Lorissa: Was so much fun. And ladies, we are here exactly one year ago today, we were launching our very first podcast episode. So on this episode today, we are celebrating so many extraordinary things and really we are celebrating a year of us stepping out of our comfort zone and stepping into the greatness that God is calling us to and bringing forth this, this podcast, bringing forth our Master’s like coaching program for Catholic moms and so much goodness, we’re going to be talking all about everything that God has been doing in, and through this work that this, our company that we’ve started and kind of just sharing so many kind of milestone moments and some testimonials. So let’s get into this Sterling. It is always so much fun to be on an episode with you. He believe it one year

Sterling: And I was just reflecting on, you know, you and I got together and we just started talking about the business and planning. And I, it just was the time of year that we had these ideas and it worked out that we were like, let’s launch it the day after Thanksgiving. And I just love that that will forever now be our anniversary. Cause this week, this Thanksgiving week, my heart is just so full of thankfulness and gratitude for my whole life. And I kind of love that this will be our Anniversary celebration that we’ll do every year, the week of Thanksgiving, where we look back and kind of reflect on our company. And so it just makes me think God is so good. And even the rhythms of when women start businesses are up to him and his timing and he knows better than we do.

Lorissa: Yeah. So, I mean, just listening to you talk about this it’s right. Like this was the week Thanksgiving week was when we launched. And it’s powerful to hear you say that, that this will always be the week that we celebrate and how powerful that is. So, yeah,

Sterling:  That’s true. And I love it. And so, like Lorissa said, we’re just going to be sharing some testimonials from our program and just talking about some of our milestones. So the first one I want to share comes from Monica and we, and we messaged everyone. We said, listen, our anniversary’s coming up, you know, share with us how the, this work has touched your life. And so these are a little bit longer, but we really wanted to share them both to honor the women who have been in our program, but also to celebrate ourselves in this work that we’ve done, because we had a dream of changing the lives of Catholic moms and bringing them closer to the Lord using life coaching tools. And we didn’t know what was going to happen. We didn’t know, but we had a dream that it was going to impact them in the way that these tools had impacted us.

And I think the stories that we’re gonna share today really highlight that it has been a dream come true for us, that we created a company that created these transformations. And so Monica shares. I joined a few weeks after having my third baby, six months later, I’ve lost 15 pounds while breastfeeding hearing God’s voice more clearly than ever. I’ve dropped so many stories that have led me to keeping my talents buried in the ground for years. And I’m in the process of starting a business, bringing mindset, coaching to Catholic women in Australia, it has unlocked so many things that I’ve read in the Saints writings and things that sound great, but how do I actually do that? My number one goal for this year was to let the gardener of my heart dig deep into the fabric of my soul and transform it. My expectations of how that goal would play out have been well-served past. Thanks to Masters. Thank you. So, so much Sterling and Lorissa and I just, yeah, what are you gonna say?

Lorissa: No, I was going to say, I mean, just, just reading that, hearing that, first of all, thank you, Monica. She, this girl should write. I mean, she, her words are so beautiful. Like I just want to let the garner of my heart dig deep into the fabric of my soul and transform it. I mean, like that is so beautiful, but just to know that this program has helped her in this journey is incredible.

Sterling: You know, there’s so many self development books and programs out there and life coaches, but we wanted to create something that wasn’t about us. It was something where we were just kind of glass and they could see through our work and encounter the holy spirit, right? Like that was our goal is that we would help women hear God’s voice more clearly by just removing the lies in their mind. And I just love that that’s what’s happening. That’s what, that’s what we’re hearing women say is, and it’s funny because a lot of them do come to lose weight, right? Women were like, we just want to lose 20 pounds, but what happens is they discover that they were believing a lot of things that weren’t true. And they weren’t hearing God very clearly. And they use the tools to just drop those stories and then they dropped the weight too, but they get something that I think a lot of them weren’t even coming for and are so grateful for way more than losing their weight.

Lorissa: Yes. And I think, you know, just, just how you and I, I mean, how we on our own had experienced transformation through these tools, and then we were so compelled to want to share these tools with other women. It’s cool to hear her talk about, I mean, even in us, like here she is and that she now, because her life has been so impacted, she wants to take this mindset work and help impact other Catholic women where she lives. And it’s just that ripple effect, like we’ve been impacted and then we started this and she’s been impacted and she’s going to carry it forth. And like, how cool is that? And

Sterling: Absolutely. And so we went, we just wanted to share some statistics with you guys about our company. And so the first one is that we have had almost 400 women come through our masters life coaching membership program, which has just blown us away. I mean, I think when we started, we were like maybe 50 people will and we were really to know. And and we also had this, this dream that even if we could just touch someone’s life for one month, like even if they could only be with us for one month, if we could teach them these tools and they could take them away and use them to manage their thinking for the whole rest of their life, that was a really big dream for us. And so to know that we have had that impact on almost 400 women that are now out in the world, managing their minds more clearly and hearing God more clearly is just so powerful.

Lorissa: Yes, I, I agree. And it’s, it is amazing. And I think within that, what’s so cool too. Even with this, with however many women have joined over the course of this year, what’s been powerful is to see the community of women that we’ve brought together. Some of the connections we made women meeting each other from different parts of the country, different parts of the world. And what it has shown is that there are a lot of Catholic moms who really do want to do this work. They want to dive into their personal and spiritual development, and they want to learn these tools, how to manage their mind better because we all want to be saints. And we know that these tools can help us. If we can figure out kind of some of the brain science and figure out how we can utilize our brains to work to our behalf.

