A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to My Life® with Dr. Karen Weaver

Dr. Karen Weaver on manifesting, motherhood & Moms Rising.

Moms Rising is the award-winning film that had a sold-out New York premiere, won a Stevie Award, and will have you reaching for tissues within the first ten minutes, and my guest today, Dr. Karen Weaver, is one of its incredible cast members.

We talk about the movie, the magic behind it, and why every person on the planet needs to watch it, especially right now, while it's free. 

Oh, and she also happens to have written over 40 books and given three TEDx talks — you know, no big deal.

Watch Moms Rising for free right now at https://momsrising.film

Welcome to a funny thing happened on the way to my life. This is the place to be for stories to inspire and uplift when life doesn’t go according to plans. I’m Laura Muirhead your host and the reigning queen of a funny thing happened on the way to my life. I can’t wait to share my plot twist stories and the stories of my guests with you!

Find out more at lauramuirhead.com

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Thanks for listening!

Transcript

Welcome And Friendship Backstory

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello and welcome to this episode of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to My Life. I'm your host, Laura Muirhead, and I am so excited to have my guest today, Dr. Karen Weaver. We've talked about this for quite a while and we're finally here together. Karen is an award-winning publisher, an award-winning author. I believe she's written over almost 50 books, over 40 books so far, and an award-winning business owner as well. So come and say hello, Karen.

SPEAKER_00 0:37

Hello, everyone. Hello, Laura. Thanks for having me. Hey. I had to beg. I was like, let me on your show.

SPEAKER_01 0:44

No, the begging was on my side, but we were both, you know, I'm so excited to finally have the time. I it's a little bit challenging because we're 12 hours apart as Karen lives in Australia. So is there anything you want to say to introduce yourself?

SPEAKER_00 1:03

No, I'm just here to hopefully our conversation enlightens something within somebody. We always have the most enlightening conversations quite regularly. So I look forward to seeing where this one goes because it could go anywhere.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

It could. This is the beauty. This is how lucky I am, how fortunate I am to have Karen as not only a mentor and my publisher, but as my friend. And I don't know, I don't know if a day goes by that we don't message each other or somehow connect. So it's pretty amazing, an amazing relationship at this point.

SPEAKER_00 1:38

Yeah, yeah, we're very lucky. Not everybody gets that.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

Yeah, I'm I'm very grateful. So tell us, tell, tell our listeners today a little bit about your author journey because, like some of us, you were never you never intended to be an author.

SPEAKER_00 1:58

No, see, we have this in common. I really was not good at English at school. I walked out of English class in a rebellious moment because my teacher, after asking him not to read out loud in class, he he picked on me. And and it was just one of those moments, you know, that obviously was

From English Class To Author

SPEAKER_00 2:18

a defining moment because I I ended up in my rebel era. But I I look back in it now and I'm like, wow, that it made me not believe in myself as a as a writer because English is something I always thought that writers needed, you know. I did go back into school as an adult. I I done adult education, went back in done English literature and English and done all right in it, you know, because I was actually interested in it then. Also, I was I used to get really embarrassed. My head used to go really red, and so the and I couldn't actually physically read out loud because the words would jump around the page, I had a touch of dyslexia, you know, all of those types of things. So um that just weren't I wasn't aware of then but understand now. So I don't ever have any negatives about that. So becoming an author at 31, two years after I emigrated to Australia, waddled here, 35 weeks pregnant with my third child, and I had an epiphany, and the epiphany was so loud that I could not ignore it, and I had to write a book. And nano-raimo was going at the time, it doesn't it's not doesn't happen anymore, but it went on for like a decade, and it was 2010. I just had my fourth child by this stage, and I made the decision that I had a message that I needed to get out there, writing an article for a website called Building Beautiful Bonds that I was writing for at the time as an organic writer, just writing mindful musings. There was no structure to it, it was just me sharing my thoughts because I was going through a spiritual awakening, and um and the the visitor called to be written, and I couldn't ignore it. So I I said to my husband at the time, you don't have a wife, I will love our children, but I am going to write a book in 30 days, and I I'm pretty, you know, if I set my mind to something, that's it, it's it's done. Um and little did I know after doing all of the work that that's part of manifesting, you know. I didn't know that at the time. So I wrote this book in 30 days, 1667 words a day, that I'm really impressed with my chart. That was you logged in and logged in your words every day, and my chart was perfection. I didn't write any more or less. I just, but the the thing with that was as a new author, sitting down every single day consistently and writing the same amount, my subconscious mind was at work throughout the day. So whenever I sat down the next day to write, I had loads of things to to come out. So and it was a fictional novel I wrote first. Like, wow, fiction is so hard to write. But it just came through me, and I know now it was I tapped into source and it just came through. So it's beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

And and it's an amazing book. I've read it in when I when I started working with with you, we did it was with the Heroes Roar series. My chapter, I was gonna do one chapter in the Siberian Tiger edition of Heroes Roar. And I don't know why, I don't know what led me to your books, but I read The Visitor, and it's actually a series. So it it starts with The Visitor, and then there's two or three more.

SPEAKER_00 5:47

There's two more. There's a trilogy, but and then there's still two that were written to be written. I did write number four, which is sitting there. I actually think I actually asked you to be my beautiful reader. I haven't sent it out to anybody. But like the the phenomenal thing was I remember sending that book after writing it to my sister Emma, who we both know and love. And she was like, Did you write this? And I was like, Yes. And she's like, No, you didn't. And I was like, I absolutely did, I swear. And she read it, she says, Oh my god, it's just it's amazing. And I was like, it just like for me to do it, just it just was so guided, and it, you know, the way they say everyone has a book in them. But the the thing that about that book is, and like you've read it, Laura, it's not your conventional literary work. It's it's not, I don't think it's like anything I've ever read or or written, you know, it's just it's just this book that comes and shifts something within you. It's full of wisdoms and all of these things, so you can read deeper into it. And I and I just love it. I love it as a catalyst in because there's such a huge catalyst in my life. Saying yes to writing that book ultimately changed my life. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

And it I love it. I love that book. And I read, I read the other two. I just couldn't remember if there were, I couldn't read maybe that's why I think there's three, is because that other one's waiting. But they're all they're all have such beautiful messages. And when I read them, it was right before we started working on my first solo book, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to My Life. And I absolutely knew from reading that that I'd made the right decision and that that you and I were gonna were gonna work work together, and it I'd made the the perfect decision. I love I love the messages of each one of those books. So, but you have gone on to amazing things from that. That was just your springboard, and and yeah, you know, you have authored, like you said, almost 50 minutes.

SPEAKER_00 7:52

I'd love a lot of them behind me.

SPEAKER_01 7:55

Yeah, look at all those books.

SPEAKER_00 7:56

I've written, oh, I must do another kind because we've got heart frequency coming out this year, which is a big, it's a big one, and it's really a legacy piece. I just love it so much. Like writing that book with Adria, Adria Peters,

Writing A Novel In 30 Days

SPEAKER_00 8:10

who she goes into the quantum physics, I go into you know the philosophy of things. Like writing that book shifted something within me. Like it's you know, to go into your heart frequency, you know, I'm all about energy and to be able to learn and explore more about that. Wow, like I get goosebumps thinking about it. So I'm looking forward for us to launch that in New York this year, whenever we're all together. We have a lot of things to do in New York, Laura.

SPEAKER_01 8:35

We do, we have a lot of things that are going to be happening. The last two, well, you the last two years we've been in New York. Karen didn't make it the first year, we don't talk about that, but the second last year, and then this year we do. We have the Heroes Roar doccufilm premiering. We have your book also, and then Undeniable Presence. Yeah, my anthology, undeniable presence. So it's gonna be amazing. This is gonna be in November, and I'm so excited. We're already planning, we're already planning all the fun things, and as Karen says, shenanigans for that time. So if you're in New York, come and join us. But I also want to go back to your story about being called on in class in an English class, because you've also gone on to be a TEDx talker. Do you it was that three times?

