The JOY CEO

In pre-k I was voted most likely to become President of the United States. Ambition has been one of the greatest forces in my life. It pushed me to work hard, take risks, stretch myself, build a career, and keep asking what else was possible. And I don't want less of it. But I do believe ambition evolves. After years of proving that you can do hard things, carry the load, achieve big things, and l...

What do you do when your team is overwhelmed, overworked, and coming apart at the seams? You take work off their plate for them, right? I mean, that might instinctively seem like an obvious answer. Or you might push everyone to work harder, optimize their time, and somehow get more done. But what if there’s a third option? In this episode, I’m talking about what happens when there is simply too mu...

What if your team isn’t overwhelmed because they have too much work? What if they’re overwhelmed by the guessing? Welcome to The Leadership Reset, a four-part series about what you carry, what you choose, what you pursue, and how you stay engaged. In Part 1, I'm starting with the issue I see most in the leaders I coach: ambiguity. I once inherited a team that looked like it had a workload problem....

What if the people around you aren't disengaged, careless, or pulling away? Specifically, what if the people who work for you are actually doing their absolute best? In this episode, I'm talking about the power of positive intent and how simply changing the story we tell ourselves about other people can completely change the way we lead. I share a conversation with a CEO client who noticed that wh...

In this episode, I’m calling myself out. We all do this: judge people before we actually know them. You walk into a meeting, meet someone new, and within seconds you’ve decided whether they’re capable, trustworthy, professional, or someone you want on your team. We like to call it intuition, but sometimes it’s simply our brain taking a shortcut with almost no information to go on. I bring in Malco...

In this inspiring conversation, Lori sits down with Heather Bell, CEO of the Orange County Chamber, to talk about resilience, leadership, entrepreneurship, and what it really takes to build something that lasts. Heather shares the winding path that brought her to leadership—from being a single mom who went back to school at 30, to building a career at Heineken, taking a leap into entrepreneurship,...

In this episode, I’m checking in halfway through the Fire Horse year and reflecting on the intentions I set back in February: to speak more and move my body more. Six months later, I can see those intentions have unfolded in ways I never expected—from speaking at Google and being invited back to Harvard, to growing The Connect, hosting my first retreat, and becoming stronger both physically and em...

In this honest and candid conversation, Lori sits down with Kate Kripke, a clinical expert who has spent more than 20 years working with mothers, to explore the relationship between ambition, anxiety, and motherhood. Together, they unpack what happens when achievement becomes tied to self-worth, and how beliefs we learned early in life can quietly fuel the pressure to get everything right. Kate sh...

What happens when you give your team complete freedom to do their work—and they still aren't moving forward? In this solo episode of The Joy CEO Podcast, I explore a leadership mistake I made myself: assuming that being a good leader meant staying out of my team's way. I was leading a team whose work I had never personally done, so I thought the best thing I could do was give them autonomy and sta...

Every human will have chapters in trouble. Smooth sailing is never guaranteed. There are seasons in life when everything feels uncertain, but the people around you still need you to lead. In this solo episode, Lori shares one of the hardest chapters of her life: losing her mother to cancer in five weeks, from diagnosis to death, while leading a demanding corporate career as a single mom. She talks...

Have you ever replayed a leadership moment over and over in your mind, wishing you'd handled it differently? In this episode, I explore something I've seen in myself, my clients, and so many accomplished women I work with: we often become our own harshest critic. We replay moments of intensity, convince ourselves we "messed up," and forget to acknowledge why we spoke up in the first place. I share...

What if the biggest thing holding you back isn't a lack of resources—but a belief you've never stopped to question? In this solo episode, I'm sharing one of the biggest insights that came out of a recent retreat with the incredible women in The Connect, my coaching community. A simple phrase kept surfacing: "We don't do that." Inspired by corporate anthropologist Dr. Andi Simon, I explore how thos...

