What happens when a promotion, a pregnancy, and a full identity reckoning all land in the same year?

That's where Misty Avila was when this conversation was recorded. VP and Chief Strategy Officer at the James B. McClatchy Foundation. Interim executive director at the Central Valley Journalism Collaborative, brought on to stabilize it through a transition. And expecting her third daughter - right in the middle of realizing, by her own admission, that she didn't feel successful. Not despite the titles - while holding them.

That daughter has since arrived. I can't wait for round two so we can hear what has evolved!

What You'll Learn
⭐ Why Misty built her own "curriculum" instead of following a traditional path
⭐ What it means to lead a foundation designed to disappear
⭐ The moment she realized she didn't feel successful, even holding two major leadership roles at once
⭐ How motherhood is reshaping her sense of identity, in real time
⭐ Why funding local news by who it reaches matters more than what beat it covers

Key Insights

The Moment "Successful" Stopped Fitting
VP title. Interim ED role. Third child on the way. Misty's own read on herself: not successful. She sits in that, without rushing to fix it.

People Are Her Library
Not a formal program. Not a degree. Misty's education came from travel, real skills, and real people - a philosophy that still shapes how she leads.

A Foundation Built to Disappear
The James B. McClatchy Foundation is on a Sunrise plan, intentionally spending down by 2030. Misty on what it takes to trust the work continues without owning it.

Resources and Links

Find host Kristin Belden on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinbelden/
or at https://www.BeldenStrategies.com
Book a Clarity Consult: https://www.BeldenStrategies.com/clarityconsult
Sign up for Kristin's newsletter Big Deal Energy: https://www.BeldenStrategies.com/newsletter
Connect with Misty on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mistavila/

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#careerchange #careerreinvention #womeninmidlife #motherhoodandcareer #philanthropy #localjournalism #centralvalley #womenleadership #legacy #over40 #kindofabigdeal #kristinbelden

What if the clearest leadership lessons don't come from decades in the corner office, but from paying close attention while you're still early in the climb?

Savannah graduated into the pandemic with no real plan, found her way into chamber work almost by accident, and has spent the years since becoming the kind of person everyone in the room trusts - wise well beyond her years, with a steady presence that grounds people around her.

She's just stepped into an expanded role at the Sac Metro Chamber, where she's spent years helping build the very community and leadership programs that shaped her own path, including Leadership Sacramento, the program where she and Kristin first met.

We talk about what it's like to build a career and a real sense of community when the ground keeps shifting under you, the leadership lessons she's collected from watching mentors up close, the power of reframing your story instead of just telling it, and what legacy means when you're still early enough in your career to be figuring it out in real time.

What You'll Learn
⭐ Why you don't need decades of experience to lead with real wisdom
⭐ How to build community and confidence when everything around you keeps changing
⭐ Why reframing your story matters as much as the story itself
⭐ How watching leaders up close can shape your own leadership style faster than any class
⭐ What it means to be a thoughtful observer instead of always rushing to react
⭐ How to start defining legacy even when you don't have it all figured out yet

Key Insights

Wisdom Doesn't Require Decades
Savannah graduated into the pandemic with no map for what came next. The uncertainty that could have stunted her actually accelerated her growth, forcing her to communicate, lead, and carry herself with a maturity people twice her age often haven't found yet.

Watching Leaders Up Close Teaches What Classes Can't
From her first director who made sure to give credit and create safe space to make mistakes, to chairs who modeled decisiveness and joy, Savannah has built her own leadership style by collecting small lessons from everyone around her.

Reframing Your Story Changes How You Move Through the World
Savannah has made it a practice to focus on the positive in everyday moments - not avoiding what's hard, but choosing what she carries forward from it. It's a habit she's still building, one rooted in genuine self-awareness rather than forced positivity.

Being a Thoughtful Observer Is a Leadership Skill, Not a Weakness
Savannah has learned to sit back, take things in, and form her own assessment before jumping in. Far from indecision, it's become one of her clearest leadership strengths.

Legacy Can Start Before You Have It All Figured Out
Savannah doesn't have her legacy mapped out yet, and she's at peace with that. For her, it starts simply: having a positive impact on the people and community around her, and trusting that the rest will reveal itself with time.

Timestamps
00:00 Intro: meet Savannah and her new role at the Sac Metro Chamber
02:16 Stepping into an expanded leadership role
03:28 Finding her way into chamber work almost by accident
06:17 What she's learned about her own leadership by watching others
08:01 Sacramento's identity and why people show up for each other here
14:44 Graduating into a pandemic and what it cost her generation
22:38 Why you don't have to have it all figured out
23:35 From media and journalism to storytelling at the chamber
28:49 Reframing your story instead of just telling it
33:01 The leadership lessons she's collected from mentors
37:12 What four years of Leadership Sacramento cohorts have taught her
43:11 The question that wasn't on her résumé
46:10 The legacy question

Resources and Links
Find host Kristin Belden on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinbelden/
Or at https://www.beldenstrategies.com/

Sign up for Kristin's newsletter Big Deal Energy: https://www.beldenstrategies.com/newsletter

Connect with Savannah on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/savannah-fox/

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#careerchange #womeninmidlife #leadership #youngprofessionals #womenleadership #careerreinvention #earlycareer #buildingcommunity #legacy #over40 #kindofabigdeal #kristinbelden

What does it actually take to build a life and a business that are actually yours, not just impressive on paper?

Jen Baxter has rebuilt her career three times: eight years in health insurance, a job in book publishing that ended on a Zoom call, and now her own business helping nonfiction authors build their audience on Substack.

Along the way she's had to figure out what stability even means when the ground keeps shifting, how AI upended the copywriting world she'd just landed in, and why the version of herself she'd been performing for everyone else wasn't actually who she was.

We talk about the pause that comes before every real reinvention, the martyr role she played for years without knowing it had a name, what it means to build something creatively instead of just profitably, and the identity work she didn't know she needed.

If you've ever felt the quiet tug of "maybe there's something else," this conversation is for you.

🔗 Get clarity on your own next move: beldenstrategies.com/clarityconsult

What You'll Learn
⭐ Why "stability" doesn't mean what it used to
⭐ How to recognize when you're playing a role nobody actually asked you to play
⭐ Why the pause before your next chapter is the work, not a delay from it
⭐ How to know when you're building a business that's actually yours versus one that's just familiar
⭐ Why creative fulfillment matters as much as the financial plan
⭐ How to do the identity work that actually changes what you're capable of building

Key Insights

Stability Isn't What It Used to Be
After watching her company collapse on a Zoom call, Jen realized chasing a "stable" job might be riskier than building her own thing. The old rules about safety don't hold the way they used to.

The Pause Isn't Empty. It's Where the Choosing Happens
Jen didn't rush back into stability after either major life disruption. She let herself stop, even when stopping felt like falling behind, because moving forward without first asking what she actually wanted would have just rebuilt the same life again.

The Martyr Role Often Gets Praised Right Into Place
Jen spent years as the one who "had it handled" while caretaking for sick parents — a role she didn't choose so much as absorb, partly because the people around her kept thanking her for carrying it.

Building a Business Creatively Matters as Much as Building It Profitably
Jen realized she'd been setting up her work to protect the parts that feel creatively alive to her, not just the parts that are easiest to scale. That distinction, more than any strategy, is what makes the business sustainable for her.

Timestamps

00:00 Intro: meet Jen, three careers and three reinventions in
03:12 The Zoom call layoff that changed everything
08:18 How AI upended the copywriting job market overnight
09:58 What "stability" even means anymore
13:00 The power of the pause
18:51 Bali: realizing it's a choice, not a sentence
21:09 The uncoiling — letting go of who you had to be
24:00 The martyr role nobody asked her to play
27:43 Learning to live — and build a business — creatively
36:07 What is your "enough"?
37:47 Oxford, writing, and the identity she almost missed
44:17 NLP, belief work, and the fear of being left behind
53:17 The legacy question

Resources and Links

Find host Kristin Belden on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinbelden/
Or at https://www.BeldenStrategies.com

Sign up for Kristin's newsletter Big Deal Energy: https://www.BeldenStrategies.com/newsletter

Connect with Jen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenbaxter/

Sign up for her Substack: https://jenbaxter.substack.com/

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#careerchange #careerreinvention #womeninmidlife #permissiontochooseyourself #burnoutrecovery #creativeentrepreneurship #midlifecareerpivot #womenleadership #buildingyourownbusiness #substackstrategy #aiandwork #womeninbusiness #legacy #over40 #kindofabigdeal #kristinbelden

What does it look like to leave a 20-year career not because you have to, but because you finally recognize you're ready?

Angeliki is an MD-PhD with 35 years in medicine, the last two decades at Pfizer as a molecular medicine and pathology specialist. She was building AI-powered cancer prediction tools twenty years before "AI" became a buzzword, holds international patents with over 1,000 citations, and was named one of the 100 most influential women in biosciences out of 3,000 nominees. She also holds a master's in Arts and Literature from the Sorbonne... and somewhere in there, she got a skydiving degree and was accepted into NASA's Mars mission program.

Now she's walking away from corporate entirely to build something of her own. Not because the work ran out, but because, as she puts it, the timing made the decision - not the decision itself.

We talk about what it means to create your own room when nobody offers you a seat at the table, why joy is a choice instead of a circumstance, and what legacy looks like once you stop asking for permission.

What You'll Learn
⭐ Why leaving a 20-year career can feel like relief instead of loss
⭐ How to create your own room when nobody offers you a seat at the table
⭐ Why joy is a choice, not a reaction to your circumstances
⭐ How to stop performing who you are and start building from who you are
⭐ How combining two unrelated disciplines can become your biggest professional advantage
⭐ What legacy actually means once you stop measuring it in money or titles

Key Insights

Pull the Chair and Sit at the Table
In a male-dominated industry, Angeliki stopped waiting to be invited in. Her rule: if the room doesn't want you, build your own room - and welcome others into it.

The Mind Is Like a Parachute
Her theory: it works better when it's open. Pairing medicine with a master's in Arts and Literature from the Sorbonne taught her to translate complexity into something a room can actually act on.

Joy Is a Choice, Not a Circumstance
For Angeliki, joy isn't about whether life is going well. It's an internal practice you choose daily, based on your own values - regardless of what's happening around you.

Legacy Isn't About What You Leave Behind
It's about what you build, what it costs, and doing it anyway... so the people coming behind you know it's possible.

Timestamps
00:00 Intro: meet Angeliki, the MD-PhD who almost went to Mars
03:00 A master's in Arts and Literature from the Sorbonne, and why it matters
04:00 Arriving in the US alone and building a career from zero
05:00 At three years old, she already knew she'd become a doctor
07:00 The skydiving degree and the NASA Mars mission acceptance
12:00 Her theory: the mind is like a parachute
17:00 Pull the chair and sit at the table — or build your own room
21:00 Why leaving corporate after 20 years felt like relief, not loss
24:00 Why she stopped waiting for the conditions to be right
40:00 Every decision that's true to who you are is a celebration
41:00 Joy is a choice, not a circumstance
50:00 What legacy really means

Resources and Links
Connect with Angeliki on LinkedIn
Find host Kristin Belden on LinkedIn or at BeldenStrategies.com
Sign up for Kristin's newsletter Big Deal Energy: BeldenStrategies.com/newsletter

If this conversation resonated, share it with someone who needed to hear it - and consider leaving a review. It helps more awesome folks find these conversations.

#careerchange #careerreinvention #womeninmidlife #leavingcorporate #womeninSTEM #AIinmedicine #executivecareerchange #purposedrivencareer #buildingyourownbusiness #midlifecareerpivot #womenleadership #legacy #over40 #kindofabigdeal #kristinbelden

What if you could build a business that refuses to choose between making money and making a difference - and that treats the people you serve like the full human beings they are?

Melissa Camilleri is the co-founder of Stand for the And, an education company that supports people to develop, launch, and facilitate scalable learning experiences with their IP. Their both/and philosophy isn't just a tagline, it's the foundation of how they sell, how they work with clients, and how they think about impact.

In this episode, we get into ethical selling, the identity reckoning that comes when experts step out from behind a title or institution, and what it means to stand on your own work. Melissa also shares her remarkable origin story of how she became an accidental entrepreneur in the middle of divorce, grief, and a leave of absence - and why she believes creation is the antithesis of destruction.

What You'll Learn:

⭐ What it means to build a business on a both/and philosophy
⭐ Why ethical selling starts with giving people their full agency
⭐ The two unexpected transformations every expert goes through when they go out on their own
⭐ What visibility really means when you no longer have an institution behind your name
⭐ Why your most "disparate" experiences might be your greatest competitive advantage
⭐ What legacy looks like when your mission is to fan people's flames

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction
02:00 What is Stand for the And?
07:00 Ethical selling and pain-point marketing
19:00 Giving people their full agency as buyers
21:00 The two big transformations experts don't see coming
25:00 Visibility and standing on your own work
28:00 The line in the sand moment
29:00 Getting to know yourself again
32:00 Going back to your childhood self
41:00 Building at a forever pace
43:00 Melissa's origin story
46:00 The leave of absence that changed everything
48:00 Creation as the antithesis of grief
54:00 Your squiggly background is your superpower
57:00 Legacy: being a mirror for others
1:01:00 Kids Bowl Free PSA

Resources and Links:

Find host Kristin Belden:
On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinbelden/
On her website: https://www.BeldenStrategies.com
Sign up for her newsletter: https://www.beldenstrategies.com/newsletter

Stand for the And
Website: https://www.standfortheand.com
Connect with Melissa Camilleri on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissacamilleri/
Check out their Substack: https://substack.com/@standfortheand

What does it look like to build a career at the intersection of tech, business, and people - and realize, looking back, that it was always going to end up here?

Noa Barak is a tech customer and go-to-market enablement and growth advisor who has spent her career doing the work most people don't see - building the infrastructure that helps companies scale without falling apart.

She's worked everywhere from 50-person startups to large enterprise organizations, co-founded her own ventures, and built enablement programs from the ground up. She also has an engineering degree in biotechnology and an MBA, which honestly tracks once you hear her story.

Her through line across all of it: start with the end in mind. Know your values, know your impact, know what you're building toward, and pull everything back from there.

We also talk about what it means to build diverse teams intentionally, why breaking down silos is harder than it sounds, and what happens when you realize the work you're doing is missing the most important ingredient - the human element.

Noa and I also happen to be part of the same Support Squad, a small group of women from a coaching program we both went through, and getting to witness her journey up close has been one of the unexpected gifts of the last couple of years.

You'll Learn
⭐ What customer and go-to-market enablement actually is
⭐ How to build from the ground up and scale without losing what matters
⭐ Why breaking down silos starts with language and communication
⭐ What it takes to build and maintain diverse teams intentionally
⭐ How to hold onto your culture when you're growing fast
⭐ Why starting with the end in mind works across every size and type of organization
⭐ What happens when you realize your work is missing the human element

Key Insights

Start With the End in Mind No matter the company size, industry, or stage - this is Noa's north star. What's the impact? What are the values? What does success actually look like? Build everything backwards from there.

Breaking Silos Starts With Language When everyone's using five different words for the same thing, you're not just dealing with a communication problem. You're dealing with a culture problem. Getting everyone speaking the same language is the foundation.

Diversity Makes Teams Stronger Not just in the obvious ways. When people bring different experiences, different expertise, and different perspectives to the same table, the whole team gets better - as long as the values and communication are aligned.

The Human Element Is the Through Line Noa left a biotechnology engineering path because something was missing. That missing piece, the people, has been at the center of everything she's built since.

Timestamps
02:00 How Noa and Kristin met and what the Support Squad is
06:00 What enablement actually means
09:00 The feedback loop between customers, sales, and product
10:00 Rewinding: from high school youth trainer to biotechnology engineer
13:00 The pivot away from engineering and toward people
15:00 Joining a semiconductor company and flying globally as a training engineer 18:00 Moving into the startup world and building enablement from scratch
22:00 Women in tech: the numbers, the gaps, and what needs to change
28:00 Male allies and why women-only spaces aren't the whole answer
32:00 The through line across every role: start with the end in mind
38:00 How to scale quickly without losing your culture
42:00 Building diverse teams
46:00 Breaking silos: communication, language, and steering committees
49:00 Legacy: leaving the world a little better, one small thing at a time

Resources and Links
Connect with Noa on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/noa-barak/
Find host Kristin Belden on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinbelden/
or at BeldenStrategies.com
Sign up for Kristin's newsletter Big Deal Energy: BeldenStrategies.com/newsletter

If this conversation resonated, share it with someone who needed to hear it - and consider leaving a review. It helps more women find these conversations.

What does it actually look like to build something before anyone is paying attention?

Molly started with a personal blog, written to process her own life. For months, nothing happened. No readers, no traction, just blind faith and a lot of content that never saw the light of day. Then one post went viral. An NBC reporter found a completely different post. And suddenly the Today Show came calling.

What followed was years of quietly, intentionally building - through pivots, experiments, and a lot of showing up before she knew exactly where it was all going - into a thriving business.

Molly is now an expert in all things LinkedIn, helping female coaches, consultants, and fractional professionals show up confidently on the platform in a way that feels real and actually doable.

We talk about what it takes to build in public before you have it all figured out, why community is one of the most underrated tools for solopreneurs, and how to get out of your own way so the right people can actually find you.

You'll Learn

⭐ How to show up publicly when you're still figuring it out

⭐ What women specifically struggle with on LinkedIn, and how to move through it

⭐ Why community needs change by season and what to look for

⭐ How strategic connections on LinkedIn matter more than follower count

⭐ What it means to choose your work every single day

Key Insights

Blind Faith Is a Strategy Months of content that no one read. No traction, no validation. And then one post changed everything. Molly credits the breakthrough entirely to just not stopping.

You Have to Choose It Every Day Building a business, showing up on a platform, putting your voice out there - none of it just happens. It's an act of choice, every single day.

LinkedIn Is More Intimidating Than Any Other Platform Only about 3% of LinkedIn users actually create content. That means the bar to stand out is lower than you think. You just have to be willing to show up.

Community Needs Are Seasonal Sometimes you need a lot of support. Sometimes the group chat feels like noise. Both are valid. A good community makes room for both.

Timestamps

02:00 How Molly and Kristin met - and why LinkedIn gets the credit

05:00 The sabbatical, the nursing school pivot, and how a blog started everything

09:00 The best and hardest parts of working for yourself

13:00 Six months of silence and the post that went viral

16:00 The Today Show call she thought was spam

19:00 On evolving publicly and the vulnerability of not having it figured out

22:00 The community she built for women creators on LinkedIn

26:00 What it actually means to be a content creator — and why it matters now

35:00 The LinkedIn algorithm, the ebbs, and how to work with it

42:00 Nervous system regulation and what it has to do with showing up

48:00 What shaped her as a leader that would never show up on a resume

51:00 Legacy: having people's backs, unconditionally

Resources and Links
Connect with Molly on LinkedIn
Find host Kristin Belden on LinkedIn or at BeldenStrategies.com
Sign up for Kristin's newsletter Big Deal Energy: BeldenStrategies.com/newsletter

If this conversation resonated, share it with someone who needed to hear it — and consider leaving a review. It helps more women find these conversations.