Back To Real Talk

Miss the sound of something real in your feed? We’re back, shaking off the silence and naming what many of us feel: the internet got louder, but not truer. I share why I hit pause, what cracked open during a long winter, and how I’m rebuilding my work around what actually helps - clarity, integrity, and small decisions that stack into big change.

First, we call out the sameness of AI‑polished takes and the pressure to perform. I’m not anti‑tool; I’m pro‑voice. Authentic leadership means keeping the essence intact, even when it’s messy. That lens leads straight into the core theme that’s run through my eight years of coaching: remember who you are. The anxious loop, the binge, the imposter - they’re protective layers, not your identity. When we peel them back with care, we stop outsourcing our power and start leading with honesty.

From there, I sketch the three pillars guiding what comes next. Business: I’m owning my operator brain again - systems, strategy, customer journeys - so your work runs smoother and your creativity has room to move. Brain: neuroscience‑backed mindset tools to rewire worry, build focus, and hold steady during the hardest part of growth. Body: sustainable habits after medication, anchored in strength training, sleep, supplements, and food that nourishes instead of numbs. Along the way I share candid money lessons, why I’m tracking instead of impulse‑buying courses, and how to hold the energy of a yes without spiralling.

This is a one‑take return: unedited, human, and free of performative gloss. Think of it as a reset and a preview. Next up, a three‑part series on business clarity, body nourishment, and brain calm so you can build a career that fits and a life that feels like yours. If that sounds like the support you’ve been missing, hit follow, share this with a friend who needs a nudge, and leave a quick review to tell me the truth you’re ready to say out loud.

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Transcript

Return And Reset

SPEAKER_01 0:01

This is The Modern Lead Her Way, a podcast for ambitious, driven career women who want to feel good on the way to the top.

SPEAKER_00 0:08

I'm Emma Clayton and I'll be sharing with you tangible advice to help you stop sacrificing your soul in the name of success. And experience more balance, confidence, and fulfilment both in and out of work.

Silenced By The Online Noise

Authenticity Over AI Sameness

Remember Who You Are

Rethinking The Brand

Winter Blues And Midlife Shifts

Brain, Body, And Business Pillars

Money, Mindset, And Manifestation

Pivoting Back To Business Ops

A Three‑Part Series Roadmap

SPEAKER_01 0:21

Hey hey, welcome back after a brief interlude to the Modern Leaderway podcast with me, your host Emma Clayton. I am so happy to be back in your earbuds. Did you miss me? How the bloody devil have you been? I must admit, I have really missed being able to just open my mouth and just spurt shit out and know that someone's listening on the other end and maybe vaguely interested if they are there until the end of that conversation. Because I actually didn't realise that over the last say four months since I last published an episode, which I think talked about a very intentional pause, I didn't realise how much I was silenced, how much I was not speaking my truth, how much I was not sharing my views online. I don't know about you, but I'm slightly disenchanted by the whole online world of social media. I am seeing more and more divisiveness, more and more shock tactics to try and get attention, more and more not just fake news, but fake videos, fake images, um AI-generated content that all sounds the bloody same. And hands up, I have been guilty of using AI to generate content in the past, but I always sense check it with I don't want it to sound like AI, I want it to sound like me. So I do tell my chat GPT off quite a lot, and I'm like, no, don't change my words, keep my essence of the message, just tighten the message a little bit for me, and because I haven't always had a great way with words. But do you know what I had a realization of recently, like literally in the last few days, is that nah, there's never been a better time than now to stand out, to stand in your authenticity and stand out. And I have been talking about authentic leadership, showing up as your whole self, bringing your whole self to the table, like working out what your true essence is, like what parts of you is conditioned as a child to be a good girl and sit there and say your P's and Q's and be spoken to when you're spoken to, versus like the little rebel inside that's like, fuck that shit. This is what I've got to say on the matter, and I'm gonna say it whether you like it or not. You know what I mean? I've been banging on about that for eight years that I've been in business, and this is what I'm realising when I look back now over the eight and a half years actually, it was October 2017 that I stepped out of corporate and stepped straight into doing my purpose work in the world through personal coaching, in one shape or form, admittedly. What I've realised is the common thread throughout that is very much like whether it's the anxious you or the version of you that feels like an imposter in your work, or the version of you that can't stop binge drinking or binge eating, that is not your highest self. That is not your truest essence. There is a version of you that has layers, layers of protection over the years to protect your true self from being disappointed, from being ashamed, from being ousted from the tribe, right? Because we are tribal beings. Anyway, I digress, um, but I am really seeing how my message, albeit it feels a little bit mainstream out there at the moment, my message has always been that golden thread of like remember who the fuck you are and like stop wasting time because we get one life. What are we doing playing fucking small when we get to stand up, be our fucking true selves, and like make a difference in this world, right? Whether you're making a difference is through the work you do in corporate or being a parent, right, and raising kids to be like good humans, or it's through your purpose work in business, like whatever that is, like be real, find your way, find what feels good to you, and do more of that. That, my friends, is the modern leader way, and actually, in this pause that I've had, I've thought, and again, more recently, do I change the name of the podcast? Because I feel like actually, whilst the modern leader was sort of a bit of a download for me back in what 2021, I want to say, um, the podcast evolved into the Modern Leader Way, which was more of an active, momentum-driven, action-taking kind of embodiment of what I was trying to get to with the Modern Leader. I do feel like I've hemmed myself in a little bit with the branding, with the bold pink, with the honeycomb design like subtly in the background, and we're trying to make the principles of the Modern Leader Way fit and talk about it. And I always find myself describing what the Modern Leader Way is, and if I have to describe it every time I talk about it, then it's it's not really doing what it says on the tin, right? So the Modern Leader Way is really finding your way. So I'm sort of floating a couple of ideas out there about how to rebrand the podcast if I decide to go that route, but for now, I'm just happy to be back. As you can tell, I've got a bit of verbal diarrhea, and it's because I haven't had this outlet, and it's really affected me. I must admit, it really has affected me. I have felt depressed at times during these dark, cold, windy, wet, gloomy winter months in the UK. Like there's no denying it, I have felt depressed at times, and it is always temporary, and I'm of a certain age now, turning 47 in four weeks, three weeks' time. Um, I am of a certain age where yes, I'm gonna have declining levels of estrogen and progesterone, and that is not gonna be in my um favour for feeling good more of the time, and yes, I do get affected by seasonal affective disorder, and yes, it's been a dark, cold, wet winter, and I'm sure we're all feeling a little bit of it, and certainly feeling envious of those people that are really smart and have made some getaways in February. Um, my parents being one, they're they're actually in Tenerife for a few weeks at the moment, and for the last two years I've gone with them, and I didn't this time, and I really have regretted that move. But anyway, here we are with a common theme of everything that I do is to help you remember who the fuck you are and then be more her, be more that person. That I realise has got some threads to it in terms of how I've evolved. One is the brain and like how your mind works, either for you or against you, in everything you do, and I'm really realizing that again in this purposeful pause, like really unplugging from a lot of voices that I've always listened to online. You know, I haven't bought any trainings for three months, probably, because I've basically put a halt on myself buying any other programs because I don't I don't start a lot of them, let alone finish them. Um, it's another reason I don't actually do programmes like course content because I know what my buying behaviour is like. I buy it because of the good marketing, but I don't actually open it and go into it and learn from it, so it just becomes a waste of money. Um, but I'm also noticing in this pause that um my spending habits were a real thing that I've had to look at and go, oh god, this is like this is a perpetual pattern that I'm seeing over time, and it's very similar actually