The Story Behind Second Act Sessions

Season Two of Second Act Sessions begins with a personal solo episode from host Stephanie Carmody, sharing the story behind the podcast and the journey that led her here.

In this heartfelt introduction, Stephanie opens up about the life experiences that shaped her second act — from navigating divorce, healing, and rebuilding confidence to rediscovering faith, purpose, and her voice. She shares the real moments behind the microphone and the inspiration behind creating Second Act Sessions.

If you’re new here, this episode is the perfect place to begin. And if you’ve been listening since Season One, consider this a deeper look into the woman and story behind the conversations.

This season is all about growth, healing, reinvention, and learning that it’s never too late to begin again.

This episode also includes a special sponsor mention from Revelation Candle — Stephanie’s favorite faith-based candle company. As each clean-burning candle melts, a hidden Bible verse is revealed in the wax, creating a beautiful reminder of faith, hope, and encouragement. 

Shop Revelation Candle at https://revelationcandle.com and use code STEPH15 at checkout for 15% off your order.

Be sure to follow and subscribe to Second Act Sessions wherever you listen to podcasts, and join us for an inspiring new season of honest conversations and meaningful second acts.

Transcript

Stephanie Carmody (00:00.248)
Hi there, I'm Stephanie Carmody. If you're in midlife and quietly wondering what's next, you're not alone. This podcast is a space for honest conversations about starting over, finding yourself again, and creating a life that actually feels like yours. We talk about faith, healing, identity, and everything in between. Just real life and what it looks like to begin again. Welcome to Second Act Sessions.

Stephanie Carmody (00:26.936)
Welcome back to Second Act Sessions. I'm your host, Stephanie Carmody. I can't believe this is season two already. Where did the year go? I'm so excited though to be here. I'm really looking forward to this season. It's gonna be like a great season in the sense that I think I'm a different person already. Like in looking back in hindsight, I see how while I was ready to film my podcast last year, I think I had a lot more healing to do on Be Knowns to Me that I sort of learned while I was interviewing a lot of my guests who were amazing.

who really helped me learn different things, even about myself and whatnot. So that was really impactful. But I really see the healing that I had to do really only God could have healed me from. So I think primarily it was my self-confidence that was still struggling from the emotional abuse from my marriage, but I persevered. I still kept pushing forward and trusting God every step of the way to provide.

to give me the right resources and to really just help me throughout the first season of my podcast. So here I am, season two, I'm back, but better, right? I'm like the better version of myself. So that's pretty cool. But what I wanted to do for this episode, because I know there's probably a lot of new listeners, new followers, and for those of you who were with me last year, thank you so much for being here. For anyone that's new, I wanna welcome you and share a little bit about me and what...

my journey has been and how it got me to be sitting here with you talking on my podcast. So just a quick little recap about me. I'm 50 years old. I am the oldest of three daughters. My parents are still very much in love and married. We all live very close together. My one sister, my youngest sister lives about a mile down the road with my two nieces who I just love, truly love and adore. I'm always like my girls. I mean, I know they're not mine obviously, but I love them so much as if they were.

I tell my sister all the time, I'm like, I would take a bullet for them, truly. My parents and my other sister live about 10 to 15 minutes away. So we're all very close. I'm divorced. I've been divorced since 2022. So it's almost four years of being divorced, although we were separated at the end of 2021. And as a result of that divorce, I am finding myself in my second act, as I like to call it. I had a lot of healing to do from that marriage.

Stephanie Carmody (02:42.856)
It was an emotionally abusive marriage. had some great moments, don't get me wrong, and I'm not bashing him. I talk about all of this in greater detail in my memoir that I'm working on right now. But I did have a lot of healing to unpack. So for several years, all I did after the divorce was heal, go inward, do the work. And at some point during that healing journey, God put it on my heart that I needed to share my story and my testimony. And so...

