Be the CEO of Your Life and Business Podcast

Every October, I think about letting go.

It was this week in 2019, sitting in a hotel room in Newport, Rhode Island, looking out at the water while Mike was in meetings, that I said it out loud for the first time: I can no longer stay where I am. I left my last firm that December and opened my own practice — something that was never on my vision board, never a dream of mine. I just knew I was meant for more, even when I couldn't see what "more" was.

In this episode:

The holidays don't have to wreck your health and wellness — if you have a plan.

This week, I'm picking up where last week's energy episode left off, because the biggest part of protecting your energy is protecting your health. Between Halloween, work events, holiday parties, and Thanksgiving (my favorite meal of the year — I love my mom's Thanksgiving dinner), every event from now through New Year's revolves around food. It doesn't have to derail you, but it will if you don't plan for it.

In this episode:

The crash doesn't happen in December. It happens the week the clocks fall back and nobody planned for the dark.

On November 1st, the clocks go back — and by the first week of November, it's dark before five. Every year, the same season arrives: holidays, school events, year-end deadlines, every client suddenly needing everything at once. And every year, most of us handle it the same way: push through, reset in January. This week, I'm sharing why I've learned that doesn't work — and what I'm doing instead.

In this episode:

Last week I talked about the difference between being reachable and being present. This week, with the fourth quarter almost here, I am turning that same honesty toward the year itself.

For years my instinct at this point was to keep moving, ride the momentum into the holidays, and do the real reflecting in January, when everyone else does theirs. I stopped, for one reason: by January, the fourth quarter is already gone. You cannot act on a quarter you have already lost. Reflecting after the fact only grades the year. It does not change how it...

Last week, self-defense instructor Tina Pascal gave me four words I haven't been able to shake: phone down, head up. She meant it as a safety rule. I heard it as a rule for my whole life.

A few weeks ago, I told you about our family trip to Florida — the day I stood at the locker at the water park and told everyone their phones were going in. My kids looked at me like I was out of my mind. It turned out to be one of the best decisions of the trip. Nine days later we...

I said at the start of this year that I wanted to bring more guests onto this podcast — people I think will genuinely benefit you. Tina Pascal is exactly that.

Tina teaches self-defense through Life Force Self Defense, and she came to Catina Law earlier this year to run a class for the women in my office. I brought my daughter Caylee with me. Caylee walked in cranky, arms crossed, absolutely did not want to be there. She walked out smiling. That class raised things I had never once thought about, and I have been thinking about th...

I was in my third year at New York Law School, eight blocks from the World Trade Center, on a very different path than the one I ended up walking. I was working toward securities litigation and enforcement, interning with what was then the National Association of Securities Dealers, hoping to land a job with the SEC — whose offices were inside the Trade Center itself.

The night before, a brutal commute home from the city in the rain left me in tears, and there was no way I was driving back downtown the next morning.  I was goi...

Quick recap if you're new here: last episode I told you about our nine-day trip to Florida — the first real vacation, not built around a tournament, in three and a half years — and the habits that let me actually step away from my firm.

A few days after I got back from that trip, I pulled Atomic Habits off my shelf. I read it about five years ago. This time, it hit differently — because five years ago I read it looking for a hack, and this time I read it as someone who'd actually built the habits it des...

We just got back from nine days in Florida. It was the first non-sports vacation we had taken in three and a half years.

That number stopped me cold when I said it out loud. Not that we hadn't gone anywhere — we'd been everywhere, for tournaments. But a trip that existed for no reason other than to step away? Three and a half years.

The trip got built around Christopher, who is a Chiefs fan, and a preseason game against the Bucs on August 22nd. Beach in Treasure Island. A...

This week, I am traveling enjoying time away with my family. I wanted to replay one of my most listened to episodes this year - the timing is perfect as we head into what is always a very busy season - the fall!

In this episode, I’m sharing exactly how I manage my time, energy, and stress when life gets especially busy. With sports in full swing, work demands, family logistics, meals, appointments, and everything else layered on top, this is the season where staying organized is not optional.

...

I don’t love the idea of New Year’s resolutions. By the time the ball drops, the holidays have wrung me out and the last thing I want is a list of rules for the “new me.” But September always hits differently. The kids go back. The schedule resets. The house gets quiet again at 8:15 for the first time since June. It turns out I'm not alone in that — “September is the new January” is everywhere in working-mom content right now, and there's a real reason for it: this reset actually matches our calendar.

Here's what...

Last Thursday I had a real estate closing at my old office — and I ended up sitting in a chair I sat in for eleven years, at the firm I left in 2019.

I hadn't been in that chair since December of that year. My kids were born during those years. So were the nanny disasters, the 4 a.m. workouts, and the stretch I can only describe as drowning with a career and three little kids. Sitting there again, all I wanted was five minutes with the woman who used to sit there.

In this episode, I’m talking about “separation season” — that stretch of late summer when you can slow down just enough to get intentional, sharpen your goals, and put yourself ahead before fall begins. I share how I’m using this time to focus on planning, improving my business systems, and staying consistent with personal goals instead of letting August slip by.

A big part of that strategy is AI. I walk through the ways I’m using tools like Claude, ChatGPT, and NotebookLM to support both my professional and personal life — from organizing work, comparin...

During the week after I told you about walking out of the office at four o'clock, I received a late night text from a client. And for about four seconds, I almost responded and let the whole “I need to rest” conversation from last week evaporate.

That's what this episode is about.

Last week we talked about giving yourself permission to rest. This week I want to talk about what allows you to rest: permission doesn't hold without a boundary behind it. You can decide, in your journal, in your...

A few weeks ago, I walked out of my office the day before the Fourth of July weekend and told my team to shut it down at four o’clock. And I felt guilty about it. Guilty. For leaving early on a holiday weekend after one of the most stressful stretches I’ve had in years. That guilt is exactly what this episode is about.

So many high-achieving women — women who are building businesses, raising families, managing teams, holding everything together — have been conditioned to believe that rest is something you earn. That you get to stop after yo...

You’ve heard me talk about being the CEO of your life and your business. But this week, I want to add a third title to that list: CEO of your health.

Nobody else is going to take charge of your wellness for you. Not your doctor, not the algorithm, not the supplement ad that keeps showing up in your feed. That responsibility belongs to you — and the good news is, there are more tools available right now to help you do it than ever before.

In this episode, I’m getting into all three pillar...

If you’ve been telling yourself you’ll get back to working out once things slow down — this episode is for you.

I started working out at 16. I was a gym person for years — the kind who would work a 10-hour day and head straight to the gym for two hours. Then I had kids. Then I couldn’t run anymore. Then perimenopause hit and nothing I was doing was working. Every single one of those transitions felt like failure in the moment. None of them were.

In this episode, I’m sharing the...

There’s a particular kind of discomfort that high-achieving women know well — the feeling that you’ve outgrown who you’ve been, but you haven’t quite stepped into who you’re becoming. You’re not burned out exactly. You’re not failing. But something feels off, like you’re wearing a version of yourself that no longer quite fits. That’s an identity shift — and it’s one of the most disorienting, undertalked experiences in a woman’s professional and personal life.

In this episode, we’re going deep on two of the big conversations in personal development right n...

We are six months into 2026 — and if you set goals in January, now is exactly the right time to look at them honestly.

In this episode, I’m walking you through my own mid-year review, both personally and professionally. I share how my fitness focus shifted from low-impact work to strength training, why I revised my firm’s income goal for this year, and why I stopped stressing about the timeline for stepping out of the day-to-day legal work. None of it is failure. All of it is recalibration.

I also...

Summer break is here. The kids are home. And you're supposed to suddenly become a full-time mom while working, running a business, managing a team, and keeping it all together. Except that's impossible.

In this episode, I talk about the mindset shift you actually need: You're not choosing between being a present mother and being a CEO. You're learning to be both—but not at full capacity for either one.

I cover the guilt that shows up when your kids are home and you're working, the boundary-setting that actually works, and the reframe that changes ev...

After months of chaos and compromise, spring sports season is winding down—and it's time to take stock. In this episode, I'm sharing exactly what I'm changing as I come out of one of the most stressful seasons I've had in years.

We talk about the modifications I'm making: protecting my sleep, shifting from outsourcing meals to cooking as a family again, adjusting my workout routine to include more strength training, and learning to listen to my body instead of pushing through.

But here's the bigger lesson: these changes aren't about perfection or going back to...

You are not stuck because you do not know what to do next. You are stuck because you are carrying too much.

In this episode, I am going one level deeper than last week's conversation about the gap between knowing and doing. Because for most high-achieving women, the real reason we feel paralyzed is not a lack of clarity — it is that we have spent years confusing capability with obligation.

I am sharing the Three-Bucket Audit I now use to decide where my energy actually belongs and the uncomfortable truth about why we keep carrying th...

You are not stuck because you do not know what to do next. You are stuck because you are carrying too much.

In this episode, I am going one level deeper than last week's conversation about the gap between knowing and doing. Because for most high-achieving women, the real reason we feel paralyzed is not a lack of clarity — it is that we have spent years confusing capability with obligation.

I am sharing the Three-Bucket Audit I now use to decide where my energy actually belongs and the uncomfortable truth about why we keep carrying th...

You've done the work. You've gotten clear on what you actually want. So why aren't you moving?

In this episode, I am digging into the real reason high-achieving women stay stuck between knowing and doing — and it's not fear of failure. It's something more uncomfortable, more nuanced, and honestly more worth talking about.

This is the conversation that follows last week's episode on redefining success. Because clarity is not the finish line. It's the starting line.

In this episode:

• Why the gap between knowingand doing is where most women live

•...

You’re hitting the goals.Crossing things off the list. Getting the promotion, the house, the milestones.And somewhere underneath it all is a quiet voice asking, “Is this it?”

If you’ve felt that — and beenafraid to say it out loud — this episode is for you.

This week, I’m getting honest about something most of us don’t talk about: the gap between what we’re chasing and what we actually want. We’ve been handed a definition of success that was built by someone else, for someone else, and we’ve been killing ourselves to r...

You've tried the planners. The 5 a.m. routines, the gratitude journals, the "just say no" advice. And you're still exhausted.

In my experience, burnout isn't a willpower problem. It's a nervous system problem. And until you understand the difference, you'll keep blaming yourself for something your body has been trying to tell you all along.

In this episode, I'm breaking down what's actually happening inside your body when you snap at your kids over a spilled cup, cry in your car at school pickup, or lie awake at 2 a.m. with your heart pounding for...

When my kids were little and I was building my career, I genuinely believed there would be a finish line — a moment when the chaos would settle and I'd finally feel like I had it all figured out. Spoiler: that moment doesn't exist. It just looks different.

In this episode, I'm sharing what it really looked like to raise young children while running full speed in my career — the guilt, the logistics, the moments I'm proud of, and the ones I'd handle differently now. But more than that, I'm talking about what I've learned on the other side...

Spring sports season is in full swing, and if you're a busy parent, professional, or both — you know exactly what that means. Weekends away, packed schedules, and a constant pull between staying on track and surviving the chaos.

In this episode, I'm sharing exactly how I plan ahead to protect my health and wellness routine when I'm away from home. From color-coded calendars and front-loaded workouts to packing my Shaklee Life Shake in Ziploc bags and pairing it with my Blendjet, I walk you through the small, intentional choices that keep me feeling my best — even when I'm...

You would never stand up a client. You would never miss a court date. You would never tell the people in your life you were going to show up and then just… not.

But you do it to yourself all the time. And you've probably stopped noticing.

In this episode, we're going deep on one of the most overlooked skills of personal leadership: keeping promises to yourself. Because self-trust isn't a personality trait — it's a practice. And every time you break your own word, your nervous system is keeping score.

We'll cover:

In this episode, Laura talks about the truth that's easy to avoid when you say you want more: your next level requires a different version of you. Better results in your life, business, health, and relationships do not come from wanting more. They come from thinking differently, leading differently, and raising your standards.

Laura shares why growth is not just about doing more, but about becoming more disciplined, focused, honest, and intentional. Laura also shares about the uncomfortable part of growth: the habits, excuses, and patterns that cannot come with you into your next season.

...

