E243: Counting Down the Top Episodes of all Time from the Women's Empowerment Podcast

With almost 250 episodes of the show, it’s hard to know which ones to listen to first! Here are the top 10 episodes of all time. Re-listen, share your favourites, and dive right in as we count down the most popular episodes of the Women’s Empowerment Podcast…

Welcome back to the Women's Empowerment Podcast. I am your host and healthy habit mentor, Valerie LaVigne. Today, I thought we'd do something a little different. I don't think I've done this in a very long time, or maybe not at all on the podcast, so I'm excited to bring you the top 10 episodes of the podcast of all time. We have almost 250 episodes. If you're new to the show and you're like, where do I start? Well this is probably a really great introduction of what's been so popular over these last few years.

Let's go backwards from number 10 all the way down to number one. And if you aren't new to the show and you're maybe watching this, or even if it sounds a little bit different, I apologize for the audio quality. It's because today is moving day and I have this little quiet moment as I say that there's like noises outside of my, my neighborhood.

But I have some time here to record and I feel like this is gonna come into little different bits and pieces. Maybe we'll record at my new house. I'm actually on the floor with my plants. There's a giant TV in a box behind me. I'm using another box to. Hold up my computer right now and we're just gonna go with the flow.

If I look a little dewy, it's because I did a face mask this morning, you know, priorities. But let's talk about the

[01:10] #10 Episode 172: Boundaries + Priorities + Rules! OH MY

10th most popular episode of all time of the podcast. So far it's episode 172 and it's called Boundaries Priorities Rules. Oh my. And I was actually a little bit surprised when I heard that this was, One of the more popular episodes because I really dive into these three things that for myself at at one point or another, I recognize that I was a rule breaker.

I was a rebel without a cause. I didn't wanna follow any part of discipline and boundaries. Like, don't put me in a box, don't tell me what to do. I want to be free. And it was very important for me to find freedom. And over time I realized that discipline is freedom. And how I got to this realization was a bunch of different things.

A bunch of different events happened and they kind of rippled into recognizing that I needed a change in my life. And so I'll take you back a little bit. I don't wanna tell you too long of a story here, but I was basically at a point where I thought, I'm not moving anywhere. I'm just

walking and running on a treadmill. It felt like I was just doing so many things, but it felt a lot more like busy work versus productivity, if you will. And so in this episode I talk about how with myself, I was very resistant to these things. So if you're listening to this now and you're like, yeah, no way.

Boundaries, rules, ew, and discipline, those are like bad words in my life. Well they are actually really powerful tools and they're really powerful practices and kind of, energy that we can, we can use to cultivate things that we really wanna do. So in the episode I talk a little bit about how discipline is the act of building trust with ourselves.

I always thought that discipline meant obedience. But it doesn't. It doesn't mean you have to follow someone else's rules. It can be that you're following what feels good for you and the core values that you set, not the boxes that somebody else said, Hey, check these off. This is what you need to be doing in your life.

What do you want? And so, In this episode, I encourage you to take an audit and take action because if you know me, I like to encourage you to take action and really see that there are beauty in boundaries and there are beautiful boundaries that we can create that really allow us to live the life of our dreams, to live a life of design and not a life of default, which is, What I was doing.

Now, if you're an entrepreneur, I do share some entrepreneur examples. If you're not an entrepreneur, don't worry. I share a lot of examples in terms of like discipline with your time management and things you can kind of do to help put all of the, the tools that, and the tips that I've shared in this episode together so that you can move forward in a way that feels good for you.

[04:10] #9 Episode 166: A Gentle Approach to a Kick-Ass Routine

The ninth most popular episode of the Women's Empowerment Podcast is episode 166, and this is titled A Gentle Approach to a Kick Ass Routine. Now, this is also a really unique episode of the podcast because I invited. I think it was last year, I invited, a handful of my one-on-one clients or clients that worked with me through the 21 day challenges and all these different things, and I basically reached out to a bunch of people and said, Hey, would you be able to share, would you be willing to share your experience of working with me and what we did working together on the podcast?

And so I did have. Kind of like a handful of questions that I wanted to ask each person, but the answers were really unique, really different. And what I loved about this one is that Candace was not only a client of mine, but she's also a dear friend. So it was nice to have a conversation that was like, relaxed.

And even though we were talking about, health and habits and, achieving goals, we were able to really kind of sit with. The, the reality of how it's hard and how we wanna go big or go home and how it's all or nothing.

And this isn't something that just Candace experienced working with me. I've also experienced this with a lot of people who are coming to me to with help for healthy habits. They're like, I want this amazing morning routine. I wanna get up two hours before I normally do. I wanna go to the gym and meditate, and I wanna do breath work, and I wanna do this whole ceremony.

I want to eat this huge, beautiful, balanced breakfast and. I, I do it one day and then I can't do it anymore from that, or I can't even get started, or I don't even do it fully. And this is something that really holds a lot of people back. And I do wanna say that as much as I like to be extra, I like to encourage you to dream big, right?

Aim for the moon, and you'll land amongst the stars. Unfortunately, when we do land amongst the stars, We don't see it as enough. We're like, well, this wasn't the moon. I wanted to land there and here I am amongst these beautiful stars, but it's, it's not enough. And so we really have to pull back and we really have to, to be honest and kind of look at ourselves and say, what's really important?

What can I prioritize? How can I start small and then build on that? And this is one of the reasons why I don't like to share. 10 things you have to do for your, like, to start your day or like, these are the best things that you need to do every morning. It's because I don't want you to look at that list and think, this is overwhelming.

I can't do all those things. I don't have the resources, I don't have the support, or I don't have the time, or whatever the case may be. I want you to create habits that make sense to you. And yeah, there are gonna be some mindset blocks. There are gonna be some hurdles, there are gonna be some kind of unlearning of the go big or go home.

And we really need to start with the smaller foundation. This conversation with Candace was really interesting. It was really. Great to hear her perspective of how everything worked and how it shifted and what we thought we would start working on, or what she was originally thinking of, oh, this would be a good idea.

It really turned into something. More meaningful and it, it's a really lovely conversation and I'm glad that it's in the top 10.

I am pretty sure in this episode as well, I talk about some of the other conversations that I've had with other clients. So if you do listen to this ninth most popular episode and you're like, oh, these are cool, I'd love to know more about that process and what other people have experienced. You can check those out.

[07:58] #8 Episode 173: Small Actions that Created BIG Impact

Let's continue with our countdown for the eighth most popular episode of the Women's Empowerment Podcast, which is episode 173. Small Actions that created Big Impact in only 21 days. So this is another fantastic episode. Of course, I'm gonna thank all of the episodes are fantastic, but I love this one, especially because it was something that.

I thought I would do again, I wanted to change things up. I wanted to do things a little differently. So with this episode, we are speaking with or listening to. Seven of the over 100 women who have participated in the 21 Day Healthy Habit Challenge. Now, early last year, I created the 21 Day Healthy Habit Challenge, and I called it Elevate Your Life.

And it's actually evolved now to, well from Elevate your life to just the 21 Day Healthy Habit Challenge because that was easier for people. And I've actually created a. Self-paced course called Transform Your Habits, and it is now available for purchase. what's different about the self-paced course is that you can really do it anytime.

So with the 21 Day Challenge, I only hosted it for a few times a year, and if you weren't available, To do it with us live or if you wanted to start late, you were kind of missing out on some of the things. So after running, I think I've run four or five of these in the last kind of year or two. Over a hundred people have participated.

I made it better each time, and I learned so much more each time and I learned that there were a lot of themes and I was able to put these into these little micro lessons. So even though it's technically 21 days of content, all of the little videos that I share are under a minute. There's also a lot of amazing extra bonuses.

So if you have done the 21 Day Challenge before, or maybe you haven't, but you've listened to this episode and you're like, I need this, you can go to valerie levine life.com/challenge and you can access the Transform Your Habits course. So I'm really excited that it is available. I am not running any more live 21 day challenges at.

At least for the time being, I won't be. I'm really excited to still offer something very close minus the, the live aspect of it. So there's a lot there that, you can work with and you can do it at your own pace. So maybe you do it in 21 days, maybe you do it in 90 days. You can take your time. This episode was the first episode of this kind that I've done. Now there are, again, a few more episodes where I've spoken to other 21 day challengers who have shared their stories, and so it's cool that this was kind of the first one. We tried something different and we had seven beautiful stories of.

These women who participated in this challenge and the transformation that they were able to cultivate in only 21 days. Now, what I love is that I kind of take you through how the 21 day challenge works. Now, mind you, it is a little bit different now that it is a self-paced course. However, the results don't have to be different.

The results can be. Just as transformative when you're doing something self-paced and know that if you listen to the 10th most popular episode about discipline and rules and boundaries, that could even support you in really getting the most out of that self-paced course. So I'm very excited that this is in the top 10 as well.

We go on this little journey of how the. Challenge was created. What kind of is involved in the challenge? How these wonderful humans, were able to participate. How they showed up, what they learned through those 21 days. And it was really cool. I think the one thing that I am definitely gonna miss about the self-paced course versus the live course was that I was really in there with you and really supporting you.

Now, that being said, when you go to the sales page of the Transform Your Habits course, you'll see that there are options for us to work together. There are options for us to be a little more connected. So again, it's can be self-paced. You do you, you know I'm there on the screen, but if you do want that extra handholding, if you do want that, Extra support and accountability.

There are options to upgrade your course there. They talk about what their favorite things were, what they learned, and what challenges they overcame. It's really nice because it's one of those things where like if I tell you the story, you know, they're like, oh, okay, cool. That's a good story.

But if it's coming from them, it's just, it's so much more. I think impactful, I think it's so much more meaningful. So I'm very grateful to the women who shared insights, who shared their experiences, I'm excited for you to listen to this episode.

[13:03] #7 Episode 133: Elevating Your Morning Routine

The seventh most popular episode of the Women's Empowerment Podcast is episode 133, and it's called Elevating Your Morning Routine. This episode features one of my favorite people, Alexandra Panagoulia of Batch Beauty Lab, and Alexandra is just like such a ray of sunshine and so calming. She has this beautiful.

Energy and I'm really excited that she was able to share these things because when you follow her online, she really does walk the talk. She really does embody the things that she believes in and talks about and shares in such an organic way. And her product line is incredible.

She has face oils and body oils, and She really caress about what she does and she really has this attention to detail. She shares her morning routine and how it's evolved and the impact that it's made in her life and how she's been able to, to grow and to show up as a better person because she really prioritizes this. Morning routine. She talks about herself and her passions and, and her business and how she makes the time for these things and how we kind of celebrate how the journey doesn't always look linear.

There is a lot that's going on and. there's growth and transition sometimes in a really short amount of time, but it doesn't mean that the things that are important to you aren't still priorities in your life. This is a little bit of an older episode, so so much has changed since then, but if I can remember correctly, this was one of the top episodes of the year, and I'm pretty sure.

I had Alexander back on the show for our, holiday party. So if you don't already know, the very last episode of the year is a holiday party and it is a countdown, which is why I don't think I've done a top 10 episodes of all time. I think I only have done top five episodes of the year every year.

Again, if you're looking for more content, but you don't know where to start. This could be a good starting point and then any of the holiday party episodes, to really see how this show has changed over the years.

We talk about daily consistent action and how you could really elevate your morning routine overall. I'm super excited for you to listen to this episode. You can go to valerielavignelife.com/243 to get the access to this episode, as well as all of the other top 10 episodes of all time.

[15:37 ] #6 Episode 140: 10 Ways to Show Up for Yourself

The six most popular episode of the Women's Empowerment Podcast is episode 140 10 Ways to Show Up for Yourself. So this is one of my solo shows where I dive into 10 practices or 10 different ideas for how you can really connect to you, how you can really step into your power, step into the feeling of enoughness and worthiness.