SPEAKER_00 9:32

I've done three, yes. And Laura, every year I set a big fatidacious goal, a personal goal for me. So every year there's something I want to achieve. And I I didn't realize it was a thing. I heard about it recently, that apparently it's a thing that um I think it's Sarah Blakely's husband, does it, and he's

Setting Big Goals With TEDx

SPEAKER_00 9:50

like, you should do something for yourself, one big thing every year. And and I've always done it, I've done it for the past I'd say 10 years. But in 2021, my big fatidaceous goal was to do a TEDx talk, and I was like, this is what I really want to do. So I said on the, you know, I just put it out there, and then a conversation happened with someone who, and it wasn't about TEDx talks, it was about uh the I jumped on a call to have them get lose some inhibitions about writing, and it was late at night, and then I remember that they called me the next day and said, Listen, I need you on my TEDx stage, and I was like, That's how I do it, that's how I get a TEDx talk, which was really cool. So to be asked was a huge honor, and I'd never take that for granted because it's a it's a big process to apply and to all of the things. There was the so the the the timing seemed to be really um synchronistic whenever I said yes to that because I was host the the TEDx talk was in Ireland in January and I of 2022 and I was I was hosting a retreat, a castle retreat at that time. But of course, COVID started to get worse and all of the things. So the thought of travelling from Australia back to Ireland to host the retreat and even beyond the TEDx stage. I live in Western Australia, we were closed off from the world, we didn't have any COVID within the perimeter of Western Australia. We still hugged each other, we still, you know, our kids still went to school, everything was normal within the dome that was the protective borders of Western Australia. There was actually no COVID circulating around at all. It was it was unreal. So you couldn't get out and back in, and so I was like, you know, in August, I was like, oh, this breaks my heart, but I'm gonna have to let you know that I'm not gonna be able to be on that stage. So I want the opportunity to open up for somebody else, and in that moment, it was such a defining moment for me, Laura, because in that moment I could have gone into huge self-pity and go, oh my god, this was my dream. I wish, you know, all of this. And and I remember clearly choosing differently and saying, All right, this is a bummer, but what you know, life's really good, really happy. I was on my back patio at the time. What would be the ideal scenario? So there were three things that I wanted. One was um I wanted to still do a TEDx talk and do it on a stage in Perth so that I'm not risking getting you know stuck somewhere in the world away from my family because my my family is everything, you know, it's very high in my values. Number two, I just won a women change in the world um award, and and so I was I was like, I'd like to do TEDx women event. Now, where's these things coming out of? And then the third one was the other the other TEDx talk was in January of the next year. I had wanted to do it in that year, and now the audacity of me, but I thought, oh, I like these this thought chain. So the very next day I got a phone call to ask me to be on a TEDx women event in Perth, and I would have to record on a stage in Perth, and it was in six weeks' time, and I was like, Yeah, I even impressed myself. The opportunity didn't even exist when I when I thought about it, and I was like, wow, that's the most special thing, and I cannot wait to share that with people because we can choose in that moment whether we go down the because you know you know, being sad and all of those lower vibrations pours into that moment, and I chose differently. I chose to go and visualize something different, and it it was obviously ready to come in, and it landed the next day, like really so special. So that was my first one. It was about change your story change your life or own your story change your life. That was my first one. I went on to do a second one, which was about my master gifts, the seven master gifts, and I done that was a studio one, so that was a different experience. And then my third one was on Emma's stage in Ireland with an audience, and and it's my favorite. I absolutely love that that TEDx talk, and I did it, I only knew the first two lines I was gonna say that day, but I did it Karen style, and that I realized is how I speak best is just to know the essence, feel into the crowd, and deliver. And I I love that talk, and it's all about the forgotten art of enjoying life. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:58

I love that, but also I this is this is the pivot. You like you said, this is two things. This is how you pivot, and this is how and and manifest something new. Manifest, you still manifested exactly what you wanted, but you you didn't sit in the pity party, you didn't you you you shifted, and I think that's so important, and that we this is what we need to do in order to bring the things in that we really want. So it almost was better for you because it was right in your backyard, it was a woman's event, and it was in the year that you wanted. So that it's just incredible. And I always say, anyway, that you that you create magic, that you open doors, and this is just what you do somehow. And it's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 15:51

Well, thank you. I I I love it, but and the thing is about that, what it really reinforced with me is whenever you are clear on what it is that you want, don't try to control the how, how it comes to you, because that's not your job. Okay, it's gonna happen, believe it's gonna happen, trust it's gonna happen in the best way possible. Because, you know, like that was just part of the journey to it happening. That's it was just part of the journey, and and it would have been a different journey had I chose differently how to how I reacted to it instead of embracing it. I just you know, just let it happen.

SPEAKER_01 16:31

Yeah, absolutely. But this is this is your journey anyway, as far as like even even choosing to to leave Ireland to to move to Australia, that led to you being an author, led to you being a publisher, led to so many amazing things in your life. So I think this is just a beautiful example. You are a beautiful example of how we how we can manifest things and follow your heart, follow your intuition, and this is what happens thing amazing things, amazing doors open.

