Shame-Free Money Coaching: Kristin Mason on Kindness, Accountability, and Mindful Spending

Host Connie Warden welcomes Kristin Mason, a financial coach who helps entrepreneurs and small business owners organize finances and build supportive financial teams, with a focus on reducing money stress, shame, and self-doubt.

Kristin shares her path from running an in-home daycare and having an insurance background to gaining financial education after attending a budgeting workshop, then working eight years educating families on budgeting, investing, and protection before leaving to create a more client-centered, shame-free, judgment-free coaching approach.

Connie and Kristin discuss why accountability paired with compassion helps people follow through, especially for women who often prioritize others, and highlight Kristin’s seasonal challenges focused on gratitude and reframing savings.

Kristin offers a practical habit: pause before spending and ask whether a purchase aligns with current priorities without labeling it good or bad, and emphasizes treating financial missteps as a story rather than an identity.

You can find Kristin here on Facebook, her Website, Instagram.

00:00 Welcome and Theme
00:45 Meet Kristin Mason
03:35 Kristin’s Career Origin Story
10:36 Building Shame Free Coaching
13:11 Money Mindset Challenges
16:41 Accountability Without Judgment
19:03 Pause Before You Spend
21:47 Humor Over Money Shame
24:10 Golf and Letting Go
26:12 Find Kristin and Closing

Connie here! Want to know more about my book "Speeding to Compassion: Life Lessons and Humor to the Highroad", acupuncture, and my online yoga classes? Check out my website

Dr. Julie Marty-Pearson on Podcasting, Community, and Amplifying Women’s Voices

Host Connie Warden welcomes Dr. Julie Marty-Pearson, her podcast coach and founder of Podcast Your Story Productions, who shares how health challenges, grief, and burnout after 20 years teaching psychology and statistics led her to pivot into entrepreneurship in 2020.

Julie began as a career coach for women, then discovered podcasting through a class and launched The Story of My Pet, which grew into a top 5% “small but mighty” show and introduced her to supportive communities.

After attending PodFest and a She Podcasts event in 2024, she shifted her business to helping women podcast and created the Women’s Podcaster Party networking event, emphasizing simple, accessible approaches over expensive gear and complex editing.

Julie discusses her focus on women’s representation, humor as coping (Schitt’s Creek, Clue), and her newer show Still Becoming: Women Unmuted covering women’s issues like healthcare, chronic illness, mental health, and being child-free; she shares how to connect via juliemartypearson.com.

00:00 Welcome to the Podcast
00:34 Meet Dr Julie Marty Pearson
02:07 Health Wake Up Call
03:27 From Academia to Coaching
04:19 First Podcast Origin Story
05:58 Simple Podcasting Approach
08:11 Guesting Versus Hosting
09:30 Women Centered Podcasting
10:50 Community and Representation
13:36 Humor and Comfort Shows
16:12 Still Becoming Women Unmuted
18:15 Where to Find Julie
18:59 Final Thanks and Sign Off

You can reach Julie at her WEBSITE, FACE BOOK, LINKEDIN, INSTAGRAM, YOU TUBE, PINTREST, SUBSTACK.

Connie here! Want to know more about my book "Speeding to Compassion: Life Lessons and Humor to the Highroad", acupuncture, and my online yoga classes? Check out my website

Intuitive Mindset Coaching and Learning to Trust Inner Guidance with Fran Gallaer.

Host Connie Warden welcomes intuitive mindset coach Fran Gallagher to discuss what intuitive coaching looks like, describing it as asking questions while also receiving and sharing information in-session, and emphasizing the need for permission and structure.

Fran recounts growing up with abuse and neglect, seeing non-physical beings, and early experiences that confirmed her intuitive perception, including unexpected accurate palm-reading details.

They explore spirituality as ephemeral and accessed through intuition and the “clairs,” sharing examples like smelling smoke as a warning, Connie’s inexplicable decision to go downstairs that led to helping her cat, a vacation bath impulse that revealed a failing water heater, finding Connie’s missing cats, and an intuition-based job outcome that unfolded in stages.

Fran offers a first step for those who’ve outgrown their life: ask “What do I have energy for?” and take small, grounded next steps.

