138. Decentering Romance & Defining Your Life Beyond Your Relationship Status with Khaylah Epps

Today we are excited to sit down with our friend, Khaylah Epps. She is the voice behind the podcast I Might Die Alone, and if you're a single woman, you're going to see a lot of yourself in Khaylah and how she is approaching romantic love in her life. In her podcast, she celebrates women who are defining their lives beyond their relationship status and dives deep into the dichotomy of wanting romantic love, but also not letting that absence consume us.

In this episode we talk to Khaylah about her journey of decentering romance in her life and what that has looked like for her. We talk about her desperate era and experience being on The Bachelor, her ultra independent era, and how she’s landed in her current gray era; finding a good balance between wanting a romantic relationship without letting that desire become the center of her life. Khaylah shares beautiful insight and advice about the difference between being single and being alone, why there shouldn’t be a hierarchy of relationships, and navigating friendships with people in all phases of life.

We're so excited for you to hear this episode and encourage you to check out Khaylah’s podcast, I Might Die Alone, if you enjoy or relate to this conversation!

What I'm challenging is the idea of obsessing over a romantic relationship and saying that it is the most important relationship for you to find in this lifetime. I just disagree with it. I think it's beautiful but I think so many other relationships are beautiful as well, and there should be no hierarchy. - Khaylah Epps


What We Talk About:

  • Traveling versus vacationing

  • Obsessed with: the age filter on Tik Tok & A Court of Thorns and Roses

  • Where this pressure to be in a relationship comes from

  • How to begin to decenter romance

  • Learnings from Khaylah’s desperate, ultra independence and gray eras

  • How to understand and uncover your patterns in therapy

  • Khaylah’s experience on The Bachelor

  • Building a community of female friendships

  • Navigating friendships in different life phases

Having really intimate romantic friendships is so important. A community of women has brought so much fulfillment to my life in the last three years that I've been single. I would not be able to survive without my girlfriends. - Raeann


Being in a relationship isn't like the end all be all. We need to stop at this linear definition of what is a happy partnership because that's different for everyone. - Kristina

New podcast episodes of Confident Collective drop every Tuesday.

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137. Ask Away: Dating Advice, Navigating Thin-Centric Culture & Social Media Confidence Tips

We're kicking off Leo season with a fun and fiery episode of The Confident Collective! We're totally crushing on some famous Leos, Kristina’s sharing what she learned in her insightful astrology reading highlighting how important it is to tune into your intuition and trust your gut. We're also spilling the tea on our latest obsessions - The Golden Bachelor & The Summer I Turned Pretty. But it's not just about us, we're also digging into YOUR questions. We're tackling relationship etiquette (what's up with boyfriends hogging first class?), sharing our thoughts on the trending ozempic and body size discussions, and giving our two cents on how to move on from a one-sided crush. Plus, we're sharing our secrets on how we muster the confidence to show up as our real, authentic selves daily on social media. So, get ready for a ton of laughs, real talk, and a dose of self-love!

We have to learn how to stop putting so much of our self-worth into the hands of other people. - Raeann

What We Talk About:

  • Welcoming in Leo Season with famous Leo’s we want to make out with

  • Kristina’s astrology reading takeaways

  • Tips for manifesting what you want & connecting to your own intuition

  • Obsessing over The Golden Bachelor & The Summer I Turned Pretty

  • Answering your questions!

    • Should I be annoyed that my boyfriend sits in first class when we travel without upgrading me, too?

    • How are you both handling this big boom of ozempic drug slash smaller bodies being trendy?

    • How do you let a guy go that you’re obsessed with but know is not into you?

    • How do you ladies find the confidence to show up as you are on the daily, IG, TikTok threads, so authentically you, and with such confidence? 


When you're fearing judgment, you're worried about what people are thinking of you that literally don't matter in your life. Because the people that matter, the people that care about you, that respect you, are going to be proud of your hustle, are going to be proud to see you trying something different and excited for you and hoping that you succeed. So you have to stop worrying about the thoughts of others who literally don't matter. - Kristina


New podcast episodes of Confident Collective drop every Tuesday.


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136. Going Deeper with Rosie On How Our Family Patterns Influence Our Confidence

It’s no secret that the patterns and behaviors that were modeled to us in our families growing up influences our confidence. Establishing the who, what, where and why of how we were raised is so important when you're trying to change patterns that are no longer serving you. In this conversation, Raeann, Kristina and Rosie talk about each of their own experiences growing up and the messages they received about confidence and body image. We talk about what helped instill confidence in us, what might be affecting us still today in how we feel about ourselves, and what we want to change for future generations.

We recognize that perfection isn’t the goal, and every generation before did the best they could within the culture they also were raised in. But it’s important to recognize that we have the power to reclaim what confidence looks like for us now. We hope this conversation will show that while we can’t control our past, we can break the cycle and show the next generation what confidence really looks and feels like.

“It's really important to have those dialogues with your families because I know I'm not the only one whose families comment on their bodies and make them feel a certain way. I think that you have to express how you feel, let it go, set your boundaries and then choose to ignore it because how they feel about themselves does not need to be a reflection on how you feel about yourself.” - Kristina

What We Talk About:

  • Raeann’s Croatia recap: going to a nude beach & vacation smooches

  • Nikolas starting preschool

  • Kristina’s Tahoe recap & accidental social media detox

  • How our parents positively influenced our confidence

  • Being a good role model as a parent 

  • Experiential confidence: how exposure growing up impacts our confidence today

  • Having different gender roles in the household affects you

  • Feeling vulnerable postpartum

  • Translating what we cognitively know to be true into our embodied experience

  • Lessons learned from how our moms talked about body image

  • Having a dialogue about what works and doesn’t for each person

  • Recognizing generational differences and creating our new norms

  • How Kristina helps her kids build confidence

New podcast episodes of Confident Collective drop every Tuesday.

“I don't want my progressions in life to be limited to the status quo of what is normal within, whether it be my family or my friendship circles or whatever. I've had to take time as an adult to be comfortable being an individual.” – Rosie

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