Out of that, my podcast, Second Act Sessions was born because as I keep talking about my life, I keep saying, well, this is my second act, you know? Like I didn't choose this. I don't want to be here. Trust me. I'd still prefer to be married and I was supposed to be married and have kids and none of that worked out for me. So I did not sign up for any of this, but I think God ultimately had a better plan for me. So I was married for together 15 and a half years, married for 13 and a half.

Trust me, I'm truly so much happier. But as a result of the marriage, we weren't able to have children. So that's something that I still, still makes me sad every now and then. And even being divorced still makes me sad. I was just on an amazing two week vacation in Europe and I was shocked that even though it's been four years, I still found myself being sad on this vacation, even though I was having an amazing time with one of my best friends. But I realized that I just had a lot of

still, I guess, unprocessed sadness and grief that I still needed to, I guess, release. And I certainly did that on my trip. You found myself like in a corner crying here and there, just sort of sad for the death of the marriage, which it is a death and the death of what I thought my life would be. And then also sad that I don't have my person to be traveling with on all of these trips, which is what my ex and I did. And so I had a great trip. Don't get me wrong.

but I still feel like part of me was just really sad. And I do pray every day that God will bring me my person. So we'll see, his timing, not mine, right? Yes, I'm divorced, no children, navigating this new chapter of my life. And so I have my podcast where I can share all about everything that I've experienced from growing up, basically being bullied my entire life from amazing, lovely girlfriends who were just awful to me. So all of that will be in my book as well.

Stephanie Carmody (05:01.55)
And I realized I found myself being bullied by women so much that I always gravitated towards men. So I always had a boyfriend. I went from boyfriend to boyfriend to boyfriend to husband. And then I ended up marrying a bully, primarily because I was very unhealed and it was familiar. And a lot of times we gravitate towards what's familiar, not necessarily healthy, but what's familiar. And so I did, and I just, you know, followed the script, go to college, get a job, get married, buy a home, have kids.

Some of that happened for me, but not in the way that it should have. And I ignored all the red flags and dating this person and ended up marrying him when I should not have. But if I didn't go through any of that, I wouldn't be able to be here and share my story with all of you. So what I'm hoping to achieve this season of Second Act Sessions is really a little bit more about not only what I've been through, I'm all about sharing lived experience. And I feel like my motto for season two is, if I've lived it, I can share it.

And sharing is very hard for me sometimes, because I'm a very private person in a lot of ways, but God keeps showing me that I do need to share my story and my journey, because the goal with all of this really is to share the light, share the love of God, and share my lessons and everything I've been through to help others. Maybe I'm...

helping someone as they're going through a divorce or as they're navigating an emotionally abusive relationship. Like I've walked through a lot. So I have a lot of lived experience to share. And I think in a way that makes me an expert in so many different topics because I've lived it. So as I said, I am working on my memoir. I'm hoping that will come out at some point this year. The ironic thing about that is that years ago when I was back in my public relation days, I had a boss tell me like, oh, you're just not a good writer.

And like that little voice stuck in my head for probably 30 years until most recently, maybe four or five years ago that I started writing really good emails. One email in particular that I wrote to my ex, he came back to tell me, you wrote such a great email. That's why I want a divorce. I'm like, what? This is crazy. So in the process of writing my book and sharing my story, I think that also has been very cathartic and healing.

Stephanie Carmody (07:18.426)
And I think that's where I've also gained more of my self-confidence because dealing with a narcissist and having emotional abuse in your marriage, it really stripped away at the core of who I was. I was a shell of a human being. He really broke my spirit and I was just so insecure on so many levels. I'm not a very secure person historically. It's just that there was a lot of damage that was done. It took me a while to come back from that. And I really do feel like season two is that

monumental sort of occasion where I can now say, all right, I'm finally feeling better in my own skin. And like I said, it's all glory to God. I think a big part of my testimony I wanted to share today so you can really understand me a little bit more is towards the end of my marriage, it was pretty grueling. It was just horrible. We were cohabitating. We were almost like roommates. A bunch of things had happened during over that summer.

