Up-Level Your Life with Mindy
Embracing Courage and Authenticity: Kristina Driscoll on Overcoming Adversity and Living with Intention
When Kristina Driscoll, the powerhouse behind the She's Brave Podcast, sat down to chat with me, we both knew we were about to embark on an extraordinary exchange. You're about to immerse yourself in a conversation that traverses the terrains of courage, personal tribulations, and the sweet victory of triumphing over life's unexpected detours. Kristina's story is a testament to the power of resilience, as she recounts her ascension from a place where bravery was scarce, to scaling her podcast to global recognition, all while navigating the complexities of her husband's early-onset Alzheimer's diagnosis.
Through our engaging dialogue, we shed light on the small steps that lead to major milestones, and the transformative nature of embracing rejection as a rite of passage to growth. The episode culminates with a raw and honest reflection on authenticity and the courage it demands to live life on one's own terms. We discuss anxiety, the healing power of support, and how the wisdom of icons like Eckhart Tolle and Oprah have been instrumental in Kristina's journey.
We also dive into the ritual of choosing a guiding word for the year, a practice that Kristina herself illuminates with her chosen mantra for unwavering determination. Don't just take our word for it—join Kristina's expanding community through her podcast and her infectious Facebook group for podcast aficionados.
To learn more about Kristina visit:
https://shesbravepodcast.com/
Ready to Up-Level Your Life? Interested in group coaching with Mindy?
Fill out this brief form: https://forms.gle/y9Lit11jcYhmkWAW9
To learn more about Mindy CLICK HERE
When Kristina Driscoll, the powerhouse behind the She's Brave Podcast, sat down to chat with me, we both knew we were about to embark on an extraordinary exchange. You're about to immerse yourself in a conversation that traverses the terrains of courage, personal tribulations, and the sweet victory of triumphing over life's unexpected detours. Kristina's story is a testament to the power of resilience, as she recounts her ascension from a place where bravery was scarce, to scaling her podcast to global recognition, all while navigating the complexities of her husband's early-onset Alzheimer's diagnosis.
Through our engaging dialogue, we shed light on the small steps that lead to major milestones, and the transformative nature of embracing rejection as a rite of passage to growth. The episode culminates with a raw and honest reflection on authenticity and the courage it demands to live life on one's own terms. We discuss anxiety, the healing power of support, and how the wisdom of icons like Eckhart Tolle and Oprah have been instrumental in Kristina's journey.
We also dive into the ritual of choosing a guiding word for the year, a practice that Kristina herself illuminates with her chosen mantra for unwavering determination. Don't just take our word for it—join Kristina's expanding community through her podcast and her infectious Facebook group for podcast aficionados.
To learn more about Kristina visit:
https://shesbravepodcast.com/
Ready to Up-Level Your Life? Interested in group coaching with Mindy?
Fill out this brief form: https://forms.gle/y9Lit11jcYhmkWAW9
To learn more about Mindy CLICK HERE
Hey friends, this is your host, mindy Duff, and you're listening to Uplevel your Life with Mindy, your number one personal growth podcast that will bring you closer to uncovering your greatest self. As a certified holistic health and nutrition coach, I created this podcast for anyone who desires to improve physically, emotionally and spiritually. I'll be interviewing experts and sharing tips and tricks that have helped not only my clients, but that have guided me on my own transformational journey. I believe that we all have a greatness that lies within. We just need to uncover it. Are you ready to level up? Let's begin. Hi everyone and welcome back to Uplevel your Life with Mindy.
Speaker 1:I am your host, mindy Duff, and before I get into today's episode, I do have a super interesting guest, christina Driscoll, the host of she's Brave Podcast. Christina has a fantastic story just a personal story and really is a true inspiration. So I will get to that in a second, but I wanted to take just a quick second and let you all know about an opportunity that I have coming up. I have opened up a group coaching program. I haven't done one of these for a while, not sure if we'll do it again after this round, but I just felt called to do this right now, at this point in time so if you're listening to this, relatively close to when I am recording, which is January 2024, I am offering a three month coaching program. It's a group coaching program for just a small group of individuals, and this is for people who are just ready to live up to your potential. If you are looking to up level your life in any area health, career, finance, relationships, any of it I would encourage you to just investigate this program just a little bit, because instead of niching way down and saying, oh, I'm going to help you solve your relationship problems or your career problems or what have you, this program really is designed to take care of you from the inside out, and when we do that, we find that everything in our external world kind of falls into place.
Speaker 1:So if you're somebody that just has this, this gnawing feeling that you're meant for more, or maybe maybe life's good but it's just not not great or something's missing, maybe you're even aware that. Maybe you're you're self self medicating or trying to fill a void with various distractions like social media or alcohol or shopping, or even self help books or podcasts like this one. If you're delving into that constantly, maybe you are looking to fill a void, and really that's what we're going to be investigating is how to how to do that and really when. Once we're done with this three month program, you're going to find yourself with so much more peace and less anxiety, and I just think that that's just the biggest gift that I could even think to help other people find that sense of peace and authenticity within them, their own self. So, if this is something that you are interested in, check the show notes. I do have a link there just for you to fill out a quick form that tells me that, hey, you know what? I'm not sure, but I think I'm interested. I want to learn a little bit more about it, and then I will get you some more details as soon as I can.
Speaker 1:Okay, so for me, right now, let's jump back into this episode and see what Christina has to say. Hi everyone, and welcome back to Uplevel your Life with Mindy. I am your host, mindy Duff, and I have a special guest with me today. I'm going to be chatting with Christina Driscoll from she's Brave podcast, and we're going to talk about being brave today, because that's that's what your whole podcast is all about. So that's what we're going to focus on Christina. Thanks so much for being here today.