It helps us so much. And so it’s really cool bringing women together and women that are inspiring other women. I mean, I just, I was coaching a woman on one of our group coaching calls just the other day. She’s writing her third novel and I’m just blown away by the extraordinary caliber of women that we have in our program that are moms and they have dreams and they’re doing things and living their lives and striving for holiness and doing so in this community is so inspiring that we get to watch and witness other women growing.

Sterling: Yeah, absolutely. And so the other service that we offer it Made for Greatness is we offer one-on-one coaching with a life coach. And we work with clients beginning for 12 weeks and we really help them shift their whatever goal they bring. And like I said, a lot of times we bring a goal, but then we end up discovering all of these lies or stories that we’re believing that are kind of just keeping us from achieving that goal. So you may come, you know, for time management and wanting to homeschool your kids better, but realizing, wow, I’ve got some self-confidence stuff and I don’t really love myself that much. And then as we dive into that and unpack it, it makes your homeschooling run so much more smoothly, even though he didn’t know why that was, that was so challenging. And still we’ve had dozens of who have just chosen to do that. They’ve invested in themselves both the time and the money and the vulnerability. I mean, I just want to share it. It takes a certain amount of vulnerability to bring yourself to a coach and really dig deep into what’s going on and to share your real self. But man, when you do that and a coach is just standing with you and loving you through that and showing you who you could be, it’s just incredibly powerful.

Lorissa: Yes, absolutely. Transformational both you and I certainly like we’ve had coaches that we’ve worked with ourselves, we’ve experienced it on that end and then to be able to experience coaching other Catholic women and journeying with them through transformation and growth and self discovery is so incredible. I think it’s such an honor to be able to journey with women in that way to hold space for them to be able to ask questions, to get them to think maybe in a different way to, to recognize the story that they’re telling and to determine if they want to create a new story and what that new story might look like. I dunno, I always, I always, whenever I’m doing one-on-one coaching, I just feel so honored and so blessed to be able to, like you said, it takes vulnerability. So to be able to be brought into someone’s life in this way and to journey with them and to do it completely from a place of having Christ at the very center of it is so powerful.

Sterling:  Absolutely. And you know, it’s not, I know that sometimes people think that when a company works with Catholic moms, that it’s just young Catholic moms, but I would say half of my clients are in their fifties and sixties and they’re trying to figure themselves out who am I in this phase of life with teenagers or adult children or caring for my own parents. And so we kind of see the gamut of all the things in all the different stages of life. And a coach can just help ease those transitions because they are uncomfortable discovering ourselves in every decade of our life or in different transitions as our children grow. They all feel new, no matter how old you are, right. Every transition feels new. And just having someone to kind of your heart through that is so powerful. And that’s what we do with our one-on-one clients. And we just had so many people sign up for that this year and trust us in that way. And I just, I it’s true. I want to honor all of you for making that choice and walking with us so closely because it was, it’s a special relationship and a privilege for us as well.

Lorissa:  Yes. All right. Let’s talk about this podcast. 56 episodes. I remember I remember the very first few episodes and I mean, I remember w I mean, we kicked it off. We did that. We did it together with Kara and then you know, you and I each did our first episode and I remember being so nervous. I recorded mine two or three. Like we recorded it, had technical issues trying to figure out all the stuff. And I remember just thinking, oh, I can’t wait to get to, you know, to do this for a year and how far it will come. And, and when I look back at the last 56 episodes, literally, I mean, how many hours of content that we’ve put out and hopefully have blessed, you know, many, many of our listeners. And we’re so thankful truly for all of our Podcast listeners, if you’re listening right now, thank you for listening and supporting and sharing the podcast and telling other people about it. And all of the amazing reviews that you guys have left for us, we are so grateful.

Sterling: Absolutely. And I’m kind of, I’m a Facebook group, lurker, you guys, I’m in a lot of Facebook groups, but I don’t really talk a lot in them. Like I think I’m in one called Catholic crunchy moms. And and sometimes people will say, what are your favorite podcasts? And every time someone posts SARS, and it’s just so amazing to see it out in the wild like that, like someone just saying, I really love this podcast. It’s so powerful. And it’s, been such a gift. And, you know, I love doing it with Lorissa. For those of you that listened to coffee and pearls, you might remember that there were times that I was very consistent in podcasting. And then times when I would just disappear for a little while, maybe with a pregnancy or something like that, but I’m also especially proud that we put this out every week on Wednesday and we don’t miss it. And I’m just, I’m really proud of that consistency in that work that we do. And that we show up for ourselves. And for you with this podcast, it’s just been such a gift.

Lorissa: And I want to, I have a couple reviews that I want to share from, from some of our listeners. This first one, this podcast is worth your time. I love listening to it. I’ve learned so much from Sterling and Lorissa and have seen huge changes in my own life from him implementing the things they share, seriously, my new favorite podcast. And then this one we’re going to do one more real quick, regardless of your stage of motherhood, the insights and encouragement, certainly in Lorissa share are spot on every single week. This Podcast is an answered prayer and one, I make sure to never miss anyways, thank you to to all of our listeners. And we hope and pray that I just want to say this. I know certainly you and I, we spent a lot of time pouring into this podcast. It’s amazing how much time it takes and how much it’s not just sitting down and recording it.

