Sterling: We should’ve had bells though. Anyways. Yes, this is it.

Lorissa: This is truly a dream come true years and years of dreaming, preparing God working on our hearts to get us to this moment. And I can’t believe we’re here. And we also are going to be announcing some winners yes. At the end of this episode. \

Sterling: Yes, the fabulous contest.

Lorissa:
So I want to actually just mention something about that. All of you ladies that have gone and left reviews for our podcast, we just want to give you a big, thank you. Thank you so much for listening and writing some of the most amazing reviews ever. And we are so excited to bring this podcast to you and this work in masters that we’re about to introduce, and we know that it’s going to change your lives. So thank you for being on this journey with us, but we will be announcing those winners at the end of this episode. So stay tuned for that.

Sterling:
Absolutely. So we’re going to tell you more about this amazing program, but before we do, we have to introduce our very special guest. So today I’m going to be introducing Kara Johnson to you. She is part of our team here at Made For Greatness and she is the spiritual enrichment director, but really, we just kind of think of her as the resident prayer warrior, right. She prays for our team. She prays for the program. She prays for all of the people who are going to be involved in joining us. And so welcome Kara.

Kara: Hi, I’m so happy to be here.

Sterling:
So just give us like the quick snapshot of who you are. So they kind of know a little bit about you.

Kara:
Okay. So I am a later in life Catholic convert and that’s a whole saga and of itself. And I was a Protestant before, so that’s kind of my spiritual background, but have been brought to the faith through actually my husband and then some wonderful friends. I have three kiddos whom I homeschool or attempt to homeschool. And my husband and myself have a couple of small businesses that we run. The main one is a physical therapy company. So that’s kind of where we’re at on this.

Sterling:
Yeah. Welcome. And you had some experience writing spiritual writings before you converted to Catholicism, right?

Kara:
Yeah, I did. I’ve been published in a couple of magazines and a few books and it’s taken me a little bit longer to get back on my feet writing from the Catholic perspective, just because there’s such depth to our faith. And so I really I’m trying to just soak it all in.

Sterling:
Totally. I get that. Cause I was so afraid when I became Catholic that I would say it wrong. Totally. I was like, there’s a right way. And in Protestantism you can just like, say whatever you want, nobody cares. There’s no bank like St. Aug. Right? Like I wasn’t years before people told me how to pronounce Augustine so there’s just like some secrets that you don’t find out right. When you join.

Kara: Right. Yeah. So it’s true.

Sterling:
So Kara will be bringing really the spiritual arm of our program. She’s going to be writing studies for you guys and then she’ll be hosting weekly prayer opportunities and just covering all of us in prayer, which is just such a unique part of the program that we are going to offer. So Lorissa, do you want to tell them a little bit about what mMsters is and then we’ll just keep telling you more and more fabulous things.

Lorissa:
Absolutely. So if you’ve been kind of listening to this podcast and have followed Sterling and I on our journeys and now bringing in Kara, all three of us have been deeply impacted with the life changing transformational tools of life coaching. And although we’ve been on our own separate journeys, God has kind of brought us together. And we had this dream of bringing together a program specifically for Catholic moms, where we deep dive into these transformational tools and literally cover all the different aspects of our lives, where we want to thrive as women of God, as mothers, we want to thrive in our vocations, our marriages, our motherhood in the work or the passions that we have in our heart and ministries, all of those things. And we wanted to bring it into a program that is truly, there’s nothing else like it. And we wanted to bring it to women and make it something that is incredibly affordable. But also give women the chance to embark on a journey of, of making, you know, their lives as great as they want them to be. Yeah.

Sterling:
And we really designed it for moms, right? Because we’re bought moms we’re busy. And so really everything that we offer is in bite sized pieces, everything that we’re going to be doing will be recorded. So you can experience it when it’s convenient for you. And so this program is really designed for you. It is for moms and it is meant to bring Jesus more fully into your life. But we’re also going to teach you how to create space to do that, right? Because so many of you right now feel like you’re drowning and you don’t even know how to add something else to your plate. Right. And you’re like have a longing for things. And you know, that you want to be more deeply connected to the Lord or doing something that he’s placed on your heart, but you already have so much going on.

