Just Between Us Women: Recent Episodes
Catherine Johnson & Leah Brueggemann
We are bringing you conversations about topics you might feel strongly about but are too afraid to begin: how we navigate entrepreneurship as a wife and a mom without losing ourselves in either identity; we want to open the conversation on how we continue to grow in our Faith while pursuing our passions; how strong communities of women help us to grow personally and ways to foster them; and taboo subjects no one wants to bring up. You don’t need to be a business owner, a wife, or a mom to come join us: all you have to have is a desire for discussions that scratch deeper than the surface.
In this episode, Leah and Catherine share their experiences as they transitioned from single to married.
It's so important to begin your self-awareness work before getting into a relationship; Leah and Catherine explain why and give examples from their own lives.
Leah and Catherine bring on Joanna Hyatt, author of The Sex Talk, international speaker, media personality, and Catherine's friend. Joanna explains how to lay the framework while your children are young to talk about sex when they are old enough. Questions like: "How do I start the conversation about sex?" and "What do I say when it's time to talk about the nitty-gritty details?" are answered. Joanna created a free e-book called: A New Position on Sex...For Parents for you all which you can find and download here.
Leah and Catherine both thought of journaling as this "dear diary" practice that really didn't have a point. In this episode, they explain why their minds changed, and how to start journaling every day.
In episode 20, Leah brings on her friend and expert in homeschooling, Ann Mauro Vetterto, to speak about her transition from corporate life to stay-at-home motherhood and homeschooling.
Why the heck would you hire a coach? In this episode, Leah and Catherine explain their own experiences hiring coaches and what it did for them, and discuss why you might want to hire a coach in the future.
Leah and Catherine bring on female leadership expert Brigitta Borinstein to discuss what it looks like to lead as a woman. Brigitta inspires women to step into their confidence and lead as the women God created them to be. She graduated from the Virginia Military Institute and now runs her own business. You can follow her on Instagram @bestyoucanb.
Leah and Catherine discuss the 5 love languages per Gary Chapman's book and share different ways to show and receive love for each of them.
Leah and Cathering discuss how fulfilling your calling is serving God. God gave each of us unique gifts that He wants us to share with the world, and that is how we serve Him. Leah and Catherine both share ways that you can find your calling, and encourage you to keep trying things until you find it.
Leah and Catherine discuss schedules, how they stay productive while putting their kids first, tips on how to feel accomplished in their day without burning out, and a peek into each of their days.
Catherine and Leah both share their own experiences of birth - Catherine at a birthing center with midwives assisting, and Leah at a hospital.
Leah and Catherine bring on Bernadette Koehler to discuss how to deal with breakups as a young woman. Bernadette is the long-time best friend of Catherine and went through a very rough breakup in 2018. She explains her story and gives tips on how she got through it.
Catherine and Leah share their thoughts on dating as adolescents - should you date casually, should you date exclusively, should you stay in group settings? Or should you wait until you are ready to get married before seriously dating? These are all topics that they discuss in detail in this episode.
Leah explains the reason we get triggered and provides some tools on how to identify and overcome them.
Leah and Catherine discuss the importance of speaking to and about teens in a positive light to encourage and foster good mental health habits.
Leah and Catherine bring on Lauren Merz, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships for Live Action, and Catherine's oldest sister, to discuss abortion. She explains how she got into the pro-life movement, what to post or how to engage with people on social media about this topic, she addresses the question "what about in cases of rape or incest?" and that abortion is never necessary to save the mother's life. Lastly, she gives examples of ways to get involved in the movement.
We challenge you to listen to this episode with an open mind and encourage you to sit down with a pen and paper and take notes.
In this episode, we dive into how personal development is for everyone and give examples of the benefits of practicing personal development. Some of the personal development books we love from this episode: How To Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie, Mastering Your Mean Girl by Melissa Ambrosini, You Are A Badass by Jen Sincero, and The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin.
Leah and Catherine discuss the false notion of balance between all your duties and tasks. Instead, we believe in productivity and flexibility, and we give you tips on how to let go of the idea of balance to live a more fulfilled life.
We discuss the importance of friendship as mothers and discuss the two different types of "mom friendships": those who are your friend more for the sake of your kids because they have kids that get along well with yours, and those who you just click with and who you could talk to about anything. We also discuss how to go about finding good mom friends.
This episode follows up on the previous episode on the importance of dating your spouse. In this episode, we give some practical, non-expensive date eideas.
We discuss the importance of dating your spouse - we don't mean you have to go on extravagant dates, it's more in the day-to-day little things.
We discuss in this episode how we each go about setting our New Year's resolutions and give some examples of our own resolutions for 2021.
Leah and Catherine share about themselves and why they started the Just Between Us Women Podcast.
We discuss why it's important to cultivate who you were before you became a mom, and how to continue to take time for the things you love.