Today we’d like to introduce you to Stephanie McNeal.
Hi Stephanie, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I often say that some of the greatest transformations in our lives begin with the very experiences we would have never chosen for ourselves.
If you had told the younger version of me that some of my greatest contributions to the world would come from the most painful chapters of my life, I probably would have looked at you like you had lost your mind! But here I am.
I’m a small-town girl from Brinkley, Arkansas, who grew up with dreams bigger than the place I came from. I’ve worn many hats over the years – corporate professional, entrepreneur, consultant, author, filmmaker, mother of four, and minister of reconciliation. But perhaps the most important title I’ve earned is one that doesn’t come with a degree, a paycheck, or a business card: a woman who has learned how to be free.
And believe me, that freedom didn’t come cheaply.
For years, I was doing what so many women do. Building a career, growing a business, raising a family, serving others, pursuing success, and trying to be everything everybody needed me to be. From the outside, my life may have looked like a picture of accomplishment. But behind the accomplishments was a woman who still had some healing to do.
The ending of my 24-year marriage became one of the most defining turning points of my life. Divorce has a way of making you question everything you thought you knew about love, commitment, identity, and even God. I had to confront some difficult truths about myself, the beliefs I had carried, and the ways I had learned to love others while sometimes neglecting myself.
But something extraordinary happened in that season.
I discovered that forgiveness wasn’t about giving someone else a pass. It was about refusing to spend the rest of my life imprisoned by what had happened to me.
That revelation came while writing my book, Freed to Love: How Forgiveness Can Heal You From Broken Pieces to Master Peace and the foundation of Freed to Love, LLC.
What began as my personal journey toward healing evolved into a much larger mission: helping people confront the stories, wounds, and beliefs that keep them from experiencing the fullness of love – love for God, love for themselves, and love for others.
Along the way, I also discovered the extraordinary power of storytelling. I began helping others recognize that their experiences, including the painful ones, could become sources of wisdom, healing, and impact. Through books, collaborative publishing projects, speaking, and eventually documentary filmmaking, I found new ways to give voice to stories that deserve to be heard.
My professional journey has been just as diverse. With an MBA and a background that includes corporate America, entrepreneurship, and business consulting, I’ve had the opportunity to help individuals and business owners turn their visions into something tangible. Today, I also work in economic development, helping entrepreneurs become better positioned to access capital and build sustainable businesses.
And while those worlds may appear different, I’ve come to realize they’re deeply connected. Whether I’m helping someone become financially empowered or emotionally free, I’m ultimately helping people recognize what’s possible beyond their present circumstances.
Now, at 60, I’m entering what I believe may be the most meaningful chapter of my life.
And here’s what makes me smile: Society has a funny way of suggesting that women of a certain age should start winding things down. Well, somebody forgot to send me that memo!
I’m still dreaming. Still creating. Still learning. Still loving. And perhaps most importantly, I’m still becoming.
I’m expanding my work into film, exploring deeper conversations about love and relationships after 50 and creating spaces where women can have honest conversations about the things we’ve survived, the lessons we’ve learned, and the lives we still desire to live.
Because I believe there are far too many women who have spent their lives being everything to everybody else, only to wake up one day wondering, “But what about me?”
I want those women to know that their story isn’t over.
One of the greatest lessons God has taught me is that you can be successful and still need healing. You can be accomplished and still be afraid. You can love God deeply and still struggle to believe that you are worthy of being loved.
And you can begin again. At 40. At 50. At 60. Or at 80.
I don’t believe God wastes our experiences. But I do believe we have a responsibility to decide what we will do with the wisdom we’ve gained from them.
When I look back over my life, I see a woman who once thought her assignment was to hold everything together. Today, I understand that my assignment is much greater: to help people experience the freedom that comes when they stop allowing their past to dictate their future.
So, how did I get here?
Through faith. Through failure. Through forgiveness. Through some very difficult lessons. Through the grace of God. And through a willingness to keep saying yes to the woman He is calling me to become.
I’m no longer interested in simply building a successful life. I’m committed to living a life that means something.
And the beautiful thing is, I believe I’m just getting started.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
A smooth road? Absolutely not! And if I’m being truthful, some of the potholes were of my own making!
I’ve experienced heartbreak, divorce, disappointment, financial challenges, unexpected detours, and seasons when I questioned whether I had the strength to keep going. I’ve had dreams that didn’t materialize, relationships that didn’t survive, and moments when I had to start over long after I thought I should have had life figured out.
But some of my greatest struggles weren’t the things that happened TO me. They were the things happening WITHIN me!
You see, it’s possible to be a strong, accomplished, faith-filled woman and still carry wounds that influence how you see yourself, how you love, what you tolerate, and what you believe you deserve.
For a long time, I was very good at being strong. I knew how to persevere, solve problems, take care of people, and keep moving. What I didn’t always know how to do was recognize when I was hurting, ask for what I needed, or give myself permission to stop carrying things God never asked me to carry.
And that’s a hard truth for a woman who is accustomed to being the one everybody else depends on.
One of the most difficult lessons I’ve learned is that being needed is not the same as being loved, and being strong is not the same as being whole.
The end of my 24-year marriage forced me to confront some of those realities. I had to grieve more than the loss of a relationship. I had to grieve the future I thought I would have, the expectations I had built my life around, and even some of the beliefs I held about myself and God.
And somewhere in that process, I had to ask myself a question that changed everything: What if the greatest obstacle to the life I desire isn’t what someone else did to me, but what I’ve come to believe because of it!!?
That’s when the real work began.
I had to learn that forgiveness doesn’t automatically erase pain. Healing requires honesty. It requires accountability. It requires vulnerability. Sometimes it requires boundaries, uncomfortable conversations, and the humility to admit that you have contributed to some of your own suffering.
I’ve also had to navigate the challenges of entrepreneurship. I’ve invested in ideas that didn’t produce the results I expected. I’ve experienced the frustration of having a clear vision without always having the resources, support, or timing to bring it to life.
And I have learned that just because something is a good idea doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a God assignment – or that it’s the right season to pursue it.
That lesson alone has saved me from a lot of unnecessary striving.
But perhaps one of the most profound struggles has been learning to separate my identity from my productivity.
For much of my life, I measured progress by what I was accomplishing, what I was building, and how many people I was helping. Yet God has been teaching me that my worth was never supposed to be determined by how useful I am to other people.
I don’t have to earn God’s love by exhausting myself doing things for Him. He desires a relationship with me, not just my service.
And at this stage of my life, that truth means more to me than ever.
I’ve come to understand that every difficult season doesn’t require me to build something out of it or turn it into a business opportunity. Sometimes the assignment is simply to heal, grow, rest, and allow God to do a work in me before He does anything through me.
I’m still learning that.
So no, the road hasn’t been smooth. But I wouldn’t trade the wisdom I’ve gained for the illusion of a perfect life.
I used to think resilience meant getting knocked down and getting back up. Today, I believe resilience also means having the courage to acknowledge what knocked you down, learn from it, and refuse to let it define you.
My scars are evidence of what I’ve survived. But my freedom is evidence of what I’ve learned.
And if sharing those lessons helps another woman recognize that she can stop merely surviving her life and begin truly living it, then my journey has served a purpose far greater than my pain.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Freed to Love, LLC?
Freed to Love didn’t begin as a business idea. It began as an assignment from God.
And like many assignments from God, I didn’t fully understand everything it would become when I first said yes.
It actually started with something called P.R.E.S.S., an acronym for Perseverance, Resiliency, Endurance, Submission, and Supplication. Those five principles became foundational to the work God was calling me to do.
But at the heart of that assignment was something even greater: helping people become freed to love God, love themselves, and love everyone else.
Now, that may sound simple, but I’ve discovered that loving well is one of the most challenging things we will ever be called to do.
Because how do we love others when we’re carrying resentment? How do we love ourselves when we’ve allowed our mistakes, disappointments, and other people’s opinions to define us? And how do we truly love God when we haven’t fully learned to trust Him, surrender to Him, or receive His love for us?
Those are the kinds of questions that shaped Freed to Love.
Over time, my own life experiences, including marriage, motherhood, divorce, entrepreneurship, and personal transformation, gave me a deeper understanding of the very principles I had been called to share.
And isn’t that just like God? Sometimes He gives you an assignment, and then life becomes the classroom where you learn what that assignment really means!
What began with P.R.E.S.S. eventually grew into Freed to Love, a faith-centered company dedicated to helping people experience personal freedom, discover the power of their stories, and create lives and legacies rooted in truth, forgiveness, reconciliation, and love. And, the methods of fulfilling it continue to evolve. And I believe that mission is more relevant today than ever.
We live in a world filled with people who are successful professionally but struggling personally. People who have mastered the art of looking like they have it all together while privately wrestling with rejection, resentment, regret, disappointment, and unresolved pain.
I know, because I’ve been one of those people.
What makes Freed to Love different is that we don’t simply encourage people to tell their stories. We challenge them to examine the stories they’ve been telling themselves.
Because sometimes the most damaging story in your life isn’t what somebody else said about you. It’s the conclusion you reached about yourself because of what you experienced.
That distinction is at the heart of everything we do.
Through books, speaking engagements, transformative conversations, storytelling experiences, collaborative publishing, and creative media, we help individuals find meaning in their experiences and use their voices to inspire change.
One of our signature areas of work is helping aspiring authors and visionaries turn their personal stories into powerful messages through memoir development and publishing. I’m passionate about helping people recognize that their stories have value, even when they don’t have a celebrity name, a massive following, or what the world considers an extraordinary life.
I believe ordinary people carry extraordinary wisdom.
And too often, that wisdom dies with them because nobody ever encouraged them to tell their stories.
That’s why legacy storytelling is such an important part of our work. We help people move beyond simply documenting what happened in their lives to understanding what those experiences mean and what future generations can learn from them.
Our work is expanding into documentary filmmaking and visual storytelling because I believe some stories need to be experienced, not just read. Film allows us to explore the human experience in ways that can challenge assumptions, create empathy, preserve history, and open conversations that might otherwise never happen.
Another area I’m especially passionate about is changing the conversation around love, relationships, and reinvention in the second half of life.
There seems to be this unspoken expectation that once women reach a certain age, particularly after divorce, widowhood, or other major life transitions, they should simply be grateful for what they’ve already experienced and quietly settle into whatever life remains.
Well, I disagree!
Who decided that a woman’s greatest love, greatest adventure, greatest contribution, or greatest expression of herself has to happen before she’s 50?
I believe women can experience some of the most beautiful, fulfilling, and purposeful seasons of their lives at 50, 60, 70, and beyond. And I want Freed to Love to be part of helping women embrace that possibility without apology.
As for what I’m most proud of, it isn’t a particular product, program, or accomplishment.
It’s the integrity of the message.
I didn’t create Freed to Love because I had mastered forgiveness, relationships, or personal transformation. I created it because I was willing to do the difficult work of confronting my own life and sharing what I learned along the way.
And I’m still doing that work.
I don’t want to build a brand that presents me as a woman who has all the answers. I want to build something that gives people permission to ask better questions, confront uncomfortable truths, and pursue the kind of freedom that produces lasting change.
My Christian faith is foundational to that mission. I believe genuine transformation begins with truth, is sustained by grace, and is expressed through love. And while my convictions are deeply rooted in Scripture, I also understand that every person’s journey is different. My desire is to create spaces where people feel seen, respected, challenged, and encouraged.
Ultimately, I want readers to know that Freed to Love is about more than telling your story.
It’s about changing your relationship with your story.
Because you may not have had control over every chapter of your life, but you do have a responsibility for how you live the chapters that remain.
