Chasing Brighter Podcast: Choosing Real Over Perfect

Back to school looks nothing like it did when we were kids. Jessica and Kelly compare the back-to-school shopping of their childhoods (the planned outfits, the double socks, the once-a-year wardrobe refresh) with what it looks like now: uniforms, reused backpacks, digital textbooks, and teenagers who carry their entire lives around because nobody uses lockers.

Then the conversation gets real. They talk about the mental load of the ...

Do you have high standards, or are you sabotaging yourself and calling it perfectionism? This week Jessica and Kelly dig into the sneaky ways perfectionism disguises itself as a virtue — and why it can be one of the most sophisticated ways we keep ourselves safe. They unpack the real clinical difference between standards that move you forward and self-sabotage that quietly keeps you stuck, share personal examples (hello, unpo...

Jessica and Kelly dig into the viral "2026 is the new 2016" trend — the exercise of looking back a decade and asking who you were then, what you miss, and what you don't. The conversation quickly turns into a heart-to-heart about parenting through transitions: Kelly reflecting on missing her kids' toddler years, and Jessica processing the very fresh experience of dropping her oldest daughter, Gabby, off at college. They talk ...

Last week we talked about "I'm not ready yet" as fear dressed up as logic. This week, Jessica and Kelly pull on that thread further to unpack the credential trap — the pattern of adding one more certification, one more year of experience, one more thing to point to before you'll let yourself begin. It looks like ambition and diligence from the outside, but underneath it is often a single question: do I have the right to be he...

In this week's Superwoman Diaries, Jessica shares how she's been using ChatGPT as an unexpected style consultant on her weight loss journey. What started as a simple question — "how do I dress this changing body?" — turned into a full-blown "Jessica Style Playbook," complete with a closet audit, body-shape analysis, and outfit ratings. Kelly and Jessica dig into why understanding why something works on your body (not ju...

In this episode, they unpack why "I'm not ready yet" sounds responsible but is usually just fear in disguise, why readiness is a decision instead of a feeling, and how the question "Am I ready?" is a lot less useful than "Am I willing?" Jessica shares how she's built almost everything in her life — from her private practice to both podcasts — by starting before she felt ready, and Kelly gets honest about the goals she's...

Last season, we dug into the gap between who women think they're supposed to be and who they actually are — the expectations, the perfectionism, the invisible rules about what a "good life" looks like. But figuring out who you are was never the finish line.

Season 6 picks up where that left off: the messy middle. What happens when you know who you are and have to actually start living that way? This ...

So many of us are waiting for the moment we finally "arrive." When we lose the weight. When the kids need us less. When work calms down. When we're more organized, more confident, more together... then we'll be happy. Then we'll rest.

But what if there isn't an arrival point? In this trailer, Jessica and Kelly open up Season 6 with a question that changes everything: what if this is it? Not in a depressing way, but in a freeing one...

So many of us are waiting for the moment we finally "arrive." When we lose the weight. When the kids need us less. When work calms down. When we're more organized, more confident, more together... then we'll be happy. Then we'll rest.

But what if there isn't an arrival point? In this trailer, Jessica and Kelly open up Season 6 with a question that changes everything: what if this is it? Not in a depressing way, but in a freeing one...

Ever bought a beautiful color-coded planner and abandoned it in 10 days? Jessica and Kelly get real about why aspirational, Instagram-perfect systems fail — and what actually works instead. This episode is about meeting yourself where you're at: building systems that are low-friction, flexible, forgiving, and repeatable, especially on hard days. Because social media isn't perfection, it's performance — and real systems ...

Kicking off their Energy and Overwhelm month, Jessica and Kelly get honest about a kind of tired that sleep cannot touch — the exhaustion that lives underneath an otherwise good, full life. Jessica opens up about six years of intentional self-work — therapy, fitness, nutrition, a 40-pound weight loss journey — and how even with all of that in place, there are still days when something feels off in a way that isn't...

Social media makes organizing look like color-coded bins and perfectly labeled pantries, but Jessica and Kelly get honest about why a one-size-fits-all system rarely works. In this re-released episode, they dig into what it looks like to build your life around your actual energy instead of a list of "shoulds." Expectation-based living — I should wake up early, I should handle more, I should be better by now — builds a l...

February is all about resetting, resting, and reconnecting — and Jessica and Kelly start with the foundation of it all: the nervous system. If you've been feeling irritable, exhausted, numb, or like you're running on fumes, it's probably not a motivation problem, it's a regulation problem. This episode reframes the conversation from fixing yourself (which brings shame) to regulating yourself (which brings compassion), and off...

In this re-released episode, Jessica and Kelly explore what it really means to feel disconnected — not from other people, but from yourself. Valentine's Day and February can amplify loneliness, comparison, and that quiet "am I behind somehow?" feeling, even for people who are partnered, busy, or surrounded by others. Jessica and Kelly unpack how self-disconnection shows up (resentment, numbness, people-pleasing), why these pa...

Jessica is back from a week at AFA Nationals in St. George watching Gabby's softball team battle through four games in 102-degree heat (and a home run!), while Kelly's son Wes had his own big weekend in Chicago — also with a home run of his own. The sisters dig into the realities of travel ball season, why some kids start losing interest in the sports they grew up playing, and whether kids today need "real jobs" or if summer ...

It's officially a wrap on Season 5. In this finale, Jessica and Kelly look back at the whole arc of the season — from rest and reset in February, to choosing real over perfect in March, through exhaustion and invisible labor in April, identity and worthiness in May, and joy and presence in June. They get honest about what actually shifted in each of them this season, why they expanded the show beyond "midlife" to all women, a...

Kelly kicks things off with an epic (and hilarious) saga of a missing AirPod that turns a weekend getaway into a full-blown investigation — trash cans, lint traps, and all. From there, Jess and Kelly riff on how far audio tech has come, then dive into something they're both obsessed with lately: using AI to tackle home projects. Jess shares how she used Claude to plan a budget-friendly bathroom refresh (cabinet paint job, new...

Joy isn't something that just happens when the circumstances are right — it's something you have to practice, protect, and sometimes fight for. In this episode, Jessica and Kelly unpack the real difference between happiness and joy, why so many women struggle to fully inhabit the good moments in their lives, and what it actually looks like to choose joy as a daily practice. From the fear of letting yourself feel good, to guil...

It's officially summer reading season — and Kelly and Jess are giving you their full list. From spicy hockey romance to psychological thrillers, cozy small-town reads to historical fiction, there is genuinely something here for every kind of reader. Plus: why reading might be one of the most underrated wellness habits of all, and how to romanticize your reading life this summer even if you're only sneaking in 10 minutes at a ...