It’s thinking about the content and praying about the content and praying like, okay, God, what is on our hearts? Or what do you want us to share and what is going to be life-giving or beneficial to our listeners, all of those things. And then, I mean, Sterling has been doing this a whole lot longer than I have, but for me it takes me like I work on it and I’ll mess things up and have to go back. And so it really is a labor of love, but I hope it has been something that has been a gift and a blessing. And it’s, I know it’s been an opportunity for me personally, to grow. This is one of, one of those I keep talking about stepping out of our comfort zone. This podcast has forced me to step out of my comfort zone. A number of times, sharing deeply personal and vulnerable things and putting it out into the world and just hoping and praying that somebody’s life might be blessed because of it.

Sterling:  Absolutely. And I think that’s one of the things that maybe we don’t share often enough, but it made for greatness. We really want the holy spirit to drive our company. So we pray in our meetings. We pray with our clients. We pray ourselves before we do the podcast and Lorissa’s is so right. Sometimes I have a plan and God’s like, no, that’s not what you’re going to talk about. And he just bugs me about something and I’m like, oh, okay. And I ended up saying something totally different that he’s put on my heart. And then always, we get messages from you guys saying that’s just exactly what I needed to hear. And I’m just so in awe of God and his timing and how perfect he is and how he knows what we need and what all of you need. And he kind of orchestrates it all together. And that’s, what’s so special about being part of a really Catholic, holy spirit driven company.

Lorissa:  Yes. And I just want to say Sterling on a personal note, I just, I love every single one of your episodes.

Sterling:  It is true. It, isn’t funny. We both get to say that we get to say that about each other. And I, you know, and I love that. I love sending yours. Other people I’m like, I love this and I can say that cause it’s not mine. Right. So that, that has been a fun part about doing it with a partner is that we can really it’s like every other week, I get to be surprised too.

Yes. I mean, there’s been times I’ve just like sat in my car, listening to your episodes, laughing, crying. I mean, just, you know, even just recently the resistance and acceptance episode you did was like blowing my mind. The one you just did last week. I mean so much good stuff. And so I definitely, you know, like, I’ll see, you know, do my episode. I don’t go back and listen to it, but I love listening to yours. And it’s, it’s awesome. So thank you to

Sterling:  That’s super fun, it’s super fun. Cause we hear them the day they come out too for our, for each other. So it’s like the day they come out, I’m like, oh, I get to hear it. Right. That’s how it works for us. So it’s really fun. So a couple more things that we’ve done with the company we’ve done five free workshops. We did stop yelling at your kids a few times and a marriage one and a holiday one and a business one. And so I, if you guys are not on our email list, get on our email list because we do these free workshops and we give you so much information and we give you life coaching tools. And we wanted as a company to make sure that there was always enough stuff out there that was free, that you could really sink your teeth into it and get your own transformation.

So between, you know, our Podcast and our free workshops, we really do give you a lot. And so if you’re not on our email list, make sure you get on and then you’ll find out when we’re doing it, because we don’t talk about the workshops that often on the podcast. But we do send out emails saying when they come up and of course, cause you guys are moms, you don’t have to catch it live. You always get the replay because we know that a lot of you need that. So you don’t have to feel pressured about, you know, making it at the day and the time, but we just try to make it really helpful and really accessible for you.

Lorissa:  Yes. Yes. And it’s so funny. I mean, it was just, I was just reading through a testimonial, not too long ago about a woman that wrote in talking about how powerful some of those workshops, you know, that you’ve done Sterling and how even before she joined Masters she had, she was already like so far ahead and she had already started working on some of these concepts because of that free workshop, like she was already so far along. So those workshops are really, really amazing. And we look forward to bringing more in the new year and continuing to just put this work out there. Yeah. I, we have another testimonial that I was gonna read from one of our members, Sarah Wallace. She says this, I joined Masters in January at the time I just gave birth to our second son. And it was in a downward spiral of resisting my vocation and everything that goes with it.

I think we’ve all been there before we bought in they’re drowning in self-pity. I began therapy, which helped a little. And then I began this work and no longer needed therapy. I am a night and day example. I love and own my vocation as a rock star, wife and mother. And I genuinely enjoy it. I’m getting chills, just reading this. Okay. I have lost a ton of weight from two pregnancies. I can manage my mind around food and uncomfortable situations. I am truly living the life of sanctity of sanctity that God has for me and doing so with crazy boldness and competence that comes only from the Lord. I know and hear the Lord’s voice so much clearer than I ever have. I was so transformed by this, that I, myself became a certified coach and we’ll be setting women free from the lies of the enemy. Thank you, Lorissa and Sterling for saying yes to be getting this awesome work. Thank you, Sarah. I love it. I love this. Like she’s like, I’m a rock star, mom. I’m doing this work with crazy boldness. I’m going all in on myself. I mean, Sarah is one of those, one of our members who has gone all in and and has experienced transformation in her marriage and her motherhood. And again, she’s another one that’s like, now I want to like help others do this as well. So super awesome. Thank you, Sarah.

Sterling: Yeah, I love that. And you know, the two things she said were really two things that I experienced when I learned these tools, which was, I instantly started hearing God’s voice so much more clearly. And it’s like, when you begin to listen to your thoughts and you can sort them out for the ones that are not really helpful and not coming from the Lord, we teach them how to tell the difference. And then you drop all of these lies that you’ve been believing. It’s like, God’s been there talking to you the whole time, but if you have a shield up of lies his voice, it doesn’t get through as easily. And so when we drop that shield, we begin hearing him and he guides us. So that it’s just something that was so powerful for me. And the other thing is I just love being a mom so much more and I’ve been so transparent about that.

