She had the career that most people dream about. But she was also ending up in hospital and could not tell you why.

In today's episode, Haley sits down with Anna Gryglewska, three times founder and creator of RAIS, SOULARA, and Elevated Collective, to talk about what it looks like when the life you always wanted quietly hollows you out.

What starts as a story about global events and corporate burnout becomes a conversation about overachieving as a survival strategy, and what it actually took to stop proving herself to a company that saw her as a number.

• Producing the Grammy Awards, the UEFA Champions League, and events across six continents while running on chronic migraines, neck pain, and zero vacation days, and genuinely not realising anything was wrong
• The moment a business coach broke down her hourly rate and she stared at it in silence, understanding for the first time what she had actually been trading her health for
• Burning out twice: once in corporate and once in entrepreneurship, because leaving the company does not mean leaving the pattern
• Hitting the darkest point of her career as a solo founder with no clients, no income, and a brother depending on her, and the unexpected text from a friend that became her lifeline
• Putting her second business on a shelf, going quiet, and discovering for the first time what it felt like to actually put herself first
• Still catching herself at 3am in a creative spiral, skipping meals, missing the gym, and learning to use self-talk to pull back before the pattern takes hold again

This one isn't just about burnout or building a business. It's about what happens when your greatest strength becomes the thing that is slowly destroying you, and how you learn to use it without letting it use you.

About Anna:

Anna Gryglewska is a three times founder redefining how women connect, gather, and grow in business. After 16 years producing global events including the Grammy Awards and UEFA Champions League, she shifted her focus from large-scale spectacle to intimate, intentional rooms where real relationships form. She is the founder of SOULARA, a platform for discovering transformational events worldwide, the creator of RAIS, an invite-only dinner series for women in business, and the producer behind Elevated Collective. Her mission is simple: get more women into the rooms that change things.

Connect with Anna:

Instagram: @anna_gryglewska

LinkedIn: Anna Gryglewska

RAIS Dinners: joinrais.com

Event Production: theelevatedcollective.co

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She had the husband, the house, the law career, and the minister's kid halo. She was doing everything right and slowly disappearing.

In today's episode, Haley sits down with Heidi K. Brown, travel memoirist, former lawyer, and law professor, to talk about the lifelong cost of performing the perfect version of yourself.

What starts as a story about a marriage that looked flawless on paper quickly becomes a conversation about shame, self-abandonment, and what it actually takes to stop running from yourself long enough to find out who you are.

• How growing up as a minister's daughter taught Heidi that having needs was selfish, and how that belief followed her into her marriage, her career, and her 30s
• The miscarriage that became a wake-up call her body forced her to hear
• Walking away from everything at 30: husband, house, dogs, job, with $7 and no plan
• Why taking a mental health leave of absence from a World Trade Centre law office three months before 9/11 may have saved her life
• Repeating the same pattern in a different relationship for 8 years, and the moment she finally stopped contorting herself to be what someone else wanted
• The decade alone in her 40s that changed everything, and the Greek innkeeper who became her boyfriend

This one isn't just about divorce or reinvention. It's about what happens when you've spent a lifetime being everything to everyone, and what it costs to finally, slowly, become yourself.

About Heidi:

Heidi K. Brown is the author of the travel memoir The Map I Draw: A Memoir of Travel as a Passport to Self and three books on well-being for lawyers, including The Introverted Lawyer. A former construction industry attorney turned law professor, Heidi discovered solo travel at 43 on her first trip to Rome and never looked back. She writes about female solo travel on her Substack and is an internationally recognised speaker on self-empowerment, authenticity, and healthy performance. She lives in New York City and can be found writing books, taking boxing lessons, and jumping up and down at U2 concerts.

Connect with Heidi:

Website: www.heidikristinbrown.com

Instagram: @introvertedlawyer | @heidiographia

LinkedIn: Heidi Kristin Brown

Threads: @introvertedlawyer

TikTok: @heidiography

Substack: heidiography.substack.com

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If this resonated, share it and don't forget to subscribe. Follow me on Instagram @haleyryan.unfiltered or visit www.haleyryan.co.uk/discord for more real conversations about self-abandonment, boundaries, and designing life on your own terms.

She grew up a horse girl with no horses, with a single mum who sacrificed everything, and a body that started keeping score before she even knew what that meant.

In today's episode, Haley sits down with Ali Green, a backcountry horse guide and brand new owner of Kirkwood Sierra Outfitters, to talk about what happens when you spend your whole life half-committed to yourself. What starts as a story about a childhood dream deferred quickly becomes a conversation about autoimmune disease, the cost of people-pleasing, and what it finally took to go all in on the life she always wanted.

• Growing up caught between who she was and who her mother needed her to be, and the years of conflict that followed
• How suppressing her dreams showed up in her body, and why choosing herself was the only thing that quieted her lupus flares
• Cutting ties with her mum to find herself, and what it took to rebuild that relationship on new terms
• Ten years working for other people before she finally asked: if I'm doing all this work anyway, why am I not doing it for myself?
• The real cost of going all in: romantic relationships that couldn't survive the lifestyle, saying no to friends, and learning to give herself grace on the hard days
• Why she is still learning to sit with uncertainty and stop creating monsters that don't exist yet

This one isn't just about horses or chronic illness. It's about what it costs to keep abandoning yourself, and what becomes possible when you finally stop.

About Ali:

Specialising in backcountry horse travel, Ali brings a balance of horsemanship, grit, and hospitality to her partnership with Kirkwood Sierra Outfitters. With more than a decade of experience wrangling, packing, and guiding across some of the West's most rugged landscapes, from the Tetons to the Gospel Hump Wilderness, she's built a reputation for calm competence and thoughtful stewardship for both people and stock. She loves sharing stories and making memories from the back of a good horse.

Connect with Ali:

Website: www.kirkwoodsierraoutfitters.com

Facebook: Kirkwood Sierra Outfitters

Instagram: @kirkwoodsierraoutfitters

LinkedIn: Alison Green

Subscribe & Share:

If this resonated, share it and don't forget to subscribe.

Follow me on Instagram @haleyryan.unfiltered or visit haleyryan.co.uk/discord for more real conversations about self-abandonment, boundaries, and designing life on your own terms.