She Is A Leader - The Podcast for Women Creating Impact, Profit, and Peace in Their Business

Women are hitting a cognitive wall in their 40s and calling it burnout. Dr. Manna Semby says that's the wrong diagnosis, and the right one changes everything. Dr. Manna Semby left a career at Goldman Sachs after watching high-performing women disappear from leadership. When she became a physician, she found them in her waiting room, not burned out, but going through one of the most significant bra...

You stayed. You tried harder. You thought if you just loved him better, it would finally click. This episode is about the relationship that cost Yvonne Heimann four years, her business focus, and the version of herself she kept putting last. It's also about the viral short telling women they need to stay single to build a business, and why that answer is wrong, not because it's bad advice, but it'...

You've been told that caring deeply about your cause is enough. It isn't.  And the women who are burning out in the nonprofit space aren't failing because they don't care, they're failing because nobody taught them the strategy to match their passion. Lisa Avila spent 25 years in business before walking into the nonprofit world and seeing the same pattern everywhere: brilliant women with massive m...

What if your birth chart knows your business better than your strategy does?  That's not a soft question. It's the one Aleksandra Ceho has been answering for CEOs, musicians, and entrepreneurs for years, and it changes everything about how you lead. Aleksandra is a professional astrologer and leadership strategist who uses natal charts the way Aristotle used philosophy with Alexander the Great, no...

If your business is working but you still feel stuck, you don't have a marketing problem. You have a systems problem.  And it's more common than anyone wants to admit. Rachel Minion has spent 25 years building marketing systems that work without the founder in the room. In this episode, she's direct about what creates momentum and what founders do instead that quietly kills it. You'll hear how she...

You've been posting jobs, getting applicants, and still ending up with the wrong people. This episode is why, and what to change. Yvonne Heimann breaks down the exact hiring system she's built with her COO Luby Purnell. ClickUp automations that filter candidates before a single call, Easter egg tests that screen for attention to detail immediately, an AI agent that gives every applicant a 0-5 alig...

Have you ever tried to help and ended up the bad guy? Yvonne got kicked out of an event for giving feedback she thought was welcome. What followed was a real-time lesson in intent versus impact, the Karpman Drama Triangle, and why our best intentions sometimes cause the most damage. In this episode, Yvonne and her coach Matthew Riven break down what actually happened, where the communication ruptu...

What if the reason your business feels heavy isn’t the workload, but the way everything still runs through you? In this episode of She Is a Leader , Yvonne Heimann sits down with Daria Rudnik, a former Chief People Officer turned team architect, to talk about what really keeps leaders stuck in doing it all. Their conversation moves beyond delegation tips and into how teams are actually built, or n...

What if the reason hiring keeps failing is not the people, but the way you are bringing them in? In this episode of She Is a Leader , Yvonne sits down with her business manager, Luby, to unpack what really changed inside her business after years of hiring out of urgency. This conversation moves past the usual hiring advice and into what actually makes a team work. They talk about why hiring for sk...

Building a business in a male-dominated industry comes with a different kind of pressure, one where you’re often underestimated before you even get the chance to speak. In this episode of the She Is a Leader Podcast, we explore what it really takes to lead when you’re constantly being questioned, labeled, or placed into expectations that were never built for you. I’m joined by Hannah Hurckes, foun...

There’s something new I’ve been building… and it’s been sitting in the background for years. In this solo episode of the She Is a Leader, I’m taking you behind the scenes of starting my second company: FemAuthority. I talk about what led to this. The realization that something is missing in how we teach business. The frustration with “one way to do it” messaging.  The push to build something that...

When you start questioning the coaching industry, what do you actually find beneath the surface? In this episode of She Is a Leader Podcast, Yvonne Heimann is back with Matthew Riven for part two of their conversation. After unpacking a recent behind the scenes experience in part one, they zoom out to talk about the bigger picture and what’s really going on in the coaching space. They dive into wh...

