When you’re navigating women’s leadership – at work and at home – it’s easy to feel like you’re falling short in both. This women’s leadership Q&A dives into that challenge, with unfiltered questions and honest answers from yours truly.
During this behind-the-scenes keynote moment, I answered real questions from a room full of high-achieving women. We covered fatigue, guilt, self-care, intuition, boundaries, ambition, and how to lead without burning out.
Women’s Leadership Q&A: Real Questions Female Leaders Are Asking
Q. In Women’s Leadership, How Can I Talk About Burnout Without Seeming Weak?
A. Vulnerability is not a liability. In fact, it’s a leadership advantage. By being open about your struggles, you create a culture of psychological safety. People trust leaders who are honest and human. When you’re transparent about how you’re feeling, you’re modeling healthy behavior and encouraging others to do the same.
Q. How do I stop feeling guilty for prioritizing myself?
A. If you wouldn’t want your child to neglect their health, why should you? I share a powerful story about how reframing this through the lens of what I would want for my own children helped me release guilt. Self-care isn’t selfish – it’s strategic. You can’t pour from an empty cup, and your well-being benefits everyone around you.
Q. What if the goals I set no longer feel aligned?
A. You’re allowed to evolve. You have permission to let go of outdated goals and redefine success on your terms. Life changes, and so do your values. It’s not failure to adjust; it’s wisdom. This part of the Q&A encourages high-achieving women to check in with themselves and lead from clarity, not old expectations.
Q. How Do Female Leaders Stay Motivated When the Spark Fades?
A. Burnout often comes from a lack of reflection. We discuss the the power of celebrating your milestones – big and small. Without acknowledgment, achievements lose meaning. I also share how celebrating my book deal with my family helped reignite my passion and reminded me why I do what I do.
Q. How do I build community when I have no time?
A. Start with solitude. I reveal how setting boundaries and spending intentional time alone is the first step to creating space for meaningful connection. You have to reconnect with yourself before you can connect authentically with others. When you’re aligned internally, the right community follows.
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CLICK FOR TRANSCRIPT
[00:00:00] What do you do when you’re leading at work? You’re leading at home, and you still feel like you’re falling short In both? In today’s episode, I’m sharing a behind the scenes keynote q and a, where we talked about everything from the mental load and self-care guilt to how women in leadership can speak up, set boundaries, and still show up fully.
If you’ve ever felt like you’ve had to shrink yourself in order to stay strong, this episode will show you how to lead without burning out.
If you’re new here, I’m Corrie LoGiudice.
I am a professional keynote speaker, workshop facilitator, high performance coach, and author of the forthcoming book, the Five Overwhelm Culprits. I help high achieving women take confident action in their life, their work, as well as in leadership. So subscribe. If you’re ready to reclaim your time, your clarity, and your power.
This Q&A happened during a recent keynote I gave to a room full of working women leaders. And the questions, I mean, come on. They were real, [00:01:00] right? All about fatigue guilt motivation leadership parenting pressure.
What you’re about to hear is the truth that so many of us are living, but very rarely ever get to say out loud. Let’s go ahead and dive in.
MixPre-316: We have a question online that I’d like to start with. How do we have the discussions about being overwhelmed without appearing weak and delicate to managers and others around us who feel we should just suck it up? I suffered from severe fatigue the past few months, but I am not comfortable expressing this to others.
I just use the, oh, I’m just tired. Meanwhile, I’m exhausted physically and mentally. First, I’m very sorry that you feel that way. That’s an awful position to be in second. You are actually more powerful by admitting your weakness. The most powerful leaders, anybody you will ever work with, they’re the ones that are not afraid to be vulnerable.
And share their weaknesses along with their strengths. So in this scenario, I would [00:02:00] actually encourage you to take the higher road and to be authentic and to say what you are actually feeling, what the actual circumstances are. Because the truth is, if you are not, and you are fatigued and it’s affecting your performance in a way, you are not of service to everybody else in that position, So it doesn’t help the group by you holding that back. But it also doesn’t help the group address how they might be able to help you so that you can perform at that level, especially since it’s only temporary. That’s one of the things about overwhelm too. We are never constantly overwhelmed. It’s always something new that pops up to it.
It’s learning that it’s a cycle , and no one can ever be on 24 hours, right? There’s seasons in life for a reason. Mother Earth, we have spring, we have summer, we have fall. During fall. That’s when the energy gets built up within the grounds and then bloom up into spring. So for you to be expected to work through that, it’s difficult, but share authentically, share vulnerably how it is that you are feeling and demonstrate for others that it’s safe for you to do it. And you will see that more people will follow your footsteps in the process.
I have two kids and i’m like, I wish I could sleep more. I wish I could [00:03:00] work out more or whatever. Or spend time with friends. sure. How do you not feel guilty of taking care of yourself
if at the time you’re doing that, you’re not spending time with your kids? And they grow so fast? Sure. Yeah. No, uh, I’m gonna share with you something that my, my therapist, by the way, I work with the same therapist like 10 years through all of this.
She’s an amazing wise woman. But what she had asked me one day when I said this exact same question, ’cause I felt that same guilt. She said, if your child was in that position, what would you want them to do? Right. And for me, I’d want my kids to take care of their health, take care of their mental health, their physical health, to be active, to have friends, to do things that are for them and for no one else, right?
And I’m not modeling that behavior if I’m not doing it myself. So that was kind of the shift for me. And I don’t feel guilty anymore because I know I’m of no value to anybody else at that state that I’m in if I don’t take care of myself.
I have a question for you. I really appreciate that you were talking about having a vision, having that clarity and clarity doesn’t always come easy. Um, I really appreciate that you [00:04:00] described that putting everything in balance allows you to have clarity.
Can you talk about, you know, you, you talked about many different wishes that you’d had different values that might have adjusted over time. How often did you take a moment to just recheck in? ‘ cause sometimes it’s really easy to get on that hamster wheel. Keep running and just keep running towards a wall, and you realize maybe what you put on paper two years ago isn’t really what I want.
Exactly. How do you find that, Mm-hmm. how do you discover that Right frequency? Excellent question. Really, it’s, you have to trust your intuition Is that what you’re working towards, it isn’t in alignment. anymore, And there’s nothing wrong with that. This actually happened very, very recently for me, where I realized that some of the values that I had originally pinned to that board now, eight, nine years ago, aren’t in alignment for what I’m doing now.
And there’s nothing wrong with that, right? You have the power to choose wherever you want this life to be and wherever you lead it. So I think a lot of times too, we become especially high performing women that we are our own worst enemies.
We are perfectionists. We think that when we put something in writing that that has to happen. And if it doesn’t happen that everyone’s gonna judge us, right. For not making it happen. But it is okay [00:05:00] to say, no, this ain’t for me anymore. Right. It’s okay to, you know, put your name in for a promotion, get it, and maybe it’s not what you thought it was.
As long as there’s transparency through the journey. And you are communicating to others and sharing where you’re at. As long as you are leading that way, you can make choices. Ultimately, everything we’ve talked about today is a series of you making choices for yourself and deciding where you wanna be and how you’re gonna get there.
Do have any published work and where can we find it? I am so glad you asked that because I am so excited on my vision board. I don’t know if you noticed it. So since 2019 I had put that I was gonna be a New York Times bestseller.
I had that on there. I had no plans for it. Uh, just this last week I signed a traditional publishing deal. That there is a book called The Five Overwhelm Culprits. It’s being published by HCI and it’s coming out in 2026.
Yeah. And the book is gonna cover a lot of the questions that you all have asked me in regards to things like, there is actually a chapter called Get Off the Hamster Wheel. where We were just talking about that. Uh, so all these different questions that you’re bringing up, they get covered in more detail in the book.
Great. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I’m back.
Thank [00:06:00] you for sharing your story. I, it resonates with me, so I appreciate it. Um, I have a question about motivation because I can go through periods of time where I’ve, I call it, I’m cooking with gas, like everything is working and then all of a sudden, like someone else or like my internal flame just goes out and then I like find, I struggle. So where in that journey am I kind of missing the boat, like when I need to get re-energized?
My guess and I’m just guessing. That your culprits conditioning, that you’re not taking the time for yourself, giving yourself the space , ’cause again, it’s mental and physical.
Giving yourself to actually think about what it is you’re doing, that when you’re constantly in motion all the time, you are gonna burn out. It’s not gonna be exciting anymore ’cause you don’t have time to think. And another thing too that I think is so, so important, how many of you actually celebrate your wins and your Milestones, like three hands. So that’s another thing that helps with the motivation side of it too. You have to learn how to celebrate your milestones. When I signed my book deal, my husband and I took all of our kids, we went out to this like super fancy dinner and my kids are all excited like, mommy got a book deal.
But that you need to celebrate these things because otherwise it just [00:07:00] becomes another box you check off and you don’t remember what it is you’re working towards.
MVI_0046: Right.
MixPre-316: Reason I was working towards that book is because every single time I get on a stage, I get the question about the book, So I finally decided to do something about it.
People are asking for my support. I decided to finally issue it in that manner. But you need to have the time in the space to be able to figure out, again, is it the right direction that you wanna be moving in, and to celebrate how far you’ve come already. ‘ cause when you don’t, then you’re gonna be like, what am I doing this for?
Um, first I just wanna say. Your story is so inspiring. I’m sorry you went through all that you went through, but thank you for being vulnerable. I’m just curious, do you have like a strategy in your life for how you approach making big decisions, whether it’s professional or personal? Just curious about your thought process on approaching, making big decisions in your life.
Sure. Great question. There’s actually an entire chapter in my upcoming book on this specifically, no plug intended. No, in all seriousness, it really, when I look back. At decisions that should have been scary to make.
So, for example, the day that I had the thing thrown at me, right? A lot of folks, initially what had gone through my head is like, oh my God, what do I do? if I [00:08:00] leave, I don’t have a house. If I leave, how am I gonna pay the bills? I don’t have childcare, I don’t have this, I don’t have that. Right? So it would’ve been just as easy for me to ignore my intuition and to just do what was safe, right?
So for me, and this is a lot of the work that I do in my, my coaching in particular. Is learning how to break down your fears and what’s the difference between your ego telling you something, what your ego is, you know, it’s designed by nature to keep you safe and keep you secure, right? That’s what keeps you with the job and the roof over your head and food, right?
That’s safety. Your intuition is what’s best for the higher good. Right. So in those scenarios, it’s really important that you learn how to trust your intuition and there’s a lot of different ways to get better at it. Folks might view it as being like a gut feeling. You say that a lot. And so that purposeful solitude helps a lot with that because you need time and space by yourself to allow your intuition to speak to you. So making sure you have that, but learning how to get very, very attuned to like, no, this is what I feel and trust that. And trust in yourself first before you trust anybody [00:09:00] else, then you can’t go wrong.
Hi. So I have a question around community. Community is something that I do think is very, very important, but it’s very hard to incorporate that into your day-to-day life. How Do you make time for the women’s group? How do you make time for that community piece? That, you know, would make you more conditioned, but you just don’t have time for it.
Well, when it’s a priority, you find the time for it. So for me, at that time, it was, I knew that I felt alone, right? The pain of me feeling alone and not knowing anybody that was in the situation like me was greater than my fear of maybe not doing something else that. Might be expected of me, but honestly, we could have pushed it a little bit longer or maybe timed it differently.
right, so you’re able to find the time, and I promise you too, I would actually start with, the, the month of me like I recommended, and get really comfortable with spending time by yourself first, right? And setting those boundaries and finding what actually brings you joy first, and then bring in the community side of it because it’s only gonna elevate everything you learn [00:10:00] about yourself.
In the process of doing that ‘ cause it gives you the opportunity to connect with people who are really all about and passionate about the same things that you are. But you gotta find that if you find that , you don’t have enough time for that. And you also are not having time to take care of yourself first.
Your culprits actually conditioning. you need to deal with that first before you come into community. So you can find the time.
Hey cory, thank you for sharing your story and how you overcame it. I was really impressed. I personally, I’m a meditator and I exercise gratitude every day since I wake up. . So I would like to hear from you. How meditation changed your life and what have you achieved doing that?
It’s a great question too. ‘ cause I’m sure you probably have some feelings yourself on how it’s changed your life. So giving this the platform to talk about it, I think is awesome. So meditation for me was super important, especially as a working mom and some of this, might resonate for a lot of you.
I never felt I was actually present in the place that I was when I was at work. I was always thinking about my kid. When I was at home, I was [00:11:00] always thinking about work. I felt like I was divided between two beings and my brain was always like checked out somewhere else.
And meditation taught me the skills that I needed to learn how to actually be physically present in my body here, which is. So important. It’s a skill that’s transferable to other things that you do too. It helps me now, even if I’m doing something, you know, business wise, a really important decision or something that I need to solve, it’s helpful for me to take a beat and get grounded in my body first before I make any decisions, because then at least I know I’m not doing it out of a place of emotion, right?
Or a place of like heightened emotion, which you never make good decisions. When you’re like that. So for me, it was very, very pivotal in learning how to be present in my body and in this moment, instead of having my brain be elsewhere, which ultimately made me a better leader
in the long run.
Yes.
Good morning. It is really nice to meet you. Now that you are surrendered by a big family and uh, four children, what do you do today with them to prepare them to be in good shape, when they will be grow up and in a professional life? Awesome question. Near and dear to me, too. It’s helpful that my [00:12:00] husband has the same beliefs as I do.
You know, in terms of setting that example for our kids, we don’t ask anything of our kids that we are not willing to do ourselves. So they see me getting up and working out. They see me when I travel. Actually yesterday during the soundcheck, I. was showing them the room on FaceTime. They see the type of work that I do.
They celebrate with us when we have a huge accomplishment. So they know how to celebrate and we do the same thing for them. Oh, you won the basketball game. Cool. We’re getting friendlies today. You know, stuff like that. We celebrate all the little accomplishments, so there is nothing that I expect of them that I won’t do myself, and I know that if I am leading for them in a way that takes care of me.
That I could trust that they will do it themselves. Even a great example, before coming, , here last week, allergy season hit New York. I know you guys are a little bit, you know, sooner here ’cause you’re fur further south. But I get really bad allergies and my head was so packed up, I was so worried I wasn’t gonna be able to talk and my kids and my husband were like over the weekend, no, it’s fine.
We’ve got this. You sleep. My kids actually put the blanket on me. They made me sit [00:13:00] on the couch all weekend. They’re like, it’s okay, mommy. We’re gonna take care of you. ’cause I take care of them when they’re sick. And my husband took care of, you know, like doing like dishes and laundry and this and that, whatever, so that I can rest.
So everybody sees in our family all the different parts of what’s required for us to be able to show up as our best selves for each other, and they model that now. And It’s been really amazing for me now that my kids are a little older, actually seeing them reflect it back. When I’m in a position that I’m not feeling well. So thank you.
good afternoon. Nice to meet you. And thank you so much for your transparency. Listening to you, I feel like I am hearing someone else speak of me. Currently I’m doing a 20 hour commute weekly. For you is, and I have write notes ’cause I wanna make sure that I’m asking you the right question.
It’s in this world of softness and demure, right? We went from, you know, girl boss to now learning to be soft and demure. So how do you maintain that or that balance and not being concerned about the thoughts of other people when you’re leading and trying to make change?
because ultimately I’ve realized the thoughts of other people [00:14:00] doesn’t mean it’s necessarily my thoughts. It doesn’t mean it’s something I believe. Also being softer as a feminine leader. There are so many things that women excel at, in particular, that emotional connection, being able to connect with people, you know, where men tend to be more, they’re results focused like numbers. This, that, and that’s fine.
I have another talk that I give that’s all about these differences, so I’m not gonna dive too deep into it. But it just comes to the way that we’re wired in the way that we communicate. So for me, knowing that I don’t take it personally. If somebody says something that maybe I don’t agree with or anything like that, I know that I show up as a better leader when I am doing so authentically as myself with my own gifts the way that I do, which it’s my way to connect with people and make people feel seen and heard.
And these are all things that are actually an asset. So if somebody’s gonna try to get in the way of me providing that for others, they’re actually more of a problem to the group and the situation than anybody just letting me do what I do best. Right. So it’s having that kind of confidence again, it’s really coming back to the confidence and knowing that this is what I have to [00:15:00] offer people.
This is why I’m great, and this is what I can help with, and really backing it up because if you don’t believe it, other people aren’t gonna believe it either. That’s the most important part.
All right. Thank you so much everybody. I’m gonna be here for lunch, so feel free to say hi.
And that wraps it up. If you’d love to bring a similar keynote or workshop experience to your group or your audience, I would love to help you out with that. For more information on my speaking offers, feel free to visit www.co lo.com/speaking.
And if you heard something in today’s conversation that truly hit home, I invite you to take my free overwhelm culprit quiz. It’ll help you identify what’s keeping you stuck, and give you the tools that you need to start moving forward. That’s also available at my website as well at www.corrie low.com. Slash overwhelm culprit and we will be sure to link to both in the show notes.
So thank you so much for being here. I truly hope that you found this valuable and I’ll look forward to seeing you on the next episode.
Thanks for checking out the next step with Cory Lowe. [00:16:00] If this episode resonated with you, share it with a friend, subscribe and leave a review. Together we’ll transform overwhelm into action and we’ll keep taking the next step towards competent leadership. See you next time.