Your job may change, but your worth never does.
When layoffs loom and uncertainty hangs in the air, your brain spirals into fear — not just about losing a job, but about losing control, identity, and safety. In this episode of The Great Leader, Great Mom Podcast, Liz Jolley, engineer-turned-life-coach and founder of The School of Courage, helps you step out of panic and into self-leadership. Learn how to calm your nervous system, reclaim your power, and create genuine security from the inside out. Liz shares practical mindset tools, reflective questions, and powerful reframes — from Wayne Dyer’s wisdom to everyday courage practices — so you can walk into work grounded, confident, and clear on who you are, no matter what happens next.
www.lizjolley.com
Perfect for working moms, leaders, and women navigating change who want to lead at work and at home without losing their sanity, humor, or themselves.
In Episode 78 of The Great Leader, Great Mom Podcast, Liz Jolley unpacks The Myth of the Perfect Job—the belief that finding the right role, boss, or team will finally make you feel valued and fulfilled.
This powerful conversation explores the connection between self-worth, career satisfaction, and emotional resilience. You’ll learn:
Why external validation never leads to lasting fulfillment
How to separate your behavior from others’ to reclaim peace and power
Why self-love, not the “right job,” is the foundation for success and happiness
How to show up at 100% value—regardless of recognition
You’re a high-achieving woman who’s built a great life — but sometimes it feels like you’re holding it all together with grit and coffee. Great Leader, Great Mom is the podcast where we stop chasing “balance” and start building courage from the inside out.
Hosted by Liz Jolley, engineer turned life and leadership coach and founder of The School of Courage™, each episode blends story, science, and soul to help you:
Stop people-pleasing and lead with calm confidence.
Redefine success around energy, not exhaustion.
Set boundaries that protect what matters most.
Build emotional regulation and intentional habits that last.
Whether you’re managing a team, raising a family, or reinventing what leadership means in midlife — you’ll find practical tools, honest stories, and coaching insights that remind you: balance doesn’t come from getting it all right — it comes from within.
We’ve all been there—agonizing over a big decision, convinced there’s a “right” answer out there somewhere. Should you leave your job? Take a promotion? Move your family? We grow up in a world that teaches us every choice has a correct answer—thanks, school multiple-choice tests!—and as adults, we carry that myth into our careers, parenting, and relationships.
But here’s the truth: there is no single “right decision” or “wrong decision.” Believing this myth only fuels indecision, fear, guilt, and endless people-pleasing. In this episode, Liz Jolley unpacks how to break free from decision-paralysis by learning:
✅ How to identify the real decision you’re making (and stop bundling ten into one).
✅ Why imagining your future self can bring clarity and confidence.
✅ How to separate fear, guilt, and obligation from your decision-making process.
✅ What it means to “have your own back” after you decide—without shame, blame, or regret.
Whether it’s career choices, parenting decisions, or even everyday life calls, this conversation will help you stop searching for the mythical “right” answer and start making decisions from a place of clarity, courage, and self-trust.
Ever said, “I just have high expectations—I shouldn’t lower my standards!” and then felt resentful when others didn’t meet them? You’re not alone.
In this episode explores how “high standards” often hide perfectionism, people-pleasing, and burnout. You’ll learn why tying your worth to others’ performance creates frustration—and how to rebuild self-trust, emotional resilience, and peace while still pursuing excellence.
💛 Lead with courage—not exhaustion.
Visit lizjolley.com to learn more.
Do you ever catch yourself thinking, “If I were just smarter, calmer, thinner, or more disciplined—then I wouldn’t feel this way”? You’re not alone. So many of us live with the quiet belief that if we were “better,” we wouldn’t struggle, feel insecure, or experience shame.
In this episode of The Great Leader, Great Mom Podcast, part of the Courage Series, we unravel the toxic myth of perfection—the false story that our worth depends on comparison, achievement, or external validation.
✨ You’ll learn:
Why the scripts of “If I were better…” and “Everyone else is doing it right” keep us stuck in shame.
How comparison fuels insecurity and the trap of not-enoughness.
Why hard feelings don’t mean you’re broken—they mean you’re human.
Practical tools to reframe shame and begin practicing radical self-acceptance.
The truth? You don’t need to earn your worthiness. You are already enough—right now.
www.lizjolley.com
What if everything you learned about money growing up was wrong? In this Courage Series episode , we unpack childhood money myths like “money is scarce,” “money is hard,” and “money is the root of all evil.”
Through stories and insights, you’ll discover how these hidden beliefs fuel scarcity, shame, and fear—and how to rewrite them into an empowered, abundant mindset. Learn how to create freedom, opportunity, and confidence by building a healthy relationship with money.
www.lizjolley.com
Let's unravel the truth about emotions, self-leadership, and resilience. Other people’s words, actions, or judgments don’t actually cause your feelings—your thoughts do. When you realize this, you stop giving away your emotional power to your boss, your in-laws, your spouse, or even your kids.
Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
Why feelings are created by your thoughts, not by other people’s words.
How to recognize your “tender spots” and stop letting criticism or judgment reinforce old beliefs.
Real-life examples—from family conflict to workplace feedback—showing how we give away our power.
Practical steps to shift from external validation to inner strength, so you can parent, lead, and live with more freedom.
✨ The dream? To stop spiraling in guilt, defensiveness, and self-blame—and instead show up grounded, confident, and loving.
If you’ve ever felt controlled by what others say or worried about how they see you, this episode will help you break free from the myth and reclaim your emotional resilience.
www.lizjolley.com
Are you chasing the perfect grade in parenting—the idea that if you do it all “right,” your kids won’t struggle the way you did? The truth is, there’s no such thing as an “A” in parenting. When we measure our worth by our kids’ achievements or by external praise, we end up exhausted, disconnected, and constantly judging ourselves.
In this episode, I share why striving for perfection keeps us stuck, how to stop arguing with reality, and what it really means to be a good parent: showing up with love, embracing the 50/50 of life, and letting go of the grade.
www.lizjolley.com
Did you grow up believing that if you just earned the accolades, the degrees, the gold stars—you’d finally be happy? Now at work you are burned out hustling for the A.
The truth? Real success comes from defining what you want, not chasing approval.
www.lizjolley.com
The Power of Discomfort: Why Doing Hard Things Leads to Joy, Growth, and Confidence
As adults, we’ve built lives of comfort—yet so many of us still feel unfulfilled. In this episode, I share why leaning into discomfort is the secret to joy, growth, and confidence. From the pressures of parenting three strong-willed kids to climbing rocks at Enchanted Rock, I’ve learned that the most satisfying moments come from doing the hard things we’d rather avoid.
We’ll talk about why comfort isn’t the goal, why struggle actually fuels growth, and how embracing discomfort builds resilience in both parenting and life. If you’ve ever felt like you’re “doing it wrong” because life is hard, this conversation will remind you: discomfort isn’t failure—it’s evidence that you’re growing.
www.lizjolley.com
Are you a career-driven mom frustrated with weight gain, no time for the gym, and constant guilt about your health? You’re not alone—and you don’t have to stay stuck.
In this episode, we uncover why traditional advice like “eat less, move more” doesn’t work for busy moms. Weight loss isn’t just a calorie math problem—it’s a hormone problem. Specifically, insulin. When you understand how insulin affects weight and energy, you can finally stop the cycle of dieting, frustration, and self-blame.
You’ll learn practical strategies to:
Manage weight without endless cardio or strict dieting
Fit simple resistance training into a packed schedule
Stop emotional eating and stress snacking
Build a sustainable lifestyle that supports both career and family
Love your body now—without waiting to hit a number on the scale
If you’re ready to thrive in your career, show up for your family, and feel strong and confident in your body—this episode is for you.
Three key steps to losing weight: Plan what you eat, when you eat, and allow urges.
You have created a plan 24 hours in advance, and then you get invited to lunch with coworkers. You panic. How am I supposed to eat my salad and protein I brought? But I want to be social and eat with them. I want to go and not be awkward.
For a sustainable, healthy lifestyle, we are seeking to return our body to normal with eating foods our bodies can process and spacing out our eating to keep burning fat for fuel. We talked about having and committing to a plan 24 hrs in advance, our protocol, and writing down what we actually eat, and monitoring our weight. And we are being scientists, so we are not hating our bodies, but dropping the drama and going into the math and science with our experiment.
www.lizjolley.com
We tend to use our most needed skillset for weight loss at work, so why not approach food?
Planning ahead—deciding what and when to eat—is essential to a plan made 24 hours in advance for building the healthy lifestyle you want.
Planning is crucial.
Stick to what we eat, when we eat, and then follow through on that plan.
Reach out for questions or comments: www.lizjolley.com
The science of overeating and the importance of recalibrating hunger to achieve a natural weight.
FREE STOP OVEREATING WORKSHEET
Understanding Overeating
• Overeating stems from societal norms and marketing that promote pleasure in food.
• Social events often revolve around food, reinforcing the habit.
• It’s common to overeat during gatherings, such as Thanksgiving.
Coping Mechanisms
• People often eat to buffer emotions like boredom, stress, and sadness.
• Frequent eating is seen as the norm, with meals and snacks throughout the day.
Reprogramming the Brain
• It takes significant effort to create new habits and neural pathways.
• Expect challenges; quick fixes like pills are not sustainable.
• The focus should be on treating the root cause to reset the body’s natural state.
Hormonal Influences: Key hormones involved in hunger include:
• Insulin, Leptin, Ghrelin
These hormones play a crucial role in regulating appetite and body weight.
www.lizjolley.com
Is it really worth it for that brief moment of happiness?
FREE WORKSHEET TO HELP YOU STOP EMOTIONAL OVEREATING:
We instinctively avoid negative emotions and seek to escape pain because our primitive brains are wired for survival. Life includes both positive and negative experiences.
When facing difficult emotions, we often see something is wrong and seek external solutions, leading to emotional numbing of boredom, shame, loneliness, and sadness. Pursuing pleasure often means chasing false or indulgent quick dopamine hits, like thinking, "I should eat," "I should buy," or "I need a drink."
Instant gratification options are abundant, but they rarely satisfy long-term.
Overindulgence worsens cravings, causing temporary pleasure but negative outcomes like weight gain, hangovers, and overspending, which then lead to guilt and self-loathing.
www.lizjolley.com
Are you living the healthy lifestyle you desire? Are you at your ideal weight? Many of us start a new year with resolutions or find ourselves wanting to lose weight and get healthy at different points in our lives.In this series, we will discuss how to create the healthy life you want and reach your weight goals, focusing on both nutrition and exercise.It’s vital to establish a clear “why” for your health goals. This is key because wanting to try something differs from committing to it. Most people say, "I want to try to work out more," but when motivation fades, they often give up.
Anxiety is natural to all humans on the planet. Our brain loves to create stories, and it loves to look out for danger. In combination, we get lots of crazy anxiety-producing thoughts about bad things that could happen.
Listen in to hear about what causes anxiety and how to move through it without the exhaustion and burnout.
www.lizjolley.com
Who is stressed out?
Do you feel that stress is an inherent part of your role? Is that stress required as you move up? Do you think that those who don't feel as stressed must not be as important?
Stress is not necessary and actually works against you. Learn how to not to feel so burdened by stress.
Want a free coaching session?
https://theschoolofcourage.com/book-now
Do you have a fear of someone finding out you aren't actually 100% qualified for your role? Or do you have no idea what you are doing?
Nothing has gone wrong.
This is human. We are not supposed to have it all figured out.
https://theschoolofcourage.com/book-now