Life moves fast, and it rarely waits for us to feel ready. Many of us spend years reacting instead of choosing, putting off joy while handling responsibilities, loss, and constant pressure. This conversation centers on reclaiming control and deciding how we truly want to live.

Business strategist and connector, Heather Nelson, shares how unexpected loss reshaped her perspective on time, relationships, and leadership. Her journey from survival mode to intentional living now drives how she builds businesses, connections, and community.

Press play to explore how we move from drifting through life to actively shaping it.

• Becoming the driver of our own life
• How loss creates clarity and urgency
• Letting go of waiting for the perfect time
• Building a life aligned with values
• The role of connection in growth and resilience
• Moving from survival to thriving: how the road looks like

02:52 Meet Heather

09:58 Divorce, Starting Over & Choosing to Build a Life You Truly Love

15:28 Letting Go of Phones, Money Stress & Re-Focusing on What Really Matters

18:45 Moving Forward After Loss as a Business Owner (Getting Unstuck)

22:46 Rebuilding After Divorce

24:41 Mom of Four & Surrogacy

35:28 Manifesting, Abundance

43:53 Helping Hospitality & Event Businesses Grow

Books

📖Grid: Once in a Lifetime You Get to Start Over by Dr. Kimberly Hubenette

📖Live, Love, Survive, Thrive! by Dr. Kimberly Hubenette (COMING SOON)

 

Thank you for listening.

To keep my podcast alive,

Wanna buy my dog Dakota a bone?

• https://buymeacoffee.com/livelovesurvivethrive

03:29 “I do a lot, but everything I do is everything that brings me joy in my life. I wouldn’t have it any other way.” —Heather Nelson 

09:06 “Loss is still universal. You could have lost somebody, and they’re still alive.” —Dr. Kimberly Hubenette

14:44 “We’re always future thinking. Just be in our moment and live day to day, and focus on what you can do each day.” —Heather Nelson 

15:04 “You should live the life you love. We only get one chance at this life, and we should live it the way we want.” Heather Nelson

22:25 “The more we’re open about our situation, and how we communicate with people, the more supportive people are.” —Heather Nelson

30:55 “Find the things that bring you joy. Find the things you want to do, and lean into it and try it, and if you don’t like it, you don’t like it, but you’ll never know if you don’t try.” —Heather Nelson 

32:03 “You want to do things that make you happy, and you could do it for yourself. Life doesn’t end when your significant other or somebody passes away. You have a purpose in life, because why would you still be on earth if you didn’t have a purpose in life?” —Dr. Kimberly Hubenette

40:26 “Somebody could be going through something hard, and you just checking in and being a friend could go a long way.” —Heather Nelson

44:44 “Every collaboration is not meant for everybody. So find the right people to do business with and partner with.” —Heather Nelson

With over 25 years of experience in the hospitality and events industry, Heather Nelson is a trusted business strategist and connector known for helping event and hospitality businesses grow through intentional relationships, strategic partnerships, and clear business development planning. Based in Sonoma County, Heather has spent decades supporting local businesses as a Business Development Manager, where her strengths in sales strategy, operations, and relationship management have driven sustainable growth and elevated service standards.

As the founder of The Connection Hive, Heather works closely with business owners who want to attract the right clients, strengthen vendor and community partnerships, and scale in a way that aligns with their goals, pricing, and capacity. Her approach is rooted in understanding the full client journey and leveraging meaningful connections to support long-term success within the hospitality and events ecosystem.

Heather is also the co-founder of the Empower Your Path Women’s Retreat, a transformational experience designed to support women through inspiration, confidence-building, and meaningful connection. Through her work in retreats, coaching, and strategic facilitation, Heather creates spaces where women can grow both personally and professionally.

In addition, Heather is the host of the Life Conversations with a Twist podcast, where she shares authentic, inspiring stories of women to encourage connection, resilience, and personal growth.

Outside of her professional work, Heather is a proud mother of four, surrogate, and wife — an experience that reflects her deep commitment to supporting others and helping families grow. Born and raised in Sonoma County, she has a love for great food, local wine, and experiencing the best the community has to offer. Known for her infectious energy and love of 80s music (“80s music is life”), her playlists are often as motivating as her conversations.

Through The Connection Hive, her podcast, and her community-focused initiatives, Heather Nelson is dedicated to helping businesses and individuals grow through connection — fostering both professional success and personal fulfillment.

Connect with Heather Nelson:

• Website
• LinkedIn
• Instagram
• Facebook 
• YouTube

Welcome to the  Live, Love, Survive, Thrive! Podcast that helps you embrace life’s challenges, grow through adversity, and discover your true potential. I’m your host, Dr. Kimberly Hubenette, anti-aging dentist, widow, Author and inspirational Coach. I live by the “Can I” philosophy of constant and never ending improvement, and I’m here to help you do the same. Each week, we’ll dive into real conversations, powerful stories and practical tools to help you heal, grow and thrive. Whether you’re rebuilding after loss or ready to step into a more purposeful life, this space is for you. Let’s grow, evolve and thrive together. 

