Girls Night with Stephanie May Wilson

Hey friends! Welcome to Girls Night!I’m so excited about today’s episode. Today we’re talking about how to travel solo. I love this topic because traveling is absolutely one of my favorite things to do and has played an irreplaceable role in my story! I’ve had the privilege of visiting places all around the world and every time I come back feeling more inspired and more full of life and just more like myself.But while I love traveling, I know firsthand how hard it can be to actually make a trip happen. Sometimes it’s finances that get in the way, sometimes it’s work, and a lot of times, we find that we don’t have anyone to go with! That’s why I’m so excited to have my dear friend Gennean Woodall back on Girls Night to talk us through this. Gennean is a travel planner and content creator, and she has traveled to places all around the world… all by herself.Like most of us, she had some major reservations about traveling solo. (Is it safe? Will I be lonely? Can I actually do this?!) But she’s figured out a formula that really works and now, traveling solo is her favorite way to go.She also has grown so much as a person through these solo trips. I honestly can’t wait to take one myself! Friend, if you’ve been dreaming of taking a trip and are ready to actually make it happen — this episode is for you.Gennean equips and empowers us to do the things we’ve been dreaming about for so long, and I’m so excited to share this conversation with you.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey friends! Welcome to Girls Night!I’m so excited to be back for Season 15 of the Girls Night podcast — and we’re kicking off this season with a really wonderful episode. We’re talking about why it’s so important to celebrate the big things (and the little things) in our lives — and how to practically do that!I love this episode because I always find myself craving delight and whimsy and celebration (and popsicles!) more in the summer than any other time of year.But this episode is actually so much deeper than just having more parties.Something I learned in this episode is that joy is one of the most vulnerable things we can ever feel.It’s WAY less vulnerable to feel disappointment, to imagine worst-case-scenarios, and to rehearse bad things happening. It’s like, if you’re preparing for the worst, it won’t hurt so much if it happens.Whereas if you really open your arms and your heart to something good, and embrace it, then if it gets taken away, you feel like you’ll be crushed. (Even more so because you didn’t see it coming!)It’s like naming a puppy you’re not going to get to keep. It feels easier just not to name it.But actually, it doesn’t work this way. I can’t wait for you to hear why!Our guest walking us through this incredible topic is my friend Nicole Zasowski. Nicole is a Marriage and Family Therapist as well as an author. She recently wrote a book called, What If It’s Wonderful?: An Invitation to Release Your Fears, Choose Joy, and Find the Courage to Celebrate.Friends, if you’d like to feel more joy and contentment in your life (that’s all of us, right?) this episode is for you. I can’t wait to dive in! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey friends! Welcome to Girls Night!We know that sex is an important part of marriage, but because it’s such a personal, intimate thing, it’s often the area of marriage where we have the least amount of help, guidance, and support. If sex is uncomfortable, or if it hurts, or if it’s just not as good as you thought it would be — or if you find yourself wanting to have sex more often or less often than your partner and it’s causing some tension between you — or if one of you is struggling with porn, or if you’re just not feeling as connected or free in your intimacy as you want to feel — we don’t necessarily know where to turn for help.And while there are some books and resources available to us — a lot of the advice out there about sex and intimacy just honestly isn’t that good. Sometimes it’s not just unhelpful, it’s actually damaging.A lot of us are suffering as a result of the bad advice we’ve been given in the past, sometimes without even realizing it. All of that is exactly why I’m so excited about today’s episode. Our guest this week is author and sex expert, Sheila Gregoire. Sheila has written several books, but two of my favorites are The Great Sex Rescue, and The Good Girls Guide to Great Sex.These are incredible resources. Sheila has helped so many couples grow in their connection, passion, and intimacy, and that's why I’m so excited for you to get to hear from her.In this episode she’s talking to us about:  How often we should be having sex Libido differences: What to do if one person wants to have sex more than the other What to do if sex is painful, uncomfortable, or honestly just not that good What to do if shame is keeping us from being able to feel free in our sex lives How to undo some of the harmful messages that have had a negative impact on our view of sex What to do if your spouse struggles with porn And so much more Friend, if you’re struggling — with literally anything — in your sex life, you are SO not alone. And you also don’t have to walk through this alone either.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey friends! Welcome to Girls Night!So today is a bit of a departure from what I had originally planned. Instead of a new episode, today you’re going to hear an episode that originally aired in 2019. And the reason we’re doing this repeat is because honestly… I need to. We have had a few crazy, CRAZY weeks in our house — traveling, a family wedding, the wonderful people who normally help us take care of the girls have been out of town, and then just when we thought life was about to get back to normal — we all got sick. (Which, if I sound weird, or suddenly start coughing, that’s why!)The fact that we’re all sick has meant lots of time together as a family, which has actually been really sweet. But it’s meant absolutely ZERO time for anything else. Seriously, you should see my inbox, and the piles of laundry in our house. So, while we’re all recovering, and resting, and wading through piles of laundry, and trying to pull ourselves back together, I thought that in the name of simplicity, we should do a repeat episode — especially because it was such a good one.Our guest for this episode, Emily Ley, is a woman I’m constantly learning from. Not only is she the maker of my all-time favorite planner, The Simplified Planner. But she’s an incredible author, podcaster, speaker, entrepreneur, mom (she also has twins!), and in all of those areas of her life, she’s both an incredible teacher and student of what it means to live a simplified life. She also has a gorgeous new kids book coming out here in a few weeks. I just pre-ordered my copy. It’s called You're Always Enough: And More Than I Hoped For and I can’t wait to read it to my girls!In this episode she teaches us how to make our lives more meaningful and less stressful. We’re talking about:What living a simplified life practically looks likeHow to rework our day-to-day routine and keep ourselves from overcommittingHow to prioritize our time so we’re spending less time on things that stress us out and more time with the people we lovePractical tips for simplifying our use of social mediaHow to shift our mindset from always wanting more to loving the amazing and beautiful things that we already haveAnd more. I can’t wait for you to hear from her. You ready? Let’s dive in!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey friends! Welcome to Girls Night!I’m so excited about today’s episode. Today we’re talking about how to get out of debt!I wanted to do an episode on this topic because I know there are so many women in our community who are really struggling with their finances right now.There are so many things you dream of doing in life, but debt is standing in the way of all of them. You want financial freedom, but reaching that point seems confusing, daunting, and like it will require an unthinkable amount of sacrifice to achieve.I totally understand that feeling. I’ve been there too. But the things we’re talking about in today’s episode have helped me so much to get control of my financial life, and I truly believe they’ll do the same for you.And to help us with this, I invited my friend Rachel Cruze back on the show! Rachel is an author, financial expert and host of The Rachel Cruze Show. I knew I needed to have Rachel on for this episode because she’s helped countless people get out of debt and achieve financial freedom — and the way she does it is so approachable and actually doable.I can’t wait for you to hear from her. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey friends! Welcome to Girls Night!I’m so excited for today’s episode! Today we’re talking about how to get pregnant — everything you need to know when you’re ready to start trying.I’ve been wanting to do this episode for years now, because this is something my friends and I have been talking about at our real life girls nights for a really long time.If you’re anything like me, the last time you got a full overview of your reproductive system was also the last time you took a health class. Which again, if you’re anything like me, was in high school, and you were too busy trying not to die of embarrassment to really pay attention to what was going on.Also, for the longest time, I was mostly focused on how NOT to get pregnant. So when I actually wanted TO get pregnant, I had no idea where to start.Okay… I knew where to start… but I didn’t know much more than that.But really, there’s so much that goes into it, and while yes, I have a great doctor, and most of my friends do too, the really important “how to get pregnant” information is something we passed around to each other.It was my friend Hanna that told me that you can only get pregnant for a short window of time each month. (ESSENTIAL information!) It was Kelsey who told me how long it typically takes to get pregnant, and who talked me through how I might feel if it didn’t happen right away (Which, of course, it didn’t.) My dear friend Ann was my practitioner for a while there, and so she was the one telling me which prenatal vitamin to take and also the one who referred me to our fertility clinic when the time came.It’s not an exaggeration to say that my friends directly contributed to the lives of my babies — whether through emotional support, encouragement, or sending me the link to an ovulation predictor kit on Amazon. And I love that. That’s exactly how it should be, right? And so that’s why it was so important to me to capture the conversations we have been having over the past few years and to share them with you.But because I didn’t want to accidentally steer you wrong, I wanted to make sure to bring a professional on the show to talk us through the details. So today’s guest is my new friend, Rebecca Helie.Becca is a Certified Nurse Midwife and provides full-spectrum women’s health care. In her spare time, she also runs a women’s health account on Instagram where she provides free, evidence-based information all about women’s health! I’ve been following along with Becca for a while now and just love her content and resources! I’m so excited for you to hear from her!She’s going to bring us back to the basics and explain how our bodies work in a really practical way. She’s also going to walk us through the steps we need to take when we’re ready to start trying to have a baby.I’m so honored to get to talk about this together. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey friends! Welcome to Girls Night!I’m so excited about today’s episode. Today we’re talking about online dating and how to do it well!So, here’s the thing, I think we fall into a few different camps when it comes to the topic of online dating. A lot of us want to try online dating, but we are totally nervous about it. We don’t know if it’s the right fit, the right next step, and we’re not sure how to do it successfully.On the other hand, I know there are a lot of us who have really given online dating a try and we have come out the other side totally exhausted, discouraged, and burned out. It’s just not working.Friend, I promise, whatever group you find yourself in, you’re not alone there. Today’s conversation is going to dig deep into the fears and frustrations we have about online dating, while also giving us lots of encouragement – the kind of encouragement that might even have you reconsider your outlook on online dating altogether!And the woman who’s going to walk us through this is a Girls Night favorite and my dear friend, Kat Harris. Kat is the Co-Founder of the online publication, The Refined Woman, and host of The Refined Collective Podcast. She’s also the author of an amazing book called, Sexless in the City.Kat is the go-to expert when it comes to online dating. I had the honor of helping out with a workshop she did about online dating a few months ago, and as I was listening to her teach, her knowledge, wisdom, and insight seriously blew me away.In this episode, Kat’s going to teach us how to shift our mindsets and attitudes around online dating, how to set up our dating profiles so that we stand out, how to make our online dating experience better, and so much more! I can’t wait to share this with you!! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey friends! Welcome to Girls Night!I’m so excited about today’s episode. Today we’re talking about how to make a meal plan that will actually make your life easier.Alternate titles for today’s episode are:  A meal planning guide for people who are terrible at meal planning Stephanie finally gets unstuck in an area of life that has been frustrating her every single day for years.  So, I know that some of the women in our community are excellent cooks. They feel comfortable in the kitchen, and their favorite question to answer is, “What’s for dinner?” I wish that was the case for me, but it’s totally not.I’m the takeout queen. And although I’ve tried meal planning more times than I can count, I’ve never been able to do it in a way that makes my life easier.In fact, it always seems to make my life harder. I could break out in hives just thinking about it!When I think about meal planning, I picture a complicated app full of recipes I don’t actually want to make. I picture the app spitting out a grocery list that’s the length of a CVS receipt, and I picture me spending too much time and too much money on meals I’m not actually excited about eating in the first place.This plan didn’t make my life easier, it’s made it 10X harder.And so I always end up tossing out my meal plan (and the whole weekend I spent making it!) and just end up winging it — somehow surprised and frustrated every single day when at 5pm we have to (AGAIN!) answer the question, “What do we want to do for dinner?”So when I got the opportunity to have Kendra Adachi back on the show to tell us about her new book, The Lazy Genius Kitchen, I was excited, but also thought that whatever tips she had probably wouldn’t help me.I’m so happy I was wrong. This conversation was honestly life-changing for me. I can’t wait for you to hear it.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey friends! Welcome to Girls Night!Friends, I’m so excited about today’s episode. This is such an important topic! Today we’re talking all about our periods!I’m excited about this episode because if you’re anything like me, you don’t spend much time learning about your period. You are pretty sure you know the basics — after all, you’ve lived with it for years now. It’s a normal part of your life.But also, if you’re anything like me, there are really hard parts about your period that negatively impact your quality of life. Maybe you have terrible cramps, or really bad PMS, maybe your period is super irregular or really painful, but it’s always been that way so you’ve just sort of tried to accept it.That’s how I’ve been for years. I’ve been frustrated by my period, had issues with my period, and just overall hated my period at times, but I honestly just didn’t know there was a different way.If you can relate to any of those things, I’m so excited for you to hear this conversation.Our guest for today’s episode is Berrion Berry. Berri is a menstrual health educator, practitioner and the creator of Optimize Your Flo. And in this episode she is teaching us everything we never learned about our periods — things I wish I knew so much sooner. We’re talking about alleviating pain, navigating our hormonal shifts, and so much more.You guys, I learned SO much in this episode. There were things I’ve always done that I learned I should NOT be doing, and there are ways of embracing the changes in our hormones throughout the month that has totally revolutionized the way I view my period and honestly, the way I live. This was such a good conversation!So make sure you put on your coziest sweatpants and grab a pen and paper because you don’t want to miss out on this! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey friends! Welcome to Girls Night!Today’s episode is a harder one, but also a really important one. Today we’re talking about how you know when it's time to end a relationship (and how to actually do it!).I wanted to do this episode because I know there are women listening to this who are currently in a relationship, maybe one they’ve been in for years, but things have been feeling off lately and you just can’t seem to figure out why. You’ve tried your best to communicate your feelings, but nothing seems to change. You know deep down that you might need to end things, but you’re feeling hesitant because you’ve invested so much time and energy into this relationship. And really, you’re just feeling stuck!If you’re nodding your head, you’re not alone in those feelings. And I have just the right friend to talk us through this and that’s Kenz Durham from Delight Ministries! We actually had Kenz on another Girls Night episode where she briefly mentioned ending a long term relationship with her boyfriend at the time and that it was one of the hardest decisions she ever had to make. She casually mentioned that we could do a whole podcast episode about it. And so…here we are, doing exactly that! In this episode, Kenz shares her story – the things she’s glad she did and the things she wished she did differently. I’m so excited for you to hear from her!One more thing – I know there are some of you listening who are not in a place of ending a relationship, but so many of the things Kenz shares applies to other situations too – other areas of our lives where we need to say goodbye, walk away, end something and we haven’t known how. So if you’re in a similar situation, this episode is for you too!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices