Beyond Should: women reinventing their lives, careers & owning their power

We all know work-life balance is a lie. But how can we build fulfilling careers without sacrificing our lives or leaving our jobs in the process?

In this episode, Lucy is joined by Christiana Smith Shi, a retail executive and management consultant formerly of Nike and McKinsey who is now the co-author of Career Forward: Strategies of Women Who’ve Made It — which just came out in paperback last week!

Together they dive deep into how to take control of your career, build your professional equity, and cultivate your 360° life. Christiana also answers your questions about how to handle lay-offs, ways to avoid career breaks, and places you can find support when your company’s values don’t align with your own.

Tune in for a powerful pep talk on getting your needs met while staying in the game. Then join us for an upcoming immersive in Montana, Spain or Kenya where you can get the support you need to design what’s next for your work and life!

Jump into the conversation:

[6:00] Creating options and opportunities for your career

[9:30] The story of how Christiana wrote Career Forward with Grace Puma

[15:00] Why your job is not your career

[18:00] How to build rapport with recruiters and why LinkedIn matters

[25:15] Building your professional equity

[34:45] The power of staying in the game

[38:15] Why work-life balance is a lie and how to cultivate a 360° life

[51:00] How to steer into the skid and make career pivots

[56:45] How to handle a lay-off or being fired

[63:00] The pros and cons of being a “strong contributor”

[69:20] Why it’s worth it to build a successful career

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• Buy Christiana’s book Career Forward: Strategies from Women Who’ve Made It

When we last spoke to Sarah Cunningham, she was trying to figure out how she wanted to show up in the world as both an executive leader and a boxer.

Today we’re thrilled to have her back on the show to share how she recalibrated her life, her work, and her values over the past year — and to tell us why she feels more in alignment than ever.

Join us for inspiration to meet this moment with creativity, accountability, and discipline. And be sure to listen to the end for an invitation to do this crucial work in community with other leaders this spring!

Jump into the conversation:

[5:00] How Sarah integrated her dual lifestyles

[7:30] The dangers of dissonance & resentment

[10:00] How to lead from behind & coach your team

[12:00] Designing your relationships to cultivate more trust

[13:00] Why Sarah turned down a promotion to focus on her personal life

[17:00] Why the magic you’re looking for is in the work that you’re avoiding

[19:00] Accountability mirrors & pearls of wisdom

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• Mentioned in the episode: David Goggins, The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin

Today we’re revisiting one of our favorite conversations from season one where Lucy sat down with Sarah Cunningham, an executive leader at AKQA and a winner of the Golden Gloves tournament at Madison Square Garden.

In this conversation, Sarah shared her inspiring journey from Ireland to NYC and the transformative coaching experience that helped her achieve alignment between her personal and professional life.

A lot has changed for Sarah since we first shared this episode, so next week she’ll be back on the show to give us an update on her journey! We’ll also be sharing a new coaching container we’re launching for our community this spring.

Before then, tune in to this inspiring conversation where we explore:

[3:15] Sarah’s career dreams as a little girl and what advice she would give that little girl now

[5:19] Inner Wisdom and how to know when you are in alignment with your values

[15:27] What happened when Sarah had the courage to integrate her two worlds and share them publicly with others

[19:19] Sarah’s story of stepping into the ring at Madison Square Garden to finally achieve her dream.

[23:46] The power of asking for help and activating your Board of Advisors.

[27:30] Sarah's final pearl of wisdom using a boxing metaphor of not staying in the pocket too long

 
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How do you move forward when you’re not sure what comes next? And what information do you need to make the most aligned decisions?

In this episode, Lucy is joined by Tracy Bech, the Author and Co-Founder of 60 Minute CFO. Tracy has launched, run and sold multiple successful businesses, including a website design agency, a designer jewelry e-commerce store, and now a business finance course and consultancy that she founded with her dad.

Tracy’s here to share the story of her entrepreneurial journeys and show us how being unafraid to fail helped her move past imposter syndrome and create her version of success. She also unlocks the tried-and-true principles of finance — not from a CPA lens, but from the perspective of an empowered collaborator.

Tune in for inspiration to design your life around your dreams with the financial fluency you need to understand what’s possible.

Jump into the conversation:

[5:00] How Tracy cultivates her mindset & follows “glimmers”

[6:30] Why Tracy designed her life around where she wanted to live

[12:00] The story of Tracy’s first business

[17:00] Skill-building, imposter syndrome and the importance of perspective

[25:00] How Tracy pivoted to e-commerce and built a multi-million dollar jewelry business

[38:30] What to do when you don’t know what you want

[46:00] Tracy’s totally unexpected partnership with her dad

[50:00] Unlocking financial fluency and Tracy’s tried-and-true ratios

[63:00] The importance of celebrating & bragging on yourself

More about our guest: Tracy Bech is on a mission to empower business leaders with the knowledge and tools to build thriving enterprises by mastering the language of finance. She specializes in curating moving industry-specific best practice groups of CEOs, fostering an environment where financial insights are shared, compared, and benchmarked regularly.

With a deep understanding of the challenges that entrepreneurs face, Tracy's journey from an intuitive, seat-of-her-pants entrepreneur to a financially-focused business leader has been transformative. She recognizes that financial fluency can often be intimidating, but she's here to demystify it for you.

Tracy is also a prominent speaker and educator at 60 Minute CFO, a book and consultancy practice dedicated to simplifying complex financial concepts. Her dedication to teaching and mentoring shines through in her engaging talks and workshops.

A serial entrepreneur, Tracy loves thinking up business ideas and writing business plans. When she's not focused on business, you can find her spending time in the outdoors in the Pacific Northwest. She's a mom of 2 curious kids and wife to an inventor husband.

Stay connected:

• Check out The Murmuration Collective
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• Mentioned in the episode: Gorge Women in Business & Deschutes Women in Business

So many of us are conditioned to do more, achieve more, and be more. We’re always striving toward the next goal, milestone, or promotion, and we don’t pause to check in with what success looks like for us. Today we’re working on changing that.

In this episode, Lucy is joined by Sara Mostafavi, a Murmuration Collective coaching client and community member, who after 16 years of corporate life, found her more authentic way of moving professionally and personally through the world.

This conversation is about how to listen to the signs that you might be on the wrong path, then to uncover your deeper values and create alignment between your work and your life.

Sara shares her journey of how her body and her family made it clear she needed to make a change, then how coaching gave her the clarity and the courage to actually redesign her life.

Tune in to give your inner overachiever a big permission slip to take a much-needed break in 2025 and beyond.

 
Jump into the conversation:

[4:30] Stepping out of the “achiever” mindset & redefining success

[10:30] How Sara found alignment between her career & her values

[15:00] Impact of leaving corporate after 15 years

[18:30] Working with your core strengths

[23:05] Finding clarity in the quiet

[28:25] The many ways Sara redesigned her life in 2024

[33:15] From over-achieving to high-achieving

[37:00] The power of leaning into your network

[45:00] Sara’s pearls of wisdom for any overachievers tuning in

 
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Happy New Year, Collective Wisdom listeners!

Today, Lucy is joined by a group of extraordinary women who recently completed The Great World Race — running 7 marathons on 7 continents in 7 days.

It’s hard to believe that Becs Gentry, Jenny Simpson, Chirine Njeim, Hillary Kupish and Ashley Paulson didn’t know each other when they started running, but this experience bonded them like nothing else as they supported each other to and through their limits over the course of the race. With many of them even winning awards for their finish times!

In this conversation, Becs, Jenny, Chirine, and Hillary share how they decided to run this race and everything they yielded from making it to the finish line together. We dive deep into the expansive mindset, the grueling reality, and the lasting impacts. They also offer the pearls of wisdom they’re taking away from their once-in-a-lifetime event.

Tune in for a huge dose of inspiration to dream big in 2025 and a reminder that we often find our people along the way to our goals.

 
Jump into the conversation:

[3:00] Meet these extraordinary women

[10:30] How they each mentally + emotionally prepared for this experience

[27:00] Advice from Becs for moving beyond your fears

[44:45] Chirene shares exactly how the group supported each other

[50:00] Finding your people along the way to your dreams

[58:50] The exact lessons Jenny learned about herself

[62:45] How this experience inspired Hillary to dream bigger for her life

[68:05] Pearls of wisdom + advice

Stay connected:

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How do we balance the need to pause and the need to act?

In this episode, Lucy is joined by Natalie Tran, Executive Director of the CAA Foundation and Co-Founder of Civic Alliance and I am a voter.

