What happens when the mission that fuels you becomes the thing that depletes you? In this episode, Nicole sits down with Catharine Montgomery, founder of The Better Together Agency, a communications firm built to amplify organizations doing good in the world. Catharine has rebuilt her business — and herself — more than once, and she doesn't hold back about what that actually costs. This is a wide-ranging conversation about purpose-driven entrepreneurship, the burnout that hides inside your passion, and what faith traditions have always known about rest that hustle culture refuses to teach us. If you're a values-driven founder, a woman of faith navigating hard seasons, or someone who has quietly wondered whether your sense of purpose is sustaining you or slowly burning you out — this episode is for you.

Here's what's in the episode:

• What it really looks like to build a business around your values
• The shadow side of purpose-driven work: how caring deeply can quietly become the reason you stop taking care of yourself
• Bias in AI, and why Catharine built her own tool
• The theology of hard times: does God have a plan, does it have to be detailed, and what do you do when you've stopped believing it?
• Simple, unglamorous rest practices that are actually working for her right now

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction to Just Rest and Catharine Montgomery

02:09 Taking a Deep Breath

03:17 Catharine's Burnout Stories

05:13 The Birth of Better Together Agency

08:37 Navigating Racism and Burnout

11:20 Building in Everyday Self-Care

14:23 Spirituality and Personal Growth

16:57 The Nature of Divine Planning

19:19 Understanding Suffering and Divine Presence

21:49 Evolving Values-Alignment in the Second Start-Up

24:37 Navigating Change and Maintaining Mission

28:48 Innovating with AI for Social Good

32:50 Addressing Bias in AI Technology

35:28 The Impact of AI on Racial Wealth Gap

37:42 Perfectionism and Its Challenges

41:08 Balancing Passion and Burnout

44:31 The Importance of Rest and Creativity

48:47 Highlighting Positive Change: Red Rabbit

CONNECT WITH CATHARINE MONTGOMERY:

Website: https://thebettertogetheragency.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cnmontgomery

The Better Together Agency on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thebettertogetheragency

Organization highlighted: Red Rabbit — providing culturally relevant meals to children in schools across New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC. redrabbitlunch.com

CONNECT WITH NICOLE HAVELKA:

Newsletter: https://defythetrend.substack.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicole-havelka-35762022/

Work with Nicole: https://defythetrend.com/contact/

The Calm Calendar Club is a brain-friendly planning community for neurodivergent adults, ADHD minds, and sandwich-generation caregivers who are tired of systems that don’t fit real life. We help you build a flexible, values-based calendar that reduces chaos and protects your energy. This low-cost, community-based program is ready for you at defythetrend.com/calm-calendar.

Thank you to the people who helped make this show happen.

Send me a message via Speakpipe.

A proud member of the Feminist Podcasters Collective.

What if the way you've been told to run your business was never designed for you? Nicole sits down with feminist business coach, podcast host and author Becky Mollenkamp to unpack the capitalist conditioning most entrepreneurs carry without realizing it. They trace the through-line from toxic corporate workplaces to the inner boss we recreate in our own businesses, and ask the question that changes everything: what's enough for you?

Becky's new book, Liberate Your Business: A Radical Guide for Entrepreneurs Building Inside a Broken System, is the resource she wishes she'd had — one that honors the full complexity of building a values-aligned business inside a system that wasn't built for your humanity.

What's in the Show

• Becky's burnout story — rooted in emotional exhaustion, not overwork
• Why capitalist conditioning follows you into your own business
• The Hedonic Treadmill and why capitalism keeps moving the finish line
• Defining your own "enough" in money, hours, rest, and joy
• Consent-based marketing as an alternative to high-volume launch sequences
• How Becky used AI to finally write the book her ADHD brain couldn't organize alone
• Community-building as resistance — and embroidery as rest
• Becky lifts up: Transgender Law Center (transgenderlawcenter.org)

