In this heartfelt conversation, Danielle sits down with non-denominational minister, coach, speaker, and podcast host Wendy Yacboski to explore what it means to live, connect, and contribute from a place of authenticity.

Wendy shares how her work supporting people through life’s most meaningful moments has shaped her compassionate approach to spiritual care, personal growth, and human connection. Together, Danielle and Wendy discuss the importance of looking within for validation, rediscovering dreams we may have set aside, and learning to trust the value of who we already are. They also explore the power of showing up consistently — not just for others, but for ourselves — and why safe, honest conversations and supportive communities can create meaningful change.

This episode is a gentle invitation to question what you believe about yourself, reconnect with your inner truth, and move toward a more authentic life — bit by bit.

The Shift Beneath the Words:

• Looking within for validation and self-worth
• Living more authentically
• Dreams can be rediscovered and reignited
• Showing up for yourself as consistently as you show up for others
• The power of safe, supportive community and deeper conversations

They discuss the value of creating spaces where people can be vulnerable, ask questions, connect authentically, and talk about what is really happening beneath the surface. Rather than leaving people isolated behind superficial conversation, safe communities can create belonging, compassion, and meaningful personal change.

About Wendy Yacboski:

Loving to learn, grow, and share what she learns, Wendy most values opportunities life consistently presents for authentic, richer, more fulfilled living. Trained and practiced in New Thought principles and various studies for well over two decades, Wendy believes we are powerful beyond what many have been raised to believe, that we are born with our own affinities of talent and ability for the purpose of not only our own life fulfillment, but to help others. In this, Wendy provides support through speaking, teaching & coaching, ever validating and supporting the power of choice to create greater good for all.

Connect with Wendy:

Website: https://weddingceremonyvancouver.ca

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wendy-yacboski

Instagram: https://Instagram.com/coachrev8

Facebook: https://facebook.com/wendy.yacboski

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@sacredceremoniescommunity

If you're tired of hiding your brilliance behind stage fright, scripts, or playing it safe,

then you are in the perfect place. This is the Inspired Speaker Podcast, and I'm your host,

Danielle Benzon, professional rebel, voice coach, and your guide to speaking with confidence,

charisma, and zero BS. Around here, we don't chase perfection. We choose connection.

So grab a hot beverage, warm up those vocal cords, and get ready to fall wildly in love

with the sound of your voice. Let's get inspired. Welcome, everyone. I am so excited for today's

guest. Today is the wonderful, the weird, the wacky, the wise, Wendy Yacboski. She is a

non-denominational minister, a dear friend. She has her own podcast on the Inspired Speaker's

Podcast Network, The Awakening Woman on the Rise. She is so full of insight, and wisdom,

and vulnerability, and compassion. I am just so excited to have her on the podcast today.

Thank you so much for being here, Wendy. Oh, my gosh. Thanks so much for inviting me,

Danielle. It's a wonderful opportunity to be with you again and let people know more about

what I'm up to. Yeah, because people should know, because you're up to all sorts of things all the

time. Every time I see you, you're up to something new. So, Wendy and I go way back, and I want to

talk a little bit about why I invited her into the podcast network and what she's going to be

doing with her podcast, but I also want to talk a bit about what she does because it's really

interesting. So, let's start with, I know you work, I'm going to get it wrong, it's the Canadian

Mental Health Association. You do workshops there? Yes, I teach their program called Living Life to

the Full. It's an eight-week program of what I call life tools, life tools that sometimes we

never did learn, sometimes life tools that we knew but forgot in the craziness of life and

coping and managing, and it's a fabulous program. And so, you do that, you work with clients one-on-one,

you speak all the time, and you know, is the word minister? I don't know.

I'm sure it is. Is the word minister? Like, that's the verb, right? The word is minister,

the minister is the word. Okay, great. You minister to people, and you do ceremonies,

you know, you do marriages and births and deaths and all that kind of stuff. What's it like being

with people at those really important times in their lives? What's it like serving them

in those moments? Oh, my gosh, Danielle. In some ways, it's hard to put in the words

to accurately describe it. It's a feeling that I have of such privilege. And honestly, it feels

really good to me to be able to help them do something they don't know how to do, which is

to create the service, to remember or celebrate their loved one, or to welcome their newborn into

the world. Whatever it is, it's just such a privilege to feel like a part of a wonderful memory

that they are creating in celebrating the different parts of life.

And because you're non-denominational, I'm assuming it's not a cookie cutter thing,

you help people design around their spirituality, around how they feel. So, it's quite a kind of

boutique, personalized experience for every person, I imagine.

It absolutely is, yeah. And that's another pleasure that I get out of that. It isn't

cookie cutter, it's about the person, the people, the dream, you know, the joy.

What has been your favorite, and obviously, without giving away any personal information,

of course, but what has been your favorite experience to just be witness to with somebody?

I could speak to one wedding where the bride and the groom, it was on a golf course,

and the bride and groom came in on a horse-drawn cart, not cart, but carriage.

I mean, it's just, you know, I've done marriages on beaches, I've done

services in so many various places. It's a very, as you already use the word, personalized and

and varied way of doing what matters to each person or each family.

I think it's so important. It's so special. It's one of those moments you're going to remember

for the rest of your life. And so, having someone to help you design it and make it personal and not

just, you know, to make it, I don't know, I always think to make it something that is memorable and

personal as opposed to something big and flashy that, you know, might be cookie cutter, but

who cares if there's no personality to it, but it doesn't need to be crazy, 250 people, blah,

you know, it can just be something very meaningful to the people involved. I think that's really

beautiful. Absolutely. And, you know, Danielle, I just want to add something here, something about

not flashy and not about imposing beliefs on anyone else. One of the other things that I do

is spiritual care at an assisted living facility locally. And, you know, sometimes people can think

that spiritual care means, you know, trying to convert someone or trying to impose something

maybe spiritual on them. But the residents that I speak to, some of them want to talk about

about God or whatever that is for them, or some aspect of that. But to me, spiritual care

is about being with them, seeing them, spending time with them, validating them.

I think that one of the hardest places to be at that time in our life, or whenever it is,

is to be in a care residence. Because there are so many different beliefs about,

I don't know how much we really want to go into it, but some families or some family members

have a hard time going to a care residence to see their parent who isn't the same as them.

Yeah.

In the past. But most important to me is to validate the person just like it is the family

or whichever.

Yeah, I think that's so important. I mean, I had the privilege to help care for my dad

when he was on his way out. And it was so, wasn't there for the very end, but it was such a

privilege to be there. But it was very difficult because he wasn't the person that I remember.

And the relationship did shift and we chose to keep him home, which, you know, that's a personal

decision. I'm not saying, we were lucky that we could, that it was possible that we could.

But, you know, that brings its own challenges as well. And I love your approach to spirituality,

because I'm not, I don't think of myself as a spiritual person. And it's something I kind

of, I'm a little bit cautious about, but my experience of you is so compassionate and so

curious and so tolerant and so loving. There's no, there's no bigotry. There's no exclusive,

exclusiveness around it. I don't ever feel pressured when I'm talking to you. I just feel

like we can talk about stuff. We can talk about ideas. We can talk about

personal growth. And I find that very refreshing. So I think that's, that's something that's worth

noting is that whether you identify as spiritual or not, I think we all have a, we have a side of

us that is, you know, more, whatever that is. And it is important to be that side,

no matter what it's with. And if it can be done with love and tolerance and compassion,

that we don't need to exclude each other or judge each other in any way. I never feel judged by you

in any way, shape or form.

Yeah. You know, that feels so good, Danielle, because what you're saying really informs

who I am on the podcast as well. So most important to me is that each person listening,

I'm assuming that most of them, maybe not all of them are looking to find their personal validation

in time, right. But to be able to validate that each person has something very special and

wonderful about them, and not only special and wonderful, but intentional about them in terms of

their being here. That I really do believe that the more people can go, you know what,

I've got something to offer. And I value it. And I know that others can value from it.

And so I'm going to give it. And I think the world would, would definitely be a better place

if more truth, more authenticity, and I don't mean truth is in harsh truth. I mean, inner truth.

Yeah, true self could be expressed in the world, I think so many less people would feel judged,

labeled, avoided. You know, I really do believe that that the change in the world needs to begin

within each of us not to have 100 tons of pressure on us, but to bit by bit move forward

in, in the truth of who we are.

Living your truth. This is one of the many things that we have in common, one of the many

values that we have in common, which is why I invited you to join the Inspired Speaker Network,

because I believe so much in what you do. And I love the way you approach

the world and your coaching and your clients. So tell me a little bit about why,

why you said yes to starting a podcast.

I'm going to tell you a couple of things. And the first one surprised me, I'm just saying.

