Willie Van Lankvelt on Immigration, Quiet Leadership, and Beating the Odds | STRONG LIKE a GIRL.

Shelley Wray on Grief, Rituals, and Learning to Carry Loss | STRONG LIKE a GIRL

Grief shows up in almost every story we tell on Strong Like a Girl, so this episode we sit down with someone who has spent years walking people through it. Shelley Wray is a grief seminar counsellor and certified funeral celebrant who found her calling as the counsellor at CFB Shilo during the Afghanistan war. We talk about why "what happened" beats "I'm so sorry," why rituals save us, and her belief that grief never really leaves, it just becomes a diamond you learn to carry.Chapters0:00 Telling the truth about grief1:13 Meet Shelley Wray2:44 The work she's proudest of: CFB Shiloh7:01 It isn't how they died, it's what happened10:51 Why grievers need to tell their story13:15 When grief accumulates14:48 Why everyone's talking about grief now16:46 How men and women grieve differently23:30 Rituals save us33:22 The razor blades and the diamond35:23 Why all grief is 100 percent39:05 Grief isn't about death, it's about loss44:45 Just show up: the daily ritual56:49 What still makes life beautiful59:14 The gratitude journal1:01:06 What women need to stop apologizing for1:04:01 Rapid fire1:06:18 Closing reflectionsMentioned in this episodeShelley's grief group: first Monday of every month at Brockie Donovan in Brandon, MB. Anyone can come. https://brockiedonovan.com/Grief Recovery Method: https://www.griefrecoverymethod.com/Connect with Strong Like a GirlWebsite: https://stronglikeagirl.caInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/stronglikeagirl.ca/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/strong-like-a-girl/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/STRONG-LIKE-a-GIRLIf this conversation stayed with you, share it with someone who needs to hear it. Chin up, chest out, stay wild, stay strong like a girl.

Willie Van Lankvelt on Immigration, Quiet Leadership, and Beating the Odds | STRONG LIKE a GIRL.

Willie Van Lankvelt was 21 when she packed up her life in the Netherlands and crossed an ocean to start over in rural Manitoba. She didn't speak much English. She'd never grain farmed. She was leaving seven siblings behind. None of that stopped her, and 46 years later she's still here, still building, still showing up. In this conversation Tanya sits down with Willie to trace a life that doesn't look loud from the outside but has been quietly remarkable from the inside. They cover the move from Holland in 1980 with her sister and brother-in-law, learning English one dictionary entry at a time, and losing her father two years in before she could get back to say goodbye. They get into Willie's decades of work with adults with developmental disabilities, including coaching Special Olympics and one unforgettable race where an athlete handed her a set of false teeth at the starting line. Willie also opens up about her 17 years leading the Shiloh Military Family Resource Centre through the Afghanistan deployment years, what it actually takes to lead an organization when your board changes every posting cycle, and what civilians don't see about the invisible weight military families carry. Her honesty about leadership friction, owning mistakes, and refusing to fake certainty is some of the most grounded advice you'll hear on this show. The back half of the episode turns to her medical journey. Willie was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2006, then lung and brain cancer in the summer of 2022 with a 10 percent chance of surviving the year. She walks through gamma knife brain surgery, the radon gas connection most Canadians have never heard of, and how she stayed at her desk through chemo because she wasn't ready to let illness pick her retirement date. She closes on what life looks like now: cuddling babies in the neonatal unit three hours a week, leaving every space better than she found it, and a refusal to entertain negativity that has earned its keep. Her definition of strong like a girl: anything's possible, and don't back down. What we covered: * Growing up the middle of nine kids on a mixed farm in the Netherlands * The decision to immigrate to Canada in 1980 with her sister and brother-in-law * Buying a grain farm north of Rivers, Manitoba without ever having grain farmed * Learning English one dictionary lookup at a time while doing home care * Losing her dad two years after the move and not making it back in time * Driving a 12-passenger van 430 km a day for adults with developmental disabilities * Coaching Special Olympics and the false-teeth moment that still makes her laugh * 17 years at the Shiloh Military Family Resource Centre as Executive Director * Leading during the Afghanistan years and supporting families through deployments * The hardest leadership lesson: when to back down and when to fight for the call * Thyroid cancer in 2006, recurrence in 2008, lung and brain cancer in 2022 * Radon gas as the second leading cause of lung cancer and how to test your home * Gamma knife radiosurgery and what the helmet actually feels like * Retiring at 65 on her own terms, not because cancer made the call * Volunteer cuddling in the Brandon Regional Health Centre NICU * Why she chooses positive people and walks away from negativity Connect with Strong Like a Girl: Website: https://stronglikeagirl.ca Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stronglikeagirl.ca/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/strong-like-a-girl/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/STRONG-LIKE-a-GIRL

Lyndsay Seafoot on Quiet Leadership, HR for Childcare, and Trying It Anyway | Strong Like a Girl

