Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Heroine

There are a lot of things wrong with the way we live our lives. While the average American spends 90 percent of their day indoors, we continue to feel completely disconnected from our food sources, and are lonelier than ever, especially in light of this pandemic.

My guest Becca Piastrelli, author of a new book Root & Ritual, believes we can offset some of this modern angst by “rewilding” and reclaiming the natural part of ourselves. Becca is a friend, writer, speaker, ancestral folk medicine keeper, and women’s group facilitator. I’m thrilled to share her journey and work with you!

In this episode, Becca describes how she grew up with an ache of unbelonging, and an inner knowledge that there had to be more to life than what she was taught by her family and the patriarchal, convenience-driven society within which she was raised. Acknowledging that change is very difficult, she shares her thoughts on connecting with our ancestry, navigating the pandemic, and handling grief.

Her book Root & Ritual which I highly recommend offers practical wisdom, processes, and recipes for reconnecting with land, lineage, and community.

Tune in today to learn more about her work that embracing old ways can make our modern lives feel significantly better.

• Becca shares the anxiety she experienced growing up, and why she developed impostor syndrome at a young age.
• The four parts which make up Becca’s book, Root and Ritual.
• How Becca’s relationship with nature has evolved over time.
• Different meanings that rewilding can hold.
• Obstacles to rewilding that exist in our society.
• The value that Becca believes lies in embracing ancestral ways of living.
• Everyday experiences which highlight how disconnected we are from nature.
• What Becca’s life currently looks like, and how she plans to change it.
• The importance of human connection, which we are losing.
• Becca shares her thoughts on navigating different opinions about the COVID-19 vaccine.
• Our “great severing” from our ancestors.
• A process Becca went through to rebuild lost ties to her ancestry.
• Personal challenges that Becca has gone through, and her method of dealing with them.
• Becca’s relationship with shame.
• The long journey that is rewilding.
• What Becca is currently reclaiming.

References

Becca Piastrelli - https://beccapiastrelli.com/
Root and Ritual - https://beccapiastrelli.com/book/
Break the Good Girl Myth - https://majomolfino.com/book
HEROINE (Podcast) - https://majomolfino.com/podcast

Writing a debut novel that becomes a New York Times bestseller is an impressive feat. Doing it over 10 years while raising children and working a full-time job is simply awe-inspiring.

Angeline Boulley is the author of Firekeeper's Daughter, a layered Native American thriller. She is an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians and writes about her Ojibwe community.

In today's episode, we learn more about Daunis Fountaine, the book's main character, and her distinctive character traits. While there are similarities between Angeline and Daunis, the teen character blossomed into something unique and fierce. We hear some moving excerpts from the book, and Angeline talks about the gravity of the regalia and elder scenes in the work.

Our conversation also touches on the complexity of strong women, why the book is not a trauma story, and we also find out more about what Angeline's fascinating writing process was like.

This moving dialogue around the power of women creators and the role they play in shaping their cultural stories will lift your spirits and potentially change your life.


• Hear about what Angeline was like as a little girl.
• Where Angeline grew up and insights into her cultural background.
• Hear about what Firekeeper's Daughter's main character, Daunis Fountaine, is like.
• How similar and different Daunis is from Angeline.
• What Daunis's greatest virtue and greatest flaw are.
• The tension that Daunis feels struggling with different aspects of her identity.
• Why it was so important for Angeline to convey the significance of Daunis's regalia.
• The role that elders play in the book and how Angeline views elders in all of our lives.
• Why it was so important for Angeline to include the complex Aunty character in her book.
• We do strong women an injustice when we place them on pedestals.
• How the word "resilient” is often misused to justify suffering.
• The balance Angeline had to find between telling the truth and overloading Daunis with tragedy.
• How Angeline found time to write the book while raising children and having a job.
• What Angeline has learned about being kinder to herself from having children.
• The impact that having teenagers had on Angeline's ability to write a teen character.
• Why Angeline decided to make her first book the epic work it is.
• How Angeline learned the craft of fiction, given that she did not study creative writing.
• The support that Angeline had during her writing journey.
• Angeline's tips for aspiring writers: find what works for you.
• What Angeline, as a heroine, feels she is reclaiming for herself.

References

Angeline Boulley - https://angelineboulley.com/
Angeline Boulley on Twitter - https://twitter.com/FineAngeline?ref_src=twsrc%255Egoogle%257Ctwcamp%255Eserp%257Ctwgr%255Eauthor
Firekeeper's Daughter - https://www.amazon.com/Firekeepers-Daughter-Angeline-Boulley/dp/1250766567
We Need Diverse Books - https://diversebooks.org/
Break the Good Girl Myth - https://majomolfino.com/book
Majo Molfino - https://majomolfino.com/
HEROINE (Podcast) - https://majomolfino.com/podcast

How do you relate to the country of your birth, if it’s a place you’ve never visited? And when does nostalgia go from being something beautiful to an illness that keeps you from living in the present moment?

Our guest today, Safia Elhillo is a Sudanese American poet whose strikingly beautiful debut novel Home Is Not a Country is deeply informed by these questions of belonging, nostalgia, and identity.

Her book is written entirely in poetic verse and follows the story of Nima, a 15-year-old girl who longs to escape the racism and bullying she experiences daily in America and become someone else.

Safia shares how she was first drawn to poetry because of the sense of community she saw amongst poets at open mic night and how she steadily honed her craft. We discuss the challenges immigrant parents face in imparting their culture to their children and how nostalgia can deprive you of appreciating the richness of your present circumstances.

Join us today for an insightful and meaningful conversation on what it means to straddle two worlds and the power of community.

• Introducing today’s guest Safia Elhillo
• Safia shares what she was like as a child and how she discovered her talent for poetry.
• Safia’s experiences moving around a lot as a child and insights into her cultural background.
• How Safia was first drawn to the sense of community among the poets she saw.
• Hear about Home Is Not a Country’s main character Nima and how Safia created her.
• How nostalgia and its effects inform the topic of Safia’s book.
• How Nima is driven by a desire to return to the country her parents came from.
• Nima’s experiences of racism, rejection, and loneliness in the US.
• The extent to which Home Is Not a Country is autobiographical.
• How Home Is Not a Country explores the confusion of growing up in America while straddling two cultures.
• Safia shares her experiences of belonging and how her perspective has changed.
• The significance of a chosen community.
• Safia explains the concept of nostalgia as an illness.
• The challenges that immigrant parents face in raising their children to care about a culture they are not immersed in.
• The use of magical realism and Islamic mythology in Home Is Not a Country.
• The logistical challenges Safia faced in using time travel in her novel.
• How Safia chose to write the entire novel in poetic verse.
• Why it’s important to allow yourself to write a bad first draft.
• The value of community and outside input for revising your work.

References

Safia Elhillo on Twitter - https://twitter.com/mafiasafia
Safia Elhillo on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/safiamafia/
Home Is Not a Country - https://www.amazon.com/Home-Not-Country-Safia-Elhillo/dp/0593177053
Break the Good Girl Myth - https://majomolfino.com/book
Majo Molfino - https://majomolfino.com/
HEROINE (Podcast) - https://majomolfino.com/podcast

Continuing with our series on women in the literary arts, today’s guest is Mary H.K. Choi, a Korean-American New York Times best-selling author.

Mary has written three young adult novels and has been published in The Atlantic, New York Times, and GQ.

Her latest book, Yolk, is the story of two estranged sisters who slowly heal their relationship after one of them is diagnosed with cancer.

In our wide-ranging conversation today, we talk about Mary’s journey to becoming a writer and some of the beliefs she had to let go of to get to where she is.

We then dive into Yolk, where Mary talks about the similarities between her and one of the main characters, Jane. Mary unpacks why it was important for her to write about an eating disorder and having a fraught relationship with your body.

Not only does this reflect Mary’s personal experience, but it also comments on the broader pressures within east Asian communities regarding physical appearance. We also touch on intergenerational trauma and why Mary thinks it’s an inevitable outcome of the immigrant experience, race, and the power of sibling hood as an immigrant.

To hear all this and more, tune in today!

• Hear what Mary was like as a little girl and her naturally inquisitive, scrappy nature.
• When Mary realized that she wanted to be a writer and the pain that came with this realization.
• The difficulty Mary faced trying to break into mainstream media.
• For many years, Mary waited for permission, or for a break based on her merit.
• A synopsis of Mary’s latest book, Yolk, and the similarities between her and the main character, Jane.
• The struggles Mary has had with eating disorders throughout her life.
• Why it was so important for Mary to talk about bulimia in her book.
• How Jane’s low self-worth and insecurity reflect what happens to many women of color.
• The different yolk signifiers and why Mary chose this as the name of the book.
• Why Mary chose to explore sisterhood in Yolk, despite not having sisters herself.
• Mary’s fraught relationship with America and how she thinks about her identity.
• Having a brother gave Mary someone to talk to about their unique immigrant experience.
• Representations of East Asian men in the media and how this differs from representations of East Asian women.
• How Mary chose to bring up the issue of race in a non-prescriptive way.
• What Mary has learned from her characters about what it means to break free.

References

Mary H.K. Choi - http://www.choitotheworld.com/
Mary H.K. Choi on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/choitotheworld/?hl=en
Mary H.K. Choi on Twitter - https://twitter.com/choitotheworld?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
Yolk - https://www.amazon.com/Yolk-Mary-H-K-Choi/dp/1534446001
Emergency Contact - https://www.amazon.com/Emergency-Contact-Mary-H-Choi/dp/1534408967
Permanent Record - https://www.amazon.com/Permanent-Record-Mary-H-Choi/dp/1534445978
‎Hey, Cool Life! - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hey-cool-life/id1448378735
‎Hey, Cool Job! - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hey-cool-job/id984365487
Break the Good Girl Myth - https://majomolfino.com/book
Majo Molfino - https://majomolfino.com/
HEROINE (Podcast) - https://majomolfino.com/podcast

The conversation around identity has evolved greatly in recent years, and this progress has been so important for many people.

However there is still a long way to go to a more inclusive and accepting world, and we are joined today by someone who is adding a beautiful and complex voice to the discussion!

Meredith Talusan is a transgendered woman, born with albinism in the Philippines, and who later immigrated to the US.

Her relationship to acceptance and belonging has always been a complex one, a relationship she explores in her book, Fairest, and in today's episode!

We get to dive deep into her journey, talking about external perceptions and inner realities, her writing for many prominent publications, and her current role as contributing editor at Them, Conde Nast's LGBTQ online platform.

We look closely at her move to the US and time at Harvard, and how this influenced her life's trajectory and her professional and personal decisions.

Meredith also talks about the art and literature that played a huge role for her, and how she tries to avoid too many comparisons and stark binaries.

This is a beautiful and nuanced conversation from someone with an amazing story and the ability to unpack it honestly and insightfully, so make sure to join us!

• Meredith's curious early years, growing up in the cultural melting pot of the Philippines.
• How being born with albinism impacted Meredith's feeling of never fully belonging.
• Meredith's work on a sitcom and soap opera, and the dynamic this created with her mother.
• Feelings around being treated a certain way due to appearance; Meredith's mixed emotions.
• Meredith's experiences and reflections on leaving the Philippines as a teenager.
• The constant process of learning and growing; navigating life with fewer examples to follow.
• Literature and stories that impacted Meredith and how these aided her on her journey.
• The evolution of the academic approach to 'minority literature' over the last few decades.
• How Meredith came to terms with and appreciated her particular experiences.
• The influence that Meredith's life story had on her success and publication as a writer.
• Uncertainty and complexity within the transgender experience; adding nuance to the discourse.
• Meredith's gender identity and her hope for a different world.
• Considering the possibility of a space beyond identity and Meredith's perspectives on spirituality.

References

Ignite Leadership Program - https://majo-molfino.mykajabi.com/ignite
Meredith Talusan - http://mtalusan.com/
Fairest - https://www.amazon.com/Fairest-Memoir-Meredith-Talusan/dp/0525561307
Meredith Talusan on Twitter - https://twitter.com/1demerith
Them - https://www.them.us/
Jane Austen - https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jane-Austen
George Eliot - https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-Eliot
Virginia Woolf - https://www.britannica.com/biography/Virginia-Woolf
James Baldwin - https://www.britannica.com/biography/James-Baldwin
Langston Hughes - https://poets.org/poet/langston-hughes
Jennifer Finney Boylan - https://www.nytimes.com/column/jennifer-finney-boylan
Sophia Amoruso - https://www.girlboss.com/
Break the Good Girl Myth - https://majomolfino.com/book

The heroine’s journey has historically been ignored, cast aside, and devalued, which has lead most of us to idolize and play out the hero’s journey in our own lives.

On today’s episode, Gail Carriger, author of The Heroine’s Journey: For Writers, Readers, and Fans of Pop Fiction, breaks down why and how we can begin to reclaim the heroine’s journey for ourselves.

You’ll hear about the biggest differences in motivation between the hero’s journey and heroine’s journey, as well as the best and worst parts of being a writer and how her writing genre facilitates a greater feeling of connection with readers. We explore the impact of culture on storytelling and narrative, how the hero narrative can feed into the development of toxic masculinity, and the history of how romance writing is critiqued and defined.

If you’re a heroine on the journey who wants to have more self-trust and confidence, this episode is for you.