SPEAKER_00 17:09

Gotta trust yourself,

Alignment, PTSD, And Choosing Joy

SPEAKER_00 17:10

isn't it? And it doesn't mean that life doesn't happen. Like Laura, you know, I live in chaos. I have six children, I love them dearly, but we learn from each other all the time. So, but the thing is, is that I choose that to to be in the the love, the joy, and the peace of life. I'm intentionally choosing that all of the time. And they're the the th three of the highest vibrations that you can choose to be in because I have lots of opportunities to choose differently. Life happens all the time, but I just whenever you're in those that energy, it reinforces you, it gives you a really beautiful foundation for life and allows you to experience life and and and it gives you solutions to the problems that come in as well. So you got to trust the process, and I trust it completely. I trust that I'm guided, I trust that I'm on the right path for me. And if ever I'm not, you know, it's a feeling I have. I have a feeling when I'm in flow. I know whenever I'm not, and you've just got to trust that knowing within you whenever you're out of alignment and adjust that accordingly. So it's sometimes it's just one simple shift, you know. Like I go back to whenever I experienced PTSD, that happened because I wasn't being true to myself, I wasn't keeping my own cup full, I wasn't, you know, doing I was just in in service of others all of the time. And there's nothing wrong with that, but I still wasn't taking care of me so that I could pour into others. So then I went into PTSD. Totally, I was totally out of alignment. But that experience led me into an awakening experience, which then led me to start writing and exploring what I write about now. And and you know, and and I love that what I write about now. I explore myself and and what's possible in in my books. Um, so that's why I never know what's going to come out on the next page or whatever, and and bring authors on a journey, because I'm on a journey with it as well, you know.

SPEAKER_01 19:18

Yeah, absolutely. Well, and part of it too, I think, is that so many times, I think this is an important message because you are listening to that that part where it's maybe not quite right. And so many, so many people would push through that and ignore it and ignore that feeling, you know, that gut feeling or that inner knowing and try to push through and keep going with something that may not be right for them at that moment. It sometimes we've talked about this many times. Sometimes it just needs a pause and more information comes through, or it could just absolutely be that it's not the right thing for you. And it's important to listen to those, those nudges, those intuition, you know, intuition, the hits that the gut feelings, like I said. So, and I think obviously you're really good at that.

SPEAKER_00 20:11

Yeah, well, I am, and I'm not, you know, I have lots of failings as well, but I I don't sit and dwell in them. I just I I keep myself distracted, I move forward, I I allow myself to gravitate to what calls me at any one time, and and I and it served me so well so far. So I'm sticking with it.

SPEAKER_01 20:31

See that yeah, it's working. Don't change it. So you did mention that you are a mom of six children. I'm always amazed at that, but because I have two children and I know I know what it's like to have two. I can't imagine having six, but you are an amazing mom. And I want to talk, especially. Well, this episode will be out after Mother's Day in here in the States, but we are actually celebrating the whole month of May as as Mother's Month for Mom's Rising, the movie. And I, you know, I was lucky enough to have Scott Servine, the director on my podcast. And this is one of the important things that I wanted to talk to you about because you are a cast member in Mom's Rising and and my

Answering The Call To Mom’s Rising

SPEAKER_01 21:25

as well as myself. But I want to know because I don't know, how did you get involved in that? How did you come to be in Mom's Rising?

SPEAKER_00 21:36

Sorry, I'm just fixing my hair because you know it is 4:30 in the morning.

SPEAKER_01 21:42

We've got to have the hair.

SPEAKER_00 21:44

Yes. So this is my mom's rising story, uh telling you before I tell anyone else. It was oh, I can't remember what year, Laura, but it was around Christmas. It was coming up to Christmas, and for some reason. An email that I received um resonated. It just kind of beamed out of the and I get lots of emails and now, but I don't even know if I would have seen now because there's so many. But hey, there's just this this email, and it was an invitation to apply to be part of a motherhood, a mo a movie about motherhood. And it just beamed out. It was so it just felt so aligned. So I like it was a Saturday morning, and Saturday mornings with my kids were something I treasured back then, still do, but kids, my kids are growing up now, so they don't treasure it as much or get up as early. They're teenagers now. But I I said, I'm gonna I'm gonna look into this. And I sat and I I I pulled the laptop on my lap and I sat on the sofa. We had a movie on, the girls were were had duvias watching it, and I thought, I'm just gonna do this. So I sat down and filled out the application, filled out all of the things and sent it and ticked the book straight away. I took action straight away and sent it in. And then a little while later, I got a con Scott. No, it no, it was somebody on the team reached out, and then I ended up in a call with Scott and we talked about it, and of course, you know, that was it. Then we just had this connection uh from that time. So I ended up we ended up making it happen, and I said yes, and the you know, I got really excited about it. At the time it was the reason I had got it came in through the Think and Grow Itch movie that I had watched, and at the time it was a movie that was being pulled out of a scene, you know, Thomas Edison's scene, where his he sent home from school with a note, and it's such a defining moment in Thomas Edison's life, who actually went on to be one of the greatest inventors of all time, and his story's phenomenal. But his mother was such a catalyst in his life because she believed in him. And the note was saying that he's so stupid he can't be go to school or sending him home, don't bring up send him back to school again. And the mother and the little boy was just sitting there looking to see what was on this note, and the mother told him, He's far too intelligent to go to school, you're gonna have to teach him yourself, and that she did. She taught him and she believed in him and all of the things, and so that really touched my heart because I was going through that with my son Ethan, who I was homeschooling at the time, and amongst doing everything else, but he school was just not for him, and so I really resonated with that moment, um, and and you know, I in the movie, and then whenever this came up, I was like, okay, this it I just knew it and trusted it was the very next step. So I said yes, and then we went into the whole process of it. And I got filmed in the castle in Ireland when it where I was hosting a retreat, and it's like, sorry, if you want to film me, you're gonna have to come to a castle in Ireland. And Scott was like, You know how to speak to directors. So there was me and Maria and Ashka, who all got filmed at the castle in Ireland, so it was wonderful, it was a really good day.

SPEAKER_01 25:23

So I didn't realize that. I didn't realize that that all three of you were there together because I again I I keep saying this, but I it's true. I slid in literally right under the finish line of this movie, like right before the finish line. So I do not know uh everybody's stories and how they came to be in cast members, and I didn't realize for one second that that they were there with you. So that's that in itself is you should hear their story, Laura.

SPEAKER_00 25:52

You should hear their story because we I didn't know that they're that you know who they were, and they didn't know, and they were like, like um Maria's Switzerland and Ashka's um India, and so these two ladies were flying in, going, Where are we going? We've been asked to go to a castle in Ireland, like, is this even real? And they're in they're in taxis, and they were like to the taxi driver, just wait there until I tell you it's safe for you to go. They were telling me this at the after the premiere in in New York. It was just so funny. Um, it was so funny.

SPEAKER_01 26:30

That's amazing. And I want to also go back to that story about Thomas Edison and his mom because I was thinking about that story, which is an amazing story, but as a mom, I wonder if if that if that came home for one of my kids, would I have the presence of mind to switch the story and say, no, they they actually believe that you're you're a genius and you're too smart to be in school. So I I I think this is this is what we do as moms when we can, uh, is we support our children on every level and and we're champions for them. And it's just that that is an amazing story. And I know that that was part of Scott's inspiration for mom's rising and for creating the the mom's rising movie, and it is such an inspirational, empowering movie, and we are just supporting, you know, championing it for this whole month. And it's actually available right now for free for a limited time so that moms all over the world can watch it and share it and be inspired and know that I

Forgiveness And What Motherhood Teaches

SPEAKER_01 27:55

think part of it is to know that you're not alone on whatever journey you are, because each cast member has a different story of the challenges that they have gone through as a mom, and the in and they're incredibly inspiring women.

SPEAKER_00 28:11

It's it's it's a mind-blowing film. If you can get through it not crying, well done to you. Honestly, it's just mind-blowing. I love being part of it, I love what Scott's done to it, you know. Like we were all filmed for a long time, and then he took the snippets out and put it in. And I was like, of course, he chose forgiveness for me. I was going through that year where I was writing the freedom and forgiveness, and forgiveness was killing me. I was like, I can't, I I always thought I was forgiving, and then I realized that I I forgive, but I don't forget, and then I realized that's okay, you know. It was a whole because my master gifts, there's seven of them, and each one of them I wrote and lived them for a year. Unintentionally, that wasn't the the strategy, but it just is how it happened. And I was in a year of forgiveness, and it was a really interesting year, and all sorts of things were coming up for me to, you know. But there was, and the book I wrote in that was called The Freedom of Forgiveness, and and I got there, you know. So, of course, out of the whole hour and a half conversation, Scott would choose the forgiveness part, you know. It's like, of course.

