The Soulful Leader Podcast

Are you tired of fighting through life and work? Perpetually exhausted?

You’re not alone. It’s a messy world that seems to offer only two exhausting extremes: numbing out or fighting everything.

What if you could stay open-hearted in this messy world without carrying everyone else’s pain home with you? 

This week, Stephanie and Maren dive into how to create a clear, livable path that transcends those extremes and puts you into the dri...

You feel the need to constantly ‘do’, to be in motion. You feel guilty when you stop, rest, or need a break. Why?

The simple, and uncomfortable answer is that being busy hides our deeper fears. We use it as a safety blanket for our egos even though it really signals burnout and walls us off from intimacy with others and with ourselves.

Today, Maren & Stephanie dive deep down the rabbit hole of personal value starting with a class...

Ever had a simple task become overwhelming? 

👉🏻 It’s not the task, it’s the story we’re telling ourselves ABOUT the task! 

This week, Stephanie and Maren dive into the cost of “it’s so hard” and trace where the heaviness really lives: not in the action itself, in the narrative we keep rehearsing. From a timeless Zen parable about two monks to a very modern yardwork fiasco, they unpack how righteous justification sneaks in, drains e...

There are very real costs to people-pleasing, and you’re likely living them - the quiet resentment that builds after a hasty yes or the loss of trust that happens when someone can’t deliver on a promise.

People pleasing doesn't please, it erodes: trust, time, and energy.

With a memorable five-year roof story and hard-won lessons from work and relationships, Stephanie and Maren unpack why “just because I can” doesn’t mean “I shou...

What if you’re not broken—you’re just waiting for permission you can only give yourself? 

Stephanie and Maren sit down with Jillian Riley, author of The Ten Permissions, to rethink how we lead, parent, and make choices in a world where old formulas no longer fit. Instead of chasing the “right” answer, they explore how to

• use experiments over equations
• build the capacity to choose 
• recover quickly when things don’t go as planned

Ever noticed how often we get trapped in rigid, black-and-white thinking that leaves no room for growth or connection? 

That 'certainty' might actually be your biggest obstacle.

Stephanie and Maren share their illuminating conversation, that explores

• the hidden dangers of all-or-nothing thinking 
• being stuck in patterns of right versus wrong
• the 'yes versus no', and 'us versus them' trap
• internal boundar...

Have you ever felt frustrated with goal setting?

Thinking ‘here I go again, next goal, next goal’?

Today, Maren & Stephanie offer an alternative to the on-going and soul sucking goal/achievement loop.  

“How many amazing achievers have gone out there, achieved their goal and think, great... now what? Is this it?” ~ Stephanie J. Allen

Whether you’ve used SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) goals, tend ...

Planning is the road to success, the path to freedom. 

Or is it?

What if planning only part of the answer, and not having the whole picture is keeping you VERY stuck?

Today Stephanie and Maren unpack what we’ve been taught about planning (and sticking to the plan), how it’s holding us back, how we can use it and what it actually takes to step fully into our flow. It requires both awareness and practice - and it’s a powerful path into ...

“Why is that coming up AGAIN? I dealt with that!”

Have you felt like that? You think, ‘I've been here. I've done this already.’ 

When that shows up, do you get frustrated, assume you did something wrong and beat yourself up about it? Or do you get curious and excited?

Today’s podcast will give you a perspective that goes beyond the judgement of right and wrong; a perspective that will empower and liberate you AND you’ll even...

If you’ve ever felt like you’re carrying a big sack of potatoes wondering why you feel tired and heavy and you can't sleep, this podcast is for you.

Today, Maren & Stephanie dive into the Shadow, what it is, why it matters and how to use it to lighten your load and lead a more joyful and fulfilled life.

“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”  ~ Carl Jung

When you don’t ...

What happens when we finally get our needs met?

We scramble after money, love, accolades, power, etc., yet study after study shows that once basic needs are met, additional pursuit does not enhance happiness.

Will Smith talks about the concept of “cliff top” (opposite of "rock bottom”) where a person has achieved everything they wanted in the material world—money, fame, sex, and success— and still finds themselves missing lastin...

Resilience is hot! The word is being used in every context from problems, to theories, to solutions - as well as to push people to do even more.

So what is it really and why does that matter to you, your team, and your business?

Today, Stephanie and Maren dive into this maelstrom and talk candidly about what it is, why it's important to you and how to build true resilience within yourself, your team members and your business.  

You live with a constant undercurrent of never feeling like you do enough, you are enough, or that you have enough.

It's exhausting.

That’s the result of being taught to look outside for your value and your worth, it leaves you empty. No matter how much you take from the outside and try to put inside, it doesn’t fill it.

Today, Stephanie and Maren talk about this very poignant, timely subject from the freeing place of inner maste...

Purpose.   Meaning.   Clarity.

Do you ever feel like you’re chasing these in your life and just as you reach them, they, poof, slip through your fingers?

You’re not alone.

In this episode, Stephanie and Maren unpack what it really means to pursue this power trio — not as a destination, but as a living, breathing practice. 

Society treats them as boxes to tick, and that’s part of the problem. Today’s episode explores going beyond what y...

When your emotions are all over the place, it’s easy to fall for everything and anything. You’re easy to manipulate.

On some level you know this, so you tuck those damn emotions aside, ignore them or try to control them - which only makes things worse. They come out at the most inopportune times.

Sound familiar?

The truth is, emotions are not a flaw to be overcome, they are one of the amazing gifts of being human. They are literally e...

It’s nuts out there. And when it’s calm and focused inside - it changes everything.

As a culture, we are

•  easily distracted 
•  obsessive over (fill in the blank) - politics, relationships, finances, etc.
•  experiencing one health, environmental, societal crisis after another 
•  swinging from wound up to completely disengaged 
•  feeling angry one minute to hopeless the next

So how do you stay sane? Focused? How do you even know what t...

What if you could feel more like yourself, have the energy and motivation you imagine AND create meaningful change in the world. It’s not a pipe dream.

If you have ever felt 

• like you’re missing something 
• Like there’s an answer just beyond your grasp
• smaller than you know yourself to be
• as if you just weren’t living up to your full potential
• not as happy as you should be

Today’s podcast has answers -and tools- for you!

This week,...

What if the thing you're clinging to is the very thing holding you back?

In this week’s episode, Stephanie and Maren dive deep into the attachments we hold—money, identity, expectations—and the hidden cost of not letting go. Maren shares her powerful personal story of losing $250,000 and the radical transformation that followed when she chose to see it not as a failure, but as a gift.

Together, they explore:

• The emotional wei...

Have you ever hung on to something you know is not good for you?

A habit, a belief, maybe even a relationship or a job that you know sucks, but you can't seem to let it go?

The thing you say, ‘if only’ this were different, my life would be great, then you don’t change it?

  ~ If only my husband were kinder, stronger, shorter, taller, etc.

  ~ If only my job paid me more money

  ~If only I could lose 20 pounds

The truth is that you s...