02 Reclaim Your Joy

Are you leading, achieving, and showing up for everyone else—but wondering why it all feels so heavy?

In this kickoff episode of the Joyfully Unstoppable podcast, leadership coach Becky Hamm explores what joyful leadership really looks like—and why it's not just possible, but essential for high-achieving women who want to lead with clarity, confidence, and ease.

You’ll learn:
 💡 Why joy is a leadership strategy—not a reward
 💡 What gets in the way of joyful leadership (and how to get it back)
 💡 Practical ways to reset your rhythms, restore your energy, and reconnect with your purpose

If you’re ready to trade the pressure to prove for a path that actually feels good—you’re in the right place.

Joyfully Unstoppable—helping women reconnect with what matters most.

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Transcript

0:05

Welcome to Joyfully Unstoppable, the podcast for women who are ready to lead boldly, live lightly, and reclaim their joy. I'm your host, Becky Ham leadership coach, speaker and founder of Women Lead Well. After years of high level leadership, I discovered that success doesn't have to come with cost of your peace, your values, or your wellbeing. Each week we'll explore what it means to lead with clarity, confidence, and authenticity. Even in a world that tells you to hustle harder and prove your worth, you carry a lot. Let's help it feel lighter. This is your space to breathe deeper, trust yourself more, and learn to lead joyfully, sustainably, and authentically. Hello, friend. If you've ever felt like leadership is just one long to-do list with no finish line in sight, I want you to know this. You are not alone, and it doesn't have to be that way. Today we're talking about one of my favorite topics, joyful Leadership. We're gonna unpack what it actually means, why so many women struggle to access joy. And how joy can become your greatest asset, not just something you get to experience after you've earned it. So if you're ready to lead with more energy, clarity, and ease, you're in the right place. Let's start here. Many of us were taught explicitly or not, that the more serious we are, the more successful we'll be. That the more pressure we feel, the more we must be doing something right. So we became experts at pushing through, at powering on, at proving ourselves. And somewhere along the way, joy started to feel optional. Maybe even irresponsible, but here's the truth. Joy isn't a distraction from leadership. It's the fuel for it. I used to lead from exhaustion and over-functioning. I thought it was noble. I thought burning out meant that I was committed. That being overwhelmed meant I was doing it right, but all it really meant was that I was disconnected. From my values, from my body, from the reason I started leading in the first place. And let me tell you, leading without joy is not sustainable. It drains your creativity, it shrinks your confidence, and it sends a message to your team that leadership is just a grind Now. Huh. Joy does not mean that you're always happy. Joy means that you're anchored. It means that you're rooted in something deeper than urgency, perfection or pressure. It means that you are connected with your purpose, that you can find the fun on. So what does joyful leadership actually look like? Well, it looks like clarity. Knowing what matters most in getting that to guide your decisions. It looks like boundaries. Protecting your time, energy, and mental space from what drains you. It looks like authenticity showing up as your full self, not just the polished version you think people expect. It also looks like celebration. Taking time to acknowledge your wins. Your progress, your growth, your teams wins, their progress, their growth. Joyful leadership is not about being bubbly or chipper all the time. It's about being fully present in your life. It's about creating the kind of leadership experience that doesn't just look successful, but actually feels successful too. And maybe that means canceling meetings that no longer serve a purpose. Maybe it's finally delegating the things that you've been white knuckling. Maybe it's pausing long enough to breathe, to reset to remember why your work matters to you. You don't need to overhaul your entire life to lead with more joy, but you do need to believe that it's possible. And from there, build. So what blocks your joy? Here's what I see most often in my clients. Number one. People pleasing. You wanna make everybody else happy at the expense of yourself. Number two, perfectionism. You think that you can actually do everything right? And then number three is this validation seeking of others. You turn to others to tell you whether you're good enough instead of knowing your worth eternally. So what does that mean? It means we think we need a vacation. What we actually need to do is reset. We need to work with our bodies, with our beliefs. We need to stop the urgent to focus on the important. Now, here are a few ways for you to reclaim your joy starting today. I want you to build in five minute transition intervals between your meetings, for you to stop ground in your body, and reset. I want you to celebrate enoughness instead of chasing the constant improvement, I want you to set phone boundaries so that your brain gets a break. I want you to let go of being the go-to fixer for every problem that's out there, and I think most importantly, I want you to reconnect with why you stepped into leadership in the first place. There was a purpose there and a passion. There was something in you that wanted to serve, to shape, to ground, to grow something. Let's get back to that. Now, if any of this is resonating, if you're sitting there and thinking, yes, I want this, but I don't know where to start. Start small, start today. Do what you can. Reconnect with that joy that is inside of you. It is there. You just have to find little glimmers of it, and every day over the next week, I want you to find a little glimmer of joy in your day. Maybe it's in connecting with someone. Maybe it is in setting and maintaining that boundary. Maybe it's taking some time to regulate your nervous system. Maybe it's taking some time to reconnect with your values and what's important to you. You can do that. It doesn't have to be big. It doesn't have to be flashy. Another thing you can do if you want, is subscribe to the confidence edit. That's my weekly email that I send out to, to all of my subscribers, to give you more actionable tips about what you can do to lead well, to lead joyfully, sustainably, and authentically. So thank you for joining with me today. Here is your reminder. Joy is not a luxury. It is a leadership strategy. And now, if you enjoyed this episode, I'm gonna ask you to follow the show so you don't miss what's coming next. Share it with a friend or a teammate who's ready to lead differently and head over to At Women Lead Well on all of the socials to connect with me. I love hearing what resonates. And until then, take a deep breath. You carry a lot. Let's help it feel lighter.