REPLAY: Four Seasons of Grief 9/10/25
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[00:00:00] Hey, hey, and welcome to a bonus episode of the Brave Widow Show. On today's episode, I'm sharing a replay of a webinar that I did this week on the Four Seasons of Grief. How to know which season you're in, and if I had to boil it down, what is one next step that I would recommend for you to focus on while you're in this season of grief?
You can also take the quiz if you wanna know what season of grief you're in at brave widow.com/seasons, which will be in the show notes and. See what season it says that you're in so that you can know what your one next step is. So a couple of important dates that are coming up, for those of you that are listening fairly real time,, offering another round of grief recovery method.[00:01:00]
Starting on Tuesday, September 30th. Again, this is an eight week class, limited to eight people, so the class will run from September 30th through November 18th from 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM Central time. The cost is $400. That includes the cost of your book. And, if you choose to sign up for the academy or sign up for one-on-one coaching by the end of the year, I will credit, that amount that you spent towards the academy or towards coaching.
We are coming up on the holidays here very rapidly, and so I'm trying to make sure as many people as possible are equipped with the tools that they need to navigate grief and to be able to navigate this life beyond grief. And so grief recovery method is a great way to do that. And again, that one is very limited.
I can only limit to eight people. [00:02:00] Another important date is that we are launching the Brave Widow Academy again, opening the doors.
Our first session will be on November the 10th, but four people who sign up. Before November. So if you sign up in September, you sign up in October. For people that sign up in September, I'm gonna give you three, one-on-one private coaching calls. Before the academy starts, and for people who sign up at least by October not only will you get early access, but you're also going to be able to attend a couple of pre go live launch calls that we are doing.
This is the last time that I'm gonna be launching Brave Widow Academy. It's gonna be the last time that I am teaching the courses and the classes [00:03:00] alive. So in the academy we have about a six month curriculum. Of modules and material that I walk people through each week. And we have our weekly group coaching calls as well.
This second round of the academy, I'm going to teach the content live one more time. And then we will just have an open academy where people can participate, they can watch videos, they can go at their own pace, and I will still host our. Overall group coaching. So this is the perfect time to join.
If you've been thinking about it, if you've been on the fence, if you've been wondering, if you're thinking like, oh, I don't know, it's, it's busy. I have a lot going on, then let me tell you, that is one reason why this makes it the perfect time to join. How else could you feel more supported? [00:04:00] And navigating the holidays and navigating the dark days of winter and navigating just the overwhelm.
Then to have a support group of faith-based like-minded widows and widowers in the academy. This experience of the academy has been so amazing and not because. I'm not saying that because it's me. I'm saying that because we have some really amazing people that are in there, and I think the Academy has been our iteration of ways that you can participate with Brave Widow in such a supportive, helpful, thoughtful.
Approach, right? We've had so many things in Brave Widow with the community, the one-on-one coaching, the all of the things, and. [00:05:00] I've heard very loud and clearly, especially from my one-on-one clients that I meet with each week, that they just feel so fully supported between the one-on-one coaching. We have our group academy calls, and then we also have some, um, open office hour drop, drop-in type support.
So they have so, so much support that's not even including all the support My one-on-one clients get. Through messaging, which is at any time they can send a text, video or audio message, and I check the app twice a day, send responses, and so truly people are feeling surrounded, guided, supported, no longer feeling lost, uncertain, fearful.
And like they're stuck. And I just want that for every one of you who [00:06:00] are listening today. So. I know I shared a lot with you. There's one thing to take away if you're considering taking another step. As someone I talked to yesterday was like, uh, there's so many options. It's confusing. Like I know when I added grief recovery method, when I carve that out separately, just these couple of times, that's made it another option, right?
That made, has made it a little confusing. So what I would do. Go to brave widow.com, schedule your consult call, and what I'll do on the consult is I will learn more about you and where you are, your next steps and recommendations of what you could do. What I would do if I were in your shoes and I will lay out a whole action plan that then I will email to you after the call.
This is not a hard. Sales call. It's not like going to a timeshare thing, okay? This is [00:07:00] an open and honest conversation. Now, do I challenge some of my clients thinking, do I challenge sometimes their. Doubts or their mindset or thoughts that are preventing them from being able to step forward. Of course, I wouldn't be a coach, wouldn't be a life coach if I wasn't operating as a mirror and bringing awareness to you of where you may be holding yourself back.
But it is all done outta love. It is all done out of a way to serve you. I do not always recommend that people should do one-on-one coaching, even though that's the most expensive package. It's 5K for six months. So you might think, oh, well, if I get on this call, you're just gonna tell me I need to do the most expensive thing wrong.
It isn't for everyone. I'm not a good fit for [00:08:00] everyone. And I believe strongly in a value of community and in group coaching that if you're only doing one-on-one, you might miss out on. So that's why if you do one-on-one coaching, I include the academy. So it is 5K, but you're also getting the academy, which by itself is three K, um, and both of which right now are six month packages.
So just know this isn't a high, high pressure call. This is genuinely a call outta service for me to help you get, identify your next step and get unstuck. To stop feeling lost, to stop feeling lonely, to stop feeling like you don't know what to do, but to be able to face with clarity, like, here's the next step of what I could do to move forward.
So. Go schedule your consult. Call people. Go to brave [00:09:00] widow.com. Schedule a consult call. If for some reason you can't find a time that seems to work for you, just shoot me an email, [email protected] or reach out to me through the website and, um, we can or DM me and we can talk that way as well.
But I'll do my best to be flexible on a time to do a consult call with you. This next, launch of Brave Widow Academy is just, I know it's gonna be so amazing and I don't want you guys to miss out. So go to brave widow.com. Go right now. Unless you're driving. If we're doing anything else, just stop.
Go to brave.com, sign up for your consult call, and I will look forward to seeing you there. Alright, let's now dive into the replay on the Four Seasons of Grief. I.
Welcome, welcome, welcome. We got just about two minutes [00:10:00] here, and then we are going to get started. Marlene. Hello, Maryanne. Sandy. Donna. Karen,
welcome. We have YouTube going, Wendy. Hi Idaho. Let's go.
We got YouTube, TikTok, zoom. It's all good. If you're on YouTube or Zoom, you can see my screen. And if you're on TikTok and want to see my screen, um, the Zoom link [email protected] and let's see here. Gonna give everybody another minute or so to join. Now, if you haven't already taken the quiz to see what season of grief that you are in, you can find that at brave [00:11:00] widow.com/seasons seasons, and you can take the quiz and see, um, what season of grief that you are in.
So we're gonna get started in just one more minute here.
Everyone. I Awesome. Hi Michelle. Hi Nan. Good to see you, Kim.
Welcome. Okay. It is right at the top of the hour, so I'm gonna get, go ahead and get started. Um, and I will start us off with a prayer here. Um, dear Heavenly Father, thank you for our time together and the ability to share just what I've learned over the past few years and what has [00:12:00] been helpful to me and helpful to people that I work with, and understanding different seasons of grief and life that we may experience and what we can focus on during a specific season and what that looks like going forward.
Uh, we ask for your wisdom and your guidance as people navigate really tough decisions. Challenges, relationships, um, heartache, just all of the things that come with grief and, and figuring out this new life. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. So, hello again and welcome for people who are just joining. Hello, Karen.
Um, if you wanna type in the chat where you're from, that would be awesome. I am gonna talk to you today about the Four Seasons of Grief and just as we get started, um, if you're in Zoom with me [00:13:00] or, um, some of the other areas. So you'll notice at the bottom on Zoom there's a chat button and there's also a questions button.
So, um, the chat is, is an amazing place for you to put comments, for you to put emojis for you to let me know what's resonating with you. What you're confused about, like all that could go in the chat. It, it's really good energy. It's amazing. And if you have a specific question or something you want me to talk more about, if you're in Zoom, if you'll put that in the questions box, then that helps build a list for me to not forget to go back and answer your question if I don't get there.
So, uh, Marianne says she's from Idaho as well. Um, so Marianne and Wendy represent in Idaho. Let's go. Um, that'll be great. So today I'm gonna walk through an overview of my story. I'm gonna talk about some of the problems that we face in moving through the seasons of [00:14:00] grief. I'm gonna cover the four seasons of grief, what typically we focus on when we're in that season.
And then because we only have an hour, and I'm trying to boil down. Everything that I teach over a series of six months into an hour, um, and everything that it's really taken me a few years to detail out. I am going to also give you one thing. So it's like, okay, if I'm in this season of grief, what is one thing that I can focus on while I'm in this season of grief?
So I'm gonna give you like a few things we focus on and then also recommendation for one thing so that it doesn't feel quite so overwhelming. So, um, hopefully that will make sense. And then at the end I am gonna share about Brave Widow Academy and our next academy group that's gonna be starting. I'm also gonna be sharing about grief [00:15:00] recovery method.
'cause I have another, we completely sold out of grief recovery method. That started last Monday on September the eighth. Um, and so I have another group of grief recovery method that's gonna start on September 30th. So if you wanna learn about those things, I would love for you to stick around. And because I'm a life coach and because I want people to take action, I always offer some sort of fast action bonus, but you'll have to stick around to see what it is.
Karen is from Wisconsin. Let's go Karen. Um, alright, so just diving in through my story, who am I? A lot of times I'll get comments like, are you even actually a widow? Like, you don't look like you're a widow. Yes, I am. So, um, if you would've asked me four years ago if I ever could have imagined, like sitting here talking to you today, I would [00:16:00] say absolutely not.
Because just over four years ago, I watched as an ambulance, took my best friend and the love of my life from our home for the last time, never to return. I, we both were sick with COVI that had morphed into double pneumonia and we had been better at him for a couple of weeks. And it got to the point where Nathan could no longer get out of bed.
And so we had called the ambulance and I told my kids, because I worked in healthcare, I was in hospitals all the time. And so I told my kids like, don't worry. Hospitals are where people to go, go to get better. Like he's gonna be fine. And my husband, Nathan would spend 11 days in ICU. About half of that time he would be [00:17:00] on a ventilator in a medical coma.
And then one day the, they would call me up to the hospital to talk about the next steps on this road to recovery. But I would learn that there would be none. In fact, there would be no kindness, there would be no warmth. There wouldn't even be like a pleasant smile. After waiting for an hour and a half, the physician would walk in the room, sit down across the table from me and say, we think your husband is brain dead.
And I can still remember, like in that moment, my whole world just stopped spinning. And I try to wrap my mind around like, how did we get here? Like he was struggling and then he was doing better, and now somehow we're ending up here. And how in the world am I supposed to go home? Until our four teenagers that [00:18:00] their dad wasn't gonna make it.
Um, three weeks later, it would have been our 20th wedding anniversary, and I already had planned for family and friends to come over and celebrate with us. And as you, if you're on Zoom with me or on YouTube, you can see I'd ordered the T-shirt 20 years. Nathan and Emily Best friends, and I, three weeks later, would wear that t-shirt and I would have family and friends over, but it would be a celebration and a remembrance of our life together instead of facing that day with excitement.
As a bride of 20 years, I would face that day crushed as a solo mom to four teenagers and now a young widow. I remember it was just over a year later. That, um, here in that same yard where you saw us standing, [00:19:00] uh, I had a memorial garden built for Nathan and I had this little park bench set in there, and I thought that this was a great idea.
I thought like, oh, this'll be so beautiful. It's a place that we can come and, and I can sit here and I can just remember the, the wonderful times that we had together. But instead of feeling comforted by it, I actually ended up feeling tormented by it. And what would happen is I would go and sit on this bench and I would just baw my eyes out.
Right? I just felt like it was a constant reminder that he was never gonna come back. And so I remember clearly one afternoon I was sitting here, it was a fall afternoon, and I remember I was like doubled over like clutching my chest because I was crying so hard. It's like that guttural pit of [00:20:00] your stomach cry, right?
Where you're like, I didn't even know I could make those noises, but it was just this deep wailing cry. And I remember my chest hurting so much. Like it was so painful. I thought my heart was gonna explode. And I remember thinking right then and there, like, this is it. This is it. This is how it happens.
This is how, how someone dies of a broken heart. Like this is it. This is it. And I just sat there until the tears stopped, as they always did at some point. And I just sat there feeling so empty. And I remember thinking about my kids, our four kids. And I thought to myself, you know, it's kind of sad because even though both of us, even though they only technically lost one parent, it's really kind of like they lost two.
Because even though I [00:21:00] was alive, I guess physically, I felt dead on the inside. I felt hollow. I felt like life was just kind of happening around me, and I was just floating through it. And I thought about like, oh my gosh, if, if this is gonna be the rest of my life, like another 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, maybe even 50 years, like this is it.
Like, I can't, I, I just, I can't do this anymore like this physically. I cannot do this anymore. And so I remember thinking about my kids and I remember making a decision. Like, I don't know how, how people get on the other side of grief. I don't know how people can get to a point where they love life again.
But if there is a way, some way, somehow I have got to figure it out. And so I remember closing my eyes as I was sitting [00:22:00] there baking and not fall sun. And I remember saying these words out loud, like, Nathan, I love you and I miss you, and I cannot live like this anymore. I have to figure out how to move forward.
And I remember standing up and walking back into my house and this being the beginning of an entirely different journey for me. I. Bought all the books. I did the courses. I would interview hundreds of widows and ask them what helped them get on the other side of grief. I would ultimately end up launching The Brave Widow Show, which is a podcast where I would interview over a hundred other widows where they would share their story.
They would share what had helped them when they got on the other side of grief. And I'm just so grateful that now I can share. I do love my life again [00:23:00] today from a place of feeling like that was so impossible and not even knowing if it was possible. I've gone on this amazing journey of not only healing my own heart, but going on new adventures.
I started doing things like real estate investing. I, I've traveled to many places, including five new countries. Um, I have, I got to go meet Dave Ramsey in person and thank him in person, which was like something I never thought would happen. Um, I even over just over a year ago, met and remarried, like the most wonderful, supportive man.
Um, and I even gained a bonus son in this process. And so my life today I am happy to share is like better and a, and a more amazing than I even thought was possible for. And so now I, uh, run a company called Brave Widow. We have the Brave Widow Academy, which is a [00:24:00] combination of coaching and community and, uh, curriculum to help other people, um, be able to heal their heart and build a life that they can love again.
Um, I became certified through the Grief Recovery Institute through an evidence-based grief recovery program. And then I went through a faith-based life coaching program, um, which was founded by a 20 year practicing clinical psychologist who implements elements of psychology, counseling, coaching, and faith.
I'd never seen that done before. Um, she also was very acquainted with grief, so it was an amazing experience. So are you in the right place? Let's find out. Hi, Sandy. Sandy says she's from South Dakota. You are in the right place if you are tired. A feeling stuck and numb or lost, and like you're floating through life.
If you want clarity and connection and confidence, [00:25:00] instead of feeling like you're not sure what's next. So, type in the chat if, if any of this resonates with you, if you're like, if that, that's me. Put an emoji, put a word in there. Just say, that's me. Put it in the chat. If you've tried therapy, grief groups or giving it time and it still feels like it's not working, or maybe it's helped, but you still feel like there's something more, if you are ready to stop waiting for life to get better and you want to start creating a life, Helen says, yes, that's me.
Tracy says, yes, amazing. If you are a faith-based person who wants to honor your past while building a meaningful new chapter, now you are not in the right place. You, you are not ready to take action. And if you would rather wait for things to get better. If you are looking for a quick fix, a magic pill, a you know, a, a promise that next week, you know, if you do this for seven days next week, your life's [00:26:00] gonna be perfect.
This is not the place for you. If you are unwilling to invest time and energy, this is not the place for you. Or if you live in a mindset that you can't, that you aren't open, that you don't want like to hear, and if that is you, my heart goes out to you and I have the deepest compassion. Um, I receive several messages from people who are hurting and who start out and sending their messages to me with things like, you can't help me.
There's nothing you can say. You don't know what I've been through. And while I have the deepest compassion for those people. If you're in a mindset where there is no help for you, there is no answer. If that is your belief, then you will prove yourself, right? I can only help the people who dare to have the tiniest belief that maybe, [00:27:00] maybe they could try something different.
Maybe they could do something different, but they're willing to take that step and try something different. So most widows have tried, let me know if you have tried any of these things. Therapy, reading grief books, going to grief groups, and just giving it time. That was the biggest thing for me, is everybody kept telling me, I need to give a ton.
So the problem in our journey, the problem with each of these things is that ultimately we end up feeling lost. We're unsure and we're lonely. So after years of coaching widows, if I had to like just summarize the biggest pain points, the biggest problems, the biggest challenges is that people feel lost.
They feel uncertain or unsure, and they feel lonely. Do any of those resonate with you guys? Any of those three? I felt [00:28:00] all of them. Maybe you feel one. Um, so for me, the biggest challenge for me, the biggest question I had is what am I supposed to do next? What am I supposed to do? How do I get to enjoy my life again?
You know, I went to counseling, I feel better, but what do I do now? Like no one could tell me. What are the steps? Like how do I go from here being in grief to here, loving life again and feeling like there is hope for the future? No one could tell me that. What, what is the roadmap? What's the blueprint?
What's the plan? Right? Like, no one could tell me that. And so that really has been my mission over these past few years, is creating that for people to know what the roadmap looks like and what they can do, what they can actually do to help themselves where they are and to prepare for that next season.
Okay. So [00:29:00] our, my, my framework of solution and the four seasons that we're gonna walk through are right here, it's called Rise. Um, my brave widow peeps have helped me name some of these seasons, um, and helped me come up with what this framework looks like. Um. So I'm gonna walk you through each of these four seasons.
Okay? So the first one we call rawness. The second one is isolation. The third one is self discovery, and the fourth one is empowerment. Wendy says, I've gone through grief shares since 2019 numerous times. Yes, I'm very lonely. Karen says All of the above. Nothing helped until Emily in Brave Widow, and most things made me feel worse.
Oh, thank you, Karen, for sharing that. So, as we think about the four Seasons of Grief, okay, I think about this as a journey. We're gonna go through all of these seasons, and these are very [00:30:00] normal that we go through the seasons. And have you guys heard of the five stages of grief, like the five stages? Um, the five Stages of Grief is a great tool when used for the people it was meant for.
Which are people who had received a terminal diagnosis. The five stages of grief was never meant to apply to you. So if it doesn't resonate with you, that's probably why you're not crazy. It just wasn't meant for you. Okay? And so as the reason we ended up calling bees seasons is because they're very transitional.
And right now we're in a very transitional time, right? We're in fall. So maybe depending on where you live, the season's a little warm. The mornings might be a little cooler. We're kind of like, have a warm day, cold day, warm day. Cold day, warm day, cold day. Um, and so to me, this is very much the same, the season of grief.
It doesn't mean you fit [00:31:00] neatly in a particular bucket. It could be somewhat transitional, but you can essentially know with some certainty what, what season you're in. And so we think about these seasons as our roadmap. And I can even pinpoint with some accuracy, like 80 to 85% of widows where they are whenever they find me, which has been super interesting.
So most widows when they find me, are between seasons two and three. So we'll see where you guys are and if that resonates with you. I have a free quiz on brave widow.com if you wanna take the quiz to see what season you're in, but you may be able to identify it as we walk through it. Okay, so the first season is called rawness.
So I think about this season where you are really in survival mode. You have experienced the most stressful life event, a [00:32:00] person experiences, you've gone through something very traumatic, which is losing your other person. Sean says, my wife passed away three weeks ago. Sean, I'm so sorry. That your wife passed away recently, and so you are in a season of rawness, right, which is a season of survival mode of we may struggle to function, we may have brain fog.
It may be just really hard to even get through the day or get through the next hour. Life feels really overwhelming and confusing. And so sometimes we can make mistakes when we're in the season, or we can believe myths and grief that aren't true. So a lot of times when widows are in this first season of grief, we think that we need to do more.
We think we need to be strong. We think we need to power through. We just need to get through the day, right? Our first instinct is like, I have to do more, [00:33:00] and it's because more has fallen on our shoulders now. We have to get through the arrangements. We have to get through the tasks. We have to get through taking care of the house, but we just think the answer is doing more.
Maybe it's distracting ourselves, staying busy. Maybe it's suppressing grief and trying not to process that emotion. Maybe it's believing that we need to grieve alone. Hi Elaine, welcome. But a lot of times in this season, we think we need to do more. We need to be strong. We need to power through. We need to tough it out.
Right? I thought that too. I've made all these, I've made all these mistakes. Okay, and so when we are in this first season of grief, this season of rawness, what we wanna focus on is actually the opposite, which is slowing down, doing less resting, [00:34:00] focusing on emotional healing. Adjust the expectations we have for ourself.
Be willing to accept help, even asking for help that feels super uncomfortable, right? Finding physical and emotional safety and having a sense of routine when your entire routine has been lost. And so in Brave Widow Academy and in what we teach, we actually have two modules or two systems we use to address this one.
You guys, I know if you have followed me for like five minutes, you've heard me talk about Grief Recovery Method. Is this book here, okay? This is the evidence-based program we talked about. So if you're early on in grief. If you haven't done Grief recovery method, I don't care who you take it from, I don't care what format you take it in, take it.
It's amazing. Okay? This becomes our foundation then, that we can build our life on top of. Um, we also in the academy go through what we [00:35:00] call the Chaos to Calm blueprint, which is focusing on emotional healing, emotional safety, finding our routine, being able to regulate our emotions and have a sense of calm when everything feels super chaotic.
Now, that sounds like a lot when you're in your first season of grief, you're like, I, you know, where do I even start? What do I focus on? And so if I had to boil it down to give you one thing, like if you just did one thing and nothing else, here's what I would tell you. Okay? Are you ready? Is to be gentle with yourself.
Okay? So what does that mean? Well, being gentle with yourself isn't telling yourself, I gotta be strong. I gotta just do it. Why is this so hard? I should be able to do this. It's not any of that. Being gentle with yourself is not, oh, I always host Thanksgiving, so I need to host [00:36:00] Thanksgiving again, or I need to just ignore the pain and maybe it will go away.
Right? Being gentle with yourself is going, I have just gone through something like one of the most challenging, traumatic, difficult things a person can go through. So I'm gonna have compassion for myself, and yet I may not be able to function at the same level that I used to, and that's okay. So whatever it is that is coming up for you, whatever it is you're struggling with in this season of rawness.
Refocus back on this, like, when I'm trying to make a decision, I'm trying to prioritize, I'm trying to figure out to do what to do. Can I come back to this question of am I being gentle with myself? Is doing this a way of being gentle and being kind and being compassionate to myself? [00:37:00] Or is this the opposite of that and forcing me to do things that are, that feel above and beyond where I'm ready to to function.
Um, Helen is Grief Recovery, is it a book I can purchase? Yeah, it's a book. You can purchase it right on Amazon. It's uh, also a program and I'm gonna tell you about that towards the end of this. Um, give you the opportunity, if you'd like to go through that with me. I can walk you through it. So I wanna share with you a story about one of my clients.
Her name is Michelle. Um, when I first met Michelle, she also had four kids. She's, um, about my age as well. I won't tell her age because, you know, you could just, just guess, right? She's a young mom, young widow. She's got four kids at home. She had completely lost her confidence and her purpose, and felt like her husband was her sense of purpose and gave her her confidence.
She, even [00:38:00] though she had been, she wasn't necessarily a brand new widow, she felt overwhelmed by grief. She felt exhausted, like she couldn't show up for her kids. She couldn't take time. She, she couldn't ever find time to even go for a 20 minute walk every day. She felt like everything else was more important.
The dishes are more important. The laundry more is more important. The kids are more important. She just really struggled with guilt. With grief, with feeling like she was worthy of carving out time for and prioritizing. And Michelle Ert has shared her story on my website, so you're happy to go watch her video.
I'm not sharing anything she doesn't, wouldn't want me to share. So I worked with Michelle. We actually worked, um, one-on-one. We did grief recovery method and then we did coaching as well, one-on-one. And I'm so happy to share that now. Michelle is a totally different person and when we did her celebration call at the end of six months, her [00:39:00] confidence had gone from like, I think it was a two or a three.
We rate it on a scale of one to 10. Her confidence had gone from a two or a three, I think it was like an eight or a nine. And I remember her so clearly getting on that call and being like, look at me. Who is this? Who is this person on this call? Like I, I'm just not even the same person I was six months ago.
She discovered that she had a talent for singing, and so she joined like a singing app and a singing group, and she went to a conference when she had been afraid to travel and she had been afraid to try new things. Like now she's part of this singing group that meets up in person online, which is awesome.
She rebuilt up her confidence in her faith and in herself and her ability to do new things, and she even decided to go back and graduate from the same life Coach Academy that I graduated from. So in June, you can see a picture here. We're in our graduation cap and gowns. I have two of my clients [00:40:00] here, Lily and Michelle, and I got to go in June and watch them graduate from the same life coaching academy that I graduated with from two young widows, two mothers.
Who are launching their own different types of businesses in the coaching space to help other people and to know that even I had like the tiniest, tiniest, tiniest part of getting to be part of that journey is amazing. To see people go from a state of feeling overwhelmed and devastated and lost to feeling so clear and confident about who they are and what they want and what they are now able to not only do for their family, but they want to do more for other people.
Like I just don't know that people realize even though she grieved for years, being able to make that much progress in six months is amazing. Okay, [00:41:00] so one of the things Michelle said in her testimonial is like, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain in regards to Brave Widow. Okay. Our second season of grief is called isolation, and I call it isolation because what tends to happen is when we're in deep grief, we tend to, I call it like hibernating.
It's like we withdraw into this little cave, and because we're in survival mode, we're so focused on ourself, right? Like we're just focused on putting one foot in front of the other and being able to survive. And then as we start to come out of our cave and we start to go, okay, I'm no longer in survival mode.
I've moved out of that, I'm now in maintenance mode, like I have my feet underneath me. I have a new routine, and I'm looking around like, where did everybody go? They're all gone. There's a statistic that [00:42:00] says widows will lose 75% of their social circle in the first year. For most of my clients, that's more like.
90 or 95%. But what ends up happening is we feel so incredibly lonely. Like Wendy mentioned, I just feel very lonely, right? And, and this is a very lonely time of grief and of being a widow. And so some mistakes that we make when we're in a season of isolation is waiting to feel ready, joining groups or trying things out that don't fit us.
Um, people may be invite us to do things and we ghost them, or we don't reach out, or, or we feel like they've disappeared or we just continue to float through life. And one of the most heartbreaking things that I hear from people who reach out to me is that I just need to keep waiting. I'm just not ready.
I just, I need to keep waiting until I feel [00:43:00] ready. And so what I want you to know, even if you take nothing else away from today. Is that readiness isn't a feeling. Readiness is a decision. So if you wait to feel ready, you're going to keep waiting. I have clients that have waited for five years, seven years, 10 years.
They've waited to feel better, and outta desperation, they reach out like, what am I doing wrong? Like, how, you know, I've waited this many years. How many more years do I have to wait? And I just really try to encourage them like, zero. We're gonna stop waiting. We're gonna take a step, we're gonna take some action.
We're gonna stop sitting in the pa, in the backseat. We're gonna move into the driver's seat and start to make things happen. Okay, so when you're in a season of isolation, what do you want to focus on? Well, we wanna come out of isolation and we wanna feel more connected. So we [00:44:00] wanna plug into a community.
Of like-minded people who are on a path of growth, who are on a path of development and discovery, who are on this journey, right? Because the journey's lonely. We wanna explore our new identity and who we are, and we wanna start with dreams that are really small. So when you're in this season of grief and you think about the future, it's hard to think about the future, right?
Number one, because maybe you don't want the future. You want the past. You want the past to come back. You want the past. You wanna be able to go back to the life you had and the person that you had. And so it's hard to think about the future because you don't want the future. The other reason it's hard to think about the future is because you can't see it clearly.
You may not know who you are or what you want, or what you like, or what you don't like. So in this season, oh hi angel. In this season we [00:45:00] wanna focus on. Small dreams, which are things like even starting with a question of what is something I want more of in my life? More gentleness, more adventure, more movement, more curiosity.
Like what are the things I want more of? And how we can start pulling more of that into our life, and then that will bring us some clarity over time. So when we're in isolation, one of the things in the Brave Widow Academy that we work through is called the self-trust system. And this is where we really work on rebuilding confidence.
So how many of you have felt like your confidence has been shaken since you've become a widow? Maybe it's confidence in yourself. Confidence to try new things, confidence in making decisions without second guessing. Um, without every decision, feeling like it's the risks and the stakes are really high.[00:46:00]
But just overall confidence. So this is one of the, the first things that we start working on when you are in the, a season of isolation, because it takes confidence to meet people and make friends. It takes confidence to be willing to try new things and to figure out what do you want? What do you want in your life?
I don't know. Okay, well, we're gonna try some new things, but I'm afraid I don't wanna try new things. Okay? So we're gonna work on your confidence. And there's a reason that I named this organization Brave Widow and Not Fearless Widow, okay? Because in Brave Widow, we feel the fear and we do it anyway. We feel the doubt, we feel the anxiety, we feel the uncertainty, and we grit our teeth and we step forward anyway.
And it is through taking action, you will build confidence. Angel says, I feel like I should be paying for this. [00:47:00] Great. I love it. That is my goal. Angel is for you to feel like this is very valuable and helpful to you. So there's a lot of things that we can work on when we're in a season of isolation and a lot of things that we can do when we're building our confidence.
But if I had to pick one thing for today, so if you are in a season of isolation and you're like, I just one, one thing, Emily, tell me one thing that I can do today. It would be to connect with a friend. And I, I know you don't have to tell me. Your family and friends disappeared. They fizzled out. For many of you.
They're gone. I, I, I hear you. So reconnect with a friend. Invite them to lunch. Invite them to come sit on the couch beside you. Invite them to have, you know, a cup of coffee [00:48:00] together. Like whatever that looks like, make the invitation and make it specific. Okay. If you just say like, oh, we should do lunch sometime.
That's not gonna go anywhere because other person will be like, oh yeah, we totally should do it. And then you're like, oh yeah, we should, oh yeah, we should. Instead of being like, well, how about Friday? Let's get together Friday. And then the other person can say, oh, I'm busy Friday. Could you do it on Thursday?
And you can go, oh yeah, Thursday, you can figure it out, right? But let's get out of the, like, we should do this someday. Like, let's truly like connect with a friend and not over text message, not over messenger, like FaceTime them, get in person. Like truly feel connected with somebody who can see you, who can hear you, and not allow you to feel that you're so incredibly lonely.
Wendy says, a hundred percent confidence loss. I never used to be this way until my husband died. Yeah, and [00:49:00] that's totally normal for most of us. Our person was our thought partner and they were our safety net. So if we were thinking about something, maybe we weren't thinking about every potential pitfall, they helped us think about it.
Like, oh yeah, what did you think about this? Right. They're kind of our little safety net. And also, if we were worried about a certain decision, they shouldered the consequences with us. Right? And so now all of a sudden, it's like every de decision feels like if I make the wrong decision, I'll be homeless.
I'll be bankrupt. Like our mind wants to go way over here. When really. That's not the reality, right? Or as a parent, I think, I don't wanna screw up my kids. When my, it was my husband and I, if we both screwed 'em up, then it was both of our faults. But now it's just me, like, oh my gosh. You know, Karen says, I did everything wrong in the first season.
I [00:50:00] dove back into life with a vengeance, and in retrospect, did myself more harm than good. Emily is completely correct about being gentle with yourself, and most likely others won't be either. Uh, that's a really good point, Karen, that a lot of times other people, um, aren't always gentle with us either.
Beth says, friends seem to say the wrong things, like try to get excited for new beginnings. Yeah, and you know, people, I I try to give people grace because as people, we wanna fix and we wanna help, and so people wanna make us feel better at what, what people wanna do. Is when we're down in our season of grief and our season of suffering, we're like down in the mud, right?
Think about it like that. Like we're down in the mud and mud is uncomfortable and squishy and gross and awkward and weird. And so most people wanna pull us out of the mud, like, come on, get up. You can do this. It's gonna be okay. Don't sit down in the mud. You can come on, get [00:51:00] back up. And really what we need is someone to get in the mud with us and to just sit there and they don't need to say anything.
They don't need to do anything. We just need to know that we are not alone as we're sitting there in the mud. But as a society, as a culture, we're not well educated on how to help people through grief. So that's why a lot of times it feels like, uh, we're very disconnected from people around us. Okay. I know I'm running short on time.
I gotta speed. I gotta speed up Karen. Karen's with us in the chat. Karen, I love your story and I love getting to tell it. So I got to meet Karen, um, November. Um, November. I like brought Black Friday. I did this like crazy thing and was trying to just get people to, you know, get off the fence to take some action to, to join Brave [00:52:00] Widow and to make some real change in their life.
So when I, you know, first met Karen, she felt, um, overwhelmed. She struggled a lot with boundaries at home and at work. And Karen actually came on the podcast, so you can hear her full story there. Um, on The Brave Widow Show, she felt unseen and unheard. Her employer mandated that she try counseling and she tried it and her counselor basically told her that it had been long enough.
It had been over three years. She just needed to move on, like. Okay. I, I, I do not dog on counselors. I went to counseling. I believe in counseling. I believe in finding the right counselor for you. Okay. Um, but for Karen, that was not her experience. She went to a grief group that didn't resonate with her.
For some people it works well. For some people not, it's not a problem. And so with Karen, we went through grief recovery method. This program here is kind of where we started, I think, um, late [00:53:00] last year. And within, um, also, it had gotten to a point, I think in December that Karen's employer sat her down and was like, look, from a performance perspective, this is not working.
And so either we're gonna have to see some real change, or we're going to be forced to make a change. Um, and if you know what a performance improvement plan is, that's as she shares in her story, that's what got delivered to her. Um, but. The story has a very happy, it's not even an ending, like we're still on a journey, right?
But it was about three or four months later that, um, Karen had gone through grief recovery. She had been also going through one-on-one coaching, and she shared just the most amazing thing with me is that at work, not only in her personal life, did she feel a shift in her grief, and I'm not gonna pretend that her life is perfect and that she never gets sad and she [00:54:00] never has moments of grief, right?
That's, that's not realistic. But because she had been able to process her grief, because she had learned tools on navigating grief tools, on setting boundaries, tools on regulating her own emotions and how she showed up for other people, just within like three months, she not only felt a difference in herself, but people around her noticed.
And her employers were like, wow, this is amazing. We're no longer gonna force you to do all these mandated classes and go to counseling and this and that, and, and what are you doing? Like, you are so different. What has been different for you? She told 'em about Brave Widow and they even sponsored for her to continue coaching with Brave Widow.
So I share that as like Karen had been struggling with her grief and feeling unheard and frustrated for over three years and in three months, [00:55:00] life isn't perfect. But not only did she notice a big difference, but people around her noticed a big difference in how she showed up in life. Okay, so one thing Karen said is being part of Brave Widow has been an answer to a four year long prayer.
I'm so glad I did this. It changed my life and gave me a new outlook on life and a very short amount of time. I never expected. But it happened, and here we are. And so if you wanna hear Karen's story, she's on The Brave Widow Show. So Karen says in the chat, I eventually realized I don't need as many people in my closest circle as I thought for one thing, I don't have time and energy to be the friend I should be.
