The Soulful Leader Podcast

We’re not meant to do it all. Yet society tells us the opposite. 

Throughout school we’re expected to do well in all subjects and to work harder where we are weak. At work, the expectation is the same - be good at all aspects, dig in where we’re weak. This training has created a siloed and separated society where asking for help feels, at best, taboo.

The reality is that each of us brings unique gifts and blessings that are...

As leaders we’re expected to be “all-in”, that’s the minimum, so what does that mean in today’s culture and what about the cost(s)? Based on quiet quitting and the proliferation of help wanted signs, the business pendulum seems to be swinging in the opposite direction. Is there a middle road, one where ‘all-in’ isn’t a recipe for burnout and illness, and detachment doesn’t mean going away or giving up? If so, how do we access it?

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We all do it. It happens in our heads, it happens at work, it happens at home. Most of the time we don’t even notice we’re doing it. 

Is it hardwired into us? It’s not something we WANT to do, especially as leaders, yet it’s pervasive. 

What if it was actually an ‘opportunity’ sticking its head up?

Stephanie and Maren start this enlightening conversation with the question, ‘when you complain, do you want energy or ...

Have you ever had one of those days, or even weeks where everything goes sideways? You have a plan, you are working your plan and someone drops a ball - the babysitter is late, the meeting gets pushed back, or your account gets hacked. Your carefully laid plan is in the trash and most often drama ensues.

What happens next is up to you, yet so often it ends up being a frenzy of haphazard, stop gap measures that end up having to be fi...

Our ‘more is never enough’ culture has taken its toll. Personally we are in debt, worn out, overworked and mentally and physically ill. As a culture, ‘quiet quitting’ is rampant, businesses are closing and people are more and more disconnected and polarized. This is the cost, the backlash, to the rampant ‘more more more’, ‘push push push’ that has consumed us for years. 

What we are experiencing is a reaction, not a solution. The go...

How do you balance opposites? Especially as a leader. A challenge comes up and it gets polarized. It becomes one of two things, 'push through', or ‘it’s not meant to be’. How do we find the ‘in-between’? Barbara Miller walks that path both personally and as a leader. She holds a fierce intention and shows up very gently, with curiosity and space. If we could bottle Barb, we would. We’ve done the next best thing, we’ve int...

We want something to happen “out there”, in the world. We want to change another, we want to change our circumstances (partner, job, finances, etc.), so we get busy DOING - fixing, forcing and making something happen in the world - and it rarely works and often creates more stress for everyone involved.

There is an alternative and it’s encapsulated in Gandhi’s quote, ‘BE the change you wish to see in the world’.  We often assume thi...

We’ve all had those moments in our lives when everything feels ‘right’, we are totally engrossed in what we are doing and completely in sync with life - it’s magical. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls this the flow state, the optimal experience in life. 

Our challenge is two fold. One, how do we create this state of flow ‘at will’ instead of stumbling across it now and again? And two, how do we maintain it once we get there?

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We all want to be accepted, to be included and to feel safe. 

We most often find that security and belonging with people who are like us. It’s where we’re comfortable and it’s easy to be ourselves. The challenge, especially for leaders, is that this creates a ‘monoculture’, and it comes at a cost. Creating a world of people who are like ‘me’ means we think the same, there’s little to challenge us, and most importantly, it's NOT...

Resiliency is a buzzword. It’s everywhere these days - all of it focused on conquering obstacles and  getting back up - all so that we, as leaders, can get back to business as usual and stay on track. What if it’s not about getting back to business as usual? 

What if true resilience is embracing and moving through our challenges so that we emerge a different person on the other side? Then the track we were on would no long...

What is “shadow” in leadership and why is it important? 

Anything that we don’t embrace, anything we shove into the corners of our minds and our lives, becomes our shadow. So the shadow part of leadership is really the shadow in ourselves, because when we don't look inside, we put it outside on the people around us. That’s the what.

Why it’s important - because our shadow is the one who is really running the show.

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“My whole life looks pretty dang good. Why do I still feel like shit?” 

Have you ever felt like that?

What if the answer was not about manifesting MORE in your life? Achieving "next".  What if we are given our dreams, our desires and our wants  so that we keep diving deeper and deeper and deeper and start to awaken? What if there’s that one thing in your life that you can’t quite manifest because you’re meant to go wit...

The opposite of control is not chaos, it’s actually flow.

How backwards we have it. We’re taught that control is the ideal. ‘Be rational’, ‘don't bring your emotions to work’, ‘control yourself’. And it’s one of the biggest lies we’ve been fed. Control is a closed system and kills both creativity and flow.

As a culture, we're actually experiencing emotional anorexia. We’ve been shoving so much down for s...

“It becomes a co-creation instead of a manipulation.” ~Stephanie Allen

Imagine a world in which everyone is empowered and co-creating. This is Soulful Leadership, and it’s what we stand for. How does one get there? 

It’s a process that involves getting to know yourself, being vulnerable, being transparent and not only truly embracing your own gifts and strengths, but holding the space to empower all those around y...

WOW! This is the beginning of the third year of the Soulful Leader Podcast. It seems like we started yesterday, and yet we’ve both changed SO much. This is an extra special episode for us because we decided to interview each other.

After two years of working together, we wanted to know what was in the other’s heart in regards to ‘next’. Too often as leaders we don’t make the time to ask, and re-ask, and re-ask. Everything is based o...

“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.”― Lao Tzu

That’s not us. We rush about from here to there, setting goals and making things happen in our lives. And then we find ourselves exhausted, crabby, hurting (mentally, physically and emotionally) and needing a break. And that’s the best case scenario. If we don’t make something happen in the time we planned - we beat ourselves up, assume we’ve done something wrong...

Sometimes we think we’ve got it all figured out and then a boomerang happens and stops us in our tracks. What then? Do you push through? Change course? How, and where, do you find answers?

Maren and Stephanie dive head first into ‘truth’ today looking for some of the answers we all seek. Even if there is a difference between ‘Truth’ (capital T) and ‘truth’ which is relative, how does it apply to your life? What does it have to do wi...

You've worked, created, done all the things, and the results you want still elude you? Or at least it feels that way. What’s the internal dialog that happens? This ‘inner chat’ is often one of the most detrimental things we do to ourselves as leaders.

If you’re ready to do it differently, today’s podcast you’ll learn a 3 step process to change the inner dialog so you can shift the outer reality. Stephanie and Maren share person...

Legacy is your big, audacious goal, right? Your ‘what am I leaving behind?’ moment. Money for my family, a business, something I’ve changed in the world, etc.

What if it’s much closer to home than that? 

What if your legacy was made up of all the little moments of your life, woven into a tapestry?

This is the true legacy we leave behind. How we interact, how someone feels about themselves when they are with us, that is what will ...