Saving You a Seat

Karen Joy Hardwick
Saving You a Seat Podcast

Join Karen Hardwick, psychotherapist-turned-leadership-consultant, and author of The Connected Leader: 7 Strategies to Empower Yourself and Inspire Others. She and her guests dig deep into life’s messiness and share how connection is the antidote. If you want to live a life of emotional, spiritual, and relational connection this podcast is for you. Karen and her guests share their stories real-and-raw, explore the grace and grit of fully living, and chat about all things recovery. If you want to awaken, heal, and connect courageously join us. We are saving you a seat.

  1. Ep.49 | Melissa Clark: Emotional and Spiritual Wellness

    15/11/2022

    Ep.49 | Melissa Clark: Emotional and Spiritual Wellness

    This week, I welcome Melissa Clark to join us at the table. As an expert in all-things therapeutic and mental health, Melissa focuses specifically on anxiety, body issues and identity issues. Melissa also hosts the podcast Thrive: The Art of Living Free. Melissa and I jump right into the mental health issues millions of people are facing, how the pandemic exacerbated mental health struggles, and how we can move towards living a more connected life. Honest and real, we talked about how when we unpack our baggage, we are able to connect in healthy ways and move forward on our journey to true healing. Melissa and I share our own  experiences and why it is so important to take care of ourselves spiritually and mentally. In a world that feels more disconnected than ever, we hope this episode brings a light on the true impact emotional wellness has on us as individuals and as a society. Here’s what we connect on: Why society is suffering from mental health issues and unraveling from the outside in, especially after the pandemic How we are all addicted or co-dependent to something or someone in our distracted numbing culture How practicing acceptance, openness and honesty in all relationships, starting with ourselves, can transform our most important connections How giving up control, surrendering and letting go of our “stuff” allows us to experience true freedom, healing and hope with God The power “seasons of silence” hold in self-connection, self-reflection and becoming more emotionally healthy and secure with ourselves and others Thank you so much for saving a seat for us this week! Please rate this podcast and subscribe so you don’t miss the next episode! To connect with Melissa, visit her at @melissaclarkcounseling on social media, melissaclarkcounseling.com and listen to Thrive everywhere podcasts can be streamed! To connect with Karen, follow her on social media: @karenjhardwick and visit connectedleaderbook.com to order The Connected Leader today.

    35 min
  2. 08/11/2022

    Ep.48 | Sarah Kroger: Accepting Our Belovedness

    Joining us at the table this week is Sarah Kroger, Christian recording artist Sarah’s work is some of my favorite and her new album, Light, transforms hearts and invites souls to the love of Christ.  Don’t miss the single, Belovedness, if you need a reminder of how lovable you are. Sarah and I chat openly about our shared love for all-things-healing. Don’t miss our conversation around the courage it takes to heal and truly own what we push deep inside and avoid at all costs.  It is throughout the healing journey that Sarah and I come to understand that recovering our true self is exactly what God wants us to do. By accepting who we are, including the things we are healing from, we allow ourselves to exist as the Lord truly made us to be. Here’s what we connect on: Staying present in the moment, both big and small, even when it feels like distractions are ever-increasing How Sarah’s new release, What a Wonderful World, celebrates life’s most beautiful and magical moments How our Heavenly Father encourages us to own our belovedness, even when we feel most unlovable and lost How we must walk a truly vulnerable path to healing and self-love by giving our “stuff” to God and facing our pain head-on Keeping hope, feeling fulfilled,  and showing up for ourselves for ourselves even when it’s hardest Thank you so much for saving a seat for us this week! Please rate this podcast and subscribe so you don’t miss the next episode! To connect with Sarah, visit her on Instagram @skroger, online at sarahkroger.com, and stream her newest album, Light, on all streaming platforms. Listen to her latest release, What A Wonderful World here. To connect with Karen, follow her on social media: @karenjhardwick and visit connectedleaderbook.com to order The Connected Leader today.

