This Wasn't My Plan

This Wasn’t My Plan is the career podcast for high-achievers who’ve checked all the boxes (and done all the right things!) but still feel something’s missing. Hosted by Career Strategist and Performance Consultant and Advisor, RX Ashlee, it’s your no-BS roadmap to redefining success on your terms. Whether you’re pivoting, scaling your business, or ready for work that works for you, this show delivers sharp strategy, smart scripts, and real talk. No fluff, no filler, just focused guidance to help you lead, own your voice, and win with intention.

This Wasn't My Plan is a business podcast hosted by Ashlee Hayes, with 46 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.

Ashlee Hayes hosts This Wasn't My Plan, a business show with 46 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 #40

  The Fastest Way to Lose Credibility as a Leader

  Aug 19, 202612 minS2

  Episode 40: The Fastest Way to Lose Credibility as a Leader In this episode, Ashlee celebrates hitting episode 40 and dives straight into one of her core values as a communication expert: the fastest way a leader loses credibility isn't a big scandal, it's the quiet, repeated habit of saying things they don't follow through on. She breaks down why trust is built through behavioral predictability, not charisma, and gives leaders a simple standard to live by, undercommit and over deliver. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN Why saying things you don't follow through on is the fastest way to erode trust as a leader The real reason low morale and disengagement show up on teams, and it's rarely what leaders think Why credibility is built through behavioral predictability, not charisma or title How over-promising and over-committing quietly damages your leadership standard The pause strong leaders take before committing to anything Why the most trusted leaders aren't the ones who never make mistakes, but the ones who communicate clearly when they do Most leaders don't lose the trust of their team in one dramatic moment. It happens slowly, in the small gap between what they say and what they actually do. Ashlee unpacks why that gap, whether it's an open door policy that doesn't feel safe to use, or an accountability standard that only applies to some, is usually the real source of the disengagement and misalignment leaders think is a culture problem. She gives a practical standard for closing that gap: under commit, over deliver, and be specific the moment something changes. KEY MOMENTS (00:00) Celebrating episode 40, and why most podcasts don't make it this far (02:15) The fastest way to lose credibility as a leader (04:00) How saying things you don't follow through on breaks down trust (07:00) Why credibility is built through behavioral predictability, not charisma (09:30) What's really behind low morale and disengagement on teams (12:00) Why over-promising and over-committing kills trust (14:00) Undercommit, over deliver, and the pause that builds trust (16:30) What separates the most trusted leaders from the rest CALL TO ACTION If you're leading a team and want to improve clarity, decision-making, and execution, learn more about Ashlee's leadership workshops here: https://www.rxashlee.com/executive-team-workshops ABOUT ASHLEE Ashlee is a leadership strategist and executive workshop facilitator who helps teams communicate with clarity so decisions move forward and performance improves. She works with founders, operators, and leadership teams to build simple, repeatable systems that strengthen alignment, ownership, and execution under pressure. Connect with Ashlee Follow Ashlee on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleeklevenshayes/ Follow Ashlee on IG: https://www.instagram.com/rxashleehayes/ Learn more about Ashlee's workshops: https://www.rxashlee.com/executive-team-workshops KEYWORDS leadership credibility, trust in leadership, leadership communication, undercommit over deliver

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  This Wasn't My Plan

  Burnout to Blueprint: How Dr. Jen Bourgeois Built a Business by Healing Herself First

  Aug 17, 202639 min

  Guest Episode 6: Burnout to Blueprint: How Dr. Jen Bourgeois Built a Business by Healing Herself First In this episode, Ashlee welcomes Dr. Jen Bourgeois — pharmacist, nervous system expert, and founder of Peacefully Rich Coaching and Consulting — for a deeply honest conversation about burnout, identity, and what it actually takes to build a life by design. Jen shares how a decade of high-achieving corporate healthcare leadership led her to a breaking point, what she learned on the other side of it, and how she now helps high-performing founders and leaders scale their income and impact without sacrificing their health, relationships, or presence. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN * Why high-achieving women are specifically wired for burnout — and what the physiology actually looks like inside the body * How Jen went from burned out community pharmacist to nervous system expert and founder of Peacefully Rich Coaching and Consulting * Why the belief system that took you into burnout is not the same one that will bring you out of it * Why success does not require sacrificing what matters most — and what it looks like to build a life that actually fits ABOUT DR. JEN BOURGEOIS Dr. Jen Bourgeois is a nervous system expert, pharmacist, and founder of Peacefully Rich Coaching and Consulting. After 17 years in corporate healthcare leadership and her own experience with burnout in 2019, she spent years studying the science of the nervous system and its impact on leadership and success. Today she helps high-performing founders and leaders build the internal capacity to scale income and impact sustainably — without sacrificing their health, relationships, or presence. Connect with Dr. Jen: * Website: https://www.drjenbourgeois.com * LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drjenbourgeois * Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drjenbourgeois KEY MOMENTS * (02:00) Jen's original plan — and the decade that led to burnout * (06:00) What burnout actually looks like physiologically — and why the labs all come back normal * (14:00) Why high-achieving women are statistically more susceptible to burnout — and the physiology behind it * (37:00) What Jen would tell her 2019 self — and the permission she wishes someone had given her sooner CALL TO ACTION To learn more about Dr. Jen's work helping high-performing founders and leaders scale sustainably visit: https://www.drjenbourgeois.com To learn more about Ashlee's leadership workshops: https://www.rxashlee.com/executive-team-workshops ABOUT ASHLEE Ashlee is a leadership strategist and executive workshop facilitator who helps teams communicate with clarity so decisions move forward and performance improves. * Follow Ashlee on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleeklevenshayes/ * Follow Ashlee on IG: https://www.instagram.com/rxashleehayes/ * Learn more about Ashlee's workshops: https://www.rxashlee.com/executive-team-workshops

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  Episode #39

  How I Make Big Life Altering Decisions

  Aug 12, 202624 minS2

  Episode 39: How I Make Big Life Altering Decisions In this episode, Ashlee shares the behavioral based system she has built — not from theory or inspiration, but from real experience — for making big, high stakes decisions with confidence. Inspired by two clients navigating major career crossroads, she walks through the exact five steps she uses herself and with the leaders and founders she coaches every day. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN * Why high performers stall big decisions — and why it has nothing to do with intelligence or capability * Why clarity does not come first — and how taking action is actually what creates it * The one question almost nobody asks themselves when facing a big decision * How to separate fear from gut intuition — and why that distinction changes everything * Why being half in on a decision burns more energy than hard work ever will Most high performers do not stall big decisions because they are incapable. They stall because they want to get everything perfect, rehearse every outcome, and collect enough information to feel certain before they move. But certainty is not how clarity works. In this episode, Ashlee shares the five step system she has used to leave a stable career, build RX Ashlee, hire her first team members, walk away from six and seven figure opportunities that were not aligned, and keep moving forward through grief, growth, and everything in between. KEY MOMENTS * (02:00) The two clients who inspired this episode and what their decisions had in common * (06:00) Step 1: Stop waiting for stability, security, or certainty — action creates clarity * (10:30) Step 2: What is the cost of not doing anything — the question almost nobody asks * (15:00) Step 3: Separating fear from gut intuition and learning to trust what you already know * (20:00) Step 4: Look for energy alignment and values alignment — not just what sounds good on paper * (24:00) Step 5: Make the decision and go all in — indecision burns more energy than hard work CALL TO ACTION If you are leading a team and want to improve clarity, decision-making, and execution, learn more about Ashlee's leadership workshops here: https://www.rxashlee.com/executive-team-workshops ABOUT ASHLEE Ashlee is a leadership strategist and executive workshop facilitator who helps teams communicate with clarity so decisions move forward and performance improves. She works with founders, operators, and leadership teams to build simple, repeatable systems that strengthen alignment, ownership, and execution under pressure. Connect with Ashlee * Follow Ashlee on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleeklevenshayes/ * Follow Ashlee on IG: https://www.instagram.com/rxashleehayes/ * Learn more about Ashlee's workshops: https://www.rxashlee.com/executive-team-workshops KEYWORDS decision-making, leadership communication, clarity under pressure, executive leadership, self-trust, organizational clarity