A business that truly supports your life isn’t built by pushing harder. It’s built by rethinking how you lead, work, and make decisions. In this episode of the She Is a Leader Podcast, we dive into what it actually looks like to move through burnout, redefine success, and build a business that feels aligned instead of overwhelming. I’m joined by Melissa Aarskaug, a cybersecurity executive, founder...

Building a business that supports your life doesn’t come from pushing harder. It comes from learning to work with yourself instead of against yourself. In this episode of the She Is a Leader Podcast, we explore what it really looks like to step out of hustle culture and build a business that feels sustainable, supportive, and aligned with your life. I’m joined by Renae Fieck, a feminine leadership...

What happens when a podcast interview crosses the line from conversation into judgment? In this episode of She Is a Leader Podcast , Yvonne Heimann sits down with Matthew Riven to unpack a behind the scenes moment that led to something she has never done before… pulling a recorded episode and choosing not to air it. What started as a normal interview quickly shifted after the recording stopped.  B...

What happens when your leadership journey spans countries, cultures, and completely different ways of seeing the world? In this episode of She Is a Leader Podcast, I’m joined by Michaela Underdahl, Marketing Lead at Nimble, for a thoughtful conversation about identity, resilience, and what it really means to lead across cultures. Born and raised in the Czech Republic, Michaela took a leap at 25 an...

Building a sustainable business requires more than constant hustle. It requires boundaries, systems, and the willingness to design your work in a way that actually supports your life. In this episode of the She Is a Leader Podcast, we explore what it really takes to move from burnout to a business that protects your time, creativity, and energy. I’m joined by Kelly Mirabella, owner of Stellar Medi...

Success is not always what we were taught to chase. In this episode of She Is a Leader Podcast, I sit down with life coach and former executive consultant Zerina Derveni, who spent years building the kind of corporate success many women are told to aim for. The promotions were there. The career looked right on paper. Yet internally something no longer felt aligned. What began as a quiet realizatio...

What do you do when growth feels heavy… and you still have to show up? In this solo episode of She Is A Leader Podcast, I'm recording from the middle of it.  The hormones. The pressure. The imposter syndrome. The behind the scenes chaos of a webinar six days out. The book launch. The second company. The voice in my head asking if it would be easier to just stop fighting. I talk about what it actua...

Resilience is not an individual sport. In this powerful episode of She Is a Leader, I sit down with retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Laurel “Buff” Burkel, whose life changed in an instant when a helicopter crash in Afghanistan left her with a broken neck and took the lives of five people, including two of her closest colleagues. Buff shares what it was like to survive a near internal decapitation, w...

Building a business that scales requires more than hard work. You need leverage, positioning, and the courage to think bigger. In this episode of She Is a Leader Podcast, we dive into what it truly takes to turn your expertise into recurring revenue, build authority in the B2B space, and step into a larger version of your leadership. I’m joined by Amanda Northcutt, six-time executive and founder o...

What happens when doing everything “right” still leads to a moment you never planned for?  In this episode of She Is a Leader, I’m joined by Angie Tebbe, founder and CEO of Rae Wellness, for a raw and honest conversation about growth, failure, and what real leadership looks like when things don’t go as planned. After building Rae Wellness into a beloved brand serving more than 4.5 million customer...

What happens when you stop trying to fit into a role and start leading as your whole self, story, scars, joy, and all? In this episode of She Is a Leader, I’m joined by Claudia Sandoval, writer, producer, chef and storyteller, for a deeply honest conversation about identity, self trust, and what it really means to be seen. Claudia shares her journey beyond the title of “Chef Claudia”, from winning...

Ever known exactly what your mission was… and still fought it with everything you had? In this solo episode, I’m unpacking why I resisted saying out loud that I work with women and minorities, even though that mission has been at the core of my work for years. I talk about public perception, internalized beliefs, comfort zones, money decisions that pay the bills but drain the soul, and what it rea...

What happens when connection becomes the foundation of your business, but leadership still starts to feel heavy and exhausting? In this episode of She Is a Leader Podcast, we explore what it really takes to build a business that runs on trust, communication, and care without turning the founder into the bottleneck. I’m joined by Brooke Sellas, award-winning CEO of B Squared Media and author of Con...