"I feel too encouraged," — said no one. Ever. Yet countless people are burdened with self-doubt. Which is why a few well-timed words of encouragement can make a profound difference. Encouragement isn't soft. It's a superpower - and research backs it up. In this episode, I explore why encouragement is like verbal sunshine and why giving it generously doesn't just lift the person receiving it, it transforms the person offering it too. I share the story of a new mother who nearly turned down the career opportunity of a lifetime until one phone call changed her mind, why one of America’s greatest CEO’s made encouragement a core leadership practice, and how speaking into who someone ‘can be’ - rather than their present fear - can help them close the gap between where they are and where they're capable of going. If you want to be the kind of person others want to work with, work for, or just have more of in their life, this episode will remind you that you hold more power to impact others than you may sometimes think.

The Courage Gap — Available on Amazon + independent bookstores ⁠⁠https://www.amazon.com/Courage-Gap-Steps-Braver-Action/dp/1523007249⁠⁠

The LinkedIn Course ⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/learning/activating-courage-transform-discomfort-into-bold-confident-action

We are not living through a period of change in higher education. We are living through a change of era — and while educational leaders see it coming, centuries of tradition run deep, anchoring them in place at the very moment bold action has never mattered more.

As generative AI rewrites the rules of the workforce at breathtaking speed, a degree alone is no longer enough. The question facing every university leader today isn't whether disruption is coming - it's whether they'll have the courage to lead it, or be flattened by it.

Sharon Pickering, Vice-Chancellor of Monash University - one of the world's top 50 and Australia's largest, with a growing global footprint - has the courage to say what others won't: the old educational models are broken, complacency is a slow death sentence, and imitation is the fastest route to irrelevance.

In this conversation, Sharon makes the case for what higher education must become - and why getting there demands institutions to disrupt themselves and dare to reinvent education for the 21st century. We explore what it really means to equip today's young learners for a world being remade in real time, why distinctiveness is a survival strategy and not a branding exercise, and why Monash's founding mission of social and technological transformation has never felt more urgent.

If you care about the future of education, the leaders we're shaping, or what it takes to turn a bold vision into reality, this one's for you.

The Courage Gap — Available on Amazon + independent bookstores ⁠https://www.amazon.com/Courage-Gap-Steps-Braver-Action/dp/1523007249⁠

• The LinkedIn Course ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/learning/activating-courage-transform-discomfort-into-bold-confident-action

We live in a world that constantly invites comparison. Every time we pick up our devices, our newsfeeds flood us with curated images, updates, and highlights from everyone else’s lives. It’s designed to capture our attention—but all too often, it leaves us feeling “less than,” stoking insecurity and fueling endless comparisons.

Comparison is human. Decades of research show it’s part of how we navigate the world. But when we measure our insides against other people’s outsides, or our weaknesses against their strengths, it drains our creativity, our energy, and our focus. It also shortchanges everyone else of what we might otherwise bring to the world (much less ourselves!)

I’ve been there—more times than I care to admit. But over time, I’ve learned something powerful: no one else has your unique combination of talents, experiences, opportunities, passions, and hard-won wisdom. No one is positioned to make the impact you can make, right where you are.

Your race. Your lane. Your pace. It’s time to stop scrolling, stop comparing, and start running your own best race.

• Stop letting comparison steal your confidence. Learn how to bravely run your own race and close the gap between your doubts and your potential. The Courage Gap — Available on Amazon + independent bookstores https://www.amazon.com/Courage-Gap-Steps-Braver-Action/dp/1523007249
• The LinkedIn Course ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/learning/activating-courage-transform-discomfort-into-bold-confident-action

What kind of world would we be living in if those in power weren’t leading from unhealed wounds?

Raj Sisodia, co-author of Healing Leaders Now, joins me on the Live Brave Podcast to explore the profound connection between personal healing and leadership impact. Whether we realize it or not, what we have not healed within ourselves shapes the way we lead, influence, decide, and connect.

Unresolved trauma does not stay private. It gets amplified.

Raj shares his deeply personal journey of what he calls his “year of conscious awakening,” a period that included silent retreats, spiritual journeys, coaching, and confronting buried wounds he didn’t even know were there. That inner work reshaped not only his life but his philosophy of leadership.

We explore why minimizing our wounds keeps us stuck, how unconscious patterns derail even the most senior leaders, and why healing is not self-indulgent; it is a leadership responsibility.

Resources:

Read my latest book, The Courage Gap: ⁠https://margiewarrell.com/thecouragegap/⁠

Transform discomfort into bold, confident action: The LinkedIn Course ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/learning/activating-courage-transform-discomfort-into-bold-confident-action

About Raj Sisodia

Described as an “Intellectual Shaman” in a book with that title, Raj Sisodia has been on a mission to bring caring, humanity, and healing to business and capitalism since the 2007 publication of his groundbreaking book Firms of Endearment: How World Class Companies Profit from Passion and Purpose. A founding member and Chairman Emeritus of the Conscious Capitalism movement

Raj is co-author of the New York Times bestseller Conscious Capitalism (2013) and Wall Street Journal bestseller Everybody Matters (2015)

Book: Healing Leaders 7 Steps to Recovery of Self

Website: https://rajsisodia.com/

Disappointment hurts. It arrives when what we hoped for collides with what actually happened—when people fall short, plans unravel, or a future we were counting on quietly disappears. And yet, disappointment isn’t a sign of weakness. It’s evidence of care.

In this episode, I explore the anatomy of disappointment—why it cuts so deeply, especially when it involves people we trusted or outcomes we were attached to. She unpacks how our expectations, often unexamined, intensify our pain—and how learning to hold hope without gripping too tightly can help us move forward with a wiser heart, not a closed one.

You’ll learned why disappointment with people so often hurts more than disappointment with events, how unrealistic expectations quietly set us up for heartbreak, and how to look inward with honesty without self-blame. Margie draws a crucial distinction between optimism and attachment, trust and naivety —offering language and insight for moments when trust has been shaken or broken.

This is not about lowering your standards or giving up on people or life. It’s about growing wiser without losing compassion. Guarding your heart without hardening it, transforming disappointment into refining discernment rather than diminishing hope.

Because while disappointment will visit us all, it doesn’t get the final word.

In this episode, I will help you trust that the dots connect backward, and that sometimes the disappointments we think are ruining our path are actually revealing it.

Resources:

Read my latest book, The Courage Gap: https://margiewarrell.com/thecouragegap/

Transform discomfort into bold, confident action: The LinkedIn Course https://www.linkedin.com/learning/activating-courage-transform-discomfort-into-bold-confident-action

Our identity - as people and leaders - isn’t forged in one defining moment. It’s built over time, through small choices that test our values long before the stakes feel high. In this conversation with JoAnne S. Bass, the first Asian American and first female to serve as Chief Master Sergeant of the United States Air Force where she was responsible for nearly 800,000 serviceman, we discuss how practicing courage in small ways early in our careers expands our capacity to exercise courage in big ways when the stakes are greater as our careers progress and influence grows.

JoAnne shares her journey from trying to blend in early in her career to embracing her identity as a leadership strength, even when it risked disapproval. We talk about the decisions that strengthened her integrity and why values matter more than certainty. If you’ve ever hesitated to speak up or wondered what leadership is asking you to grow into, this episode invites a more honest look at the moments shaping you now.

Get my book The Courage Gap: https://margiewarrell.com/thecouragegap/

Transform discomfort into bold, confident action: The LinkedIn Course https://www.linkedin.com/learning/activating-courage-transform-discomfort-into-bold-confident-action

About Chief Master Sgt. JoAnne S. Bass

Joanne Bass made history in 2020 when she became the 19th Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force—the first woman to serve as the highest-ranking enlisted leader in any branch of the U.S. military responsible for over 780,000 servicemen and women. Her appointment marked a transformative moment for the armed forces and for leadership at large. Over her 31-year career, she has been a relentless trailblazer. Today, she advises organizations, serves on nonprofit boards, and speaks globally on leadership, culture, and service.

JoAnne S. Bass on LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jo-bass/

Like it or not, change is coming. The question is: will you participate in it consciously, or spend your energy resisting what's already in motion?

Whether change arrives as a disruption you didn't choose or as a quiet whisper you can't ignore, both ask the same thing of you—let go of what's familiar. And that can shake your sense of who you are. Who are you without the roles, routines, or identities that have defined you up until now?

My recent trip to Egypt reminded me that even the most enduring structures don't stay the same. The pyramids are still standing, but they've been shaped by thousands of years of weather, time, and human touch. Part of us craves permanence and certainty. Another part of us is always being invited to grow, evolve, and step forward. That tension lives in all of us—especially when we're standing at a threshold.

In this episode, I share three practical ways to move through change with more courage and emotional clarity:

• How naming what you're resisting actually loosens its grip

• Why fear of loss drives more resistance than fear of change itself

• Why discomfort isn't a warning sign—it's an invitation to grow into a bigger version of yourself

Change might feel threatening, but it also carries the seeds of renewal, resilience, and deeper alignment with who you're becoming.

Join me for the Courage Is Calling Reset Retreat: https://www.meawisdom.com/workshop/courage-is-calling-reset-on-your-bravest-path/

Get my book The Courage Gap: https://margiewarrell.com/thecouragegap/

"There's a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in." A line from Leonard Cohen's 1992 song Anthem that feels especially true when purpose starts to feel unclear.

So many people hit a point where the clarity they once had around their purpose begins to crack. What felt certain starts to crumble, and it's easy to think you've somehow lost your way or that something's gone wrong with you.

But here's what takes courage to see: those cracks aren't signs of failure. They're often where purpose gets to re-form itself—not through figuring it all out alone in your head, but through honest conversation, real reflection, and the brave souls willing to walk the uncertain path alongside you.

In this Live Brave podcast episode, I sit down with Richard Leider—whose bestselling book The Power of Purpose, now in its 4th Edition - to explore why disillusionment might actually be an invitation. Not to give up on purpose, but to let it evolve into something truer and more alive.

Join me in February for the Courage Is Calling Reset Retreat: https://www.meawisdom.com/workshop/courage-is-calling-reset-on-your-bravest-path/

✉️ Stay connected https://margiewarrell.com/newsletter/

About Richard Leider

Richard Leider, founder of Inventure – The Purpose Company, is one of America’s preeminent executive-life coaches. He is ranked by Forbes as one of the “Top 5” most respected executive coaches, and by the Conference Board as a “legend in coaching.” Richard has written twelve books, including three best sellers, which have sold over one million copies and have been translated into 20 languages. The Power of Purpose (4th edition) is considered a classic in the personal growth field.

Get Richard’s books

Learn more about Richard.

Website: https://richardleider.com/

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardjleider/