No guest this week as I want to finish the year with a look back at the things I've learned, or that I knew theoretically but confirmed through experience!

I always like to look back because I've found the lessons that help me most are behind me, and in my past, I've been guilty of rushing forward without taking pause and reflecting on the lessons. And this year, I thought I'd do my reflecting with you!

It's a practice I preach and teach, and I've done it every month for the past 2.5 years. Doing the documenting as the year progresses certainly makes the annual reflecting process easier!

I'd love this episode to inspire you to think about the lessons you've learned in 2021. Are there any parallels in your life to the five I talked about?

• Did you gain new knowledge? If so, what did you learn and how has the gaining of that knowledge helped you?
• Have you been intentional in your actions? Are you closer to the results you desire?
• Are you where you expected to be when you were l
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In today’s episode I interview Claire Sandys, who co-hosts The Silent Why podcast with her husband Chris. Claire is an aspiring writer, blogger, Earl Grey tea drinker and lover of baked beans on toast. 

I met Claire because I heard about her podcast in a podcast community and reached out to her to recommend one of my past guests as a guest for her show. In that process, I learned she’d be a good fit for Not Your Average Lives so here we are!

Claire has a touching story about losing the life that she thought she’d have: being a mom. And she openly shares her journey from an early marriage, to deciding to start a family, to finding out it was unlikely they’d get pregnant on their own, to contemplating and rejecting IVF, to contemplating and rejecting adoption, and to ultimately dealing with her own health issues that led to a hysterectomy and early menopause, before age 40..

In this episode, we talked about:

• Their childless journey and the hard decisions that came with it.
• W...

Today’s interview is with Nathania Stambouli who was on the podcast back in late June talking about how she turned her Covid crisis - her LA yoga studio shut down - into a multi 6 figure online business in less than 12 months. 

Please check out Episode 128 to hear her back story, how we met, and how she’s turned her yoga business into a money machine that is now impacting thousands and allowing her to thrive doing what she does best.

I asked her to come back on the podcast because, since she first came on, I’ve joined her yoga community and experienced a week-long retreat with her in Greece, and I wanted to chat with her about it.

In this episode, we talked about:

• how she started doing Yoga retreats several years ago
• my fears and experience as a novice and the oldest person on the retreat
• the practice of Yoga Nidra which I had never experienced before the retreat
• her upcoming live workshop where you can learn how to master 3 yoga poses

I never knew Nathania before ...

In this episode, I got to chat with Michelle Glogovac who calls herself the Podcast Matchmaker. She’s also an award-winning publicist and host of the My Simplified Life podcast. After an 18 year career in corporate aviation, Michelle discovered her passion in changing the world, one voice at a time, via podcasting. She works with entrepreneurs, authors, and experts to niche down, grow their businesses, and visibility while ensuring their message reaches the masses.

In the interview, we talked about:

• how and why she pivoted from a career in corporate aviation to podcasting
• how her desire to help others helped led her to where she was meant to go
• What ‘The Simplified Podcast’ is all about and how podcasting has made an impact in her life

Michelle is a natural relationship-maker, which is why her love of helping experts be interviewed on podcasts and featured in the media is so successful. Michelle is a wife, mom of two, stepmom of two, and a fur mom. She has her B.A. and M.S....

My podcast guest this week is a wife, mother, podcaster, and an actress/comedian. Jami Albright is a born and raised Texas girl and is the multiple award-winning, Amazon top 100 author of the Brides on the Run and the Small-Town Royalty series—they’re both sexy, swoony, and pee your pants funny. Jamie says that if you don’t snort with laughter, then she hasn’t done her job!

Jamie began her writing career at 50 and self-published her very first book three years later. She now has 7 books and makes a living with her writing.

In this episode, Jamie and I talked about:

• The interesting story of writing her very first book, including losing her first copy of the book. 
• Her experience moving to a new town, feeling sad and depressed, and finding her way through visits to the bookstore and her love of reading.
• The many challenges she overcame to publish her first book.
• The personal growth journey that began from this midlife pivot and continues by constantly challenging herself and f...

Zehra Mahoon is a master mindset and law of attraction coach and manifesting expert. She is the author of twelve books on these subjects and the creator of the Unlimited 40 day law of attraction workout and the Unlimited Universe Mastermind.

After committing to completely transforming her self-worth in 2006, she went from being massively in debt to owning multiple properties and creating a thriving business, as well as healing her relationships.

In this episode, we talk about:

• Her journey of discovering the law of attraction and going from an investment banker to a manifesting expert and coach
• The process of writing her books, understanding energy, how to channel it and how it affects different people
• The sixth sense
• The difference between passion and obsession and her personal definition of desire

As a coach, Zehra helps individuals identify blockages that are keeping them from achieving success. She helps them change their self-talk and develop new thinking habits that ...

Anna Whiston-Donaldson is a popular author and speaker whose New York Times bestselling book, Rare Bird: A Memoir of Loss and Love chronicles the raw, early grief of losing her 12 year old son in a freak accident. Selected one of Publishers Weekly’s Best Books of 2014, Rare Bird resonates with readers looking for hope in impossible circumstances. 

She also has a children’s book, A Hug from Heaven, that speaks to grieving children from the point of view of a loved one who died. Anna has been featured in The Washington Post, Ladies Home Journal, Woman’s Day, Time Magazine, and other publications both print and online. She lives with her family in the Virginia suburbs, has a blog titled “An Inch of Gray,” and is launching a podcast late 2021.

In this episode, we talked about:

• The crazy parallels between her life and mine, in 17 year intervals (aka cicada time), our kids traversed the same experiences.
• How she channeled her grief about losing her son into writing her first book...

Listen in to my conversation with Sandy Weiner, the founder of Last First Date and The Woman of Value. Sandy is an internationally known TEDx speaker, dating and relationship coach, women's empowerment coach, author, and podcast host who has had a varied career from artist to comedy writer/manager and now relationship coach.

Sandy is a perfect dating coach because she is still in the thick of the dating world herself. lIn fact, she openly shares a couple of recent experiences and I appreciated her honesty, coming from a very real place.

In this interview, we talked about:

• her challenging pregnancy and all the difficult decisions she had to make
• abortion and the stigma that comes with it
• gaining personal freedom after her divorce, which led to her taking action to accomplish her own dreams
• her biggest dating tips

Sandy was such a great guest and after listening to this episode, I’m sure you’ll be  inspired in some way whether or not you are in search of a mate.. But if ...

Today my guest is Elena Hartz who describes herself as a 48 year old mother who is twice divorced, Russian-born (raised in Ukraine) and who immigrated to the US in 1993.

I was compelled to interview when I heard her story on her daughter's podcast. To hear the incredible story of her young life in Russia, her early marriage to a man who turned out to be a liar and an abuser, and her family's escape from Communist Russia, check out Episode 217 of the Manifestation Babe podcast. It's a long one but so worth it! (In this episode, we don't go into those details.)

We talked about so many things including:

• her perspective on the American dream and comparison to her way of life as a person who grew up in a communist society
• her difficult adjustment to her daughter's version of the American dream which is not the traditional one she had dreamt for her
• her big aha moment about manifestation and how it can backfire on us.
• her amazing take on "mistakes."
• her Rythmia experience that in
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My guest this week is Hilary Rank, a former corporate leader turned Women's Health & Wellness coach. At age 40, she decided life was too short not to fulfill her life purpose, which is to help other women transform into their fit & fabulous selves. 

In this episode, we covered a lot of topics including:

• what drove her to setting a personal goal to enter a bikini competition and finally have the body she always dreamed of after her 2nd son was born,
• the insidious and often misunderstood symptoms she experienced that can result from systemic stress,
• what to look out for if you hear the common response from your primary doctor, when it relates to hormonal issues, of: “You are fine.” but you know otherwise, and
• the little-known, but all-too-common root cause of all chronic disease issues.

Hilary talks about how she, at age 40, got into the best shape of her life while simultaneously becoming the sickest. She thought she had done everything right, by losing her baby weight and ...