[Bonus Episode] Awaken: A Life by Design

In this conversation, Life Intended co-founders and coaches Kelly Berry and Sadie Wackett dive into the realities of modern womanhood like burnout, guilt, and disconnection and how to walk the path back to clarity and confidence. They unpack how our internal “scripts” shape what we believe is possible, why we often silence our inner voice, and how the Awaken program was built to help women reconnect to what they actually want.

If you’ve ever felt like you’re living a life that looks good on paper but feels... off—this one’s for you. We invite you to join our Fall 2025 cohort and bridge the gap between the life you’ve built and the life you actually want.

Sign up here: Awaken: A Life by Design

Resources and Links from the Episode

• Life Intended Official Website
• Life Intended on Instagram
• Life Intended on LinkedIn
• Sadie Wackett on LinkedIn
• Kelly Berry on LinkedIn
• Awaken Group Program Details

Life Intended is a podcast and coaching platform for women who are ready to stop waiting and start leading. Co-hosted by Kelly Berry and Sadie Wackett, each episode explores self-leadership, identity, emotional wellness, and living with intention.

About Kelly Berry
Kelly Berry is a strategic business leader, coach, and founder of Life Intended. She helps women build clarity, confidence, and alignment in life and work. She enjoys spending quality time with her husband American entrepreneur Nick Berry and daughter Vivienne. Her life is a testament to the power of resilience and intention.
🔗 kellyberry.info | @lifeintendedpodcast

About Sadie Wackett
Sadie Wackett is a C-suite HR executive, certified coach, and co-founder of Life Intended. She supports women through leadership transitions, self-trust, and personal transformation. Sadie is originally from the UK and now lives in South Florida with her husband, daughter and dog, Pickles.
🔗 sadiewackett.com | LinkedIn

Life Intended is published in partnership with FCG...

Transcript

Sadie Wackett (00:00)
Hi Kelly.

Kelly Berry (00:01)
Hey, Sadie.

Sadie Wackett (00:02)
I'm glad we're here today to talk a bit

Kelly Berry (00:06)
we have another cohort coming up and I know I'm really excited about it. I know you are too. We've our first cohort and I think it went amazing. Got some really great feedback and have a lot of people interested in learning more about what we're doing and what Awaken can do for them.

Sadie Wackett (00:23)
Yeah.

Yeah, so let's dive in actually. want to start by sharing a bit I think this awaken is important for people today. So I'm going to just share my view.

which is I just keep having through my conversations with friends and also with people I'm coaching, so many conversations with women about how they want to, there's just this kind of overriding sense of, I guess confusion and also guilt. So for example, I want to be with my kids, but I also want to have a career. I want to be with my family, but I also

want

time by myself. Like I really want to stop hustling and I also want to reach my full potential. So this kind of dilemma that

I think women are experiencing a lot. for me, really, a lot of it comes down to how we've been conditioned and socialized as women, which for many of us is kind of invisible and we're not really aware of. So Awaken for me helps to allow us to sort of step back, zoom out and really take some like broad perspective of

what is influencing our thoughts and decisions and actually what control we might have that we don't even know about yet to shape those. What's your experience?

Kelly Berry (01:52)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, so I am definitely not only hearing a lot of those things, but I would say experiencing a lot of those same The desire to want to be with my family all the time and the need and the want to take some space and pour into myself. so one of the things when we're women about what Awaken does,

is it actually gives you the space to stop and think about what you actually want and how maybe you can take action that's in alignment both of those, like what seem to be conflicting desires. And it really just, you know, I think everybody is just so busy and going from thing to thing to thing. And this really, really helps you stop.

slow down and kind of take action on all of the things that we're trying to incorporate into our lives to live better and feel better. So I think that space is really valuable that the program provides. But to your point, yeah, I'm seeing a lot of those like, I think I know what I want, but I'm not sure if I actually want it or I think I know what I want, but I'm

I can't give myself permission to actually take action on it, you know, those types of things.

Sadie Wackett (03:12)
Yeah. All right, yeah,

and I'm progressing.

you know, the path I think is the one that I'm meant to be on, but something inside me just doesn't feel a hundred percent like this is the path I want to be on. So you can kind of get that feeling inside, but your head is overriding it the whole time with, you know, you just need to work harder. You just need to hustle more. You just need to, you know, wait till the kids have grown up or you just need to earn a bit more money. There's all the, the head talking to you, but we lose.

Kelly Berry (03:25)
Mm-hmm.

Sadie Wackett (03:44)
I think, and this is definitely my experience as well, we're losing connection with what our body is really telling us and we're not able to listen to that because it's too loud everywhere. So yeah, that is exactly what we are able to do in this program.

Kelly Berry (03:52)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Sadie Wackett (04:02)
And the other really important part of it as well, I think, is that you're doing it with a small group of other women who are experiencing exactly the same thing. And the learnings we are able to get from one another and the kind of normalization of all of this when you're in a group, a small group where other people are experiencing exactly the same thing. It just takes away this sense of I'm on my own or I'm different or why am I the only one that's struggling with this?

know how to solve this. Let me just kind of let me just carry on doing what I'm doing and distract myself from from what I I don't want to think about. It kind of holds us holds a mirror up to us in that in that group but with a lot of support and a lot of kind of patience and kindness and compassion. Yeah.

Kelly Berry (04:52)
and authenticity. think the trap

that I see there a lot is that we are all experiencing a lot of the same things, but we're not really vulnerable in allowing people to see what we're experiencing. So the impact that that has on us is that we look around and we feel like everyone else's lives are really easy. know, everything that's coming to them is like they must just deserve it. And then when

Sadie Wackett (05:06)
Yeah.

Kelly Berry (05:19)
when you peel back the layers in a small group like this, you realize that a lot of those challenges are similar and you can learn from each other, not just from us as the facilitators, but learn from each other, experience what it's like to become vulnerable and the growth that happens as a result of that. So that's another really big thing, I think.

Sadie Wackett (05:42)
Yeah.

You know, this is more as well. It's more than just talking and more than just listening. There's some really helpful frameworks and tools that are offered every single session so that whoever's participating can actually put some, make some sense and some meaning out of their experiences. So, you know, we can shine a light on some of the some of the challenges we're facing and then we can

offer some mechanisms and methods, tools, frameworks to actually start to shift some of those things. And there's practice that we do in the sessions, which I think is really helpful when we can share that amongst the group. And then there's things that can be done between sessions as well. But really, it's not a heavy lift. It's kind of quote unquote work that is only designed

Kelly Berry (06:19)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Sadie Wackett (06:41)
to help you reprogram and I guess shift some of those patterns that might have been keeping you held where you are and offering you an alternative choice to how you want to experience life.

Kelly Berry (06:54)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, I think some of the feedback that we've gotten that's been really eye-opening has been, you know, one of the biggest benefits of the program is creating that space for yourself to actually be able to put some of these things that you're learning into practice or to just take advantage of this space to be able to think.

a little bit differently instead of just being on defense all the time or just, you know, adding adding to your very, very long list. It gives you a space to process. It gives you a space to kind of like collaborate with other women and just also a space to consider what you want and what you need. And that in itself, for those of us who just don't really carve that out for

ourselves and our everyday life is really, really, really beneficial.

Sadie Wackett (07:50)
Yeah, yeah.

I think I'll share a little bit just really high level about what a participant would experience in the program. there's six weeks, it's once a week over that period for 90 of the kind frameworks, tools, areas of focus that we'll talk about.

First is around how we can help understand better how, like I said, we've been conditioned, we've been socialized culturally, socially, through families, etc., which helps us to kind of recognize what script we might have been living by, which we didn't even know about. So that's helpful, you know, just in raising awareness. And then that helps us start to understand how our

inner world, our inner game, if you like, drives our outer game, our outside world. And how much control we actually, use the word control, choice agency we do have around, around our.

our outside experience as well as our inside experience. We focus a lot on building self-trust and this is sometimes hard to put into words but there really is a way which we work on together in this group to allow ourselves to have a much higher level of trust in ourselves and clarity in ourselves. And then we give ourselves permission to really dive into what is it we really want versus

is what is it we think we should want. And then we're able once we've covered all of that work together is to take some real steps to realign what we, I guess like building a bridge from where we are today to where we would like to be and having the tools and the experience by that point in order to close the gap.

between the kind of life we have today and maybe there isn't a radical change we want to make. Maybe it's a small thing, but we still have the belief and the capacity that we're able to do that. So that's just for somebody who's curious about what is it about. That gives you a sense as to some of the areas that we cover and what you might experience by the end of it.

