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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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

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For 17 years, she was the one who had all the answers. Then her body, her mind, and her will to live finally said no.

In today's episode, Haley sits down with Suri, licensed clinical social worker and founder of After the Burn Co., to talk about what happens when the person holding everyone else together completely falls apart. What starts as a story about leaving a religious community quickly becomes a conversation about the slow, invisible violence of self-abandonment, and what it finally took to choose life.

• Growing up as the golden child who kept everyone's secrets by being impossibly perfect, and how that became a life sentence
• Running a school of 700 students, raising 5 children, and managing millions in budgets while silently drowning, and why nobody saw it coming
• The moment she realised the self-care wasn't healing her, because you can't heal inside the thing that's hurting you
• Walking out the door not to leave her marriage or her community, but simply to stay alive
• The grief that doesn't go away: living states away from her children, re-breaking her own heart every time she says goodbye
• What burnout actually costs your brain long-term, and why she quit a $10,000 coaching programme and called it the best decision she ever made

This one isn't just about religious trauma or burnout. It's about what it means to finally choose yourself when everything and everyone you love is the price you pay.

About Suri:

Suri is a licensed clinical social worker and the founder of After The Burn Co. After years of helping others heal, building a successful business, and showing up as a community leader, she left a high-control religious community and became a full-time patient herself. She started her life over from scratch, building her world with authenticity and joy. Now she builds healing tools created from both sides of the therapy chairs.

Connect with Suri:

Website: www.aftertheburn.co

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aftertheburnco

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@aftertheburn.co

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If this resonated, share it. Subscribe to On Your Terms on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. 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.

She built her whole life around helping people heal. Then she called out the community doing the most harm, and they deleted her from the group chat.

In today's episode, Haley sits down with Leah Drew, somatic facilitator, nervous system specialist, and founder of Mind Body With Leah, to talk about what happens when the spiritual community becomes the thing you need to heal from. What starts as a story about being cancelled quickly becomes a conversation about people-pleasing dressed up as enlightenment, and what it actually costs to live out loud.

• How the love and light movement uses the language of belonging, safety, and unconditional love to keep people small, and why Leah calls that a red flag
• The moment she was silently removed from a community group chat by people she called family, and what it took to get off the floor that night
• Why spiritual bypassing is just avoidance in a prettier outfit, and the three feminine wounds underneath it all: people-pleasing, perfection, and performance
• Haley opening up about spending the first 35 years of her life as the good girl, scanning every room for who she needed to be, and feeling completely alone as a result
• The difference between self-care and performing self-care, and why doing the bath-and-candles routine because you think you should is just another mask
• What living out loud actually means, and why it has nothing to do with being the loudest person in the room

This one isn't just about spiritual communities or burnout. It's about the masks we wear to be loved and what we lose of ourselves in the process.

About Leah:

Leah Drew is a somatic facilitator, nervous system specialist, and leadership consultant who helps high-achieving women recover from burnout at the root level. With a clinical background spanning rehabilitation, pain management, and trauma-informed care, her work sits at the intersection of nervous system regulation, feminine healing, and leadership development. She leads retreats, embodied dance journeys, and her Somatic Leadership Academy, and is currently exploring the intersection of freediving, ocean science, and women's health. She's the founder of Mind Body With Leah and host of the Mindful Evolution Podcast.

Connect with Leah:

• Website: https://www.leahdrew.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mindbodywithleah
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mindbodywithleah
• Free workbook to recalibrate your feminine power: https://www.leahdrew.com/Recalibrate

If this resonated, please 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.

She spent 15 years building a six-figure career to feel safe. Then her body started sending the bill.

In today's episode, Haley sits down with Kayla Licari, former physician assistant turned nervous system coach, to talk about what happens when the life you worked your whole life for stops working. What starts as a story about walking away from medicine becomes a conversation about identity, money wounds, and what it actually takes to stop outsourcing your sense of safety to a job title.

• How Kayla's childhood experience of financial instability quietly drove her to build a career she mistook for security, and what it cost her in migraines, sleeplessness, and a marriage running on empty
• The moment she was pushed out of her job and said yes to leaving, when every rational part of her said she should stay
• What happened when working less made everything worse, not better, and why the real problem was never the hours
• Selling the house, taking out a home equity loan, and homeschooling three kids without a plan, and how doing it scared and doing it together changed their marriage
• Two years in and still untangling worth from productivity, device guilt from bad parenting, and financial fear from actual financial reality
• The one question she and her husband ask themselves when they get stuck in a cycle, and why it cuts through resentment faster than any argument

This one isn't just about leaving a career. It's about what we build to feel safe and what it costs us when we finally admit it was never keeping us safe at all.

