Épisodes

  • Career Visibility for Women: Stop Waiting to Be Chosen (Shantel Love)

    Career Visibility for Women: Stop Waiting to Be Chosen (Shantel Love)
    Jul 14 2026
    If you have the talent, experience, results, and work ethic—but still feel overlooked—Shantel Love believes the problem may not be your ability. It may be your visibility. Self-promotion for women is often treated like arrogance. Women are encouraged to work hard, remain humble, and trust that the right person will eventually recognize their contribution. But hard work does not always speak for itself. Sometimes it sits quietly while someone else receives the credit, promotion, opportunity, or paycheck. Shantel is a global vice president at Pearson, an international speaker, bestselling author, and creator of Promote Your Damn Self. Her journey began in poverty in Detroit, where she was raised by a mother who had her at 15 and worked for decades without meaningful financial advancement. Shantel did not have a clear model of the success she wanted. But she knew the life around her was not the only one available. She pursued education, placed herself in unfamiliar rooms, asked direct questions, and learned from people whose lives expanded her understanding of what was possible. She also learned that the experiences society suggested she should hide were not liabilities. They were training. Growing up with limited resources taught her to stretch budgets, solve problems creatively, and produce results with less. Those same skills now help her manage major corporate budgets, create cost-reduction strategies, and lead global teams. In this conversation, Shantel and Dr. Robin Buckley explore how women can identify the professional value inside experiences they routinely dismiss. Managing a home can develop budgeting, negotiation, planning, crisis management, and leadership skills. Surviving instability can build adaptability. Being the first in a family or organization can create courage, perspective, and resourcefulness. The skill is learning how to position those experiences in language other people understand. Shantel's PAID framework begins with positioning your value, amplifying your work, inviting people into opportunities to collaborate or advance you, and delivering on the expectations you create. That means documenting your accomplishments, researching compensation, building relationships with decision-makers, and directly asking for the opportunity instead of relying on passive promotion. Shantel has practiced that philosophy throughout her life. After being rejected from every graduate program she applied to, she went directly to the school she most wanted to attend and contested the decision. She arrived with performance records, recommendations, evidence of her academic growth, and a clear argument for why the admissions data did not reflect her potential. She left with conditional acceptance, a scholarship, and a mentor. The episode also examines the difference between self-promotion rooted in ego and self-promotion rooted in self-respect. Ego relies on vague claims and entitlement. Self-respect arrives with facts, evidence, results, and a clear understanding of the value being offered. In This Episode, We Talk About: Self-promotion for women and why excellent work is not always enoughTurning adversity into professional value instead of hiding your backgroundPositioning and amplifying accomplishments through Shantel's PAID frameworkAsking for promotions, compensation, and opportunities with facts rather than emotionBuilding a personal brand without pretending to be someone elsePracticing career conversations in trusted women's networksReplacing code-switching with authenticity when your environment allows itLeading with empathy, trust, and accountability across a global organization Shantel also shares her approach to leadership. She manages a global team of approximately 300 people and believes peak performance begins by remembering that employees are human beings. Empathy does not mean tolerating mediocrity. It means creating the trust, safety, and connection that allow people to contribute ideas, disagree respectfully, grow their skills, and perform at a high level. Her advice to women is direct: stop carrying other people's opinions as though they are facts. Decide what you believe about your own value—and start collecting the evidence to support it. This conversation is for the woman who is tired of being underpaid, underrecognized, or underestimated despite consistently delivering excellent work. So if you've ever felt overlooked, struggled to talk about your accomplishments, or wondered how to own your value without becoming someone you are not… this episode's for you. You'll want more from Shantel: Website Promote Your Damn Self (book)
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    48 min
  • Nonlinear Career Growth for Women: How to Build Experience, Influence, and Opportunity (Shanna Deng)

    Nonlinear Career Growth for Women: How to Build Experience, Influence, and Opportunity (Shanna Deng)
    Jul 7 2026
    If you have ever looked at your career and worried that you were behind because the path moved sideways, paused, or briefly went backward, Shanna Deng wants you to reconsider what progress actually looks like. Careers are not built only through promotions and titles. They are built through experiences. Shanna is a senior executive at CooperSurgical, a company focused on advancing care for women, babies, and families. Her career did not follow a clean corporate staircase. She moved between internal roles, consulting, team leadership, strategic planning, organizational restructuring, global marketing, and sales before reaching the executive level. Each move added range. In this conversation, Shanna and Dr. Robin Buckley explore nonlinear career growth for women and why time spent in a role matters less than the experiences gained while doing it. A woman can remain in one job for five years and learn very little—or spend one year managing a reorganization, leading a global project, presenting to senior executives, and solving problems she has never seen before. The goal is not simply to stay long enough for someone to promote you. It is to identify the skills missing from your professional story and deliberately seek opportunities to build them. Shanna recommends raising your hand, asking for projects, finding mentors beyond your direct manager, and requesting honest feedback from people who regularly see your work. That feedback may be uncomfortable, but empty praise does not help anyone improve. Earlier in her leadership career, Shanna was told she could be intimidating. The feedback felt personal because she also knew herself as playful, goofy, and deeply relational. Instead of erasing her intensity, she learned to balance it with warmth and humor. The lesson was not to become someone else, but to understand which parts of herself were most useful in different environments. The episode also examines how career decisions interact with motherhood. Shanna spent five years consulting while raising young children. The move temporarily removed some of the security of corporate employment, but it gave her flexibility, new marketing experiences, and more time with her family. It was not necessarily the fastest route to her next title. It was the right structure for that stage of her life. She and her husband also made an intentional plan for parenting. They discussed their ambitions early, identified which career would take priority during specific periods, established a timeline, moved closer to family, and designed childcare around their actual needs rather than accepting one standard model. When Shanna's career accelerated, her husband became the primary parent and later built a part-time business. They divided responsibilities according to their strengths: Shanna often created the strategy, and he executed the plan. That same strategic thinking influenced one of Shanna's most important salary negotiations. After being promoted to vice president, she learned she was earning only slightly more than someone reporting to her. She researched comparable compensation, calculated what her family would need for her husband to step away from full-time work, and presented the company with a clear business case. If the company increased her salary, she would have greater flexibility to travel, lead, and meet the demands of the position. They agreed. In This Episode, We Talk About: Nonlinear career growth for women and why sideways moves can build essential experienceSeeking honest feedback from peers, mentors, and colleagues beyond your direct managerBalancing authenticity and leadership presence without becoming someone you are notUsing consulting or flexible work during demanding stages of motherhoodDesigning parenting roles intentionally instead of assuming the mother must remain on callNegotiating salary with evidence and connecting compensation to business valueRecognizing when a job or culture no longer fitsAdvocating for women's healthcare and teaching younger women to understand and trust their bodies Shanna also challenges women to stop tolerating the belief that a difficult job will eventually improve when someone else changes. A new manager, raise, or reorganization may help—but waiting indefinitely gives away control. If the role consistently feels wrong and you cannot identify a realistic path for changing it, the answer may be to choose something different. This conversation is for the woman who feels behind, underpaid, overlooked, or torn between professional ambition and family life. So if you've ever felt anxious about a nonlinear career, struggled to advocate for your value, or wondered whether you could design success differently… this episode's for you. You'll want more from Shanna: CooperSurgical LinkedIn
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    51 min
  • Clarity Over Confidence: How Women Can Focus on What Actually Matters (Carol Kabaale)

    Clarity Over Confidence: How Women Can Focus on What Actually Matters (Carol Kabaale)
    Jun 30 2026
    A lot of women are exhausted—not because they are doing the wrong things, but because they are carrying too many things that were never theirs to manage. The pressure to perform, help, anticipate, stay available, and keep everyone happy can make a full life feel like a failing one. You are constantly busy, but the work that actually matters never seems to move. Carol Kabaale believes the answer is not more confidence. It is clarity. Carol began her career in hospitality, where she learned to solve problems quickly and keep complicated operations moving. Eventually, she realized she was not simply handling daily emergencies. She was identifying patterns and creating systems. That insight led her into marketing and her work as a fractional chief marketing officer, helping businesses replace confusion and constant activity with strategy, structure, and measurable action. In this conversation, Carol and Dr. Robin Buckley explore how women can stop overthinking and feeling overwhelmed by questioning what they have automatically agreed to carry. Carol spent years trying to be the perfect employee, wife, daughter, business owner, and friend. She arrived early, stayed late, overdelivered, and gave more than clients had asked for. Eventually, she realized she was attempting to serve everyone from an empty cup. Learning to say no did not happen through one bold transformation. It began with small moments: pausing before automatically agreeing, asking someone she trusted to help her word a boundary, and allowing herself to hold her ground without writing a lengthy explanation. Carol recommends starting with support. Ask a friend, mentor, partner, or AI tool to help you draft the message until saying no becomes more natural. The episode also examines the difference between being busy and making progress. Carol loves a list and the satisfaction of checking off tasks. But when she committed to finding work as a fractional CMO, she realized much of her activity—writing captions, adjusting content, organizing small details—was not bringing her closer to the actual goal. She created a 30-day plan, reverse-engineered the outcome she wanted, and followed the daily actions even when they felt uncomfortable. By day 28, she had an offer. The lesson was simple: the tasks that feel productive are not always the ones that create movement. Carol also shares how systems can reduce the mental load. A system is simply a repeatable decision about how something will happen. It might mean working only in one room, planning goals with a partner, dividing responsibilities at home, creating a routine, or identifying the few daily actions that support a larger goal. Good systems create calm because they reduce how many decisions you must remake every day. But perhaps the most damaging mental load comes from solving imagined problems. Carol recognized that she routinely created multiple negative scenarios before anything had happened. When she sent a longtime client a larger-than-usual invoice, she imagined objections, conflict, judgment, and damage to the relationship. She considered lowering the price and overdelivering to compensate. Then she sent the invoice and went to sleep. The client paid it without a question. Every problem had existed only in Carol's mind. In This Episode, We Talk About: How to stop overthinking and feeling overwhelmedSetting boundaries without overexplaining or apologizingRecognizing busyness that is not creating real progressBuilding systems that make work, home, and relationships easier to manageSeparating capacity from responsibilityDelegating tasks instead of believing everything must come from youSolving observable problems rather than imagined onesCreating different kinds of friendships instead of expecting one person to meet every need Carol also encourages women to give themselves permission to imagine what they genuinely want. Her starting point is simple: visualize the life, audit what already works, and choose one area to improve. That improvement does not have to begin with a new house, new career, or dramatic transformation. It may begin with a red lip, new underwear, a clearer workspace, an honest no, or ten minutes spent defining the life you are trying to create. This conversation is for the woman whose mind is constantly racing ahead, managing everyone's needs and preparing for problems that may never arrive. So if you've ever felt overwhelmed by everything you carry, struggled to separate productivity from busyness, or wondered how to create more clarity and calm… this episode's for you.
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    44 min
  • How Women Can Stop Playing Small and Start Building Their Own Income (Renee Carbone Fleming)

    How Women Can Stop Playing Small and Start Building Their Own Income (Renee Carbone Fleming)
    Jun 23 2026
    If you keep waiting until you feel confident, fully prepared, or certain everyone will approve, Renee Carbone Fleming has a challenge for you: Stop waiting. Confidence does not arrive before action. It develops after you try, fail, adjust, and prove to yourself that you can keep going. Renee is the founder of the Badass Queen brand, host of Unapologetically Badass, and author of books including Watch Me. Her work helps women stop playing small, build visible personal brands, and create income that gives them choices. That mission is deeply personal. Renee grew up without much money, slept on a pullout sofa through high school, and began working early. She advanced in corporate life without a college degree through drive, grit, and a willingness to figure things out. Then divorce changed everything. After years as a stay-at-home mother, Renee had to rebuild financially and professionally while raising two daughters. She could return to a traditional job and let someone else determine her options—or create something of her own. She chose herself. In this conversation, Renee and Dr. Robin Buckley explore why capable women hesitate to take up space. Fear may sound like practical thinking: What will people say? Who am I to call myself an expert? What if I fail? What if no one buys it? Renee reframes the question: Who are you not to try? Her WATCH philosophy encourages women to withdraw from explanation, act before approval, take up space publicly, commit without consensus, and hold the vision when no one else does. That does not mean every idea succeeds. Renee has failed, pivoted, learned, and tried again. The difference is grit—the willingness to treat an obstacle as information instead of a final verdict. The episode also examines why Renee is passionate about women creating their own income. After divorce, she understood how frightening it is to feel financially dependent and uncertain. She now encourages women to build multiple income streams and what she calls a "$100,000 fuck-it fund": money that creates the freedom to leave a bad job, unhealthy relationship, or life that no longer fits. Financial independence is not only about money. It changes how a woman thinks, negotiates, chooses, and moves through the world. Renee also explains why personal branding matters even for women who never plan to become full-time entrepreneurs. Careers are changing, automation is reshaping jobs, and a visible body of expertise can create consulting, contract, speaking, and business opportunities. A personal brand is not a polished performance or a public diary. It is a consistent expression