Your social media feed is probably full of posts touting how awful 2019 has been. People who look back on a year of losses and defeat, eager to close the door and start over.
I get it to some extent.
And also… I think you are doing yourself a MASSIVE disservice if this is the attitude you choose to close the door on 2019 with.
You did a lot this year.
You did hard things.
You did big things.
You did brave things.
You learned.
You grew.
You prospered.
Sometimes you fell.
And you got back up.
You cleaned your wounds.
You kept going.
You are stronger for everything you endured this year.
You are better for all the times you fell.
You are tougher for all the times you ugly cried.
This was a year of lessons and learning that will serve you WELL in 2020.
And a lot of great things happened all over the world this year.
You don’t get to see that when you track the traditional US news cycle.
Listen to hear all the ways 2019 ROCKED in big ways and small. There will be some surprises in this episode for sure. I hope they inspire you to love your year and feel LIT UP about starting a new one.
I am proud of all the hard things you did this year.
I SEE YOU.
Congrats on your growth in 2019.
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Born and raised in New York, Ali Levine has worked for some of the biggest names in the Fashion industry including Fragments, Coach, Talbots and Target as part of development and design.
Ali relocated to Los Angeles, California where she fell head over heels in love with wardrobe styling. She is an expert when it comes to creating looks for her celebrity clients. From red carpet appearances, music videos to world tours, Ali a unique thumbprint that displays her talent as a Fashion stylist.
Ali's New York persona took the limelight, when she recently appeared with her husband on Bravo's hit show, "Stripped." As a TV correspondent, she's covered red carpet events for Celebrity Page TV and makes regular appearance promoting herself as a brand. Ali's vibrant personality lights up the red carpet and tv appearance. After Ali's recent birth of her daughter Amelia, Ali has transitioned to mompreneur and mommy influencer across the board.
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This is the week!!
On Christmas day, the SMA will celebrate 400 episodes.
DAMN.
That’s not a small milestone.
I have learned so much on this journey and I thought it would be fun to share some of the vulnerable behind the scenes moments with you.
Listen in to hear:
The top 4 gifts I’ve gleaned over 400 episodes
The guests that I’ve been most nervous for
A few of my most vulnerable moments on the show
The parts that have looked awesome on social media, while being far less glamorous behind the scenes
I love sharing the show with you all. And I love sharing BTS. I think it’s alllll super important.
I can’t thank you enough for walking beside me on this journey. It just keeps getting better and that is in LARGE part because of YOU.
Love, love, love… Sara
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Ariel Garten is a fearless neuroscientist, psychotherapist, mom, former fashion designer, and the female founder and visionary of an amazing and highly successful tech start-up Muse - a device that reads brains. She shows how through meditation and technology you can improve mental, physical, and emotional state to become our best possible self.
If you’re anything like me and have struggled to find the inspiration to meditate on a regular basis, buckle up. This conversation is going to inspire you to find your zen in all sorts of imperfect and easy to implement ways!
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Time is possibly your most valuable and finite asset. Especially after becoming a mom, it can constantly feel like there is never enough time.
Managing timing and having confidence around time management makes goes a long way in feeling confident you can achieve your goals. If you feel there is never enough time, you’ll feel like you never get to work toward your dreams.
If you feel like you have a good grip on your time, you’ll feel a sense of spaciousness in your days - as if you have the space to work toward all the things you want to make happen. This is a game-changer.
In this episode I’m going to share 7 ways to take back your time, including a slightly controversial opinion about unscheduling, canceling and quitting things every single week.
If you’re ready to take back some time in order to create more mental space and more time to yourself to work toward your dreams, create more joy, or just take a darn nap, this episode is for you.
