Surviving Sarah

I am so very happy to welcome Lesley Graham to the show today. She is one of my closest friends and may remember hearing from her on the Dopesquad episode which was episode 79.   Lesley is such an inspiration person who has such a heart to see women succeed in life and work. She lives on a farm in Georgia with her leather making husband Sam and their two girls. She is currently serving as a mentor and coach to her wellness community, as well as sharing their journey to fix up 35 acres on her blog at www.lesleywgraham.com   We talk about what raising kids has taught her, advice about work & motherhood, what helps us get out of a scarcity mindset and what she would go back and tell herself as a young mom.   Plus, you get to sneak in on what my Patreon supporters hear every week. I almost always ask to hear what they find meaningful. I decided to keep Lesley’s answer to that question in the main part of the episode. I did this because she’s in the middle of a transition—not just her but her family, too. And

I am happy to welcome Ginger Curtis to the show today. She is the founder of Urbanology Designs in the Dallas/Fort Worth area of Texas. She has been recognized and received so many awards from the Interior Design world from Interior Design Society to HGTV to Houzz.com. She has created a design book called "Beauty By Design” which I’ve read and found very helpful. It is highly resourceful along with being full of inspiration.   We talk about how the struggles that she has faced in life informed her now career in design. We talk about how to create a safe, cozy haven in your home, where to go to find your style and we get practical on designing a home on a budget.   Order Sarah's book, A Mother's Guide to Raising Herself: What Parenting Taught Me About Life, Faith and Myself   Check out bonus content from today's episode over on Patreon.   Sign up for Sarah's monthly Survival Kit Newsletter   Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram

I am so happy to welcome my friend and yours, Merica Stum, back to the show. It is time for another quarter catch up with her. But this time we do something different. We start the episode catching up about what happened in this past quarter, but this is episode is really dedicated to my upcoming book. Merica asked me months ago if I would be up for her interviewing me about my book and the writing process. And I have to say that this conversation was so fun for me. I loved peeling back the curtain on the process of writing and on the content itself. We talk about the in’s and out’s the writing process, the catalyst for writing this book, what I feel like went well and what I wish I did better. She also reads a couple of excerpts from the book and I shed from insight behind those quotes. Order Sarah's book, A Mother's Guide to Raising Herself: What Parenting Taught Me About Life, Faith and Myself   Check out bonus content from today's episode over on Patreon.   Sign up for Sarah's monthly Survival Kit Newslet

I am so happy to welcome Shelly Robinson to the show today. She is a certified holistic family wellness coach, cycle-breaker, conscious parenting educator, and founder of the Raising Yourself movement.   Her passion in life is to empower moms to turn their midlife crisis into midlife magic by teaching them how to reparent themselves, disrupt generational patterns, and take radically good care of their needs.   I found her on Instagram and have absolutely loved following her. She offers so much wisdom and advice around the idea of raising yourself—which you know that I am all about given the topic of my book. In this conversation, we talk about what it looks like to raise yourself, how to be more curious about yourself and others and we debunk the idea of what a “good mom” should look like.   Order Sarah's book, A Mother's Guide to Raising Herself: What Parenting Taught Me About Life, Faith and Myself   Check out bonus content from today's episode over on Patreon.   Sign up for Sarah's monthly Survival Kit Ne

Kathleen is a temperament communication expert helping people become their best, authentic self and speak kindly to each other. She is the author of I Said This, You Heard That and her latest book is called A Grown-ups Guide to Kids’ Wiring.    We have such a good conversation around the temperaments and specifically parenting. You know, we are all looking for connection with our kids and Kathleen just really opens our eyes about how to do that and I think that what she says can be a game changer for our parenting.   Order Sarah's book, A Mother's Guide to Raising Herself: What Parenting Taught Me About Life, Faith and Myself   Check out bonus content from today's episode over on Patreon.   Sign up for Sarah's monthly Survival Kit Newsletter   Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram

I am happy to welcome Desiree Hartsock Siegfried to the show. You may best know her as an ABC Bachelor contestant and star of Season 9 of ABC's The Bachelorette. Many viewers quickly fell in love with this down-to-earth girl looking for love. But those shows were really only the beginning of her journey that led her to marrying her husband who she met on the show, becoming a mother of two boys, creating her own Bridal line, hosting The Heart of Purpose podcast and writing her book The Road to Roses: Heartbreak, Hope, and Finding Strength When Life Doesn’t Go as Planned.    We talk about how she found herself on the Bachelor and what that was like to how she ended up as the Bachelorette. We talk about what it was like to face rejection on national tv and how she was able to move on to find love and happiness. She shares some great insight about what she learned through that experience about rejection and heartbreak. Just like many of you loved her on TV, you are going to love her here as well so pull up a chai

