The Jess Connolly Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Boundaries, Part 1 | Episode 121 Feb 03, 2022

Show notes

In this episode, Jess is leading us in a conversation all about boundaries.

We (Jess and Go + Tell Gals) get a lot of questions about boundaries for women on mission. After taking to Instagram and receiving an overwhelming response, it’s safe to say this is a topic of interest to our friends and followers. We’re so blessed for your openness, and want you to know that no matter your current relationship with boundaries, you are welcome here. If you have zero boundaries set in your own life, if you’re skeptical about setting boundaries, or if you’re the most boundaried human ever, you’re welcome here. It’s our hope that these episodes will address the challenges women on mission face with setting and honoring boundaries, give some Scriptural backing to boundary setting, and share some helpful resources.

In this episode, we walk through six points on boundaries:

Some boundaries will work for you, some won’t. Boundaries are specific to the person holding them.
Boundaries as defensive, not offensive.
Did Jesus set boundaries?
Access isn’t equity.
When is the right time to set a boundary?
Make Saying No Okay Again.

We’ve got about five more points to share on boundaries - stay tuned for part 2 of this conversation, coming soon!

If you want to spend some time digging into your own boundaries this week, download our free boundaries guide.

Also in this episode:

Anna and Caroline join for a brief chat about Map to More, Go + Tell Gals’ newest project! Map to More is a printed guide that will meet you right where you’re at, with questions, coaching strategies, Scripture, and action steps to help you define your path, clarify your calling, and make your next move. You were made for more. Learn more here.

Have you joined our community Facebook group? We dive deeper into topics shared on the podcast, we share about our products and exclusive discounts, and really - we just connect women on mission with one another. This community is free and it's waiting for you! Join here.

How Creative Women Find Peace with Morgan Harper Nichols | Episode 120 Jan 27, 2022

Show notes

In this episode, Jess starts by sitting down with the incredible Morgan Harper Nichols. (Seriously - she's so incredible that this is her third time on the podcast!) These two creative women talk about Morgan's current season and what it looked like to write her newest book (releasing Feb. 15), Peace is a Practice.

Just like we have to inhale breath to breathe out, we must be built up to encourage and lead others. This episode talks about how women can do that, since it’s not something someone else will do for us.

If you ever feel like:

you can't keep up
you crave space
you need some peace
you're called to be creative
you don't have enough energy
you need to set different boundaries to find peace

...then this episode is for you.

After Jess and Morgan's conversation wraps up, Jess shares a quick coaching session about boundaries to help you find peace.

What if our frantic search for self-care is because we give up ground we weren't meant to? What if we didn’t have to vacillate between leading and outpouring, and then sheltering and putting ourselves back together? What if we guarded our hearts appropriately all the time, we didn’t give away too much of our energy, and we kept the routines and rhythms that protect our soul as sacred?

Here are some things to help with boundaries that lead to more peace:

Get rest consistently.
Know your rule of life.
Identify boundaries and keep them.
Buy Rhythms of Worship + Work

Did you hear our ad about Go Teams? If you're a woman called to Writing, Small Business, Podcasting, or Ministry, and you could use some help getting started or getting unstuck, Go Teams are for you. You'll get 6 weeks of online group coaching sessions, a community of women to run with, and resources to help you take your next step. Join the Go Teams Waitlist.

If you found Jess's quick coaching on boundaries helpful, download our free resource to help you with your boundaries and tune in to next week's episode, all about boundaries.

Your Year Matters | Episode 119 Jan 20, 2022

Show notes

Welcome to the first Go + Tell Gals podcast episode of 2022! This one's got a few moving parts, but hang through it - we think it's very helpful.

Please listen to our announcement right at the beginning. Kennesha is obediently stepping into something new and beautiful that God has asked her to, which means stepping down as a co-host from the podcast. We're so grateful for how she has led powerful, engaging conversations over the past 9 months and shifted this podcast (and all of GATG) for the better. She's accessing her God-given desire and is creating space for what He has called her to - and nothing could be more on-brand or beautifully connected to GATG than that. Join us in rallying around our friend Kennesha and praying for her as she moves in obedience. Follow along with her on Instagram to keep up with what's next.