Dr. Kimberly Hubenette: Welcome everybody to the Live, Love, Survive, Thrive! Show. I’m Dr. Kimberly Hubenette. And today, I am so happy to welcome a person that I met a few months ago, and then we saw and met each other in person. We looked at each other and said, hey, I know you. Well, this person is Heather Nelson, and I met her through a few podcasts. She is a relation driven business, strategic connector and community builder. And she’s the founder of two places. She’s the founder of The Connection Hive, and she’s co-founder of a place called Set & Strike behind the scenes. She’s also a podcast host of The Life Conversations With A Twist. Now, I know that she has a lot of business savvy, and she also is really interested in business life resilience and the journey that shapes how we become, so I’m going to ask her to explain what this all is about. I want her to actually give us a synopsis of what she does. Heather, nice to see you.

Heather Nelson: Nice to see you. Thank you for having me. It’s such a cool thing when as a podcaster, I was mentioning that we get to engage and get to know each other on an intimate level on a podcast. But I rarely get to see my guests out in public.We were at an event, and we got to see each other. I knew instantly in my gut, I was like, I know her, and I know her intimately. I was like, it had to be the podcast. It was really cool to meet you in person, so thank you for the opportunity to be here. I’m excited to be here. My life is a lot. Every time somebody asks me, what do you do? Or, tell me a little bit about yourself. I’m like, do you have 20 minutes? Because I truly do a lot. But everything I do is everything that brings me joy in my life, and so I wouldn’t have it any other way. So The Connection Hive is a business development strategy company. My background is in the events and hospitality industry. I live here in Sonoma County, California, and that has been most of my career over 25 years of really getting to know our industry from venues to wineries, to event planners, and all the vendors that kind of run the gamut. And I’ve been doing that for almost three years now. And basically, I just help small businesses come up with a strategic plan on how they can build their business around building connections and building relationships. So that’s primarily my focus right now in my career. 

As you mentioned, I also own Set & Strike, which is an event labor company. So again, being in the industry for as long as I have, I saw such a need for event labor. So our team goes and helps these wineries, these venues and planners to just basically set up events. So very simple concept, but such a needed thing in our industry. So we’ve been doing that for almost four years. We have a small but mighty team, and love that business. I love being able to manage a team and build a beautiful experience for them after being employed with so many places over the years. And then, as you mentioned, I am the podcast host for Life Conversations with a Twist, and I’m almost going to hit 5 years. In July, it’ll be 5 years. I’ve interviewed almost 200 women. 

The WHY behind the podcast is I would meet women, and I guess I just have this presence about myself, or I allow space for them to tell me pretty much anything. People have told me some really crazy stories, experiences, things that they’ve been through in life. And I said, how can I build a platform where women can come and tell their stories? Tell the ugly journey that they’ve been on. The hard things they’ve been through. Because my goal behind it is that all the listeners will walk away being inspired and empowered. So we’re not alone. As women, we all are dealing with hard things. And WE sometimes feel like we’re on a solo Island all by ourselves trying to get through it all. And so hearing other people’s stories of somebody who might have gone through the same thing, I think, allows people to know that they’re not alone. And also to know that there’s other people out there that you can build a support and community around.

Dr. Kimberly Hubenette: Nice. My podcast is really focused around people that have lost a loved one and have started becoming a little more resilient in life, and learning to live life to the fullest. Again, after the death of a loved one. It could be a sister, a brother, a parent, a spouse, or even a child, or a best friend. I know life does hit people in different ways, and everybody has a loss somewhere around time. And so thinking about that, your Life Conversations with a Twist tell me a little bit about how that is helping people with loss. Or does it have anything to do with some loss sometimes, or that kind of thing? 

Heather Nelson: Absolutely. You were on my podcast speaking about your loss, and I’ve had all kinds of different stories from people who have taken a different pivot in their career. Or they’ve gone through a really hard time like divorce. But I actually have had a lot of guests who have lost significant others. I’ve had a mother who lost her child to cancer. One of my top stories was a girl who lost her sister to a fentanyl overdose. And so there’s been multiple stories that I’ve had, because I think when you do lose somebody super close to you, you kind of feel lost. You don’t know what to do. You feel alone. You don’t feel supported. And so by having these conversations of women who have come over, come through that grief and those hard times, to have a different type of life, to have gone a different journey, I’m hoping that it inspires other women to know, my focus is women. 