Natalie is a powerful leader, philanthropic advisor, and advocate. In this conversation, she shares how her parents’ immigration from Vietnam instilled her with a sense of optimism, why she treasures the evolution of her 17 years at CAA, and everything she’s gained from learning to pause and ask for help.

No matter how you’re feeling as we near the end of 2025, this episode will meet you in the midst of it. Tune in for a reminder of both the power of sitting with our emotions and the importance of meeting each moment with aligned action.

Jump into the conversation:

[6:00] Letting go of the plan & sitting with your feelings

[12:30] The power of hope & optimism

[16:00] What CAA & the CAA Foundation do

[27:30] Natalie’s career journey & why someone took a chance on her

[35:00] How to supercharge your collaborations

[42:15] Natalie’s Board of Advisors & how she asks for help

[44:00] Learning through observation

[48:00] Making a big ask & salary negotiations

[52:00] How to create what you truly want next in your life
 
Stay connected:

• Check out The Murmuration Collective
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• Subscribe to our monthly newsletter

More about our guest: Natalie Tran serves as Executive Director of the CAA Foundation, the philanthropic arm of leading talent and sports agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA). The Foundation activates the power and reach of the entertainment, media, and sports industries to create systemic social change for a more equitable and optimistic future. Its efforts are focused on public education, civic engagement, climate, and in times of critical need, mobilizing into action through crisis response. Based in the Los Angeles office, Tran consults clients, executives, and corporations on their philanthropic and pro-social initiatives.

In 2023, the CAA Foundation was named the one of Fast Company’s Best Workplaces for Innovators. In 2020, Tran led the formation of the Civic Alliance, a non-partisan coalition of businesses united by a commitment to a thriving democracy. Since its inception, the Civic Alliance has grown to over 1,350 companies with a reach of 5.6 million employees and was named as one of Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas. In 2018, Tran co-founded I am a voter., a nonpartisan awareness campaign that aims to create a cultural shift around voting and civic engagement by engaging brands and talent. Since its launch, the campaign has activated hundreds of brand partners and influencers to help increase voter turnout in every state.

She also serves on the Board of The Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF), Power the Polls, Turnaround Arts CA and is on the Advisory Board of the Black Economic Alliance. Her work has been featured in Forbes, The New York Times, Leaders Magazine, Chronicle of Philanthropy, WORTHY, and The Hollywood Reporter. She is a native of Los Angeles and is a graduate of the University of Redlands with a degree in Business Management, Creative Writing, and Art History.

Life is a series of adventures. Some that we choose and some that we don’t. So how can we approach all of them with optimism, courage, and resilience?

In this very special episode, Lucy is joined by her long-time friend Carol Mobley Rowe to discuss their many adventures — including stories of moving to Russia with their families and Carol’s decade-long journey fighting and living with cancer, specifically Leiomyosarcoma.

This is one of the most powerful and poignant conversations we’ve ever shared on the show, and we hope you’ll tune in for Carol’s encouragement to shoulder down and go for it, no matter the odds.

 
Jump into the conversation:

[6:30] Ways to seek adventure in midlife & beyond

[8:00] How to balance your career & motherhood

[11:00] Why Carol & her family chose to move abroad

[12:30] Making big decisions with your spouse

[15:45] Carol’s cancer diagnosis

[20:00] Learning to receive help

[25:00] Carol’s journey with Leiomyosarcoma

[27:00] Advocating for ourselves and others

[39:50] Carol’s advice for her former self

[44:00] What it takes to really cherish our memories

 
More about our guest: Carol Mobley Rowe is a resilient and dynamic woman who seems to effortlessly manage a complex life with an extraordinary level of optimism and energy. She has juggled her own career while supporting her husband's rise through executive leadership, raised four grown kids while moving to countries around the world, and navigated herself through her own cancer journey over the past 10 years. Carol is currently living with Leiomyosarcoma. You can follow her journey @Carolsrarecancerjourney and support Leiomyosarcoma research by donating at this link.

 
Stay connected:

• Check out The Murmuration Collective
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• Subscribe to our monthly newsletter

In this episode of Collective Wisdom, Lucy is joined by April Uchitel, a corporate leader with C-level experience in beauty, fashion and tech who is now the CEO and Co-founder of THE BOARD.

From serving as EVP of Global Sales & Strategy at DVF to CEO at Violet Grey and CBO at Spring, April cultivated decades of experience as a talented strategist, manager and thought leader. She is also a founding member of IAMAVOTER and sits on the board of Lake & Skye, GLAM4GOOD and Advisory boards for TRYNOW, and SHOP MY.

Today April brings all of her experience to the show to discuss why community is the future and how we can find more success and fulfillment in our lives by investing in our relationships.

Tune in for sought-after career advice and a reminder of the power of radical generosity and alignment.

Jump into the conversation:

[2:30] Civic engagement & what matters to April right now

[7:00] The importance of the power to choose

[9:00] How April’s impressive career evolved through & beyond corporate

[21:00] 3 pillars of re-invention & longevity

[22:00] All about THE BOARD

[33:00] The value of community

[40:00] Radical generosity & alignment

[50:30] April’s pearl of wisdom

More about our guest: April Uchitel is CEO & Co-Founder of THE BOARD, a vetted community of over 225 value-driven consultants bringing c-level “dream team” expertise to companies like FARFETCH & MODA OPERANDI. As the former CEO at Violet Grey, April led & executed the company's growth strategy across all channels to prime the VG for acquisition.

As the CBO at tech start-up & digital shopping destination Spring, April led brand strategy & curation, bringing over 1,600 brands (from Warby Parker to Gucci) to the platform. Prior to Spring she spent 25 years in fashion & for 9 years was the EVP of Global Sales & Strategy at DVF, where she played an essential role in developing DVF into an iconic global brand.

April has long been considered a thought leader & is a sought after participant for panels & podcasts. April served as a mentor in the prestigious CFDA Incubator program for 6 years & sits on the board of Lake & Skye, GLAM4GOOD, and Advisory boards for TRYNOW, and SHOP MY.

April is a self proclaimed “accidental activist” & is a founding member of IAMAVOTER — a non-partisan coalition that aims to create a cultural shift around voting and civic engagement. April’s leadership skills have been profiled by Women@Forbes & more recently in Oprah Daily.
 

Stay connected:

• Check out The Murmuration Collective
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• Subscribe to our monthly newsletter

There are over 70 million women in the US experiencing perimenopause and menopause. But specialized care can be expensive and hard to find … until now.

Join Lucy in conversation with Joanna Strober, the founder of Midi Health, a virtual care platform for women in perimenopause and menopause, that brings expert care, covered by insurance, to women nationwide.

This episode dives deep into the realities of women’s health and how Midi provides affordable, accessible support from practitioners who make midlife feel better with hormonal, non-hormonal and lifestyle solutions.

Joanna also shares quite vulnerably about the recent loss of her longtime friend and mentor Susan Wojcicki, whose unparalleled career at Google can remind all of us that we don’t have to be superhuman to be successful.

Tune in for a poignant reminder that we can be the human women we are — menopause and all — and also achieve our dreams in midlife and beyond.

Jump into the conversation:

[2:00] What Midi Health is

[4:45] Why we need menopause specialists

[6:00] Accessible care for all women

[8:00] The many benefits of estrogen

[15:00] How to approach supplements

[17:45] “50% of counties in the US do not have an OBGYN”

[19:00] How to sign up for Midi (it’s easy!)

[27:00] How menopause symptoms impact your job & marriage

[30:00] The power of speaking out about menopause

[32:00] The neuroscience of walking-and-talking

[35:00] Remembering Joanna’s friend & Youtube CEO Susan Wojcicki

[39:00] The power of asking for help

[40:30] Why Joanna’s kids are on her Board of Advisors

 
More about our guest: Joanna Strober is the founder of Midi Health, a virtual care platform for women in perimenopause and menopause. The company brings expert care, covered by insurance, to women nationwide.

Prior to Midi, Joanna founded Kurbo, the first digital therapeutic for childhood obesity, which was scaled to help tens of thousands children worldwide and the company was successfully sold to Weight Watchers in 2018. Prior to diving into digital health, Joanna spent more than 20 years in direct private equity and venture capital investing in health and consumer companies including a number of notable consumer internet companies, including BlueNile, eToys, Babycenter, HotJobs and Flycast.

Joanna is the author of the book Getting to 50/50, a primer on how women can succeed and thrive at work and at home. She has spoken extensively to corporate and graduate school audiences on the topic of women and leadership. She was also named to the Forbes 50 over 50 list of top Innovators in 2023.

 
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• Learn more about our January 2025 retreat in Kenya