Speaker 2:Thanks so much for having me on your show, mindy. I'm just totally delighted to be here.
Speaker 1:Fantastic. And before we dig too much into the being brave part, just tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I, as you mentioned, I am the host of the she's Brave podcast and I've been podcasting for just a year now, but I really, really love podcasting and I made it to the top 2.5% globally in six months and I'm currently in the top 2% globally If you check out listennotescom, and I teach podcasting classes. I finished my first one and I'm getting gearing up to teach my second one in February on how to get in the top 2.5% within six months.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that is such an incredible accomplishment. So for those of you that are listening, you know, if you're not a podcaster yourself, you maybe just listen to podcasts. You maybe don't realize what kind of an accomplishment this actually is. And to do it in such a short amount of time, christina, is just I mean, it just kind of is amazing to me really, because that's really really huge when we think about you know how many podcasts are out there, and to be in the top 2%, that's really big.
Speaker 1:I'm just going to ask I'm not going to make you spill your secrets, and I know there's a lot of people listening that don't have a podcast and are like, well, I don't need to know this, but I am just curious if you could attribute your success on your podcast to one area. What do you think it is? Because I'm thinking there's things like oh, just the technical. Well, I have the right technical tools and I had the you know we were talking about mics earlier and I have the right guests, or is it more energetic alignment, or you have no idea what it is, but here it is. What's one area that you really think helped you in this?
Speaker 2:Great, awesome question, mindy, I want to. Part of my message of my podcast is I didn't start out brave either. I started out. My husband was a lot older than me. He got early onset Alzheimer's when our son was 5. And I was a financial advisor before that. But you know, I basically just managed some investments and took care of my husband and son. I was a caregiver for 12 years.
Speaker 2:In the eyes of the world I was a nobody and after my husband passed away, my son graduated from high school. I was in a space in my life of like what's my next chapter? And I kind of had that uneasy feeling like you know that we all get and a lot of people push that away by just trying to keep themselves really busy and then sometimes God or the universe will slow us down. And I got a really bad case of COVID that's a whole nother story but on my honeymoon of all things, and I had to sleep like really I had to like just slow down for a whole month and I felt very uncomfortable. But what I know now is that when you get that feeling of uncomfortableness, it's because you're meant for more. That's what it is. It's like it's the universe saying you're not meant to just be sitting back on your laurels like, you're meant for more. And I didn't start out brave at all. In fact, when my husband was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's, I was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, and that's kind of another big reason why I started Cheese Brave, because I feel like if I can do it, anybody can do it. You know, I came from nothing and I would say my biggest secret, you know this, this is this there are technical things that I stumbled on in those first six months that no podcasting class taught me and that I will not get into. But if I would have to say one thing, I would say I'm going to tell you a few things because I just feel like it. But number one I started out terrified in podcasting. I actually didn't know if I wanted to do a podcast, I just had. I felt uncomfortable, I felt like I needed to get myself out there in some way. So I, you know, joined a podcasting class and I was terrified when I joined my first podcasting class and I've taken a couple of different ones, no-transcript, you know it was.
Speaker 2:I think in our society today, number one, mindy, is that we're almost out of space right now in our world where we don't feel like it's okay to feel afraid or it's not okay to wake up in the morning feeling a little bit edgy. And I was at a concert like right around the time that I started taking the podcasting class at like a year ago, year and a half ago, october, I was at an Andy Grammer concert and he's super uplifting, super inspiring. You would know his music if you don't know it. Um, and one of the things he said was if you don't wake up in the morning a little bit on edge, then it's time for you to get a new job. Like I thought that was fascinating. Like he basically was saying you should always be challenging yourself. But I think that we're almost at a place in our society where we're always trying to be 100% happy, 100% comfortable, 100% at peace and, um, actually I'm reading a great book about it and it says that our brains aren't wired that way. Like we are actually wired to have like some fear and some chaos and and some of that. And if we just try to push it all away, our brains get really unbalanced and it's not good. So letting like feeling the fear and doing it anyway is like really a big part of who I am.
Speaker 2:So what, what happened to me was, you know, I was just showing up for the zoom sessions, quiet as a mouse, but one day somebody in the class was like hey, I want to practice like interviewing with somebody, and I was terrified, but I said I will. And so we jumped on and it was like this huge wall, like this psychological wall of being terrified to interview somebody. So we just jumped on zoom. They were in England, I was here, you know, in Seattle, and we just started practice interviewing and then we just like, oh, this is fun. Then we started laughing and then we were like let's hit record. Ha ha ha, this is so funny, this is great, and I had so much fun. It was like I built up this big wall, but just by taking a tiny baby step of practicing, I was like that wall just like went away. So then I started reaching out to other podcasters and saying who wants to practice with me? Like, come on, let's just go. And I would just tell them, yeah, let's just practice. But then, if it was going really well, I'd say ha ha ha, let's just hit record for fun. Guess what? Some of those actually became interviews.
Speaker 2:So what I have found Mindy like is I started out this really scared person, very scared, risk aversa person, but by taking these like really tiny steps I would gain confidence. And it was kind of like self perpetuating. It was like I would take a teeny, tiny, terrifying step, like I just explained. Then I would gain like a little bit of confidence from that and I would gain more clarity about what I wanted to do next. And then I would take another like big risk in my eyes, you know, of something really scary, and then again I would gain a little more confidence and then again I would gain more clarity and it just kind of built from there. So I feel really, really, really strongly that you can come from a place of like being totally terrified and just you know.