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Rest and Burnout

03:13 Becky's Journey with Burnout

08:58 Corporate Culture and Expectations of Creativity

12:04 The Cost of Doing Business: Burnout as Normal

15:03 Values and Rest: A Personal Reflection

17:03 Becky's Spiritual Grounding: Values-based living

21:02 Agency and Control in Our Lives

22:29 Bringing Capitalism into our work and businesses

31:04 Navigating Capitalism as Entrepreneurs

40:45 Rethinking Commerce and Relationships

43:35 Redefining Enough in a Capitalist Society

47:09 The Hedonic Treadmill and Its Impact on Happiness

49:29 The Privilege of Safety and Security

50:47 Finding Rest in a Demanding World

52:55 Building Community as Resistance

55:40 Empowering Rest Rebels

59:31 Supporting Trans Rights and Advocacy

01:00:16 Connecting with Becky and Her Work

Sources Mentioned

• Liberate Your Business by Becky Mollenkamp — available at beckymollenkamp.com/book
• Kelly Diels — feminist marketing educator, featured in Liberate Your Business https://kellydiels.com/
• Transgender Law Center — transgenderlawcenter.org

CONNECT WITH BECKY MOLLENKAMP

• Website: beckymollenkamp.com
• Threads: https://threads.com/@beckymollenkamp
• Substack: https://feministrants.substack.com/
• LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/beckymollenkamp

CONNECT WITH NICOLE HAVELKA:

Newsletter

LinkedIn

The Calm Calendar Club is a brain-friendly planning community for neurodivergent adults, ADHD minds, and sandwich-generation caregivers who are tired of systems that don’t fit real life. We help you build a flexible, values-based calendar that reduces chaos and protects your energy. This low-cost, community-based program is ready for you at defythetrend.com/calm-calendar.

Thank you to the people who helped make this show happen.

Send me a message via Speakpipe.

A proud member of the Feminist Podcasters Collective.

What does faith have to do with reproductive justice — and what does either have to do with rest? Everything, it turns out. Nicole sits down with Elaina Ramsey, Executive Director of FaithChoice Ohio, an organization that elevates the moral power of faith communities for abortion justice and reproductive freedom in Ohio and beyond. Elaina shares her journey from fundamentalist evangelical to pro-faith, pro-choice advocate, and how that transformation shaped her understanding of bodily autonomy, mutual aid, and rest as a deeply spiritual practice. Whether you're navigating burnout in movement work or simply trying to stay human while doing hard things in the world, this episode is for you.

In this episode you'll hear:

• Elaina's journey from fundamentalist evangelical to pro-choice Christian reproductive justice advocate
• How a traumatic experience in college cracked open her thinking about bodily autonomy and led her to this work
• The difference between reproductive health care, reproductive rights and the broader reproductive justice framework — and why it matters
• How FaithChoice Ohio builds rest, grief and mutual aid into their organizational culture as a lived value
• Giving practical support for people accessing abortion care in Ohio including through the Jubilee Fund
• A "Dear Rest Rebels" message: what you freely give others — permission to rest, grieve and be human — is also a gift you can give yourself

Chapters List

00:00 Introduction to Change Makers and Rest

03:25 Time for a Deep Breath

04:33 Elaina's Journey from Evangelicalism to Advocacy

10:45 Outgrowing Evangelicalism is a lot like Burning Out

12:28 The Shift to Reproductive Justice

18:30 Christian Grounding for Rest

23:20 Grief, Lament, and Community Care

28:18 Creating a Culture of Rest in Organizations

31:18 Navigating Expectations in Nonprofit Work

35:01 Understanding Reproductive Justice

42:00 The Broader Implications of Reproductive Justice

44:56 Community Care and Mutual Aid

51:18 Empowering Rest and Self-Care

51:42 Dear Rest Rebels

53:33 Support FaithChoice Ohio

57:18 How to Find FaithChoice Ohio

CONNECT WITH ELAINA RAMSEY & FAITHCHOICE OHIO

• Website: faithchoiceohio.org
• Instagram: @FaithChoiceOhio
• Facebook: @FaithChoiceOhio
• Podcast: R-Soul https://www.faithchoiceohio.org/podcast

CONNECT WITH NICOLE HAVELKA:

Newsletter

LinkedIn

Work with Nicole

The Calm Calendar Club is a brain-friendly planning community for neurodivergent adults, ADHD minds, and sandwich-generation caregivers who are tired of systems that don’t fit real life. We help you build a flexible, values-based calendar that reduces chaos and protects your energy. This low-cost, community-based program is ready for you at defythetrend.com/calm-calendar.

Thank you to the people who helped make this show happen.

Send me a message via Speakpipe.

A proud member of the Feminist Podcasters Collective.

Confession time: Nicole didn’t plan to do a solo episode in season one. But, here it is. In this honest and vulnerable episode, Nicole shares why the podcast briefly disappeared from your feed, what happens when real life collides with ambitious plans, and why sometimes the most humane thing we can do is let good enough be good enough. If you’ve ever felt behind, overwhelmed or like you “should” be doing more, this episode is your permission slip to slow down and focus on what actually matters.

In This Episode:

Why this unexpected solo episode happened
The hidden workload behind producing a podcast
How my computer dying derailed my January plans
Why winter (and life seasons) naturally slow us down
Letting go of perfection and embracing “good enough”
Building more humane systems for getting things done
What I’ve been working on behind the scenes
Why I’m still all-in on this podcast

Chapters:

00:00 Moment to Breathe
00:53 Why “Good Enough” Matters
01:32 The Reality of Podcast Production
03:55 Winter, Rest, and Slower Seasons
06:16 Creating Humane Systems for Work
08:23 Behind the Scenes: Calm Calendar Club
10:46 Why I Love Podcasting

CONNECT WITH NICOLE HAVELKA:

Newsletter

LinkedIn

Work with Nicole

Thank you to the people who helped make this show happen.

Send me a message via Speakpipe.

A proud member of the Feminist Podcasters Collective.

If you’ve ever sat at your desk thinking, Why is time management so hard for me? … or Googled something like “ADHD time blindness” after being late again … or whispered to yourself, I’m so disorganized. Why can’t I stick to a schedule? — this conversation is going to feel very familiar.

Because what if the issue isn’t that you “can’t manage your time”…
What if the systems you’ve been handed were never built for your brain?

In this conversation I’m joined by Jacki Hayes, operations and systems strategist, to talk about ADHD and neurodivergent planning and the burnout that happens when your nervous system becomes your project manager.

We explore why traditional time management advice often fails neurodivergent women — especially Gen X and elder Millennial women — juggling careers, caregiving, leadership and way too many invisible responsibilities.

This isn’t about becoming more productive.

It’s about building humane systems that reduce overwhelm and actually support your energy.

What We Talked About

• Why ADHD time management advice often increases shame
• The real reason planning feels overwhelming
• The identity trap of “I’m just disorganized”
• How simple backend systems reduce executive function fatigue
• Why structure protects creativity (instead of killing it)

Chapters

00:00:00 Introduction
00:00:38 Introduction of Jacki Hayes
00:03:06 Moment for a Deep Breath
00:03:35 Jacki’s Journey: Two Burnout Stories
00:10:28 Jackie’s Spiritual Grounding to Rest
00:14:02 Typical Objections to Planning & Administration
00:15:53 I just don’t have time for planning!
00:19:40 Creating “emergencies” for the Dopamine Hit
00:23:26 Procrastination and the ADHD Brain
00:28:29 Planning & Administration Take Time Away from Human Relationships
00:31:15 Creating Human Safety through Automations
00:40:23 Planning for your Personality
00:46:11 3 Questions: Rest, Resist, Dear Rest Rebels
00:50:45 Organization Doing Good: One Iowa

Meet Our Guest: Jacki Hayes

Jacki Hayes is an operations and systems strategist who helps service providers build businesses that actually work for them. She combines Human Design with smart, customized strategy to create simple, energizing systems for leads, onboarding, and delivery. She’s also the host of Here’s What I Learned, a podcast about doing business your way.

Connect with Jacki

Website
Instagram
LinkedIn
Threads

Connect with Nicole Havelka

Newsletter
LinkedIn
Work with Nicole

Resources & Links

• Calm Calendar Club — If you’re ready for a slower, saner approach to planning your life and business, this is for you.

