From Your Seat to the Board

Hi I'm Bry & I'm on a mission to find out why our male peers always seem to get promoted before us! I'm a mum, sister, wife & high performance coach.I am obsessed with the lack of women on Boards, can you be ambitious AND a woman? Yes. So what's stopping us? Get ready to be inspired and amused. Hear the women & men I interview on route to a Board seat, sitting on a Board or chasing it through failure, struggle and success and how they have navigated power, male dominance and glass ceilings.I hope you are listening.Take your seat.

From Your Seat to the Board is a business podcast hosted by Bryony Williams, with 21 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Bryony Williams hosts From Your Seat to the Board, a business show with 21 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Episode #12

  #12 Danielle Sissons: The Money Conversation Women Aren't Invited To - Ivey Financial Planning

  Jul 16, 202628 minS1

  🎙️ EPISODE OVERVIEW In this episode, Bryony sits down with Danielle Sissons - Founder of Ivey Financial Planning and a financial adviser with 12 years in the industry, to unpack one of the most loaded topics in women's careers: money. Danielle knew at 15 she wanted to be a financial adviser. But it was the birth of her daughter Grace, plus 90 minutes on the phone to HMRC and £2,000 lost at the end of her maternity leave, that exposed how badly the system serves women. So she stopped knocking on doors and built the firm she couldn't find: one that helps mothers and founders take real control of their wealth, not in a decade's time, but at the messy, transitional moments when it matters most. This is a conversation about confidence, structural inequality, and why "I'm just not good with money" is a story worth rewriting. 🔑 KEY THEMES COVERED: The confidence gap - women are statistically better with money, yet invest less and hold less wealth Why financial advice is still built for high-net-worth men (only ~13% of advisers are women) "If you get tired of knocking on doors, build your own house" - Danielle's founder moment The money conversation women get left out of - even in their own households Reframing "I'm not good with money": money is a tool, not a personality trait The marketing divide - women are sold savings and cashback, men are sold investing Budgeting without shame: the 50/30/20 split and why lifestyle spend is allowed The one non-negotiable: a 3–6 month emergency buffer Bringing career strategy into the money conversation - asking for what you're worth Why financial control is really about freedom 💬 STANDOUT QUOTES: "If you get tired of knocking on doors, build your own house." "Would you say 'I'm just not good with a hammer'? Money is a tool - it's something you can learn." "They don't know any more than us about investing. They're just spoken to about it more, so they have the confidence." "Lifestyle spend is whatever makes you feel like the hard work is worth the life you're living." "If you take nothing else away from this, have an emergency buffer." 📚 MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Ivey Financial Planning - Danielle's Firm The 50/30/20 budget (essentials / lifestyle / future) Junior ISAs & junior pensions The gender pension gap and the impact of maternity leave "Firestarter" by The Prodigy - Danielle's fired-up track 🔗 CONNECT WITH DANIELLE: Company: Ivey Financial Planning LinkedIn: Danielle Sissons Instagram: @iveyfinancialplanning

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  Episode #11

  #11 Charlotte Clark: From Graduate to Founder - A Purpose-Driven Career at Happy Human Project

  Jul 8, 202625 minS1

  In this heartfelt conversation, Bryony sits down with Charlotte Clark - founder of the Happy Human Project - to explore what happens when a career starts not from a five-year plan, but from healing your own inner child. Charlotte has spent nearly a decade teaching children emotional wellbeing and nervous system regulation in schools, holiday camps, and after-school clubs. She's just graduated with a degree in counselling, deepening her ability to work with trauma. But the real story is what she discovered along the way: that the work she built for children was really the work she needed for herself. 🔑 KEY THEMES COVERED: Starting a business fresh out of university with "no idea what she was taking on" and why that lack of fear was a gift The privilege of timing: leaping into entrepreneurship when young, unattached, and low on outgoings Becoming "a victim of her own success" recognising burnout before it recognised her Why building a team was a survival strategy, not a growth strategy The nervous system as the real starting point - for children and for the adults coaching them Why dysregulation is contagious - in classrooms, in homes, and in the workplace Practical regulation tools: naming the emotion, movement over "just breathe," and the power of play Soul care vs self care, building systems that protect you Redefining career advice for the next generation: you cannot overlook the importance of looking within Why the landscape of Charlotte's career (founder → counsellor → programme director) grew from purpose first, strategy second 💬 STANDOUT QUOTES: "I'm probably never going to get a time in my life where I'm this young and have no dependents, no mortgage... throw caution to the wind and just see if it works." "Emotions live in the body... if we're not processing those feelings, they become disease and we become unwell." "You cannot overlook the importance of self-care - I hate using that word, but it is so much more than a bath." 📚 MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: The Happy Human Project (Charlotte's company) Charlotte's dissertation on embodiment and trauma in children McKinsey & LeanIn.org -style workplace burnout parallels (referenced conceptually by Bryony) EFT, breath work, and Lego as regulation tools (Bryony's practice) 🔗 CONNECT WITH CHARLOTTE: Website The Happy Human Project Instagram: @ happyhumanprojectltd

