The Way She Leads

This week on The Way She Leads, Megan sits down with Molly Di Carlo, a longtime colleague, marketing and communications leader, and one of the most genuinely joyful, high-output professionals Megan has ever worked with. Molly has built a career on moving fast, delivering quality, and making it look easy. And in this conversation, she pulls back the curtain on what that actually requires.

For the high-achieving woman who has been praised her whole career for being quick, responsive, and "on it,” this episode is a permission slip. Molly shares the slow, deliberate work she's been doing to question the urgency, build her own definition of self-care, and lead from a more rested, grounded place without losing the edge that got her here.

This is a conversation about pace, presence, and the practices that make sustainable leadership possible.

• Why being fast at work can become a trap, and what shifts when you start asking "does this actually need a response right now?"
• How operating under constant deadline pressure trains a nervous system response that follows you home
• Why self-care is not optional for high-performing women 
• How to build evening routines that protect your sleep, your mornings, and your capacity to lead the next day
• Why asking for help is harder for women who were told they could "do it all" 
• The vulnerability paradox: how showing up as a full person creates the strongest professional relationships
• The small daily moments of space that compound into sustainable performance

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DESCRIPTION

In this episode of The Way She Leads, Megan sits down with Human Design coach, Veronica Mezzetti Draia, to unpack why so many high-achieving women feel burned out, overstretched, and disconnected from themselves.

In this rich conversation you will learn how Human Design can help women stop pushing and proving, and instead build lives, businesses, and leadership styles that actually honor their energy.

This conversation is deeply validating for women who have spent years over-functioning, over-giving, people pleasing, and trying to succeed inside systems that were never designed for how they naturally operate.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Why so many high-achieving women feel exhausted trying to succeed inside systems that were never designed for them
• The difference between Generators, Manifestors, Projectors, Reflectors, and Manifesting Generators in Human Design
• How overworking becomes an identity, especially for women who feel the need to prove themselves
• The concept of “waiting for the invitation” and why forcing opportunities often creates resistance
• How Human Design can help you stop outsourcing your decision-making power
• Why boundaries are one of the deepest forms of self-worth

Founder, Aligned Projectors and Human Design Coach

YouTube | Instagram | LinkedIn | WebCurrently Reading:

We Who Will Die | Stacia Stark

The Wolf King and The Night Prince | Lauren Palphreyman 

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On this episode of The Way She Leads, Megan sits down with executive coach and former professional opera singer, Elena Armijo, for a deeply human conversation about leadership, honesty, and the future of organizational culture.

They discuss the tension many leaders are feeling right now between results and humanity, why burnout is often a symptom of systems that no longer work, and how the most impactful organizations are beginning to operationalize values through behaviors, trust, and honest conversations.

• Why burnout is often a symptom of leadership systems that are no longer sustainable
• How women can create more impact without constantly doing more
• The power of seasons of life and choosing intentionally instead of operating from guilt
• Why trust and healthy conflict are essential for high-performing leadership teams

About Elena Armijo

Master Certified Coach, Founder & CEO | Coaching with Elena & The C-Suite Collective®

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Current Reads:

Strong Ground | Brené Brown

Systemic Coaching | Peter Hawkins and Eve Turner

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In this first solo episode of The Way She Leads, Megan Akatu explores the growing sense of uncertainty many high-achieving professionals are feeling at work.

From annual reviews to difficult meetings, layoffs, organizational change, and the constant pressure to prove ourselves, Megan breaks down why so many people are experiencing heightened threat responses in professional settings. 

This episode is a compassionate and practical conversation about how to stop outsourcing safety to organizations, titles, recognition, or external validation and begin cultivating resilience, regulation, and grounded confidence from within.

• Why workplace feedback and uncertainty can trigger a full nervous system threat response
• Why overworking and “proving yourself” often increases burnout instead of safety
• The difference between physical danger and emotional discomfort
• How to build resilience through small daily practices Megan’s simple framework: Regulate → Reframe → Respond

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What if the same drive that made you successful… is quietly working against you in love?

In this episode, I sit down with Francesca Zoia, relationship coach and someone who deeply understands the inner world of high-achieving women navigating love. Together, we explore the hidden patterns that show up when ambitious, capable women bring their “make it happen” energy into relationships, and why that approach can leave them feeling exhausted, resentful, and disconnected.

Francesca shares her own journey of questioning whether to stay or leave a long-term relationship, and how that experience shaped her work helping women move out of confusion and into clarity. We talk about over-functioning, self-abandonment, and the subtle ways women often unintentionally give more than they receive.

You don’t have to choose between success and love. You just need a new way of showing up to both.

• High-achieving women often over-function in relationships, creating imbalance and resentment. 
• Love is not a solo performance. Relationships require co-creation.
• The question isn’t, “Should I stay or leave?” It’s “What dynamics am I participating in, and what can I shift?” 
• Self-leadership is the foundation of healthy love.

