Take Your Power Back

Something changes when you stop waiting to feel “ready” and decide that now is your moment. Marc Hildebrand sits down with master coach Cynthia Van Warmer to introduce Purposeful Living and get clear on what this show is really about: choice, self-leadership, and taking your power back without losing your grace.

Cynthia shares the personal experiences that built her coaching philosophy, including the weight of outside circumstances that once controlled her decisions and the life-altering journey of caring for her husband through two forms of B cell lymphoma. She talks candidly about grief, resilience, and the turning point that many helpers miss: taking care of yourself is not optional, it is the foundation. That shift opened a new level of strength, clarity, and purpose, and it now fuels her mission to meet people where they are and guide them toward real transformation.

You’ll also hear why she refuses to lead with hacks alone. Tactics matter, but they fail without a strong “why.” Cynthia breaks down how awareness creates change, what “small living” looks like when we avoid hard truths, and how ownership works in practice by focusing on what you can control: how you think, act, speak, and show up. This is purposeful living, personal growth, and mindset coaching made practical for women leaders who feel stretched thin and ready to choose differently.

If you’re craving hope, inspiration, and real tools for self-leadership, subscribe, share the show with a friend who needs it, and leave a review so more people can find Purposeful Living. What would you choose today if you believed it starts with you?

Interested in working with Cynthia?  Please visit purposefullivingcoaching.us

Transcript

Welcome To Purposeful Living

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Welcome to Purposeful Living with Cynthia Van Warmer, where we slow down long enough to see what's really happening and take our power back without losing our grace.

SPEAKER_00 0:14

All right, everybody, welcome to the first episode of Purposeful Living with My Friend here, Cynthia Van Warmer. This has been some time in the making, and I am so excited to be able to introduce her here. So my name is Mark Hildebrand. I'm from Modern Leadership Coaching. And today I get to sit down with my powerful friend, leader, master coach, Cynthia, because it's taken me a while to convince her to put together a podcast. She teaches inside of our certification. I see her leading all over the place. And I'm like, we need to have a space for people to be able to plug into the kind of leader that you are and the kind of energy that you have, but also like your why and your motivation behind it. And so I am just so excited that she asked me to be here and ask her some questions so we can dive into why she put this together, who this is for, but really what you're gonna get out of this when you subscribe to this podcast and you listen to it. So, Cynthia, thank you so much for inviting me to the show, friend.

SPEAKER_02 1:11

Oh, of course, my friend.

SPEAKER_00 1:13

All right. You ready to go? Ready to knock the colour park? Yeah. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go.

Why Purposeful Living Matters Now

SPEAKER_00 1:18

Okay. So um I really want to talk about like the why behind the show. Like, why are you starting the show right now? Like whether there's a moment or something that happened, or just like a desire for you to make an impact. I'm just curious. Like when you when you think about the why behind purposeful living, um, and maybe even just start there with that word purposeful living, right? I'm curious what comes up for you.

SPEAKER_02 1:38

My why has always been to help people. It's part of my identity. The why, helping people, making an impact, showing them that they're right where they're supposed to be, and that we have choices. We all have choices. Sometimes they're a little bit more difficult than others, but we have choices. We can make a difference, we can impact, we can empower. That's all about what I do. You know, my why? Because I want to help people. You know, you don't have to stay stuck. You have a choice to do something different, to get something different, to live in your fullest. And that's all about purposeful living is living the way you want to, that makes you happy, that makes you want to get out of bed every day. That's why now is my now. It is the right time. There is no right time, right? We all know that, oh, well, maybe not now. Maybe later. I'm not ready yet. No, I made a choice that now is the right time for me. Whether I was ready or not, let's go. Let's go.

SPEAKER_00 3:01

So, so let me ask you that. Um, you you talked about now is the right time. I'm curious if there's like there is something that happened maybe in your personal journey in your life that kind of like got you to kind of like process or work through this process yourself of being able to live this purposeful life. Is there something that um that you experience yourself that you walk through this that now makes you so like passionate about helping other people through it?

