SpeakHER Sessions

What 11 Women Taught Me About Finding Your Voice | Season 1 Lessons Learned

What does it really take to find your voice — and what happens when it gets taken from you? In this special solo episode, SpeakHER Sessions host Kim Atwood reflects on the six most powerful lessons she learned from Season 1. Ten episodes, eleven women, and more honesty than she expected when she started asking questions about voice and confidence. This isn't a recap. It's a reflection. Because somewhere between interviewing women about their stories, Kim found herself sitting with some hard and beautiful truths about her own. In this episode, Kim shares: * Why voice almost always gets quiet before it gets found and why that silence is part of the story, not a detour from it * What this season's guests taught her about waiting seasons and why the waiting is never as pointless as it feels * How grief showed up in nearly every conversation this season and why the women who had been through the most loss were also the most spacious in how they loved others * Why your body of work is shaping you long before you realize it's doing that * The role that people — spouses, sisters, mentors, friends — play in giving us permission to use our voices * Why advocacy is simply what happens when your personal story meets someone else's need Kim also shares a heartfelt thank you to the Season 1 sponsors and community partners who believed in SpeakHER Sessions before it had anything to show for itself: * Terri Brock State Farm — insurance and financial guidance for the Columbia, SC community | 6158 St. Andrews Road | 803-772-4000 | terribrock.com [http://terribrock.com] * Westmore Land of Gifts and Apparel — a women-owned boutique in Columbia, SC that champions other women-owned brands | Murraywood Shopping Center | westmorelandofgifts.com [http://westmorelandofgifts.com] | code PODCAST for savings * The Peanut Man — catering, restaurant, and gourmet shop in Columbia, SC | home of a monthly Ladies Night | thepeanutman.com [https://www.thepeanutman.com/] * Talking Donkey Designs — scripture-based apparel with original artwork by Bryan Atwood | whosyourdonkey.com [http://whosyourdonkey.com] * How2SpeakU — an online learning community for women who are ready to communicate with confidence | how2speaku.com [http://how2speaku.com] Season 2 of SpeakHER Sessions launches soon. If you know a woman with a story worth telling, someone who has found her voice through a hard season and has something other women need to hear, we want to meet her. DM us on social media or Nominate a guest [https://form.jotform.com/260325263165149] here. If your brand or business wants to reach an engaged audience of women navigating major life transitions, sponsorship opportunities for Season 2 are available now. Reach out at hello@how2speakU.com [hello@how2speaku.com] Connect with SpeakHER Sessions: 📱 Instagram: @speakhersessions 🌐 Website: speakHERsessions.com [http://speakHERsessions.com] 📧 Contact: hello@how2speakU.com Connect with Kim: 🌐 How2SpeakU: how2speaku.com 📱 Instagram: @kimatwoodspeaks [http://instagram.com/kimatwoodspeaks] If this episode resonated with you: ⭐ Leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It takes two minutes and helps more women find the show 📲 Share this episode with a woman in your life wh Have a question for this guest? Text us — it may be featured in "Ask the SpeakHER". [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2564200/fan_mail/new] SpeakHER Sessions is hosted by Kim Atwood. New episodes are coming soon. Follow the show to hear honest, encouraging conversations with women who use their voice to lead, serve, and create meaningful impact.

Before I Had a Voice, I Had Two Sisters: Family, Birth Order, and the Relationships That Shape Who We Become | Shannon Henderson and Rebecca Wolfe

Before Kim Atwood had a podcast, a platform, or any of the clarity she talks about on this show, she had two sisters. To close out Season 1, Kim brings it all the way home by inviting Shannon Henderson and Rebecca Wolfe into the studio for the most personal episode of the season. What starts as a funny conversation about birth order and who mom's favorite is turns into something surprisingly moving about the relationships that make it safe to show up as your full, unfiltered self. There's an eight-year gap between Shannon and Kim. Four years between Kim and Rebecca. And somewhere in those gaps, a bond formed that the three of them describe as their own little bubble, one that other people notice and don't quite understand. This one will make you laugh. It might also make you call your sister. In this conversation: * How each sister remembers the other growing up, and how those memories don't always match * The expectations their parents passed down, and which ones they chose to keep or leave behind * Birth order, oldest-daughter pressure, and whether those stereotypes actually fit * The annual family trip that has become the glue of their relationships as adults * What they want their daughters, nieces, and nephews to carry forward * Why Rebecca doesn't want her three-year-old daughter Avery to ever shrink herself for anybody * Whether you can build a sister-level bond with people who aren't family by blood At the core this is an episode about belonging, and the kind of relationships that make it safer to show up fully as yourself, even when you're at your messiest, loudest, or most unsure. About SpeakHER Sessions SpeakHER Sessions is a podcast for women who are finding their voice, or finding it again. Host Kim Atwood sits down with real women to talk about the experiences that shaped them, the seasons that stretched them, and the confidence they've built along the way. New episodes every Monday. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Follow us @speakhersessions. Sponsors How2SpeakU — Helping women build confidence and communicate with strength and clarity. https://how2speaku.com [https://how2speaku.com] Talking Donkey Designs — Custom, faith-forward apparel. https://whosyourdonkey.com [https://whosyourdonkey.com] Have a question for this guest? Text us — it may be featured in "Ask the SpeakHER". [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2564200/fan_mail/new] SpeakHER Sessions is hosted by Kim Atwood. New episodes are coming soon. Follow the show to hear honest, encouraging conversations with women who use their voice to lead, serve, and create meaningful impact.

