Divas That Care Network
The #DivasThatCare movement is a dynamic force of positivity and progress. It's a collective of empowered women united by a shared vision: to pave the way for future generations. These women are not only breaking barriers—they’re also committed to equipping the next generation with the tools, resources, and confidence to lead with purpose.
By discovering and defining your purpose, you unlock the power to uplift those around you and contribute to a better world—every single day.
The Divas That Care Change Makers lead by example. They’ve walked the path, and now they’re using their voices to inspire others—one intentional day at a time.
Divas That Care Network
What If Your Purpose Starts With Who You Are?
Come and listen to our Host, Candace Gish, as she chats with today's guest, Laura Cardwell, for our "Season of Shift: Women on the Edge of Reinvention" Podcast Series.
This series spotlights women who used this reflective season (Oct–Dec) to make major life pivots—career changes, endings, spiritual awakenings, and brave beginnings.
Laura Cardwell is a Transformational Life and Business Coach, author, and speaker dedicated to helping women—especially those in midlife—reclaim their energy, realign with their purpose, and create success that actually feels good. After navigating her own seasons of burnout and reinvention, Laura knows firsthand how easy it is to get stuck in patterns of overworking,
people-pleasing, or chasing external definitions of success. She also knows the freedom, joy, and prosperity that become possible when we align with our true design.
Blending applied neuroscience, energy medicine, Human Design, Gene Keys, and the wisdom of the 5 Elements, Laura has developed NeuroCohesion®, a groundbreaking methodology that brings together science and soul to create embodied transformation. Through this work, she helps women unravel burnout at its root—physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually—while
equipping them with practical tools to live and lead with clarity, confidence, and ease.
As co-founder of Embodied Leadership by Design, Laura has guided leaders, entrepreneurs, and heart-centered professionals across the globe to rediscover their natural genius, heal long-standing patterns of self-sacrifice, and build lives and businesses rooted in joy and purpose. Her book, Unstuck Yourself: Thrive Beyond Burnout & Discover Your True Purpose, brings her frameworks and personal journey into a relatable, science-meets-soul roadmap for transformation.
Warm, witty, and deeply intuitive, Laura speaks to the midlife woman who feels “there must be more than this” and shows her that not only is more possible—it’s available now. When she’s not teaching, coaching, or writing, Laura can usually be found near water, dancing hip-hop in the kitchen, diving into her next learning obsession, or winding down with cozy mysteries (because Jessica Fletcher never lets her down).
@lauracardwell
We welcome author and coach Laura Cardwell to launch our Season of Shift series and map a path from burnout to purpose. We explore human design, deconditioning old stories, and a simple heart-brain practice to find calm, clarity, and courage.
• why reinvention often follows burnout and forced pauses
• how varied careers build a wiser, richer toolbox
• women questioning the grind model and scripts of success
• human design as a map for energy and decisions
• the PROSPER framework for living purpose from within
• deconditioning inherited stories stored in the body
• heart-brain cohesion to calm the nervous system
• where to preorder Unstuck Yourself and what to expect
For more Divas That Care Network Episodes visit www.divasthatcare.com
It's Divas that Care Radio. Stories, strategies, and ideas to inspire positive change. Welcome to Divas That Care, a network of women committed to making our world a better place for everyone. This is a global movement for women, by women engaged in a collaborative effort to create a better world for future generations. To find out more about the movement, visit divas that care.com after the show. Right now, though, stay tuned for another jolt of inspiration.
SPEAKER_02:Well, hello everyone, and welcome back to the Divas That Care. My name is Candice Gish. If this is your very first time tuning into our program, a huge welcome. We've been doing this now for 15 years. We're listening to in over 30 countries around the world. And it's because of all of our amazing guests, our hosts, just everybody that has been a part of this, our listeners. You know, there's a lot of you that have been with us from the beginning, and we appreciate each and every one of you too. Uh, today we're gonna be doing a new podcasting series. It's called Season of Shit: Women on the Edge of Reinvention. I'm really excited because we're gonna be talking about two different women, uh, spotlighting them, and they're gonna be talking about everything from major life changes to endings, spiritual awakenings, and brave beginnings. We're really excited about this, and I hope that you tune in and listen to all of our other hosts chatting with their guests also. All right, everyone, I have an amazing new diva that we are gonna be welcoming to our family. Her name is Laura Cardwell. Laura, welcome to the divas that care. Oh, thank you so much. Thank you for letting me be here. I'm so excited. Oh my gosh, I am beyond excited, and this is gonna be so much fun, Laura. Would you mind introducing yourself to our listeners today?
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. So I think, you know, we tend to in as women, we tend to introduce ourselves with what we do or who we serve, right? And so, um, and in my world, you know, that's always my first go-to too. But but really, I should always try and start with who I think I be. I think I be somebody who is a is a good listener, who is um a good friend, who likes to really be present to people and to really help um see people in in their life. And so that's who I feel like I be in the world, helping people find their joy in general, no matter where I am. And then the people that I serve and the things that I do in my life. I have um, I have two beautiful uh grown daughters who are 23 and 18. Um, and so I've kind of just graduated from the world of being the boss into the world of being the guide. And it's a big transition for me. So it fits. And um, I have a a husband and a family who I love. And then in my career world, I am an author speaker coach. I do transformational work with people and um blending the art of the soul with science. So that's kind of my my elevator, who I am in the world.
SPEAKER_02:I love it. What a beautiful introduction. And I I love how you said that because that's how I want to feel like I'm contributing to the world also as a person, person that is really authentic in there for the people around me. So it's amazing how you introduce yourself. So thank you.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_02:So, Laura, about how you decided to become a transformational life coach, because that is absolutely amazing. And it's a perfect segue into our topic today.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. I mean, right, because becoming a coach for me was a journey. A lot of people become coaches, either they were therapists and then they leave therapy and they become a coach because they they want more freedom and how that they they can move with their clients, or they come from a really specific career where in transitioning out of that career, they have a lot of gifts to give back and mentorship in a way. And so they they kind of become coaches from that platform. And so, but for me, I kind of I got to it a little bit different. I actually um have had a varied career past. I was a um, I've done all sorts of things. I have a degree in creative writing, that's where it kind of started, and then um I followed that up with some work in photography, and then I did some event planning, and then I um kind of hopped around a little bit, then I became an art jeweler and I was an art jeweler for many years. Um, and then I actually grew my art jewelry business so fast I burnt myself out at fully. And that's um, we'll talk about that in a minute, but that's kind of the beginning foundation of my book was like my own personal journey with burnout. And um, and in the back end of that, of that kind of burnout period of time in my life, I actually was introduced to my a modality that was really here to help people um work with the energy systems of the nervous system and the brain and helping with like ADD, ADHD learning differences, which grew to be anxiety and depression. And then I grew a whole clinic doing that kind of work with people. Um, it's called brain integration. And then COVID hit and I had to pivot. I was deemed non-essential in my area, and so basically I lost my job. And um, I was already thinking about pivoting anyway. I was already on that kind of trajectory of like what I wanted more. I was already kind of learning a lot of other things, and I was, I started back to get my doctorate in um natural medicine with a focus on energy medicine and vibrational medicines. And so um, so it was kind of I kind of reverse engineered and I ended up getting my uh coaching certificate as a result of COVID because I had to kind of go to more online work. I was doing very hands-on um brain integration work, and then um, and then I was suddenly thrown into a remote position, and um and I was already finding myself coaching. I uh in the world of vibrational medicine or energy medicine and things like that, we tend to go in and have a have a session. We feel good. If you know what that is, that might be acupuncture, it might be Reiki, it might be a sound healing. But what we go is we go and we relax and we receive all of this amazing, juicy energy. But no one, no one that I had really come across was integrating that with coaching in a way of like asking the right questions, kind of digging up where those unconscious beliefs and those where we get stuck really live in the physical body. And so I started to integrate those modalities together with transformational coaching. And that led me to studying human design and then on to quantum human design. And and now I kind of pull all of those things together. So so it was it was actually lots of seasons of shift and lots of pivots that led me to becoming a coach in the first place.
SPEAKER_02:And isn't that extraordinary? You know, over the years I've had a lot of women come on the program and say how COVID actually helped transform their lives, like you're talking about. Um, you know, we talk about the good, the bad, the ugly, but the good is that it really allowed people on their journeys to see a different side of themselves that they might not have ever come across. And and I love what you're doing with that and how you've really been able to embrace that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I mean, I do think I've heard the same thing from several people of like the the first initial shock, and of course you want to hold all of the grief and all of the pain, but for so many people, it was a pivot moment. It was like, okay, well, you can't have that life anymore. And instead of just picking up where you were or just trying to survive that moment, there was this real growth opportunity for us to say, but what do I actually want? And I think it was actually even more prevalent for women and particularly maybe women between 35 and and 65, where it was like we are already kind of primed to start to question question what the systems that we that we were working with in anyway. And so I think there is a a big, it was a big gift to the rise of that movement of women that are starting to kind of wake up, that awakening of like, wait, this isn't what I wanted, but I don't actually know what I do want yet. And COVID gave us a chance to question that, gave us this like season of integration and quiet to say, what do you really want? And to let quiet give you space to answer that question.
SPEAKER_02:How did people take your transformation? How did they sometimes it's hard for others to accept the change within you? And that's kind of some of the things that we talk about with this season of change. How are the other people perceiving you?
SPEAKER_01:Oh, that's a great question. I mean, I think in some in some worlds, like of course, there are people that perceive me as um someone who's jumped around a lot or or not committed, right? There's the we we're sold this story that we're supposed to pick a thing when we're probably nine somehow, and then we're supposed to stay with that for the rest of our lives in order to be successful. We're supposed to stay to this dream that we had when we're a kid. And the truth is, is that we may come back to the dream that we had when we were nine or 10. And in fact, a lot of times at mid-age we do. But but we are also meant to explore a lot of different things. And so that story that we're sold, that we should find a thing, stick with it, and really be a supportive system is a story. And so I think some people perceive me as being kind of all over the place. I think some people perceive me as having a real rich, wise toolbox that I bring to the table. Um, I have struggled with my own self-identity and my own self-worth, of like, where's my place? Because, you know, because I am actually designed to be someone who really investigates a lot and tries on a lot of different things. That's also been a challenge for me internally to accept for myself that that that's okay, that that I haven't hit all those gold star standards that we've been sold since we were younger about what success is supposed to look like. But I have, I have like gathered this um bag of gold along the way of all these things I've been through.
SPEAKER_02:You know, just listening to you just makes me feel like I'm listening to myself. And I think that's extraordinary because I've lived that life, you know. I I've I've done what you've done in an aspect of, you know, people think of me as scatter brains. Like, why is she always trying new things? Why is she always doing new things? And it's neat because I always said that my journey is to explore, my journey is to figure things out and to to live life to the fullest. And I never could picture myself in a specific field, so I explored all fields, and it's really interesting to hear somebody else's uh perspective on that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I think I think a lot more of us feel that way internally than we're necessarily allowing ourselves to be. And I love to hear you say that, Candace, because I think that we are there is a richness to to having that kind of renaissance experience in our life that is different than someone who committed 50 years to one specific thing. I'm not judging one specific thing. I think it's amazing if that was your, if that was your calling and you knew it and you went for it. I I think that that's I mean, I have so much depth and admiration for that. And I've had to to do a lot of internal reprogramming around that's not me. And it's okay for me to be me. And actually, me being me is is my joy in the world is that curiosity. And I bring that new perspective when I let it come through.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, that is so great. And the acceptance, right? We understand ourselves, and I think the older we get, the more we realize we don't know anything and we're more willing to learn. And I say that my kids are like, What are you talking about? I said, You'll get it one day.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, you will. You really will. It's so true.