Probably more of my other podcasts, but about just struggling with not really loving little kids and little kid life. And I just have learned to love it so much more. And it doesn’t mean that they don’t bug me sometimes, but I just think I’m an amazing mom and I have amazing kids and I know how to enjoy them because the feeling of enjoyment comes from my thoughts. And so if I want to enjoy them, instead of being annoyed by them, I know that I can just change my thinking. And I just love hearing someone else say that because that’s just, to me, it has been one of the biggest gifts that this work did for my own life.

Lorissa:  Yes. I completely agree me too. It’s transformed my motherhood and you know, I think that’s why you and I, when we got together, initially we prayed really hard. We were like, we really want to create this ministry for Catholic moms because we know the challenges of living this vocation and how hard it can fill and how sometimes I explain it can fill. And you feel like you’re, I mean, I think Sarah said it perfectly like you’re in a, down the road downward spiral, like drought drowning and and yet there’s hope. And for you and I Sterling, like we found hope when we learn these tools of being able to manage our minds better and really recognizing the thoughts that were serving us, the ones that weren’t and moving forward with the ones that, that were and helping us to be the mothers that we want to be. So,

Sterling:  Yep. And we knew that we learned that with no Jesus, right. We learned it in a secular way in a secular program. And so we were like, oh my goodness. If we just bring God into this as the creator of mothers, like how much more will that completely transform people’s lives.

Lorissa:  Yes. count down. Yeah. All right. So something else that we do in our, in our master’s program is so we have, we are up to now four hours of group coaching every single week. So that means we have different times where women can jump on and be coached in a live group, second group coaching session. Which means that over the course of this last year, we have had over 180 hours of group coaching, which is incredible on each of those hours. We usually have anywhere between two to three women that come on and get coached alive. So literally hundreds of our members have experienced the blessing of being able to, to be coached through a struggle or a problem or a question that they might have. And other women in our group are able to, to watch and experience that. So often this has been one of those transformational things for both Sterling and I, because when we first learned about life coaching and, and witnessed coaching live it was so transformational for us. And so for us to now be able to offer this within the master’s program, I think is huge.

Sterling:  Yeah, it’s huge. And I just want to honor everyone. Who’s raised their hand and asked for coaching and been vulnerable enough to share their story because it’s a lot, it’s a lot to say, I’m really struggling with my intimate life or I can’t stand my mother-in-law or, you know, my husband is driving me bananas, you know, and what I love is that we’ve created this space where you can share that stuff. And we all know that those are just thoughts. So when you see a woman sharing these things, we all know that she’s going to learn how to shift her thinking because she loves her husband. She loves her mother-in-law she is not a bad person, right. She’s just thinking some things that aren’t serving her and we’ve created a space. I think that just feels so lovely and warm that so many women are willing to share this.

Sterling:  And then for every person that we coach live, we know that there are 50 other women watching that have a similar problem. And so even if you know that you are introverted or shy or private, and you never raise your hand, getting to watch someone be coached on a similar issue is giving you coaching. And so, you know, it’s, we’re not running through 10 people in that hour, but everyone gets to watch and everyone’s getting coached as they watch that person be coached. So that’s really just the great power of group coaching in our program.

Lorissa: Yes. Yes. And that’s, I think that’s one of the things that I love so much. I always love interacting with our members kind of hearing what’s going on in their lives, but it’s so powerful because a woman will be coached. And then after we kind of get done with that, there’s, you know, comments in the chat box. That’s like, oh my gosh, that helped me. So, you know, from other members saying, oh my gosh, that helped me so much. I needed to hear that. And that’s going on in my life. Exactly. Or I felt like I was being coached in this moment. So you know, what a powerful gift. And I think the other cool thing that, I mean, obviously all of our members know this, but if you’re not a member and maybe you’re thinking about joining and you might be thinking, gosh, do I, will, I have time to dive into all of this?

You know, what does this entail? All of this, you know, all of the coaching is optional, but within the program, we, you can go back and you can watch live coaching calls. You know, you can watch the videos, but also all of the videos and all of our coaching courses are all up on a private podcast. So you could be driving, you could be going for a walk and you could be listening to one of the group coaching sessions while you’re out at the playground with the kids, things like that. So it really allows our mothers, you know, the chance to do it on their own time when it’s easy and convenient for them. Yeah.

Sterling: And that’s my favorite feature by the way about our program, because I’ve paid for memberships where you have to try to log in on your phone with your username and your password, and you’re like scrolling through to find the videos and then you press play. But then if someone calls you, it goes away and you have to find it again. And it’s just hard. And it’s overcome able ladies we’re problem solvers, but we have put all of our content, literally in whatever podcast app you listened to. So you load it up just like a podcast. It plays in the background. It remembers where you are. You can listen to it at 1.5 speed, and you can just enjoy it while you’re driving or folding laundry or any of that. And it’s just such an easy way to consume our content without it feeling overwhelming, or that you have to be at your computer to do it. So I just really love that.

Lorissa:  Yes, I think that’s awesome. All right. So those, that’s kind of some of our, all of our contents, well, not even all of our content, we will, we’ll keep talking about that, but we want to highlight our team because it’s not just Sterling. And I, we have a beautiful small team of that make masters and made for greatness, what it is. And I want to, we just want to start by highlighting Kara Johnson. Kara has been with us since the very beginning. She is our extraordinary spiritual director behind the scenes and in front of the scenes, she is in our Facebook groups, leading prayer, taking prayer requests, reaching out to our members, praying for them and leading others, inviting others to pray. And she has also written a Bible study on her Bible study on, on David. And she’s done a St. Joseph consecration and she leads, you know, books, studies, all of that. What else do you want to say Sterling? I know that there’s so

Sterling:  One of the things, and again, we want it to be a Catholic company. We wanted to be a prayerful company and Kara like myself as a Protestant convert. So we love to pray out loud, everyone. Okay. Karen, I love a good out loud prayer. And and I knew that she would bring that special gift that she has to our members. And so a couple of ways that she does that there is a place on our website where people can email her a prayer request. And she, so faithfully collects those and prays over them. She is such a deep prayer warrior. And so she holds all of those prayers in her heart. And I know that that is so powerful and that our members receive so much grace because of that. And then she also posts in our two social networks. We have a Facebook group and a mighty network group for the women who are on Facebook, and we have a prayer post there, and she will just gather those prayers and pray for people.

She checks in with people when she knows that someone’s husband is in the hospital, or someone is having a baby, she just keeps track of so many people. I’m so impressed with how she does that. And and she’s just formed these special relationships with people. And so not only can you come and learn how to manage your mind, and we do so much brain science stuff, but we also just hold your soul. You know, we just pray for your soul. Let me see the soul in you. And that is just a gift that prayer, that Kara brings to our team. And it’s just so beautiful and just such an asset to our whole program, because we are spiritual beings. We are not just, you know, physical beings and she really rounds that out in our program.

Lorissa:  Yes. I mean, both United had the honor of being prayed over by Kara. I mean, she is such a gift for prayer. It’s one of her charisms for sure. And it’s been really powerful to witness her walking through with, with, with quite a few of our members going through really difficult times. And she’s been there checking in with them, praying over them, praying with them and inviting others to pray. And she’s like, kept that consistency. And then weeks later months later checking back in with them, how are you doing? I’m still praying for you. All of that. It’s been so beautiful. So Kara, we love you so very much, if you are listening to this and we’re so thankful for the many gifts you bring to may for greatness.

Sterling:  Yes. So much. And then the next part of our team that we want to think is Apple Grace. That is her name. I love her name so much. You guys, her name is Apple Grace. And and she is a Catholic mom. She has a nine-year-old and then an almost one-year-old baby. And she works full time for us. We call her our Greatness Coordinator. And so she is the one that is behind the scenes, answering emails, making sure everyone has what they need. She produces our Podcasts. Like we send her the audio file and she does all the magical things that puts it out so that you can experience it. She updates our website. She does so much for us. And she’s just a joy. She’s just a very joyful woman. And she has such a heart for our work. And she always tells me, she always says, I’m so grateful that I worked for you guys because your tools have changed my life. Right. I think she, she knew she was going to come and answer emails, but I think she didn’t anticipate how much life coaching was going to change her as a wife and as a mom. And so we are just so grateful for you, Apple, that you have such a joyful spirit and that you take care of all of our members and making sure that they have what they need. Thank you so much.

Lorissa:  Yes. Yes. Apple is so accommodating, so gentle, so humble. And we are so thankful for you Apple and all of the contributions you’ve made she making this year possible. Thank you.

Sterling:  Yes, absolutely.

Lorissa:  And then finally, I mean, certainly this is a, this is a huge dream of ours, right? Because when we started this company, we had no idea how it’s going to unfold. But even from the very beginning, we had a dream that, that we would grow. And as we grew that we would need to bring on additional coaches. I mean, that was a huge dream of ours. And to be honest with you, I was like, I don’t know if this is even going to happen in the first year. Right. And yet we’ve been so blessed and excited to bring on our Emily Brown as one as our first coach that we’d added. And so Emily, I mean, both Sterling and I have known him. I’ve known Emily for many, many years and have her and I, our stories are like, our journey has been very similar. We have seven kids, five boys, two girls. I mean, it’s just so funny how, how similar and yet you know, to see her grow as a wife and a mother, and then to step into, you know, getting certified as a life coach and then joining us in Masters has been so exciting. Yeah,

Sterling:  Absolutely. And really, you know, Emily does one of our group coaching calls every week. But she’s also a one-on-one coach because we just needed help with all of the women who wanted coaching. And I just knew that Emily was going to take such good care of people. She has such a beautiful heart for the Lord and has, has been through so much transformation herself, you know, grieving her young husband who passed away. She’s also had a tremendous weight loss journey as well. She homeschools her kids. And she’s actually does a lot of time management coaching for us. And so she teaches people how to kind of do all the things because that’s what she does. Right. She homeschools her kids and they’re in a lot of activities. Oh, I just went Lorissa. I didn’t tell you this. But I just went to quarter lane to see a Christmas Carol with my kids.

Sterling:  There’s a youth theater and three of her kids were in the play. And I didn’t know that. And I was just like, I just want to say, Emily, how do you do that? How do you be a life coach, homeschool your kids and like drive them to theater practice. And I know that her son’s on the swim team. Right. But she does it with these tools. She does it by managing her mind and managing her schedule. And she brings that wisdom into our program and helps moms do that. So, yeah, it’s just been such a gift to have Emily on the team as well. And just to know that not only are people going to deal with amazingly well-trained coaches, but also women who put the Lord first in their life, right. We are just through and through to our bones, Catholic moms. And that is just so beautiful to me that God has brought such strong Catholic women to our team. It’s just so beautiful.

