We Can Do It Women

She dreamed the accelerator stuck on a dusty West Texas road — no brakes, no key in the ignition. Then she looked down and the key was in her own hand. Gloria Feldt turned that dream into a life's work: the key is always in our hands. We need the wisdom to see it and the courage to use it.

IN THIS EPISODE:

• Why women over 60 are the most untapped leadership resource in the world
• "Confidence is overrated" — why waiting until you feel ready is the mistake
• Why Gloria refuses to use the word "empower"
• Use What You've Got: the first of her 9 Leadership Power Tools
• How to close your own pay gap — research your worth, then ask
• Women earn 57% of college degrees; companies with more women leaders are ~15% more profitable
• Her two-word mantra for reinvention: just say yes

EPISODE SUMMARY:
Gloria Feldt has spent decades studying why women still hold a fraction of leadership positions — and her conclusion will free you. It isn't only the bias out there; it's what implicit bias does to our heads. We value ourselves less, ask for less, and wait to be tapped on the shoulder. Her work is about ending the wait.

Drop the word "empower," she says — nobody needs to fill you up, because you already have power: your education, skills, relationships, money, plan. Shift from "power over" to "power to." And don't wait for confidence; overconfidence only stops you from learning.

Her own story proves it. A teen mom in West Texas with three children, she rose to lead Planned Parenthood Federation of America, then left after 30 years — in her early sixties — to chase her childhood dream of writing. The books became a curriculum, the curriculum became Take The Lead, and Take The Lead became a movement, with online courses and "50 Women Can Change the World" cohorts where every woman builds a plan to rise and a plan to bring the next woman up with her.

There will always be a disruption, Gloria says. Take its energy and build something new. Keep moving. Keep learning. Just say yes.

ABOUT GLORIA:
Gloria Feldt is an acclaimed expert on women, power, and leadership; bestselling author of five books including Intentioning; co-founder and president of Take The Lead; and former president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. She taught "Women, Power and Leadership" at Arizona State University for a decade.

CONNECT: https://www.taketheleadwomen.com/
COMMUNITY: WeCanDoItWomen.com

If this episode put the key back in your hand, say yes to one thing this week — then join us at WeCanDoItWomen.com. A 5-star Apple Podcasts review takes under a minute and helps more women find this show.

A man told her to shut up while she was speaking. So Heather Booth finished her point, tapped every woman in the room on the shoulder, walked them upstairs — and founded the first campus women's organization in America. That was 1965. She has spent sixty years since proving one idea: when we organize with love at the center, we change this world.

IN THIS EPISODE:

• Freedom Summer 1964 at age 19 — and the Voting Rights Act that followed within a year
• The full story of Jane, the underground network whose women performed 11,000 abortions before Roe
• The "significant response" study proving professors engaged men's comments four times more than women's — and the bookend technique women still need
• How a wrongful firing became the Midwest Academy, which has trained generations of organizers
• Two housewives who noticed green meat at the supermarket and won food expiration dating for the country — one is now in Congress
• Heather's first steps for any woman who says "I'm not political"

EPISODE SUMMARY:Heather Booth acted in spite of insecurity, not because of confidence. Her answer to "am I enough?" became her life's work: we are enough, and we are the leaders we've been waiting for.

At 19 she joined Freedom Summer in Mississippi. At 20, helping a friend's pregnant sister grew into Jane — at a time when three people discussing abortion in Chicago was conspiracy to commit a felony. Fired for helping a single mother question a pay cut, she won at the National Labor Relations Board and used the settlement to found the Midwest Academy.

The smallest lessons may stay longest: women agreeing to "bookend" each other's comments so no voice could be erased — something Debra experienced herself as the only woman among partners at a billion-dollar firm. And Alice Palmer's warning, for every woman who says "I'm not political": if you don't do politics, politics does you. Find the issue you care about. Find the people already working on it. Join them.

ABOUT HEATHER:Heather Booth has been one of the nation's leading progressive strategists for six decades — founder of Jane and the Midwest Academy, director of the NAACP National Voter Fund (raising African American turnout by nearly 2 million voters), and a leader of national campaigns on immigration, financial reform, marriage equality, and Social Security.

CONNECT: https://midwestacademy.com/
COMMUNITY: WeCanDoItWomen.com

If this episode lit something in you, take one step this week — then join us at WeCanDoItWomen.com. A 5-star Apple Podcasts review takes under a minute and helps more women find this show.

On January 7, 2005, Anita Cragen came off a life support machine after ten days when no one knew whether she would live or die. Twenty years later, she is twenty years sober and one of the most respected addiction specialists in the world — helping thousands of women get clean, stay sober, and repair the relationships addiction shattered.

IN THIS EPISODE:

• From running a Spanish real estate firm to 20 years sober and senior addiction specialist at Phoenix Programs, Spain's oldest treatment center
• Why Anita didn't drink until 36 — and the loss of both parents within six weeks that pushed her over the edge
• The wedding her daughter wouldn't let her attend at ten months sober — and how they became best friends
• The "resentment rucksack" ritual: carrying written resentments down the beach and hurling them into the sea
• Why 100 days is what the mind needs to change
• Why empty-nest isolation is a breeding ground for addiction in women over 50
• The elevator metaphor: addiction only goes down — but you choose which floor to get off

EPISODE SUMMARY:

Anita had the big house, the cars, and a thriving business on the Costa del Sol. What no one saw was a woman who started drinking at 36 after losing both parents within six weeks — and couldn't stop. She promised her three children, over and over, that she'd never pick up another drink. Every time, she did. At her lowest, she tried to end her life and spent ten days on life support.

That was 2005. She hasn't had a drink since. The man who told her "I have a solution" — Chris Spencer, ten years clean when they met — became her husband and program director at Phoenix Programs in Marbella, where Anita now serves as senior addiction specialist.

What they build there is a re-education of mind, body, and spirit: nutrition, daily lectures, the 12 steps, and rituals like the resentment rucksack. Anita teaches that addiction is a disease — an allergy, not a moral failing. And she speaks directly to women home alone after the kids leave, drinking quietly: isolation is the disease's favorite room. Connection is the way out.

ABOUT ANITA:

Anita Cragen, ICADC, is an internationally qualified addiction therapist with 20+ years of experience, certified in Recovery Dynamics, specializing in women, young moms, and their children. She has worked with clients across Dubai, Saudi Arabia, and Europe.

CONNECT: https://www.phoenixprogrammes.com/

COMMUNITY: WeCanDoItWomen.com/groups

If this episode stirred something in you, please seek help — you can't do this alone, and you don't have to. Then join us at WeCanDoItWomen.com. A 5-star Apple Podcasts review takes under a minute and helps more women find this show.

She was at a book signing when a well-dressed woman hung back until everyone had gone. Then she leaned in and whispered: I can't afford to buy your book. I've worked all my life. And I'm terrified I'm going to end up homeless. Jane Caro heard that story again and again on tour — from teachers, nurses, managers, women who had done everything right. It became the rawest material in her research on women over 55, and it is the reason this conversation exists.

In This Episode:

• Why women born in the 1950s and 60s are the first generation in history to earn their own money as a whole cohort — and why almost no one has noticed or celebrated it
• The devastating paradox: Australia's fastest-growing homeless group is women over 55, and the face of poverty is increasingly single women over 60 and 70
• The "deal with the devil" — why women traded income for flexibility, and what that bargain ultimately cost them
• Jane's single most important financial instruction for every woman: own your own roof
• The Teal movement — how ordinary women in teal t-shirts knocked on doors, held kitchen-table meetings, and elected 11 independent candidates to the Australian parliament
• Why Jane believes "if you don't do politics, politics will do you" — and how women's anger translated into electoral power
• Coercive control in intimate relationships — and Jane's argument that it mirrors the tactics of totalitarian political leaders
• Why power is not a dirty word: power just means the ability to take action
• What women over 60 have that younger women do not: the freedom to stop caring what anyone thinks
• Jane's call to action for women worldwide: write the op-ed, find your passion, sit at the kitchen table, run for local council