• What Gail was like as a child: a bossy, self-motivated old soul who knew her own mind.
• How Gail realized she was a storyteller; rewriting the end of stories her mom read to her.
• The kind of stories Gail tells about heroine’s stories, connection, and happy endings.
• Her primary motivation as a writer: found family and how that has played out in her life.
• What she considers the best part of being a writer: providing comfort and connection.
• Why the hardest part of being a writer is the illusion of extreme intimacy and being known.
• How the genre of fiction Gail writes leads the audience to feel connected to her.
• Why it is important for young people to have adult perspectives outside of their parents.
• The distinction between the motivations of the hero’s journey and heroine’s journey.
• The Wonder Woman journey as an example of the hero’s journey.
• The heroine’s motivation to reconnect and her position of strength in asking for help.
• Why a hero operates in isolation, but a heroine is most powerful in community.
• The impact of culture on storytelling and narrative and their core mythos.
• How the hero narrative can feed into the development of toxic masculinity.
• What Break of the Good Girl Myth is about.
• The history of romance writing and how it is defined and critiqued.
• The harmful trope of “Pussy Salvation” in romance writing.
•The prevailing American myth is that you have to do everything by yourself.
•TJ Klune’s book on connection and found family, The House in the Cerulean Sea.
•Gail’s realization that she is a communal writer and writes best around people.
•How Gail’s confidence in herself and trust in her audience has grown over time.
•How authors are driven to write non-fiction when they have identified a problem.
•Break of the Good Girl Myth by Majo Molfino and where to get it.

References

Gail Carriger - https://gailcarriger.com/
Gail Carriger on Twitter - https://twitter.com/gailcarriger
The Heroine’s Journey - https://www.amazon.com/Heroines-Journey-Writers-Readers-Culture-ebook/dp/B08D5ZSNRB/
The House in the Cerulean Sea - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45047384-the-house-in-the-cerulean-sea
Break the Good Girl Myth - https://majomolfino.com/book
HEROINE (Podcast) - https://majomolfino.com/podcast

Alongside raising three children, working as an editor, and practicing as a spiritual psychologist, Anita Kopacz spent seven years creating the magnificent work of art that is Shallow Waters, her debut novel.

Part historical fiction and part parable, Shallow Waters deals with deep ancestral trauma through ritual storytelling.

The heroine of the book is a Black mermaid, Yemaya, and you’ll hear Anita’s reasoning for centering her story around this mythical deity, and what she thinks is the most valuable lesson that readers can learn from her.

In today’s episode, we cover how Anita heals her own generational wounds by writing this story, a gift which she hopes it will also give to others.

• Anita shares the quirks that make her describe her younger self as strange.
• Where Anita’s family is from.
• A description of the deity, Yemaya, that is the protagonist of Anita’s book, Shallow Waters, and
what the story is about.
• The connection that Anita feels to Yemaya.
• How the process of writing Shallow Waters was healing for Anita.
• Unexpected feedback that Anita has received from readers of her book.
• Why Anita chose to write a work of fiction.
• A novel that Anita read in high school which had a profound impact on her.
• How the Yemaya in Anita’s book differs from the mythical deity that she is based on.
• Reasons that Anita decided not to include any sexual trauma in the book.
• The target audience that the book was originally intended for, and why that changed.
• An important lesson that readers can learn from Yemaya.
• Anita’s love for ritual storytelling and her plans for the future in this realm.
• Advice from Anita on transitioning from non-fiction to fiction writing.
• Fears that Anita has managed to overcome.
• The process Anita went through to get Shallow Waters out into the world.
• A valuable lesson Anita learned about how to deal with writer’s block.
• Anita’s request to buy the book from independent outlets.

References

Anita Kopacz on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/anitakopacz/?hl=en
Shallow Waters - https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/56180285-shallow-waters
HEROINE (Podcast) - https://majomolfino.com/podcast

Hi heroine,

We are starting the new HEROINE season on Thursday, August 12th.

Today I’m releasing the teaser and announcing the line-up of a badass guests.

We are going to be focusing on the heroines at the center of these women’s books. As you can see, it’s going to get very literary and very nerdy!

The questions we get to explore: Can we learn from these heroines? Are they mirrors for ourselves? How can we apply the learnings from these characters into our own lives?

See the full-line up below, along with the books (and the heroines) we will be talking about.

Anita Kopacz, author of adult “fairytale”/historical fiction novel Shallow Waters

Gail Carriger, author of The Heroine’s Journey: For Writers, Readers, and Fans of Pop Culture

Mary H.K. Choi, author of novel Yolk

Meredith Talusan, author of memoir Fairest

Safia Elhillo, author of novel-in-verse Home is Not a Country

Angeline Boulley, author of the YA thriller Firekeeper’s Daughter

I don’t say this lightly, when I say I have one of the most interesting and creative HEROINE seasons in store for you.

These are deep, authentic, meaningful conversations here to help you make connections in your brain about your own creative work and the heroine’s journey.

Get ready to be inspired.

Interviews will begin airing on August 12th and will run until mid-September. It’ll be a short and sweet season of about 6-8 episodes so please devour them all, re-listen to them, and share them widely as they are all gifts for creative women everywhere.

Can’t wait to share these amazing interviews with you,

Talk soon!

In her new book, Comparisonitis, Melissa Ambrosini talks to Majo about the very common
disease of comparisonitis and offers actionable tips and strategies to heal yourself from it.

• What Melissa was like as a little girl; she was outgoing, bubbly, and confident.
• Melissa’s experience of being 12, losing her self-assurance, and comparing herself to other girls.
• Why Melissa loved competitive dancing and the freedom it gave her.
• How being involved in dance fed into Melissa’s self-doubt and “inner mean girl.”
• The story of how Melissa emerged from her substance abuse and an eating disorder.
• The catalytic moment in Melissa’s life that caused her to re-evaluate everything.
• Where comparison stems from, according to Melissa.
• Distinguishing between healthy comparison and toxic comparison.
• Why it is so important that we heal our relationship with comparison now.
• The difference between the way men and women compare themselves.
• How our childhoods and caregivers shape the way we view ourselves.
• Melissa’s ACES technique that you can use if you are in a comparison spiral.
• Dealing with the powerful emotion of envy and how we can transform it into inspiration.
• Melissa’s relationship with social media and how time blocking helps her.
• You have to find what works for you when it comes to developing a healthy relationship with social media.
• The amount of time the average person will spend on their phone and social media.
• Strategies Melissa shares in her book to help you rethink your relationship with social media and your phone.
• The value of having physical boundaries around where to use your phone.
• You have to remember that social media is just showing the best aspects of everyone’s life. • Why Melissa is reclaiming presence for herself.

References

Melissa Ambrosini - https://melissaambrosini.com/
Melissa Ambrosini - https://www.instagram.com/melissaambrosini/?hl=en
Melissa Ambrosini on YouTube -https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoUydVMx0tYz4NU5bx8ifXQ
Melissa Ambrosini on Twitter - https://twitter.com/mel_ambrosini?lang=en
The Melissa Ambrosini Show - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-melissa-ambrosini-show/id1196106699
Comparisonitis - https://www.amazon.com/Comparisonitis-Comparing-Yourself-Others-Genuinely/dp/1950665860
Ignite - https://majo-molfino.mykajabi.com/ignite
Tony Robbins - https://www.tonyrobbins.com/
The Social Dilemma - https://www.netflix.com/title/81254224
Tristan Harris - https://www.tristanharris.com/
Gretchen Rubin - https://gretchenrubin.com/
Break the Good Girl Myth - https://majomolfino.com/book
Majo Molfino - https://majomolfino.com/
HEROINE (Podcast) - https://majomolfino.com/podcast

If you have ever disappointed a loved one by following your truth, you will know just how painful it is. And although it hurts, not living in alignment with your life’s purpose will ultimately cause you much more pain. Sahara Rose has been there, let down her parents, and now wants to help you overcome the fear of judgment and criticism in her new book, Discover Your Dharma. In this episode, Sahara opens up about her background and the expectations placed on her as the child of Iranian immigrants. We hear about the fight she had with them and why this resulted in her finally feeling free. Then, we get into what the meaning of dharma is and how we can think of it as the mission statement of our lives. It might seem like getting closer to your dharma is a journey of seeking, but, in fact, it is about remembering who you were always born to be. Sahara also walks us through the three ways we can discover our dharma along with the nine dharma archetypes. Although we will have three to five dominant dharmas, we need them all, which is why it is necessary to see how they can work together and enhance one another. The conversation wraps up with talking about embodiment, and the work Sahara is doing to get a place of less exertion for greater reward. If you feel stuck in any way or disconnected from a purpose you know is within you, this conversation is sure to spark some questions to get you on a journey of discovery and remembrance.

- Hear more about what Sahara was like as a little girl and her innate drive to help people.
- Sahara’s ethnic and cultural background; her Iranian and Indian roots.
- The fight that Sahara had with her parents when she was following her dharma.
- How not having her parents’ approval finally set Sahara free.
- What dharma means; the overall mission statement of your life and the essence of your soul.
- The core dharma we all share to raise consciousness, so we don’t have to compete with one another.
- Why finding your dharma is more about remembrance than seeking.
- Sahara’s journey of unfolding and getting closer to her dharma.
- The link between dharma and career; how they can become more closely aligned.
- The three pathways to get to your dharma Sahara outlines in her book.
- A question to ask yourself about the dharma finding pathway that’s best for you.
- Hear about the nine dharma archetypes and the ones Majo got when she took the quiz.
- Our archetypes, particularly the artist, can get suppressed because of societal expectations.
- You need all nine archetypes but you will resonate with them in different strengths.
- The archetypes which are naturally more embodied
- How discovering ecstatic dance led Sahara to deeper embodiment and closer to her dharma.
- The ongoing process Sahara is going through to reclaim the way she works.

References

Sahara Rose - iamsahararose.com
Sahara Rose on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/iamsahararose/?hl=en
Sahara Rose on Twitter - https://twitter.com/IAmSaharaRose
Highest Self Podcast Sahara Rose - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/highest-self-podcast/id1244644906
Discover Your Dharma - https://iamsahararose.com/dharma
Dharma Archetype Quiz - https://www.dharmaarchetypequiz.com/
Highest Self Podcast: 310: Breaking the Good Girl Myth - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/310-breaking-the-good-girl-myth-with-majo-molfino/id1244644906?i=1000488839779
Ayurveda - https://www.ayurveda.com/resources/articles/ayurveda-a-brief-introduction-and-guide
Ayurveda (Idiot's Guides) - https://www.amazon.com/Ayurveda-Idiots-Guides-Sahara-Ketabi/dp/1465462767
Ecstatic Dance - https://switchonnow.com/magazine/benefits-ecstatic-dance-5-rhythms-biodanza-ways-finding-bliss-movement-meditation/
Break the Good Girl Myth - https://majomolfino.com/book
Majo Molfino - https://majomolfino.com/
HEROINE (Podcast) - https://majomolfino.com/podcast

Majo joins Scout & Mady from the OkaySis Podcast to talk about how to break out of the good girl myths and design our purpose. 

Order the book at goodgirlmyth.com

Christine Gutierrez is a Latina licensed psychotherapist, life coach, and expert in love addiction, trauma, abuse, and self-esteem, and author of the book I Am Diosa: A Journey to Healing Deep, Loving Yourself, and Coming Back Home to Soul.

She has a bachelor’s degree from Fordham University in human behavior and development, and a master’s degree from City College of New York in mental health counseling with a focus on prevention and community.

In this episode, Christine covers a lot of ground, including what the soul is, what the return to soul looks like, what the common soul traps are – including being a good girl, how to get back in touch with your intuition, and why it is vital for us Diosas to rise up now. If you are still stuck wondering what is next in your life, this episode is not to be missed.

Show Notes

- Christine describes being a sensitive young girl who had a heart for the suffering of others.
- Hear about the dream analyses Christine’s mother and grandmother did with her as a girl.
- Learn what Christine means when she talks about our souls and connecting to the soul voice.
- Experiencing the sense that there is more to life than just what we see at the surface level.
- The loneliness that comes from being unusually aware of the spiritual dimension as a child.
- Christine talks about the childhood abuse and trauma that caused her ‘original wound’.
- When the first major shift happened and what she discovered about repetition compulsion.
- The importance of having compassion with yourself as you unpack the layers of trauma.
- Find out how you can avoid the ‘counterfeit gold’ soul traps on your journey to healing.
- How these counterfeits can function to sharpen our instincts and develop trust in ourselves.
- The problem of compromising your voice and truth for the sake of acceptance and belonging.
- Advice about beginning to come into alignment with yourself and what your gut is telling you.
- How to deal with your tendency to want to avoid getting still and confronting your feelings.
- The possibility of inhabiting both the mundane world and the realm of the soul as a creative.
- Why it is high time for the rise of leaders who are grounded in spirituality and the real world

References

Christine Gutierrez - https://www.christineg.tv/
Christine Gutierrez on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/cosmicchristine/
Christine Gutierrez on Twitter - https://twitter.com/CosmicChristine
I am Diosa - https://www.christineg.tv/eventsandretreats
Dr. Clarissa Pinkolo Estés - http://www.clarissapinkolaestes.com/
Women Who Run with the Wolves - http://www.clarissapinkolaestes.com/women_who_run_with_the_wolves__myths_and_stories_of_the_wild_woman_archetype_101250.htm
Break the Good Girl Myth - https://majomolfino.com/book
Majo Molfino - https://majomolfino.com/
HEROINE (Podcast) - https://majomolfino.com/podcast

This week I’m thrilled to speak with a woman whose work I’ve followed for years.

Martha Beck, PhD, is a New York Times bestselling author, life coach, speaker, and holds three degrees from Harvard University. Oprah calls her “one of the smartest women I know.” Martha walked away from the religious Mormon community she was raised in, exposed her father, and wrote about the dark secrets and hypocrisy of the Mormon church in her book Leaving the Saints. She received backlash from the church, but in the process, found her true, whole self.

In this episode, Martha and I discuss why the intellect is important, but a deeper connection to nature and with our own souls is what the world truly needs. You’ll learn how breaking away from cultural rules brings us into alignment with our true selves, and we become whole, healthy, connected individuals full of integrity.

