In this episode, Leanna sits down with licensed social worker and integrative somatic therapist Melissa Romano, author of the Vagus Nerve Deck, and creator of Connected Healing. Together they explore how high-achieving women can break free from living in constant “protection mode” and step into intentional, empowered living. Melissa shares her journey from chronic pain and stress to nervous system healing, and offers practical tools to help working mothers regulate emotions, increase resilience, and feel more connected to themselves and their families. If you’ve ever felt like you’re doing it all but running on empty, this conversation will give you a grounded, science-backed approach to redefining self-care, so you can lead with presence, balance, and energy both at work and at home.

Follow @reclaimingmelissa on Tiktok, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.

Find her Vagus Nerve Deck on Amazon.

Visit her website at reclaiminghealthy.com to find more about her signature program, Connected Healing, as well as her other offerings such as one-on-one and live group coaching, retreats, live workshops, and more.

Full transcript available here.

Connect with Leanna here.

Strong leadership starts with strong foundations. The Executive Mom Reset: Foundations course begins October 21. Join us to gain the tools, strategies, and support you need to thrive at work and at home without burning out.

In the fourth episode of the Taking Care of Yourself series, Leanna continues with a focus on how executive moms can confidently advocate for their own needs, both at work and at home. High-achieving leaders often excel at championing others, yet find it difficult to speak up for themselves. Leanna explores the mindset shifts and strategies that make it possible to identify, communicate, and honor personal needs without guilt. She highlights why meeting those needs is not selfish but essential for effective leadership, sustainable success, and thriving both professionally and personally. If asking for more support, flexibility, or space feels uncomfortable, this episode offers practical tools to start building that confidence.

Catch up on the Taking Care of Yourself series:

#1 The Mindset Shifts Every Executive Mom Needs to Balance Ambition and Well-Being

#2 Empowering Executive Moms to Recognize Your Own Needs Without Guilt

#3 Burnout as Betrayal: Breaking Free from People Pleasing and Perfectionism to Reclaim Your Energy - with Lora Cheadle

Full transcript available here.

Connect with Leanna here.

Strong leadership starts with strong foundations. The Executive Mom Reset Foundations begins October 21. Join us to gain the tools, strategies, and support you need to thrive at work and at home without burning out.

What if burnout isn’t just exhaustion, but a form of betrayal? In this episode, attorney-turned-coach and TEDx speaker, Lora Cheadle, shares how years of people pleasing, perfectionism, and prioritizing everyone else’s needs over her own left her depleted, and how she discovered that the deepest betrayal wasn’t her husband’s long-term infidelity, but the ways she had abandoned her own needs. Lora reframes burnout as a wake-up call to stop self-sacrificing and start honoring your worth. She offers a powerful framework for identifying unmet needs, moving beyond resentment, and building resilience. This conversation will challenge how you see burnout, and it will inspire you to reclaim your authenticity and self-trust.

Get Lora’s Betrayal Recovery Guide and learn more about her Betrayal Recovery method on her website.

Start at the beginning of the journey.

Listen to The Mindset Shifts Every Executive Mom Needs to Balance Ambition and Well-Being, and Empowering Executive Moms to Recognize Your Own Needs Without Guilt, the first and second episodes of the Taking Care of Yourself series.

Full transcript available here.

Connect with Leanna here.

Strong leadership starts with strong foundations. The Executive Mom Reset Foundations begins October 21. Join us to gain the tools, strategies, and support you need to thrive at work and at home without burning out.

High-achieving working mothers are so attuned to recognizing everyone else’s needs at work, at home, and everywhere in between, that we often overlook our own. In this episode of the Taking Care of Yourself series, Leanna explores why tuning into your own needs matters, how ignoring them eventually leads to burnout or resentment, and why recognizing them is the very first step toward balance. She introduces Maslow’s hierarchy of needs as a practical framework, shares everyday examples of how unmet needs show up in our behavior, and walks through the RAIN method (Recognize, Allow, Investigate, Nurture) to help you build awareness without judgment. You’ll leave this episode with clarity on how to start small, meet one need at a time, and begin shifting from putting yourself last to honoring your needs with confidence and without guilt. Whether you’re leading a team at work, caring for your family, or both, this conversation is a compassionate reminder that meeting your own needs is not selfish; it’s the foundation for lasting success and joy, as well as the model we want to be for those who look up to us.