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  Episode #10

  #10 Ep. 10: Sophia Hermens — Follow the Fizz: Rewriting the Rules for Boys, Dads & Careers

  Jul 2, 202628 minS1

  🎙️ EPISODE OVERVIEW In this episode, Bryony sits down with Sophia Hermens - employment lawyer turned fundraiser turned psychotherapist-in-training, and founder of Rising Sons UK - to talk about what happens when you stop climbing the ladder and start following your fizz instead. Sophia's career reads like a landscape, not a ladder: law, charity fundraising with Jamie Oliver's Fifteen Foundation, international school work in Geneva, psychotherapy training, and facilitating for Rights for Girls. All of it led her to found Rising Sons, a program connecting 8–10 year old boys and their dads before the teenage years hit, so families don't have to repair what's broken later. 🔑 KEY THEMES COVERED: Rising Sons - a preventative, pro-active, father-son bonding programme for boys aged 8–10 Breaking generational parenting patterns: "I knew what I didn't want to do, but not what to put in its place" Sophia's squiggly career - law, Jamie Oliver, Geneva, psychotherapy, Rights for Girls Why empowering girls isn't enough if the system boys grow up in doesn't change too Boys and emotional suppression, the playground pressure to stop crying starts as early as Year 2 "Follow the fizz, not the ladder" - landscape careers over linear ones The crowdfunding journey, and the long-term vision to make Rising Sons as normal as Saturday football Why people doing meaningful work deserve to be paid properly for it The corporate opportunity: supporting fathers as an untapped DEI and wellbeing gap Soul care vs. the Instagram spiral, Sophia's honest take on running a startup while trying to protect her own headspace The Netherlands' "papadag" model and what a four-day week could mean for families 💬 STANDOUT QUOTES: "We need to change the system." "Follow the fizz, not the ladder." "It's that whole bringing myself to the table, as opposed to going out to look for the job description." "A happy father is a happy employee." "I want to work for someone who is changing the world." 📚 MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Rights for Girls Journeyman and A Band of Brothers (programmes for older boys/young men) Joyful Men Coaching (Hake, Rising Suns facilitator) Mother Pukka - Anna Whitehouse (paternity leave advocacy) Elliot Rae - "Parenting Out Loud" UK four-day working week trial results Rising Sons UK crowdfunder and prize draw 🔗 CONNECT WITH SOPHIA: Instagram: @risingsonsuk LinkedIn: Sophia Hermens

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  Episode #9

  #9 Your Wardrobe, Your Landscape: Abbey Booth on Owning the Room Before You're Ready

  Jun 16, 202628 minS1

  🎙️ EPISODE OVERVIEW In this warm and energising conversation, Bryony sits down with Abbey Booth - personal stylist and author of Don't Save It For Best - to explore something most career conversations completely overlook: what you wear and how it shapes the way you show up. Abbey's journey is anything but linear. From receptionist to advertising sales at the Mirror Group's Racing Post, from window dresser to boutique owner to full-time personal stylist to author - she's navigated more pivots than most. And threading through all of it is one consistent theme: style as a tool for confidence, access, and identity. This is not a conversation about fashion. It's a conversation about women taking up space. 🔑 KEY THEMES COVERED Style as a career tool - how Abbey used vintage fashion to get into rooms that felt firmly closed The psychology of dressing for the job you want, not the one you have Why women are conditioned to shrink and how clothes can start to shift that Abbey's pivot from corporate sales to visual merchandising to personal styling to published author The disconnect between where your business is and how you're showing up and how to close it "Style can take you somewhere before you feel ready" why we always think we need to be 100% The 40/100 rule: men back themselves with 40%, women wait until they hit 100% Three top styling tips you can implement today without a shopping trip Why less wardrobe often means more clarity Dipping your toe into colour - the power of a bold shoe, a bright lip, an earring that starts a conversation Wellness after anxiety: plant watch, slow mornings, and the power of ritual 💬 STANDOUT QUOTES "Style can take you somewhere before you feel ready. And we're always ready, by the way. We just don't think we are." "I'm fascinated about the story of the woman behind the clothes and how I can evoke her story so she can get to where she wants to get to." "Your style is an invitation to people. It draws people in." "Women experience a lot of guilt and shame around their bodies, around spending money, around enjoying time with themselves. I really wanted to change all that." "Less clothes does not mean less outfits. Don't be afraid to get rid of things that are no longer serving you." "Yellow makes people smile. If we can walk around making other people smile, I think that's gorgeous. Let's bring the human sunshine." 📚 MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Don't Save It For Best by Abbey Booth - available on Amazon and to order at your local independent bookshop Stories with Clothes - Abbey's personal styling business Gardner's & Ingram Spark wholesale book stockists The Racing Post / Mirror Group - Abbey's corporate background 🔗 CONNECT WITH ABBEY Website: storieswithclothes.com Book: Don't Save It For Best - order via Amazon or your local bookshop Instagram: @Storieswithclothes LinkedIn: Abbey Booth

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  Episode #8

  #8 As Authoritative as a Woman with Claire Shaw: Owning Your Voice in Rooms Full of Men

  Jun 4, 202625 minS1

  🎙️ EPISODE OVERVIEW In this episode, Bryony sits down with Claire Shaw - vocal and communication coach, former opera singer, and the woman helping professional women reconnect with the voice that's already theirs. With more than 20 years behind her and a background that spans Wigmore Hall, The Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Claire now works with lawyers, founders, executives and engineers - mostly women navigating rooms where they've been conditioned to take up less space. Her message is refreshingly counter-cultural: you don't need to become louder, harder, or more "male" to lead. You need to feel safe in your voice. This is a conversation about presence, breath, and the overlooked truth that how you sound shapes how you're heard - long before anyone weighs what you actually said. 🔑 KEY THEMES COVERED: Presence as a skill, not a personality trait, and why your body is your instrument The 0.2-second judgment: people decide who you are from your voice before they see your face Why women are conditioned to take up less space and how to breathe low and reclaim it "As authoritative as a woman" leading from feminine power instead of the patriarchal mould Get into your body and out of your head: Claire's three tips before a high-stakes room FOFBOC - feet on floor, bum on chair - grounding in 30 seconds anywhere Why voice is dismissed as a "soft skill" and left out of leadership programmes The apology habit: how the language that got you here won't take you higher Body → breath → sound: the holistic vocal warm-up that fits a busy life Soul care vs self care: restorative Sundays, nature, Feldenkrais, and showing up recharged Comparison as the thief of not just joy, but confidence 💬 STANDOUT QUOTES: "Your voice is as unique as your fingerprint." "Somebody makes a decision about who you are in 0.2 seconds of hearing you - they don't even have to see your face." "What would it mean if you were as authoritative as a woman in the courtroom?" "Get into your body and out of your head." "Comparison is not only the thief of joy, it's the thief of confidence." - Bryony 📚 MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Reshma Saujani's TED Talk on teaching girls bravery, not perfection Stephen Fry - the opening line of his memoir on resolving to stop apologising Frances Frei's communication "triangle" - lead with the point, then the detail The Feldenkrais Method Wild Women - Claire's women's group in Dorset 🔗 CONNECT WITH CLAIRE: Website: clairequinnshaw.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/claire-shaw-voice Book a consultation: calendly.com/claireqd/connect-with-claire Free programme: The Communication Lab for Lawyers

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