This is a beautiful conversation heroine, one of the top interviews in all my years of doing the show.

Show Notes

- Martha on being raised as Mormon royalty due to his father’s “scholarly” work.
- Discovering the hypocrisy surrounding certain religious people, including her father.
- The intense experience of leaving the church and, with that, her family, friends, and culture.
- How she got the courage to confront the deep religious conditioning she grew up in.
- The crossroads experience of her pregnancy with her Down’s syndrome boy, Adam.
- Hear why Martha felt like she needed to unlearn everything that she was taught at Harvard.
- Why caring for a fragile life is the most-needed skill in the world right now.
- The restrictive good girl archetype as a socially constructed self for many women.
- Distinguishing between the essential self that is natural and the social self that is cultural.
- The split that happens when people believe things that are contrary to their essential self.
- Understanding that finding and claiming your true nature does not come without opposition.
- Withstanding backlash, the role of shame, and grieving the loss of cultural connection.
- Why, for Martha, life coaching is such a powerful, necessary tool for society.
- What the flip side of the Drama Triangle means for persecutors, victims, and rescuers.
- How wayfinding can help us discover our deeper purpose and navigate through the chaos.
- Find out how existing in alignment with your true nature brings you closer to the supernatural.
- The magic of the written word when we write from a powerful connection to truth.

References

Martha Beck - https://marthabeck.com/
Martha Beck on Twitter - https://twitter.com/marthabeck/
Diana, Herself: An Allegory of Awakening - https://www.amazon.com/Diana-Herself-Awakening-Bewilderment-Chronicles/dp/1944264000
Leaving the Saints: How I Lost the Mormons and Found My Faith USA Today - https://www.amazon.com/Leaving-Saints-Mormons-Found-Faith/dp/0307335992
NPR - https://www.npr.org/
Oprah - http://www.oprah.com/index.html
Esther Perel - https://www.estherperel.com/
David Emerald - https://powerofted.com/about-david/
Stanford University - https://www.stanford.edu/
Harvard University - https://www.harvard.edu/
J.K. Rowling - https://www.jkrowling.com/

Do you wrestle with the power your thoughts have over your beliefs about yourself and your life? This episode is for you, heroine.

Bestselling author and founder of The Work, my guest Byron Katie shares her experience waking up in a state of joy after a decade-long spiral into depression, rage, and self-loathing. This state of joy hasn’t left her since, and Byron has shared this transformational practice with others for over 30 years. The Work is a simple, yet powerful process of inquiry that teaches us to identify and question the thoughts that cause us suffering.

In this episode, Byron and I discuss her battle with depression, and the moment of her awakening (which she credits to a cockroach). She explains the principles of The Work, and the four key questions we need to ask in order to change our beliefs. This episode is filled with practical, simple steps to help you become more conscious of your thoughts and free yourself from suffering. If you feel stuck in your beliefs – about your identity, your work, or your relationships – by the end of this episode, you’ll see a way out by going inward.

Show Notes

- Byron’s childhood as a quiet, solitary young girl
- Her decade-long experience with depression in her thirties
- Byron re-lives the moment of awakening that pivoted her entire life trajectory
- How The Work was born
- Find out why Byron gives all the credit for her moment of awakening to a cockroach
- The types of thoughts that hold us back and the four questions we need to ask them
- The importance of uncovering the cause and the reaction to the thoughts we believe
- Why intelligence is questioning and freedom is choosing the thoughts we believe
- The difference between sitting in the “I know” mind as apposed the “curious” mind

References

Byron Katie - The Work - https://thework.com/
Byron Katie on Twitter - https://twitter.com/ByronKatie
Byron Katie on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/byron.katie/
Byron Katie on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/theworkofbyronkatie
A Mind at Home with Itself - https://www.amazon.com/Mind-Home-Itself-Asking-Questions/dp/0062651609
Loving What Is - Four Questions That Can Change Your Life - https://www.amazon.com/Loving-What-Four-Questions-Change/dp/1400045371/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=loving+what+is&qid=1598781393&sr=8-1
A Thousand Names for Joy - https://www.amazon.com/Thousand-Names-Joy-Living-Harmony/dp/0307339246

In the world of productivity hacking and self-help, Gretchen Rubin needs little introduction. She’s a nationally acclaimed author who writes popular books about habit change and happiness. In fact, her books have sold millions and have been on the New York Times best seller list numerous times.
Gretchen draws from cutting edge research, tried and true wisdom and her own life experience, but she also isn’t afraid to admit that she herself is not an expert. She’s not a scientist, but she writes about topics that have a scientific edge. She has become one of the country’s top thinkers on happiness and human nature.
We cover a lot of ground in this interview, and talk discuss her framework The Four Tendencies because of how much it impacted me. It’s about how people respond to expectations. In this episode, you’ll learn why self-knowledge is the key to a better life, and how knowing your tendency can revolutionize the way you work and live.
You’ll love this episode, heroine, it’s a great one.

My guest on this week’s episode, Shan Boodram, isn’t afraid to talk about sex. Shan’s a Canadian born, LA based dating coach, author and certified sex educator. Her first book was a bestseller and her new book, “The Game Of Desire: 5 Surprising Secrets to Dating with Dominance and Getting What You Want” is even more popular.

She’s the most sought-after sex educator online today, educating you about sex toys on Playboy’s Instagram, and also on the reality TV show Too Hot to Handle, where she teaches contestants a yoni puja – a sacred ritual which involves worshipping your own pussy. Go Shan.

With her down-to-earth style and openness, Shan discusses the importance of engaging with your own sexuality. She shares how focusing on this intimate part of yourself leads to more joy, purpose, and pleasure in all areas of your life.

Show Notes

- Shan’s fascination with the human body from a young age
- How our family’s perspectives inform how we learn about sex
- How Shan realized what she really wanted to do
- Laid, her first book, published in 2009, when she was 24 years old
- Shan’s philosophy on sex education
- Shan turns the tables on Majo, asking about her experiences
- The reality check Shan experienced after the release of her first book
- The opportunity that prompted her decision to move to the US
- Low lights and high lights from her experience in LA
- The wager she made with herself that changed her course
- Her journey of healing after ending her toxic relationship
- How engaging in sexuality can engage your whole self

References

Shan Boodram - https://www.shanboodram.com/
Shan Boodram on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/shanboody
Shan Boodram on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR1aFO8kPS2WgdOfvU0zpag
Shan Boodram on Quibi - https://quibi.com/shows/sexology-with-shan-593/
Laid: Young People's Experiences with Sex in an Easy-Access Culture - https://www.amazon.com/Laid-Peoples-Experiences-Easy-Access-Culture-ebook/dp/B0097CYXT6
The Game Of Desire: 5 Surprising Secrets to Dating with Dominance and Getting What You Want - https://thegameofdesire.com/
Institute of Advanced Study of Human Sexuality - http://www.iasscs.org/
Majo Molfino - https://majomolfino.com/
Break the Good Girl Myth - http://goodgirlmyth.com/

On this week’s episode, I talk with fellow recovering good girl, Monica Padman.

Monica, an actress and podcast producer, hustled her way into acting and co-leading one of the most downloaded podcasts today, Armchair Expert. She double majored in theatre and PR at the University of Georgia and then moved to LA to pursue her dreams of acting. She’s appeared in several TV shows, such as The Good Place, and Drop Dead Diva, and performed a role specifically written for her in the 2017 movie, CHIPS. Armchair Expert, the podcast she co-hosts with Dax Shepard, started off as something they did for fun, and has now exploded into one of the most downloaded podcasts. The duo have interviewed musicians, entertainers, writers, doctors, and psychologists including Alicia Keys, Brené Brown, Monica Lewinsky, Elizabeth Gilbert, and Emilia Clarke.

In this episode, Monica shares how she met Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell. She talks about the familial relationship she’s built with them, and how that relationship influenced her path. You’ll also hear about the parts of herself she kept hidden in order to fit in as a good girl, which are now the parts she’s reclaiming for herself. Monica’s story shows that you can do whatever it takes to create your dreams, while staying authentic.

Show Notes

- Monica’s childhood as a careful, shy, rule follower
- The early influences that fueled her love for acting
- Her experience with being a good girl and her need to fit in during school
- Monica’s relationship to her Indian culture growing up in the South
- How she dealt with the uncertainty of making the leap into a full-time acting career
- The importance of community and relationship
- Ensuring she built out other areas of her life so that acting wasn’t the only focus for her
- How she built a close, family type relationship with Kristin Bell and Dax Shepard
- The inspiration for the Armchair Expert podcast
- The role Monica plays with Armchair Expert, and how she feels about it

References

Monica Padman on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mlpadman
Armchair Expert podcast - https://armchairexpertpod.com/
Armchair Expert on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/armchairexppod/
The Best Little Boy in the World - https://www.amazon.com/Best-Little-Boy-World-Anniversary-ebook/dp/B0042JSNYU
Serial podcast - https://serialpodcast.org/
CHIPS - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0493405/fullcredits/?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm
Making Sense podcast - https://samharris.org/podcast/

Do you ever feel like you don’t fit in, that you’re somehow different from everyone else, or maybe even, that you don’t belong? This week I sit down with Krista Williams and Lindsey Simcik, the co-founders of Almost 30, the top-rated LA-based lifestyle podcast. After meeting in SoulCycle, the two became best friends and soon realized they shared a desire to explore the theme of belonging, both to yourself and others. Almost 30 was born out of these conversations, and while not their original intention, it’s now grown into a full-time business, brand, and community.

In our conversation, Krista and Lindsey discuss creating for the pure love of creating, and how money, validation, and recognition fall into line once you’re doing what you love. They share what they’ve discovered about themselves and their relationships as they turned their podcast into a business. Krista and Lindsey show us how to speak your truth with compassion and trust yourself as you pursue what you love.

Show Notes

- A glimpse into Krista’s wild and rebellious and Lindsey’s eccentric childhood days.
- Krista’s departure from her Catholic roots and why she sees the church as oppressive.
- Discovering spirituality and the love of the true source that she felt was “hidden” from her.
- Why Catholic school was confusing for Lindsey and how she is revisiting the idea of God.
- A word of wisdom about navigating your difference and individuality in the context of a group.
- The distinction between fitting in and belonging and how this sentiment is expressed in Almost 30.
- How the two women met and the mutual interests that ignited their podcasting journey.
- Hear about their creative collaboration, the growth of the business, and the intricacy of the co-founder relationship.
- The significant learning opportunities presented by our closest relationships with people.
- Female friendships and the importance of responding to others from a place of awareness.
- Asking yourself the hard question: do I truly want to create or am I looking for validation?
- How social media can hamper your creativity and perpetuate inauthenticity.
- From side hustle to booming business and learning that you can make money from doing what you love.
- The lessons Almost 30 is teaching them about their relationship with money and boundaries.
- How they are reclaiming their gut instinct and speaking their truth with love.

References

Krista Williams - http://itskrista.co/
Krista Williams on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/itskrista/
Krista Williams on Twitter - https://twitter.com/itskrista?lang=en
Lindsey Simcik on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/lindseysimcik/?hl=en
Lindsey Simcik on Twitter - https://twitter.com/lindsimss?lang=en
Almost 30 Podcast - https://almost30podcast.com/
Brené Brown - https://brenebrown.com/
SoulCycle - https://soul-cycle.com/
Break the Good Girl Myth - https://majomolfino.com/book
Majo Molfino - https://majomolfino.com/
HEROINE (Podcast) - https://majomolfino.com/podcast

What is your relationship to failure?

My guest this week, Sophia Amoruso, believes that, as long as you’re learning from your experiences, there’s no such thing as failure. The founder of Girlboss Media and author of #GIRLBOSS, Sophia watched her first business, online fashion retailer Nasty Gal, go bankrupt after a successful run. Rather than hide or quit when the challenges came, she chose instead to learn from the experience her first business gave her.

Sophia started her new venture, Girlboss Media, in 2017, with a fresh perspective on what success really means and a healthy relationship to failure. In this interview, you’ll hear how Sophia emerged from the challenges of losing her first business and the way these trials shaped who she is today. Even when the darkest days come and life puts obstacles in your path, there’s always something you can be grateful for.

Show Notes

- Growing up a troublemaker who had a distaste for authority and convention.
- Hear about Sophia’s high school years with ADHD and mental health struggles.
- A few compelling reasons why the traditional education system fails many people.
- Leaving home at 17 to live in the city in a purple “closet” with a bunch of musicians.
- How Sophia's teenage anti-establishment phase spilled over into her mischievous life in Portland.
- Find out why Sophia describes her time as a stripper as a positive experience.
- How privilege and special treatment made her feel entitled to indulge in delinquent behavior.
- The lessons in social engineering and acting that help Sophia to combat imposter syndrome.
- Learn about Sophia's journey to starting Nasty Gal and its exponential growth.
- 2016: the year her husband left her, her company went bankrupt, and Trump was elected.
- Breaking free from the binary concepts of success and failure.
- Seeing the good things in life amid the difficulty and embracing the mystery of our existence.
- The wonderful hindsight that comes with being a second-time entrepreneur.

References

Sophia Amoruso on Twitter - https://twitter.com/sophiaamoruso
Sophia Amoruso on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sophiaamoruso
Girlboss - https://www.girlboss.com
Girlboss on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/girlboss
#GIRLBOSS - https://www.amazon.com/GIRLBOSS-Sophia-Amoruso/dp/039916927X
Nasty Gal - https://www.nastygal.com
Isabel Allende - https://www.isabelallende.com
Majo Molfino - https://majomolfino.com
HEROINE (Podcast) - https://majomolfino.com/podcast

Majo shares the three year process of writing Break the Good Girl Myth (which is now available at http://goodgirlmyth.com, yay!). If you want to write a book, or birth any creative project into the world, this episode shares the resilience, commitment, and perseverance you need to stay the course. And heroine, it’s worth it to stay the course. Follow Majo on Instagram @majomolfino and sign up for my newsletter to hear about all the upcoming book launch events.