Widowhood, Resilience, and Loving Again: A Life of Faithful Service After Loss | Jan Westmoreland-Sipes

Some voices are shaped by survival. Jan Sipes' was shaped by something quieter: 35 years of five-year-olds who still stop her in the grocery store to say hello, 10 summers at Camp Gravatt building something generational with her husband Mac, and a faith that held steady through three and a half years of brain cancer, widowhood, and raising three daughters alone. Affectionately known as Mama Jan throughout the Irmo community, Jan Westmoreland Sipes is a retired educator, early childhood education advocate, camp leader, mom, grandmother, and one of those people whose presence just makes a room feel safer. In this episode, Kim Atwood sits down with Jan for one of the most tender conversations of Season 1, about what it means to use your voice faithfully across a lifetime, to stay positive for your kids when you are quietly falling apart, and to discover that joy and love are still possible on the other side of the hardest thing you have ever been through. In this conversation: * How a little girl who ran home from school every day became a beloved kindergarten teacher for 35 years * Advocating for 4K programs in South Carolina and piloting full-day 5K before it was standard * Ten summers at Camp Gravatt with Mac, and what it meant to watch former campers grow into the camp's director * Mac's three-and-a-half-year battle with brain cancer and how Jan chose to stay present and positive for her daughters * What her daughters told Kim before this episode about what they remember from that season * The last conversation Mac had before he stopped speaking * Ministering to other families facing brain cancer because she knew the road * Remarrying after loss, and her encouragement for widows who wonder if joy is still available to them * The core message Jan wants everyone to carry: put God first, stay close to your family, and live every day like it might be your last About Jan Sipes Jan Westmoreland Sipes is a retired educator, early childhood education advocate, and beloved community figure known throughout Irmo as Mama Jan. After 35 years in the classroom and a decade leading Camp Gravatt alongside her late husband Mac, Jan has spent her life quietly shaping generations of children, families, and fellow grievers. She is a mom of three daughters and a grandmother many times over. About SpeakHER Sessions SpeakHER Sessions is a podcast for women who are finding their voice, or finding it again. Host Kim Atwood sits down with real women to talk about the experiences that shaped them, the seasons that stretched them, and the confidence they've built along the way. New episodes every Monday. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Follow us @speakhersessions. Sponsors How2SpeakU — Helping women build confidence and communicate with strength and clarity. https://how2speaku.com [https://how2speaku.com] Talking Donkey Designs — Custom, faith-forward apparel. https://whosyourdonkey.com [https://whosyourdonkey.com] Have a question for this guest? Text us — it may be featured in "Ask the SpeakHER". [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2564200/fan_mail/new] SpeakHER Sessions is hosted by Kim Atwood. New episodes are coming soon. Follow the show to hear honest, encouraging conversations with women who use their voice to lead, serve, and create meaningful impact.

From Domestic Violence Survivor to Breast Cancer Overcomer: Reclaiming Your Voice and Smashing Life | Breanna Pritchard

What does it look like to reclaim your voice after seasons of loss, fear, and survival, and then decide to live boldly on purpose? Breanna Pritchard grew up quiet and shy. She lost her dad to cancer at 13. She married young, and the marriage became something she couldn't name as abuse because it had become her normal. She didn't have a job, didn't have money, and didn't tell her family what was happening. It wasn't until her in-laws called her parents and told them to get their daughter out if they wanted to see her alive that anyone knew how bad it was. She left with a suitcase and her son. SisterCare became her voice when she didn't have one. They sent an advocate, accompanied her to court, and helped her rebuild from nothing. Years later, she reconnected with her high school friend Wes over scuba diving, risked trusting love again, and built something she couldn't have imagined during the worst of it. On their seventh wedding anniversary, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She is now in complete remission. And she and Wes live by a family motto their whole household has adopted: Smash Life. In this conversation: * Losing her dad at 13 and how that grief shaped her faith and resilience * What domestic violence actually looks like from the inside, and why she stayed * How SisterCare advocated for her when she had no voice of her own * Rebuilding as a single mom with nothing and finding herself again * Changing her last name back to her maiden name and why that small act felt enormous * Meeting Wes, learning to trust love, and building a real estate business together * Breast cancer at 37, a double mastectomy, chemo, and the community that carried her through * What "Smash Life" means and how one family built a philosophy out of survival If you or someone you love is experiencing domestic violence, please reach out for help. Learn more about SisterCare: https://www.sistercare.org [https://www.sistercare.org] About Breanna Pritchard Breanna Pritchard is a domestic violence survivor, breast cancer overcomer, mom, and real estate entrepreneur. After rebuilding her life as a single mom with the help of SisterCare, she remarried and now lives in complete remission following a double mastectomy. She and her husband Wes live by the motto "Smash Life" — family, faith, fitness, and finances equal freedom — and Breanna uses her story to remind others that your hardest seasons don't have to define you. About SpeakHER Sessions SpeakHER Sessions is a podcast for women who are finding their voice, or finding it again. Host Kim Atwood sits down with real women to talk about the experiences that shaped them, the seasons that stretched them, and the confidence they've built along the way. New episodes every Monday. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Follow us @speakhersessions. Sponsors How2SpeakU — Helping women build confidence and communicate with strength and clarity. https://how2speaku.com [https://how2speaku.com] SkhnFrnd — Licensed esthetician Hope McLelland is your skin's new best friend. Waxing, facials, and more. https://www.vagaro.com/skhnfrnd [https://www.vagaro.com/skhnfrnd] Talking Donkey Designs — Custom, faith-forward apparel. https://whosyourdonkey.com [https://whosyourdonkey.com] Have a question for this guest? Text us — it may be featured in "Ask the SpeakHER". [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2564200/fan_mail/new] SpeakHER Sessions is hosted by Kim Atwood. New episodes are coming soon. Follow the show to hear honest, encouraging conversations with women who use their voice to lead, serve, and create meaningful impact.

My Daughter Had Pediatric Epilepsy and the Doctors Told Me to Accept It. I Didn't. | Samantha Butler

When Samantha Butler's daughter Griggs had her first seizure at one and a half years old, the hospital told her it was probably nothing. Samantha pushed anyway, because her mom had epilepsy, and something in her gut said this wasn't nothing. She was right. Griggs never stopped having seizures. What followed was six years of medications, EEGs, PET scans, MRIs, week-long hospital stays where doctors deliberately withdrew her meds to trigger seizures so they could watch her brain, and eventually a gentle suggestion from Samantha's medical team in Charleston that maybe this was just going to be her daughter's life. Samantha didn't accept that either. A friend of a friend had moved to Charlotte to work in pediatric neurology. Three days after Samantha's information was passed along, she had an appointment. The Charlotte team found something MUSC had missed: a small misfiring cluster buried in a deep fold of Griggs' right frontal lobe. They removed it. Seven months later, Griggs has not had a single daytime seizure. In this episode, Kim Atwood sits down with Samantha to talk about what six years of medical advocacy for a child with epilepsy actually looks like, what it costs a mom emotionally when she goes into task mode and doesn't stop, and why she ultimately walked away from a successful boutique business she had built from nothing to be fully present for her family. In this conversation: * Recognizing Griggs' first seizure and why Samantha pushed for testing when doctors dismissed it * Six years of medications, EEGs, and hospital stays, and the emotional toll of task mode parenting * What it felt like when doctors implied she should just accept this as Griggs' life * Finding a pediatric epileptologist in Charlotte who saw what others had missed * The motor mapping test that showed her daughter's brain in real time * Brain surgery, recovery, and life seven months post-op * Running a boutique through all of it, then making the decision to sell * What it takes to know when to walk away from something you worked hard to build This one is for every mom who has ever sat in a doctor's office and thought: I know something is wrong, even when nobody else believes her yet. About Samantha Butler Samantha Butler is a former early childhood educator and boutique co-owner who spent six years advocating for her daughter through a pediatric epilepsy diagnosis, multiple treatment approaches, and ultimately brain surgery. Her story is one of tenacity, medical advocacy, and knowing when to let go of one season so you can fully show up for another. About SpeakHER Sessions SpeakHER Sessions is a podcast for women who are finding their voice, or finding it again. Host Kim Atwood sits down with real women to talk about the experiences that shaped them, the seasons that stretched them, and the confidence they've built along the way. New episodes every Monday. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Follow us @speakhersessions. Sponsors How2SpeakU — Helping women build confidence and communicate with strength and clarity. https://how2speaku.com [https://how2speaku.com] Terri Brock State Farm — Coverage you can trust from a team that treats you like family. Auto, home, life, and more. https://terribrock.com [https://terribrock.com] | 803-772-4000 Have a question for this guest? Text us — it may be featured in "Ask the SpeakHER". [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2564200/fan_mail/new] SpeakHER Sessions is hosted by Kim Atwood. New episodes are coming soon. Follow the show to hear honest, encouraging conversations with women who use their voice to lead, serve, and create meaningful impact.