What does it take to build a successful aviation company from just $25 , a single leased helicopter, and an unwavering love for flying? I sat down with Heather Howley , founder and CEO of Independent Helicopters , to explore her remarkable journey from taking her first helicopter lesson to leading one of the Northeast's premier helicopter companies. Heather shares it all! The realities of building...

In this episode of The Joy CEO Podcast , Lori Pine explores what it truly means to find your North Star , the simple truth she arrived at after decades spent surviving a demanding career and raising her sons, with little room for a bigger question. Her north star today is radically small on purpose: help one person . In every phone call, coaching session, Connect gathering, and speaking event, tha...

Summary: In part two of this deeply personal series, host Lori Pyne shares how a collapse outside a New York deli became the wake-up call that changed the trajectory of her life and leadership. After years of chasing achievement, identity, and external validation, Lori began the inner work that would eventually shape her philosophy that joy isn't separate from success—it fuels it. This episode exp...

Summary: In this deeply personal episode, I share the story that became the foundation of The Joy CEO. It’s a story I don’t tell often—one that begins in 2008 when I was juggling a new leadership role near New York City, relocating across the country, navigating a divorce, and raising two young boys. On the outside, I looked like I had everything under control. On the inside, my body was sounding...

Summary: In this episode, I share a realization that completely changed the way I think about leadership, confidence, and career growth: sometimes the problem isn't you—it's the room you're in. For years, I believed that if I worked harder, proved myself more, and pushed through challenges, I could succeed anywhere. But looking back, I can see how certain environments quietly chipped away at my co...

Summary: In this solo episode of The Joy CEO Podcast , I’m sharing a conversation that hit me harder than I expected. A mentor once told me, “Your biggest problem is that you make it look easy.” At first, I took it as a compliment. But the more I reflected on it, the more I realized it was actually pointing to a hidden challenge many ambitious women face. When you’re known as the person who always...

Summary: In this inspiring and deeply personal conversation, I sit down with my friend and coaching client, Leanne Wynn Davies—a Google sales leader, marathon runner, advocate, and someone who embodies what it means to go all in on a dream. Leanne shares her 11-year journey to qualifying for and finally running the Boston Marathon. What began as a near miss after her first New York City Marathon b...

Summary: In this episode, I reflect on the hidden cost of wearing independence as a badge of honor and why I’ve come to believe community is essential for sustainable leadership. After years of moving cities for corporate opportunities and believing strength meant handling everything on my own, I realized my independence had quietly turned into isolation. I share the moments that forced me to conf...

Summary: In this special one-year anniversary episode of the Joy CEO Podcast, I’m reflecting on what it’s meant to show up consistently for 52 straight weeks of long-form conversations around leadership, growth, joy, and becoming the woman you’re meant to be. I share why I started this podcast in the first place: to create a space where you could truly get to know me, my coaching philosophy, and t...

Summary: In this honest and deeply empowering conversation, Lori sits down with divorce and relationship coach Kara Francis to talk about what really happens when women stop living the life they’re “supposed” to live—and start choosing themselves instead. Kara shares how witnessing her sister’s divorce first inspired her to become a divorce attorney, and how years later, her own divorce pushed her...

Summary: In this deeply personal solo episode, I’m pulling back the curtain on what visibility really requires—and why it’s not just about strategy, but identity. I share a defining moment from my childhood that shaped how I learned to be seen, and how that experience quietly turned into a “vow” to stay safe by overachieving instead of fully expressing myself. If you’ve ever found yourself doing a...

Summary: In this strategic and empowering conversation, Lori sits down with Kate Haranis—a reputation and public relations strategist—to unpack what it really means to be visible in a way that feels aligned, intentional, and impactful. Kate shares how her work centers on helping leaders “tell better stories” so their external reputation reflects their true value—not a curated or performative versi...

Summary: In this raw and honest episode, I take you behind the scenes of a moment that could have easily derailed me—my website crashing right after my first live training, at the exact moment people were ready to buy. The timing couldn’t have been worse… and yet, it became one of the most clarifying leadership moments I’ve had. I share what it looked like to hold composure while everything felt l...