The Heart-led Leader

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🎯What if one question could shift your whole day?

In this short and powerful episode, I’m sharing what two recent guests - Aaron Schultz a men’s mental health advocate from The Outback Mind Foundation, and Michelle Gordon-The Healthy Happy Nurse for the burnt-out and overwhelmed - both named as the most important advice:

Get clear on your intention.

As someone who starts every yoga practice and every day with intention, I know firsthand the power of aligning with how you want to feel before deciding what to do, and how to structure your day.

 In this episode, we’ll explore:

• Why intentionality is a game-changer (especially if you’re overwhelmed)
• How to tune into your heart, body, and mind before reacting to the world
• Real-life ways intention impacts your food, movement, words, and relationships
• A simple invitation you can try today to shift your energy and clarity

This isn’t about adding more to your to-do list - it’s about living in alignment with who you really are.

Take 5 minutes for yourself today - and start from the inside out.

Connect with Melissa

Ready up-level-up your leadership and lead with more presence, clarity and courage? I've packaged my key insights on the foundations of leading with heart, and created this course for you:  Heart-led Leadership Essentials is a self-paced, online short course for busy leaders.   Access at melissat.live 

I'd love to hear from you, so please feel welcome to reach out via Instagram, Facebook or contact me via my website

Send us Fan Mail

In this heartfelt and inspiring conversation, Melissa speaks with Shelley Davidow -award winning author of 51 books, Senior Lecturer in Education at the University of the Sunshine Coast, and a passionate advocate for Steiner Education -  about what it means to lead and live from the heart.

Shelley shares her personal journey of navigating life through intuition, including bold decisions that defied conventional logic but felt deeply aligned. Together, they explore the power of storytelling as a tool for personal growth and healing, the role of courage in leadership, and how to connect more deeply with your own inner guidance.

This episode is filled with grounded tools and soulful strategies, including Shelley’s present-moment journaling practice and reflective methods for discerning authentic intuition from fear or urgency. 

If you’re seeking clarity, courage, or creative connection, this conversation will leave you feeling inspired to trust your path and write your own story.

In this episode, we explore:

• How to tune into and trust your intuition
• The difference between courageous action and impulsive risk
• Storytelling as a path to healing and leadership
• Present-moment journaling to cultivate clarity and connection
• Reframing failure as part of the growth journey

You can connect with Shelley via her Website and Instagram.

Shelley's latest book - The Girl With the Violin is available now in all major book stores. 

Connect with Melissa

Ready up-level-up your leadership and lead with more presence, clarity and courage? I've packaged my key insights on the foundations of leading with heart, and created this course for you:  Heart-led Leadership Essentials is a self-paced, online short course for busy leaders.   Access at melissat.live 

I'd love to hear from you, so please feel welcome to reach out via Instagram, Facebook or contact me via my website

Send us Fan Mail

In this deeply inspiring episode of The Heart-Led Leader, Melissa sits down with Michelle Gordon - The Healthy Happy Nurse - a nurse, coach, and heart-centered leader who shares her powerful journey from burnout to deep self-discovery and purpose. 

Michelle opens up about how she lost herself in her career, how she hit rock bottom, and the transformative practices that helped her reconnect with her true self. 

Together, Melissa and Michelle explore the courage it takes to lead from the heart, the importance of embodiment, and the role of community and creativity in lasting healing. 

A must-listen for anyone feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or ready to reclaim their power and purpose.

What We Cover in This Episode:

• Michelle’s personal journey from burnout to healing and self-leadership
• The 12 stages of burnout and how they show up in high-achieving professionals
• Her experience of overcoming alcohol abuse and choosing transformation
• Weightlifting as a form of meditation and grounding
• Reconnecting with values, identity, and creativity
• The creation and impact of Michelle’s course, The Health and Happiness Formula
• The power of community for nurses and caregivers
• How vulnerability, courage, and intention can create positive change
• Melissa and Michelle’s reflections on heart-led leadership and mutual admiration

Resources & Links:

• Connect with Michelle Gordon: https://www.thehealthyhappynurse.com/
• Leadership Breakthrough Sessions and 12 Week Programs with Melissa T : https://www.melissat.live/leadership-coaching

Connect with Melissa

Ready up-level-up your leadership and lead with more presence, clarity and courage? I've packaged my key insights on the foundations of leading with heart, and created this course for you:  Heart-led Leadership Essentials is a self-paced, online short course for busy leaders.   Access at melissat.live 

I'd love to hear from you, so please feel welcome to reach out via Instagram, Facebook or contact me via my website

Send us Fan Mail

In this powerful episode of The Heart-Led Leader, Melissa speaks with Aaron Schultz - founder of The Outback Mind Foundation and long-time advocate for men’s mental health and heart-aligned living. 