Lyndsay Seafoot didn't grow up loud. She grew up watching. Born in a small town on the northeast tip of Scotland, raised in rural Manitoba alongside eight siblings spread across three continents, she learned early that quiet kids notice things other people miss. Two decades later, that habit became the foundation of an HR company. Lyndsay sits down with Tanya to talk about how her family roots, her grandfather Hugh's farm, and a few unexpected detours led her to start Kerbridge Group in 2020. From a chiropractic clinic side hustle that paid $20 an hour, she's grown Kerbridge into a tech-forward HR firm with two flagship products: Standout Staff, a free digital resume platform that replaces the paper PDF, and Director's Desk, an HR software platform built specifically for the childcare industry in partnership with the Manitoba Childcare Association. She gets real about what's happening right now. She's doubling her team this month. She's making decisions she hasn't made before. She's wondering what happens if it doesn't work. And she's pulling strength from the same place she always has: the people who came before her, the women who lead beside her, and a granddad who hired people that nobody else would hire. Tanya and Lyndsay also dig into the contradictions women face in leadership. The "you'll never do it if you have kids" line. The way women apologize before they've even said the wrong thing. The word "just" showing up in every email. The strange territory of being underestimated and learning to enjoy it. And the philosophy Lyndsay's whole company runs on, the one she got from her grandfather: leave people better than you found them. If you've ever stood on the edge of something new and wondered if you should bother trying, this conversation is for you. Lyndsay's answer is simple. The regret of not trying is so much worse than the worst case scenario of trying. What we covered: * How a quiet, observant kid grows into a leader who reads rooms in real time * Growing up in a family of nine kids spread across Scotland, Canada, Australia, and the US * How Lyndsay's grandfather Hugh, a farmer who hired people with criminal records and gave them a shot, shaped the entire philosophy of Kerbridge Group * Founding Kerbridge in 2020 after a stint owning 40% of a chiropractic clinic * Building Standout Staff, a free digital resume platform that ditches the PDF for short video intros and dynamic web pages * Director's Desk, the HR software platform built for the childcare industry, in partnership with the Manitoba Childcare Association * Why HR has become more about culture and "employer resumes" than minimum wage compliance * How the unspoken contract between employer and employee has shifted in the last 20 years * What it actually feels like to double your team in one month * Why the strongest leaders lead with presence first and profit second * How Lyndsay handles the moment of being visibly underestimated in a meeting * The questions men never get asked about parenthood and ambition * Why women add the word "just" to every other sentence and what it costs us * Hugh's principle: leave people better than you found them * The case for trying it anyway, even if you might fail Connect with Strong Like a Girl: Website: https://stronglikeagirl.ca Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stronglikeagirl.ca/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/strong-like-a-girl/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/STRONG-LIKE-a-GIRL

Debi Cost-Finn on Music as Medicine, Single Motherhood, and Rising After Cancer | STRONG LIKE a GIRL.

Debi Cost-Finn raised her son alone on food stamps, built a career bringing therapeutic music into hospitals, was diagnosed with breast cancer 85 days after her wedding, and flushed her medication down the toilet rather than lose herself. Her story is proof that strength isn't about holding it together. It's about what you do when you can't. MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: - Coro (therapeutic music in healthcare): https://www.coro.health - The Doe Project (cold case organization): https://www.dnadoeproject.org - Ramapo College (investigative genetic genealogy program) - StrengthsFinder assessment - GEDmatch (genealogy DNA database) CONNECT WITH STRONG LIKE A GIRL: Website: https://stronglikeagirl.ca Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stronglikeagirl.ca/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/strong-like-a-girl/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/STRONG-LIKE-a-GIRL STRONG Like a Girl is a podcast about women's empowerment, resilience, and telling the stories of strong women. New episodes drop regularly. Subscribe so you don't miss one.

Tami Rae Rourke on Anxiety, Entrepreneurship, and the Cost of Being Strong | Strong Like a Girl

Tami Rae Rourke is the kind of person who makes everything look effortless. A career that spans telecommunications, real estate, financial advising, and board leadership. A telecom company she co-built from the ground up that sold for over $50 million. Chamber of Commerce president. Honorary Lieutenant Colonel. The resume reads like someone who never had a bad day. But that's not the full story. Behind every boardroom win and business deal, Tami was quietly battling severe anxiety and phobias that started when she was just 14 years old. Three traumatic events hit back to back: a break-in at her home, an anaphylactic reaction from a shellfish allergy, and the sudden death of a close friend. The result was a fear so consuming she couldn't be left alone, couldn't drive, couldn't walk into a room of strangers without someone beside her. In this conversation with Tanya, Tami opens up about what it actually costs to be the strong one in the room. She talks about losing a job because of a panic attack, skipping six months of school, and the moment she walked into her doctor's office at 20 years old and demanded a prescription that would change her life. She also reveals something she's never shared publicly before: that she didn't take maternity leave not because she was a workaholic, but because her anxiety made it impossible to stay home alone with her children. This episode is raw, honest, and deeply human. Tami and Tanya also dig into what it means to be a woman in business, the double standard that labels assertive women as "bossy" while rewarding the same behavior in men, and how anxiety and leadership can coexist in the same person. Whether you're dealing with your own mental health challenges or you just want to understand someone who is, this one's worth your time.