The Calm Calendar Club is a brain-friendly planning community for neurodivergent adults, ADHD minds, and sandwich-generation caregivers who are tired of systems that don’t fit real life. We help you build a flexible, values-based calendar that reduces chaos and protects your energy. This low-cost, community-based program is ready for you at defythetrend.com/calm-calendar.

Thank you to the people who helped make this show happen.

Send me a message via Speakpipe.

A proud member of the Feminist Podcasters Collective.

In this episode of Just Rest: Burnout Tips for Everyday Radicals, host Nicole Havelka sits down with Dana Tenille Weekes — lawyer-lobbyist, creative and voice behind The Rest of Us podcast — to talk about what rest actually is (and isn’t), how burnout reshaped Dana’s life, and why conversations about rest feel so hard and a little as political violence escalates.

We acknowledged that we are recording the podcast in a moment of incredible political and social pain in the United States — including the recent fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal immigration enforcement agents in Minneapolis. which have sparked widespread protest and grief nationwide.

In this vulnerable and unfiltered conversation, Dana and Nicole explore:

• Dana’s burnout story
• What rest did to the nervous system
• Why rest matters right now
• Rest as liberation (not resistance)
• Rest in organizational culture
• Practicing liberating rest

Dana’s definition of rest — deeply connected to your agency and truth — reframes tired clichés about self-care into something political, perceptive and embodied. By relearning how to feel, name, and act from our truths, rest becomes a practice of liberation even in times of upheaval.

Whether you’re navigating burnout, activist fatigue, nervous system overwhelm or just trying to stay honest with yourself about how exhausted you really feel — this one’s for you.

“U.S. witnessed many ICE-related deaths in 2026. Here are their stories” by Ali Harb on AlJazeera News

“Renee Macklin Good, murdered by ICE, was a prize-winning poet. Here’s that Poem,” by Jonny Diamond in Literary Hub.

Rest is Resistance by Tricia Hersey

“Want to be Respected? Tell People How You Want to Be Helped. Part 1” The Rest of Us Podcast with Host Dana Tenille Weekes

“Want to be Respected? Tell People How You Want to Be Helped. Part 1” The Rest of Us Podcast with Host Dana Tenille Weekes

Dana’s Organization Recommendation: Torch Literary Arts

CONNECT WITH DANA TENILLE WEEKES

Website

Instagram

Substack

LinkedIn

CONNECT WITH NICOLE HAVELKA:

Newsletter

The Calm Calendar Club is a brain-friendly planning community for neurodivergent adults, ADHD minds, and sandwich-generation caregivers who are tired of systems that don’t fit real life. We help you build a flexible, values-based calendar that reduces chaos and protects your energy. This low-cost, community-based program is ready for you at defythetrend.com/calm-calendar.

Thank you to the people who helped make this show happen.

Send me a message via Speakpipe.

A proud member of the Feminist Podcasters Collective.

Do you feel like you are constantly "behind," racing against a clock that never slows down? For many revolutionary leaders and creators, time feels like an extractive resource that is always running out. This pressure isn't a personal failing—it is the result of colonial time, a system designed to sever our connection from the land, our bodies, and our natural rhythms to serve toxic capitalism.

In this episode of Just Rest, Nicole Havelka talks with Indigenous-Time Ecologist Ixchel Lunar about the radical practice of decolonizing time. Ixchel shares their journey from high-stakes political activism and tech-culture burnout to finding liberation through ancestral wisdom and somatic healing. If you are ready to stop "spinning plates" and start living in a more relational, spiral, and cyclical rhythm, this conversation offers the roadmap to move from an adrenalized state to a place of deep, restorative flow.

Ixchel Lunar Ixchel Lunar is an Indigenous-Time Ecologist, writer, and ancestral medicine guide known for decolonizing Time. They help multi-passionate creators and revolutionary leaders break free from the capitalist grind to reclaim time, realign energy, and reconnect with creative flow. Blending ancestral wisdom, modern neuroscience, and somatic practices with the technologies of personal cosmology—including the Mayan Cholq'ij, Human Design, and Astrology—Ixchel guides visionary misfits in reshaping their relationship with Time, creativity, and their innate rhythms. A former vice-mayor and activist, they champion decolonial leadership and Indigenous land stewardship, offering transformative guidance for those seeking liberation beyond the clock. Their trauma-aware, culturally rooted approach helps people move through burnout and cultural disconnection by returning to ancestral reverence, relational ritual, and cyclical spiral Time.

Key Takeaways

• De-adrenalizing the Body
• Colonial vs. Decolonial Time
• Flow Begins with Rest
• The Power of Nepantla
• The Seven Types of Rest

"Dear Rest Rebels: You’re not behind. You’re not failing. You’re living in a moment that asks for new rhythms. Time is not your enemy. Just remember how to listen."

Support the Work: In honor of Ixchel’s time today, consider supporting The International Mayan League.

Learn more about Just Rest at https://defythetrend.com/

CONNECT WITH IXCHEL LUNAR:

Substack

Instagram

Website

CONNECT WITH NICOLE HAVELKA:

Newsletter

LinkedIn

Work with Nicole

The Calm Calendar Club is a brain-friendly planning community for neurodivergent adults, ADHD minds, and sandwich-generation caregivers who are tired of systems that don’t fit real life. We help you build a flexible, values-based calendar that reduces chaos and protects your energy. This low-cost, community-based program is ready for you at defythetrend.com/calm-calendar.

Thank you to the people who helped make this show happen.

Send me a message via Speakpipe.

A proud member of the Feminist Podcasters Collective.

Are you starting your year with a long list of ways to "fix" yourself? For many world-changers and radicals, the transition into January is often met with the heavy pressure of New Year’s resolutions that focus on getting smaller, working harder, or "improving" a body that was never broken. This episode of Just Rest explores how to dismantle the "shame spiral" of traditional resolutions and instead move toward intentional rest and self-valuation.

Host Nicole Havelka sits down with Malik Turley to discuss the stark contrast between the 24/7 hustle culture of the US and the people-focused, relaxed rhythm of Valencia, Spain. We dive into why diet culture is a tool of control and how claiming your right to take up space is a radical act of resistance. Whether you are looking for burnout tips for everyday radicals or a more sustainable way to navigate the "grind," this conversation offers a new perspective on aligning your time with your humanity rather than your output.

Malik Turley is the founder of the Tapas Movement and a veteran "change instigator" who spent 20 years creating movement spaces where women can inhabit their bodies without self-loathing. As a certified yoga therapist, movement instructor, and dance teacher, Malik has dedicated her career to pushing back against gym cultures focused on competition and shrinkage. Recently, Malik moved from the Chicago area to Valencia, Spain, a transition that has deepened her understanding of systemic rest and the cultural differences in how we value people over production. She continues to teach and write about movement, joy, and the intentional practice of Shabbat.

Key Takeaways

• Intentional vs. Accidental Rest
• Diet Culture as a Control Mechanism
• The Radical Power of a Single Task
• Stop the "Push Through" Mentality
• Systemic Rest Lessons from Spain

To all the Rest Rebels listening: You have value every single day, regardless of your resolutions or the amount of space you take up in the world. This week, we invite you to take up space unapologetically.

Support the Work: In honor of Malik’s time today, consider supporting World Central Kitchen or a local food pantry in your own neighborhood.

Learn more about Just Rest at https://defythetrend.com/

CONNECT WITH MALIK TURLEY:

Facebook

Instagram

Website

CONNECT WITH NICOLE HAVELKA:

Newsletter

LinkedIn

Work with Nicole

The Calm Calendar Club is a brain-friendly planning community for neurodivergent adults, ADHD minds, and sandwich-generation caregivers who are tired of systems that don’t fit real life. We help you build a flexible, values-based calendar that reduces chaos and protects your energy. This low-cost, community-based program is ready for you at defythetrend.com/calm-calendar.

Thank you to the people who helped make this show happen.

Send me a message via Speakpipe.

A proud member of the Feminist Podcasters Collective.