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Dr. Cortney Baker is CEO of KidsCare Home Health, an 8-figure healthcare business serving children with special needs from Texas to Colorado. She was named the 2017 Texas Businesswoman of the Year, is a TEDx speaker and hosts the Women in Business podcast, where she shares inspirational stories of female entrepreneurs. As a leading authority on women’s leadership and a mother of three, Cortney is working to decrease the gender gap by inspiring women to lead with confidence and integrity. Using her depth of business experience and expertise, she is now helping grow 'grandbaby businesses' as she mentors and coaches creative women to shift from side hustler to CEO.
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Before you get too excited about kicking off a new year and a new decade, I’m going to invite you to release a few things from this year and this decade that are no longer serving you.
While I don’t want to speak for you, I think many (maybe most) mamas could benefit from releasing these three things in particular:
If you want to make space for things that delight you and fill you up, you gotta release the things that are keeping you stuck and filling you with dread. If you want to make space for growth, you must see where your thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors are keeping you small.
So… let’s release all this ish together, shall we?!?
Tune in to learn why these 3 releases are particularly important.
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Mridu Parikh is a Shameless Mom of two teen boys, a Productivity Speaker, Trainer, and Coach who helps high achieving women skyrocket their time and energy while squashing overwhelm. She excites, educates, and entertains audiences all over the country on simple strategies to stop feeling scattered, overcome procrastination, and exceed goals, professionally and personally.
Her strategies on streamlining tasks and mastering habits have been featured in The Huffington Post, US News & World Report, Good Housekeeping and many other media outlets, in addition to her own ROKU channel with over 200 videos on organizing. A former serial procrastinator, Mridu is a best-selling author of "Accomplish It: 7 Simple Actions To Get The Right Things Done And Achieve Your Goals."
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The media has been lying to you.
They have been telling you to take bubble baths and drink copious amounts of wine and get manis & pedis all under the guise of self-care.
While indulgent self-care is awesome and important, self-care is about much more than the infrequent pedicure. And sometimes the habits we label self-care are more of an escape that fills a void than a tool that serves us (read: copious amounts of wine.)
The self-care you actually need is habits and routines that preserve your energy, promote excellent physical and mental health, and provide restoration from the hard days and long nights of motherhood.
This kind of self-care looks like going to bed earlier, maintaining an exercise routine, taking time for yourself before your family rises, going to therapy, practicing meditation, being conscientious of your wine and sugar intake.
This kind of self-care requires discipline.
I know it’s not sexy and sometimes it’s not fun.
Sometimes it actually feels like work, which feels unfair. But the results and the rewards will improve your physical and mental health, help you sustain your energy all day #everydamnday, and restore a sense of harmony that you didn’t think could exist - all of which is to say that your disciplined self-care might bring actual magic into your life.
Listen in to learn:
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Stephanie Dalfonzo is a speaker, coach, hypnotist, and author of “Goodbye Anxiety, Hello Freedom!” She’s been researching holistic, natural and scientifically proven strategies to calm stress and anxiety for over 20 years.
She is hired by people who are determined to create the life of their dreams but don’t know where to start. She helps them resolve past traumas to clear the way to truly living the life they’ve always dreamed of.
Sharing inspirational empowerment with simple action steps, Stephanie has freed thousands of people, from tweens to 82, from their anxiety, stress, and fears.
Listen in to hear Stephanie share:
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From the time you were a little girl you were likely told to quiet or completely shut down your own instincts in order to make other people happy.
“Give Uncle Bob a big hug!”
“Wear the pink dress. That one looks the prettiest on you.
And then you watched your mom seek your dad’s approval and permission over and over as if it were required. Maybe it was.
And then you had your own baby and you got really good an ignoring your body as it screamed at you:
“I’m hungry!”
“I’m tired!”
“I need a break.”
You couldn’t eat or sleep or take a break because this baby needed you in order to stay alive.
And now you’ve existed for perhaps decades silencing your instincts in order to meet others expectations, make others happy, and keep babies alive.
And you’ve completely lost any sense of self-trust.
You wonder why you don’t know what you’re passionate about or why you can’t figure out your purpose or why you don’t even have a favorite food anymore.
