The Scenic Route with Victoria Steward

Abi Majekodunmi on Building a Runway Out of the 9-5

Most people leave the 9-5 one of two ways: they quit in a blaze and figure it out later, or they stay until they burn all the way down. Abi Majekodunmi found a third way. She ran the numbers. Abi is the founder of Freedom Runway™ and a former senior tech marketing manager... a mom of two boys who looked, from the outside, like she had it all handled. Six figures. Good reviews. The promotions. And one morning, driving back from school drop-off, she went right past her own house. She wasn’t running from her family. She just couldn’t make herself go back inside for one more day of the rush. What she did next is the whole episode. She asked herself a question she had never actually asked before: what do I want? Then, because she is a self-described money geek, she built a runway... a number separate from her emergency fund, sized to her family’s real expenses, so that when she left she would never feel like she had to come back. She thought it would take twelve months. It took five. Abi and I come at this from opposite directions. I leapt on a gut feeling; she got strategic and was gone in a season. But we land in exactly the same place: if you don’t get honest about what you actually want and what your numbers actually are, you carry the stress right out the door with you. CHAPTERS 00:00 Welcome and Introducing Abi Majekodunmi 01:05 Who Abi Is: From Burnt-Out Corporate to Helping Moms Exit 02:50 The Immigrant Script: Become a Doctor, Lawyer, or Accountant 05:14 COVID, Two Kids at Home, and Meetings With the Camera Off 07:04 The Morning She Kept Driving Past Her Own House 10:53 The First Question She Ever Asked: What Do I Want? 12:19 Building a Runway Beyond the Emergency Fund 13:44 Twelve Months Became Five: The Power of a Takeoff Date 17:32 Why a Coach Holds Your Vision When You Cannot 19:57 The Pause: Nine Months of Rest Before Building Anything 22:38 What She Would Tell Herself 10 Years Ago 27:10 The Donkey Parable: Someone Will Always Have an Opinion 28:25 The Third Option: You Do Not Have to Quit or Burn Out 36:49 Where to Find Abi and Her Free Calm Exit Check CONNECT WITH ABI Freedom Runway™ [https://freedomrunway.com] Free Calm Exit Check [https://freedomrunway.com/freebies/calm-exit-check/] (5 questions before you leave the 9-5) Abi on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/abifreedomrunway/] Abi on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/abimajekodunmi/] About Victoria Victoria Steward helps senior corporate women stop saying "just one more year" and finally understand what leaving would actually take. She knows the gap between the numbers looking fine and the feeling being anything but: she left the Navy with more than most people's "enough" in the bank, and her anxiety got worse. Now she helps women build the financial clarity and self-trust to leave corporate on their own terms, their own timing, their own scenic route. Financial Empowerment Coach | Certified Profit for Keeps® Coach On LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/victoria-steward-coaching] On Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/victoria.steward.coach] Website [https://victoria-steward.com]

Lilli Bewley on the Pattern That Shows Up in Your Career, Your Money, and Your Dating Life

There’s a version of high-achieving where you absorb everyone else’s everything and call it being chill. There’s a version where you give every part of yourself to your career, and then one day notice the same pattern playing out in dating, in money, in your body, in your business. “A pattern is a pattern is a pattern,” Lilli Bewley says. Once you see it, you can’t unsee it. Lilli is a Dating Coach for Finding Love and the creator of the Feminine Dating Archetype Quiz. Her framework is the four stages women move through on the way back to themselves: Chill Woman, Fortress Woman, Goddess Woman, Magnetic Woman. And the Magnetic Woman isn’t a mask. She’s the version of you where your actions, your behaviors, your thoughts, your beliefs and your emotions finally line up. In this conversation Victoria takes the quiz and lands as the Chill Woman, which drops us straight into the thing this whole show is about: how do you know what you actually want, and how do you get brave enough to stay with it when life starts asking you to test it? Lilli tells the story of the first real boundary she ever set... shaking in her car outside a doctor’s office, asking the nurse to skip the scale as an act of self-love. And the moment she stopped trying to push through fear and started moving toward it instead. This one’s for you if you’ve ever read a self-help book that named what was wrong with you and then left you stranded on how to actually change it. CHAPTERS 00:00 Welcome to the Scenic Route 00:52 Lilli’s journey... surviving to thriving in love 03:26 “I do nothing”... Victoria on the identity freeze after leaving a 20-year career 05:21 “Who am I without this?” The most confronting question 08:00 The eldest-daughter pattern shows up everywhere 10:33 The Feminine Dating Archetypes framework 15:48 Victoria’s quiz result: the Chill Woman 20:52 The Chill Woman’s work... boundaries, needs, desires 27:42 Lilli’s first real boundary... the doctor’s scale story 33:02 Going toward the fear, not away from it 36:45 The Fortress Woman and the Great Wall around the heart 40:32 The Goddess Woman... done the work, still misaligned 45:58 The Magnetic Woman... when everything lines up 46:27 Take the quiz at datingarchetype.com [http://datingarchetype.com] FIND LILLY Feminine Dating Archetype Quiz [https://datingarchetype.com] Lilli Bewley Website [https://www.lillibewley.com] Lilli on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/lillibewley/] ABOUT VICTORIA Victoria Steward is a Financial Empowerment Coach and Certified Profit for Keeps® Coach who helps senior women in tech and engineering build the financial clarity and career confidence to leave corporate on their own terms. After 20 years as a civilian engineer for the U.S. Navy, she took the scenic route to get here... and she’s been reaching a hand back ever since. FIND VICTORIA On LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/victoria-steward-coaching] On Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/victoria.steward.coach] Website [https://victoria-steward.com] 🎙️ This show is recorded with Riverside, the easiest way to run a professional podcast and livestream simultaneously. Thinking about starting your own show? riverside.sjv.io/PzzkYY [http://riverside.sjv.io/PzzkYY]

Breaking the Good Girl Pattern: How High Achievers Finally Feel Safe with Coco Duan

What does it feel like to check every box, reach every milestone, and still feel like something is deeply wrong?   Coco Duan was a senior leader at a Fortune 500 company, earning over $400k a year, doing everything she was supposed to do. On the outside, high performance. On the inside, running on empty, living in low-grade anxiety she didn't even have a name for, and giving everything to everyone except herself.   COVID stopped the superhighway. And for the first time, the whisper she had been outrunning for years got loud enough to hear.   In this conversation, Coco and Victoria talk about what actually happens after you get off the highway: why the anxiety doesn't automatically stop, why high achievers keep chasing the next goal to feel safe even when they know better, and why the nervous system work has to come before the strategy. Coco also talks about Argentine Tango as nervous system regulation, dancing five nights a week in Shanghai, and going to Buenos Aires for three weeks because joy is not a luxury. It is the fuel.   Her book Unchecking the Boxes is out now. Her podcast is The Badass Leader. And this conversation is for anyone who has ever felt like a beautiful Porsche running on a broken engine. CHAPTERS 00:00 Welcome and Introducing Coco Duan 00:38 Who Coco Is Now: Breaking Good Girl Patterns and Becoming Badass 01:52 The Inciting Incident: When Did the Whisper Start? 02:27 From Whisper to Shout: How COVID Made the Voice Impossible to Ignore 04:42 Life on the Corporate Superhighway: Urgent, Urgent, Urgent 05:28 Driving 100 Miles an Hour While Running Completely Empty 07:24 The Turning Point: Seeking Professional Help for the First Time 10:54 How She Found Coaching: The Glimmer That Changed Everything 14:45 Zone of Excellence vs Zone of Genius: Why Good at It Is Not Enough 15:13 Building Financial Safety Before Taking the Leap 16:51 Hiding in the Closet: Coaching While Still in Corporate 18:16 What Traditional Executive Coaching Gets Wrong 19:46 Still Anxious on the Scenic Route: Why the Work Was Not Done 21:09 Nervous System Regulation, IFS, and the Voice That Was Never Present Coco 25:12 What Self-Sabotage Actually Is (It Is Not What You Think) 26:13 The Good Girl Patterns That Keep High Achievers Stuck 30:41 Joy as Fuel: Argentine Tango, Buenos Aires, and Three Weeks of Dancing 37:18 The Science of Dancing as Nervous System Reset 39:15 Reading Books and Listening to Podcasts Is Not Enough 43:23 You Cannot Learn to Ride a Bike From a Podcast 44:27 Where to Find Coco and Wrap FIND COCO Website: cocoduancoaching.com Coco on LinkedIn [linkedin.com/in/cocoduan] Unchecking the Boxes (book): Available on Amazon [https://us.amazon.com/Unchecking-Boxes-Proving-Pleasing-Performing/dp/B0GM8NG9X3] The Badass Leader Podcast: Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-badass-leader-helping-high-achieving-women-lead/id1764853248] FIND VICTORIA On Instagram [https://instagram.com/victoria.steward.coach] On LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/victoria-steward-coaching/] victoria-steward.com

What Nobody Tells Therapists About Building a Private Practice with Katie Fortunato

