What if the same drive that made you successful… is quietly working against you in love?

In this episode, I sit down with Francesca Zoia, relationship coach and someone who deeply understands the inner world of high-achieving women navigating love. Together, we explore the hidden patterns that show up when ambitious, capable women bring their “make it happen” energy into relationships, and why that approach can leave them feeling exhausted, resentful, and disconnected.

Francesca shares her own journey of questioning whether to stay or leave a long-term relationship, and how that experience shaped her work helping women move out of confusion and into clarity. We talk about over-functioning, self-abandonment, and the subtle ways women often unintentionally give more than they receive.

You don’t have to choose between success and love. You just need a new way of showing up to both.

• High-achieving women often over-function in relationships, creating imbalance and resentment.
• Love is not a solo performance. Relationships require co-creation.
• The question isn’t, “Should I stay or leave?” It’s “What dynamics am I participating in, and what can I shift?”
• Self-leadership is the foundation of healthy love.

Connect with Francesca

Love with Francesca podcast

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Currently Reading: Come As You Are | Emily Nagoski

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If you’ve ever been told to “just set better boundaries”…and then you totally chicken out, this episode is for you.

I’m joined by a boundary coach Janis Hillard, founder of Good Courage, and someone who brings both depth and honesty to a topic that we hear a lot about and don’t actually know how to do it.

We explore how high-achieving women unknowingly create burnout through people-pleasing patterns, why exhaustion is often your first signal that something is off, and how boundaries are less about saying “no” and more about how you lead yourself.

• Boundaries are not about other people, they are for YOU
• Exhaustion is a signal, not a badge of honor
• Self-awareness is the foundation of every boundary
• People-pleasing shows up everywhere
• Boundaries are a practice, not perfection
  

• Sky Full of Elephants by Cebo Campbell
• Binti, The Night Masquerade by Nnedi Okorafor

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#feminineleadership #leadyourselffirst #itsthelittlethings #womeninleadership #quietpower #feminineenergy #influence #thewaysheleads

Megan sits down with Veronica Bellamy Leak, Director of Human Resources with over 20 years of experience to explore how leadership has evolved and what it truly means to lead humans, not just manage performance.

Veronica shares powerful insights on “heart posture,” navigating generational differences at work, and why today’s most effective leaders are those who embrace empathy, curiosity, and self-awareness.

• Leadership has shifted from task-focused to human-centered, people now bring their full lives into work, and great leaders know how to meet them there
• “Heart posture” matters, How you show up internally impacts how your team experiences you
• Generational differences at work often create tension, especially around boundaries, work ethic, and priorities
• Self-awareness is foundational. Leaders who are honest about their mistakes create trust and psychological safety
• Living “in the gray” allows leaders to respond to real people and situations, rather than rigid policies
• Removing your own emotional reactivity (while keeping empathy) helps you lead more effectively

• Podcast: Therapy for Black Girls by Joy Harden Bradford
• Book:The Light We Carry by Michelle Obama

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Megan sits down with her business bestie, Laura Saldivar Luna, for a conversation that is equal parts soul and strategy. In this episode, Laura opens up about her own winding journey: becoming the first in her family to graduate college, rising to the C-suite, and then doing the harder work of learning to trust herself.

From self-leadership to best practices in how to lead people and organizations, Laura breaks down what the most successful leaders are doing in the face of uncertainty.

Grounding is a leadership skill. Re-centering yourself before you act is actually the fastest route.

The Monday ritual. A weekly structure doesn't have to be rigid to be powerful.

Dreaming out loud works. From her first day as an entrepreneur to her most ambitious career goals, Laura has told people what she was building before she knew how she'd build it.

A new leadership paradigm is here. The leaders navigating uncertainty best right now have three things: community, power practices, and a willingness to rest. Command-and-control is crumbling.

What we cover

• 06:31 Self-trust, self-worth, and power practice
• 19:24 The Monday morning ritual: how structure becomes sacred
• 22:39 Dreams, priorities, and the power of telling people what you want
• 35:21 The most powerful practice: looking in the mirror and being with the truth of what is
• 49:49 What today's most effective leaders have in common: community, power practices, and the radical act of rest

Laura Saldivar Luna

Founder, CEO Coach of Piñata Possible

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What Reading: Big Dumb Eyes | Nate Borgatze

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In this conversation, Megan sits down with executive coach and former Amazon leader Sarah Castle to unpack a subtle but powerful distinction: the difference between a choice and a decision.

Together, they explore why high-achieving women, who make decisions every day at work, can still feel stuck when it comes to their own lives. From risk tolerance to intuition, confidence to capacity, this episode offers a grounded and expansive look at what it really takes to move forward with clarity.

🔑 Key Takeaways

• The difference between a choice (direction) and a decision (commitment)
• Why women can be decisive at work, and hesitant in their own lives
• How perfectionism and risk-aversion quietly delay decision-making
• The concept of “one-way vs. two-way doors” (and how it changes everything)
• Why confidence comes from reps (not certainty)
• How unclear ownership and expectations slow down teams (and drain energy)
• The role of intuition + embodiment in making aligned decisions
• How to stop giving away your decision-making power

Sarah Castle is the founder of Castle Coaching and a former executive at Amazon and General Electric. She now works with CEOs and senior leadership teams, bringing coaching practices into strategic planning and leadership development.

Her work bridges high-performance business strategy with human-centered leadership, helping leaders grow companies while staying aligned with what matters most.

Resources

​​Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell

Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall

Duke Women's Basketball head coach video on things don't get easier, we just get better

Welcome to The Way She Leads! Get to know me, Megan Akatu, more about my story and why this podcast was created.

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