Being the person everyone counts on has probably helped you build a successful career in finance. But what happens when being the one who always has the answers, solves the problems, and gets things done starts taking up more and more of your time?

As my responsibilities grew during my finance career, I started to realize how much time I was spending doing work that didn't actually need me. A shift in how I thought about my role as a leader helped me start letting go of some of that work and making more time for what really needed my attention.

In this episode, I share that shift and explore why the habits that helped you succeed earlier in your career might now be holding you back.

We explore:

• Why being capable, dependable, and the person everyone counts on can make it difficult to let go of work.
• How a new perspective on leadership helped me see where I could bring the most value.
• What it means to evolve from being a doer to a teacher to an enabler.
• The difference between capability and capacity.
• Why building capacity isn't something you wait to do until your workload becomes manageable.

A question to take with you: Where are you continuing to do work because you're capable of doing it, rather than because it genuinely needs you?

Mentioned in this episode:

The Work of Leadership – Ronald Heifetz and Donald Laurie, Harvard Business Review

Connect with Allison Marie:

Explore coaching and resources on my website

Connect with me on LinkedIn

Music credit - 'Brighter Plans - 3:29 (Long Edit)' by Iros Young on #Uppbeat

Want more time for your life without sacrificing your career success?

Book a 45-minute call to talk about how you’re working, what you want work to leave room for, and what’s getting in the way. You’ll leave with a three-part plan outlining the key areas I recommend focusing on to create the changes you want. If working together feels like a fit, we’ll discuss how my coaching program could support you.

Book a call here.

“Go home soon!” is well-intentioned advice. But when you’re looking at everything still waiting to get done, it leaves a lot unanswered.

During my finance career, I had professional development opportunities, mentors, and eventually some coaching. Each helped, but I struggled to find focused support for changing how I worked - and figuring out what I wanted work to leave room for.

In this episode, I share what was missing and how that experience shaped the coaching program I created.

We explore:

• Why development goals like “relationship building” can feel vague without a clear gap and a practical plan.
• How advice that worked for a mentor might not fit your circumstances or priorities.
• Why I kept working until I was too tired to continue and what helped me define “enough” for the day.
• The value of ongoing support as you try different ways to succeed at work.

A question to take with you: Does your development plan address what would make the biggest difference to your experience of work and are you clear on what to practice?

Explore coaching and resources on my website

Connect with me on LinkedIn

Music credit: 'Brighter Plans - 3:29 (Long Edit)' by Iros Young on #Uppbeat https://uppbeat.io/c/iros-young

===

Want more time for your life without sacrificing your career success?

Book a 45-minute call to talk about how you’re working, what you want work to leave room for, and what’s getting in the way. You’ll leave with a three-part plan outlining the key areas I recommend focusing on to create the changes you want. If working together feels like a fit, we’ll discuss how my coaching program could support you.

Book a call here.

If you’ve found yourself saying "I can't keep doing this” and wondering whether you need a less demanding role - or whether you need to leave finance altogether - you’re not alone.

I spent years asking myself those questions. Returning from maternity leave and navigating illness in my family made me reassess how work fit into my life. But each time I recommitted to my career, my plan was mostly to keep pushing through.

In this episode, I share what helped me finally move from feeling like work was dictating my life to seeing how I could thrive in the role I was in.

We explore:

• How I confused visibility and constant availability with demonstrating strong performance.
• Why it’s worth examining the expectations you’ve assumed you need to meet.
• How making considered decisions, testing changes, and assessing what happened helped me trust my judgment.
• Why giving your priorities outside work real consideration can help you change how you work.

If you’re questioning how long you can continue to work like this, this episode offers a place to start exploring what could change in the role you’re in today.

A question to take with you: What about the way you’re working feels unsustainable - and which part could you explore changing right now?

Explore coaching and resources on my website

Connect with me on LinkedIn

Music credit: 'Brighter Plans - 3:29 (Long Edit)' by Iros Young on #Uppbeat https://uppbeat.io/c/iros-young

Want more time for your life without sacrificing your career success?

Book a 45-minute call to talk about how you’re working, what you want work to leave room for, and what’s getting in the way. You’ll leave with a three-part plan outlining the key areas I recommend focusing on to create the changes you want. If working together feels like a fit, we’ll discuss how my coaching program could support you.

Book a call here.

You’ve spent the day answering questions, reviewing your team’s work and dealing with your inbox. But the work you most needed to do is still waiting, and tonight or this weekend seems like the only time to finish it.

What’s filling your workday? And how much of it actually needs your involvement?

In this episode, I share two strategies that helped me work fewer evenings and weekends during my finance career: getting clear on what I was personally responsible for and deciding what deserved my time.

I talk about how I reconsidered the way I reviewed my team’s work, got honest about why I sometimes welcomed interruptions, and started making deliberate plans for important work, including deciding when it was done.

We explore:

• How to assess whether your review adds value.
• Why helping everyone else can become a way to put off your own difficult work.
• How to give important responsibilities time during your workday.
• How to recognize when another revision is worthwhile, and when the work already serves its purpose.
• How these decisions help create room for what matters outside work.

Finance will have busy stretches and unexpected demands. But understanding what else contributes to your extra hours can help you find ways to change them.

Start with one piece of work and ask: What does this actually need from me personally?

Explore coaching and resources on my website

Connect with me on LinkedIn

Music credit: 'Brighter Plans - 3:29 (Long Edit)' by Iros Young on #Uppbeat https://uppbeat.io/c/iros-young

===

Want more time for your life without sacrificing your finance career success?

In my six-month 1:1 coaching program, I help finance professionals double their free time by changing how they work and getting clear on what they want work to leave room for.

Together, we turn that vision into practical changes you can follow through on, even when work gets busy.

Book a call here.

Are you waiting to get through quarter-end, finish the budget or get your team fully staffed before making plans for the rest of your life?

When one busy stretch keeps replacing another, that can mean waiting indefinitely.

In this episode, I share how committing to three workouts a week helped me start changing my working habits - and test my assumption that work would suffer if I wasn’t always available.

Having more time and energy for your life involves both changing how you work and getting clear about what you want work to leave room for. We explore how those two things support each other, including:

• Why evenings can become your automatic backup plan for work.
• How specific personal plans help you make more deliberate decisions during the workday.
• How to test one change, compare the results with what you feared and adjust.

Your starting point: choose one thing you want to make room for next week and test one change in how you work that could support it.

Explore coaching and resources on my website

Connect with me on LinkedIn

Music credit: 'Brighter Plans - 3:29 (Long Edit)' by Iros Young on #Uppbeat https://uppbeat.io/c/iros-young

Want help finding one thing you could change?

My free workbook, Your Career Shouldn’t Cost You This Much, helps you identify one thing you could stop doing, do differently or do less often to get some of your time and energy back - without lowering your standards or losing your edge.

Get your free workbook.

Does feeling overwhelmed, tired and stressed seem like the price of having the finance career you want?

For a long time, that’s what I believed. No matter how much I prepared, how involved I was in my team’s work or how many hours I worked, I always felt like it wasn’t enough. And when I went home, work came with me – it’s all I could think about.

In this introductory episode of Your Work Is Not Your Life, I share how finding podcasts helped me question what I thought success required and start seeing different possibilities for my work and my life.

I talk about:

• The expectations that kept me overpreparing, checking email and staying involved in everything.
• Two early realizations about who I wanted to be and how I wanted to be remembered.
• How those realizations changed the way I worked.

Finance still had its demands. But I discovered that I could change how I approached them and make more room for the rest of my life.

That’s the possibility I hope this podcast opens up for you, too.

Explore coaching and resources on my website

Connect with me on LinkedIn

Intro music credit: 'Brighter Plans - 3:29 (Long Edit)' by Iros Young on #Uppbeat https://uppbeat.io/c/iros-young

Want help finding one thing you could change?

My free workbook, Your Career Shouldn’t Cost You This Much, helps you identify one thing you could stop doing, do differently or do less often to get some of your time and energy back - without lowering your standards or losing your edge.

Get your free workbook.

Is this really how it has to be to have a successful career in finance?

If you love your career in finance but don't love how much of your life it's taking up, Your Work is Not Your Life is for you.

In this short trailer, I’ll share why I created the podcast and what you can expect as we explore how to succeed in finance without sacrificing yourself or the rest of your life.

Follow the show now. The first few episodes are coming soon.

Check out my website
Connect with me on LinkedIn

Music credit: 'Brighter Plans - 3:29 (Long Edit)' by Iros Young on #Uppbeat https://uppbeat.io/c/iros-young