Are you exhausted from shape-shifting to meet everyone else’s expectations?

On this episode of The Story I’m Telling Myself, host Rita sits down with Humaira Akhter, a transformational coach who shares her powerful journey from growing up in Bangladesh to navigating the corporate validation trap.

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If you are searching for a mindset podcast or positivity podcast that goes beyond surface-level advice, this raw conversation is your invitation to deep, lasting change.

Humaira details how major turning points—from a close family member missing her wedding to a life-threatening medical emergency—led her to stop seeking external approval and finally look within.

This episode is an essential guide for anyone seeking to break free from the hustle and grind culture.

Key Takeaways:

The Energy Test: Learn how to distinguish between physical fatigue and the deep mental exhaustion of corporate misalignment.

Reclaiming Your Strengths: Discover how your deepest childhood vulnerabilities hide your greatest superpowers.

The Red Thread Process: Unpack Myra's signature workbook framework—mapping your life into five distinct chapters to uncover the connective tissue of your true identity.

Whether you treat this as a personal growth podcast, a self-development podcast, or a roadmap for personal transformation, you’ll walk away with actionable steps to uncover your Zone of Genius and live with unfiltered conviction.

Connect with Humaira Akhter

Take Humaira's Red Thread Quiz

CONNECT WITH YOUR HOST RITA ERNST

Stop micromanaging and start thriving in a culture of commitment.

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In this episode of The Story I’m Telling Myself, host Rita Ernst sits down with Sabrina Parsons, CEO of Palo Alto Software, to dismantle the myth of the "perfect resume."

After people with the "perfect resume" were leaving while other new hires were thriving, Sabrina and her leadership team got curious and started studying the data.

What they learned flipped the lens on her leadership and hiring practices.

Key Takeaways include:

• The Framework for Freedom: How to implement a "test-and-learn" culture using the MVP (Minimum Viable Product) approach.
• Mindset over Credentials: Why hiring "interesting, smart people" beats a perfect resume every time.
• The Power of "No": Turning failure into a high-margin return on investment by learning from expensive mistakes.
• Radical Transparency: How sharing financials builds an ownership mindset in your team.

Whether you’re an entrepreneur or a leader on the rise, this mindset podcast offers the tools for personal growth and self-development. Subscribe to this self-improvement podcast for your weekly dose of positivity and professional evolution.

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Connect with your host, Rita Ernst

Are you "checking the boxes" of self-care while your nervous system is actually in a state of freeze?

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In this episode of The Story I’m Telling Myself, Elsa Valentine—an entrepreneur, artist, and coach—shares her personal transformation from scaling a high-growth nutrition brand to experiencing a total physical shutdown at the height of her success.

This mindset podcast dives deep into the difference between simply "managing" your body and actually building a relationship with it.

As a premier personal growth podcast, we explore why "ticking the box" on mental health is a myth and how an unhealed nervous system can cap your professional potential. Elsa reveals her framework for personal development, introducing her neuroscience-based app, Innate, which facilitates a powerful dialogue between your past, present, and future selves to identify triggers and find perspective. You will learn actionable steps for self-improvement, including cognitive reappraisal and widening your window of tolerance through curious awareness rather than judgment.

If you are looking for a self-help podcast that goes beyond superficial positivity to find true empowerment, this conversation on self-development and authentic leadership is for you. Stop resisting your internal signals and start reclaiming your agency.
Check out Elsa's new company, innate.love and instagram

Connect with your host, Rita Ernst

Are you allowing a single moment of shame from your childhood to dictate the rest of your life?

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In this episode of our personal growth podcast, Rita is joined by Alexia Georghiou, a retired mental health therapist and the founder of the Knoxville Happiness Coalition, to discuss her radical journey from selective mutism to global advocacy.

In this mindset episode, we explore how a childhood trauma involving spilled paint created a "safe space" of silence that Alexia finally broke through at age fifty-five.

Listeners will discover the "40% Rule"—the scientific framework showing that while half of our happiness is genetic and ten percent is situational, a full forty percent is within our intentional control.

Alexia shares provocative insights into her personal transformation journey, including how she navigated the "brain fog" of menopause and the medical dismissal of women’s health.

Whether you are looking for a self-improvement podcast to help you find your voice or a positivity podcast to rewire your brain, this conversation provides the tools to move from "freeze" to "flow". Learn to activate your vagus nerve through humming and reclaim your personal agency in this essential episode.
Connect with AlexiaGet Alexia's book: The Future of Work is HumanConnect with your host, Rita Ernst

Are you following the loneliness script of grief?

Grab the episode activation guide to reset your relationship with grief.

In this powerful episode of The Story I’m Telling Myself, host Rita Ernst welcomes writer and storyteller Dimple Dhabalia, the founder of Roots in the Clouds. In this mindset podcast episode, Dimple shares her transformative frameworks, including the "Ministry of Presence" and "Love in Action," offering a roadmap for anyone seeking a personal transformation that prioritizes human connection over industrial output.

Key Takeaways:

• Grief at Every Threshold: Why we must acknowledge the loss inherent in every life change, not just death.
• Empathy vs. Sympathy: How performative platitudes create walls, while true empathy "feels with" others.
• Challenging the Burden Story: Strategies to stop protecting others from your pain and start asking for what you truly need.

Whether you’re looking for a personal growth podcast to help you navigate a career transition or a self-development podcast to deepen your relationships, this episode will help you restore your language of connection.

Connect with DimpleGet Dimple's books

Get the 'Love in Action' empathy cards

Connect with host, Rita Ernst

Stop predicting what will make you happy and start reflecting instead.

Grab the episode companion activation guide with prompts from Suneet Bhatt.

Most of us treat happiness as a future destination—a prediction or a projection of "I’ll be happy when..."—but our guest, Suneet Bhatt, argues that we have it completely backward.

In this episode of our mindset podcast, Suneet, a Rutgers University professor and author, reveals why humans are terrible at predicting what will make them happy and how to stop the cycle of professional dissatisfaction.

This isn't just another self-improvement podcast episode; it’s a masterclass in personal transformation. Suneet breaks down the biological "negativity bias" that stacks the deck against our joy and explains how to use his "Happy Proud, Not Yet Satisfied" framework to rewire your brain for momentum.

Whether you're feeling "time-starved" or stuck on a professional plateau, you’ll learn why happiness is actually the precursor to success and the foundation of sustainable resilience.

Key Takeaways:

• Why happiness starts as a reflection of the past, not a projection of the future.
• How to combat the negativity bias that makes negative experiences feel five times stronger than positive ones.
• The three most powerful tools for resilience: community, religion, and the "strongest arrow," self-forgiveness.
• Strategies for "micro-yeses" and optimizing for the starting line rather than the finish line.

Take this deep dive into personal growth and learn to "choose not chase" your way to a more purposeful life. Then share the episode with a friend.

Connect with Suneet Bhatt : makingsenseofpurpose.com

A gift from Suneet: Find Your Best Way ForwardConnect with your host, Rita Ernst

Is it time to commit "professional suicide"?

If you’ve ever felt like your career identity is a noose instead of a safety net, this episode is your wake-up call.

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Host Rita Ernst sits down with Tiffany Ramos-Cardwell, an HR powerhouse with over 30 years of experience, to discuss the terrifying and transformative shift from the corporate "grind" to a life of intentionality.

Triggered by her father’s health crisis and eventual passing, she had to confront the internal critic that insisted backing off professionally to make space to be his caregiver was career suicide. Instead, she discovered the power of The Harvest—learning to stop generating endless energy and start plucking the fruit from the roots she had nourished for decades.

Key Takeaways include:

• The Apple Tree Analogy: Why you don't need to work as hard today as you did 20 years ago to see results.
• Relationship Capital: Using your Emotional Bank Account as a "rainy day fund" during life’s storms.
• The "Messy Middle": How to find peace when everything feels like it’s blowing up.
• Redefining Success: Why you don't need a flashy website or a big title to be impactful.

This isn't just another self-improvement podcast; it’s a masterclass in mindset for professional women who are ready to trade hyper-responsiveness for true presence. Join us for this strategic permission to reclaim "professional suicide" and let go of what’s making you miserable.

Connect with Tiffany

Connect with host, Rita Ernst

Are you standing in your own way, or are you ready to finally bet on yourself?

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In this powerful episode of The Story I’m Telling Myself, we sit down with Ann Njoroge, a Nairobi-based creative who made the radical leap from the "safe" world of accounting to the freedom of podcast and social media management.

If you’ve been searching for a mindset podcast that cuts through the fluff, this conversation is your wake-up call. Ann shares the raw, unpolished reality of her personal transformation, including the "rock bottom" moments that required her to move back home and delete her "Plan B" entirely to make her dream a reality.

This isn't just another self-help podcast; it’s a masterclass in personal growth for any professional woman feeling trapped by a "logical" career path. Ann and host Rita discuss the 5-Year Lifestyle Framework—the essential practice of choosing a career based on the life you want to live in five years, rather than just the paycheck you need today.

Key Takeaways:

• Why your first career doesn’t have to be your forever career.
• How to drown out external noise and stop comparing your timeline to others.
• The Peter Block philosophy: Why choosing safety means giving up your power.
• Navigating the financial and emotional "runway" of entrepreneurship.

Subscribe to this self-development podcast today for your weekly dose of positivity and the courage to rewrite your own story. It’s time for your ultimate personal development breakthrough.

Connect with Ann

Connect with host, Rita Ernst

Are you the architect of your own unwellness?.

Grab the episode companion self-reflection guide here.

Many high-achieving women are trapped in a cycle of "Human Doing" rather than "Human Being," believing their worth is strictly tied to their productivity. In this personal growth episode of our podcast, we sit down with Monique Helstrom, former Chief of Staff to the legendary Simon Sinek, to discuss the dangerous breaking point of perfectionism.

Monique shares the pivotal moment she found herself in an emergency room at age 36, facing a potential heart attack while still frantically checking work emails. This conversation is a deep dive into the Unreliable Narrator's internal shame story that tells us mistakes are fatal and vulnerability is weakness.

As a premier mindset podcast, you'll learn Monique's Roadmap for:

• Transitioning from a "Human Doing" to a "Human Being."
• Dismantling the "shame backpack" of perfectionism through radical accountability.
• Using "Aversion Therapy" to kill shame by owning mistakes out loud.
• Navigating Courageous Conversations to turn invisible expectations into respected boundaries.

It’s time to stop performing and start being. Grab your permission slip to find your joy again.

Connect with Monique Hellstrom

Access her On-Demand AI Course for Executive Assistants

Connect with your host, Rita Ernst

Is your career success outrunning your own biography?

Grab your complimentary episode self-reflection guide here

If you’ve ever found yourself sitting in a high-level meeting—maybe you have the degree, the signing authority, and the title—yet you feel like the outsider who doesn't belong, this episode of The Story I’m Telling Myself is for you.

In this powerful installment of our mindset podcast, host Rita Ernst sits down with global technology executive and career advisor Mike Dwyer. Mike opens up about his journey from the "triple-deckers" of Somerville to the elite yacht clubs of Bermuda, revealing the profound discomfort of having his professional progress outpace his personal history.

This isn’t just another self-help podcast; it’s a masterclass in personal transformation. Mike shares his "Daily Fear Challenge"—the practice of doing the one thing you are most afraid of first every morning—and explains how to build a "Personal Board of Directors" to provide the feedback and judgment you need to stay unstuck.

Stop letting your internal narrator keep you in a lane that is too small for your potential. Join us for this deep dive into self-improvement and self-development.

Listen now and subscribe to the mindset podcast that helps you change the story you’re telling yourself.

Connect with Mike Dwyer

Connect with your host, Rita Ernst