1225: Stoic Empathy with Shermin Kruse
Emotionally Uncomfortable
Hosted by Heather Chauvin | Insights inspired by Mel Robbins, Bréne Brown, Danielle Laporte, Elizab
4.6 • 576 Ratings
🗓️ 14 August 2025
⏱️ 46 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What if empathy wasn't about absorbing everyone's emotions but about leading with heart and boundaries?
In this episode, Heather sits down with Shermin Kruse for a powerful and timely conversation about stoic empathy, emotional discomfort, and the messy middle between caring deeply and protecting your energy. They explore the spectrum of empathy; from burnout and people-pleasing to disconnection and avoidance. And they discuss what it really takes to lead, parent, and grow from a place of internal strength.
In this episode, they cover:
🩶 How to know when your empathy is hurting more than helping
🩶 Practical tools to stop absorbing others' emotions and energy
🩶 The hidden discomfort in emotional growth—and how to face it with clarity
Whether you over-function, shut down, or toggle between both, this conversation will help you build emotional capacity that fuels your mission without draining your soul.
About Shermin
Shermin Kruse (most people call me Sher) is an author, speaker, professor, and TEDx producer who helps leaders, teams, and organizations master resilience, influence, and the power of human connection.
Her new book, Stoic Empathy (Hay House, April 2025), introduces a groundbreaking framework that fuses Stoic resilience with deep emotional intelligence, giving readers practical tools to navigate high-pressure decisions, lead with confidence, and build meaningful relationships in business and life.
Sher's work is deeply rooted in experience. From growing up in war-torn Iran, fleeing to the West, and later becoming a successful lawyer, speaker, and executive coach, she has spent her career helping people harness both strength and connection to create lasting impact.
She has been featured in Forbes, The Chicago Tribune, The Huffington Post, and on TEDx stages, speaking on leadership, negotiation, resilience, and emotional intelligence.
She also works behind the scenes, producing TEDx events, coaching speakers, and consulting with CEOs, entrepreneurs, and corporate teams to help them master the art of influence, communication, and decision-making.
Sher brings high energy, deep insights, and engaging storytelling to every conversation and she's excited to bring that to your audience.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sher.kruse
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sher_kruse/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shermin-kruse/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZEnWQF0ONo-IE2PLsBI2Eg
Website: https://www.sherminkruse.com/
Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/stoic-empathy-with-shermin-kruse/id1744005230
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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | What if empathy wasn't about absorbing everyone else's emotions, but about leading with heart |
| 0:09.0 | and boundaries? I am so excited to share with you today's episode on stoic empathy. |
| 0:19.1 | Shermy and I, or Cher, she likes to be called, and I connected through a mutual friend, |
| 0:27.0 | colleague, and I fell deeply in love with her right away. |
| 0:32.4 | And her book about stoic empathy is right up my alley because it talks about stoicism and empathy and bringing |
| 0:40.4 | the two together and how we can find that middle ground where we can be empathetic and compassionate |
| 0:48.3 | but not take on the energy of the world. And this whole conversation that Sharmie and I have is really about |
| 0:59.1 | how to know when your empathy is hurting more than helping. She talks about practical tools |
| 1:08.1 | and how to stop absorbing the energy from others and the hidden |
| 1:13.1 | discomfort in emotional growth and how to face it with clarity. So I really, really encourage |
| 1:20.7 | you, number one, to go get her book, Stoic, Stoic, S-T-O-I-C. That's how you spell stoic, empathy, E-M-P-A-T-H-H-E-H-M-E-R-M-I-N-C-R-U-S-E. So go check her out. Go check out the book. |
| 1:44.6 | Let's dig into the episode, into the podcast. |
| 1:48.0 | And remember, when the energy of the world feels like so much on the outside, let's look inside and control our energy from the inside out. |
| 1:57.6 | As always, take a screenshot, share it with a friend, tag me on Instagram, send me a |
| 2:05.8 | DM, let me know what your biggest takeaway was, and take practical action. Implement what |
| 2:12.5 | you're learning here because information without integration does not equal transformation. |
| 2:20.4 | We're redefining third times a charm. |
| 2:22.8 | It's second times a charm. |
| 2:24.1 | Right. |
| 2:24.9 | You and I've tried to have this conversation previously. |
| 2:27.9 | I had some tech issues. |
| 2:29.8 | It was my first day of new setup. |
... |
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