The Great Leader Great Mom Podcast

Liz Jolley
  • 5.0 (8)
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Welcome to The Great Leader Great Mom Podcast where we talk about how to be a great leader AND a great mom. For so long it was a choice: "Do you want to be a great leader OR a great mom?". Let's be both. I empower working moms who strive to make a meaningful impact at work while fostering joy at home. My mission is to help you end overwhelm & become the leader everyone wants to work for and the mom your family adores. Through personalized one-on-one coaching, I will equip you with the skills and confidence to unlock your full potential, transforming both your professional and personal life.

  1. 105 When your kids control your time

    6D AGO

    105 When your kids control your time

    What does it mean to be a loving mom without being endlessly available? In this episode of The Great Leader, Great Mom Podcast, Liz Jolley, engineer-turned-life-coach, mom of three, and founder of The School of Courage, helps high-achieving working moms examine the quiet belief: “My kids control my time.” Most mothers would never say that out loud. Instead, it shows up as mom guilt, default parent burnout, over-functioning, resentment, invisible mental load, and the pressure to drop everything whenever a child has a need, request, forgotten water bottle, school item, emotional reaction, or disappointment. Liz unpacks the more socially rewarded thought underneath this pattern: “Doing everything my child needs is what loving mothers do.” It sounds responsible. It sounds loving. It sounds like being a good mom. But when this belief goes unquestioned, it can create self-abandonment, reactive motherhood, emotional exhaustion, and a family rhythm where everyone else’s needs come before your own. Through relatable stories about motherhood, forgotten school items, child disappointment, and the pressure to be constantly available, Liz teaches working moms how to shift from reactive motherhood to conscious motherhood. This episode explores how to separate love from immediate availability, create space before responding, allow children to experience natural consequences, and decide on purpose how to spend your time. This is not about helping your kids less. It is about noticing the thought, guilt, or story running the show so you can stop reacting on default and return to your Grounded Self. This episode is for overwhelmed moms, high-achieving women, career-driven mothers, and default parents who feel like they are always doing everything for everyone. It is for the woman who wants to be present at home, grounded in motherhood, and deeply loving with her children without losing herself in the process. The goal is not to stop helping your children. The goal is to stop disappearing inside everyone else’s needs and come back to your own grounded, conscious choice. Because your kids do not need a mom who abandons herself. They need you. A loving you.A steady you.A mom who can care deeply without letting guilt control her time. Want to End Overwhelm? Join my next workshop to walk away with how to not let your kids control your day or feel overwhelmed. Sign up HERE https://lizjolley.com/ovewhelm

    14 min
  2. 104. How to Stop Living in Fear of Dropping a Glass Ball

    MAY 4

    104. How to Stop Living in Fear of Dropping a Glass Ball

    Do you feel like you’re juggling everything for everyone — work, kids, home, deadlines, appointments, emotions, expectations — and living in fear that if you drop one thing, something important will break? In this episode of The Great Leader, Great Mom Podcast, Liz Jolley talks about the fear of dropping a glass ball when you’re already overwhelmed and on the edge of burnout. Most of us think, “I’m overwhelmed because I have too much on my plate.” But underneath that is often a more painful thought: “I can’t drop anything, because if I do, something important will break — and everyone will know it was my fault.” Liz helps high-achieving women and working moms understand why the fear of dropping the ball creates so much pressure, guilt, hypervigilance, over-responsibility, and emotional exhaustion. You’ll learn how to separate what is actually urgent from what your brain has labeled as urgent, notice the story underneath your overwhelm, and create space so you can stop reacting on default and come back to your Grounded Self. This episode is for you if you’ve been feeling burned out, carrying the invisible load, trying to keep everyone happy, and wondering how much longer you can keep all the balls in the air. Free End Overwhelm Webinar just for you. Sign up HERE: https://lizjolley.com/overwhelm

    10 min
  3. 103 Stop Surviving, Start Thriving: Using Your Prefrontal Cortex to End Overwhelm

    APR 27

    103 Stop Surviving, Start Thriving: Using Your Prefrontal Cortex to End Overwhelm

    Stop Waiting for Friday to Feel Better Do you wake up on Monday morning feeling immediate dread, telling yourself you just need to "make it through" until the weekend? In the second installment of our series on ending overwhelm, Liz Jolley reveals why this mindset—while common—is actually the very thing stripping you of your emotional power and agency. In this episode, you will learn: The "Emotional Window": How to use feelings of anxiety and being "behind" to uncover the thoughts actually driving your stress. Lizard Brain vs. Prefrontal Cortex: Why your default survival mode fails you and how to engage your "planning brain" to regain control. The 7-Step Productivity Blueprint: A tactical breakdown of how to handle a major presentation or daunting task without losing your grounded self . The Power of the High Five: A simple, physical habit to shift your internal state before stepping into any high-pressure room. Stop being a passenger in your own life. Whether you are balancing a technical career or a busy household, learn how to move from surviving your life to intentionally creating it. Ready to dive deeper? Join the free workshop at https://LizJolley.com/overwhelm to get the tools you need to show up differently and be fully present with your family.

    16 min
  4. 102 Ending Overwhelm: Why Women Feel Miserable and How to Reclaim Agency

    APR 20

    102 Ending Overwhelm: Why Women Feel Miserable and How to Reclaim Agency

    Does your resume say "Successful Leader" while your brain says "I'm drowning"?  In this kickoff to our Ending Overwhelm series, Liz addresses Question #1: How can I be so capable at work but feel so miserable inside?  We dive into the "Success Contradiction"—the gap between your external competence and your internal exhaustion. If you find yourself solving complex problems in the boardroom but feeling crushed by the "mental load" of laundry and dinner, you aren't broken. You’re just operating with an unmanaged mind. In this episode, you’ll learn: The Performance Trap: Why "hustling harder" and new organization systems fail to solve internal misery.The Hockey Goalie Effect: How to stop spending your day reacting to "pucks" and start creating intentionality.Belonging to Yourself: How to create space between your circumstances and your response to find instant agency.Mind Management vs. Time Management: Why your thinking—not your schedule—is the root of your overwhelm.Key Takeaway: Your joy isn't "out there" in a new job or a cleaner house. It’s found by examining the default stories your brain tells you every day.