Show notes:
- How Majo refined my idea early on
- The difference between your “why” and your “how”
- How Majo sought to understand the book publishing landscape early on
- The importance of a book proposal
- The importance of surrounding yourself by people who are standing where you want to go
- How Majo got in touch with literary agents and landed on the one she wanted
- The way publishing works
- THE MOST IMPORTANT THING THAT SELLS BOOKS (the answer is not having a big platform)
- The heroine’s journey of the book writing process including the dark cocoon phase
- How Majo landed the book deal
- How Majo dealt with self-doubts
- The top 5 lessons and things about from the whole journey

Majo celebrates the official publication and release of her new book, Break the Good Girl Myth, available wherever books, ebooks, and audiobooks are sold. Join her as she freaks out. And order the book at http://goodgirlmyth.com –!

Majo gives a sneak peek into the Design Your Creative Purpose Training / book pre-order bonus (since today and tomorrow are the last day to get it) AND updates you on the fun activities you can plug into for the book in the next couple of weeks, including a book giveaway and an IG live with one of Majo's biggest heroines (you won’t believe it!). Yay!

Do you find yourself thinking that you want to have and do it all in life: a career, relationship, kids, fitness, money, home? Randi Zuckerberg, my guest this week, certainly does it all — she’s an entrepreneur, investor, bestselling author, tech media personality, and occasional Broadway performer. Behind that impressive resumé is a woman who understands that you can do it all — but not all in one day or even one season of life. She believes you can do everything you want to do, but over a long period of time.

After Harvard rejected her for the music program, Randi set aside her love of music to pursue a degree in psychology, followed by a career in technology, which ultimately led to her role as Director of Market Development at Facebook. Years after she thought she’d left music behind, Broadway came calling, and Randi lived her lifelong dream of performing.

In this interview, Randi shares the philosophy behind “Pick Three,” and how she’s incorporated this idea when choosing what to focus on in her life. We discuss how to adopt a beginner’s mindset when trying new things, and not giving up on your dreams, even if the path to get there seems hidden.

Show Notes

- Growing up with a girls-can-do-anything mentality and oblivious to the glass ceiling.
- Her early exposure to technology and how it impacts the work she does with girls today.
- Why Randi ended up studying psychology despite her passion for music and performance.
- The sobering shift from working in an ad agency with women in leadership to Silicon Valley.
- The observations in Silicon Valley that made Randi aware of the glass ceiling at age 22.
- Reaching out to female peers outside of the tech industry to create a network of support.
- Giving her brother free digital marketing advice before being recruited by Facebook.
- The dangers of online anonymity and why Randi feels so strongly about protecting kids.
- How Randi’s music dream circled back to her when she got a call from a Broadway producer.
- Bridging the worlds of arts, entertainment, and tech, and why it’s becoming increasingly important.
- The pros and cons of having such a large spectrum of focus areas under Zuckerberg Media.
- A willingness to learn and other strategies for becoming a fearless leader.
- A brilliant—yet realistic—perspective on achieving a work-life balance in the long run.

References

Randi Zuckerberg on Twitter - https://twitter.com/randizuckerberg
Randi Zuckerberg on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/randizuckerberg
Zuckerberg Media - https://www.zuckerbergmedia.com
Harvard University - https://www.harvard.edu
Tina Turner - https://www.biography.com/musician/tina-turner
Ogilvy - https://www.ogilvy.com
Pick Three - https://www.amazon.com/Pick-Three-Have-Just-Every/dp/006284282X
Break the Good Girl Myth - https://www.amazon.com/Break-Good-Girl-Myth-Purposeful-ebook/dp/B081NH1KJC
Majo Molfino - http://majomolfino.com
HEROINE (Podcast) - https://majomolfino.com/podcast

Majo joins Natalie Barbu from the Real Reel Podcast to talk about how to break out of the good girl myths and design our purpose.

Pre-order book before 7/28 at http://GOODGIRLMYTH.COM to receive a bonus training (~$300 value) to help you design your creative purpose.

In the training, you'll learn:⁠

➕ The one intention you must clarify to get clear about your creative purpose⁠

➕ How to more easily bring shape to your creative purpose by choosing one of the four creator paths⁠

➕ A powerful process for choosing a direction if you have a lot of interests and passions⁠ ⁠

➕ How to turn your creative dream plan into an actionable, creative dream plan

http://GOODGIRLMYTH.COM

When’s the last time you expressed vulnerability through your creativity? For Brit Morin, my guest on this week’s episode, it’s part of her every day life. Brit founded her lifestyle and online learning platform, Brit + Co, to help women connect with and express their creative spirit. With an engaged community of 125+ million women and over 200,000 online class enrollments, Brit + Co is the leading destination for learning and discovery among female millennials. She launched her business at the age of 25, and learned how to balance motherhood alongside her career as a creative entrepreneur.

In this episode, Brit discusses how to empower and equip your employees by letting go of control, and how she brings her authentic self into her brand. She shares the power of believing in yourself and your creativity, even in the face of criticism. Trying new, creative things feels vulnerable and scary, because we’re afraid to fail. Brit shows us that, while we may fail and everything won’t be perfect, we can learn how to be resilient and keep creating anyway.

Show Notes

- How Brit saw her inner creativity evolve through childhood and adolescence.
- Why she decided to leave her job at Google to launch Brit + Co at 25.
- What it was like for Brit meeting her husband at 19.
- Brit’s highs and lows with Brit + Co.
- What is was like to have to lay off members of her team after Facebook algorithm changes.
- Having a decentralized team means Brit + Co hasn’t taken a hit during quarantine.
- Letting go of control and finding balance as an entrepreneur.
- Brit’s ‘North Star’ when her motivation is low.
- How creativity can equate to courage.
- Ways that Brit pushed through some of her own insecurities.
- The Private/Public Divide and how Brit decides where the boundaries are.
- Dealing with criticism and juggling motherhood and career.
- How Brit has managed to lessen some of the demand that she puts on herself.
- What Brit is reclaiming for herself in her journey of personal growth.

References

Brit + Co - https://www.brit.co
Brit Morin on Twitter - https://twitter.com/brit
Brit Morin on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/brit
Brit + Co on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/BritandCo
Teach Me Something New with Brit Morin - https://www.brit.co/teach-me-something-new-podcast

My guests on this week’s episode are the definition of hustle. Coco and Breezy Dotson, twin designers & founders of Coco and Breezy Eyewear, are no strangers to hard work. Growing up in a mainly white Midwestern suburb, the twins relied on each other for companionship throughout their childhood. Coco and Breezy developed a unique fashion sense that set them apart from other kids, and experienced bullying and exclusion while in school. Rather than allow the bullying to keep them down, the twins used it to inspire their love for stylish eyewear. They sold their first pairs of glasses on Myspace, where they built an extensive following. By the time the twins turned 17, they held three jobs to support their family.

In this inspiring interview, Coco and Breezy share their early lessons in entrepreneurship. Through their own personal examples, we learn why failure is necessary, and how we even should embrace failure as an opportunity for growth.

Show Notes

- Coco and Breezy share stories from their creative, active, curious childhood and what it’s like to grow up with a twin
- How they had to assimilate to whiteness growing up in a mostly white Midwestern suburb
- Being bullied, left out, misunderstood, and without a community meant the twins had only each other to rely on during their school years
- The bullying they experienced in school inspired their love for eyewear
- The twins posted photos of their unique, stylish outfits on Myspace and created a community of followers online
- Working three jobs by the age of 17 to support their family
- Making their first eyewear sales through Myspace, and then traveling to New York wearing their creations
- The twins share difficult lessons they learned in their early years of entrepreneurship
- How they feel excited by the opportunity to solve a challenge because it pushes them out of their comfort zones
- After spending the last of their money on a defective order, they saw the chance to make changes in their lives and business
- Learning how to run a more efficient business as two individuals, rather than as one person
- Why failure is necessary and something we all experience, especially if we’re willing to get uncomfortable

References

Coco & Breezy - https://cocoandbreezy.com
Coco & Breezy on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/cocoandbreezy
Coco & Breezy Eyewear - https://www.instagram.com/cocoandbreezyeyewear
Break the Good Girl Myth - https://majomolfino.com/book

When you’re faced with a new opportunity in your career, do you evaluate that opportunity based on the potential for growth it provides? My guest this week has used this measure throughout her career, and as a result, she takes career opportunities where she learns, grows, and adds value.

Elise Loehnen Fissmer is the Chief Content Officer of goop, the lifestyle and e-commerce company established by Gwyneth Paltrow in 2008. Prior to joining goop, Elise worked for Condé Nast and Shopzilla, where she adopted a mindset that helped her design a career and life aligned to her purpose.

In this interview, Elise tells us of her career progression from recent Yale graduate freelancing at Lucky Magazine, to the opportunity at Shopzilla she pursued because of the tremendous learning potential that came with it. She discusses her early days at goop, when she found herself more hands-on with the team. Recognizing her own comfort with staying behind-the-scenes, Elise now challenges herself to grow by taking on external facing opportunities to contribute. In this episode, you’ll learn about the importance of prototyping ideas you want to try, and Elise shares the questions to ask when considering how new career opportunities align with your purpose.

Show Notes

- Get a glimpse of Elise’s childhood: horses, making jewelry, and attending hippy school.
- Comforting her inner child and speaking to her anxieties around money and security.
- Hear about Elise’s middle school years as a competitive athlete, mathlete, an artist.
- The period of desperation after graduating from Yale during a time of job market uncertainty.
- How landing a freelance job at Lucky Magazine became her doorway to the media industry.
- Find out what Elise did in the period between working for Lucky and getting hired by goop.
- Why you should work for the company that will teach you what you want to know.
- Learning early on that waiting to be scouted, discovered, and invited was unrealistic.
- How goop started as a newsletter in 2008 and the organic way that Gwyneth scaled it.
- Goop’s approach to business: prototyping, experimenting, playing, collaborating.
- Beginner’s resistance and imposter syndrome and why women excel at conquering them.
- How Elise’s role has transitioned from managing to being an individual contributor.
- Learn what the Netflix series the goop lab is all about and the edgy topics they cover.
- The cycle of backlash that ensues every time goop does something expansive.
- Thoughts about why people tend to defend the status quo and how it relates to authority.
- The creative dream of writing a book instead of only ever co-authoring.

References

Elise Loehnen - http://www.eliseloehnen.com
Elise Loehnen on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/elise-loehnen-b867523
Elise Loehnen on Twitter - https://twitter.com/eloehnen
Yale - https://www.yale.edu
Shopzilla - http://www.shopzilla.com
goop - https://goop.com
Condé Nast - https://www.condenast.com
Gwyneth Paltrow on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/gwynethpaltrow
Who’s Afraid of Gwyneth Paltrow and goop? - https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/03/opinion/goop-gwyneth-paltrow-netflix.html
the goop lab - https://www.netflix.com/za/title/80244690
Break the Good Girl Myth - https://www.amazon.com/Break-Good-Girl-Myth-Purposeful-ebook/dp/B081NH1KJC
Majo Molfino - https://majomolfino.com
HEROINE (Podcast) - https://majomolfino.com/podcast

Have you ever been faced with this choice: remain obedient to your family by giving up your dreams, or pursue your heart’s passion, against your family’s wishes? My guest on HEROINE this week faced that exact situation. Rana el Kaliouby, PhD, Egyptian-American computer scientist and CEO, knew her patriarchal Middle Eastern culture required her to make sacrifices she wasn’t willing to make. After studying computer science and receiving her PhD at Cambridge, Rana developed a deep passion to bring emotional intelligence (EQ) into technology. While founding her company, Affectiva, she chose to leave her marriage, rather than give up on the work she believed in so deeply. Rana recently released her first book, Girl Decoded, a memoir about her life as a rule breaker.

In this episode, Rana takes us through her childhood in the Middle East, raised in a family of technologists with strict gender roles. While she wasn’t used to vulnerability or emotion growing up, Rana discusses her personal journey in dealing with emotionally complex situations throughout her life. We also learn about the importance of following your convictions, even if they don’t align with others’ expectations. Rana teaches us when disobedience is necessary, and how to keep yourself out of your own way in the pursuit of your dreams.

Show Notes

- Rana’s childhood growing up in the Middle East.
- The influence of Rana’s technologist family, with two programmer parents.
- How Rana creatively rebelled against her father’s patriarchal ways.
- The influence the mixture of a forward-thinking but conservative family had on Rana.
- How Rana’s family suppressed emotions about evacuating Kuwait after it got invaded by Iraq.
- The story of why Rana’s dad got angry with her while she was studying computer science.
- Rana’s dream to build technology that can capture non-verbal communication signals.
- How Rana realized that building EQ into technology was her calling.
- What EQ in technology can offer and how this vision helped Rana disobey conventions.
- The story of how Rana had to prioritize starting Affectiva to the detriment of her marriage.
- Having to become a disobedient daughter in order to become a powerful woman.
- How Rana overcame her self-imposed barriers to become CEO of Affectiva.
- Rana’s use of journaling to externalize and process her feelings.
- Being a mother amongst all of the career challenges Rana faced.
- Why Rana has decided to lead with empathy.
- One thing Rana is reclaiming and hopes her book does.

