Listen to my harrowing tale of sailing through the Whitsunday Islands, as I talk to Sarah Fowler about taking risks, and saying yes to an infertility diagnosis, a move to Belgium with an eight-week-old baby, and a quick decision to move to Hawaii. This week, Sarah opens up about what it actually takes to raise resilient, risk-ready kids — and why staying stagnant scares her more than any risk ever could.

Meet Sarah Fowler

Sarah grew up with four brothers who taught her to go with the flow. She met her husband, Kellen — a fellow Fowler, at BYU. Since then, life has been one leap after another: law school in Virginia, a corporate move to Dallas, a wake-up call infertility diagnosis, a year living in Belgium with a newborn, and now four kids, working as a nurse, and a growing real estate portfolio she manages with her husband. She's teaching her own kids the same lesson her parents taught her — jump first, look later.

Takeaways

- Leading by example is the fastest way to teach kids courage: don't dwell at the edge, just jump.

- Infertility rarely follows a straight timeline

- You don't need expertise to start investing in real estate

- Letting kids face natural consequences builds independence faster than rescuing them ever will.

- Staying stagnant is scarier than starting over. Growth requires forward motion.

Chapters

00:20 Growing Up Wild: Sarah Fowler on Brothers, Boats, and Going With the Flow

03:43 Kayaks in the Garage: Lessons From an Adventurous Childhood

05:16 Becky's Ill-Fated Boating Trip to the Whitsundays

10:15 Why Kid Sports Are About More Than Winning

12:57 From Law School to Belgium: Following an Unexpected Career Path

18:13 When Your Body Says No: Sarah Fowler's Infertility Story

23:30 Midway

24:51 Cliff Jumping and Confidence: Teaching Kids Not to Overthink

26:05 he COVID Move: Renting a Condo in Hawaii on a Whim

28:37 The Forgotten Dance Bag: A Lesson in Natural Consequences

31:44 Stagnation is Terrifying

33:32 From Spreadsheets to Scary First Deals: Building a Real Estate Portfolio

37:27 Rapid Fire Questions

Resources

52. From Fear to Freedom: One Mom's Leap Into the Unknown

If you loved this episode, try:

16. How To Not Die in the Wilderness and Learning to Smell the Daisies

25. Embracing Change, Making Choices, and Finding Joy: Jen Lambert’s Inspiring Story

26. Teaching Children to Work, Love, and Be Bored with Dorothy Scoresby

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What happens when a classically trained pianist ends up spending 30 years in a rock band, recording ambient drone music with her husband, and building a business she never trained for? Juliet Preston joins Becky to talk about growing up different, letting go of comparison, and why "just stay with the beat" might be the most sendy advice you'll hear all year.

Meet Juliet Preston

Juliet has been a piano teacher since she was 13. She's built a career as a working musician - classical recitals, professional theater, church gigs, jazz bands - and for 30 years she's also been the keyboardist in Memory Field, the rock band she and her husband Billy started in Austin, plus Second Moon Theory, an instrumental project set to his drone landscape videos. Juliet co-founded the Collaborative Pianists Guild of Utah and the Utah Valley Monster Concert, and is preparing a fall recital of Prokofiev's 8th Piano Sonata in honor of her teacher, Solveig Lunde Madsen. She lives in Provo, UT. Find her at JulietPrestonMusic.com and @julietpreston.

Takeaways:

- Comparison really is the thief of joy

- You don't have to master every skill

- Growing up "different" can free you from needing to be perfect

- Building a business with your spouse and keeping your relationship takes commitment

- Let your kids choose their own path

- Keep it messy

Chapters:

00:00 Welcome & Why Sendy Mom Feels Like Home

03:27 Memory Field & Second Moon Theory: Building a Rock Band with Your Spouse

08:29 The Breakthrough: Raising Her Hand at Pioneer Theater

15:20 Different Strengths, and Letting Go of Comparison

19:52 The Evolution of Identity

22:59 Raising Kids Without a Script

29:34 Marrying a Rock Star

33:48 Career Changes: Connecting the Dots

35:50 Sharing Your Voice: Being Vulnerable

41:07 Raising Resilient Children

44:51 Steps to a Long, Healthy Marriage

49:52 The Story of Us: A Memoir

54:55 Future Musical Ambitions

1:00:43 Rapid Fire Questions

Resources:
51. Just Keep Playing: How to Keep Moving in Music, Marriage and Business

If you loved this episode, try:

45. Tension, Release, and the Beautiful Mess of a Courageous Life — Christie Skousen

49. The Courage to Fall Apart: Haley Taylor on Eating Disorders, Dropping Out, and Finding Herself Again | Haley Taylor (Pt. 1 of 2)

33. The Recipe for Resilience: Illness, Influence, and Inspiration

Coaching & Subscribe:

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Haley Taylor and her husband built an international art business in a garage. Along the way, she had to relearn what actually makes her valuable. In Part 2, Haley shares marriage and business boundaries, why saying no is an act of love, ditching the need for external validation, and remembering what she loves. Plus rapid fire questions!

Meet Haley Taylor:

Wife, mother of four, and entrepreneur who runs the international art-easel business behind her husband Brian's invention. Coaches beginning riders on her local youth mountain bike team and raises backyard sheep, ducks, and bees. (Missed Part 1? Start there for Haley's teenage mental health crisis and the solo trip to Hong Kong that changed everything.)

Takeaways:

• A business built on talent still needs structure — and that structure can become your own career

• Setting "business meeting" boundaries protects both the business and the marriage

• Starting with almost nothing ($700, an 800-square-foot house) can be the foundation of a thriving family business

• Saying no when you could say yes is an act of deliberate love, not deprivation

• External validation — looks, skill, achievement — is not what creates real connection

• An empty-nest season can feel like losing your identity until you remember what you actually love

• Cutting back on sugar and being deliberate with your body can shift your energy at any age

• Connection with your kids means getting curious about what they love, not directing what they do

Chapters:

00:28 High Expectations and Changing Your Path With Love

05:19 Building an Art Business With Your Husband

09:54 Balancing Affluence and Teaching Values

14:10 Your Job Is To Connect With People

21:58 Connecting With Your Kid's Passions

26:17 Rapid Fire Questions

32:18 Exploring Beliefs: Spirits and Ghosts

Resources found here:

What 16-Year-Old Haley Taylor Learned About Courage From Getting Stranded in an Airport Alone

If you loved this episode, try:

2. Cautiously Crazy with Marty Klinger

22. From $80 to an eBay Business: Sendy Entrepreneurship

31. Planting Positivity: Growing Kids, Gardens, and Relationships

Coaching & Subscribe:

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What happens when a teenager who's never been allowed to say "I'm scared" gets put on a plane alone to Hong Kong? Haley Taylor opens up about a high-achieving childhood, a teenage eating disorder, and dropping out of high school — and the solo international trip that taught her she could trust herself. A raw conversation about courage, mental health, and redefining success.

Meet Haley Taylor:

Wife, mother of four, and entrepreneur who runs the international art-easel business behind her husband Brian's invention. Haley coaches beginning riders on her local youth mountain bike team and raises backyard sheep, ducks, and bees. A teenage mental health crisis and a solo trip to Hong Kong at sixteen shaped her lifelong definition of courage.

Takeaways:

• Being Sendy isn't about being hardcore — it's being brave enough to try

• A fixed mindset of "you're smart so you must succeed" makes it unsafe to attempt anything new

• Tough exteriors often hide fear instead of processing it — and that's not sustainable

• Expressing fear doesn't make you weak; it's part of doing hard things anyway

• A mental health crisis can become the turning point that redefines your sense of worth

• Letting your child have their own breakdown — instead of rescuing them — builds real resilience

• Stepping in to "fix" a child's problem can unintentionally validate their fear instead of their capability

