Gwen Bortner has spent her career thriving where others hesitate—inside systems, startups, and boardrooms that weren’t designed for her. As the founder and CEO of Everyday Effectiveness, Gwen has led teams across 47 industries, from tech to telecom to fiber arts, and knows firsthand what it means to stand out at the table.

In this episode, host Rachel Alexandria and Gwen talk about being “the only one in the room,” what happens when competence becomes isolation, and how neurodivergence and curiosity can both challenge and empower leadership. It’s a candid conversation about the quiet cost of success—and how to stay connected, grounded, and effective when you’re the outlier everyone relies on.

💡 Episode Highlights

• From coder to CEO: How Gwen built a career across 47 industries and what that breadth taught her about systems, leadership, and adaptation.
• Curiosity as fuel: Why problem-solvers often rise fastest, and how that same drive can lead to burnout and loneliness.
• Neurodivergence and entrepreneurship: How ADHD traits show up in founders, and why “different wiring” can be both a superpower and a stressor.
• The lone woman in the room: Gwen shares the isolation of being the only female executive in a rapidly growing tech company, and the invisible politics that come with it.
• Turning difference into design: How Gwen helps leaders harness what makes them unique to build organizations that actually work for humans.
• Redefining effectiveness: The shift from proving yourself to creating impact with ease and intentionality.

When you’re at the top, no one can hand you a map. The path forward is yours to navigate, and sometimes, the only compass you have is your own intuition. In this solo episode, host and Soul Medic Rachel Alexandria explores how leaders can learn to trust their inner knowing when logic and strategy fall short. Drawing from her own journey and lessons from past guests, she shares how intuition speaks through the body, why so many of us were taught to ignore it, and how reconnecting with this internal guidance becomes essential for making brave, heart-centered decisions.

In this candid conversation, real estate developer Ginger Hitzke joins Lonely at the Top to talk about what it really costs to lead with heart. A first-generation business owner who went from housing insecurity to building over 2,000 affordable apartments, Ginger shares how she carries the emotional and ethical burden of her work — deciding rent increases, managing cash flow, and being both landlord and renter advocate.

She opens up about the loneliness of being “the one who decides,” her lifelong fear of slipping back into poverty, and why compassion often costs money. Ginger also talks about embracing Soft Girl Summer as a new boundary practice, the power of “unearned self-confidence,” and why every leader should be brave enough to say, “I don’t know.”

This episode is an honest portrait of a woman who leads from both grit and grace, proving that strength and softness can coexist at the top.

✨ Episode Highlights

• Isolation is part of the deal: Ginger describes how even after 18 years leading her own company, the sense of isolation “never ends” within an organization.
• The cost of conscience: The woman behind 2,000 affordable units shares how deciding rent increases for hundreds of residents each year tests both her heart and her balance sheet.
• Better me than someone who doesn’t care: Ginger explains why she continues to shoulder difficult decisions because she knows she’ll do it with integrity.
• Scrappy by necessity: Growing up with housing insecurity, she built her business from survival instinct, and yet still carries the fear of “ending up in the gutter.”
• The reality of leadership: From cash flow panic to employee dynamics, Ginger names the unspoken truth: leadership is hard, and pretending otherwise helps no one.
• Soft Girl Summer: After decades of overextension, she’s learning to do less, set tighter boundaries, and become “less accessible” as an act of growth.
• Unearned confidence: Ginger reflects on the self-assurance she’s always carried and how owning it has become one of her greatest assets.

Ginger recommends:
Support LGTBQ Latino elected officials in California via Honor PAC.