The Way She Leads

Megan Akatu
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The Way She Leads is a podcast for high-achieving women who have done all the “right” things, achieved traditional success, and are ready for a deeper, more aligned way of leading that is filled with clarity, resonance and ease. Join us for genuine conversations with real leaders and experts, exploring feminine leadership and what becomes possible when we reclaim our gifts, intuition, and joy, and lead from wholeness instead of exhaustion. Welcome in!

  1. Oct 1

    18. How to Sleep Better in Menopause Without Fighting Your Body

    You're not a bad sleeper. You've been told an incomplete story about what's happening at 3 AM. In this guest episode of The Way She Leads, Megan sits down with wellness coach and sleep expert, Cynthia Conigliaro, founder of Work Well Webinars, to talk about what really happens to women's sleep after 40. If you're carrying a full leadership load, kids leaving home, aging parents, and shifting hormones, a rough night isn't a personal failure. It's simply information. Cynthia brings 20+ years in mental health and wellness to show why sleep is both a necessity and a skill you can rebuild. Megan also shares what two sleepless nights did to her patience as a parent, and why rest is also a leadership tool.  KEY TAKEAWAYS Why getting out of bed at 3 AM works better than lying there trying to force sleepHow to retrain your brain so your bed means one thing (and why even reading there works against you)The 10-minute morning habit that sets up tonight's sleep before your day startsWhy that "relaxing" glass of wine is quietly costing you the second half of your nightThe difference between a sleep-hygiene fix and a signal it's time to see a specialistRESOURCES Cynthia Conigliaro Owner and Founder | Work Well Webinars LinkedIn | Website FOLLOW ME: 🔗 LinkedIn | Instagram | Website | Podcast 🎁 FREE STUFF → SAY IT LIKE THIS: Scripts that communicate your message, keep you in your power without shrinking or steamrolling → FREE MONTHLY Somatic Breathwork Session. Add your name here to receive details on the next session → Join my newsletter here for more leadership insights #feminineleadership #leadyourselffirst #itsthelittlethings #womeninleadership #quietpower #feminineenergy #influence #thewaysheleads #sleepinmenopause

  2. Sep 15

    17. How to Stop Dreading Every Meeting on Your Calendar

    You've tried the time blocking, the shorter meetings and taking digital notes. But the hours disappearing from your week were never on your to-do list, they're going somewhere else entirely. In this guest episode of The Way She Leads, Megan sits down with strategic alignment consultant Becca Rusinko for a conversation that starts where most leadership advice won't: you are not bad at prioritizing. You are handed 25 priorities and told, “Make it work.”  Becca has led through the dot-com bust and the Great Recession, and she left finance not from burnout, but because her world had gotten too small. What she brings back is infrastructure: two repeatable rhythms that turn a beautiful strategic plan into something your team can actually use, without asking anyone to work a 70-hour week to prove they care. KEY TAKEAWAYS Why the hours vanishing from your week were never on anyone's project planThe difference between a strategic roadmap and a strategic GPS The two rhythms that reclaim time instead of costing it: monthly recalibration on outcomes, weekly execution sprints on the groundHow to run a weekly sprint that develops your people while the work gets doneWhy dread before a meeting is data, not weakness and what your nervous system knows before your calendar does RESOURCES Becca Rusinko Strategic Alignment Consultant & Speaker LinkedIn | Instagram | Website 🎧 Becca's 5-minute primer on the two rhythms 📚 The Artist's Way | Julia Cameron  Megan Akatu Fall Remembrance Workshop LinkedIn | Instagram | Website | Podcast #feminineleadership #leadyourselffirst #itsthelittlethings #womeninleadership #quietpower #feminineenergy #influence #thewaysheleads

  3. Aug 26

    16. You're Not Boring, You're Hiding: What You Clothes Say About Your Power

    Your closet is full of black, gray, and navy and you've told yourself that's professional. It isn't. It's camouflage, and the room can feel it before anyone can name it. This week on The Way She Leads, Megan sits down with Julie Grimm, personal color consultant, stylist, painter, and energy healer to discuss color theory, the science of undertone and harmony so you can look and feel your best! If you've ever stood in a store holding something beautiful you knew wasn't for you, bought it anyway, and returned it two weeks later, this episode is for you. Not because you need a new wardrobe. Because you've been spending energy on the wrong dial, and there's a formula underneath all of it.  KEY TAKEAWAYS The difference between a color that matches your clothes and a color that matches you The three dials (light/dark, bright/soft, cool/warm) that decide what actually suits you, and why most women only know one of themThe frequency of color and how it can change your mood Why people feel harmony on you before they can explain it, the same way they feel when something's offJulie's reframe on feminine leadership: my favorite answer yet! RESOURCES Julie Grimm Founder, Joyful  Color Analysis and Spiritual Studies Institute Website | Instagram | Spiritual Studies Institute 📚 Dream Symbolism by Manley P. Hall 📚 Wassily Kandinsky on the energy of color  FOLLOW ME: 🔗 LinkedIn | Instagram | Website | Podcast 🎁 FREE STUFF → SAY IT LIKE THIS: Scripts that communicate your message, keep you in your power without shrinking or steamrolling → FREE MONTHLY Somatic Breathwork Session. Add your name here to receive details on the next session → Join my newsletter here for more leadership insights #feminineleadership #leadyourselffirst #itsthelittlethings #womeninleadership #quietpower #feminineenergy #influence #thewaysheleads #wardrobe #capsulewardrobe #blackclothes #professionaldress

  4. Jul 31

    15. What Gen Z Is Really Asking For

    You have heard the narrative, Young employees don't want to work, they can't take feedback, they're always on their phones.” But the reason your early-career team isn't showing up the way you want has almost nothing to do with them. In this guest episode of The Way She Leads, Megan sits down with Amy Mosher Berry, CEO and Founder of Visions Internships, who has spent 20+ years working in the gap between young talent and the leaders managing them. If you're the leader who is exhausted by giving constant feedback, and confused about what your Gen Z hires actually want from you, listen up! KEY TAKEAWAYS What actually happens when a young employee feels heardThe Gallup finding that explains why 80% of today's college grads are checked out at work (and what they're actually asking you for)How to tell the difference between a young employee who's disengaged and one who's putting more pressure on herself than you realizeThe "and" that changes everything: why forcing young people to choose between doing well and doing good is costing you your best talentThe one shift Amy teaches supervisors that turns them from "interesting" to unforgettable in the eyes of a young employee RESOURCES Amy Mosher Berry CEO & Founder | Visions Internships LinkedIn | Instagram | YouTube | Facebook | TikTok | Website 📚 The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod 📚 Strong Ground by Brené Brown FOLLOW ME: 🔗 LinkedIn | Instagram | Website | Podcast 🎁 FREE STUFF → SAY IT LIKE THIS: Scripts that communicate your message, keep you in your power without shrinking or steamrolling → FREE MONTHLY Somatic Breathwork Session. Add your name here to receive details on the next session → Join my newsletter here for more leadership insights #feminineleadership #leadyourselffirst #itsthelittlethings #womeninleadership #quietpower #feminineenergy #influence #thewaysheleads

  5. Jul 15

    14. The Unwritten Rules That Affect your Career Trajectory When Your Not a Member of the Majority

    There's a reason you've stopped trusting your gut, and it's not a confidence problem. When you spend years leading like someone you're not, the instincts you built your career on go quiet. This week on The Way She Leads, Megan sits down with Eve Kelly, a master of nuance, humor and truth-telling, even when it's uncomfortable. If you've ever felt the weight of being watched more closely than your peers, Eve names it all and provides practical ways to handle revealing situations and how to stay yourself through it all. Megan and Eve unpack the hidden curriculum of hierarchical organizations, the real cost of self-abandonment, and how to decide, in the moment,  whether to speak up or let it go…and be whole either way. KEY TAKEAWAYS Why women who earn credibility by imitating men eventually struggle to make any decision at allThe "hidden curriculum" of organizations and what to be more aware of, most especially as a person of colorHow to address a microaggression  in a room full of peers without making them wrong (and why being okay either way is the real power move)The difference between happiness you have to chase and joy you already carryWhat Eve's body figured out about regulation before her mind did, and the calendar practice that protects it RESOURCES Eve Kelly Executive Director; Belonging, Engagement, and Mission | University of Notre Dame 📚 The works of Howard Thurman 📚 The works of bell hooks FOLLOW ME: 🔗 LinkedIn | Instagram | Website | Podcast 🎁 FREE STUFF → SAY IT LIKE THIS: Scripts that communicate your message, keep you in your power without shrinking or steamrolling → FREE MONTHLY Somatic Breathwork Session. Add your name here to receive details on the next session → Join my newsletter here for more leadership insights #feminineleadership #leadyourselffirst #itsthelittlethings #womeninleadership #quietpower #feminineenergy #influence #thewaysheleads

  6. Jun 24

    13. If You Can't Sit Still to Meditate, Your Brain Isn't Broken

    You've optimized your calendar, your morning routine, your systems, all in service of pushing harder. But the reason you're always running on empty isn't your time management. It's that you've been working against your own seasons and your own flow. In this episode of The Way She Leads, Megan sits down with intuitive astrologer and artist Stevie Calista for a conversation that's equal parts soulful and shockingly practical. If you're a high-achieving woman who defaults to "I should be doing more" and carries the bricks in the backpack, plans every detail, and treats rest like something you have to earn, this one names the pattern out loud. Stevie's gift is taking something vast and making it usable by tomorrow. Listen up as she explains how understanding your natural design helps you stop forcing momentum that isn't there, deepen self-trust, and lead from the version of you the room already sees. KEY TAKEAWAYS Why the relentless drive that built your career is the exact zone quietly keeping you stuckHow to map your year into seasons of push, rest, and vision, so you stop forcing flow that isn't ready yetThe reason "just meditate every day" has never worked for you, and what your mind actually needs to quiet downHow you're already being read as a certain kind of leader whether you own it or not, and the cost of fighting itThe two-day window each month worth protecting on your calendar, and why your body registers it before your mind catches up RESOURCES Stevie Calista Intuitive Soul Blueprint Astrologer Instagram | Substack | Website 🔧 Pull your free birth chart at astro.com (you'll need your date, exact time, and location) 📚 Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas  FOLLOW ME: 🔗 LinkedIn | Instagram | Website | Podcast 🎁 FREE STUFF → SAY IT LIKE THIS: Scripts that communicate your message, keep you in your power without shrinking or steamrolling → FREE MONTHLY Somatic Breathwork Session. Add your name here to receive details on the next session → Join my newsletter here for more leadership insights #feminineleadership #leadyourselffirst #itsthelittlethings #womeninleadership #quietpower #feminineenergy #influence #thewaysheleads

