Lead with Spark | Authentic Leadership for Women, Executive Presence & Career Confidence

Default settings are great for printers and computers. Not for people.   In this episode of Lead with Spark, Lynsey Mulder sits down with corporate communication coach Amy Greensmith for one of the most honest and practical conversations on people-pleasing, burnout, and using your voice that you are going to find anywhere. Amy has been working in the personal development space for over twenty year...

We are halfway through the year. How did that even happen?   In this solo episode of Lead with Spark, Lynsey Mulder gets honest about where her own year stands, the book she is writing, the retreat she is planning, the course she has not started, and what she has learned about protecting summer before it disappears one unplanned Friday night at a time. And she brings all of it back to a question e...

You are the one who delivers. You are excellent at your job, everyone knows it, and yet the promotion keeps going somewhere else. When you ask for feedback you hear a polished version of we need to see you operating at the next level, and inside you think I already am. Here is the part that stings before it sets you free. The problem is not that you are not good enough. The problem is that you are...

This episode is coming straight from Lynsey Mulder's Iowa backyard, where summer has officially arrived, everything is growing, everything is blooming, and apparently everything has collectively decided to test her leadership skills on the way.   In this solo episode of Lead with Spark, Lynsey turns four very real backyard situations, carpenter bees boring into the deck, barn swallows relentlessly...

What if executive presence is not only about how you show up in a room, but how you sound in every email, proposal, message, and comment with your name on it? In this episode of Lead with Spark, Lynsey Mulder sits down with Grace Aldridge Foster to unpack why writing is part of your brand and how leaders can use words more intentionally at work. Grace is the co-founder and principal of Bold Type,...

She used to walk into work with her shoulders squared and her ideas ready to go. She loved her job. She was good at it. People counted on her to figure it out, hold the line, and deliver.   And then something shifted. Not all at once. In small increments over months. A comment in a meeting that landed harder than it should have. A decision made about her without her. A version of events she knew w...

What if the most powerful leadership move you could make right now had nothing to do with adding something new to your life, and everything to do with quitting something that has quietly been draining it?   Lynsey Mulder just finished a book about a group of friends who made a pact. They called themselves the Quitters Club. And the concept stopped her cold, because every single woman she has ever...

Every woman Lynsey Mulder has coached in the last sixty days who is in the middle of a pivot has said the same thing, almost apologetically: I just feel like I should have figured this out sooner.   Sooner than what? Sooner than the body breaking down? Sooner than eighteen months of broken trust with a manager? Sooner than the blood pressure reading that finally told the truth about the calendar?...

There is a gap in leadership development that almost no one is talking about. The higher you climb, the less support you get. Senior managers, directors, and VPs are running multimillion-dollar budgets, leading complex teams, and navigating organizational politics, all while figuring it out largely on their own. Sound familiar? In this episode, I sit down with Lori Lalonde, a leadership developmen...

Picture your week. Not the highlight reel, not the version you would put on social media, but the real one. The walk you skipped because someone moved a meeting. The lunch you ate at your desk for the third day in a row. The text from a friend you keep meaning to answer and still have not. Now ask yourself one question: was the reason all of that happened actually urgent? Or was it just loud? In t...

What does it actually take to lead at a high level without burning out? In this solo Lead with Spark episode, Lynsey Mulder shares a powerful reflection from a recent leadership panel centered around one question: what does it really take to lead well without losing yourself in the process? Drawing on her own experience in corporate leadership and decades of coaching, Lynsey unpacks the truth abou...

What happens when two women leaders sit down like old friends over coffee and talk about what is really shaping work and life right now? In this candid Lead with Spark conversation, Lynsey Mulder is joined by strategy and operations leader Rebekah Brandmeyer to unpack busy versus aligned living, leadership boundaries, culture, AI at work, career growth, personal ethics, and the choices that help w...

Have you ever walked into a room you absolutely earned the right to be in, and still felt like someone was about to pull you aside and say, we made a mistake? Have you landed the promotion, built the team, done the work, and immediately started wondering if it was all just luck?   Here is what most of the advice on imposter syndrome gets wrong: it treats the feeling like a problem to eliminate. Na...

In this powerful conversation on Lead with Spark, Lynsey sits down with international speaker, USA Today bestselling author, and empowerment coach Simone Knego to unpack one of the biggest hidden struggles women in leadership face: self-doubt. If you have ever looked successful on the outside while quietly second-guessing yourself on the inside, this episode will feel like a deep exhale. Simone sh...

You are motivated. You are driven. You genuinely love what you do. And you are absolutely exhausted. And here's what nobody is telling you: those two things are not supposed to coexist.   In this episode, host and business coach Lynsey Mulder tackles the most searched topic for professional women in 2026 - burnout. Not the "take a bath" conversation. The real one. The one about why high-achieving...

Last week, Lynsey Mulder unsubscribed from over fifty email lists. Her favorite stores. Her travel blogs. Her daily news briefings. And somewhere around number thirty-seven, she realized this wasn't just an inbox problem.   In this episode, Lynsey takes the "unsubscribe" metaphor and runs with it, into the drama you never signed up for, the coworker who has made your time their time, the extra yes...

What if one of your most powerful leadership breakthroughs came not from a boardroom, a conference, or a business book, but from a humpback whale looking you dead in the eye off the coast of Cabo San Lucas?   In this episode, host and business coach Lynsey Mulder shares a deeply personal story from a recent trip to Cabo and the four unexpected leadership lessons that followed her all the way home....

If you've been laid off, you're quietly job searching, or you've had that 'I cannot do this for the next 20 years' moment, this episode is for you. Lynsey sits down with Camille Fetter, a nationally recognized executive search expert and founder/CEO of Talentfoot Executive Search and Staffing, to share calm, practical strategies for making a confident career move in today's market. In this convers...

Today’s episode is all about one of the biggest communication game-changers I’ve ever found, and it happens to be one of my most requested keynotes: Decode the Blueprint. Here’s the truth: you can have the right message and still not be heard… because different people speak different languages. And you don’t have to travel to Barcelona for that to be true - it happens every day at work, in sales c...

Ever walked out of a meeting thinking, “Well, that was fun… I said words, but I don’t think I sounded like a leader”? In this solo episode, Lynsey breaks down the real difference between executive presence and authenticity and answers the question so many women are searching for right now: Do I have to act like a leader to be taken seriously at work? You’ll hear three real-life stories (including...

If you have ever said "No problem" while your brain whispered "This is a problem," you are not alone. In this episode, Lynsey breaks down the People-Pleasing Tax - the hidden cost of always being the reliable one - and shares a simple, real-life way to set boundaries without guilt. You will learn how to stop people pleasing (especially people pleasing at work), how to say no without over-explainin...

We’re so lucky to have Danielle McGeough with us today! Honestly… when I grow up, I want to be Danielle. She’s a mom, professor at the University of Northern Iowa, certified Women-Centered Coach, and the host of one of the nation’s top podcasts, Plan Goal Plan. Danielle helps high achievers become as ambitious about their personal lives as they’ve been about their work—one bold goal at a time. In...

Every team has it: the steady one… and the energetic one. The calm processor… and the loud processor. The rule-follower… and the “let’s reinvent everything by Tuesday” person. In this episode of Lead with Spark, Lynsey shares two laugh-out-loud dog stories that turn into a surprisingly accurate leadership metaphor: how to lead mixed-energy teams without leaving “stuffing on the floor.” This isn’t...

Have you ever had a moment where you are doing the thing you are supposed to be doing... and a quiet thought shows up: Wait, is this it? In this episode of Lead with Spark, Lynsey normalizes reinvention and reframes it as a modern life skill. Not a crisis. Not a failure. Often, it is simply evolution. You will hear real stories from Lynsey’s own reinventions (from motherhood to leaving corporate)...

If you’ve ever said “yes” out of habit… then immediately felt annoyed, overwhelmed, or resentful — this episode is for you. In today’s episode of Lead with Spark, we’re talking about how to set boundaries without guilt, without over-explaining, and without feeling like you’re being “difficult.” Because here’s the truth: boundaries aren’t rude — they’re leadership. And if you don’t create boundarie...