French Kissing Life

Shawnna Stiver
  • 5.0 (51)
  • Self-Improvement
  • Updated Weekly

If you were free to be who you really are deep down and who you were always meant to be, what would your life look like? What does it mean to have a zest for life? Can you *really* invite more joy into your everyday living through doable steps that don’t take a lot of time? Yes, yes, and more yes!  French Kissing Life is an inspirational podcast that guides you toward finding your spark and unleashing it into the world. If you’ve been yearning to celebrate your unique presence and fall in love with who you truly are, then you’ve found your tribe. If you believe the world needs what only you can offer, this community will be your biggest cheerleader. Picture this podcast as your weekly dose of encouragement – a sanctuary where you can escape the noise of the world and embrace the beauty of your own existence.From skinny dipping in Portugal to auctioning herself off for a date and testing whether a slinky will go down an ancient pyramid, host Shawnna Stiver knows a thing or two about going for it and the hilarious stories that await. Through heartfelt, playful and funny conversations, Shawnna helps you discover what makes your heart race, your soul dance and your spirit soar. You’ll also hear from guest experts who share insights on how to navigate the journey of self-discovery and invite the world to come alive alongside you.  In a world that demands you be anything but yourself, this is your permission slip to be a little more YOU. Together, we’ll make every moment count and create a life that feels as good on the inside as it looks on the outside. If you’re ready to shed the shoulds and welcome in a life that feels uniquely, beautifully, and authentically yours, subscribe now and let’s make every episode a celebration of YOU! Buckle up for an adventure where realness reigns, inspiration thrives and fun is the name of the game. Are you ready to french kiss life?!

  1. 6d ago

    Ep 123: The Psychology Behind Getting a Yes… For Anything with Claire Wang

    Have you ever walked away from a conversation thinking, "I know what I meant to say, but somehow it just did not land the way I had hoped"? Maybe it was a pitch, a hard conversation, an interview, or just trying to explain your value in a way another person could actually understand. This episode is all about that space between what we mean and what actually gets received. My guest is Claire Wang, a pricing strategist and author of the upcoming book "The Price of Influence." And before you hear the word pricing and assume this is only for businesspeople or spreadsheet lovers, let me stop you right there, because this one ended up being so much more human than that. We get into why smart people struggle to communicate their value, the difference between persuasion and influence, and why preparation and curiosity matter so much more than performance. Claire also shares this beautiful idea about influence being something quiet and gradual, almost like stardust settling over time, which is officially one of my favorite metaphors we have ever had on this show. Topics Covered: The space between what we mean and what actually gets received.The difference between persuasion as a one-time transaction and influence as something long-term.The three reasons we undersell ourselves, confidence, measurement, and communication.Measuring your value against the right benchmark instead of the outcome.What it means to think like a pricer and see things from the other person's perspective.Why curiosity, listening with an open mind, and showing up to serve build real trust.Connect with Claire! Website: https://www.claire-wang.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/claire-wang/ ______________________ Contact French Kissing Life Podcast DM us at @shawnnarstiver on Instagram or FacebookConnect with Shawnna Stiver on LinkedInEmail us at frenchkissinglifepodcast@gmail.com  Until next time, muah!  ______________________ French Kissing Life is sponsored by Ampersand Copy and Content. Ready to convert browsers into buyers? If you want to master your messaging, stand out in a saturated market and become a crushed-on, go-to brand, contact us today! Website: https://ampersandcopyandcontent.com/ Email: shawnna@ampersandcopyandcontent.com

    40 min

  2. May 26

    Ep 122: Thong Bikini Bottoms and Other Summer Gripes with Sarah Beara Stiver

    Memorial Day has come and gone, which officially means summer has entered the group chat. And today, my niece Sarah is back on the mic, which means things get unhinged very quickly. We go through our highs and lows for the season, from sweet corn and pool days and the smell of a good thunderstorm to chiggers, birds at 5 AM, and the absolute audacity of assless bikini bottoms at the public pool. We also play a little game where Sarah challenges me to decipher Gen Z slang in real time, and it does not go well for me. Apparently, "unspoken rizz" and "let him cook" are phrases people say now, and I'm still emotionally attached to BRB. This one feels like a summer night with family, where everyone talks over each other and laughs too hard about things that truly don't matter. Which, honestly, might be one of the best parts of the season. Topics Covered: Sweet corn, backyard barbecues, and the food that only feels right in summerWhy pool swimming is a high, and lake swimming is a hard noThe case against thong bikini bottoms in public spaces (we rest our case)Chiggers, mosquitoes, and a doctor visit that did not helpThunderstorms, air conditioning, and the great lawn mowing debateSarah's Gen Z slang quiz and Shauna's complete failure to pass itWhy "unspoken rizz" is now part of our vocabulary, whether we like it or not ______________________ Contact French Kissing Life Podcast DM us at @shawnnarstiver on Instagram or FacebookConnect with Shawnna Stiver on LinkedInEmail us at frenchkissinglifepodcast@gmail.com  Until next time, muah!  ______________________ French Kissing Life is sponsored by Ampersand Copy and Content. Ready to convert browsers into buyers? If you want to master your messaging, stand out in a saturated market and become a crushed-on, go-to brand, contact us today! Website: https://ampersandcopyandcontent.com/ Email: shawnna@ampersandcopyandcontent.com

