustainable systems. She is also the host of the Organize 365 podcast and author of Escaping Quicksand. 

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

We often think other people cause our emotional experience — but what if our feelings are actually revealing something deeper happening within us? In this thought-provoking conversation, Dr. Katie and Carole Stizza invites us to rethink how we understand emotions, needs, blame, and personal agency. Emotional responsibility, she argues, is not about denying impact or suppressing feelings — it’s about recognizing that our emotions are signals, and what we do with them is ours to own. 

Summary:

Carole Stizza, founder of Relevant Insight, brings a bold but compassionate lens to emotional responsibility: no one else is responsible for our feelings, even when their words or actions trigger something inside us. She explains how quickly we move from an external event to an emotional reaction and then into story-making — often crafting narratives that deepen hurt, resentment, or blame before we ever pause to understand what is actually happening inside us. At the center of her work is one key question: What need is not being met? 

The conversation explores why so many people struggle to own their emotions, including limited emotional language, mismanaged thinking, and learned habits of projection. Carole offers a practical path forward: slow down, name what you feel, examine the story you are telling, and become curious before reactive. Through examples from leadership, marriage, parenting, and workplace conflict, she shows that emotional responsibility is not passive — it actually creates healthier accountability, stronger relationships, and more honest conversations. 

Perhaps the most powerful reframe of the episode is Carole’s reminder that emotions are not enemies: “Your emotions are trying to love you into a new perspective.” Instead of fearing hard feelings, we can learn to see them as invitations toward greater self-awareness, healing, and choice. 

Key Learnings:

• Emotional responsibility begins when we stop saying “you made me feel…” and start asking what is happening inside us.
• Negative emotions often point to an unmet need, not simply another person’s wrongdoing.
• The stories we tell ourselves after an emotional trigger often intensify misunderstanding.
• Emotional literacy matters: if we lack language for what we feel, blame becomes easier than clarity.
• Accountability and emotional ownership can coexist — we can own our feelings and still address behavior constructively.

Resources:

• Carole's website
• Connect with Carol on LinkedIn

Guest Info:

Carole Stizza is the founder of Relevant Insight, an author, keynote speaker, and executive coach who helps leaders and organizations strengthen accountability, communication, and workplace culture. Her work challenges one of the most common habits of modern life — outsourcing our emotions — and teaches people how emotional responsibility transforms both leadership and relationships. 

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

What if listening isn’t about being quiet, nodding, or waiting your turn to speak — but about helping someone feel truly understood? In this conversation, Christine Miles challenges the idea that most of us are good listeners and offers a powerful reframe: listening is not a personality trait, it’s a skill we must learn and practice. 

Summary:

In this episode, Dr. Katie sits down with Christine Miles to unpack what listening really means — and why so many of us misunderstand it. Christine shares that while most people assume they’re strong listeners, very few have ever been formally taught how to listen in a way that creates understanding. Instead, we often confuse listening with paying attention, agreeing, or preparing a response. Christine argues that real listening is about uncovering the meaning beneath the words and getting to the story underneath the story.

Together, Katie and Christine explore the “listening gap” — the space between what someone is actually trying to express and what another person hears or assumes. Christine shares how her personal story, combined with years of professional leadership experience, led her to develop the Listening Path, a framework that helps people move beyond performative listening and into deeper connection. The conversation also highlights practical tools like summarizing instead of reacting, asking better questions, and recognizing that understanding begins after someone speaks — not when they finish.

Key Learnings:

• Most of us have been told to listen, but very few of us have actually been taught how.
• Listening is not about agreement, compliance, or performance — it is about understanding.
• Saying “I understand” is rarely enough; people feel understood when you can reflect the fuller story back to them.
• Strong listening helps de-escalate emotionally charged situations and creates trust in teams, families, and relationships.
• Better listening starts with simple practices: summarize instead of immediately responding, ask “Tell me more,” and make space for emotion, not just facts.

Resources:

• Christine's website
• Christine's book: What Is It Costing You Not To Listen?
• Connect with Christine on LinkedIn

Guest Info:

Christine Miles is a global pioneer in listening intelligence, host of her podcast, “Shine a light,” keynote speaker, emcee, award-winning author of What Is It Costing You Not to Listen?, keynote speaker, and founder of The Listening Path®, a revolutionary system transforming how the world listens and connects. Her work, utilized by Fortune 100 companies and schools worldwide, empowers leaders, educators, and changemakers to leverage listening as a strategic advantage. Christine is also the CEO of EQuipt, with over 25 years of experience helping individuals and organizations create cultures of empathy, drive performance, and achieve lasting success.  Her thought leadership has been featured in USA Today, ABC, NBC, NPR and Sirius XM.

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

Some of the hardest conversations in our lives are the ones we were never taught to have. In this episode, Dr. Katie chats with Betty-Anne Howard about why topics like sex and money (among many others) still carry so much silence, shame, and discomfort — and how learning to talk about them can transform the way we communicate about everything else.

Summary:

In this thoughtful and energizing conversation, Katie sits down with speaker, author, educator, former sex therapist, and financial planner Betty-Anne Howard to explore why conversations around sex and money so often go quiet. Together, they examine how silence is learned, how shame gets passed down through families and culture, and why many of us were never given the language, permission, or emotional safety to talk openly about topics that profoundly shape our lives.

Rather than staying at the level of taboo, this episode goes deeper into what avoidance is really protecting, how our lived experiences shape our relationship with sex and money, and what it looks like to begin talking about difficult topics with more curiosity, compassion, and courage. This episode offers listeners a framework for approaching any conversation they’ve been avoiding.

Key Learnings:

• Avoidance is often learned early through silence, shame, and lack of language, not because we are incapable of hard conversations.
• Our relationship with these topics (like sex, money, mental health, emotions) is shaped by family systems, culture, lived experience, and the stories we’ve internalized over time.
• Many difficult conversations become more charged when we assign labels, create polarities, or equate the topic with our worth.
• Before diving into a hard subject, it can be helpful to first talk about how to talk about it, including safety, boundaries, and consent.
• Curiosity, better questions, and gentle next steps can help normalize conversations that once felt impossible.

Resources:

• Betty-Anne's website
• Reflection prompt: What messages did I learn about this topic growing up?
• Reflection exercise: Draw your current relationship with money or sex, then draw the relationship you want

Guest Info:

Betty-Anne Howard is a speaker, educator, author, and award-winning financial planner who helps people have more honest conversations about the topics that shape their lives most deeply. With a background in social work, sexual health education, and sex therapy, she brings a rare blend of emotional insight and practical wisdom to conversations around sex, money, relationships, and self-worth. Her work helps individuals, couples, and families challenge shame, break silence, and build healthier relationships with themselves and one another.

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

We all wear masks—some to belong, some to protect, and some to survive. On this episode, Dr. Katie and John Patrick Henry explore what it means to take off the masks and learn to remove shame, find safety, and be fully seen.

Summary:

This episode explores how the "masks we live in” represent curated versions of ourselves that we wear to fit in, stay safe, earn approval, or avoid what we feel inside. John reflects on how his earliest masks showed up as a child and later evolved into other unhealthy coping mechanisms. Over time, he realized the mask wasn’t a problem (it was his solution to deeper fear) until it became a prison. 

Together, Katie and John unpack how masks can be subtle and socially normalized (“I’m fine!”) or more intense (addiction, spending, status, performance), but the common thread is the same: masking is often fear-based protection from emotional pain, disconnection, and shame. They discuss when masks may be appropriate (temporary privacy, professionalism, protecting children during chaos), and how to tell when a mask becomes a cage, like when it costs you peace, relationships, or integrity. 

John shares practical pathways for unmasking that aren’t about ripping everything off, but about building community over isolation, accountability over secrecy, rest over escape, and truth over performance. John shares a powerful first step for anyone who knows they’re hiding: you don’t have to unmask publicly—you just have to stop wearing it alone.

Key Learnings:

• A mask is often a protection against shame—not deception. John describes unmasking as the removal of shame and the fear of being seen.
• The mask isn’t always the problem—it can start as a solution. Many masks are fear-based coping strategies that become harmful only when they turn into a prison.
• Mask vs. identity: A mask is what you numb with. An identity is what you value. Identity connects to legacy—who you want to be and how you want to live.
• Unmasking is a practice, not a moment. You may take one mask off and put another on—growth is learning to notice sooner and choose differently.
• The first step is safety: “You don’t have to rip the mask off in public. You just have to stop wearing it alone.”

Resources:

• John's Linktree
• John's Facebook

Guest Info:

John Patrick Henry is a speaker and advocate whose work centers on honesty, healing, and what it means to live without hiding. Now more than 17 years sober, John shares his lived experience with addiction recovery, mental health, and personal growth—especially the ongoing process of removing shame and rebuilding inner safety. His message is grounded and practical: unmasking doesn’t require perfection, just truth, support, and the courage to be seen. He reminds listeners that recovery and wholeness are possible—one step, one day, one choice at a time. 

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

What if the “truth” you’re living is actually just a story you learned to believe? In this episode, leadership coach Barbara Boselli helps us separate fact from story—so we can lead, relate, and respond with more clarity, curiosity, and choice. 

Summary:

Dr. Katie sits down with Barbara Boselli—leadership coach, facilitator, and former senior leader in corporate environments including Google—to explore how the narratives we inherit and repeat shape who we become as leaders, partners, parents, and humans. 

Barbara shares how she first realized her “truth” wasn’t universal through a powerful childhood example: she grew up believing disagreement equals disrespect, only to witness a family where disagreement was a form of connection and engagement. That moment sparked a lifelong awareness: we don’t only react to what happens—we react to the meaning we assign to what happens.

Together, Katie and Barbara unpack the difference between facts (observable events) and stories (assumptions, judgments, absolutes like “always” and “never”). Barbara introduces her practical ASK framework—Access awareness, Sort fact from story, Kindle curiosity—as a way to interrupt reactive patterns and widen perspective. The conversation applies this lens to real-life leadership moments like missed deadlines and feedback conversations, showing how quickly we can confuse behavior with intent, label people, and create self-fulfilling outcomes. The episode closes with a deeply empowering reminder: a thought can be another thought—and the choice to shift our thinking can shift our entire experience.

Key Learnings:

• Facts are what happened. Stories are the meaning we attach. If you couldn't put it on a calendar, it’s probably a story.
• Your emotional “yuck” is often a signal that a story is running the show—especially when you feel defensive, judgmental, disconnected, or stuck.
• Use the ASK framework: Access awareness (pause, name what you feel), Sort fact from story, Kindle curiosity (“What else could be true?”).
• In leadership, assumptions damage trust fast. Curiosity builds connection—and helps you coach the real issue instead of reacting to a false one.
• Language matters: “What/How happened?” invites dialogue; “Why?” can trigger defensiveness and shutdown.

Resources:

• Barbara's Website
• Barbara's LinkedIn

Guest Bio:

Barbara Boselli is a leadership coach and facilitator with 15+ years of experience in corporate America, including senior leadership work in high-performing environments. Her work helps individuals and teams identify the narratives driving their behavior—so they can lead with greater clarity, empathy, and effectiveness. Through her keynote, “Fact or Story: How the Narratives We Believe Shape the Leader We Become,” Barbara invites people to challenge limiting assumptions and choose more empowering ways to interpret what’s happening around them. Her approach blends practical leadership tools with deep inner awareness to create lasting change. 

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

Creativity isn’t an artistic identity — it’s a human capacity that helps you make meaning, solve problems, and build a life that fits. In this episode, Dr. Steve Diasio breaks down creativity as a muscle you can train — and shows how to use it as a compass for clarity and alignment. 

Summary:

Dr. Katie sits down with Dr. Steve Diasio — creative strategist, facilitator, coach, and founder of the School of Creativity and Innovation — to dismantle the myths that keep people from claiming creativity as their own. Steve challenges the outdated belief that creativity belongs only to “creatives” or the arts, and reframes it as a learnable process that strengthens through practice. He shares how many of us have been “educated out of creativity,” conditioned to prioritize efficiency, performance, and fast solutions instead of imagination, experimentation, and possibility.

Together, Katie and Steve explore how creativity shows up everywhere: navigating relationship dynamics, resolving team conflict, parenting through uncertainty, and making decisions in life transitions. Steve introduces a simple, practical creative problem-solving framework (inspired by the “double diamond”) that moves from diverging into many ideas to converging on what matters, then testing and iterating with low-risk experiments. He also walks listeners through his “creativity audit” — evaluating the creative self, environment, process, and the tools/products that shape outcomes — proving that creativity isn’t magic. It’s method. And it’s deeply human.

Key Learnings: 

• Creativity is a process, not a personality type. You don’t need to be “a creative” to think creatively — you need practice and permission.
• Constraints can boost creativity. The goal isn’t unlimited freedom; it’s learning how to work creatively within real-world limits.
• Creative problem-solving isn’t rushing to answers. Diverge to generate possibilities, converge to prioritize, then test small experiments to learn and iterate.
• Your environment shapes your creativity. Light, color, tools, clutter, and setup can either support or suffocate your creative capacity.
• In an AI-driven world, creativity becomes more valuable. Steve argues the “human element” — meaning-making, originality, and process — is what will differentiate us going forward.

Resources:

• Steve's website: https://www.stevediasio.com/
• Steve's LinkedIn

Guest Info:

Dr. Steve Diasio is a creative strategist, facilitator, and coach, and the founder of the School of Creativity and Innovation. His work helps individuals and organizations use creativity as a practical tool for clarity, problem-solving, and alignment — far beyond the arts. Steve teaches creativity as a skill you can build through proven exercises, frameworks, and intentional practice. He’s passionate about helping people reclaim creativity as a deeply human capacity for making meaning and progress. 

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

Humor isn’t a punchline — it’s a human skill for making meaning, relieving tension, and creating connection. In this conversation, Kathy Klotz-Guest reframes humor as playfulness + truth-telling that builds trust, unlocks creativity, and makes hard moments easier to navigate.

Summary:

Dr. Katie and humor strategist/comedian Kathy Klotz-Guest unpack the myth that humor is only for “funny people.” Kathy distinguishes being funny (performing for laughs) from humor (sense-making with levity). Humor, she argues, is how we rewrite a healthier story about the hard stuff — the messy, awkward, unchosen parts of life and work — without minimizing them.

They explore why humor works: it lowers perceived threat, releases pressure, and helps people access clearer thinking and creativity. In teams, humor becomes a fast track to trust and psychological safety — when it’s healthy. Kathy breaks down the difference between affiliative humor (laughing with, building together) and aggressive humor (punching down, “steamrolling,” weaponizing laughter). They also discuss how humor can be a cultural signal: the presence (and quality) of laughter often reveals whether people truly feel safe.

Finally, Kathy shares practical ways to apply humor in high-stakes environments: hosting a “funeral” or “roast” for a failed project (with guardrails), naming awkwardness out loud, and using playfulness to surface truth without blame. The closing invitation: if you can laugh, you have access to humor — the work is less “learning” and more unlearning terminal seriousness and giving yourself permission to be fully, authentically you.

Key Learnings:

• Humor ≠ being funny. Humor is sense-making and reframing with lightness; jokes are only one small category.
• Humor lowers the threat level. Healthy laughter helps people shift out of stress mode and back into creative, connected thinking.
• Trust moves at the speed of self-awareness. When leaders can laugh at their own mistakes, it signals safety and accountability.
• Not all humor is healthy. Affiliative humor builds morale and connection; aggressive humor punches down and destroys trust.
• Laughter is a culture signal. Organic, inclusive laughter often indicates psychological safety; forced laughter (or mean laughter) is a red flag.
• Humor is a leadership muscle. Most people “have it,” but they need permission and practice.
• Use humor to process failure without blame. “Roast the project, not the people” can surface truth, reveal themes, and move teams forward.

Resources:

• Kathy's website: Keeping It Human
• Kathy's book: Stop Boring Me
• Kathy's Podcast: Seriously Funny

Guest Info:

Kathy Klotz-Guest is a speaker, author, and humor strategist — and a standup comedian with a background in tech. She helps leaders and organizations keep work human in high-pressure environments by using humor to build trust, psychological safety, and connection. Her work focuses on making humor accessible as a learnable leadership skill, not a personality trait.

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

What if discomfort isn’t something to fix or escape—but something to notice? In this episode, Dr. Katie shares a powerful realization from a long treadmill run that reshaped how she understands growth, discomfort, and presence. Through story, science, and simple practices, she invites listeners to rethink how quickly we label sensations as “bad”—and how that judgment quietly fuels suffering. 

Summary:

Discomfort shows up everywhere—in our bodies, emotions, relationships, work, and growth journeys. And almost instantly, we judge it. We label it as bad, uncomfortable, miserable, or something that needs to stop. Without realizing it, that judgment gives discomfort power.

In this episode, Katie walks listeners through a real-time epiphany she had during a long treadmill run: many of the sensations she was experiencing weren’t painful or dangerous—they were simply sensations. It wasn’t the discomfort that made the experience hard; it was the story she was telling about it.

Blending lived experience with mindfulness research, neuroscience, and somatic awareness, Katie explores how labeling sensations triggers our nervous system into control mode—driving us to fix, numb, escape, or resist. She introduces the concept of interoception (our awareness of internal bodily sensations), explains the difference between discomfort and suffering, and shows how mindfulness helps us stay present without judgment.

Listeners are guided through a short, practical exercise to “feel without fixing” and are invited to reframe discomfort not as a signal of danger—but as a natural and often necessary part of growth.

Key Learnings:

• We judge sensations—physical, emotional, relational—far more quickly than we realize
• Labeling discomfort as “bad” activates urgency, control, and resistance in the nervous system
• Discomfort and suffering are not the same: suffering is the story + resistance layered onto sensation
• Interoception (awareness of internal sensations) supports emotional regulation when paired with mindfulness
• Growth always involves sensations—and discomfort doesn’t mean something is wrong
• Curiosity and presence create agency; judgment gives sensations power

Practices Shared in This Episode:

• Name sensations without judgment (e.g., “tight,” “warm,” “intense” instead of “awful”)
• Stay with discomfort one breath longer before reacting or escaping
• Use curiosity as a regulation tool by asking: What is this sensation asking me to notice?

Reflection Question:

What sensations in your life are you labeling as “bad” that might simply be part of your growth—or just part of being human?

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

What if “doing less” isn’t quitting? What if it's the most strategic way to reclaim clarity, energy, and real impact? In this episode, Nell Derick teaches us how to stop living on the hamster wheel of gold-star achievement and start making space for what actually matters.

Summary:

Dr. Katie sits down with keynote speaker, leadership advisor, and author Nell Derick to unpack her countercultural framework: systematic subtraction.

Together they name the tension so many high performers live inside—craving simplicity while stacking more habits, commitments, and “shoulds” in the name of becoming healthier, better, and more successful. Nell calls out the system behind our “more” addiction: modern incentives, social conditioning, and the gold-star mentality that trained us early in life to equate worth with output.

Nell introduces a practical three-step process—Stop, Drop, Roll—to help people gather honest data about what’s working, experiment with subtracting what drains them, and then “roll” forward through systems thinking: making one action serve multiple values instead of adding more tasks. From parenting overload and workplace meetings to nonprofit board roles and leadership identity, the conversation lands on a powerful truth: we can have more impact without doing more—especially when we subtract noise, false urgency, and outdated expectations so we can show up more fully human.

Key Learnings:

• Doing less is hard because the system rewards doing more. We’ve been trained—socially and economically—to chase gold stars, streaks, promotions, and productivity as proof of worth.
• Systematic subtraction starts with honest data. The first step is “Stop”—pause long enough to ask, How is this really working? without self-gaslighting or shame.
• Subtraction works best as an experiment, not a forever decision. “Drop” means trying a change (one season without a sport, one week skipping a meeting) to see what improves in your life and nervous system.
• “Roll” is the shift from doing to being. Instead of piling on more tasks, connect actions to multiple outcomes—health, values, relationships, and impact—so life feels integrated instead of stacked.
• High performance is changing. Nell argues that today’s real edge isn’t obsessive busywork—it’s presence, humanity, discernment, and the relational skills no technology can replace.

Resources:

• Nell Derick: Nell3D (website + work)
• Nell's FREE 1-Page "Subtract to Succeed" framework
• Nell's Substack + 100-Day Subtraction Practice

Guest Info:

Nell Derick is a keynote speaker, leadership advisor, and author who helps high-performing, purpose-driven leaders subtract what drains them so they can lead and live with greater clarity, alignment, and impact. Her work blends systems thinking with deeply human insight, offering practical tools that create more space without sacrificing ambition or contribution. Nell’s approach is both compassionate and sharp, challenging the myth that more effort always equals more impact. She teaches leaders how to become fully present, more effective, and more alive—without burning out.

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

What if “reality” isn’t reality… but a well-worn habit of thinking that once protected you and is now quietly running your life? In this episode, Amy Kemp helps us name those subconscious patterns so we can stop living on autopilot and start making millimeter-shifts toward a life we actually love.

Summary:

Dr. Katie and Amy unpack how ~80% of our thoughts happen below conscious awareness, meaning we’re often reacting from old mental grooves that were built for survival—not fulfillment. Amy explains that the brain creates automatic thought patterns to conserve energy and keep us safe, but those same patterns can become limiting once the season that required them has passed. A major theme: you’re not your thoughts but you are the one who can notice them.

Through vivid stories (like launching a book and instantly sliding from “this will be amazing” to “this is a disaster”), Amy shows how quickly the brain can jump into catastrophic thinking. The turning point isn’t “fixing yourself”—it’s building awareness + language so you can slow down in high-risk moments and choose a different response. The conversation also explores why change feels terrifying even when we want it: your subconscious may interpret slowing down, earning more, or setting boundaries as danger because it threatens old survival rules, identity, or belonging. The path forward is not a five-step hack—it’s compassionate, incremental rewiring.

Key Learnings:

• Most of your thinking is subconscious. You’re living the top of the iceberg, while deeper mental grooves shape your reactions, choices, and relationships.
• Survival patterns can outlive their usefulness. What helped you “get the plane off the ground” (hustle, over-functioning, hypervigilance) can become the very thing that crashes you later.
• Naming creates agency. When you can label what’s happening (“I’m catastrophizing,” “I’m in fight-or-flight,” “I’m attached to this idea”), you create a pause—and the pause is power.
• The Habit Finder is about risk, not personality. It highlights where you’re most likely to slide into old grooves—so you can slow down, bring support, and build new pathways.
• Millimeter shifts beat dramatic overhauls. Deep, lasting change happens incrementally—especially in a culture addicted to speed, convenience, and constant stimulation.

Resources:

• Amy's book: "I See You"
• The Habit Finder assessment (behavioral “risk” tool Amy uses and offers via her website)
• The “superhighway” metaphor for neuroplasticity (Katie references The Confidence Code)

Guest Info:

Amy Kemp is the owner and CEO of Amy Kemp, Inc., an author, and a coach who helps leaders and business professionals understand how subconscious habits of thinking shape performance, relationships, and fulfillment. Her work centers on building awareness of the mental “grooves” that once protected us but may now be limiting us. Using tools like the Habit Finder assessment, Amy helps clients identify thinking risks, slow down in pivotal moments, and create sustainable change through incremental practice. Her approach is deeply compassionate, practical, and grounded in how the brain is wired for survival.

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

What if being “your own cheerleader” isn’t self-promotion… but self-respect in motion? In this episode, Dr. Katie chats with organizational psychologist, Neelu Kaur, who reframes self-advocacy as a generous act—one that helps you and leaves a trail for others to follow.

Summary:

In this conversation, Katie and Neelu explore the tension so many of us feel: we’re told to share our voice and value—yet we’re also conditioned not to “brag,” “show off,” or “rock the boat.” Neelu introduces a powerful reframe: move from a “look at me” mindset (which can feel hollow or icky) to a “listen to me” mindset rooted in contribution, clarity, and meaningful impact.

Neelu shares how repeated downsizing and being escorted out of a job became the catalyst for her own self-advocacy journey. Together, she and Katie unpack the cultural roots of self-silencing (collectivism vs. individualism, family conditioning, small-town and military norms, neurodivergence, introversion) and why “doing great work” is rarely enough in modern workplaces—especially large, matrixed organizations.

The conversation gets practical: Neelu offers micro-practices to build the self-advocacy muscle in low-stakes situations (think: dinner plans, choosing the restaurant, speaking up in a line at CVS), and a “dial” approach to communication—adjusting the “I” and “we” depending on context without betraying your authenticity. The episode closes with a reminder that self-advocacy isn’t just about career advancement—it’s a life skill that can help you set boundaries, leave unhealthy dynamics, and claim space in any room you enter.

Key Learnings:

• Reframe the goal: self-advocacy doesn’t have to be “look at me”—it can be “listen to me,” grounded in value and service.
• It’s cultural, not just personal: our comfort with self-promotion is shaped by upbringing, microculture, collectivist norms, personality, and identity.
• Use the “dial” method: turn up I (performance reviews, promotions, wins) and turn up we (team settings)—without losing who you are.
• Build the muscle with micro-moments: practice in low-stakes spaces so you can show up in high-stakes ones.
• Self-advocacy is generous: when you advocate for yourself, you model what’s possible and create a path for others—especially those who’ve been socialized to stay small.

Resources:

• Neelu Kaur — Be Your Own Cheerleader (book)
• Explore Neelu's work: https://www.neelukaur.com/
• Concepts discussed: collectivism vs. individualism, microaggressions, representation, internal branding, relationship-building in matrixed organizations
• Katie’s practical tool from the episode: ask others, “What are you working on that you’re excited about?” then share your own answer naturally.

Guest Info:

Neelu Kaur is an organizational psychologist, keynote speaker, coach, and author of Be Your Own Cheerleader. She champions self-advocacy—especially for those who have been conditioned by culture, identity, or workplace dynamics to stay quiet and “let their work speak for itself.” Through her work, Neelu helps people build confident, authentic communication skills that elevate their voice, visibility, and impact. Her approach blends psychology, leadership development, and practical tools that make self-advocacy feel doable—not performative.

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

It’s the first Monday of 2026—aka “new year, new health goals” season—and this episode offers a refreshingly different way to take control of your wellbeing: track what’s happening inside your body, not what’s showing up on the scale. Dr. Torkil Færø breaks down important metrics from everyday wearables that can become your personal health dashboard for energy, resilience, and longevity. 

Summary:

In this conversation, Dr. Katie nerds out (in the best way) with Dr. Torkil Færø—medical doctor, photographer, and bestselling author of The Pulse Cure—about how wearable data can help you “listen” to your body with more clarity than guesswork alone. Torkil explains why metrics like heart rate variability (HRV) and resting heart rate can signal stress, inflammation, overtraining, late meals, alcohol, or even an oncoming illness before symptoms appear—essentially giving you early warning signs so you can respond sooner.

Rather than chasing trendy fixes, Torkil reframes the goal as health normalization: getting your body back to how it’s designed to function. He emphasizes that the biggest levers are still the basics—sleep, movement, sunlight, nutrition, stress management, and connection—yet most people underestimate how powerfully these choices show up in their data. The episode ultimately lands on an empowering message: your wearable can help you reclaim agency, reduce chronic “blah,” and build a lifestyle that supports long-term vitality and longevity.

Key Learnings:

• Your body often “knows” before you do. HRV dropping and resting heart rate rising can be early indicators of illness, inflammation, or overload—sometimes before you feel symptoms.
• VO₂ max is a longevity signal. Improving fitness capacity isn’t just about performance—it’s strongly tied to overall health and long-term outcomes (and it reflects how well your cells, especially mitochondria, are functioning).
• Food, alcohol, and timing can be major stressors. Ultra-processed foods, added sugar, alcohol, and late-night eating can show up clearly in your recovery and sleep—sometimes more than your “mental stress” does.
• Data builds body awareness—not replaces it. Wearables act like a missing “internal sense,” helping you connect patterns (sleep, meals, cycle timing, training load) to how you feel and function.

Resources:

• The Pulse Cure — Dr. Torkil Færø (also available as an audiobook)
• Wearables mentioned: Garmin (recommended as best value), Oura Ring, WHOOP, Apple Watch (usable, varies by features)
• Key metrics to explore: HRV, resting heart rate, VO₂ max, sleep score/recovery, stress tracking

Guest Info:

Dr. Torkil Færø is a medical doctor, photographer, and bestselling author known for making health data practical and accessible. After working with tens of thousands of patients, he became passionate about prevention—and about helping people use everyday wearable metrics to better understand stress, recovery, sleep, and overall resilience. His book The Pulse Cure shares lifestyle-based strategies to “normalize” health by using the heart’s signals as a real-time guide. He’s also built a global following by translating complex physiology into simple, actionable steps people can use immediately.

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

In this powerful conversation, Dr. Katie chats with Professor Daiki Kato, who coined the term rolefulness: a practical, human way to experience meaning and harmony in everyday life by nurturing both our “big” roles and the small, easily overlooked ones. 

Katie and Professor Kato explore why modern life pulls us toward checklists and away from connection—and how simple, intentional practices can restore joy, identity, and purpose.

What You'll Learn:

• Two sides of rolefulness: (1) Social rolefulness (feeling useful, needed, connected with familiar people—even two people make a “society”); and (2) Internal rolefulness (how those experiences internalize into confidence, identity, and self-trust).
• Why we feel role distress: over-investing in a few “big” roles while ignoring smaller, nourishing ones; living by facts and to-dos while neglecting feelings and connection.
• Balance beats perfection: shifting from “I have to be a perfect ___” to “I can be myself in this role.”
• Micro-practices that work: express gratitude often, enjoy short real conversations, exchange simple greetings, and intentionally notice the small roles that light you up.
• Identity connection: how social rolefulness becomes internal rolefulness—turning moments of contribution into confidence and a more grounded sense of self.

About Professor Kato:
Daiki Kato is a clinical psychologist and professor at Kinjo Gakuin University in Japan. His research and practice bridge art therapy and everyday well-being. He coined the concept of rolefulness and studies how cultivating small, interpersonal roles can strengthen mental health, confidence, and purpose.

Links & Resources:

• Connect with Professor Kato on LinkedIn
• Explore more about Rolefulness

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

They talk about the inner work it takes to step into your own power, how to find purpose in an industry that doesn’t look “sexy” from the outside, and what it really means to be the only (or first) woman in the room—and refuse to shrink.  

What You'll Learn:

• Why “I just help…” is a red flag
  How and why so many women instinctively downplay their leadership—and what shifts when you finally name what you actually do.
• How empathy becomes a leadership superpower
  Why Marina stopped hiding her deep care and emotion and how showing it has made her a stronger, not weaker, leader.
• Moving from hustle to alignment
  The belief Marina let go of about hard work—and what she’s replaced it with instead (hint: relationships, systems, and the right “who,” not just more “doing”).
• Being the only woman in the room
  Practical ways to walk into spaces with grounded confidence, prepare yourself energetically, and remember it’s not about proving your worth—it’s about shifting what’s possible for the women who come after you.
• Reframing power
  How to move from power-over and scarcity to a more expansive, shared model of power rooted in agency, impact, and collective rise.
• Why allies matter
  The role supportive men and colleagues have played in Marina’s journey—and how we can all champion women leaders in more intentional ways.

About Marina:

Marina Ivanov is the co-founder and CEO of Apex Transit Solutions, a transportation and logistics company she helped build from a single truck into a thriving business that supports dozens of families. A first-generation woman leader in a traditionally male-dominated industry, Marina advocates for drivers and small carriers at both the state and national level, serves on multiple advisory boards, and is passionate about creating workplaces where people feel valued, seen, and safe to be themselves. She is a powerful example of what happens when a woman stops playing small, owns her leadership, and chooses to lead with both strength and heart.

Links & Resources:

• Connect with Marina on LinkedIn
• Explore Apex Transit Solutions

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

Fabi is the founder and president of SPARK Publications and the author of Wilted and Worthy: Essays on Holding On, Letting Go, and Living Fully. She shares how a cancer diagnosis, a healing sabbatical, and a camera turned toward wilting flowers completely shifted her relationship with control, achievement, and what it means to live a meaningful life.

Katie and Fabi talk about why so many of us cling to productivity, how to recognize when we’re forcing a dream that no longer fits, and what it looks like to honor our “wilted” seasons as just as worthy as our perky, high-achieving ones. 

This episode is an invitation to soften your grip, listen to your own heart, and move into your next season with more courage, clarity, and compassion—for yourself and your story.

What You'll Learn:

• A new way to think about “living fully” that centers authenticity, courage, and creative self-expression (not constant doing)
• How to notice when you’re forcing a dream, identity, or path—and a simple question Fabi uses to discern whether it’s time to rest or to release
• The emotional cost of hustle culture and what happens when you stop chasing scale, status, and other people’s definitions of success
• Why contentment is not complacency, and how gratitude for this moment can coexist with desire for what’s next

About Fabi Preslar:

Fabi Preslar is the founder and president of SPARK Publications, an award-winning publishing firm that helps thought leaders and business owners turn their expertise into high-impact books and magazines. She is the author of Wilted and Worthy: Essays on Holding On, Letting Go, and Living Fully, a lyrical collection of essays and images that invites readers to honor every season of their becoming.

Proceeds from Wilted and Worthy support Radiant Chapters Collective, the nonprofit Fabi founded to help underrepresented authors get published and share their stories with the world. Across all of her work, Fabi is devoted to helping people embrace their authenticity, find rest in stillness, and transform their stories into legacies of healing and empowerment.

Links & Resources:

• Connect with Fabi on LinkedIn
• Connect with Fabi on Instagram
• Purchase Fabi's book: Wilted and Worthy
• Explore SPARK Publications

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

Content note: We use the word “sh!t” a handful of times because…it’s the point. If you’re listening at work or with kids around, pop in headphones.

What You'll Learn:

• How surrender becomes strength. When life blows up your illusion of control, what happens next?
• Why “having your sh!t together” is a cultural performance—and how dropping the act sets you free.
• Cold Water Courage. How breathwork and cold exposure helped Cindy regulate her nervous system, quiet shame, and rebuild trust in her body.
• The difference between “dirty pain” and “clean pain.” And why the second kind is where healing actually happens.
• How to transform humiliation into something sacred. A practical reframing for anyone moving through their own private sh!t show.
• A simple, powerful tool you can use today: one intentional breath that interrupts panic and brings you back home to yourself.

If you’re in the thick of your own sh!t show, this episode is your reminder that you’re not alone—and that the thing you’re hiding might hold the very wisdom you need next.

About Cindy Ruzicka:
Cindy Ruzicka is an entrepreneur, designer, speaker, and in-home wellness expert whose work now centers on nervous system healing, authenticity, and what she calls Cold Water Courage. After navigating a life-altering health crisis marked by shame, isolation, and ultimately profound transformation, Cindy has become a powerful voice for surrender, embodiment, and the kind of truth-telling that sets people free. She and her husband Dion are passionate advocates of breathwork, sauna, and cold immersion practices, and together they help others reconnect with their bodies, reclaim their courage, and find peace in the midst of the messy, beautiful human journey.

Links & Resources:

• Connect with Cindy on LinkedIn
• Explore Cindy's business: https://www.loylysaunalounge.com/

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

Dan shares how he moved through several careers before realizing he could build a meaningful, integrated life right where he was: in a family scrapyard asking people to torch metal in 5° or 95° weather. Today, he’s transforming his company and his community through intentional leadership, a humility-first mindset, and a belief that business can—and should—be a force for good.

This episode is an invitation to rethink the 90,000 hours most of us spend at work and to see that purpose isn’t “out there” somewhere… it’s something we create, on purpose, exactly where we stand.

What You’ll Learn:

• Why you don’t need to change industries to do meaningful work—and how to start living with purpose today.
• How Dan’s “humility agenda” is reshaping a traditionally fixed-mindset, blue-collar industry.
• The surprising ROI of pouring into people and community, even when it doesn’t show up neatly on a spreadsheet.
• Three powerful questions to ask in a job interview to quickly understand whether a leader will invest in your growth.
• How to integrate (not silo) your life, work, purpose, and values into one cohesive whole.
• Why Gen Z stays loyal to leaders who work with them, not above them—and what that means for the future of leadership.

About Dan Sahd:

Dan Sahd is a third-generation leader of Sahd Metal Recycling, a family-owned industrial metal recycling business in Columbia, Pennsylvania. After spending years in media sales and research, Dan returned home to the business and now leads operations alongside his cousin Mike. He is committed to purpose-driven leadership: empowering team members, investing in community sustainability, and building business with integrity. Under his guidance, the company prioritizes education, innovation, and both people-and planet-focused values. 

Links & Resources:

• Dan's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-sahd-8b27a127/
• Website: https://recycleyourmetal.com/

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

In this week’s conversation, Kristy Kuhl — high-performance coach, keynote speaker, and energy catalyst for entrepreneurs and executives — joins Dr. Katie to unpack what “stuck” really means. She helps us see that "stuckness' is a signal of misalignment between who we are and how we’re showing up.

Kristy and Katie talk about the three ways people get stuck (not knowing the next step, reacting to fear, or feeling trapped by the life they’ve built), the sneaky role of what will people think, and the “rise reflex” that pulls us back to our comfort zone just as we start to rise. Kristy shares practical steps to recalibrate, build momentum, and get back into motion — without waiting for perfect clarity.

If you’ve ever felt like you’ve outgrown your current chapter but aren’t sure what comes next, this episode will remind you that you’re not broken — you’re becoming.

What You'll Learn:
⚡ The hidden wisdom inside your “stuck” seasons
⚡Why fear of judgment quietly runs the show
⚡How to spot your rise reflex before it pulls you backward
⚡A simple shift to turn overthinking into forward motion

About Kristy Kuhl:

Kristy is a high-performance coach, keynote speaker, and podcast host who helps leaders, entrepreneurs, and executives unleash their clarity, confidence, and full potential. After a 15-year career leading multimillion-dollar sales teams in the medical device industry, Kristy walked away from corporate success to live and lead in full alignment with her authentic self.

Today, she’s known as an energy catalyst — empowering others to break free from fear, redefine success on their own terms, and step boldly into what’s next. Kristy’s work combines real-world strategy with deep emotional intelligence, helping people bridge the gap between who they’ve been and who they’re becoming.

Links & Resources:

• Website: www.kristykuhl.com
• Coaching + Speaking: www.unleashwithkristy.com
• Instagram: @kristy_kuhl

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

On this episode, Dr. Katie and Tamara explore how to talk about the hard things, how sharing our stories creates connection, and why courage (not perfection) is the bridge to resilience.

Tamara opens up about losing people she loves, navigating divorce and health challenges, and choosing to keep walking—sometimes stumbling—through the doors that life opens. We talk about the power of asking for what you need, the difference between pain and suffering, and practical ways to move toward peace and clarity when life feels heavy. If you’ve been carrying something quietly, this episode will help you name it, befriend it, and take a next brave step.

What You’ll Learn

• Why poetry (and other non-linear forms of self-expression) can make it safer to tell the truth about your life
• The difference between pain (inevitable) and suffering (optional)
• How sharing your story reduces isolation—for you and everyone listening
• Boundary-setting as healing (and what it looks like in real life)
• Practical practices to re-center: body, spirit, community, nature
• How to “walk through the door” even when you might trip on the threshold

About Tamara Hill

Tamara is an author, speaker, entrepreneur, and self-described global citizen who splits her time between Italy and the U.S. She’s also a devoted mom (and dog mom). Her new book, The Threads of Becoming: A Memoir in Poems, invites readers to process life’s hardest moments through poems that meet you where you are—honest, vulnerable, and fiercely hopeful.

Links & Resources

• Connect with Tamara Hill on LinkedIn
• Buy Tamara's Book — The Threads of Becoming: A Memoir in Poems
• Explore Tamara's website: TheHillHouseGroup.com

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

On this episode, Dr. Katie sits down with Wende Whitus — keynote speaker, author, and founder of Personal Retreat Day — for a powerful conversation about breaking free from hustle culture and rediscovering what truly matters.

Wende shares how a stress-induced health scare became her wake-up call to create space for rest, reflection, and reorientation — the foundation of her Personal Retreat Day framework. Together, Katie and Wende explore how asking the deeper why questions can uncover purpose, heal exhaustion, and bring clarity to the chaos of everyday life.

From redefining productivity to embracing stillness, this episode invites you to pause long enough to listen to what your soul’s been trying to say all along.

Key themes:

• The power of asking “why” instead of “what”
• Overcoming fear, shame, and resistance to self-reflection
• How to design your own Personal Retreat Day
• Rest as an act of courage and leadership
• Creating space (Yutori) for peace, creativity, and clarity

If you’ve ever felt stuck on the treadmill of doing, this conversation will remind you that meaning, purpose, and peace live beyond the to-do list.

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Connect with Wende on LinkedIn
• Explore more at Wende's Personal Retreat Day website

GUEST BIO:

Wende Whitus, founder of Personal Retreat Day, helps busy people on the brink of burnout develop a system for deep rest and reflection. Whether it’s through speaking, coaching, or writing, Wende is clearly passionate about teaching others how they can design their best lives by preserving one day each month to reflect, rest, and reorient. Wende is the author of a guided journal called Your Rhythm of Rest and Reflection. She and her husband Greg reside near Charlotte, North Carolina and they are the proud parents of two grown daughters who live nearby. 

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

Dr. Saundra shares her groundbreaking framework of the Seven Types of Rest—physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, social, sensory, and creative—and explains why sleep alone isn’t enough to truly restore us. Together, they unpack how our culture’s obsession with productivity leaves us depleted and disconnected, and what it looks like to build a new “ethic of rest” that honors our humanity, energy, and wholeness.

You’ll learn:

• The critical difference between cessation and restoration
• How to identify your personal rest deficits using Dr. Saundra’s Rest Quiz
• Why burnout often persists even after sleep or vacation
• Simple, science-based ways to refill your energy across all seven dimensions of rest
• How leaders can foster restoration and resilience within their teams

Dr. Saundra’s insights challenge hustle culture and invite us to reclaim a version of success that actually feels good. As she says, “Don’t just make the honey—stop and taste its sweetness.”

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Connect with Dr. Saundra on LinkedIn
• Take the Rest Quiz
• Explore more Dr. Saundra's website
• Get a copy of "Sacred Rest: Recover Your Life, Renew Your Energy, Restore Your Sanity" by Dr. Saundra 

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

On this episode, Dr. Katie Sandoe sits down with Sara “Sass” Schaeffer, speaker, community builder, and founder of Practice Your Positive, to reimagine what it really means to “be positive.” Sass shares why positivity is a muscle—not a mood—and how to strengthen it through four daily levers: Mindset, Movement, Expression, and Connection.

Together they explore how positivity and optimism work hand-in-hand (but aren’t the same), where toxic positivity crosses the line, and why discomfort is actually part of the growth process. You’ll learn how small, consistent “reps” of positivity build resilience, deepen connection, and help you show up as your most grounded, powerful self—even when life feels anything but.

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Connect with Sass on LinkedIn 
• Explore Sara's website: Practice Your Positive 
• Connect with Sara on Instagram

GUEST BIO:

Sara (Practice Your Positive) is a speaker, community-builder, and energy strategist who believes positivity isn’t just a mindset—it’s a muscle. She’s the founder of Practice Your Positive and the Team Positive movement, helps people build belonging through rituals and joy, and hosts a podcast that seeks to energize the everyday.

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

Instead of framing communication as something “out there” and wishing that other people would change, Collette invites us to turn inward. She explains how our earliest family patterns shape our “communication history,” why many of us stop developing after that first phase of survival learning, and how blind spots form when we mistake feeling right for actually being right.

We dive into the difference between psychological safety (structures leaders try to create) and emotional safety (the responsibility each of us has to know and voice what we need). We challenge the myth that good communication is about control or compliance—and instead uncover how truth is more layered, how multiple realities can exist at once, and why accountability means putting problem-solving back where it belongs.

This isn’t another “tips and tricks” talk about communication styles. It’s a provocative look at how deeper self-awareness, emotional safety, and personal responsibility shift the entire conversation. Whether you’re leading a team, raising a family, or navigating relationships, this episode will spark new ways of seeing your role in how connection—and disconnection—really happens.

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Connect with Collette on LinkedIn
• Learn more about Open360

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

On this this episode, Dr. Katie sits down with neuroscientist, bestselling author, and broadcaster Ken Mogi to explore the fascinating connection between the brain and ikigai—the Japanese concept of “a life worth living.” 

Ken shows us how purpose literally rewires the brain—and why ikigai might be the missing piece to living with both success and serenity. He explains how living with ikigai doesn’t just feel good—it’s wired into our brain’s architecture. He breaks down how purpose activates the prefrontal cortex, why joy and childlike play are essential for a healthy emotional base, and how Ikigai acts as a secure foundation that allows us to embrace uncertainty, creativity, and growth without burning out.

Together, Katie and Ken unpack how purpose fuels calm, why relaxation and authenticity are critical for sustainable success, and even the surprising ways AI could threaten our sense of meaning if we’re not careful.

This conversation is part science, part soul—and a full invitation to live more deeply, joyfully, and authentically.

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Follow Ken on Instagram
• Purchase Ken's book in English "Awakening Your Ikigai: How the Japanese Wake Up to Joy and Purpose Every Day"
• Explore Ken's other books
• Explore Ken's "Collective Intelligence Research Laboratory" website

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

In this conversation with my friend Ray Taylor (aka “Raymond James” if you catch me slipping into his nickname), we get real about what men are actually hungry for in this season of life—and why so many don’t know how to ask for it.

Ray brings the unique perspective of a pastor, a husband, a father, and someone who has walked the road of wrestling with his own mental and emotional health. We go deep into the quiet longings of men’s souls: the need to be loved, to be seen, to be heard, to belong. We also shine a light on the painful truth—men are dying by suicide at four times the rate of women, often suffering in silence, unseen and unsupported.

This episode isn’t about fixing men. It’s about acknowledging a reality we too often overlook: if we want thriving families, thriving workplaces, thriving communities, then we can’t ignore men’s mental, emotional, and soul health. We need to create space for vulnerability, healing, and connection.

Whether you identify as a man, love a man, or are raising one—the questions and stories we unpack here will challenge the way you think about masculinity, mental health, and what it really means to be strong.

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Connect with Ray on LinkedIn
• Learn more at National Alliance on Mental Illness - Men's Mental Health

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

In this conversation with Candice Van Dertholen, holistic practitioner and founder of Warrior Within Healing, we explore what she calls grounded spirituality—a practice of coming out of your head, back into your body, and reconnecting with who you really are (not just what you do).

We dig into questions most of us avoid because the answers might change everything:

• How do you trust your intuition when you’ve been told for years it isn’t reliable?
• What’s the difference between fear, conditioning, and true inner wisdom?
• Why do so many of us actually fear success more than failure?
• And how can you learn to see yourself fully—even the parts you’d rather avoid?

This isn’t a fluffy “find your center” chat. It’s a call to stop hiding in overthinking, busy calendars, and surface-level roles—and instead create the stillness to ask: Who am I, really? What do I need right now?

If you’ve been feeling stuck, disconnected, or just “off,” this episode might rattle you—in the best way.

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Connect with Candice on LinkedIn
• Visit Candice's website
• Follow Candice on Instagram

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

In this episode, Dr. Katie reflects on one year of the Spark Something New podcast series — nearly 50 conversations that have sparked insights, touched souls, and expanded what’s possible. But this isn’t just a celebration of the podcast. It’s a reframing of anniversaries themselves: not as endings, but as markers in time.

Anniversaries can hold joy, grief, growth, or gratitude. They remind us who we were, invite us to reflect on who we are now, and challenge us to choose who we’re becoming. Katie offers reflective prompts you can use to make your own anniversaries — whether personal, relational, or professional — more meaningful.

You’ll hear about:

• The lessons Katie learned from one year of curating soulful conversations.
• Why anniversaries are powerful opportunities for inner work.
• How to shift from celebration-as-performance to celebration-as-purpose.
• Reflective questions to help you see your own anniversaries differently.

This isn’t just about one year of a podcast. It’s about how you mark the chapters of your life — and how you want to live with purpose and on purpose in the next one.

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

On this episode, Dr. Katie chats with environmental scientist, keynote speaker, and space sustainability strategist (yes, you read that correctly) Sheryl Barbosa, we explore a powerful shift in perspective: the role of nature in building not just healthier lives, but a stronger sense of self and connection to each other.

Sheryl shares her own personal story of burnout and healing, where reconnecting with the natural world became a doorway back to belonging. Together, we challenge the idea that nature is just a backdrop for our busy lives or something reserved for “tree huggers.” Instead, we imagine that nature becomes a living partner in our everyday rhythm, a connector of people, and the place where our sense of community begins.

From high-five trees and park bench conversations with strangers, to the science of lowered cortisol and collective healing in shared outdoor spaces, this episode invites you to reimagine community itself—where people, place, and planet are intertwined.

It’s not about adding “go outside” to your checklist. It’s about remembering that we are nature, and when we make it a part of our community at home, at work, and in all the spaces where we seek belonging, we unlock connection, joy, and resilience in ways technology alone can’t provide.

This conversation might just spark how you view your morning walk, your neighborhood trees, or even the act of picking up litter as more than small moments. They’re acts of community building, memory making, and healing—together.

EPISODE RESOURCES

• Connect with Sheryl on LinkedIn
• Learn more about Sheryl her website

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

So in this episode, Emily Green and I unpack the three myths behind this mantra and explore what it really means to pour yourself into something that truly matters.

Emily is a TEDx speaker, entrepreneur, and founder of Love Means Business — and she knows what it takes to build, sell, and reinvent a company. And together we rip apart the romanticized notion that passion alone guarantees success, money, or fulfillment. Spoiler: it doesn’t.

We debunk three major lies of the “do what you love” gospel:

1. Passion = instant profit. Nope. Strategy, systems, and stamina matter more than hopes and dreams.
2. You’ll only do what you love. Wrong again. If you can’t stomach the unsexy parts—sales, bookkeeping, rejection—you won’t make it.
3. It’s easier. Hard truth: it’s a different kind of hard. You’re not escaping difficulty; you’re choosing your version of it.

This episode isn’t here to crush dreams—it’s here to focus them. Because loving your work is powerful, but if you confuse “passion” with “paycheck,” you’re setting yourself up for burnout and heartbreak.

If you’ve ever wondered whether to turn your side hustle into a business, leave corporate life to start your own thing, or finally leap into entrepreneurship—this conversation will challenge how you think about passion, purpose, and the price of doing what you love.

EPISODE RESOURCES

• Connect with Emily on LinkedIn
• Explore Emily's website
• Listen to Emily's podcast

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

Dr. Katie chats with her Aussie mate and ikigai sensei, Nick Kemp (entrepreneur, author, and ikigai expert) about the impact of roles in our lives. They chat about the concept of "rolefulness", a powerful idea rooted in Japanese wisdom that explores how the roles we occupy in life shape our sense of purpose, life satisfaction, and overall state of wellbeing.

In this episode, you’ll find:

🔍 The five types of role distress and how to recognize them

🔍 What happens when your values and roles don’t align

🔍 How to redefine or release roles that no longer serve you

🔍 How "Jibunrashii" can guide you back to your authentic self

🔍 The path from burnout to role synergy, and why it matters more than ever

If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by the demands of any role (leader, employee, parent, coach, spouse, sibling, etc.), this conversation is for you. It’s deep, honest, practical, and full of those “oh, that’s me” moments.

Grab a notebook (and maybe a cup of tea) and explore what it means to live with rolefulness.

EPISODE RESOURCES

• Connect with Nick on LinkedIn
• Nick’s Website https://ikigaitribe.com/
• Nick’s first episode on the show! https://www.buzzsprout.com/2398088/episodes/15834283-episode-2-exploring-ikigai-with-nick-kemp-find-meaning-and-joy-in-life

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

In this deeply relatable episode, Dr. Katie chats with Tamar Hurwitz-Fleming (entrepreneur, artist, and author of "How to Have a Happy Birthday") for a thoughtful conversation about what it means to celebrate the day you were born. 

After years of navigating birthdays that ranged from joyful to disappointing, Tamar began treating her birthday as a personal ritual, a day to intentionally reflect on her past year and celebrate the goodness in herself, her life, and the people she loves. The result? A practice that has brought more fulfillment, presence, and meaning into her life. It's something you can embrace too.

In this episode, you’ll find:

🎉 What it means to celebrate beyond the commercialized birthday practices

🎉 How external expectations and past experiences shape birthday narratives

🎉 Ways to reclaim your personal agency around celebration and self-worth

🎉 The value of pausing, reflecting, and designing moments that feel authentic

🎉 Why honoring your life isn’t selfish, it’s essential

Whether you LOVE to celebrate or avoid it at all costs, this episode is a gentle reminder that you get to create something truly meaningful, year after year!

EPISODE RESOURCES

• Connect with Tamar on LinkedIn 
• Connect with Tamar on Instagram
• Visit Tamar’s Website
• Buy her book on Amazon

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

Ron invites us to think about what it really means to evolve beyond hustle, constantly striving, and left-brain thinking into a more integrated, intuitive, and purposeful way of leading and living. Ron draws from decades of experience working with leaders, creatives, and changemakers to introduce a different kind of leadership, one rooted not in control or constant problem-solving, but in presence, self-awareness, and what he calls “Big Mind”. 

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

•  The difference between smart leadership and conscious leadership
•  Why the inner journey is essential for sustainable, expansive leadership
•  What changes when you lead from wholeness rather than fear
•  How conscious leaders empower teams and reshape culture
•  The real meaning of productivity (and why we might need to redefine it)

Ron’s story reminds us that leadership isn’t just about results, it’s about evolution. If you’re navigating change, feeling stretched thin, or ready for a more human approach to leading yourself and others, hit play now because this conversation is for you.

EPISODE RESOURCES

• Connect with Ron on LinkedIn
• Explore Ron's Website: https://ronstotts.com/
• Explore Ron’s Books: https://ronstotts.com/leadership-books/

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

Together, they explore how we know when it’s time to let go of a role, a title, an identity, and how we find our way back to ourselves in the process. With wisdom, warmth, and the clarity that only comes from lived experience, Molly shares her journey of leaving something deeply meaningful (and identity-shaping) to create space for what’s next.

Here you can find out about:

 ✨ The discomfort that signals it’s time to change
 ✨ Identity evolution, what it feels like, and how to move through it
 ✨ The tension between hustle culture and embodied living
 ✨ Coming back to yourself as an ongoing life practice
 ✨ The healing power of women's community and storytelling

Whether you're at a crossroads, feeling a quiet nudge for change, or simply craving a deeper connection with your purpose, this conversation will spark reflection, compassion, and maybe even clarity. So tune in to hear what it means to live a big, unapologetic life on your own terms.

EPISODE RESOURCES

• Connect with Molly on LinkedIn 
• Explore Molly's Website: MollyBarkerSpeaks.com

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

From navigating trauma to cultivating emotional resilience, Anthony shares how breathwork is not just a wellness trend—it’s a path back home to yourself. Together, they explore why so many of us unconsciously hold our breath in moments of stress, how Western culture teaches us to seek answers outside ourselves, and what it truly means to live authentically.

Whether you're in the middle of your own storm or simply craving more space, stillness, and clarity in your life, this conversation will feel like a deep exhale.

This soulful conversation is packed with wisdom, warmth, and breath-deepening insight. Tune in and exhale. 

EPISODE RESOURCES

• Connect with Anthony on LinkedIn
• Buy Anthony's book "Outer Chaos, Inner Calm"
• Learn more about Alchemy of Breath

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

Together, they dive into what it really means to be an authentic and connected leader, especially when the world around you seems to pull you out of alignment. Dr. Cara introduces us to her signature Pivot Process—a deceptively simple (but deeply transformative) three-step tool for navigating moments when your environment or decisions feel in conflict with your values.

We explore:

• What authenticity really means (and how to find it beyond the buzzword)
• The difference between receiving, perceiving, and responding—and where most leaders get stuck
• Why disconnection from our core identity can lead to burnout or even moral drift
• The concept of “values creep” and how to avoid losing sight of what truly matters
• How standing in your truth as a leader not only protects your wellbeing, but transforms your team culture

This episode is packed with deep insight, hard-won wisdom, and lots of sparkle. Whether you lead a team, a community, or just your own wild life, this one’s for you.

EPISODE RESOURCES

• Connect with Cara on LinkedIn
• Subscribe to Cara's YouTube channel for more insights
• Learn more about Connected Leadership

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

What if the most powerful thing you could do this week… is rest?

But not the kind of rest that collapses on the couch after a whirlwind day. This episode explores rest as spaciousness — mental, sensory, creative, spiritual — and unpacks why true rest is not stillness, but space from the noise, the proving, and the productivity myths that dominate our culture.

You’ll hear:

• Eye-opening stats on how little Americans truly rest
• Why we feel guilty for the rest our souls desperately need
• A breakdown of 4 transformative types of rest
• A fresh reframe: the opposite of productivity isn’t laziness — it’s presence
• Reflection questions to help you return to joy, imagination, and ease

This isn’t just a break — it’s a reset. An invitation. A soul spark.

So before you overbook your holiday… take 20 minutes to breathe. Your soul will thank you.

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

Anna demystifies the concept of psychodrama (spoiler alert: it’s not as scary as it sounds) and walks us through how stepping into a role—even your future self—can help you shift patterns, resolve conflict, and deepen empathy.

Along the way, you’ll hear:

• Why roleplaying is more powerful (and more healing) than we give it credit for
• How watching yourself from the outside can lead to massive "aha" moments
• What your imagination has to do with emotional growth
• And yes… how a very real argument about making the bed turned into a breakthrough

You’ll also learn a simple, practical technique you can try at home to tap into your inner wisdom—even if the idea of roleplay makes your armpits sweat.