  7. Jun 17

    12. Satiated, Not Hungry: The Leadership Mindset to find Balance in the Fortune 500 and Motherhood

    WHAT IF THE SYSTEM WAS NEVER DESIGNED FOR YOU…AND THE REAL POWER COMES FROM KNOWING THAT? You've played by the rules. You've outperformed, out-hustled, and out-managed. And still, somewhere between the morning spin bike session at 5:30 AM and the third RTO announcement, your body started sending a different message than your résumé. This episode of The Way She Leads is a conversation Megan has been waiting to have. Kelly Ferraro, founder, former Meta leader, and one of the most truth-telling women in the room, sits down to unpack what it actually costs high-achieving women and working mothers to succeed inside systems that were never built for their bodies, their rhythms, or their values. This is not a conversation about quitting. It's a conversation about what it means to be satiated, sovereign, and fully alive, and what it looks like to design a life from that place. KEY TAKEAWAYS Why 63% of C-suite leaders report RTO has led to a disproportionate amount of women quitting, and what that statistic reveals about who the workplace was actually built forThe concept of being "satiated,” and why a woman who knows she has enough is the one no company can hold power overHow the male 24-hour testosterone productivity cycle shapes your daily huddle, your task list, and the quiet shame you carry when you can't check everything offWhy your body registered a "no" before your brain had the words and what Kelly learned from following that signal even when she couldn't explain it RESOURCES Kelly Ferraro Founder of Ferraro Growth Partners and the Rise and Build Collective LinkedIn | Instagram Reading: The Soul of Money | Lynne Twist FOLLOW ME: 🔗LinkedIn | Instagram | Web 🎁 FREE STUFF → SAY IT LIKE THIS: Scripts that communicate your message, keep you in your power without shrinking or steamrolling  → FREE MONTHLY Somatic Breathwork Session. Add your name here to receive details on the next session → Join my newsletter here  for more leadership insights  #feminineleadership #leadyourselffirst #itsthelittlethings #womeninleadership #quietpower #feminineenergy #influence #thewaysheleads

  8. Jun 10

    11. She Was Called "Too Intense." Here's How She Became the Most Influential Person in the Room

    In this episode of The Way She Leads, Megan sits down with Laura Ravo, executive career and performance coach, COO of Shine Strategy, and 30-year retail veteran, for a conversation about the kind of influence that doesn't announce itself. The kind that walks in with red lipstick, asks one well-placed question, and changes the entire direction of the room. If you've ever been told to "soften your edges" and had absolutely no idea what that meant, or if you've wondered why your competence alone isn't translating into the influence you know you're capable of, this episode is your answer. KEY TAKEAWAYS Why being told to "soften your edges" is actually an invitation and how to hear it without shrinkingThe difference between influencing with authority and influencing through curiosityHow your nervous system is setting the tone for your entire team, before you say a single wordWhy asking instead of telling is the most underrated power move in leadershipThe inherited legacies that drive your "bad behavior" and how to shed what was never really yours RESOURCES Laura Ravo | LinkedIn Strong Ground \ Brené Brown Diary of a CEO podcast | Steven Bartlett FOLLOW ME: 🔗LinkedIn | Instagram | Web🎁 FREE STUFF → SAY IT LIKE THIS: Scripts that communicate your message, keep you in your power without shrinking or steamrolling  → FREE MONTHLY Somatic Breathwork Session. Add your name here to receive details on the next session → Join my newsletter here  for more leadership insights  #feminineleadership #leadyourselffirst #itsthelittlethings #womeninleadership #quietpower #feminineenergy #influence #thewaysheleads

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5
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About

The Way She Leads is a podcast for high-achieving women who have done all the “right” things, achieved traditional success, and are ready for a deeper, more aligned way of leading that is filled with clarity, resonance and ease. Join us for genuine conversations with real leaders and experts, exploring feminine leadership and what becomes possible when we reclaim our gifts, intuition, and joy, and lead from wholeness instead of exhaustion. Welcome in!

Information

  • Creator
    Megan Akatu
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    19
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Megan Akatu
  • Show Website
    The Way She Leads