Kelly Berry (10:05)
Yeah. So a couple of questions on that for people who may not have done any of this work or are unfamiliar with some of the language that you use. So for someone has never heard term living by someone else's script or the scripts that have been written for us, give an example or tell me a little bit about what that means if somebody's never kind of gone down that path before.

Sadie Wackett (10:28)
Yeah.

Yeah, well, I just use myself as an example. So, you know, growing was always built into my belief system through my family of origin that in order to be successful, you would, you know, go to school, go to university, get a job, get a house, car, husband, kids.

And then, you know, that's it. That's what success looks like. Climb up in your organization, you know, get the bigger job, get the better job, get more money. But through events that have happened in my life, I've realized that actually that's not what success means to me anymore. And, you know, I think there's been a lot of time when I...

didn't apply to me, but I didn't know that. I didn't allow myself to know that there was an alternative meaning of success that I wanted to hold. And, you know, one of them is being able to really live with authenticity. And that means using the gifts that I've got in ways that don't necessarily mean I'm climbing up the corporate ladder anymore.

and it looks quite different. looks like, serving others, helping others. it doesn't necessarily look like striving for a bigger paycheck. It looks like, you know, getting that sense of personal fulfillment from the work that I do and ensuring that I have enough to cover my means. so hopefully that gives a bit of a sense of what I mean by other people's scripts. And it's not necessarily that people have.

been holding you in a straight jacket. It's just these are the, these are the expectations that families, society, culture puts on us as, as, as women and as, as people living in, in this generation.

Kelly Berry (12:22)
Mm-hmm.

So for someone who maybe thinks that they're living by somebody else's script, can you describe like what the tension feels like or how they can notice that dissonance maybe from the life that they're living if they haven't really given it a lot of thought? Like what's coming up for them?

Sadie Wackett (12:44)
Yeah.

I think they're probably feeling something that feels like stuck or, you know, one way I describe it sometimes is you feel like you've got one foot on the gas and one foot on the brake at the same time. So you're, you know, you're trying to move forward, but then something's really holding you back. There's perhaps a lot of feelings around guilt or resentment.

you know, I resent having to be here. I resent having to be in this environment or in this job or in this relationship. I want something different, but I can't really articulate what that is. So it could feel like frustration. could feel like, could feel like just disconnect. Like I've just given up. Like I've got no motivation for this anymore.

Sometimes it feels like burnout. So there's lots of ways I think it manifests. I also think we try and avoid that feeling, whatever it is, by distracting ourselves. So it might be that we are just becoming overly busy. We're overstretching ourselves. don't, know, busyness becomes something we can't stop because it's defining us.

And if we stop being busy, if we stop doing, then all these, you know, potentially uncomfortable feelings or thoughts might come up. So it can, you know, it can be kind of exhausting, energetically, without even realizing why we're feeling that way. Did that resonate?

Kelly Berry (14:09)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Yes.

Yes, very much. And I think that those are some really great examples. The behaviors, I think, are a big one. I'll say they're like the numbing behaviors that we adopt because it's easier to just kind of like go with the flow than it is to stop and recognize and perhaps make a change. So whether that looks like

Sadie Wackett (14:37)
Yeah.

Kelly Berry (14:39)
scrolling or drinking or, you know, like even it can be like, yeah, hanging with the same friends because you're, you're not exactly fulfilled by the relationships, but it's easy. You know, it doesn't require any friction to make a change. And a lot of those, if you're, if you're feeling those come up, then I think the root cause can be a lot of the things that you were talking about, about the scripts and the stuckness.

Sadie Wackett (14:41)
Mmm, going to the refrigerator.

Yeah. Yeah.

And, just to like, for anybody listening to this, that might, it might be resonating. I think that the one thing I'd want you to take away right now is that that's a sign of growth in and of itself, where you feel that resistance, that friction, that tension, that means that something inside you is, is shifting and that is growth. So

I think if anyone has that sense, then this is a great space to get that sort of support or help to move through that tension and come out the other side with a great sense of clarity and agency over what you can do with the things that have come up.

