How to Navigate Tough Conversations With Authenticity

In episode 152 of The Empowered & Embodied Show, Kim and Louise explore the art of navigating difficult conversations while staying true to yourself. From intimate relationships to workplace interactions, they reveal what it takes to communicate with honesty, clarity, and compassion, even during emotionally charged moments.

They discuss the critical role of self-awareness, identifying personal triggers, and creating mental space to respond thoughtfully rather than reactively. Louise shares her journey of moving beyond her natural "harmonizer" tendencies to express her authentic truth, while Kim examines how trust—in ourselves and others—forms the foundation of meaningful dialogue. Together, they emphasize that practicing these conversations, despite their messiness, is essential for developing deeper connections, stronger communities, and a more compassionate world.

This episode invites you to reconsider their approach to conflict, embrace vulnerability, and understand that mistakes are an inevitable part of growth. When we remain fully present during challenging exchanges, we create opportunities for genuine, transformative change.

"Tough conversations are actually how we are kind to one another." - Louise Neil

"When you're really present, you can make a different choice." - Kim Romain

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Trust develops through engaging in difficult conversations—not avoiding them
• Self-awareness is crucial: recognizing how conflict manifests in your body helps you respond intentionally
• Conflict isn't about determining who's right or wrong—it's about mutual understanding
• Challenging conversations don't necessarily cause harm; with practice, they can strengthen relationships
• It's perfectly acceptable to pause, reset, or revisit conversations when needed—growth is a process

EPISODE TIMELINE

00:00 – Welcome & birthday celebrations 🎉

06:07 – The power of space & self-reflection

09:04 – What makes a conversation "hard"?

12:11 – Trust, fear, and navigating conflict

18:03 – Recognizing emotional triggers in real time

23:30 – The impact of self-awareness on communication

29:58 – Why we avoid difficult conversations

35:35 – Learning to lean into discomfort

41:22 – The difference between tough conversations & arguments

46:50 – Final reflections and takeaways

Are you ready to reclaim your power and live (and work) with more ease? Discover your unique blueprint to do just that with Kim's Strengthscape Self-Mastery Profile.

Looking for something different and feeling lost about where to start? Rediscover your purpose and how to craft a career that makes sense. Check out Louise's Midlife Career Mastery program.

Transcript

Empowered and Embodied Show
Episode Title: “How to Navigate Tough Conversations With Authenticity”
Hosts: Kim Romain & Louise Neil

Kim:
Well, hello, hello, hello, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Empowered and Embodied show. I’m one of your co-hosts, Kim Romain, joined—as always—by my lovely co-host…

Louise:
That’s me, Louise Neil!

Kim:
Yay, Louise! And you’ve got a new headset since our last recording.

Louise:
I do! Isn’t it fun? It’s pink, for those of you not watching, and I love it. It brings a little… I don’t know, a little color into my life.

Kim:
It looks very old-school, which I love too.

Louise:
I know, right? That’s the whole design vibe—I’m really into it.

Kim:
It reminds me of French class.

Louise:
Ooh, there’s a story there!

Kim:
Not really. It was just a visceral memory—headphones and language labs. Anyway, Louise, what are we celebrating this week?

Louise:
You and I are actually celebrating something that just happened. You’re like, “Are we?” Yes, we are! We both had birthdays recently.

Kim:
Oh right—yes! March birthdays. Mine already feels like it was 900 years ago.

Louise:
We’re little fishy Pisces—even though by the time this comes out, it’ll be Aries season. So the fish will have swum off!

Kim:
They’ll have flown the coop!

Louise:
Also… are we out of some retrograde now?

Kim:
Oh, sweetheart… no. We’re just getting started.

This episode airs on March 25th. When we’re recording this, we’re already in the shadow of Venus retrograde and preparing for Mercury retrograde. But first: a lunar eclipse in Virgo—some real crunchy energy. Then, at the end of March, a solar eclipse. Eclipse season, everyone! Mercury goes direct April 7th, Venus on April 12th, but the post-shadow phases last until early May.

And I’m not even an astrologer! Just someone who pays attention to this stuff.

Louise:
That’s a lot of stuff.

Kim:
It really is. Oh—and Neptune enters Aries at the end of the month, which only happens every 18 years.

Louise:
Okay... I barely know what any of that means. But you used the word "crunchy"—and I do know what that feels like.

But I’m not celebrating the crunchiness. I’m celebrating birthdays—and more specifically, how I celebrated mine this year.