Lorissa:  Yes. Yeah. I agree. Emily inspires me so much and it’s been so much fun to watch her become a coach and now to have her on our team and everything that she brings to it is so cool. And it really is, you know, for me in my own life is my life for so long was just spiraling out of control with stress and overwhelm. And once you, once you kind of learn how to manage your mind, you learn how to manage your life. There are specific tools in place. Time management is a big part of that. And once you can kind of get a grasp on that, it it’s remarkable what you can get accomplished and how much easier life becomes when you figure that out. So

Sterling:  Yeah, absolutely. All four of us, you know, cause we, we talked together as a team, both professionally and then personally, and all four of us have gone through things this year and said, I don’t know how I could’ve done this before. Like before I would have crumbled under this pressure or this stress or this challenge. And because of these tools, I’m just, I’m making it, I’m making it through and not like, oh, we’re Mary Poppins through the hard things. Right. But we’re managing our minds and we’re dealing with it and we’re walking strongly. And I think that that is the peace that God promises us. It’s not happiness. It’s not cheeriness, but it’s this quiet strength of being able to manage a lot in a storm and just being like, yep, I’m here. What’s the next thing I need to do. And not letting our thoughts create this fear and anxiety, any either, you know, spiral us out of control or paralyze us. You know, we tend to have one of those two reactions and I’ve just heard every single one of us say that this year. And it’s just so neat that, you know, that’s what these tools can give you.

Lorissa:   Yes. Yes. So good.

Sterling:  Do you want to, do you want to read one or two more Podcast reviews?

Lorissa:  Sure. I will read one more. I love listening to this Podcast. It’s changed the way I think about things I’m able to, to let go of things that aren’t important. I have joined the Master’s program and has made such a difference in my life. I can’t wait to start the racing saints program with my kids. So that was Jordan and that was from a couple months ago. And I think that leads us into, you know, the racing saints program Sterling. That was one of the courses within our program that you created. And I know a lot of our members have done that course. So that’s another thing. So when women join masters, not only do they get access to the group coaching and the private Facebook group but they get access to all the courses that we’ve created. And what are some of whatever, what are some of your favorite coat courses that you,

Sterling:  Yeah, I mean, I really love raising saints because I wanted to know how I could take these tools and simplify them for children. And what we did in that program was exactly that. And we give you almost like a script to, to teach these tools to your kids. So you just hold it up and you read it and you just read it to them, but it sounds like games and stories. And then there’s almost this kind of cartoon chart for them to fill out where they can begin to see, oh, what was I feeling? What thought did I have that made me feel that way? And we just really simplify it for kids. And I’m just loved that program. And I use it with my own kids. And it’s just, if man, if we could just take this generation of young people and teach them that their thoughts create their feelings, which drive their actions, which give them their results, right.

You’re always going to hear us say your thoughts, create your results. And if we can just teach them that before they’re 20, they will just have such different lives having more emotional regulation. So I just love that. I just love all our pro can I just say we have the best program that there is, I am part of many life coaching programs. I spend a lot of money on that, which I did before ours, but I also just like to see what people are doing. And ours is just by far the best we have the most content. And it’s just so holy spirit inspired. Like when you go through our content, it’s touched by God and you can just feel it. You can be like, wow, the holy spirit is part of this program. We have one on minimalism. We have an incredible program that Louis and I did together on marriage.

And we just talk about, these are the tools you need to either take your good marriage to that next level of being excellent or to take your really painful marriage and learn how to live it day by day as you repair it slowly, but you can have hope and you can do that. And I just love that. And then really the be married program that we’re doing right now, women have just brought their whole selves to those calls and they have shared all of their fears and worries and annoyances about the holidays. And you can just feel everyone like loving each other through each of those things. And I just know it hasn’t happened yet, but I know that January we’re going to get a ton of emails that said, this is the best holiday I’ve ever had. This was the best Thanksgiving. This was the most peaceful Christmas. I was the most calm. I got to experience my kids the most. We’re going to hear that from people because I’m watching them pick up these tools and plan and really be so intentional about how they’re going to spend their time for the holiday. So I definitely know that that’s coming. All right. What about you? What are your favorites?

Lorissa: No. Well, I also want to say this because one of the, one of the courses you put in there is it is a weight loss course. A lot of our members join for that. And it has been so powerful over the course of this year to hear how many women have taken, you know, so much from that and have lost weight. I mean, story after story, after story. And then here I am right now in the middle of leading a kind of a weight loss group within masters using all of those tools. And we’re working on this together and trying to lose weight, even though the holidays are approaching but managing our minds over it. So, so much goodness. But I just know, I mean, I think in a lot of the emails that we get, it’s women saying, I, I have lost weight because of this.

And I think that’s so exciting for me probably. The, two of the courses that I’ve put in that, that I love so much, obviously are the stress and overwhelm. It’s been such a big part of my life. And so being able to put together a course where to really help women get their stress and overwhelm under control has been a gift like a life giving thing for me and hearing from our members about how, how much it’s helped them and how they’re able to, to deal with stress in a completely different way, how they’re able to manage their minds around it. Because for me, for so many years of my life, I thought stress was out of my control. I felt like it was due to the circumstances in my life that I really couldn’t didn’t have much control of felt like I was running on this hamster wheel that I had no control of.

And then once I understood the power of my thoughts it took on a whole different meaning. So, you know, to be able to share that with women has been awesome. And then also not too long ago, I put together a course on processing pain. And that was one that has also, you know, I’ve been hearing from women that especially, we all go through really difficult times difficult moments where we’re in the midst of deep suffering and we feel so alone. There’s so much, you know, oftentimes fear, great sadness, grief, all of it. And to be able to, to learn how to process those emotions instead of either, instead of suppressing them or trying to numb them or try to run from them, resist them to actually step into them, feel them process through them, grow through them, experience Christ and his love and his mercy in the midst of that suffering and pain. And to be able to come out of it on the other side, a stronger holier, you know, learning much more about yourself and about God, about others, forgiveness, all of that. So that’s been a course that I’ve been really proud of as well. It’s a mini course that’s in there. And hopefully I pray that that’s been like giving to our members as well.

Sterling:  Yeah. I think it’s probably our most popular course. And it’s funny cause I can always tell when people haven’t taken it because you know, when you’re scrolling through the titles, you’re like, Ooh weight-loss or Ooh, minimalism, like there’s these kind of like sparkly looking ones and I’m sure that a lot of people don’t pass over processed thing pain and think that sounds like a great way to spend my Saturday. But I always know once they have, because they tell us, they’re like, oh my goodness, that was so powerful. And they post about it in the Facebook group or they email us because really knowing how to process pain will set you free. If you know how to do that, you will not be scared anymore because you’ll know I can feel the feeling of rejection. I can feel the feeling of being unloved or unwanted.

I can feel disappointment. I can feel like a failure and I know how to do that. And it doesn’t kill me and it lasts for about 90 seconds and then I can move on and it’s like, it just makes you so strong. And again, I think this is the secret to having peace in the storm. I mean, the Bible tells us that. And I remember reading that being like, this is stupid. I don’t even know what that means and God doesn’t teach us how to do that. And being frustrated because, you know, we throw that around a lot. But after learning these tools, I’m like, oh yes, I totally see how that’s possible. And the secret is managing our thinking and knowing how to process pain and really just having such a deep trust in the Lord that whatever he brings us, he will get us through. And I just, you know, I think that’s what the processing pain course teaches people.

Lorissa:  Right. I can look back at my life years ago, going through painful situations or, you know, somebody saying something to me that was very hurtful or doing something and I can see how I would hold onto it for so long and I would ruminate about it and I would agonize over it. And oftentimes for months, or I would sit in the injustice of it and like, how could somebody do this? Or why is this happening or this isn’t fair. And it’s so beautiful now to know how to just process through, to experience it, to process through it and move forward. And I’ve literally had, you know, some very painful situations, even in this last year that I was able to process through past process through and pass through that so fast. And I mean, experience it, offer it up all of those things, but just move, move through it so much quicker where I know that if I didn’t have these tools, I would have sat in it for months and struggled through it.

And that to me, I mean, this is, I mean, I think this is what the sane center stood. They understood that there was going to be pain and suffering in their lives, but they didn’t. They didn’t let it hold them down or hold them back for long periods of time. They knew how to work through it and move forward and continue in their mission that God had sent them. Cause when I look back at my life, I can look and see how there was times that it just stopped me in my mission. It stopped me in my tracks. And yet God was like, come on Lorissa I need you. I need you to get to work. I need you to impact lives. I need you to do these things. And so that’s what I’m excited about. You know, now kind of understanding this a little bit better.

Sterling:  Yeah. And I think for me it kinda, I was just living my life as a victim in so many ways. Like, well, I can’t help it because I have so many kids or my husband or the weather or the city or my house. Right. Like I just acted like I couldn’t overcome these things. And of course I would be upset or of course I would be eating or whatever it was. I was just a victim of all of the things around me. And when you learn this work, it shifts you into feeling so empowered. And I know that’s a buzzword, but that’s how I feel. I feel power inside of me and listen, you guys, sometimes my empowered choice is still to stay in my jammies and like sit in bed and not crush the day. But I know now that I can choose that from an empowered place where I’m like, I choose to do this, no, one’s making me, I’m not a victim of anything.

I’m going to have a slow day or I’m going to indulge myself or I’m going to give myself this gift of doing whatever I’m doing. I don’t feel like anyone makes me do anything anymore. And so like, that’s how I would sum up what we give women. We just give them this gift of dropping the victim story and feeling so much power and power doesn’t mean we all have to go out and run marathons and do crazy things. Sometimes it just means living a quiet, simple life and giving yourself permission to do that. And I just think that’s so what’s so cool about what we do so good. So awesome. Okay. We want to wrap up sharing this last testimonial from Ms. Katie and Ms. Katie. As long as I live, I will never forget your name because you were the very first person who signed up for Masters.

And I remember seeing your name and I remember thinking, oh my goodness, Lord, this is the beginning. One person wants to do what we said wants to go on this journey with us. And you were just the first, you were just the first to walk and lead this line of women who want to grow closer to the Lord and to improve themselves and to find more peace. So when you gave us this testimonial, it just felt so perfect that you gave this to us. And then we got to share it in our one-year anniversary because you were really the beginning. And so Katie shares, I am proud to say it’s been a full year of mindset work for me with the weight loss challenge that kicked off last year, a 25 pound weight loss mindset. Coaching from Sterling in the Lorissa helped me get through an early miscarriage, subsequent pregnancy, birth, postpartum with so much more peace.

The story I mostly want to share about is the recent postpartum experience. My baby is a month old and it helps that I’m more experienced as a mom and that we didn’t have to do time in the NICU this time. However, I feel like a different person than I did postpartum with my second. I remember being so frazzled and snapping at my husband and believing all the lies that were popping into my head while feeding her in the dark exhausted thinking, it’s always going to be like this. This is terrible. You’re alone. And there’s no one to help you. I love the image that Sterling uses that the devil proposes lies to us that grow like weeds. And we can either pull them up or we can water them. Mindset Coaching has helped me learn to recognize them, hold them up and recognize that I am Made for Greatness instead.