Now I have my close circle of friends and my wonderful brave widow community, and I'm very grateful that my story can be of help to others. Thanks, Emily. Oh, you're welcome Karen. And thank you for letting me share your story def definition of brave being willing to put your face and your name out there.
Okay. [00:56:00] I am taking too long to go through these self-discovery. So, um, season three is the, the s and the word rise. And this is a season of self-discovery and season three can be a very exciting, fun season. It also can be the season where people start to get stuck. Okay, so this is the season where you are, you've been in maintenance mode, you have your new routine, but you're like, now what?
Like, like for me, I had a new routine and I'm like, I hate it. Is this, it? Like, is this all life has to offer me like this a another 40 years of this? What? Okay. And so self-discovery was all about figuring out like, who am I now? 'cause I'm not the same person that I was in the life that I used to have. So who am I now?
What are the things I like? What are the things that I want to do? It was the real realization [00:57:00] that, okay, well if I'm gonna have to live more years in the future, hopefully more decades in the future, I don't wanna live like this. I want it to be more than this. Something more meaningful than this. Okay.
And so it's, it can be fun because we're trying, new things weren't being adventurous. It's also terrifying. 'cause you're trying new things and being adventurous. And it also can be difficult because as you're trying new things, you have the feelings of guilt, you have feelings of grief, and you have a lot of self-doubt.
So it can be, I went to try this new thing and now I have all these feelings, like, why are you doing this? You shouldn't be having fun. You shouldn't be doing this. You should be grieving your person. Why would you even want to have a life again? Because they're not gonna be here to enjoy it with you.
Remember, don't you remember that your person's not here? Like the guilt and the doubt and all the swirling, um, is, can be really [00:58:00] overwhelming. And so people tend to get stuck in this cycle between season two and season three because they try new things. They try to put themselves out there, they try to figure out what they want my might want their life to look like, and then a wave of grief smacks 'em right back down.
And they're like, well, why even try? Why even try to, you know, go do something fun because all I'm gonna think about is how my person's not here, or all I'm gonna think about is how guilty I feel for trying to do this. And so this is really the value of knowing the seasons of grief, knowing the roadmap of having a coach who, I just had this conversation with one of my clients earlier this week of like, you need to know this is normal.
Like, it's normal to feel like things are getting better. And then you have a day that's really hard. Hi Terry. Terry says, that's me all the time, Terry, maybe [00:59:00] you're in season three. Um, so this is the value of having a coach that's like, you're not going backwards. You're not starting from square one. It's normal that you might have a bad day.
Maybe it's the time of year because this time of year was when things were happening. Um, your person was in the hospital or that's when they died, or that's when, you know, your anniversary was, or it's just bringing awareness, like maybe there's some of that, but then also there's just, you know, you're like, you're trying to build this new life and you're like a baby deer finding its feet for the first time.
Right? You're like real shaky, you're real nervous, you're like trying to figure it out. You're tripping over sticks. I think about it like trying to ride a bike for the first time. You know, you get on the bike and you're like pedaling and you're like, yay, I'm doing it. And then you hit a rock and you just fall over.
Right? If you're trying to do that by yourself, it can be super [01:00:00] disappointing and discouraging and frustrating versus having someone to tell you like, that's normal. This is part of the process. Let's get back on the bike. It's okay. Like, let's take a day and let's sit in it together and reflect on what you're going through.
And then tomorrow. We're gonna step forward and we're gonna do something different. Okay. So when you're in season three, some mistakes that we can make are giving up, holding back from fear and doubt, believing that we're going backwards, and, um, living in a state of feeling guilty. Okay, so when we're in self discovery, what do we focus on?
Well, we're trying new things. We're taking risks. Texas widow says, I'm feeling all of this. Good. Good. It's resonating. Okay. We're taking risks that are low stakes. Okay? We're learning how to regulate our anxiety, [01:01:00] so doesn't feel so overwhelming. We're growing our capacity for both. And, and I just had this conversation with the client on Friday, which is like, Emily, I hear you talk about building a life that you can love again.
And I'm just wrestling with like, but I'm sad and I miss my person. And then I think that maybe one day I'll be happy again. But then I feel bad about that. Or it's like hard for me to think about like, how, how is that gonna work? How am like, I'm just gonna be happy one day and then I'm not gonna be sad.
And that means that, well, that makes, that makes me sad. Not that I might be happy and not feel sad. And then that makes me sad, right? And I'm like, okay, think of it this way. It's not that you are going to, the goal is not happiness, which is a whole podcast in itself. We're not chasing happiness. We are chasing, we are, we are creating [01:02:00] peace.
We are creating a sense of feeling grounded and purposeful and driven by a fire that lights us up on the inside. We're not chasing this high emotion of like, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy. Because that's the opposite of this down emotion, which is like a really sad, right? We're regulating to the middle.
We're regulating to a place that's neutral. It's like I feel peaceful. My emotions aren't really like doing this. My emotions are just like this. They're not big, big waves, right? A place that's peaceful and we're growing our capacity, so we're growing our ability to hold multiple emotions at the same time, which I know like feels a little more advanced topic.
So if it feels like what? I'm confused, it's okay. Think of it as like instead of saying, I'm either sad about the past or I'm excited about the future, I teach you how to hold both at the same [01:03:00] time. It's not either or. It's both. I can love my person. I can love the life that I had. I can be deeply grateful for it, and I can not wanna change anything about it, and I can be grateful for.
And purposeful in a life that I'm building now. And it does. This does not take away from this. It's both. It's like the Grinch, how the Grinch grew his heart, right? That's what we do. So in Brave Widow Academy, we do this by going through the connection protocol, which is like how to meet people and make friends, how to build relationships with healthy boundaries.
Also, the Discover Your Purpose plan, which is about finding purpose and meaning. So that was a lot for self-discovery. If I were to give you one thing, only, just one thing, it would be to try something new. Try something new, and you're gonna be afraid, and it's gonna be weird and [01:04:00] awful, and your mind's gonna tell you a thousand reasons why you shouldn't do it.
But. Think about anything new that you've tried. Maybe the first time you tried an instrument, maybe the first time you went to a dance class, the first time you went to a new church, you probably had a lot of fear then too. Your brain doesn't wanna have to do new things. So in self discovery, try something new.
Okay. Lemme tell you just quickly about one of my clients, Casey, she was also on the podcast, um, recently sharing her story. So when I first met Casey, it was also around the time that I met, um, Karen back in November. And Casey felt stuck. She had gone to therapy, it helped her process the past, but she felt like it wasn't moving her forward and she felt like something was missing, like, okay, it's not helping me move forward.
I feel like my house is exactly how it was. I feel like all my [01:05:00] decisions are heavy. But I also feel like my daughter lost her father. She doesn't need to lose me too, and I have to figure this out. So, um, a, after Casey has gone through coaching, she still, um, she and I still work together in a coaching capacity.
She has started to change things around in her home. So she's doing some remodeling in her home. She's also been able to parent her daughter in a way that feels more calm and consistent. And now she feels she has very clear next steps, a clear v vision for her future. And this month, this will be a year since her husband has, has died.
