E123: Choosing Clarity Over Burnout: Why I’m Pausing the Podcast

Hello Podcast fam. I am thrilled to share some exciting news. My book so Grow Lead is officially live on Amazon. This book is more than just my story of starting a nonprofit and building a peanut butter factory in Malawi. So trust me, the ups and downs of that journey are worth the read. It's also packed with practical strategies to help nonprofit leaders like you tackle challenges with clarity, clarity, courage, and a whole lot of heart. If you've ever wondered how to turn your vision into reality, navigate the inevitable hurdles, and build something meaningful, whether in your organization or in your own life, this book is for you. I'd be so grateful for your support in spreading the word. Grab your copy of Sow Grow Lead in the show notes and on Amazon today. Let's keep sowing seeds of impact together. Welcome to the Lead With Heart podcast, which is dedicated to nonprofit leaders who are passionate about making a difference. I'm your host, Hayley Cooper, and I'm thrilled to have you join us on a journey of growth, inspiration and transformation. At Lead With Heart, we believe that leading with heart means embracing empathy, compassion, and authenticity in every aspect of our work. It's about putting people first, fostering genuine connections, and creating a positive impact that goes beyond numbers and metrics. In the nonprofit world, it can often feel like we're carrying the weight of the world on our shoulders. The challenges are immense and the road can be lonely. But here you're not alone. This podcast is a community where we support each other, share our stories, and learn together. Each episode, we'll dive into personal and professional development topics tailored specifically for nonprofit leaders. From innovative fundraising strategies and effective team management, self care practices and leadership insights, we're here to provide you with practical strategies that you can apply to your life and work. My goal is to empower you, elevate your leadership, and engage your heart in all that you do. I want to help you navigate the unique challenges of the nonprofit sector with confidence and resilience so you can continue to create meaningful change in the world. So whether you're driving to a meeting, taking a break, or winding down for the day, tune in and join us on this journey. Together we'll discover what it truly means to lead with heart. Thank you for being here. Let's dive in. Hey friends. Welcome back to the Lead with Heart podcast. Today feels different. This is an interview. This is one of those episodes that come straight from my heart because I'm sharing a decision that honestly took courage. I have officially pressed pause on the podcast for the first quarter of 2026. Not forever, not Because I'm quitting, but because I'm choosing clarity. And I want to share with you what led to this decision, what reflecting on 2025 has shown me, what I'm witnessing across the nonprofit world right now, who I need to thank for holding this mission with me, and what I truly hope for all of us moving forward. If you know me, you know I love podcasting. This show has been so sacred to me. Every conversation, every story, every vulnerable share, they've given me hope that heart centered leadership is not only possible, it's rising. But here's the truth. When you become crystal clear on your one thing, the hard decisions stop looking like sacrifices and start looking like alignments. And right now, my one thing is building the Lead with Heart Summit at the highest possible level. Not as another conference, but as what it's meant to be, a first of its kind mental health and emotional leadership summit for nonprofit leaders. This isn't something I can casually build on the side, because let me tell you, I've tried. Between podcast interviews and client calls and picking up the kids from school, this sort of summit requires deep presence, deep thinking, and deep creation. December and the first quarter of 2026 needs to belong to deep work and not divided attention. The pause isn't about doing less. It's about doing what matters most. And clarity does not make decisions painless. It makes them purposeful. If I'm fully honest, the decision came from a wake up call because I realized that even though my mission is emotional sustainability, I wasn't fully practicing it. I was trying to do everything. Producing content, coaching leaders, building workshops, growing the summit, traveling for speaker engagements, and being present for my family. I had to admit something uncomfortable. Just because we are capable of doing something does not mean we have the capacity to do it all at the same time. And I noticed something even deeper. I had been staying busy to prove something, to avoid slowing down, to outrun uncomfortable emotions instead of sitting with them. And I asked myself, who am I trying to prove anything to? Because when the balls start crashing, our nervous system suffers, our families feel at first, our teams feel stretched, and our leadership clarity dissolves. This pause is me choosing to align my leadership with what I teach. Sustainability before success. And