Latest / Crafted Connections / EP 28: On-the-Go - Leah GiaQuinta

Transcript

EP 28: On-the-Go - Leah GiaQuinta · Crafted Connections

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_01: Hello, welcome to Crafted Connections.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Keelan Calhoun, and this is a podcast all about storytelling and building genuine community.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: Here we'll dive into the art of storytelling, unpack strategies for making meaningful connections, and hear from incredible humans who are using their story to create impact.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: So grab your favorite beverage, settle in, and let's craft some connections.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: Hello, welcome back to Crafted Connections.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: It's great to have you.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: I collect stories from folks in my network and in my community, and I and I share them.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: I also kind of tell my own experience of enhancing my storytelling, enhancing marketing, like leaning into my business, life stories, kind of inspo stories, what have you, but it's all circled and surrounding stories, right?
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a big believer that community is built through connection and connection is built through storytelling.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, in order to have a strong community, you gotta lean into your stories.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: And that's that's what I do here.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: I I get on the mic, I interview people, and I share my own.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: So we are doing something just a tiny bit different here on Crafted Connections.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: So typically I'll release an episode every Thursday-ish, and it'll be either a solo episode where I'm speaking on a topic related to storytelling, related to business, related to lifing, or I will interview a guest and we will have a lovely conversation.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: We'll talk about their story, we'll talk about their their situations, they'll talk about we'll talk about their experiences to kind of connect you with them, to connect them with you, to you know, connect them and me a little bit more.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: It's just a lovely time.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: But we are going to do something I'm calling an on the go episode.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: So back in April, I attended the Grow Conference.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: So I am the fractional chief content officer for Grow We Wo, which is a women's organization that's all about empowering women, changing the status quo of what it's like to be a woman on this planet in this world, building community around that and and learning together, succeeding together, collaborating together is where it's at.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: So I've been able to do that with them for, oh my gosh, what is it, September?
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_01: So it's been nine months now.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: Nine months I've been working with them, doing some really, really fun things for the women in in our community.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: So I brought my podcast equipment to the Fort Wayne conference this year, 2025.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I set up a booth and I interviewed women and I asked them a few questions, and it was really fun seeing and hearing all the different answers that I got.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna feature all the individuals that I interviewed that day back in April.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: So, anyways, I love these women.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: There were about, gosh, I think I did about 14 interviews that day and to share stories on the go.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: So I hope you enjoy.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: Take a listen and see you on the other side, my friends.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Leah GiaQinta.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: Would you mind letting the people know a little bit about you?
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: Two to three sentences to kind of who you are.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I am a divorce transition coach and founder of Leah GeoQinta Coaching, and I help clients work through all of the overwhelming facets of divorce to lead them to a life of confidence and clarity.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_01: So the question that I'm asking everyone today is to share a moment or a story from a point in their life where they found it to be very impactful later in their life.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: So would you mind sharing one of those times with people?
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I gosh, I have I have several.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's hard to pick just one.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'm really putting people on the spot here.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: So are you asking personally a moment that was impactful?
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, anything.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um, from some people, they were like, oh, this this job ended, so I had to get this job.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: I get my job, and now I work for myself, you know, just anything, anything that that you found made quite an impact.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: Well, honestly, what I do, I yeah as a divorce transition coach, that absolutely came from a personal journey for me.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: In addition to that, you know, a little thing about me is I love poetry.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: And it's April and it's National Poetry Month.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm go I'm gonna draw on uh one of my favorite poets, Mary Oliver.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: And she said, Someone once handed me a box full of darkness, and it wasn't until years later that I realized that that too was a gift.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: And when I think about the clients that I serve, and when I think about my own, um, I I too am divorced and navigated my own divorce transition journey.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know, divorce often arrives like a box full of darkness.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's hard.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: There's grief that comes with it.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it it's uh indicated on the life stress index as the top one and two of the most stressful life transitions.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: And uh on the other side is a brand new chapter, and you get to decide if you want this life transition to happen to you or happen for you.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so, anyway, um, that's a little bit of a blend as far as my personal story, navigating the big transition, life transition of divorce after a 15-year chapter of a life built as a married person, and then working through that and navigating all of the domino effects of changes that come along with that one big life transition.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: So that's navigating from a double income to a single income, from two-parent household to a one-parent household, and then all of the different transitions that come along with that with career and changing your house and all of that.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: So that is um impactful for sure.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely impactful.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: And then I love that you serve people now as a result of that.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I was thinking, you know, with with what you do, I was like, that chances are you've been through a divorce, right?
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: And uh and it's beautiful that what was, I imagine, uh, just such a hard time, full of grief, is something that you get to help people with now, right?
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: It's like your your your pain is uh is your your purpose.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, absolutely.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, final question.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: How do you define the word alignment?
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's a good one.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: So before I started this new venture as a divorce transition coach, you know, in another part of my life, and I still am licensed as a physical therapist.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: Oh god.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: Well, yeah, so you know what alignment means.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: So yes.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: So so it's hard for me to not imagine alignment without really encompassing what you define your body to be, and that absolutely includes your spiritual body, but it also did I say spiritual or physical?
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: You said spiritual body.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: I did.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I totally meant to say physical body.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: But it's aren't they one?
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: Like, but I think that's where I was going.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's your physical body, it's how you embody the things that you love and that are valuable to you, embodying the people that surround you in your life, embodying your spiritual life and how your financial decisions come along with that.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: So that's when I think about alignment, I think about the body, and when I think about the body, I think about the body of your community and you as a person.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: I I do love that you said the word embodied several times.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: And it's almost as if, like, going back to what you were saying with with your own impactful experience, everything, this identity that you embodied completely it it was no longer your identity, you were no longer embodying that, but it was so enmeshed and you had embodied it for 15 years, right?
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: And so then it has to be detangled and disembodied, right?
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_01: And then and then create a new body, like so much.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, absolutely, yeah.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so many of the clients that I work with, yeah, do become kind of detached from their body, and a lot of the work that we do is finding yourself in your body again.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we say it in marriage vows to become one, right?
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's reminding people that after their divorce, it's not that they're half of a person.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they are still a whole, holistic and holy person.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna cut myself off before I could keep going and have you for 30 more minutes, but thank you so much, and I really appreciate you.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_01: And um exciting to be here.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for having me.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, yay, okay.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: Bye.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: Bye.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_01: So there you have it.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: It has been women like these women that have put me back together.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: I really had a beautiful Dululu era that was a lot of throwing stuff at a wall and a lot of tripping and falling and failing, frankly.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_01: Failing that I would not have been able to put myself back together from without uh women like the ones you just heard, right?
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: Women like the ones I met at the Fort Wayne conference, ones I'm going to meet at the Anderson conference and speak to and connect with.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, just women outside of those circles as well, uh, have really, really put me back together.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm super pumped for this series.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_01: I hope you enjoy and find yourself in some of these stories.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yay! Thanks, friends.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: Crafted Connections is lovingly produced by Calhoun Creative Consulting, a strategic storytelling firm dedicated to helping people and brands tell their stories in a way that resonates.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_01: If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe and connect with us on Instagram at Crafted Connections Pod.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: Keep creating, keep connecting until we meet again.