And this is also the month that she is launching her own podcast called The Widow Fire Podcast. So if you love podcast, go subscribe to her podcast. I think you'll love, she has an amazing story. She was a caretaker for her husband for many [01:06:00] years. Um, so for those of you who have a spouse that went through a terminal, a season of terminal illness, um, she also did that and unfortunately lost her husband when her baby was only five months old.
And so anything around pregnancy, new mom, caretaking, um, all of those things, um, Casey's experience. So check out her podcast. Um, but one of the things that Casey said is that therapy helped her with the past, coaching, helped her focus on the future. So the last season that we have here, um, the fourth season of grief is empowerment.
Okay? So empowerment is a very, like the season we are working towards, which is I know who I am now, I know what I want for my future. It's a matter of making my vision super clear and. Bringing that, like creating that, [01:07:00] bringing that to life, going after things that are deeply meaningful and impactful to me.
Uh, Wendy, when did you say Casey's podcast begins? Um, it starts, she's launching it this month in September, so it should be any day now. I haven't checked recently to see if she launched it, but it's gonna be one day this month. Um, but you can go ahead and follow it and it will let you know when she releases episodes, which is really nice.
So some mistakes that we can make in empowerment is being a victim of our circumstances. It's in settling for less. It's in people pleasing, um, and not having boundaries. And this is really where I get to have fun with pushing people. I'm always pushing people like just outside the comfort zone, but here I really love to challenge clients with dreaming bigger, like way bigger than what they're dreaming now.
Thinking bigger than they believe is possible. [01:08:00] And in the early days of grief, I try to be very gentle because if I, I feel like if I were to tell you what your life could be like, it would be unbelievable. It would be like if I was selling you, um, if, if I told you, look, I'm gonna teach you the secrets to making a million dollars a month, you would be like, Hmm, that's not believable.
But if I were to tell you, oh, I can teach you how to make $500 a month, you go, oh, okay. That's more believable. Yeah. I believe that she could probably do that. So when we're thinking about the seasons of grief and we're thinking about the future, sometimes I have to dial it back, right? And say, okay, if you're early on in grief, I can help you.
Not wake up every day in deep grief, help you be able to sleep through the night, come up with a routine that feels supportive, tackle some big projects. Um, start building up your [01:09:00] confidence, things like that, that feels very believable. It's, when we talk about the fourth season, it starts to feel less believable because you're like, that's just like, so, it feels so far away, even though it, it really isn't necessarily that far away.
But this is really a season of like dreaming big and being clear about who you are and what you want and going after it, which is just the most rewarding thing of, of getting to see people grow to that season. Um, so some things to focus on if you're in this season of empowerment, and by the way, now that I've walked through all four seasons, put in the chat what season you are in, or if you took the quiz at brave widow.com/seasons.
If you took the quiz, tell me what season you're in, in the chat. I would love to know. So when we're on the season of empowerment, it's really about clarifying your future goals, pursuing those, growing yourself, and starting to give back to other people. [01:10:00] So in Brave Widow Academy, we focus on the move forward method.
If there was one thing, your one simple step for today, it would be to decide what you want more of in your life. So if your future and your vision isn't clear, um, decide what you want more of in your life. Is it more kindness? Is it more consistency? Is it more travel? Is it more comfort? Like, what is it friends says Season three, awesome self discovery.
Carter says Self discovery, and Emily is helping me with that after only meeting with her for a few weeks. Awesome. Sandy. Season three. Season. Now, what did I guys tell you? Most people come to me between season two and three. Marianne? Season two. Okay. Yeah, Mary Empowerment. Oh, Mary. [01:11:00] Hi. I didn't see you there.
Um, okay. And then the last client story that I have for you is a lady named Sue. So Sue is an og, brave widower. She's been with me almost three years now, which is amazing. And when I first met Sue, she hated being called a widow. And I completely understand that because in the beginning I hated it too. It felt like a big black label that was just slapped on me.
It felt like a flashing sign that was going over my head, like, widow, widow, everybody. This person's a widow. And I felt like widows are like 90-year-old sad people, right? They weren't me. I didn't resonate with that. But I also didn't know at the time how resilient and generous and incredibly amazing widows are as human beings.
I would not learn that for a while. Sue was unsure about the future. She felt incredibly [01:12:00] lonely and disconnected. Sue's been on the podcast two or three times now so you can hear her story, um, throughout the years on the podcast. Oh, Nicole, I must be on my son's account. It's Nicole. Okay, Nicole. Hi. So since, um, being part of Brave Widow, Sue has plugged into several communities centered on growth and self-development.
She has written her own book, bestselling book. Amazing. And she's co-authored two other bestselling books. What crazy. Um, she has traveled to new places on her own, not knowing anyone, like the bravery and the. Tenacity. That takes amazing. And now she helps other people in a lot of capacities, but she also helps other people who are grieving as well.
And so, um, Sue is just amazing to me, representation of someone who is [01:13:00] more clear on their future and what they want, and she is just going after it, which is amazing. So she used to hate being called a widow until she met me. So how do you move through these seasons? How do you move beyond like, I love grief recovery.
I recommend it a thousand, a thousand percent. Like I'm telling you, I'm telling you, doesn't matter if you take it with me or not. If you haven't done it, go do it. It would be different than anything else that you've done. I've never met a person yet who's taken this and been like, oh yeah, I did something.
And it was similar. I've met with people who've gone through counseling. I've met with people who've gone to Grief Share. Um, I've met with all kinds of people who when they try this, it like unlocks for them. Something that allows them to then be able to step forward in life, which is amazing. Um, but how do you then move beyond that?
Right? Because it's an, it's a seven or eight week program, depending on how you take [01:14:00] it. But then it's like, well, what do I do now? Like, what, what are my next steps and what do I need? And so sometimes we believe the myth that we just need to keep waiting. We just need more time. And the reality is you don't need more time.
Um, grief Recovery Institute who teaches this program, actually teaches us that the key to recovery is action and not time. That's one of my favorite quotes from them. But you do need a plan. You do need a community of people who are going along this with you, and it does help to have coaching or guidance.
So as we think about, remember in the beginning I share the top three problems that most widows I work with face is they feel lost, they feel unsure, and they feel lonely. So if I map those over to a simple solution, it would be they need guidance, they need confidence, and they need [01:15:00] connection with other people.
And so how I help widows with that is through coaching, which is your guidance action, which is building your confidence and community, which drives connection. And so I do that inside a group program called Brave Widow Academy, and I would love to spend some time sharing that with you. And so I know we're over time, so if people need to go, totally fine.
I'm gonna share the replay later. Thank you for hanging out with me. Those of you who can. Wendy says, when I read the grief recovery book years ago. My favorite thing I remember is the flat tire analogy. Yeah, that's really good, Wendy. I can see myself in all four seasons. Yeah, and I think that's a good point that the seasons aren't meant to be like a bucket.
Like, oh, you're in this category now and that's your label. It's to illustrate like what is the journey like? It's [01:16:00] what I wish I would have had. I wish someone would have told me like, this is normal. You may go through these seasons and that's going to be normal. Okay, so inside a Brave Widow Academy, we have a dedicated curriculum that we walk through, which is Grief Recovery Method, which I talked about here and the other systems I mentioned, like Chaos to Calm Blueprint.