• Redefining success means it's okay to try something and not be the best at it

Chapters

00:00 Exposure Therapy

03:30 Growing Up Cautious in a High-Achieving Home

05:45 The High Dive: Learning to Trust Fear Instead of Hiding It

10:53 A Teenage Eating Disorder, Depression, and Dropping Out of Schoo

13:08 Sent Alone to Hong Kong: A Mother's Leap of Faith

19:50 Showing Up Mediocre: The Courage to Try Anyway

Resources found here:

What 16-Year-Old Haley Taylor Learned About Courage From Getting Stranded in an Airport Alone

If you loved this episode, try:

2. Cautiously Crazy with Marty Klinger

22. From $80 to an eBay Business: Sendy Entrepreneurship

31. Planting Positivity: Growing Kids, Gardens, and Relationships

Coaching & Subscribe:

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👉 Email Becky: becky@sendymom.com

If you want help to be more sendy, click here

If you're feeling Sendy and would like to be a guest on the show, please fill out this form

What do you do when the world is literally falling apart around you? Julian of Norwich was born into 14th-century England, survived the Black Plague, twice, possibly lost her family, and then voluntarily sealed herself into a single room for thirty years as an anchoress to the chapel Julian in Norwich, England.

Her theology was considered radical for her time. Her words have survived wars, revolutions, and the burning of libraries to reach us today.

In this Sendy Spotlight, we look into the work of Julian of Norwich. She is believed to be the first woman to write a book in the English language. She had the courage to speak when women were meant to be silent.

Key Takeaways:

• Stillness can be its own form of courage
• You don’t need credentials to speak truth
• Love is a choice, not a feeling
• God is not counting your failures
• Women have always protected each other’s wisdom
• Being strategic is not the same as compromising

Find resources here

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What does it look like when divine timing meets radical courage? In Part 2, holistic coach Cherie Burton shares the miraculous stories behind adopting her two youngest children — a son she saw in a spiritual vision years before he arrived, and a daughter who came through six court hearings, a California foster system, and a stranger's recurring dream. Plus rapid fire questions!

Meet Cherie Burton:

Mother of six and female empowerment coach with 20+ years of experience. Certified holistic practitioner and emotional breakthrough trainer, specializing in Aroma Alchemy. Leads retreats worldwide and runs an international wellness business. (Missed Part 1? Start there for shadow work, alchemy & the dark night of the soul.)

Takeaways

• Adoptees are "bridge souls" who choose their families to heal lineage wounds

• Divine timing rarely looks like what we expect — trust the process

• Birth mothers carry deep shame that needs compassion, not judgment

• The primal wound in adoptees is real and worth understanding

• We are never fully healed — just learning to love exactly where we are

• The most courageous thing is sometimes to wait, stay open, and trust

• Connection is the foundation of all healing work

Chapters

00:00 Cherie's Adoption Journey

00:15:00 The Importance of Connection

00:17:04 Rapid Fire Questions

Resources found here:

The Art of Emotional Alchemy: 4 Courageous Lessons from Cherie Burton on Healing Your Shadows, Your Lineage, and Your Life

If you loved this episode, try:

33. The Recipe for Resilience: Illness, Influence, and Inspiration

38. Digital Detox and Upload Humanity with Amy Antonelli of HXP

1. Radical Acceptance with Miriam Wood

Coaching & Subscribe:

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If you want help to be more sendy, click here

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What if your darkest shadows held your greatest wisdom? Holistic coach Cherie Burton joins Becky to explore shadow work, emotional alchemy, and breaking generational trauma cycles—sharing her profound journey through loss, a seven-year dark night of the soul, and two miraculous adoptions.

Meet Cherie Burton

Mother of six and female empowerment coach with 20+ years of experience in mind-body science, holistic emotional healing, philosophy, and depth psychology. Certified holistic practitioner and emotional breakthrough trainer. Since 2008, specializing in Aroma Alchemy—mind/heart/soul coherence through breathwork, anointing, and essential oils. Leads retreats worldwide.

