Hi! As many of you already know from Instagram and my Copy Cru email list, my newest project —The Trust Yourself Podcast™ — officially launched this week. The trailer is out, Episode 1 is live, and I’m so grateful for all the messages, DMs, emails, and encouragement so many of you have shared. Truly — thank you. I’m so excited to be exploring these topics and conversations together.
In Episode 1, I share the origin story of this podcast — how the idea came to me, why the theme of self-trust has been a thread throughout my life, and five experiences (or pieces of evidence) that have shaped what self-trust means to me. Because that’s really how self-trust builds: little by little, through lived experience.
You can get a little preview in this clip:
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Below you’ll find a bit of a companion piece to the full episode. It includes the same stories and ideas that you can skim (or refer back to) as well as some added thoughts.
Much like how the Copy Uncorked® concept came to me — all-at-once, and mid-air on a return flight from France — the concept of “trust yourself” dropped into my mind at the breakfast table with Pendry one morning.
It sorta just spelled itself out. Not in a strategic or even particularly purposeful way, but in a way that felt aligned. That made me curious. And even gave me this fresh wave of enthusiasm.
One text to Connor about it, and one “Love it” reply from him, and I was on my way to bringing it to life. Even if it ultimately took a few months for the timing to align and for my home office nook renovation to be finished. I’d previously lacked a closed-off space, or a space that didn’t share a wall with Pendry’s nursery. (Not ideal for podcast audio quality or long naps, ya know?)
I didn’t do the office reno because of the podcast, but the two happened in sync and it ultimately worked out.
I certainly went through my rounds of doubt and imposter syndrome:
“Do I have enough to say?”
“Is this worth pursuing?”
“Is this the right time?”
And oh myyy, I’ve recently realized the undertaking that is a podcast. 😮💨 But obviously, I ultimately came around to trusting the idea and myself enough to move forward with it. (How fitting, right?)
It’s also why it felt important to begin the podcast by defining — or at least trying to define — what self-trust actually is.
And rather than pretending I have a perfect, all-encompassing definition (I don’t!), I’m sharing five working definitions. Each of which has been shaped by a moment in my life that taught me something I didn’t know at the time.
Find those five themes and stories (that you’ll also hear in more detail in the episode) below.
In the episode, I tell the story of being around ten years old, overwhelmed with pre-competition anxiety, and throwing up outside the car on the way to a gymnastics meet. My dad then drove us out to this quiet, open stretch, and told me to look around and just take it all in.
That small moment was one of the first times I learned that when fear narrows my vision, I can intentionally widen it.
I enjoyed revisiting this story, because it’s become such a core memory, and it challenged me to keep expanding my perspective now, as an adult. (Especially when life feels more crowded and high-pressure than a Level 4 gymnastics meet ever did.)
I also talk about my college years, navigating a a really difficult season of anxiety, depression, and disordered eating as a Division 1 athlete. Everything in me wanted to transfer or walk away, but something subtler and perhaps more stubborn in me said, stay.
Staying didn’t feel brave. It felt like survival.
There were tearful therapy sessions, panic attacks at practice, and attempts at sorting through my thoughts in my earliest attempts at writing/blogging.
Thankfully, I had a lot of family support and friends in my corner. And later on, I started learning from voices like Brené Brown (on vulnerability, shame) and Bob Goff (on love, whimsy, faith). Eventually, I started working at lululemon, which introduced me to a culture that valued self-awareness, feedback, community, goal-setting, and entrepreneurship. All of that led me back to my faith and a dependence on God, too.
Looking back, that season taught me that sometimes self-trust isn’t about knowing what to do, it’s about staying long enough to figure it out.
My business journey — from starting my first LLC to building Copy Uncorked® to scaling and restructuring — taught me to pay attention to internal cues in a way I hadn’t before. There were plenty of moments where something felt “off,” even before I could explain why.
Earlier chapters of my life showed me what happens when I ignore those cues. So now, I try to treat gut feelings as information. They’re not infallible, of course, but they are worth paying attention to.
I’ve found tools like StrengthsFinder, the Enneagram, and Human Design to be helpful in their own ways. Not because they define me or they have the “answers”, but because they’ve helped me name cycles, patterns, and preferences I wouldn’t have recognized on my own.
All of that contributes to self-awareness and discernment, which, in my experience, is a big part of trusting yourself.
Sometimes it means pausing.
Sometimes it means seeking guidance instead of pushing through alone.
Sometimes it means asking, “What is this really annoying, uncomfortable, nagging feeling trying to teach me?”
Motherhood has been its own lesson in self-trust — probably the biggest one so far. Even when I felt like I knew nothing, there were so many decisions that I still somehow made intuitively: when to move Pendry to her crib, when to adjust nap schedules, when to stop breastfeeding, what she needed moment to moment.
One of my clients introduced me to the word overchoice — which perfectly describes the overwhelm created by having too many options. And honestly, nothing will show you overchoice like parenting in the age of the internet.
But strangely, motherhood also simplified things.
It forced me to decide what actually matters and what’s just noise.
I’ve realized that presence and attunement matter far more than finding the “right” answer. (And Connor models that better than I do.) Even with all the overwhelm, motherhood has been grounding in a way I didn’t expect.
And finally — there’s the nudge that led to this podcast.
I mentioned earlier that the idea came at the breakfast table with Pendry, but the whole year prior had felt like an unraveling, a questioning, a seeking.
Was I allowed to step outside of copywriting?
Would anyone care?
Was it the wrong season?
And I kept seeing the phrase “trust yourself” everywhere — in kids’ books, conversations, things I was reading, even TV shows. It made me question if I was jumping on some badwagon, but eventually, I realized I wasn’t meant to own the phrase; I was meant to steward it. To be part of and help lead this conversation on trusting your gut.
Now, here I am — building this show, preparing for maternity leave, and not-so-ironically knowing that this next season is going to stretch me again in new ways.
But sometimes self-trust looks like saying yes before you feel entirely ready.
Toward the end of the episode, I also invite you to reflect on your own experiences of self-trust. So I’ll echo that here:
When have you found perspective?
When have you stayed when it would’ve been easier to run?
When have you listened to your internal cues?
When have you chosen presence over overchoice?
When have you followed a nudge before you felt ready?
These moments count. They’re your evidence — evidence that there’s merit to what you think, believe, and know to be true.
Listen to Episode 1 on Apple Podcasts
Thanks for being here and for being part of this beginning.
The first guest interview drops Tuesday and it’s a GOOD one.
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