But if anyone’s listening, anybody who’s gone through grief and loss knows that there is another side of your life once you can get through it. And I think it’s all about building community, building connections with people who are going to support you, being in the room with people who are going to support you, reading the books, watching the YouTube channels and the things that really can help you get through that hard time. So I feel like I have been very fortunate that I haven’t lost any significant people in my life. I’ve been around a lot of friends and family who have lost someone close to them, and so I’ve been on the other side and watching them get through a messy time. But it’s been really interesting and inspiring to watch them get through such a hard time, and to have this remarkable thing on the other side. And of course, I’m sure, since I haven’t lost someone, there’s a lot of ugly middle things that happen during that journey. But to see that you can get through the hard times is really empowering.

Dr. Kimberly Hubenette: Well, even though you haven’t lost somebody close to you, loss is still kind of universal. You could have lost somebody and they’re still alive. One of my podcast interviewees said, I lost my sister how she used to be because of sickness. But she still is around, and yet he was mourning for what she used to be like. So there’s a whole bunch of different ways that you can help yourself when you lose somebody. It could have been a loss through death, but it could have been a loss through friendship, or relationship changes, or things like that.

Heather Nelson: Absolutely. One of the things that when I think of grief or losing someone, I did go through a divorce. And when I went through my divorce, I had a daughter who was 5, and I had a son who was 2. So I had little children, and I basically started over. I left my home. I left my family to start over. I lived with my dad, and I lived in a room and had to buy everything again, and really start my life over. And the reason why I chose to go that route was because I felt like I wasn’t living the life that I loved. I wasn’t living the life that I knew, that I was meant to be here for. I really felt stuck. I felt alone. I just felt that there was more for me. That was a hard decision to shake up the family, and it’s still hard. I’m still going through that loss and transition, especially having children. And now, they’re teenagers. It’s a whole different dynamic. I had to start over, and I had to work through the ugly middle. And it is a journey. Even leaving a life that you didn’t necessarily like, love, but my life is so completely different now. And now, I’m doing the work, and I feel like I’m where I’m supposed to be. Not only in my family life, but in my career, and where I’m sitting within my life. I have my podcast, which was obviously not a thing. Then I always wanted to be a surrogate, and that was something that was not okay with my ex husband. That was a calling that I had. If I stayed in that relationship and not taken the risk to start over and live a life I love, I wouldn’t be where I am today.

Dr. Kimberly Hubenette: See? It’s so amazing to hear everybody’s story because it is what you make of it. How do you think that now you’ve changed your life around? Tell me, what is living, loving, surviving and thriving? Those are four different things that we talk about, and you can choose two or three, or talk about all four of the things.

Heather Nelson: I think I thought about this a lot before this interview. One of the things that I’ll touch is on LIVE just for a second. I did mention that I haven’t lost anyone significant in my life, but I did just recently lose a good friend of mine who was very close to me, and somebody who meant a lot to me. He suddenly died unexpectedly. Super young. He was 45 years old. Very healthy. There was no signs of anything. He just woke up, his son found him, and he was dead. So because of that, knowing that I’m 43 and he was 45, the fact that you can be so healthy and one day wake up and not be here anymore, my perspective of living is so much different now. I am like living in the moment. I’m living each day to do the things that I want to do and not that I have to do. But really leaning into experiences, and doing more things with my family and being present, and not being on social media so much, and really just owning the moment and being in the moment, that has been a super mindset change for me in the last few months. And something that I really want to focus on and where I want to put my energy. So LIVE, that’s kind of where I sit with the LIVE. 

And when I think of LOVE, I think of loving yourself. I think that it took me a really long time to love myself. And I think this is a very big thing that women go through is to love yourself for all of the curves, all the gray hairs, all the wrinkles, and all the things that we experience as we get older. But how do we lean in and love ourselves? And so I’ve done a lot of work around that. Being in the same room with people that help change your mindset on that and living more a healthier life, that has been a very big change for me. I would say in the last few years, it’s just being okay with loving yourself for who you are. And again, it’s not about all the physical stuff. It’s about who you are internally. And SURVIVE, we’re all just trying to survive in life. Life will throw you different things every day. I can sit here and think that my life is great. But every day is challenging, especially having two teenage kids and a 4 year old. And being in a blended family every day, I’m just like, hey, I gotta survive today. And really taking each day by day, I think the more we think about the future of, okay, I gotta do this. Or this is coming up, and we’re always thinking about the future. But if we were just to just be in our moment and live day to day, and just focus on what you can do each day, that has been a great reminder, and something that I’ve been trying to focus more on. And THRIVING, I always say, you should live the life you love. And I really, truly believe that. I think that we only get one chance at this life, and we should live it the way we want. Take the trips that we want, buy the things that we want, eat the foods that we want, be around the people we want to have, the careers that we want. And so really having that perspective of where you want your life to go, and continuing to have that mindset.