of who you are, what you understand, and how you help. In This Episode, We Talk About: How women can stop playing small and act before they feel fully confidentStarting a business after 40 without a degree, perfect plan, or guaranteed outcomeBuilding financial independence and multiple streams of incomeCreating a personal brand that reflects your expertise and personalityDeveloping grit by learning from failure instead of treating it as defeatSharing your story strategically without oversharing or seeking validationFinding purpose by identifying what naturally energizes and interests youCommitting to yourself even when your goals and timelines change Renee's daily practice includes listening to a recording of her future-self vision as though she has already created it. That vision gives her something to return to on the days when she does not feel particularly bold, certain, or badass. This conversation is for the woman who has an idea but keeps asking the wrong people for permission. It is for the woman who feels financially stuck, professionally invisible, or convinced she is too old, inexperienced, or late to begin. So if you've ever felt afraid to take up space, struggled to believe your experience has value, or wondered whether you could create income and opportunity on your own terms… this episode's for you. Renee's message throughout is simple and direct: you don't need to feel ready to start. You need to start so you can become ready. You'll want more from Renee: Website Badass Queen podcast Watch Me Build Your F*ck It Fund
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    45 min
  • How to Choose Yourself: Leaving the Job, Relationship, and Life That No Longer Fit (Nikki Corbett)

    How to Choose Yourself: Leaving the Job, Relationship, and Life That No Longer Fit (Nikki Corbett)
    Jun 16 2026
    Most women do not wake up one morning and decide to blow up their lives. The shift usually begins quietly. The job still looks successful, but it feels empty. The relationship still offers moments of connection, but it requires accepting less than you want. The life you built still functions, but it no longer feels like yours. Learning how to choose yourself often begins when staying starts to cost more than leaving. Nikki Corbett is the host of The Scarlet Edit, a globally ranked podcast that explores infidelity, divorce, complicated relationships, and starting over. Her platform is built around the conversations women often avoid—the stories that do not fit neatly into victim, villain, right, or wrong. Nikki knows that territory personally. After building and scaling a startup inside a technology company, she realized she had effectively worked herself out of a meaningful role. She could stay, collect the paycheck, and wait for someone else to decide what happened next—or she could leave on her own terms. She chose to leave. What she did not anticipate was how much stress her body had been carrying after more than two decades of moving directly from school into work. Once the pressure lifted, she gave herself something many high-achieving women rarely allow: time without an immediate productivity plan. That pause eventually led to consulting, travel, podcasting, and a larger question about what parts of her life she was still hiding. Nikki launched The Scarlet Edit by openly sharing her experience of being the other woman in a long-term relationship. She knew the disclosure could affect how strangers, friends, and future partners viewed her. But she also knew women were living through infidelity, situationships, secrecy, shame, and emotionally complicated relationships every day—often believing they were the only ones. The response confirmed what she suspected. Women began writing to tell her that her conversations made them feel seen. Nikki and Dr. Robin Buckley discuss why keeping a stigmatized experience secret can deepen shame. Sharing does not require broadcasting every detail of your life. But when women speak honestly, they make room for other women to stop believing one decision defines their entire character. The conversation also examines what Nikki learned about love and self-worth. She believes the married man she loved genuinely loved her. The relationship showed her forms of care, attention, and romance she had not experienced before. But eventually, her standards became higher than the relationship could meet. That distinction matters. A relationship can contain real feelings and still be unable to offer the honesty, availability, or commitment you need. Love does not automatically make a situation healthy enough to remain in. Nikki connects that experience to modern situationships. Women may agree to casual terms because the arrangement initially feels easy, exciting, or sexually fulfilling. Over time, emotional intimacy grows while the agreement remains unchanged. One person begins hoping for more while the other continues enjoying the original terms. The result can be a painful disconnect: sharing a bed with someone who treats you as though you do not exist between encounters. The episode also challenges women's fear of being selfish. Nikki argues that taking care of yourself is not cruelty, abandonment, or a lack of generosity. It is self-preservation. You can love other people and still protect time, energy, health, ambition, and boundaries for yourself. In This Episode, We Talk About: How to choose yourself when your career, relationship, or expected life path no longer fitsLeaving corporate life without knowing exactly what comes nextSharing stigmatized experiences and releasing the shame attached to themBeing the other woman and holding emotional complexity without excusing harmful choicesSituationships and self-worth, including why casual arrangements can become deeply painfulRaising relationship standards and creating clear, nonnegotiable boundariesChoosing not to have children and building a life outside traditional expectationsReframing selfishness as self-preservation through small, consistent choices Nikki recommends starting with one manageable act of self-prioritization. Take a walk. Read the book. Sit alone with your coffee. Join the class. Protect ten minutes that belong only to you. Small decisions compound into identity. And when the decision is larger, ask a more useful question: What are the risks of leaving—and what are the risks of staying? This conversation is for the woman living inside a job, relationship, or version of herself that no longer feels aligned. It is for the woman afraid of judgment, ashamed of a chapter in her past, or waiting for permission to want something different. So if you've ever felt trapped by the life you were supposed to want, struggled to protect your self-worth inside a complicated relationship, or wondered whether staying ...
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    39 min
  • Women and Money: How to Build Confidence, Security, and Financial Autonomy (Sarah Serling)

    Women and Money: How to Build Confidence, Security, and Financial Autonomy (Sarah Serling)
    Jun 9 2026
    Women are told to become independent, earn their own money, and prepare for the future. But many are never taught what financial independence actually requires. Then life forces the lesson. A divorce happens. A spouse dies. A relationship ends. A signature was forged. Accounts were hidden. Or a woman suddenly realizes she has spent decades trusting someone else to understand the money for both of them. Financial independence for women is not about doing every financial task yourself. It is about understanding the full picture well enough to make informed choices, ask useful questions, and protect your future. Sarah Serling is an attorney turned financial advisor who works with women navigating wealth, transition, divorce, loss, and major life decisions. She has seen women arrive at the table feeling frightened, ashamed, or convinced they are not capable of understanding their finances—and then become thoughtful, informed, confident decision-makers. Sarah and Dr. Robin Buckley discuss the difference between healthy delegation and completely surrendering financial knowledge. A partner may handle the investments, taxes, bills, or household accounts, but both people should know where the money is, how much exists, what is owed, and how decisions are being made. That awareness is particularly important because women often live longer than male partners and are highly likely to manage their finances alone at some point. The episode also explores financial abuse, which can exist even in affluent or outwardly successful relationships. Financial abuse may include strict allowances, constant monitoring of purchases, hidden accounts, forged signatures, exclusion from financial decisions, or treating a stay-at-home partner like an employee rather than an equal contributor. Women's unpaid labor has value. Raising children, maintaining a household, managing schedules, and supporting a partner's career are contributions to the family's financial life—even when no paycheck is attached. Sarah encourages women to begin with simple steps: Understand what comes in each month and what goes out. Build an emergency fund. Learn where the accounts are held. Review retirement savings. Ask questions until the answers make sense. Start investing as early as possible—but understand that starting in your 40s, 50s, or 60s is still far better than continuing to avoid the numbers. Avoidance creates more anxiety than information. Even when the financial picture is difficult, facts provide something concrete to manage. Sarah's story is also about career reinvention. She entered law school expecting to build one kind of professional life, but after being laid off during the 2008 financial crisis, she spent nearly two years networking, exploring, and trying to identify work that felt meaningful. A friend suggested financial advising. Sarah entered the field without a traditional financial background and discovered that her legal training, advocacy skills, writing experience, and commitment to women's equality had not been wasted. They had been compounding. Years later, she found a presentation she created at the very beginning of her financial career called "Women and Wealth." Now, after leadership roles and another major professional transition, she is returning to that original passion through a national practice focused on women and wealth. In This Episode, We Talk About: Financial independence for women and why knowledge matters even when a partner handles the moneyFinancial abuse in relationships, including control, secrecy, allowances, and exclusion from decisionsBuilding an emergency fund and understanding personal cash flowStarting retirement and investment planning at any ageRecovering financially after divorce, loss, or betrayalChoosing a partner who supports your goals and functions as a true teammateCareer reinvention after a layoff and allowing experience to compoundDefining wealth beyond net worth, including time, health, relationships, purpose, and freedom This conversation is for the woman who feels embarrassed by what she does not know, assumes her partner has everything covered, or worries that she waited too long to take control. So if you've ever felt intimidated by money, struggled to ask financial questions, or wondered whether it is too late to build a more secure future… this episode's for you. You'll want more from Sarah: LinkedIn Please note: The opinions expressed by the speaker(s) are their own and are not intended to serve as specific financial, accounting, or tax advice. They reflect the judgment of the speaker(s) as of the date of publication and are subject to change.
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    38 min
  • Feeling Invisible After 50: How Women Reclaim Identity and Connection (Lizzie Bermudez)

    Feeling Invisible After 50: How Women Reclaim Identity and Connection (Lizzie Bermudez)
    Jun 2 2026
    If you've ever looked at the life you built and wondered where you went inside all of it, Lizzie Bermudez understands. There is a moment many women reach when the roles that once defined them begin to shift. Children need them differently. Careers change or disappear. Menopause alters their bodies and brains. Caregiving becomes consuming. The world starts looking past them, and they begin asking a question that can feel both terrifying and freeing: Who am I now? Reinventing yourself after 50 is not always a bold decision followed by an inspiring montage. Sometimes it begins with grief, exhaustion, depression, brain fog, a career ending, or the realization that people valued your title more than they valued you. Lizzie is an Emmy Award-winning broadcaster and host who spent decades working in television. The industry gave her visibility, purpose, and a professional identity—but it also required her to stay inside a carefully managed box. She could not always share her opinions, show emotion, swear, or fully reveal the woman behind the polished television persona. Then her life changed. Lizzie navigated postpartum struggles, a cancer scare, a hysterectomy that pushed her into menopause, career disruption during the pandemic, and the decision to step back to support her daughter through serious mental health challenges. As the roles and visibility she had relied on fell away, she entered a period of depression and mourning. But beneath the rubble, she was still there. In this conversation, Lizzie and Dr. Robin Buckley explore what it means to reclaim identity in midlife—not by recreating a younger version of yourself, but by recovering the qualities that life may have buried. For Lizzie, that meant fun, curiosity, spontaneity, laughter, adventure, and the willingness to look ridiculous without apologizing. She began showing up on social media more honestly. At first, that vulnerability felt terrifying. She had spent years automatically performing when a camera turned on. Now she had to discover who she was without a teleprompter, producer, or professional persona telling her how to appear. Over time, she stopped hiding behind perfect makeup and polished delivery. She talked about menopause, brain fog, ear wrinkles, aging, motherhood, grief, and the realities of being a woman in her 50s. The more aligned her content became with who she actually was, the more women responded. Lizzie also became more aware of how transactional some relationships had been. When she no longer had airtime, promotion, or professional access to offer, certain people disappeared. That loss changed how she moved through the world. She began noticing the people others overlooked—the worker cleaning her neighborhood, the person beside her in an elevator, the stranger at the airport—and engaging with them as human beings rather than evaluating what either person could offer. Her growing desire for real connection eventually led to her Midlife Walk & Talks: informal gatherings where women come together, move their bodies, talk openly, and remember they are not alone. The idea was simple. No elaborate agenda. No requirement to arrive polished or cheerful. Just show up and walk. What Lizzie discovered was how many women were quietly carrying grief, loneliness, caregiving stress, marital changes, empty nests, career uncertainty, menopause, and family mental health challenges. Movement helped the conversations flow. The women who arrived as strangers began sharing stories, wisdom, and the relief of hearing someone say, "Me too." In This Episode, We Talk About: Reinventing yourself after 50 when your career, family roles, health, or identity begin to changeFeeling invisible in midlife and recognizing how ageism affects women socially and professionallyMenopause, hysterectomy, and brain fog as part of a much larger identity transitionSupporting a child with mental health challenges while trying to care for yourselfShowing up authentically online after years of maintaining a polished professional personaRecognizing transactional relationships and finding the people who remain when you have nothing to offerUsing movement and friendship to heal, connect, and move through difficult seasonsCreating Midlife Walk & Talks without waiting for a perfect business plan or guaranteed outcome This conversation is for the woman who feels caught between who she used to be and who she is becoming. It is for the woman who has spent years holding everyone else together and is finally wondering what brings her joy, what she wants to try, and who she wants beside her. So if you've ever felt invisible, struggled to recognize yourself after a major life change, or wondered whether your most joyful and authentic years could still be ahead of you… this episode's for you. You'll want more from Lizzie: Website TikTok
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    49 min
  • Professional Networking for Women: Why Being Good at Your Job Is Not Enough (Julie Brown)

    Professional Networking for Women: Why Being Good at Your Job Is Not Enough (Julie Brown)
    May 26 2026
    If you've ever assumed that doing excellent work would eventually make the right people notice you, Julie Brown has some unfortunate news. They are busy doing their own jobs. Being competent matters. But competence alone does not guarantee higher pay, better assignments, promotions, influence, or access to the rooms where career-changing decisions are made. Your work has to be visible. Your expertise has to be known. And trusted people have to understand what you contribute well enough to recommend you when you are not present. That is why networking for women is not an optional extra reserved for extroverts, salespeople, or anyone who enjoys walking into a room full of strangers and answering the question, "So, what do you do?" Julie is a speaker, the author of This Shit Works, and a networking expert who describes herself as a professional nonconformist. Before creating her own platform, she spent 17 years working in architecture, engineering, and construction—industries where women were often concentrated in administrative, marketing, and business-development roles while men occupied many of the technical and leadership positions. Working in those environments taught her that being good at the job was only the barrier to entry. Everyone in a high-performing room is expected to be capable. What changes a career is the ability to form relationships inside and outside an organization. Julie and Dr. Robin Buckley examine the research showing that internal networks can be a powerful predictor of long-term career growth. External relationships may lead to opportunities across an industry, but trusted relationships inside a company often determine who receives information, support, high-profile assignments, mentorship, and steady advancement. The problem is that many women still misunderstand networking. They imagine forced conversations, aggressive self-promotion, business cards being shoved into reluctant hands, or approaching people only when they need a job, referral, client, or favor. Julie defines it differently: networking is building relationships deliberately, with the hope that two people may be able to help each other in the future. The best time to build those relationships is before you need anything. When someone loses a job or falls behind on a sales target and suddenly begins networking from desperation, the interaction feels different. A stronger network is built from contribution: offering ideas, making introductions, sharing useful information, supporting someone's work, and developing trust before the crisis arrives. Julie also challenges some of the most predictable networking habits, beginning with the questions "How are you?" and "What do you do?" One has become an automatic greeting that rarely invites an honest answer. The other reduces a person to a job title and immediately makes the exchange feel transactional. Instead, she recommends asking why someone attended the event, what caught their attention that day, what they are working on, or what they have enjoyed about the organization. Better yet, talk about something human: a show, a trip, a ski trail, a pair of pants, or anything that creates a genuine point of connection. Not every interaction has to become a lifelong relationship. Julie calls some of them "single-serving friends"—the stranger on a chairlift, the cashier at the grocery store, or the person beside you at an event. Brief conversations still matter because human connection can improve mood, build conversational confidence, and make everyday life more interesting. The episode also confronts women's discomfort with self-promotion. Julie believes women need to document their accomplishments, understand exactly how they moved a project forward, and become comfortable communicating those facts. That is not bragging. It is evidence. If you do not track your contributions, someone else may underestimate them, forget them, or take credit for them. Julie recommends keeping a living record of results: projects created, clients secured, problems solved, revenue generated, ideas implemented, and measurable impact. Then blow your own damn horn. Women also need more than one kind of network. A broad and diverse professional network creates access, information, and opportunity. But women benefit from a smaller inner circle of female supporters who understand their value, challenge them to grow, recommend them, and speak their names in rooms filled with opportunity. In This Episode, We Talk About: Networking for women and why strong performance alone may not produce career advancementBuilding internal relationships at work that lead to information, opportunity, trust, and long-term growthNetworking before you need something instead of approaching relationships from desperationChoosing the right rooms strategically based on a clear professional or personal goalStarting better conversations without relying on "How are you?" or "What do you do?"Creating brief human connections ...
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    46 min