All Episodes
Episodes
102: She Hasn't Lost Capability. She's Lost Capacity.
A woman who has led for twenty years starts saying less in the rooms she used to run. She stops putting her hand up. Everyone around her calls it confidence. She reaches the same conclusion herself.
Karen Stein spent...
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101: Actress or Singer: The Half of You That Never Makes the Meeting
At nineteen, Kylie Minogue was asked the same question in interview after interview. Are you an actress or a singer? No one was asking which one she was better at. They were asking her to pick one and park the other,...
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100: A Boutique Not a Sale Rack: The Seasonal Leadership Wardrobe Reset
One hundred episodes. Sonya marks it by going back to the thing this all started with, which is a weekend spent in front of her own wardrobe.
This is the seasonal reset she runs at least twice a year and asks her...
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99: Nobody Taught You How to Negotiate
Nobody sat you down and taught you how to negotiate. You watched someone do it, you guessed, and you have been improvising ever since.
Angela Langmann spent sixteen years at Amazon across the US, UK and Australia,...
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98: Reading the Room Isn't Code-Switching. It's Amplifying the Right Frequency.
You've got the boardroom dialled. But what about the networking event? The industry dinner? The school fundraiser where you run into a board member at the cake stall? Most women in senior leadership have a presence...
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97: Executive Presence Teaches You to Perform. Leadership Presence Lets You Stop.
What happens when you've been told to "work on your executive presence" and you take that advice seriously? You learn to project confidence, manage your body language, speak with brevity, dress the part. And it works...
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96: She Stopped Being the Busiest Person in the Room. Here's What Happened
Every senior woman I work with says some version of the same thing: "I know I need to work on this, but I'm so busy." The busyness is real. The workload is real. But what most women don't realise is that busyness...
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95: The Advice to Not Stand Out Is Keeping You Invisible
A charisma expert recently advised women not to dress in ways that make them stand out for the wrong reasons. The advice isn't wrong. It's just not finished. It tells you what to avoid but gives you nothing to do...
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94: Beyond Executive Presence: What Women in Leadership Actually Need (Part 2)
Last week I broke down what's broken about the traditional executive presence model. This week, I'm walking you through what replaces it.
Leadership presence is a dynamic interplay of three components: Presence,...
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93: Beyond Executive Presence: What Women in Leadership Actually Need (Part 1)
Executive presence has been the gold standard for decades. Project authority. Dominate the room. Wear the power suit. That model was built for command-and-control hierarchies, and it's costing leaders innovation,...
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92: Strategic Wardrobe Planning for Leaders: How to Map Your Calendar to Your Closet
The autumn/winter collections are dropping. And my inbox this week? Full of the same question: "Sonya, what should I be buying for next season?"
Here's what I tell my clients: Don't start with what's trending or...
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91: Strategic Wardrobe Planning for Women in Leadership
Welcome back! In this first episode of 2026, I'm sharing my annual wardrobe audit process and how I successfully sold 70% of my pre-loved clothing pieces.
But this isn't just about decluttering, it's about maintaining...
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