Untamed Leader

Own Your Weird: The Branding No One Talks About

Send Lauri a message [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2389103/fan_mail/new] Personal branding expert and visual designer Rachel Lee [https://linkedin.com/in/racheltylee/] 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 [https://instagram.com/racheltylee/] shares how she went from a rule-following, approval-seeking "good girl" to co-founding Neogenesis [https://neogenesis.me/], a visual branding agency built specifically for creatives and misfit entrepreneurs who are ready to own their weird. Her story is about what happens when you stop curating yourself for other people’s comfort — and start letting your brand be a mirror of who you actually are. We talk about: * What the 2019 upheaval that changed everything actually cost her — and what it gave her * The Frankenstein business most entrepreneurs build before they find their real brand * Why a "curated storefront" brand is the opposite of what makes people trust you * The moment she decided to take her personality off mute — and what happened next * The difference between personal branding as strategy vs. personal branding as a mirror * What a permission slip actually means — and why you need one If you’ve ever felt the disconnect between how you show up online and how you actually are, this conversation will name that gap and invite you toward something more real. Takeaways 1. While showing up as you feels risky, it’s actually the most efficient path to the right clients. People who don’t connect with the real you aren’t your clients anyway. 2. Most entrepreneurs build a Frankenstein version of their brand by borrowing pieces from other people’s frameworks. It works just enough to survive — and never quite fits. 3. A "curated storefront" brand creates a disconnect between what people see and who they actually get. That disconnect undermines trust before the relationship begins. 4. Branding isn’t a re-outfit — it’s a mirror. The real work is showing what’s inside, not constructing a strategic exterior. 5. Being seen fully — with all the weird and messy edges — and still being chosen is one of the most profound human experiences. It’s also the experience that turns clients into advocates. 6. The untaming journey often requires a period of radical disruption before it becomes an adventure. Knowing others have survived it matters. 7. Intuition often arrives before the language does. Rachel built her personal brand intuitively before she knew it had a name. That discovery happened after the doing. 8. Permission is the doorway. What most people need isn’t a better strategy — it’s the permission slip to show up as they are. Soul Sucker Quiz [https://voice-matters.com/soul-sucker-quiz/] Take the Soul Sucker Quiz to learn which Soul Sucker screams the loudest in your mind so you can release them from being in charge and set your voice free! https://voice-matters.com/soul-sucker-quiz/ The Speaker Alter Ego Quiz [https://voice-matters.com/speaker-alter-ego-quiz-embed/] Take the Speaker Alter Ego quiz to find out which protective mask hides your natural radiance so you can learn how to get present, connect deeply, and share your vision when it matters most! https://voice-matters.com/speaker-alter-ego-quiz/ Support the show [https://buymeacoffee.com/laurismith] Thank you so much for listening! Take the free Speaker Alter Ego Quiz to find out which protective mask is hiding your wild, untamed radiance. https://voice-matters.com/speaker-alter-ego-quiz/ [https://voice-matters.com/speaker-alter-ego-quiz/] Follow me on: Instagram https://www.instagram.com/voice_matters_llc/ [https://www.instagram.com/voice_matters_llc/] Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauri-smith-voice-matters/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauri-smith-voice-matters/] YouTube  https://www.youtube.com/@voicematters9646 [https://www.youtube.com/@voicematters9646]

Fine Is a Trap: Breaking Free from the Work-Sleep-Repeat Cycle

Send Lauri a message [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2389103/fan_mail/new] 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 coach and founder of Fine Is a Trap. She spent nearly 20 years in corporate HR, coaching on the side, and overworking at 80–100 hours a week — until she couldn't raise her hand to volunteer anymore. What followed was a real-life experiment in untaming: five-minute morning reads, boundary scripts, and learning that a goal without a plan is just a wish. They talk about: * Why high achievers can be the last to know they're drowning * The connection between "I don't want this" and knowing what you do want * What it feels like to finally have evenings and weekends — and why that's terrifying * The all-or-nothing trap that keeps ambitious women stuck * Small steps that actually stick (and why they outperform big leaps every time) KEY TAKEAWAYS 1. "Fine" is a lid. It keeps you from falling further — and from rising higher. The same word that protects you also becomes the ceiling. 2. High achievers are often the least equipped to see their own burnout. Being good at doing doesn't make you good at feeling. The skills that built your career can keep you from noticing you're barely surviving. 3. Wanting change and knowing how to change are two different things. You can desperately want something different and still have no idea where to start. That gap isn't weakness — it's just the next thing to solve. 4. Clarity about what you don't want is a valid starting point. You don't have to know what you want in order to move. Start with what feels wrong, icky, or off — and let the opposites reveal themselves from there. 5. A goal without a plan is a wish. Intention without structure evaporates. Real change happens in the tiniest, most boringly specific steps — not in big declarations. 6. The all-or-nothing mind is its own trap. If you can't do it all the way, it doesn't mean don't start. One five-minute read in the morning is the beginning of something. Perfectionism masquerades as standards. 7. Space is terrifying before it's liberating. When you stop filling every hour, the first thing you feel is the chemicals leaving your body. That discomfort is withdrawal — not a sign you've made a mistake. 8. Self-serving is a leadership skill. You cannot pour from a cup you've never filled. Filling your own tank first is what makes genuine, sustained service possible — not the martyr who runs on scraps. 9. You are not the most objective person about yourself. The things you can't see about yourself are exactly what other people can see clearly. Community and coaching aren't luxuries — they're mirrors. Connect with Lauren: Website: fineisatrap.com LinkedIn: Lauren Lefkowitz Soul Sucker Quiz [https://voice-matters.com/soul-sucker-quiz/] Take the Soul Sucker Quiz to learn which Soul Sucker screams the loudest in your mind so you can release them from being in charge and set your voice free! https://voice-matters.com/soul-sucker-quiz/ The Speaker Alter Ego Quiz [https://voice-matters.com/speaker-alter-ego-quiz-embed/] Take the Speaker Alter Ego quiz to find out which protective mask hides your natural radiance so you can learn how to get present, connect deeply, and share your vision when it matters most! https://voice-matters.com/speaker-alter-ego-quiz/ Support the show [https://buymeacoffee.com/laurismith] Thank you so much for listening! Take the free Speaker Alter Ego Quiz to find out which protective mask is hiding your wild, untamed radiance. https://voice-matters.com/speaker-alter-ego-quiz/ [https://voice-matters.com/speaker-alter-ego-quiz/] Follow me on: Instagram https://www.instagram.com/voice_matters_llc/ [https://www.instagram.com/voice_matters_llc/] Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauri-smith-voice-matters/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauri-smith-voice-matters/] YouTube  https://www.youtube.com/@voicematters9646 [https://www.youtube.com/@voicematters9646]

Soul First: How to Build a Business That Feels Like Freedom

Send Lauri a message [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2389103/fan_mail/new] 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 quiet revolution happening inside mission-driven leaders: the shift from control to sovereignty, from reacting to responding, and from strategy to embodied presence. We talk about ego at 22 vs. ego at 58. About filing for divorce and discovering that not every action deserves a response. About why working harder isn't what fills your pipeline — and what does. About the moment Camille realized she'd spent years trying NOT to be the face of her own company, and why the world had other plans. If you're a mission-driven entrepreneur who's ever felt like the old business playbook wasn't built for you — this one's for you. Takeaways 1. Hyper-independence can look like drive from the outside and feel like control from the inside — and unlearning it is part of the leadership journey. 2. Not every action deserves a response. Sometimes choosing silence is a leadership skill, not a weakness. 3. Your personal life and professional life are one life. The lessons don't stay in their lane — they bleed through, and that's where the real growth lives. 4. The inner work produces the outer results. Rewiring how your brain relates to what's possible is a business strategy. 5. Space is productive time. Walking, biking, driving, being near water — these aren't breaks from the work, they're where the answers come. 6. Vision holding is a job. Not everyone is a visionary, and being the one who holds the frequency for others is its own form of leadership. 7. Structure can stop your creativity. The most innovative people often aren't the ones who followed the traditional path. 8. We are our brand. The future of work is fractional, sovereign, and individual — and the soul professional lives at that leading edge. 9. People magnetize to your personal energy before they buy into your business. Embodying your mission isn't soft — it's the strategy. Connect with Camille: Website [https://www.soulprofessional.com/], LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/camillelmiller/]  Soul Sucker Quiz [https://voice-matters.com/soul-sucker-quiz/] Take the Soul Sucker Quiz to learn which Soul Sucker screams the loudest in your mind so you can release them from being in charge and set your voice free! https://voice-matters.com/soul-sucker-quiz/ The Speaker Alter Ego Quiz [https://voice-matters.com/speaker-alter-ego-quiz-embed/] Take the Speaker Alter Ego quiz to find out which protective mask hides your natural radiance so you can learn how to get present, connect deeply, and share your vision when it matters most! https://voice-matters.com/speaker-alter-ego-quiz/ Support the show [https://buymeacoffee.com/laurismith] Thank you so much for listening! Take the free Speaker Alter Ego Quiz to find out which protective mask is hiding your wild, untamed radiance. https://voice-matters.com/speaker-alter-ego-quiz/ [https://voice-matters.com/speaker-alter-ego-quiz/] Follow me on: Instagram https://www.instagram.com/voice_matters_llc/ [https://www.instagram.com/voice_matters_llc/] Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauri-smith-voice-matters/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauri-smith-voice-matters/] YouTube  https://www.youtube.com/@voicematters9646 [https://www.youtube.com/@voicematters9646]

Forced to Let Go: The Leadership Turn No One Plans For

Send Lauri a message [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2389103/fan_mail/new] 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, and two employees who turned out to be better carpenters than he was. That injury became a turning point — and the start of a career built on a deceptively simple principle: trust your team, hold the guardrails, and get out of the way. In this conversation, Chris and Lauri explore the moment control becomes the enemy of growth, what it means to lead from vision instead of micromanagement, and why the best leaders he's ever known were "dealers of hope" — making people feel capable before they believed it themselves. Chris also shares the barefoot principle, why he handed his 12-year-old the keys of a stick shift, and what his platform Bootstraps & Battle Scars is all about. If you feel like you might need to wrestle something real from your own hands to become the leader you’re meant to be — this one's for you. TAKEAWAYS 1. The most transformational leadership moments are often forced, not chosen — injury, crisis, and necessity can be faster teachers than any book. 2. Letting go of control doesn't mean dropping standards. It requires trust. Trust in those standards, trust in ourselves, and trust in others.  3. The guardrail model: define the vision, set non-negotiables, then give people the freedom to deliver within them.  4. Leaders who magnetize great people embody their values clearly — the wrong fits weed themselves out; the right ones rise. 5.  "Leaders are dealers of hope" — the leaders who changed Chris most made him feel like the best version of himself before he'd earned it. 6. Battle scars aren't failures to hide — they're the curriculum. You build something real from bootstraps and battle scars, not from perfect conditions. 7. Untamed leadership means trusting people to find their own way to the destination — not micromanaging the route they take to get there. ABOUT CHRIS Chris Shurian is an entrepreneur, business coach, and founder of Bootstraps & Battle Scars and Founders Exchange. After building a construction company from a truck and Soul Sucker Quiz [https://voice-matters.com/soul-sucker-quiz/] Take the Soul Sucker Quiz to learn which Soul Sucker screams the loudest in your mind so you can release them from being in charge and set your voice free! https://voice-matters.com/soul-sucker-quiz/ The Speaker Alter Ego Quiz [https://voice-matters.com/speaker-alter-ego-quiz-embed/] Take the Speaker Alter Ego quiz to find out which protective mask hides your natural radiance so you can learn how to get present, connect deeply, and share your vision when it matters most! https://voice-matters.com/speaker-alter-ego-quiz/ Support the show [https://buymeacoffee.com/laurismith] Thank you so much for listening! Take the free Speaker Alter Ego Quiz to find out which protective mask is hiding your wild, untamed radiance. https://voice-matters.com/speaker-alter-ego-quiz/ [https://voice-matters.com/speaker-alter-ego-quiz/] Follow me on: Instagram https://www.instagram.com/voice_matters_llc/ [https://www.instagram.com/voice_matters_llc/] Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauri-smith-voice-matters/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauri-smith-voice-matters/] YouTube  https://www.youtube.com/@voicematters9646 [https://www.youtube.com/@voicematters9646]

The Return: What Untamed Leader is Really About

Send Lauri a message [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2389103/fan_mail/new] 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 yourself that Lauri has ever had on this podcast. Lauri unpacks the real meaning of "untamed leadership" (hint: it's not a rebrand gimmick), the difference between being present and being lost in a spreadsheet, and why the leaders this world actually needs are the ones willing to stop performing certainty. They trace the arc from her first coaching class at the Coactive Training Institute—where she turned to a stranger and said "I think I just found the final piece"—to the creative tension that defines Untamed Leader today. They also get into Alyssa Liu, toolboxes, eggshell walking, dog whistles of the soul, and what happens when you stop trying to make decisions in your head and start trusting what's alive in your body. This is not a leadership theory episode. This is what leadership actually looks like from the inside. If you've been waiting for a sign to stop leading the tamed way—this is it. KEY TAKEAWAYS 1. Untamed Leader is a homecoming. The seeds were planted in Lauri's very first coaching class, and this chapter is about finally weaving them all together. 2. The world needs leaders who can hold a vision and stay present at the same time. That creative tension—between "I'm here" and "I know what's possible"—is where real leadership lives. 3. You can't make good decisions from inside a spreadsheet. When the body expands, peripheral vision opens, and birds fly by the window—that's when the real answers come. 4. Taming is insidious. Many of us are walking on eggshells in our own lives and don't know it. Spotting the "should" is the first act of untaming. 5. Alyssa Liu didn't win gold by following the playbook. She won by returning to joy. The same move that makes a champion makes an untamed leader. 6. Untaming doesn't mean leaping into chaos. It means opening the second level of the toolbox—returning to your natural way of navigating the world, then letting someone help you use it better. 7. Patience is a practice. The right answer doesn't always arrive on schedule. Willingne Soul Sucker Quiz [https://voice-matters.com/soul-sucker-quiz/] Take the Soul Sucker Quiz to learn which Soul Sucker screams the loudest in your mind so you can release them from being in charge and set your voice free! https://voice-matters.com/soul-sucker-quiz/ The Speaker Alter Ego Quiz [https://voice-matters.com/speaker-alter-ego-quiz-embed/] Take the Speaker Alter Ego quiz to find out which protective mask hides your natural radiance so you can learn how to get present, connect deeply, and share your vision when it matters most! https://voice-matters.com/speaker-alter-ego-quiz/ Support the show [https://buymeacoffee.com/laurismith] Thank you so much for listening! Take the free Speaker Alter Ego Quiz to find out which protective mask is hiding your wild, untamed radiance. https://voice-matters.com/speaker-alter-ego-quiz/ [https://voice-matters.com/speaker-alter-ego-quiz/] Follow me on: Instagram https://www.instagram.com/voice_matters_llc/ [https://www.instagram.com/voice_matters_llc/] Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauri-smith-voice-matters/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauri-smith-voice-matters/] YouTube  https://www.youtube.com/@voicematters9646 [https://www.youtube.com/@voicematters9646]