In this episode, I’m sharing exactly how I manage my time, energy, and stress when life gets especially busy. With spring sports in full swing, work demands, family logistics, meals, appointments, and everything else layered on top, this is the season where staying organized is not optional.

I talk about the systems that help me hold everything together, from syncing calendars and color coding schedules to planning meals, protecting my morning routine, and using AI to help me see my week more clearly. I also share why managing my calendar is one of the most effective wa...

In this episode of Be the CEO of Your Life and Business, I’m talking about something that matters just as much as setting goals: deciding what you are no longer willing to carry.

As we head into Q2, it is easy to focus on what to add next: more goals, more habits, more strategies, more output. But real growth is not always about addition. Sometimes it is about subtraction.

In this episode, I share the questions I’m asking myself as I move into the next quarter, both in business and in life. I talk...

In this episode, I’m sharing my first-quarter review process and why it’s one of the most important things I do every year, both personally and professionally.

I walk through how I use my vision board, quarterly goals, and regular check-ins to see what’s working, what needs to change, and where I need to make adjustments going into the next quarter. From personal wins like finally trying a Pilates class, prioritizing recovery, and delegating more at home, to business growth like opening our Westchester office and reviewing firm performance, this episode is a real-time look at how...

In this honest and inspiring conversation, Laura reflects on the importance of investing in yourself—whether you’re a busy mom, a working professional, or both. She opens up about hiring an executive business coach and how the first six months of work focused on clearing personal obstacles before shifting to strategic business planning. Laura traces her journey from early days of home workouts on DVDs and small personal-development courses to larger investments like coaches, professional marketing support and meal-prep services. She explains how prioritizing time—rather than just money—has been critical at every stage. Tune in to learn wh...

In this episode, I’m diving into one of my favorite topics right now: how I’m actually using AI in my everyday life and in my work as an attorney and business owner.

Like many professionals, I used to feel like there simply weren’t enough hours in the day to manage everything—running a law firm, serving clients, creating content, staying healthy, and keeping up with family life. Over the past year, AI has become an incredibly powerful tool that helps me organize my thinking, improve productivity, and operate more effectively.

<...

February was one of the most stressful months I’ve had in years.

Two trials scheduled.

One jury trial that didn’t settle.

Weeks of preparation.

Long days in court.

And the mental weight that comes with knowing the outcome is no longer in your hands.

In this episode, I’m breaking down exactly how I managed the stress — not theoretically, but in real time.

This wasn’t about pretending it wasn’t hard. There were moments I fe...

You don’t need more confidence to make bold moves.

You need a higher tolerance for discomfort.

In this episode, I break down why waiting to feel ready keeps people stuck—and what actually separates those who grow from those who hesitate. We talk about emotional regulation, faith in uncertain seasons, and why protecting your health and foundation directly impacts your ability to expand.

Confidence isn’t the starting point. It’s the result.

If you’ve been waiting to feel more certain before taking action, this episode will challenge you in the rig...

In this episode of Be the CEO of Your Life and Business, I sit down with Melissa Garcia — nationally recognized stylist, fashion expert, and former attorney.

Melissa practiced law for ten years before making the courageous decision to leave the profession and build a career in fashion and media. Today, she’s a regular contributor on The Today Show, all while raising three children and building her business from right here in Rockland County.

We talk about what it really means to pivot when a career no longer fits, how faith and courage guide major life...

In this episode of Be the CEO of Your Life and Business, I break down a simple but uncomfortable truth: I have been dramatically underestimating how much time I actually have each week. And you might be, too.

We all get the same 168 hours. Yet so many of us operate from a constant state of “I don’t have time.” In this episode, I walk through how to realistically look at your week, account for sleep, work, and obligations—and then confront what’s left.

This isn’t about hustle or doing more. It’s about changing...

In today’s episode, I share how I’m actively adjusting my routines to meet the realities of a changing season—personally and professionally—without abandoning what matters most.

As life evolves, routines can’t stay static. I talk through the intentional changes I’m making and how I protect my health and wellness as the foundation that everything else is built on.

This episode isn’t about starting over or doing more. It’s about refining, adapting, and staying grounded—so your routines support your life instead of competing with it...