We went on an amazing vacation to Hawaii for my parents 50th wedding anniversary and he was there physically but emotionally he was checked out. So it was just an awkward, awkward time and it got really bad towards the end of August. And I remember specifically one day getting on my hands and knees, bawling my eyes out, praying to God saying, I cannot do this anymore. And so here I am on my hands and knees begging God.

to deliver me from evil, truly. I said, thy will be done. Wouldn't you know, God answers prayers very fast. Two weeks later, my ex came to me, and this again is after the email I wrote him as well. He came to me and said, I don't know how to make you happy. I want a divorce. And I was shocked, of course, but then again, I knew I asked God to intervene and he certainly did. And I basically said, okay, like fine. Like I was.

in shock don't get me wrong, I was certainly in shock for a good year year and a half and just sort of going through the motions, but I felt relieved I felt that I could slowly breathe again and towards the end of my marriage, I remember my mom saying you know Stephanie I think he's driving you crazy and he was and I'm not going to put all the blame on him like I'm sure take you know takes to the tango I'm not perfect either but a narcissistic abuses is no joke and I.

Stephanie Carmody (09:37.43)
I do think towards the end of my marriage, was just so desperate and lonely and hurting. And I was to a point where I almost contemplated, like I had suicidal thoughts. Not that I would ever act on it, cause I am a Christian. I was raised in the Christian faith since I was six years old. I was baptized when I was 11, but because of my marriage and just life in general, I had gotten so far away from God. So here I was calling myself a Christian, a believer, yet God wasn't

in my life at all. Like I had no bandwidth for him and I was so just stuck in this marriage and everything revolved around my ex like was he happy was he in a good mood. How do I help him what do I do for him giving giving giving and giving to him and then giving to friends that were just like I call them like vampires they just suck the energy out of me so I was in just a really dark place for so long and then I think having suicidal thoughts scared the living bejesus out of me I was like.

Whoa, like this is not me. And that's when I said I got on my hands and knees and I prayed to God. said, cause I cannot do this anymore. And he certainly blessed me and answered my prayer. And the ironic thing is you, you would think that that would bring me closer to God, but instead I fell into new age spirituality. I had gotten involved in that around 2016 when my first dog died. And since I don't have children of my own, feel like my

dogs, my fur babies were truly my children and so when my first when our first dog died I was devastated like devastated and uncontrollably crying every day like I just couldn't function and that's not like me either, but it was really really hard on me and that's when I reached out to my very first medium and I sort of kind of went down that path for many many years, especially after my divorce so.

I'm glad to say now that I was delivered from the deception of New Age spirituality. And I have so many people to thank for that, primarily a pastor out of Atlanta, Church 2819, Pastor Philip Anthony Mitchell, God used to literally smack me in the face one night. It culminated with me a couple things, and God always speaks to me in like threes. So I always know it's from him when I see something for the third time. So it was funny that

Stephanie Carmody (11:59.0)
people kept telling me to watch the chosen and it was like the 3rd person who told me I was like all right fine, I watch it. I love the chosen I would watch it religiously I banged out all 3, 4, 5 seasons within a week crying every episode it was so amazing and almost like magical because I really feel like that show brings Jesus to life in a way I've never experienced before and really humanizes him and it was just so amazing and that coincided the timing of watching that.

coincided with this is now this is the end of 2024 like August 2024. And that watching of chosen coincided with all those horrible storms are happening in like Western North Carolina and then Florida member all those storms that they had I remember I was devastated I almost drove down to North Carolina to help bring supplies. Everyone on tiktok was like.

That's all that was on tic remember was just cov and the floods and all th just, I was crying every over everyone every day am scrolling reading, wa at night on tiktok and i storms and praying over ev

God used Philip Anthony Mitchell, like I said, to wake me up. So I came across one of his videos. I had never seen him or heard him before, but God knew I needed to. And I came across one of his videos, like a clip of him talking about New Age spirituality. And I say talking, he was actually like shouting very strongly. And he's a New Yorker and I'm a New Yorker at heart. I worked in Manhattan for God, almost 20 years off and on.