as I wrap up 2025, I carry a mixture of gratitude and concern. Gratitude for this community and concern for how deeply stretched so many leaders are. This year was heavy, and I don't say that lightly. Across the sector, I saw leaders emotionally exhausted, not just tired, high turnover, disrupting teams, development professionals holding donor fatigue, executive directors carrying Financial pressure alone, Boards struggling to engage without overwhelming staff, managers trying to motivate people while running on empty themselves. The question I heard repeatedly, is this supposed to feel this hard? My answer is leadership is not easy, but it was never meant to be this lonely or this unsustainable. What I've seen is a sector full of heart and a dangerously under resourced emotionally. We teach strategy, we teach fundraising, we teach planning. But rarely do we teach leaders how to regulate stress, how to build psychological safety, how to manage emotional conflict, or how to sustain themselves over decades instead of just seasons. Leaders aren't leaving because they lost passion. They are leaving because caring became unsafe to carry alone. And that realization ignited everything behind this summit. And before I go any further, I need to pause for something deeply important. I need to recognize my core team, the women who hold this mission with me every single day. You are the steady hands behind the big vision. You manage logistics, you coordinate communications, you create systems, you support clients, you keep timelines moving and you remind me to breathe when I push too hard. You bring excellence and humanity to this work. Because of you, my clients are well supported, the podcast runs smoothly, my ideas become real and my voice can stay focused on leadership rather than logistics. The work looks visible because you quietly make it possible. You are not behind the scenes. You are behind the mission. And I am endlessly thankful for you. And I also want to thank the lead with Heart Summit team, Angela, Barnes and Shimani, the women who are stepping forward to help create something that hasn't existed before. Summit team, you are pioneering this space together with me. From speaker coordination to content planning to sponsorship outreach to experience design, you are helping turn a heart level dream into an actual movement. This isn't a normal conference. We are building something emotionally bold, brave and deeply human. And I could not do this level of visionary work without the team willing to step into the unknown with me. Thank you for believing in this mission. Thank you for holding the emotional integrity of this summit, not just the technical plans. I want to go back to leadership. And here's a leadership truth I've settled into. Momentum doesn't live in balance, it lives in clarity. We grow most powerfully when we stop scattering our energy. We stop chasing productivity as proof and we start choosing depth over width. Leadership maturity is knowing when to say this gets my full yes and everything else can lovingly wait. Pausing does not mean quitting. It means honoring our nervous systems and our purpose. As we close out 2025, I want to leave you with your leadership gut check. What sacrifice are you avoiding because it feels scary. Where might you be choosing busyness instead of clarity? And what deserves your focused energy next year? And what needs to be lovingly paused? The answer to those questions holds your Next Breakthrough Right now, my heart and my mind are fully on the Lead with Heart Summit, an experience centered on nervous system healing for nonprofit leaders, emotional sustainability training, attachment, informed leadership development, psychological safety on teams and boards. Community, not competition. I'm creating a space where leaders finally get what they give so freely support. My hope is that as we move forward, we stop glorifying burnout as dedication. We normalize boundaries as leadership wisdom. We invest in emotional sustainability, not just productivity, and we build nonprofit cultures where leaders don't have to choose between impact and health. Your leadership matters to your mental health matters too. So I'm pressing pause. Not on the podcast forever, not on my mission ever, but on one channel to make room for something extraordinary to grow. This show will come back, but this season of deep building is necessary to bring something rare into the world. Thank you for walking through 2025 with me. Thank you for trusting me, and thank you for Leading with Heart every single day. Remember, the thing you're most afraid to pause might be exactly what makes room for the leadership breakthrough you've been waiting for. Lead with Heart always. I'll see you soon. Hey, before you go, want to watch? Yes, watch the best moments from the Lead with Heart episodes. We're sharing the most powerful highlights and takeaways over on our brand new YouTube channel. Yes, we are on YouTube. Just search for the savvy fundraiser on YouTube and hit subscribe so you never miss a moment of insight and inspiration. The link is in the show notes as well. Thanks for listening and as always, keep leading with Heart.