Love Your Story

Episode 227: Blooming – Interview Carrington Smith

Episode 227: Blooming - Interview Carrington Smith Welcome to the Love Your Story podcast. The most beautiful flowers and plants bloom with fertilizer, water, and light. Today’s guest, Carrington Smith, says in her book, “I had been told to shut up and not tell my story. It makes people feel uncomfortable. But the truth is that my power, my secret weapons, my gifts are IN my stories. That is where I discovered the authentic me - where I discovered the gifts, the buried treasure - in all the ...

Episode 226: Life is Hard, But I’ll Be Okay – Interview Johnny Sirpilla

Episode 226: Life is Hard, But I'll Be Okay - Interview Johnny Sirpilla Welcome to the LYS Podcast. Today’s story is of Johnny Sirpilla, his wife Susan, their struggle with infertility, the death of their triplets, and the power of hope, coming through pain, and learning to live with gratitude.   Johnny Sirpilla, founder of Encourage, LLC, and author of Life is Hard, But I’ll Be OK, he is a professional speaker to businesses, communities and universities, about managing thoughts, leading yo...

Episode 225: Wonders and Miracles – Interview Liza Lawrence

Episode 225: Wonders and Miracles - Interview Liza Lawrence Albert Einstein said, “There are only two ways to live your life: as though nothing is a miracle, or as though everything is a miracle.” Miracles - what are they? I suggest that miracles are things that we don’t yet know how to explain. They are events or happenings that go beyond what we can do for ourselves. We often beg for miracles, search for miracles, or manifest miracles by our faith. One thing I found really interesting abo...

Episode 224: Practical Happiness – Interview with Pamela Gail Johnson

Episode 224: Practical Happiness - Interview with Pamela Gail JohnsonWelcome to the Love Your Story podcast. Let me start with a story: A Native American story tells about how god gathered his animal advisers together to help him decide where to hide the Secret to a Happy Life from humans.  He first asked the Eagle, “Where shall I put it?”  The Eagle answered, “I shall hide it at the top of the highest mountain. Man will never find it there.”  God considered this but decided against it. “One ...

Episode 223: Bitter or Better

Episode 223: Bitter or Better Rumi said, “The wound is the place the light enters you.” I love this gorgeous truth, the poetry of it, the truth in it, the hope of it.  In our times of suffering and trial it is often hard to see the purpose. Instead it’s the “why me?’ It’s the visceral jerking away from pain, it’s the scream. But if we realize that this too shall pass, and in its wake will be strength and color we don’t yet understand, we can hold to hope.  Join me today for insight from a ...

Episode 222: Hero On A Mission, Part 2 – With Jessica Burrell

Episode 222: Hero On A Mission, Part 2- With Jessica BurrellDonald Miller says, in his book,  Hero On A Mission, “Life is a beautiful experience and we get to participate in making it so….the idea that fate writes our story is a lie. We do not suffer fate, we partner with fate to write a story generated from our own God-given creativity and agency. And that story can be more than interesting, it can be meaningful.” Part 2 in this 2-part series puts Jessica Burrell and host Lori Lee in the hot...

Episode 221: Hero on a Mission, Part 1 – with Jessica Burrell

Episode 221: Hero on a Mission, Part 1 - with Jessica BurrellWelcome to the Love Your Story podcast! Today’s episode is a double whammy of goodness because we are going to be discussing some really fun ideas for moving our lives forward, from Donald Miller’s book - Hero on a Mission, and we’re doing it with Jessica Burrell, the owner of Amplify Your Vision, the fabulous transformational coach. Do you want your life story to be as meaningful as possible? Are you willing to take responsibility ...

Episode 220: Death with a Little “d” – Interview Margaret Meloni

Episode 220: Death with a Little "d" - Interview Margaret MeloniWhen a marriage fails, a friendship terminates, we find new wrinkles and new sagging skin, we lose a job or lose a beloved pet, the facts of impermanence stare, unblinking, at us. While logically we can acknowledge that impermanence is a matter of fact, a fact of life, it is also something we fear. We fear losing our youth, people and pets we love, a job that helps us define who we are, a way of life, wealth, etc. With that fear ...