References

Rana el Kaliouby - https://ranaelkaliouby.com
Girl Decoded - https://www.amazon.com/Girl-Decoded-Scientists-Intelligence-Technology-ebook/dp/B07VF1SKPV
Affectiva - https://www.affectiva.com
The American University in Cairo - https://www.aucegypt.edu
Alexa - https://alexa.amazon.com
Siri - https://www.apple.com/siri
Affective Computing - https://www.amazon.com/Affective-Computing-Press-Rosalind-Picard/dp/0262661152
Untamed - https://www.amazon.com/Untamed-Glennon-Doyle-Melton/dp/1984801252
Ariana Huffington - http://ariannahuffington.com

Do you ever wonder how your skills and experience could lead you to your higher purpose? Amy Yeung’s soul journey from corporate fashion designer to social entrepreneur shows that inside each of us lies the ability to create positive change in the world. Owner of the Orenda Tribe lifestyle brand, Amy lives and works with artisans in the Navajo community to create upcycled clothing and share indigenous culture.

Growing up in rural Indiana, with her Native American heritage and obsession with fashion, Amy felt like an outsider. When she moved to New York to pursue her career in fashion, she knew she’d found her path and never looked back.

As a mother, Amy desired to leave a legacy focused on sustainable design and solving the social problems plaguing her native community. She left her corporate job behind and retraced her family history back to the Navajo reservation of her birth, where her studio is now based.
In this episode, Amy models reconnecting with ourselves by connecting with the land, sky, and water. She shows us that, while we can step into our true calling at any point in life, the best time to align with your greater purpose is right now.

Show Notes
- Learn about Amy’s Diné heritage and growing up in a small rural town in Indiana.
- The historical context that played into her mother’s decision to have her adopted.
- The difficulty of trying to translate your passion into a career in a community that is unlike you.
- Feeling like an outsider as a Native American artsy kid who made her own clothes.
- Starting with studies in pharmacy before convincing her parents to let her apply for fashion.
- The sink-or-swim experience of moving to New York and creating a life there.
- Ascribing her success to a deep understanding of being loved by her parents.
- How motherhood made her more community-oriented and invested in sustainable design.
- Responding to the call to consciousness by turning her back on the corporate measures of success.
- Rethink, revive, rebirth, and other re-words that form the foundation of Orenda Tribe.
- Learning about environment genocide, fracking, and other problems on her journey of reintegrating with her tribe.
- Advice for crafting the life you want: simplify, eliminate the noise, and connect to the earth.
- How the meditative processes in indigenous cultures brings us closer to ourselves.
- Reclaiming her ancestry, learning about the native community, and educating others.
- Find out which Navajo community service projects Amy is currently working on.

References
Amy Yeung on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amyyeung/
Amy Yeung on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/lilacreative/
Orenda Tribe - https://www.orendatribe.com/
Inc. - https://www.inc.com/leigh-buchanan/orenda-tribe-amy-yeung-navajo-reservation-albuquerque-new-mexico-main-street.html
Majo Molfino - https://majomolfino.com/
HEROINE (Podcast) - https://majomolfino.com/podcast

Today, I want to talk about where HEROINE stands with Black Lives Matter and my commitments to being anti-racist. ~ Majo
References:
Me & White Supremacy by Layla Saad – https://bookshop.org/books/me-and-white-supremacy-combat-racism-change-the-world-and-become-a-good-ancestor/9781728209807
Guide for How to help your Black friends and your non-Black friends today by Kat Vellos at https://weshouldgettogether.com/blog/how-to-help-your-black-and-nonblack-friends-right-now

The new season will begin on Thursday, June 18th. It’s going to be a good one! Here’s who we’ll have on the show:
Amy Yeung | Navajo Fashion Designer & Activist
Rana el Kaliouby, PhD | Egyptian-American Computer Scientist
Elise Loehnen | Chief Content Officer at GOOP
Coco & Breezy | Twin Designers & Founders of Coco and Breezy Eyewear
Brit Morin | Founder & CEO of Brit+Co
Randi Zuckerberg | Founder & CEO of Zuckerberg Media
Krista & Lindsay | Hosts of the Almost 30 Podcast
Sophia Amoruso | Founder & CEO of Girlboss
Monica Padman | Actress & Co-host of the Armchair Expert Podcast
Shan Boodram | Sex Educator & Dating Expert
Gretchen Rubin | Bestselling Author & Happiness Expert
Byron Katie | Spiritual Teacher
Martha Beck, PhD | Bestselling Author & Life Coach

How do you design a book cover and icons that encapsulate the message of women breaking their good girl myths to unleash their power? Go behind the scenes as Majo, her editor from HarperOne and design collaborator Vanessa Koch from paladarstudio.com to create the book cover and special icons to her new book Break the Good Girl Myth available NOW for pre-order at goodgirlmyth.com –!

I’ve asked many of you a simple question: Have you thought about striking out on your own and starting your own business (freelance, studio, consulting, coaching, company, startup, etc.) in the future? About 98% of you say yes. So, then comes the follow-up question: Well, how come you haven’t started today?

What do you think is the most common response? While there are many excuses around readiness, and enjoying the stability, prestige, and recognition of your current job, the most common reason you haven’t started: you’re waiting for clarity. Some “I don’t know’s” that are stalling you: I don’t know where to focus, I don’t know which interests to pursue first, I don’t know where or how to begin, I don’t know where my strengths lie, and I don’t know if this can make money.

What are the strategies you’ve used to gain clarity? Here are some I’ve heard:

Journaling

More trainings

Meditation

Vision boarding

Conversations

Retreats

Nothing, just waiting!

Now, these are all lovely and needed strategies, but they’re far, far too passive. Sorry. You need a little fire under your butt. A little pep in your step. A little sprinkle on your latte (too much?).

The good news is there is a method to this ambiguous madness. Designers (inventors, creatives, scientists!) have been using a method for a very long time.

Designers know that clarity doesn’t come from waiting, it comes from making.

What if you could define a project for yourself, and break it into prototypes you can test, in order to get clarity about whether it’s the direction you want, and in order to course-correct from there?

Clarity comes from taking action first. You start with action. And the most powerful action you can take is to make something, throw it at someone, and see how they react.

Now, even prototyping and testing has its fair share of vulnerability involved, doesn’t it? What if people judge you? What if you are the laughing stock of the whole class as you run around naked in that nightmare which has now become real life? That’s why in order to move into this approach, we also need to strengthen our creative confidence muscle (by learning how to manage fear and resistance).

It’s the combination of understanding our resistance (e.g., doing the inner work) with the actual, making and testing of our ideas (e.g., doing the outer work) that will get us results.

I’m really excited to personally invite you to my second pilot of IGNITE – a 12-week program that supports female leaders in defining, testing, and ultimately sharing their creative ideas and gifts with the world while working full-time. You don’t need to quit your day job, take on a huge financial risk, or make a crazy career pivot to design your purpose. By sharing your gifts, you design your unique creative purpose and translate that into actionable steps in your career.

IGNITE IS FOR...
A female, creative professional

A leader such as a manager, lead, director, or executive

Between the ages of 28 - 40

Someone who wants to make a difference and have an impact

An empathic woman who cares deeply for others and the world

Someone who is willing to invest time and money into up-leveling themselves

IT’S NOT FOR...
A founder or entrepreneur already engaged in your creative purpose

A coach

A college or graduate student

Someone who is not working (e.g., unemployed)

Someone who thinks personal growth is too “woo woo”

Someone who isn’t willing to put in the work and take action to design a better life

WHAT WILL WE DO?
Stage 1: Lose Good Girl & Fear Mentality (CLEAR)

In this stage, we clear good girl mentality, fears, and excuses and replace them with new, empowering beliefs that you can carry forward into your life. Inner work and self-discovery is the foundation.

Outcome: A unique Creative Badass Daily Ritual (CBDR) tailored to you so that you can reprogram any negative, fear-based beliefs about sharing your gifts through daily guided meditations, affirmations, and mantras throughout the program.

Stage 2: Design Your Creative Purpose Project (CPP) (DESIGN)

Here we design and define a timeline, three prototypes, and final launch date for a project that is rooted in your creative purpose (what I’ll call your “Creative Purpose Project”) based on the self-discovery above.

Outcome: A CPP Brief which includes a timeline, launch date, and three increasingly challenging prototypes that encapsulate your creative purpose.

Stage 3: Ignite Your Creative Purpose Project (IGNITE)

In this final stage, we test our ideas with real people, get feedback, launch our CPP, and build our creative confidence. We gain clarity from ACTION.

Outcome: New insights from putting your CPP into practice resulting in the formulation of a 12-month Creative Purpose Plan to take beyond the program, including your aspirational Creative Legacy Statement (e.g., “North Star”) you can carry forward.

The 12-week journey

Week 1: Setting Up for Success

Week 2: Identify Fears & Excuses

Week 3: Reprogram Fears & Excuses

Week 4: Define Prototypes & Launch

Week 5: Finalize Your CPP Brief

Week 6: Run Prototype 1

Week 7: Run Prototype 2

Week 8: Run Prototype 3

Week 9: Prototype Analysis & Prep for Final

Week 10: Final Launch

Week 11: Debrief

Week 12: Design 12-Month Career Action Plan

FORMAT
A weekly group coaching call

12 weeks

A curriculum & training with weekly assignments

Communication and mentorship between sessions (e.g., Slack)

For many years, I’ve guided private clients through this journey and am excited to offer it for the first time in a group format.

If you’re curious to learn more and are ready to take action, then sign up for a free Creative Purpose Design Session by heading to my website- Majo.co and clicking Let's Chat (limited spots, available next week only) to experience some of this process.

Let’s go!

Excited to connect with you.

Hi Heroine,

Imagine you worked so hard building a startup you really believed in and then it crashed. Would you keep going until you succeeded or give up?

My guest today is Vanessa Larco who decided to keep going. When regulatory changes killed her startup she fled to Greece for two weeks, to swear off Silicon Valley forever.

That’s when people there assumed, in her sad state, that she was a bride who had been left by a man at the altar – a wake-up call that lead her to stop mopping around and return the world of product and startups, which eventually lead her to receive an unexpected offer to become partner at a top venture capital firm, NEA. In fact, Vanessa is now one of the few female, Latina investors in Silicon Valley, which is a big deal.

Women of color are the fastest-growing sector of the entrepreneurial market but they receive less than 2% of the capital because 99% of venture capitalists are men, particularly white men. There are so many products and services that never have a chance to get off of the ground because of the lack of diversity in this sector, which is why we need smart women like Vanessa on the inside.


HIGHLIGHTED EXCERPT:

Vanessa: I never thought I would be here.

Majo: It sounds like it. Now, Vanessa, I know there are some listeners who might be thinking like “I could’ve never taken that role and would’ve felt like such an impostor”. Did you feel that or like you could learn it?

Vanessa: Every job I’ve had, I’ve had major impostor syndrome and tons of anxiety, to be honest. I look back and realize I figured out a lot of things and there’s a lot of things I didn’t figure it out but I learned a ton in a very short amount of time. I’ve kinda just made peace with the impostor syndrome. I don’t think it ever goes away. I just think that now I’m aware of it and have the confidence in myself to be able to embrace it.

Have you ever felt like the deck was totally stacked against you and it just made you more determined to succeed? This is one of the main themes for my guest Cathy Heller. She gets really real and vulnerable so grab your favorite tea and settle in.

Her story so clearly shows the heroine’s journey from the dark hopelessness of being told she couldn’t succeed, that her sister was the talented one. The only time her parents paid attention to her was to complain about each other. Even after having been dropped by two record labels she refused to give up. 

Instead, she was scrappy and figured out how to create contacts with the people choosing music for television, movies, and advertisements. In her twenties, she managed to build a business making multi-six-figures a year and ended up running an online school to help other creatives do the same. 

She wrote an incredible book that comes out November 12th so make sure to snag a copy of Don’t Keep Your Day Job which talks about designing a way to contribute to the world that is personal and relevant to YOU. 

Her perspective of purpose being the opposite of depression has helped thousands understand that as humans, we are happiest when we are contributing to other people.

HIGHLIGHTED EXCERPT

Cathy: What I did have was a cautionary tale. I had two parents who were miserable and a mom who didn't want to be here anymore with 911 calls and suicide hotline calls from her. So that was the driving force of “Oh I will not put my dreams on the back burner because it doesn't work. And I will not be invisible anymore or else I will be broken forever. So I have to do this. My life depends on it”.

Majo: So, you decide to move to Las Angeles to pursue a career in music. And at this point are you writing your own songs?

Cathy: Not really, maybe a couple, like I started right around then. I came out here and started to ask questions like “How do you get a record deal?” and I thought that was the only way to make a living was to get a record deal. I just started trying to figure out how to do it. My husband says I have the will of a small country like if I'm going to do something I commit. I ended up getting a record deal at Interscope and it was amazing. I remember being like “OMG! I’m here.” I was actually sitting with Lady Gaga at Sunset Sounds, which is a recording studio. She was recording Paparazzi and I had just gotten signed. I couldn't believe it; they were asking me like what kind of coffee I wanted and I was like “Wow, I'm the next person to record a record.” And then I got dropped from the label about three months later.

Happy Halloween witches! We’re continuing with female archetypes (and stereotypes!) in old fairy and folk tales. We started with this series last season with the Queen and Princess Archetypes (make sure to check them out if you haven't already for context) and this is the last part of that series.

Today, on the witch’s new year – Samhain, we are going to look at the witch and the hermit archetypes. They’re more connected than you might think.

The witch needs very little introduction. She is in practically every fairy tale by the Grimm Brothers. She’s cruel, conniving, solitary and sometimes, connected to the evilest forces in the world. And in 1692, life imitated art in a big way. An entire community of settlers in Salem, Massachusetts decided that witches were real, and needed to be killed.

But where did this idea come from?

