In The Room, On Purpose

Help us bring more stories to you by subscribing to In The Room, On Purpose on YouTube, Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

FOOD IS FEMINIST: DIET CULTURE, SHAME & WHY IT FEELS COMPLICATED

What if you are not the problem?

Alyssa sits down with Rebecca Thomas, founder of Not Another Diet, to explore how food intersects with household labor, relationships, privilege, shame and women’s health.

Women entered the workforce but were never fully relieved of the responsibility for feeding their households. That history still shapes who shops, who cooks, who has time to exercise—and how women experience food.

Rebecca challenges the idea that health requires more discipline. Instead, she asks us to rely less on willpower and use more agency to shape our environments, relationships and everyday choices.

It is an invitation to get curious & think about what influences your relationship with food.

IN THIS EPISODE:

• Why food is a feminist issue
• Diet culture, body image and shame
• Privilege and access to whole foods
• Why willpower is not a long-term strategy
• How relationships influence eating
• Understanding processed foods
• Creating boundaries without deprivation
• Separating weight from personal worth

CONTENT NOTE

This episode discusses weight, dieting, body image, food shame and eating behaviors. Please support yourself and return when the conversation feels right for you.

PARTNER OFFERS

COOK! BY NOT ANOTHER DIET

Rebecca’s eight-module course teaches you to cook real food without recipes. Make it a date night, get the family involved and have fun with it!

Use code INTHEROOM50 for $200 off.

https://www.notanotherdiet.co/a/2147847007/hQUqqzW9

THE LOTTURA POST

Step away from technology and slow down with this monthly print newspaper for adults—or The Lotturette for children.

Use code INTHEROOM10 for 10% off a monthly or annual subscription.

https://lottura.com/collections/shop-the-lottura-post

Some links and codes are affiliate or partner offers. In The Room, On Purpose may receive compensation from qualifying purchases at no additional cost to you.

What messages about food, weight and health did you inherit? Share what challenged you and what you are still sitting with.

This episode is for educational purposes and is not a substitute for individualized medical, nutritional or mental-health care.

Follow our show on Instagram for real time updates and mini stories. Subscribe on YouTube to support our mission. Your support means the world to our small team and the women we sit down with.

In this episode of In The Room, On Purpose, Alyssa sits down with career coach and founder Ashley Rudolph to talk about ambition, career growth, workplace politics, leadership, and taking more agency over your career.

Ashley shares lessons from her career in tech and operations, including navigating difficult leadership dynamics, building strong relationships across an organization, and learning to tell the story of her own work.

We also talk about asking for growth, leading before you have the title, productive conflict, feeling overlooked, managing up, and the importance of understanding what you actually want from your next career move.

Ashley also opens up about being the youngest person, only woman, or only Black woman in the room, and how those experiences shaped the kind of leader she wanted to become.

• Good workplace politics and relationship building
• Asking for a promotion with confidence
• Managing up and leading across
• Navigating difficult managers and internal dynamics
• Feeling overlooked and knowing when you’ve outgrown a role
• Leading before you have the title
• Ambition, comparison, and career agency
• Building community for ambitious women

In The Room, On Purpose shares stories of the female experience through honest conversations about leadership, health, ambition, money, reinvention, and the balance that is so uniquely ours.

We deeply believe that her story has the power to change yours.

The conversations we needed. The playbook we’re building.

Follow what we are up to in real time on Instagram!

This conversation covers a range of financial literacy topics, including prenups, investing, loyalty, and building a strong financial foundation. It also delves into the importance of understanding where money is going each month and how to build credit without a traditional credit card. Alyssa & Lauren discusses the importance of establishing credit, the impact of inflation on cash savings, spotting financial scams on social media, starting investing with small amounts, thinking about long-term wealth, hiring in business, prenups and major life decisions, and navigating the high cost of housing. Lauren also provides practical advice for taking the first steps in financial planning.

Takeaways

• Financial literacy is crucial for making informed decisions about wealth building and financial planning.
• Understanding where your money is going each month is essential for conscious and responsible spending.
• Building credit without a traditional credit card is possible through secured credit cards and responsible financial management. Establishing credit is crucial for managing expenses and insurance costs.
• Inflation can erode cash savings, making it important to consider alternative investment options.
• Spotting financial scams on social media involves recognizing triggers and seeking advice from regulated financial advisors.
• Starting investing with small amounts is possible through recurring investments and automated brokerage accounts.
• Long-term wealth requires consistent, incremental decisions and a focus on financial stability.
• Hiring in business should be based on profitability and the ability to sustain additional costs.
• Prenups and financial disclosure are essential for protecting future financial interests in a marriage.
• Navigating the high cost of housing may involve strategic location choices and realistic financial assessments.
• Taking the first steps in financial planning involves creating a balance sheet and tracking income and expenses.
• Collaborative financial planning with friends can provide support and encourage open conversations about money.

Chapters

• 00:00 Financial Literacy and Prenups
• 04:16 Investing and Wealth Building
• 05:44 Homeownership and Financial Decisions
• 07:33 Investing and Gender
• 09:19 Financial Stress and Wealth Threshold
• 11:24 Student Loans and Career Type
• 14:34 Loyalty and Financial Decisions
• 18:41 Risk and Long-Term Financial Decisions
• 20:29 Building a Strong Financial Foundation
• 23:39 Understanding Monthly Spending and Building Credit
• 29:37 Establishing Credit and Inflation Impact
• 32:14 Spotting Financial Scams and Small Investments
• 36:37 Long-Term Wealth and Hiring in Business
• 43:47 Prenups and Major Life Decisions
• 48:46 Navigating High Cost of Housing and First Steps in Financial Planning

Lauren Zangardi Haynes

Mental Health v. Corporate Burnout: Knowing When It’s Time to Change

What happens when you’re ambitious, successful, deeply capable... and the life you’ve built stops working for you?

For short stories and what we are up to, follow us on Instagram

In this episode of In The Room, On Purpose, I sit down with Jen Mbanu for an incredibly honest conversation about mental health, self-trust, career, motherhood, nervous system regulation, and having the courage to change course.

Jen takes us through her experience with trichotillomania beginning at 13, navigating mental health diagnoses as a young woman, building a successful career in healthcare and biotech, raising a family, and eventually reaching the moment when her husband looked at her and said, “You’re quitting your job today, aren’t you?”

We talk about what happens when ambition and well-being begin working against each other, the stories we attach to the things that happen to us, and why learning to listen to your body can fundamentally change the way you live and lead.

Today, Jen is bringing decades of lived experience together with her background in healthcare, health policy, communications, and coaching to help other women build foundational health and lives that actually feel like their own.

In this episode:

• Mental health, ambition, and corporate burnout
• Learning to feel safe in your own body
• Separating what happens to us from the stories we tell ourselves about it
• Recognizing when your body is telling you something needs to change
• Building a healthcare and wellness team that works with you
• Motherhood, marriage, career pivots, and maintaining your own identity
• Creating space before the world gets a say in your day
• Coming back to yourself and trusting what you find there

Chapter Timeline

00:00 — Welcome to In The Room, On Purpose
00:22 — Meet Jen Mbanu
02:00 — Family, identity & growing up different
07:00 — Reconnecting with your younger self
10:00 — Morning pages & claiming your day
16:00 — Trichotillomania, shame & feeling safe in your body
24:00 — “There’s the thing that happens to us, and then there’s the story we tell ourselves about it”
28:00 — Mental health, college & receiving a diagnosis
36:00 — Building a healthcare team that actually supports you
41:00 — Jen’s career in healthcare
51:00 — Motherhood, marriage & returning to work
59:00 — Building a career in pharma and biotech
1:07:00 — The leaders and mentors who changed her career
1:13:00 — Corporate burnout & the moment everything stopped
1:18:00 — “You’re quitting your job today, aren’t you?”
1:23:00 — Returning to corporate life after a breakdown
1:28:00 — ADHD, career pivots & choosing a different path
1:33:00 — Building Jen Mbanu Wellness
1:40:00 — Your body is always talking to you
1:45:00 — Coming back to yourself

• Jen Mbanu Wellness
• Julia Carson’s: The Artists Way
• The Healthy Deviant by Pilar Gerasimo
• Hal Elrod: Morning Miracle

To clear your mind and your to- do list from all of the text/email follow up you have: Try https://ref.wisprflow.ai/alyssa-edwards - Simple, time saving & worth it. Let me know what you think!

Stay tuned for our follow up Q&A asking YOUR questions about building wealth!

The conversation covers a wide range of topics related to finance, wealth management, career development, and personal experiences. It delves into the challenges and opportunities faced by women in the financial industry, the importance of mentorship, and the journey of starting a business. The discussion also explores the impact of early experiences on career choices and the significance of flexibility in work-life balance. Alyssa Edwards shares her journey of launching a business and the challenges of entrepreneurship. She emphasizes the importance of building a client-centered culture and the evolution of leadership in her organization. Alyssa also discusses the therapeutic nature of financial planning and the significance of personal well-being in her life.