EPISODE RESOURCES

• Download the instruction worksheet for the psychodrama exercise Anna did with Katie during the episode
• Connect with Anna on LinkedIn
• Explore Anna's website: Action Explorations Education
• View more on Anna's YouTube channel

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

 But we’re not talking about the kind of fear that protects you from danger—we’re talking about the kind that often disguises itself as “logic,” “safety,” or “being realistic,” and keeps you from taking the leap your soul is actually craving.

We explore the two types of fear—Pachad (the fear of imagined catastrophe) and Yirah (the awe-fear that arises in the presence of something vast and meaningful). These two feel the same in your body but come from very different sources. One keeps you small. The other invites you into expansion.

You'll hear how fear isn't always a red light—it’s a compass. 

We reflect on why most people don’t regret what they tried, they regret what they never dared to do. And you’ll get five powerful journaling prompts to help you discern your own leap and take one small, courageous step forward.

This episode is an invitation to stop waiting for fear to disappear—and to leap anyway.

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

In this episode, Katie invites you into an uncomfortable conversation—one that could radically shift how you think about growth, purpose, and your next evolution. Inspired by Dr. Henry Cloud’s Necessary Endings, together we explore the idea that sometimes, in order to thrive, we have to let go.

Whether it’s a role, a relationship, a routine, or a version of yourself that no longer fits, pruning your life is a soulful, reflective process. It’s not easy—but it is essential.

Katie shares her own journey with pruning, as she leans into her word of the year, SIMPLIFY, and how it’s led her to some hard but transformational endings. Because here’s the truth: living a life of wild abundance often starts with ending things that are no longer serving you.

In this episode:

• Why we’re great at starting things—and terrible at ending them
• The 3 types of pruning: healthy buds, sick branches, dead wood
• Why guilt, fear, and identity keep us stuck
• The difference between hurting and harming
• 3 journal prompts to guide your next necessary ending

💡 This isn’t about quitting—it’s about becoming.

EPISODE RESOURCES

• Book Recommendation: "Necessary Endings" by Dr. Henry Cloud

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

This week on Spark Something New, Katie sits down with the powerhouse that is Michelle Petties—TEDx speaker, food story coach, and author of the Amazon bestseller Leaving Large: The Stories of a Food Addict. But don’t get it twisted—this isn’t a conversation about what to eat or the latest food trends. It’s a deep, raw, and sometimes hilarious dive into the emotional work behind our eating behaviors.

Michelle unpacks the real reason diets fail, why “relationship with food” might be the most misleading phrase ever, and how we’re asking food to solve problems it was never designed to fix. (Spoiler: hunger is the only thing that food can actually solve.)

Whether you’re stuck in a cycle of emotional eating, blaming your hormones, or just saying you’re “too busy” to eat well—Michelle’s message will shake your perspective, in the best possible way.

Get ready to:

• Learn the Brand New framework for food and life transformation
• Reflect on the real source of your cravings
• Start asking: “Why THIS food? Why NOW?”

Hit play and prepare to feel seen. This episode might just change the way you think about food—and yourself—forever.

EPISODE RESOURCES

• Connect with Michelle on LinkedIn
• Explore more on Michelle's website
• Get Michelle's book

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

Katie is coming in hot this week to drag the word we all love to hate: “busy.”
She’s not just unpacking it—she’s beating it up, burning it down, and setting you free from its grip.

We’re diving deep into:

• Why “busy” isn’t a flex—it’s a red flag.
• How it’s ruining your mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual health.
• The real reason you're burned out (spoiler: it’s not because you're doing too much...in fact, quite the opposite).
• The “should” trap—especially for parents (yep, we're talking about you, overbooked moms).
• And how one small shift this week could help you stop surviving your schedule and start curating a life that feels wildly abundant.

Plus, you'll learn the powerful Japanese concept of "yarigai"—things worth doing—and why your calendar needs a serious reset.

So no, this isn’t your average self-care chat. It’s a soulful smackdown on the cult of busy and its lies.

Listen in, take a breath, cancel something, and reclaim your time—because you don’t have to earn your rest.

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

Jules invites us to ask the big questions, but in bite-sized, tangible ways:
 🔹 What if fulfillment isn’t found in success, but in soulful connection?
 🔹 What if creativity isn’t childish, but a sacred spark?
 🔹 What if the language of your spirit is connection—not logic or emotion?

Drawing from coaching, cultural wisdom (including her time living in Japan), and real-life stories—including an unforgettable Cinderella-sized pumpkin carving moment—Jules reveals why Western culture struggles with the spirit, and what we can reclaim if we dare to dream, play, and connect.

This episode is for the thinkers, seekers, and soul-led humans who suspect there’s more to life than hustle, goals, and checklists. It's a reminder that you are more than your mind and body—and it's time we talked about that.

EPISODE RESOURCES

• Get a copy of Jules' book: The N8 Self
• Learn more on Jules' website: N8self.com

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

In this transformative conversation, Katie sits down with the EQ Sensei himself—David Cory, founder of the Emotional Intelligence Training Company (EITC), celebrating 27 years of global impact. From creating national EQ programs in Botswana to dodging elephants in Zambia (yes, really), David brings heart, humor, and unmatched insight into why emotional intelligence (EQ) isn’t just a buzzword—it’s the foundation of everything.

David breaks down what EQ actually is (hint: it’s not just empathy or soft skills), why emotions are central to how we function as humans, and how ignoring them—especially at work—comes at a cost. You’ll learn why EQ is misunderstood, how gender and culture shape our emotional socialization, and what we can do—today—to build emotionally intelligent workplaces, relationships, and communities.

From psychology to parenting, leadership to loss, this is a masterclass in how emotions shape us—and how to honor that truth with courage and clarity.

Listen If You’ve Ever Wondered:

• Why do people say emotions don’t belong at work—and what’s the real cost of that mindset?
• Are women really more emotionally intelligent than men? (Spoiler: it’s complicated.)
• What’s the connection between emotions and trust, courage, mental health, and… elephants?
• How can parents, leaders, and anyone start building EQ today—even without certification?
• How can grief, vulnerability, and therapy become powerful tools of emotional growth?

EPISODE RESOURCES

• Connect with David on LinkedIn
• Learn more about EITC
• Book Recommendation: "Emotional Intelligence - Why It Can Matter More Than IQ" by Daniel Goleman

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

✨ What You’ll Learn (While Laughing + Crying a Little):

• Why leading from the heart is not weakness — it’s advanced-level humaning.
• The difference between servant leadership (others-focused) and heart-centered leadership (you-focused… first).
• Why we default to efficiency over empathy — and how the Industrial Revolution may still be haunting your calendar.
• The magic of “white space” in your day and why heart-led leaders need it like oxygen.
• That it's okay to wear pajamas all day, drink tea, read books, and not apologize for any of it.

✨ So hit play, Spark Fam. Because leadership from the heart? That’s where the real power lives. And if this hit you in the feels (or the funny bone), leave a review — it helps others find their spark too.

EPISODE RESOURCES

• Connect with Deb on LinkedIn
• Visit Deb's website: www.DebCrow.com
• Buy Deb's book: The Heart-Centered Leadership Paybook
• Book Recommendation: Into the Magic Shop by Dr. James Doty
• Book Recommendation: Heart-Centered Leadership by Susan Steinbrecher and Dr. Joel Bennett

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

Toxic perseverance is defined as the conscious or subconscious mindset that prevents a person from attaining inner peace, contentment, and joy—even while appearing outwardly successful. Michael explains that while perseverance is often celebrated, it can become harmful when driven by a relentless inner critic or societal pressures to constantly achieve without ever feeling "enough."

Michael shares his personal story, including the heartbreaking loss of his best friend, Fotis—a tragic event that inspired his deep exploration of toxic perseverance. He emphasizes that perseverance becomes toxic when it’s fueled by unresolved inner wounds like shame, pride, anger, or a lack of vulnerability, leading people to sacrifice true joy and relationships in pursuit of endless achievement.

Together, Katie and Michael explore how toxic perseverance shows up differently for everyone and can be rooted in childhood experiences, cultural conditioning (especially the American emphasis on productivity as worth), and unresolved traumas.

Michael outlines a 3.5-step process to begin healing from toxic perseverance:

1. Urgent Curiosity – Reflect on your behaviors and inner dialogue with urgency and a desire to grow.
2. Self-Gratitude – Release shame and guilt by offering yourself grace, forgiveness, and compassion.
3. Wild, Authentic Vulnerability – Own your story and be open about your struggles with trusted people.
4. (The Half Step) – Begin defining your personal purpose, because true fulfillment comes from purpose-driven living, not from external achievements.

Throughout the conversation, Katie and Michael highlight that healing from toxic perseverance is a lifelong process, but one that is deeply worth it—and available to everyone willing to do the inner work.

EPISODE RESOURCES

• Connect with Michael on LinkedIn

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

Key Themes and Insights:

• Optimism vs. Positivity: Rahwa defines optimism as long-term hope and positivity as the daily practice that helps you get there. Both are necessary—and deeply intertwined.
• Leave Your Fear at the Mountain: Drawing from her experience as a mountain climber and ultra-runner, Rahwa introduces this beautiful metaphor: fear will always be there, but we can choose to leave it behind when we decide to climb.
• Acclimatizing to Growth: Just like mountain climbers must ascend and descend to adapt, personal growth requires dips and failures to prepare us for greater heights.
• Pursuit Beyond the Summit: Rahwa and Katie explore the idea of the “second mountain” from David Brooks’ book—moving beyond personal success to purposeful contribution. Rahwa is on that journey, seeking to give back in the same way others poured into her life.
• Purpose-Driven Mindset: Whether in finance, fitness, or life, Rahwa attributes her progress to desire, intention, persistent practice, and a community of supporters. She challenges listeners to find their mountain and start climbing, setbacks and all.
• Unconventional Truth Bomb: Rahwa questions the saying “time is more valuable than money,” suggesting that without resources, time alone can be limiting. She believes in the harmony of time, money, and adventure as essential to a fulfilling life.

This episode is a beautiful fusion of personal story, practical wisdom, and deep encouragement. It reminds us that our comfort zone isn’t where growth happens, and that mindset, like a muscle, gets stronger the more we stretch it.

EPISODE RESOURCES

• Connected with Rahwa on LinkedIn
• Book Recommendation: "The Second Mountain" by David Brooks

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

It's an honest and powerful conversation about the pervasiveness and impact of mental health on our boys, young men, and adult men in the U.S.

JR shares his journey through childhood trauma, depression, and a suicide attempt—and how small, sacred moments like a simple message from his wife became lifelines of love and hope.

Together, we explore:

• The pressures men face to suppress emotion—and what it costs them
• How trauma can show up decades later, disguised as success or numbness
• Why self-forgiveness and emotional honesty are revolutionary acts
• The life-changing power of mindfulness and meaningful connection
• The metaphor behind “There’s coffee in the fridge”

JR’s message is clear: Healing is possible. Joy is possible. And love—especially for yourself—is always within reach.

Whether you’re walking through your own hard season or holding space for someone else, this is a story that reminds us: it’s okay to not be okay, and it’s more than okay to ask for help.

⚠️ Content Warning: This episode includes references to depression, sexual abuse, and suicide. These moments are shared with care and compassion, but may be difficult for some listeners. Please take care of yourself as you listen. If you or someone you love is struggling, help is available. Call or text 988 to reach the free and confidential Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, 24/7.

EPISODE RESOURCES

• Connect with Jim on LinkedIn
• Connect with Jim on Facebook
• Connect with Jim on Instagram
• Buy the book, "There's Coffee in the Fridge"

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

We’re talking health optimization — not in the “buy this overpriced supplement” kind of way, but in the “how do I not feel like trash every day” kind of way. Dr. E breaks it all down: why you shouldn’t be talking longevity when you can’t even get off the couch, how dementia is basically slow-motion inflammation, and what your body is actually trying to tell you when you’re bloated, foggy, or moody.

You don’t need fancy trackers, overpriced adaptogens, or a morning routine that takes 3 hours. You need honesty, clarity, and maybe a little tough love. So let’s stop chasing fads and start listening to our amazing bodies.

Hit play if you’re ready to go from surviving to thriving.

EPISODE RESOURCES

• Connect with Dr. E on LinkedIn
• Connect with Dr E. on Instagram
• Connect with Dr. on Facebook
• Connect with Dr. E on TikTok
• Follow Dr. E on YouTube
• Visit Dr. E's website: www.drefratlamandre.com
• Get Dr. E's Book: It's NOT In Your Head

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

We explore what it really means to lead from a place of self-awareness, emotional regulation, and positive relationships—whether you’re managing a team, raising a family, or showing up for your community. Future shares her signature "Four A's Framework" to help you grow as a socially emotional leader: Awareness, Acknowledgment, Apology, and Action.

We talk candidly about the wellness crisis so many are facing, the chasm between how leaders think they’re perceived vs. how they actually are, and how small shifts—like hydration, sunlight, and reflection—can spark big transformation.

If you’ve ever felt drained, disconnected, or unsure how to show up as a better leader (in any part of life), this episode will leave you inspired, equipped, and energized.

EPISODE RESOURCES

• Connect with Future on LinkedIn
• Learn more about the Future of SEL
• View Future's video on Mental Health Awareness

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

Connection isn’t about removing things from our lives—it’s about adding the right things back in. The journey toward reconnection is less about restriction and more about rediscovery and expansion. 

Listen now and let this conversation spark something new in how you view connection in your own life!

EPISODE RESOURCES

• Connect with Adam on LinkedIn
• Connect with Adam on Instagram and Facebook
• Learn more about Adam on his website

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

Ophelia shares her journey as a self-taught artist, her passion for realistic cubism, and how she uses art as a tool for storytelling and empowerment. She also opens up about turning a side hustle into a sustainable business, the barriers many creatives face, and why she felt called to create Ophelia’s Making Agency—a nonprofit dedicated to helping creatives build sustainable careers.

We talk about:
✨ How to discover the thing you are called to do
✨ The importance of self-worth in putting your work into the world
✨ Why your internal dialogue shapes your success and how to shift it
✨ The intersection of art, identity, and community impact
✨ Practical steps for creatives to monetize their passion

Ophelia’s wisdom and energy will inspire you to step into your creative power and bring your unique gifts into the world. This is an episode that will leave you reflecting on your own personal mission and how you can make an impact.

Listen now and let this conversation spark something new in you!

EPISODE RESOURCES

• Connect with Ophelia on LinkedIn
• Visit Ophelia's Artist Website
• Learn more about Ophelia's Making Agency

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

They discuss Dr. Rivera's journey as a lifelong learner, his passion for equitable education, and his five-step process for intentional learning. The conversation also delves into the impact of AI on education and the necessity of embracing new technologies. Dr. Rivera emphasizes the importance of taking risks, adjusting along the way, and finding your own unique learning path. 

Tune in to learn how to spark something new in your own approach to learning and growth.

EPISODE RESOURCES

• Connect with Pedro on LinkedIn
• Learn more about Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

Amber shares her insights on the need for curiosity, finding supportive communities, and setting boundaries. They also touch on how leaders can model authentic leadership in their organizations. 

This episode is filled with practical advice and heartfelt stories aimed at helping you embrace your true self and lead courageously.

EPISODE RESOURCES

• Connect with Amber on LinkedIn
• Learn more about Amber's work at Natural Inclination LLC
• Amber's Favorite List
• Amber's Substack + Podcast

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

She talks about her journey, from being a massage therapist and a campus minister to her academic achievements and spiritual practices. They delve into the significance of embodied learning, how our bodies can provide wisdom that our heads can't figure out, and explore practical ways like heart rhythm meditation, yoga, and even singing to connect more deeply with ourselves. 

Tune in to spark something new in how you think about learning through your body!

EPISODE RESOURCES

• Connect with Libby on LinkedIn
• Learn more about Libby's research and extensive career
• Breath & Heart Meditation App

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

They unpack into why medical gaslighting predominantly impacts women and minority groups and how we can advocate for ourselves within the healthcare system. Dr. E explains the differences between conventional, functional, and integrative medicine while urging providers to be open-minded and collaborative. 

They also discuss the importance of listening to our bodies and not accepting dismissive diagnoses. Spoiler alert: there's a part two coming on how to thrive and prevent Alzheimer's. Can't wait for you to hear it!

EPISODE RESOURCES

• Connect with Dr. E on LinkedIn
• Connect with Dr E. on Instagram
• Connect with Dr. on Facebook
• Connect with Dr. E on TikTok
• Follow Dr. E on YouTube
• Visit Dr. E's website: www.drefratlamandre.com
• Get Dr. E's Book: It's NOT In Your Head

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

Their conversation dives deep into leading with love and living with purpose. Mark shares his profound belief in combining purpose, strategy, and action in business, and how these principles help leaders and their teams thrive. 

They also discuss his personal and professional retreats for goal-setting and reflection, emphasizing the importance of curiosity, optimism, trust, and patience in leadership. Plus, we talk about creating and repairing bonds within teams.

Mark's insights are sure to enrich your week and spark something new in you, whether you're in a management position or not. So join us, and let's light up your life and leadership journey together!

EPISODE RESOURCES

• Connect with Mark Maynard on LinkedIn
• Learn more about Maynard Consulting
• Book Recommendations:
  • Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans
  • How to Know a Person by David Brooks
  • The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

They dive deep into what it means to discover and be your truest self in a world obsessed with perfection. Carrie shares her wisdom on finding true self-awareness and the importance of a supportive village. They also explore the metaphor of uncovering the 'diamond' within us and practical ways to reconnect with ourselves. 

Get ready for an enriching conversation that will help you reflect on your own journey and maybe spark something new in you!

EPISODE RESOURCES

• Connect with Carrie Johnson on LinkedIn
• Learn more about Drop Below the Surface Retreats
• Morning Pages Exercise by Julia Cameron

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

EPISODE RESOURCES

• Connect with A.J. Merlino on LinkedIn
• Learn more about Thinking Through AI

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

EPISODE RESOURCES

• Connect with Jonathan Fields on LinkedIn
• Explore the Good Life Project
• Access Jonathan's blog: Awake at the Wheel
• Explore the SPARKED body of work

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

• Connect with Dr. Liz Krider on LinkedIn
• Learn more about KSA Catalyst and Passion Projects
• Transcript of Charlie Munger's 1986 Harvard Commencement Speech: "How to Guarantee a Life of Misery"

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

EPISODE RESOURCES

• Connect with Francine Apy on LinkedIn
• Learn more about SoulFilling
• Buy "Briana's Brave Day at School" Children's Book

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

EPISODE RESOURCES

• Connect with Kristin Popp on LinkedIn
• Personal Strategy Screen Exercise (free download).
• Four Questions to Find Your Kokorozashi:
  • Who is the person that I want to be?
  • What is the life that I want to live?
  • What is the one thing about the world I would change?
  • What is my role in making that change happen?

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

• Connect with Alex Langan on LinkedIn
• Learn more about Langan Financial
• Book Recommendation: "Rick Dad Poor Dad" by Robert Kiyosaki
• Financial Management Tool Recommendation: Tiller

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

• Connect with Haley Kunert on LinkedIn
• Access the FREE Sparketype Assessment

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

• Connect with Melissa Wisniewski on LinkedIn

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.

• Butterflies and Pebbles, S.C. Lourie, Instagram Page

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get free resources to help you on your purpose journey at www.katiesandoe.com.