I caught up with my friend Becca Piastrelli to learn a bit more about how witches got the reputation they have today. Becca is the host of the Belonging Podcast and she and I have been circling on the new moon for years now.

"It’s a campaign that’s happened for centuries, many generations from basically the rise of Christianity and capitalism in Europe that specifically targeted women who were healers, and midwives and really powerful beings in the community. Ones that people respected and looked up to, maybe they even owned land. And it wasn’t just women, sometimes it was queer men or two-spirit or genderfluid folk. Anyone who didn’t fit the patriarchal paradigm.

There was a very calculated campaign to turn the people against them in their earth ways. This is known as the burning time which in many ways is still happening today. Where you hear the term witch hunt in media or popular culture or even see how it’s displayed in media. It’s really something that has been embedded in our ancestral memory for many many generations. "


As Christianity grew across Europe, the Church demonized these women and connected them to dangerous, evil forces. It was classic scapegoating. Talking to Becca got me thinking about scapegoating, and I realized, there’s a good reason for men to fear us. Women are connected to the Goddess...and to childbirth...and men are not.

So how must it have felt - to be a respected, practicing healer and midwife one day - and called an evil witch - the next? That is why I believe when we meet witches in fairy tales, they are often alone. They live in solitude, in the forest - remember, that’s where the medicines were - scheming, angry and isolated. Basically, the happy midwife becomes a resentful hermit.

Have you ever felt like a hermit, Heroine, all alone? The Hermit isn’t all bad - not at all. The bright side of the hermit is that she’s also a mystic. She goes into the forest for some much needed alone time - to reconnect with her spiritual side. She goes there to tend to the parts of herself that are precious, and need protection.

But the dark side of the Hermit is avoidance and fear. Keeping people out because they might hurt you. It starts as a punishment for those who have wronged you, but ends up mostly, hurting you.

I believe this split - between connected, centered, community-surrounded healer, and betrayed, mystical, and isolated witch - must be healed in each of us.

Just think - have you ever been passive-aggressive? Have you said something underhanded, but in a nice way, and not understood why you did it? That has to do with the complicated origins of the witch. She wants to fully express herself - thorns and all - but she knows that patriarchy will cast her out and make her quiet if she does.

Well, I want to reclaim the witch archetype within each of us, as so many others have been doing and continue to do today. A witch is creative, she’s complicated, and she’s been to the depths. So whether you’re cooking a large meal and it feels like you’re listening to your grandma tell you a recipe, or you’re listening to your intuition fully, and without judgment, I want you to lean in...to the witch. Hard. Whether you’re a modern witch, with a coven and a spellbook, or just witch-curious, it’s all good.


So what about you, Heroine? Do you identify with the witch?

A big thank you to Meg Rose who helped score this special Samhain episode!

Hi Heroine,

One of the things I’ve been thinking about lately is how the practice of astrology could help me step up as a leader. How could it help me broaden my impact and align with my purpose? And that’s a huge part of what my guest Debra Silverman opens up by applying astrology in a practical way to our lives. Debra holds an M.A. from Antioch University in Clinical Psychology and trained for her mental health credentials at Harvard University.

What’s super interesting about astrology is that for thousands of years it was primarily practiced by men but in recent times, we’ve all seen the shift – women practice it far more than men – and Debra has been a driving force in training women to combine both their analytical and intuitive gifts in order to become astrologists. It’s really inspiring to see how she shifted from private practice as a psychologist for over 40 years to building a scalable business and school online that certifies thousands of mostly women. In other words, she’s kicking ass. In this episode, you’re going to learn about the Saturn return (if you don’t know what that is, you’ll so find out) and how much it affects you and your destiny, even if you don’t recognize it at the time.

HIGHLIGHTED EXCERPT

Debra: Don’t underestimate- I wish someone would have told me that if you have a passion, whatever it may be, something that you really pour yourself into- that does come into a reaping cycle eventually.

Majo: I want to talk to you about that transition that you made. You were doing private practice as a clinical psychologist and an astrologer for multiple decades.

Debra: That’s right, 38 years.

Majo: And then you shifted to scaling and in large part because we’re in a special time as well with all the technology and tools. With so much of your business online, tell me a little more about the shift and how that happened. I hear the energetics of it but I'm curious was there particular characters or moments?

Debra: Fate showed up and introduced me to Destinee Berman who I now have a meeting with every Monday morning. It’s karmic- fate has a file for each of us and if you open it you can see the destiny lines. So she opened mine and said “Have you ever heard of an online school?” and I didn’t know what she was talking about. She then helped me do a “skinny launch”- just my email list and in that first class there were 40 women and now it’s grown to thousands.

Hi Heroine,

Today’s podcast episode is a minisode, where I share the three elements you need to become creative badass like the women who come onto the show.

These elements will be helpful to each and every one of you. But I especially want to invite you to read closely if you are a creative female professional who is a leader at her company, what I mean is you’re in a senior or lead creative role, a manager, director, or executive. As you go into your work day after day, you’ve been asking yourself a few questions such as “Is this all there is?” “What’s next? What’s beyond this?” and “Am I making the most out of my potential?” and my favorite, “Could I start my own fill-in-the-blank” whether that’s a conference, a podcast, a book, a business...

Even though you’re kicking ass at work, and you have a ton of responsibility, and you’re achieving and hitting milestones, deep down you feel like something is missing, something key, and you can’t put your finger on it. Of course, you have a ton of ideas of your own...brilliant ideas, and thoughts, and opinions, but you find yourself keeping them under wraps, to yourself, hidden...stowed away.

Far too many women with incredibly creative ideas and skills aren’t tapping into them and putting them out into the world, whether it’s their art or creative problem-solving. And it’s painful– on a soul level – to be unexpressed.

Think about it. What is the cost to you when you hold back your gifts and leave so much of your potential untapped? It’s a steep price.

Funny story I’ve been sharing recently, I used to have to wear sunglasses at my 9-to-5! Yes, I wore sunglasses inside because I was far too sensitive and creative to be put in a cage. As a little girl, I was creative and for many years completely suppressed that part of myself because I became a “good girl” and studied what I thought would be the safe path and what my parents wanted me to do. After a lot of soul searching, I was able to start a six-figure business, launch a podcast where I interview award-winning artists and authors, and land a publishing deal with a top publisher and write a book...I would not have been able to do all that if I was still being a good girl. I made bold, professional moves towards my mission that would change my life and impact other people too.

But here’s the thing, like the heroine’s journey, this does not happen overnight. It takes steps. And I want to share with you the three things that women need in order to start on this journey towards owning themselves as creative badasses.

Ready?

The first is you have to clear. What do I mean by clear? You have to clear out all the negative blocks, fears, and excuses that are getting in the way of sharing your gifts. The one that most just drives me crazy is “It’s not the right time to share my gifts.” Newsflash! If you’re waiting to feel ready, you’ll wait until your deathbed. You have to do the inner work to reprogram your mind to success.

The second is you have to design. We do not discover our creative purpose, we actively design it. You need to define a creative purpose project that feels scary enough but not paralyzing. It needs to be something that is going to grow and stretch your creative confidence. This project is the physical embodiment of an idea that you have.

The third is you have to ignite. You need to put that project out into the world, in front of people, learn to withstand judgment and feedback, not take it personally and move forward. Practice being seen and heard- this works through quick prototyping and sharing with people you trust.

By having these three building blocks: the inner work, the design and the igniting through active prototyping and learning, you are going to be so much closer to being a creative badass than ever before.

I’m designing a new program that blends the inner work of self-discovery with the outer work of taking action in the direction of our true, creative purpose. It’s the culmination of multiple years of coaching women. For many years, I’ve guided private clients through this journey and am excited to offer it in a new group format.

So, I’m looking for six to ten brave women who want to begin designing and living their creative purpose, and who are curious about working through this process with me.

If that’s you, you can sign up for a session (if there are any left) by heading to Majo.co andclicking on “Let’s Chat” in the navigation at the top of the page.

*Please read carefully: This program is designed for women who are working full-time as employees at a company and are in a leadership position. It’s not a program for women who are already independent and already entrepreneurs. It’s not a program for women who are job-seeking or in-between jobs. I may offer something for creative entrepreneurs in the future, but that’s not my focus at the moment. So please do not sign up for a session if you are not working at a 9-to-5.

Whether that’s you or not, you can still take the first step to becoming a creative badass right now, by taking a free quiz on the homepage of my website, Majo.co, that is going to help you identify your unique, feminine, creative power and give you one practical action step to channel this power in a way that elevates your leadership.

Not only are you going to learn about your creative strength, but based on that new insight, I’m going to give you a recommendation to take action right now. The action step will depend on your unique result, so this quiz will personalize a recommendation specifically for you.

Listen, I know you’re tired of not feeling like you’re making the most out of your potential. And I know you don’t want to end up on your deathbed looking back, regretting your career choices. We spend 8 (or more) hours of our day working, and that work should feel meaningfully creative and abundant, and if it isn’t, you’re wasting precious time and precious life force.

It should matter to you to feel ALIVE. It matters to the world that you feel ALIVE. The world needs women’s perspectives, voices, and above all, creativity. If you don’t become creatively alive and share your gifts, we’re going to hear from the same people again and again...we’re NOT going to see progress, we’re going to see an imbalance of power, and contributions skewed towards those who talk the loudest and uphold an illusion of separation – separation with ourselves, the planet, and each other.

We don’t need or want more of that. We’re in a special time in the world, and we need more women like you activated. Not tomorrow. But today.

So head over to my website, Majo.co, and click Let’s Chat in the navigation bar, and/or take the quiz on the homepage to discover your creative, feminine, power.

Have you ever felt like you would like to take the leap into entrepreneurship but you imagined that it might be a lonely place? I speak to a lot of women who want to strike out on their own but feel the desire to be a part of a team as well. Ashley Sumner is helping solve this tension by providing an online and in-person community for female entrepreneurs with her friend Gianna Wurzl.

The daughter of parents who both ran their own businesses, Ashley learned very early on the benefits of creating something you’re passionate about. She went to NYU for theatre before realizing what she really loved was connecting people. After working as a romantic matchmaker and later, community builder at companies such as Neuehouse, she met Gianna who had the other half of her idea for Quilt. Now, they bring women together in small groups of 8-10 in homes where they can work, learn, and grow together while exploring the concept of women supporting women.

HIGHLIGHTED EXCERPT

Majo: So it’s more of a mindset shift than an expertise conversation. So it’s like “Hey guys, we all don’t know what we’re doing and that’s okay because we can figure it out together.

Ashley: Totally. We learn from stories. So we can get ten women in a room who all have a different story around money but when you hear someone’s story where maybe they’ve gotten themselves out of debt and how they did it. They’re by no means a financial expert but oftentimes those experts have a really hard time coming down to where people are and translating and understanding. So I think we often learn the most from someone who just completed a step right above us or right below us. A billionaire has no idea how to tell you to save five dollars on a cup of coffee. So, yeah, peer to peer.

Majo: Peer to peer. I love that.

Discover your creative, feminine power with my free online quiz at http://majo.co

Have you ever felt like you were in a costume, caged in a life that just isn’t you? In this week’s podcast for the first time in Heroine history my editor, Anne Hoffman, flips the tables and interviews me. It quickly gets raw and real as we dig deep.

We talk about everything from loving rubrics in school to how I felt like I was wearing a costume when I worked an outwardly perfect cubicle job at a research organization in D.C. It was so much fun to walk through all the threads that led me to step into my creative purpose as a podcaster, writer, and women’s leadership coach.

Highlighted Excerpt

Anne: I think your story reflects this story that when you’re twenty or thirty you can’t really write anything because you haven’t lived enough and in your forties is when you write. I know you’re in your thirties but it’s like you did so much living and there’s a way in which, when it happening, you’re like “where is this going”. There are all these disparate experiences but look where it got you. It all sort of culminates in your book.

Majo: Creativity is built from inputs. you’re literally taking all these threads from your life and mashing them together to create new things. It’s interesting to take all the threads of who we are and weave them into something.

You want to discover your creative purpose? You design it. It’s about looking back …that’s how we live creative purpose, it’s not sitting around and waiting and feeling chronically “not ready yet”…it’s by active design and engagement, and that’s the creative process.  You create your life as much as you create a poem, a short story, a film, a podcast episode…

Anne: I think for me and for a lot of other women you are the example of having the confidence to synthesize your experience into art or something greater than the experiences.

Discover your creative, feminine power with my free online quiz at http://majo.co

Discover your creative, feminine power with my free online quiz at http://majo.co

Have you ever had the urge to follow the opposite of what you learned in school? That’s a theme for my guest Ann Shen – an illustrator and author of Bad Girls Throughout History and Legendary Ladies, books that depict women as they are: complex, funny, dark and everywhere in between. In fact, her book Bad Girls Throughout History resonated so much that it has even been picked up by Universal Cable Productions to become a show.

A daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, Ann calls herself a reformed goody two shoes who creates art that empowers women to be their authentic badass selves. She combines incredible artistic talent with a high degree of business sense and shows us that choosing your own path does not have to mean depending on your parents, spouse, or whoever to survive. While her professors in art school pushed the students to all create very masculine, serious art, she went in the opposite direction – her own style that markets to women in a really fun, whimsical way, and of course in the time of Instagram, this style blew up. You can find her empowering, delightfully illustrated, books on Amazon and in stores like Target so definitely check them out after you hear her story.

Also as a heads up, Ann and I met and recorded at the lovely all-female co-working space The Wing in Los Angeles so the audio is a little busy and echo-ey at times and I apologize in advance, but I have a feeling that you’ll be so engaged in our conversation, you will barely notice! Plus, y’all know me: progress over perfection.

Highlighted Excerpt
Ann: The art school I chose to go to was very militant and demanding.

Majo: Okay so what were people telling you was the right kind of work and what did you discover?

Ann: So in school, it was very trendy at the time to think about editorial illustration as the career, like the ultimate career. And you do like New York editorial illustration stuff that’s like in the New York Times, The New Yorker, like just very serious, beautiful. A lot of it is conceptual or just technically very, it just looks a certain way. And most of it was a very male-dominated view.

Majo: Okay, and what did you discover was like what you really wanted to do and move into?

Ann: That’s my favorite question because it wasn’t something that was really presented to me as an option and then I discovered this later was I just wanted to do stuff for women. Stuff that I was interested in, stuff that was floral or decorative or representative. Like just having something that’s like “oh, this is just a beautiful painting”. It either had to be a beautiful fine art oil painting or it had to have like a really brilliant concept behind it for it to be considered “good” in school. And then I left and I was like “Oh, it’s good enough for it just to be a beautiful thing that brings people joy”.

Discover your creative, feminine power with my free online quiz at http://majo.co

I’m so excited to be back and running for this Fall season. We have a lot of exciting interviews for you with incredibly creative, badass women including an extremely gifted illustrator Ann Shen who wrote Bad Girls Throughout History, as well as a renowned astro loger and businesswoman Debra Silverman here to ground astrology for us, and make it super practical and applicable to our lives as creative women. AND we’ll be continuing with the archetype series, looking at two archetypes that exist with yourself, including my favorite the Wtich. Also, doing something I have never done in three years of running the show. My editor Anne is going to interview ME for an episode. A lot of you have been asking me about my story, and who I am, and what I’ve been up to, and it’s true I haven’t really shared, I’m an introvert, I’m private, I’m a mysterious Scorpio you’ll always feel is a little inaccessible, so we thought it would be a fun experiment, plus she’s journalist and knows how to ask questions. So stay tuned for that!

The new season will kick off next Thursday on September 26th and run until mid-November and I’ll also be sprinkling some bonus episodes throughout.

Until then!
Majo

Oh wait! Heroine, before you go, I have a really important question for you: Do you want to look back on your life in 40 years from now and feel like you didn’t live up to your greatest, creative potential? I’m pretty sure the answer is no. Yet perhaps you know in your heart of hearts that you are currently holding back your voice and gifts, that you aren’t as expanded as you could be, and frankly you’re feeling overwhelmed, exhausted, and confused. You’re certainly not alone. Well, I want to help, and the first step I propose is you taking a free quiz that is on my website right now, that I’m really excited about cause I haven’t offered anything like this in the past, but what it’s going to do is help you identify your unique, feminine, creative power and give you one practical action step to channel this power in a way that elevates your leadership. It’s a quiz that’s going to give you something really tangible and a ton of clarity, I know that a bunch of lightbulbs and connections will set off for you when you take it so go ahead and take the free quiz at majo.co (MAJO.CO), discover your creative, feminine power, and how to best leverage it, because the world needs more women’s voices, perspectives, and above all, creativity, so after this is announcement is done, type this into your mobile or desktop browser MAJO. CO and I’m so curious and excited for you! Onwards.

This is our summer bonus episode!

Last month I moderated a panel at The Assembly in San Francisco. I interviewed two guests: Adereni Fashokun - a Life Coach, Co-Founder and Sr. HR Business Partner at Amazon AND Lauren Harper - the Director of Marketing at Palm.

The topic? Technology and mental wellness.

Does that sound like a contradiction to you, heroine? Sometimes it does to me, too.

Technology is increasingly a part of our lives. It can feel impossible to get away from it.

A friend of mine once had her phone break down for an entire weekend. At first she was furious, and then fearful. But she and her husband had plans that weekend, and as she immersed herself in what they were doing, she forgot about her phone. She was able to lose herself in activities. To let go. It was a kind of mental recharge she didn’t know she needed. Once her phone was fixed, she reflected that she had felt better that weekend than she had in a long time.

So how do we set limits with technology, so we too can experience this kind of mental recharge…. and still stay connected to the world?

The guests on today’s show offer ideas you may have never thought about. I’ll share just one: turn off all of the alerts on your phone. All of them. No beep for a text. No on screen notification that you just got an email. My editor Anne is doing this now, and she says it’s made a huge difference in her ability to focus on what’s happening in the moment.

Stay tuned as the Fall season will pick up in September. In the meantime, you can always connect with me on my website majo. Co (MAJO.CO) or on Instagram majo.heroine!

Earlier in this season we talked about fairy tales. Queens, specifically…. and waifs. The waif is a passive figure, like the stereotypical vision of Rapunzel. She sits, in a tower, waiting for someone to come and rescue her.

(Quick note: This episode is from the archive and available when you subscribe to the podcast on ApplePodcasts.com/Heroine or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also stream it live from any browser on spreaker.com/heroine).

As the writer and cultural critic Gloria Anzaldúa once said, “Nobody’s going to save you. No one’s going to cut you down, cut the thorns thick around you. No one’s going to storm the castle walls nor kiss awake your birth, climb down your hair, nor mount you onto the white steed. There is no one who will feed the yearning. Face it. You will have to do, do it yourself.”

Some women seem to understand this inherently, and live their lives accordingly. Some of us struggle a bit more to accept this.

American Photojournalist and New York Times Best Selling Author Lynsey Addario falls into that first camp. She’s a war photographer who works in conflict zones all over the world.

Throughout her entire career, Lynsey has been willing to risk her life, her safety, and her creature comforts to pursue what makes her feel alive.

She’s photographed women under the Taliban, documented misogyny in the Congo and been kidnapped in Libya. And she has also found love and become a mother.

Lynsey’s story reminds me to choose to do what is meaningful …. To feed the yearning, as Gloria Anzaldúa says.

Also, heroine, today’s episode wraps up the Spring season, though keep your ear open for a bonus episode or two dropping this summer. And don’t worry, we’ll pick back up in the Fall. Also, this episode happens to be the 100th episode of the podcast. Can you believe it? I write about my top ten learnings since I started the show three years ago on my blog and Instagram – tips that will help you, in starting to share your voice and becoming more visible. So make sure to check that out on my blog (majo.co – MAJO.co) AND on my instagram @majo.heroine. Remember that Majo is spelled with a “j” that Spanish “j’ as in José!

A BIG THANK YOU & SHOUT OUT TO OUR BADASS PATRONS ESPECIALLY: 

Bianca Wendt, an award-winning art director and graphic designer based in San Francisco and London. Learn more about Bianca and her work here.

Pssst....don't forget to follow me on Instagram @majo.heroine for more goodies, inspiration, and updates when episodes drop – yay!

Want to support women's voices? Go to patreon.com/heroinefm & become a bigger part of the Heroine community. Check out our rewards for supporters.

MUSIC:

Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs

Eileen Fisher is more than a strong, female leader. Eileen Fisher is an icon. Her clothes - and her signature style - soft, elegant, warm - are an entire way of life. But unlike many famous leaders, and especially many famous FASHION leaders, Eileen is not driven by ego. She is humble. Midwestern. The Devil Wears Prada...she is decidedly, NOT. Throughout our interview, I wondered, how can such a strong leader speak with such a down to earth realness?

Perhaps it’s because Eileen is an example of how to succeed well. As her brand continues to grow, she continues to reinvent. Instead of defining her business by how much money it makes, her company’s new parameter of success…. is sustainability. Her new mantra is do the most good instead of make the most money.

In a world where our political leaders deny climate change...and other painful truths such as a woman’s right to make decisions about her own body...all to hold on to power...I think we can all take something from Eileen’s example.

Live your values, show up, try. And remember that integrity is the only real currency we have in this world.

Alright, on to the show.

A BIG THANK YOU & SHOUT OUT TO OUR BADASS PATRONS ESPECIALLY: 

Bianca Wendt, an award-winning art director and graphic designer based in San Francisco and London. Learn more about Bianca and her work here.

Pssst....don't forget to follow me on Instagram @majo.heroine for more goodies, inspiration, and updates when episodes drop – yay!

Want to support women's voices? Go to patreon.com/heroinefm & become a bigger part of the Heroine community. Check out our rewards for supporters.

MUSIC:

Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs

What happens when you marry someone who becomes rich and famous? Perhaps you find yourself becoming a bit blonder, a bit more stylish, and less, well, you - to fit into his life. I think we’ve all done this to a certain extent. Changed ourselves to fit the needs of someone we wanted to fit with.

(Quick note: This episode is from the archive and available when you subscribe to the podcast on ApplePodcasts.com/Heroine or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also stream it live from any browser on spreaker.com/heroine).

But let’s say this all happens in the public eye. You and this man start a family. And after all this stretching and shifting, tragedy strikes. Nothing can insulate us from that.

And then, he breaks up with you. And quickly takes up with someone new.

That’s what happened to Justine Musk. She’s a writer, speaker and soul-blogger. She is also the ex-wife of tech billionaire and provocateur Elon Musk.

When I interviewed Justine, I was reminded of why I do this podcast. Justine experienced something in the Heroine’s journey called the descent. In crude terms, Justine was kind of a starter wife. She herself has said this in an article she wrote for Marie Claire. But as we’ve seen with our examination of archetypes in fairy tales at the beginning of the season, this one is woefully inadequate. It’s an oversimplification as they do little to reveal the soul of the person.

And the origins of Justine’s story don’t define her. It’s what she chose to do with her story...that does.

And it’s the descent - the darkness in her life that revealed the light of who she is. Which I think...is the truth for all great heroines. As the Sufi mystic Rumi once said, be patient where you sit in the dark, the dawn is coming.

References:
Check out Justine's blog at http://justinemusk.com/

A BIG THANK YOU & SHOUT OUT TO OUR BADASS PATRONS ESPECIALLY: 

Brigid Cabry Nelson leads Lettershop, an award-winning creative studio that serves a wide range of clients—from boutique retailers to large corporations—approaching each and every project with vigor and enthusiasm. Learn more about Brigid and her work here.

Bianca Wendt, an award-winning art director and graphic designer based in San Francisco and London. Learn more about Bianca and her work here.

Pssst....don't forget to follow me on Instagram @majo.heroine for more goodies, inspiration, and updates when episodes drop – yay!

Want to support women's voices? Go to patreon.com/heroinefm & become a bigger part of the Heroine community. Check out our rewards for supporters.

MUSIC:

Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs

I can’t believe it’s been about three years since I first aired this episode with Roz Savage, the first woman to row solo across three oceans. Honestly, I remember feeling so nervous, not so much during the conversation, but more so in sharing the interview, as it was the first show that launched the podcast. Today, my editor, Anne, recut this so it’s lively, fresh and even more revelatory.

(Quick note: This episode is from the archive and available when you subscribe to the podcast on ApplePodcasts.com/Heroine or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also stream it live from any browser on spreaker.com/heroine).

Give yourself a second to really think about the fact that Roz rows across oceans alone. She sits in a small boat, day after day, with little besides the cold waves for company and the sea mist hitting her face. This is a woman who is comfortable with solitude….and freedom.

But when Roz started rowing, she was, in her words, “just a management consultant” from the UK.

So...how did she get to that wide, open ocean? What drives someone to leave everything they’ve known for so long to achieve a distant goal? In a way, that’s really the central question of this podcast. How do we stop being good girls and start being the heroines we’re meant to be? How do we write our own stories, create our own myths? How do we activate our own potential - even when it goes against all of our social conditioning?

Roz ended up leaving her ordinary life because she sat down one day and wrote herself two obituaries. It sounds morbid, but for Roz it was clarifying. In one version, she had lived life as a business woman, in control and with fancy clothes. In the other, well, I won’t give too much away. Let’s just say, in the other obituary, her clothes didn’t matter.

References:
Roz Savage’s book, "Rowing the Atlantic: Lessons Learned on the Open Ocean."
Roz Savage’s website, http://www.rozsavage.com/

A BIG THANK YOU & SHOUT OUT TO OUR BADASS PATRONS ESPECIALLY: 

Brigid Cabry Nelson leads Lettershop, an award-winning creative studio that serves a wide range of clients—from boutique retailers to large corporations—approaching each and every project with vigor and enthusiasm. Learn more about Brigid and her work here.

Bianca Wendt, an award-winning art director and graphic designer based in San Francisco and London. Learn more about Bianca and her work here.

Pssst....don't forget to follow me on Instagram @majo.heroine for more goodies, inspiration, and updates when episodes drop – yay!

Want to support women's voices? Go to patreon.com/heroinefm & become a bigger part of the Heroine community. Check out our rewards for supporters.

MUSIC:

Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs

Today, we’re going to sink deeper into the waif archetype to understand the true essence of the powerful fairytale and heroine Rapunzel.

This episode is available when you subscribe to the podcast on ApplePodcasts.com/Heroine (or wherever you get your podcasts). You can also stream it live from any browser here.

Let’s bring back Kate Forsyth – an incredible novelist and fairy tale connoisseur – from the last episode. Kate argues the motifs we believe are passive in the tale, or that look passive at first glance, really aren’t. Here’s our convo.

Majo: Yeah, I mean on the one hand her hair is kind of passive because it's dropping off the side of the building and it's being climbed on or it's being used but on the other hand –

Kate: See I don't think that is a symbol of passivity, her own hair is the only form of ingress to her, it's the only way that people can reach her in her isolated state and in the end try and think of it more her hair is actually a symbol of her own strength that is being used against her. And once she's freed from that that is when she comes into her true power. It's not necessarily a symbol of passivity, in fact Rapunzel is not a passive figure, she sings with all of her strength and that draws the prince to her, she allows herself, she takes control of her life even though she is trapped against her will in this confined space. It's a misunderstanding of the fairy tale to use her as an example of female passivity.

