The Myth of the Career Ladder with Britt Mari Sykes

Connection Before Correction | Ally Boyes-Varley

Ally Boyes-Varley grew up dyslexic and ADHD in a school system that gave her every academic intervention going — and none of the emotional regulation underneath. She is the founder of Roots & Wings Tutoring and the creator of the Connect-Ed Method, which centres one principle above all others: connection before correction. In this conversation with Mark Sephton, she talks about what the three-part brain tells us about why academic support alone can never be enough, why behaviour is always communication, and what it actually sounds like to lead with a child's "fast brain" rather than their gaps. She also talks about 18 months in the deep countryside applying her own methodology to herself, the coach question that cracked everything open, and why playing small had been, for a long time, the safest thing she knew how to do.

The Power of Your Story | Desiree Wingo | The Female CEO

In this episode, Mark Sephton sits down with Desiree Wingo - co-founder of Awaken IV and personal transformation advocate, for a conversation about what it really means to stop letting the past write the future.  Desiree shares the tools she actually uses: the "ultimate truth" filter, the "could it be possible" practice, and the philosophy of leaning in to resistance rather than away from it. She also unpacks the invisible tax women pay when they refuse to own their identity, the power of speaking to your inner child, and what the connection between physical restoration and emotional capacity looks like from the inside. Warm, honest, and fired up in places — this one is best heard on your own.

The Power of the Breath | Rebecca Henwood

Rebecca Henwood spent eighteen years as a single mum running her household like a military operation: career, children, structure, forward motion. When her youngest followed her son to the UK for university and the corporate role fell away, the identity she'd built around all of it went with them. She packed up her Sydney life, drove north to Byron Bay, and started asking what had been underneath the doing all along. In this conversation with Mark Sephton, Rebecca talks about the slow shift from masculine to feminine energy, the breathwork classroom where she discovered grief she hadn't known her body was storing, and the moment she understood that safety isn't something to find in another person or another role — it's something to build within yourself. She's now doing exactly that work with clients through Breathe with Beck, and she's also just launched the podcast Angels on the Airwaves. Stay for the David Attenborough bit. You'll never watch a nature documentary the same way again.

The Work in the Shadows | Jane Bellis

She had the salons, the fashion weeks, the superhero cape — and a body sending signs she'd learned to slam the lid on. On the surface it was winning at life. Three salons, London and New York Fashion Week, creative director on a global show, four children, the school runs and the sports days all somehow handled. Jane Bellis had ticked off the whole bucket list — and built a performative version of herself she couldn't admit wasn't working. In this conversation with Mark Sephton, Jane traces the long road from backstage burnout to becoming a sacred nervous system and shadow integration coach. She talks about the body's intelligence we're trained to override, the medicine wheel framework she now teaches, the childhood patterns that run the show in the background (the programmes installed when you were six), and why women hitting their 40s reach a wall they can't push through any longer. There's no medal. Listen for the bit about the medal.

The Art of Listening | Mark Sephton

He's the King of Conversation. He has held the space for hundreds of women's stories in business, in leadership, in healing, and he has heard what most interviewers miss. But what does Mark Sephton actually believe about real connection? What has sitting across from so many remarkable women taught him about himself? And when Tricia Scott finally flips the script and asks the hard questions, what comes out? This is the episode we have wanted to make for a while. Tricia and Mark talk about the gap between communicating and truly connecting, the honest story behind why a male host anchors a female-led platform, what Mark believes is the real epidemic underneath all the healing conversations — and, in a closing that many listeners won't forget, what he wants to say to the woman who is wondering whether her voice actually matters. 🎙️ A special episode of The Female CEO podcast.