SPEAKER_01 29:25

Yeah, there had to be a lesson in it for you as well. It wasn't just for all of us, it was for you as well. You had to move through that and heal and learn from that as well. It's incredible, incredible. And each story, besides the amazing cast members, though, it's uh it's incredible stories of real life women. Well, I mean, obviously the cast members are real life women, but also people like Jane Goodall and the who am I thinking of? Helen, you know, Helen Keller and other women, real life women who have made incredible, you know, faced incredible challenges and overcame them and supported their children or in in different ways, or even one of the stories is about who didn't speak to her child for years, and I don't want to give everything away, but the you know, the difficulty of that and the the challenge of that. So I just think that like you said, if you can get through this movie without without tissues, good luck, and without tears, but also I think for me, every time I've watched it, and I've watched it multiple times, a different story hits me differently.

SPEAKER_00 30:45

Yes, yeah, yeah. Like you've got to understand those scenes in between, you know, us cast members speaking, like they're actually film. Like I I remember Scott doing a call-out for actors and actresses, and he's very connected in with the in you know, the in in the US, in with the actors skilled and stuff. And that's how we ended up with the Robin Williams Theatre because that's very connected in with that. So there's a lot of um like he goes and actually shoots these scenes, and they just get your heartstrings, you know. He just knows how to get to how what moment to capture to connect with the heart of a of a viewer, and something ignites within you, honestly. Like this this movie, it just there's something that everybody will resonate in it. There's and even at the premiere, people are like, Oh my god, that scene, and oh my god, that scene. Everyone had different things that touched them in different ways. So, and and that's the thing. If something resonates, you know, you got to pay attention to that and and see why does that mean something to you, explore it a little bit more. It's really, really powerful.

SPEAKER_01 31:56

Well, and it's not just for women either, because my husband was at the premiere in New York sitting next to me, and he couldn't believe it either. And that was the first time I'd well, it was obviously the first time we'd all seen the movie, but I really didn't know what was in the movie. Like I said, because of being, you know, right at the end of it, and it was another synchronicity that I was even able to film it the way you know it worked out for me. And I just think that that's part of the story and the power of this movie is that the the people who came into it, I watched it and the scenes, like you said, that were with the stories that are playing out with the actors. I I sit and wonder how did he how did he film this? How were they able to film this? And I think sometimes you think that of any movie that you watch, but I I maybe because of being part of it, it hit me even harder that where did you film this? How did you do this? And I it it's just such an inspiring, amazing movie to me.

SPEAKER_00 33:02

Yes, and then we won an award for that. That was such a special moment as well. Uh, and you know, to to have this, the premiere and to win the award was just New York was just so special, and it just goes to show the visionary that is Scott Serving, you know, what what he makes happen, and you can see him whenever he's in his creative flow, he goes into this kind of stuff, and he just his the just everything just gets real illuminous for him. Just it's it's he's just a genius in my eyes. So I I love I just love this movie, and we just want everyone to watch it because, and that's why, like the other thing is all of the mums in the movie, all of us have come together. We meet up every week,

Scott Servine’s Way Of Finding Truth

SPEAKER_00 33:45

we want we want to get this movie out there, we're all you know, sharing it with our audiences, but we want it to go viral, we want it to really touch the hearts and minds of so many people because anyone who chooses to watch it always goes, Oh my god, you know, like it's really and for us to put it out there free so that it's accessible for everybody, so that there's no barrier to it, is just you know, it's done with love. And and motherhood is love, Laura. Like that's what mothers are, and that's why the world needs more more of this love shining into it right now. Like it really and truly does.

SPEAKER_01 34:24

Well, and also it's not just you know, some people have challenging relationships with their with their mom. So if you're listening and you're thinking, oh, well, this isn't for me because I don't have a great relationship with your mom. Most people have someone, it you know, the love, the motherhood love is not just um and a child, it's also aunts and a friend or a mentor. It like again, Helen Keller and her her mentor. The these are this is one of the stories in the movie. It's not just about moms and children, there are other people that that have touched you in in that same spirit of motherhood, and that's what it is.

SPEAKER_00 35:11

Look look at Maria, Maria from Divine, who has so many children, like hundreds, and she's in the movie and she goes and climbs Mount Everest and she swims the English Channel and she does all of these things to raise money and awareness for these kids who need her. And she doesn't have kids of her own, but these are her children. She's she's taken them on board, they think of her as their mom, their guardian. She just emits lot so much love for these children, and um, and and they love her, and she, you know, this beautiful, and she protects them and takes care of them and gets them off the streets, and all of those types of things. Like, isn't it beautiful? You know, she does amazing work.

SPEAKER_01 35:54

That was an amazing story to me when I saw it, because I'm like, this is a human, this is a human that's on the earth right now, and how is she even accomplishing the things that she's accomplished? And the the races that she's won, marathons that she's ran, climbing Mount Empress, going to the Antarctica, the North Pole, whatever she. I mean, she's done all these amazing. We have to watch the movie because I'm not even hitting it right. But she, I was like, holy cow, I can't believe it.

SPEAKER_00 36:28

She's an amazing person, and she's got the power focus. Like, she just it's she sets her mind to something, she's gonna do it. She pulls out all stops.

SPEAKER_01 36:36

Yeah. And I want to go back to Scott because he is, like you said, he's a creative force, he is a visionary and he's amazing to work with, just so supportive and and brings the best out in you, I think, somehow magically.

SPEAKER_00 36:55

Yeah, he asked the right questions. He knows that moment, like, and he will keep you there until you go there. He'll keep you there until you go to that moment of vulnerability and sharing, and when he knows he's got that moment for the movie, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:13

Yeah, and also we're lucky enough to work with him on the Heroes Ruhr docilm as well, which is gonna premiere in New York this year. Yes, when we're there in November at again at the Robin Williams Theater. So I mean, he's just bringing so much together for us. But even I want to go back for a second too to the night of the premiere. And like you said, we had the premiere of Mom's Rising on a Sunday night, and then on Monday night we had the Stevie Awards, and so it was, I think it was unreal.

SPEAKER_00 37:52

Two gala dresses, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:54

Well, there was that. There were a lot of there was a lot of hair and makeup that weekend. There was a lot of hair and makeup and and beautiful gowns, but to sit on the stage in the Robin Williams theater with cast members and and the and some of the actors who who were in it, that was incredible. And to be in the room watching it for the first time with our friends and family, it was amazing. And then again, like we said, the second night, the the very next night, winning a Stevie for the movie was it's just unreal. It's unreal to even think about the that we did it, and and also hear us roar won a won a gold Stevie. What a night, what a night. It's just incredible.

SPEAKER_00 38:42

No, that's the thing, it's all the power of story, Laura. That's what it is. And I'm a great believer in that stories make the world go round, you know, because they ignite, they heal, the connect us. You know, that's that's what the you know, whenever we share our stories, because I come from Irish heritage, so we are we tell stories, and and I remember growing up in a in a park in in Clonus in Ireland, and you know, everyone

Why Stories Heal And Connect Us

SPEAKER_00 39:10

was very close, you know, you could hear what the neighbor was doing next door and stuff. But there was such a community, such a, you know, everyone watched out for everyone else. She knew who was, you know, everyone knew everybody. And and if someone, someone's daughter or you know, whatever was going off to college, or if someone needed some advice and something in their life, someone that that knew about it would come around for a cup of tea. And you know, that that's the type of, you know, so you know, that's it's it's the story, you know, it's the story and sharing, and and then that educates people, it ignites things within people. You know, stories resonate at such a deep level that it shifts something within people, it gives them hope or gives them the that just missing key ingredient that they needed just to put that puzzle piece in. You know what I mean? It's just like it's so they're just so powerful, and and that's what I really understood after I wrote my first novel and started to get reviews from because I touched, like I touch on miscarriage because I lost twins, and that was my call to write that book. But that book's not just all about miscarriage, it's about you know, it's about so much more. And but whenever someone reads it and they've they've had loss, they they feel comforted, they feel they've got some answers, you know, and that's because I got the answer that my heart longed for, and that's why I was called to to write it, you know. The second one in the series is a lot less, it's the wish giver, it's all about be careful what you wish for, because you might just get it.

SPEAKER_01 40:50

This is what I love about it though, too, is it, and I think just when you're talking, it makes me think about you know, the listening to stories from grandparents or older people in our lives and listening to what was your life like, or it doesn't have to be that way, but I think there's still a huge desire for connection in that way, for people to connect and for someone to say feel not alone, you know, for someone to read your book and say, Oh my gosh, I I felt that way too. And now I don't feel bad for feeling that way, or you know, I I can connect with experiencing that. I experienced the same thing. And that's the hope, I think, as as writers, as authors, that we will inspire and connect with our readers and our listeners. You know, this is why I love having my podcast and hearing people's stories, a funny thing happened on my way to on the way to my life, because uh I believe everyone has had at least one a funny thing happen on the way to my life story where you hear yeah, something came sideways at you, and I've had amazing people tell me stories that uh unbelievable resilience, and you included, you have had amazing, you know, you've recovered from hard things, you've done hard things, you've built a business, you wrote you wrote books when you weren't when you had challenges when you weren't meant to be a writer. So these are the things, and going back to mom's rising movie, this is what this movie is, this is at the heart of this movie too. The the the power of motherhood, but also the inspiration of people who have done challenging things and and you see the love still come through that.

SPEAKER_00 42:51

Yeah. And there's nothing more challenging than being a mom, you know, because you have to pour into these these humans and and guide them through life, you know, and and and watch them make mistakes and and help them, you know, to, you know, it's it's all of those things. It's it's but everybody has a mother, like every that's the one thing they're all connected on, you know. That's the only way to get birthed into this world is is through a mother. And so we all have one and we all have our stories, and but each each of our stories make us who we are today, and we have to honour that and we have to enjoy that. And you know, I was very blessed to to grow up with a mother that you know was there, and you know, I I had a very good childhood. I was very, very blessed, but even as a mother myself, like I make lots of mistakes as a mother, you know, and I really care so much and love all of my children. I'm the eldest of six as well, so that's why having six doesn't faze me. But you know, we we just do our best, and but the the main thing is I Always said I knew unconditional love as a child, and that and that was such a beautiful foundation of life. Didn't cost anything, it was just a sense of safety, it was a sense of just knowing that I was loved no matter what. If I made a mistake, I could come home home as a safe haven, you know, all of those things, and and I that's what I want for my kids as well, is for them to know and understand what unconditional love is. Because one thing I realized in life is that not everyone was as privileged as I was to get to know what that was, and and I I feel very blessed to have to have experienced it, but also to be aware of it because so many people just take it for granted in those in those scenarios. So yeah, motherhood is so important. That's why go to www.momsrising.film and watch the movie. Honestly, it'll it will only add to it, it will never take away from your life. And it's an hour, an hour that you know I think you'd be grateful that you you watched.

SPEAKER_01 45:06

Well, and the beauty of it too, right now, with it being free, is if you are a busy mom, watch part of it and come back to it. But also for Mother's Day, you know, for Mother's Day, for Mother's Month, give yourself the gift of

Watch The Film And Final Takeaways

SPEAKER_01 45:20

the time to sit and watch it, whether you watch it with your children or with friends, or or just give yourself the time alone that that moms so frequently need and and don't don't always give themselves.

SPEAKER_00 45:35

Well, it's it's all about pouring into each other so that we can be the best version of ourselves, isn't it? To for others. So it's about you have to pour into yourself those types of moments, you know, go and get yourself some chocolate and uh and and a nice pocket of popcorn and a and a and a and a fizzy drink.

SPEAKER_01 45:55

So yes, any uh thank you so much, Karen, for being here. Any last thoughts before we wrap up?

SPEAKER_00 46:02

No, it's a I suppose it's just you know, honor the journey in life. Know that you have a story that's that will mean something so much to to somebody else. So honor your story if you're called to write it, don't ignore it because it'll wake you up at 3 a.m. That's 3 a.m. music. But just know that we're all here together, doing the best we can on earth, and whenever we all stay connected to each other, uh and either energetically or in person, and our stories are so powerful, and don't take it for granted. Know that you are living uh new chapters all of the time, and that each one is really valuable to you, but also to others. So enjoy life. And one of my mottos is love life and it will love you back. So, yes, we'll finish on that.

SPEAKER_01 46:52

Oh, beautiful. So, again, thank you, Karen. It's such an honor and joy to have you here, and thank you to our listeners today. Uh, we wouldn't be here without you. So thanks for listening. Bye.