Lead with Spark | Authentic Leadership for Women, Executive Presence & Career Confidence

This is the conversation Lynsey wishes she had had 20 years ago, before her body started yelling and she refused to listen.

Hannah O'Donovan spent over a decade as an event producer, putting on concerts for major artists and running a multi-six-figure business, until extreme burnout and daily anxiety forced her to shut it all down. Today she is a nervous system specialist and the founder of Untamed Divine Feminine, helping women build success that actually feels good in their bodies. Together, Lynsey and Hannah talk about the alarm bells your body sends before burnout hits, why slowing down feels so uncomfortable for high achievers, and how to know whether your next pivot is moving you toward something or just running away.

"Your nervous system does not necessarily do what is best for you. It does what is familiar, because that is what feels safe."

For one week, practice the basics Hannah started with. Go to the bathroom when you need to, eat when you are hungry, and pause for three deep breaths whenever you feel activated at your desk. Then start naming your emotions accurately: not "that is funny" or a snappy comment, but the real feeling underneath.

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Your reviews are glowing. Your dashboard is green. Your boss thinks you are crushing it. And underneath all of that, you feel like you are slowly disappearing.

That isn't burnout. It's quiet cracking, and almost everything written about it is aimed at HR and employers. In this sequel to the Energy Ledger episode, Lynsey talks directly to the high performer whose numbers look fantastic while her sense of self gets a little smaller every quarter. She shares her own season when stretch became strain, and three ways to catch the crack before it becomes a break.

Together we will talk about

One line to take with you

"Cracks are information. They're not failure. They show you exactly where the light needs to get in."

This week's challenge

Do your first gap check this week. Draw two columns, results and meaning, and put an arrow up or down on each. Then send one Ask the Experts text to one person: "Describe a time when you saw me at my best." Let yourself read the answer. And sit with this question: where are you still delivering, but no longer showing up as your real, authentic self?

Connect

A girls' trip to Florida, an $80 umbrella rental, and a $15 bargain umbrella that lasted about four seconds before the wind flipped it inside out. The funniest part wasn't the umbrella. It was what Lynsey and her friend did next: before they checked the damage, they checked the audience.

In this episode, Lynsey unpacks that instinct to scan the room before we let ourselves laugh, speak up, or try something new. She shares the research behind the spotlight effect, why comparing our inside to someone else's outside is never a fair fight, and three simple practices to help you stop performing for a crowd that mostly isn't even looking.

"Most of the time, it's not actually broken. It's just an inside-out umbrella."

Think of one thing you've been holding back on because of what someone might think: an idea at work, a class, that bright dress with the tags still on. Ask yourself who, specifically, you're worried about. If you can't put a name on it, notice that. Then this week, flip the canvas back and do the thing.

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Have you ever looked around a room full of accomplished people and thought, "What am I doing here?" Last week at a conference in Tampa Bay, Lynsey did exactly that, and within ten minutes she had talked herself right out of her own résumé.

Then she walked up to one of the speakers, had a real conversation, and discovered that the woman she admired was carrying the very same worries. In this short solo episode, Lynsey shares what she realized on the walk away: you are comparing what you can see of someone else to what you can feel in yourself. That is apples and oranges, and it is never a fair fight.

If imposter syndrome has been whispering to you lately, this one is for you.

"Her outside was never meant to be measured against your inside."

Ask yourself: "What is the one thing I did this week that nobody will ever post about, but it's exactly who I want to be?" A better mom, a better listener, a leader who built her team up, someone who showed up for her community. Write it down. That is quiet win number one. Then add two more before the week is over.

If this episode helped, share it with one woman who needs to hear it, and leave a review so more women can find the show

When a senior leader calls Betsy Kauffman and says, I have this person and they need help, they usually mean the person is broken. Betsy's whole career is built on a different premise: your people are not broken, your system is.

Betsy Kauffman is the founder and CEO of Cross Impact Coaching, a TED speaker with over 1.6 million views, and the author of The Fix. After 25 years leading large-scale technology transformations, she now helps leadership teams close the gap between strategy and execution. In this episode, she and Lynsey get into why misalignment quietly drains companies, how to have the honest conversations most of us avoid, and the four-tip framework from her TED Talk that works whether you are the CEO or an individual contributor.

"Alignment does not always equal agreement. You may not agree, but you get behind it, and that is what alignment is."

Before your next hard conversation, use Betsy's four tips: lead with the confidence to speak up, know your intent, bring the data or the why, and come with a solution. Then practice it out loud, in the car or the mirror, before you walk in. Your brain files it as evidence that you can do it.

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I recently coached a client on boundaries, and about ten minutes into the conversation I knew it was something I needed to share with you too.

She told me she has such a hard time saying no that she gives everything away, and then feels hurt when someone does not choose her. Then she said the sharper version: I do not say no, I am always looking for how I can say yes. In this episode I walk through the reframe that changes that pattern, the three steps I gave her, and the quiet moment on the call when it finally clicked for her.

What you will learn

Join the Audaciously Unapologetic Retreat

Connect with Lynsey

If this episode landed, the kindest thing you can do is send it to one woman who says yes too fast

It is the end of August, which means sometime in the next two weeks you will open your calendar, look at what is left of the year, and feel one of two things. The sprint: grab every unfinished January goal and muscle to December 31st on caffeine and sheer personality. Or the quiet quit: eh, we will regroup in January, and coast through four months of your one precious life.