The first one was that when you actually at that point, you were telling me that you were getting

involved with podcasting in, in, in a meaningful way. And, and what you said to me, if you don't

mind me saying what I recall you saying, which was, you know, would you be interested or,

you know, not sure if you'd be interested. And then just something came over me. And I said,

I absolutely am interested, because I recalled a vision or I don't know if you'd call it a dream

that I had over some years of my life where I would watch television, and seeing someone being

interviewed on television. And I had a fantasy of myself doing that. And I thought, you know,

I could do that. And I want to do that. But as you know, I mentioned to you that was on television

then. So how do you get on television? So I shelved it, you know, I shelved the dream or the vision

until you came along, Danielle, in this moment with your with your podcast

network, and gave me the opportunity to say yes. And so that's the coolest thing. And I share that,

not just to to let you know about me or others know about me, but that,

that we have dreams that can be reignited. Like I didn't, I didn't search to do a podcast,

the podcast came to me. So I just want to it's just what I do. You know, I just want others to

know that that the dreams we've had can definitely come around again, and we'll have an opportunity

to give a different answer, which in my case was yes. And the other reason that I started the

podcast is that I spent so many years of my life searching outside myself for my validation.

I spent so many years believing that I wanted to have something to offer,

but I didn't really believe that it was there naturally, I felt that I needed to create,

not create someone else, but to be someone else other than who I was in order to succeed.

And it was a lot of years. And so my desire is to, to help women and anyone who

is in that place in their own life where they're, they are thinking, I do so much,

I'm working really hard. Why do I not feel satisfied? Why do I feel like I can't celebrate

myself? Why does it not even feel real? I'm just a doing. I want to help people know that

the outer reality, for lack of a better word, is not necessarily the inner reality.

And I also believe that not many people are taught to look within for their answers. It's always

about what somebody else is bringing to them, whoever it is, and whatever it is at what time

in life. So that is the other reason that I created it. I want to support people to recognize

what they're believing, be willing to question what they're believing, be willing to know that

there is a greater truth in them, and that they can be supported to move forward in it.

I love this. I love this. And I love that you are, you, you're kind of doing what you want to

help people do. You know, you're, you're, you're jumping on and you're, you're doing the scary

thing and you're, you're getting out there. And that's, that's part of what you're, you're

inviting other folks to do and just question and also recognize their value. You know, because

it's not always easy in the society we are in or the culture we grew up in to own that.

And I think you taking a stand for people, I'm really excited to see where this goes.

I'm really excited to see what you build because there is,

there's a lot of positive change that can come from those. They, they feel like small shifts.

They're not really, they're quite big shifts. And owning your self-worth is actually quite a

big shift actually, but they're internal and they're, they're not always, they're not always

dramatic. They're not always obvious on the outside, but those internal shifts, I think

if enough people have them, we can, we can change the world. And so I love what you're doing with

this. Was it, you're only, you're only into season two at the time of recording this,

you're only just starting season two of your podcast. How has the experience been?

Oh my God, Danielle. The experience of moving into the podcasting field.

Well, first of all and I trust everyone knows I'm not being paid to say this.

Danielle, if it wasn't for you, your vision, your support,

I don't think I'd be here on this interview with you. One of the things that I've learned through

you and through the beautiful, I say team, but the team of podcasters that are working together

is the support is absolutely incredible. And from you, the belief in each of us,

so I'll just own it for myself, the, the belief that you have in me. So both the support and

the belief you have me help me to keep going forward. I've done many things in my life where

something seemed like a good idea, or I thought I should do it or could do it, started, stopped.

And this is an incredible experience for me. It's, it's not only that I'm podcasting,

but how I'm growing inside, moving forward with this. So it, and you help, you help

make it, I won't, I don't know about easy, you make it easier. That's for sure.

But, and you're not asking me about the podcast network itself right now, but what I, I feel like

I want to say right now is that anyone who feels they have a message, they're feeling a little bit

unconfident, but they're willing to move forward. Joining you in the network is really going to

propel them forward to do things that they didn't think that they could ever do and getting their

message out. You know, again, I really believe that we're here on purpose. I don't think any of

us are accidents. Unfortunately, sometimes there's a whole bunch of crap to go through.

And sometimes it's about finding somebody that truly believes in us, that doesn't

have an agenda about what they want from us, that it's a win-win. It is truly a win-win.

And so what was that? I totally have an agenda. It just happens to be in alignment with yours.

