292: Leading Without Losing Yourself: One Working Mom’s Story

In this episode of Life of And, Tiffany sits down with Rachel Downey, founder & CEO of Share Your Genius, to unpack a year of deep personal work that changed how she leads. Rachel shares the mantra that anchored her: “If I take care of myself, the business will take care of itself,” and how trading survival mode for stewardship reshaped her decisions, calendar, and confidence.

From learning to linger in hard things to setting bigger, simpler goals, Rachel explains why trusting her instincts, deciding faster, and paying for expertise helped turn anxiety into momentum. She also gets practical about morning routines, cutting distractions, and the role of faith in separating identity from outcomes, so the business can grow without consuming the person running it.

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What You’ll Learn:

• How self-care, faith, and identity work can unlock clearer, faster leadership decisions
• Why “simple over everything” and hiring for gaps create scalable growth
• How to balance seasons of triage with the discipline required to dream again

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(00:42) Meet Rachel and Share Your Genius

(01:50) 2024: fatigue and reality checks

(04:39) 2025 plan: simple, bigger bets

(07:12) Trusting instincts as a leadership skill

(11:12) Self-care as an operating system

(18:15) Books that replaced numbing with nourishment

(19:36) Pruning commitments and reframing worthiness

(26:43) Discipline that makes space to dream

(31:15) The case for a real podcast strategy

For more from Rachel, check out these links:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachelelstsdowney/
• Share Your Genius: https://www.shareyourgenius.com

Check out the sponsor of this episode:

Created in partnership with Share Your Genius

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