Takeaways

• Wealth management and financial advising are evolving fields, and there is a growing need for female advisors and mentors in the industry.
• The journey of starting a business involves challenges, decision-making, and the need for flexibility and adaptability. Entrepreneurship is driven by a deep guttural feeling of building something on your own terms.
• Building wealth is about making conscious small choices over decades that actually build and compound.
• The therapeutic nature of financial planning involves holding space for clients to express their financial concerns and goals.
• Leadership is an evolution that requires self-reflection, adaptability, and a commitment to building a client-centered culture.

Chapters

• 00:00 Women in Wealth Management
• 04:16 The Importance of Financial Independence
• 05:36 Empowerment and Mentorship
• 08:03 Career Journey and Early Experiences
• 39:50 Transition to Entrepreneurship
• 45:31 The Entrepreneurial Journey
• 48:17 Building a Client-Centered Culture
• 52:43 The Evolution of Leadership
• 01:02:13 The Therapeutic Nature of Financial Planning
• 01:16:13 Personal Well-being and Work-Life Balance

Follow us on Instagram for real time updates and research!

In this solo Let's Chat episode, Alyssa explores what to do when self-doubt, creative blocks, and uncertainty start to cloud your judgment. Drawing from her own leadership experience, she shares three practices that help her reconnect with clarity: returning to proof, focusing on who needs to hear the message rather than whether it's "good," and separating her identity from the outcome. She reflects on how high achievers often become consumed by performance, productivity, and external validation, losing sight of the people they impact and the purpose behind their work. Through examples from healthcare leadership, she demonstrates how revisiting evidence of positive impact can quiet self-doubt and restore confidence. Ultimately, the episode is a reminder that your worth is not defined by a project, title, or result—and that sometimes the best way forward is to return to the proof that you're already making a difference.

For more follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/intheroomonpurpose/

Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@InTheRoomOnPurpose/shorts

Subscribe: https://open.spotify.com/show/67BkphN3QudG3nIIs8bjhi

What happens when you refuse to let your past define your future?

In this episode of In The Room, On Purpose, Alyssa sits down with Veronica Ellinger, CEO of Murphy Business Sales, to explore a life shaped by resilience, reinvention, and the courage to keep becoming.

From a chaotic childhood marked by criticism and instability to becoming the first female CEO in her organization, Veronica shares the lessons she learned about self-worth, leadership, motherhood, entrepreneurship, and building a life on her own terms.

Together, Alyssa and Veronica unpack the realities of navigating executive leadership, balancing ambition with softness, raising children while building a career, and finding purpose in life's most difficult seasons.

This conversation is a reminder that confidence can be something you build. And no matter your age, title, or chapter of life, it's never too late to reinvent yourself.

• Growing up in a difficult home environment and overcoming early self-doubt
• Starting and selling multiple businesses at a young age
• Leadership lessons from entrepreneurship and executive leadership
• Being the only woman in the room and navigating male-dominated spaces
• Why transparency, communication, and relationship-building are leadership superpowers
• Balancing motherhood, ambition, and personal fulfillment
• Learning to embrace both strength and softness as a leader
• Finding purpose in life's challenges and continuing to evolve

• Confidence is built through action, not certainty.
• You don't have to compromise your values to lead at the highest levels.
• The strongest leaders create space for others to thrive.
• Ambition and femininity can coexist.
• Reinvention is available at every stage of life.

00:00 – Veronica's story of courage, grit, and reinvention
01:15 – Childhood, chaos, and overcoming criticism
05:30 – Learning to support herself and finding independence
07:30 – Becoming one of Tampa Bay's youngest business owners
10:15 – Early leadership lessons and building strong teams
13:50 – Reinventing after entrepreneurship and motherhood
15:45 – Building a successful business through network marketing
18:25 – Motherhood, ambition, and doing both
21:00 – Why mothers make exceptional leaders
23:30 – Executive leadership and becoming the only woman in the room
26:00 – Navigating power structures without compromising yourself
29:30 – Women in leadership and rewriting old narratives
33:00 – Life as CEO of Murphy Business Sales
35:50 – Building relationships that create lasting impact
39:00 – Transparency, culture, and addressing the elephant in the room
42:00 – Strength, softness, and feminine leadership
48:45 – Modernizing a legacy business and embracing change
50:45 – Purpose, legacy, and what's next
54:00 – Finding purpose in life's burdens

Join Alyssa in the studio with Chief Financial Officer, Amel, for a conversation on confidence, culture, ambition, and marching to the beat of your own drum.

