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Yesterday I found out that two grant applications I submitted were not selected for funding. Two in the same cycle. Both I believed in. Both designed to serve communities I care deeply about.

This episode is what happened next.

It is not a framework. It is not a reframe. It is not a story I have already extracted the lesson from. It is the middle — the 48 hours of silence after the news, the loneliness of being the person who holds space for everyone else, and what it costs to keep teaching while you are still in the rawness of your own no.

If you are carrying something right now — a grant that didn't get funded, a paper that got rejected, a position you didn't get — this one is for you.

Soul to Soul, Lisa.

Soul to Soul with Dr. Lisa Carter-Bawa is a podcast for anyone who is in the middle of becoming — doing the inner work, asking the harder questions, and learning to live from the inside out.

New episodes drop every Monday.

Follow the journey: 📍 Instagram: @lisacarterbawa 📍 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisacarterbawa/ 📍 Website: www.lisacarterbawa.com

Follow me on Substack: https://soultosoulleadership.substack.com/

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Not role to role. Soul to soul.

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In the middle of packing for a move to a smaller space, Lisa opens a box that's been sealed for four years — and finds beautiful pottery she forgot she owned. When a vase shatters on the floor by accident, it cracks open a deeper question: why do we hold onto things long after they've stopped serving us? This episode is a meditation on the boxes we keep sealed — not just the physical ones, but the old credentials, the expired plans, the relationships that ended before they ended. Lisa explores the tension between letting go and honoring what was, and why attachment isn't always a problem to solve — sometimes it's just love looking for a place to live. If you're in the middle of any kind of transition, this one's for you.

Soul to Soul with Dr. Lisa Carter-Bawa is a podcast for anyone who is in the middle of becoming — doing the inner work, asking the harder questions, and learning to live from the inside out.

New episodes drop every Monday.

Follow the journey: 📍 Instagram: @lisacarterbawa 📍 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisacarterbawa/ 📍 Website: www.lisacarterbawa.com

Follow me on Substack: https://soultosoulleadership.substack.com/

Enjoyed this episode? Leave a review, share it with someone who needs it, and subscribe so you never miss a Monday.

Not role to role. Soul to soul.

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Here's something no one tells you when you step into leadership: your team is not listening to your words. They're watching your tolerance.

Every time you let something slide — the disrespect you didn't address, the credit that was taken, the standard that quietly dropped — you just taught your team what's actually acceptable here. Not what you said was acceptable. What you showed them was acceptable.

In this episode, Lisa pulls apart the invisible force that shapes every team's culture: not the values on the wall, but the behaviors that go unchecked. She names four honest reasons leaders look the other way — comfort, fear, fatigue, and the one nobody wants to admit. Through two stories that will stay with you — one of a leader whose silence cost him three people he never should have lost, and one whose ninety-second conversation reset an entire team's culture — she makes the case that your authority gives you your title, but your tolerance defines your legacy.

She'll walk you through what she calls the tolerance audit — three questions designed to surface the gap between what you say you stand for and what you're actually allowing. And she'll challenge you to close that gap this week. Not next quarter. This week.

If you've ever sat in a meeting and known something needed to be said — and stayed quiet — this episode is for you.

Not role to role. Soul to soul.

Soul to Soul with Dr. Lisa Carter-Bawa is a podcast for anyone who is in the middle of becoming — doing the inner work, asking the harder questions, and learning to live from the inside out.

New episodes drop every Monday.

Follow the journey: 📍 Instagram: @lisacarterbawa 📍 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisacarterbawa/ 📍 Website: www.lisacarterbawa.com

Follow me on Substack: https://soultosoulleadership.substack.com/

Enjoyed this episode? Leave a review, share it with someone who needs it, and subscribe so you never miss a Monday.

Not role to role. Soul to soul.

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Most of us were taught to wait — wait for the title, the invitation, the tap on the shoulder that says now it's your turn. But leadership doesn't work that way. The people who change things aren't the ones who waited for permission. They're the ones who started before they felt ready.

In this episode, Lisa explores the quiet lie that keeps smart, capable people on the sidelines: the belief that leadership is something someone else gives you. She talks about what it actually looks like to lead without a title, why the instinct to wait is so deeply wired, and what shifts when you stop asking am I allowed? and start asking what do I see that needs to happen?

This one is for anyone who's been doing the work but holding back from owning it.

Soul to Soul with Dr. Lisa Carter-Bawa is a podcast for anyone who is in the middle of becoming — doing the inner work, asking the harder questions, and learning to live from the inside out.

