Bravely Connected Podcast

What do you do when nobody shows up?
I was 10 years old when nobody came to my birthday party.
That kind of disappointment stays with you.
And sometimes, as adults, we stop inviting, stop trying, and stop dreaming because we're afraid of feeling that rejection again.
But here's the tension I've been wrestling with:
No one owes me anything. But that doesn't mean I don't need people.
What happens when your friends don't support your dream? When you host something and nobody comes? When you're always showing up for others, but wonder who's showing up for you?
In this week's Bravely Connected Podcast, we're talking about disappointment, expectations, belonging, and the courage to keep putting ourselves out there.

What’s the opposite of people-pleasing?
For a lot of us, it becomes: “I don’t care what anyone thinks anymore.”
But is that actually freedom?
People-pleasing says: I’ll abandon myself to stay connected to you.
“I don’t care” can become: I’ll abandon connection to protect myself.
What if there’s another way?
In this episode, I’m talking about the messy middle—how to speak your truth without using truth as a weapon, set boundaries without building walls, know when to be firm and when to extend grace, and repair a relationship when you realize you crossed a line.

For years, we’ve told kids: Don’t bully. Be kind. Include others.
All important.
But what if bullying starts long before someone says something cruel?
What if it starts when we begin believing that in order for me to be strong, someone else has to be weak? That for me to belong, someone else has to be excluded? That making you smaller somehow makes me bigger?
In this episode of Bravely Connected, I’m exploring what might be underneath bullying—and why shame alone won’t transform it.

Have you ever walked into a conversation feeling completely fine… and walked away anxious, frustrated, heavy, or emotionally exhausted?
You may be carrying something that was never yours to carry.
When we care deeply about people, it can be difficult to know where empathy ends and emotional absorption begins. We feel their stress. We take on their frustration. We carry their stories home with us.
But caring about someone doesn’t mean you have to carry what they’re carrying.
In this episode of Bravely Connected, I share a resilience practice I recently taught to frontline nonprofit staff.

This episode feels different.
For almost 30 years, I’ve worked in mental health, resilience, schools and communities. And somehow, all those years have been leading me here.
So in this episode, I’m sharing something pretty personal:
My dream for this year.
It’s a little audacious. It starts with just 10 people in my neighbourhood. And if it works, I think it could change the way we think about mental health, belonging, work and what communities are actually capable of.
I stumbled over my words a few times recording this one because, truthfully, I care about it that much.
This is the work I want to give the next season of my life to.
So grab a coffee, go for a walk, and come dream with me for a little while.