In this episode, Amel shares how her upbringing as the daughter of Egyptian immigrants shaped her independence, drive, and refusal to fit into a mold that she decided wasn't built for her. She opens up about choosing her own path in life and leadership, building a career in a male-dominated industry, and learning that respect matters more than being liked.

Together, Alyssa and Amel explore the likability trap, leading without ego, the difference between self-confidence and the word humility, and what it means to make bold choices without shrinking yourself to make other people comfortable.

This is a conversation for any woman who has ever felt different, ambitious, misunderstood, or ready to stop asking for permission. Thank you for being here and supporting these conversations.

Join us on Instagram

& be a founding subscriber of the show across platforms.

In this episode of In The Room, On Purpose, Alyssa sits down with leadership strategist and founder of Primrose Leadership Solutions, Jennifer, for a conversation on self-trust, whole human leadership, solo adoption, and what it means to contribute in the room you worked so hard to enter.

From selling rocks on the side of a gravel road as a child to leading inside Fortune 50 companies and eventually building her own coaching and leadership development firm, Jennifer shares the through-line that shaped her life: confidence, curiosity, and the willingness to keep playing.

Together, Alyssa and Jennifer unpack leadership without ego, motherhood through solo adoption, learning to stop “borrowing trouble,” and why women need to stop shrinking once they finally get a seat at the table.

This conversation is reflective, funny, deeply honest, and full of practical wisdom for women building careers, businesses, families, and identities on their own terms.

• Why confidence is something you can practice and build over time
• The difference between controlling outcomes and trusting your future self
• How whole human leadership creates stronger teams and healthier workplaces
• What Jennifer learned through the solo adoption process and becoming a mother
• Why your value in the room comes from contribution—not just earning the seat

00:00 — “Hold My Beer”: Jennifer’s energy and confidence from day one
02:30 — Selling rocks, childhood confidence, and being your own hype person
06:45 — “Keep Playing” and leaving corporate America
10:30 — Entrepreneurship, leadership consulting, and learning through experience
15:00 — Internal champions, navigating resistance, and leading through conflict
20:30 — Trying on leadership before stepping fully into management
23:00 — Whole human leadership and emotional honesty at work
29:30 — Control, ego work, and trusting your future self
31:45 — Jennifer’s journey into solo adoption and motherhood
36:00 — Adoption realities, identity, and difficult conversations
42:30 — Women in leadership, communication styles, and speaking in bullets
46:00 — Control vs influence and redefining success through entrepreneurship
48:30 — Being the only woman in the room and knowing why you belong there
52:00 — Female friendships, accountability, and building while being seen
54:45 — Pilates, burnout recovery, and slowing down
57:30 — Build It or Leave It
1:02:00 — Final reflections on confidence, purpose, and being “the damn table”

Follow Us on Instagram for data/stats relevant to women in business and Tik Tok for BTS!

Alyssa Edwards sits down with Anne of So Sloan. Anne is a two time founder, Ralph Lauren & Estee Lauder alum, CGI & AI Content Strategist and much more!

This conversation covers a range of themes including resilience, personal growth, founder experiences, AI in consumer products, and empowering consumer choices. It delves into the journey of self-exploration, the pivot from Estee Lauder to Ralph Lauren, and the importance of resilience and learning. The discussion also explores the founder's experiences with two businesses, the role of AI in the beauty industry, and the concept of an alter ego as a source of confidence and empowerment. The conversation delves into the concept of embracing one's alter ego, the impact of CGI and AI content creation, the significance of the Alter Ego series, the value of challenges and growth, leaving perfection behind, the weightlifting journey, AI's role in consumerism, personalized skincare, and the future of AI in beauty. The discussion emphasizes the empowerment of individuals through self-discovery and the transformative potential of AI in the beauty and wellness industry.

Takeaways

• Resilience and learning are key to success
• Self-discovery and personal growth are ongoing processes embracing the alter ego empowers individuals to step into their most confident selves.
• AI is revolutionizing the beauty and wellness industry by offering customized solutions and improving consumer-brand connections.

Chapters

• 00:00 Pivoting and Passion
• 15:03 Resilience and Learning
• 21:06 Journey of Self-Exploration
• 30:45 Founder Experience: Second Business
• 36:43 AI and Authenticity
• 45:44 CGI and AI Content
• 51:33 Weightlifting Journey
• 59:36 Personalized Skincare