The Personal Story Behind The Work

SPEAKER_02 3:29

Well, Mark, there was actually a couple things. Um the first thing is I was letting the outside circumstances and people around me control me. So I couldn't get out and spread my wings. Right? The second one is um my husband was diagnosed with two forms of B cell lymphoma, and it was a journey. It was a journey. I was taking care of him. But the thing I forgot is I need to take care of me. Because I'm the most important part of the equation, right? And then once I actually made that choice, it changed everything. I was able to help him at a higher level, I was able to take care of me and feel good about it. And then I lost him, and that was a whole nother process. But if I didn't have that first choice that I am going to take care of me and I'm going to do something different to get something different, that that would have never happened. And I would still be suffering, right? As we see, you know, all around us. Um so those were the two big things that um I said, I'm done. I'm done. I I can't live like this anymore. I'm not happy. And that's when I found you. And my life changed. And now I want to help and change the lives of everyone I can, if they so choose. Because it is it is their choice. It is your choice at the end of the day.

Why Comes Before Tactics

SPEAKER_00 5:28

So I have a question about that because a lot of times when people are faced with that, they go right into the actions of like what I need to do, right? They're um, they start like, you know, listening to podcasts and reading books and like, what do I need to do to become somebody different? Right. Um and I know you talk a lot about like self-leadership in that process as well. I'm curious, what comes up for you when you have people who are always looking for the tactics of what do I do to get through like this change or or to change my situation? What comes up for you?

SPEAKER_02 6:01

The first thing is um we need to figure out why. My podcasts are all gonna be about the why and then the tactics, right? Because if you don't have the why and the foundation, the tactics aren't gonna matter. Right? I could tell somebody, I could tell you, Mark, hey, listen to this podcast. But if you don't have your why and you don't feel it, are we really gonna follow through with that? Is the big question, right? I mean, we have a lot of diversified people. Some people that may work for, and that's awesome. But then you have the other, the other half of the people that unless they have a why and the purpose, they're not driven, not motivated to take the next step. So you you see where I'm coming from? It's like here's the thing if you're not motivated, you're not gonna take action. So what motivates you? Is it family? Is it um just wanting to be a better person, to be the best version of yourself? Why? I am all about the why. You know, as well as a lot of other people, that it's why. We have to know our why. We have to know why we're doing something so that we are motivated and energized to reach that true potential, to take those actions for the ending result, which I call transformation.

SPEAKER_00 7:42

So thinking about that through the lens of what people are going to get from listening to this podcast, right? I'm sure they can already feel your passion, your purpose, um, and really thinking about the not only the mindset of things, but also the tactics related to things, which most I find a lot of coaches don't lean into. Um I'm curious, like, what do you think somebody who's listening, what would they get from being a part of this, listening to your podcast on a frequent basis?

SPEAKER_02 8:07

I think number one is going to be awareness. There's gonna be hope and inspiration that yes, yes, I am that person. Yes, I was meant to do this. Um, and then it's going to be the empowerment, the empowerment to, yes, I'm going to do this because I want to do this. It's my choice. I'm going to do this. Um, so it's awareness, hope, and inspiration, and empowerment.

Awareness Stops Small Living

SPEAKER_00 8:40

I want you to go into the awareness piece a lot because um some people who are maybe not in our our coaching world maybe aren't too too familiar about like how powerful awareness is and what it actually looks like. So can so can you explain to us a little bit about what you mean by awareness?

SPEAKER_02 8:56

Awareness. Um, whether it be reflection, okay, so we walk ourselves through a process where we become aware of how we're showing up, how is this impacting our life? And do we want to continue down that path? Or do we want to choose something different to get that something different? But if we're not aware, then we just keep living the same. I call it small living. We're living small because we're not aware. We're denying, we're avoiding, we're doing other things. But once we're aware, that's when you start to take that power back. Hope that made sense.

SPEAKER_00 9:51

It does. It does, it

Ownership And Letting Go

SPEAKER_00 9:53

does. And and um a lot of this I know has to do with um something we talk a lot about, like taking ownership, like owning the things that you have control, right, over um versus trying to take ownership of things you don't have control, right? So I'm curious, can you can you kind of describe that? Because I know that um people come to podcasts and stuff like this and they kind of feel out of control. Like the world is just happening to them. There's just not enough time in the day. They just don't have enough energy. And um, all of these different things um that we call in the coaching terms perspective, right? But I just want you to talk a little bit about like the ownership piece, um, why that's so important, and um, how is listening to this podcast going to help people with controlling the things they can control?

