#51. The Women Who Set My Standards: A Legacy of Strength, Truth, and Becoming

In this deeply personal episode, Sari reflects on the women who shaped her life—not through goals or achievements, but through the standards they embodied.

From a mother who lived ahead of her time and taught the cost of silencing one’s truth, to a grandmother who survived unimaginable trauma and still chose love, to the women who steadied, inspired, and called her forward—this episode is a tribute to legacy, resilience, creativity, and becoming.

This conversation invites listeners to reflect on the standards they inherited, the ones they live by, and the legacy they are shaping for the generations to come.

In This Episode, You’ll Explore

• The difference between goals and standards
• How women transmit values through lived example
• Intergenerational resilience and healing
• Creativity, survival, and living authentically
• Why unfinished dreams often become inherited callings

Reflection Question

Whose standards are shaping your life—and which ones are asking to be reclaimed?

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Transcript

Dedication And Core Message

Recognition And Standing On Shoulders

Rethinking Goals Versus Standards

The Unfinished Song: Mom’s Lesson

Grandmother’s Enduring Strength

Aunt Charlotte And The Power Of Support

Creativity And Pivoting With Stepmom

Daughter, Granddaughter, And Forward Healing

Gratitude, Takeaways, And Closing

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Before I begin, I want to dedicate this episode to my mom. She was brilliant, ahead of her time, and my mom taught me by how she lived and how she left never to die with my music still inside me. I still miss her every single day. The women who shaped my life didn't set goals for me. They set standards through how they lived, how they loved, how they survived, and how they created. This week's podcast episode is a tribute to the women who did not disappear, who refused to go into the background, who live with courage, and who taught me never to die with my music still inside of me. So if you are a woman or a man leading, parenting, creating, or quietly carrying a legacy, this episode is for you. I'd love to hear who influenced you most and what standard did they leave with you. I'm being honored as one of the hundred most influential women in South Carolina in 2026 in their issue. And while I'm deeply grateful for this, what's really been coming up for me in this whole experience is I so did not get here by myself. I am standing on the shoulders of women who lived with courage, women who paid a lot of prices, women who survived, women who created and who refused to disappear. And this episode is actually not about me. It's about the standards that I inherited from the women who shaped my life and how those standards continue to live through me. Since we've been talking about setting standards and setting goals, I realized that to be in congruence with myself, I needed to pause and think how many of the standards that I live by are actually mine, and how many can I thank the women that came before me for, and how many do I need to change? So I'll start with my mom, and I call this the Unfinished Song. My mom was on the cutting edge before her there were even words for it. She was part of a consciousness-raising movement in the 70s and the National Organization of Women. She was brilliant, self-taught, and really, really ahead of her time. She never went to college, even though she later on got certified as a member a member of the Mentor Society. But she was born the daughter of two immigrants, so she skipped grades because she was so smart, graduated high school when she was 16, and she graduated early to help support her family. Later on, she got divorced, went back to school, fell madly in love, and all within the span of two years opened her own business, a health spa called the Garden of Eden, in the 1970s when that was almost unheard of. And within that month, she got cancer and died. I was young. What my mom taught me by how she lived and how she left is this. Don't die with your music in you. She paid a really high price for giving up parts of herself for a while. And because of her, I've made a promise to myself to love what I do, love who I'm with, stay true to who I am, and to live really fully while I'm here. My grandmother is, I think about it as strength that endures. My grandmother taught me what strength really looks like. She was small, maybe four foot eight, but very mighty, small but mighty. When she was 13, she was woken up in the middle of the night to her dad getting shot in front of her during the programs in Russia. Her mom and her sisters, who I was named after, escaped under the hooves of the horses at night and then hid in the blacksmith's shop. She told me this story because she was smart enough that they actually sent her away to school, which was unheard of back then. Most girls didn't even go to school. And while she was gone, the village got raided again, and her mom and sisters were never seen. She never knew what happened to them, but it showed me that survival can really make incredible things possible. She came to this country at 18, she built a new life, raised a family, loved us deeply, cooked endlessly, and boy was she a good cook, and never lost her capacity to care. From her, I learned that you can endure unimaginable grief and still choose life and choose love. And she lived to be almost 90. So step in Aunt Charlotte, who was always a great aunt, but when my mom died, my Aunt Charlotte stepped in not to replace her at all, but just to steady me. She helped me when I became a mom. She supported me with my marriage. She loved my husband. She encouraged my education and believed in my becoming before I re before I did. She was the first person in her family to go to college. Yes, this one did go to college, and she actually even got her master's. She taught me that no woman ever evolves alone, and that support can change the trajectory of a life. I definitely wouldn't be who I am, and my husband and I would not have been the parents that we were without the help of my aunt. When our kids were young, we didn't have Google that we could ask, and we didn't have chat, and not to say that these tools aren't great, but you know, they're information, they're facts. They're facts based on the information that they could that they have collected from people, and they don't have heart and they don't have wisdom, and it's impossible for them to have experience, just recall. So having another mom there that had been through some things and was an aware person and loved me very much really made a difference in my family. My stepmom, Clara G was another person who really inspired me. She was an artist who lived and created until she was over a hundred years old. And Clara G taught me to live life with bent knees, ready to pivot at any time. And she showed, she was a character, and she showed me that creativity doesn't expire, and curiosity is actually what keeps us alive. She was curious right up until the time she died. So the forward line of my family would include my daughter. My daughter Ava has always inspired me to be a better mom, a better person, and do better than I had done before, to heal what needs healing and stay true to what matters. I worked on ancestral trauma with a method that she actually showed me, and I healed. I am forever grateful to her. And my granddaughter Audrey, along with my other grandchildren, but we're just talking about female members in this episode, inspires me all the time to leave the world a better place than I found it. These people remind me that healing doesn't stop with us, it travels forward. So this episode is a huge thank you. It's a thank you to the women who survived. It's a thank you to the women who created, it's a thank you to the women who paid prices so that I wouldn't have to. And to all the women listening, may you honor the standards you inherited. Have the wisdom to release the ones that no longer serve you and never leave your music unplayed. As I close this episode, I want to return to where I began with gratitude. To my mom, whose music still lives through me, to my grandmom, whose strength made survival sacred. I know it's in my bones that I am a survivor. To the women who steadied me, who created alongside me, and reminded me to live ready to pivot, ready to grow, ready to change. And to all the women listening, honor yourself. Your music matters. Live fully while you're here. And just count me in. Thank you so much for joining me today. If you like this episode, please let me know. Stop by at social media on Instagram or my Facebook page, just count me in, and please leave a comment. If there's anybody that you think could benefit from this episode, please forward it to them. And I look forward to seeing you next time. We're all in this together.