Becoming Your Best Version

Maria Leonard Olsen

Award-winning podcast about living your best life, by Maria Leonard Olsen & her inspiring guests. Maria is a lawyer/journalist/author/two-time TEDx speaker who seeks to amplify women's voices to share about their lives, work & life lessons. She graduated from Boston College & Univ. of Virginia Law. She served in the Clinton Justice Dept. and is a lawyer in Washington, D.C. Her latest book, 50 After 50--Reframing the Next Chapter of Your Life, has helped thousands reinvigorate their lives. See MariaLeonardOlsen.com and follow @FiftyAfter50

  1. 2d ago

    A Conversation with Jordana Cole, an Igniter of Leadership and Team Potential

    Combining her rich background and expertise in psychology and leadership development, alongside her authentic blend of energy, humor, and strategic questions, Jordana Cole enables leaders to ignite behavioral change and spark transformation that not only sticks, it spreads. As an organizational consultant, workshop facilitator and leadership coach, Jordana has designed and led talent strategy and leadership programs for thousands of individuals across all levels and roles around the globe.  Prior to launching her consulting and coaching practice, Jordana led enterprise learning and development functions for a decade within technology, financial services, e-commerce, and nonprofit industries. Jordana’s worked with a number of Fortune 100 companies and companies on the Best Companies to Work For list. Jordana is an alumna of the University of Pennsylvania’s Master of Applied Positive Psychology program and has served as an instructor for undergraduate and graduate courses related to positive organizations and human strengths & resilience. She is also certified as a PCC level coach from the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and a Gallup Strengths Coach, with experience coaching more than 250 leaders worldwide. As a lead faculty member for the Center for Human Potential's Self-Actualization Coaching Program, Jordana equips cohorts of professional coaches with research-backed tools to help clients surface their needs and embrace their whole selves.  Jordana believes that leadership is the most needed and most durable skillset in our changing world, and the one that AI can't replace.  She's been featured on a variety of podcasts and webinars discussing the connections between leadership, well-being, AI, and organizational success. She's on a mission to help everyone lead themselves and others better through uncertainty. Her TEDx talk on this topic: "What to Do When You Don't Know What's Next" currently ranks in the top 10% of views for all TEDx talks globally. She believes that leadership coaching should create thriving leaders and teams, not just fix bad behaviors. "Leadership coaching is for everyone, not only the C-Suite," Jordana says. "My comprehensive coaching approach blends strengths, leadership development, and positive & humanistic psychology. I’m here to help you not only turn the lightbulbs on, but to actually spark personal transformation. By the end of coaching, you'll have more self-awareness, more confidence in your interactions with others, and feel energized and capable to be an impactful leader today, tomorrow, and in the future." Learn more: https://ignitedbyjordana.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordana-cole-mapp-pcc-a8445a8/

    A Conversation with Jordana Cole, an Igniter of Leadership and Team Potential
  2. Aug 21

    A Conversation with Sandy Rosenthal, a Civic Activist Who Educates the Public About the Cause of Catastrophic Flooding

    With corporations getting ever larger – and even able to influence the outcome of presidential elections – the power of a single individual might seem lost. But it’s alive and well. Sandy Rosenthal is an experienced community mobilizer, most notable for founding the nonprofit Levees.org, with 25,000 supporters nationwide. Her 2020 book, Words Whispered in Water, explores how she — against all odds — altered the national narrative about the deadly flooding in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. InWords Whispered in Water: Why the Levees Broke in Hurricane Katrina, Sandy gives a first-person narrative of the 2005 flooding and its aftermath, thrusting her into her role as a leading voice for fact-based responses to flood threats. She describes her transformation into an advocate for education on the history of flood control failures after Hurricane Katrina had moved inland, and her subsequent work as a watchdog tracking the responses of government and media in the hours, weeks and years after the floodwalls first gave way. A special Anniversary Edition of her book, featuring a new cover and foreword, went on sale in August 2025, timed with the 20th anniversary of the catastrophe. The catastrophic flooding of New Orleans in 2005 brought levees into the public consciousness. Yet, flooding now seems to be happening almost everywhere. The majority of the nation’s population lives in counties protected by levees. Sandy’s organization brings awareness to the dangers posed by this situation. Her organization has a strong physical presence in New Orleans, including the Flooded House Museum and the Levee Exhibit Hall at a major breach site. The organization has also installed three historic plaques vetted by the state’s preservation office and hosts an annual levee breach bike tour, among other public education efforts. For these efforts, Sandy has received numerous awards, including Outstanding Social Entrepreneur of the Year from Tulane University and Most Influential Woman from Mount Holyoke College. She is an advocate for the 62% of the American population living in counties protected by levees. Rosenthal has been married to Stephen Rosenthal since 1979 and has three adult married children and two grandchildren. Sandy is also the co-host of The Slingshot podcast and host of the former Beat the Big Guys podcast. Points we cover in this episode: ​The igniting moment that made her decide to fight the Army Corps of Engineers​The big mistake that the Army Corps made​Her shining moment in exposing the Army Corps' bad behavior​What she would have done differently in the battle​How her group continues to help people fight bullies and bad actors Learn more: SandyRosenthal.net/   LinkedIn: Linkedin.com/in/RosenthalSandy

    A Conversation with Sandy Rosenthal, a Civic Activist Who Educates the Public About the Cause of Catastrophic Flooding
  3. Aug 14

    A Conversation with Sarah Dawkins, Natural Self-Healing Expert and Holistic Coach

    Have you considered natural self-healing as an alternative to traditional Western medicine? Sarah Dawkins is a leading authority in natural self-healing, bringing 20 years of clinical expertise as a Registered Nurse to her transformative work. Having personally navigated and healed from decades of health challenges, Sarah uniquely combines her medical background with a profound understanding of mindset, beliefs and holistic coaching. She specializes in guiding midlife professional women from the depths of burnout, overwhelm and chronic conditions like autoimmune issues, fatigue and pain, to renewed vitality. Known for facilitating rapid and profound transformations, Sarah's approach is rooted in compassionate conversations and evidence-based strategies. As the author of an Amazon #1 book, Heal Yourself and the award-winning host of the Mind Body Medicine for Self Healers podcast, she is a trusted voice empowering women to heal their minds, bodies and souls. Her unique blend of medical insight and holistic wisdom provides a credible, empathetic and results-driven path for those ready to reclaim their health, energy and purpose. Sarah joined us from Spain and is originally from the U.K. Learn more:  https://www.sarahdawkins.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahdawkins-holistichealthcoach/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dawkinsse Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarah.dawkins.health X: https://x.com/dawkins_sarah YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SarahDawkinsHealth Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0yBLqeIPxkhgymnpGMCcMZ and https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mind-body-medicine-for-self-healers/id1670856549

    A Conversation with Sarah Dawkins, Natural Self-Healing Expert and Holistic Coach
  4. Aug 7

    A Conversation with Victoria Lee Starr, Spiritual Outlaw and Midlife Midwife, Guiding Women Through the Real Work of Reinvention

    Ever thought of hitting the road in a retrofitted van? Victoria Lee Starr did it in midlife and found her true self. She became a guide for women through the sacred season of midlife reinvention, helping them reclaim self-trust, inner safety and their authentic power. Using transformational breathwork, guided microdosing support, somatic ritual and emotional excavation, her work meets women in the places most avoid... the unraveling, the burning, the falling apart...and transforms those moments into a becoming. Victoria’s own awakening began in Costa Rica, when everything she thought she needed to feel loved, safe or worthy started to collapse. What looked like failure was actually her Rite of Passage into self-trust, honesty and the woman you become when you stop abandoning yourself. After leaving an emotionally abusive relationship, Victoria rebuilt her life from the ground up and spent nearly four years living full-time in her Ram Promaster van with her dog, Olivia Grace. Her van became her initiation chamber, a sacred space to learn to trust her body, intuition, truth and the quiet voice that had been waiting decades to lead. Victoria works through psychological wisdom, nervous system healing, transformational breathwork, guided microdosing, intuitive channeling, somatic rituals and emotional excavation. She helps women fully be themselves in midlife, showing them that falling apart is often the beginning of becoming. She calls herself a "spiritual outlaw" because she refuses to heal or lead within the confines of traditional systems, surface-level fixes or fluff. "This work is not about bypassing the hard stuff, it’s about entering the sacred, messy, untamed places where real healing lives," Victoria says. "I walk between realms of emotional, spiritual, somatic and psychological and I'm not here to guide women to think their way into peace. I guide you to feel, to embody and to remember. A spiritual outlaw breaks the rules of what healing is 'supposed to' look like; doesn’t fix you — she walks with you as you unlearn the lies and reclaim your soul; channels deep wisdom that comes from lived experience, intuition and higher intelligence — not just certifications; uses non-linear tools like breathwork, somatic ritual and emotional excavation to guide people back to their power; refuses spiritual bypassing and meets you in the root of it — trauma, lineage, nervous system patterns — and helps transmute them into gold; and is wildly intuitive, slightly rebellious, deeply grounded and divinely guided." In this episode, we talk about: --Midlife as a Rite of Passage --Why women in their 40s, 50s and 60s are unraveling and why this is actually the beginning of their becoming. --Being a Spiritual Outlaw --The future of healing beyond fluffy positivity and patriarchal conditioning --Breathwork + Microdosing using natural, non-addictive medicine for Emotional Reinvention --A grounded, embodied approach for women ready to reclaim self-trust and inner safety. --Living on the Road After Burning Down Your Life --Lessons from four years of nomadic living about freedom, intuition and rebuilding identity. --Rebirth After Divorce, Abuse and Identity Collapse --How to trust yourself again when everything familiar has fallen away. She offers free resources: Her Guided Meditation Collection consists of short, soul-nourishing meditations for midlife transformation: https://www.victorialeestarr.com/free-meditation Breathe with Intention: Your Toolkit Practical breathwork exercises to reclaim calm, clarity and self-trust: https://www.victorialeestarr.com/free-breathe-toolkit Hot Flashes Breathwork A focused practice for navigating menopause with embodiment and empowerment: https://www.victorialeestarr.com/hotflashes Learn more: Website: https://www.victorialeestarr.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/victorialeestarr/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/victorialeestarr LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/victoria-starr-68495a280/

    A Conversation with Victoria Lee Starr, Spiritual Outlaw and Midlife Midwife, Guiding Women Through the Real Work of Reinvention
  5. Jul 31

    A Conversation with Oona Metz, Nationally Recognized Therapist and Author of Unhitched: The Essential Divorce Guide for Women

    Oona Metz is a nationally recognized therapist and author who has spent more than 30 years studying the strange, tender, deeply human ways we navigate relationships, self-abandonment and change. Her new book, Unhitched: The Essential Divorce Guide for Women (Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster), launched in January and has already earned remarkable attention. Gayle King praised it on CBS Mornings, Maria Shriver highlighted it in her newsletter, Time Magazine ran an exclusive excerpt, and it’s been featured on CBS News and NPR's Morning Edition. It also quickly became a top divorce book on Amazon. She speaks candidly about why women initiate nearly 70% of divorces, and how that statistic is less about endings and more about awakening — about the cumulative weight of emotional labor, the slow erosion of self and the eventual decision to choose alignment, truth and self-trust. Oona’s work is deeply aligned with conversations about reinvention and becoming. In this episode, we discuss: • the quiet realization that something needs to change• the emotional courage it takes to leave a life that once made sense• the nonlinear path from grief to clarity to self-reclamation• how women rediscover identity and purpose in midlife• the unexpected freedom and possibility that can follow loss• what it means to consciously step into a new version of yourself Her five-phase model of divorce grief offers a thoughtful framework for understanding the emotional arc of transformation — not just as loss, but as a process of becoming. As both a therapist and someone who rebuilt her own life after divorce, Oona brings a rare blend of clinical depth and lived wisdom to conversations about resilience, reinvention and the deeply human process of beginning again. Oona is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker, a Certified Group Psychotherapist and a Fellow of the American Group Psychotherapy Association. She has three decades of clinical experience and specializes in treating women navigating divorce. She leads three weekly Divorce Support Groups and is the founder of the Beacon Group Fellowship, a program which trains mental health professionals across the country to lead divorce groups. She has given over 100 talks and workshops locally, nationally and internationally.  Learn more: www.oonametz.com https://www.instagram.com/oonametz/ https://www.facebook.com/womennavigatingdivorce/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/oona-metz-licsw-cgp-6a14a41b/ https://www.youtube.com/@OonaMetz https://www.oonametz.com/book-unhitched https://time.com/7344525/why-women-divorce/ https://www.cbsnews.com/video/why-more-women-are-initiating-divorce/

    A Conversation with Oona Metz, Nationally Recognized Therapist and Author of Unhitched: The Essential Divorce Guide for Women
  6. Jul 24

    A Conversation with Helen Hirsh Spence, Ageism & Longevity Specialist and Founder of Top Sixty Over Sixty

    "Aging is the ultimate triumph of living," says ageism & longevity specialist, Helen Hirsh Spence. Helen is a later-in-life Canadian entrepreneur, speaker and age-equity advocate. She also is a leader navigating the demographic shift; TEDx and global speaker, author; age provocateur & mindset shifter; older & multigenerational workforce expert; and founder of Top Sixty Over Sixty. Top Sixty Over Sixty is a social enterprise advancing age inclusion, longevity literacy, and healthy ageing across workplaces and communities. Helen consults with businesses, communities and individuals to help them become age-ready for their longer lifespans.  Her TEDx talk on embracing a longevity mindset was among the most viewed globally the month it aired. Helen urges us in the Talk to reject the longstanding negative perspective on aging and, instead, to embrace our later years as a time filled with growth, promise and opportunity. Top Sixty Over Sixty advances longevity literacy by providing the tools and training to eliminate age bias and promote age diversity. Top Sixty drives success by resetting thinking, unlocking potential and leveraging the talent of all generations. "We provide consulting, speaking and training to businesses. We help reframe the age narrative, address age biases and myths, and leverage the talent of the multigenerational workforce. Through coursework, training and coaching, we show mature adults how to renew and reinvest their knowledge, skills and experience to reinvent themselves with purpose. Created in 2017, Top Sixty Over Sixty focused on older Canadians and encouraged them to reinvent themselves to meet new work and entrepreneurial challenges. Top Sixty Over Sixty continues to evolve.  It works with progressive businesses and organizations to maximize efficiency, innovation, and prosperity.  We offer practical guidance on how to engage an ageing workforce and create stronger sales opportunities for ageing customer segments. We do this in four ways: We motivate and re-skill older adults by introducing an entrepreneurial mindset.We help employers transform their multigenerational workforces into innovative, intergenerational teams.We advise businesses on how to attract and retain a diversely aged workforce.We show progressive businesses how to avoid age-bias in their branding, hiring, and communications.Top Sixty Over Sixty provides original and curated resources of interest to businesses and organizations, as well as individuals.  These include a monthly newsletter, The 360, blogs and online resources.  Events and workshops are held as programming and demand dictate." Helen's book, ReSet: Making the Most of the Rest of Your Life, reframes longevity as a triumph—not a burden—and offers a bold roadmap for thriving in a century-long life. It challenges the outdated notion that age is merely a number and introduces a richer understanding of what it means to grow older this century. It exposes the hidden architecture of ageism—in our policies, workplaces, media and even our own thinking—and dismantles the myths of inevitable decline. Most importantly, it moves from insight to action. Through self-awareness, values alignment, purpose discovery, and an entrepreneurial mindset, readers learn how to redefine their personal brand, cultivate optimism and spot new opportunities for growth and contribution. This is a roadmap to living longer and better, shifting mindsets from viewing aging as decline to viewing it as a time for new growth. Helen is helping us learn how to enjoy our "longevity bonus," since we generally are living two to three decades longer than our predecessors. Every day is a gift! Use it well! Learn more: https://www.topsixtyoversixty.com/    TED Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwhOQRduE7c Age sense/ newsletter on LI: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/age-sense-7377782746225582080/  https://www.linkedin.com/in/helen-hirsh-spence-a029a010/

    A Conversation with Helen Hirsh Spence, Ageism & Longevity Specialist and Founder of Top Sixty Over Sixty
  7. Jul 17

    A Conversation with Johanna Danaher, Life and Leadership Coach Who Helps Pre-Retirees and Mid-Life Professionals Navigate Who You Become After You Leave a Long-Held Career

    Johanna Danaher is a mindset, life and leadership coach who helps high-achieving pre-retirees and mid-life professionals navigate one of the most overlooked transitions of all: who you become after you leave a long-held career. After more than 25 years in high-level corporate leadership, guiding global talent, culture and leadership strategy at Pfizer, Johanna understands how deeply identity can become intertwined with a title—and how destabilizing it can feel when that chapter comes to an end. Through her coaching practice, Anchor to Aspire™, she now supports pre-retirees and midlife professionals as they navigate the emotional and psychological side of transition, helping them move forward with clarity, energy and intention. Johanna’s work blends evidence-based tools with deeply human insight, drawing from Energy Leadership™, the Energy Leadership Index (ELI), Positive Intelligence®, Whole Brain Thinking and the science of happiness. She helps clients recognize how they show up on their best days versus under stress—and how small mindset and energy shifts can radically change their experience of retirement, reinvention and life transitions. What sets Johanna apart is her ability to honor paradox: ambition and ease, resilience and softness, structure and surrender. Her clients—executives, public-sector leaders and long-tenured professionals—aren’t looking to stop growing; they want their next chapter to feel meaningful rather than performative, intentional rather than fear-driven. A former marine biologist turned HR leader and now entrepreneur, Johanna’s nonlinear path shapes a coaching approach rooted in possibility. Whether she’s guiding a team through reinvention or helping someone redefine what success means in midlife, her work is both strategic and soulful—anchoring people to who they are so they can rise into what’s next. Some topics we cover in this episode: --How to prepare emotionally for retirement --How to maintain identity after retirement by determining what you value --Why do so many people rush to stay busy after retirement and the cost of doing so --How pre-retirees can learn to shift and reframe fear and uncertainty about their identity or their future—and use it as fuel for an intentional and empowered "rewirement" --How pausing can be a superpower Learn more: Website: https://anchortoaspire.com/  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johannadanaher/  IG: https://www.instagram.com/anchortoaspire/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/anchortoaspire/ Blog: https://anchortoaspire.com/blog-posts

    A Conversation with Johanna Danaher, Life and Leadership Coach Who Helps Pre-Retirees and Mid-Life Professionals Navigate Who You Become After You Leave a Long-Held Career
  8. Jul 10

    A Conversation with Gail Rubin, The Doyenne of Death®, a Pioneer in Death Education

    Gail Rubin, CT, The Doyenne of Death®, is a pioneering death educator based in New Mexico. A doyenne is a woman considered senior in a group who knows a lot about a particular subject. Gail is a Certified Thanatologist (a death and grief educator) and speaker who uses humor and films to get end-of-life conversations started.  She’s the author of the award-winning books A Good Goodbye: Funeral Planning for Those Who Don’t Plan to Die, Kicking the Bucket List: 100 Downsizing and Organizing Things to Do Before You Die, Hail and Farewell: Cremation Ceremonies, Templates and Tips, and The Before I Die Festival in a Box. Her next book, 98.6 Mortality Movies to See Before You Die, was published April 2026.  She is also the coordinator of the award-winning Before I Die New Mexico Festival, a pioneer of the Death Cafe movement in the United States, and host of the Mortality Movies TV series and Mortality Movie Night events.  She’s a two-time TEDx speaker. Her first talk in 2015, “A Good Goodbye,” focused on the importance of starting end-of-life conversations before there’s a death in the family. The second talk in 2025, “We offer our pets a good death, why not our people?” is about medical aid in dying.   The Association for Death Education and Counseling recognized her work with their 2024 Community Educator Award. Her motto is, “Talking about sex won’t make you pregnant. Talking about funerals won’t make you dead.” Learn more: https://agoodgoodbye.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gailrubinctagoodgoodbye/ Facebook (personal page): https://www.facebook.com/gail.rubin.3/  Facebook (A Good Goodbye page): https://www.facebook.com/AGoodGoodbye/ Instagram: gail.rubin.doyenne.of.death X: @TheFamilyPlot

    A Conversation with Gail Rubin, The Doyenne of Death®, a Pioneer in Death Education
5
out of 5
49 Ratings

About

Award-winning podcast about living your best life, by Maria Leonard Olsen & her inspiring guests. Maria is a lawyer/journalist/author/two-time TEDx speaker who seeks to amplify women's voices to share about their lives, work & life lessons. She graduated from Boston College & Univ. of Virginia Law. She served in the Clinton Justice Dept. and is a lawyer in Washington, D.C. Her latest book, 50 After 50--Reframing the Next Chapter of Your Life, has helped thousands reinvigorate their lives. See MariaLeonardOlsen.com and follow @FiftyAfter50