The podcast for women managing the energy of careers, families, and the lives in between.
Hosted by Heather Chauvin. Conversations on energy management, leadership, parenting, and the inner work of carrying real responsibility with leaders, founders, mothers, and the experts who
help them sustain it.
Recent Episodes
1268: A Fed Soul Raises Motivated, Independent Adults
In this episode, Heather digs into the very uncomfortable reality that many women are overmothering, overnurturing, and overcompensating in ways that steal their children’s ability to become motivated and productive adults. This conversation dives into the delicate balance between nurturing and enabling, guiding and rescuing, and the courage it takes to hold your boundaries when every impulse tells you to step in. At its heart, this episode is about alignment, not as a nice idea, but as a daily practice of telling the truth, trusting yourself, and feeding your own soul so you can show up as a whole, inspired adult. Because when you stop overcompensating, overproducing, and overmothering, you create space for your children to develop the resilience, motivation, and independence they’re supposed to build for themselves.
1267: The Hidden Habits Disrupting Your Sleep and Hormones With Ciara Foy
In this episode, Heather and Ciara Foy unpack the physical, hormonal, and emotional shifts that leave so many middle-aged women anxious, burned out, unable to sleep, and disconnected from themselves and their lives. This conversation goes far beyond sleep hygiene and hormones, exploring the deeper patterns of self-sacrifice, stress, over-functioning, and depletion that determine women’s health. We talk about why sleep becomes more difficult during this stage of life, how cortisol, insulin resistance, and nervous system dysregulation work together, and the small but powerful changes that can radically improve your energy and mood. Most importantly, this episode is an invitation to stop abandoning yourself in the process of caring for everyone else and start recognizing that feeling good, rested, and supported is essential.
1266: Your Teen Is Not Being Difficult; They’re Being Honest
In this episode, Heather explores the friction that comes from holding responsibility for yourself and others while learning to stop controlling what was never yours to carry in the first place. This conversation moves through grief, fear, honesty, emotional regulation, and the uncomfortable but necessary work of recognizing where your children are reflecting back the very things you avoid within yourself. She talks about what it means to truly hold space for another human being without making their experience about your own discomfort, why presence matters more than performance or fixing, and how the relationships we build with our children are shaped in the smallest moments of connection and honesty. If you’ve been navigating change, questioning old ways of parenting or leading, or realizing that your (and your child’s) emotional reactions are asking something deeper of you, this episode is an invitation to soften control, tell yourself the truth, and become a steadier guide for both your children and yourself.
1265: The Body Keeps Score and Sets Boundaries With Laura Wieck
In this episode, Heather and Laura Wieck explore what it really means to live embodied, not as another perfectionist performance, but as a practice of honesty, presence, and listening to the wisdom already alive inside you. Through the lens of parenting a child with autism and the unraveling of old identities, this conversation opens up a powerful dialogue around the ways our bodies hold emotion, where we disconnect from ourselves in the name of ‘coping’, and how healing often begins with simply noticing what’s true without rushing to fix it. This episode is an invitation to soften the performance, reconnect with your internal guidance, and create a way of being that feels alive from the inside out.
1264: The Day My Calendar Stopped Working: Raising a Neurodivergent Kid When You're Used to Winning
In this episode, Heather dives into the thing high-performing women are actually afraid to say out loud: the very traits that made them successful, performance, optimization, control, fixing, and achieving, are the exact traits that make them “worse” mothers to a neurodivergent child. And watching their playbook fail in real time triggers an identity collapse that no productivity hack or "energy management" tip can solve. The truth is, you can't outperform autism. You can't out-discipline ADHD or out-schedule a kid who can't transition. And when high-performing women realize this, they spiral, because they don't know who they are without their results. This episode takes an honest look at what it means to mother in a way that requires presence over performance, connection over control, and a willingness to meet yourself in the discomfort instead of trying to think your way out of it.
1263: [Case Study] The Discipline of Becoming Someone You Trust With Tara Morse
In this Case Study episode, Heather and Tara Morse dig into how she built her practice by following a path that didn’t always make sense to others and navigating skepticism while staying anchored in what she knew was right for her. This conversation moves beyond surface-level change and into the real work: learning to shift from rumination into self-awareness, choosing how you want to feel, and taking action from that place, and developing the kind of self-trust that can only come from doing hard things on purpose. Because at the end of the day, growth shows up in the uncomfortable moments where you’re asked to trust yourself before you feel ready, and you can’t outsource feeling whole.