And I do have a little bit of chills remembering this episode and kind of going back to it because it's powerful when we can really show up for ourselves, when we can really build trust with ourselves and we can really step into this light and this power. Like I just have full body goosebumps right now talking about this.

When we do that, we not only. Allow ourselves to attract miracles and live a life of meaning and purpose and impact, but we also give the people around us permission, give the people around us permission to. Live the life of their dreams to live that life of purpose and freedom and meaning.

These are such important practices to really get into, to really embody and me looking back on this episode even was just such a reminder. I'm gonna get a little teary here. I have been. On this really interesting journey these last few months and I don't know where the next few months are taking me.

And I was speaking with a friend who said, you're in the goo phase. You're in this goo phase of the butterfly. And I was like, what the heck are you talking about? And she was saying that she learned that when a caterpillar is on its way to transforming into a butterfly, it turns into complete goo. It's like an unrecognizable blob of, of actual goo, and then that chrysalis forms and all the things are happening, and that goo is in the chrysalis, and then they come out as this beautiful butterfly.

So there's this huge transformation at the end, and that's really how I feel. I feel like I'm in this go phase, and if you listen to the show or if you know that I like to teach connecting to feeling, how do you wanna feel? And so even though I'm in this kind of limby, gooey phase of my, my journey, I do still have intentions.

I do still set the intention of. Being present. That's my intention lately, is that I don't know what's gonna happen. I can't change what has happened, but I can be present to where I am and I wanna be present. I've shared this, on recent episodes. I wanna be present with the people around me.

I wanna be present in the things that I'm doing. I wanna be present in the conversations. I'm gonna be present here with you. And I wanna be present when I'm eating and all the things, and. And I know that for myself as much as this goo phase, there's a lot of unknowns. It's a little bit scary.

I have no idea what, what butterfly I'm transforming into on the way out. I do know that, there is a purpose for this. There is a reason, , I know it's hasn't been revealed to me yet, but I am very excited to. To be the witness of this part of the journey and, and to hopefully one day share my butterfly story, if that's what it ends up being.

Maybe I'm gonna turn into something else, but I am excited to, to one day say, Hey, remember that episode where I was like, I'm a butterfly and I'm gooey, and here I am. This is the transformation. So here we are together on this journey. I'm really excited that this is, again, one of the top 10 episodes.

Really love this. Really love this for you. Really love this for me. Really love this for the community, and I just want to, Highlight number three of the top 10 ways to show up for yourself, or the 10 ways to show up for yourself, which is allow yourself to feel all the feels judgment free. And I just kind of stumbled upon that one and it really just stuck out to me today.

And it's because I'm, I'm in it. I'm in the feels, I'm in the feelings and. It's so easy for us to judge ourselves I should be happy. I should be doing this. What am I doing here? Why am I upset? Why am I sad? Why do I feel gooey? Be present with your feelings. They are feelings. They're not facts. You do not have to judge them.

We are humans. We make mistakes. We get confused. We don't have to know all the answers. I certainly don't. Allow yourself to be, to cry if you need to, to laugh out loud, if you need to, to take a moment to pause and just breathe if you need to.

[21:13] #5 Episode 102: Choosing Courage Over Fear

Number five is episode 102, choosing Co Courage Over Fear. And this features my very dear friend Tasha Romanelli.

And. This is actually one of those cool episodes where it's, it's quite an older episode of the show and when I used to interview guests, I had them really go through like longer stories of their life. And as much as I really did enjoy listening to those stories, what I recognized was that the episodes were quite lengthy and.

Of course, we love the stories. Clearly this is one of the top five episodes of the show. However, in terms of my time and, and energy with editing and being able to stay on topic and, and offer you really what I wanted the show to do, which was to give you actionable steps. I found ways to.