    9 min
  5. 101 The Perfectionist Police: Why Perfectionism Keeps You Stuck

    APR 13

    101 The Perfectionist Police: Why Perfectionism Keeps You Stuck

    In this episode of The Great Leader, Great Mom Podcast, Liz Jolley unpacks the hidden cost of perfectionism and why it keeps so many women confused, overthinking, and stuck. If you’ve ever felt paralyzed by a job decision, afraid of making the wrong move, or exhausted by trying to be the perfect mother, this episode will help you understand what is really going on underneath the pressure to get it right. Liz introduces the idea of the Perfectionist Police — the inner critic voice that sounds responsible and careful, but is actually trying to protect you from shame, disappointment, regret, uncertainty, and failure. She explains why confusion often is not a lack of clarity, but fear of feeling hard emotions, and how waiting for the perfect answer disconnects you from your own agency. This episode is for you if: you overthink decisions at work or at home you struggle with perfectionism and fear of getting it wrong you want to stop second-guessing yourself you feel stuck between career ambition and family life you want real self-confidence instead of constant self-criticism Liz Jolley, founder of The School of Courage™, shares a more grounded definition of confidence: not getting everything right, but being willing to feel any emotion and move forward anyway. Listen now to learn how to stop waiting for certainty and start building self-trust.

    16 min
  6. 100 The Mind Reader: Naming Your Inner Critic

    APR 6

    100 The Mind Reader: Naming Your Inner Critic

    In Episode 100 of The Great Leader, Great Mom Podcast, Liz Jolley unpacks The Mind Reader — the inner critic that decides what everyone thinks before they have actually said it. This episode explores why so many women at work assume a neutral face means disapproval, a short email means disappointment, or silence means they are not valued. Liz explains how mind reading fuels overthinking, people-pleasing, over-explaining, anxiety, and self-doubt in meetings, leadership, and everyday workplace communication. She also shares how women can separate facts from the meaning their mind adds, stop managing imagined reactions, and come back to grounded self-trust. If you overanalyze tone, decode body language, replay conversations, or assume you already know what others think of you, this episode will help you stop mind reading at work and lead from truth instead of fear.  https://lizjolley.com

    16 min
  7. Your Inner Critic: The Castastrophizer

    MAR 30

    Your Inner Critic: The Castastrophizer

    In Episode 99 of The Great Leader, Great Mom Podcast, Liz Jolley explores how the inner critic shows up at work through a familiar pattern she calls The Catastrophizer. This is the voice that takes one correction in a meeting and turns it into a full spiral: I’m a fraud. I don’t belong here. Everyone can tell. I should stop talking. For many women, these moments create intense self-doubt, overthinking, shutdown, and a painful loss of confidence in rooms that matter most. In this episode, Liz teaches how to create space between the workplace trigger and your reaction. Using her core framework from The School of Courage™, she walks listeners through how to notice the feeling in the body, catch the thought creating the spiral, audit the story, and consciously create a more grounded response. This episode is for you if you’ve ever: felt like a fraud after being corrected in a meeting replayed a work interaction for hours afterward withdrawn after feeling challenged or embarrassed struggled with imposter syndrome at work wanted to feel calm, confident, and grounded in leadership spaces This episode supports women who want to stay grounded at work, trust themselves under pressure, and stop letting the inner critic shape how they lead. Find more support from Liz Jolley and The School of Courage™ at lizjolley.com.

    15 min
  8. 98 Barely Holding It Together? How to Feel More Grounded at Work and at Home

    MAR 23

    98 Barely Holding It Together? How to Feel More Grounded at Work and at Home

    In this episode of The Great Leader, Great Mom Podcast, Liz Jolley unpacks what it really looks like when high-capacity women are barely holding it together. From smiling through meetings after chaotic mornings to walking into the house already feeling behind, this episode names the hidden survival mode so many working moms live in every day. Liz explores why overwhelm is not just about having too much to do. It is often driven by guilt, people-pleasing, perfectionism, over-responsibility, and the constant pressure to be a good mom, good employee, good partner, and good human all at the same time. She shares how women can stop white-knuckling their days, create space between circumstance and reaction, and begin making grounded decisions rooted in self-trust instead of shoulds. This episode is for you if: You feel like you are functioning on the outside but drowning on the inside You are tired of feeling reactive, snappy, or emotionally shut down You keep saying yes when you really want to say no You feel guilty resting, asking for help, or disappointing people You want to feel more present at home and more grounded at work You do not want more pressure—you want real relief If you are ready to become the Grounded You, check out the School of Courage™ Membership at lizjolley.com/membership

    11 min
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5
out of 5
8 Ratings

About

Welcome to The Great Leader Great Mom Podcast where we talk about how to be a great leader AND a great mom. For so long it was a choice: "Do you want to be a great leader OR a great mom?". Let's be both. I empower working moms who strive to make a meaningful impact at work while fostering joy at home. My mission is to help you end overwhelm & become the leader everyone wants to work for and the mom your family adores. Through personalized one-on-one coaching, I will equip you with the skills and confidence to unlock your full potential, transforming both your professional and personal life.

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