Staying in the box you were taught to fit into can feel easier than speaking up and risking conflict, but what happens when silence means letting down the people you love? In this episode, you’ll hear from Mandy Giles, founder and CEO of Parents of Trans Youth, about how parenting transgender young adults helped her find her voice and become an advocate for the world she wants her kids to live in. Her story shows what can happen when standing up for what matters becomes more important than keeping everyone else happy.

How long have you been putting off the hard conversation? Join Sara live for one hour for her free workshop, SPEAK UP. There’s no replay, so bring the conversation you keep avoiding. You’ll learn the Three Speak Up Skills and figure out what’s keeping you stuck.

Here’s what you’ll uncover in this episode:

• Why talking about your transgender child with other people can be one of the biggest hurdles, even when you’re fully accepting
• How advocating for your children can help you discover a courage you didn’t know you had
• How to talk about LGBTQ+ topics in a way that is helpful and supportive
• Why stepping outside the boxes you were taught to fit into can help you live more authentically and make room for others to do the same
• The resources available to parents of transgender youth and how to find support

Find Mandy here:

bit.ly/allytoadvocate

www.parentsoftransyouth.com

www.instagram.com/parentsoftransyouth

Mandy Giles (she/her) is the parent of two transgender young adults and the founder and CEO of Parents of Trans Youth, a social impact business that provides learning, support, and community for caregivers of transgender, nonbinary, and gender-diverse kids and young adults. She has been heavily involved in advocacy work since 2021 and has testified before the Texas Legislature dozens of times. Mandy is the 2026 Pride Houston Ally Grand Marshal, recipient of the Equality Texas 2025 Business Champion Award, and former president of PFLAG Houston.

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The holiday season is approaching fast, and alongside the excitement, you may already be feeling the weight of all the expectations that come with it. Between family traditions, travel plans, and trying to make everyone happy, you can end up with very little energy to enjoy the things you were looking forward to. If you’re ready to do things differently this year, today you’ll get three simple sentences you can use to help you navigate difficult conversations with loved ones when speaking up feels hard. This episode was originally released closer to the holidays, but it is worth revisiting now so you can keep these sentences in your back pocket as you start making plans and navigating expectations.

How long have you been putting off the hard conversation? Join Sara live for one hour for her free workshop, SPEAK UP. There’s no replay, so bring the conversation you keep avoiding. You’ll learn the Three Speak Up Skills and figure out what’s keeping you stuck.

Here’s what you’ll uncover in this episode:

• Why changing family traditions or plans can bring up anxiety, guilt, and fear of disappointing people
• Why you feel the need to prove or justify what you want before asking for it
• How to acknowledge someone else’s perspective without giving up your own wants and needs
• The conversational tug of war that happens when someone disagrees with your choices
• Why someone else’s disappointment doesn’t have to come at the expense of what you want

Register for SPEAK UP: sarafisk.coach/voice

Find Sara here:

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pages.sarafisk.coach/difficultconversations

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Overthinking can cost you more than time. It can keep you from taking chances and becoming the person who can have what you want. In this episode, you’ll hear a conversation with Dr. Priyanka Venugopal about what it took to move from thinking “Probably not me” to “Why not me?” and pursue a dream without having any evidence that it would work. This mindset shift helped her lose over 60 pounds without counting calories and prepared her to take the stage for her TEDx Talk. It’s not easy, but when you learn to make peace with the idea of failure and be proud of yourself just for trying, so much becomes possible.

How long have you been putting off the hard conversation? Join Sara live for one hour for her free workshop, SPEAK UP. There’s no replay, so bring the conversation you keep avoiding. You’ll learn the Three Speak Up Skills and figure out what’s keeping you stuck.

Here’s what you’ll uncover in this episode:

• How to break the habit of treating disappointment as proof that you did something wrong
• Why desire will start to outweigh the fear surrounding something when you really want it
• How to think about rejection as information instead of turning it into self-criticism
• How overthinking can turn something you care about into a performance
• The benefit of seeking support if you’re used to figuring things out on your own

Find Priyanka here:

https://youtu.be/-p6KtUizbvs?si=gw38DixCjlL9TyED

https://www.instagram.com/dr.priyankavenugopal/

https://priyankavenugopal.com/

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-burn-stress-lose-weight-podcast/id1618073362

Dr. Priyanka Venugopal is an OB-GYN physician, podcaster, TEDx speaker, and entrepreneur. She’s also a coffee-lover and self-proclaimed expert overthinker. After losing 60 pounds while juggling call shifts and two young kids, she discovered the real problem for smart women was never a lack of discipline... it was the time and energy lost to overthinking. Today she helps overachieving professional women reach their next goal in health, home, or career — and get back the 10+ hours a week overthinking quietly steals.

Register for SPEAK UP: sarafisk.coach/voice

Find Sara here:

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pages.sarafisk.coach/difficultconversations

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tiktok.com/@sarafiskcoach

youtube.com/@sarafiskcoaching1333

How much time and energy do you spend defending choices you’ve already trusted yourself to make? Whether it’s your career, parenting, relationships, or something else entirely, it’s exhausting to keep explaining yourself after you’ve already done the work of deciding. Good girl conditioning can make you feel obligated to defend yourself when someone questions your choices, instead of recognizing what’s actually happening in the conversation. In this episode, you’ll learn the difference between a request, a demand, and a boundary so you can get more clear about what you will and won’t participate in and build the skills to talk about it.