    37 min

  3. May 19

    Ep 121: Slinkys, AI, and Showing Up as Yourself

    Something has shifted. I don't know exactly when it happened, and it wasn't one moment. It was more like a slow accumulation, small disappointments that added up to something much bigger. Social media used to feel like a peek into someone's real life. Somewhere along the way, it started feeling like performance, like everyone, myself included, was packaging themselves. The more polished it got, the lonelier I felt. And underneath all of that exhaustion and skepticism, there's this quiet craving for something real. Which is, it turns out, exactly what I've spent the last year obsessing over from a completely unexpected angle. AI started making a lot of noise in my industry about a year ago, and I didn't rush to become an evangelist. But I was curious, and curiosity has always been a driving force for me. What I found stopped me cold. Topics Covered: The slow erosion of trust in social media, institutions, and brands, and what we're actually craving instead.How a single client result changed the way I think about content entirely.Why AI rewards clarity, genuine authority, and human voice over technical optimization.The difference between traditional SEO and the new landscape, and which brands are disappearing.Why storytelling is now a structural advantage, not just a warm touch.The Trusted Answer Audit and who it's designed for.Mentioned in this episode: Learn more about the audit: https://ampersandcopyandcontent.com/aeo-audit/ Get $100 off here: https://ampersand-copy-and-content.kit.com/products/aeo-audit?promo=FKL ______________________ Contact French Kissing Life Podcast DM us at @shawnnarstiver on Instagram or FacebookConnect with Shawnna Stiver on LinkedInEmail us at frenchkissinglifepodcast@gmail.com  Until next time, muah!  ______________________ French Kissing Life is sponsored by Ampersand Copy and Content. Ready to convert browsers into buyers? If you want to master your messaging, stand out in a saturated market and become a crushed-on, go-to brand, contact us today! Website: https://ampersandcopyandcontent.com/ Email: shawnna@ampersandcopyandcontent.com

    18 min

  4. May 12

    Ep 120: What I'm Loving This Month: Artemis II Space Mission

    A few weeks ago, something happened in the world that I genuinely could not stop thinking about. Couldn't sleep. Sending voice memos to friends at weird hours. And even though the news cycle has absolutely moved on, I sure haven't, and I don't think you will either. Four humans flew to the moon and came back completely undone by how much they love Earth. That's it. That's the whole thing. And I want to bring you into every beautiful, tear-inducing, quietly extraordinary part of it, including the part where the toilet broke, the part where Earth disappeared behind the moon, and the part that I genuinely think will stop you in your tracks. Topics Covered: The crew of Artemis II and the historic firsts they each carried.What Commander Reid Wiseman said when he watched Earth disappear behind the moon.The 40 minutes of total silence on the far side of the moon, and what the crew witnessed there that no human eyes had ever seen.The Earthset photograph and where to find it.What Victor Glover, Jeremy Hansen, Christina Koch, and Reid Wiseman said when they came home.The story of Carol, and the moment at 252,000 miles from Earth that Reid called the pinnacle of the mission.StoryCorps and their Mother's Day collection.Do you have a topic for a future What I’m Loving episode?! Email us at frenchkissinglifepodcast@gmail.com Link: Earthset photo (NASA) Link: Carroll Crater naming moment (NASA livestream clip) Link: Crew homecoming speeches Link: Good Good Good quote carousel Link: StoryCorps Mother's Day collection ______________________ Contact French Kissing Life Podcast DM us at @shawnnarstiver on Instagram or FacebookConnect with Shawnna Stiver on LinkedInEmail us at frenchkissinglifepodcast@gmail.com  Until next time, muah!  ______________________ French Kissing Life is sponsored by Ampersand Copy and Content. Ready to convert browsers into buyers? If you want to master your messaging, stand out in a saturated market and become a crushed-on, go-to brand, contact us today! Website: https://ampersandcopyandcontent.com/ Email: shawnna@ampersandcopyandcontent.com