I'm a New Yorker that is very much my personality and Philip Anthony Mitchell has that grit and that passion and that voice and God knew that's what I would need to wake me up and he was talking about new age spirituality and saying, you all go to your psychics, you go to your tarot readers, it's demonic and he's physically yelling and that is what literally was like God smacked me in the face that night. I woke up, I was like,

Stephanie Carmody (14:12.45)
How did I not know this is in the Bible and it says not to get involved with witchcraft and mediums and terror readers and psychics? I mean, I was in it every day, all day for years after my marriage. And the ironic thing is that here I am a Christian and I was still trying to play the whole, I can be a Christian and I can also dabble in New Age spirituality. I can believe this, but I can also go to terror readings because they're from God. That's the problem.

that I found with New Age spirituality. It's very deceptive and it masquerades like the enemy as an angel of light. And so it's so hard to really describe it unless you're in it. And I will never go back. And so hearing that message from Pastor Pam, as I like to call him, woke me up. I never went back to any New Age spirituality, anything after that. And so it's been what?

over almost two years of really getting closer with God and seeing how much he's worked in my life and how he's provided and really just guided me. And also this past year, I feel like he's the only one that really could heal me from everything else. I did so many healing things. I did a lot of new age healing from energy healers, psychics, tarot readers. I also did traditional therapy with my therapist. So for many years I've

been walking the journey of healing myself, but I feel like this past year, God did something totally special in my life and really healed me and showed me that it's okay to be alone. Like I may be alone, but I'm not lonely. I don't have a boyfriend. I'm not actively dating. I'm not searching for my person. I'm not on the dating apps. I'm really truly just letting God lead and provide and show me the way and show me what he wants.

for my life and right now it's this podcast and writing my book and sharing my story and being a little bit braver and being vulnerable to share my story whether it's on social or even speaking to you here on my podcast and he's really just blessed me and not only bless me with you know my journey of of healing from divorce because you know divorce really is a death and I had to heal so much from.

Stephanie Carmody (16:28.128)
not only the marriage and the abuse that went on in the marriage, but also I had to heal from really what I thought my life would look like. And it's scary. And someone the other day, a friend of mine told me, he's like, you're so brave and I want you to know, like, I'm so proud of you and you're doing it and you did it and you're so brave. And the funny thing is I never feel brave. I don't, I don't feel brave. Half the time I'm like, dear God, what am I doing? What am I saying? But I'm still doing it. I'm just...

moving forward every day, taking a step day by day and putting it out there and sharing my story because I feel like even if I impact one person, then I've done my job. But before I continue, I do want to take a moment to pause and share something with you I think you're really going to love. I want to take a brief moment to mention Revelation Candle who's supporting today's show. I'm really intentional about the brands I choose to share and this one I personally use and genuinely love.

Revelation candle is a faith based company and what makes them so unique is that as a candle burns a Bible verse is slowly revealed through the wax which is such a beautiful and meaningful touch. They're also made with a 100 % clean ingredients natural coconut soy wax nontoxic fragrance and cruelty free everything is hand poured in the USA by a small family-run business which I personally love supporting they offer a variety of different sense and Bible verses to choose from so you can really select something that speaks to you or fits exactly what you're looking for.

These candles make for such a thoughtful gift, whether it's for someone going through a difficult season, celebrating something special, or simply as a meaningful way to encourage someone. There's also something really calming about lighting one at the end of the day. It creates a peaceful, intentional moment. In a world that feels really busy and noisy, having something like that in your home just matters. It's one of those pieces that feel meaningful to give, but also just as special to have in your own space.

If you're interested in learning more or want to try one for yourself, you can visit revelationcandle.com and use my code, STEF15 at checkout for an additional 15 % off your order. Now back to today's episode. So that's how I choose to live my life now. And that's kind of the journey I want to share. No matter what stage of life you're in, whether you're in your 20s or in your 70s, or you're navigating midlife with me, I'm 50, I never thought I'd be here.

Stephanie Carmody (18:45.112)
but I'm still able to find joy in my life. So yeah, I may not have everything that I had envisioned, but that's what I envisioned. What does God want for me? That can be totally different. And so I'm learning to trust in God and be faithful every day, which is hard, because the enemy is always in my head. I have a lot of genetic anxiety in my life. I think I have ADHD as well. I talked about that on my last season, but I'm learning to...

embrace all of that and that's what makes me me and God made me for a reason and made me perfect in his eyes, even if I can't stand the fact that my hair is falling out right now and I have less of it and you know, I'm going through menopause and that is hard and I'll be talking about that this year. It's all the things that us women are navigating in midlife. That's what I wanna talk about and that's what I wanna share because I know I'm not alone in this. So many of you have commented on my post or I've met.

some amazing women who I'm now friends with who I've never met that they've reached out and I've been able to help them. They've also navigated narcissistic abuse or they're in their new act with a new job or I know there's a lot of women out there and parents for that matter who are empty nesters and that's almost a shock to them. So even if I don't have children, I can relate to the feeling. And I think we're all just looking for

happiness and joy and this world's crazy right now. I mean, I'm a proud conservative Christian, not that this podcast is gonna get political by any means, but I do have my beliefs and I see this world right now and I literally think we're living end times. Like lot of things happening right now, it's in the Bible, it's in revelations, if not throughout the whole Bible. And so I'm always like, Lord, if you're gonna come, come anytime you want. But until that day, my goal is to

share the good news, to put out everything that God has done in me, for me, and really share the glory of God, ultimately, because He's the only reason I'm still standing today. He's the only reason I'm not still in a fetal position in the corner, devastated and worried about, okay, how am I gonna make money with this podcast? Alimony ends in X amount of years. How am I gonna provide for myself? All of that constant doubt, fear, and worry, it's always there, but I know it's not from God.

Stephanie Carmody (21:06.05)
God is peace, love, joy, the fruit of the spirit, not worry, anger, anxiety. That's all the enemy just trying to keep us stuck and trapped and miserable. And I refuse to let him win. I always just every day I try to be a good Christian and read my Bible and my three devotionals and pray throughout the day. I have my worship music on all day in the car, at home, in my kitchen.

I just need to put on the full armor of God, because as I said, I think this world is kind of crazy right now on both sides. I've been saying this is not about Republican or Democrat. We are in a spiritual war. This is good versus evil. So that's really what how I see it. And another thing God has blessed me with are like-minded friends, like-minded Christian friends, which has been a game changer for me, because even though I grew up in the church and I had some Christian friends at my churches,

I was always pulled out of them and always pulled to a different church. My mom didn't like this church and we went to a different church and I had friends there and then we moved and this is before social media. So when you're in elementary school and junior high, know, no one really kept in touch. Although now thankfully because of social, I've reconnected with a lot of friends that I went to Christian Academy with and even church with. So that's been great. But God, this past year has really blessed me in more ways than one. And for me,

being the girl who was always bullied by her friends. Finally, he has brought in some amazing solid women who are Christian women of faith who are also like-minded so we can talk politics. But all of my friends lately that I've met through church and even outside of church, I'm so incredibly blessed. So when I say I'm alone, but I'm not lonely, it's because even though I may not have my person, and I think historically I always thought I had to have a guy and I had to be married, now God is showing me.

how I'm now the person who always had a boyfriend, has no boyfriend, who never had friends, now has more friends than I've ever thought I'd ever have. It's such a blessing and I'm so excited for that. And you'll probably see a couple of my friends on this season because we have a lot to talk about. Two of my new friends, both were also in New Age spirituality. So I want to share their story. And like I said, I'm just so incredibly blessed that God has brought them into my life and

Stephanie Carmody (23:28.566)
I don't know. just, I'm excited. So he's really just showing me how long as I just continue to trust in him, everything's going to be okay. And I'm going to be okay. And this podcast is going to be successful. My prayer is every time I do an episode, I'm like, Lord, please just bless this episode. Bless this podcast. Please let whoever needs to hear this, hear it. And I also don't want to be like everybody else. I don't, I see everyone and