1262: Feeling Good Is Your Birthright (So Why Aren’t You Living Like It?)
The version of your life where things feel cleaner, clearer, and more aligned isn’t on the other side of doing more, fixing yourself, or finally getting everything “right.” It’s on the other side of raising your standard for how you’re willing to feel and choosing, moment by moment, to come home to yourself. In this life update, Heather shares what it actually looks like to live from that place in the way you build your systems, lead your team, invest your time and energy, and make decisions rooted in intuition instead of fear. This is a conversation about personal responsibility without self-punishment and feeding your soul instead of abandoning it. Because the truth is, feeling good comes when you decide you’re no longer available to live without it.
1261: What Happens When Women Don’t Feed Their Ambition With Alexis Dean
In this episode, Heather and Alexis Dean explore what it really means to take ownership of your ambition, your emotional world, and the desires you keep pushing aside. The things that irritate or trigger you aren’t random; they’re signals pointing directly to where you’re being asked to grow. This conversation challenges the instinct to blame, label, or control, and instead invites you into a deeper level of self-responsibility, curiosity, and intention. Because when you stop outsourcing your discomfort and start listening to it, you unlock a completely different way of leading your life, your work, and your relationships.
1260: The Skill Set No One Taught You That Will Determine Your Future Success
In this episode, Heather unpacks why the people who will actually thrive aren’t the ones with the most technical “hard” skills, but the ones who know how to think, feel, communicate, sell, and create at a higher level. Because in a world where information is cheap and execution is automated, your ability to regulate yourself, connect with others, and access or sell your creativity isn’t just valuable, it’s everything. Most people are completely missing where the future of work is heading. While everyone is scrambling to keep up with tools and tactics, the real differentiator is becoming something far less tangible but far more demanding.
1259: [Case Study] Stepping Out of Chaos as a Comfort Zone With Melissa Apa
There’s a moment when you realize the life you’re living and the life you actually want are no longer aligned, and no amount of thinking, planning, or hoping is going to close that gap for you. In this episode, Heather and Melissa Apa explore that tension as she shares what it looks like to navigate a child’s diabetes diagnosis, the weight of ongoing crisis, and the secret decisions that change everything over time. This isn’t a conversation about doing it perfectly or becoming a “better” person. It’s about learning how to live, lead, and even thrive inside circumstances you didn’t choose, without letting them define you.
1258: Becoming the Buffalo: Moving Through Resistance Instead of Avoiding It
In this episode, Heather gets honest about what it actually takes to move forward when you’re standing at the edge of change, and every part of you wants to stall out. This conversation explores the invisible weight we carry, the addiction to consuming information instead of integrating it, and the subtle ways we create drama to avoid the decisions that would change everything. Through the lens of “becoming the buffalo,” Heather talks about what it looks like to face discomfort head-on, close the loops you’ve been leaving open, and build the capacity to hold more in your life without breaking under it. If you’ve been circling the same patterns, avoiding the one thing you know you need to do, or feeling mentally and emotionally cluttered, this episode will meet you there and challenge you to move anyway.
1257: What Happens When You Stop Performing “Good” With Laurie Wintonick
For many women, being “good” means holding everything together for everyone else. But at some point, the question begins to surface: When did good enough become good enough? In this episode, Heather and Laurie Wintonick explore what it really looks like to grow into the next version of yourself without blowing up the life you’ve built. From letting go of guilt and redefining what it means to be a “good woman,” to navigating the tension that comes when others don’t support your evolution, this conversation is about choosing yourself with intention. Because when you stop abandoning your own desires and start honoring what you truly want, you don’t just change your life, you become the version of yourself you were always meant to be.
1256: How a Deeply Spiritual, Intuitive Woman Built a Multiple 7-Figure Company (Without Selling Her Soul)
In this episode, Heather digs into the reality that burnout doesn’t happen overnight. It builds over the years through the emotional weight we carry (often not even our own), the expectations we place on ourselves, and the subtle ways we abandon our own needs to keep everything else running. Heather explores why so many women find themselves stuck in cycles of exhaustion, over-responsibility, and emotional labor, and why true recovery from burnout requires changing yourself, not just rest. From learning how to manage your nervous system and energy levels, to developing deeper discernment about what belongs on your calendar and what doesn’t, this conversation unpacks the hidden patterns that keep us operating in survival mode. Because until you’re willing to look in the mirror and decide you can’t keep living the same way, nothing truly shifts, and eventually, something in your life will demand that you finally pay attention.
1255: Buying Back Your Time to Create More Space for Intentional Joy With Christine Landis
In this episode, Heather and Christine Landis gently (and sometimes unapologetically) challenge the way we think about productivity, responsibility, and the stories we tell ourselves about success. Together, they unpack the invisible labor so many women carry, the exhaustion of decision fatigue, and the cultural conditioning that convinces us we must do everything ourselves to be “good” partners, mothers, leaders, or humans. This isn’t a conversation about outsourcing tasks for the sake of efficiency; it’s about buying back your time so you can reclaim your energy, your joy, and your capacity to live intentionally rather than by default. Christine invites us to reimagine what it means to be “time rich,” to stop apologizing for spaciousness, and to consciously plan for joy as a foundational part of an aligned life.
1254: How to Return Home to Yourself Through Energy Management and Deeper Trust
We live in a culture that rewards fixing, striving, and holding everything together, yet the truth is that many women are exhausted not from doing too little but from carrying too much that was never theirs to hold. In this episode, Heather explores what happens when the identity that once fueled your growth begins to limit your freedom, why trusting others can radically expand your time and energy, and how success, achievement, and emotional satisfaction are often operating on entirely different tracks. From energy hoarding and nervous system recalibration after change to the emotional discomfort of having standards, agency, and self-respect, this episode invites you to stop “shoulding,” reclaim discernment, and return home to yourself, not as a destination, but as a daily practice of honesty, surrender, and intentional feeling.
1253: Marketing Your Business Without Abandoning Yourself or Wasting Money With Jess Shirra
In this episode, Heather and Jess Shirra break down what it actually looks like to evolve with the marketing landscape without burning yourself out or throwing money at strategies that don’t move the needle in your unique business. This is a real conversation about the identity shift that comes with hiring a team, the weight of holding the bigger pieces alone, and why bringing in the right marketing leadership at the right time can change everything. If you’ve ever felt the pressure to “figure it out” yourself, questioned your strategy, or wondered whether you’re investing in the right things, this episode will challenge how you think about growth, support, and building a business that honors your lifestyle, not just your revenue goals.
1252: Emotional Endurance and The Art of Not Quitting or Abandoning Yourself
In this episode, Heather shares an honest conversation about emotional endurance, how it’s not the “hustle-hard, push-through” version we’ve been sold, and why it’s important to stay with yourself when things get uncomfortable, inconvenient, or uncertain. She unpacks why reinvention often stalls out when self-abandonment is mistaken for strength, how real lightness comes from honoring capacity rather than overriding it, and what it actually means to keep going without betraying yourself. If you’ve ever felt torn between wanting more and feeling the weight of resistance from yourself or those around you, this episode is an invitation to redefine endurance as knowing when to lean in and when to take a damn break.
1251: Respect Over Control and Rethinking Emotional Growth for Men With Chris Cullen
What happens when we stop trying to manage emotions and start taking responsibility for the space between reaction and choice? In this episode, Heather and Chris Cullen explore a deeper, more grounded conversation about emotional regulation, gender dynamics, and why so many well-intentioned approaches to growth and healing are failing most men. They talk about respect versus control, collaboration versus competition, and how reclaiming agency over our second thought can radically change the way we relate to ourselves, our partners, and our families. This isn’t about “fixing” men or “watering down” women; it’s about creating environments where both can actually show up differently.
1250: The Decisions You Avoid Are Costing You and Shaping Your Identity
In this episode, Heather shares a grounded, no-bypass conversation about decision-making when your nervous system is activated, clarity feels unavailable, and quitting would be easier than staying in it. She unpacks why decision fatigue isn’t about doing too much, but about avoiding the decisions that actually matter, how unmade choices quietly turn into identity-level habits, and why real momentum is built by staying in motion even when outcomes, other people, or next steps are uncomfortable and uncertain. This episode will help you stop circling the same choices, outsourcing your power to external conditions, or spiritually rationalizing why now isn’t the time, because success is something we all have to consciously choose in each moment.
1249: The One Thing That Changes Everything (If You Let It) With Jay Papasan
In this episode, Heather talks with Jay Papasan about why doing more isn’t the answer, how relentless productivity can actually work against you, and what happens when you commit to the one thing that truly matters. This is a conversation about focus as a skill, boredom as a feature of mastery, and the quiet, intentional choices that make everything else easier (or unnecessary). If you’re tired of spinning your wheels and ready to aim strategically instead of swinging harder, this episode will reframe how you approach your goals, your time, and yourself.