When I have a hard day, I acknowledge it. I give myself some compassion and I remember that I am an amazing mom and asked myself what God wants me to learn from this experience. It sounds too simple to create any real change. And I haven’t always been able to see the changes occurring in myself until recently, but being able to compare this postpartum with the last time has given me perspective to see how much I have grown this year, largely due to masters. Thank you, Katie. I just, that is just so amazing. And it is so neat to see such a tangible example of a before and an after, right? I mean, I think how we experienced postpartum before learning how to manage our mind and after is just utterly incredible. And I think previously I would have said like, everyone would be upset.

Everyone would be tired. Everyone would be snappy because I just had a baby and I can’t control this. Right. I would have thought that then I would have thought those things. It’s always going to be like this it’s terrible I’m alone. And just knowing that even with hormones and being exhausted, still being able to use these tools to just calmly step into taking care of a new baby and still being a wife and taking care of the other kids and doing it with such beauty and such grace. I it’s just so amazing to get to see that is what life coaching and the holy spirit has given you.

Lorissa:  Yes, I agree. And the thing, this was so beautiful. It, and it’s, it really is kind of a full circle moment with just reading that testimony from Katie and knowing that she was our first member, but also witnessing her contributions that she’s made to our community, because she has always been one of our members that posts a lot that encourages others, that comments on people’s things and is praying for people. And just, just one of our many outstanding members in our program. And just to see how she’s been touched by this, but then also the way it’s changing her life and the way she’s impacting other people’s lives is so powerful.

Sterling: So I just want to say thank you, Katie, for believing in us, because that is such a gift. And we believe in you and we believe in just this journey of getting to love your life more and more every year, right? That’s what learning how to manage your mind gives you. You just get to enjoy the life that you have more and more deeply every year. And I think Thanksgiving week is such a wonderful time to realize that we prayed for this life. Ladies, you prayed for that husband and you prayed for your family. You prayed for the house that you’re in. You’ve prayed for work for money, for resources, for love, and God has given you all of those things. And all of those things come with challenges. All of those things come with the discomfort of growing, but when you learn how to manage your mind, you step into that discomfort of growth to become who you’re supposed to be. And that is what we teach you to do in Masters.

Lorissa:  Yes. And it’s so crazy. I mean, here we are one year from when we started and yet in cocci we don’t look back very often. We’re always looking forward, right? It’s like, okay, we’re looking ahead now. And so we thank you all for celebrating this, this time with us to celebrate this past year. But now we are looking forward to some extraordinary things coming and it’s so powerful Sterling working with you. And, you know, we have our weekly meetings and we pray for our members and we are praying and always asking the holy spirit to guide us. And what does God want us to do next? And how does he, you know, what, what does this look like? Cause everything like, we have a vision, we have this dream, but all of it has been shaped by God and he continues to, to grow it and it looks differently and it’s oftentimes bigger than what we even initially dreamed of. And so we’ve got some really awesome things coming over the next few months. Yeah.

Sterling:  We’re not going to tell you right now because we’re going to announce them after Christmas. So that is kind of our style. We just, we’re going to let you know this some awesome things are coming some really big things. And they’re going to start to drip out after Christmas. And we just want you guys to know that this is the best time to join us. Like things are going to be so fun. And our program is just going to get stronger and better and have more tools for you. And you know, our goal is to really teach Catholic moms how to manage their minds so that they can hear God and do what he has set out for them to do. We don’t know that we don’t know what God wants you to do. Right? We can’t know that. But what we can do is help like clean out that your wax in your ears of that the world puts in there and the culture puts in there. We can help you like pull that out and then you can hear him cause he has a very clear plan for you. And he will tell you, and we just want you to step into greatness and to step into this big life that God has dreamed for you. That is, I want to tell you so perfect for you. Don’t you feel like that don’t you feel like what we’re doing is like so perfect.

Lorissa:  Yes, I can. So funny because I can look back when I was a child. I mean, I was, I was kind of an only child for 10 years before my sister came, but I would like sit in my room and I would just talk to my stuffed animals and I would teach them all sorts of things. I would just talk and talk and, and here we are doing this work where we get to, you know, and I, I remember even as a child, like talking about God and sharing, you know, speaking to the, you know, to nobody in the room, but talking about how amazing God is. And now the fact that we have a company where we get to do this and get to join with other women who all, you know, all together. Like we want to be saints. And we know in looking back at church history, but saints, they, they come together like saints come in communities and they support each other. They lift each other up. And there was no sake that became a Saint on their own, right. They always had mentors and friends and people that they were in it with and doing this work together and that iron sharpens iron would make each other better. We build each other up, we learn from each other. And that’s what we set out to do. We set out to create a community that does that.

Sterling: Yeah. And it’s such a privilege. And so we just love each and every one of you, the support that you guys have given us. And I know that so many of you pray for us and we never hear from you. We never know your names. Like you’re rooting for us from your homes and in your cars. And then some of you email us and then some of you, you know, review our podcast and then some of you join our program and we get to know your names and your families. And the whole thing is just so beautiful. And I could just feel this light. It’s like, we all have candles and relating each other’s candles and the world is getting just a little bit brighter every day as we spread this work and we bring the glory of God into the world and we do it together. So we just love you all so much. Thank you for being part of this year. And just remember that you were made for greatness,

Lorissa: Happy Thanksgiving.