Episode 219: Come Off Conqueror – Interview Bonnie Randall

Episode 219: Come Off Conqueror - Interview Bonnie Randall Welcome to the Love Your Story podcast. "You can't go back and change the beginning of your story... but you can start where you are today and change your ending" On today’s show we are talking about coming of conqueror. What does that mean? To conquer something is to prevail over it; to overcome and take control of. Often times we are held hostage by events in our pasts that have traumatized us. We are cripple by the abuses of othe...

Episode 218: Life Engineered – Interview Rusty Lindquist

Episode 218: Life Engineered- Interview Rusty Lindquist Welcome to the Love Your Story podcast! When we talk about living your life story with intention, we are essentially saying, let’s engineer our lives. Let’s look at what we want and purposefully create thought patterns and habits to be who we want to be. Rusty Lindquist was interviewed in the early years of the podcast - episode 21 - Remember that because you’re going to want to go back and listen to his story if you haven’t heard it ye...

Episode 217: What’s the Most Important Story in the World? Interview Mary Alice Arthur

Episode 217: What's the Most Important Story in the World? Interview Mary Alice ArthurFor all my Love Your Story listeners, you know the premise of the podcast is that we are living our story and while our backstories may be messy, coming to love and accept them is crucial to self-love and acceptance and to moving forward in a healthy way. We also constantly talk about the fact that since our lives are an unfolding story, and we have agency and intellect, we can, if we choose, control that st...

Episode 216: Resiliency – What does it take to bounce back?

Episode 216: Resiliency - What does it take to bounce back?Welcome to the Love Your Story podcast. Today we are talking about Resilience - let’s define it: Resilence is “an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change.” Lynn G. Robbins, a leader in the LDS church shared, “During my visit to Brigham Young University–Idaho in the fall of 2017, the school’s new president, Henry J. Eyring, told me that his foremost concern was the high dropout rate of college freshmen. Student...

Episode 215: Interview: Kimberly Hill – Men’s Relationship Coach

Episode 215: Interview: Kimberly Hill - Men's Relationship Coach Healthy relationships are one of the most important parts, if not THE most important part of creating a life story that we love. When it comes down to it, on our death beds, it’s always about the relationships we’ve had, not about how many days we worked, or how many toys we bought. Intimate relationships are crucial to our well-being. This relationship - the one with our significant other - finding them - the right one, and n...

Episode 214 – Walking on Water

Episode 214 - Walking on Water Welcome to the Love Your Story podcast! Today is about taking a walk on the water.  In my living room I have one picture of Christ. It is a picture of his feet. A picture of him from the knees down, walking on the water. I chose this painting, because in my soul I sense the deep importance of this display to us. The deep importance for us of learning to walk with faith, of coming to understand what it is, why it’s important, and how to develop and use it in our...

Episode 213: Got Trauma? Interview Trevor Lay, Mental Health Therapist

Episode 213: Got Trauma? Interview Trevor Lay Welcome to the Love Your Story podcast. As we live our life stories, and strive to create our best life story, we have the opportunity to deal with challenges. One of these challenges can be trauma. There are many things that cause trauma for us - violence, abuse, we’ll get into this more in the interview, and what causes trauma for some will not cause trauma in another, but learning to navigate and learn from it, and doing the work to make sure i...

Episode 212: Domestic Violence: Interview Brielle Cotterman and Melissa Haenchen

Episode 212: Domestic Violence: Interview Brielle Cotterman and Melissa Haenchen Brielle Cotterman is a TEDx Speaker, Publicity Expert, and Celebrity-Maker. She is a survivor of attempted murder and domestic violence and an advocate for a world where intimate partner abuse is not tolerated and survivors are met with empathy. She is a graduate of Indiana University, a World’s Grand Champion Equestrian, and she has been married for just over a year to the love of her life and owns & operates a ...

Episode 211: Healthy Co-Parenting: Interview with Jae Behrman and Amanda Louder

Episode 211: Healthy Co-Parenting: Interview with Jae Behrman and Amanda LouderWelcome to the Love Your Story podcast. Today I have an interesting duo. A divorced couple who had 3 children together. After their divorce they needed to heal and grow individually, but they also had to immediately co-parent. This is an important topic, because for children of broken homes, how this co-parenting is done can make a huge difference in how much baggage the children take away, in how secure the childr...

Episode 210: 3 Tips for Being Exceptional with Co-Host Jessica Burrell

Episode 210: 3 Tips for Being Exceptional with Co-Host Jessica BurrellLet's start off 2022 with 3 Tips for Being Exceptional. Join us in the audio program to hear the discussion about being exceptional and what these tips mean in much more detail: 3-Tips: #1 - It's How We Do What We Do. #2 - Be the Miracle #3 - Get off the Bench To contact Jessica Burrell: [email protected]

Episode 209: The Best of 2021 - Top 5 Downloaded Episodes

Episode 209: Best of 2021 Best of 2021 Welcome to the LYS Podcast! Today’s episode is one of my favorite of the year because it celebrates the listener favorites from the past year. Today we’ll hear little clips from the top five episodes of 2021. What did you guys love best? Which episodes lifted your spirits and gave you a dash of inspiration to create your best life story - whether that meant striving a little harder, living with intention, or making it through one of the muddy swamps in y...

Episode 208: What Do I Magnify?

Episode 208: What Do I Magnify? Whatever I see through the magnifying glass grows bigger. It is up to me where I focus that lense. At the beginning of the year I mentioned that my focus for the year was “What I focus on Expands.” We talked about that earlier, so today’s discussion is a little different - we’re talking about magnifying. It’s a space to ask yourself, what do I magnify? I think this topic is so important because it is the very power we create our stories with. What we magnify ...

Episode 207 It’s All About the Love: Interview Sterling Jaquith

Episode 207 It's All About the Love:Interview Sterling Jaquith Brene Brown said, “If we want to fully experience love and belonging, we must believe that we are worthy of love and belonging.” We are going to build on this idea. Step 1 is to believe we are worthy of love and belonging. Step 2 is to develop self-love I am currently reading a book called, Health Revelations from Heaven and Earth, by Tommy Rosa and Stephen Sinatra, MD, where Tommy shares his near-death experience and the thing...

Episode 206: A Doable, Enjoyable Guide to Living the Life You Want – Interview Danielle Dinkelman

Episode 206: A Doable, Enjoyable Guide to Living the Life You Want - Interview Danielle Dinkelman If Diets don’t work, What does? - A doable, enjoyable guide to living the life you want. Welcome to the Love Your Story podcast. Today’s episode is about how to create real change when we want to. It’s about our health and lifestyle. Now before you tune out because it’s been done a million times, let me tell you what’s different….Danielle Dinkelman was referred to me by a fellow podcast host. I l...

Episode 205: You Do You – Live Your Own Colorful Story

Episode 205: You Do You - Live Your Own Colorful Story   The other day I was emailing with a woman who said she was really concerned about her granddaughter. She was trying to teach her granddaughter - or encourage her - to do her own life. You Do You! She said infatically. I wondered which podcast episode might be a support to her granddaughter, and I suggested a couple, but I realized we talk about this all the time, in lots of different stories, but wouldn’t it be fun to have one episode ...

Episode 204: A Look at Adapting – Interview with Kimber Cross

Episode 204: A Look at Adapting - Interview Kimber Cross Welcome to the Love Your Story podcast where we sit around this technological campfire and share stories of doing hard and fabulous things, shining a light on overcoming road blocks for living our best lives on purpose.  Today’s guest, Kimber Cross, is an adaptive athlete from Tacoma, Washington. Born without fingers on her right hand, Kimber didn’t let that slow her down. From the time she was young her athletic spirit always found a ...

Episode 203: Today You Choose – It’s all about Family: Interview Jason Martin

Episode 203: Today You Choose - It's all about Family: Interview Jason Martin This is Your Captain Speaking - Life Lessons from the Journey So Far Welcome to the Love Your Story podcast. How often have you thought about the importance of intentionally making your family - the people you love - the most important thing in your life? Not just in word and intention, but in actuality?  On today’s show I’m talking with Jason Martin, the author or This is your Captain Speaking - Life Lessons from t...

Episode 202: Challenge #19 Meditation: Interview Andrea Carver

Episode 202: Challenge #19 Meditation: Interview Andrea Carver We create. Everyday we create connection, chaos, possibility, drama, conversation, expectations, money, homes, relationships, works of art, friction, love, stories, or we don’t… Our power lies in our ability to direct our life story with every choice  and every thought. Welcome to the 21 Challenges - 21 life hacks that have been set up to help you connect, take care of self, create possibility, and get out of the dol drums.  Th...

Episode 201: Iditarod Trail Invitational - 350 Miles of Self-Sustained Running in the Alaskan Wilderness: Interview - Austin Hansen

Episode 201: Iditarod Trail Invitational - 350 Miles of Self-Sustained Running in the Alaskan Wilderness: Interview - Austin Hansen The Iditarod Trail Invitational is the world's longest running winter ultra-marathon. One of the most challenging experiences on the planet, participants brave extreme physical, environmental and mental challenges as they travel along the historic Iditarod Trail on bicycle, foot or skis. Requiring self-sufficiency and the considerable resilience to make it throu...

Episode 200: Use Your Stories to Find Your Ideal Career – Interview Kerri Twigg

Episode 200: Use Your Stories to Find Your Ideal Career - Interview Kerri Twigg The Love Your Story podcast is about loving your story on all levels. Today we explore a new level - how to use story to find your best and most satisfying career - and we’ll start with the stories we tell about ourselves….no really, not just in theory and how those stories affect our self confidence, but these stories are the foundation for The Career Stories Method, by Kerri Twigg, as she helps us narrow in on t...

Episode 199: Challenge #16 – Free Hugs

Episode 199: Challenge #16 - Free HugsWe create. Everyday we create connection, chaos, possibility, drama, conversation, expectations, money, homes, relationships, works of art, friction, love, stories, or we don’t… Our power lies in our ability to direct our life story with every choice and every thought. Welcome to the 21 Challenges - 21 life hacks that have been set up to help you connect, take care of your beautiful self, create possibility, and get out of the dol drums.  This series of p...

Episode 198: She Made a Difference for a Living

Episode 198: She Made a Difference for a LivingSomeone at the memorial service on Monday referred to her as a homespun philanthropist, though I doubt she would have liked that description. Her wit was too sharp to fit the mellow image of homespun. As for philanthropist? She once said, “That’s such a pretentious word.” Welcome back to the Love Your Story podcast. The clip I’ve just shared comes from a woman’t obituary that died probably 25 years ago.  So many years ago, I can’t remember the da...

Episode 197: Challenge #14 – 22 Minutes of Focus

Episode 197: Challenge #14 - 22 Minutes of Focus: Time Blocking and Momentum We create. Everyday we create connection, chaos, possibility, drama, conversation, expectations, money, homes, relationships, works of art, friction, love, stories, or we don’t… Our power lies in our ability to direct our life story with every choice  and every thought. Welcome to the Love Your Story podcast and the 21 Life Connection Challenges - 21 life hacks that have been set up to help you connect, take care o...

Episode 196: A Story of Rape and Healing – Interview Janiel Green

Episode 196: A Story of Rape and Healing - Interview Janiel Green What you see when you look at Janiel Green, the creator of Culture Trekking, is hundreds of beautiful photos of her travels all over the world. She is snorkeling in beautiful blue waters, and standing on top of mountains. She’s laughing at the camera with her beautiful smile,  but the story always goes deeper. Culture Trekking was created by this vivacious young woman as a way to survive a brutal rape. When it came time to choo...

Episode 195: Challenge #12 – Forward Someone Else’s Agenda

Episode 195: Challenge #12 Challenge #12 -  Give someone in your SOI hardy encouragement for something they are doing. Do what you can to forward their agenda.  We create. Everyday we create connection, chaos, possibility, drama, conversation, expectations, money, homes, relationships, works of art, friction, love, stories, or we don’t… Our power lies in our ability to direct our life story with every choice  and every thought. Welcome to the Love Your Story podcast and the 21 Life Connect...

Episode 194: Do the Work to Heal – Interview Andrea Carver

Episode 194: Do the Work to HealInterview Andrea CarverWelcome back to the Love Your Story podcast…if you are a regular listener to this podcast you know how the stories you tell yourself create your reality. That’s what the whole Love Your Story movement is about —helping you to realize and take control of your life stories.  Wayne Dyer said, “Be open to everything and attached to nothing.” This is key as we do work with our own stories. Today I have a treat for you. Andrea Carver is here on...

Episode 193: Think Unbroken – Interview with Michael Anthony

Episode 193: Think Unbroken - Interview with Michael Anthony Michael Anthony was born to a hyper-abusive drug addict mother who cut his finger off when he was 4-years-old, a step father you pray you never have, and a  racist grandmother who pushed him into an identity crisis. By the time he was 9 his family was often homeless, certainly living in poverty, and he was eventually adopted by his grandmother. He turned to drugs and alcohol to survive the continued abuse. There is a lot more to Mi...

Episode 192: Challenge 11: Say YES to something you would usually say no to.

Episode 192: Challenge 11: Say YES to something you would usually say no to. We create. Everyday we create connection, chaos, possibility, drama, conversation, expectations, money, homes, relationships, works of art, friction, love, stories, or we don’t… Our power lies in our ability to direct our life story with every choice  and every thought. Welcome to the Love Your Story podcast and the 21 Life Connection Challenges - 21 life hacks that have been set up to help you connect, take care o...

Episode 191: A Tool for Testing Conspiracy Theories – Interview Jeannie Banks Thomas

Episode 191: A Tool for Testing Conspiracy Theories - Interview Jeannie Banks Thomas I don’t know about you, but every day my husband comes home and informs me of the latest conspiracy theory he’s heard around the water cooler at work. About how the government is collapsing, the political parties are behind any number of heinous crimes, and of course that the constitution is hanging by a thread. Corona virus was created to get us all chipped through vaccines, and the powers that be are schedu...

Episode 190: Challenge #9 – Take Someone to Lunch

Episode 190: Challenge #9 – Take Someone to Lunch We create. Everyday we create connection, chaos, possibility, drama, conversation, expectations, money, homes, relationships, works of art, friction, love, stories, or we don’t… Our power lies in our ability to direct our life story with every choice  and every thought. Welcome to the Love Your Story podcast and the 21 Life Connection Challenges - 21 life hacks that have been set up to help you connect, take care of your fabulous self, creat...

Episode 190: Challenge #9 - Take Someone to Lunch

Episode 189: Makes Loaves, Not War

Episode 189: Cuyler Black,  Make Loaves, Not War Welcome back to the Love Your Story podcast. We all love a good story and today I bring you a story from one of my favorite cartoonists. Today’s episode features Cuyler Black. It’s story time. In his ever so humorous, and even joyfully irreverent way, Cuyler Black, a …. Minister, creates stories and comics that bring home important points with humor and humanizing. Today’s story - Make Loaves, Not War is a little reminder of what Christ meant...

Episode 188 – Own Your Story

Episode 188: Own Your Story It’s a fact that some people come through difficult times bitter, broken and cynical, while others emerge wiser, more empathetic and stronger. I believe the path connecting the two - the journey between the pain and the growth is maybe the most important part of the path. I have a story - it’s all mine. I write it everyday. Today I may throw in a plot twist as I get ready to change jobs, or free myself from a bad relationship, or adopt a child. I may create a pea...