    33 min
  3. Ep.47 | Gravity Leadership: Leading and Living Like Christ

    01/11/2022

    Ep.47 | Gravity Leadership: Leading and Living Like Christ

    This week, I am excited to welcome Matt Tebbe and Ben Sterke to the table. Matt and Ben are the cofounders of Gravity Leadership, an organization focused on transformational leadership and discipleship.  We chat about how in order to evolve we need more than a change in practice: we need a change in paradigm. Through eight transformative axioms found in their book Having the Mind of Christ: Eight Axioms to Cultivate a Robust Faith, Matt and Ben lay out a guide to connect with Christ that helps us be open more fully to God, ourselves, and others.  By putting on new glasses so to speak, we can embrace the healing and change God wants for our lives. Matt, Ben and I dive into the important stuff:  letting go to accept God’s love, practicing self-honesty to invite healing, recovering (in many different ways) while walking a path of faith, and accepting ourselves and others for who they are – fully. Here’s what we connect on: How to achieve connectedness, and not correctness, with God The healing power found in rigorous self-honesty Waking up to God, who is already here and present Learning that God shows up with unconditional love and acceptance in our messy reality, even when we aren’t able to show up for ourselves. Looking past shame, fear and doubt to see the truth about ourselves by trusting in God. How compassionate awareness, creative alignment and cooperative action are essential tools on our faith journey Thank you so much for saving a seat for us this week! Please rate this podcast and subscribe so you don’t miss the next episode! To connect with Gravity Leadership, visit them at gravityleadership.com, check out their book at gravityleadership.com/book and follow them on social media @gravityleadership. To connect with Karen, follow her on social media: @karenjhardwick and visit connectedleaderbook.com to order The Connected Leader today.

    39 min
  4. 25/10/2022

    Ep.46 | Megan Felton: Courage, Confidence, & Grit

    I am elated to host the lovely Megan Felton at our table this week! Megan is a proud Enneagram type 6 and the co-founder of the beauty and skincare platform Lionne. Megan started Lionne out of her own struggles with rosacea and frustration with the oversaturation of products available to her. Megan’s skincare advice has been featured in publications like Elle UK, Vogue, Cosmopolitan and Women’s Health - so she is the real deal y’all! Recently, Megan spearheaded the voice for change in the beauty industry, after joining forces with other skincare gurus and taking on celebrities like Brad Pitt. We dive deep into the nitty-gritty truth of being an entrepreneur and how the Enneagram can be a huge tool in personal growth. The Enneagram assessment is a tool that can truly open our eyes to things about ourselves we may have never known. Specifically, the Enneagram brings out the good, the bad, and the ugly that we know exists deep down, making us aware of everything that makes us uniquely ourselves. Harnessing the power of knowing more about ourselves through the Enneagram is a major step towards growth in all aspects of our lives and a key in unlocking true connection with both ourselves and others. Here’s what we connect on: Connecting with reservoirs of resilience, hope and strength by using the Enneagram (6:06) Keeping boundaries between personal and professional life as an entrepreneur (12:13) Megan shares a beautiful (and true!) story about courage and standing for what you believe in, even if it means standing up to one of Hollywood’s biggest stars (18:25) Bringing awareness to how oversaturated the beauty industry is today and how to find real products that actually work (26:32) Thank you so much for saving a seat for us this week! Please rate this podcast and subscribe so you don’t miss the next episode! To connect with Megan, follow her on Instagram @megfel, follow Lionne on Instagram @lionne.co or visit them online at lionne.co to connect with a skincare expert. To connect with Karen, follow her on social media: @karenjhardwick and visit connectedleaderbook.com to order The Connected Leader today.

    34 min
  5. Ep.44 | Marty Schreiber: Self-Discovery and Boundaries as a Caregiver

    11/10/2022

    Ep.44 | Marty Schreiber: Self-Discovery and Boundaries as a Caregiver

    No one ever wants to hear that someone they know is diagnosed with a disease like Alzheimer’s - especially not when that someone is your loved one. Walking hand-in-hand with your loved one down the winding road of dealing with Alzheimer’s Disease is one of the toughest emotional rollercoasters imaginable. Oftentimes, those of us charged with becoming a caregiver can feel completely isolated, alone, and misunderstood by the world around us. Finding healthy, sustainable, and manageable ways to cope and connect with ourselves and the world around us is, at times, the only light amid the darkness. This week, I am delighted to welcome Marty Schreiber to the table. After serving as the 39th Governor of Wisconsin, Marty retired from public office to become a full-time caregiver for his beloved wife Elaine, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease almost 20 years ago. He is an Alzheimer’s Disease caregiver advocate and author of My Two Elaines. He is passionate about speaking out to help caregivers and their loved ones live their best life possible. We hope this episode provides caregivers with some relief and lets you know that we see you. And if you are not a caregiver, we hope this episode gives you some insight into the long journey caregivers take with their loved ones. Here’s what we connect on: Marty shares his tips and what he wishes he would have done after spending almost 20 years as a caregiver, including how to join your loved one’s world, while also learning how to cope as a caregiver (6:00) How Connection lives at the heart and center of coping as a caregiver (17:34) Marty explains the backstory to his book + how he found joy with both Elaine's (23:08) The importance of finding ways to keep consistent self-care as a caregiver in order to keep caring for your loved one (26:07) Avoiding turning to unhealthy coping mechanisms and how caregivers can avoid that (29:42) Thank you so much for saving a seat for us this week! Please rate this podcast and subscribe so you don’t miss the next episode! To connect with Marty, visit him at mytwoelaines.com and order My Two Elaines everywhere books are sold. To connect with Karen, follow her on social media: @karenjhardwick and visit connectedleaderbook.com to order The Connected Leader today.

    35 min
  6. 04/10/2022

    Ep.43 | Sheri Young: Connection in Recovery

    It’s no secret we are big fans of Connection around here. Connection is the heartbeat of the human experience - without it, we simply cannot survive. However, Connection is most vital in times of great vulnerability, sacred openness and opening your soul to yourself and others. These deeply vulnerable times are most recognizable today when walking down the long, never-straight-and-narrow path to recovery. Behind the doors of our recovery meeting rooms, Connection is one thing that binds us all together and makes our bonds with those around us indescribable. To put it plainly, Connection is the gold thread that runs between every single person, making us all one thing - fully human. This week, I am so excited to welcome Sheri Young, author of the book Relapse Roller Coaster: Alcoholic Delusion to Spiritual Clarity, to the table. Sheri struggled with her relationship with alcohol throughout her life, including 40 years of executive experience in the world of politics, public service and business. By harnessing the power of Connection, Sheri has been able to completely change her life and find true healing and recovery. In today’s episode Sheri and I dive deep on the true power of Connection to self, others and your Higher Power, and how that deep Connection to the universe around you can truly change your life. Here’s what we connect on: Putting our egos aside when hitting rock bottom + surrendering to God (3:27) Digging deep into our roots (literally and spiritually) to connect with ourselves, others and our Higher Power to lead with self compassion (6:48) How a lifelong journey and God’s divine plan towards recovery has led Sheri to positively impact others (11:42) Learning the art of letting go and accepting the gift of desperation to cause change in our recovery journey (15:46) How connection and alignment to self and others can lead us to living in the “Zone of Miracles” (18:04) Thank you so much for saving a seat for us this week! Please rate this podcast and subscribe so you don’t miss the next episode! To connect with Sheri, visit her at surthrive.life to check out all kinds of resources including her podcast and purchase Relapse Roller Coaster: Alcoholic Delusion to Spiritual Clarity everywhere books are sold. To connect with Karen, follow her on social media: @karenjhardwick and visit connectedleaderbook.com to order The Connected Leader today.

    22 min
  7. Ep.42 | My Journey Today in Recovery

    27/09/2022

    Ep.42 | My Journey Today in Recovery

    Did you know that more than half of Americans love someone who is struggling with an addiction? As some of you may know, September is National Recovery Month. But when thinking of recovery, there are so many other beautiful “r words”: rest, restoration, redemption and renewal to name a few. I was raised in a family where significant generational patterns surrounded alcoholism. Addiction is a disease of relationships, which affects family members incredibly deeply. The disease shows up and embeds itself on all of the family members - not just the one struggling with an addiction. Saying “I am in recovery” was no easy thing to accept. There have been moments I abandoned myself, times I chased things that would take me out of myself, and times I was tremendously disconnected from myself. Recovery continues to teach me to let go of all control mechanisms to find that at the intersection of desperation and gratitude is hope and freedom. As I lean deeply into the power of connection for recovery, these are the pillars I hold to be true: I live from a place of joy and gratitude at all times. I share my story candidly to help others own theirs. I have more questions than answers. I feel God’s presence everywhere. I know that life is messy. I believe leadership is a sacred calling and that we lead in all parts of life. I walk a spiritual path, move my feet forward to do hard things and anchor myself in a loving God who rides shotgun with me. I believe in the power of “we” - there is a healing bond in hearing the words “me too”. I understand that acceptance is a superpower that allows others to walk their own path I absolutely love the power of the table celebrating communion which leads to redemption. I hope this episode has brought light to the darkness of addiction in a real, honest way. As the Buddhists say, “no mud, no lotus.” Finding your way out of the mud can feel impossible at times, but know that recovery is always possible. We are leaving a light on for you and saving you a seat. Thank you for joining us this week. To connect with Karen, follow her on social media: @karenjhardwick and visit connectedleaderbook.com to order The Connected Leader today.

    16 min

About

Join Karen Hardwick, psychotherapist-turned-leadership-consultant, and author of The Connected Leader: 7 Strategies to Empower Yourself and Inspire Others. She and her guests dig deep into life’s messiness and share how connection is the antidote. If you want to live a life of emotional, spiritual, and relational connection this podcast is for you. Karen and her guests share their stories real-and-raw, explore the grace and grit of fully living, and chat about all things recovery. If you want to awaken, heal, and connect courageously join us. We are saving you a seat.

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