00:00 Welcome to Mindful Kindful
00:42 Meet Fran Gallagher
02:22 What Is Intuitive Coaching
05:34 Early Intuition Awakening
10:19 Outgrowing Your Life
12:15 Spirituality and the Clairs
17:57 Everyday Intuition Stories
22:04 Finding Lost Cats
24:42 Intuition in Real Life
30:34 First Steps and Prompts
34:56 Closing and How to Connect

Find out about Fran's Intuitive Sessions and her classes at her website.

Connie here! Want to know more about my book "Speeding to Compassion: Life Lessons and Humor to the Highroad", acupuncture, and my online yoga classes? Check out my website

Alison Kirk: From Addiction & Eating Disorders to Peak-Bagging, Ultra Running, and Healing

Host Connie welcomes Alison Kirk—author, entrepreneur, elite climber, ultra runner, and co-founder of The Kirk Project—who shares how a childhood shaped by alcoholism led to her own addiction, then a turning point hiking at Echo Lake that reignited her drive to change. Alison describes transforming through running, then struggling with anorexia and bulimia, and surviving a 2011 winter climbing accident that broke her femur and sparked deeper recovery through therapy and support groups. She recounts building a life with her current husband John centered on mountains, completing every Colorado peak above 10,000 feet, and launching The Kirk Project to climb all contiguous U.S. peaks above 12,000 feet (about 2,122). Alison also details years of unexplained illness caused by cobalt metal poisoning from femur hardware, the importance of having a support team, cultivating a growth mindset, and “doing hard things.”

Check out Alyson's Website, Facebook, Instagram and her book "

00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro
01:35 Ultra Running Buckles
02:25 Childhood and Addiction Roots
05:38 Echo Lake Turning Point
07:52 Gym Comeback and New Life
09:51 Marathons and Fourteeners
12:12 Eating Disorders Spiral
13:56 Near Fatal Climbing Fall
18:25 Recovery Divorce and Support
21:31 Kirk Project Peak Goals
25:01 Mysterious Illness and Gaslighting
27:56 Metal Poisoning Diagnosis
29:14 Growth Mindset and Hard Things
32:59 Books Socials and Farewell

Connie here! Want to know more about my book "Speeding to Compassion: Life Lessons and Humor to the Highroad", acupuncture, and my online yoga classes? Check out my website

Inside Air Traffic Control: Stress, Safety, and Why Modernization Takes Time

On the Mindful Kindful Living Podcast, the host interviews her husband Brett Warden, an air traffic controller and MITRE subject matter expert who has worked on modernizing airspace and procedures for airports including Singapore and Hong Kong, participated in multiple FAA projects, and spent 25 years as a terminal radar controller in Denver, including the Stapleton-to-DIA transition. Brett recounts air traffic control’s start in 1929 with Archie League using flags and later lights, explains how flights move through ground, tower, departure, en route, and arrival controllers, and describes demanding shift schedules and stress management through confidence and puzzle-solving. He discusses how mistakes are reviewed with recordings and replays, traffic volumes and busiest airports, and why ATC modernization is slow, costly, specialized, and safety-critical. He addresses staffing shortages, training timelines, TSA PreCheck, and explains aviation safety mechanisms and limits, including a Denver takeoff tire-blow incident.

00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro
02:25 Origins of Air Traffic Control
04:40 How the ATC System Works
06:58 Controller Shifts and Fatigue
08:58 Stress Mindset and Confidence
12:58 Mistakes and Accountability
14:39 Radio Talk and Listening In
16:44 Traffic Volume and Busiest Airports
18:35 Modernization Takes Time
22:23 What Modernizing Means
27:02 US vs International Airports
29:06 Funding Cuts and Staffing Crunch
32:32 TSA PreCheck Debate
34:12 Is Flying Still Safe
37:09 Runway Tire Blowout Story
39:05 Closing Thoughts and Sign Off

Connie here! Want to know more about my book "Speeding to Compassion: Life Lessons and Humor to the Highroad", acupuncture, and my online yoga classes? Check out my website

