In June 1940, Winston Churchill stood before the House of Commons and gave the "Finest Hour" speech, setting a steady, resolved temperature for a nation facing the worst.

Nine days later, his wife Clementine wrote him a letter. Someone close to him had come to her with a warning: his staff were finding his manner rough, sarcastic, and overbearing, and he was in danger of being disliked by the very people he led. She wrote, "you are not so kind as you used to be," and she urged him toward "Olympic calm."

In public he was steady. In private, his people had stopped bringing him ideas.

In this episode, Julie talks to founders, business owners, and every leader about a truth most of us would rather not hear: you are the thermostat of your company. Your mood, your urgency, and your late-night one-word replies travel faster and farther than you think, especially in a small team with no layers to absorb the heat.

Julie covers:

• The difference between a thermometer leader and a thermostat leader
• Research on emotional contagion, and how one person's mood moves through a whole team
• Four signs you might be adding to the mess, starting with a team that has gone quiet
• 1 Peter 4:7-8 and why Scripture calls leaders to be clear-minded and disciplined when the pressure rises
• Five practical ways to set the temperature on purpose, including "find your Clementine"

Julie also shares where her own work is headed. She now consults with founders and leadership teams on culture, communication, and how leaders show up, as an outside set of eyes who can see what everyone inside the building has gotten used to.

CONNECT WITH JULIE Website: https://juliewagner.co

Instagram: @leadershipclearly and @oh_hey_jules

TikTok: @oh_hey_jules

THE LEADERSHIP CLEARLY FOUNDATIONS COURSE Out today. Five days, one short lesson a day, and a one page Communication Plan you can lead from for years. www.juliewagner.co/the-leadership-clearly-foundations-course

FREE: THE LEADERSHIP VOICE STYLE QUIZ Four minutes. Find out how you actually communicate as a leader. www.juliewagner.co/the-quiz

Renée Bryan spent 35 years in financial services training advisors and brokerage houses across the country. She was very good at it. Then in 2012 she committed more deeply to her faith, and almost immediately her six figure income dropped to one sixth of what it had been.

She did not walk away from God. She leaned in. What she learned in that season became a book.

In this conversation, Renée and Julie get into the part of money nobody preaches on. Not budgeting. Fear. Renée draws a line most financial teachers will not draw, between the fear you are carrying and the money you are losing, and she is specific about what a fear based financial decision actually costs. She talks about the 3 a.m. moment at her dining room table during her divorce when she asked God where He was, and why she now believes she used that moment as permission to leave. She talks about the season she is in right now, watching a business she loves wind down, and what it looks like to grieve something while still walking forward.

She also does not flinch on the hard parts. Renée names the institutions she believes profit off people's financial fear, walks through why she thinks Dave Ramsey's debt-free-first approach is a fear based rule rather than a universal one, and offers the test she uses on her own choices: if she is building a story in her head to justify a decision, that is usually the decision God does not want her making.

Julie brings her own season into it. She was recently laid off from her corporate role, and this conversation happens in the middle of that, not after it.

"If God puts a passion in our heart, God will make a way. Period. End of story."

Renée E. Bryan is an author, educator, and the host of Fearless Finances. Her book, The Morality of Money: Remove Fear and Discover Financial Freedom Through Simple Economic Principles and Universal Truths, is available on Amazon.

This is our first video episode. Watch it, or listen wherever you already get the show. Audio is not going anywhere.

This conversation is financial education and personal testimony, not personalized financial advice. Talk to a professional who knows your situation before making decisions about debt, savings, or investments.

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CONNECT WITH RENÉE E. BRYAN

Author website: reneelizbryan.info The Morality of Money on Amazon: www.amazon.com/dp/B0DFHBT1TY

Money & Faith Study, for book clubs and church groups: www.reneelizbryan.info/money-faith-study-for-churches/

Fearless Finances on YouTube: youtube.com/@Fearless_Finances

Instagram: @fearlessfinances4ever

TikTok: @fearlessfinances4ever

Facebook: Fearless Finances Read the first 30 pages free: reneelizbryan.info/the-morality-of-money-by-renee-e-bryan-sample.pdf

Email: fearless.finances.forever@gmail.com

Renée is also President and Primary Instructor at Bryan Ventures, Inc., insurance education: www.bryanventures.com

CONNECT WITH JULIE

Website: https://juliewagner.co

Instagram: @leadershipclearly and @oh_hey_jules

TikTok: @oh_hey_jules

THE LEADERSHIP CLEARLY FOUNDATIONS COURSE Out today. Five days, one short lesson a day, and a one page Communication Plan you can lead from for years. www.juliewagner.co/the-leadership-clearly-foundations-course

FREE: THE LEADERSHIP VOICE STYLE QUIZ Four minutes. Find out how you actually communicate as a leader. www.juliewagner.co/the-quiz

This episode is financial education and personal testimony, not personalized financial advice.

In one year, Hannah Kuykendall's eleven month old daughter was rushed to the ICU with no diagnosis and no promise she was coming home. Her husband's spine was crushed on a landscaping job, leaving him without feeling from the waist down and without the career he had spent ten years building. They lost their home. They moved to a new state with no family nearby. And overnight, Hannah became the only income for a family of five, on a teacher's salary.

She did not step back from a single thing she was leading.

Not the fifth grade classroom. Not chapel. Not the children's ministry at her church. Not her home.

In this conversation, Hannah tells Julie what it actually looks like to lead people while your own world is coming apart, and why she believes surrender and quitting are opposites, not synonyms. She talks about feeling like a fraud in leadership roles while privately struggling with her own faith. She talks about sitting in a parking lot calling her papaw because she did not know how to feed her kids. And she talks about what changed the day she stopped trying to author the chapter she was in.

"The chapter I was in was not in my control, but I knew the author who was writing it."

Hannah is a fifth grade teacher, a chapel teacher, a children's ministry director, a wife, a mom of three, and the author of She Builds Her Home, built on Proverbs 14:1. This episode is for the leader who is holding everything together in public and coming apart in private, and who needs to hear that being honest about it will not cost her the room.

A note on this episode: we recorded on video and the file never made it to the cloud. You will hear both of us reference video and "our viewers." The audio is fully intact. Next week's episode is our first video podcast.

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CONNECT WITH HANNAH KUYKENDALL

Website: www.mrshannah.com

Book: She Builds Her Home https://a.co/d/04hTA1bB

TikTok: @thehannahunfiltered

YouTube: www.youtube.com/@Shebuildsco141

Email: contact@mrshannah.com

THE LEADERSHIP CLEARLY FOUNDATIONS COURSE

Releases Monday, August 31st. Pre-order now. juliewagner.co/the-leadership-clearly-foundations-course

FREE: THE LEADERSHIP VOICE STYLE QUIZ

Four minutes. Find out how you actually communicate as a leader. juliewagner.co/the-quiz

CONNECT WITH JULIE

Website: juliewagner.co

Email: julie@juliewagner.co

Instagram: @oh_hey_jules and @leadershipclearly

TikTok: oh_hey_jules

NEXT WEEK Renee E. Bryan, author of The Morality of Money, on removing fear and finding financial freedom. Our first video episode.

If this episode found you at the right time, leave a review. It's how other leaders find the show.

Leading Out of Rest, Not Hustle | How to Sustain the Calling Without Burning It to the Ground

"If I just work hard enough, long enough, I can hold it all together." That was Julie's whole operating system, until she hit the wall hustle always walks you into. In this finale of the identity arc, she reframes rest not as the reward you earn after you've proven yourself, but as the ground you lead from in the first place.

In this episode:

• The lie of hustle, why more effort isn't the answer, and what it costs you and your team
• The one-word difference between leading FOR rest and leading FROM rest
• Why hustle culture is quietly built on a functional disbelief in God
• How God built rest into the very design of creation, and made it a gift, not a reward
• Four honest, doable ways to actually shift into leading from rest

Scripture anchors: Psalm 127:1-2 and Mark 2:27 (NLT)

Your one thing this week: practice one act of leading from rest. Take the real day off. Close the laptop with things unfinished and trust God overnight. Lead as though it doesn't all depend on you, because it doesn't.

