Untamed Leader

Send Lauri a message What if visibility isn't about performing—it's about being felt? In this off-season drop, you're getting a front-row seat to a conversation that happened on Jeni Holla's Soul Chats podcast. Jeni and Lauri explore the soul of visibility: why performing for attention keeps us small, what it actually costs to let people in, and how speaking from your true freq...

Send Lauri a message What if your biggest leadership mistake wasn't the decisions you made, but the mental model you were carrying when you made them? Leadership coach Kurt Bush started out believing leaders had to have all the answers. Spoiler: it nearly cost him the room. What he discovered instead, through mentorship, a pandemic, and a lot of curiosity, reshaped how he shows up in every ro...

Send Lauri a message What if the version of you that shrinks is both timid and brilliant? In this retreat coaching session, we sit with Brian Perry, an authentic communication coach and singer-songwriter, as his body remembers a childhood rule: being seen is dangerous.  What unfolds is a vivid map of survival, from bullying to family dynamics, and the subtle ways a protector part can keep you safe...

Send Lauri a message The most dangerous career trap is not failure. It’s comfort that slowly turns into a cage.  In this episode of the Untamed Leader Podcast, Lauri sits down with Dr. Karen Koepp, a strategic advisor who helps senior leaders navigate high-stakes turning points. At the heart of the conversation is a childhood expedition that still shapes how Karen guides clients today and the patt...

Send Lauri a message What does untaming look like and how do we do it? This is a real coaching session from the Untamed Leader Spring Retreat: Embody Your Vision — unscripted, embodied, and alive. Dana is stepping into a new chapter: retiring from her career, feeling called to “ocean” more, and finding out what living with more presence, intention, and impact feels like in her body. What you’ll wi...

Send Lauri a message What happens when insight isn't enough — when your vision is clear, your mind runs fast, and follow-through keeps breaking anyway? Executive functioning and resilience coach Kevin Bailey spent years burning out trying to out-learn and out-effort his way to success before he stopped trying to fix himself and started designing support systems built for him. That terrain bet...

Send Lauri a message What if the reason your business feels stuck isn't the strategy — it's all the disconnected parts that nobody's connecting? Fractional COO Lauren Zaslansky Conner has spent decades doing exactly that: linking the systems, the people, and the purpose that most businesses leave siloed. In this episode, Lauren shares how a "jungle gym career" — moving thr...

Send Lauri a message What if the greatest leadership credential isn't a title or a degree — it's the moment you realized you had no idea what you were doing? Charlie Sheppard — founder of the Human Presence Institute and president of Sheppard Partners — spent four decades helping executives and teams develop presence, influence, and real communication. But it started somewhere much humbl...

Send Lauri a message What happens to a leader's clarity after the crisis passes — when things go quiet and the pressure turns inward? Savio P. Clemente, TEDx speaker, journalist, bestselling author, and two-time cancer survivor, brings that answer from somewhere most guests never travel: 29 days of silence in a hospital quarantine room. In this episode, Savio and Lauri explore a hidden gap in...

Send Lauri a message Personal branding expert and visual designer Rachel Lee built her brand by doing something most people are terrified to do: she showed the world exactly who she is — messy edges, weird quirks, and all. The response changed her life. In this episode of Untamed Leader, Rachel shares how she went from a rule-following, approval-seeking "good girl" to co-founding Neogene...

Send Lauri a message What does it cost to keep saying "I'm fine"? Executive coach Lauren Lefkowitz broke both her shoulders chasing a Roomba. In this episode of Untamed Leader , Lauri and Lauren unpack the price of the work-sleep-repeat cycle — and what it takes to want more for yourself when you've spent a lifetime being good at everything except rest. Lauren is an executive c...

Send Lauri a message What does it take to build a global movement of 14,000 people — across 48 countries and six continents — without a single dollar of advertising? Ask Camille Miller. Camille is the founder of the Soul Professional Movement, a three-time Amazon bestselling author, and a former nonprofit executive turned visionary entrepreneur. In this conversation, she and Lauri go deep on the q...

Send Lauri a message What does it actually take to let go — not because you're wise enough, but because your back gave out and you had no other choice? Entrepreneur and business coach Chris Shurian started his first company the hard way: handling every nail, every conversation, every quality check himself. Then he herniated a disc playing softball. Two weeks flat on his back, no cell phones,...

Send Lauri a message What does it actually mean to untame a leader—and why does it matter right now? In this Season 3 premiere of Untamed Leader, Lauri Smith flips the mic. Longtime collaborator, singer-songwriter, and authentic communication coach Brian Perry steps in as interviewer—and the result is one of the most honest, searching conversations about leadership, voice, and coming home to yours...

Send Lauri a message The Soulful Speaking Podcast is now the Untamed Leader Podcast. The name has changed. The pulse has not. How did we get here? Over years of conversations about voice, presence, and creative courage, a deeper truth kept surfacing. Soulful speaking was never just about speaking. It was always about leadership as a sacred art — the kind that stands steady in chaos, holds vision i...

Send Lauri a message What happens when your voice disappears—right when you need it most? In this deeply human conversation, Lisa Roche, host of the Find Your Flow podcast, joins Lauri to explore what it really means to find your voice when your body says no. Lisa shares a powerful story of freezing, sobbing, and being unable to speak in front of others—despite years of performing on world-class s...

Send Lauri a message What happens when the life that looks successful on paper no longer feels true inside? In this episode, best-selling author and real estate entrepreneur Betsy Pepine shares the deeply personal journey that led her to write Breaking Boxes: Dismantling the Metaphorical Boxes That Bind Us . From family-of-origin expectations and gender norms to professional identities and marital...

Send Lauri a message In this bonus episode, Speaker, coach, and Next Level University CEO Alan Lazaros joins Lauri for a raw, high-voltage conversation about fear, intensity, and the courage to be “too much.” From a high-school speech panic (and a hypnotist’s snowboard hack) to a near-fatal car crash at 26 that turned a career into a calling, Alan traces the inner rewiring that let him own his tru...

Send Lauri a message What happens when the person who once hyperventilated in middle school at the mere thought of speaking… becomes the woman people ask to take photos with after her talk? In this episode, Lauri sits down with Kelly Schuknecht, marketing strategist, thought leadership coach, and founder of Two Mile High Marketing, to trace the true origin of Kelly’s visibility: not a strategy, no...

Send Lauri a message What happens when “memorize it” kills your aliveness? In this bonus episode, speaker and leader Kurt Uhlir shares how forcing a script spiked his stress, shut down vulnerability, and flattened his presence — and how returning to flow changed everything. We unpack small-room freakouts, the body’s signals (hello, stress across the chest), and the simple reframe that turns fear i...

Send Lauri a message What happens to your voice when survival requires silence? Kat Polsinelli stepped onstage at 10… and years later, found herself slowly losing her voice inside a decade-long abusive relationship she never expected to be in. In this intimate conversation, Kat and Lauri explore the invisible architecture of emotional and psychological abuse—how it isolates, rewrites reality, and...

Send Lauri a message In this bonus minisode, you’re invited into a grounding ritual — one that rose up unplanned during a conversation with a guest, and insisted on being shared. This is a moment to pause. To feel the truth of where you are. To reconnect with the pulse beneath your voice — that wild, steady rhythm that holds you long before any words arrive. If you’re longing for a reset… If your...

Send Lauri a message Voice and visibility coach Evelyne Brink returns with a story that’s part pilgrimage, part primal scream, and fully alive. From being told her voice was “dysfunctional” to getting into (and then kicked out of) musical theatre school, Evelyne follows intuition across continents—Thailand’s Sanctuary, New York cabarets, Brighton pubs—and even into an unlikely season as a #1 Madon...

Send Lauri a message Therapist and nature-based guide Laura Rose shares how an early love of reading aloud and debate gave way to silence after bullying—then slowly blossomed into a wilder, truer voice through chanting, song circles, land stewardship, and community. We explore why language can’t carry all meaning, how sound opens the door, and what shifts when we replace “fit in” with “belong.” If...

Send Lauri a message It’s 2026 — and somehow, we’re still not talking enough about menopause. In this unfiltered minisode, Lauri and her friend and fellow coach Kelly Myerson swap real stories about navigating hormonal shifts, medical gaslighting, and the mystery symptoms so many women are told to “just live with.” From sleepless nights to sudden clarity, they shed light (and laughter) on what rea...