It’s because you’ve lost the ability to trust your gut, to listen to your instincts, to trust that you are smart and worthy and qualified and deserving.
If you’re reading this and thinking, “SHIT. She’s talking about me.”, this episode is for you. This is where you get to start building back your self-trust. This is where you learn to get quiet and curious and conscientious. This is where you begin.
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Hitha Palepu is a Shameless Mom, a multi-hyphenate - an entrepreneur, investor, and author. She is the CEO of Rhoshan Pharmaceuticals, a specialty pharma company that develops injectable presentations of common oral drugs. Hitha is also an active angel investor, having invested in or advised 10+ women-led companies. How To Pack: Travel Smart for Any Trip is her first book and an extension of her popular blog, Hitha On The Go. Her #5SmartReads series reaches 35,000 women every week. Hitha is equally committed to philanthropy, serving on the board of Sundara Fund and Youth Represent, the steering committee of Lincoln Center Kids, and an ambassador of Beyond Capital. She lives in New York City with her husband and two sons.
I stumbled upon Hitha during some Instagram stalking and I haven’t stopped stalking her since. She is a woman with a mission - or like 37 missions. I’m inspired by her daily. I think you will be too. I think we all need a little more Hitha in your lives.
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Every year since launching The Shameless Mom Academy podcast, moms have asked me about how to manage families and boundaries around the holidays. So, every year I talk about it. Because I don’t believe you should compromise your joy to meet someone else’s needs.
I want you to own your holidays. Own your peace. Own your joy. Own the magic. Own the boundaries. Own your disregard for others' expectations of you.
That last part might sound harsh, insensitive, even downright selfish. And maybe it is. And maybe that’s ok!
It is not your job to manage the expectations of 4 sets of grandparents, 7 aunts, 3 uncles, 37 cousins, 4 step-siblings, a half-sister and a partridge in a pear tree.
IT’S NOT.
Your job is to meet the needs of your immediate family unit - to create joy and magic and meaningful traditions for these most intimate relationships with the few people you adore more than anyone else in the world.
It might be possible to do this and meet the needs of some extended family. And it might not. And that’s ok.
If you have any dread over the upcoming holiday season, this ep is for you. Tune in to learn how to prioritize all the right things (your joy and peace!) and how to set boundaries around all the noise (even if you love the heck out of those noisy folks!)
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Farnoosh Torabi a Shameless Mom of 2 littles, a celebrated financial expert, host of the award-winning podcast So Money, and bestselling author of multiple books, including her latest: When She Makes More. She appears frequently on the NBC Today Show and is the resident financial contributor for O, The Oprah Magazine. She is also part of the founding team of Stacks House, the first-ever pop-up museum dedicated to financial literacy and empowerment. Farnoosh studied finance at Penn State and holds a Master's from The Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children.
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5 Mindset Resets You Need To Shine Like A Mother >>> Shine
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You are a BIG DEAL.
No, really.
You are a BIG DEAL.
And the sooner you embrace this, the sooner you can amplify your identity and impact in this world.
The world needs more of you.
Seriously.
We need you to SHOW UP and SHINE.
We need you to be LOUD and PROUD.
We need you to believe in yourself the way we believe in you.
If every mom knew she was the BIG DEAL that she already is, women would have exponentially more power in the world.
Being a BIG DEAL is not about leading with your ego or grandstanding all around town.
It’s about owning your strengths and gifts and talents so you can leverage them in the most powerful ways.
It’s about living in your confidence so you can cultivate joy and power while having a positive impact in your household, your communities, your organizations.
It’s about living out loud so you can lead with purpose, passion, compassion, and conviction.
There are 4 essential keys you need to embrace in order to own being a BIG DEAL:
Listen in to this episode of The Shameless Mom Academy for a deep dive on all four of these keys so you can be more of a BIG DEAL #everydamnday!