How long have you been putting off the hard conversation? Join Sara live for one hour for her free workshop, SPEAK UP. There’s no replay, so bring the conversation you keep avoiding. You’ll learn the Three Speak Up Skills and figure out what’s keeping you stuck.

Here’s what you’ll uncover in this episode:

• The real definition of a boundary and why it often gets confused with something else
• How to tell the difference between a request and a boundary
• A question to ask before you make a request or set a boundary
• How a demand can be disguised as a boundary
• Why following through is the essential step in setting a boundary

Register for SPEAK UP: sarafisk.coach/voice

Find Sara here:

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How much time do you spend overanalyzing the texts you send to a potential partner or giving guys on dating apps a chance because they seem to have the traits you’ve been taught to look for? If you’re tired of continuing conversations because you feel like you should, giving someone the benefit of the doubt when the evidence in front of you says otherwise, or second-guessing whether you’re being too picky, this episode will help you recognize how good girl conditioning can shape the way you date. Today’s guest, Dr. Jennie Young, creator of the Burned Haystack Dating Method, helps you see the patterns in your dating life more clearly so you can trust your judgment and make choices that create more peace and safety.

Want to take this work deeper? Join Sara live for one hour for her free workshop, SPEAK UP. There’s no replay, so bring the conversation you keep avoiding. You’ll learn the Three Speak Up Skills and figure out what’s keeping you stuck.

Here’s what you’ll uncover in this episode:

• Why “good” is a more abstract and gendered term than you may realize
• How good girl conditioning can make it harder to see the meaning behind someone’s words and behavior
• How being trained to see “potential” in men can affect the choices you make in dating
• Why treating politeness as protective can actually work against you
• Why you need to give yourself permission to walk away when the evidence tells you something isn’t right

Register for SPEAK UP: sarafisk.coach/voice

Find Jennie here:

burnedhaystack.substack.com/p/burned-haystack-dating-method-quick

www.facebook.com/groups/9116647515019601

Find Sara here:

sarafisk.coach

pages.sarafisk.coach/difficultconversations

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What do you say when you don’t want to go? Your friends are making plans, everyone is excited, and you’re worried that if you say “no” this time, they’ll stop inviting you altogether. So you say “yes” even though what they’re planning isn’t really your thing, and you spend the rest of the week dreading it. You may tell yourself you don’t have a good enough reason to say no, but the cost of going along with everyone else is more than one night you don’t enjoy. This is the final episode of a series called “What Do You Say When…” These short episodes will each give you one concrete thing you can say when you’re stuck in a difficult moment.

If you want more, join Sara live for one hour this week for a free workshop, SPEAK UP. There’s no replay, so bring the conversation you keep avoiding. You’ll learn the Three Speak Up Skills and figure out what’s keeping you stuck.

Register for SPEAK UP: sarafisk.coach/voice

Find Sara here:

sarafisk.coach

pages.sarafisk.coach/difficultconversations

instagram.com/sarafiskcoach

facebook.com/SaraFiskCoaching

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youtube.com/@sarafiskcoaching1333

What do you say when you’re unhappy with how it turned out? You get your nails done or have new bathroom tile put in, and the work isn’t what you expected. Still, you hesitate to say anything because you don’t want to be viewed as picky, difficult, or demanding. You’ve learned that being agreeable is safer than asking for what you really want, so you might say “No, no, it’s fine” and live with the disappointment instead. But the cost of avoiding that uncomfortable moment is more than paying for something you don’t like. This is the sixth episode of a series called “What Do You Say When…” These short episodes will each give you one concrete thing you can say when you’re stuck in a difficult moment.

If you want more, join Sara live for one hour this week for a free workshop, SPEAK UP. There’s no replay, so bring the conversation you keep avoiding. You’ll learn the Three Speak Up Skills and figure out what’s keeping you stuck.

Register for SPEAK UP: sarafisk.coach/voice

Find Sara here:

sarafisk.coach

pages.sarafisk.coach/difficultconversations

instagram.com/sarafiskcoach

facebook.com/SaraFiskCoaching

tiktok.com/@sarafiskcoach

youtube.com/@sarafiskcoaching1333

What do you say when your kid wants the money before he does the work? You know the lawn hasn’t been mowed, but when he comes asking for $40, it feels easier to say “yes” than to deal with his disappointment or an argument. You want to have a good relationship with your kid, and every “no” can feel like it costs you closeness. But when you keep bending the rules to avoid that discomfort, the real cost is a relationship where you’re constantly reminding or doing things yourself instead of building the trust and mutual respect you really want. This is the fifth episode of a series called “What Do You Say When…” These short episodes will each give you one concrete thing you can say when you’re stuck in a difficult moment.

If you want more, join Sara live for one hour this week for a free workshop, SPEAK UP. There’s no replay, so bring the conversation you keep avoiding. You’ll learn the Three Speak Up Skills and figure out what’s keeping you stuck.

Register for SPEAK UP: sarafisk.coach/voice

Find Sara here:

sarafisk.coach

pages.sarafisk.coach/difficultconversations

instagram.com/sarafiskcoach

facebook.com/SaraFiskCoaching

tiktok.com/@sarafiskcoach

youtube.com/@sarafiskcoaching1333