Start at the beginning of the journey. Listen to The Mindset Shifts Every Executive Mom Needs to Balance Ambition and Well-Being, the first episode of the Taking Care of Yourself series to uncover why we so often ignore our own needs and how to begin rewriting that story.

Full transcript available here.

Connect with Leanna here.

Strong leadership starts with strong foundations. The Executive Mom Reset Foundations begins October 21. Join us to gain the tools, strategies, and support you need to thrive at work and at home without burning out.

In this episode, Leanna kicks off the fall series with the theme Taking Care of Yourself, a deeper, more practical alternative to what’s often labeled as “self-care.” She explores why so many high-achieving women and busy moms put their own needs last by unpacking five key barriers that keep working mothers from prioritizing their well-being.

Leanna reframes each barrier with empowering shifts, reminding working mothers that caring for themselves isn’t selfish; it’s essential for longevity, resilience, and showing up fully in every area of life. This conversation invites women to recognize their worthiness, challenge old narratives, and begin building a more sustainable rhythm of care to support themselves in order to better support others.

Full transcript available here.

Connect with Leanna here.

Strong leadership starts with strong foundations. The Executive Mom Reset Foundations begins October 21. Join us to gain the tools, strategies, and support you need to thrive at work and at home without burning out.

We’re closing out the 2025 Summer Series by weaving together the most powerful lessons from the six remarkable women who shared their journeys of leadership, resilience, and motherhood. Their stories highlight that success has many definitions, that motherhood can sharpen rather than limit leadership, and that true strength comes from adaptability, reflection, and alignment with values. Together, their insights remind executive mothers that intentional choices and resilience not only shape careers but also create space for balance and purpose at home. Leanna offers key takeaways designed to inspire professional women to embrace clarity, redefine success, and lead with confidence.

Full transcript available here.

Connect with Leanna here and share your takeaways from the 2025 Summer Series!

If you missed any of the conversations in the Summer Series, now is the perfect time to revisit them. Each episode offers unique strategies and inspiration that build toward the takeaways Leanna shared here.

Dr. Lesley Robinson

Ep 102: Leading with Purpose: Charting Your Own Course as a High-Achieving Woman

Ep 103: Leading with Impact: Values Based Leadership and Growth Mindset for Working Mothers

Dina Silver Pokedoff

Ep 104: Navigating the Unexpected: Career Pivoting, Fertility Journeys, and Redefining Success

Ep 105: Navigating Working Motherhood: Leadership, Self-Care, and Sustainable Ambition

Sarah Brelowski

Ep 107: Becoming Strong: From Career Burnout to Alignment, Fulfillment, and Self-Defined Success

Ep 108: Sustaining Strong: How Strength Training Empowers Women with Self Confidence, Resilience, and Mental Wellbeing

Erica Willie

Ep 109: The High Achiever's First Superpower: Outwork Everyone and Succeed Through Work Ethic

Ep 110: Embracing Motherhood as a Superpower and Building a Values Aligned Legacy

Ashley Chang

Ep 111: From Doing It All to Doing What Matters: Redefining Work-Life Balance in Working Motherhood

Ep 112: You Don't Have to Do It All: Delegation Strategies and Support Systems for Working Moms

Kiran Reddy

Ep 113: Grounded in Purpose: Aligning Career, Service, and Becoming a Mother

Ep 114: Grounded in Resilience: Growing Through Adversity and Change in Relationships, Career, and Motherhood

If you're ready for deeper transformation, check out The Executive Mom Reset; Leanna’s six-month coaching program designed to help ambitious moms stop merely surviving and start thriving. Book a consult now!