Dr. Kimberly Hubenette: You said about the marketing thing. I forgot my cell phone yesterday, and I was thinking about this. How could I survive without my cell phone? There was like, oh, my gosh. Why am I thinking about my cell phone the whole day? It’s just a thing, and we focus so much on these things that we have and that we’re used to having. I kept thinking, oh, I hope somebody didn’t come. But you know what? I survived without it, and I was fine the whole day. But when I thought about it, I started thinking about my cell phone, and then I thought, oh, I hope my brother doesn’t call me. Or wonder, well, how come I’m at home all day long and I should be at work? Because he has me on life 360. That’s another thing we’re all consumed about. Where are we? What are we doing? All this kind of thing.

Heather Nelson: I was thinking about this the other day, because one of the things that I stress about right now, or that I wake up in the middle of the night thinking about is the financial side of life. And running two businesses, as you know, is very stressful. We have to make sure that we have clients, that we have income and managing payroll, and all of these expectations to have to be able to live, to pay rent, and to pay your car payment, and to buy food that’s super expensive now. And I think to myself, what is the worst that could happen if one day we had no money? Which I would hope that we never do. What would life look like? And it would be like, being more present, hanging out with the kids. Actually taking care of the stuff that we have instead of saying, oh, I need this. Or I need this. It’s so easy. Now, you’re like, this is a cool shirt. Or you’re scrolling on an Instagram and you find a cute outfit, and you’re like, it’s so easy to buy because it’s right in our face. Or Amazon, it can just be delivered tomorrow. But if all that were to go away, what would life look like? And as long as you have love and health, and you have a home, and you have access to food, what more do you need?

Dr. Kimberly Hubenette: Yeah. Like for me, my family consists of myself and my dog. And I love that dog so much. She’s spoiled. I talked to my dog like she’s my best friend type of thing. And jeez, I’d do anything for that dog.

Heather Nelson: But if everything went away, you would still be happy and full. Your heart would still be full because we get so sidetracked by all of the other noise in this world that we forget about the important things that we have right here in our own home. I don’t want to say like forget about. We’re always constantly going, going, going, going, going, going. But if we were just to take a moment and just quiet the noise and just be present, and just be with our loved ones, it’s not a bad thing. 

Dr. Kimberly Hubenette: And so basically, we have our loved ones. Sometimes, we lose a loved one. And oftentimes, we lose the loved one. Everybody loses a loved one. And then how do you move forward? The moving forward part seems to be universal even if you’ve lost a loved one, or if you’re losing, like I said, like a relationship. You focus your career upon these connections, the relationships and the ways to move forward with things, and so there’s little actions that you take every day to move yourself forward. What can somebody, let’s say I’m a business owner and I also lost a loved one, and I just didn’t want to get out of bed and start moving again, what would you say to a business owner that needed to go? My sole provider now, I am the only one that I can depend on. You help focus people that are business owners to keep themselves going, right? You probably have had people that you’ve had to help. Think about these kinds of things, they’re stuck. Is there something that helps people to think about getting to the next step? What’s the motivation to not procrastinate for something, or get stuck on something?

Heather Nelson: I think the first thing that comes to mind is our community. And I think the people who we build into our community, whether that’s other business owners that we collaborate on, or we’re in a networking group, we always have someone that is equal in business with us to bounce ideas off of or to help support each other. And I think that when you go through something like that, leaning into your community to support you, maybe someone could step in and help run the business, depending on who’s in your community to be able to support with that, whether that’s stepping in or being able to step into be a support to your team, if you have a team, or your even your clients, of just saying, you’re going through so and so and is going through a hard time right now, I’m here to help support her, to give her the time to grieve, or the time to get through this, I think that would be something that comes to mind. Or just having those people who are going to help you if you’re having a bad day, that’s going to come over and let you cry on their shoulder. 

Or those friends that are going to show up and make sure you eat every day. Or the people that are going to come over in the morning and say, all right, Kimberly, let’s go. We got this. Today’s a new day. Let’s focus on that. Let’s try to get through the day, and then let’s come home and have an ugly cry and just cry it all out. But I really think that we all should have that type of community, whether that’s friends, or other business owners, or people who are going to lift you up to support you in hard times. And the other thing too is I think that I’ve really tried to think of life as a journey. And sometimes, a season. You have really good seasons. And sometimes, you have even low seasons, whether you’re going through grief or just a hard time in life. And being okay with that and allowing that to just be, and I think that the more we’re open about our situations and how we communicate with people, the more supportive people are.

Dr. Kimberly Hubenette: Yeah. When life cracked open on you, you said that you went through a divorce, how did you rebuild yourself? How did you rebuild your life again?

Heather Nelson: Honestly, I really thought really hard. Well, one, I read a lot of books. I think reading books and reading things  kind of help pull your mindset back to not reality, but into a safe space, was super helpful for me. I really had to sit with myself to know exactly what brings me joy. What are the things that truly bring me joy? For me, that was getting up and going to the gym at 5:00 am Yeah, it sounds crazy. But that was something that I know, that I needed for, not only my overall health, but my mindset. And I didn’t get to do that. So doing the things that do bring you joy, that make you understand what worth living is for, and get you excited to wake up every day. I also think after I left my husband, I was still in a job that I loved, but I wasn’t thriving. And so even just taking the risk of starting my own businesses, to be able to have that space and that drive to do what I love to do, today, I’m not going to work. I’m going to get a pedicure and go get my hair done, and that’s okay. Or today, I’m going to work, and I’m going to go out. I’m going to network, and I’m going to go do the things that I want to do. That was a big shift for me because I was going to a 9 to 5 that I always worked so much that took so much time out of my life. But I had to sit with myself and be like, where do you really want your life to go? And really leaning into that and trying new things, and finding the things that bring you joy, and continue to do those things.

Dr. Kimberly Hubenette: So is it hard for you to prioritize work? Do you have a set of things that you do every day so that you obviously work at home, do you have a job, a brick and mortar place that you go to or do you just go into your office at home and work?

Heather Nelson: I go to my office and work. Yes. I think the thing when I first started, I felt like I had to work 8 hours a day. I thought I had to get up. I had to work 5 to 5. But now, I’m really structured. People tell me this all the time. I just got told this today. I don’t know how you do everything you do and make it look so easy. Because I’ve really set up the structures to be able to do that. And I think for me, I know the priorities of the things I have to do each day. I’m a big checklist person. And I said, these are the things that need to happen today. And if that takes me two hours, and those are things that are either going to move my business forward, or I’m taking care of my clients, I can have the rest of the day to do what I want to do. So I have my non-negotiables. And then obviously, if I’m done early and I’m still feeling productive and want to do things, I’ll kind of tackle some of the projects that we all don’t want to do. 

And then also asking for help. I think that was another thing, especially as a business owner, you think you have to do everything. Especially if you have no employees. But you have HR issues, you’re the sales person, you have to do social media, you pretty much do everything. And I finally found, especially with the podcast, I can bring in somebody to help support the editing part that took hours, and hours, and hours, that was something that was worth it for me. For our labor company, I brought in an admin because I was spending so much time answering emails, doing proposals and things like that. It was just such a time suck that I was finding myself almost resentful of the business. At some point, you’re like, oh, I have to work today. I have to spend 10 hours working. And I got to a point where, no, I can actually have people that can help me to free up time to be able to really do the things I love. And now, I get to drop my kids off at school, and I work from like 9 to 2, and I get as much work done. And then 2:00 o’clock rolls around, and I’m free for the rest of the day to spend time with the kids. And that was something that was very important for me.

Dr. Kimberly Hubenette: You said, kids? You have four kids?

Heather Nelson: I do. I have one that’s 20, and so she’s in college. She’s kind of self-sufficient. I have a 14 year old daughter in high school. I have a 12 year old son in middle school. And then we decided to start over with my new husband, and we have a 4 year old.

Dr. Kimberly Hubenette: But you also said something about surrogate mothers?

Heather Nelson: Yes, I was a surrogate mother. I gave birth back in 2020 to a beautiful little girl who is now 6, and I’m actually on my second journey to be a surrogate again for another family. And that journey has been a little bit tougher. The first transfer for the first journey was instant. I got pregnant right away, and that was it. But this one has been a little bit tougher. We’ve had three unsuccessful transfers and are about to go for the 4th one, so that one’s been a little bit of a longer journey.

Dr. Kimberly Hubenette: Is it a big story? How does one wish to be a surrogate mother? It’s a special thing to do. Do you know the people? Or are they strangers to you?

Heather Nelson: These ones I did not know. When I started the journey, I had my first two children with my ex husband. And during that, I had someone that I worked with that was a surrogate, and I was very intrigued. I’m like, wait, what? You gotta carry a baby for somebody else? And I loved being pregnant. That is my favorite thing. I love being pregnant. I cannot wait to be pregnant. I feel like I’m a better person. I feel beautiful. And I love the birth part of having a child. It was just like a magical thing. So I said, hmm. And then my ex husband at the time was like, absolutely not. This is not something I want to support. And so I just let it go. And then as things changed in my life and I got remarried, I was like, I think I want to do this. And so we went through an agency, and we matched with my first family. And then this second journey was mutual friends. Somebody I knew. Somebody who was looking for a surrogate, and then we met, and instantly fell in love. It’s for two men. They already had a baby, and they knew they wanted a second one. It’s been a really cool experience.

Dr. Kimberly Hubenette: Wow. So far, you’re still in the lives of the baby?

Heather Nelson: I have not. Well, obviously, I met her when she was born, but I am still in contact with the mom. She sends me photos probably every month or so. I always send our birthday gifts so she knows about me. I forget what she calls me, like birth mama or something. And so someday, I will meet her again when she’s older. And then the other family does want to continue a relationship after.

Dr. Kimberly Hubenette: How does that make you feel when you give the baby? It is your baby because they grew up in you.

Heather Nelson: They grew up in me, but it’s not my egg. So it’s not my DNA.

Dr. Kimberly Hubenette: It’s so neat to give back a birth, a life.

Heather Nelson: I always say that if I was in my 20s, I would do this multiple times. but I’m running into the age threshold, as you would say, so this will be my last journey.

Dr. Kimberly Hubenette: Oh, neat. It is life with a twist for you. It’s almost like, what’s your hobby? What’s your checklist in life? You did it already. Are there any other things that you wish you could do, hobby wise, or things like that?

Heather Nelson: I want to learn to crochet or do some basic creativity. But I truly, again, when I think back, my whole point of my life now is to live the life you love. And that is doing these things that truly fill my cup. And had I not got out of a relationship that didn’t allow me to do that, that’s where I am always constantly saying, find the things that bring you joy. Find the things you want to do, lean into it, and try it. And if you don’t like it, you don’t like it. But you’ll never know if you don’t try. I keep saying this to my kids because they’re like, they don’t really want to do sports. But I said, what if you just tried and you loved it, you were so good at it, and that was where your life took you? But you’ll never know unless you try.

Dr. Kimberly Hubenette: Yeah. When I lost my husband, I was thinking back on the things that I really wanted to do that I hadn’t done yet. I did a couple of things that I wanted to do, but we wanted to do together. I started doing a hike. I learned how to hike, and I hiked Half Dome, and that was something that we kind of did together. And so then, I wanted to catch a fish, like one of those big sailfish, and he never liked to fish. So I actually went to Cancun and I caught one of those 75 pound Wahoo fish all by myself. I sat in the chair and I did that. Think about this, folks, journeys of life. You want to do things that make you happy, and you could do it for yourself. You could do it because you’re memorializing your husband, or your wife, or your spouse that passed away, or your child, or whatever. But life doesn’t end when your significant other or somebody passes away because maybe you have a purpose in life. I know you have a purpose in life, because why would you still be on earth if you didn’t have a purpose in life? So this podcast is really not to be depressed about life. But it’s actually to think, okay, what else is there about life that I could do and I could motivate myself to get myself out of my stupor or my sadness, and just keep on moving?

Heather Nelson: Kimberly, if you think back, wouldn’t your husband want you to be happy, to still live life and not be stuck at home mourning? Obviously, that’s where you go as you’re going through that. But I’m sure he would want you to be happy and to live the life you love, and to bring things that bring you joy. And I’m sure that anybody who passes wants nothing but that for us. Obviously, it’s a mindset, and you go through a grieving process. But when you come out on the other side, they’re looking over us, they’re watching us, they’re making sure we’re taken care of. And so I would assume that they want nothing more than that for you.

Dr. Kimberly Hubenette: Oh, yeah, definitely. I encourage people just to think about what it is that you will fulfill, be fulfilled with. What have you always wanted to do that you haven’t done? And this is inspiring that you know you did this. That is so amazing. And then twice, you’re going to do it twice. Now that’s out there, that’s big time out there.

Heather Nelson: And it’s so funny because I’m like, I guess it’s so normal for me so I don’t know where I think it’s that big of a deal. But whenever I tell people for the first time, they’re like, wait, what did you do? What? And if anybody wants to hear any of the details of my journeys in more detail, I’ve recorded multiple solo episodes on my podcast about my journey. Or you could follow me on social media because my first journey, the mom was very, she didn’t want to be known, or she didn’t want me to talk about it as much. This family does not. They don’t mind it. And I really want to share this journey. Right now, we’re all kind of on a pause. I haven’t talked much about it. But the more I talk about it, the more stories that are coming up about fertility, people wanting to be a surrogate and wanting more information, so I’m really trying to tell my story to normalize it. And also encourage people that if that’s something that they’re drawn to, that it’s not a scary thing, and they should lean into it.

Dr. Kimberly Hubenette: That’s amazing. You’re helping yourself, and you’re helping somebody that wouldn’t have been able to have a kid. Life challenges. Is there a quote that you live by? 

Heather Nelson: Some people either love or hate this quote, but I always say that, why did I just forget it? Things happen for a reason. I really believe that there’s reasons why things happen to us. Sometimes, we don’t see what that is right away. But I really truly believe that things are meant to be the way they are, and so we must be open to that. And the other thing is just being open to abundance, and to open up your heart to see what comes. I really believe in manifesting and allowing the space for things to come. That’s been something that changed in my life over the last few years. And the more of those, that’s how more opportunities have come my way. I’m more open to receiving things, and more positive things have come my way. And so that’s not really a quote, but something that’s been super important for me.