I don't want to be like everyone else. Like I'm going to do what I need to do, how I need to do it, when I need to do it with God's help and let him dictate the timing and the next steps and all of that. So that's a little bit about me and what I want to talk about. So it's really season two is going to be more specific to second acts and navigating them and anywhere from dating in midlife, divorce, not having children.

health because I'm really a big proponent on alternative holistic health so you'll see me talk a lot about that. I'm a huge fan of ma and Robert F Kennedy junior I love all that he's doing. I think there's a lot of education that still needs to happen with with people and you know I still see people eating McDonald's and I want to almost smack it out of your hands and be like do not know how horrible that food is for you. So I'm kind of an expert.

in a lot of things like health wise as well, because I've had a lot of health issues. My niece has some issues. we, my sister and I, my whole family have been down the rabbit hole with everything healing. you know, I've had my chiropractors on last year and I'm looking forward to having a different, different experts, primarily some menopause experts because menopause is kind of kicking my ass. I gotta be honest with you. The hot flashes every night. I mean, it's like,

30 degrees out and I have like the air on and windows open. It's crazy, but I'm managing, you know, but in fact, I think the hair breakage is part of menopause and that's been fun to navigate. So I just want to talk about everything I'm dealing with, because I know I'm not alone and I know so many of you are also going through a divorce or menopause or dating, being single in midlife and dating. I mean, there's so many things we can talk about and that's why I'm here.

Stephanie Carmody (25:42.638)
to share my lived experience with each and every one of you, to help you feel less alone, and to let you know that you aren't alone, that God is always there, he's always with you. And a pastor the other day, I think it was actually Pastor Pam, I'll talk about him a lot. I'm gonna have him on the podcast too. Say a prayer that he agrees to come on, because that would be so amazing to me. My background's in public relations, celebrity, consumer entertainment. And it's so funny, for many years, I was just obsessed with celebrities, obsessed. And I've worked with

You name it, I've worked with them. But now I laugh like the people that I want to have on that I deem as celebrities are like pastors. Like I love Pastor Pam. I love Josh Howard Tan. There's so many people that I would love to have on and that I'm praying that God will allow me to have on. But Pastor Pam the other day, I think I'm one of his sermons or maybe it was a clip. I think it was one of his sermons. I watched him every Sunday. He said that he was talking about his children when they were younger in a park. And he said that, you know,

Every once in a while, I'd let them go a little bit further, a little bit further from me, a little bit further out. He's like, so at one point they'd be looking around like, where's dad? Where's dad? He's like, they didn't know where I was, but I always knew where they were. I never took my eyes off of them. And he said, that's exactly like God. Like you may get far away from God, you may, you know, just be so remote and distant, but God never took his eyes off of you. And he certainly never took his eyes off of me. I feel like I was.

one of the 99 that he left to come back for me as I said getting on my hands and knees that day asking for deliverance truly from evil and he heard me and he put me on this whole new trajectory and here I am I'm still standing and if I've lived it I can share it and so I'm really excited for season 2 I hope you'll join me on this journey. It's going to be biweekly because.

quite frankly, doing a podcast weekly is gonna be too much for me and this menopause brain can't handle it. So I hope you'll stick with me on the bi-weekly journey. I'm always on social media. I'll always be posting things that I'm experiencing in real time as well, like the hair loss, which is so frustrating. But anyways, so really, if sharing my story helps one person feel less alone, then honestly, I've done my job and all glory to God. I can't do any of this without him.

Stephanie Carmody (28:02.806)
So I really do hope you'll join me this season. I'm looking forward to sharing more of my journey. Let me know what else you guys want to hear. What else are you navigating in your second act? Love to hear from you and can't wait to share more. Thanks so much for listening. Be sure to subscribe to second act sessions on YouTube, Spotify, Apple podcasts, or wherever you tune in. And if today's episode resonated with you, consider leaving a review. It helps more than you know and makes it easier for others to find these stories and start their own second act.