You’re like, how would I do that? Where would I put it? And your dream slowly start to fade into the background, but we’re going to show you how to free up time and energy. So you can focus on that. And that really just happens by changing the thoughts in your brain, which I know sounds like such a simple sentence, but it is such a powerful tool once you know how to do it. And just like Lorissa said, you can apply it to any part of your life. So I want to ask Kara first and we’re all going to answer this question, how these life coaching tools has really changed your life since you’ve discovered them.

Kara:
Oh my goodness. So I thought I had a fairly decent head on my shoulders. I thought that I could kind of just face majority of tasks. I could kind of soldier through. And we had kind of a recent event this last summer where my husband and I were just kinda running just crazy and life was just starting to spin a little bit beyond what we could just manage. And so it was kind of, you know, getting up there in my, in my age bracket here and I am starting to see that there was a first point in my life where I couldn’t just fight through something. And suddenly I found myself physically just exhausted and I didn’t realize it at the time, but all these things kind of culminated into this almost just this massive breakdown from the inside out.

My body started feeling just, I think probably lack of sleep. Just we were burning the candle at both ends. Anxiety was just at an all time high. And I didn’t realize that my were a big component to that. I thought that it was something beyond my control. I thought my life was just spinning and I had to just kind of stay on the treadmill, so to speak. And when I started to fall off of it, I, I just really crashed and starting to do these tools or these sought work exercises and the things that I’ve learned that we’ll be discussing and we’ll be sharing and teaching has been so transformational because it’s shown me that the craziness is always going to be there, but I can tackle it from my mind, which sounds so crazy.

Sterling:
Yeah. Like we know it sounds crazy, but what she’s saying is like, listen, the circumstances of our lives are going to be the same. Right. We can’t change that. We can’t change what God puts in the path, but how we show up can be so different. So different. Yeah.

Kara:
It really just allowed me to for the first time fight back against the things that I didn’t even know I was fighting about. It actually really brought out the thoughts in my heads and the, those voices that I’d kept hearing and kept I guess, what do you call the, the track in your mind? The thought patterns that I didn’t even know were there and I weeded them out and I was able to get them under control and give them fully to the Lord so that he could really rewrite them. And I’m not even joking. It totally transformed me.

Sterling:
Totally transformed. I mean, I’m one of the things I love about our team is that we are very different women. We have very different personalities. We have very different lifestyles, like the things that we’re going through and this happened for each one of us and it was, it was as powerful for each one of us, like all together. I’m, it’s very interesting that one tool and these exercises can have that kind of an impact on three people who are so very different. So Lorissa, what do you, what would you say these tools have given you?

Lorissa:
I think, and I’ve kind of shared it before, so I’ll keep this really short. But for me very similar to Kara in the sense that there was a point in my life where I was spinning out of control with stress and overwhelm. And and I didn’t, I didn’t know what to do, but I knew that something had to change and I couldn’t change with the circumstances like you just mentioned.

And so that set me on a path to that just, and I feel now I can look back and I can see how God was leading me and guiding me to these tools saying, cause I’m crying. I was like crying out to God. Like, God, I don’t know. I don’t know. I’ve hit rock bottom here. And I know this is not the dream that you have for my life. I know that I’m in my vocation, I’m doing the work that you’ve called me to do, but this is not your dream for me to feel this stressed out, to feel this overwhelmed, to feel like I’m spinning in a million different. And I came across these life coaching tools started utilizing them in my life and it was such a game changer that it led me down the path of wanting to be certified in how to train people, how to coach other women in this. And that’s, you know, I think that’s all of our stories is that’s what led us down this because we know that it can be so life changing. And I’ve used this work with students I work with, with other women. And every time I’ve had the opportunity to share this with someone, the response is, Oh my gosh, that just changed my life. And so here we are.

