How to Stop Letting Your Own Mind Be the Handbrake on Your Life | Cindy Kohler, Mind Garage

How to Stop Letting Your Own Mind Be the Handbrake on Your Life | Cindy Kohler, Mind Garage

She was made redundant on a Friday. By Monday she'd enrolled in naturopathy. She built a 5-site business, sold it in one of South Australia's largest exits, and founded Mind Garage. Now Cindy Kohler brings 40 years and 10,000 coaching hours to this conversation. In This Episode: * Cindy's own story: from biomechanics to education to a 5-site business to its sale — and now the coaching practice she was always building toward * Why the beliefs we carry into adulthood were never actually chosen — and the one question that exposes whether they're helping or holding you back * The "handbrake" metaphor: how the business owner's own mindset is the single largest obstacle to business growth * Identity-based resilience coaching: why "who am I becoming?" is a more powerful question than "what should I do?" * The three-word exercise: a practice for stepping into your future self right now, without waiting * Metacognition — the skill only humans have — and how to use it to separate threat from story * Uncomfortable is not the same as unsafe: why the brain defaults to threat and how to override it with choice * How women rebuild self-trust after years of people-pleasing and meeting everyone else's expectations * "Empty the drawer first": the Russian proverb that reframes every major life transition * Cindy's upcoming book Manifest You and what it will walk readers through About Cindy Kohler Cindy Kohler is a transformational business and life coach based in Adelaide, South Australia. With 40 years of experience in mindset coaching, 20 years in education, 25 years in business, and a background in NLP, hypnotherapy, mindfulness, and energetic medicine, she is the founder of Mind Garage and the author of the forthcoming Manifest You. She has delivered over 10,000 hours of coaching to elite professionals, business owners, and athletes. She turned 60 last year and says she has never been more excited for what comes next. Connect with Cindy Kohler * Website: mindgarage.com * Upcoming book: Manifest You (July 2026) Resources * WeCanDoItWomen.com/group — join Debra's community

Sex, Sensuality, and How Women Over 70 Reclaim Their Desire and Their Lives

She was 70 years old, running a solo business without a steady paycheck, supporting a husband in severe decline in a nursing home — a man she had already decided to divorce — and quietly hitting the lowest point of her life. By 73, she was dating men in their 30s, 40s, and 50s, writing erotica, taking university classes, and finishing a book called Sex, Sensuality and the Senior Woman. Andrea Feinberg didn't wait for circumstances to improve. She decided she was the one who was going to improve them. In This Episode: * The unexpected crisis that preceded Andrea's transformation: planning a divorce, then watching her husband have a life-changing accident and decline in a nursing home * The four changes she made at 70 that cost nothing and changed everything: university classes, a weekly discussion group, one friend per week, and dating * What she discovered on a dating website for the over-50s — and why it completely reframed how she thinks about age and desirability * The 16 reasons younger men gave her for why they specifically seek out older women (she asked every single one) * Why Andrea says there's a generation of men in their 30s, 40s, and even 20s who find older women "wildly attractive and wildly desired" * Her 10-step common sense framework for personal transformation — no investment, no unusual skills required * Writing erotica for the first time at 70+ — and why she's now expanding it toward female satisfaction specifically * The childhood story that made independence feel like her natural state About Andrea Feinberg Andrea Feinberg is the founder of Coaching Insight and a 40-year veteran of business development, strategic marketing, and entrepreneurial coaching. After a decade on Wall Street and 35 years running her own firm, Andrea made a radical personal pivot at 70 — enrolling in university, dating younger men, and writing her most personal book to date: Sex, Sensuality and the Senior Woman, a 10-step transformation guide for women ready to pursue the life society told them they couldn't have. Connect with Andrea Feinberg * Website: marketingthatrocks.com * Website: bossonthebeach.com Resources * Sex, Sensuality and the Senior Woman * WeCanDoItWomen.com — join Debra's community

If Women Were the First Generation to Earn Their Own Money, Why Are So Many Facing Homelessness?

She was at a book signing when a well-dressed woman hung back until everyone had gone. Then she leaned in and whispered: I can't afford to buy your book. I've worked all my life. And I'm terrified I'm going to end up homeless. Jane Caro heard that story again and again on tour — from teachers, nurses, managers, women who had done everything right. It became the rawest material in her research on women over 55, and it is the reason this conversation exists. In This Episode: * Why women born in the 1950s and 60s are the first generation in history to earn their own money as a whole cohort — and why almost no one has noticed or celebrated it * The devastating paradox: Australia's fastest-growing homeless group is women over 55, and the face of poverty is increasingly single women over 60 and 70 * The "deal with the devil" — why women traded income for flexibility, and what that bargain ultimately cost them * Jane's single most important financial instruction for every woman: own your own roof * The Teal movement — how ordinary women in teal t-shirts knocked on doors, held kitchen-table meetings, and elected 11 independent candidates to the Australian parliament * Why Jane believes "if you don't do politics, politics will do you" — and how women's anger translated into electoral power * Coercive control in intimate relationships — and Jane's argument that it mirrors the tactics of totalitarian political leaders * Why power is not a dirty word: power just means the ability to take action * What women over 60 have that younger women do not: the freedom to stop caring what anyone thinks * Jane's call to action for women worldwide: write the op-ed, find your passion, sit at the kitchen table, run for local council About Jane Caro Jane Caro AM is a Walkley Award-winning author, columnist, novelist, feminist, public education activist and social commentator based in Sydney, Australia. She has published 13 books, including Accidental Feminists — her landmark examination of women over 55 — and her 2024 bestselling novel The Mother, about coercive control. A former multi-award-winning advertising copywriter and academic, she writes for Nine Media, The Saturday Paper, and The Monthly, appears regularly on ABC's The Gruen and the Today shows, and speaks to audiences across Australia on feminism, power, and democracy. She has 190,000+ followers on social media, and she is a beef producer and timber grower. Connect with Jane Caro * Books: Accidental Feminists, The Mother (2024), Lyrebird (April 2025) — available at all major booksellers Resources * WeCanDoItWomen.com [https://WeCanDoItWomen.com] — join Debra's community