Connect with Francesca

Love with Francesca podcast

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Currently Reading: Come As You Are | Emily Nagoski

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Megan sits down with Veronica Bellamy Leak, Director of Human Resources with over 20 years of experience to  explore how leadership has evolved and what it truly means to lead humans, not just manage performance.

Veronica shares powerful insights on “heart posture,” navigating generational differences at work, and why today’s most effective leaders are those who embrace empathy, curiosity, and self-awareness. 

• Leadership has shifted from task-focused to human-centered, people now bring their full lives into work, and great leaders know how to meet them there
• “Heart posture” matters, How you show up internally impacts how your team experiences you
• Generational differences at work often create tension, especially around boundaries, work ethic, and priorities
• Self-awareness is foundational. Leaders who are honest about their mistakes create trust and psychological safety
• Living “in the gray” allows leaders to respond to real people and situations, rather than rigid policies
• Removing your own emotional reactivity (while keeping empathy) helps you lead more effectively

• Podcast: Therapy for Black Girls by Joy Harden Bradford
• Book:The Light We Carry by Michelle Obama

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In this conversation, Megan sits down with executive coach and former Amazon leader Sarah Castle to unpack a subtle but powerful distinction: the difference between a choice and a decision.

Together, they explore why high-achieving women, who make decisions every day at work, can still feel stuck when it comes to their own lives. From risk tolerance to intuition, confidence to capacity, this episode offers a grounded and expansive look at what it really takes to move forward with clarity.

🔑 Key Takeaways

• The difference between a choice (direction) and a decision (commitment)
• Why women can be decisive at work, and hesitant in their own lives
• How perfectionism and risk-aversion quietly delay decision-making
• The concept of “one-way vs. two-way doors” (and how it changes everything)
• Why confidence comes from reps (not certainty)
• How unclear ownership and expectations slow down teams (and drain energy)
• The role of intuition + embodiment in making aligned decisions
• How to stop giving away your decision-making power

Sarah Castle is the founder of Castle Coaching and a former executive at Amazon and General Electric. She now works with CEOs and senior leadership teams, bringing coaching practices into strategic planning and leadership development.

Her work bridges high-performance business strategy with human-centered leadership, helping leaders grow companies while staying aligned with what matters most.

Resources

​​Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell 

Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall

Duke Women's Basketball head coach video on things don't get easier, we just get better

If you’ve ever been told to “just set better boundaries”…and then you totally chicken out, this episode is for you.

I’m joined by a boundary coach Janis Hillard, founder of Good Courage, and someone who brings both depth and honesty to a topic that we hear a lot about and don’t actually know how to do it.

We explore how high-achieving women unknowingly create burnout through people-pleasing patterns, why exhaustion is often your first signal that something is off, and how boundaries are less about saying “no” and more about how you lead yourself.

• Boundaries are not about other people, they are for YOU
• Exhaustion is a signal, not a badge of honor
• Self-awareness is the foundation of every boundary
• People-pleasing shows up everywhere
• Boundaries are a practice, not perfection
  

• Sky Full of Elephants by Cebo Campbell
• Binti, The Night Masquerade by Nnedi Okorafor

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#feminineleadership #leadyourselffirst #itsthelittlethings #womeninleadership #quietpower #feminineenergy #influence #thewaysheleads

Megan sits down with her business bestie, Laura Saldivar Luna, for a conversation that is equal parts soul and strategy. In this episode, Laura opens up about her own winding journey: becoming the first in her family to graduate college, rising to the C-suite, and then doing the harder work of learning to trust herself.

From self-leadership to best practices in how to lead people and organizations, Laura breaks down what the most successful leaders are doing in the face of uncertainty.

Grounding is a leadership skill. Re-centering yourself before you act is actually the fastest route.

The Monday ritual. A weekly structure doesn't have to be rigid to be powerful.

Dreaming out loud works. From her first day as an entrepreneur to her most ambitious career goals, Laura has told people what she was building before she knew how she'd build it.

A new leadership paradigm is here. The leaders navigating uncertainty best right now have three things: community, power practices, and a willingness to rest. Command-and-control is crumbling.

What we cover

• 06:31 Self-trust, self-worth, and power practice
• 19:24 The Monday morning ritual: how structure becomes sacred
• 22:39 Dreams, priorities, and the power of telling people what you want
• 35:21 The most powerful practice: looking in the mirror and being with the truth of what is
• 49:49 What today's most effective leaders have in common: community, power practices, and the radical act of rest

Laura Saldivar Luna

Founder, CEO Coach of Piñata Possible

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What Reading: Big Dumb Eyes | Nate Borgatze

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Welcome to The Way She Leads! Get to know me, Megan Akatu, more about my story and why this podcast was created.

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