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A lot of dads look at the mom and daughter bond and quietly decide they're not really needed. They show up a little less, let the weekends slide, and call it giving her space. Michael Steven went the other direction and kept showing up, even on the days when mom and daughter ganged up on him.

Join Anna as she sits down with Michael, a coach for single girl dads who has had 50/50 custody of his daughter for 15 years. They get into the energy shift that happens when a kid moves between two homes, the advice from Michael's own dad that sounded simple and turned out to be really hard, and why so many good dads end up getting run over. He's honest about the moments he didn't handle well in his late 20s, what changed when he stopped reacting, and the compliment from his now 16-year-old daughter that stopped him in his tracks.

This Episode Covers:

• The energy shift when a daughter comes home from her mom's house.
• Why "give her 20 minutes" is so much harder than it sounds.
• Finding an outlet that actually regulates your energy.
• Taking accountability for who you created a child with.
• Why most of the dads Michael works with are too nice.
• Getting pulled in to play part-time referee between mom and daughter.
• What a real repair sounds like after you've said the wrong thing about her mom.
• What a daughter learns from watching how her dad handles people.

Connect with Michael Steven:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michaelstevenmindset
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@michaelstevenmindset
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michaelstevenmindset
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@michaelstevenmindset

Until next time, here's to deeper connections and personal growth.
Mad love!

Book a Discovery Call for Coaching/Therapy: https://calendly.com/badassconfidencecoach/coaching

The podcast is now on YouTube! If you prefer to watch, head over to https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLw3CabcJueib20U_L3WeaR-lNG_B3zYqu

Don’t forget to subscribe to the Badass Confidence Coach podcast on your favorite podcast platform!

CONNECT WITH ANNA:
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/askannamarcolin/
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The dishwasher is right next to the sink. Right there. And the dish still ends up in the sink, and before long Anna is barking orders about the dishes and the stuff piled on the stairs, Tim swears he has never once left a dish in there (there was that one time), and everyone in the house has somehow ended up crew on her pirate ship.

Join Anna and Tim as they get honest about what raising five kids in a blended family taught them about control, and how little of it they actually had. The kid with a real arm who couldn't have cared less. The one who walked away from football and wrestling in the same year. Career and faith decisions that had their heads exploding. Years of Anna being a character in a story told in a room she would never be in. And the question she still asks herself, and her clients, when she feels her grip tightening. She still wants the dishes in the dishwasher, though.

This Episode Covers:

• What's really going on when a dish in the sink turns into a whole thing.
• Expectations you're holding that nobody else in the house knows about.
• Why you can be right about your kid's potential and still have no say in it.
• "Why did you let me quit?" and the things adult kids remember differently.
• How kids can tell a real boundary from anxiety wearing a boundary costume.
• Being the stepmom in a story you'll never get to correct.
• Staying close enough to influence someone you didn't get to design.

Until next time, here's to deeper connections and personal growth.
Mad love!

Book a Discovery Call for Coaching/Therapy: https://calendly.com/badassconfidencecoach/coaching

The podcast is now on YouTube! If you prefer to watch, head over to https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLw3CabcJueib20U_L3WeaR-lNG_B3zYqu

Don’t forget to subscribe to the Badass Confidence Coach podcast on your favorite podcast platform!

CONNECT WITH ANNA:
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/askannamarcolin/
TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/tag/askannamarcolin
Email hello@annamarcolin.com
Website https://www.annamarcolin.com

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You know better. You knew you shouldn't have raised your voice, shouldn't have gotten defensive, shouldn't have interrupted, and you did it anyway. Then it's over, and there's no resolve, just the wreckage of a conversation that went sideways fast.

Join Anna and Tim as they get into why knowing your communication skills and actually having access to them in the moment are two completely different things. They talk about what's really happening in your body before a hard conversation goes off the rails, the signals most people ignore until it's too late, and why telling someone to calm down might be the worst thing you can do. Tim pushes back with his own real-time examples from their marriage, and Anna walks through what it takes to catch yourself before the fight turns into a fight to win.

This Episode Covers:

• Why knowing your communication skills and having access to them when you're activated are two completely different things.
• The physical signals that show up right before you say something you can't take back.
• The four words Anna repeats to herself before every hard conversation.
• Why "calm down" and "relax" are the two words you should never say to someone who's upset.
• What a real break looks like versus a door slam and a "screw you, I'm done".
• How your nervous system can react to the past while you're arguing about something totally different.
• The question Anna asks herself that changes the whole direction of a hard conversation.

Until next time, here's to deeper connections and personal growth.
Mad love!

