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“Ugh. I have to write my performance summary.” Sign up to book your session: https://lizjolley.com/performance-review You open the document, stare at the blinking cursor, and suddenly cannot remember anything you did all year. Or you begin typing about how you “leveraged cross-functional relationships” and “optimized stakeholder engagement”—then read it back and wonder what any of it actually means. In Episode 127 of The Great Leader, Great Mom Podcast, Liz Jolley shares four questions that help you write a stronger year-end performance review self-assessment: 1. What did I actually do?2. So what?3. What made it hard?4. What can I do now that I could not do—or could not do as well—a year ago? You will learn how to remember the work you completed, show what changed because of your contribution, explain the complexity you navigated, and name the leadership capabilities you can carry into your next project, promotion conversation, job interview, or career decision. Your performance summary matters, but it is not a final verdict on your value or your career. It is one document that helps tell the story of your year. Want personalized help? Liz is offering a limited number of free 45-minute Performance Review Writing Sessions. Bring your draft, a rough list, or nothing at all. Reserve your session: https://lizjolley.com/performance-review Liz Jolley is the founder of The School of Courage™ and host of The Great Leader, Great Mom Podcast.

Stop Hating Your Job workshop: ⁠https://lizjolley.com/stop-hating-your-job⁠ Your boss asks you to rework the numbers, presentation, or model for what feels like the twelfth time. You spend hours doing the work, but they barely acknowledge it—or immediately ask for another version. You think, “I cannot keep doing this. They don’t value me. They don’t care.” In Episode 126 of The Great Leader, Great Mom Podcast, Liz Jolley explores what happens when work feels like it is crushing your mental health. You’ll learn how workplace stress, burnout, a difficult boss, and repeated requests can leave you feeling trapped, powerless, and unsure whether you should stay or leave. Liz teaches you how to use The Power of Creating Space™ to pause between what happens at work and how you respond. This isn’t about excusing poor leadership, pretending everything is fine, or forcing yourself to think positively. It’s about recognizing the thoughts driving your emotional reaction, asking what else could be true, and deciding how you want to show up. If you’re tired of letting work control your mood, your evenings, and your mental health, sign up for Liz’s free Stop Hating Your Job workshop: https://lizjolley.com/stop-hating-your-job Liz Jolley is the founder of The School of Courage™ and host of The Great Leader, Great Mom Podcast. She helps high-achieving women stop reacting on default, create more space, and become their Grounded Self™ at work, at home, and within.

Join this week's webinar on How To Stop Hating Your Job Webinar HERE https://lizjolley.com/stop-hating-your-job What do you do when you have lost respect for your boss? Maybe your manager changes direction, avoids decisions, gives vague instructions, or seems disconnected from the work. Before long, every meeting, email, and request becomes more evidence that this person should never have been promoted. In Episode 125 of The Great Leader Great Mom Podcast, Liz Jolley explains why spending the day judging your boss can drain your energy and change how you lead. She shares her experience working for a leader nobody wanted to join, and shows how to stay grounded, speak with more intention, and respect yourself even when you disagree with the person in charge. This episode answers a practical leadership question: How can I work for a boss I do not respect without letting their behavior ruin my day? You will learn how to separate your boss's choices from your own, notice when frustration is shaping your behavior, and decide who you want to be in the room. Liz Jolley is the founder of The School of Courage and host of The Great Leader Great Mom Podcast. Through The School of Courage, she helps women leaders navigate career dissatisfaction, difficult workplace relationships, and the decisions that shape how they work and lead.

Why does one difficult day sometimes make your entire life feel wrong? Your child gets sick. A coworker criticizes your presentation. Your boss disappoints you. Your spouse leaves one more shoe in the hallway. Suddenly, your brain decides you’re unsupported, overwhelmed, and failing at everything. In this episode of The Great Leader, Great Mom Podcast, leadership coach Liz Jolley examines the hidden belief underneath much of our suffering: “If I were doing everything right, my life wouldn’t be this hard.” Liz explains: Why good decisions don’t guarantee comfortable outcomesWhat it means to accept that life is 50-50How your interpretation of a circumstance creates your emotional responseThe difference between allowing negative emotion and becoming powerless inside itByron Katie’s concept of “my business, your business, and God’s business”How to return to what you can think, feel, do, and decide nextThis is not an invitation to ignore a harmful boss, tolerate an unsupportive relationship, or pretend everything is wonderful. It is a way to experience disappointment, frustration, and sadness without waiting for the entire world to change before you can feel grounded again. Learn more about Liz Jolley and The School of Courage™ at https://lizjolley.com.

