Join the Coaching Network Designed Exclusively for Executive Mums
Learn how to save time, crush guilt and achieve Queen of Calm status at home and at work, WITHOUT adding more to your schedule!
Relax. Share. Learn. Laugh. Breathe.
Register Your Interest
Join the Coaching Network Designed Exclusively for Executive Mums
Learn how to save time, crush guilt and achieve Queen of Calm status at home and at work, WITHOUT adding more to your schedule!
Relax. Share. Learn. Laugh. Breathe.
Register Your Interest
Does any of this sound like you?
Raising kids has shone a spotlight on the sandpit behaviour I've tolerated from my teams all these years. I'm going to try transferring my kid-corralling skills into work!" M.M.
I'm exhausted ALL THE TIME. Weekends come around and I want to be out and doing things with the family and instead I'm collapsed on the couch moaning and still looking at my emails!" K.N.
If the people at work saw me at home they would not even recognise me. At work I'm a calm adult, in charge, in control, rational. At home I'm like some nagging, screaming banshee." J.A.
My teenage daughter is so angry with me all the time. I know I was absent a lot, I know I missed a lot, I'm trying to make it up to her but I can't keep apologising for what I had to do to keep us going." B.L.
The hardest part of being a mother AND a senior executive? It's when your kid asks why they're always the last ones to be picked up from daycare. All I can say is, I'm doing my best but I can't control my work day and it never seems good enough." J.C.
I swear to god, if I walk in the door one more night to hear 'what's for dinner?' I will thoroughly lose my sh%t." V.R.
Register Your Interest in the
Executive Mums' Network
Register your interest and you'll become part of our inner circle, receiving priority access and early information — and you'll have the chance to help shape the topics you want to explore and the experts you want to learn from.
Your Executive Mum Advantage
There’s no obligation and no commitment at this stage — just the chance to be part of a powerful new network of executive mums who truly “get it.”
Hear Karyn's story
And how a close encounter with a furniture truck led her to her most important leadership insight!
(TLDW: A near-death experience had Karyn wondering who'd take care of her family if she suddenly couldn't — and the answer was NOT more life insurance!)
About us — and about you
KARYN BRINKLEY: Chief Executive and coach who's been where you are... and where you want to go!
At Women Leading Women we're on a crusade to put rocket fuel in the tanks (and the careers) of smart, motivated, resourceful Executive Mums — without burning them out!
I'm Karyn Brinkley, and I've been where you are.
Just before I turned 30, and following a miscarriage, a doctor told me I would never have children. I was newly married, and this was a devastating blow. But I tried to be philosophical about it, and instead turned my focus to my career. I took my first management job, and my first board appointment, and set my sights on being CEO... and then discovered I was pregnant! (And no, I didn't go back to that doctor again!)
By the time my son was born, my marriage was on the rocks but my career was on fire. I could do this! I could!
And I did.
I scaled the executive ranks and I raised my beautiful, neurodivergent son. My career took me overseas and my son came with me. Along the way I negotiated a divorce, child custody, childcare, schooling, aged care for my dear old dad, big teams, big organisational restructures (in multiple organisations), big partnership and sponsorship deals. I made CEO. I made Chair of the Board.
And in spite of it all, I never stopped feeling like a failure. And I burned myself out — twice.
Because all of those successes meant nothing on days — and these came more and more often — when I couldn't be perfectly present, perfectly competent, in every one of the roles I was juggling. Mostly I felt guilty, inadequate, vulnerable to being found out, vulnerable to the sneaking suspicion I was pretty crap all round, really, but especially a crap mother.
Looking back, what I most needed was support. Somebody who "got it". Somebody to affirm and reassure me, to help me tame my monkey brain, to remind me what I already knew inside me, to remind me what was most important to me in my family and in my career. In my life.
I needed a coach. I needed a network. I needed other women who'd commiserate and congratulate and listen and understand.
And if any of my story resonates with you, perhaps you need a coach and a network designed exclusively for you, too. Let us be that for you.
Why Karyn's the trusted coach and confidante of executive mothers everywhere
"Just having this safe space to be able to talk and to know that we all come here with the same purpose. It's the quiet safe space, but we're also open within it. That's just so special to create that space, because it's incredibly rare. And that's something, you know, as you progress up the ladder, it's harder to find that network where you can share what's going on. It's incredibly valuable."
"If you are seeking an exceptional coach, one who brings depth of proven professional experience and a toolkit full of techniques and strategies to help you grow professionally but also really teach you the importance of self-care to be your absolute best and lead a successful fulfilling life, then Karyn is the executive coach for you."