About Kayla Licari

Kayla is a former physician assistant, married to her college sweetheart since 2009, with three kids in their second year of homeschooling. After walking away from a six-figure career that was destroying her health and marriage, she's spent the last two years untangling her self-worth from her productivity and redefining what success actually means. She's currently building a coaching business with her husband focused on helping married parents quit having the same fights that lead to divorce and feel deeply connected as a team. Their approach centres on understanding nervous system responses, subconscious reprogramming, and using the tools that got them through an identity crisis and spiritual awakening together.

Connect with Kayla:

Instagram: @kayla.licari and @happywivesandhusbands

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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.

She was told at nine years old that being good at something made her cocky. She spent the next three decades making herself smaller so nobody would feel that way again.

In today's episode, Haley sits down with Dara' Shaina-Vanier, educational leader, doctoral candidate, and poet, to talk about what it costs to spend a lifetime performing a version of yourself that keeps everyone else comfortable. What starts as a story about grief quickly becomes a conversation about identity, self-betrayal, and what it finally took for Dara' to stop apologising for who she is.

• How one moment of public humiliation in fourth grade quietly redirected Dara's entire life path, turning a future actress into someone who built her whole identity around selflessness
• Losing her sister in February 2023, singing hymns together in a hospital room, and the clarity that arrived in the middle of grief when almost nobody expected it to
• Walking away from a 14-year relationship and a high-paying job within months, and why she stopped consulting anyone except herself and God before making either decision
• The weight of raising four girls while unlearning everything she was taught about being a wife, a mother, and a Black woman in the South
• What she is still working through: burning bridges she thought would last forever, and learning that not every connection is worth protecting
• How her daughters are now watching a version of their mother they have never met before, and writing their own poetry because of it

This one isn't just about grief or divorce. It's about the slow violence of shrinking yourself for decades and what becomes possible when you finally decide your life is yours to live.

About Dara'

Dara' Shaina-Vania is an educational leader, doctoral candidate, poet and mother of four who is committed to living in truth and walking in purpose. Grounded in faith and integrity, she has navigated profound loss, professional adversity and major life transitions whilst continuing to lead with compassion and excellence. After choosing healing over performance and authenticity over survival, she now uses her voice, creativity and leadership to empower others to honour their worth, protect their peace and rise with courage. Her journey reflects resilience, spiritual grounding and a deep commitment to building a meaningful legacy for her children and community.

Connect with Dara':

• Instagram: @daraofsunshine

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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.

She passed her LCSW exam. He broke up with her at 1am the same night. What came next surprised everyone, including her.

In today's episode, Haley sits down with Billie Lowe, licensed clinical social worker and founder of Eva Mack Counseling LLC, to talk about what happens when the relationship you stayed in too long finally ends, and you discover you had no idea how much of yourself you had given away. What starts as a story about a painful breakup becomes a conversation about codependency, shame, and what it looks like to slowly remember who you actually are.

• How a couples therapist broke protocol mid-session to tell Billie the truth: he does not have the capacity to do this work with you, and why that moment changed everything
• Ten years of fixing someone who could not be fixed, and the moment Billie realised she had been hiding behind his dysfunction to avoid her own
• Waking up the morning after the breakup in a rage, telling him to get out, and how it felt like power she had forgotten she had
• Being put on paid administrative leave the same year, spending a summer at the beach with her cats, officiating her sister's wedding, and being slowly reminded by the universe that she was someone worth celebrating
• Launching her own consultancy three weeks before this recording with no steady income and a waiting list forming anyway
• What she is still working through: letting go of grief disguised as anger, navigating social anxiety as a public speaker, and learning to be present without a drink in her hand

This one isn't just about a breakup or a career leap. It's about how much of yourself disappears when you spend a decade trying to save someone else, and what it takes to find your way back.

About Billie Lowe

Originally from Philadelphia, Billie has lived in New York City for the last 8 years after previous stints in Wisconsin and New Orleans. After ending a 10+ year relationship in 2024, she spent the last two years growing and healing, which has been the best part of her journey yet. As a mental health professional and leader, this work has made her stronger both personally and professionally. She's just launched Eva Mack Counseling LLC (named after her grandmother who was a helper everywhere she went) after 18 years in community social work. Through clinical supervision, coaching, and workshops on trauma-informed care, healthy boundaries, and vicarious trauma, she provides skills, support, and wisdom to the people doing the work on the front lines.

Connect with Billie:

• Instagram: @evamaccounselingllc
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/billie-jeanne-lowe-lcsw-sifi-72579537

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