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Be Freaking Awesome Podcast

Be Freaking Awesome Podcast

By: Angela Belford & Sami Kinnison
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Tired of surface-level conversations and sugar-coated advice? You’re in the right place.


Be Freaking Awesome is not your average personal growth podcast. Hosted by Angela and Sami, an insightful mother-daughter duo with a gift for keeping it real, this is the space where authenticity, emotional intelligence, and radical self-awareness come together.


We’re not here just to inspire you. We’re here to equip you with tools, stories, and soul-level truths that will help you grow in the real world, not some Pinterest-perfect version of it.


Each week, we open up the real stuff: the messy middles, the limiting beliefs, the grief we never processed, the boundaries we were never taught to hold, and the dreams we’re still afraid to say out loud. From navigating burnout and setting healthy boundaries to healing your relationship with money and learning how to sit with hard emotions, we go deep and we do it with compassion, humor, and zero judgment.


This show is especially for the big-feeling, high-achieving, people-pleasing, growth-obsessed folks who are ready to stop pretending they’ve got it all together and actually start living aligned. If you've ever said, “I know there’s more for me,” or “I’m tired of carrying all this alone,” this podcast was made for you.


We bring two generations of experience, two distinct but complementary perspectives, and one shared mission: to help you stop settling, start healing, and live a freaking awesome life.


You’ll hear from a mix of powerful guests including trauma-informed financial coaches, creatives who turned pain into purpose, and business leaders with heart. We also share solo and co-hosted episodes where we dive into our own struggles and triumphs from the therapy room to the boardroom to our own kitchen table.


We’re not into quick fixes or perfectionism. We’re into progress, emotional regulation, nervous system safety, redefining success, and showing up with more courage, joy, and clarity than you ever thought possible.


No matter where you are on your journey, whether you’re starting over, in transition, building something bold, or just feeling a little lost, we’re here to remind you that you are not broken, you are not too much, and you are capable of far more than you’ve been led to believe.


Take a breath. Hit play. And get ready to do the deep work of becoming who you were always meant to be.


This is your space to grow, heal, laugh, cry, question, and transform. Because life’s too short to settle for anything less than freaking awesome.

© 2026 Be Freaking Awesome Podcast Hygiene & Healthy Living Personal Development Personal Success Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Social Sciences
Episodes
  • EP218 When Your Brain Goes Negative Before You Even Have a Reason

    EP218 When Your Brain Goes Negative Before You Even Have a Reason
    Apr 21 2026

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    You didn't do anything wrong. Your brain just got there first.

    That's the thing about automatic negative thoughts: they don't wait for evidence. They don't ask permission. Something happens, and before you've had a single conscious thought about it, your brain has already decided: of course this went sideways. Nobody ever comes through. Something is wrong with me. And then you feel bad about feeling bad, which is its own whole thing.

    In this episode, Sami and Angela wrap up an accidental three-part series on how your brain actually works, following conversations on metacognition and cognitive distortions, by landing on the concept that ties it all together. We dig into:

    • What an automatic negative thought actually is (and why it's not the same as pessimism)
    • Where these thoughts come from and what seeds them
    • Why "just choose a better thought" is not as easy as it sounds (and what to do instead)
    • How to recognize when your brain is jumping to a conclusion that isn't yours
    • What it actually looks like to interrupt the pattern without judging yourself for having it

    Angela breaks down how these thoughts grow from deeper core beliefs, the weed whacker vs. the root analogy is going to stick with you. Sami brings her factory metaphor to explain why the machine itself shapes the output, and why understanding that changes everything. They also talk about the spotlight effect, a story about a speaker who got a standing ovation and still thought she bombed, and the one thing that actually interrupts an automatic negative thought in someone else.

    You're going to walk away with language for something you've probably experienced a hundred times and never had a name for. That's half the work. Once you can call it out, you're already ahead of it.

    Press play. Your brain is not broken. It's just been running the same loop for a while, and this episode is a good place to start changing that.

    Mentioned in this episode:

    • The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk - besselvanderkolk.com
    • Atlas of the Heart by Brene Brown - brenebrown.com/book/atlas-of-the-heart
    • Be Freaking Awesome by Angela Belford - bfreakingawesome.com
    • Loving What Is by Byron Katie (The Work / four questions) -- thework.com

    The 3rd Annual Family Business Forum is May 19 in Springdale, AR. A day built for family-owned businesses who want to communicate better, lead stronger, and actually enjoy working together. Sessions on communication, AI, and high performance, plus a panel, awards, and networking. Early bird tickets are $75 through April 30, then the price goes up. Grab your spot before May 1 at familybusinessnow.com.

    Support the show

    Sign up at bfreakingawesome.com to get the latest news, insights, and episodes straight to your inbox.

    Follow Be Freaking Awesome on Facebook, LinkedIn, Youtube, and Instagram.