Speaker 2:And the other thing that I think I think a big key is was just finally letting go of, you know, trying to push down the fear all the time, like you know, and realizing that fear was part of the equation and that it's always going to be a part of the equation. And whenever you're any kind of entrepreneur, this the fear is always going to be there, because you're always going to be having to learn something new and to be okay with that. You know like I literally am like, oh, there's that fear again. I just kind of observe it now and say it's there, it's okay, it's okay for it to be there, and I know that it's not going to be there forever, it'll go away, right, like. So that that itself is is huge.
Speaker 2:And I think another thing was I actually just interviewed a really cool woman yesterday and I want to share a little bit of because I resonate, and I did the same thing. She, her name's Heidi Zach and she owns, she's the CEO of, a company called Third Love, that that they make these really amazing bras, and she's been so successful that she has donated over $15 million dollars to charity and she's, she's, she's a, she helps other women start up companies. Now she's a, she's an amazing human being. And when I asked her, like what was her secret to success, she said you're going to have a lot of failure along the way as an entrepreneur and you have to be okay with that and you have to look at failure as, not as failure. It's basically like failing forward. It's all part of the learning process. It's just you learning. Oh, this thing over here didn't work. So you have to basically be okay with failing a lot.
Speaker 2:And I think what happened, mindy, is that again, like I kept taking these baby steps. And you know, I think in today's world we love talking about mindset, right, like we love saying, okay, if I just every morning I'm going to get up and I'm going to visualize a million dollars in the bank, let's say, and I'm going to write out, I have a million dollars in the bank, like a hundred times in the morning, the evening, you know, number one, obviously I think you know this, but a lot of your listeners aren't going to know this. You know, if you don't feel it, and you don't believe it in your heart, it's definitely energetically. It's never going to happen.
Speaker 2:So some of us, like I, just kind of embraced that. I said I can't visualize that right now. Like a year ago I couldn't visualize being in the top two percent globally, interviewing someone who makes so much money that they gave away over 50 million dollars. Like I couldn't even visualize that. But just by, I just broke it down into baby steps and I just said, but I can visualize reaching out, you know, to somebody in my class to interview, and then you know oh well, now I can reach out to somebody in the world who I love, like an author that I love, and what, what? What's the worst thing that can happen? Heidi said this too. She said I have had so much failure, but I always, before I'm doing something that I might fail at, she says, I always say to myself what's the worst thing that can happen? I fail, they say no, it doesn't work. Big deal On to the next thing. You know, and you know so that that that I do too.
Speaker 2:I, I tend to say what's the worst thing that could happen? You know, like even today, jumping on with you, like you know, I don't freak out anymore about people interviewing me, but you know, really, the question to ask yourself is, if you're in the podcasting world, what's the worst thing that can happen? Well, mindy, you might just be like wow, christina, this interview was crap. Sorry, I'm not airing it. Well, that's okay. Maybe I'm having a bad day. Give myself some grace. You know, totally okay to just not be perfect, and you know I do that a lot. I asked myself what's the worst thing that can happen?
Speaker 2:And the other thing I learned was that, like when I started reaching out to guests. You know that were kind of maybe like a level up. You know, from just being like my fellow, you know classmates and friends of friends and things like that, just reaching out to blind strangers, I it was scary, right, like that was scary too. But I found that if I interview or if I try to reach out to like, say, five people, I my day is so busy that I'm not even a couple of days from now. I'm not even going to remember all five of them, right, some of them are going to get back to me, some of them are not going to get back to me.
Speaker 2:That first rejection stung the most. It hurt the most it. I felt like I took a step backward with my self-esteem. But the more I again, the more I did it, the more confident I got and the more I didn't care that if they said no number one, you know it's not, it doesn't hurt anymore. Like they may know more something that I know. Like they may just realize this girl's not a good fit, like I'm not a good fit for her podcast. Like, so they don't get back to me, that's, you know, that's totally fine, that's not a reflection of bad, the other kind of brilliant thing I learned from interviewing a woman who was the top recruiter in New York City for a long time. So she was that person who, would you know, call up, cold call, like you know, an executive at Apple and say, hey, microsoft wants to hire you. What is it going to take to jump ship and go over? And I mean, she started doing this at age 25 and she started doing this and she, I was like blown away by her grit and her persistence to just you know. And I said, well, what are you? How did you ever gain the confidence to just keep going? Because I said, in that recruiting world, I would think most of the time people are going to say no, like I live in New York, I'm not moving to Seattle, you know my family's here. No, no, no. And she was like hey got to tell you a secret. It doesn't mean no forever, it's a great secret, you know. She said, literally I might reach out to that person in six months and Everything could be different. Everything could be different. And all of a sudden they just say yes. So she and also I interviewed another woman who said exactly the same thing too, like no Doesn't mean no forever.
Speaker 2:Lydia. Lydia Fennett is the top Female auctioneer in the world and she started out by calling up Christie's. You know, christie's the auction house that sells Picasso's and things like that. And as a college student she reached out trying to get a college and summer internship, not knowing that they only gave Internships to friends and family and connections of Christie's, and she was. She had no connection, she was a nobody from Louisiana.
Speaker 2:But she didn't take no for an answer and she they said no, we've already hired 30 people, we only have 30 slots. No, you know, she called back every day and after a couple weeks, or maybe after a week, she figured out and said you know what. She called them up and she said why do you only have 30 slots, like, why can't you hire me as 31? Talk about an 18 year old with guts. And they said well, it's because we have two groups of 15 and they go to museums and the maximum amount of group is 15 per group. And she said I don't have a problem with that. She said you can. You can have me do photo copies, you can have me do Administrative work. All stay in the office at Christie's. I won't go on any the outings.
Speaker 2:So they finally broke down. They hired her for the internship and you know these kids, a lot of them wouldn't show up like every day. At least one of them wouldn't show up because they didn't care. They were, they're from pretty privileged backgrounds and maybe they didn't really want to be there, maybe their their parent kind of pushed them into it. So every day she got to go on all the outings and she basically long story short, you know, with interned every summer, got hired to them, became this amazing female auctioneer, completely Reinvented the way charity auctioneering is done, has raised over a billion dollars in for charities. You know to this day and I love her story because that's that's great like, and I admitted that to her I said at that age, had I reached out to Christie's for an internship and they told me no, it just would have ended right there.
Speaker 2:And if I could give one piece of advice to your listeners, whether and that really it doesn't have to just apply to podcasting and it it can apply to everything in life Just Cuz somebody says no today, like, don't you know, like the no, the no will will sting less, the more you do it, the more people reject you. You'll get to a point where you don't take it personally and you will also make more efforts, like I had. I recently needed to hire a new assistant. I was just Completely overwhelmed with work over December and January. So basically In mid-December I was like, hey, does anybody know somebody? And so some. This, this woman friend of a friend, read, had to reach out to me three times because I was that busy that I never got back to her. I mean, it's so ironic. I needed to get back to her because I need some help. But she reached out to me three times and a third time. I finally was like, yes, I need to get this done, you know. And now she's working for me, you know, and I think that so many of us stop After that first time like I never got back to her the first two times, like I never even said anything.
Speaker 2:I just didn't get back to her. I was like I'm overwhelmed. I have like way too many things going on. So I think you know, the number one key of why I'm at where I'm at is I learned how to take courageous small steps, and Then I just started experimenting. So I think it's experimentation is a big part of the equation too. So I started saying, well, you know I didn't learn this or that in class, but what if I try this thing over here, and what if I try that thing over there? And you know, I'm just gonna start messing around and I found my own formula. The other thing that I did and I try to encourage my students to do this is I I actually refused to look at my numbers, my statistics, for I said I'm not gonna look at my statistics at all and the well, I looked at them, like the first week or two, and freaked out, because there were like 30 people that had listened to my podcast and I was like this is terrible and it got me really down.
Speaker 2:And so I just decided I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna focus on the numbers and the statistics. I'm gonna focus on enjoying interviews, enjoying what I do, trying to make a difference in the world, put women's voices out there. And so I didn't. I refused to look at any. I looked at nothing. I was very disciplined. I didn't look at my numbers and then in May last year, one of my podcasting friends reached out to me and said did you know that you're in the top 2% globally? And I went wait, are you sure? Sure, that's like the right podcast? She said, yeah, just go to listen notes, calm, and type in your podcast. It's right there. There it was, you know.
Speaker 2:And so I try to tell my students that too, don't be so hung up on your numbers, and you know, and and also like too much expectation of how you think the future should look at a certain point in time. So I let that. I let go of that, like I wasn't saying I need to have this many downloads and I need to have this and this accomplished by this state. I just left it wide open for the universe to let it. Let it go, because I think that when we hold on to things too tightly, we actually push them away, and I did that in dating. Let me tell you a really, really funny story about that.
Speaker 2:So you know, I was dating, I was online dating for the first time in 20 years or whatever, and you know I just thought it's a numbers game. You know, if I just go on enough dates Coffee dates I'm gonna try to set up, like you know, 10 coffee dates a week and then eventually, I'm gonna meet the right guy, and I thought it was just a matter of doing that and it didn't work. And and why it didn't work was that I was so hell bent on finding somebody that I was actually pushing, pushing any of that ever coming to me. You know, I was trying to control the future instead of, like, opening myself up and letting go and letting letting go of the control, and so I finally Gave up, and I think there's an important lesson in that too.
Speaker 2:Sometimes we have to take a break. We have to. Just even in podcasting, we have bad days or bad weeks or even a bad month. I've had that and we got to kind of step back, do the bare minimum, take a break and just say it's okay, maybe I'm not gonna grow right now, I'm okay with that. And in the case of dating, I just said I'm, I, I surrender, I surrender God, universe, like I. Just I can't, this isn't working for me, so I'm gonna stop trying. And I got real comfortable with who I am by myself and Three months later I met my husband. So there you have it a lot of advice in there boy, that was a lot that that way, I think, was a record long answer for me.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna say that that was a great. I didn't want to. I just let you go because there were so much good things. I was taking notes over here. I'm like, yes, this is amazing.
Speaker 2:I was on a roll. Yeah, thank you for letting me just.
Speaker 1:Absolutely no. No, I'm Resonating with so much of what you're saying here and I'm gonna circle back to just a few things that you had mentioned, and I think really a lot of what you were talking about is such a great real life example of. We've all heard the quote about you don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the next step and we see that like a little. You know Social media, little quotes and whatnot and everyone. Oh yeah, that's true, but what does that look like in real life? What does it actually mean to just trust and take the next step even though you can't see exactly where you're going? I mean, I think that is such a great example of that in real life. And the other thing that I'm noticing as you're telling your story, christina, is how much fun you were having and.
Speaker 1:I think you know and my listeners know I come from this. You know more spiritual side of things and alignment and all that, and I think that when you're truly Having fun and just in the zone and doing, you know you're feeling the flow and you're joyful with what you're doing. That's, that's part of why you're having so much success, because you love it. You're not doing it, like you say, to get the numbers.
Speaker 2:You're doing it because you love it and then I have a really strong sense of yeah, yeah, and I have a really strong sense of purpose, of Getting women's voices out in the world, helping women to know that they matter, we all matter, and to give them the courage to live more authentically. So, you know, kind of like, when I had that feeling of uneasiness and that I was meant for more, I think most of us just push it down and just it's too scary, right, like it's too scary to take that on. But I'm trying to say hey. I'm trying to say hey, here's some examples of women who did that, who did it, you know, me included, and you know you can live the life of your dreams.
Speaker 2:And the other thing I, I, I'm reading a book. It's called a hundred essays oh, I can't remember the author's name, but it's, it's so powerful and she's talking about how, you know, it's actually the journey that you have the most joy at. Like you Think you keep thinking, well, when I get to this destination, I'm gonna be happy. But it's actually the journey of getting there is where you get the most joy and that's why so many like Olympic athletes, you know, or one hit wonders, like people who, who maybe you know, we're in a series on TV and had a really great role, like like Seinfeld or something you know, and then it the show ended, and then they were kind of like Well, you know, and it's like there's a big letdown Because it's like they achieved their goal. I guess this happens a lot with Olympic athletes. So they go through serious depression because they're like what is there, what do I do?
Speaker 2:now, you know, and and they were putting all their happiness in the future, and so I've learned that you know, happiness is, is here and now, like that's what I need to work on more than anything. I recently had a podcaster ask me the end of her interview the end of her interview thought it was a great question. She's like if you could have the perfect life, just describe it to me. And I said I am, I am living the perfect life. This is it. I'm doing exactly what I want, I'm exactly where I want to be. I wouldn't change anything and I think we all need to be able to we want to get to that place.
Speaker 2:We don't. We don't start out that way. I didn't start out that way A year and a half ago. I was not that way, but I think we can get there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah and it's just like you say it's. It has to come internally, it's not externally. Climbing your Mount Everest and then achieving it and going well, now what Like? That's never. You're right, that's never going to bring you the joy. You have to be able to find joy in what you're doing right now. And if you're not enjoying what you're doing right now, either do something different or find a way that you can enjoy what you're doing right now. And it sounds like you're just hitting it out of the park on that one, not to say the life is perfect, right, yeah, yeah, but you know, finding peace with where you're at and finding every day stuff.
Speaker 1:Yep, yeah, that's, that's really key. Um, and I, I really like when you were talking about fear also and how fear is always there and I think the more that we can accept that and feel that and go. Okay, I'm feeling fear, but you know what? This is normal and, like you said, it's not going to last. I saw a definition of the word courageous not too long ago and it was. I was trying to explain this to my kids. Um, ah, one of them was going to do something kind of kind of scary for them. I can't remember what it was now, but, um, you know it was. Being courageous Doesn't mean you're not still fearful.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, it's that.
Speaker 1:feel the fear and do it anyway thing. If you're going to be courageous, you absolutely 100% feel the fear. Yeah, that's what makes it so courageous is because you feel that fear. If you don't feel the fear, then it's not courageous at all, cause it's just like going to the supermarket like who cares, right, yeah, yeah. But if you're able to go, okay, I feel fear, but I know that this is maybe a good thing and I'm going to try it anyway. That's being courageous.
Speaker 2:So I thought that was really I'm great.
Speaker 1:Never mind any of that. While you were talking about that, yeah, I'm still having that Like.
Speaker 2:I have a private Facebook group for people who want to get in the top two and a half percent in six months and and just the safe space for podcasters to help each other out. And um, I did my first Facebook live and I was maybe I was terrified. It was like two weeks ago. I woke up that morning I was like, oh my gosh, what am I doing? And then I said the same thing that I always say now. Well, what's the worst thing that can happen? I do Facebook live and I bomb it and it's like a total disaster. Do you think anybody's really going to care? They're not really going to care. It's totally fine. You know it's okay and it went fine, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And so many times I think we, we make up these stories in our head like no, you don't know. When you got up, you didn't know what was going to happen with that. True. Yeah, yeah, right, yeah, and we we create all these scenarios of oh, these people are going to think that or what. And truth is like, if it truly bombed, like most people wouldn't have seen it Right, like it might really bomb, like it wouldn't have gotten any views and then we'll care. Yeah, delete it onto the next. Exactly.
Speaker 2:Great.
Speaker 1:Nobody even saw it. But we make up these stories of what we think other people are going to think of it or what we think might happen and like there's I've seen statistics on this and it's so I mean, it's like I don't have the statistic, it's like the biggest number, okay, like 90% of the time that thing we're imagining never happens anyway. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So, I think your advice of like thinking, okay, what is the worst that can happen, but like sitting with that fear and recognizing okay, I am feeling fear, why and what is the worst that can happen, Do I think I should still do this and then make your decision from there, I think that's, that's great, great thing to try, absolutely.
Speaker 1:So I'm curious now, Christina. So your podcast is about being brave. I want to know what brave means to you specifically, why? Why did you name your podcast? She's Brave, and what does being brave mean to you directly?
Speaker 2:So I I named it she's Brave because I was looking back on my life and I was, like you know, when my husband got his diagnosis, I wasn't brave at all and I had to. I had to learn to be brave and I had to learn to be courageous. And you know what, when I, when I took my first podcasting class, I had an exercise, this powerful exercise that I actually do in my class now Not everybody needs to do it, but I definitely did, and it was. It's simple, but it's also psychologically difficult to do. You have to reach out to five people who know you the best and ask them what you know, how they see you Like what, what are your, what? So I had to reach out to five of my friends and family who know me the best and ask them what are my greatest strengths? And, mindy, the same answer came back to me over and over and over again, because I didn't know what my podcast.
Speaker 2:Well, see, I thought I was going to do a podcast on caregiving, because it was a really hard journey and I think there needs to be a lot more support about caregiving. But the problem was is that it felt so heavy and I was living so much in my past and so if you live too much in your past, you will get depressed. If you live too much in your future, you will get anxious. So that's why, you know, it's really great that in today's society, like there's a lot of focus and emphasis on trying to live in the now, um, so that we're not like depressed or anxious. So I I had to kind of let that go, that I wasn't meant to, um, you know, be doing this topic, because I knew it was just going to be sad for me. I was going to feel really sad.
Speaker 2:So then I was like I don't know what my topic is, and so when I asked these five people what my strengths were, the same answer kept coming back over and over and over again. Everybody said you're really brave, you're really resilient, and the thing that they were, they they admired the most. They were really, they admired the most about me. As they said, you live your life 100%, authentically. You don't care what people think. You know you've done, you've had, you've had some unconventional things in your life. Like my husband was 24 years older than me, he had never been married before, he never had kids, but you know, we were engaged in a month and married in six, and you know, and you would think a lot of people would question that.
Speaker 2:And they saw us together. They got it. They got it Like it may have been unconventional, but it was authentically right for us and that was the journey we were meant to go on together. And so I think that what I realized is that so many women don't live authentically. Um and you know I'm not blaming anybody Like it literally is a tribal thing that goes back thousands of years.
Speaker 2:Like if you lived in a small community and you were going against the grain, um, like you weren't, you know, pleasing other people and trying to get along, you could that that could be different between life and death. Like you could just be ousted from your entire community and eaten by a bear, right. But so that that is still very ingrained and, in particular for women, it's very ingrained for us to be people pleasing, you know, very accommodating, um, you know, just don't, don't rock the boat. And, um, you know, throughout my my journey and my life, I learned that, um, I need to do what's best for me and I need to do what's best for my family, even if it is somewhat unconventional, and I realized how many women aren't actually living their best life because think about it Like you're, you make a decision. Like I'll just give a fiction, fiction example. Okay, this didn't actually happen, but this is just an example. Like let's just say, um, you know, I, I said to my next door neighbors the Joneses right, the Joneses keeping up with the Joneses.
Speaker 2:Um, I said, hey, hey, you know I'm, I'm taking my son on a on a safari in Africa. You know we're going to go and I'm getting ready to book it. And you know, mrs Jones looks at me and with this horrified look on our face and says you know, you have a 10 year old son. Like that, that just seems like that seems really irresponsible. Like you're taking your kid on a safari. Like what if you know all these things could happen? Like you shouldn't do that.
Speaker 2:I think a lot of women would would just say, oh, she's right. Like what are the Joneses going to think if I take my son to Africa? What are they going to think? And so so they make. So we make a lot of our decisions based on what we think would please other people instead of what's best for ourselves. And that's really how she's brave was born, was that?
Speaker 2:You know, I want women to live their best, happiest life, and I believe that you cannot be happy unless you're authentic, if you're living, if you're living authentically, and it's not like you could just say wake up, you know. So you're listening. So let's just say you're listening to this podcast, you know, you get off listening and you're like, okay, now I'm going to start living authentically. It doesn't happen overnight. It's definitely baby steps, right, and it means maybe disagreeing with somebody, you know, letting them know who, how you really feel about something, and guess what? You are going to lose some people along the way you are, when you become more authentically yourself. But that's okay Because they're not meant for you If they're not supporting you on your authentic journey. They're not meant to be in your life and that's okay. But I just have feel so strongly that you know we, we will not be happy until we can live authentically you know, our be our authentic self.
Speaker 2:And it's a practice Like even I'm not perfect at it, you know it, but it's a practice. But you know, that's what I have all these women on who have done great and small things and everything in between. Courage can mean so many. It can be leaving a bad marriage, you know, with no family and no, no support around you, but having knowing that you need to leave, you know it could be that it could be a million things and but the point is to to try to get women to live authentically so that they can actually, like, have a really beautiful life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, I love that so much. And I know, christina, I don't think you know this about me. Um, I actually I speak on living authentically quite a bit and I have a, of course, dedicated to how it's called how to live authentically.
Speaker 2:I love it and that's just it. And you're so right, right, and I.
Speaker 1:It's not. You can't just go. Oh yeah, I forgot. I need to start living authentically. Okay, I'll do it now. I mean, there's so many things that go into play and you may never fully settle into it, but you can make so much progress, especially for people who are people pleasers, who've been people pleasers for decades. You can start to climb out of that and live a new way, and it's so much more peaceful. There's so much less anxiety. There's anxiety at the start of it because you're changing something.
Speaker 2:You're making changes, but once you can kind of feel the fear and just go through it. Yeah, I love that you're doing that. That is making a huge difference to women in the world.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and I mean I know just in my own life I could see how important it was, and so you know that was one of those things. I think I'm like you, christina. We see that, okay, this is what feels right to me. I know other people can benefit. Let's just put it out there and there it is. Yeah, so you've shared some stories with us, but I'm wondering if you I just feel like you have another story in you, christina, tell us about a time that you had to overcome fear and be brave, and I know you know I've heard a few, but is there any other times that really stand out in your life where you had to overcome fear and be brave, and what did you learn from it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I would say I'm going to tell a really deeply personal story. So it goes back to when my husband first got his diagnosis of early onset Alzheimer's and I was so terrified that I couldn't eat and I couldn't sleep and I just wasn't functioning. And when you are not getting proper sleep, you know, you just can't even really function. And yet I had a five year old child and that I had to raise, you know, and I was going to there was going to be more and more caregiving for my husband and I was just overwhelmed by the entire process and I think one of them, the most brave things I did, was ask for help, and I think that's another thing that a lot of us get hung up on is asking for help. We think we just, you know, we think it's weak. Our culture thinks, you know you, you've got to be very individual. We live in a very individualistic society instead of a collaborative society. Podcasting is actually the most collaborative industry you can be in. The more you collaborate, the better off you are. You know. Win-win for everybody. You know, you and I together, we both benefit greatly from this time together, and I was so lost and so terrified that I literally got in my car and drove to the local ER in Oregon where I lived at the time and you know I was. I was just so ashamed because one of my friends husband's was an emergency room doctor and he saw me and I was like this is my worst nightmare and he wasn't able to treat me because he knew me personally. But he, he did come into my room and and he just kind of put his hand on my shoulder for a second and he said I just want to let you know that I'm really glad you're here today because what you're going through is so incredibly difficult that in some ways I'd be surprised if you didn't end up here and you're. You know you're asking for help. That takes a lot of courage and you're going to get the help and it's okay, like it's okay to be afraid and it's okay to be going through what you're going through and we're going to help you.
Speaker 2:And you know I did, I, I, I did, I got help from traditional medicine. I got, I did all the alternative medicine therapies. I, I started counseling and you know that fear it didn't go away, Like again like it. You know, I think there are times when fear is can be really, really intense and like and I was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder and you know, I think it can be really intense and sometimes that it can take a while to to get over, like a really deep seated fear like that. But you know, my that was part of why I wanted to start the podcast also was like, look, I came from this place, like this very, very, very low place, and you know, did I, did I just pop out of there? No, I literally, like, was years of, you know, trying to gain a little courage every day and you know, things will come, the universe will help you. Like you know, I asked for help. I got a lot of help from humans, but some serendipitous one certain dip it as thing.
Speaker 2:That happened was at the time Oprah had a book club and she decided to do Eckhart Toll's book a new earth, living your life's purpose, or something, and I was called into earth and it was. She was doing a cutting edge at the time. It was cutting edge she was jumping on live on the internet on Monday nights with Eckhart and you would read the chapter, one chapter a week, and then she and Eckhart would come on live and you could ask. They would go through the entire chapter, they would explain it and then you could. You could actually ask questions. And before that my brother had given me the book the Power of Now and he was like this is the best book I've ever read and I was like I don't get it. I was like this makes zero sense to me. This is so strange, like I don't know what they mean by living in the now.
Speaker 2:Like what the heck. But after taking this Oprah's book club and you can still access it, I'm pretty sure on zoom I have had I haven't looked it up for a couple of years, but like you just just are, I mean on YouTube you go to YouTube and just just type in, like you know, oprah Eckhart Cole, and and it's just basically this, this 10 week thing, and by the end of the 10 weeks I was able to start practicing living more in the now and I think that that helped a lot too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, wow. That's such a such a powerful story and I think, as you were talking about, you know how you got to the point where you know driving yourself to the emergency room because you were just kind of at your limit there. I think, hearing you tell the story from the outside, I think most of us are listening going. Oh, yes, of course that's such a hard thing to go through and to be, you know, a parent with a small child and then now your spouse is, you know, so young to be going through. You know and had the whole thing and everything that would be going through your head. Yes, of course you should get help for that, for support.
Speaker 1:But when it's you, when you're the one going through it, it feels like, oh, who am? I? Should, I should be able to pull up my bootstraps and do this myself. Even if you're not consciously thinking that, I think that's just been the message that we get, just through society and whatnot, for so long that we feel whether it's ashamed or just like I shouldn't. I should be able to do this, I shouldn't have to have help, I shouldn't burden other people with my problems. I'm here to help others. Maybe that's the way you think. But you know, from the outside it's like well, of course, but when it's you going through it, it's so much harder to actually take that step. So that really, I mean definitely a great example.
Speaker 2:I just want to share with you that I was deeply ashamed of that incident and I never talked about it to anybody until a year and a half ago, and you know podcasting has helped heal me because at some point, maybe a year ago, I started talking about it because I feel like there's so many people out there that could be, you know, having that same experience where they're so filled with anxiety that they're not functioning like they can't. You know, if you're not sleeping at night, you know you can't function and you do need help, and you know the medical doctors will give you proper medication to help you sleep and that's like half the battle right there. Just, you know, get taking some medication so that you're actually getting a proper night of good sleep, and there's no shame in that. And it's so interesting that I was so deeply ashamed for like 18 to 19 years, like I was so, or, I'm sorry more like 14, 15 years, like I didn't. I never spoke of it because I was so deeply ashamed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think that's probably really, really common. But again, it's just another one of those things where you know it depends on your perspective of the situation and if we can get out of our heads a little bit and I think that helps, helps a lot in terms of being able to reach out and ask for help. Yeah, yep, absolutely. Wow, what a great story and I'm going to look up for sure. I wrote to. I've got so many notes on this page. I've written down Oprah's book club, eckhart Toll. I'm going to look at that. That sounds really interesting. I feel like I've started that book but I never finished it and I think that doesn't happen very often.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know his, his books are really, really tough to comprehend and that's why, for me, I had to do, you know, the one chapter a week absorb it, listen to them, explain it and break it down, thanks so much. Yeah, okay, I'm glad I'm doing this light art or something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's all I've done, yeah yeah, I think that really would be helpful because I'm trying to remember I'm sure that I've started that book and I think that, yeah, they are difficult to get through and I think I just was not ready for it.