Keith Renninson on Tenacity, Resilience, and the TRIP System

Host Connie Warden welcomes longtime friend Keith Renninson to Mindful Kindful Living to discuss applying mindfulness and compassion in real life through resilience and storytelling. Keith, a Colorado native, Vietnam veteran, professional speaker, and author of four books, recounts starting at New York Life in 1975, needing a stipend to survive, and being repeatedly given termination forms—fired six times in six months—while relying on mentoring, tenacity, and resilience to keep the job. He explains how getting lost while trekking alone in Nepal inspired his TRIP system—Tenacity, Resilience, Imagination, and Purpose—framed by journaling and “doing hard things,” with happiness as a choice. Keith shares vivid Nepal bus and chicken stories, reflects on tenacity as a life thread, mentions three heart attacks and new limits, and describes recovering from two broken ankles and subsequent knee replacements through challenging physical therapy.

00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro

01:33 Fired Six Times Story

06:00 TRIP System Origins

10:43 Nepal Bus Roof Adventure

16:41 Tenacity as Life Thread

19:20 Winter Park Drunk Skier Tale

24:04 Bouncing Back From Injuries

29:09 Happiness Choice Closing

Want to know more about my book, acupuncture, and my online yoga classes? Check out my website

Teaching with Heart: Trauma-Informed Mindfulness and Emotional Intelligence with Danielle Warden

Host Connie Warden welcomes listeners to the Mindful Kindful podcast and interviews her daughter-in-law, Danielle Warden, a certified classroom teacher with nearly two decades of experience, a mother of four, and a passionate advocate for social emotional learning and trauma-informed teaching. Danielle explains trauma-informed teaching as understanding the whole child and being mindful of how expectations, tone, and reactions affect students. She shares how pausing to consider what lies beneath behavior helps bridge the gap between intent and impact, and emphasizes restorative “repair” through apology and relationship-building to cultivate trust. Danielle recounts classroom practices like check-ins, student sharing, and writing to process strong emotions, highlighting the importance of validating feelings. She recommends The Anxious Generation and The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Families, and outlines a practical framework: notice, pause, choose, repair, and begin again.

00:00 Welcome to Mindful Kindful

00:38 Meet Danielle Warden

01:42 What Trauma Informed Means

03:00 Intent vs Impact in Moments

06:31 Repair and Restorative Practices

07:54 Camping Story with Luna

10:40 Classroom Trauma Check In

13:18 Writing It Out to Reset

16:22 Books That Shaped Danielle

18:11 Notice Pause Choose Repair

22:08 Begin Again Closing Thoughts

Want to know more about my book, acupuncture, and my online yoga classes? Check out my website

Trauma-Informed Healing for High Achievers: Polyvagal Tools, Burnout, and Authentic Growth with Elizabeth Ormes

Connie Warden interviews licensed clinical professional counselor Elizabeth Ormes, who has 28 years’ experience and owns Actualizing Your Best Self, working primarily with high achievers struggling with burnout, perfectionism, and disconnection. Ormes explains her level two trauma professional certification as extensive continuing study to better serve trauma survivors, and describes SSP (Safe and Sound Protocol) and RRP (Rest and Restore Protocol), sound-frequency tools based on Dr. Stephen Porges’ polyvagal theory that support nervous system regulation and help clients feel safe enough to go deeper in therapy. She shares a case example of an Ivy League–educated lawyer who, after months using SSP and RRP with therapy, became less catastrophizing and more attuned to bodily needs. They discuss common signs overachievers need help, the “sandwich generation,” brain maturation near age 30, and parting encouragement to seek support, stay curious, and embrace authenticity, including Ormes’ July 17 virtual Independent Women’s Conference appearance.

Learn more about Elizabeth on her Website, Linkedin, YouTube, Instagram

00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro

02:00 Trauma Certification Explained

04:38 Polyvagal Tools SSP RRP

09:08 Client Success Story

11:32 When High Achievers Hit a Wall

13:00 Life in the Sandwich Generation

17:01 Letting Loved Ones Choose

21:52 Shedding Layers and Greatness

22:33 Hopeful Parting Advice

25:28 Conference Plug and Closing

Connie here! Want to know more about my book "Speeding to Compassion: Life Lessons and Humor to the Highroad", acupuncture, and my online yoga classes? Check out my website