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5 Mindset Resets You Need To Shine Like A Mother >>> SLAM Workshop
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Alexia Vernon is the author of Step into Your Moxie: Amplify Your Voice, Visibility, and Influence in the World. Branded a “Moxie Maven” by President Obama’s White House Office of Public Engagement for her unique and effective approach to female empowerment, Alexia’s equal parts practical, poetic and playful delivery style makes her a sought-after speaking and leadership coach, consultant and trainer. Alexia has presented transformational keynotes and corporate trainings for Fortune 500 companies and professional associations, spoken at the United Nations and delivered a TEDx talk. She has gotten her gab on with media including CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, and Forbes.com. She lives in Las Vegas, Nevada with her partner in business and life, Stephen, and their precocious, wide-eyed, preschool-aged daughter.
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Do you struggle with seasonal depression, the winter blues or full-fledged Seasonal Affective Disorder?
I recently asked members of our private Facebook group their biggest current struggle and I was overwhelmed with responses about the winter blues and seasonal depression.
I am not a doctor and I don’t want to minimize the importance of seeing a doctor and exploring medication if you’re struggling with depression.
In addition to medical support, there are so many ways to support your mental health as we enter these darker months. And much of this support starts now - from a proactive place.
In this episode, I talk you through a variety of simple lifestyle upgrades (yes, upgrades!) that can have a profound impact on your mental health and quality of life during these winter months.
You will learn how to:
Please share this episode with others who may be struggling as we enter these winter months. Your support could deeply impact another mama’s life.
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Join my FREE virtual workshop: 5 Mindset Resets You Need To Shine Like A Mother >>> shamelessmom.com/shine
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Tavona Givens is a Shameless Mom to two sons, a coach, writer, speaker, and a widow. She has always been in the business of healing, as a massage therapist and reiki master for over 13 years. She has developed an exceptional way of building trust and connection with every person she works with. With the sudden passing of her husband in 2014, it has been her mission to create space for widowed mamas like herself to use their pain as a catalyst for growth. She is the proud mother of two sons James and Jordan. She lives for family, travel, waterfronts, podcasts, chocolate, laughter, and random acts of kindness. She holds a Bachelors in Liberal Arts, Master’s in Public Administration, and is VP of Education for ToastMasters. She is currently preparing to launch her own podcast.
Tavona life was flipped upside down literally overnight with the very sudden passing of her husband, James. I heard Tavona’s story a couple years ago when she first joined my community and I knew I wanted to have her on as a guest someday. I am so honored to have her here to share what grief has looked like for her.
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You are a leader. There is no way around it. #sorrynotsorry
You lead in your household. You lead in your community. You lead in your profession. You lead in your relationships.
You are a leader.
So, how are you stepping into that role? How do you lead with integrity? How do you lead with compassion? How do you lead with just the right amount of power and purpose to inspire others to follow?
There are 4 key characteristics to every great leader, whether they are leading a family of 4 or a multimillion-dollar organization: courage, confidence, compassion, and curiosity.
All 4 complement each other in a very synergistic way. And when you have all 4 dialed in you can lead in the most dynamic ways - where you’re working in your greatest strengths, inspiring others to take positive action, and having the most profound impact.
Listen in to learn how to more fully step into your role as a leader in order to get more of what you want and have the most impact along the way.
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Jessica Sinarski is a Shameless Mom of 3, a clinical supervisor, consultant, writer, and educator. She is the author of RILEY THE BRAVE (available in English and Spanish) and the founder of BraveBrains, an organization committed to helping adults living and working with children who have experienced abuse, neglect, or significant losses.
Jessica is a thought leader in connecting neuroscience with practice in adult-child relationships and has shared her expertise as a contributor to Fostering Families magazine, Adoptalk, blogs, and podcasts. She has trained thousands of parents and professionals across the country and maintains a private practice in Delaware, incorporating neurofeedback and attachment-based therapeutic models.
Jessica shares some GOLD here as it pertains to our brains, our childrens’ brains, and how we can reverse stress to the brain. I learned so much in this conversation. I think you will too!
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It is no secret that the people you spend the most time with will rub off on you. This begs the question - are you spending time with the right people?
Are you investing in relationships with people who inspire you, push you, hold you accountable, cheer for you?
Are you investing in relationships with people who have similar core values, who want to do good for the greater good, who want to elevate others as they climb, who want to elevate those who have less privilege?
Are you investing in relationships with people who are doing big things, scary things, great things - the things you want to do?
The relationships you invest in will determine your path, your growth, and your joy. And in many cases, they will clear the path for you, expediting your growth, bringing you joy you never thought possible.
Listen in to hear why you must get yourself in the room with like-minded mamas and my secret growth formula that makes the relationships you build in these rooms invaluable to your growth.
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Dana V. Adams is a Shameless Mom of 4 boys, the founder of the Life Mapping Institute, author of Live Your Gift and the Live Your Gift Companion Guide, and considered one of the country’s top thought leaders on the life mapping process. For decades, first as a student and now as a teacher and mentor, Dana has inspired, empowered, and led thousands to embrace their life’s gifts to live happy, abundant and authentic lives. She leads the highly acclaimed Life Mapping Workshop to corporations and individuals.
Dana’s life was deeply impacted by life mapping a few years ago, so she took it upon herself to reach out to the creator of the concept, Bill Cohen, to ask him if they collaborate - major Shameless move! He said yes and Dana has had the opportunity to build a truly transformational program at the Life Mapping Institute as a result of this collaboration.
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Do you suck at time management?
I get it. I’ve been there. Like, this week.
I have to laugh at the timing of this episode. I recorded it a few weeks ago, but at the time of writing this show description, my time couldn’t feel more tight. It has been one of those weeks where I’m constantly having to follow my own advice.
In a week when all the things are exploding and imploding, I’m having to be exceptionally clear around why I’m spending time on every single task - to make sure that I’m not prioritizing the wrong thing at the wrong time. This is HARD. This means that I’m dropping a few balls - on purpose. And that’s ok.
Time management is not about getting all the things done on time. It’s about getting the right things done at the right time. It’s about identifying what the “right things” even are.
Listen in to this episode to learn how to:
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Torie Henderson is a Shameless Mom of two teens, a master certified life coach, public school teacher, and creator of LifeCoachingforParents.com. She has helped hundreds of overworked and exhausted Supermoms transform their parenting, their careers, and their lives. Torie is host of the Supermom is Getting Tired Podcast and is devoted to helping moms release the burdens and the guilt so they can truly enjoy this time of their lives.
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I’ve known for the last few years that motherhood is a massive qualifier for any CEO role. For quite some time I’ve been compiling lists in my head of different ways motherhood prepares a woman to lead and negotiate and teach and advocate at the highest level.
But when I sat down to create a master list of the TOP ways motherhood qualifies a woman to be a CEO, I could barely contain my excitement. The thoughts that had been swarming in my head for years came pouring out and the connections were so clear and so obvious.
It is not a stretch by any means to state that motherhood qualifies you to lead at the very highest level. In fact, I would suggest that in some (many?) instances those who are not mothers are significantly less qualified to lead at the highest levels.
Motherhood requires you to be a master multitasker, people manager, time manager, negotiator, decision-maker, action taker, planner, budgeter, teacher, coach, mentor, visionary, value creator, boundary enforcer, teammate and advocate who can be patient, persuasive, compassionate, fearless, agile, empathetic, resilient, intentional, resourceful, disciplined, determined, and tenacious as all get out. Tell me what other role, job, experience would make you more qualified to be a CEO?
You are capable of being the CEO of your life, your household, your community, and any other organization you want to build or lead. If you’re not 100% certain of that already, this episode is for you. Listen in. More than once.
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