Don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review the show to help more women find these empowering stories!

In the final episode of the summer series, Leanna continues her conversation with Kiran Reddy, entrepreneur, attorney, mom, and founder of Reddy Consulting, as she reflects on four transformative years marked by motherhood, turning 40, separation and divorce, two layoffs, and the challenges and lessons of rebuilding her identity.

Kiran shares candidly about the shift from survival mode to redefining balance, and how motherhood taught her the importance of putting her own needs first in order to care for her son. She opens up about navigating the grief and uncertainty of uncoupling after an 18-year relationship, the role of therapy and solitude in her personal growth, and the practical tools like her “four buckets” framework that helped her stay grounded through constant change.

The conversation also touches on the realities of layoffs, resilience in career transitions, and learning to live more in the present rather than clinging to rigid long-term goals. Kiran offers wisdom on co-parenting with compassion and intention, and how she has found new strength and purpose through adversity. Her story is a powerful reminder that growth, clarity, and self-discovery are possible even in our toughest seasons.

If you missed Part 1, listen now for the full arc of Kiran’s inspiring journey.

Connect with Kiran here.

Full transcript available here.

Connect with Leanna here.

If you're ready for deeper transformation, check out The Executive Mom Reset; Leanna’s six-month coaching program designed to help ambitious moms stop merely surviving and start thriving. Book a consult now!

Don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review the show to help more women find these empowering stories!

If you're navigating the transition to preschool with a little one, this is the episode to listen to! In it, I interview my daughter about why it was hard for her and what helped the most, and I share our process for making the preschool transition work. This episode will give you some ideas and approaches to try out and find what works for your kiddo.

In part one of this inspiring two part episode, Leanna is joined by Kiran Reddy, attorney, mom, volunteer, and founder of Reddy Consulting. Kiran shares how she built a thriving consulting business, found meaning through volunteer work in prison reform, and embraced the lessons of saying no, prioritizing, and creating space for what matters most. She also opens up about her fertility journey and the powerful experience (and fun story!) that brought her son into the world. Through it all, Kiran’s story highlights the power of resilience, service, and staying rooted in purpose while balancing the many layers of work and family life. Kiran’s story is a reminder that purpose and growth often come from unexpected places.

Tune in to Part 2, available August 28, to hear how Kiran navigated uncoupling, coparenting, career shifts, and the ongoing work of redefining her life.

Connect with Kiran here.

Full transcript available here.

Connect with Leanna here.

If you're ready for deeper transformation, check out The Executive Mom Reset; Leanna’s six-month coaching program designed to help ambitious moms stop merely surviving and start thriving. Book a consult now!

Don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review the show to help more women find these empowering stories!

In Part 2 of Leanna’s conversation with Ashley Chang, CEO of Sundays, Ashley shares how she channeled what she learned about women in the workplace into action by founding Sundays, a company designed to meet the needs of high achieving moms. For executive moms considering what’s next, whether a new role, a new rhythm, or a bigger leap, this conversation is full of practical wisdom. Ashley shares how motherhood pushed her to make more deliberate decisions about her time, her values, and the kind of support she wanted to create through Sundays. For working moms used to running on autopilot, Ashley’s story offers the powerful reminder that alignment and ambition don’t have to be at odds. This episode invites you to pause, reflect on your priorities, and make intentional choices that align your time with what matters most.

Learn more about Sundays and their mission to accelerate parents in their careers, while creating more quality family time, by following on LinkedIn and Instagram.

To hear more about Ashley’s inspiring journey and the leadership lessons that shaped her, go back and listen to Part 1.

Full transcript available here.

Connect with Leanna here.

If you're ready for deeper transformation, check out The Executive Mom Reset; Leanna’s six-month coaching program designed to help ambitious moms stop merely surviving and start thriving. Book a consult now!

Don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review the show to help more women find these empowering stories!