This is part 3 of 3, the finale of the identity arc: Calling → Confidence → Rest. New here? Start with Part 1, The Calling Question.

Because clarity is an act of lov3.

Connect & Go Deeper

→ 1:1 Coaching: Learn about working with Julie one-on-one at juliewagner.co

→ The Course: Check out the Leadership Clearly Foundations Course at https://juliewagner.co/the-leadership-clearly-course

→ Come On the Show: Interested in being a guest? Email PODCAST@juliewagner.co

→ Free Guide: Sign up for our newsletter and get your free guide, The 7 Pillars of Kingdom Leadership, at https://leadershipclearly.com/1-opt-in-page-page-4353

→ Leadership Language Quiz: Find out how you communicate as a leader at https://juliewagner.co/the-quiz

The Confidence Gap | How to Lead With Confidence When the Self-Doubt Won't Quit

There's the version of you that's clear and capable in your own head, and the version that walks into the room and loses half her confidence somewhere between the doorway and the table. That distance, between what you're actually capable of and how confident you feel when it counts, is the confidence gap. And so many capable leaders live in it every day.

Part two of the identity arc tackles what happens after you've said yes to the calling and the self-doubt still won't leave you alone.

In this episode:

• Why the confidence most of us chase is a counterfeit that can never satisfy
• The better definition: confidence isn't the absence of doubt, it's acting well in its presence
• Where durable confidence actually comes from (and why competence is the wrong foundation)
• Why God commands courage to shaky leaders, and the reason He always attaches to it
• Four practical ways to close the gap and lead confidently while the feeling catches up

Scripture anchors: Joshua 1:9 and 2 Corinthians 12:9 (NLT)

Your one thing this week: catch yourself in the gap, that moment you're tempted to shrink, and do the brave thing anyway. You won't close the confidence gap by finally feeling ready. You'll close it by acting faithfully while unready.

This is part 2 of 3 in an identity arc: Calling → Confidence → Rest. New here? Start with Part 1, The Calling Question.

Because clarity is an act of love.

Connect & Go Deeper

→ 1:1 Coaching: Learn about working with Julie one-on-one at juliewagner.co

→ The Course: Check out the Leadership Clearly Foundations Course at https://juliewagner.co/the-leadership-clearly-course

→ Come On the Show: Interested in being a guest? Email PODCAST@juliewagner.co

→ Free Guide: Sign up for our newsletter and get your free guide, The 7 Pillars of Kingdom Leadership, at https://leadershipclearly.com/1-opt-in-page-page-4353

→ Leadership Language Quiz: Find out how you communicate as a leader at https://juliewagner.co/the-quiz

Who am I to be doing this? If that question has ever whispered at you, or shouted at you at 2 a.m., this episode is for you. Because that exact feeling of "who am I" is not proof that you're not called. Very often, it's the fingerprint of the very people God tends to call.

Julie opens a 3-part identity series with the question underneath all the other questions: am I even supposed to be leading, or am I just faking it until someone figures me out?

In this episode:

• Why feeling unqualified is not the same as being unqualified
• The most famous "I'm not good enough" conversation in the Bible, and what God's answer changes
• Why your calling was never based on your qualification, but on His presence
• How God chooses the unlikely on purpose, and why
• How to tell the difference between fear talking and genuine wisdom that a role isn't yours

Scripture anchors: Exodus 4:10-12 and 1 Corinthians 1:27 (NLT)

Your one thing this week: stop answering the calling question by trying to convince yourself you're qualified. Answer it the way God answered Moses, the question was never whether you're enough. It's whether He's with you.

This is part 1 of 3 in our identity series: Calling → Confidence → Rest.

Because clarity is an act of love.

Connect & Go Deeper

→ 1:1 Coaching: Learn about working with Julie one-on-one at juliewagner.co

→ The Course: Check out the Leadership Clearly Foundations Course at https://juliewagner.co/the-leadership-clearly-course

→ Come On the Show: Interested in being a guest? Email PODCAST@juliewagner.co

→ Free Guide: Sign up for our newsletter and get your free guide, The 7 Pillars of Kingdom Leadership, at https://leadershipclearly.com/1-opt-in-page-8735

→ Leadership Language Quiz: Find out how you communicate as a leader at https://juliewagner.co/the-quiz

Clarity Is Protection | Why Clear, Documented Communication Protects Your People, Your Team, and You

Documentation. The word that makes most heart-led leaders flinch. It sounds cold, corporate, the opposite of leading with love. By the end of this episode, Julie wants you to hear that word and think care, not cold.