SPEAKER_02:It's really true. So tell me, how did you decide to write a book? Like, I'm really excited about this because uh Unstuck Yourself, Thrive Beyond Burnout, and Discover Your True Purpose. Oh my gosh, what a great title.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you. Thank you. Um okay, so you know, like I've already said, I have a degree in creative writing. So writing a book has been my lifelong. It's been, I mean, I was I was writing poetry when I was four or five and sending it in for money to the um to the national library to be published, you know, from out of the back of you this dates me a little, but you used to be able to find these ads in the back of 17 magazines where you could get your um work published. And even as a little kid, I was doing that, right? So so the book has been cooking since I was little. Um, but and I have kind of chased the book throughout my entire adulthood. Like it's it's been elusive, it's been um, it's played around with me, it's kept me on my toes and my creativity. And also, it's really helped me learn what it means to listen to divine timing and to sit in the pocket and wait for source to guide what's next instead of me pushing and driving and wanting and doing and um being certain about or figuring out. And so I actually um this book in particular, I wrote with uh one of my best friends, Megan O'Malley. She and I have had, we co-founded a company called Embodied Leadership by Design. And we actually were speaking at a conference and um and one of our mentors heard us speaking and kind of nudged her best friend who owns a publishing company and said, Hey, why haven't you asked me to write the foreword for their book? And and Michelle, the publishing company owner, said, Uh, I don't have they're not writing a book. And Karen said, You better fix that by the end of today. And so they approached us at the end of the day. And like, yeah, I know it was like, and it really speaks to Candace, it really speaks to like, I tried and I tried and I tried and I tried and I tried to get that book deal. And all of it was trying to get externally validated for the writer I thought I was inside. And when I gave up the ego of the writer, and when I just showed up and served, it showed up on a silver platter. It came right to me. And that is really the story of the book. The story of the book is that our purpose always guides us back to what our heart-centered leadership is asking us to be.
SPEAKER_02:Wow. So is this book out right now? So can our listeners go and get a copy of it?
SPEAKER_01:Depending on when this episode airs, it the book is released October 20th.
SPEAKER_02:Oh my gosh. Okay. So how can our listeners get a copy of this on October 20th?
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. The um, so the book itself has a website called unstuckyourselfbook.net. And they can see we have um bookshop.org, we have Barnes and Noble, and we have Amazon. Um, right now it is available in the for pre-order, and it'll be available as an ebook. And then we'll we're hoping to have the audiobook out in the beginning of next year.
SPEAKER_02:Oh my gosh, that would be awesome! And what a treat, an audiobook for this. I think myself, I would love to just listen to probably yourself, right? You're gonna be the one that's gonna be doing this and just listening to you talk and go through it all.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it because it's our story. I mean, you know, Megan and I wrote the book together, but but we we each individually brought our our real gifts to the book, and we really treasured that opportunity to not have to do it all, to do it in collaboration. But it is our story and it's our journey, and it's how we got here, and it's I and it's our it's our take on a world that's been conditioning us to look externally for more or for some sort of validation or success, and how we begin to really realign that through purpose, which is seeking that internal, that internal guidance, that internal compass, and what gets in the way of that and what and what we need to do to rewire that. Can you give us a little bit of a sneak peek? I could.
SPEAKER_02:You want me to open the book and read something, or just give you like a or just tell us an old, yeah, because I think that would be kind of a neat thing to do.
SPEAKER_01:Let's see here. I'm sure I have the book right here somewhere. Um in the meantime, while I'm kind of searching around for that, let me tell you a little bit about like the structure of the book is that we um we kind of laid it out. So it actually is a beginning introduction to human design. And if people don't know what that is, that's kind of one of the easy ways to talk about that, is that it's a um it's a modern, it's a modern kind of astrology. It's actually a book of uh, or it's a kind of a map to who you're here to be. It's a map to your purpose, and it's based on your birth time, so that's why it's called a modern astrology, but it's actually a blend of the Chinese I Ching, the um, the chakra system, astrology, and the Kabbalah. So it's very deep. It gives you a very deep, it's like your energetic thumbprint in the universe and what you're here to do and how you're here to serve. And so the book kind of introduces that in a very um easy way to start to take it in, but it also introduces the the concept that we're in ways we are conditioned out of that beingness. We're what we call the grind model, which is like how how our culture and how, like, we'll say the patriarchy is kind of has has taken that and and turned it in in different ways, and what we need to do to see that conditioning. And then it walks us through what we call the prosper framework, which is really kind of the seven core qualities that we think are the I am statements of what you need to live into to live your purpose. So that's like living your purpose, learning to be responsible. And that is a nervous system issue, not just taking burden, but living in alignment with what your nervous system says is right and true for you, and being open and self-worth and pleasure and play and and um being able to be in resonance with the world around you. And then the the last part of the book is our actual modality, which is a blend of many modalities that we bring together um and and created a created a modality that people could use to decondition where the stories that they've picked up throughout their life and begin to really figure out what their purpose is. Purpose, we always say, is who you're here to be, then why you be it, then what you do. Because we tend to talk about purpose as what we do, but that's like the that's the end result of being your purpose. And so so that's kind of the heart of the book. I can't find it. That's so funny. I'm like trying to talk and find I can't find it.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, I was just like, this is sounding so interesting. I love that. And for all of our listeners, I'm gonna be posting Laura's website. Everybody should pre-order. This sounds so amazing, it's different.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you. Yeah, you know, I mean, we wrote it because we needed it, right? That's the I mean, I think those are the books that serve the best, are the ones that we wrote first for ourselves because we needed it. And it was the thing that we couldn't find. And then also, what one of the things our editors said to us in the early days was like, this is a book that's so generous. And I don't think we were trying to be generous. I think we literally believe that every single human has the right to be here on purpose and to live that purpose, and they need to know how. And it was just, we wanted to serve through the book, and so so yes, we want it to be like a dandelion. Like, we just want to kind of give it one big blow and let it go out into the world to wherever, whoever needs it. Oh, this is wonderful.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you so much, Laura, for sharing that. I just think that this is going to be an amazing book, and congratulations on writing it. And I wish you only the best in your success for it.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, thank you so much, Candace. Thank you for today. Thank you for letting me be here, letting me share the book. Oh my gosh, it is fantastic.
SPEAKER_02:I should ask you, one of the things I always ask my guests when they come on to the USA care is that if you don't mind, could you share a tip, a tool, something that our listeners can take away with them today?
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. Um, my favorite way to answer this question is is to remind every single person that they have everything they need right now, that they're not broken, they're not actually stuck, they're not actually, you know, that everything that they need, they already are. It's kind of that whole adage of like the acorn contains the whole tree, right? It's already there. And the tool then is to really, and this kind of goes along with this what we've talked about a little bit with the seasons of shift, and that the season is about going inward. And we're such an we're we're such a distracted life, you know, we're we're kind of living in the outside of us all the time. But in order for the seed to become the tree, it really requires time in that dark and quiet place. And and we would say, you know, in in my talk, I would say that's being really connected to source. So the one tool that I would say is, are you spending time with your connection to your highest self, your connection to your heart space, the part of you that knows? And are you listening? You know, like can you get quiet enough to listen? Most of us, when we start to get quiet, all of the chatter comes up, all the fear comes up, and that's why we avoid being quiet. But if you do it enough and you learn, meditation is one way, but and and it's not about just having a quiet mind. You you can't quiet the mind, that's not the state of the mind, but you can quiet the, you can quiet the environment around it and you can start to really cultivate a space. It's kind of the space of the breath. So, my favorite tool to hand out in that way is called heart-brain cohesion. Because what we know now now is that the heart is is more powerful magnetically and electrically than the brain, and it will bring all of the brain waves into cohesion. And so, if to activate the heart, you just get quiet, you just breathe into your heart space, and then you activate a really high vibration emotion like compassion or gratitude or joy or bliss. Those are all really high vibration emotions, and you just try and hold that emotion in your heart and in your body and breathe into it, and it will actually calm the whole nervous system down.
SPEAKER_02:That's beautiful, and that is a wonderful way to end our program today. Thank you so much, Laura, for that last-minute tip. Absolutely. Anytime. Well, we gotta definitely do this again because I had a lot of fun today.
SPEAKER_01:I did too. Thank you so much, Candace.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you. And to all of our amazing listeners, please take that to heart. You know, our world has a lot of frustrations, a lot of people are angry. Uh, the Divas I care is all about promoting kindness, uh, respect for one another. And I think that just realizing that you need to take a deep breath at the very end and try to focus and try to release it. I think that's a wonderful thing that we need to all kind of take in. Um, the season of shift, women on the edge of reinvention. Uh ladies, this is this is what we are. Like we're going into ending a year and going into a new year. And I hope that you think of kindness and respect for one another. And I I love this. So thank you again to my amazing guest, Laura. Thank you to all of our listeners. I hope that all of you have an amazing day. Until next time, everyone.
SPEAKER_00:Thanks for listening. This show was brought to you by Divas That Care. Connect with us on Facebook, on Instagram, and of course on divas that care.com, where you can subscribe to our newsletter so you don't miss a thing.