New episodes drop every Monday.

Follow the journey: 📍 Instagram: @lisacarterbawa 📍 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisacarterbawa/ 📍 Website: www.lisacarterbawa.com

Follow me on Substack: https://soultosoulleadership.substack.com/

Enjoyed this episode? Leave a review, share it with someone who needs it, and subscribe so you never miss a Monday.

Not role to role. Soul to soul.

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Most leaders operate like their role is permanent. And that assumption is quietly destroying the best parts of their leadership.

In this episode, Lisa challenges a belief most of us have never examined: that there’s always more time. More time to have the conversation, to champion the idea, to lead the way we actually want to. She introduces the concept of finite urgency — and asks a question that might change how you show up on Monday: what would you do differently if you knew you had twelve months left in your seat?

This one is going to stay with you.

Soul to Soul with Dr. Lisa Carter-Bawa is a podcast for anyone who is in the middle of becoming — doing the inner work, asking the harder questions, and learning to live from the inside out.

New episodes drop every Monday.

Follow the journey: 📍 Instagram: @lisacarterbawa 📍 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisacarterbawa/ 📍 Website: www.lisacarterbawa.com

Follow me on Substack: https://soultosoulleadership.substack.com/

Enjoyed this episode? Leave a review, share it with someone who needs it, and subscribe so you never miss a Monday.

Not role to role. Soul to soul.

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What happens when you stop performing and start saying what you actually think? Not a dramatic reinvention — just one honest sentence at a time. In this episode, Lisa names the tired that sleep doesn't fix: the invisible exhaustion of translating yourself into a safer, smaller version for every room you enter. She traces what it cost her, what surprised her when she stopped, and why the most talented people in the room are often the quietest — not because they have nothing to say, but because they've buried it under years of self-protection. This is an episode about the gap between who you are and who you're performing, and what comes back when you close it.

Soul to Soul with Dr. Lisa Carter-Bawa is a podcast for anyone who is in the middle of becoming — doing the inner work, asking the harder questions, and learning to live from the inside out.

New episodes drop every Monday.

Follow the journey: 📍 Instagram: @lisacarterbawa 📍 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisacarterbawa/ 📍 Website: www.lisacarterbawa.com

Follow me on Substack: https://soultosoulleadership.substack.com/

Enjoyed this episode? Leave a review, share it with someone who needs it, and subscribe so you never miss a Monday.

Not role to role. Soul to soul.

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There is a tradition from St. Lucia called Koudmen — a practice where the community comes together to carry what one person cannot carry alone. No payment. No contract. Just hands. In this episode, Lisa names the loneliness that lives inside leadership, shares a message from a team member that stopped her in her tracks, and asks the question most leaders are afraid to ask: what if you were never meant to carry it by yourself?

Soul to Soul with Dr. Lisa Carter-Bawa is a podcast for anyone who is in the middle of becoming — doing the inner work, asking the harder questions, and learning to live from the inside out.

New episodes drop every Monday.

Follow the journey: 📍 Instagram: @lisacarterbawa 📍 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisacarterbawa/ 📍 Website: www.lisacarterbawa.com

Follow me on Substack: https://soultosoulleadership.substack.com/

Enjoyed this episode? Leave a review, share it with someone who needs it, and subscribe so you never miss a Monday.

Not role to role. Soul to soul.

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When is the last time someone asked how you were doing — and you told the truth? Every high achiever has armor: the perfectionism, the people-pleasing, the relentless performance of being fine. It kept you safe once. It got you into the room. But somewhere along the way, the armor stopped being something you wore and became something you are. In this episode, Lisa traces the origin story of the strength that saved you, names what it is quietly costing you — your intimacy, your health, your joy, yourself — and asks the question no one dares to say out loud: if you stop performing, will anyone still want you here? This is not a call to tear it all down. It is a call to take it off somewhere. Just one room. Just one person. Just one honest answer to "How are you?"

Soul to Soul with Dr. Lisa Carter-Bawa is a podcast for anyone who is in the middle of becoming — doing the inner work, asking the harder questions, and learning to live from the inside out.

New episodes drop every Monday.

Follow the journey: 📍 Instagram: @lisacarterbawa 📍 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisacarterbawa/ 📍 Website: www.lisacarterbawa.com

Follow me on Substack: https://soultosoulleadership.substack.com/

Enjoyed this episode? Leave a review, share it with someone who needs it, and subscribe so you never miss a Monday.

Not role to role. Soul to soul.