Now, into the episode - a coaching session from Jess and a Q+A to help start our year off on the right foot. We need a more comprehensive, intentional, spiritually-awake, and intelligent plan to move into this year with victory, compassion, gentleness, and tenacity. We could just hide our head under the pillow and say, “I can’t even”, but that is not what this season is begging of women on mission. Your life, your God-given gifts, your community, and your relationship with God are worth more than a flippant start to this year. These all deserve and require reflection and intention.

The good news: God is mighty in us. He generously gives wisdom to His daughters, and He has placed us where we’re at - even in this year, on purpose, for the good of others and the glory of God. So in this episode, we’re going to hold all of the tension - with all of the hope. Honestly, we're grateful that it’s not commonplace to start a year pretending like it’s always going to be our best year yet.

Your year matters. Let's act like it, and do/ask these 4 things:

Go back to the last thing God told you to do.
What is not making you stronger?
How can you adjust your pace, your plan, your perception of fruit and still be obedient to what God has called you to?
Insert delight + abundance.

Also mentioned in this episode:

The Breaking Free from Body Shame Bible study is here! Get the five-video series (over 2 hours of content) and/or 50-page study guide to help you break free from the broken beliefs we all hold about our bodies that hold us back from our fullest life. Get the study, get a group together, and get ready to break free. Order the Bible study here.

Finish Well, Start Strong: Personal Goal Setting | Episode 118 Dec 30, 2021

Show notes

Tomorrow we mark the dawn of a new year, and we love starting a new year with purpose and intention. As we gear up for the gift of another year ahead, we want to be intentional about finishing well and starting strong.

This episode wraps up our three-episode series, Finish Well, Start Strong. We're completing the series with a conversation about personal goal setting as we embark on a new year. Jess and Kennesha ask and answer questions like:

Does goal setting and vision casting even work?
What are different forms of goal setting/vision casting that we can try?
Why do we set goals?
What happens when our goals don’t come to fruition?

Whether you're the world's biggest goals girls or if talk of goal setting make you queasy, this episode is for you.

Dig in deeper with our Finish Well, Start Strong guide, found here! We made this brand new, FREE resource just for our podcast gals. We pray these resources (this series + the guide!) leave you feeling hopeful that you can finish 2021 well and start 2022 strong, because God is mighty in you and in the year ahead.

Our other favorite goal-setting resource mentioned in this episode: PowerSheets by Cultivate What Matters!

Finish Well, Start Strong: Vision Casting + Goal Setting as a Family | Episode 117 Dec 23, 2021

Show notes

We're just a few days away from Christmas, and a week away from 2022. As we gear up for the gift of a new year, we want to be intentional about finishing well and starting strong - and today, we're doing that with a family mindset.

In this episode specifically, Jess talks with her husband, Nick, about how to lead a family, team, or group through a vision casting/goal setting session. We’re talking:

How to squash limiting beliefs
How to invite others into thinking about their future with intention
How to live as people of agreement instead of accountability
How to have a family vision session
Plus - a few fun family secrets along the way

Finish Well, Start Strong: Count the Fruit + Catch a Vision | Episode 116 Dec 16, 2021

Show notes

Can you even believe we've got just two weeks left in 2021?! As we gear up for the gift of a new year, we want to be intentional about finishing well and starting strong.

We're starting a new three-episode series for that exact purpose. For the next three weeks, we'll ask:

How can we end this year well and start the next one with strength?
What do we do if we’re overwhelmed and exhausted from the last two years?
How do we catch vision for what’s ahead?

In this episode specifically, Jess and Kennesha talk about counting the fruit of all that happened in 2021, and catching a vision for all that's to come in 2022. Come with us as we reflect with gratitude and look ahead with intention.

Ask Us Anything, Friendship for Real Women Series | Episode 115 Dec 09, 2021

Show notes

Friends! In this episode, we're wrapping up our 4-episode Friendship for Real Women series. Jess, Anna, and Caroline (from Team Go + Tell Gals) are on the podcast together for the first time ever answering all YOUR real questions about friendship. We asked on Instagram and received an overwhelming outpouring of questions, centered mostly around:

How to actually make friends
Balancing input and energy in friendships
Setting and communicating boundaries in friendships
How to have life-giving friendships and how to handle a lack of depth in friendships
Handling hurt, pain, and betrayal in friendships
How to let friendships go when it’s time

If you're a mom with teen kids, a married woman, or a newly graduated single gal - this episode is for you. We're tackling these friendship questions from the perspective of all of these life stages. We hope this real-life insight encourages you wherever you're at in your friendships, and keeps you going when seasons feel difficult. We've so enjoyed digging into this important (but often neglected) conversation within this community. If you haven't already, make sure to listen to our three other Friendship for Real Women episodes! And if you're looking for other women on mission to process with, join our community group on Facebook! Who knows, you might even just make a new friend.

