Shedding the Corporate Bitch
Welcome to Shedding the Corporate Bitch — the podcast where executive leadership gets real.
Hosted by executive coach, strategist, and unapologetic truth-teller Bernadette Boas, this show is built for senior leaders, CHROs, and HR executives who are done with surface-level leadership advice and ready for the conversations that actually move the needle.
Drawing from 25 years in corporate — including being fired — and over a decade coaching leaders at the highest levels, Bernadette delivers the raw insights, honest dialogue, and practical strategies you won't find in a leadership textbook. Each episode tackles what's really happening in today's organizations: toxic cultures, burned-out teams, leadership gaps, talent retention crises, and the fear, doubt, and imposter syndrome that quietly undermine even the most accomplished executives.
Joined by world-class leaders, HR innovators, and organizational experts, Bernadette doesn't just identify the problems — she hands you the tools to solve them.
This is the podcast for leaders who are ready to shed what's holding them — and their organizations — back, and build something that actually works.
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Shedding the Corporate Bitch
The Entrepreneurial Mindset Gap That's Killing Your Promotion
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You're the most reliable person on your team, and that reliability might be exactly what's keeping you from the next promotion.
In this episode, executive and career transition coach Laura Berman Fortgang joins Bernadette to unpack the entrepreneurial mindset every corporate leader needs, and why the people who do everything right often stay stuck as the "understudy" instead of becoming the star.
Laura has spent decades coaching executives and entrepreneurs through career change including work with guests on The Oprah Winfrey Show. She and Bernadette dig into why asking questions builds more real influence than giving answers, how to handle a manager who feels threatened by your visibility, and the delegation habits (especially common among women) that quietly cap a career.
Laura also shares the four pillars — messaging, methodology, marketing, and managing yourself and your business that determine whether a corporate-to-entrepreneur transition actually works.
What You Will Learn
● Build the entrepreneurial mindset that gets you noticed for promotion, without overstepping
● Grow your influence by asking better questions instead of giving answers
● Handle a manager who feels threatened by your initiative
● Recognize the delegation trap that keeps capable people invisible for the roles they want
● Know when you're actually ready to leave corporate and build your own business
● How to apply the four pillars — messaging, methodology, marketing, managing
● Hear the client story of a stuck senior executive who took the reins and landed a C-suite role
Key Quote: “It's easier to find a new star than to replace the understudy.” — Laura Berman Fortgang
About the Guest
Laura Berman Fortgang is an executive and career transition coach and the author of Now What? Ninety Days to a New Life Direction. Her coaching career includes work with guests on The Oprah Winfrey Show, and she has spent decades helping corporate leaders and entrepreneurs navigate promotion, career change, and business transitions. Learn more at LauraBermanFortgang.com.
About Bernadette
Bernadette Boas is an executive leadership coach and founder of Ball of Fire Coaching, with 25+ years of corporate leadership experience — including VP and Chief Knowledge Officer roles — and 400+ executives coached across Fortune 500 and high-growth organizations.
Related Episodes from our From Stuck to Leading Series:
● Episode 3 - Shed - https://balloffirecoaching.com/whats-holding-you-back/
● Episode 2 — Confront https://balloffirecoaching.com/5-inner-fears-destroying-your-leadership/
● Episode 1— Discover https://balloffirecoaching.com/from-stuck-to-leading/
Leadership Gap Diagnostic: Take the free Leadership Gap Diagnostic to find out what's really holding your career back: balloffirecoaching.com/opt-in
Subscribe to Shedding the Corporate B!tch on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify for a new episode every week.