We help you get outta survival mode, rebuild your confidence. Meet people and make friends. Find purpose and meaning, and then ultimately create a life that you can love again. Okay, so I started the Academy in August. I've got some of my Academy students here. I saw Mary Ann, Nicole, and of course Karen that are here.
I don't know where, why can't I see my whole list of who's here? Okay, so those are some of my Academy students. If, if you're in Zoom with me, they are part of Brave Widow [01:17:00] Academy and this, um. Version of it launched in au uh, mid-August. Um, so about a month ago, and we are going to launch it again in November.
Okay. So it's, it's a couple of months out. Um, but I really wanna start just kind of building awareness about the academy and what that looks like. So inside the academy we do weekly group coaching calls over a period of six months. Um, you also have the ability to send me private messages 24 7 and get individual feedback and support.
Um, the calls for this round of the academy will be on Mondays from three to five central time. So it looks a little different depending on what time zone you're in and for people who want to, um, pre-enroll. So you wanna join before November. Then I'm gonna offer you some fast action bonuses, which is.
What I said in the beginning, I [01:18:00] wanna offer people who are ready to take action. So, um, if you join before November, then I'm giving you three private one-on-one coaching calls, early access to all the curriculum and the content that's in the academy. And then we're gonna have some pre-launch group coaching calls as well.
So the cost of the academy is either $600 a month for six months, or um, if you wanna save a month, like buy five months, get one free, then it's $3,000 as a pay in full. Um, now if you are interested in the academy, you can go to brave widow.com/academy. If you're not sure if it's a good fit, I also do free consult calls.
You can go to brave widow.com and schedule a consult call and I will help you figure out your best next step now for people who, um. Feel like the academy, like that's, feels [01:19:00] like a big of a leap. That's like a big thing with a lot of stuff in it. Um, one thing that I did recently that we sold out of really quickly was just starting with grief recovery methods.
So especially for my people on TikTok. Okay, you are earlier on in grief. And so, um, here we start with just the grief recovery method. If that feels like the best next step for you, then I'm gonna invite you to join me in grief recovery method. And I did this last time, so I'm gonna do this one more time this year.
I don't know if I'll do it again, but what I'm doing is what's called an earn your money back bonus. Okay. So if you decide to join Grief Recovery Method, if you come to the classes, if you do the homework in between, so it's an eight week program. If you attend some one-on-one, uh, a one-on-one [01:20:00] call, so I can just check in to see how things are going, and if you leave me a review, I will refund every dollar of your investment in the grief recovery method.
Or you can apply that as a credit towards the academy or towards one-on-one coaching if that's what you decide to do. So basically, you can go through the program and do it for free, and you can keep the book for forever if that's what you decide ultimately to do. Okay? And the reason I do it that way is because I believe so strongly in the fact that this works and in what we do inside of Brave Widow, that I wanna incentivize people and get them to just start.
Because I believe if you just start, if you just take that step that you'll be encouraged to keep going in your journey, to keep learning and to keep. Okay, so grief recovery method. My next round of that is gonna start on, [01:21:00] um, September 30th, and we are gonna meet on Mondays from four to 6:00 PM Central time.
Okay? And so, um, that will run from September 30th through, I'm having a hard time thinking, um, November 18th is when that will run through. Okay? And so I've sold this one on one before for upwards of a thousand dollars. Um, but this round, I'm, I am offering it for $400. And if you sign up by next Tuesday, then you can earn your money back.
Okay? Which means if you attend the sessions at least seven of the eight sessions, which I think I have here, if you attend seven of the eight sessions, if you do your reading and your homework each week. If you show up to our one-on-one calls, and if you leave an honest review online, then at the end of the program, I will [01:22:00] refund your money, or you can apply it towards the academy, which is starting in November.
Okay? So basically you can go through it for free and you can keep the book if that's what you choose to do. So to schedule a consult call, if you're like, I don't know, Emily, you've talked about a lot. You've talked for a long time, it's too much. I'm tired of hearing you talk. Okay? If you just wanna schedule a consult call because you're lost or overwhelmed and you just want direction on your next step, I do these for free and it's like no pressure.
Okay? So on a console call, what I do is I have some specific questions to ask you. I will take notes and I will help you line up like your action steps, like your specific plan of what I would do if I were in your shoes. So, um, and then I email all of that to you. Okay? So even if you're like, I just feel lost, I wanna know my next step.
I wanna know what I [01:23:00] could do, then sign up for a consult call and I'll walk you through that. Um, I have plenty of people that are like, I can't afford to pay you anything, but I just wanted to do this consult call so I can know what my next steps are. And I'm like, okay, well let's get the most out of it that we can in our time together.
Like let's do this. So you go to brave widow.com, there is a Let's Chat button. You just click on the Let's Chat button. It'll take you to my calendar. You pick a day that you wanna schedule your time for and a time, and then you just put your name, your email, and you can either do it on Zoom or I can just call you over the phone and then hit book it.
And that's all you have to do for your consult call. So, um, who is this for? I'm wrapping it up, I promise. If you have any questions over, um, what I've talked about today or your next step or um, any of those things, go ahead and put that in the chat so I can answer that for you. [01:24:00] Mary says, I never took time to grieve.
I blew through years of doing thinking that serving would cover grief. And now that I'm retired, God has opened your podcast to me. Thank you so much for all that you offer. Oh, you are welcome, Mary. Thank you. Um, Karen says she's in a season of empowerment. She's dreaming those dreams and enjoying it, even though it's a season of waiting, and she's also help able to help serve others who are also in grief.
Yay, Karen. That's amazing. So, Karen, it's been less than a year for you since we started working together, and you are feeling like you're in this season of empowerment, which is awesome. Um. So is this for you? If you feel stuck, if you're wondering what's next, if you feel isolated, a loss lost or overwhelmed, if you feel alone, even though you're around other people, if you feel like you wanna move beyond survival mode, [01:25:00] you wanna action oriented guidance, you like a faith-based approach and you want to rebuild a life that you love, then this would be for you.
And I would be happy to, um, help you book that path together. So next step, like the easiest, simplest step, if you go to brave widow.com, schedule your consult. It's not gonna be a pressury salesy thing. That's not my style. I just feel very compelled. So, um, I feel very compelled and passionate about people being able to get unstuck and figure out their one next step.
And I have people I've done a consult with. Who say, this isn't the right time for me. And then they come back a year later and they're like, this is the right time and we, we dig in. So, um, that's my way of serving and giving back is giving that one-on-one time to people really taking, giving them space to understand, um, where they are right now and what they could do as their next step.
[01:26:00] So, um, this is not marketing hype, if you look it up on grief recovery method. When we do grief recovery method, I am only supposed to allow eight people in a group at a time. And so I completely sold out slash. We're at least maxed out the group that started on Monday. And so that's why I opened up a group to start on September 30th.
So if you are interested in grief recovery method, please let me know quickly. Um, because that group is limited, the academy is not, but grief recovery method because of my licensing agreement, I, um, have to limit that group. Okay, I don't see any questions. Um, thank you guys so much for hanging out with me.
I hope today was valuable to you. Um, and for my brave widow peeps, thank you for being here and for engaging in the chat. As always, you guys are [01:27:00] amazing and I will be sending out a link to the replay for people who joined late or people who couldn't stay till the end. So thank you guys. Have a great rest of your day.
