Loading...

PODCAST

Lead with Spark | Authentic Leadership for Women, Executive Presence & Career Confidence

Welcome to the Lead with Spark Podcast: Authentic Leadership for Women Who Want More. You"re leading a team, building a career, and trying to actually have a life. But somewhere between the title, the to-do list, and everyone else"s expectations, you"ve started wondering: Is this it? This podcast is for ambitious women leaders, executives, and entrepreneurs who are ready to lead with clarity, confidence, and purpose, without burning out or losing themselves in the process. I"m Lynsey Mulder,

business careers

All Episodes

15:18

E69 Quietly Cracking: How to Catch It Before You Break

Lead with Spark | Authentic Leadership for Women,... ·

2026/10/07

Your reviews are glowing. Your dashboard is green. Your boss thinks you are crushing it. And underneath all of that, you feel like you are slowly disappearing.That isn't burnout. It's quiet cracking, and almost everything written about it is aimed at HR and employers. In this sequel to the Energy Ledger episode, Lynsey talks directly to the high performer whose numbers look fantastic while her sense of self gets a little smaller every quarter. She shares her own season when stretch became strain,

en

15:16

E68 The $15 Umbrella: How to Stop Worrying About...

Lead with Spark | Authentic Leadership for Women,... ·

2026/09/30

A girls' trip to Florida, an $80 umbrella rental, and a $15 bargain umbrella that lasted about four seconds before the wind flipped it inside out. The funniest part wasn't the umbrella. It was what Lynsey and her friend did next: before they checked the damage, they checked the audience.In this episode, Lynsey unpacks that instinct to scan the room before we let ourselves laugh, speak up, or try something new. She shares the research behind the spotlight effect, why comparing our inside to someone

en

12:40

E67 How to Stop Comparing Your Insides to Everyone...

Lead with Spark | Authentic Leadership for Women,... ·

2026/09/23

How to Stop Comparing Your Insides to Everyone Else's Highlight ReelHave you ever looked around a room full of accomplished people and thought, "What am I doing here?" Last week at a conference in Tampa Bay, Lynsey did exactly that, and within ten minutes she had talked herself right out of her own résumé. Then she walked up to one of the speakers, had a real conversation, and discovered that the woman she admired was carrying the very same worries. In this short solo episode, Lynsey shares what

en

44:37

E66 Your People Are Not Broken, Your System Is:...

Lead with Spark | Authentic Leadership for Women,... ·

2026/09/16

When a senior leader calls Betsy Kauffman and says, I have this person and they need help, they usually mean the person is broken. Betsy's whole career is built on a different premise: your people are not broken, your system is.Betsy Kauffman is the founder and CEO of Cross Impact Coaching, a TED speaker with over 1.6 million views, and the author of The Fix. After 25 years leading large-scale technology transformations, she now helps leadership teams close the gap between strategy and execution

en

14:05

E65 Every Yes Is a No to Something Else

Lead with Spark | Authentic Leadership for Women,... ·

2026/09/09

I recently coached a client on boundaries, and about ten minutes into the conversation I knew it was something I needed to share with you too.She told me she has such a hard time saying no that she gives everything away, and then feels hurt when someone does not choose her. Then she said the sharper version: I do not say no, I am always looking for how I can say yes. In this episode I walk through the reframe that changes that pattern, the three steps I gave her, and the quiet moment on the call

en

12:39

E64 You Do Not Have a Time Problem: How to Finish the...