About Jane Caro

Jane Caro AM is a Walkley Award-winning author, columnist, novelist, feminist, public education activist and social commentator based in Sydney, Australia. She has published 13 books, including Accidental Feminists — her landmark examination of women over 55 — and her 2024 bestselling novel The Mother, about coercive control. A former multi-award-winning advertising copywriter and academic, she writes for Nine Media, The Saturday Paper, and The Monthly, appears regularly on ABC's The Gruen and the Today shows, and speaks to audiences across Australia on feminism, power, and democracy. She has 190,000+ followers on social media, and she is a beef producer and timber grower.

Connect with Jane Caro

• Books: Accidental Feminists, The Mother (2024), Lyrebird (April 2025) — available at all major booksellers

Resources

• WeCanDoItWomen.com — join Debra's community

She lost 60 pounds in eight months — and has kept every pound off for seven years. But that's not the transformation that matters most in this story. The real shift began when Mugs Haugen's best friend and oldest sister, Kathy, died of metastatic breast cancer. Standing beside Kathy as her nurse, her sister, and her closest confidante, Mugs looked at her own life and asked: How do I want to live the years I have left? Everything that followed began with that question.

In This Episode:

• Mugs' lifelong caregiving journey: from helping elderly relatives at age 9, to nursing her dying father at 22, to caring for her best friend and sister through cancer
• How 11 years in the emergency department quietly eroded her health, her weight, and her sense of self
• The seminal moment after Kathy's death that became the catalyst for a full life transformation
• How Mugs lost 60 pounds in 8 months — and ended decades of yo-yo dieting — by changing her identity, not just her habits
• The ANCHOR framework at the heart of her coaching: Awareness, Nourishment, Compassion, Happiness, Opened Heart, and Responsibility
• Why true self-care is not a bubble bath — and what it actually requires
• The counterintuitive truth about compassion fatigue: compassion isn't what causes burnout — it's what prevents it
• Why Mugs named her practice Anchored Heart Coaching after her sister Kathy, the family's anchor
• Client wins: a retired nurse pursuing visual arts, a housewife who discovered her own dreams for the first time
• Her vision: bringing burnout prevention to nurses on-site, in hospitals, and eventually at live retreats

About Mugs Haugen

Mugs Haugen is a registered nurse with over 25 years of experience and the founder of Anchored Heart Coaching. After her own health transformation — losing 60 pounds and ending a lifetime of yo-yo dieting — and a profound loss that reoriented her entire life, Mugs became a life coach specializing in burnout prevention and recovery for nurses, caregivers, and women who have spent a lifetime putting others first. Her webinar, "Bust Through Burnout by Understanding the Meaning of True Self-Care," brings her ANCHOR framework to nurses seeking balance, resilience, and joy.

Connect with Mugs Haugen

• Website: anchoredheartcoaching.com

Resources

• WeCanDoItWomen.com — join Debra's community

If you are a nurse, a caregiver, or a woman who has been putting everyone else first for so long you've forgotten what it feels like to put yourself first — Mugs is the real thing. Visit anchoredheartcoaching.com and take the first step. And a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts takes 60 seconds and helps more women find this show. Thank you for being here.

She had a bald spot the size of her fist. Her body had been sending signals for months — and she kept flipping her hair to hide it. She had worked for the world's largest retailer, managed multimillion-dollar budgets, traveled to 40 countries before 40, and climbed every rung she had set out to climb. And then her body simply refused to get out of bed. Lynn Wong's burnout story is not a cautionary tale. It is the origin story of one of the most compelling coaches working with high achievers today.

In This Episode:

• Lynn's journey from Singapore to Atlanta — how a girl who majored in "people watching" (sociology) ended up running global teams for Fortune 1 companies
• Why Lynn noticed she had benefited almost entirely from male mentors — and what she decided to do about it
• The burnout that stopped her cold: alopecia, 12 steroid injections, and the day her body refused to get out of bed
• The three things she committed to during her sabbatical — and why she refused to add a fourth
• The REST framework: the four-step acronym Lynn uses to help high achievers recover without losing themselves
• The moment during her sabbatical when she said for the first time: "I think I'm going to become a coach"
• What CliftonStrengths coaching actually is and why Lynn got her certification as a birthday gift to herself at 40
• The Canadian tech founder who sold her company, lost her identity, and came back to salsa dancing and community
• The warning signs of burnout that high achievers routinely dismiss — and why Lynn knows exactly what they look like
• What it means to be "the one you've been waiting for"

About Lynn Wong

Lynn Wong is an executive and life coach, founder of LW Coaches, and National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach. A Singapore-born corporate leader who spent two decades managing global teams across Fortune 1 companies, Lynn knows the cost of high achievement firsthand — she burned out, recovered, and rebuilt her life around helping others do the same without paying that price. She specializes in high achievers who are burning out or breaking through, and works at the intersection of coaching, neuroscience, and yoga.

Connect with Lynn Wong

• Website: lwcoaches.com (free starter kit and burnout assessment available)

Resources

• WeCanDoItWomen.com — join Debra's community

She passed out at the podium on her very first public speaking assignment. By the time she graduated college, she had won a national speaking competition and spoken to stadiums of 10,000 people. That trajectory — from clinically diagnosed shy child with a debilitating stutter to global leadership CEO — is not just Linda Fisk's backstory. It is the exact philosophy she has built an entire movement on: grit and grace, in equal measure.

In This Episode:

• The childhood diagnosis that changed everything: clinical shyness that manifested as a severe stutter in every classroom and social setting
• How Linda went from passing out at a podium in college to winning national public speaking competitions — and what that journey required
• The concept of "grit and grace" and why both are essential to any woman pursuing her next chapter
• What LeadHERship Global is — and why it attracts everyone from solopreneur coaches to leaders of billion-dollar corporations
• The "multiplier effect" of transformative partnership — why one plus one doesn't equal two
• Real results inside the community: businesses doubled and tripled, nonprofits fully funded, women stepping onto TEDx stages and into paid board seats
• Why radical responsibility and radical candor are the twin pillars of every real breakthrough
• The "say-do ratio" — and why it is the only currency that builds lasting trust
• Why women wait for "perfect" before taking the next step — and what Linda says to every woman who is hanging back

About Linda Fisk

Linda Fisk is the CEO and founder of LeadHERship Global, a worldwide leadership community for women that provides access to funding, media, speaking, and partnership opportunities across every industry and geography. After overcoming clinical shyness and a severe stutter — and going on to win national public speaking competitions — Linda built her career in the C-suite of some of the world's most prestigious membership organizations before founding LeadHERship Global on the principle that women rise fastest together.

Connect with Linda Fisk

• Website: leadhershipglobal.com
• Email: [email protected]

Resources

• Join Debra's community - WeCanDoItWomen.com

Follow for new episodes weekly.

Dotty Scott built her business the same way she learned to run a farm as a child — through discipline, consistency, and showing up even when it was uncomfortable. As a committed introvert, she knows firsthand how paralyzing the online world can feel. So when she launched her web design and digital strategy business, she made herself a promise: one video per week for one year, no matter what. She kept that promise for two years. The result? Strangers at networking events started approaching her as if they already knew her — because they did. They had watched her videos. The introvert who used to stand against the wall at chamber meetings suddenly had people walking across the room to start conversations.

That experience shaped how Dotty coaches her own clients. She teaches business owners to repurpose everything — turning one piece of content into multiple formats across multiple platforms, testing what gets traction, and leaning into what works. Her advice for time-strapped solopreneurs: stop trying to be everywhere. Figure out where your audience actually is, then show up there consistently. And always start by Googling yourself. Most people are shocked — either by what appears, or by what doesn't. Then Google your top competitor and look at every directory, listing, and platform where they appear that you don't. That gap is your to-do list.

On reviews, Dotty is refreshingly counterintuitive. A perfect 5.0 rating is a red flag to savvy consumers — it signals manipulation. A 4.5 tells the truth: this person deals with real clients, and when something goes wrong, they respond with integrity. Her advice is to claim your Google Business Profile (it's free and always has been), welcome the occasional imperfect review, and use your response to that review to demonstrate exactly how you handle adversity. That response is often the deciding factor for a potential new client.

As for AI, Dotty's message is simple: it's not coming for your job. It's coming to give you your Fridays back. She tests tools so her clients don't have to, filtering out the junk and sharing only what genuinely moves the needle. The result? She now takes every Friday and Monday off during Washington summers, running her entire business in three days a week — and her clients are experiencing similarly expanded freedom.

About Dotty Scott

Dotty Scott is the founder of Premium Websites and a 20-year veteran of digital strategy for solopreneurs and small business owners. An introvert who built a thriving business in male-dominated industries, Dotty specializes in taking clients from invisible to invincible online — through websites, video, SEO, content repurposing, and curated AI tools. She is a teacher at heart who has been where her clients are, and that shared experience is exactly why they stay.

Connect with Dotty Scott

• Website: premiumwebsites.net (schedule a Zoom call directly from the site)

Resources

• WeCanDoItWomen.com — join the community

If Dotty's story gave you one thing you're going to do differently this week — even just Googling your own name — then share this episode with a woman in business who needs to hear it. And a quick 5-star review on Apple Podcasts goes a long way toward helping more women find this show. We're grateful you're here.

She landed at JFK from Lithuania with $100 in her pocket and couldn't understand "window 30" — because she'd learned British English, not American. She didn't know what a checking account was. Had never seen a credit card. What Asta Sanders built from that starting point will change how you think about your own financial future.

In This Episode:

• How Asta went from selling Kirby vacuums to becoming a CFP®, Enrolled Agent & Certified Private Wealth Advisor
• The moment she looked her bank manager in the eye during the 2008 crisis and asked: "If that was your mother, would you sell her that annuity?"
• Why taxes and investments must be planned together — and what it costs you when they aren't
• Case Study 1: How a retiree was saved from paying ordinary income tax on $1M of company stock
• Case Study 2: How a $300,000 tax bill became $104,000 through year-end planning
• The difference between a fee-only fiduciary and a commission-based broker
• What multi-generational wealth planning actually looks like in practice

Episode Summary

Asta Sanders didn't grow up knowing the language of American finance — literally or figuratively. In Lithuania, there were no checking accounts, no credit cards, no allowances. If you wanted money as a child, you picked berries and sold them at the market. That entrepreneurial spirit carried her through a career that began selling Kirby vacuums door to door (where she first heard the name Warren Buffett), through Merrill Lynch, through a regional bank during the 2008 financial crisis, and finally into the fee-only fiduciary world she now calls home.

The 2008 moment is worth pausing on. Her manager pressured her to sell high-commission annuities regardless of client suitability. She looked at him and asked: "If that was your mother sitting in front of me, would you want me to sell her that annuity?" He didn't answer. She had hers.

Today Asta holds three designations — CFP®, Enrolled Agent, and Certified Private Wealth Advisor (taught by Yale School of Management, requiring five years of high-net-worth experience to even qualify). That combination lets her do what most advisors can't: plan taxes and investments together before December 31st, not after April 15th. The results speak for themselves. One Occidental Petroleum retiree was about to roll $1M in company stock into an IRA and trigger ordinary income tax on the entire gain. Asta used a Net Unrealized Appreciation strategy instead — taxing only the $150K basis, preserving the growth at capital gains rates, and ensuring his children inherit the remainder at zero tax cost. In another case, a high-earning W2 client went from owing $300,000 to $104,000. The $196,000 difference? Year-end planning that most CPAs never do.

About Asta Sanders

Asta Sanders, CFP®, EA, CPWA, is the founder of Empowered Retirement. A Lithuanian immigrant who built her expertise from the ground up, she specializes in tax-integrated financial planning, multi-generational wealth, and retirement planning for women. She still answers her own phone.

Connect with Asta Sanders

• Website: empoweredretirement.com
• Phone: 973-709-2244

Resources

• WeCanDoItWomen.com/group — join the community

One ask: If this episode opened your eyes to something your own advisor may be missing, share it with a woman who needs to hear it — and leave us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts. It takes 60 seconds and helps more women find this show.

Women over 50, financial reinvention, and the revolution Debra Morrison is leading — that's what this first episode is all about.

Debra L. Morrison, CFP®, TEDx speaker, and founder of We Can Do It Women sits down with Zondra Evans to tell her story — from a beef cattle farm and a trembling grandfather's stock shares, to leading an insurance agency at 21, earning her CFP® in 18 months, and ultimately building a movement for seasoned women ready to reclaim their power.

In this episode:

• What We Can Do It Women is and why Debra calls it a revolution
• Holistic wealth — health, relationships, and purpose beyond money
• Return on Life (ROL) vs. Return on Investment
• Investment clubs and travel expeditions for women 50+
• How to stop fear from standing between you and your next chapter

Episode Summary

Debra Morrison didn't set out to build a movement. She set out to understand money. Growing up on a humble beef cattle farm, she watched her grandfather — hands trembling — hand her shares of stock. At eight years old, her aunt took her to the New York Stock Exchange, and something lit up inside her that never went out. That spark became a 47-year career as a Certified Financial Planner, a master's degree in retirement planning, and a life spent sitting across the table from women navigating some of their most financially vulnerable moments.

But somewhere along the way, Debra noticed something that no spreadsheet could capture. Women weren't just lacking financial knowledge — they were lacking belief in themselves. Husbands would pull her aside in hallways and whisper: "Please get her involved in money." Clients with portfolios full of assets couldn't answer the question: "What do you actually want?" The hope had been tamped out of them. And Debra decided that was unacceptable.

We Can Do It Women was born from that recognition. Debra describes it not as a company, but as a revolution — specifically for women she calls "seasoned women," those 60 and wiser who carry decades of lived experience, wisdom, and untapped potential. The mission is to ignite the fire in their bellies. To help women step outside the roles they've played — wife, mother, caregiver, professional — and ask the question many have never dared to: Who am I, really? What Debra has discovered is that when seasoned women gather in community, something explosive happens. The synergy is, as she puts it, "intoxicating."

The vision is sweeping. Investment clubs where women put their money where their values are. Travel expeditions to Machu Picchu and beyond. Writing workshops. Journaling. A community that gives women with less confidence more confidence — and women with more confidence more knowledge. And threaded through all of it, a reframing of wealth itself: not just greenbacks, but health, relationships, spirituality, mental wellbeing, and purpose. Debra's term for the ultimate goal? Return on Life — ROL. Because as she says with characteristic directness: life is not a dress rehearsal.

Connect with Debra Morrison

• Website: WeCanDoItWomen.com
• Facebook Community: WeCanDoItWomen.com/Group
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/debralmorrison
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/debralmorrison
• Tiktok: www.tiktok.com/@wecandoitwomen
• YouTube: www.youtube.com/@DebraLMorrison

Connect with Zondra Evans / Zondra TV

• Zondra TV — where this episode was originally filmed

Join the Revolution

If this episode stirred something in you — a spark of recognition, a whisper of that's me — don't let it sit. Go to WeCanDoItWomen.com and join the community. This is a free, safe space filled with women who have asked the same questions you're asking and found that on the other side of those questions is something extraordinary. And if you loved this episode, please take 60 seconds to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps more seasoned women find this show — and every woman who finds it is one more woman who stops believing her best years are behind her.

Follow the show for new episodes every week.