Still include storytelling, just not in like an hour long episode. So the, this episode is a little bit longer. However, it is an exceptional one, and Tasha really does, really does hold the room and hold the space and hold your attention with how she speaks and, and her voice and her skill in intuition and, and, Healing.

It's just you have to listen to the episode. It's an energy, and again, this doesn't surprise me that this is the fifth most popular episode. The fourth most popular episode is episode 164, and it's called Manifest Your Goals with Mindfulness. This one is featuring Junielle Rosher. Now, what I wanted to say before I get into what this episode is about is that at the time of this recording, Junielle was going by Elle and there's this really beautiful.

Story or kind of transition to reclaiming her name that she shares in the holiday party episode of this year, because she was of course one of the top five episodes of the year, and I reached out to her and I said, Hey, I'd love to have you back on the show in some capacity to celebrate that you are one of the top episodes.

Would it be okay if you shared your reclaiming of your name because. A lot of people will probably listen to the episode and wanna find her and not be able to find Elle Rosher online, but they will be able to find Junielle and so. I'm gonna also link to that episode in the show notes page for you, the holiday party episode, so you can listen to that reclaiming of her name.

But before that, we talked about manifesting your goals of mindfulness. I love manifesting. I love mindfulness, and a lot of the times we don't really integrate the two together, and I think this is because when we're manifesting, we're so. Big picture. We're looking so far ahead, we're looking at that bigger goal, and yeah, of course we're connecting to the present moment in terms of like, what can we do today to bring it forward?

But are we really being mindful in that moment or are we just doing it because we're thinking of the future? And so this is a great episode for anyone who has feelings of anxiety or just a forward thinker, a very futuristic person. I know that my mind is. Very much in the future. And what I also know is because of that, or sometimes because of that, I lose sight of where I am right now.

And it's not all the time. I, I'd have to remind myself, we'll say, to bring me back to here, the here and the now, while still keeping the goal in mind and the dreams. That I have for the future in mind. So without losing your dreams, you can still be present in the moment. And June Neal does a wonderful job of, of explaining this to us through this conversation.

[22:45] #4 Episode 164: Manifest Your Goals with Mindfulness

The fourth most popular episode is episode 164, and it's called Manifest Your Goals with Mindfulness. This one is featuring Junielle Rosher. Now, what I wanted to say before I get into what this episode is about is that at the time of this recording, Junielle was going by Elle and there's this really beautiful.

And it's not all the time. I, I'd have to remind myself, we'll say, to bring me back to here, the here and the now, while still keeping the goal in mind and the dreams. That I have for the future in mind. So without losing your dreams, you can still be present in the moment. And Junielle does a wonderful job of, of explaining this to us through this conversation.

[25:16] #3 Episode 167: Ways to Love Yourself Deeply

The third most popular episode of the Women's Empowerment Podcast is episode 167, and it's called Ways to Love Yourself Deeply and honestly, my heart is so full that these. S like the top five episodes are very much conversations and not just solo episodes, and I love that because part of why I created the Women's Empowerment Podcast is because I wanted to share the voices of women.

Now, the show didn't start off as conversations with other people or guest episodes. It started off as just me because I was learning and I was growing, and I was understanding how to love myself deeply. And feel the confidence that I needed and the courage that I needed to reach out to incredible humans like Blair, who is featured in this number three episode number top three episode.

And Blaire has such a great voice for podcasts. She is calm and intentional. She speaks with such purpose. Power and importance, and she talks about purpose and power and importance of different practices for, for really surrounding ourselves with love and with self-love. And I know that this is an episode for me that I come back to because it's just like, Ooh, goosebumps.

Like I, I said to Blaire. You need to have like an affirmation deck or something. You have, you have such wisdom through your words. And she has a beautiful story and a beautiful voice and this incredible conversation. So I really recommend listening to episode 1 67 along with all of these other episodes that we've talked about today, and you can find everything you need in the show notes page at valerielavignelife.com/243

[27:15] #2 Episode 188: Prioritizing Yourself is Not Selfish

The second most popular episode of the Women's Empowerment Podcast is called Prioritizing Yourself is Not Selfish. It's episode 188 and again, like I'm beaming that this is one of the top top 10 and top. Five episodes because this features a client of mine. Her name is Kaylie. And Kaylee is exciting and she is grounding and she is unique in such a cool way.