Book a Discovery Call for Coaching/Therapy: https://calendly.com/badassconfidencecoach/coaching

The podcast is now on YouTube! If you prefer to watch, head over to https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLw3CabcJueib20U_L3WeaR-lNG_B3zYqu

Don’t forget to subscribe to the Badass Confidence Coach podcast on your favorite podcast platform!

CONNECT WITH ANNA:
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/askannamarcolin/
TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/tag/askannamarcolin
Email hello@annamarcolin.com
Website https://www.annamarcolin.com

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Confidence is a feeling. Competence is evidence. And when the evidence changes, the feelings don't always catch up.

Join Anna and Tim as they dig into what Anna's calling the imposter phenomenon, not syndrome, and why it doesn't fade with success; it gets louder. They talk about the corrupt accounting system that discounts every win and magnifies every mistake, what happens when your identity lags behind a new role, and why some high achievers have been running on anxiety without realizing it's the only thing keeping them going. Tim pushes back with a football analogy Anna isn't fully buying, and they land on the five questions worth asking yourself the next time the doubt creeps back in.

This Episode Covers:

• Learning to separate what actually happened from the story you add to it within seconds.
• Using internal family systems to notice which part of you is driving the reaction, not the whole self.
• Realizing the real question under most fights is: are you there for me? Can I reach you?
• Naming the cycle as the actual problem instead of each other: the pattern where one pursues, and the other withdraws.
• Choosing to be effective over being right, even when you have the receipts to prove you're correct.
• Noticing the small daily bids for connection instead of waiting for the big romantic gestures.
• Making the repair instead of chasing perfect communication.
• Recognizing that a partner cannot be responsible for managing your entire inner world.

Until next time, here's to deeper connections and personal growth.
Mad love!

Book a Discovery Call for Coaching/Therapy: https://calendly.com/badassconfidencecoach/coaching

The podcast is now on YouTube! If you prefer to watch, head over to https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLw3CabcJueib20U_L3WeaR-lNG_B3zYqu

Don’t forget to subscribe to the Badass Confidence Coach podcast on your favorite podcast platform!

CONNECT WITH ANNA:
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/askannamarcolin/
TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/tag/askannamarcolin
Email hello@annamarcolin.com
Website https://www.annamarcolin.com

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You can know every framework for connection and communication and still lose it the second your partner looks at their phone instead of you. Three seconds later, your brain has already built a whole story about what that means.

Join Anna and Tim as they break down five things marriage has actually taught them about emotional intelligence, the kind you only learn by living it, not by studying it. They get into the difference between a feeling and the story you build around it, the real question hiding underneath most arguments, and why choosing to be right can quietly cost you the thing you actually wanted.

This Episode Covers:

• Learning to separate what actually happened from the story you add to it within seconds.
• Using internal family systems to notice which part of you is driving the reaction, not the whole self.
• Realizing the real question under most fights is: are you there for me? Can I reach you?
• Naming the cycle as the actual problem instead of each other: the pattern where one pursues and the other withdraws.
• Choosing to be effective over being right, even when you have the receipts to prove you're correct.
• Noticing the small daily bids for connection instead of waiting for the big romantic gestures.
• Making the repair instead of chasing perfect communication.
• Recognizing that a partner cannot be responsible for managing your entire inner world.

Until next time, here's to deeper connections and personal growth.
Mad love!

Book a Discovery Call for Coaching/Therapy: https://calendly.com/badassconfidencecoach/coaching

The podcast is now on YouTube! If you prefer to watch, head over to https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLw3CabcJueib20U_L3WeaR-lNG_B3zYqu

Don’t forget to subscribe to the Badass Confidence Coach podcast on your favorite podcast platform!

CONNECT WITH ANNA:
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/askannamarcolin/
TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/tag/askannamarcolin
Email hello@annamarcolin.com
Website https://www.annamarcolin.com

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There's a version of new motherhood nobody posts about. The one where the thoughts get darker than "I'm tired," and a mom goes quiet instead of saying them out loud, because she's scared of what people will think, or scared her kid will be taken away.

Join Anna for this conversation, where therapist Kristin Mize breaks down what actually separates the baby blues from postpartum depression, anxiety, and psychosis, and why so many women never get the language to name what they're feeling in time. Kristin talks through the fear that keeps women silent, the toll of judging your own thoughts on top of already struggling, and why she tells every client walking through her door that there's zero judgment in the room. It's not a lecture on symptoms. It's a real look at why women stay quiet, and what happens when they finally don't.

This Episode Covers:

• The real difference between postpartum blues, depression, anxiety, and psychosis.
• Why so many women are afraid to say what they're actually thinking or feeling.
• The line "if you're not speaking it, you're storing it".
• Why postpartum isn't capped at six weeks and can stretch well past a year.
• How judging your own thoughts on top of already struggling buries you deeper.
• Why a NICU stay or birth trauma raises the risk of a postpartum mood disorder.
• What it looks like for high-achieving, type A moms when motherhood takes away control.

Mentioned in this episode:
Postpartum Support International - https://postpartum.net/

Connect with Kristin Mize:
Website - https://www.kristinmize.com/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/calmmomcollective/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/groups/calmmomcollective

Until next time, here's to deeper connections and personal growth.
Mad love!

Book a Discovery Call for Coaching/Therapy: https://calendly.com/badassconfidencecoach/coaching

The podcast is now on YouTube! If you prefer to watch, head over to https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLw3CabcJueib20U_L3WeaR-lNG_B3zYqu

Don’t forget to subscribe to the Badass Confidence Coach podcast on your favorite podcast platform!

CONNECT WITH ANNA:
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/askannamarcolin/
TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/tag/askannamarcolin
Email hello@annamarcolin.com
Website https://www.annamarcolin.com

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You've already had this argument. In the shower, in the car, at 2 am when you can't sleep. You've explained your side perfectly, anticipated every comeback, and won every round. The only problem is the other person was never actually in the room.

Join Anna and Tim as they talk about why most people don't avoid hard conversations because of the actual issue. It's because you can't control what happens once you say it out loud. They get into the slow retreat that happens instead: the distance, the sarcasm, the twelve smaller arguments instead of the one real one, and what it actually takes to finally have the conversation you've been avoiding.

This Episode Covers:

• Why the argument you've perfected in your head never goes the way you planned it.
• The moment avoidance stops being peacekeeping and starts being resentment.
• What happens in a relationship when one person pushes, and the other shuts down.
• Why waiting six months to say something changes nothing except how it lands.
• The difference between wanting someone to understand you and needing them to.
• What it actually means to own your part without taking the blame for everything.
• The line between someone needing a minute and someone punishing you for talking.
• Why confidence has nothing to do with controlling how the other person reacts.

Until next time, here's to deeper connections and personal growth.
Mad love!

Book a Discovery Call for Coaching/Therapy: https://calendly.com/badassconfidencecoach/coaching

The podcast is now on YouTube! If you prefer to watch, head over to https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLw3CabcJueib20U_L3WeaR-lNG_B3zYqu

Don’t forget to subscribe to the Badass Confidence Coach podcast on your favorite podcast platform!

CONNECT WITH ANNA:
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/askannamarcolin/
TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/tag/askannamarcolin
Email hello@annamarcolin.com
Website https://www.annamarcolin.com

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There's a gap between knowing what to do and actually doing it, and most people live in that gap far longer than they need to. Jayne Havens doesn't. Diagnosed with ADHD as an adult, she says her brain just doesn't do the "should I, shouldn't I" loop, she treats her business like a video game she's playing against herself, one level beaten so she can get to the next one. The strategy part was never really the hard part for her. The hard part is making the call in the first place.

Join Anna as she talks with Jayne, a sleep consultant who built a business, then built a second business teaching other people how to become sleep consultants, about what actually separates people who follow through from people who stay stuck. It's not a better plan or more information. It's deciding, outsourcing what isn't your strength, and trusting yourself enough to keep going before you have it all figured out.

This Episode Covers:

• The advice from her father that made spending money on her business feel easy instead of scary.
• Why she still gets burnt out carrying the weight of her clients' anxiety, even when she loves the work.
• The boundaries she puts in place so a trip abroad doesn't put her business at risk.
• Why she believes hiring people who don't show up the way you would can quietly destroy a business.
• The moment she felt embarrassed to tell her own family that she wanted more.
• Her take on the worst advice you can follow: someone else's plan for your life.
• What she wishes more people understood about why entrepreneurs actually do this work.

Connect with Jayne:
Website - https://thesnoozefest.com/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/snoozefestbyjaynehavens
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/SnoozeFestbyJayneHavens/

Until next time, here's to deeper connections and personal growth.
Mad love!

Book a Discovery Call for Coaching/Therapy: https://calendly.com/badassconfidencecoach/coaching

The podcast is now on YouTube! If you prefer to watch, head over to https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLw3CabcJueib20U_L3WeaR-lNG_B3zYqu

Don’t forget to subscribe to the Badass Confidence Coach podcast on your favorite podcast platform!

CONNECT WITH ANNA:
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/askannamarcolin/
TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/tag/askannamarcolin
Email hello@annamarcolin.com
Website https://www.annamarcolin.com