Not Your Average Lives Podcast

Episode 118: Using Your Crazy Life As Your Brand with Adrian

career May 23, 2021

My latest guest is of the age that most are tech-challenged but not her - she loves technology! Meet Adrian, the 60 year old owner of a successful internet-based business who runs it with the help of her 72 year old sister!!! How crazy amazing is that? On top of that, she managed to juggle a full year of cancer treatments and coping with all the ups and downs of the pandemic while growing her business.

After 40 years in the Corporate world, Adrian "retired" to start her own freelance business doing Pinterest Management and coaching, but she’s never afraid to do a little bit of everything on the internet. She loves learning new things.

And she doesn’t let anything stop her, including cancer!!! She handled her diagnosis with breast cancer just as if it was another challenge to conquer. While being treated, she still managed to almost double her business and support her family.

In this interview, we talk about the passion  that pushed her to pursue her own business. Adrian also shar...

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Episode 117: Does Your House Make You Feel Whole?

The idea for this episode was triggered by my own aha moments while reading some of the May entries in my book "Simple Abundance" by Sarah Ban Breathnach.

I had never thought about how our environment, the house we live in and the items contained in it are indicators of authenticity AND how this authenticity, or lack of it, impacts a feeling an abundance.

Wow. Wow. Wow.

She has some great questions you need to ask yourself as you are playing the role of "dispassionate detective" while walking around your house. It made me think about past houses and belongings that made me feel inauthentic.

  • What surrounds you daily that you need to get rid of?
  • What mementos of your past help or hinder your movement into the future?
  • Do you have your own sacred space that makes you feel happy and whole?

If you're anything like me, it will make you think about your house in a different way and perhaps make some positive changes to bring more authenticity and abundant feelings into your life.!...

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Episode 116: Using Video To Become Visible, First For Herself And Then To Help Others with Rachel Freemon Sowers

career May 16, 2021

"Authenticity is the daily practice of letting go of who we think we're supposed to be and embracing who we are." - Brené Brown

Showing up as your own authentic self can be difficult and, for some people, who fear they won’t be accepted in doing so, it can take a long time to  step into who they are and be passionate in living their truth. 

In this week’s episode, I chat with Rachel Freemon Sowers, a video visionary and strategist, who calls herself a Video Vixen Because she helps entrepreneurs show up in front of a camera to connect with their audience and be present to the people they serve.

Rachel shares her own story as a gay woman who hid her own identity for years. Her vulnerability and passion to live authentically is so inspirational and now she encourages other people to show up, shine their own light and step into their own true self so they can live their best life.

To learn more about Rachel Freemon Sowers and her work, just go to:

Website: https://www.rachelfreemon...

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Episode 115: The Anti-Abundant Words We Tell Ourselves

In this episode, I was inspired by a training I did for the women inside my "Ignite Your Second Half Soul" free training. You'll hear some of the results from an exercise I had asked them to do prior to the training and I think you'll find what I share interesting and likely very relatable. The exercise involved 2 steps as follows:

Step 1 was to describe themselves in 3 words, without any reflection. Just share whatever are the first 3 words that come to mind.

Step 2 was to ask a close friend to describe them in 3 words. Again, without thinking, what are the first 3 words that came to their friend's mind when asked.

Here's what they learned and what you'll learn by listening to this episode:

  • Words have power and some of the words we use to describe ourselves are very disempowering
  • Disempowering words do not put you in a state of abundance. In fact, they will do the opposite.
  • We are our own worst critics and often don't easily "see" the abundance in ourselves.
  • We tend to focu
  • ...
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Episode 114: Stuck in Midlife? Start Experimenting! Conversation with Lucia Knight

career mindset May 09, 2021

My latest guest is Lucia Knight is a midlife career satisfaction designer and researcher. She spent 20 years in the world of corporate headhunting in the UK and Australia before giving it all up to embark on a MSc Psychology. She runs a career overhaul business called Midlife Unstuck where she helps midlifers who feel career stuck to design work that is MUCH more satisfying, fulfilling and fun.

After a couple of years of feeling progressively "career stuck", her midlife found her diving headlong into a Psychology Masters. This included researching how personality influences work and life satisfaction (some people call this "happiness") and a major research project into the future for people over the age of 50 in big corporates.

Now, she combines her head-hunting, management, coaching and psychology experience to help other midlifers design their work future in a way that fits and feels much better than their current work. She helps them find their ‘superpowers’ to break out of the...

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Episode 113: Lessons From Past Guests

For this 6th Activating Abundance episode, I reached out to previous guests and asked them to provide quotes, poems or stories/experiences they can share about abundance.

I am so grateful to Joy, Marian, Angie, Lisa, Kelly, Sandy, Eileen, and Michelle for taking the time to record a snippet of inspiration for you today.

If you'd like to hear more from these past guests, I've included links below that will take you right to their podcast interview and the show notes that have more information on who they are, what they do and how to connect with them:

Joy Pereira - Episode 66: Tips from a “Joy”-filled Aussie Who Loves “Nerding Out”!

Marian Barnick - Episode 76: Kinesiology: The Importance Of Physical Alignment In Living Your Best Life

Angie Sanders - Episode 28: Finding Hope & Purpose Through Adoption

Kelly West - Episode 85: Breathwork: A Great Soul Connector And Healing Practice

Lisa Bader - Episode 56: A Mother’s Love Of Celebrations That Inspired A Late-in-Life Business Ide...

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Episode 112: When The Act Of Helping Another Leads You To Your True Purpose with Jackie Wheeler Wiebe

My guest this week is Jackie Wheeler Wiebe, a longtime homeschooling mom & the founder of HomeSchool ThinkTank. who strives to connect homeschool families with one another and provide the resources and inspiration they need.  

Her purpose path began quite unexpectedly, as it often does, when she took action to help someone else - her 13-year old daughter! Her daughter wanted to write a book so Jackie decided SHE would start writing a book to learn about the self-publishing process so she could help her daughter publish her novel when she was ready. 

When she thought about what her book should be about, she turned to what she knew and that was homeschooling. This process led her to think about the challenges she had as a homeschooling mom and come up with ideas to solve those problems.

An internal spark was lit, and as she took action, her path and potential purpose became more and more clear. Once she committed to this new path and doing the work she was meant to do, there was no...

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Episode 111: Do You Know How Great You Really Are?

In this episode, I pulled from a series of excerpts in a book I'm reading called "Simple Abundance" by Sarah Ban Breathnach.

The excerpts are from her March readings really stuck with me when I read them (the book has 365 messages of abundance for each day of the year) because of the quotes she used to introduce the various topics that center around the authenticity, acceptance, and self care - the bottom line being: to celebrate the beauty that is within and love on it every day. 

I captured the quotes below for those who like reading better than listening. :)

  1. "Until you make peace with who you are, you'll never be content with what you have." -- Doris Mortman
  2. "We are not born all at once, but by bits. The body first, and the spirit later. Our mothers are racked with the pains of our physical birth; we ourselves suffer the longer pains of our spiritual growth." -- Mary Antin
  3. "So many women just don't know how great they really are. They come to us all vogue outside and vague
  4. ...
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Episode 110: A Boudoir Photography Experience: It’s More Than Just Photos with Tanya Smith

career Apr 25, 2021

Today’s guest is Tanya Smith, a women’s boudoir portrait photographer since 2011. She shares her story about how she happened upon this interesting field of photography because she “fell in love with how a boudoir session can change the way a woman sees herself.”

She says she was married to the wrong guy for 17 years which left her facing divorce at age 44 and having to start over from scratch, as a single mom. She decided to get into photography but had no experience which led to self doubt - especially when her divorce lawyer told her that she would "never make money in photography" and that she “should get a real job.”

Instead of letting those words defeat her and derail her dreams, she let them fuel her, and now, at age 53, she’s got a very successful business and is happily remarried. Now with a great supportive guy, she says: the sky’s the limit! 

Her best advice is: “No matter how hard things are, or how many people tell you it's a bad idea or it will never work... trust y...

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Episode 109: The Gift of Imperfection

In this episode, I felt compelled to share a lesson inspired by my student community that came from a recent coaching session. In the session, one student voiced she had "fallen off the wagon," while on vacation, losing what she had felt was great momentum.

I sensed she felt real disappointment in herself and realized this as a great teaching moment about abundance for this podcast series, especially since I, the coach and teacher, had just experienced a similar fall off of the wagon. In fact, the day of our coaching session was the same day I had gotten home from a 5 day vacation.

So today I share the following "fell off the wagon" abundant lessons:

  • Why we must stop beating ourselves up for getting out of our healthy routines!
  • The abundance I found on my recent trip to Florida.
  • Why fear keeps us in a lack state.

Click on the links below to find the Brené Brown resources I mentioned:
Her book "The Gifts of Imperfection"
Clip from Oprah interview on Super Soul Sunday

If you...

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