She is a circus performer. She is an artist. She has become a really great friend of mine. We actually met. Traveling and we met at this meditation retreat in the middle of Guatemala. Like it was just, she's magic. She's absolute magic. She has had me in awe since the day that I met her, and I'm so grateful for, for social media, for this podcast, for us to be connected in this way and to continue to grow our friendship and connection.

And I loved working with Kaylie. So we did a lot of work through the. 21 Day Healthy Habit Challenge, which as I mentioned earlier today or early, early in this episode, that the 21 Day Healthy Habit Challenge has transitioned or transformed into a self-paced course called Transform Your Habit. So I'm gonna link to that of course, as well in the show notes page.

This episode is Kaylie's perspective of how us working together has really helped her find routines and rituals through her very. Different. And when I, again, when I met her, she was living a little more of a nomadic lifestyle, but her and I are really similar in the sense that we both were like routine, Ew, no, no, no.

We're not doing the same thing every day. That's boring. And so I'm really excited to, I. To have been able to have worked with her and for both of us to then experience the power of ritual, the power of intentions, the power of routine, and how it actually doesn't make our life boring at all. And it really helps us understand who we are and understand how we can grow as humans and evolve into.

The better versions of ourselves or into the more caring and self-loving versions of ourselves. And part of that journey is prioritizing yourself and knowing that that's not a selfish thing for us to do because it really shares or really spreads and it really gives permission to the people around us.

Great episode. I'll say no more. So you can listen to, listen to the goods.

[30:01] #1 Episode 168: Building Trust with Yourself

And the number one episode of the podcast. So this actually surprises me and it's still the number one episode after I think it's, well, for a long time now. It is episode 168 and it's called Building Trust with Yourself from Timid to Confident Series.

This is so interesting that this is the, the top episode. I'm very grateful again. I was asked to speak at a, a summit called From Timid to Confident, and I was approached by Coach Kasia, who I have never met before, and she's incredible. She's lovely. She put together this amazing summit of all of these speakers and after the summit she had sent me the recording.

Of our interview and she said, yeah, like feel free to share on your podcast if you like. And I thought, okay, great. And why this is unique is because this was not a recording originally for the podcast, but it was someone else interviewing me. And again, it's cool that not. All of these top 10 episodes have been solo shows, but shows where I get to interview other incredible women.

And now here I am being interviewed and sharing my full story. And again, this episode's kind of longer, but , it is the most popular one and I really share the. Experience that I went through of how I started the podcast, how I've really learned to grow in my own confidence and in my own self. And I mean, it's a great introduction I guess, of me.

If you are new to the show, this is a great place to start. But yeah, it was. It was so long ago that I'm having trouble remembering exactly what we talked about. 'cause I did not re-listen to it just yet. But it talks about like my story and the background of how I got into doing what I'm doing. And it's a little bit of a journey we went on to get here, but it's great. It's exciting. I'm so grateful that I had this opportunity to, to speak at this summit and to also share it with the show. With the Women's Empowerment Podcast and, and the community here that's listening this was the top 10 episodes of all time of the Women's Empowerment Podcast So far. We're just under 250 episodes. I wanna know what you want more of.

I obviously see what you really love, but what you want, what do you want more of, or what haven't you heard yet that you really wanna see or hear? Share it with me in the comments of this video or on Instagram, and I would love to connect with you. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you so much for all your listens, your shares, your reviews.

They mean so much to this show, and I'm excited for the growth that there is to come in the next, hopefully more, more than 200 episodes in the future.

Podcast Host

Valerie LaVigne

Valerie is the creator and founder of Valerie LaVigne Life and the Women's Empowerment Show. She helps busy and empowered women create healthy habits so that they can become the best version of themselves and transform their lives. Learn more about Valerie here!