True Self-Care Is Not a Bubble Bath. A 25-Year Nurse Explains What It Actually Is.

She lost 60 pounds in eight months — and has kept every pound off for seven years. But that's not the transformation that matters most in this story. The real shift began when Mugs Haugen's best friend and oldest sister, Kathy, died of metastatic breast cancer. Standing beside Kathy as her nurse, her sister, and her closest confidante, Mugs looked at her own life and asked: How do I want to live the years I have left? Everything that followed began with that question. In This Episode: * Mugs' lifelong caregiving journey: from helping elderly relatives at age 9, to nursing her dying father at 22, to caring for her best friend and sister through cancer * How 11 years in the emergency department quietly eroded her health, her weight, and her sense of self * The seminal moment after Kathy's death that became the catalyst for a full life transformation * How Mugs lost 60 pounds in 8 months — and ended decades of yo-yo dieting — by changing her identity, not just her habits * The ANCHOR framework at the heart of her coaching: Awareness, Nourishment, Compassion, Happiness, Opened Heart, and Responsibility * Why true self-care is not a bubble bath — and what it actually requires * The counterintuitive truth about compassion fatigue: compassion isn't what causes burnout — it's what prevents it * Why Mugs named her practice Anchored Heart Coaching after her sister Kathy, the family's anchor * Client wins: a retired nurse pursuing visual arts, a housewife who discovered her own dreams for the first time * Her vision: bringing burnout prevention to nurses on-site, in hospitals, and eventually at live retreats About Mugs Haugen Mugs Haugen is a registered nurse with over 25 years of experience and the founder of Anchored Heart Coaching. After her own health transformation — losing 60 pounds and ending a lifetime of yo-yo dieting — and a profound loss that reoriented her entire life, Mugs became a life coach specializing in burnout prevention and recovery for nurses, caregivers, and women who have spent a lifetime putting others first. Her webinar, "Bust Through Burnout by Understanding the Meaning of True Self-Care," brings her ANCHOR framework to nurses seeking balance, resilience, and joy. Connect with Mugs Haugen * Website: anchoredheartcoaching.com [https://anchoredheartcoaching.com] Resources * WeCanDoItWomen.com [https://wecandoitwomen.com] — join Debra's community If you are a nurse, a caregiver, or a woman who has been putting everyone else first for so long you've forgotten what it feels like to put yourself first — Mugs is the real thing. Visit anchoredheartcoaching.com and take the first step. And a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts takes 60 seconds and helps more women find this show. Thank you for being here.

Are You Burning Out or Breaking Through? A Fortune 1 Executive Turned Coach Explains.

She had a bald spot the size of her fist. Her body had been sending signals for months — and she kept flipping her hair to hide it. She had worked for the world's largest retailer, managed multimillion-dollar budgets, traveled to 40 countries before 40, and climbed every rung she had set out to climb. And then her body simply refused to get out of bed. Lynn Wong's burnout story is not a cautionary tale. It is the origin story of one of the most compelling coaches working with high achievers today. In This Episode: * Lynn's journey from Singapore to Atlanta — how a girl who majored in "people watching" (sociology) ended up running global teams for Fortune 1 companies * Why Lynn noticed she had benefited almost entirely from male mentors — and what she decided to do about it * The burnout that stopped her cold: alopecia, 12 steroid injections, and the day her body refused to get out of bed * The three things she committed to during her sabbatical — and why she refused to add a fourth * The REST framework: the four-step acronym Lynn uses to help high achievers recover without losing themselves * The moment during her sabbatical when she said for the first time: "I think I'm going to become a coach" * What CliftonStrengths coaching actually is and why Lynn got her certification as a birthday gift to herself at 40 * The Canadian tech founder who sold her company, lost her identity, and came back to salsa dancing and community * The warning signs of burnout that high achievers routinely dismiss — and why Lynn knows exactly what they look like * What it means to be "the one you've been waiting for" About Lynn Wong Lynn Wong is an executive and life coach, founder of LW Coaches, and National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach. A Singapore-born corporate leader who spent two decades managing global teams across Fortune 1 companies, Lynn knows the cost of high achievement firsthand — she burned out, recovered, and rebuilt her life around helping others do the same without paying that price. She specializes in high achievers who are burning out or breaking through, and works at the intersection of coaching, neuroscience, and yoga. Connect with Lynn Wong * Website: lwcoaches.com (free starter kit and burnout assessment available) Resources * WeCanDoItWomen.com — join Debra's community