The finale of the Clear and Protected series reframes clear, documented communication as one of the deepest forms of protection a leader can offer, for the struggling employee, the faithful team, and the leader herself.

In this episode:

• The reframe: documentation is simply clarity made durable, the fair warning love insists on
• Who it actually protects, all three: the employee, the team, and you
• Why protecting the organization is faithful stewardship, not selfishness
• What Proverbs says about foresight and prudence (and why "winging it" isn't faith)
• A heart check: three questions to keep documentation from curdling into cold, defensive file-building

Scripture anchors: Proverbs 22:3 and Proverbs 13:4 (NLT)

A note for leaders: this episode lives right up against employment law. Julie is a leadership coach, not a lawyer or HR professional. She handles the why and the heart, and sends you to your HR team or a qualified employment attorney for the how. Please don't build your documentation practices off a podcast.

Your one thing this week: change your relationship with one word. After your next meaningful conversation with someone you lead, follow it with a short, kind, clear written summary. Not as a weapon. As a gift.

This is part 3 of 3, the finale of the Clear and Protected series. New here? Start with Part 1, The Conversation You're Avoiding.

Because clarity is an act of love.

Connect & Go Deeper

→ 1:1 Coaching: Learn about working with Julie one-on-one at juliewagner.co

→ The Course: Check out the Leadership Clearly Foundations Course at https://juliewagner.co/the-leadership-clearly-course

→ Come On the Show: Interested in being a guest? Email PODCAST@juliewagner.co

→ Free Guide: Sign up for our newsletter and get your free guide, The 7 Pillars of Kingdom Leadership, at https://leadershipclearly.com/1-opt-in-page-8735

→ Leadership Language Quiz: Find out how you communicate as a leader at https://juliewagner.co/the-quiz

When They Push Back | Staying Clear and Calm With the Defensive, Unhappy, or Insubordinate Employee

What happens when you do everything right, you're clear, kind, and fair, and they push back anyway? They cross their arms. They say it's not fair. They go quiet and cold and then vent to half the team in the break room. This episode is about staying steady when the other person doesn't.

Part two of the Clear and Protected series tackles the part nobody prepares you for: defensiveness, excuses, the unhappy employee who spreads discontent, and the line where push-back becomes insubordination.

In this episode:

• Why push-back is usually fear, not defiance, and why reading it right changes everything
• The single most important skill: becoming a non-anxious presence when the room heats up
• Soft tone, firm content: how to lower the temperature without surrendering the standard
• The watercooler problem, how one discontented person can taint a whole team
• The real difference between push-back and insubordination, and what changes at that line
• When a difficult conversation becomes a safety situation, and what to do

Scripture anchors: Proverbs 15:1 and Proverbs 26:20-21 (NLT)

A note for leaders: this episode touches employee relations and workplace law, including protected employee discussions. Julie is a leadership coach, not a lawyer or HR professional, and flags throughout where to check with your HR team or an employment attorney.

Your one thing this week: before any hard conversation, take 60 seconds to settle yourself first. Their reaction is not an emergency.

This is part 2 of 3 in the Clear and Protected series. New here? Start with Part 1, The Conversation You're Avoiding.

Because clarity is an act of love.

Connect & Go Deeper

→ 1:1 Coaching: Learn about working with Julie one-on-one at juliewagner.co

→ The Course: Check out the Leadership Clearly Foundations Course at https://juliewagner.co/the-leadership-clearly-course

→ Come On the Show: Interested in being a guest? Email PODCAST@juliewagner.co

→ Free Guide: Sign up for our newsletter and get your free guide, The 7 Pillars of Kingdom Leadership, at https://leadershipclearly.com/1-opt-in-page-8735

→ Leadership Language Quiz: Find out how you communicate as a leader at https://juliewagner.co/the-quiz