Sterling:
Yeah. And I just, you know, my version of that, I lost 70 pounds, which is super cool because when people see me, it’s so obvious that that change happened, but I wish I could like shake their shoulders and be like, that is nothing to me compared to the control I have over my emotions now, like that is worth so much time and money to me. And it’s been such a gift and I feel so confident that I could handle anything. And I remember once hearing a coach say that, that she could even handle, like if one of her children died and it was such an extreme statement that it really caught me. And now I kind of, I understand, like I know that I could process anything that happened to me. And it doesn’t mean that we don’t have the full range of emotions that God gave us.

We just put them in the proper order, you know, because he gave us our feelings for a reason and we learn how to use them and what they are telling us. And so I’m just not scared anymore of anything happening to me. That is the freedom that it has really given me because I used to say like to my husband, and for those of you who listened to coffee and pearls, like a lot of, I want to say bad things happen to us in five years. And there were so many back-to-back ones that we were just like, what’s next. And even when something good happened, we were like, Oh, it’s not going to last for very long. Cause something bad always happens. Right. And now I just know that anything that happens, I’d be fine with it. Like I would process it. I would deal with it. We would make a plan, we would move through it. And and I wish there was something like looking skinnier than could show people on the, outside that transformation, because that has just been everything to me. And no one will ever be able to take that away from me. Like once you learn it, it’s just, it’s just there.

Lorissa:
Yeah. I like to explain it to people like for so long in my life, I felt like I was playing on the defense, but I was just responding to everything that was being thrown at me. And I was doing so at all, my emotions were almost, most of them were negative because I was like, nah, you know, how do I handle this? And it was defensive where now I feel like I wake up every single day on the offensive. Like I’m going to step into my day. I have a plan. I know how I, what I want to think, how want to feel, how I want to show up is so intentional. And then even when little things or big things come out of the blue, I know how to manage my mind around it. And I know how to even respond to it from the offense.

Sterling:
Right. Exactly. And, and here’s what I want to say about the three of us. We are pretty intelligent. We’ve read a lot of books. We’ve had a lot of training, we’ve done a lot of things in our lives and we’ve gone through a lot of secular things. And I, like Cara said, like, I felt like I had a pretty good head on my shoulders. Like I knew a lot of things, but none of those things changed me in this way. And the tools that we learned, you guys weren’t even Catholic. And so we have now taken those things and blended in what God has been telling us all along to blow it open. And I was just talking to Kara about this last week, how we kind of want to reread all the spiritual books that we’ve read, because when you become Catholic, you get like, you know, the story of a soul and all these like popular Catholic books.

And they were great. And I loved them, but now I have begun rereading them and they sound so different. Like now I get how those saints had that confidence and peace and it’s because they knew how to manage their minds really. And so it is absolutely a Catholic tool and we’re going to put that together. She, she can finally see like God has been telling us these things all along and we’ve been reading them, but they didn’t really land. Like, we didn’t really know how to do it. We’re going to show you how to do it and how to put those things together. And it’s just like no other program you’ve ever seen. Right. Yeah. So Lorissa is going to kick off when you join the program. The first thing you’re going to learn is about the coaching tools. Do you want to talk about that?

Lorissa:
I just, I can’t wait for, I mean, we’re going to dive into the foundational pieces that you need to know to really understand everything else that we’re going to be giving to you and in masters and within masters. So you’ll, you’ll understand the foundational pieces of it. And then we, once you understand that, then you’ll be able to dive into all of these different courses that we’re going to be bringing to. You we’ll have a few in there, mean there are a few in there right now, and then we’ll be adding to it as tying, you know, each month there’ll be new courses. And what we believe are the most relevant things that Catholic moms are dealing with right now in their, in their lives. So I’m so excited about that on a, on another note for me in my life, as someone who has dedicated the last 25 of my year of the past years of working with teenagers, one of the biggest things I’ve experienced.

