You know exactly what you want to say.

You’ve rehearsed it.
You’ve thought it through.
You walk into the room ready.

And then your body shuts down and the words won't come out.

In this episode, Janelle explores the uncomfortable truth about why intelligent, high-performing women freeze in conversations that matter - at work, in relationships, and inside their own families.

Why does the silence feel so sudden?
Why is it so unpredictable?
Why does it cost more than we realise?

This isn’t about confidence. Nor is it about courage. It definitely isn’t about 'just speaking up'.

So, what is it?

If you’ve ever walked away thinking, Why didn’t I just say it? - this episode is for you.

If this conversation resonates, download the complimentary Unshakeable Woman Blueprint HERE - a practical starting point to help you begin responding differently in these moments.

If you’re ready to stop fearing the freeze and start relying on your voice, Janelle’s brand new programme, The Soft Strength Salon, is where this capacity is built - slowly, relationally and in real conversations that matter. CLICK HERE to learn more.

Next week, the conversation continues as we explore power at the level of energetics and non-verbal communication. Why does your nervous system know who holds power before a word is spoken?

You meet someone and feel that familiar lift of excitement. The chemistry is there, the conversation flows, and for a while it genuinely feels different.

Then, a few months in, something starts to shift.

Nothing dramatic happens. No clear moment you can point to. But the ease fades, old relationship patterns return, and you find yourself wondering how you’ve ended up back in the same place. Again.

In this episode, I talk about that loop. The one where relationships start strong, feel full of promise, and then quietly unravel once real life settles in.

I share my own experience of repeating this relationship cycle, the line-in-the-sand moment that changed everything, and what I learned about why so many connections are formed through unresolved wounds rather than emotional wholeness.

You’ll hear what’s really happening beneath the chemistry - why people are on their best behaviour at the beginning, what changes when that phase ends, and how self-protection and old emotional patterns take over without us realising.

If you’ve ever wondered why you keep attracting the same kind of relationship, or why love feels hopeful at first and then familiar in all the wrong ways, this episode will help you understand what’s actually going on - and what needs to shift for the story to be different.

If you’d like to go deeper, here are the offers I mention:

The Unshakeable Blueprint. Complimentary. CLICK HERE

The Cosmic Heart digital course. Currently 50% off with the code NEWYEARSPECIAL (subject to end at any time). CLICK HERE

Private 1:1 Coaching. APPLY HERE

This week’s podcast was prompted by a recent conversation I had with a client.

She was talking about something many leaders experience but rarely name. Wanting to be genuinely helpful and present with her team, while also needing uninterrupted time to think, decide and do her own work well. What she’s finding challenging isn’t leadership itself - it’s the constant internal switching between those two modes, and the quiet toll that seems to take.

In this episode, Presence Has a Price: The Leadership Switch No One Trains You For, we explore that often-unseen internal work of leadership.

The cognitive and emotional demand of moving repeatedly between deep focus and relational leadership - often without warning - and what happens when leaders are never taught how to make that switch cleanly.

We look at why capable, thoughtful leaders can finish a full day knowing they worked hard, yet feeling like their own thinking never quite had the space it needed. And why this isn’t a failure of skill or discipline, but a natural consequence of how leadership actually works.

This is a conversation for leaders who want to understand the real work of presence without losing clarity, momentum or themselves in the process.

I also share a Soft Strength leadership tool designed to help train this internal switch more intentionally and sustainably.

In this episode, we explore:

• The internal labour of leadership that often goes unnamed
• Why switching between deep work and people leadership is demanding
• How presence carries a real cognitive and emotional cost
• Why time management doesn’t address this particular challenge
• How leaders can learn to manage their internal state more skilfully
• A practical way to support cleaner transitions between leadership modes

A Soft Strength leadership tool

If this conversation resonates, you may find the short visualisation and meditation I’ve created helpful.

It’s designed to support leaders in resetting after conversations, regaining clarity after interruption, and moving between depth and presence without carrying one into the other.

You can find it for free on the Insight Timer app, or CLICK HERE.

And, learn more about Janelle's work HERE.