What happens when you do everything the right way and still burn out? You try again. And again. Until you finally stop trying to fit yourself into someone else's blueprint. Katie Fortunato is a Licensed Professional Counselor and EMDR therapist who built her practice the way she was told to... and hit the wall every single time. School counselor. Pivot in an unplanned direction due to COVID. Air Force Academy position. Group practice. Private practice. And at every stop: burnout, because the model she was handed wasn't built for her. In this conversation, Katie and Victoria talk about what it actually takes to build something sustainable: starting with what you need (not what someone else did), figuring out your real number before you set any goals, and why the identity shift from clinician to practice owner is the part nobody warns you about. If you are a therapist thinking about private practice, this one was made for you. And if you are not a therapist but you have ever tried to build something using someone else's rules and wondered why it kept breaking, this one is for you too. CHAPTERS 00:00 Welcome and introducing Katie Fortunato 00:41 Who Katie is now: LPC, EMDR therapist, and coach for therapists 01:14 Where it started: the straight-line plan and the first detour 03:19 Five years as a school counselor: the promise vs. the bureaucracy 04:19 Selling everything in February 2020... and then COVID happened 07:17 The scenic route to private practice: Air Force Academy, group practice, and the moment she finally said yes 10:07 Knowing what you are worth and refusing to accept less 12:13 Year one of private practice: why the model she inherited nearly broke her 15:21 Her methodology: why the number has to come from your life, not from industry averages 18:27 Therapist pay, martyr culture, and the internal message that says you don't deserve more 22:03 The group program: building with a cohort instead of building alone 31:02 What she wishes she had told herself at the start: vision first, build second 37:11 The founders cohort: what is open, how long, and what founders get 38:31 Where to find Katie and wrap ABOUT KATIE Katie Fortunato is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) | EMDR Therapist | Group Practice Owner | Coach for Therapists Building Private Practices Learn More: Instagram: @katiefortunatocoaching [https://www.instagram.com/katiefortunatocoaching] From Clinician to Practice Owner: Build, Launch & Grow for Therapists Facebook Group [https://www.facebook.com/groups/katiefortunatocoaching] To Learn More About Katies Group Program: Book a Call [https://api.leadconnectorhq.com/widget/booking/XHQOG83j5xXwcceMpIj8] ABOUT VICTORIA Victoria Steward is a Financial Empowerment Coach and Certified Profit for Keeps® Coach who helps senior women in tech and engineering build the financial clarity and career confidence to leave corporate on their own terms. After 20 years as a civilian engineer for the U.S. Navy, she took the scenic route to get here... and she's been reaching a hand back ever since. On LinkedIn: @victoria-steward-coaching [https://www.linkedin.com/in/victoria-steward-coaching/] On Instagram: @victoria.steward.coach [https://www.instagram.com/victoria.steward.coach/] Website: victoria-steward.com [https://victoria-steward.com] 🎙️Record your own podcast with Riverside [riverside.sjv.io/PzzkYY].

You Did the Math. So Why Don’t You Feel Ready to Leave?

Leaving corporate and building your runway number: why knowing it isn’t the same as feeling ready to go. You’ve run the numbers. You have the savings. And somehow, you still don’t feel ready to leave. That’s not a math problem. That’s a missing system. Victoria Steward, Financial Empowerment Coach and former 20-year Navy engineer, shares why the number alone doesn’t create financial safety, what happened when she left corporate with $100k and no cashflow system, and the one shift that moves you from financial anxiety to genuine delight in paying your bills. This episode is for you if you keep telling yourself “one more year” even though the math already says you’re ready. CHAPTERS 00:00 Why Your Runway Number Isn’t the Finish Line 01:00 The Debt Cycle: Why Getting Out of Debt Can Feel Unsafe 02:30 Why Having Your Runway Number Can Feel Terrifying 03:30 Left the Navy With $100k and Still Felt Like Freefall 06:00 What “Going on Vibes” Actually Costs You 07:30 The Number Is Information, Not Safety 09:00 Giving Every Dollar a Job: What a Cashflow System Does 10:30 From Braced to Neutral to Delighted: How Money Shifts 11:30 Why Victoria Pays Her Bills With Genuine Delight 12:30 Shelby Herber on Money Stress and Everything Else 14:00 How Long Is Enough? Why Your Runway Number Is Personal 16:00 Could You Have a Million Dollars and Still Feel Unsafe? 17:30 Know Your Number Masterclass: Friday May 1 CURIOUS TO KNOW YOUR RUNWAY? Register for Know Your Number Masterclass [https://masterclass.victoria-steward.com]: Friday May 1, 2026 at 12pm ET: 3 Strategies to Leave Corporate & Start Your Business. About Victoria Victoria Steward is a Financial Empowerment Coach and Certified Profit for Keeps® Coach who helps senior women in tech and engineering build the financial clarity and career confidence to leave corporate on their own terms. After 20 years as a civilian engineer for the U.S. Navy, she took the scenic route to get here... and she’s been reaching a hand back ever since. Links Website: victoria-steward.com [https://victoria-steward.com] Instagram: @victoria.steward.coach [https://instagram.com/victoria.steward.coach] LinkedIn: @victoria-steward-coaching [https://www.linkedin.com/in/victoria-steward-coaching/] YouTube: 🎤 This show is recorded with Riverside [https://riverside.sjv.io/PzzkYY], the easiest way to run a professional podcast and livestream simultaneously. Thinking about starting your own show?