So I started learning these life coaching tools in my mid to late thirties. And it was so life changing for me. All I kept thinking was, Oh my gosh, I can’t, if I would have learned this in high school or early on in college. Oh my goodness. I wish there would have been. So it would’ve just been so helpful. And so within the master’s program, and I think all of us, you know, we have such a heart for, for women and for Catholic moms, but we’re also gonna be bringing some of this content and presenting it in a way that is directed towards Catholic high school teenage girls. Yeah. So there will be some components of that. It’s not in there just yet, but we’ll be adding that, you know, that’s something that I felt really passionate about. We’re also gonna be offering content that is really geared towards you, helping your children with learning, how to learn these tools we’ve been using, you know, working with our own children, seeing the effects of it in their own lives. And so this is just a really cool aspect of when you join masters, you yourself will experience the life-changing components that we’re talking about, but then you’ll be able to present this and help your kids, your spouse, and the people that you love most in your life.

Sterling:
Yeah. And one of the things that’s so cool about this program is we will be dripping content out over time. And we did that very purposefully not to overwhelm you. And we’re going to give you those foundational tools right. When you get there. And then as you begin to master those, we’ll show you how to use it is the same work, but in all the different areas of your life, and you’ll start to see how really powerfully they can transform each of those areas in your life. And so one of the things I’m so excited about though, is bringing in that spiritual piece. And so I want Kara to talk about her David’s study. She’s done this beautiful study. I’ve read it. So I’m so excited. What do you want to tell them about like, kind of what they might get out of that program?

Kara:
Oh, my word. Okay. So I, I didn’t intend to do David. I really was going to do something completely opposite. And then one day I was reading through the Psalms and I was like, Oh my goodness. David was like the first life coach.

He exemplifies everything that we have been learning about and studying and reading. And it just seemed to fit so perfectly as far as what I need example we have in scripture that really points to some really, really high highs and some really, really lows. And then David working with the Lord on how to manage his mind and how to first come to God, you know, his, his gracious, loving friend of a father and be able to take all the chaos and the mess that his life had had gone through and have that completely transformed. I don’t know. I heard this quote once and it was like, if you if you complain about God, it’s a sin, but if you complain to God, it’s a Psalm. And that hit me just between the eyes, because it, it was just so obvious to me that in a lot of ways, David starts out completely kind of just complaining. And then by the end of that, very som within a few verses his heart has completely transformed into singing and dancing and praising God. And I thought, Oh my goodness, that’s what I want my heart to do. Anytime I’m feeling like I need kind of a reset. And so that’s where we started. And I’m really excited to share those lessons with you.

Sterling:
Yeah, absolutely. And, and it’s true, like now that I know this, I see all how all of those people were really just managing their minds. Absolutely. I didn’t get it before and now it’s like this key and it’s just unlocked everything.

Lorissa:
Yeah. Yeah. I wanna transition. I mean, that really was, I know the transformational piece for you Sterling with the weight loss. And here we are, we’ve gone through an extraordinary year of a life. And I use the word extraordinary. I don’t want to say a bad year because I think that if we were all to look back at 2020, although many of us are, can’t wait to get out of 2020. We would look back and see how much we’ve grown as humans and how much we’ve had to rely on God and to get, and each other to get through this year. But in this year, you know, with all, all of that going on now, we’re moving into 2021. And I know that weight loss is a big deal for a lot of us Catholic moms. And so that’s one of the key pieces in our January launch of a masters is a weight loss program and tackling weight loss from the perspective of these life coaching tools and Sterling as the one that is bringing that to us in masters.

Sterling:
Yes, I am so excited about this program. And ladies, let me just tell you, I have done all the programs. Okay. I have done weight Watchers. I’ve done SlimFast. I have counted calories. I’ve done whole thirties. Like I have done so many things and nothing actually changed my behavior, right? Because we can white knuckle it and not eat food for awhile and we can clean it up. But the real reason that we are overeating is because we’re not feeling our feelings. We don’t know how to process what is going on with us. And I’m going to teach you how to do that. And then when you know how to process your feelings, the food stops looking so good. And I know that is a super huge claim. It is such a huge claim, but it is absolutely true. Somebody just dropped off chocolate chip, pumpkin bread at my house.

And no part of me was worried about eating it. I was like, that’s fine. It’s there. I’m not going to eat it. And that is because I know how to manage my mind around my feelings. And I know how to be so committed to something that I don’t let other things get in the way. And weight loss feels like a sensational thing to talk about because you know, everyone enjoys that experience when they have it, right? Like losing 50 pounds is so amazing. But the truth is the way that you lose that weight is the way that we’re going to be doing everything in these programs. It’s the way that you’re going to learn how to do anything in your life that you want, that you don’t currently have. And so come and join me. We’re going to be losing weight together. I have 10 more pounds to go, and it is easier than you think. And it’s so enjoyable to feel like you’re actually losing that weight for the last time. Because as you see the tools work, it’s very clear that you’re doing the foundational work that you need in order to not struggle with food any more. And so it is just different than any other weight loss thing that I’ve ever done. And we’re going to bring that to you guys immediately.

Yes. And so I know you’re probably going okay. I don’t completely understand the whole concept of this master’s program. And what we really want to say is, come check it out. What you’re basically going to get is you’re going to get, we’re going to, we’re not holding anything back. We’re going to give you everything that we have spent years diving into. And literally thousands of dollars investing in ourselves to learn this stuff and to get certified in this work. And we’re bringing all of it. Not, we’re not holding anything back. We’re bringing it all to you in the masters membership program where we’re going to be providing, you know, teachings and courses on all of these areas that we feel are important for Catholic moms. But then we’re also every week going to be offering live coaching calls, group coaching calls, where you can call in if you want to be coached.

And the power of that is really, I mean, you get coached by one of us and then you also if you don’t want to be coached yourself, you can at least whether it’s live or if you want to go back and read and watch it later and watch others get coached. So many of our issues are, are similar in a lot of ways. And so somebody else might get coached on something that is very pertinent to what you’re going through. And those moments are really eye-opening and powerful. So you’ll have access to all of that. And really, we just want you to come check it out.

Sterling:
Yeah. It’s I mean, it’s going to change your life, right? Like you, if you join, you will begin to think of your life as before I joined masters and after, and I am that confident about it. Like, it’s, it’s really that powerful and listen, it’s a, it’s a monthly program, but you guys, if you don’t believe me, if you’re like, this sounds weird and crazy, just come check it out for a month. I’m so confident that you’ll love it. That I know that you’ll stay. But even if you don’t want to, you can just cancel. It is no big deal, but we are Lorissa is right. We’re giving you everything, everything you need to get unstuck in any area of your life that you feel stuck. Just imagine that if you had a magic wand and you were like to think they could really change this one thing, the answer is, yes, we can help you change that.

And we just want you to come give us a chance and really give God the chance to change your life because he’s made those big promises, right? We’ve heard that God can move mountains and he can do amazing things. But so many of us over the last five, 10, 15, 30 years of parenting and marriage have kind of lost that hope, that hope that God can come transform your life. But this program could really be an answer for you right now, an answer to prayer and an answer to some of the pain that you have been living with. Give us a chance to fix that pain, because I’ve seen it happen now in our three lives in ways that none of us were expecting, like I never expected to be as happy and fulfilled as I am now. And I just know that we can offer that to you. And I’m so proud of this program that we’ve made and also how Catholic it is, right? Like it’s so Catholic. Like I wish you could just know how so Catholic all of us are. And then that is what this program is all about. So come check it out@madeforgreatness.co. Remember, there was no M made for greatness dot C O and now

Lorissa:
Let’s do this! We want to thank all of our podcasts listeners, thank you to the, all the women that went and left amazing reviews and just heartfelt reviews. It means so much to us your support and your encouragement. And so let’s draw the first name. Let’s do this. The first winner of a made for greatness hoodie is Johanna Segren.