I am so happy to welcome Mazi Robinson to the table today. She is a licensed professional counselor and speaker specializing in helping women discover their true voice as they navigate self worth/self esteem challenges, relationship concerns, and life stage transitions. She is also a Certified Daring Way™ Facilitator presenting workshops and retreats based on the research and methodology of Dr. Brené Brown to individuals and groups.   This is one of those conversations that I think you will return to. You will want to take notes on this one because Mazi is a trusted guide to help us navigate the waters of rejection. She helps us understand how the rejection of our childhood shows up in our adult life, why it’s important to grieve when we feel rejected and how rejection shapes our belief of whether we are lovable or not. And of course, I ask her on behalf of all of us raising kids, what to do when our kids face rejection.   Order Sarah's book, A Mother's Guide to Raising Herself: What Parenting Taught Me Abou

Welcome to part 2 of my conversation with my mentor, Kellee Hall. If you missed part 1, I encourage you to go back and listen to it.    This week, Kellee talks about what she learned about herself by raising her kids. And today, in part 2, Kellee tells us her story of 2020. She walks us through how her husband, Stuart, ended up in ICU near death from Covid19 and what helped her make it through that month. She also shares what it was like to walk with her young adult children through the political and social unrest and how through it all, what she learned about love and making things personal.   Order Sarah's book, A Mother's Guide to Raising Herself: What Parenting Taught Me About Life, Faith and Myself   Check out bonus content from today's episode over on Patreon.   Sign up for Sarah's monthly Survival Kit Newsletter   Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram

I want to introduce you to someone I loved dearly. She has been my mentor since I was about 20 years old. She has had a front row seat to the evolution of who I am. Kellee Hall is married to Stuart Hall and is raising 3 adult kids. She runs a couple of businesses, one is called The Echo Group which is a management service for speakers and influencers. She manages people like yours truly, Mo Isom and our friends from Pantsuit Politics. I’ve been gleaning life wisdom from Kellee for over 20 years and I wanted the opportunity for you to do the same.   She came up to TN one day and spent a lot of time around the table talking. So much so that I decided to break this episode up into two parts. The first part will include an introduction to who she is and to our relationship. Then, she talks about parenting. She talks about how raising kids has helps raise herself. Next week, we will dive into her up close and personal story of surviving COVID19 as her husband was near death.   Order Sarah's book, A Mother's Guide

I am so happy to welcome David Thomas and Sissy Goff back to the show. This felt like a reunion since we haven’t been able to sit down together like this since 2019. They are no stranger to the show. They have been on a few past episodes of Surviving Sarah. But in case you are new here, David and Sissy are counselors at Daystar in Nashville, TN. They have written some my favorite books on parenting and I had the privilege of hosting the first two seasons of their podcast, Raising Boys and Girls. Today’s conversation feels like a nod to our days on their podcast. We dive into a topic and tension that we feel in parenting and then they walk us through it with some really practical advice. Today, we talk about power struggles. They break down by developmental stage for girls and boys—what it looks like, why its happening and what to do about it. And lastly, how to disengage when the power struggle happens. Order Sarah's book, A Mother's Guide to Raising Herself: What Parenting Taught Me About Life, Faith and Mys

I am so happy to welcome Tara Bremer BACK to the podcast. I had so much fun the last time we chatted that I wanted to have her back. Tara is the founder of House Peace which helps us find order in our homes and lives. She has a team of people who work with her and in fact, one of her team members, Kendra, came to my house back in Atlanta and helped me create systems for the lack of storage we had.    Tara joins me today to talk about managing our digital clutter. We talk about all things digital: texting, photos, apps, desktops, and emails. This episode feels like you are getting to sit at the table with two friends. It is so easy to chat with Tara. We recorded via video so we literally walk through our phones together and share tips to declutter our digital lives. I’ll be sure to link everything we talk about in today’s show notes over at SarahBragg.com in case you are in motion while listening and can’t take notes.   Order Sarah's book, A Mother's Guide to Raising Herself: What Parenting Taught Me About Li

We are just under 4 months until my book, A Mother’s Guide to Raising Herself, launches out into the world and with that, I wanted to take a few minutes and unpack what it means to raise yourself. Order Sarah's book, A Mother's Guide to Raising Herself: What Parenting Taught Me About Life, Faith and Myself   Check out bonus content from today's episode over on Patreon.   Sign up for Sarah's monthly Survival Kit Newsletter   Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram

I am happy to welcome to the table Cindy Wang Brandt. She is an author, podcaster and host of the Parenting Forward conferences. A friend told me about her years ago and since then I’ve read her book, Parenting Forward, and always enjoy her podcast by the same name.    We recorded conversation while I was hunkered down in the safest room in the house during a tornado. You guys, if that isn’t commitment to you then I don’t know what it is. In this conversation, we talk about how to create a space for kids to cultivate their own spirituality, advice on how to raise kids without unnecessary shame in regards to their sexuality and how to raise citizens of the world—that is, how to help shape conscious kids.   Check out bonus content from today's episode over on Patreon.   Sign up for Sarah's monthly Survival Kit Newsletter   Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram

I am so very happy to welcome my friend, Monica DiCristina, to the show today. Monica is a Licensed Professional Counselor in Atlanta where she lives with her husband and three kids. Monica has such a desire to help guide others in their process of becoming who they were meant to be. She is the host of one of my new favorite podcasts called Still Becoming. You definitely want to hit subscribe to that show along with following her on Instagram—she always shares such helpful content there.    Today, we dive into the topic of boundaries. This is one of those episodes where I pretend to be asking all these questions for a friend but it’s really because I need all the help in setting boundaries. We talk about what they are and what they might look like in everyday life. We also dive into setting boundaries with two important relationships: our children and our in-laws. So much helpful content is shared in this episode so go ahead, pull up a chair and join the conversation.    Order Sarah's book, A Mother's Guide

I am so happy to welcome Emily Lex to the table. She is a watercolor artist, longtime blogger, and the author of Freely and Lightly. She has been featured on HGTV and in Better Homes and Gardens and The Magnolia Journal. She resides outside the Seattle, Washington area with her husband and four children.    I have been reading Emily’s blog and following her online for years so it was such a pleasure to get to chat with her. And let me just say that Emily is so genuine. I have interviewed a lot of people over the last 6 years and her essence is pure gold. This conversation felt exactly like that—a conversation. I feel like Emily was as interested in me as I was in her.    This conversation centered around her new book, Freely and Lightly. We talk about what her journey looked like to go from striving to be fulfilled and seen as enough to living freely and lightly knowing that she is valuable and lovable. She shares how a 4 month road trip with her family helped them take a deep breath and figure out who they w

I am so excited to be doing quarterly episodes with my friend and your friend, Merica Stum. Now that we live in the same city, we want to sit down every quarter and unpack what happened. In this episode, we talk about what we learned, what changed, what we’ve loved, what we’ve read. We dive into what we what more of and less of for this next quarter and of course we shares what’s helping us survive. You will feel like you are sitting right there with us in my house and you’ll even get to hear an appearance by my dog, Murray, so brace yourself. Order Sarah's book, A Mother's Guide to Raising Herself: What Parenting Taught Me About Life, Faith and Myself Check out bonus content from today's episode over on Patreon.   Sign up for Sarah's monthly Survival Kit Newsletter   Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram

I am so happy to welcome Jeff and André Shinabarger back to the show. Jeff is the Executive Director of Plywood People and André is a physician’s assistant at Grady Hospital here in Atlanta. Together they host the podcast Love or Work.    They recently completed the largest research study on working married couples in the U.S. and spent the last few years interviewing couples who want to stay in love, change the world and raise a healthy family. They share the results of that study along with stories from their own lives in their book Love or Work.   I asked them to come back on the show to talk about a topic that no one really wants to talk about yet everyone wants to actually talk about it. I bet you know what it is—sex. We talk about why we want to talk about it but can’t talk about it, why its so important that we talk about it, and how our upbringing often informs how we view sex. We also talk about how important mutual pleasure is in the relationship and what to do when you want to amp up your sex life

I am happy to welcome Dr. Kelly Flanagan back to the show. He is a clinical psychologist and author to the books The Marriage Manifesto, Loveable and True Companions. If you’ve been listening to the show awhile, then you heard him on Episode 94 where we talked about shame and learning to accept yourself. This conversation is built upon that. We talk about the paradox for companionship: the ability to be lonely. With that, we look at embracing our loneliness and how we can find companionship through it. I always enjoy chatting with Kelly so pull up a chair and join the conversation. Check out bonus content from today's episode over on Patreon.   Sign up for Sarah's monthly Survival Kit Newsletter   Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram

I am happy to welcome Retha Nichole back to the podcast. She first joined me in the early days on episode 74. Retha is life and business coach who loves helping people uncover their purpose. Retha is one of those people that I am always drawn to because they are truly authentic and care deeply about helping you live your best life. In this conversation, we talk about something that Retha has been doing for years to help her week run more smoothly. She unpacks something she created Sunday Planning which helps you create a plan to grow in your life and business consistently. You will walk away from this conversation not only inspired but also with an action plan. Check out bonus content from today's episode over on Patreon.   Sign up for Sarah's monthly Survival Kit Newsletter   Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram

I am happy to welcome Ashtin Cope to the table. She is a meal planner and is all about helping families save time and money when it comes to meal planning. She wants to take the guilt and stress out of it. Today, we talk about the tensions we feel behind preparing meals that often look like guilt. Then we chat about the benefits of meal planning and lastly she shares some actionable steps that you can start doing today. Check out bonus content from today's episode over on Patreon.   Sign up for Sarah's monthly Survival Kit Newsletter   Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram