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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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.

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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.

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.

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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.

Do you ever leave a networking event realising you know exactly what everyone else does… but hardly anyone could say the same about you?

You might have had good conversations. You might have felt comfortable, even enjoyed yourself, and yet nothing has come of it. No follow‑ups. No referrals. No real sense that being in that room made any difference to your business.

In this episode of Rise From Within, I’m talking about why that happens.

This isn’t about having a better pitch, being more confident, or forcing yourself to sound salesy. It’s about the very common ways women hold back at networking events without realising — asking questions instead of speaking about themselves, minimising what they do, or moving the focus away from their work and asking others about what they do instead.

I explore what’s actually going on underneath those behaviours, why networking confidence can feel harder the more experienced you become, and how being liked at networking doesn’t automatically lead to being remembered or referred.

In this episode, I cover:

• Why networking confidence often looks like being polite, asking lots of questions, and keeping the focus off yourself
• The difference between being socially present and being professionally present at networking events
• Why confidence at networking events can feel harder, not easier, as your business grows
• The cost of being liked at networking but not referred
• What it really means to own what you do without apology in business spaces

I also talk about the temptation to say “they weren’t my people anyway” and dismiss what's really happened, and why networking isn’t just about who buys from you now, but who might remember, recommend, or refer you later.

This episode is for you if you’re showing up to networking events, feel like you're doing all the right things, and still wondering why it’s not translating into opportunities and sales.

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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.

If you spend a lot of your day thinking about how you look, it is easy to assume that your body image and confidence will change depending on what you see in the mirror. What you often miss is how much of your life has nothing to do with your appearance at all.

Appearance anxiety can take over so quickly that you forget what your day actually involves. You forget the decisions you make, the people you support, the problems you solve and all the ways you show up without even thinking about it.

This week’s article walks you through what is really happening in your day and why your achievements will give you far better evidence of who you are than your appearance ever will.

When you take a step back and look at your day properly, you will realise how much you do that has nothing to do with your appearance, and it is such a relief when you see it clearly.

So this week I give you an honest look at why feeling confident in your body can be more to do with your actions than your looks, and how much your life already proves this.

In this episode I also mention Byron Katie's Four Liberating Questions. You can find more on that at https://thework.com/2017/10/four-liberating-questions/

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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.

Do you ever find yourself worrying that you said the wrong thing or caused a shift in a relationship? Asking yourself “was it something I said?” or “what did I do?”.

Many women slip into overthinking relationships because old patterns make them assume they are at fault. One small change in someone’s behaviour and you’re in self-blame before you can even pause to question it.

This article looks at why you react that way and what might really be happening beneath the surface. I’m talking about the link between old patterns, the inner critic and relationships, and the instinct to blame yourself.

You will see how much of this comes from conditioning rather than truth, and how freeing it can be to question those automatic thoughts.

If you want a calmer, kinder way to understand your relationships, take a moment to read this one.

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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.

You might not have noticed, but your confidence may have taken a hit because your health isn't what it used to be? Maybe your energy’s dipped, or your body just isn’t behaving the way it used to, and suddenly showing up in your business or life feels harder than it should.

That’s what this episode is about – the ways that feeling less well can start to shake your self-belief.

I wrote this episode based on my own feelings, but also for the woman who’s always been strong, capable, and “on it”, and now finds herself wondering why she doesn’t quite feel like that version of herself anymore. It’s a gentle reminder that you don’t have to be at your best to still be confident, and worthy, and successful.

💛 Come and have a listen. Let’s talk about what confidence really looks like when your body feels different, and how you can begin to trust yourself again.

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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.

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Have you ever noticed how your posture changes when you’re feeling confident… or when you’re not?

In this episode, I’m exploring the powerful link between posture and confidence — how the way you sit, stand, and move can reflect what’s really going on inside. Your body language tells a story about your self-belief, and understanding it can help you build calm, grounded, embodied confidence.

This isn’t about forcing yourself to stand up straight or fake confidence. It’s about learning to listen to your body and notice how posture changes when you feel safe, capable, or seen. When you’ve spent years trying to make yourself smaller, it’s easy to carry that story in your shoulders, your stance, even your breath.

We’ll talk about how posture affects confidence and self-esteem, what it means to take up space without apology, and why true confidence isn’t something you perform — it’s something you feel.

You’ll leave this episode with a deeper awareness of your mind-body connection and a new respect for how your body supports your confidence, presence, and power.

In this episode, we cover:

• The connection between posture and confidence
• How body language reflects self-esteem and self-trust
• Why we subconsciously shrink ourselves and how awareness begins change
• What embodied confidence really feels like
• The subtle shift that happens when you allow yourself to take up space

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🍰 Buy me a cake and support the show
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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.