Lead to Soar

7 Job Hunting Tips for Ambitious Women to Use

Job hunting hell is real. Submitting applications into the void, waiting, hearing nothing, wondering what is going wrong. Mel and Michelle are here with the tough love answer. A significant chunk of advertised roles are not real openings. AI-assisted applications are not the edge anyone thinks they are. And online applications are the career equivalent of throwing your CV into the wind. This episode covers the 7 job hunting tips that actually work, including how to crack the hidden job market, make courageous asks, leverage your network with intent, and pick up the damn phone. Get full access to Lead to Soar Podcast at leadtosoarpodcast.substack.com/subscribe

• Transcript

Leaders Are Measuring the Wrong Things and Women Are Paying for It.

Leaders are measuring the wrong things. The work that holds organisations together, the mentoring, the client salvage, the culture-building, the covering, the onboarding, does not fit neatly into a KPI. So it goes uncounted. And the people doing it are, consistently and disproportionately, women. In episode 223, Mel and Michelle make the leadership case for fixing this. Leaders who expect this work from their teams must measure it, compensate it, and distribute it equitably. The Gallup State of the Global Workplace Report is unambiguous: women are more engaged than men in every region in the world. They are also reporting significantly higher rates of daily stress and sadness. That data tells you exactly what this imbalance is costing. This episode covers what leaders must audit, what metrics apply to work that feels nebulous, and what role design looks like when a leader gets it right. If you are a woman navigating this and want people in your corner, the Lead to Soar Network is where you bring it. Gallup Report Join Lead to Soar Get full access to Lead to Soar Podcast at leadtosoarpodcast.substack.com/subscribe

Feminist Awakening: How to Turn Anger at Work Into a Career Strategy

A young lawyer has just been pulled aside about her billable hours. Her male partner at the same firm, same credentials, has not had that conversation. He also hasn't been asked to mentor the grads, organise anything, or carry any of the work that holds a team together, but shows up nowhere in the performance data. She has been asked to do all of it. The gap in their billable hours did not happen by accident. In this episode, Mel and Michelle walk through the four phases of feminist consciousness, from oblivion to awareness to outrage to advocacy. They break down the office housework problem, look at a feedback conversation that didn't register the way it was intended, and lay out what leaders must actually do when non-promotable work keeps piling up on women's plates. Recommended reading: The No Club: Putting a Stop to Women's Dead End Work by Linda Babcock, Brenda Peyser, Lise Vesterlund and Laurie Weingart. Get full access to Lead to Soar Podcast at leadtosoarpodcast.substack.com/subscribe

Why Your Boss's Brand Is Now Your Problem Too

Your boss's brand doesn't stay contained to your boss. If they're seen as an order-taker, someone who receives agendas rather than shaping them, that lens gets applied to your team. Your work gets filtered through their credibility before it reaches anyone with real decision-making power. In Episode 221, Mel and Michelle break down what to do when the people around you don't have the influence you need them to have. They cover how to read the warning signs early, how to coach upward strategically, and why business acumen is the gate-opener for influence that actually sticks. Get full access to Lead to Soar Podcast at leadtosoarpodcast.substack.com/subscribe

How to Lead High Performers in a Dysfunctional Organization

What happens when your team is genuinely excellent but the organisation around it is a mess? In this episode, Michelle and Mel unpack a real coaching scenario: a high-performing project management team that had convinced itself the problem was its own communication skills. It wasn't. The problem was accomplishment amnesia, structural invisibility, and a leadership layer that hadn't yet connected delivery to business outcomes. Michelle shares the frameworks she used in that room, why middle managers need to be both a bulldozer and a barrier, how to articulate your team's value in the language of outcomes, and what it takes to know when the ledger has tipped too far and it's time to pass the baton. This one is for every leader who's ever been the best-kept secret in their own organisation. Get full access to Lead to Soar Podcast at leadtosoarpodcast.substack.com/subscribe

Is the Beauty Industry Keeping Women Broke and Busy?

Business Insider launched a series called "Hot at Work." Susan Colantuono called it what it is: a content delivery system dressed as journalism, selling women an invoice and calling it empowerment. Mel and Michelle got involved. This episode takes the glam tax apart. That is the additional cost women pay just to participate in professional life. It covers the money (one woman spends $12,000 a year on Botox, hair, nails, and fitness), the math (invest that at average market returns over 20 years and you're looking at close to $780,000), and the newest entry on the list: lifting weights to prove you belong in the executive suite. Who taught you to feel not good enough? And who profits from it? No judgment. Just information. Make an informed choice. Mel and Michelle are on Substack. Subscribe to Lead to Soar for every episode, editorial, and truth bomb. If you want direct access to Mel, Michelle, and a community of women asking the same questions, the Lead to Soar Network is where that conversation happens. Get full access to Lead to Soar Podcast at leadtosoarpodcast.substack.com/subscribe

