This episode kicks off week two of the Best-Of Re-Release Series with something a little different — a remix. Misty sat down with communication and executive-presence coach Laura Camacho in two separate conversations, and this episode pulls the very best moments from both into one.

Laura has spent twenty years coaching senior leaders to communicate under pressure, and in this remix she brings those same tools home — literally.

She and Misty talk about

🗯️💭 the single phrase that reframes almost any hard conversation ("what I understand you're saying is..."),

🗯️💭 why assuming positive intent changes the whole tone of a disagreement,

🗯️💭 and how sincerely building people up — noticing what's easy to overlook — makes people more receptive to everything else you have to say.

They also dig into what it looks like to be proactive instead of reactive as a mom: weekly family meetings, clear expectations, chores with real consequences, and raising kids who grow into contributors, not just people who are told what to do.

📖 Laura shares her favorite "mean mom" story — knocking on her daughters' doors at 5am to ask who left a glass in the sink — and what it taught her girls about consequences without anger.

Toward the end, Misty asks Laura the question she asks every seasoned mom: if you could leave your daughters with one piece of wisdom, what would it be? Laura's answer is a tender, honest word about grace in marriage — appreciating the good in your husband, and spending less time cataloging the opportunities for improvement.

Want more from Laura? ⬩➤ Check out her podcast, Speak Up: Develop Your Executive Presence & Leadership Communication Style: https://www.speakupwithlaura.com/ ⬩➤ Grab her FREE COMMUNICATION STYLE ASSESSMENT at https://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/ugc/story.php?title=mjy0nje3nayg5c

And if this stirred something in you about your own rhythms of growth, ✅ Grab the free Rhythms of Renewal mini-guide at https://mistyhughes.com/resources, or ✅ Join the BECOMING Cohort waitlist at mistyhughes.myflodesk.com/cohort. ✅ And be sure to join the conversation in our Facebook Group: Christian Women in Business & Ministry Other Podcast Episodes Mentioned Today 🎙️ Episode 111 Talking It Out About Communication with Craig Hughes https://mistyhughes.com/talking-it-out-about-communication-with-craig-hughes/ 🎙️ Episode 38 Finding Your Voice And Authority At Home https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/finding-your-voice-and-authority-at-home/id1738069561?i=1000685149835 🎙️ Episode 39 Be Proactive, Present, And Purposeful In Your Communication with Laura Camacho, PhD https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/be-proactive-present-and-purposeful-in-your/id1738069561?i=1000687101943

Misty and her husband Craig get honest about how they communicate differently — and the daily choice to assume the best instead of the worst.

🎙️Misty's husband Craig is back at the mic — and this time, he's not just a guest. He's the launch point for something new: over the next several weeks, Misty is re-releasing some of the most-loved conversations from Mom2Mom Mentoring, and this honest, unscripted talk about communication is where it all begins.

Craig and Misty get real about the small stuff that becomes big stuff:

💡 a light left on downstairs, 💡 an assumption made out of exhaustion, 💡 and the slow work of catching yourself before the story in your head becomes the story you believe. Misty even shares the (very relatable, slightly embarrassing) bidet story: a desire she sat on for months because she'd already decided, in her own mind, what Craig would say.

🪏 They dig into the real difference between a verbal processor and an internal processor — what it feels like on both sides, why interrupting isn't always about disrespect, and how Craig went from "performance listening" to actually listening to 💖 Misty's heart, not just her words.

Craig and Misty want to be honest with you: they're not counselors, and after six years of marriage, they're still learning what real connection looks like — for themselves and for each other.

That's exactly why this conversation matters, no matter how long you've been married. There's always room to grow in the way you communicate — and always room to shine a little brighter in how you love the people closest to you.

Ready to keep growing?

👉🏼 Grab the free Rhythms of Renewal mini-guide

https://mistyhughes/resources

👉🏼 Get on the waitlist for the next BECOMING Cohort

https://mistyhughes.com/cohort

🌹 And if you're curious about the journaling app Misty mentions, Rosebud, you can find it at rosebud.app. Want to listen on a conversation with REAL Counselors and hear what the word says about believing the best and communicating. 🎧 Listen to The Speakeasy | Episode 419 | The Secret to Couples Who Are Still Crazy About Each Other https://open.spotify.com/episode/1yS5CF7PZCdmu0eWs6zGwP

#communication styles, #Christian marriage, #marriage communication, #assuming the best, #verbal processor, #Craig Hughes, #marriage podcast

What does it actually look like to love a difficult person? Katina Wilkins shares a biblical framework that will change the way you see the hard relationships in your life.

Is there someone in your life right now who is hard to love? A child who pushes every button. A parent who never seems satisfied. A marriage that has grown painfully complicated. If you've ever wondered how you're supposed to keep loving when it's this hard — this conversation is for you.

Katina Wilkins is a Christian life coach, Bible teacher, and speaker who has spent over 20 years helping women navigate the hardest relationships of their lives. But her message didn't start in a classroom — it started at 3:00 AM in a prayer room, with a journal labeled "Battle Plans," asking God the same question many of us have asked: Lord, how do I do this?

In this episode, Katina walks us through 1 Corinthians 13 not as a familiar passage we've heard a hundred times, but as a lived framework for the relationships that are testing us most. She breaks down what love actually is, what it isn't — and what it always does. And she offers a reframe on boundaries that may change the way you see every hard relationship in your life: a boundary is not about self-protection. It's about loving the other person too much to let them continue to sin.

This conversation also opens with a direct word for any woman in an abusive relationship — because loving someone and staying somewhere unsafe are not the same thing. If that's you, please listen to the first few minutes before anything else.

You'll walk away from this episode with a clearer picture of what God-shaped love actually looks like — and the quiet confidence that you don't have to manufacture it on your own.

📖 WHAT WE COVER • Why loving difficult people starts with honesty — not effort • What 1 Corinthians 13 looks like as a daily practice, not a feeling • How kindness and boundaries work together (and why kindness is not a doormat) • The reframe that changes everything: boundaries are an act of love • What it means to love from God's fullness instead of your own empty cup • The one thing Katina wants every mom to carry into her week

📚 RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Love Is...Complicated: A Bible Study Handbook on Learning to Love Difficult People Well by Katina Wilkins https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F1DKFX2J

Morning by Morning Life Coaching — Katina's website https://mbmlifecoaching.com

Episode 108 — The Word Moms Need to Stop Saying (with Mary Gallagher) [Link to Ep. 108]

✨ CONNECT WITH MISTY 🌐 Website: https://mistyhughes.com 👥 Facebook Community — Christian Moms in Business & Ministry: https://www.facebook.com/groups/christianmomsinbusinessandministry 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_mistyhughes 🌱 BECOMING Cohort: https://mistyhughes.com/cohort ✨ Free Resource — Rhythms of Renewal Mini-Guide: https://mistyhughes.com/resources 🛖 Come to the Table Retreat: https://mistyhughes.com/cometothetable ✉️ Contact Misty: https://mistyhughes.com/inquire 📞 Book a Call with Misty: https://calendly.com/mistyhughes/call-with-misty

What if "should" is the word keeping you from the life God actually has for you? Mary Gallagher helps moms trade striving for open-handed faith.

What's the most dangerous word in a Christian mom's vocabulary? It might not be what you think.

In Episode 108 of Mom2Mom Mentoring, Misty sits down with writer and spiritual guide Mary Gallagher — founder of the Promised Land Mindset — for one of the most honest conversations this podcast has ever had about perfectionism, shame, and what it really means to parent from faith instead of fear.

Mary spent years living by the "should" list: what a good Christian wife should do, what a good mom shouldn't be, what a good woman of faith should look like. But after a pastor literally told her to "fit the mold," her perfectionism went into overdrive — and she didn't find her way out until she discovered that the striving was rooted in something deeper: shame.

In this conversation, Mary shares the moment God gave her a clear choice between faith and fear when her teenage son went down a hard road — and what happened when she chose faith. She opens up about the shooting star story that changed the way she looks at imperfection. And she introduces the simple, powerful practice of releasing the "shoulds" that are quietly keeping you from your promised land.

Here's what you'll take away from this episode: • Why perfectionism isn't about high standards — it's about shame • What it looks like to parent with open hands instead of a white-knuckled grip • How to identify the "shoulds" in your life and find the biblical truth that replaces them • What your promised land might look like — and why it's probably more about purpose than you think

🔗‍️ Resources Mentioned In The Episode

Grab Mary's free guide on shedding the "should" at promisedlandmindset.com/shouldleadmagnet

Download Misty's free Rhythms of Renewal Mini-Guide at mistyhughes.myflodesk.com/discoverrhythms

Ready to go deeper?

Come to the Table is Misty's four-day women's retreat for moms who are ready to stop striving and start receiving.

Registration is open at mistyhughes.com/cometothetable

✨ CONNECT WITH MISTY

Resources, community, and next steps — everything you need is right here.

🌐 Website

https://mistyhughes.com/

👥 Facebook Community — Christian Women in Business & Ministry

https://www.facebook.com/groups/christianmomsinbusinessandministry

📸 Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/the_mistyhughes

🌱 BECOMING Cohort

Discover the God-given freedom to live from your God-given identity, not your to-do list. A 12-week cohort for busy and ambitious Christian moms who are longing to renew their purpose.

https://mistyhughes.com/cohort

✨ Free Resource — Rhythms of Renewal Mini-Guide

Discover God’s life-giving rhythms.

https://mistyhughes.myflodesk.com/discoverrhythms

✉️ Contact Misty

https://mistyhughes.com/inquire

📞 Book a Call with Misty

https://calendly.com/mistyhughes/call-with-misty

When you shine, you give others permission to shine too. ✨

Christian sex educator Mary Whitman Ortiz joins Misty to talk about shame, God’s design for intimacy, and the freedom waiting on the other side.

There are conversations the church has been slow to have — and sexual intimacy is one of them.

In this episode, I sit down with Mary Whitman Ortiz, a Christian sex educator and certified relationship coach, to talk about what God actually intended when he designed intimacy between husband and wife. This is a conversation about shame, freedom, and what it looks like to come alive in places that have been quiet for a long time.

Mary shares her own story — a 26-year marriage that ended in divorce, the discovery of pornography’s long shadow, and the slow, intentional journey back to wholeness. She walks through what emotional safety in marriage really means, why women need to give their “mental yes” long before 10:30 at night, and how studying the original (God’s design) is always more powerful than focusing on the counterfeit.

Whether you grew up in purity culture, have never had a safe conversation about this, or just sense there is more joy available in your marriage than you’ve been living in — this episode was made for you.

Mary’s freedom is contagious.

And it is absolutely possible.

🔗 Resources from this episode: 💻 Mary Whitman Ortiz: https://www.limitlessintimacy.com 📚 FREE e-book — God’s GIFT to Marriage: https://www.limitlessintimacy.com/resources 🎙️ Mary’s podcast: Sexual Wholeness Revival

🌊 Come to the Table Retreat — Registration Open: https://mistyhughes.com/cometothetable

🔗Connect with Misty: Facebook Community: Christian Moms in Business and Ministry Rhythms of Renewal Mini-Guide: https://mistyhughes.myflodesk.com/discoverrhythms BECOMING Cohort Waitlist: https://mistyhughes.myflodesk.com/cohort

Financial coach Foluke Olayele reveals what managing money God's way actually looks like — and why it has everything to do with trust, not just budgets.

💸 Most of us never had a real conversation about money.

We inherited fear, silence, or survival mode — and somewhere along the way, we decided God was too holy for our bank account. Financial coach, author, and founder of Hand In Hand Consulting Foluke Olayele is here to tell you that's exactly backwards.

In this conversation, Foluke shares how a divorce, a digital book, and a Valentine's Day download from God put her on a path from debt to a paid-off home, a thriving career — and eventually, a calling to help women steward money God's way.

Her story is part miracle, part obedience, and completely relevant to the woman who has ever felt like her finances were too far gone, too complicated, or too embarrassing to bring to the Lord.

Misty and Foluke explore what it actually means to manage money with God as your provider — not just as a nice idea, but as a daily, practical reality for both single women and married ones.

🎯 They unpack the biblical distinction between debt and bondage, 🎯 The Parable of the Talents through a lens you may have never heard, and 🎯 Why "be fruitful and multiply" was never just about having babies. 🔎 There is also a stunning re-read of the Widow's Mite that will change the way you see that passage forever. 🔎

💸🤑💰 If you have been surviving financially instead of stewarding — or if money has felt like a subject you carry alone — this episode is for you.

Foluke's free resource — The 5 Biggest Mistakes You're Making with Inconsistent Income — is linked below. And if this conversation stirred something in you, come find us in the Christian Moms in Business and Ministry Facebook community, where the conversation is continuing this week.

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

🎁 Foluke's Free Resource: https://handinhandconsulting.net/3day-moneyresetguide 📖 Plant Your Money Seeds by Foluke Olayele — available on her website 🌿 Rhythms of Renewal Mini Guide (free): mistyhughes.com/resources 💬 Facebook Community: Christian Moms in Business and Ministry

✨ CONNECT WITH MISTY

Resources, community, and next steps — everything you need is right here.

🌐 Website

https://mistyhughes.com/

👥 Facebook Community — Christian Women in Business & Ministry

https://www.facebook.com/groups/christianmomsinbusinessandministry

📸 Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/the_mistyhughes

🌱 BECOMING Cohort

Discover the God-given freedom to live from your God-given identity, not your to-do list. A 12-week cohort for busy and ambitious Christian moms who are longing to renew their purpose.

https://mistyhughes.com/cohort

✨ Free Resource — Rhythms of Renewal Mini-Guide

Discover God’s life-giving rhythms.

https://mistyhughes.myflodesk.com/discoverrhythms

✉️ Contact Misty

https://mistyhughes.com/inquire

📞 Book a Call with Misty

https://calendly.com/mistyhughes/call-with-misty

When you shine, you give others permission to shine too. ✨

Have you met her yet? The real you — not the one who shows up capable and composed, not the one who knows exactly what to say in every room — but the one underneath all of that. If that question makes you go quiet, this episode is for you. 🌿

In this deeply personal episode, Misty shares the story of the first time she asked God to show her herself — and what He showed her wasn’t pretty.

🪨 It was a burnt stub. Charcoal black. Not completely dead, but barely alive.

And in that image, God didn’t give her a verdict. He gave her an invitation. He was saying: "I see what you’ve been through. I see what’s left. And I’m not done."

Years later, the ashes became literal when her marriage ended and she found herself alone, rebuilding — and it was in that desert season, deep in the Song of Solomon, that God kept meeting her to speak tenderly, not to shame her but to show her she was still His. Still lovely. 🤍

This episode explores the difference between knowing yourself through other people’s eyes — through what you do and how you perform — and knowing yourself through holy collaboration with your Creator.

Misty pushes back on the belief that self-knowledge is self-indulgent, grounding it in Psalm 139:23–24 where David himself prayed: Search me, God, and know my heart.

She walks through three practical postures for beginning to know yourself:

1️⃣ solitude as the container, 2️⃣ the difference between managing emotions and actually feeling them (including a free feelings wheel resource), and 3️⃣ the desert season as gift rather than punishment. 🌼

She brings it all home to the two scriptures that anchor the entire Known series: Isaiah 61:3 — a crown of beauty instead of ashes, and oaks of righteousness for the display of His splendor — and Song of Solomon 1:5 — I am dark but lovely. Not dark therefore unlovable. Not lovely once it’s cleaned up. Dark and lovely, both at once. God called her lovely in the dark. He’s calling you lovely too. ✨

This is the final episode in the Known series (Episodes 103, 104, and 105). If you missed the first two, the links are right here...in the show notes — waiting for you.

🌱 Free Rhythms of Renewal Mini Guide: https://mistyhughes.myflodesk.com/discoverrhythms

🎯 Free Notice, Name, Feel & Free Your Feelings Resource (includes feelings wheel): available at mistyhughes.com/resources

☎️ Book a complimentary discovery call: https://calendly.com/mistyhughes/call-with-misty

📞 Got a Mom2Mom Question? Leave a voicemail: https://www.speakpipe.com/msg/s/342885/13/1tpg128b2smursqi

👥 Join the Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/christianmomsinbusinessandministry LINKS FOR PODCAST EPISODES IN THE KNOWN SERIES: 🎙️ EP 103: Still Waiting? Give it 20 years, Mamma. https://mistyhughes.com/ep-103-still-waiting/

🎙️EP 104: The Woman Nobody Sees

Surrounded by people but unknown to yourself? This episode names the quiet ache — and points you back to the One who has always seen you. 🌳

You can be surrounded by people who love you — and still be profoundly unknown. Not because anyone has failed you, but because somewhere in the accumulation of roles you carry, the woman underneath them got quiet. Got small. Got lost in plain sight.

If that lands somewhere tender today, this episode is for you. 🧑‍👧

Misty shares two deeply personal stories — one from the stage of a thriving nonprofit where hundreds of women felt they knew her, and one from a marriage season where life finally slowed down enough for her to notice the hole in her soul. Both stories circle back to one quiet, aching truth: public intimacy and personal intimacy are not the same thing. The stage is a beautiful place to give. It is not always a safe place to receive.

In this episode you’ll explore the difference between being known FOR something — your reputation, your role, your resume — and being truly KNOWN. Your interior. Your fears, your failures, your real questions at 2 AM.

Misty walks through a practical friendship audit with three circles (Celebration, Community, and Core) and the brave questions she asked God when her core circle came up empty. 💛

And then she brings it all home to the only foundation that makes the rest possible: before there was a stage, a role, a title, or a calling — you were searched and you were known. Psalm 139:1 isn’t just a comfort verse. It’s the ground you stand on.

The Holy One, the Maker of heaven and earth, has made Himself familiar with all your ways. Not the polished ones. All of them. He searched you and He stayed.

You are not the woman nobody sees. You are the woman the Creator of the universe sees so completely that He counts the hairs on your head, catches your tears, and calls you His.

Everything else — every circle, every friendship, every brave act of letting someone in — flows downstream from that. ✨

🔗‍️ LINKS MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE

Flourish In Friendship FREE Friendship Circle Mapping Guide & MORE:

https://mistyhughes.com/resources

☎️ Book a complimentary discovery call: https://calendly.com/mistyhughes/call-with-misty

💼 1:1 Private Coaching: https://mistyhughes.com/coaching

🌱 Free Rhythms of Renewal Mini-Guide: https://mistyhughes.myflodesk.com/discoverrhythms

📞 Got a Mom2Mom Question? Leave a voicemail: https://www.speakpipe.com/msg/s/342885/13/1tpg128b2smursqi

👥 Join the Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/christianmomsinbusinessandministry