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  This Wasn't My Plan

  When Fear Means You’re Going the Right Way with Dr. Brooke Stubbs

  Aug 10, 202631 min

  Guest Episode 5: When Fear Means You’re Going the Right Way with Dr. Brooke Stubbs In this episode, Ashlee sits down with longtime friend Dr. Brooke Stubbs, founder of Rooted Femme, a women's concierge medicine practice in Austin, TX. Brooke opens up about the dermatology residency she didn't get, the years of imposter syndrome that followed, and how a string of "failures" (a business that flopped, a stalled fertility journey) became the exact path that led her to build a practice rooted in autonomy, faith, and self-trust. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN * Why being passed over for her dream residency ended up redirecting Brooke toward the right path * How she pushed through years of imposter syndrome and the messy middle * Why "you only fail if you quit" isn't just a mindset, it's a strategy * How lifestyle medicine and stress reduction reshaped her approach to patient care and her own fertility journey * Why fear is often a signal pointing toward the next right move, not away from it * What it actually takes to raise capital and expand a service-based business Brooke and Ashlee go back over a decade, and this conversation has the ease of two old friends catching up while also unpacking real turning points: a residency rejection that felt like heartbreak at the time, an app and a business that failed, and the moment she stopped trying to prove herself to the people who doubted her. What emerges is a leader who trusts the setbacks were redirection, who invests in her own dream instead of someone else's, and who is now working toward Sante House, an expanded health spa concept in Austin. KEY MOMENTS * (00:00) The ER story, and the core memory that started it all * (00:41) The derm residency Brooke didn't get, and the heartbreak that followed * (06:02) Navigating the messy middle and imposter syndrome * (09:37) Inside Rooted Femme, and what lifestyle medicine actually is * (11:48) Her own fertility journey, endometriosis, and how lifestyle medicine changed the outcome * (19:00) Her son's health scare, and seeing the bigger plan in hindsight * (19:50) "You can't fail unless you quit" — reframing failed ventures as part of the process * (26:39) Why fear is the signal to keep going, not stop * (28:08) Raising capital for expansion, and getting twenty no's before the yes CALL TO ACTION If you're leading a team and want to build the kind of culture that protects people instead of breaking them down, learn more about Ashlee's leadership workshops here: https://www.rxashlee.com/executive-team-workshops ABOUT ASHLEE Ashlee is a leadership strategist and executive workshop facilitator who helps teams communicate with clarity so decisions move forward and performance improves. She works with founders, operators, and leadership teams to build simple, repeatable systems that strengthen alignment, ownership, and execution under pressure. ABOUT DR. BROOKE STUBBS Dr. Brooke Stubbs is the founder of Rooted Femme, a women's concierge medicine practice in Austin, TX. Board certified in internal medicine with an additional certification in lifestyle medicine, Brooke and her team offer a one-stop approach to women's health, from primary care and hormone replacement therapy to medical weight loss and aesthetics. She is currently working to expand her practice into Sante House, a broader health spa concept in Austin. * Website: rootedfemme.com * Instagram: @brookiestubbsmd * TikTok: @brookiestubbsmd KEYWORDS women's concierge medicine, Rooted Femme, Dr. Brooke Stubbs, lifestyle medicine, hormone replacement therapy, medical weight loss, fertility and endometriosis, imposter syndrome, leadership podcast

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  Episode #38

  Most Leaders Talk Too Much

  Aug 5, 20268 minS2

  Episode 38: Most Leaders Talk Too Much In this episode, Ashlee calls out one of the most common and costly communication habits in leadership — over talking. She breaks down why saying more does not create more clarity, what communication dilution actually costs your team, and how the strongest executive communicators she has ever worked with all share one thing in common: they say less and mean more. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN Why volume of words is not the same as clarity — and how over talking dilutes your message What communication dilution is and exactly how it slows down execution on teams Why the strongest leaders often sound almost boring — and why that is actually the highest compliment How discomfort with silence drives most leaders to over explain, ramble, and repeat themselves The three things every strong communicator knows before they open their mouth Most leaders are not under-communicating. They are over-talking while under-clarifying. They say a lot of words, process out loud in the wrong rooms, repeat themselves under pressure, and somewhere inside all of that talking — the actual point gets completely lost. Ashlee calls this communication dilution. And in this episode she makes the case for why saying less, with more intention and precision, is one of the highest leverage leadership skills you can build. KEY MOMENTS (01:30) What communication dilution is and why it is costing your team clarity (04:00) The three things every strong communicator knows before they speak (06:30) Why the strongest executive communicators often sound almost boring (08:45) Why discomfort with silence drives most leaders to over talk (10:30) The challenge: say less, mean more — starting with your next meeting CALL TO ACTION If you are leading a team and want to improve clarity, decision-making, and execution, learn more about Ashlee's leadership workshops here: https://www.rxashlee.com/executive-team-workshops ABOUT ASHLEE Ashlee is a leadership strategist and executive workshop facilitator who helps teams communicate with clarity so decisions move forward and performance improves. She works with founders, operators, and leadership teams to build simple, repeatable systems that strengthen alignment, ownership, and execution under pressure. Connect with Ashlee Follow Ashlee on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleeklevenshayes/ Follow Ashlee on IG: https://www.instagram.com/rxashleehayes/ Learn more about Ashlee's workshops: https://www.rxashlee.com/executive-team-workshops KEYWORDS leadership communication, over talking, clarity, team performance, executive leadership, decision-making

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