Grateful for you, friends. We're so glad we get to run alongside you as you go and tell the good news.

A Friend for The Seasons | Episode 114 Dec 02, 2021

Show notes

Our Friendship for Real Women series continues! Join Kennesha Buycks and her friend, Carla Haskins as they talk about what it looks like to be friends through many different seasons of life. In this episode, listen in on an honest conversation about what it means to be a friend and how real relationships take time.

Join Kennesha and Carla as they answer authentic friendship questions like:

What does friendship actually mean?
How does friendship actually develop and become meaningful? How do you take a friendship from life-giving to life-changing?
How do you press past a season where a friendship might hit a tough patch or you don't see eye to eye? How does the gospel empower us to keep going?
How has friendship empowered you while you run on mission?

We're so grateful to Carla for joining us and vulnerably sharing what friendship means to her.

We’re so excited about this series because we were made to be in community. Share about it with your friends, or join in the conversation with other mission-minded women in the Go + Tell Gals community Facebook group. Who knows - you might just spark a new friendship!

You might have heard Kennesha talk about her shop, Restoration House. Be sure to visit and shop beautifully curated goods for your home and life.

We love you and commission you to go and tell the good news, in Jesus’ name.

Calling on a Friendship Expert with Danielle Bayard Jackson | Episode 113 Nov 25, 2021

Show notes

Friends! And you know we don't use that word lightly...

This is the second episode in our Friendship for Real Women series - and we're calling in an expert.

Danielle Bayard Jackson, a certified women's coach, focuses primarily on female heteronormative friendship and communication. She conducts surveys, creates research-based strategies, and teaches women how to have better relationships with one another. Out of her love for all things female friendship, she founded Friend Forward, a digital community that provides coaching, research articles, and connection events for women looking to create and maintain true friendships. She's changing women's lives through her gift of coaching, and we're so grateful for how she's paving the way for women on mission to dig deep together.

In this episode, Danielle helps us dive in head first, answering questions like:

- Is friendship hard for everyone? Do all of us feel like we’re the only ones who never quite figured it out?
- Why does it seem like women especially struggle with friendship? Where are we going wrong?
- How do we define friendship? Is the definition different from woman to woman?
- How can we readjust what hanging out looks like to maximize the time we have?
- How do we communicate expectations and find balance in our friendships?
- How do we handle 'friendship breakups'?
- And more! (Seriously, this is a power packed episode.)

We're so grateful for Danielle's generosity in sharing with us. There's no blueprint for friendship - no one has laid it out or given us a guidebook, so we're grateful to have a friend who's doing just that.

We’re so excited about this series, because we were made to be in community. Share about it with your friends, or join in the conversation with other mission-minded women in the Go + Tell Gals community Facebook group. Who knows - you might just spark a new friendship!

You might have heard Jess mention Good Body Gals and the incredible "Freedom Friday" deal happening there. Get a yearlong membership to Good Body Gals, plus the Body Shame Detox e-course, for $100 ($167 value). Click here to be one of the first to claim!

We love you and commission you to go and tell the good news, in Jesus’ name.

Friendship for Real Women | Episode 112 Nov 18, 2021

Show notes

Friends! And we actually mean it when we say friends. (Segue into today's episode...)

Today we're so excited to launch a brand new podcast series - Friendship for Real Women. We know that we're created for community, so why do so many of us women struggle to experience abundance in our friendships? Over the course of the next four episodes, we're diving in deep. We may not have all the answers, but we want to ask the questions and process with you. We'll talk with each other, some experts, and some real-life friends in hopes of spurring us all on toward deeper, more fruitful friendships.

In this episode, hosts Jess and Kennesha open this new series on friendship by speaking real words, telling real stories, and asking real questions, like:

Is friendship hard for everyone else? Do all of us feel like we’re the only ones who never quite figured it out?
What do we actually need from friendships as women on mission?
After the forming, there’s storming. What do we do when something goes wrong in a friendship?

We love you and commission you to go and tell the good news, in Jesus’ name.

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