Dr. Kimberly Hubenette: Yeah. And do you have one or two things that you tell your clients? What’s a big tip that you give your clients that might help our listeners

Heather Nelson: I think connection is the key. I think people forget about, and that’s what everybody is craving right now is connection. I think after Covid, we all became these solo lives, and connection got completely lost. And I just think that we need to embrace connection a little bit more. And when I speak about that with my clients, it’s more of, how do we connect with other business owners or other opportunities to grow our businesses? And how are you connecting with your clients to either get referrals or to get more business from that specific person? So leaning into those relationships. But I also think it’s important for us to connect with people on a day to day basis. I think of going for a walk and walking by someone and saying hi. I’m not saying to have a full conversation with someone. But at least smile at people and say hi and connect with people. Or the person at the grocery store who might be having a bad day of just saying, I love your shirt. I love your earrings. Or just engaging with people, making people feel good. I think we, as a society, have really lost that. And I really believe that we need to bring that back because we all need it right now.

Dr. Kimberly Hubenette: Surprisingly, I had two foreign exchange students last year, and one was from Spain. And one was from Italy. They told me that Americans are so friendly compared to their side of the neck of the woods. They said that people in their neighborhood, they just walk on the other side of the street just to avoid people. And they said, Mom, you’re so friendly. Smiling and saying hi to people, why do you do that? And I was interested in how cultures and cultural norms are so different from one place to another.

Heather Nelson: Well, you live in Napa, right? So they probably see happy people drinking wine all the time. I don’t know where I live, there are some happy people, but I still experience switching the streets. When you’re walking by someone, it’s so weird. And I said, all we’re doing is crossing by each other, and you can’t even just say hi or smile. It blows my mind. They just walk by you, and they’re just so grumpy. They won’t even make eye contact with you. And so I’m just like, wow. What a bummer. When I go out to acknowledge people, to say hi to people, my daughter’s always like, Mom, you’re so nice to everybody. But how do you know you might not make their day? How do you know they didn’t just lose a loved one, and that is the one thing that they got to experience that day is somebody actually acknowledging them and saying hi.

Dr. Kimberly Hubenette: So I think a tip for us, for today to our listeners, my listeners here, make somebody’s day. Say hi to them when you walk by today. So when you’re walking or doing your exercise, or when you’re walking your dog, maybe it’s a good idea to make it a point, and just smile at somebody that you don’t even know. Say, hey, I love your outfit. Or pick something special about that person, and you might make them smile and make their day. Even if they’re grumpy looking, you might make them smile on the inside. Maybe that’s what somebody needs.

Heather Nelson: The other thing too, I just think on a personal level is checking in with your friends. I really try every day to touch base with a friend of mine. I have a lot of really great friends, everyone. My husband’s always like, everyone’s your friend. I said, yes. But even just doing a quick check in like, hey, I’m thinking of you today. Or how are you? I’ve had so many times where they’re like, oh, my gosh, you just reaching out just made my day because I had a really crappy day. And you know what I mean? Somebody could be going through something hard, and you just checking in and being a friend, it could go a long way too.

Dr. Kimberly Hubenette: So how can our listeners find you? I know you told us about what you do. Do you have any social media and websites that you can talk to us about? And how can they find you?

Heather Nelson: I have lots of ways to find me, and I’m trying to streamline that. But we’re getting there. My website is theconnectionhive.co, that is where you can find my business development strategy company, The Connection Hive. Also, you can find my podcast there as well. And then also, social media wise, the best way to find me is heathernelson.life on Instagram, or you can find me on Heather Nelson on Facebook. I post a lot on that social media platform, and it’s tagged to The Connection Hive Instagram as well. And my podcast is called Life Conversations with a Twist, and you can find that on any podcast platform. I do want to mention that I am about to do a whole rebrand, so it’s going to actually have a new name. But the concept is staying the same. The women that I interview are not changing. I’m just changing the name and just giving it a fresh new look. If you follow me on any of those, you’ll get the updates on when that switch is over. 

Dr. Kimberly Hubenette: And one thing that I like to ask my clients, because I totally love food. I’m trying to get some recipes, some neat recipes from people that eat whatever food they love. So what’s your favorite food? And do you want to share one of your favorite easy recipes that you like to do?