Lead with Spark | Authentic Leadership for Women,... ·

2026/09/02

It is the end of August, which means sometime in the next two weeks you will open your calendar, look at what is left of the year, and feel one of two things. The sprint: grab every unfinished January goal and muscle to December 31st on caffeine and sheer personality. Or the quiet quit: eh, we will regroup in January, and coast through four months of your one precious life.Both are traps. In this solo episode, Lynsey offers a third way. You do not have a time problem, you have an energy problem,

en

13:37

E63 The Permission Slip: The Memo That Is Never Coming

Lead with Spark | Authentic Leadership for Women,... ·

2026/08/26

You have been waiting on a memo. The one where your boss, the board, or some committee of very official people sits you down and says you are now allowed to lead your way. Trust your gut. Push back in the meeting. Run the team the way you actually want to. Signed, everyone.Lovingly, here is the truth: that memo does not exist. It was never in the mail. In this solo episode, Lynsey names why so many accomplished women keep their real leadership in a drawer, waiting at a window where no one is

en

42:04

E62 Worthy of Rest: Belief, Burnout, and the Stories...

Lead with Spark | Authentic Leadership for Women,... ·

2026/08/19

If you are carrying a lot, leading a lot, achieving a lot, and still wondering why you feel exhausted underneath all of it, this conversation is for you.Dr. Alicia Newsome returns for Part 2 of our series, and this time we zoom out from the body to the whole picture: the beliefs running underneath your leadership, the exhaustion our culture quietly applauds, and her new book, Worthy of Rest. This is the honest, practical half of the conversation, the one about the story you have been telling

en

9:09

E61 The Lifeguard Trap: Why Rescuing Your Team Is...

Lead with Spark | Authentic Leadership for Women,... ·

2026/08/12

When someone on your team is struggling, what is your first instinct? Do you coach them through it, or do you quietly take the thing and do it yourself? If you just went quiet, this one is for you.In this solo episode, Lynsey names what she and her retreat co-facilitator Paula Shannon call the lifeguard trap: the habit of jumping in to rescue that feels like leadership, looks like dedication, and is quietly draining the life out of you. A lifeguard who saves everyone means no one learns to swim and

en

46:45

E60 Your Body Isn't Betraying You: Hormones, Stress,...

Lead with Spark | Authentic Leadership for Women,... ·

2026/08/05

If you have ever felt just a little bit off but could not quite explain it, this conversation will open your eyes in the best way.This week kicks off a special two-part series with Dr. Alicia Newsome, a functional medicine practitioner, executive advisor, international speaker, and three-time bestselling author who helps high performers get to the root cause of what is going on inside their bodies, without drugs or surgery. Together, Lynsey and Dr. Alicia unpack the symptoms so many women have been

en

37:03

E59 The Big Reveal: Introducing the Audaciously...

Lead with Spark | Authentic Leadership for Women,... ·

2026/07/29

Something big is happening this October, and in this episode you get the full reveal. Lynsey is joined by Paula Shannon, founder of Whole Leader Lab, former deputy superintendent, and a leader who spent 30 years in public education before clinical burnout forced a reckoning. Together they announce the Audaciously Unapologetic Retreat, a four-day wellness and leadership experience for women, October 15 to 18 at CIVANA Wellness Resort and Spa in Carefree, Arizona.But this is not just a retreat pitch

en

17:10

E58 The Expensive FYI: How Meeting Culture Steals...

Lead with Spark | Authentic Leadership for Women,... ·

2026/07/22

Eight hours of real work capacity. Fourteen meetings on the calendar. The math has never worked, and yet somewhere along the way we all agreed that this is what a workday looks like.In this episode, Lynsey names the meeting culture problem for what it is: not a scheduling issue, but a culture that quietly turns you into a very expensive FYI. Drawing on 26 years in corporate leadership, including the day she logged on to find 21 meetings stacked into an 8-hour day, Lynsey breaks down the four hidden

en

23:02

E57 The Identity Gap: Who You Were vs. Who You Are...

Lead with Spark | Authentic Leadership for Women,... ·

2026/07/15

Have you ever looked at your life on paper and thought, this all looks right, so why does something feel off? Nothing is broken. Your career is solid, your family is fine, and yet there is a quiet hum underneath it all telling you that this is not it anymore. In this episode, Lynsey digs into the identity gap: the space between the version of you that got you here and the version of you that is trying to emerge. This is a reflection episode with no homework and no five-part framework, because the

en

50:21

E56 Stop People-Pleasing, Get Fear-Optimized, and...

