Episodes

What if the next chapter of your career was already taking shape, but you weren't quite ready to trust it? Eleanor Antonacci had a corporate career in marketing and a growing travel business she started as a passion project. She loved what she was building, but the security of a steady paycheck was hard to walk away from. In fact, she was considering scaling the business back when an unexpected layoff changed everything. In this episode of The Leap Lounge, Joan Russell sits down with Eleanor, ...

Money is one of the biggest reasons we tell ourselves we can’t make a change yet. Maybe you want to leave your job, start something of your own, retire, move somewhere new, or simply build a life that feels more like yours. But then the practical questions show up: Can I actually afford it? What happens to my income? What about healthcare? How much is enough? In this solo episode of The Leap Lounge, Joan Russell takes a closer look at the role money plays when we’re standing at the edge of a ch...

What happens when the freedom you’ve been looking for comes with more uncertainty than you expected? When an unexpected rent increase pushed Lauren Dionysius to reconsider what came next, Bali entered the picture. What followed became about much more than changing locations. Lauren joins Joan to talk about freedom, independence, intuition, belonging, and what it means to keep moving when you can’t see the whole path ahead. In This Episode: The unexpected decision that led Lauren to Bali What...

What if the parts of your career that seem disconnected are actually preparing you for what comes next? Heather Terry joins Joan for a conversation about adaptability, expertise, AI, and what it means to follow a career path that makes more sense looking backward than it did while you were living it. Heather’s path has taken her through teaching Shakespeare, writing, marketing, small business, and eventually into building an AI company. Rather than leaving those earlier chapters behind, she be...

Sometimes changing your life isn’t about becoming someone new. It’s about finally making enough space to recognize who you already are. After years of working at an intense pace, Philecia McCain found herself returning to a dream she had carried since childhood: living in Europe. Eventually, that dream led her from the United States to Portugal—and into a completely different way of living. But moving countries didn’t magically solve everything. It gave Philecia the space to slow down, pay att...

What happens when being the person everyone relies on becomes the very thing that is wearing you down? Laura Brody joins Joan for a conversation about identity, art, boundaries, and what happens when the roles that once made you feel valuable no longer fit. Laura is a costume designer, curator, and founder of Opulent Mobility. For years, being the fixer the person who could manage, mediate, and keep things moving became deeply connected to how she understood herself. But eventually, she began ...

What happens when you’ve spent years becoming good at what you do—and suddenly find yourself becoming a beginner again? Kevin Gibson joins Joan for a conversation about service, identity, responsibility, and starting over without starting from nothing. Kevin’s path has taken him through military service, nursing, education, mentorship, and new forms of work. Beneath those roles is a more universal question: how do you move toward something new when other people depend on you and you don’t have...

Taking the leap is one thing. Living with what comes after it is another. After time away from the podcast, Joan Russell returns to The Leap Lounge with a deeply personal look at what happened after she stepped away from the path she thought she was supposed to follow. Because sometimes the hardest part isn’t deciding to change. It’s navigating what comes next: uncertainty, financial pressure, unexpected turns, and the uncomfortable question of whether you made the right choice at all. If you...