Fearless Female Leadership Blog - Mental Toughness & High Performance

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Corporate Leader to Thought Leader - an Interview with Sara Connell, Author, TEDx Speaker, Coach and Founder, Thought Leader Academy

imposter syndrome mindset resilience thought leadership May 13, 2025

In the latest Fearless Female Leadership interview, I had the true pleasure of speaking with Sara Connell, bestselling author, TEDx speaker, coach, and Founder of Thought Leader Academy, about the transformative journey from corporate leader to thought leader. Sara’s story is one of resilience, reinvention, and the power of claiming your voice — and using it to create meaningful, lasting impact.

Sara’s career began in the corporate world at a top advertising agency, where she quickly realized that while the training was invaluable, the culture was toxic. It took a mental and physical health crisis for Sara to finally make the leap out of corporate life — a leap inspired by a chance encounter with a life-changing book she discovered in an airport bookstore. That single book inspired her to commit to writing the stories and messages she wished had existed for her, and ultimately to empower other leaders to do the same.

Throughout our conversation, Sara spoke candidly about the mindset shif...

Are You Speaking Up For Yourself Enough?

be heard boundaries resilience speaking up strategy Jun 01, 2023

My daughter Megan recently graduated from the University of San Diego. Being the youngest in the family with two brothers who were Division 1 athletes, and who made it through college seemingly easily and now successfully into the ‘real world’, there have been some big shoes to fill (at least in her mind:).

I’ve told her over the years that her traits of resilience, determination, hard work, and love for others cannot easily be taught, and those are the traits of some of the most successful people in the world.

I shared with her that greatness is often born from struggle. It’s as if G-d, the universe, or whatever higher power you believe in, wants to give us a big shove, see us fall on our face (maybe a few times), and see how we handle getting up, dusting off, and moving forward to see if we can handle what’s in store for us.

If we learn, grow, and persevere, that seems to be when the magic happens. The next step toward what we are truly capable of.

Now that Megan is heading i...