Send us a text 🎉 CELEBRATING 10K DOWNLOADS: To celebrate hitting 10,000 downloads this month, we are unlocking the vault and re-releasing the top 3 most-listened-to episodes of 2025. This episode on navigating a disengaged manager was one of our most shared conversations of the year. Whether you missed it the first time or need a refresher, enjoy this "Hall of Fame" replay! Original Episode Description: While your colleagues are mentally checking out for summer vacation, you could be qu...

Send us a text 🎉 CELEBRATING 10K DOWNLOADS: To celebrate hitting 10,000 downloads this month, we are unlocking the vault and re-releasing the top 3 most-listened-to episodes of 2025. This episode on navigating a disengaged manager was one of our most shared conversations of the year. Whether you missed it the first time or need a refresher, enjoy this "Hall of Fame" replay! Original Episode Description: Are you struggling to ask for a promotion, raise, or new opportunities without feeli...

Send us a text 🎉 CELEBRATING 10K DOWNLOADS: To celebrate hitting 10,000 downloads this month, we are unlocking the vault and re-releasing the top 3 most-listened-to episodes of 2025. This episode on navigating a disengaged manager was one of our most shared conversations of the year. Whether you missed it the first time or need a refresher, enjoy this "Hall of Fame" replay! Original Episode Description: Ever feel like you're trying to advance your career while your manager has mentally ...

Send us a text You just got the calendar invite. Company holiday party. Tuesday night. 6 PM. Your immediate reaction isn't excitement—it’s a mental calculation. You are weighing the cost of a babysitter and dry cleaning against the sheer exhaustion of making small talk with people you already see on Zoom 40 hours a week. Your brain is screaming, "I would rather be anywhere else," but your professional guilt says, "I have to go." If your current plan is to stand in the corner, eat a stale cana...

Send us a text You committed to speaking up more in meetings. You lasted three days. Now it's been three weeks, and your inner critic is convinced you don't have what it takes to lead at the next level. Sound familiar? Here is the truth that changes everything: You do not have a capability problem. You have a recovery problem. Most leaders think the key to success is discipline—never falling off the wagon. But the reality is that executives fall off just as often as middle managers. The diffe...

Send us a text There is a massive difference between being polite and being strategic. Most women leaders are courteous. They say "thank you" and acknowledge hard work. But most miss the specific leadership opportunity that separates middle management from executive leadership: Strategic Appreciation. Real influence isn’t just about delivering results; it’s about building a network of professional goodwill that becomes currency when you need it most. When you shift from generic gratitude to s...

Send us a text Schedule your complimentary Leadership Strategy Call. Your mentor gave you excellent career advice. So why do you still feel vulnerable when organizational changes happen? Here's the truth most women leaders don't realize: mentorship gets you guidance, but sponsorship gets you protection, access, and advocacy when decisions are made behind closed doors. If you've ever been blindsided by budget cuts, left out of high-visibility opportunities, or found out about critical ch...

Send us a text Book your Leadership Strategy Call You're praised in every performance review. Your manager can't stop saying how "invaluable" you are. But somehow, the promotion never comes. The raise never materializes. And you're left wondering if you're ungrateful for feeling frustrated by all that "appreciation." Here's what nobody's telling you: Gratitude is being weaponized to keep you stuck. This episode exposes exactly how it happens—and gives you the framework to stop it. What This E...

Send us a text Right now, your manager is in a meeting you're not invited to, deciding your promotion, your raise, and your 2026 compensation. Directors, VPs, and HR are comparing you to people you've never met, asking questions you've never been asked to answer. And by the time you find out what was decided? The budget is locked. Stop leaving your career to chance. In this episode, Kele Belton gives you the strategic playbook to influence these decisions and secure the promotion and compensa...

Send us a text Ever been asked about your career goals and completely blanked? You're in a meeting with your manager or a senior leader. The conversation is going well—until they ask: "What are your goals for next year?" Your mind goes blank. You give a vague answer like "I want to keep growing" or "I'm open to new opportunities." They nod politely. The conversation moves on. And you walk away knowing you just made yourself invisible again. Meanwhile, others who aren't working as hard as you ...

Send us a text Imagine sitting across from your boss in December, being asked about your biggest accomplishments this year—and your mind goes blank. You know you worked hard. You delivered results. However, you can't recall the specifics, so you undersell yourself and walk away feeling frustrated. Sound familiar? What this episode is about Your annual review isn't something that happens in December; it's happening right now. In this episode, I break down why mid-October is the critical time t...

Send us a text You're doing everything right. Your calendar is packed. You're saying yes to the "right" projects. You're being a team player. But here's what no one sees: By 4 PM on a random Tuesday, you're already mentally exhausted—and it's only October. You can feel the year-end tsunami building, request by request, meeting by meeting. And somewhere in the back of your mind, a quiet voice whispers: "I could have prevented this." The truth? The December chaos you're dreading isn't happening...

Send us a text Tired of hearing "Everyone's doing more with less" when you ask for resources? You're not alone. Thousands of capable leaders see their legitimate requests dismissed daily—not because they don't deserve what they're asking for, but because they're speaking the wrong language. What This Episode Is About In this episode of Communicate to Lead, host Kele Belton reveals the exact framework that transforms how decision-makers respond to your requests. Using a real client case study,...

Send us a text You've just finished presenting your quarterly results to the leadership team—numbers are strong, your team is crushing it, and you've delivered every single project this year. As you're packing up, you overhear your manager discussing that Senior Director opening with the VP: "We need someone with more executive presence, someone who can really drive strategic initiatives at the organizational level." Your stomach drops. You've been managing strategic initiatives for two...

Send us a text Download Your FREE Complete Guide to Verbal Judo Scripts You walk into the boardroom prepared to present your strategic recommendations to the executive team. The CEO looks up and says, "Oh good, can you grab us some coffee while we wait for everyone to arrive?" You're the Senior Product Manager with four years of leadership experience and three successful product launches under your belt. Sound familiar? What This Episode Is About: This episode teaches you "Verbal Judo"...

Send us a text Have you ever walked out of a high-stakes meeting wondering why your voice didn't carry the weight your expertise deserves? You're not alone. Picture this: You're the Senior Director with eight years of experience and consistently exceeding targets, but when you present to the CEO, he interrupts to check his phone and redirects the entire conversation. Sound familiar? If you're a high-achieving woman whose conversation impact doesn't match your leadership expertise, this episod...

Send us a text ➡️➡️➡️ Sign up for the Women’s Leadership Power Collective Are you tired of being the go-to crisis manager who never gets considered for senior leadership roles? Sick of watching your ideas get implemented with someone else's name attached? If you're a high-achieving woman who's done everything "right" but still feels invisible at work, this episode will change how you think about your career strategy forever. Host Kele Belton introduces a game-changing concept called "The Stra...

Send us a text ➡️➡️➡️ Sign up for the Women’s Leadership Power Collective Your LinkedIn feed is full of former colleagues celebrating promotions while you're still job searching. If you've been there, you know exactly how that punch in the gut feeling hits. If you've been avoiding networking because you're unsure of what to say or worry about seeming desperate, this episode is your roadmap back to confident, professional relationship building. In this episode of Communicate to Lead, host Kele...

Send us a text Your top performer just asked if you've heard of "quiet cracking"—and suddenly, this term is everywhere. Business Insider calls it the latest workplace buzzword. Fortune reports it's costing the global economy $8.9 trillion. But here's what the business media isn't telling you: Women are experiencing this workplace crisis at disproportionately higher rates, and the solutions being proposed completely miss the mark. What This Episode Covers: In this deep-dive analysis, communica...

Send us a text Ever feel like you're drowning in tasks while thinking "it's faster to do it myself" than to delegate? You're protecting your team from extra work, yet somehow you're the one working late every night while strategic projects pile up untouched. If delegation feels impossible, like you're trapped between being seen as "too controlling" or "not supportive enough", you're experiencing a challenge unique to women in leadership, and it's fixable. In this episode of Communicate to Lea...