Both are traps. In this solo episode, Lynsey offers a third way. You do not have a time problem, you have an energy problem, and no planner has ever minted a 25th hour. She walks you through the energy ledger, a 10-minute audit of where your energy actually goes, and the year-end edit built on three lists: cut, park, and protect. Then she names the real reason we do not cut anything, and it is not discipline. It is fear.

"Renewal is not what you do after the important work. Renewal is what makes the important work possible. That is not indulgence, that is infrastructure."

Do the energy ledger, then make one cut and name one protect. Just one of each. Then tell someone about both, because a boundary spoken out loud is ten times stronger than one that only lives in your head.

October 15 to 18, 2026 at CIVANA Wellness Resort and Spa in Carefree, Arizona. Four days and three nights built around clarity, confidence, and connection: inner work to rebuild your foundation, the immunity map that x-rays what has really been in your way, a real action plan for your next chapter, plus sound baths, yoga, private dinners under the desert sky, and a burning ceremony. Co-facilitated by Lynsey Mulder and Paula Shannon. By application, intentionally capped.

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You have been waiting on a memo. The one where your boss, the board, or some committee of very official people sits you down and says you are now allowed to lead your way. Trust your gut. Push back in the meeting. Run the team the way you actually want to. Signed, everyone.

Lovingly, here is the truth: that memo does not exist. It was never in the mail. In this solo episode, Lynsey names why so many accomplished women keep their real leadership in a drawer, waiting at a window where no one is working. She traces it back to a lifetime of permission-based success, counts what the waiting actually costs, and hands you three permission slips to write yourself this week. Because the vetting is done. The only approval still outstanding is yours.

"Permission is not granted to leaders. It is taken, quietly, confidently, and usually without an announcement."

Write one permission slip this week. Your way, out loud, in present tense, as if it is already true. Put it somewhere you will see it every morning and read it aloud, even if it feels a little silly. Your brain believes what it hears you say, especially in your own voice.

October 15 to 18, 2026 at CIVANA Wellness Resort and Spa in Carefree, Arizona. Four days and three nights for high-performing women, built around clarity, confidence, and connection: coaching that gets underneath your patterns, sound baths, yoga, meditation under the desert sky, private dinners, and a curated circle of women who become the personal board of directors you have been missing. Co-facilitated by Lynsey Mulder and Paula Shannon. By application, intentionally capped.

If you are carrying a lot, leading a lot, achieving a lot, and still wondering why you feel exhausted underneath all of it, this conversation is for you.

Dr. Alicia Newsome returns for Part 2 of our series, and this time we zoom out from the body to the whole picture: the beliefs running underneath your leadership, the exhaustion our culture quietly applauds, and her new book, Worthy of Rest. This is the honest, practical half of the conversation, the one about the story you have been telling yourself since you were eight years old and how it is still shaping the decisions you make in the boardroom.

Together we will talk about:

One line to take with you:

"We live in a culture that worships exhaustion."

This week's challenge:

Look at what you have said yes to this month. Find the one that was never a full yes, the one you hesitated on, and ask yourself what you said no to in order to make room for it. Then practice the two-letter sentence. No is a complete answer.

Connect with Dr. Alicia Newsome:

Connect with Lynsey:

Follow Lead with Spark on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Podbean so you do not miss Part 2 with Dr. Alicia next week, and leave a review if this one hit home

Ready to go deeper? Learn about the Audaciously Unapologetic retreat in Carefree, Arizona at audaciouslyunapologetic.com

Start here: this is Part 2 of a two-part series. If you missed Part 1, go back for the conversation on hormones, chronic stress, and what your body has been trying to tell you.

When someone on your team is struggling, what is your first instinct? Do you coach them through it, or do you quietly take the thing and do it yourself? If you just went quiet, this one is for you.

In this solo episode, Lynsey names what she and her retreat co-facilitator Paula Shannon call the lifeguard trap: the habit of jumping in to rescue that feels like leadership, looks like dedication, and is quietly draining the life out of you. A lifeguard who saves everyone means no one learns to swim and the lifeguard is soaked and exhausted. A swim coach stays on the deck, builds stronger swimmers, and the pool does not fall apart on their day off. Lynsey unpacks the hidden commitment underneath the over-functioning, why you cannot delegate your way out of an identity problem, and three shifts you can start this week.

This episode is also the official invitation to the Audaciously Unapologetic Retreat, four days of clarity, confidence, and connection in the Arizona desert this October.

Together we will talk about:

One line to take with you:

"Your value was never in rescuing. Your value is in your clarity, your voice, and what you build in other people."

This week's challenge:

For one week, catch the rescue reflex. Every time you are about to take something off someone's plate, pause and ask: is this person actually drowning, or are they three feet from the wall? Do not change anything yet. Just notice how many times a day that reflex fires.

The Audaciously Unapologetic Retreat:

October 15 to 18, 2026 at CIVANA Wellness Resort and Spa in Carefree, Arizona. Four days of coaching, sound baths, private dinners under the desert sky, and a curated circle of women who are done running on fumes and ready to lead at full power. Co-facilitated by Lynsey Mulder and Paula Shannon. Attendance is by application and intentionally capped.

Connect with Lynsey: