Soft Power Project

The rage came up first. Then the grief. Then the shame for feeling either of those things, because no one had taught me what to do with them. I didn't have a name for what was happening, only that the water I'd been swimming in my whole life had suddenly become visible. Once I could see it, I couldn't unsee it.

This episode is about that messy in-between time, when you start to see something the people closest to you aren't ready to see. There's a name for it. It's called an egregore. A pattern that stays alive because a group keeps feeding it energy, until it stops feeling like a system and just feels like common sense.

If something is stirring in you right now that doesn't quite feel right, this is your permission to sit with it.

What water are you starting to notice?

TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - The fish that didn't know about water
1:30 - Naming the egregore
3:00 - When you start to see it
4:30 - The rage and the grief
6:30 - The validation I was carrying
9:00 - The friend who couldn't see
11:30 - The cost of seeing
13:00 - Permission to sit with it
 
#SoftPowerProject #SoftPower #SelfDiscovery #Healing #WomenPodcast

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Jess Prudhomme had been with her high school sweetheart since she was 17. For half her life, she was a "we." She didn't know who she was as Jess alone. Then the marriage started coming apart. One day she realized there was no book she could read, no podcast she could listen to, no couples therapy session left to attend. So she stopped fighting. What came next was a beautiful launching pad for her journey of self reclamation.
 
Sherry and Jess talk about what happens when the only adult relationship you've ever known ends, and you have to learn who you are from scratch. From a good girl's checklist she'd built her life around, to a decade-long corporate career she eventually quit with nothing lined up, to the friendships that didn't survive the version of her that came next.
 
This is a Soft Power Project conversation about the messy middle, and the version of Jess that got built there. It goes somewhere unexpected.
 
TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - Cold open
0:50 - Meet Jess Prudhomme
1:48 - The good girl and the checklist
5:41 - The marriage breaking point
7:08 - Becoming Jess again
25:31 - Quitting corporate without a plan
32:27 - When growing costs friends
45:31 - Trusting intuition again
53:12 - Soft power and the detour
 
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
The Great Detour podcast: https://www.thegreatdetour.com
Jess's Substack: https://jessprudhomme.substack.com
@thegreatdetour on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thegreatdetour/
 
ABOUT JESS PRUDHOMME:
Jess Prudhomme is the host and creator of The Great Detour, a podcast about the unplanned paths that bring us back to ourselves. After 17 years with her high school sweetheart, a divorce at 35, her father's hospitalization, and a decade-long corporate marketing career she eventually quit with nothing lined up, she built The Great Detour from inside her own unraveling.
 
https://www.thegreatdetour.com | https://www.instagram.com/thegreatdetour/
 
#SoftPowerProject #LiminalSpace #DivorceRecovery #Reinvention

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There's a kind of burnout I don't think we talk about enough, and it has almost nothing to do with working too hard.
 
Last week I posted a reel about the achievers and the cruisers, and so many of you wrote back saying that's me. What stayed with me wasn't the pattern, it was the burnout underneath it. Achievers don't break from long hours. They love the work. They break when their effort stops being valued, when the hard work becomes expected instead of appreciated, when the smartest people in the room go quiet because they've learned nothing changes. It's a kind of learned helplessness. It's why a lot of the women I've interviewed left their jobs without a Plan B, and why none of them recommend doing it that way.
 
I'm not sharing this as someone who has the answer. I'm still sitting with it. If you've ever felt your effort quietly stop mattering, this is your invitation to name it, even if just to yourself.
 
What kind of burnout have you been carrying?
 
TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - The reel that hit a nerve
0:55 - The burnout we don't talk about
1:35 - When you love the work
2:25 - When your effort stops being valued
3:30 - Why intelligent people go quiet
4:20 - Leaving without a Plan B
 
CONNECT WITH ME:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/soft_power_project/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SoftPowerProject
Email: [email protected]
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sherryfang83/
 
#SoftPowerProject #SoftPower #WomenEmpowerment #PersonalGrowth #WomenPodcast #Burnout #Leadership #WorkplaceCulture #WomenInBusiness #CareerAdvice
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Justina Rosu was stranded in Milan at midnight, no hotels, no trains, in the rain. The kind of moment that tests every identity you've ever rebuilt.
 
Sherry and Justina talk about confidence as memory, and what becomes possible when the ego stops insisting it has to figure everything out. Decades at the BBC. Three kids raised close together. A career remade from PR to content strategy. The same self underneath every shift.
 
This conversation is about the growth that lives where the ego quiets down.
 
TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - Evolution, identity, and adapting
1:34 - Inside the BBC newsroom
6:05 - Why analog beat the algorithm
10:23 - Taking the redundancy package
14:21 - Not a natural-born mother
25:03 - Identity vs core values
33:43 - The Erin Brockovich mind game
35:32 - Stranded in Milan at midnight
39:05 - Defining soft power
 
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
BBC: https://www.bbc.com/
Erin Brockovich: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erin_Brockovich
Purple Square Content: https://purplesquarecontent.com/
 
ABOUT JUSTINA ROSU:
Justina is a content strategist and founder of Purple Square Content. She started at the BBC in 1992, was part of the team that launched BBC Three, and has reinvented her practice with each shift in the medium since: broadcast to smartphones, production to strategy, and now into AI. Today she leads the senior content function for growing beauty and health brands, across strategy and workflow.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinarosu/
Website: https://purplesquarecontent.com/

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In this episode of Soft Power Project, we explore the role of enablers in narcissistic and deeply codependent relationships: the friends, family members, and communities that minimize harm, distort reality, and make survivors question themselves.
We unpack why enablers protect toxic systems, the psychology behind their behavior, and why survivors often have to walk away from an entire ecosystem, not just one relationship.
This is a conversation about reality, self-trust, and what it takes to reclaim your voice when everyone else keeps explaining your pain away.

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Agne was sitting in a spa, reading about the goddess Kali, when she asked the universe to bring something down. A couple of months later, everything started crumbling.
 
Sherry and Agne talk about what it means to descend. About the book she co-wrote with Ebonnie Shreve while they were both still in the darkness. About the dark times Agnes says she is still in right now.
 
This one is for anyone who has been told to stay in the light when something inside them knew they had to find their transformation in the darkness.
 
TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - Becoming whole, not just light
2:24 - Why this book had to be written
5:36 - Crying on a 9-5 office floor
9:15 - The descent and what it means
11:05 - What falling apart feels like
14:23 - Acknowledge before you act
15:53 - Why spiritual bypass falls short
16:49 - Two voices, one book
19:55 - Invocation of the Wild Woman
23:32 - Women heal by sharing
26:24 - Compassion as the way to create
29:34 - Postponing for the right time
38:15 - Who she is now vs last year
39:46 - Defining soft power now
43:09 - Is the darkness still scary?
 
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
The Yin and Yang Within (book): https://www.amazon.com/Yin-Yang-Within-Journey-Balance-ebook/dp/B0G5BPBQZK
Ebonnie Shreve (co-author): https://www.instagram.com/hearthealerink/
Episode 45 with The Wild Medeina: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ngm-gH6xv0
 
ABOUT THE WILD MEDEINA:
Agnes is the founder of Wild Women Empowerment and self-published co-author of The Yin and Yang Within with Ebonnie Shreve. Originally from Lithuania, now based in the UK.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thewildmedeina/
Website: https://www.thewildmedeina.com/
 
#SoftPowerProject #SoftPower #WomenPodcast #PersonalGrowth #Healing #Vulnerability #SelfDiscovery #Reinvention

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In this episode, I share some practical strategies for navigating challenging workplace environments where leadership may not support growth.

Let's talk about -
The importance of boundary setting
Understanding personal values through emotional responses
Finding fulfillment outside of work to maintain motivation and well-being.

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Sonya Weigle spent 25 years in biotech leadership, performing the way the workforce required her to. Then two years ago, watching her youngest daughter plan her future, she realized she had her whole life ahead of her too.

Sherry and Sonya talk about what happens when you stop performing and start recentering. From putting yourself on a shelf to protect your career, to creating non-negotiables around time, energy, and freedom. From breaking generational patterns of women who "handle everything" to defining soft power as water: quiet, persistent, and capable of reshaping anything.

This conversation goes somewhere grounded and real.

0:00 - Trusting the voice within
1:13 - Intuition in a data-driven world
3:06 - The heart inside biotech
5:07 - Organizational DNA and scaling
7:05 - Why 80% of mergers fail
9:41 - HR is not an afterthought
13:52 - Women in biotech leadership
18:53 - Centering yourself after decades
22:51 - Soft mornings and non-negotiables
25:32 - My energy will not be harvested
29:04 - The moment with her daughter
31:24 - Breaking generational patterns
36:12 - Women reclaiming their power
41:55 - Soft power is like water
46:31 - Advice for the boardroom

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
The Catalytic Collective: https://thecatalyticcollective.com/
NextStageBio Advisors: https://nextstagebioadvisors.com/

ABOUT SONYA WEIGLE:
Sonya Wilford-Weigle is the founder of The Catalytic Collective, a membership community for executive women in life sciences redefining success on their own terms. She has spent 25+ years advising biotech CEOs through scaling, M&A integration, and organizational transformation.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonya-wilford-weigle/
Website: https://thecatalyticcollective.com/

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Danielle Frank thought she was on the path to motherhood. Then her engagement ended, and she had to rewrite the story entirely.
 
Sherry and Danielle talk about what happens when the future you pictured doesn't arrive. From Hollywood to wine and spirits to writing a rhyming book that teaches parents to let their kids breathe like a good Cabernet. Danielle reads from A Wine Lover's Guide to Parenting and reframes every pivot as a new path, not a detour.
 
This conversation goes somewhere warm and unexpected.
 
TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - An outsider-insider on parenting
1:16 - Understanding human behavior
3:09 - Grape juice into a Cabernet
5:15 - Breaking off the engagement
8:32 - Writing through the messy middle
12:14 - Extract the lessons
14:43 - The pull to change the world
19:07 - Kids need to breathe
22:57 - Forbidden things breed curiosity
25:08 - Que Sera Sera: a reading
27:50 - Don't let your kids ferment
30:48 - The mulled wine chapter on bullying
33:18 - Making wine approachable
36:06 - What soft power means to Danielle
37:12 - Advice for writers
 
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
A Wine Lover's Guide to Parenting: https://www.amazon.com/Wine-Lovers-Guide-Parenting/dp/1967598061
Danielle's website: https://daniellefrankauthor.com/
 
ABOUT DANIELLE FRANK:
Danielle is the author of A Wine Lover's Guide to Parenting, a humor-driven rhyming book for parents and wine lovers. She has worked in wine and spirits for 22+ years after a career in entertainment.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/createagreatstory/
Website: https://daniellefrankauthor.com/
 
CONNECT WITH THE SOFT POWER PROJECT:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/soft_power_project/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SoftPowerProject
Email: [email protected]
 
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Have you ever had a yearning you kept trying to talk yourself out of? I spent months doing exactly that — applying for jobs, calling headhunters, convincing myself I could still build the thing on weekends. I got nothing back. And I am so grateful.

This solo episode is about conviction. Not the Instagram version. The kind that shows up when you're embarrassed, scared, and out of backup plans.

I share the ancient Chinese military principle 破釜沉舟 (pò fǔ chén zhōu) - burn the pots, sink the boats - and what it unlocked for me about the six months I spent failing to get another corporate job while quietly knowing I wanted to build this. If you've ever had something you wanted to build and kept waiting for a safer moment, this one is for you.

Chapters
00:00 Celebrating Midlife Power
02:57 The Power of Conviction
05:53 Embracing Change and New Beginnings
09:06 Building a Community Through Shared Experiences

CONNECT WITH ME:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/soft_power_project/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SoftPowerProject
Email: [email protected]

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✨About the Soft Power Coaching Program✨

For women who were told they were too sensitive, too nice, too quiet, or never enough, my coaching provides a safe and empowering space to:

Channel anger into clarity and action (not chaos).

• Define their own power. Soft, bold, or a blend of both.
• Build strong self-connection and boundaries that protect their energy.
• Transform from fixing everyone else’s life to fully living their own.

This isn’t about becoming harder. It’s about becoming whole.

✨Fill out the form and start reinventing! Free for limited time. ✨
https://forms.gle/w4hA9zB1MNCWTfjL8