The Belonging Project

Have you ever apologised for simply sharing how you feel, crying or feeling frustrated?

In this solo episode, Fiorenza explores why we might feel the need to apologise for having emotions, particularly in professional environments.

Drawing on her coaching experience, she explores the difference between emotional regulation and suppression, why we can feel uncomfortable with other people’s emotions, and what this means for emotional intelligence, leadership and belonging at work.

Are we apologising for having emotions, or for the discomfort they might create in someone else?

A conversation about making more room for the human experience at work.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ If you enjoy this episode, please leave a rating and review!

💡Questions to reflect on:

-> When was the last time you apologised for having an emotion?

-> What would change if you didn't feel you had to?

🔗 About Fiorenza Rossini, your host

Fiorenza Rossini is a career transition and leadership coach who supports working parents to grow fulfilling careers with clarity and confidence, alongside meaningful lives beyond work.

Connect with Fiorenza on LinkedIn and Instagram

Can AI make working motherhood a little easier, or is it just another thing we’re expected to learn?

In this episode of The Belonging Project Podcast, I speak with Lakesha Holloway, host of the AI for Working Moms podcast, about how AI can support working mothers at work and at home, lighten the mental load and help us navigate the competing demands on our time and energy.

We explore the opportunities AI offers, the questions it raises, and how we can approach new technology with curiosity rather than pressure.

Because technology should work for us, not give us another thing to keep up with.

In this episode, we explore:

* How AI can support working mums at work and at home.

* Using AI to simplify everyday tasks and reduce mental load.

* The questions of trust, privacy and confidence that come with new technology.

* How to approach AI without feeling you need to master everything.

If you’re a (working) mum and curious about AI but short on time and energy, this conversation invites you to consider how technology might support you, on your own terms.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ If you’ve enjoyed this episode, please leave a rating and review!

Connect with Lakesha Holloway

🔗 Lakesha Holloway is the Host of AI for Working Moms and also the founder of Working Mom Champion. Connect with Lakesha on Instagram and LinkedIn.

About your host Fiorenza Rossini

Fiorenza started building her coaching business in 2016 while still working in investment banking. When her first child was born in 2019, she knew something had to give. Like many parents, she realised she couldn’t keep growing her career in the same way while also being the parent she wanted to be. Her priorities became clearer, and she chose to leave corporate life to focus fully on her coaching work. Today, Fiorenza supports driven professionals & leaders who are also parents of young children, who find themselves to be at a pivot point - whether that’s returning to work, stepping into leadership, or rethinking what career growth now looks like.🔗 Fiorenza on LinkedIn 🔗 Fiorenza on Instagram 🔗 More about Fiorenza’s work

Have you ever wondered whether you’ve outgrown your job?

Perhaps the work that once excited you no longer feels fulfilling. Maybe the next promotion doesn’t appeal in the same way, or you’re questioning whether your career still fits the life you want to lead as a parent.

In this episode, career transition and leadership coach Fiorenza Rossini explores four signs that your job might no longer be right for you, particularly when you’re navigating the demands of working parenthood.

Becoming a parent can change your relationship with work, ambition and success. You might still want to grow professionally, take on new challenges and do meaningful work, but find that the way you’ve been working no longer feels sustainable.

So, how do you know when it’s time for a career change?

In this episode, we explore:

* Losing interest in your work: How to distinguish between being exhausted by the demands of working parenthood and genuinely having outgrown your role.

* Feeling stuck in your career: Why the next promotion or traditional career progression might no longer be what you want, and how to rethink professional growth.

* When work becomes unsustainable: How workload, workplace culture, inflexible expectations and the mental load of parenting can affect your working life.

* Redefining career success: What happens when your priorities change and you begin making space for family, creativity, personal interests and a more fulfilling life beyond work.

We also explore an important distinction: do you need a new job or career, different working conditions, or a new definition of professional success?

You don’t necessarily need to start again from scratch. Sometimes, the first step towards a more fulfilling career is understanding what no longer works and what you want more of in your working life.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ If you’ve enjoyed this episode, please leave a rating and review!

💡Questions to reflect on

If you’re questioning your career, take a moment to consider:

* What do I want more of in my working life right now?

* What is making my current situation difficult, and which parts can I influence?

* If I stopped measuring my career against the expectations I had five years ago, what might I want now?

You don’t need to have all the answers today. You can start by getting curious about what your experience is telling you.

🔗 Resources

A blog post on 4 signs it’s sign to change your career

Explore more: Visit growinnow.com to discover more resources and coaching support for your career journey.

🔗 About Fiorenza Rossini, your host

Fiorenza Rossini is a career transition and leadership coach who supports working parents to grow fulfilling careers with clarity and confidence, alongside meaningful lives beyond work.

Connect with Fiorenza on LinkedIn and Instagram

When I sat down with Cecilia (Ceci) Hajredinaj, there were moments when it felt like I was speaking with a future version of myself: a Fiorenza with teenage children, further along her own journey of unlearning, reflecting on how we become better humans and what we model for our children.

Ceci moved from Honduras to the US at 16, navigating a new country, culture and way of life. She remembers her childhood in Honduras fondly, particularly the strong sense of community around her. She had a village.

When she became a mother in the US, she experienced something very different.

The village she had grown up with was not there. For much of her daughter’s early years, the core support system was Ceci and her husband. She talks openly about the guilt she experienced as a working mother, the mental load of managing family life, and the challenge of making space for her own career ambitions alongside motherhood.

Ceci describes being passed over for promotions and projects because senior leaders made assumptions about what she would want or have time for, now that she was a parent… rather than asking her. While the flexibility was there, it did not mean equal opportunities for career progression were there.

We also talk about the cultural messages that can shape how women show up at work.

Ceci grew up hearing:

“Calladita te ves mas bonita”

In Spanish, this means “You look prettier when you're quiet.”

What happens when a message like that stays with you? What does it teach us about speaking up, ambition, leadership and what women are allowed to be?

And what do we have to unlearn later in life?

This poses the question: What messages did we absorb growing up about what women are allowed to be?

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ If you’ve enjoyed this episode, please leave a rating and review!

In this episode, we also discuss

💡What workplaces still don’t fully understand about working parents, including:

* the emotional and financial impact of childcare

* why flexibility matters, particularly during the early years of parenthood

* the assumptions that can affect working mothers’ career opportunities

* psychological safety and feeling able to speak up

* the importance of community and belonging at work

* why working parents want understanding, not lower expectations for their careers.

📚 Key topics:

This is a conversation about working motherhood, career progression, ambition, cultural conditioning, belonging and the things we learn about ourselves long before we enter the workplace.

🔗 Cecilia Hajredinaj

Cecilia has a non-linear career journey across client-facing roles, sales and marketing, operations, people operations, learning and development, coaching and consulting. Today, she brings that generalist perspective to her work supporting leaders and mission-driven organisations.

And perhaps fittingly, unlearning has become a central part of her work. Ceci talks about why leaders sometimes need to unlearn old behaviours, habits and assumptions before they can genuinely learn something new.

Connect with Cecilia on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ceciliahajredinaj/

🔗 Fiorenza Rossini, your host

Connect with Fiorenza on LinkedIn and Instagram

Executive presence doesn’t have to mean becoming louder or more performative.

Sometimes, it’s about letting go of small communication habits that can undermine the seniority you already have.

In this short episode, I share three tiny shifts to try:

* Replace “Does that make sense?” with a pause.

* Own your recommendations instead of softening them with “maybe” or “perhaps”.

* Stop apologising when you contribute or interject in meetings.

Three small changes. Potentially a very different impact.

Which one will you try first?⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ If you’ve enjoyed this episode, please leave a rating and review!

What connects a group of WWII veterans in Normandy with mums building businesses today?

More than you might think!

In this episode, I’m joined by Victoria Phipps, MBE, photographer and host of the Mum Means Business podcast, for a conversation about motherhood, ambition, entrepreneurship and belonging.

Victoria has spent much of her life creating spaces where people feel connected and part of something. Before becoming a mum, Victoria spent 11 years working with WWII veterans, bringing them together in Normandy for the D-Day commemorations, and building a community around shared experiences. Those years taught her a lot about connection, purpose and finding your people.

We explore how those lessons eventually found their way into her work with mothers building businesses, alongside the pressure to “have it all”, what happens when our old definition of success no longer fits, and why recognising our capacity and protecting our energy matters.

You can fall into the trap of doing it all. And it can feel like having it all, but you’re absolutely beside yourself, broken, exhausted, says Victoria.

We also talk about something very close to Victoria’s heart: why mothers deserve to be in the photographs too, and how printed photographs can become powerful reminders of identity, connection and belonging.

💡5 takeaways:

* Motherhood can change the shape of ambition without making ambition disappear.

* Belonging and community can be just as important as the work itself.

* “Having it all” can become exhausting when it means doing it all.

* Protecting your capacity is not selfish. It is part of sustaining the life and work you care about.

* You deserve to be present in the memories you are busy creating for everyone else.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ If you’ve enjoyed this episode, please leave a rating and review!

🔗Resources & people mentioned

Victoria Phipps, MBE: Photographer and host of Mum Means Business.Find her photography work here

Mum Means Business: Victoria’s podcast about motherhood, business and building a life that works for you. Listen here.

Find Victoria on Instagram

Fiorenza Rossini, your host: Leadership and career transitions coach, supporting parents of young children through career growth, leadership and change. Find her work here.

Connect with Fiorenza on LinkedIn and Instagram.

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If you’ve ever finally sat down to rest only to find yourself mentally replaying work conversations, planning tomorrow’s to-do list or feeling guilty that you’re not being productive, you’re not alone.

In this solo episode of The Belonging Project Podcast, leadership and career coach for working parents Fiorenza Rossini explores why rest can feel surprisingly uncomfortable for ambitious working parents.

❌ This isn’t an episode about productivity hacks or better time management - sorry!✅This episode is about understanding the psychology behind why so many of us struggle to switch off, even when we desperately need a break.

Drawing on psychological research, behavioural science and her own experiences as a working parent, Fiorenza unpacks the hidden beliefs that shape our relationship with work, achievement and rest, and shares practical ways to build a healthier, more sustainable approach to being career-driven or ambitious.

🔍 In this episode, you’ll discover:

* Why so many working parents struggle to switch off from work

* The hidden psychology behind feeling guilty when you rest

* Why busyness has become a status symbol, and how it shapes our identity

* How ambitious professionals can unknowingly tie their self-worth to productivity

* Why rest often feels uncomfortable rather than restorative

* The double ledger many working parents carry between work and family

* Practical mindset shifts to help you rest without feeling like you’re falling behind

Whether you’re leading a team, navigating career growth, returning from parental leave or simply trying to balance work and family life, this episode offers a fresh perspective on why rest feels so difficult, and why that doesn’t mean you’re doing it wrong.

📚 Research and resources mentioned

This episode references research and ideas from:

* Mental Health UK’s Burnout Report 2026

* Deloitte UK research on working parents

* KPMG’s Working Parents survey

* Research published in the Journal of Consumer Research on busyness and social status

* The concepts of contingent self-worth, hedonic adaptation and loss aversion

☀️ Summer Coaching Intensive

If you’re a working parent who feels you’ve lost momentum on your career goals this year, my Summer Coaching Intensive is designed to help you gain clarity, rebuild confidence and make meaningful progress before September.

The intensive includes:

* One 90-minute coaching session to untangle what’s really going on, clarify your priorities and create a roadmap.

* One 45-minute follow-up session to review your progress, overcome new challenges and keep your momentum going.

There are only a few places available. 📩 Get in touch via email on [email protected] to find out more.

Most managers want to support working parents. Few have ever been shown how.

What happens after an employee becomes a parent can shape their confidence, career progression and sense of belonging for years to come. Yet many managers are left to navigate these conversations without any real guidance.

In this episode, leadership and career growth coach Fiorenza Rossini explores how managers, leaders and organisations can better support working parents, by creating the conditions for them to continue growing and thriving, instead of lowering expectations.

Drawing on her experience coaching professionals through career transitions, leadership development and the identity shift that comes with parenthood, Fiorenza shares practical insights for anyone leading a team.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

* The common assumptions managers make after an employee becomes a parent

* Why career development conversations shouldn’t stop after parental leave

* How to create a greater sense of belonging for working parents

* Simple leadership practices that help retain and develop talented people

* Questions every manager can ask to better support working parents

Whether you’re a manager, team leader, HR professional, senior leader, or a working parent yourself, this episode will help you rethink what effective leadership looks like during one of life’s biggest transitions.

“Perhaps the most valuable thing that any manager can do is replace assumptions with curiosity.”, says Fiorenza.

🔎 Jump in

03:09 Becoming a parent changes you - that’s just the reality04:01 The load we can realistically carry has changed05:28 Don’t assume: ask (aka the power of curiosity)06:23 Career conversations should never stop07:32 Visibility or performance08:54 The importance of small moments and showing up09:53 Recognising parenthood as a leadership skill

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ If you’ve enjoyed this episode, please leave a rating and review

🔗 Links & resources

* Connect with Fiorenza Rossini on Linkedin.

* Explore coaching, leadership workshops and speaking: here

Topics covered:Working parents | Leadership | People management | Career progression | Parental leave | Employee wellbeing | Workplace culture | Belonging | Inclusive leadership | Talent retention | Career development | Working mothers | Working fathers

Grief doesn't wait for life to slow down. It happens when we have children to raise, work to do, relationships to nurture, and everyday life to navigate.

This is a particularly personal episode for me.

In June 2025, I nearly lost my mum. She's still with us, but since that day, I've been mostly in anticipatory grief, while also coming to terms with the relationship with her that I will never have.

I met Elysha Weissglass through a L&D community. We're both coaches, both mums, and both navigating some complex layers of life.

Elysha lost her mum following a years-long illness, and I wanted to have a conversation with her about grief, motherhood, and what it means to keep living and working (not just surviving) while carrying loss.

But our conversation goes beyond grief.

We explore Elysha's journey from school counsellor to leadership coach and people development partner, supporting others through change, and how our personal experiences shape who we are and become at work and at home.

🔎 What we explore

- Elysha's career transition from education into corporate learning and development, and her work as a leadership coach

- Navigating the sandwich generation: caring for ageing parents while raising young children

- Anticipatory grief and the complexity of grieving someone who is still here

- The complicated relationships we can have with our parents, and how becoming a parent ourselves can bring these into sharp focus

- Finding moments of joy and connection while experiencing grief

- Belonging, identity and learning to sit with emotions that don't fit together on paper.

One of the things that stayed with me from this conversation is the idea that two things can be true at once. We can feel grief and joy. We can be struggling and still find moments of connection. We can love someone deeply and grieve the relationship we wish we'd had.

As Elysha puts it:

"Things don't always fit into some perfect box. And there are ways to notice what really is here in the moment so that you can have connection and joy and feel what's really there."

I hope this conversation offers some companionship to anyone navigating grief, in whatever form it takes.

🎧 Listen to the full conversation on The Belonging Project Podcast.

If this episode resonates with you, I'd love for you to share it with someone who might need to hear it.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ If you enjoy the podcast, please consider leaving a rating or review. It helps others discover these conversations.

🔗 Links & resources

Explore Elysha Weissglass on Substack

Connect with Elysha on LinkedIn

What is the true cost of navigating early parenthood while trying to maintain a career? In this episode, host Fiorenza Rossini sits down with Sam Allman-Briggs—a marketer, devoted father, and advocate for parental rights—to pull back the curtain on the modern fatherhood experience.

From the harrowing grief of pregnancy loss and the workplace anxieties that follow, to navigating a culture that frequently overlooks fathers, Sam shares his raw, personal journey. They dive deep into the gaps in paternity leave, the reality of workplace redundancies for new parents, and why the corporate mask needs to slip to make way for genuine, hands-on parenting.

🔎 What we explore

* Fathers are being overlooked: The baby and toddler industry frequently defaults to viewing mothers as the sole primary consumer, alienating hands-on fathers and limiting long-term industry progression.

* The Reality of Pregnancy Loss: Miscarriage and stillbirth affect one in four pregnancies, yet the emotional and psychological toll—especially the secondary anxiety during a subsequent pregnancy—remains a taboo subject in corporate environments.

* The Paternity Leave Gap: Current statutory paternity leave models fail to support the realities of postpartum recovery (such as C-section healing times), highlighting a severe need for progressive parental rights.

* Dropping the Corporate Mask: True workplace inclusivity means moving past seeing people as a professional or a parent, and letting employees combine their identities without fear of professional penalty.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Enjoyed this episode? Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave a review on your favorite podcast platform!

🔗 Links & resources

* The Dad Shift: An advocacy group campaigning to change paternity leave law and corporate rights for men.

* Parenting Out Loud: An organisation pushing to change perceptions and increase visibility for hands-on fathers in traditionally female-dominated environments.

* Connect with Sam Allman-Briggs on Linkedin

About your host Fiorenza Rossini

Fiorenza started building her coaching business in 2016 while still working in investment banking. When her first child was born in 2019, she knew something had to give. Like many parents, she realised she couldn’t keep growing her career in the same way while also being the parent she wanted to be. Her priorities became clearer, and she chose to leave corporate life to focus fully on her coaching work. Today, Fiorenza supports driven professionals & leaders who are also parents of young children, who find themselves to be at a pivot point - whether that’s returning to work, stepping into leadership, or rethinking what career growth now looks like.🔗 More about Fiorenza’s work 🔗 Fiorenza on Linkedin 🔗 Fiorenza on Instagram

🎧 Enjoyed this episode?

If this conversation stayed with you, consider sharing it with another parent who might need to hear it.

And if you haven’t already, you can connect with me on LinkedIn for more reflections on belonging, leadership, and navigating career and identity alongside parenthood.