Aaron shares his deeply personal journey - from his awareness and knowing from young age, through living out of alignment, to starting men’s circles in rural Australia and creating a ripple of healing across communities. 

Together we explore some of the powerful tools for alignment and transformation, including simple breath techniques, to Kundalini Yoga.  

Aaron shares the need for an 'upstream' approaches to mental health, and the importance of building safe, supportive spaces for men to be heard and to heal, and for transformation. 

A courageous and compassionate conversation for anyone called to create meaningful change - especially men.

What We Cover in This Episode:

• Aaron’s journey of self-discovery and healing tools 
• The founding of The Outback Mind Foundation and its impact 
• Kundalini Yoga, meditation and the breath as a tool for emotional regulation and healing
• The power of men’s circles in preventing suicide and reducing isolation
• Why we need upstream approaches to mental health, not just symptom treatment
• Aaron’s vision for meditation circles, retreats, and expanding into co-ed healing spaces
• The importance of aligning with purpose, energy, and intention over ego or force
• Melissa and Aaron reflect on the legacy of heart-led leadership and human connection

Resources & Links:

• Learn more about The Outback Mind Foundation: https://www.outbackmind.org.au/
• Watch Aaron’s Documentaries: https://www.outbackmind.org.au/documentaries 
• Sign up for the Men’s Meditation Retreat on Kangaroo Island (October 2025): Email [email protected] - 4 places left
• Stay updated on Aaron’s free meditation circle in Ballarat and upcoming events

Connect with Melissa

Ready up-level-up your leadership and lead with more presence, clarity and courage? I've packaged my key insights on the foundations of leading with heart, and created this course for you:  Heart-led Leadership Essentials is a self-paced, online short course for busy leaders.   Access at melissat.live 

I'd love to hear from you, so please feel welcome to reach out via Instagram, Facebook or contact me via my website

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode, Melissa shares powerful insights and a timely message for heart-led leaders, changemakers and visionaries who are feeling the pressure of broken systems and a deep desire to create something new-but don't know how yet. 

You'll explore:

• Why slowing down is a radical act of leadership
• How to reconnect with your inner knowing and heart wisdom
• THe importance of enbodied leadership over hustle culture
• Why you don't need a detailed plan to begin creating meaningful change
• How to lead with trust, intuition and courage in uncertain times. 

This episode is for anyone feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or ready to create a new path forward-from the inside out.

Let's build the new together - one inspired step at a time. 

*If you're feeling inspired and ready for a leadership Breakthrough - book a Breakthrough Session with Melissa today - HERE. 

Connect with Melissa

Ready up-level-up your leadership and lead with more presence, clarity and courage? I've packaged my key insights on the foundations of leading with heart, and created this course for you:  Heart-led Leadership Essentials is a self-paced, online short course for busy leaders.   Access at melissat.live 

I'd love to hear from you, so please feel welcome to reach out via Instagram, Facebook or contact me via my website

Send us Fan Mail

The journey of creating the new can be vulnerable, challenging, frustrating, and can bring on all kinds of emotions, fears, self doubts and sabotaging thought processes.  Whether you are stepping into a new relationship, job, business, creative venture, or way of being, the mind can take over and distract you from your heart wisdom if it's allowed.  

The new can feel uncertain, and uncertainty breeds fear, anxiety and confusion.  The mind can be so loud and charged with moving forward and 'doing', that heart gets the back seat.  

In this episode I share some of my current process of living and creating a whole new heart-led life, including three tools or strategies that can be super helpful and offer immediate insight to get out of your head and into your heart and body wisdom. 

