Life Happens with Barb & Michelle

In this episode of Life Happens with Barb and Michelle, the duo welcomes transformation specialist, trainer, and author Heidi Powell for a candid, heartfelt conversation about navigating life's biggest transitions, aging, and reclaiming your self-worth.

Heidi shares her personal journey through perimenopause, overcoming eating disorders, shifting her relationship with fitness, and how she navigated grief and loss to ultimately build...

There it is again – that phantom itch. Check email, then texts, then Instagram, then email again. The endless loop that pulls us from the moments we want to be present for to the things that are engineered to distract us. 

In this episode of Life Happens of Barb and Michelle, co-hosts and mother-daughter duo discuss the phenomenon of popcorn brain, or when your brain jumps from one thought or task back and forth to anothe...

We’ve all had the thought - is it too late? Too late to start again? 

In this episode of Life Happens with Barb & Michelle we emphatically answer this question: never. It’s never too late. This episode breaks down why it’s never too late to make changes big or small in your life and how viewing your life as “one big piece of art” each stroke is just as meaningful as the next. 

As always Bar...

We’ve all felt that awful pang in our stomach. Our face might turn hot and red, we might get overwhelmingly anxious. Our body is giving us signals so we can see what is so often hard for us to accept - we’ve been taken advantage of. 

In this week’s episode of Life Happens with Barb & Michelle, mother daughter duo explore what Barb calls “one of the hardest conversations” the two have ever explo...

Does getting what you want feel impossible? Do you often settle just to save yourself from fear or failure? We all do. 

In this week’s episode of Life Happens with Barb & Michelle, we breakdown the ways in which we all get in our own way, preventing ourselves from getting what we want and truly deserve. How flakiness and people-pleasing can derail our paths if we don't actively practice the art of saying "no". How sim...

What do you do when you know you need to let someone go but your heart isn’t ready yet? From realizing enough is enough to actually choosing your wellbeing over your comfort and feelings, today we’re breaking down how to let go of toxic relationships.

In this week’s episode of Life Happens with Barb & Michelle, we explore the difficulties of ending an unhealthy relationship and a powerful practice we use to bre...

Join Michelle and Barb and revisit this special re-released episode.

Your Gut-Feelings Are Guardian Angels—Learn to Trust Them. In this episode we unlock the power of your intuition and build unshakable self-trust, so your gut-feelings become your inner compass, guiding you to a more confident and aligned life. ⬇️

✨ Available now - Dear Friend to receive daily doses of clarity, hope, and heartfelt encouragement.💌

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Grief doesn't disappear, it changes form.

After losing her beloved cat Charlotte at nearly 20 years old, Michelle was surprised by just how deeply the loss affected her. While it didn't mirror the grief she experienced after losing her father, it brought its own unique heartbreak and reminded her that pet grief is real, profound, and often misunderstood.

In this deeply personal episode, Barb and Michelle explore the reality of pet lo...

Should you try to fix your parents? Most people spend years trying. Here's what actually works — and what's just making it worse.

In this candid Q&A episode, Barb and Michelle get into three questions that don't have easy answers:

— Should you try to fix your parents (or your adult kids)? — Does emotional connection get harder the bigger your family gets? — How do you apologize to your kids without losing ...

If you've ever felt lighter in your life after removing someone from it — this episode explains why.

Barb & Michelle get real about the 5 signals that it might be time to cut someone out of your life — and why knowing the signals is only half the battle. This episode covers the guilt, the fantasy that people will change, the sunk cost of long relationships, and how to actually do it in a way that doesn't consume the ...

There are conversations every parent knows they should have — and most of them never do. In this episode of Life Happens with Barb & Michelle, mother and daughter go deep on the exact things they wish someone had said to them before life had to teach them the hard way.

From family alcoholism surfacing after a 15-year-old's first drunken night, to growing up with two alcoholic parents and never once hearing 'I love you' &md...

Comedian Jessi Cruickshank joins Barb and Michelle backstage at Lynn University for a raw, funny, and unexpectedly emotional conversation about motherhood, performance, anxiety, and becoming the women their mothers raised them to be.

From professional perfectionism to internet criticism, the conversation moves from hilarious behind-the-scenes moments into deeper reflections on identity, mindfulness, and the pressure women carry in p...

Healthy relationships require honesty, reciprocity, and the courage to stop self-silencing. In this episode of Life Happens, Barb and Michelle sit down with Alex Elle to unpack what it really means to outgrow people, rebuild trust, and tell the truth in your relationships before resentment takes over. 

They discuss her new book, “The Company We Keep” which just launched today and can be found here:

The Company We Kee...

What happens after the book tour ends, the championship is won, and the calendar goes blank? Michelle opens up about the unexpected emptiness she felt after her biggest accomplishment, and Barb reveals something she has never experienced: a void. This mother-daughter conversation uncovers why success can feel like getting fired, what it means to live like you are running out of time, and why the quiet after the loud season might be...

Mean people are everywhere right now and the data confirms it. In this episode, Barb and Michelle unpack why cruelty seems to be escalating, breaking down the different types of mean people we all encounter and what actually drives their behavior. Barb shares a raw, personal story about being screamed at in a parking lot while her mother was dying in hospice, and what that moment taught her about judgment, control, and the stories ...

Comparison is the one emotion everybody feels and nobody admits to — and Barb Schmidt and Michelle Maros of Life Happens with Barb & Michelle were scared to record this episode for a reason. In this raw, unfiltered conversation, they unpack the jealousy, resentment, and quiet self-destruction that comparison leaves behind — and make a case that might surprise you by the end.

From Michelle comparing her book sales to ...

You've read the books. You've tried the meditation. You've done the journaling, the breathwork, the therapy. So why do you still feel stuck?

In this episode of Life Happens with Barb & Michelle, master well-being educator Devi Brown joins the conversation for one of the most honest discussions about healing we've ever had. Devi spent years teaching wellness to athletes, executives, and thousands of students through her Deeply We...

Living with someone you love is supposed to be easy — until it isn't. In this episode of Life Happens with Barb & Michelle, hosts Barb Schmidt and Michelle Maros pull back the curtain on the two years they spent living together after a sudden condo flood turned a two-week crash pad into an unplanned life arrangement. What started as a temporary inconvenience became one of the most challenging — and unexpectedly tran...

What if the thing you've been told will set you free is actually keeping you stuck? What if forgiveness isn't even the goal?

In this episode of Life Happens with Barb & Michelle, our hosts challenge everything we've been taught about forgiveness. Not the textbook version we learned as kids, but the real, messy, evolving kind that shows up after serious trauma, toxic relationships, and years of bypassed emotions. This is a raw co...