    Let us know what questions you want to be answered and discussed by emailing us at podcast@bfreakingawesome.com.
    Show More Show Less
    30 mins
  • EP217 The Thought Patterns That Keep You Stuck (And How to Catch Them)

    EP217 The Thought Patterns That Keep You Stuck (And How to Catch Them)
    Apr 14 2026

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    You have somewhere between 6,000 and 60,000 thoughts a day. Nobody agrees on the number. But here's what most researchers do agree on: a significant chunk of them are negative, and a startling number are repeats from yesterday. Your brain is running the same playlist on loop, and a lot of those tracks were recorded a long time ago by a much younger version of you who was just trying to stay safe.

    Last week we introduced metacognition as the practice of watching your thoughts. This week, we get into what you'll actually find when you start watching. Cognitive distortions are the biased thought patterns that warp how we see reality, and they're not a character flaw or a sign that something is broken in you. They're patterns your brain got good at, often for very good reasons. Naming them is the first step toward not being completely at their mercy. In this episode, we dig into:

    • A clearer picture of what cognitive distortions actually are (and why calling them "distortions" doesn't mean you're broken)
    • All-or-nothing thinking: why high achievers are especially prone to this one
    • Catastrophizing: what to do when your brain fast-forwards to the worst possible outcome
    • Should statements: the sneaky way they disguise themselves as high standards
    • Labeling: why the words you use about yourself (and others) carry more weight than you think
    • Permission to be in-progress without labeling yourself as a failure for still working on it

    Sami shares the story of getting called to the principal's office in high school, expecting the worst, and finding out there was a snapping turtle in her car. Angela talks about the should statements she thought she'd healed from, only to realize she'd just changed the language ("I need to" and "I meant to" turn out to be the same trap with a different label). They catch themselves doing all-or-nothing thinking and overgeneralizing in real time, which is maybe the most honest advertisement for why this work matters.

    If you've ever told yourself you're bad at something after one rough moment, jumped to the worst-case conclusion when your boss asked to see you, or slapped a permanent identity label on yourself or someone you love, this episode is the one. These patterns feel true because your brain is very convincing. They're also not the whole truth.

    Press play. It's a little chaotic in there, but you're in good company.

    Mentioned in this episode:

    • EP216 — Metacognition: Thinking About Your Thinking (last week's episode in the series)
    • EP212 — Expectations vs. Agreements (referenced by Sami in the should statements discussion)
    • Liven App — nervous system support tool Angela mentioned: theliven.com
    • Be Freaking Awesom

    The 3rd Annual Family Business Forum is May 19 in Springdale, AR. A day built for family-owned businesses who want to communicate better, lead stronger, and actually enjoy working together. Sessions on communication, AI, and high performance, plus a panel, awards, and networking. Early bird tickets are $75 through April 30, then the price goes up. Grab your spot before May 1 at familybusinessnow.com.

    Support the show

    Sign up at bfreakingawesome.com to get the latest news, insights, and episodes straight to your inbox.

    Follow Be Freaking Awesome on Facebook, LinkedIn, Youtube, and Instagram.

    Let us know what questions you want to be answered and discussed by emailing us at podcast@bfreakingawesome.com.
    Show More Show Less
    37 mins
  • EP216 Thinking About Your Thinking

    EP216 Thinking About Your Thinking
    Apr 7 2026

    Send us Fan Mail

    You know that moment when you say something and immediately think, “Wait, where did that even come from?” Most of us brush right past it. This episode is about what happens when you don't.

    Angela and Sami are diving into metacognition: the skill of thinking about your thinking. It sounds deceptively simple. It's also the thing that makes every other communication and leadership skill actually work. If you've ever wondered why you keep reacting the same way even when you know better, this episode is going to give you some answers. In this episode, we dig into:

    • Why self-awareness and metacognition aren't the same thing (and which one most of us are actually missing)
    • The difference between reflecting on something after the fact and catching yourself while it's still happening
    • A four-question framework that can interrupt a thought spiral before it takes over
    • What it looks like to practice this skill in real, everyday moments

    You'll walk away understanding something that most people never learn to name, let alone use. And once you see it, you can't unsee it.

    Press play. This one's a foundation piece.

    Mentioned in this episode:

    • Loving What Is by Byron Katie: thework.com/loving-what-is-revised-edition
    • Traveling Light by Angela Belford
    • Tasha Eurich - research on self-awareness: https://www.ted.com/talks/tasha_eurich_increase_your_self_awareness_with_one_simple_fix

    The 3rd Annual Family Business Forum is May 19 in Springdale, AR. A day built for family-owned businesses who want to communicate better, lead stronger, and actually enjoy working together. Sessions on communication, AI, and high performance, plus a panel, awards, and networking. Early bird tickets are $75 through April 30, then the price goes up. Grab your spot before May 1 at familybusinessnow.com.

    Support the show

    Sign up at bfreakingawesome.com to get the latest news, insights, and episodes straight to your inbox.

    Follow Be Freaking Awesome on Facebook, LinkedIn, Youtube, and Instagram.

    Let us know what questions you want to be answered and discussed by emailing us at podcast@bfreakingawesome.com.
    Show More Show Less
    34 mins
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