to the patterns around food and overconsuming food. So I'm gonna save that for another episode, that update, because that falls very much under like the body um kind of category. So I've got business business, brain, and body seems to be coming back as the kind of the overarching kind of umbrella themes that I keep coming back to. So I've got um I've been trained by the by Sarah Dr. Sarah McKay. She was recently on Mel Robbins podcast, she is a neuroscientist by trade, and she's created the Neuroscience Academy, which I've been through a number of times. So I'm well versed in how our brain works and how, you know, anxiety and negative thinking and all that kind of thing is a a product of like our chemistry and our brain wiring, right? But how actually we can change that over time. I'm a big advocate of if you want something that badly you can change, you can change the habits of a lifetime, and that's another thing under the body kind of um banner that I am still on a mission of a lifetime to change, and I've got so much to say around that. I've come off Manjaro at the beginning of the year, I have lost 15 pounds since coming off Manjaro, and I have have joined a new container where I feel very looked after, um, very clear on what I need to do in terms of like the training, in terms of sleep habits, supplement taking, um, and and most importantly, uh how to nourish myself, right? The nutrition side of things. So, again, like I said, that's a separate um episode. And I think I'll do a separate episode on the brain side of things as well because I've had some real mindset stuff that's shown me, especially in this kind of like real tough um season that we've just come in, we're hopefully coming out of. I'm actually looking out of my window now at the cherry tree next to next door to us, and it's in blossom, and it's like it's gone from looking like it's dead to being in full blossom in this in like two weeks or something, less than two weeks. We're starting to see daffodils around and little bluebell shoots coming out of the ground, and like again, dead trees, like trees that look like they should be dead, um, with like little buds on them, like this there's signs that spring is springing, springing back into life. And oh my god, I'm so relieved. We had a day of sunshine yesterday, and how good does it feel when the sun's out, but I've really noticed myself slipping back into some really um negative thought loops, especially around um like money and like how much more expensive things are at the moment, and especially looking at my spending and saying no to myself, like no, you're not just gonna willy-nilly spend on these courses or whatever it is, um, and be a lot more disciplined around where I am spending my money, but also tracking it and keeping an eye on it. It's actually been quite confronting. Um, and some lessons around uh manifestation, right, as well, because there's some things that I really want, I'm really excited about. There's people I really want to work with, and it's been a test of holding the faith, like seeing the possibility, creating the opportunity, but actually holding the faith in between the proposal going out and the yes or the no. Like, how how do you hold that energy of a yes in the manifestation of the thing? Because that's the hardest thing. Like, you think like I used to think taking the action, actually asking for the sale, for example, was the hardest thing, but I've gotten over that over the years, and and now it is literally like when someone doesn't respond straight, or when we how do you hold that faith? How do you hold that energy of a yes and not spiral out of control, turn to food, and like think you're an absolute failure and life is gonna end if if it's a no? So, oh my goodness, I told you this was um a bit of verbal diarrhea coming out. I was going to talk to you about um my business in this one as well because I actually was starting to have a slight pivot before I um paused the podcast. And you might remember I went to the Big Festoon, I was exhibiting there, and I was exhibiting under this guise of really helping people in their business, like get their ducks in a row, right? I had hook a duck at my exhibit stand, and this was very much bringing back online my corporate career experience around operations, strategy, leadership, all that kind of thing, and actually helping people in business, which I'd not really done up until then, as in outwardly offered to do that, although I had been doing it for years behind the scenes with my friends, with Adam, my partner, in Pecish, the um the food truck that I was working at. I, you know, I've done a lot of um going in, fixing things, making things better, streamlining processes, simplifying, looking at the customer journey and making it easier for everyone involved. And um, yeah, I've done it with my friend in a hairdressing business before she had any sort of system that didn't have to involve her answering every single text at any time of the day or night, um, usually on a Sunday night. Um, you know, all of these kind of things. I've always been helping people, advising people in the back ends of their business, but never actually offered it. So I I've made that tweak and I I've been working with some incredible business owners since um well, since May last year, really, April, May. And I have integrated this into like my business offering, but I have also come back full circle and gone, yeah, but I can't really turn my back on this coaching stuff because it's just what I do, it's just what I end up wanting to do more than anything. So um I was gonna talk to you about that, but I think I'm gonna do another I think I'm gonna do a three-part series. This will be the hey, I'm back. Um, I have some plans, but I have some things to get off my chest first, right? So I'm gonna do an episode around business so you get fully up to speed with who I've been working with, what I've been working with them on, and what I'm gonna be doing going forwards, and how that looks, what that means to you. Um then I'm gonna do one around my body and my Manjaro journey and weight loss and all the things, nourishment, strength training, um, highs and lows around that as well. And then I'm gonna do one about my brain, which is like the mindset side of things and the mindset manifestation, holding that energy, like really just having some awareness around um the thoughts that can just like really take you out uh from time to time. So I'm gonna leave it there so that this is a short introduction back into podcasting land. As you can see, this was one take. I'm not even gonna bother editing this, it's not perfect, but you know, in doing it my way, I just have to show up as I am. I've got my Jim King oversized, relaxed fit jumper on. Um, I have brushed my hair for you, you're welcome. Um, I may post the video on YouTube, I might not, but here we are. Um, raw, real, rebellious, it's who I am. I ain't gonna put like any fakeness on this. You know what you see is what you get with me. I want to keep it real. I'm all about keeping it real around here, so we're back. And if you're with me, thank you for coming back. Or if you're new here, hello, nice to meet you, and um more and on. So tune back in very soon. Take care.