It wasn’t a milestone birthday—it doesn’t end in a zero or a five. It starts with a five, which I’m still getting used to. For a long time, I didn’t like birthdays. They were hard. I didn’t want to celebrate, didn’t want anyone to do anything.

But now? I’m in my “No F’s Fifties,” and I care a little differently. I actually want to celebrate—on my own terms. So I’m celebrating… celebrating. As weird as that sounds.

Kim:
I love that.

Louise:
It’s really about how I’m approaching things now. What used to be big milestones are now just tiny pebbles.

Kim:
Yeah. I’m kind of the opposite. You know this—I’m like, “Where’s the party?!”

And I met my husband on March 2nd, my birthday’s March 5th, and his is March 8th. So I’m sandwiched in between two other celebrations, and mine just sort of gets lumped in. It’s been like that for 18 years now.

This year, I turned double nickels—55! What the actual…? And yet, nothing really happened. I got my nails done, took a half-day off work (because I’m the boss!), and the next day, I took the full day to clean my office. But not just a tidy—it was a full cleanse. Everything off the shelves, out of drawers, energetically reset. It felt good.

But… yeah, I still want my party. I still want to be celebrated.

Louise:
I love that. So, what else are you celebrating besides double nickels?

Kim:
I’m celebrating space.

The space to create, to speak, to just be. And it didn’t start that way—when I first saw all the blank space in my calendar, I panicked. As a business owner, that’s terrifying.

But then I realized: that space is there for a reason. It’s allowing me to reconnect with parts of myself I often rush past. I’ve been journaling—not for content, but for me. Reconnecting with my thoughts. Slowing down.

And you know this as a fellow Mani Gen—it’s easy to move fast, even when we’re being reflective. But this space has given me time to really process, to feel, to notice what’s been waiting for my attention.

So, yeah. I’m celebrating space.

Louise:
Absolutely.

Kim:
And before we hit record today, we were having a really rich conversation—about hard conversations.

I’d love to dig into that more. You in?

Louise:
Absolutely. I think as our relationship deepens—not just as biz besties but as friends—we’ve had some tough conversations that have come with surprising ease.

It’s in those hard conversations that real trust is built.

Kim:
Yes. We’ve created a space where we can practice being messy and honest.

And that didn’t happen overnight. I’ve had that kind of trust in my marriage, where I can say, “I’m going to mess this up, and I’m sorry. But let’s figure it out.” And now I have that with you, too.

But the trust to have hard conversations with yourself? That’s the foundation.

Louise:
Exactly. And while the conversation we were having earlier wasn’t hard, it reminded me of some we’ve had in the past. Those moments where things feel crunchy or misaligned.

And I’ve learned so much—especially because I’m a harmonizer. For a long time, I avoided hard conversations. I didn’t believe I could have them. But now I’m learning to show up differently.

Kim:
Yes! We don’t always get it right. But we show up.

And honestly? I was terrified the first time we had a tough conversation. I was afraid of losing the friendship. Because that’s what I’d learned: hard conversations = endings.

But we did it. And we’re stronger for it.

Louise:
It’s so true. We’ve learned to pause, to breathe, to say, “Let’s try that again.” And that’s powerful.

It takes practice. And permission—to be human, to make mistakes, to keep showing up.

Kim:
Yes. And to know the difference between a conversation that’s unsafe—and one that’s just uncomfortable.

Because safety always comes first. If your intuition says this isn’t safe, get out. That’s not what we’re talking about here.

But if it’s just discomfort? Stay. Explore. Practice.

Because every time we do, we build trust—not just with the other person, but with ourselves.

Louise:
And that trust? It’s how we build kinder relationships. Tough conversations are actually a key ingredient in kindness.

Kim:
They really are.

Louise, where can folks continue these kinds of conversations with you?

Louise:
Lately, I’ve been having some fantastic conversations on LinkedIn—mostly around menopause, perimenopause, and how they impact us in ways we don’t always expect. Individually, collectively, in workplaces... it’s all connected. So come find me there!

How about you, Kim?

Kim:
I’m loving the conversations happening inside The Rising Visionaries community. We go deep—into the woo, into the embodiment, into alignment, simplicity, and expansion (which, by the way, spells EASE).

It’s all about creating meaningful impact without burning out—and reconnecting with ourselves as we do it. If that resonates, come join us.

Louise:
Love that. And thank you for this conversation about conversation.

Kim:
Wasn’t hard at all!

Louise:
Alright, everyone—thanks for listening.

Kim:
We’ll see you next time!