    25 min

  5. May 5

    Ep 119: The No BS Truth About Starting a Business with Tom Swartwood

    Starting a business gets this very shiny reputation: freedom, flexibility, being your own boss. And then there's the version nobody talks about as loudly, the one where you're thinking about your business at 2 am because the to-do list is never actually done. My former professor, Tom Swartwood, has spent decades working with entrepreneurs across industries, countries, and stages of business. He developed the entrepreneurship curriculum at Drake University, founded one of the first startup bootcamps for women in the United States, and is the kind of person who will tell you the truth about business ownership whether you asked for it or not. What you'll hear in this conversation is not a checklist or a roadmap. It's a perspective shift on what starting a business actually means, what separates the people who go for it from those who don't, and why the goal was never really about freedom in the first place. Topics Covered: Why "freedom and flexibility" is a misread of what entrepreneurship actually delivers.The three questions every aspiring founder needs to answer before anything else.What Tom calls the most dangerous advice founders listen to.Why starting a business is less about you and more about everyone else.The Craig Newmark story and what it means to decide what "enough" looks like for you.What actually separates people who go for it from those who stay on the sidelines.Why entrepreneurs aren't big risk-takers, they're just comfortable with ambiguity.Connect with Tom! LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomswartwood/ ______________________ Contact French Kissing Life Podcast DM us at @shawnnarstiver on Instagram or FacebookConnect with Shawnna Stiver on LinkedInEmail us at frenchkissinglifepodcast@gmail.com  Until next time, muah!  ______________________ French Kissing Life is sponsored by Ampersand Copy and Content. Ready to convert browsers into buyers? If you want to master your messaging, stand out in a saturated market and become a crushed-on, go-to brand, contact us today! Website: https://ampersandcopyandcontent.com/ Email: shawnna@ampersandcopyandcontent.com

    59 min

  6. Apr 14

    Ep 118: The Secret Language of Plants (+ Their Names) with Kim Gros

    Plants have names for a reason. And once you start learning what those names actually mean, you can't walk past a dandelion or a hawthorn tree the same way again. In this episode, I'm joined again by Kim Gros, a New York City-based clinical herbalist, educator, and founder of an organic herbal product line. Kim leads plant walks in Central Park and has a gift for making the natural world feel alive through storytelling. We get into what plant names reveal across different languages and cultures, how ancient superstitions often turn out to have a scientific explanation, and how so much of our everyday language traces back to plants in ways most of us have never considered. Topics Covered: Why stories help us remember plants better than properties do.What plant names in different languages actually reveal.Botanical sexism and how it connects to your spring allergies.Why dandelions have a very literal (and unexpected) name in French.The pagan roots behind bringing holly and pine inside for the holidays.How superstitions about hawthorn flowers turned out to be scientifically accurate.Where "caught red-handed" actually comes from.Connect with Kim! Website: https://moonstoneandmulberry.com/ Shop herbal remedies: https://herbalremedies.moonstoneandmulberry.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moonstoneandmulberry Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MoonstoneandMulberry/ ______________________ Contact French Kissing Life Podcast DM us at @shawnnarstiver on Instagram or FacebookConnect with Shawnna Stiver on LinkedInEmail us at frenchkissinglifepodcast@gmail.com  Until next time, muah!  ______________________ French Kissing Life is sponsored by Ampersand Copy and Content. Ready to convert browsers into buyers? If you want to master your messaging, stand out in a saturated market and become a crushed-on, go-to brand, contact us today! Website: https://ampersandcopyandcontent.com/ Email: shawnna@ampersandcopyandcontent.com

    48 min

  7. Apr 7

    Ep 117: The Real Reason We Fear Change (It's Not What You Think)

    Something has been sitting with me lately, a contradiction I couldn't quite shake. I've always thought of myself as someone who loves change. Enneagram Seven, chases novelty, has a podcast called French Kissing Life. And yet when change actually shows up uninvited, I freeze. What I've landed on is that I'm not actually afraid of change. I'm afraid of uncertainty. And once you see the difference, you really can't unsee it. There's also a quieter, sneakier version of this that I've been living, and I wanted to talk about both. Topics Covered: The difference between fearing change and fearing uncertainty, and why it matters.Why our brains treat unexpected change like a threat (and what's actually happening neurologically).The hair growth analogy that reframes how we experience gradual vs. sudden change.What the research actually says about stress, uncertainty, and adaptability.The distinction between novelty you choose and change that arrives uninvited.How chronic deferral, "I'll do it when things settle down," is just fear wearing a productivity disguise.The two questions worth sitting with this week.Resources: https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/03/opinions/uncertainty-is-good-for-you-jackson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=267cB6tNeUc ______________________ Contact French Kissing Life Podcast DM us at @shawnnarstiver on Instagram or FacebookConnect with Shawnna Stiver on LinkedInEmail us at frenchkissinglifepodcast@gmail.com  Until next time, muah!  ______________________ French Kissing Life is sponsored by Ampersand Copy and Content. Ready to convert browsers into buyers? If you want to master your messaging, stand out in a saturated market and become a crushed-on, go-to brand, contact us today! Website: https://ampersandcopyandcontent.com/ Email: shawnna@ampersandcopyandcontent.com

    18 min

  8. Mar 31

    Ep 116: From Quickies to Bucket List 'Minis' with Lori Blachford

    Sometimes life gets so full of hard that you forget you're even allowed to want something light. That's where Lori Blachford found herself after seven years of caregiving and loss, and it's what led her to start snatching up small, slightly unpredictable experiences just to feel alive again. What started as "bucket list quickies" got a necessary rebrand and became bucket list minis, a practice of saying yes to the weird, doable, low-stakes things right in front of you and building a list of things you've already done instead of things you're still waiting to get to. In this conversation, we talk about blacksmithing classes found on Craigslist, piano lessons that may or may not summon Elton John, and a garage that somehow contains both hot steel and denture molds. But underneath all of it is something I think a lot of people will recognize. Topics Covered: How seven years of caregiving led Lori to the idea of bucket list minis.Why minis are opportunities you snatch up, not goals you write down and wait on.Ross Gay's Book of Delights and how it shaped Lori's thinking about everyday joy.The piano lesson that may or may not have summoned Elton John.How Lori's brother with Down syndrome was already living the mini philosophy before she had a name for it.What it feels like to build a list of things you've already accomplished.Holding joy and grief at the same time, and why that's not overindulgent.Here are some actions you can take, whether you have 5 minutes or 50: If you have 5 minutes, check out the article that Lori wrote for dsm magazine:https://dsmmagazine.com/2026/01/13/think-small/If you have 50 minutes, brainstorm a short list of 5 minis you could snatch up in your own life. Remember, don’t overthink it and don’t try to make it something grand or overly time-consuming. The point of the whole exercise is to simply let yourself try something new. Just go do it!Connect with Lori! Lori Blachford is a journalist whose words have carried her from news reporting to magazine editing, from grant writing to ghost writing, from marketing to community building, from corporate to academic to nonprofit work. In other words, she can write her way out of (and, more often, into) anything. She is the former Chair of Magazine Journalism at Drake University and a current second-grade reading mentor at Howe Elementary School in Des Moines, Iowa.  Email: loriblachford@gmail.com ______________________ Contact French Kissing Life Podcast DM us at @shawnnarstiver on Instagram or FacebookConnect with Shawnna Stiver on LinkedInEmail us at frenchkissinglifepodcast@gmail.com  Until next time, muah!  ______________________ French Kissing Life is sponsored by Ampersand Copy and Content. Ready to convert browsers into buyers? If you want to master your messaging, stand out in a saturated market and become a crushed-on, go-to brand, contact us today! Website: https://ampersandcopyandcontent.com/ Email: shawnna@ampersandcopyandcontent.com

    57 min
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5
out of 5
51 Ratings

About

If you were free to be who you really are deep down and who you were always meant to be, what would your life look like? What does it mean to have a zest for life? Can you *really* invite more joy into your everyday living through doable steps that don’t take a lot of time? Yes, yes, and more yes!  French Kissing Life is an inspirational podcast that guides you toward finding your spark and unleashing it into the world. If you’ve been yearning to celebrate your unique presence and fall in love with who you truly are, then you’ve found your tribe. If you believe the world needs what only you can offer, this community will be your biggest cheerleader. Picture this podcast as your weekly dose of encouragement – a sanctuary where you can escape the noise of the world and embrace the beauty of your own existence.From skinny dipping in Portugal to auctioning herself off for a date and testing whether a slinky will go down an ancient pyramid, host Shawnna Stiver knows a thing or two about going for it and the hilarious stories that await. Through heartfelt, playful and funny conversations, Shawnna helps you discover what makes your heart race, your soul dance and your spirit soar. You’ll also hear from guest experts who share insights on how to navigate the journey of self-discovery and invite the world to come alive alongside you.  In a world that demands you be anything but yourself, this is your permission slip to be a little more YOU. Together, we’ll make every moment count and create a life that feels as good on the inside as it looks on the outside. If you’re ready to shed the shoulds and welcome in a life that feels uniquely, beautifully, and authentically yours, subscribe now and let’s make every episode a celebration of YOU! Buckle up for an adventure where realness reigns, inspiration thrives and fun is the name of the game. Are you ready to french kiss life?!

Information

  • Creator
    Shawnna Stiver
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    124
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 French Kissing Life
  • Show Website
    French Kissing Life

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