Kara:
Okay. Name number two also for a sweatshirts is Audrey Sewald.

Sterling:
Who? Friends job. Okay. So I’m picking a number three.

What is this one for one shirt, shirt also sweatshirts. So this is, let’s see, dove, Macquarie, Macquarie. I love these sweatshirts. You guys. I wear my sweatshirt every week. I’m not lying about that. Awesome. And our last winner

Lorissa:
Of a sweatshirt, a hoodie is Stephanie Clarisse.

Sterling:
Say that fellow podcaster, if you guys haven’t checked out Stephanie’s podcast, it’s 500 seconds to joy. You should go check it out. I was so excited when I heard that. Okay. And the grand prize winner for a $50 Amazon gift card, just like Christmas, right? Like you get to just buy whatever you want. Don’t tell your family, buy something for yourself. Okay. Yes. Coleen Gordon, Colleen.

And thank you all of you because listen, we know how hard it is to get on a computer and to find the place to leave reviews and to actually leave reviews, right? Like there are many podcasts that I love so much and I haven’t gone through that for them. And I just really appreciate that. All of you took the time to do that. And by the way, a lot of you took the time to do that and leave us reviews without entering the contest. So I really appreciate that too, because that just shows the love that you have for us and for this work and for this message that we’re sharing.

Lorissa: I also want to say that you guys are like professional podcast reports. [inaudible] The way they, Sally just sounds so beautifully written that I’m like these women are rock stars.

Sterling:
And thank you for doing that for us. You know? So ladies, I just want you to know we’re praying for you. We are working on putting together some extremely powerful programs about parenting and confidence and marriage and money, and just like everything, everything that you need to live the life that God wants you to live. So come join masters, come check out what we’re doing. We’re launching with the coaching tools, which is the foundation of everything that we do and weight loss and goals. And I’m just gonna give you a snippet of that right now, ladies, it’s called the no goals, goals program. Okay. It’s going to blow your mind. No goals this year. Like half of you are so happy about that. And half of you were like, Oh, no, goes away. Like I promise you, it’s going to be so fabulous.

Lorissa:
Yeah. And I want to, just because I’ve seen, I know what your brain and it’s like the no goals, but going through this will set every woman up for the most extraordinary 2021. Right. So don’t going through that program is going to set you up to just hit all the things you want to do and accomplish in 2021 in a completely exciting, new, fun way.

Sterling:
Yeah. I mean, if you do what I lay out in the program, you’re going to crush whatever goals list you would have made, and that would have been in your mind. And more importantly, what I’m going to lead you through is just going to lead you to what God wants you to do. That’s what it is, which really about loving your daily life. Right? Absolutely. That’s what it is. I mean, can you imagine, had you told me a year ago, you’re going to wake up and be just like Larissa said, excited to wake up. I would not have believed you. I would have been like, no, I don’t know. Maybe in 10 years, maybe when we had things more figured out and I have pretty much the same life that I did then, and now I just wake up excited to see what I’m going to bring and what God’s going to bring.

Sterling:
And we, I just feel like we co-author the day together and it is just so lovely. I mean, it’s, it’s really just beyond what I thought was possible for my life. Absolutely. I would encourage anyone who’s ever thought that or had the thought that life life could be more than this. I would just encourage anybody to tuck this out. Who has ever had an inkling of that thought because you’re right. There is more, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be a change in your circumstance to be able to experience that greatness. Absolutely. All right, ladies. So, you know, on this podcast, we’re going to continue to share different tools with you and more about what’s in masters, but masters is really the deep dive on those tools. We give you worksheets. We show you how to use them in your daily life. And again, we made it for moms. So it’s not too much to handle bite-sized pieces. You guys can do it. We love you. We’re praying for you. And remember mama, you were made for greatness.