Your past may explain you, but it does not have to define you. Your pain may have shaped you, but it does not have to become your identity. And your age should never become the expiration date on your purpose.
That’s what Freed to Love represents.
And we’re just getting started.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
Risk-taking? Honey, practically my entire life has been one risk after another! At this point, I sometimes wonder if I’ve ever done anything the conventional way!
I’ve taken risks in my career, in business, in relationships, in pursuing dreams that made perfect sense to me but probably looked absolutely ridiculous to somebody else. I’ve stepped into rooms where I didn’t know anyone, pursued opportunities for which I didn’t have all the experience or qualifications, invested money I couldn’t afford to lose, and started over when it would have been much easier to stay where I was.
And let me tell you, every risk hasn’t paid off!
Some decisions have cost me money. Others have cost me time, relationships, opportunities, and a few good nights of sleep. I’ve had some spectacular successes and some equally spectacular lessons!
But here’s what I’ve learned: There’s a cost to taking risks, but there’s also a cost to spending your life playing it safe. And sometimes the greater loss is the life you never had the courage to pursue.
I’ve never wanted to reach the end of my life wondering what might have happened if I had simply been willing to try.
Leaving familiar environments, reinventing myself professionally, building businesses, publishing my story, pursuing filmmaking later in life, and even opening my heart to love again have all required different kinds of courage.
And I think we sometimes underestimate the emotional risks.
It takes courage to launch a business, but it also takes courage to admit you’ve made a mistake. It takes courage to pursue a dream, but it takes just as much courage to walk away from one that no longer aligns with your purpose. And after you’ve experienced heartbreak, sometimes one of the greatest risks you’ll ever take is allowing yourself to be vulnerable enough to love again.
Now, as a woman of faith, I believe there’s a difference between taking a risk and being reckless.
Faith is not an excuse for poor judgment, and courage does not eliminate the need for wisdom.
I’ve learned that every open door isn’t necessarily a door God wants me to walk through. Every opportunity isn’t an assignment. And just because I “can” do something doesn’t mean I “should”.
That’s a lesson I wish I had learned a little earlier in life!
These days, I ask different questions before making major decisions. Is this aligned with what God has called me to do? Am I moving from faith or from fear? Have I counted the cost? Am I pursuing this because it’s purposeful, or because I have something to prove?
And perhaps the most important question: Am I willing to obey God if His answer is no?
Because sometimes the greatest demonstration of faith isn’t taking the leap. It’s having the discipline to wait.
At 60, I still have an enormous appetite for life. I still have dreams that stretch me, ideas that excite me, and things I want to experience that I’ve never done before. I’m not interested in allowing age, other people’s expectations, or my previous disappointments to determine what’s possible for the rest of my life.
But I’m also more intentional about where I invest my time, energy, money, and heart. I’ve learned that just because I survived something doesn’t mean I need to volunteer to go through it again!
And here’s something I want other women, especially those in the second half of life, to understand: You are allowed to change your mind. You are allowed to reinvent yourself. You are allowed to pursue something you’ve never done before, even if everybody around you thinks you’ve lost your mind.
You don’t need permission to pursue the purpose God has placed in your heart.
My philosophy is pretty simple: I’d rather live with the lessons of a risk I took than the regret of a life I was too afraid to live.
Of course, I want to make wise decisions. I want to be a good steward of what God has entrusted to me. But I also understand that stewardship isn’t just about protecting what you’ve been given. Sometimes it’s about having the courage to put it to work.
After all, the parable of the talents reminds us that burying what we’ve been entrusted with isn’t necessarily the safest decision after all.
So, am I a risk-taker?
Absolutely!
But these days, I’m less interested in proving how brave I am and more interested in making sure that whatever risks I take are worth the investment.
Because at this stage of my life, I’m not afraid of starting over. I’m much more concerned about standing still when God is calling me forward.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.freed2love.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stephanieymcneal/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stephanieymcneal
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanieymcneal/
