Advertise on podcast: Setting Boundaries in Corporate | Burnout, Work-Life Balance, Leadership, Structure, Prioritization

Ever feel like you’re running on empty, foggy, tense, and short with the people you love, even though “nothing is really wrong”? Your body may be setting a boundary you haven’t set yet. In this episode, I sit down with Alexis Read, a former dancer and owner of a strength training studio in Oakland, California. She has spent 30+ years helping women rebuild strength and trust in their bodies. Alexis explains how everyday stress (back-to-back meetings, time pressure, poor sleep, endless scrolling) quietly pushes your nervous system into “war mode,” and why that makes change feel impossible no matter how hard you try. Then she walks us through two tools, live, that you can use between meetings: ✨ The Pause Breath: a simple breathing reset that’s gentler than box breathing ✨ The 20/20/20 Vision Reset: look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds to calm your whole system In this episode: Why brain fog can be a sign you’re stuck in fight-or-flight How small daily stresses add up until your body treats them like real danger Why guilt about “not doing enough” is a nervous system issue, not a willpower issue Alexis’s “test, don’t guess” method for checking whether a tool actually works for YOUR body A 2-minute reset you can do at your desk Connect with Alexis: Her free nervous system workshop and “Daily Dose” 2–3 minute practices: https://poemapilates.substack.com Stay connected with me: Join my free Facebook group, Setting Boundaries in Corporate: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2808006476242265/

You've been told to "communicate your boundaries." So why does your calendar still own you?   In my last corporate role, I was leading a large project when a big customer service meeting landed on my calendar. It was still in discovery, and they didn't need me there yet. I sat on that invite until the day of the meeting, scared of how a room full of people would react. When I finally declined, with my boss's buy-in and an update sent ahead, the response was nothing like I feared.   In this episode: Why a boundary is something you do, not something you announce One question to ask about every meeting: do they need me, or my input? How to decline without dropping the ball: send your input, say when you'll come back in, and check with your boss on the big ones Why the fear grows the longer you sit on the invite Matthew 5:37, the Sermon on the Mount, and letting your yes be yes and your no be no   This week's homework: What's one meeting where they need your input, but not you? Replace it with an update, and tell us about it in the Facebook group.   If this helped: hit follow so next Tuesday's episode finds you, share it with one friend whose calendar is packed, and leave a quick written review.   ⭐ If this episode helped, a written review means the world — it tells me exactly what content to keep making for you.   👥 Join our private FB Community — a space for real conversation, especially in these stolen pockets of time: facebook.com/groups/2808006476242265/   ✉️ Join the Insider List for weekly encouragement straight to your inbox: raquel-ita.kit.com/insider   📣 Follow the Public Page: facebook.com/profile.php?id=61565430254038   📸 Follow on Instagram: @raquel.ita.llc   📩 Email me directly: [email protected]

You're the one everyone comes to for the numbers, the status, the answers. It feels like value. What if it's actually keeping you stuck?   In my last corporate role, I gave my leaders a monthly recap on how our warehouse sites were performing, and my boss would wait for me to tell him. I thought being the one with the answers was my value. It took helping a dear friend see her own worth this summer for me to realize I'd been banking mine on my output.   In this episode: The myth that being needed is your value, and why it turns you into a bottleneck How to find the one question people keep bringing to you Putting that answer somewhere they can reach it without you, using tools you already have The shift from "here are the numbers" to "here's what I'm seeing" Ephesians 2:10 and why your worth was never your output   This week's homework: Where are you holding on to being the one with the answers? Bring the one question you'll stop answering by hand to the Facebook group.   If this helped: hit follow so next Tuesday's episode finds you, share it with one friend who's always the one with the answers, and leave a quick written review.   ⭐ If this episode helped, a written review means the world — it tells me exactly what content to keep making for you.   👥 Join our private FB Community — a space for real conversation, especially in these stolen pockets of time: facebook.com/groups/2808006476242265/   ✉️ Join the Insider List for weekly encouragement straight to your inbox: raquel-ita.kit.com/insider   📣 Follow the Public Page: facebook.com/profile.php?id=61565430254038   📸 Follow on Instagram: @raquel.ita.llc   📩 Email me directly: [email protected]

Your to-do list is sorted by due date, and you still feel behind every week. What if the deadline is hiding the thing that actually matters? Two weeks into a new consulting project, a whole team was waiting on me for one thing: how everyone's work connected, so they could safely move dates on a tight timeline. I spent an hour doing everything else: patching an old plan, asking AI for a shortcut. The real reason wasn't the deadline. It was fear of showing I didn't understand yet. In this episode: Why "whatever's due first goes first" quietly keeps you behind How to spot a blocker: anything someone else can't move on until you do A two-step check for Monday morning: write who's waiting next to each item, then find the one you keep skipping Why the blocker is usually the thing that's new, scary, or never been done Ecclesiastes 11:4 and what it says about waiting to feel ready   This week's question: What's the one thing on your list that's new, scary, or never been done — and who's waiting on it? Bring your answer to the Facebook group. If this helped: hit follow so next Tuesday's episode finds you, share it with one friend who's buried in deadlines, and leave a quick written review. ⭐ If this episode helped, a written review means the world — it tells me exactly what content to keep making for you. 👥 Join our private FB Community — a space for real conversation, especially in these stolen pockets of time: facebook.com/groups/2808006476242265/ ✉️ Join the Insider List for weekly encouragement straight to your inbox: raquel-ita.kit.com/insider 📣 Follow the Public Page: facebook.com/profile.php?id=61565430254038 📸 Follow on Instagram: @raquel.ita.llc 📩 Email me directly: [email protected]

Has anyone ever told you when to stop working? For most women in corporate, the start time is defined and the end time is left wide open — which means it becomes whatever you can stand. This week, I'm sitting down with Jess Taylor, who spent her career in insurance and had a manager sit her down in her first job out of college and tell her not to come in early and not to stay late. We talk through what happens when nobody protects your time for you, why fourteen scattered hours aren't really four worked hours. ⭐ If this episode helped, a written review means the world — it tells me exactly what content to keep making for you. 👥 Join our private FB Community — a space for real conversation, especially in these stolen pockets of time: facebook.com/groups/2808006476242265/ ✉️ Join the Insider List for weekly encouragement straight to your inbox: raquel-ita.kit.com/insider 📣 Follow the Public Page: facebook.com/profile.php?id=61565430254038 📸 Follow on Instagram: @raquel.ita.llc 📩 Email me directly: [email protected]

Ever poured months into a project, only to watch it quietly get deprioritized before it ever rolled out? For women pursuing real corporate growth, that moment can feel like a personal failure — even when it never was. This week, I am talking through a story of a nine-month AI initiative that ended in a meeting with her boss and an SVP, and the biblical framework that reframes what actually counts as growth: your own labor, not an outcome you never fully controlled.   ⭐ If this episode helped, a written review means the world — it tells me exactly what content to keep making for you.  👥 Join our private FB Community — a space for real conversation, especially in these stolen pockets of time: facebook.com/groups/2808006476242265/  ✉️ Join the Insider List for weekly encouragement straight to your inbox: raquel-ita.kit.com/insider  📣 Follow the Public Page: facebook.com/profile.php?id=61565430254038  📸 Follow on  Instagram: @raquel.ita.llc  📩 Email me directly: [email protected]

Struggling to get your priorities straight, even though you already know what matters? For high-achieving corporate women, the real problem usually isn't a lack of structure — it's control. This week, I share the story of a hundred-name spreadsheet, a few too many midnight nights, and the moment pride nearly cost me a state grant deadline. You'll walk away with The Scope Check — a simple tool for protecting your priorities at work without burning yourself out trying to do it all alone. Connect with me here: ⭐ If this episode helped, a written review means the world — it tells me exactly what content to keep making for you. 👥 Join our private FB Community by searching Setting Boundaries in Corporate ✉️ Join the Insider List for weekly encouragement straight to your inbox: Weekly Newsletter Subscription for Setting Boundaries in Corporate 📣 Follow the Public Page: facebook.com/profile.php?id=61565430254038 ⭐Follow on Instagram: @raquel.ita.llc 📩 Email me directly: [email protected]