Kelly Berry (15:54)
Mm-hmm. Yes, definitely. Another thing that I think that you described really well that Awaken is a big support for is kind of this overwhelm of information that we're subjected to all the time coming at us from every direction and kind of the danger in that. So talk a little bit about what you see and what

Awakened does that's different.

Sadie Wackett (16:25)
Yeah, so this is a really key point for me because I am a huge believer that we are overwhelmed with the amount of information that we are consuming these days. So whether that's news, social media, whatever it is, the kind of...

tidal wave of stuff that we're absorbing and we're consuming yet we are not metabolizing is creating this blockage within us. So Awaken is deliberately designed to be different than that.

Yes, there are, you, get tools, you get some information, but the whole point of this is for you to be able to practice, for you to be able to use this so that you can metabolize everything that you're hearing, everything that you're learning, and you can let it process through you in order to create a shift. So, I mean, I just, sometimes if I spend time like looking on Instagram or

or what have you and I get hooked by another message about how I can take better care of myself or how I can grow more into my own fullest potential. It just, I feel myself getting a bit jittery because I'm like, oh my God, can't, what do I do with this? How am I gonna apply this? When am gonna get a chance to... And I just wanna take all of that pressure away. You come, you will learn.

Kelly Berry (17:47)
Mm-hmm.

Sadie Wackett (17:54)
you will grow and you will embody the stuff that you're hearing and learning. So you don't have to carry it around as another thing to do.

Kelly Berry (17:58)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Yes. So two things I'll add to that. One is, you know, we talk about sometimes the difference in a to-do list and the to-be list, you know, and so a lot of the times when we're absorbing all of this information, it just continues to pile up on our to-do list. You know, it's like sometimes I'll listen to a podcast where the host will describe their morning routine that lasts two and a half hours. And I'm like,

Sadie Wackett (18:13)
yeah.

Kelly Berry (18:30)
How on earth am I supposed to adopt a morning routine that's going to set me up for the best day ever in two and a half hours? Like, what can I do in the 12 minutes I have? You know, like that type of thing. So when you continue to absorb this information, it just stacks up on your to-do list and you carry that weight with you. Like, you know, I need to drink a smoothie in the morning. I need to meditate for 20 minutes. I need to, need to, I need to in order to do all of these other things.

where what we tend to focus on is more of a to be list and having the things that we're doing really, really driven by how we want to be and not what we think we should do or, you know, this continual like to do list or, you know, can even turn into a wish list of sorts because we're never actually going to get to it. So I think that

Sadie Wackett (19:21)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Kelly Berry (19:23)
That's a pretty important shift there.

And then, you know, just to your point on, you know, I think we're both big consumers and we're not really saying that you shouldn't consume. But what we are saying is that, you know, consumption without digestion, it kind of exacerbates what I was just talking about that, like adding to your list, adding to your list, because you knowing more.

doesn't make you do things differently. And I think that until you can like make that connection, yeah, it just continues to be like everything in nothing out.

Sadie Wackett (19:58)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, that blockage and ⁓ Simon Sinek is somebody who talks a lot about, know, your why and you could kind of connect that with some of his work in that, you know, why do we want to be consuming this information? Why do we want to be growing to be the best version of ourselves? What is it that...

Kelly Berry (20:07)
Mm-hmm.

Sadie Wackett (20:25)
What is the experience of life that we want to have? Who do we want to be? And that's, it's some of these really important questions that we can ask and take the time to answer through this program. Yeah.

Kelly Berry (20:33)
Mm-hmm.

Yep, exactly.

Yeah, all really good stuff. Anything else we haven't touched on?

Sadie Wackett (20:42)
I don't

know only just to say that you know we're starting this on the 18th of

September 18th or 19th and you know we really want to share these messages with as many women as possible and you know we want to help offer the opportunity for as many women as possible so I can't wait and hopefully this has resonated with a few of you but if you have any questions then you can reach out to Kelly or I.

Kelly Berry (21:12)
Yes, definitely excited to be on this journey again helping people live lives that feel as good as they look. Yeah. Thanks, Sadie.

Sadie Wackett (21:20)
Thanks Kelly.