Welcome to the Strong Women Podcast, where we explore a deeper understanding of the humanity,

value, intellect, and creativity of women. I'm your host, Erin Kunkel. And I'm your co-host, Sarah Stone Street.

Our guest today on the Strong Women podcast is Laura Casey.

And I'm really looking forward to this conversation for so many reasons.

But one is that Laura has this fantastic story of her journey into a deeper relationship with Christ.

And I think you all are going to enjoy hearing her story.

And then also she's written several books.

One is Cultivate, and another is Make It Happen.

And then she also just released a children's book called Gracie's Garden.

And I'm excited to talk to her about those things as well.

But she lives in Chapel Hills, North Carolina, and she's the CEO of an organization called Cultivate What Matters.

And so one of the things that we really want to talk to her about today, besides her story, is also just some thoughts on habits and goal setting.

And as you listeners know, we love to talk about that because habits shape us

and they also aim us in the right direction. So we want to just brainstorm with Laura about habits.

So thank you for coming on, Laura. Oh, it's my pleasure. Thank you so much for having me.

So, Laura, we like to always start at the beginning

because we know our childhoods are so formative in our lives. So we like to hear, you know,

if you just share where you grew up, kind of the family you grew up in, was it a Christian home,

did you have siblings, anything like that. Absolutely. So I grew up in. Was it a Christian home? Did you have siblings?

Yeah. Absolutely. So I grew up in Washington, D.C., actually in Bethesda, Maryland, right outside of D.C.

I did not grow up in what I would call a true, like, Christian home. You know, we did the Christmas Easter, but there was no expression of faith in our home

otherwise, no prayer or reading of the Bible, things like that. However, my grandfather was really

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