Well, exactly. Okay. I get that for sure. But you know, but you know, so much, and I know we can't

talk about it a lot because that's not what this call is about, but there is a lot of agenda out

there that is a win-lose. That's true. And that's, what's different about this. And

so, yeah, it's a fantastic experience. Absolutely. And I look forward to moving forward in how it

both organically unfolds, but also vision unfolds.

I love what you said about we're all here on purpose. And I think that's part of this amazing

community that we've got, and hopefully that we will grow. I mean, this is the beginning,

right? This is the beginning of something, I hope, very big. This is a very intentional community.

Everyone who is in the network is here for a specific reason. They want to create positive

change. Everyone here is very tolerant, very curious, very compassionate. We're all growing

in our own ways. We're all vulnerable. We're all truthful. We're all committed to that inner honesty

and that integrity. We've all got that same thing. And when we're all come together,

and I could not have done this on my own. I mean, I'm so lucky that you all said yes,

because it created this beautiful, supportive environment that I haven't experienced in so long.

And I didn't realize it was something I was missing too. This has really fed my soul

as well, because, yes, we're all working very hard. But we're all working for a really good,

common goal. We're all doing it in our own ways, which is great. You know, there's not too much

outside. I mean, I have a few little things like, you know, I don't let people's grips

with that kind of stuff. But they're small. You know, they're all about being your authentic

self. It's all about helping you kind of connect more to who you are. My rules are all about being

more integrous and more authentic. And everyone is so supportive of each other. And there's so much

love and so much give and take and so much community and so much, I want to say companionship.

You know, I don't think any of us feel like we're doing this alone. You know,

not a day goes by, but there's some love going on in the chat. And someone's asking

some questions. You know, it's so beautiful. It's so, it just makes me all gooey.

And yeah, and you know, Danielle, I couldn't have imagined it until I became part of it.

You know, it's, I remember a friend I have who really didn't trust others to believe in her,

she thought that they wanted something. And it wasn't until I was consistently me,

that she came to think maybe she really means it. And so the reason that I'm sharing that is that,

that this network, in doing something that I think is new for the majority of us,

there really is, as you're saying, a connection with each other. And there's a part of us,

I believe, that knows we are here to make a difference together.

Yes. Yes. So, yes. And I can't wait to see this, this community grow intentionally.

In within the network, like we're going to bring more people into the network, more podcasters,

but also the audience, we're looking, we're always looking for ways to help the audience

interact with us more and, you know, find find spaces for comments and, and discussion,

because I think it's not just about the podcasters. We're the ones who are creating the content,

but it's about all of the listeners and everyone questioning and trying things out and suggesting

and that back and forth and that, that discussion that can stem the whole world because of the

internet. We can really spread this, this movement. It feels to feel very lofty to say movement,

but it is kind of, you know, we can spread this feeling of warmth and community and love and

we can, we can spread it all over the world and, and hold each other.

When maybe there isn't anyone nearby, maybe there isn't anyone in your neighborhood,

but we have this online network where we can hold each other and we can hold space for one another

and we can love each other and accept each other. And I think that is so important. And you said

something that really resonated with me. I, it took me a very long time to realize that I,

I wasn't very trusting in my relationships. It was very transactional, not in business so much,

but in like my personal relationships. And that you, that thing you said about, you know, it took

you showing up again and again as yourself and just being yourself. I think a lot of us have that

without even realizing we do. And for me that, that realizing that someone was always going to

be there, that their love wasn't conditional, that they were always going to be there. And

no matter how hard I tried to push them away, there was still going to be there and show up

as long as I showed up. And that, that shifted for me. I mean, that shifts about probably about 10

years old for me now, but it just occurred to me that we have to do that for ourselves as well.

That we have to consistently show up for ourselves. It's not just about proving to someone

that you're there for them on the good days and the bad. It's also proving to yourself that you are

here for yourself and that we are, you know, like I'm going to show up for myself. You're going to

show up for yourself. Each of each of us in this community, we're going to show up for ourselves

no matter what. Yeah. That's just, yeah. You know, you're reminding me of

an author that I've read on multiple occasions, Brock Tully, who's local in Vancouver here.

But he, in one of his books, I got the sense that if I'm not me,

who am I in relationship with? Who are they in relationship with? We want to be

ourselves as much as possible. Not perfect, because it's an ongoing process, but being

ourselves, as you're saying, is key to our relationships that are going to be fulfilling.

Yeah. Yeah. And also, yeah. And that consistency. Because I've been talking a lot about consistency

recently, about consistency, you know, in my business and showing up for people. But,

you know, what about my consistency for me? What about that? Oh, no. Oh, no. That's a

whole other level of personal growth I've just unlocked. There's more. There's always more.

Yeah. And yeah, bit by bit, Danielle, right? Bit by bit.

Yeah. Bit by bit. So, is there anything coming up that you want people to know about? I mean,

definitely go check out Wendy's podcast, The Awakening Woman on the Rise. She is so full of

so much insight. And as you can tell, it's this beautiful, gentle, insightful, little, little

pokes. I love it. You're so vulnerable in the way you share as well. It's a wonderful,

it's a wonderful, what's the word? Example to us all. But is there anything going on in your

world that you want people to know about? Actually, a little bit more about the

podcasting and the vision. And that is that the podcasts serve a particular purpose. And that is

for anyone who's listening to just to be able to have a gentle look,

a gentle question toward themselves, see if there's anything that they might be willing to

to see differently or do differently. If I have enough people that are interested in going

beyond the podcast, my intention is to create a community of people who are really interested to

work together to come to understand their authentic and real selves. So

that being said, that growing, then I will create a membership where there will be more opportunities

for either online group coaching, some kind of training. And I don't know, an idea that

I have in the back of my mind is one day maybe a retreat. That's in the future, but where

the whole thing is safety and transformation. I love that. Sign me up. I'm there.

I love spending time with you. I think that's great. So for those of you,

there may not be a link straight away, but look for one to join Wendy's community because it's coming

where we're working on it. So if there isn't one yet, just keep listening,

keep listening to the podcast. And there will a link will appear when it is time.

And there will be an invitation to join her community because that's definitely something

that I want to join. So I want to be there. And I think so many people will get just that,

that companionship and that gentle spiritual nurturing that you do.

I think so many people could benefit from that. So I'm very glad that you're building that.

Thank you for your support, Danielle.

It's such a pleasure. And I'm so glad that we're doing this. I'm so glad that,

we have these conversations so we can have these conversations in public now.

So everyone gets to enjoy them and participate. I want people to be adding their two cents and

asking questions that come up and I'm hoping people are commenting on these. I know it's

not always, depending on how you're listening to a podcast, it's not always easy to jump on

comments. But I hope that people can take the time because I think these discussions,

I'm hoping that we're talking about things that are worth talking about. That's kind of the idea.

So I'm hoping that these discussions are worth taking the time to find the right URL on your

phone or sit down on the computer and type something up. Because I think the more we

have these conversations, the more we examine ourselves in our lives, the more purposeful

our lives will be. I was just going to say that when it is like that, when it continues like that,

when there's more discussions like that, it becomes more like a new normal.

I want deep conversations to be part of, well, they are kind of part of my normal life,

actually, to be honest. Part of everybody's normal life. Instead of these vapid conversations

that can sometimes hide so much. Sometimes we have these surface level conversations and there's so

much going on underneath and that subtext can be so isolating. The difference between the surface

content of the conversation and what's going on underneath. I hope more people feel safe.

You need to be in a safe place, but we're doing our best to create a safe place here

in this community. I hope more people are working on creating more safe spaces so that we can have

those discussions and we can talk about if we're feeling isolated or lonely or sad or joyful.

Because sometimes joy is not accepted either. It's not just the bad stuff that there is no place for.

There's no place for joy and that is just unacceptable to me. We're going to have to

wrap it up, but Wendy, I'm putting you on the spot now. If you don't have anything, that's fine.

You always have so many wonderful quotes at your fingertips. Do you have a favorite quote

to share with us to send us on our way? Let me see if I can find something here.

Actually, maybe it's the quote that you and I did together on our last

episode six in season two, which was the one Joseph Campbell said that we need to

release or let go of the life we have in order to have the life that's waiting for us.

Say that again slowly. That we need to either release or let go of the life we have planned

for the life that is waiting for us to receive.

That's a good one. What can you release or let go of in order to receive something so much better

than what was planned? We talk about that quite a lot on Wendy's podcast. I was a

chatting person on your podcast. Right now, in time of recording, that is still in the future,

but we've recorded it already, but it hasn't been published yet. It's all so confusing,

but do check out Wendy's podcast, The Awakening Woman on the Rise. Thank you so much for being

here today. I'm just so stoked that you're part of this project with me. I can't wait

to see what happens. Thank you so much, Wendy. Same here. Thank you, Danielle, so much.