Heather Nelson: Oh, you asked this pre and I was like, oh, this one’s going to be hard if I could choose any food to eat. It’s like steak and potatoes. Steak, potatoes, a salad, and garlic bread. I could eat that every single day. But steak is very expensive right now. My go to in our house is street tacos, like carne asada tacos. So my husband’s Latino, and all of my kids like it. So we actually just go to a local Latino grocery store, and we get the carne asada meat. It’s like very fine cubed little pieces of steak, and we just fry it up with some salt. And so a little bit of seasonings, and we get the little fun corn tortilla tacos. We love making pickled onions every time I make pickled onions, which they’re the easiest thing to make. And everyone’s like, can you please make these for me? And I said, sure. But I can just give you the recipe, and they’re so easy. I pickle my own red onions, and we put those on, and it allows the kids to kind of eat, put their own toppings on. But I feel like that’s a weekly meal in our home. It’s easy, especially on a Tuesday when everyone’s at it. If you’re bustering kids around, it literally takes five minutes. And we always have the cheeses, the cilantro and the green sauce always in the fridge. And so that’s kind of our go to.

Dr. Kimberly Hubenette: Neat, neat, neat. I love Mexican food. 

Heather Nelson: And we get authentic Mexican food when we go to my in-laws house. So I’m always like, yes, let’s go.

Dr. Kimberly Hubenette: Now, we talked about business. Is there anything that you want to share? Last thoughts, and anything that you want to tell us about your new business venture?

Heather Nelson: Yes. So The Connection Hive has been an evolution. I would have to say, I wanted to start it. And as a business owner, you kind of start to do projects that you’re used to doing because it’s easy and it’s easy financially. It’s easy income for you. And so over the last couple months, I’ve really flushed out what it is that I want to lean into. And at the end of the day, what I focus on, and that’s important to me, is leaning into the hospitality and event industry. It’s a very big industry here in Sonoma and Napa County where we live. I just want to help businesses understand where they sit in the market, who they should collaborate with, especially if it’s a new business that’s coming into the market. As a vendor, or caterer, or planner, who they should network with, and  who can I connect them to help grow their business. And I believe that every collaboration is not meant for everybody. So really finding the right people to do business and partner with. Just helping them understand where they sit in the market, and then also how they show up, either a vendor partner, and are they checking in with people, and how do you nurture those relationships? So those are the two things that I’m really focusing on.

Dr. Kimberly Hubenette: Now, neat. So again, tell the folks again how to connect with you.

Heather Nelson: I will wrap it up. So the website is theconnectionhive.co. Instagram, come follow me on the heathernelson.life page, or you can go to the.connection.hive, which I also post my podcast on there as well. So you can tune into those. And then again, my podcast is Life Conversations with a Twist, and you can find that the majority I see here are people on Spotify and Apple podcasts.

Dr. Kimberly Hubenette: Those are the two main things I remember. Also, I’m going to listen to those surrogate mothers because I really am interested in hearing your story.

Heather Nelson: Yes, there’s quite a few. You kind of have to go back. Because again, my first journey was back in 2020, so very pre podcast days. And then I have some recent ones with my current journey as well. 

Dr. Kimberly Hubenette: It was so nice to get to know you again and talk about all these life changes, living, loving, surviving, thriving. And we all know that everything’s all connected whether you lost a loved one, whether you had a life change because of a divorce or setback of life. Things happen for a reason, and we can all be resilient and learn how to move forward. We know that there’s always something on the other side. Nice to see and meet you again, Heather. This is Live, Love, Survive, Thrive!. I’m your host, Dr. Kimberly Hubenette, and this is Live, Love, Survive, Thrive!. I’ll see you next time for our next week’s journey. We’ll see you then, and make it a great day. Bye.

Thank you for joining me on this episode of Live, Love, Survive, Thrive! I hope our time together has inspired you to embrace life’s challenges, find the courage to overcome obstacles, and create a life filled with love, purpose and fulfillment. If you’ve enjoyed today’s episode, please take a moment to rate, review and subscribe to the podcast. Your feedback means the world to me, and to help us continue to bring you stories and tools to empower your journey. And if you have a story of resilience, transformation or thriving after adversity, I’d love to hear from you. Reach out to me directly at livelovesurvivethrive@gmail.com. You never know, your story might just be the inspiration someone else needs to hear. 

To learn more about me and my work, visit my website at www.drkimberlyhubenette.com. While you’re there, be sure to check out my current book, GRID: Once In A Lifetime, You Get To Start Over, a guide to rebuilding and rediscovering life after loss. Get a sneak peek at my upcoming book, Live, Love, Survive, Thrive!, a powerful companion to this podcast, and a heartfelt roadmap to reclaiming joy, resilience and meaning after life’s toughest seasons. You can also connect with me on social media. Follow me on Facebook at authordr.kimberlyhubenette. Follow me on Instagram with the same name, and subscribe to my Youtube channel at Live, Love, Survive, Thrive! for more inspiration and insights.  

Remember, you have the power within you to write your story and thrive beyond your wildest imaginations. Keep relearning to live love, survive, thrive every single day. Until next time, I’m Dr. Kimberly Hubenette, and this is Live, Love, Survive, Thrive!