Being opinionated as a woman gets treated like some kind of character flaw.

You get called “too much” or “intense” or “aggressive”. And then you start to change your language. You stop and edit a sentence halfway through it. You stop speaking up in rooms where you have something valuable to say.

But being opinionated is not the problem. The problem is what happens when you start editing yourself to keep other people comfortable.

In this episode of the Rise From Within podcast In this episode I’m talking about having strong opinions, why they’ve helped me lead and get things done, and why “tone it down” is not sensible, neutral advice. I'm getting into women speaking up at work, leadership vs likeability, and the cost of you not voicing your opinions.

Strong opinions have been useful in my life. They’re how I get things done in pool spaces. They’re how I push back on diet culture. They’re how I’ve built a business that attracts the right people instead of trying to be liked by everyone.

There are many people who benefit when women don’t speak up and voice their opinions, don’t take up space in leadership, and don’t trust their own judgement, so I'll give you some examples of that too.

If you’ve been trying to be more palatable or acceptable so you can be taken seriously, this episode will probably irritate you... but in a good way, so that begin to own your opinionatedness!

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A quick heads up - my transcriptions are automatically generated. For this reason there may be errors, incorrect words, bad spelling, bad grammar, and other things that just seem a little 'off'. You'll still be able to understand what is being said though, so please just ignore that and enjoy the episode.

Men comment on women's bodies. Their weight, their clothing, their appearance, their choices. They do it confidently, casually, and often without a second thought.

Where does that authority come from?

Not one of them has spent a single day living in a woman's body, navigating a world that judges bigger bodies and links body confidence to how seriously women in business are taken.

In this episode I'm pulling that apart.

What men actually comment on and why they feel entitled to do it.

What they genuinely don't know about what it costs a woman to get dressed, walk into a room, show up on camera, or charge what her work is worth.

And where those absorbed opinions end up living in our memories for the rest of time, consuming the capacity that should be going into your business, your visibility, your decisions, your presence.

Their opinion is never data. It is never feedback. It is never the truth about you.

It is just noise from the outside, delivered with confidence by people who have never once had to live here.

Your head is far too valuable a space to keep renting out to them.

Support the show

Get my emails
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🍰 Buy me a cake and support the show
☝️ If you love the show and want to support it, just click this link here.

A quick heads up - my transcriptions are automatically generated. For this reason there may be errors, incorrect words, bad spelling, bad grammar, and other things that just seem a little 'off'. You'll still be able to understand what is being said though, so please just ignore that and enjoy the episode.

In this episode of the Rise From Within podcast, I'm talking about something I've been experiencing recently — functional burnout. This is not the dramatic, can't-get-out-of-bed version most people picture. It’s the kind where you're still doing everything, still showing up, and still ticking the boxes, but something feels off and your body is telling you it's had enough.

I'm sharing what it actually looked like for me: the emotional strain, the snappiness, the tiredness, and the moment I realised I could see exactly where I was over committing but couldn't work out what to cut because I genuinely wanted to do all of it.

That's the tangle this episode is really about. What happens when the things draining you are things you love? How do you recognise burnout when your life is full of good stuff? And how do you make decisions about pulling back and cutting things out when stepping back feels like compromising and losing part of yourself?

I'm also sharing the signs that are easy to miss. There are plenty of indications that don't look like burnout on the surface but are definitely worth paying attention to.

And I'm talking about what changed for me when I finally made some decisions on what to let go of, and why a Tuesday night making pancakes with my family felt like the most significant thing I'd done in weeks.

If you're still functioning, still showing up, but running on fumes, this one's for you.

Support the show

Get my emails
Follow on Instagram
Connect with me on LinkedIn
Personal Coaching

🍰 Buy me a cake and support the show
☝️ If you love the show and want to support it, just click this link here.

A quick heads up - my transcriptions are automatically generated. For this reason there may be errors, incorrect words, bad spelling, bad grammar, and other things that just seem a little 'off'. You'll still be able to understand what is being said though, so please just ignore that and enjoy the episode.