00:39

Hey, everyone.

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00:40

Welcome to this episode of Life, Mastered, where I am holding in my hands one of the first copies of She Rises, the new book that is insights and wisdom from the women of the Masterful Coach Collective.

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00:55

It is co-authored by me and 12 of my master level coaches. And let me tell you, this book is full of gold. And today I'm going to be talking about the book somewhat in its entirety, hitting on some points.

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01:12

And what I really want to come across as I speak to you today is one of the core themes that is woven all throughout the book that can be the thing that changes your life. It has changed mine and it continues to change mine every single day.

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01:28

So that's what we're going to talk about. Now, at the time that I am recording this, the book is not yet out. The book is launching on September 30th, 2025. So if it's later than that date when you're listening to this, great.

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01:40

You can go buy the book right away. Otherwise, if it is prior to September 30th, 2025, and you are listening to this, there is a link in the show notes as well as a link at mollyclare.com where you can go and get on the list to be the first to know when the book is out.

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01:59

It will be launching September 30th, 11 a.m. Central Time. And trust me, you will want to be on that first to know list. Not only are you going to get a fantastic price on the Kindle version, but I have a super awesome gift for you that you will not want to miss.

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02:16

So make sure to get on that list, get excited, tell everyone about it. So let's talk about the book. So in this book, you will have a chapter from each of these incredible women. Now, yes, they are skilled coaches, they are trained, they are fantastic at what they do.

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02:36

And beyond that, and part of why they're fantastic at what they do, is that beyond that, these women have each experienced tremendous challenges in their life, things that absolutely rock them to the core.

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02:51

And these women have chosen the path of leaning in. These women have chosen the path of self-connection. These women have chosen expansion and evolution over simply just surviving. And because of that, they have cultivated in themselves so much strength and so much wisdom that they are able to bring it to you.

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03:20

And this very thing that all of these women have done and what they're sharing with you in this book is exactly what I stand for and what I'm speaking to you about today. So each of these chapters is from a different perspective, right?

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03:34

Different stories. I'll just touch on a few of them. You've got Kelly Arthur, who experienced a stroke at a pretty young age, having kids, like small kids, at home, and how this completely disrupted her life.

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03:50

And what you're going to read from Kelly is how before this hit, she was overworking. Her life was out of balance. And I don't want to put words in her mouth. You'll have to read the chapter, but it's almost like she was so caught up in all of this that this stroke was the absolute forced pause that she needed.

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04:13

And yet it was tremendously difficult for her, as you can imagine. And so as Kelly shares her story, she's not just talking about self-care as a good idea, but she's talking about it in a radical way because she understands the degree to which caring for self matters, not just for your level of success, which success is great, right?

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04:35

Whatever that means, but the reason it is imperative for your well-being, for how you experience your life. So this is one example of a story that you'll read in the book. Another one of the authors, Margot Fordonski, you've heard on the podcast before, is a grief expert.

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04:54

And she is an expert because, yes, she has read about it. She has trained. She has special grief educator training as well, of course, as my master coach training. And yet, Margot's deepest wisdom comes in part by who she is, the nature of her, and the ways in which life has carved out a depth and wisdom in her as she has had to bury two of her own children.

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05:23

And as you read this chapter from Margot and you read her words, you cannot help but feel the softness and the supportiveness in the words that she offers with regard to the grief and loss that we feel in life.

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05:42

And I wanted to highlight, I want to highlight all of the chapters in the coming episodes. I will. Of course, I'm just going to pick on a couple today. But I wanted to highlight Margo's episode because in particular, it's kind of like this.

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05:58

So as a coach, I'm here, right, every week, I'm speaking to you about things I have convictions about, wins that I've had, and ways to master yourself, master your relationship with yourself. And I am not exempt from the human experience.

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06:13

I am not exempt from having all of the struggles that I talk with you about every single week. And it's not that we want to be exempt from them. Well, it would be nice, right? But the idea is that we're not exempt from them, but how do we meet these challenges?

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06:30

How do we lean in and be with them? And, you know, when I think about the wisdom that Margot brings, there are plenty of times that Margot has experienced activation in her nervous system, these remembered moments of the traumas that she experienced.

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06:51

And they come up in very real ways in her body. And they come up regularly and they are a part of her, not her growth journey, but also her business-building journey. And it's such an incredible thing to see all of these women.

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07:09

And in particular, I'm talking about Margo right now, though, right? Where I see a woman who is in it. She is feeling all of it. She is in touch with all of it. And she's willing to continue leaning in so she can be there to support and guide all of you and her clients.

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07:29

And I just can't say enough about the power of this book, of course. I'm going to highlight one more of the authors today, and then I want to talk about some of the through threads of this book. I want to talk a little about Maria, who was a homeschool mom for years and has been a coach for years.

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07:49

And when Maria came to master coach training and came to do this work, one of the things that she shared was she couldn't even articulate what it was exactly she wanted from this. Of course, it's great to be a master coach.

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08:04

She wanted to learn the different things, but she just knew that she needed to be here. She felt called to be here. And this is such a powerful thing because I think, especially, I can say for myself, more in recent years than ever before, I can attune to and pay attention to and answer that call when I feel called to do something.

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08:29

Whereas prior, it was always about that negotiation in my mind, that debating of does this make sense? Does it not? And there are all kinds of ways that we make decisions, right? I'm not meaning to discount that.

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08:40

And I believe that over our lifetime, as hopefully we become more attuned to ourselves and our needs and what we're feeling called to, we can be brave enough to answer those calls sometimes that make no sense.

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08:56

And let me tell you, that is the path I am on right now in my business. I know where I feel called to go. I am paying attention. I am leaning in. And a lot of days I am scared to death about what this means because I would like to have something a little more concrete than those feelings within me.

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09:15

And yet what I'm learning is those are actually the most concrete things, the most powerful things. And we're going to talk a little bit more about that. But going back to Maria, so Maria's chapter is all about your joyful reinvention.

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09:30

And Maria is such a beautiful soul, such a beautiful human being, and always struck me as someone full of joy, having that happiness. But what Maria expresses and what I've seen in watching her evolution is that that joy that she always brought has actually now been not only expanded, but sort of unleashed, where that joy gets to be a part of her all the time in the way she moves in the world, in the way she engages, in her relationship with herself. And it's the difference between moments of joy versus feeling a fullness of joy in your soul. And it's been so beautiful to watch her and so beautiful for her to bring this forth in her practice because she's a phenomenal coach.

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10:23

She's been a parenting coach, a homeschooling coach. She has all the tools and all the techniques, but this work, the work she's now leaning into, the work of the soul, the work of the heart, the work of the emotions that we can experience regularly, is so powerful just beyond words.

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10:41

And so I want to talk a little bit more about this. I'm going to be talking about the other authors as well in the coming weeks, but this is giving you a sampling of what you can expect in this book.

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10:52

And what I will tell you is that no matter which chapter you're reading, no matter which author you're following, the piece underneath all of this that has really allowed all of this to open up is this simple concept.

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11:08

And that is you matter. You listening as a human being, you matter. And your feelings matter. And the way you feel matters. And this is something that we hear. And it's a feel-good thing, right? You matter.

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11:34

You matter just for being you. It's something we hear. But I want you to consider for just a minute, how true does this really feel to you? Do you matter when you're having a bad day? Do you matter when you yell at your kids or you drop the ball on a project?

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11:54

Do you matter when your behaviors seem to be exhibiting laziness? Because I think it's easy for us to think we matter when we're doing a good job of whatever it is we think we're supposed to be doing.

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12:10

But what about just for being? What about you mattering for the sake of mattering? And something that's coming to my mind is my experience in my early 30s when I got hit with chronic fatigue syndrome.

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12:25

And I am a very high-energy person. I have always been a high-energy person. I love to exercise. I love to be up early. And for years and years and years, I was at the gym before the crack of dawn because it's something I love.

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12:38

Well, I get hit with chronic fatigue. And there were days when I would be setting a doctor appointment and it would be for maybe 10:30 in the morning. And I would literally believe this was a legitimate worry that I would not be able to get there on time because I wouldn't be able to get up and move quickly enough to get to my doctor appointment.

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13:02

And anyone that knows me at any level, this is probably unfathomable. And it was very much my reality. And what this meant is that I had small kids that I couldn't really show up for in the way that I wanted to.

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13:18

And what it meant is that while I always wanted to live close to the school so I could walk them to school, even that short walk to the school seemed really hard for me. And so here I was at a time in my life facing this experience of feeling like I wasn't myself, like part of my identity of being high energy, of being a go-getter, of being involved and engaged.

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13:45

I wasn't able to do it physically. And it was horribly sad for me. It was horribly sad. It was horribly devastating. And one of the things that it forced me to look at was, am I of worth just sitting here in my bed?

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14:06

Am I of worth? Am I of value? If I can't go exercise and try to make my body look physically acceptable to people around me? And this was a very real and difficult thing that I had to confront. And this wasn't the only time that I confronted this, and I will share more experiences with you.

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14:28

But I believe, I believe truly, truly that this is one of the lessons that I have had to learn over and over again. And now I get to shout it from the rooftops to all of you and to all of my clients and to just anyone who can hear my voice.

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14:49

Because I don't think we realize how true it really is. And I don't think we realize how many people are walking around wrestling with their sense of worth and trying to solve for it by running themselves ragged, by doom scrolling, searching for connection, searching for some kind of validation of self.

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15:11

How many times do we want to find validation in how we look or what we achieve or what we have or if people think positive things about us? This is all normal. We don't need to criticize ourselves for this.

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15:22

Of course, we're doing all of this because we just want to feel worthwhile. And my message to you is that none of those things that seem to be able to bring us that will ever work. They will never, ever work.

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15:46

But I have really good news for you. And that is this. Your worth is the degree to which you matter. Your existence matters. It's not negotiable. It is not based on anything you do or don't do. You don't have the power to change your worth.

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16:12

It just is. So I want to talk with you a little bit about how this weaves in to the book and to what I'm so proud to offer my clients. So as you read through the book and you're reading the different chapters on nervous system regulation, on dropping perfectionism, on understanding our emotions, on setting inner boundaries, on, you know, ending burnout, whatever chapter you're reading.

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16:44

Part of what I think is so beautiful and powerful about this book is that the greatest things that the women in this book are teaching you and are speaking to you did not come from my methodology of what I've taught them to regurgitate.

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17:04

Okay? Not at all. The best parts of what they're saying, the most powerful inspiration you will get, it's come from them. And if we take a step back, the reason that I even fit into this at all with them is that the work that we do in the Masterful Coach Collective, the work that we do in Master Coach Training at its core, at the heart of it.

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17:33

Yes, we teach the methodologies and the approaches and the systems and all of that. And that's fantastic. And the underneath, the foundation is not just understanding intellectually this idea that you matter, that your feelings matter, that your desires matter, but we work to really get it in our core, in our gut, in our soul.

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17:58

And the magic of this for all of us in this book and for all of our clients and hopefully for all of you who are hearing this message is that when we, when you can truly know how to connect with yourself, know how to truly understand that you matter, that your feelings matter, that the things you care about matter, that having fun in your life matters, that the more you can truly put yourself in the center of your own universe, the more you're able to do that and cultivate safety as you stand in the space of fully being you. That is when the magic within you comes about. And it has been such a privilege to watch all of my clients, but in particular, of course, we're talking about this group of authors, to watch these women step into places of saying how they want to spend their time, of feeling comfortable setting better boundaries so that they can protect their own well-being.

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19:35

These women leaning into caring for their own feelings and their own nervous system, allowing themselves to take up space and believing that they're worth it. And by so doing, I have seen over and over again, the women that I work with completely transform.

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19:58

And I see them almost as unrecognizable as they are standing tall, as they are feeling proud, as they are so self-connected and so full of energy and vibrancy that their unique energy and gifts just absolutely ripple through the world.

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20:21

And it's such, such a beautiful thing. I'm going to wrap up this episode, and I just want to share a couple of things for you to consider. How often do you take the time to ask yourself in your heart and soul, what do I really need?

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20:43

How often do you take the time to create space for some nonsensical joy for yourself? And are there things that you can at least begin to release today that are ways in which maybe you think you're proving your worth, but actually you're just getting caught up in trying to prove it?

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21:14

More specifically, what are the ways you're people pleasing that you can release? What are the ways that you're trying to create a certain image that you can release? What are the ways that you are grasping for outside validation that you can release today and instead ask yourself the question, what if I matter in this moment just for existing?

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21:40

All right, that's what I've got for you. Make sure you're on that list. This book is incredible. I'm going to talk more about the other chapters and the other authors. And I just want to thank all of my co-authors again.

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21:51

I've seen you put your heart and soul into this. I see you sharing it on social media. I see each of you stepping into your brilliance and coming alive. And this is just the beginning of the millions of people whose lives are going to be changed.

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22:04

I'll talk with you next week.