SPEAKER_02 10:38

Well, ownership, right? Everybody can lead, right? Taking ownership is you grabbing it by the reins and focusing on the things you can control. Okay. We can't control the outside circumstances, right? What people say, the way people act, the way they think, we can't control that. But what we can control is how we show up, how we think, how we act, and how we speak. Those are things we can control. That's taking ownership. I am going to do something different because I'm thinking something different. Therefore, I'm gonna take the actions and speak differently. That's taking ownership, following through to get the ending result. It's sort of like practice what you preach, right? Being that role model, that's ownership. And then blessing and releasing the stuff we can't control. Because at the end of the day, Mark, it weighs us down, it consumes us. And when we're in that place of darkness, we can't see the light. That's what I'm here to do. Show people that there is a light at the end of that tunnel. You just have to choose to grab a hold of it.

SPEAKER_00 12:13

I love that. I also love that um, you know, talking about the whole self-leadership and you leading from the front, that is something that I've seen from you time and time again, not just like when you have learned it, but while you're learning the process yourself, willing to model the behavior you're asking of others. So thank you for that, friend. Um couple more questions here.

Who The Podcast Is For

SPEAKER_00 12:33

I I know that um you're gonna have a couple other podcasts for people to really dive into, like right now, right? But I'm curious, like when you think about the person who you believe this podcast is really for, who comes up for you? Like, what comes up for you in terms of who this podcast really is um specifically designed for?

SPEAKER_02 12:53

Women leaders. Women, like I said, everybody can lead. And there's a lot of stuff happening in the world today. There's a lot of things happening in our home, things that we can't control that we're trying to get through every day. Um but women leaders and women are powerful. Women are powerful, and to just touch one just one, one woman, you are worth it. You have so much potential, and I'm not going to sit back here because I can't, it's part of my identity. I'm not gonna sit back here and allow you to go down that path when the good path is right here in front of you. And that's that's what I'm all about.

SPEAKER_01 13:58

Indeed, indeed.

SPEAKER_00 13:59

So, friend, um, to finish this out, like what if there's somebody who's listening to this right now, what do you want them to know?

It Starts With You

SPEAKER_02 14:07

It starts with you. And there was a time when I didn't think that was so. And I might get a little emotional, but that's just part of who I am. Um it starts with you. And when we finally choose to like lean into that and truly believe it, and I'll get into this in the other podcast, but there's a way that and a process that I've gone through to where I truly believe it now. And if I can do it, anyone can. Because I've been through some nasty stuff in my life, and that's why I'm able to do this podcast and be able to talk to people and meet them where they're at. Because in my life I've been at so many different levels, so many different experiences that have made me who I am. And I want to share and want to help as many people as I possibly can. Um it means it means a lot to me just to see, you know, somebody who had a bad day, right? And I'm able to speak with them. And there's a smile. It's just I have to, I have to, I have to do this. I just have to.

SPEAKER_00 15:46

Well, thank you for leaning in, friend. I am excited to listen to all these episodes. Um, I know that um uh when it comes to the energy that it puts or it takes to put this together, I know on top of the other presentations and the coaching experiences that you're part of, the one-on-one clients, all that kind of stuff. But when you think about the impact that you're making with this podcast, I just want to say thank you for doing it. Thank you for that energy. Um, and I can't wait to listen to them.

Next Episodes And Reviews

SPEAKER_00 16:13

Um, everybody, thank you very much for uh being being uh a part of this introduction episode. There's two other podcasts for you to dive into, and I would highly encourage you to listen to them today and uh pop into uh Apple and leave some rating and reviews for Cynthia. I'm sure she would thank you so much for that. It helps a lot to push the show out there. Um, but like Cynthia was saying, like uh a really powerful quote is we are most equipped to help the person that we used to be. And I cannot wait for you to experience what that's gonna look like. So, friend, thank you for letting me be a part of this on the on your first show. And of course, if you ever need me back, I'll be here with bells on.

SPEAKER_02 16:53

Thank you, Mark. I appreciate you so much, my friend.

SPEAKER_00 16:55

All right, friend. I'll see you soon.

SPEAKER_02 16:58

All right, bye.