As educator moms, we often pride ourselves on being “right”—about parenting decisions, classroom management strategies, and even our beliefs about what needs to change in education. Being right gives us a sense of security, control, and empowerment. But what if empowerment can also come from wanting to be wrong? In this episode of the Empowered Educator Mom podcast, we explore why our brains cling so tightly to existing beliefs, how that can hold us back, and how wanting to be wrong opens the door to growth, possibility, and resilience.

Through stories, psychology, and relatable examples, you’ll learn how wanting to be wrong can help you break free from limiting beliefs and empower you to handle personal doubts and challenges.

Wanting to be wrong can be an amazing addition to your empowerment toolkit – one that helps you shift your mindset in powerful ways. Instead of fighting to be right about what’s not working, you’ll learn how to flip the script and empower yourself to see what else might be true.

• Why our brains cling to being right, even when it holds us back
• The hidden energy cost of changing long-held beliefs
• How confirmation bias keeps us stuck in our own stories
• A mindset shift that turns past struggles into sources of strength
• A powerful mantra about personal limitations

Get full show notes and a transcript at https://kerimartinez.com/23.

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Have you ever thought about how your mood can empower or disempower you? How it can make things easier or more difficult to handle? In this episode of the Empowered Educator Mom podcast, we explore four specific things you can focus on to improve your mood so you can be more empowered to handle life’s challenges.

We’ll dig into why feelings matter, why you actually need some negativity in your life, and how you can impact your moods through your thoughts. You’ll walk away with strategies you can use right away to infuse your life with more delight, fun, humor, and liking.

Delight can be a powerful addition to your empowerment toolkit—one that helps you meet tough moments with calm, patience, lightheartedness, and laughter. It can change the way you experience the highs and lows of daily life and fuel you to keep showing up as the educator mom you want to be.

• Why trying to eliminate pain can backfire (and what to do instead)
• Why emotions come from thoughts, not circumstances – and how that affects empowerment
• Four mood-shifting practices – delight, fun, humor, and liking – and how to incorporate more of them into your life
• Why some moms have trouble identifying what’s fun to them – and what to do if that’s you
• Why it’s empowering to like more, dislike less, and sometimes have no opinion

Get full show notes and a transcript at https://kerimartinez.com/22.

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Adding is our natural default when it comes to solving problems and striving to improve our lives. We add organizers to manage clutter. We add diet plans to lose weight. We add programs to help struggling students. And we add meetings to implement the programs.

What if real empowerment comes not from adding…but from subtracting?

In this episode of the Empowered Educator Mom podcast, I share why we don't typically consider subtraction, why busyness has become a sneaky badge of honor, and how doing less allows you to create more value in your life. You’ll hear stories, research insights, and practical examples you can try right away to simplify your life at home and at work.

Subtraction isn’t laziness or giving up. It’s a powerful strategy for replenishing energy and decreasing stress and burnout.

Get full show notes and a transcript at https://kerimartinez.com/21.

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Empowerment is like a magic pill that makes it easier for you to handle challenges and stress, find solutions to problems, push harder on your goals, advocate for what you want, strengthen your relationships, and positively impact all areas of your life. But what happens when you don’t use it?

In this episode of the Empowered Educator Mom podcast, Keri Martinez unpacks the hidden costs of disempowerment. It’s not just a matter of “feeling stuck.” From decreased problem-solving to financial instability and difficulty making friends, the costs of disempowerment run deeper than most of us realize.

This isn’t about guilt or shame—it’s about awareness. When you can recognize signs of disempowerment, you can begin shifting toward empowerment. And even small shifts can make a big difference. Recognizing it is the first step toward reclaiming your power at school and at home.

Get full show notes and a transcript at https://kerimartinez.com/20

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Ever feel like life is happening to you, or like you're a puppet and other people are pulling your strings? If you want to feel more in control in your life, to feel more empowered, this episode will teach you the single most important principle you need to understand to do that.

Whether you’re a teacher or administrator, empowerment (or lack of it) is something that makes a real difference in how you approach your life, the different roles you play, and your relationships. It’s worth your time to figure out how to have more of it in your life, and this conversation will teach you where and how to get started.

Get full show notes and a transcript at https://kerimartinez.com/19.

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This episode is a follow-up to last week’s episode on improving your relationships. Everyone struggles with relationships at times, be they romantic, familial, friendship, or work. If you’re not happy with a relationship but you don’t want to leave it, what can you do?

In this episode, you’ll learn about another relationship concept: manuals. Listen in to learn what they are, how they can cause problems, and what you can do to prevent problems.

Get full show notes and a transcript at https://kerimartinez.com/18.

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Everyone struggles with challenging relationships at times, be they romantic, familial, friendship, or work. If you’re not happy with a relationship but you don’t want to leave it, what can you do?

In this episode you’ll learn three concepts that can help you shift your perspective and improve any kind of relationship – even if the other person doesn’t change. You’ll also hear an important additional suggestion and caveat about improving relationships.

Get full show notes and a transcript at https://kerimartinez.com/17.

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When we face unexpected challenges, it’s normal for our brains to spin out in worry and fear about potential outcomes. This mental “spin cycle” not only hinders our ability to accurately assess the probability and severity of these outcomes but also impairs our prefrontal cortex’s problem-solving ability. If you’re faced with an unexpected problem and want to stop your brain’s spin cycle, what can you do?

In this episode you’ll learn a powerful three-step strategy to halt the spin cycle. Listen in to hear how this strategy can help you calm down, identify practical solutions, and feel more confident handling the problem.

Get full show notes and a transcript at https://kerimartinez.com/16.

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