What should you do when everyone believes you are ready for a bigger leadership role—but you aren’t sure you actually want it? You may be completely capable of doing your boss’s job. But that doesn’t mean the title, increased responsibility, long hours, travel, or reduced flexibility belong in the life you want to create. In Episode 123 of The Great Leader, Great Mom Podcast, Liz Jolley explores the conflict many successful women and working moms experience when career advancement looks impressive—but may require tradeoffs they no longer want to make. Liz shares the story of a senior leader encouraging her to accept an intense, always-on position as preparation for moving higher in the company. Although Liz knew she could do the job, she also knew the cost wasn’t right for her while her children were young. In this episode, you’ll learn: Why being capable of doing a job doesn’t mean you must choose it How titles and promotions become proof of our value and leadership potential Why disappointing a boss or mentor can feel so difficult How to separate what you want from what others think you should want Why staying in your current role doesn’t mean you have stopped growing How to identify the career tradeoffs you are—and are not—willing to make Whether you want the executive role, greater flexibility, more meaningful work, or more time with your family, courage means knowing what matters to you and choosing it intentionally. Stop disappointing yourself simply because you are afraid of disappointing someone else. Learn more about The School of Courage™ and Liz Jolley’s leadership coaching for working moms:https://lizjolley.com/membership

What do you do when your company expects you to keep doing more with less—fewer people, the same workload, and no clear explanation of what should actually stop? If your first question is, “How am I supposed to get all of this done?” Liz Jolley wants you to ask a different one. In this episode of The Great Leader, Great Mom Podcast, Liz explains why trying to complete everything on an overloaded list can keep capable, high-performing women stuck in overwhelm. Instead, she walks through her Power Question Framework™ to help you define what success actually looks like, identify how you’ll know you’re making progress, and uncover what is making success harder than it needs to be. You’ll learn how to: ·      question whether every task has actually earned a place on your list ·      define what success looks like when priorities and resources have changed ·      identify work that consumes time without changing a decision or meaningful outcome ·      surface barriers instead of silently absorbing more work ·      talk with your boss about priorities and tradeoffs from a grounded, strategic position ·      stop treating an impossible workload like a personal failure to execute If you’ve been working through lunch, taking work home, thinking about your job in the shower, or quietly wondering whether quitting is the only way to breathe again, this episode gives you a different place to start. The goal isn’t to magically become better at doing everything. It’s to get clear about what actually matters now. Learn more about Liz Jolley and The School of Courage™ at LizJolley.com/membership.

Have you been doing all the ‘right’ things you keep hearing about, like eating more protein, exercising, trying supplements, or following the latest wellness advice—and still noticed your body changing during perimenopause or menopause?   Maybe your clothes fit differently, your energy has changed, or the strategies that once worked no longer seem effective. You care about your health, but conflicting advice about food, hormones, weight, and exercise has left you wondering what actually applies to you.   In this bonus episode of The Great Leader, Great Mom Podcast, Liz Jolley talks with Registered Dietitian and Wellness Educator Nathalie Sessions about why midlife nutrition is not one-size-fits-all.   Nathalie shares some of the ways perimenopause can influence body composition, sleep, appetite regulation, blood sugar, energy, and overall metabolic health. She shares the value of understanding individual health needs and strengthening the foundations before adding another restrictive diet, supplement, or complicated wellness strategy.   Liz and Nathalie discuss: • Why body composition can change during perimenopause and menopause • Why nutrition advice feels so confusing and contradictory • Nathalie’s “foundations first” approach to midlife wellness • How nutrition, sleep, movement, stress, rest, and health history work together • Why trying to improve everything at once creates more overwhelm • How protein, fiber, and flexible meal planning can reduce decision fatigue • How flexible planning can reduce decision fatigue and support confidence • How intuitive eating helps women reconnect with hunger, fullness, satisfaction, and energy • Why food does not need to be labeled “good” or “bad” • Nathalie’s Assess–Address–Progress–Finesse–Success framework   This is not another rigid plan or list of foods you are forbidden to eat. It is an honest conversation about understanding what is changing, identifying what deserves your attention first, and creating sustainable nutrition and  lifestyle habits that work in your real life.   ABOUT NATHALIE SESSIONS Nathalie Sessions, RD, LD, NLC, is a Registered and Licensed Dietitian, Wellness Educator, Intuitive Eating Coach, and founder of Nutrition Sessions LLC. She helps women 35+ better understand their changing health needs during perimenopause and beyond.   Receive Nathalie’s complimentary Women’s Wellness Rhythm Reflection Guide:: https://www.nutritionsessions.com/guide   Learn more about Nathalie: https://www.nutritionsessions.com/   Book time with Nathalie: Clarity Call link:  https://p.bttr.to/3Iz3fIo   ABOUT LIZ JOLLEY Liz Jolley is the founder of The School of Courage™ and host of The Great Leader, Great Mom Podcast. She helps high-achieving women stop reacting from overwhelm, develop grounded self-leadership, and become their Grounded Self™ at work, at home, and within.   Learn more about Liz and The School of Courage: https://lizjolley.com/