Episode 187 – Spiritual Gifts: Interview Deb Atella

Episode 187 - Spiritual Gifts: Interview Deb Atella Have you ever wondered what your spiritual gifts are? What is a spiritual gift? Spiritual gifts are acknowledged as  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_of_wisdom (word of wisdom), the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_of_knowledge (word of knowledge), increased https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faith_in_Christianity (faith), the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gifts_of_healing (gifts of healing), the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gift_of_miracle...

Episode 186 - What You Focus on Expands

Episode 186 What You Focus on ExpandsThe Law of Perpetual Transmutation If what you focus on expands let’s make damn sure we are focusing on things we want to expand. Do you want your waistline to expand? Do you want your bills to expand? Do you want your ornery neighbor to spend more time staring over your fence? Do you want the effects of COVID to have more power in your life? Nah….let’s think about things we do want.  What do you think of focusing on the things you CAN do and not the thing...

Episode 186 – What You Focus on Expands

Episode 186 What You Focus on Expands The Law of Perpetual Transmutation If what you focus on expands let’s make damn sure we are focusing on things we want to expand. Do you want your waistline to expand? Do you want your bills to expand? Do you want your ornery neighbor to spend more time staring over your fence? Do you want the effects of COVID to have more power in your life? Nah….let’s think about things we do want. What do you think of focusing on the things you CAN do and not the th...

Episode 185: A Story About Life on the Trail – Interview Barney “Scout” Mann

Episode 185: A Story About Life on the Trail - Interview Barney "Scout" Mann Welcome back to the Love Your Story podcast. As you may or may not know I am an avid hiker. I am the author of two editions of The Best Hikes Near Salt Lake City, published by Falcon Guides. I’m the author of Wild Weekends in Utah, and The Best Snowshoe Trails of the Wasatch. Because of my love of being on the trails, in nature, I have harbored secret desires to hike the countries longest trails - the real crow jewel...

Episode 184: Accept and Nurture Your Awesome

Episode 184: Accept and Nurture Your Awesome No matter who you are, or where you came from, you are a beautiful miracle full of talents, ideas, light and potential. There are a lot of messy things in the process of living that can make us feel unworthy, that easily create spaces of not-good-enough. One thing I know for sure is that those stories - those voices are NOT true. No matter who you are. I’ve watched some of the most incredible people on the planet struggle with feelings of not bei...

Episode 183: The Best of 2020

The Best of 2020 As 2020 comes to an end, many of us won’t be sad to see it end. Many will be hoping that a new year will be bringing a clean, safe, healthy slate, a hope for better things than we’ve seen. If that wasn’t just the craziest year to-date. We’ve had intense social unrest resulting in riots with serious injuries and massive property damage; we’ve had the circus we call elections, COVID, of course, which meant quarantines, higher than normal death tolls, and life as we know it can...

Episode 182: Miracles Abound – Interview Richard Paul Evans

Episode 182: Miracles Abound- Interview Richard Paul Evans and Christmas Box International Direcor, Celeste Edmunds Welcome to the Love Your Story podcast. Today is our Christmas episode, and since Christmas is a season of love, of miracles, of family, of wintery fun and of treats. Well, I have a treat for you. Today Richard Paul Evans, author of the Christmas Box and 40 consecutive NYT Bestsellers, that always seem to come out around Christmas time, and Celeste Edmunds the Exec. Director of ...

Episode 181 Challenge #7 - Pick ONE Thing for You.

Episode 181 Challenge #7 – Pick ONE Thing for You.

Episode 181 Challenge #7 Pick ONE Thing for You Elenor Brown said, “Self care is any action you purposefully take to improve your physical, emotional or spiritual well being.” Today’s episode is part of a series that explores the challenges in the book: LIFE - Living Intentional and Fearless Every day - the 21 LIFE Connection Challenges. THIS is a PERMISSION episode. Today we are on challenge #7 - to pick one thing you’ve been wanting to do or buy for yourself and just do it. I don’t know a...