Takeaways

• Shadow work means embracing your darkness, not eliminating it
• Alchemy transmutes emotional pain into wisdom—not suppression
• Feel emotions fully (even 90 seconds) to prevent physical illness
• A dark night of the soul is a spiritual initiation, not a breakdown
• Surrender is letting go of what you know so your body can teach you
• Adoptees are "bridge souls" healing family lineage wounds
• Inner authority activates when you admit "I don't know"
• Healing yourself heals your entire lineage—past and future

Chapters

00:00 Introducing Cherie Burton: Female Empowerment Coach

05:45 When You Can Change The Family Dynamic

12:32 Pivoting from Traditional Methods for Mental Health Help

15:11 Epigenetics and Alchemy Explained

21:06 Shadow Work Through Alchemy

29:33 Real Experience with Ayahuasca

35:09 The Journey of Self-Discovery

40:33 Practical Ways to Process Emotion

42:03 The Dark Night Of The Soul

Resources found here:

The Art of Emotional Alchemy: 4 Courageous Lessons from Cherie Burton on Healing Your Shadows, Your Lineage, and Your Life

If you loved this episode, try:

33. The Recipe for Resilience: Illness, Influence, and Inspiration

38. Digital Detox and Upload Humanity with Amy Antonelli of HXP

1. Radical Acceptance with Miriam Wood

Coaching & Subscribe:

👉 Subscribe: sendymom.com

👉 Email Becky: becky@sendymom.com

If you want help to be more sendy, click here

If you're feeling Sendy and would like to be a guest on the show, please fill out this form

What happens when a woman built for intensity has no outlet for it? For Christie Skousen, the answer was redirecting all of it toward her five-month-old — and quickly realizing that wasn't going to work. Part 2 picks up with Christie rebuilding: starting the Peery Piano Academy from scratch, writing a curriculum for the San Francisco Conservatory prep program, and slowly figuring out who she was beyond the piano.

But this half of the conversation goes somewhere deeper. Christie talks about the cycles she's noticed throughout her life — expansion and contraction, like musical phrasing — and how the blow-ups she never would have chosen (her parents' divorce at 23, losing her older brother to colon cancer at 48, her own 26-year marriage ending) have each broken her open into something bigger. She shares what she's learned about separating her identity from her children's outcomes, why living abroad changed everything about how she parents, and where she's headed next now that her youngest is off to Sydney for a year abroad.

Rapid fire answers, a beautiful musical analogy for life that will stay with you, and Christie's honest, grounded take on doing divorce well — Part 2 is the kind of conversation you want to go on forever.

Meet Christie Skousen, Founder of the Peery Piano Academy and author of the Peery Method. Trained under Dr. Irene Peery-Fox, Dmitri Boshkirov, and Leon Fleisher at Peabody. An international competition winner and soloist, her students have gone on to Harvard, Yale, Juilliard, UC Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, and more.

Takeaways:

• Know where your intensity is going.
• Life has phrasing, just like music.
• Big blow-ups break you open.
• Separate your identity from your kids' outcomes.
• Travel expands your world — and your parenting.

Chapters:

00:00 Teaching as a Path to Independence

03:43 Parenting with Intensity and Balance

05:07 Make Your Money Work For You

07:06 The Peery Method is Born

09:26 Writing New Chapters in Motherhood

11:07 Navigating Life's Expansions and Contractions

13:44 The Impact of Divorce on Personal Growth

18:06 Embracing Change and New Beginnings

19:02 Parenting Young Adults

25:48 How Living Abroad Broadens Your Horizon

27:57 Rapid Fire Questions

Resources:

How to Survive Life's Blow-Ups: Lessons from a World-Class Pianist and Mom

If You Loved This Episode, Try:

• 12. Music, Disability Parenting, and Playing for the Love of It
• 29. How to Push Past Limits and Find Your "Current Perfect"
• 37. Resilient Parenting, Risk-Taking, and Medical Aesthetics Done Right

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Becky’s Free Coaching Calendar