Speaker 2:If that makes I mean, this was several years, I know I wasn't yeah place for it and no judgment either, and I don't think that Eckhart told us for everybody, even for me. Sometimes now I'm like I hear to hear him, and sometimes I'm like yeah, I, I really, I really like that. And other times I'm just like how is he so zen, like I am not in that.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, I, I 100% agree with that, yeah, totally. Well, that's one of those, like you know, you take what you what resonates, and then you leave the rest because Totally you'll pick it up again five years later, like me, and then maybe more will resonate or maybe I mean that's fine, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Christina, I have one final question for you and I I'm just wondering. I haven't asked you this ahead of time, but do you have a word for 2024? You seem, I feel like you maybe would, and if you don't, that's okay, but I'm curious what your word is for 2024. Oh I, as we're recording this, it's January.
Speaker 2:Yeah it's January words for the year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, I never I never used to do this, but I I've started liking it now, so I started.
Speaker 2:I'm curious what your word I like it to know. I haven't picked my word yet and I need to like put a little more energy into figuring out what it is. But I Even signed up for a free class to figure out what what my word was. But I I've been so crazy busy For the last six weeks that it's just like things like that or kind of have kind of fallen through the cracks where I was like, yeah, I'm gonna do my word for the year and then it just I was. It just never got done, but it it's probably gonna be something along the lines of Unrelentless, like I don't think that'll be the actual word, but like that's how I feel. Or unstoppable, like something along that line, because I'm finally energetically In that place like where I feel unstoppable, like maybe that'll be my word, but I need to maybe go back and listen to the recording of the little class that I took.
Speaker 2:A genlis is great, she's a fellow podcaster and yeah.
Speaker 1:Unless has been on this podcast.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she's great. Yeah, she did have that have a class on picking your word, and then I ended up not being able to attend it online. So, yeah, but I'm gonna. I'm gonna go with Unrelentless, or or I'm sorry, not, not, not. Unrelentless, yeah, unrelentless, yeah. Yeah, like like they're, like I'm just like full speed ahead, bulldozing in there. You know, like that's, that's the vibe I have right now, that's the vibe I have for this year, yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love that. Yeah, I love that. I'll have to touch base with you at the end of the year and see how. Yeah, and if you're somebody that's listening and you know, maybe you're listening to this and, like June, and you never picked a word, like you can pick one now.
Speaker 2:There's nothing to say that you have to pick it at the yes, you know, no magical thing.
Speaker 1:I had one at the beginning of 2023 that kind of chose me, that word, it started like following me around, and then it was probably Three-quarters of the way through the year and I still resonated with that word. It was authenticity.
Speaker 1:But then wow, another word started, like I know, and then another word started like creeping into my consciousness and I was like, oh, maybe. So I like I didn't start when I started 2024, I kind of already had merged into this this new word. So there's nothing to say that you know? Oh no, if you haven't, didn't pick it out on January 1st, well, you don't get a word this year. I mean that's ridiculous. So you can pick me how many words you want, depending on, I mean, it's your life, do whatever you want, right, yeah?
Speaker 2:so I'm glad you said that too Well like oh no, it's June, I don't have a word. But yeah, just pick it out now. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Nobody cares. It's like it's just, it's your life, do it.
Speaker 2:Do you?
Speaker 1:do you? Yeah. So, christina, if people are interested in learning more about you or checking out your podcast, tell us where we can find you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I'm on Apple, Spotify, I heart radio and like probably Ten other places, and my podcast is called she's brave, with Christina Driscoll, and I have a website. If you just want to kind of check me out, I'm at wwwshe'sbravepodcastcom. I also have a newly formed Facebook group for fellow podcasters for lifting each other up, supporting each other, sharing advice, and that's wwwfacebook. Forward slash groups, forward slash podcast Mastery journey all one word. Or you could just look up podcast mastery journey online, if you check out, oh, at Instagram, at she's brave podcast, on the cusp of breaking 10,000 followers. As of what day are we in?
Speaker 2:January, anyway, really January onward early onwards and upwards and yeah, and then you know on my website if you want to know more about my class. I do have an early bird special. Well, it's still gonna be very, very low priced, but it's under $500. It's 111 for the next three days and then it goes to 222, anyway, but you can. You can find out information about how to get in the top Two and a half percent in six months through my class and you can sign up through my website.
Speaker 1:Very cool, and I will of course put those links in the comments Below here the show notes, so that everybody can just find you with a click of a button. Christina, thank, you so? Much for being on today.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much, mindy, for having me. I just Absolutely love your podcast. I love your questions very well thought out. I just I love the direction you're going in and I love seeing you shine and succeed.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you so much. I I'm just like you, christina. I love podcasting. It's like my favorite thing. I love connecting with people and help sharing other people's messages on this platform, so I'm so grateful to have you on today sharing your message, and I hope that everybody listening got a little something out of this today. If you did, of course, please don't hesitate to reach out and let me know what resonated with you. I'm sure Christina would love to hear from you too. If there is something in particular that you enjoyed or wanted to discuss further, reach out either one of us and Wherever you're at today. I hope you were having a fantastic day and I will catch you on the next one. That's it for today, friends. If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe or, even better, leave a review and let me know what resonated with you the most. The more you tell me what you love, the better I'm able to create future episodes with even better content. I'm sending you so much love and light. I'll see you in the next episode. You.