Work and Wellness

What if everything you were told about getting promoted was actually setting you up to struggle?

In this episode, I'm sharing something a little different — no guest this week, just me and 10 things I wish someone had told me before I stepped into my first leadership role. I did a LinkedIn post on this recently and the response told me there was more to say. So this is me going deeper.

Because here's the truth: most people are promoted into leadership because they're great at their job. Not because they've been trained to lead. And those are two completely different things. What follows is usually a quiet kind of struggle — the replaying of conversations at night, the urge just to do it yourself, the desperate wanting to be liked — that nobody warned you about and that too few people talk about honestly.

This one is for every new leader trying to find their feet, every experienced leader who never got the foundation they deserved, and anyone sitting on the edge of a leadership role, wondering if they're ready.

Key Topics
Why becoming a leader is a complete career change — not just a promotion — and why businesses keep getting this wrong
The accidental counsellor problem: what to do when your team brings their personal struggles to work and why it's not your job to fix them
Hero mode and why swooping in to do the work yourself is actually undermining your team — not helping them
The trap of wanting to be liked and the shift from being liked to being respected
How to communicate decisions you don't fully agree with — or weren't given full context on — in a way that still motivates your team
Why leadership is the ultimate selfless act: giving credit down and taking accountability up
The case for fun — why injecting levity into your team isn't a nice-to-have, it's a performance strategy
What to do when you lay your head on the pillow replaying a conversation you're not proud of
Why repair matters more than perfection — and how to actually do it
The greatest gift of leadership: watching the people you led go on to do remarkable things

Keywords
leadership, new leaders, leadership lessons, first-time leader, management, team culture, difficult conversations, performance, coaching, wellbeing, professional development, career growth, workplace

What if staying exactly where you are is actually the biggest risk you're taking?In this episode, I sit down with Francesca Molina, founder and principal lawyer of Her Legal Edge, to talk about building a business on your own terms — even when the circumstances feel impossible. Francesca launched her legal practice as a single mum with a toddler still breastfeeding through the night, a three-month financial runway, and no partner to fall back on. She went from dreading every day to hitting her annual income target in two and a half months.But this episode goes well beyond business. We get into the shame women carry around wanting more — more money, more success, more freedom — and why that needs to stop. We talk about losing friends as you grow, learning to receive help without guilt, and what it actually means to choose a life that feels like yours. Francesca brings the kind of honest, unfiltered perspective that only comes from having genuinely lived it.This one will make you question whether the life you're tolerating is costing you more than the leap you've been avoiding.Key Topics
What separates intentional, proactive leaders from reactive ones and why it comes down to foundations, not personality
Why contracts aren't scary and the clients who refuse to sign one are usually the ones you don't want anyway
Francesca's leap: quitting her job and launching a firm within two weeks as a solo mum with a toddler and minimal runway
The short-term sacrifice mindset that helped her hit her annual income goal in two and a half months
Why outsourcing before you feel financially ready might be the smartest move you make
The AI contracts trap — why using ChatGPT or Claude for your legal documents could expose you to $20,000+ in liability (Australian law is not American law)
The moment a business stops being a hobby and what you need in place before that happens
About FrancescaFrancesca is the founder and principal lawyer of Her Legal Edge, a modern legal practice helping founders and business owners scale with confidence through strategic, practical and empowering legal support. Website: ⁠herlegaledge.com.au⁠Instagram: ⁠@herlegaledge⁠Book Mentioned: The Top Five Regrets of the Dying by Bronnie WareKeywordswomen in business, legal foundations, contracts, single mum entrepreneur, ambition, money mindset, receiving, female friendship, burnout, boundaries, business growth, legal templates, Australian business law

What if the exhaustion you're wearing as a badge of honour is actually the thing holding you back?
In this episode, I sit down with Shelley-Ann Pieterse, executive alignment coach, founder of Glimmer Coaching and former Managing Director at Accenture, to talk about one of the most important and least discussed distinctions in leadership — the difference between high performance and high functioning burnout. Because from the outside, they look identical.
Shelley spent over two decades at the top of one of the world's largest consulting firms before walking away to build something more sustainable. She brings the kind of hard-won, deeply personal perspective that only comes from having lived it. We get into the patterns she sees most in high-performing women, why ambition and wellbeing are not opposites, and what it actually looks like to lead with alignment rather than endurance.
This one will make you question whether you are truly performing or simply enduring.

Key Topics
The difference between high performance and high functioning burnout — and why they're so easy to confuse
Why exhaustion is not evidence of value and endurance is not the same as resilience
The patterns Shelley sees most in high performing women — perfectionism, hyper-independence and tying worth to achievement
What alignment actually looks and feel like in practice for a leader
A practical red, amber, green energy audit tool you can use this week
How to set realistic boundaries without losing your reputation for reliability
Why most people don't need a career change — they need a different relationship with themselves

About Shelley-Ann
Shelley-Ann Pieterse is an executive alignment coach and founder of Glimmer Coaching. She works with high-performing women and senior leaders to sustain success without sacrificing their wellbeing, drawing on more than 20 years of experience, including her time as Managing Director at Accenture.

Website: Glimmer Coaching
LinkedIn: Shelley-Ann Pieterse
Free self-awareness snapshot quiz available on her website

Keywordsleadership, burnout, high performance, wellbeing, boundaries, ambition, executive coaching, alignment, resilience, sustainable leadership

Last week I ran a workshop for a group of Year 11 girls on limiting beliefs, growth mindset and grit. And it might have been one of my favourite workshops I have ever run because I kept thinking, what would have changed for me if someone had taught me this at 16?
In this episode, I share what came out of that workshop, because the truth is, most of us as adults are still operating from beliefs we formed as teenagers or even younger. Beliefs about whether we're confident enough, whether we're leadership material, whether we have what it takes. And the most dangerous thing about limiting beliefs is that they don't feel like beliefs. They feel like facts.
This episode is about understanding where those beliefs come from, why our brain holds onto them so tightly, and the practical steps we can take to start rewriting them, because the identity you created at 15 does not have to be the prison you live in at 40.

Key Topics
Why limiting beliefs feel like facts rather than stories we tell ourselves
The science of learned helplessness and why we stop trying
How growth mindset and grit work together to create lasting change
Why growth mindset is not toxic positivity — and what it actually means
Angela Duckworth's grit equation and why effort counts twice
Practical steps to identify, challenge and rewrite your limiting beliefs
Keywordslimiting beliefs, growth mindset, grit, self-belief, confidence, resilience, neuroplasticity, mindset, leadership, personal growth

This one might ruffle a few feathers but it's a conversation worth having.
Does the way you present yourself actually impact how much you earn? The research says yes. And while I want to be really clear that I don't agree with the system — appearance should never determine opportunity or income — ignoring that the system exists doesn't make it disappear.
In this episode I get into the science behind what's known as the beauty premium, what the research actually shows about grooming and earnings, and why for women specifically this conversation goes beyond the individual. Because when more money sits in the hands of women, more gets reinvested into families, communities and broader wellbeing.
This episode is practical, honest and not about full glam every day. It's about using what's available to us intentionally so we can show up with more confidence, be taken more seriously and ultimately earn more.
Key Topics
The research behind the beauty premium and what it actually means for women's earnings
Why perception of competence and credibility is shaped by how we present ourselves
The internal wellbeing shift that happens when we feel put together
A simple three word style framework to build a consistent, polished look without overcomplicating it
Practical wardrobe tips and affordable brands that won't break the bank
Keywordspersonal presentation, confidence, women and money, career, earnings, self image, style, workplace, financial wellbeing, leadership