The Unburdened Leader

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EP 158: Stop Waiting Until You’re Ready: Sylvia Kwan on Women, Wealth, and Leadership

July 03, 2026

How many times have you talked yourself out of pursuing an opportunity, telling yourself it wasn't for you, that you weren’t ready, or you weren’t qualified? What if that hesitation wasn't self-awareness but a script you internalized?Many women have a complicated relationship with their ambitions for greater leadership and greater wealth. And it isn’t because women are somehow inherently less suited for leadership or financial independence. The systems of power, patriarchy, sexism, and misogy...

EP 157: The Ambition Penalty: Stefanie O'Connell on Why Wanting More Still Costs Women

June 19, 2026

Say the word ambition, especially around women, and it brings up a complicated mix of emotions and beliefs.If you're not succeeding, you're not ambitious enough. If you are succeeding, wanting a lot, and going for it, you're too ambitious, and you get penalized or punished. It happens at work, at home, and in the communities we move through every day.There are so many mixed messages about ambition and success coming at us from every direction. And it's not just imposed from the outside.For ma...

EP 156: Stop Exiling Yourself: Dr. Jamie Marich on Dissociation, Authenticity, and High Performance

June 05, 2026

Some words and experiences come with a lot of baggage, conjuring up fear, stigma, and shame.But being afraid or ashamed doesn’t protect us from those experiences or those words. It just keeps us from really understanding them or being able to talk about them. And what we can’t process for ourselves, we can’t help those we love and lead with either.In the clinical space, dissociation is one of those words and experiences that is met with a lot of discomfort. How people were taught and trained ...