Let me know if you try any of these and if they work for you.  I'd love to hear from you. 

Love Melissa

Connect with Melissa

Ready up-level-up your leadership and lead with more presence, clarity and courage? I've packaged my key insights on the foundations of leading with heart, and created this course for you:  Heart-led Leadership Essentials is a self-paced, online short course for busy leaders.   Access at melissat.live 

I'd love to hear from you, so please feel welcome to reach out via Instagram, Facebook or contact me via my website

Send us Fan Mail

Joy creates spaciousness, creativity and opportunity, and is an underrated leadership strategy.  

Joy unlocks new capacities. 

We have the power to intentionally create opportunities for joy - both for yourself and for others. 

Whether you're in a workplace or considering your home space, relationships or interactions with community, joy is a powerful ally for connection, creativity and transformation.

How are you caring for yourself?

How are you creating joy in your days?

Connect with Melissa

Ready up-level-up your leadership and lead with more presence, clarity and courage? I've packaged my key insights on the foundations of leading with heart, and created this course for you:  Heart-led Leadership Essentials is a self-paced, online short course for busy leaders.   Access at melissat.live 

I'd love to hear from you, so please feel welcome to reach out via Instagram, Facebook or contact me via my website

Send us Fan Mail

This episode is a copy of the interview I was grateful to have with Aaron Schultz from The Outback Mind Podcast.
Aaron is doing incredible work in the space of Men's Mental Health, Domestic Violence and Suicide Prevention, and I have witnessed his journey of building the charity from ground up.
I look forward to welcoming him to The Heart-led Leader soon as a guest, for now I share his episode and my journey through his questions.

Directly from The Outback Mind Podcast:  Podcast 287:
From healer to School Principal and back again, Melissa Thomson shares her journey of overcoming some huge personal challenges to rediscovering her passion to help others to find their true purpose. 

Melissa faced some huge roadblocks during the pandemic to stand up against forced vaccinations guiding her School to becoming the only one in the nation to back their freedom of choice and say no. 

In this podcast Mel reveals why sometimes we simply have to do what we believe in. 

Connect with Melissa

Ready up-level-up your leadership and lead with more presence, clarity and courage? I've packaged my key insights on the foundations of leading with heart, and created this course for you:  Heart-led Leadership Essentials is a self-paced, online short course for busy leaders.   Access at melissat.live 

I'd love to hear from you, so please feel welcome to reach out via Instagram, Facebook or contact me via my website

Send us Fan Mail

This episode supports you to find your own sense of self-leadership, exploring how to ignite the 'Inner Rebel' within you, to break free from fear, overwhelm and uncertainty.

Your Inner Rebel is not just a disruptor for the sake of disrupting, it's the part of you that knows when it's time to speak up, to break free, or to change something.  

It's the transformational power within you. 

It's the part that stands in truth and integrity, and acts courageously on inspiration and aligned vision.

Be brave - align and ignite your own Inner Rebel and make the changes you know are necessary.

Love Melissa

Connect with Melissa

Ready up-level-up your leadership and lead with more presence, clarity and courage? I've packaged my key insights on the foundations of leading with heart, and created this course for you:  Heart-led Leadership Essentials is a self-paced, online short course for busy leaders.   Access at melissat.live 

I'd love to hear from you, so please feel welcome to reach out via Instagram, Facebook or contact me via my website

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode I share a little about my experience of leading from the heart, and the qualities or capacities that emerged as being foundational when I reflect on the experiences of starting a school, building community, driving legislative reform and winning a mighty battle during the pandemic.  

These milestones were all heart-led, in service to the children and community that my team and I stood for.  

I hope these reflections offer some insight as to the strength of your own heart wisdom when you follow it courageously, and when your work is aligned to your soul purpose. 

Love Melissa

Connect with Melissa

Ready up-level-up your leadership and lead with more presence, clarity and courage? I've packaged my key insights on the foundations of leading with heart, and created this course for you:  Heart-led Leadership Essentials is a self-paced, online short course for busy leaders.   Access at melissat.live 

I'd love to hear from you, so please feel welcome to reach out via Instagram, Facebook or contact me via my website