Lead with Spark | Authentic Leadership for Women,... ·

2026/07/08

Default settings are great for printers and computers. Not for people. In this episode of Lead with Spark, Lynsey Mulder sits down with corporate communication coach Amy Greensmith for one of the most honest and practical conversations on people-pleasing, burnout, and using your voice that you are going to find anywhere. Amy has been working in the personal development space for over twenty years, and her work lives at the intersection of two things: believing in your own inherent worthiness, and

en

28:42

E55 The Mid-Year Reset: Stop Letting the Year Happen...

Lead with Spark | Authentic Leadership for Women,... ·

2026/07/01

We are halfway through the year. How did that even happen? In this solo episode of Lead with Spark, Lynsey Mulder gets honest about where her own year stands, the book she is writing, the retreat she is planning, the course she has not started, and what she has learned about protecting summer before it disappears one unplanned Friday night at a time. And she brings all of it back to a question every professional woman needs to sit with before the second half of the year runs away without

en

16:39

E54 The Tactical Trap: Why Your Competence Is Costing...

Lead with Spark | Authentic Leadership for Women,... ·

2026/06/24

You are the one who delivers. You are excellent at your job, everyone knows it, and yet the promotion keeps going somewhere else. When you ask for feedback you hear a polished version of we need to see you operating at the next level, and inside you think I already am. Here is the part that stings before it sets you free. The problem is not that you are not good enough. The problem is that you are too good at the wrong altitude. In this episode I name the tactical trap, the moment your competence

en

30:41

E53 The Backyard Leadership Filter: What Bees, Barn...

Lead with Spark | Authentic Leadership for Women,... ·

2026/06/17

This episode is coming straight from Lynsey Mulder's Iowa backyard, where summer has officially arrived, everything is growing, everything is blooming, and apparently everything has collectively decided to test her leadership skills on the way.In this solo episode of Lead with Spark, Lynsey turns four very real backyard situations, carpenter bees boring into the deck, barn swallows relentlessly rebuilding their nests, rabbits making themselves at home in her strawberry patch, and deer calmly

en

43:32

E52 Your Writing Is Your Brand: How Women Leaders Use...

Lead with Spark | Authentic Leadership for Women,... ·

2026/06/10

What if executive presence is not only about how you show up in a room, but how you sound in every email, proposal, message, and comment with your name on it? In this episode of Lead with Spark, Lynsey Mulder sits down with Grace Aldridge Foster to unpack why writing is part of your brand and how leaders can use words more intentionally at work.Grace is the co-founder and principal of Bold Type, a writing training company that has helped professionals at organizations including UPS, Capital One,

en

14:25

E51 The Trust Tax: A Three-Layer Framework for...

Lead with Spark | Authentic Leadership for Women,... ·

2026/06/03

She used to walk into work with her shoulders squared and her ideas ready to go. She loved her job. She was good at it. People counted on her to figure it out, hold the line, and deliver.And then something shifted. Not all at once. In small increments over months. A comment in a meeting that landed harder than it should have. A decision made about her without her. A version of events she knew was not quite right but did not know how to challenge. The quiet realization that instincts that had

en

18:21

E50 Join the Quitters Club: How Quitting on Purpose...

Lead with Spark | Authentic Leadership for Women,... ·

2026/05/27

What if the most powerful leadership move you could make right now had nothing to do with adding something new to your life, and everything to do with quitting something that has quietly been draining it?Lynsey Mulder just finished a book about a group of friends who made a pact. They called themselves the Quitters Club. And the concept stopped her cold, because every single woman she has ever coached has needed one. She just did not know she was allowed to join. In this episode of Lead with

en

65 results

Similar Podcasts

TaxTalent.com The Golden Rule Podcast

Adam Golden

TaxTalent.com Podcast

Tony Santiago

SoldiOnline

Mondadori Digital

Inside the ICE House

Intercontinental Exchange

36氪·有识芝士

36氪音频频道