Does leadership feel heavy—not because you’re failing, but because you’re winning?

On paper, everything is working. The business is growing, the team is functioning, and the numbers are there. But internally, you feel like you’re running underwater. You wake up bracing for the day, carrying the weight of conversations you haven’t had yet and responsibilities that have no clear boundaries.

In this episode, we’re pulling back the curtain on why high-capacity leadership often leads to internal overload. We explore the "Invisible Backpack"—the unnamed weight that compounds in silence—and why your brain often mistakes this weight for self-doubt or incompetence.

The Trap of the Capable: Why your greatest strengths might be the very things creating your heaviest burdens.

The 3 Hidden Sources of Weight: How "Ghost Expectations," Emotional Loading, and Overfunctioning are draining your tank.

A Biblical Blueprint for Shared Weight: What we can learn from the leadership styles of Moses and Nehemiah about organizing the "wall" and distributing the load.

The Diagnostic Gut-Check: Three questions to help you identify exactly what you need to set down today to regain your clarity.

If you don’t need more motivation, but you desperately need structure and clarity, this episode is for you. It’s time to move from internal overload to grounded authority.

“Clarity doesn’t remove responsibility; it organizes it. And organized weight feels very different than silent weight.”

Exodus 18:17–18 – Jethro’s warning to Moses about the weight of solitary leadership.

Galatians 6:2 & 5 – The divine tension between carrying one another's burdens and carrying our own load.

Luke 10:1 – How Jesus modeled the distribution of authority.

If this episode resonated with you and you’re sensing a call to deeper leadership work in 2026, Julie invites you to join the waitlist for the Legacy Leadership Intensive—a high-touch, faith-grounded experience for Christian women leaders ready to build a legacy, not just a résumé.

👉 Join the waitlist here: https://bit.ly/legacyleadershipintensive

New episodes of Leadership, Clearly Podcast drop every Monday - so you can start your week grounded, focused, and ready to lead boldly.

If this episode encouraged you, please share it with another leader and leave a review. Your support helps this message reach more Christian women who are ready to lead with faith and clarity.

Visit https://juliewagner.co for more information!

As 2025 comes to a close, this final episode of the year invites Christian women leaders to pause, reflect, and lead forward with intention.

In The 2025 Leadership Audit, Julie Wagner walks you through a faith-grounded, strategic review of the year - helping you identify what no longer belongs in your leadership, and what must carry forward into 2026.

This episode is designed for Christian women in leadership - founders, executives, entrepreneurs, and decision-makers who are ready to move beyond survival mode and lead with clarity, conviction, and confidence.

Instead of rushing into goal-setting or hustling into the new year exhausted, Julie challenges listeners to conduct a true leadership audit - one that honors faith, stewardship, and long-term impact.

- Why reflection is a critical leadership discipline—not a luxury

- The biblical principle of “numbering your days” and how it applies to leadership

- How to audit the ROI of your energy and identify hidden burnout

- Where unclear communication cost leaders the most in 2025—and how to correct it

- Why hustle culture undermines sustainable, faith-driven leadership

- How intentional, written goals increase clarity, focus, and follow-through

- What grounded leaders did differently in 2025—and why it mattered

- How to enter 2026 with confidence instead of chaos

Julie also shares personal leadership lessons from her decades in executive leadership and entrepreneurship - offering honest insight into what worked, what didn’t, and what she’s leaving behind.

- Psalm 90:12 (NLT) — “Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom.”

Julie closes the episode with a powerful Stop / Start / Continue Leadership Exercise, helping you intentionally define what you are releasing, embracing, and carrying forward into the next year.

If this episode resonated with you and you’re sensing a call to deeper leadership work in 2026, Julie invites you to join the waitlist for the Legacy Leadership Intensive—a high-touch, faith-grounded experience for Christian women leaders ready to build a legacy, not just a résumé.

👉 Join the waitlist here: https://bit.ly/legacyleadershipintensive

New episodes of Leadership, Clearly Podcast drop every Monday - so you can start your week grounded, focused, and ready to lead boldly.

If this episode encouraged you, please share it with another leader and leave a review. Your support helps this message reach more Christian women who are ready to lead with faith and clarity.

Visit https://juliewagner.co for more information!

Stop Generic Praise: How to Use Intentional Recognition to Boost Team Engagement

Are you sick of handing out "Great job, team!" praise that lands with the impact of a spam email? You're not alone. Generic recognition is forgettable, vague, and can actually erode the trust you're working so hard to build. If you lead people—whether in the boardroom, the sanctuary, or your own seven-figure business—it’s time to move past transactional feedback and embrace a strategy that fuels ownership and loyalty.

In this power-packed episode, your host, Julie Thomas Wagner (Worship Pastor, Serial Entrepreneur, and 25-year Tech Leadership veteran), reintroduces the newly named Leadership, Clearly podcast and dives deep into Intentional Recognition—the "I" in our V.I.C.T.O.R.Y. Leadership Communication Series.

Julie shares the Leader's Secret to motivating high-performing, faith-aligned teams: recognition that is so specific, sincere, and personal, it becomes a Leadership Multiplier.

- The Problem with Generic Praise: Why vague recognition is not safe and why your team might be tuning you out (even if you mean well).

- The Intentional Recognition Protocol: Julie’s 5-step framework for making praise specific, timely, and personal—turning simple compliments into powerful confidence builders.

- The Legacy Layer: Learn how intentional language (Proverbs 18:21) moves recognition from a leadership skill to a legacy-building culture that reduces turnover and encourages healthy risk-taking.

- The Jesus Model: How Christ perfectly demonstrated Intentional Recognition by always seeing the individual and calling out strengths others overlooked.

- The Difference: How to ensure your affirmation is true recognition (telling the truth) and not uncomfortable flattery (avoiding accountability).

Your words as a leader shape the culture and build the legacy. If you're ready to install the full operating system for leading with both God's wisdom and a working strategy, this episode is your required reading.

Ready to go deeper? If you need hands-on help implementing these communication and team-building strategies, check out the Legacy Leadership Intensive—Julie’s transformational coaching experience designed for faith-driven women ready to lead with BOLD clarity.

If this episode resonated with you and you’re sensing a call to deeper leadership work in 2026, Julie invites you to join the waitlist for the Legacy Leadership Intensive—a high-touch, faith-grounded experience for Christian women leaders ready to build a legacy, not just a résumé.

👉 Join the waitlist here: https://bit.ly/legacyleadershipintensive

New episodes of Leadership, Clearly Podcast drop every Monday - so you can start your week grounded, focused, and ready to lead boldly.

If this episode encouraged you, please share it with another leader and leave a review. Your support helps this message reach more Christian women who are ready to lead with faith and clarity.

Visit https://juliewagner.co for more information!