Do you ever get home from work and realize you were never really gone from it at all — even though you left the building hours ago?   In this episode, I'm telling you about the night I lectured my own kids about respect and dignity in the back seat of my car — while my mind was still sitting at my desk, worried about a report a VP was waiting on. You'll hear the specific ritual I built afterward (I call it the Off-Ramp Ritual) to actually leave work before I walk through the front door, and exactly how to build your own version this week.   Even Ecclesiastes reminds us there's a season for everything — which means there's supposed to be a season where work isn't allowed to follow you home.   If this is the season you're in and you want help building your own boundary script, email me directly — details inside.   ⭐ If this episode helped, a written review means the world — it tells me exactly what content to keep making for you. 👥 Join our private FB Community — a space for real conversation, especially in these stolen pockets of time: facebook.com/groups/2808006476242265/ ✉️ Join the Insider List for weekly encouragement straight to your inbox: raquel-ita.kit.com/insider 📣 Follow the Public Page: facebook.com/profile.php?id=61565430254038 📸 Follow on Instagram: @raquel.ita.llc 📩 Email me directly: [email protected]

She gets overwhelmed. She needs to delegate more. That's what Josie Anderson's boss wrote in her performance review. And she read it the way most of us would — as evidence that she wasn't measuring up. It took her months to understand he was handing her a door. Here's what you'll walk away with: Why the feedback that stings is sometimes the permission you've been waiting for. Josie's boss saw her burnout before she'd admitted it to herself. What felt like criticism was a manager telling her, in writing, that she didn't have to carry it alone. Name capacity, not time. When she finally told him she couldn't take on more, she deliberately did not say "I don't have time." She said she didn't have the mental space. One of those sounds like poor planning. The other is honest — and much harder to argue with. The four words that replaced "no." Instead of declining projects, she started asking: who else can support us? Same boundary, but now you're offering a path forward instead of a roadblock. The ten-minute non-negotiable she'd hand any woman running on empty — and why it fits in the pockets of time you already have. Josie didn't find her way out through a better system or a smarter calendar. She found it when she stopped, sat with everything she'd been ignoring, and asked God what her purpose actually was. What came back wasn't a strategy. It was permission to set down what was never hers to carry. If you're looking for ten minutes today, she'd tell you the pantry counts. So would the car. 💛 If this episode encouraged you, I'd be so grateful if you'd leave a five-star written review — it helps this show reach more women who need to hear it. Connect with Josie Anderson: Become an Insider - Weekly Newsletter - https://thedivineselfbyjosieanderson.kit.com/cefef6b7ce Connect with me on Instagram! https://www.instagram.com/thedivineselfbyjosie/   Looking for support? Join our FREE community - https://www.facebook.com/groups/ambitiousmomsupport   Ambitious Mom Mindset podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ambitious-mom-mindset-mindfulness-nervous-system-boundaries/id1896785156   Ready to start your journey? Awaken to the Divine Self (90 day self reflection journal) - https://thedivineselfbyjosieanderson.com/journal/   Hear my performance review story on Josie's show: Ambitious Mom Mindset Ep 10 — https://thedivineselfbyjosieanderson.podbean.com/e/settingboundariesincorporate/ Then come connect deeper: 👥 Join the Private Facebook Community — https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1D2SDN7h8D/ — real conversations with women in the same season, not just a feed  ✉️ Get weekly takeaways in your inbox —raquel-ita.kit.com/insider — the tools from each episode, distilled  📣 Follow the Public Page —https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61565430254038 — quotes, behind-the-scenes, and episode drops  📸 Follow on Instagram — @raquel.ita.llc — encouragement between episodes  📩 Email me directly — [email protected] — I read every message

You rehearse it the entire drive in. You know exactly what you're going to say and when you're going to say it. Then you sit through the whole meeting and say nothing — and replay it the whole way home. I did that for months. I was a Director of Operational Excellence sitting in monthly business reviews with fourteen other leaders, holding context nobody else in that room had, and I never said a word. Not because I lacked confidence — because I got told twice there wasn't room for me on that agenda, and I believed it. In this episode I'm walking you through The One-Line Ask — three steps to get your ideas heard without stepping on your leadership's agenda. You'll learn how to translate your work into the numbers already on their slide, how to knock on the smaller door in a way that actually opens it (I got this wrong for years), and how to shrink your ask down to something that's easy to say yes to. Plus how to tell the difference between a door you haven't found and a room that isn't going to open — because that distinction changes what you do next. We'll also sit with Proverbs 18:16 and what it means that your gift makes room for you — but only if somebody can see it. Next week: a guest episode you won't want to miss.   Then come connect deeper: ⭐ If this episode helped, a written review means the world — it tells me exactly what content to keep making for you. 👥 Join our private FB Community — a space for real conversation, especially in these stolen pockets of time: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1D2SDN7h8D/ ✉️ Join the Insider List for weekly encouragement straight to your inbox: raquel-ita.kit.com/insider 📣 Follow the Public Page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61565430254038 📸 Follow on Instagram: @raquel.ita.llc  📩 Email me directly and book a Boundary Reset Session: [email protected]

You're standing at the door with the pool bags packed, and every part of you wants to say "not tonight." It's late. You're tired. It feels like one more thing on a day that already asked too much of you. In this episode, I'm walking you through something that happened in my own house on a 100-degree evening — and the simple tool I used to catch burnout's voice before it talked me out of one of the best nights of our summer. You'll learn The Beat-the-Doubt Timer: a five-minute tool you can use anywhere — at the pool, in a meeting, before you raise your hand — to move before doubt finishes building its case. We'll also sit with 2 Corinthians 4:16–18, and what it means to fix your eyes on what's unseen when all you can see in the moment is the hassle. 💛 If this episode encouraged you, I'd be so grateful if you'd leave a five-star written review — it helps this show reach more women who need to hear it. Then come connect deeper: 👥 Join the Private Facebook Community — facebook.com/groups/2808006476242265 — real conversations with women in the same season, not just a feed ✉️ Get weekly takeaways in your inbox — raquel-ita.kit.com/insider — the tools from each episode, distilled 📣 Follow the Public Page — facebook.com/profile.php?id=61565430254038 — quotes, behind-the-scenes, and episode drops 📸 Follow on Instagram — @raquel.ita.llc — daily encouragement between episodes 📩 Email me directly — [email protected] — I read every message💛

Have you been told to bring AI to your team — and quietly panicked because you don't fully know what you're doing either? You're not behind. This episode walks through the real moment of standing in front of a team without the roadmap they expected and having to admit "I'm learning this too" — and the two boundaries that came out of it: getting clear on the actual problem before the using the tool, and creating honest space for your team instead of performing expertise you don't have. James 1:5 reminds us wisdom is something we're invited to ask for — not something we're required to already have. If you're leading change you didn't fully choose, this one's for you.   CONNECT WITH ME! ⭐ If this episode helped, a written review means the world — it tells me exactly what content to keep making for you. 👥 Join our private FB Community — Setting Boundaries in Corporate - a space for real conversation, especially in these stolen pockets of time: facebook.com/groups/2808006476242265/ ✉️ Join the Insider List for weekly encouragement straight to your inbox: raquel-ita.kit.com/insider 📣 Follow the Public Page: facebook.com/profile.php?id=61565430254038 📸 Follow on Instagram: @raquel.ita.llc 📩 Email me directly: [email protected]

Do you ever feel like your calendar owns you? Like the only way to prove you're needed is to keep saying yes? This week I'm joined by Lori Owens — Army veteran, certified resilience trainer, and host of Practical Solutions for PTSD — who nearly broke her health trying to prove her worth through overwork. She's sharing the exact moment she realized she had nothing left to give, why she now believes boundaries are bridges and not walls, and one simple, practical shift that turned her burnout into real peace. Even Jesus stepped away to rest and pray — because our calling was never meant to cost us everything. Loved this episode? Go check out everything Lori's building over at Practical Solutions for PTSD (links below), grab her free boundary-setting worksheet, and use code GUEST10 for a discount on your first coaching session with her. And while you're visiting her site — join the Insider email list too for Setting Boundaries in Corporate, so you never miss what's coming next. 📣 PODCAST: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/practical-solutions-for-ptsd-anxiety-symptoms-seasonal/id1835492018 🔗 Lori Owens / Practical Solutions for PTSD: https://practicalsolutionsforptsd.com 👥 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1128305889363441  🎁 Free Boundary-Setting Worksheet: worksheet.grwebsite.com  💬 Coaching discount code: GUEST10 📩   [email protected]   Connect with me at Setting Boundaries in Corporate: ⭐ If this episode helped, a written review means the world — it tells me exactly what content to keep making for you. 👥 Join our private FB Community — a space for real conversation, especially in these stolen pockets of time: facebook.com/groups/2808006476242265/ ✉️ Join the Insider List for weekly encouragement straight to your inbox: raquel-ita.kit.com/insider 📣 Follow the Public Page: facebook.com/profile.php?id=61565430254038 📸 Follow on Instagram: @raquel.ita.llc 📩 Email me directly: [email protected]

Do you love your team but feel like developing them is one more thing you don't have time for? Have you ever told yourself mentoring is a "nice-to-have" you'll get to once the real work is done? Do you secretly wonder if pouring into other people is stealing from your own growth? In this episode, you'll hear the story of a newly promoted director who couldn't connect with the team she used to be a peer on — and the one-on-one work that completely turned her perception, her results, and her confidence around. You'll walk away with the single most usable tool inside it — lead your message for your audience, not for yourself — and a whole new way of seeing why investing in your people isn't a distraction from leadership. It is leadership, and it grows you as much as it grows them. I pray this one blesses you and the people you lead. Let's connect: ✨ Get weekly boundary tools, leadership insights, and burnout‑proof systems delivered straight to your inbox — join the insider newsletter at raquel-ita.kit.com/insider. 💬 Join me and a community of high-achieving corporate women in my free Facebook group, Setting Boundaries in Corporate:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/2808006476242265/ — come introduce yourself and tell me what's pulling you in every direction. ➡️ Send me an email at [email protected] and tell me your biggest boundary struggle. 🎧 Hit Follow so you never miss an episode — and share this with a corporate woman who could use this reminder to invest in her people.

Have you ever ended a week exhausted — inbox empty, to-do list crushed — and still felt like you never touched the one thing that actually mattered? Do you feel busy all day but somehow behind on the work that's really yours? Are you starting to wonder if being "efficient" is the very thing keeping you stuck? In this episode, you'll learn one simple filter — high-value vs. high-volume — that tells you what's actually worth your yes. You'll walk away able to spot the loud, urgent noise that's eating your day, and with a corporate-safe way to surface the tradeoff to your manager so nothing that matters slips through the cracks. Because the goal was never to do less — it's to give your yes on purpose, to the best thing instead of just the good one. I pray this one meets you right where you are. Let's connect: ✨ Get weekly boundary tools, leadership insights, and burnout‑proof systems delivered straight to your inbox — join the insider newsletter at raquel-ita.kit.com/insider. 💬 Join me and a community of high-achieving corporate women in my free Facebook group, Setting Boundaries in Corporate:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/2808006476242265/ — come introduce yourself and tell me what's pulling you in every direction. ➡️ Send me an email at [email protected] and tell me your biggest boundary struggle. 🎧 Hit Follow so you never miss an episode — and share this with a corporate woman who's running on empty.