What if the thing standing between you and the career and leadership impact you want isn't strategy, skill, or hustle…but hope? In this episode, Melody sits down with Jen Fisher, former Chief Wellbeing Officer at Deloitte and author of Hope is The Strategy. Jen shares the science of hope as a performance skill – one that the research shows directly predicts goal achievement, drives higher performance, builds stronger teams, and creates the kind of leadership presence that people genuinely want to follow.

You’ll Discover:

• The sneaky ways hopelessness creeps into high-performing teams (and why most leaders miss it until it's too late)
• What Jen did with her team during a major corporate restructuring that kept them connected, motivated, and growing with almost no resources
• The one question that trains your brain to find possibility instead of defaulting to threat and catastrophe
• The three most powerful words you as a leader can say right now to instantly build and disarm skeptics

About Jen Fisher

Jen Fisher is a global authority on workplace wellbeing, the bestselling author of Work Better Together, and the founder and CEO of The Wellbeing Team. As Deloitte US's first chief wellbeing officer, she pioneered a groundbreaking, human-centered approach to work that gained international recognition and reshaped how organizations view wellbeing. https://www.jen-fisher.com/

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How do you deal with uncertainty at a time when our careers and work have never felt less certain? Melody sits down with journalist Simone Stolzoff to talk about his brand new book How to Not Know and how to stop letting anxiety about the unknown dictate your decisions.

You’ll Discover:

• The #1 reason your tolerance for uncertainty is getting worse (and it has nothing to do with stress or your job)
• How to identify which of three “certainty traps” is holding you back from career opportunities
• The surprising thing smart people do that makes professional uncertainty so much worse
• One question that cuts through analysis paralysis faster than any pro/con list ever will

About Simone

Simone Stolzoff is a journalist and author from San Francisco. His work has been featured in The New York Times, The Atlantic, and on the TED stage. His debut book, The Good Enough Job, was translated into over a dozen languages. https://simonestolzoff.com/

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4. Get Melody's new book, Managing Up

🚨 LAST CHANCE: Speak Like a Senior Leader™ gives you the system to become a crisp, clear, confident communicator and be handed dream opportunities before you ever ask for them. Secure your spot: https://speaklikeaseniorleader.com

Today, Melody is sharing something personal — the number one truth about influence she had to discover herself, the hard way. And why understanding it might be the most important thing you do for your communication and your career this year.

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📢DOORS CLOSING: Speak Like a Senior Leader™ gives you the system to become a crisp, clear, confident communicator and be handed dream opportunities before you ever ask for them. Secure your spot: https://speaklikeaseniorleader.com

Work outside the traditional corporate or tech world and wonder how to apply executive level communication to YOUR world? This episode is for you. Speak Like a Senior Leader™ alumni, Roxanne – a leader in the government – shares how she went from feeling a constant and confusing disconnect between the strength of her work and how it was landing to finally getting buy-in for a first-of-its-kind initiative her organization had never attempted before.

What You’ll Discover

• "I just need to find the right words." Wrong! Here's what's really standing between you and the buy-in you need
• The #1 communication tweak that makes bureaucratic, risk-averse decision-makers lean in instead of stall (no, it’s not adding data)
• The question every senior stakeholder is silently asking while you're presenting — and how to answer it before they do

Sign up for my Free Live Webinar: 5 Steps to Speak Like a Senior Leader

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4. Get Melody's new book, Managing Up

📢 DOORS OPEN: Speak Like a Senior Leader™ gives you the system to become a crisp, clear, confident communicator and be handed dream opportunities before you ever ask for them. Secure your spot: https://speaklikeaseniorleader.com

Becoming an enterprise-level communicator goes far beyond commanding the room. It means translating complex work across functions, reading what different audiences actually need to hear, and driving alignment across stakeholders who all want different things — and most high performers have never been shown exactly how to do it. In this episode, Speak Like a Senior Leader™ alumni Daryl shares how he did it.

What You’ll Discover:

• The communication habit that makes you look reactive (even when you're completely on top of your work)
• ​​What executives are really asking when they say "can you bring me up to speed?" (it's almost never what you think)
• How Daryl went from dreading pushback to being the person who sets the tone for how the entire team navigates disagreement
• How to bring stakeholders up to speed on changing priorities without sounding like you're making excuses

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4. Get Melody's new book, Managing Up

👉 Doors for Speak Like a Senior Leader close May 15th, 2026. Apply by May 8th and you'll get a bonus: two personalized strategic communication reviews. The bonus expires Friday, May 8th at 11:59pm ET. In this replay of Effortless Executive Presence, I cover:

• Why you do NOT need to be a naturally gifted speaker to have charisma (and what actually creates it)
• A 3-second test that reveals whether you sound like a credible senior leader – or a lower-level executor
• The exact swap a Chief People Officer used to go from hearing "I'm not sure you're competent" to earning a bonus worth 1.45x her salary. Same role. Same boss.
• The #1 thing you're not saying in status meetings that's keeping you stuck in promotion purgatory

Apply to Speak Like a Senior Leader at https://www.speaklikeaseniorleader.com/.

Sign up for my Free Live Webinar: 5 Steps to Speak Like a Senior Leader

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1. FREE NEWSLETTER: Psychology at Work Weekly
2. Get on the Waitlist for Speak Like a Senior Leader™
3. Get on the Waitlist for Lead from Within
4. Get Melody's new book, Managing Up

This episode is a wake-up call and it might be the most important one you hear this year. See, most people are passive passengers in their careers, waiting to be noticed, developed, and rewarded by an organization that was never designed to put them first. In this episode, Melody breaks down the #1 mindset shift separating true high performers from everyone else – one with the potential to completely change the way you think about your career, your skills, and what it actually means to own your professional future.

What You’ll Discover:

• The "conveyor belt" career model your parents handed you (how it’s now costing you $100k+)
• What Gallup's latest research says about the "restless but immobile" workforce – and how to make sure that's not you
• The six-letter word that instantly signals a passive career mindset
• The #1 thing professionals who thrive in any economy, at any company, all have in common (no, it’s not talent, tenure, hustle, or their network)

Sign up for my Free Live Webinar: 5 Steps to Speak Like a Senior Leader

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Connect with Melody:

1. FREE NEWSLETTER: Psychology at Work Weekly
2. Get on the Waitlist for Speak Like a Senior Leader™
3. Get on the Waitlist for Lead from Within
4. Get Melody's new book, Managing Up

Getting talked over in meetings is one of the most common (and most demoralizing) experiences professionals face at work. But what if there's something in your communication style that's unintentionally inviting interruptions? In this episode, Melody unpacks the REAL reasons you keep getting cut off – and none of them have anything to do with developing a thicker skin.

What You’ll Discover:

• How a Senior Account Director went from getting derailed every meeting to being described as "in command"
• The #1 thing you should ask yourself before opening your mouth (99% of people get this wrong)
• Specific phrases to reclaim the conversation when someone talks over you, without looking defensive

Sign up for my Free Live Webinar: 5 Steps to Speak Like a Senior Leader

https://melodywilding.com/training

Connect with Melody:

1. FREE NEWSLETTER: Psychology at Work Weekly
2. Get on the Waitlist for Speak Like a Senior Leader™
3. Get on the Waitlist for Lead from Within
4. Get Melody's new book, Managing Up