What Is Patriarchy Chicken? How Women Stop Giving Way at Work

Patriarchy Chicken is a game women have been playing for decades. British historian Professor Charlotte Riley gave it a name. Michelle gave it a T-shirt moment on the streets of Melbourne. In this episode, Mel and Michelle take the concept straight into the workplace: who gets interrupted, whose ideas get claimed, which jobs get handed to men before any woman has a chance to apply. They break down the moves that actually work in the room, and why holding your ground alone is much harder than building a deliberate, collective strategy to do it together. Want more? Every episode and editorial goes to all subscribers. To get direct access to Mel, Michelle, and the Lead to Soar Network community, join as a monthly or annual subscriber. Find out more at the link below. https://bit.ly/4rmjqiW Get full access to Lead to Soar Podcast at leadtosoarpodcast.substack.com/subscribe

Sponsors Over Mentors: What Ambitious Women Leaders Must Know

Women leaders are over-mentored and under-promoted. The mechanism that actually closes that gap is sponsorship, and there is a significant difference between the two. In Episode 217, Mel and Michelle break down what sponsorship is, how it works in practice, what ambitious women need to do to earn it, and what leaders with the power to sponsor need to hear. Essential listening if career progression is serious for you. If you found this useful, please do share it with a woman who needs to hear it. Free subscriber? The conversation continues on the Lead to Soar Podcast, with new episodes every week. Consider upgrading to a paid Substack subscription to get full access to every editorial, every episode, every week. Already a paid subscriber? The Lead to Soar Network is where the work goes deeper. Coaching, community, and the people who take this stuff seriously. Come find us. Get full access to Lead to Soar Podcast at leadtosoarpodcast.substack.com/subscribe

WTF Do I Actually Do? How Women Can Navigate a Broken System of Work

Last week Mel and Michelle called out the problem. This week they talk about what women can actually do about it. Six strategies for navigating a workplace that was never designed for women. From getting clear on where you actually stand, to building the business acumen that makes you harder to dismiss, to knowing when it is time to cut your losses and make a strategic move. This is not a fix yourself episode. It is a survive, advance, and eventually change the system episode. Michelle shares personal stories from her own career, including taking a demotion that turned out to be one of the smartest decisions she ever made. Practical, direct, and grounded in what actually works. Want more? Every episode and editorial goes to all subscribers. To get direct access to Mel, Michelle, and the Lead to Soar Network community, join as a monthly or annual subscriber. Find out more at the link below. https://bit.ly/4rmjqiW And if you missed last week’s episode, where Mel and Michelle called out the five signs you are inside a broken system, go back and listen first. 5 Ways Women Are Not the Problem. The System Is. Get full access to Lead to Soar Podcast at leadtosoarpodcast.substack.com/subscribe

5 More Ways Women Are Absolutely Not the Problem.

Mel and Michelle have been saying "fix the system, not the women" for years. In this episode, they make it concrete. Five signs your workplace is the problem: from merit myths and meaningless confidence feedback, to the global DEI rollback and cultures built on silence. No Pollyanna. No platitudes. Just a sharp, direct conversation for women navigating a world that was never designed with them in mind. If you found this useful, please do share it with a woman who needs to hear it. Free subscriber? The conversation continues on the Lead to Soar Podcast, with new episodes every week. Consider upgrading to a paid Substack subscription to get full access to every editorial, every episode, every week. Already a paid subscriber? The Lead to Soar Network is where the work goes deeper. Coaching, community, and the people who take this stuff seriously. Come find us. Get full access to Lead to Soar Podcast at leadtosoarpodcast.substack.com/subscribe

Stop Throwing Women in a Room and Calling It Networking

Most networking events for women are lazy. Not malicious. Lazy. Someone books a venue, lines up a speaker, fills the room with wine and canapés, and expects the magic to happen. It doesn't. And the women in the room get blamed for not working the crowd hard enough. In this episode, Mel Butcher and Michelle Redfern take a sharp look at what actually makes a gathering work, using Priya Parker's The Art of Gathering as their framework. They name the real problem: organiser accountability. Bad event design is not a personality mismatch or an introvert problem. It's a failure of purpose, structure, and intentionality. What they cover: Why the same tired formats keep getting recycled, and who benefits from that What a well-designed networking event actually looks like in practice, including formats that have worked for both Mel and Michelle Priya Parker's principle that a gathering without a clear purpose and a closed door isn't really a gathering at all Why "prime people before they arrive" is one of the most underused tools in any organiser's kit How to give attendees a framework for conversation rather than setting them loose to fend for themselves Why you are allowed to stop going to badly designed events, and when to give feedback instead This episode is primarily for the leaders, HR professionals, ERG chairs, and event organisers who create gatherings for women. If you run events, this one is for you. If you attend them, it will give you language for why something felt off, and the standing to say so. Get full access to Lead to Soar Podcast at leadtosoarpodcast.substack.com/subscribe