Majo: Yeah, that's really helpful, I love what you wrote, "Rapunzel's no passive maiden awaiting rescue. She was an active agent in events, an empowering figure. Though later versions increasingly drain the tale of it's subversive power."

Kate: I mean that is exactly right, so the earliest versions are when she's at her most active.

So what happened? Turns out the Grimm brothers, who were telling these tales in a very religious society, received a ton of backlash for the Rapunzel story. The story of lovers having sex in a tower was too racy (especially for children), so they stripped away the eroticism, darkness, and violence out of the original story. As Kate shares,

The Grimm's were trying to make their stories more suitable for children but Rapunzel was never meant for children, it was always meant for young women on the verge of their own sexual lives.

Because the truth is Rapunzel was proactive, clever, and resourceful. She was not waiting around. In one older version of the tale by Italian folk collector Giambattista Basile, Rapunzel is even more fierce, as she finds three acorns from the witch she then uses against her. Each acorn becomes an animal ally of sorts – first a dog, then a lion, and finally a wolf that devours and kills the witch. I was super into this version, and was going to go with it and be like, “See Rapunzel’s a warrior!” until I met Kate, who brought way more refinement to the conversation.

Kate was attracted to the version written by 18th Century French, female writer Charlotte Rose De La Force. Because in that version, it is Rapunzel who heals the prince with her tears. The more I reflect on both versions, I do love what De La Force did to the tale...Rapunzel’s tears are not a sign of weakness, but of power. This got me thinking about something a friend once told me, “healing doesn’t happen through force, or action, it happens through relaxation, opening…release.” Tears are a form of release, sacred tears are the release that, like the rain, allow for new growth to happen. For centuries, we’ve been shamed for having tears, for being emotional, we’re called hysterical, when our feelings are a source of our intelligence as women, and I think that’s what Rapunzel is truly all about. Feelings, sadness, grief, and tears, allow us to release and move on, allow us and others to heal. Tears are a sign of compassion. In fairy tales, we’re so used to good versus evil, but Rapunzel not only heals the Prince, but she redeems the witch. Rapunzel moves the witch to remorse for what she’s done, essentially saving the old, magical woman in the process. In other words, it isn’t about dominance and winning, but about harmony. I don’t know about you, but I can feel my entire body go into a deep sigh of relief when I hear that one.

I’m only scratching the surface of our conversation in this post, as you’ll need to listen to the episode ( ApplePodcasts.com/Heroine and here) to get the full picture of Kate’s work and the real depth of this tale and heroine.

So now it’s your turn: What tears are you holding back, when, and with whom? Who do you need to have a good cry with? And who do you need to nurture and forgive? Big questions, and I don’t have the answers for you, but that’s the power in the waif archetype, that’s what lies truly underneath her, and that is maybe even how we change the world.

Thanks for tuning in, this has been a really amazing series for me, and I enjoyed every second of this experiment of examining fairy tales. To be honest, it has rejuvenated my love for this podcast and strengthened my conviction in the power of stories and female-drive narratives with heroines at the center, battling their inner and outer shadows.

Alright, heroine, til next time!

xx

Majo

P.S. As a reminder, next episodes, we’re going to be going back into the archive while throwing a fresh perspective on each interview, with a new setup and new cut, so you can really let their stories sink in, in relationship to the work we’ve explored with fairy tales and myths.

A BIG THANK YOU & SHOUT OUT TO OUR BADASS PATRONS ESPECIALLY: 

Brigid Cabry Nelson leads Lettershop, an award-winning creative studio that serves a wide range of clients—from boutique retailers to large corporations—approaching each and every project with vigor and enthusiasm. Learn more about Brigid and her work here.

Bianca Wendt, an award-winning art director and graphic designer based in San Francisco and London. Learn more about Bianca and her work here.

Pssst....don't forget to follow me on Instagram for more goodies, inspiration, and updates when episodes drop – yay!

MUSIC:

Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs

Blue Dot Sessions, Album: Duck Lake, track: "Stately Shadows"

Blue Dot Sessions, Album: Resolute, track: "Greyleaf Willow"

Today, we’re kicking off the first part of exploring the waif archetype, also know as the very passive maiden in the tower, the princess waiting to be rescued, and the good girl – an archetype I’ve long been fascinated with and am even writing a whole book about (coming out next year, still can’t believe it!).

Today’s episode is available when you subscribe to the podcast on ApplePodcasts.com/Heroine (or wherever you get your podcasts). You can also stream it live from any browser here.

Some of you may be wondering why I’m focusing on fairy tales, when most of us haven’t thought about them since we were children. What do they have to do with you now? To help me answer this question, I invited Australian author Kate Forsyth onto the show. Kate has retold many fairy tales through her novels, including Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, and Rapunzel. I asked Kate if she thinks that reading fairy tales as little girls actually affects us as adult women. Kate says that yes, fairy tales help prepare us for what’s to come:

I mean in a way the witches and the dragons and the ogres, these are metaphors that allow us to examine things like fear of abandonment, fear of not being loved, fear of failure, fear of death, fear of harm. And because they're generally told in a safe place in a circle of light around a fire, in the comfort of a mothers lap, while tucked up in bed, because the person listening to the story is safe, it enables them to for a while in their imagination do battle with these witches and these monsters and triumph over them. Now we know, neurologically speaking, that anything that we experience in our imagination acts in the brain as if it has actually happened. So when we feel that thrill of triumph at having outwitted the witch well our brain processes it as if we had actually done it.

So these stories help us learn emotional resilience and intelligence, and if we were fed wonky stories, or if we didn’t fully integrate them as little girls, that will affect how we live and lead down the road. A few years ago, Kate completed her PhD on reimagining the Rapunzel archetype, which is why I specifically reached out to her. I thought she could better help me understand this maiden in the tower.

In this episode, we go over the Rapunzel tale together, which is super important because some of you may remember it differently (I was shocked by the ending, which I had no memory of whatsoever). In her more reduced interpretation (as a trope for female passivity), Rapunzel represents this idea of feeling trapped, which is symbolized by the tower in the tale, as Kate shares:

I mean fairy tales work at this kind of metaphorical or archetypal level and it's a rare human that does not find themselves trapped and disempowered by their circumstances in some way. And so in Rapunzel the tower stands in for anything that is tying back the human spirit, it might be fear, it might be an unhappy relationship, it might be ones own parents, it might be the school that you are forced to go to against your will, it might be a job that is making you deeply unhappy. It's a metaphorical tower and so for that reason it is the most memorable motif in the fairy tale.

So what’s your tower right now? It could be internal or external. That’s my question to you. Or let me put it this way: what is the story you’re telling yourself, about how you’re trapped, and you have no choice to be doing this or that. Remember, an uncomfortable situation and relationship can be bizarrely comfortable because it’s familiar, so we forget amidst that cozy comfort, that we still have choice. Every day, every second, we are making choices. The first step to getting out of your tower is taking back your agency by seeing that you have choice. Rapunzel made choices. She was far more proactive than we think.

I’m only scratching the surface of our conversation in this post, as you’ll need to listen to the episode ( ApplePodcasts.com/Heroine and here) to get the full picture of Kate’s work and the real depth of this tale and heroine.

xx

Majo

P.S. In the next episode, we’re going to explore the possibility and power of healing and redemption in Rapunzel (seeing her beyond her usual interpretation, and what we can learn from her). It’s super fascinating, so stay tuned for Part II coming out next week!

A BIG THANK YOU & SHOUT OUT TO OUR BADASS PATRONS ESPECIALLY:
Brigid Cabry Nelson leads Lettershop, an award-winning creative studio that serves a wide range of clients—from boutique retailers to large corporations—approaching each and every project with vigor and enthusiasm. Learn more about Brigid and her work here.

Bianca Wendt, an award-winning art director and graphic designer based in San Francisco and London. Learn more about Bianca and her work here.

Pssst....don't forget to follow me on Instagram for more goodies, inspiration, and updates when episodes drop – yay!

MUSIC:
Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs
Blue Dot Sessions, Album: Duck Lake, track: "Stately Shadows"
Blue Dot Sessions, Album: Resolute, track: "Greyleaf Willow"

For the first four episodes of this season, we’re exploring the female archetypes (and stereotypes!) in old fairy and folk tales. First up – the Queen. To quickly recap – in the last episode, we learned about the sequel to Sleeping Beauty’s “happily ever after” in which she has to deal with her mother-in-law –  the evil Queen Mother – an ogre and wants to eat her twin babies. If you haven’t listened to that episode, go back and do so, otherwise this second part won’t make sense. Today, we’re going to sink deeper into this archetype to understand what’s going really going on – and in the process, learn more about ourselves.  

Episodes are available when you subscribe to the podcast on ApplePodcasts.com/Heroine (or wherever you get your podcasts). You can also stream it live from any browser here.

So, I came across a 17th Century version of Sleeping Beauty called Sun, Moon, and Talia, and oh heroine, did this really put the Queen in perspective for me. It helped me see her in a completely different light.

In this other version, the evil Queen isn’t the King’s mother, but get this, she’s the King’s wife. Yes, Sleeping Beauty– or Talia – is actually the “third” woman in this tale. That’s right, our homeboy King is a player. He already had a wife before he met Sleeping Beauty – it’s the part Disney doesn’t mention. He’s just doing what Kings did back then, sleep with whoever they wanted.

So we begin to see that there’s a complicated relationship between the King and the Queen. At one point in the tale, when The Queen thinks he’s eating one of his own kids (the kids he would have had with another woman), she tells him, and I quote “"Eat away! for you eat what is your own." What the King replies is fascinating, and I quote “"Ay, I know well enough that what I eat is my own, for you brought nothing to the house." Oh snap. That’s a rude response. The tale writes, “And at last getting up in a rage, he went off to a villa at a little distance to cool his anger.”

In other words, the King is annoyed that the Queen isn’t contributing “bread” to the table. This line could be interpreted many ways. Either he’s mad she hasn’t brought home the bacon or he could be shaming her for coming with a small dowry. But what options does a Queen have, locked in a Kingdom, in a patriarchal society, to go out and bring something to the house? Very little. In fact, in most of these fairy tales, the King is always quite mobile of course, traversing stretches of land, while the Princesses and Queens are confined within walls, or being ordered around to go from place A to B. It’s clear that the Queen is powerless in the patriarchy with her lead patriarch, very literally the King. At one point, when she confronts Talia who we know as Sleeping Beauty – the woman her husband is having an affair with –  she says, “Are you the weed that has caught my husband’s eye and given me all this trouble? So so, you are come at last to purgatory, where I'll make you pay for all the ill you have done me." Obviously, Talia’s not the problem – the King is the main issue here, lest this becomes an episode of Jerry Springer. Both Talia and the Queen are powerless in different ways.

So, it’s obvious and quite justified – one of the ways the Queen has responded to betrayal, hurt, and feelings of powerlessness is to become a total Queen. Duh. In other words, she claims control because she’s been badly hurt. She’s wounded! When we see the full context of the Queen, we can see how she’s very connected to the inner victim...underneath Queen behavior is a feeling (and perhaps even a reality) of victimhood.

Ok, now it’s our time to turn it to you. How have you felt out of control in your life, and how has that made you double down on becoming more controlling? For some of us, we grow up in chaotic households, so we turn to controlling what we eat. In my case, I grew up moving around a lot, not having control in where I’d live or what community so I doubled down by becoming an hyper-achiever. Perhaps we’ve been emotionally, sexually, or physically betrayed or hurt by others, and as a way to defend ourselves, we turn up our inner Queens, and it works. The Queen is fierce.

She also has her merit. Yah! Let’s talk about her merit. One of the major strengths I see in women who have and own this archetype fully is that they know what they want, aren’t afraid to ask for it, and aren’t afraid to go for it. That’s the blessing of the Queen. Sure, in the fairy tale, that desire is directed towards evil, or fear, instead of good, or love – but this character is not a passive, floating character, waiting to be rescued. She’s a bad bitch.

Remember my friend Dionna, from last episode? She shared how being a Queen does help her own her womanhood and power. Here she is again, talking about what she actually likes about being a Queen:

Dionna: I went to West Point and so to be one of the few women in an environment, it'd be easy to shrink in that environment and take on really masculine energy. And so I think being able to stay in your womanhood but stand still as a leader among leaders, I think that's definitely a showcase of that part of me for sure.

I think in the end, the key is to direct this energy of desire – this flavor of Queen – towards authentic goals, and not ones that come from our wounds and feelings of powerlessness (many of which are subconscious). Now that’s a life long journey, if you ask me.

Don’t forget to tune into the episode on ApplePodcasts.com/HEROINE (or wherever you get your podcasts) to dive deeper, and let this one really sink in. The Queen is far more complex than she looks like on the outside. By understanding stories, we can begin to understand ourselves a little bit more.

Majo

P.S. Next episode, we’re going to explore her opposite – the Waif – the Passive Princess, the Good Girl...and archetype I’ve long been fascinated with and am even writing a whole book about, yes a book that’s coming out next year (May 2020, HarperOne).

A BIG THANK YOU & SHOUT OUT TO OUR BADASS PATRONS ESPECIALLY: 

Brigid Cabry Nelson leads Lettershop, an award-winning creative studio that serves a wide range of clients—from boutique retailers to large corporations—approaching each and every project with vigor and enthusiasm. Learn more about Brigid and her work here.

Bianca Wendt, an award-winning art director and graphic designer based in San Francisco and London. Learn more about Bianca and her work here.

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MUSIC:

Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs
Blue Dot Sessions, Album: Duck Lake, track: "Stately Shadows"
Blue Dot Sessions, Album: Resolute, track: "Greyleaf Willow"
Blue Dot Sessions, Album: Azalai, track: "Alustrat"