How Do I Deal With Negative People at Work Without Letting Them Ruin My Day? Why can one negative coworker change your mood so fast? In this episode, Liz Jolley talks about gossip, complaining, workplace uncertainty, and what happens when someone else’s negativity starts following you through the rest of your day. You’ll hear how to stop automatically picking up what other people are carrying, why trying to convince a negative person to be more positive usually backfires, and how to use compassion, boundaries, and “equal airtime” to stay more grounded. The goal is not to pretend everything is fine. It’s to let other people have their experience without making it yours. You can be around negativity without carrying it with you.

You haven’t even walked into the meeting yet — but seeing your boss’s name on the calendar is already enough to make your stomach drop. Sound familiar? In this episode, Liz Jolley talks about the person at work who gets under your skin, takes up way too much space in your brain, and seems to have the power to derail your entire day. Drawing from her own experience with a frustrating boss, Liz explores an uncomfortable but freeing idea: sometimes the suffering isn’t only coming from what the other person is doing. It’s also coming from all the ways we believe they should be different. What happens when you stop waiting for them to change? You can begin creating space between their behavior and your response. Liz walks through how to notice when your body is becoming reactive, uncover the thoughts underneath that reaction, and ask a better question: Who do I want to be in this moment? You’ll hear how this shift can help you move from defensive and triggered to grounded, curious, and much harder to shake — even when the other person doesn’t change at all. If someone at work is occupying far more of your emotional energy than you want to give them, this conversation will help you begin taking that power back. More at LizJolley.com.

Why is it so hard to relax when there is still something left to do? You finally sit down with your family, but part of your brain is still scanning the room. The dishes. The laundry. The lunches. The thing on the counter. The list for tomorrow. And instead of enjoying the moment, you feel guilty for not being productive. In this episode of The Great Leader, Great Mom Podcast, Liz Jolley explores the belief underneath that pressure: the idea that rest has to be earned. You’ll look at how ordinary things like dishes in the sink or a messy room can start to mean something much bigger: I’m behind. I’m being lazy. I haven’t done enough. A good mom would be doing more. That is where so much of the exhaustion comes from. Not just from everything there is to do, but from all the meaning we attach to what is still undone. Liz shares a simple question that can interrupt that pattern: What do I actually want right now? Maybe you want to clean the kitchen because waking up to a clean space matters to you. Maybe you want to sit next to your child and hear about their day. Maybe you want to leave the dishes exactly where they are. There is no perfect answer. The point is to choose on purpose instead of automatically obeying every “should” your brain hands you. In this episode, you’ll explore: why rest can feel like something you have to earnhow mom guilt gets tied to unfinished choreswhy “I should be doing something” creates so much pressurehow perfectionism can make ordinary evenings feel exhaustingwhy changing your job or schedule will not automatically quiet the voice that says you should do morehow to separate what you actually value from what you think a “good mom” is supposed to dohow to be present with your family without mentally punishing yourself for what is still undoneIf you have ever sat down to relax and immediately started thinking about everything you should be doing instead, this episode is for you. Your worth as a mom has never been sitting in the sink. And you do not have to finish everything before you get to be present for your own life. www.lizjolley.com

What should you do when you hate your job but can’t afford to quit? Maybe you need the paycheck. The health insurance. The mortgage payment. The stability. And every time you think about leaving, your brain immediately reminds you of everything that could go wrong. So you stay. And then you tell yourself, “I have to be here.” That thought can leave you feeling trapped, resentful, hopeless, and completely powerless in your own life. In this episode of The Great Leader, Great Mom Podcast, Liz Jolley explores what happens when “I can’t afford to quit” becomes an unquestioned fact instead of a thought you’re willing to examine. You’ll learn why your brain starts gathering evidence for everything that is wrong with your job, how feeling trapped changes the way you show up at work and at home, and why getting specific about what you actually dislike can open up possibilities you couldn’t see before. Liz also shares her own experience considering leaving the security of corporate life to start her business—and how the fear of paying for health insurance went from feeling like an enormous barrier to becoming a practical problem she could solve. This episode is not about convincing you to quit your job. It’s about shifting from: “I have to stay.” to: “I’m choosing to stay right now because I want what this paycheck provides.” That small shift can help you stop reacting from resentment and start seeing the choices you actually have. If you feel stuck in a job you no longer want but believe you can’t afford to leave, this episode will help you question the story, get specific about the real problem, and find your way back to your own agency. In this episode:• What to do when you hate your job but can’t afford to quit• Why “I have to stay” makes you feel trapped• How your thoughts about work can reinforce job dissatisfaction• How to stop feeling powerless in your career• Why financial security and career choice are not always either/or• How to identify what you actually dislike about your job• How to think about leaving a job without panicking• The shift from “I have to” to “I’m choosing to”• How to make career decisions from agency instead of fear Liz Jolley is an engineer-turned-life-coach, mom of three, and founder of The School of Courage™. On The Great Leader, Great Mom Podcast, she helps high-achieving women lead at work and at home without losing themselves. Want help applying this to your real life and career? Connect with Liz at lizjolley.com.

Have you asked everyone you trust what you should do with your career—only to feel even more confused? In Episode 117 of The Great Leader, Great Mom Podcast, Liz Jolley explores why career decisions feel so overwhelming for high-achieving women. The struggle may not be that you do not know what you want. It may be that you believe there is one “right” decision—and that choosing it will finally make you feel happy, capable and certain that you have done life correctly. Liz begins with the night she climbed out of her house through a window while eight months pregnant, drove away crying and wondered, “What is wrong with me that I can’t get it together?” She was thriving as a corporate leader but felt like she was failing as a mother. This episode examines the hidden happiness checklist many women were taught to follow: be good, work hard, become successful, build a family, take care of everyone and never need anyone to take care of you. The unspoken promise was that if you checked every box correctly, you would finally feel good enough. But life does not become permanently happy after the next accomplishment, job or career decision. Every path contains joy and disappointment, confidence and uncertainty, beautiful moments and difficult ones. You’ll learn: • Why other people’s career advice can leave you more confused• How the pressure to make the “right” decision erodes self-trust• Why a pros-and-cons list can quietly become a scorecard for everyone else’s expectations• What life being “50-50” means for career decisions• The question that can help you hear what you genuinely want If you knew you could be happy either way—and no one else’s opinion mattered—what would you choose? Learn more about Liz Jolley and The School of Courage™ at https://lizjolley.com.

Should you quit your job, or are you burned out and desperate for relief? In Episode 116 of The Great Leader, Great Mom Podcast, Liz Jolley—engineer turned life coach, working mom of three, and founder of The School of Courage—explores how career burnout, mom guilt, perfectionism, and people-pleasing can affect major career decisions. When a demanding job leaves you overwhelmed, it is easy to imagine a different life: more time with your children, fewer missed school events, a more organized home, less rushing, and enough space to finally take care of yourself. The relief you feel while imagining that future is real. But relief is not always evidence that quitting your job is the right decision. Liz shares the story of missing her first grader’s Rodeo Day parent event and how her daughter’s disappointment quickly triggered the painful belief, “A good mom would have been there.” That moment created a fantasy of leaving corporate work and becoming the present, organized, good-enough mom she believed she was supposed to be. This episode introduces a core Crossroads Decision Lab distinction: the difference between genuinely wanting a career change and hoping a new circumstance will finally make you feel worthy, successful, or good enough. You will learn why your perfectionist thoughts, people-pleasing patterns, and internal expectations can follow you into a new job—or into life after leaving one—and how to separate two essential questions: What do I genuinely want? What do I believe this decision will finally prove about me? Whether you are considering quitting your job, changing careers, reducing your hours, leaving corporate life, or trying to understand whether you are experiencing burnout, this episode will help you create space, identify the story running the show, and make a more grounded decision you can have your own back on. About Liz Jolley Liz Jolley is an engineer turned life coach, mom of three, and founder of The School of Courage. She hosts The Great Leader, Great Mom Podcast and created the Crossroads Decision Lab to help high-achieving women and working moms move through burnout, guilt, overthinking, and major life decisions with greater self-trust.

A free workshop for successful working moms who feel stuck between work and family — and are afraid that leaving their career may be the only way to finally feel better. https://lizjolley.com/before-you-quit You planned carefully. You worked hard. You tried to think ahead. And when something still goes wrong, your brain immediately says: “You should have handled this better.” In this episode, Liz shares what happened when a family trip to the Frio River collided with a one-in-a-thousand rain event—and how quickly her own brain tried to make her responsible for the weather. It sounds ridiculous when we say it that way. But high-achieving women do this every day. A project gets delayed, and you think you should have prevented it. Your child is disappointed, and you decide you have failed them. A meeting goes badly, and instead of seeing one difficult moment, you start questioning whether you are capable enough to lead. The circumstance changes, but the voice stays the same. In this episode, Liz explains why feeling like you are failing at work and at home may not mean you are doing either one badly. It may mean you are measuring yourself against an impossible scorecard—one that expects you to predict every problem, manage everyone’s emotions, and never have a human reaction yourself. You’ll learn how perfectionism turns disappointment into self-blame, why your brain keeps making you responsible for outcomes you cannot control, and how to create enough space to ask a better question: “What would love do with the reality I actually have?” This is not about pretending hard things are wonderful or forcing yourself to think positively. It is about separating the facts from the painful story your brain adds—and learning to have your own back when life unfolds differently than you planned. Because nothing has gone wrong. Reality may simply be different than what you imagined. And you are still allowed to trust yourself inside it. If you’ve been thinking, “I can’t keep doing this,” pause before making a big career decision and ask: Is the job creating the suffering, or is it the impossible scorecard you are carrying into every room? That is exactly what Liz explores in the free workshop, Before You Quit the Career You Worked So Hard to Build. https://lizjolley.com/before-you-quit

Thinking about quitting the career you worked so hard to build? Before you make that decision, join my free live workshop, Before You Quit the Career You Worked So Hard to Build, on Thursday, July 24, 12:00–1:00 PM Central. Register here: https://lizjolley.com/before-you-quit Have you ever found yourself thinking, "I can't keep doing this anymore?" Not because you hate your job—but because everything simply feels like too much. Too many meetings. Too many responsibilities. Too many people depending on you. Too much guilt about work. Too much guilt about home. And somewhere in the middle of trying to do it all, your brain starts offering what feels like the only solution: "Maybe I should just quit." In this episode, Liz Jolley explores why high-achieving women often believe changing their circumstances is the only way to feel better—and why that thought may be leading them to solve the wrong problem. You'll learn: Why burnout and overwhelm naturally make quitting feel like the only option. Why your brain tries to solve emotional pain by changing your circumstances. The powerful question to ask before making any major career decision. How to stop making decisions from guilt, fear, resentment, or the desperate need for relief. How to begin making grounded decisions you can trust. If you've been asking yourself: Should I quit my job? Am I burned out or is it time for a career change? Why do I feel like I'm failing at work and home? How do I make a career decision I won't regret? ...this episode is for you. Whether you ultimately decide to stay, leave, redesign your role, or pursue something entirely new, the goal isn't simply to make the "right" decision. It's to become the kind of woman who can trust herself with one of the biggest decisions of her life. 🎓 Free Workshop: https://lizjolley.com/before-you-quit Connect with Liz Jolley Website: https://lizjolley.com The School of Courage™: https://theschoolofcourage.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lizjolley/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LizJolley