Powerful on Purpose is a podcast for women who are done playing small and ready to lead boldly. Each episode features candid, unscripted conversations with brilliant women using their gifts, stories, and expertise to build brands, businesses, and missions that impact the world. Expect truth, strategy, and permission to stop shrinking — without pretending, performing, or staying stuck.
Why One Woman Left Corporate America to Build a Wellness Business | Ep 84
Why does women's health research still leave so many women feeling overlooked? And what happens when doctors blame the patient instead of questioning whether the treatment is right for her body?
In this episode of Powerful on Purpose, Leslie Capps talks with Shereen Kassam, a stand-up comedian, TEDx speaker, and entrepreneur who went from working at Deloitte, Amazon, and Disney to founding wellness businesses, including Brown Body Reset.
Shereen shares how corporate burnout, workplace bullying, and unexplained health challenges changed the direction of her life.
After struggling with her own health and experiencing unexpected results from a GLP-1 weight-loss treatment, Shereen began questioning how medical research accounts for differences among populations. She shares what she discovered about gaps in research involving South Asian women and why those experiences inspired her to build a wellness brand focused on communities she believes have been overlooked.
We also get into the courage it took to leave a secure corporate career, why Shereen hired a coach just to help her quit, and how stand-up comedy became part of her journey toward living life on her own terms. There are plenty of laughs along the way, including how her parents reacted when they discovered she was a comedian.
The takeaway: You don't have to keep living by someone else's definition of success. Ask better questions, advocate for your health, and build a life that works for you.
Connect with Shereen and Brown Body Reset:https://brownbodyreset.com
Brown Body Reset is preparing for a 2027 launch. Visit the website to join the waitlist for updates, launch offers, and a free gift.
Subscribe to Powerful on Purpose for conversations with women who are challenging expectations, sharing their stories, and creating meaningful change.
This conversation shares personal experiences and perspectives, not individualized medical advice.
Chapters
00:00 Meet Shereen Kasam
01:30 When Corporate Success Isn't Enough
03:25 Choosing Family Over Your Job
05:50 Turning Workplace Stress Into Change
08:15 Building a Business Before Quitting
10:45 Leaving Corporate Life Behind
13:00 When Stress Affects Your Health
15:40 Questioning One-Size-Fits-All Healthcare
18:00 Why Brown Body Reset Exists
23:40 Advocating for Your Own Health
#powerfulonpurposepodcast #womenshealth #healthadvocacy #womenentrepreneurs #corporateburnout
11 Oct 2026
Why We Need to Stop Judging Mothers of Only Children | Chef Sofya Stearns | Ep 83
Why are mothers of only children so often judged for a deeply personal decision—or circumstance—that other people know nothing about?
Chef, author, and entrepreneur Sofya Stearns knows firsthand how assumptions about women, motherhood, infertility, family size, and career can shape the way people are treated.
In this episode of Powerful on Purpose, Sofya joins Leslie Capps to share the unexpected path that took her from pre-med and finance to creating Izabella’s Gourmet Chow, a cooking school that uses food, language, culture, music, and movement to bring people together.
Sofya also shares the personal experiences that inspired her book, The One and Only: By Fate or By Choice. After experiencing judgment about having one child, she interviewed 40 other single-child families and discovered how much can be hidden behind a family’s circumstances, from infertility and illness to adoption and other deeply personal experiences.
We talk about the assumptions we make about other people, why kindness matters when we don’t know someone’s full story, and how Sofya brings those values into her work with children, adults, and people with disabilities.
And because food is at the center of so much of Sofya’s work, we also talk about cooking as a creative and therapeutic experience—including one very pink solution for helping a picky eater become more adventurous with food.
Connect with Chef Sofya Stearns:[WEBSITE]
Find The One and Only: By Fate or By Choice:[AMAZON/BOOK LINK]
Subscribe to Powerful on Purpose for more conversations with women using their stories, expertise, and purpose to make a positive impact in the world.
Chapters
00:00 Meet Chef Sofya Stearns
02:48 One class becomes a business
05:31 From pre-med to entrepreneurship
06:30 Being judged by assumptions
08:20 Judgment after becoming a mother
09:20 Why she wrote The One and Only
11:25 Creating spaces without judgment
14:28 Cooking as connection and healing
18:14 Helping picky eaters experiment
21:48 The One and Only
22:17 Choose kindness over judgment
#powerfulonpurposepodcast #onlychild #motherhood #kindness #womenentrepreneurs
8 Oct 2026
Stop Fighting Your Brain: Build Systems That Actually Work | Ep 82
What if struggling to write your book or complete something important in your business isn’t a discipline problem?
What if the system simply doesn’t fit the way you work?
In this episode of Powerful on Purpose, Leslie Capps explores friction as useful information.
Sometimes friction tells us we’re pursuing the wrong thing. Other times, the goal is right, but the process we’re trying to force ourselves through was never designed for our brains, energy, or way of creating.
Leslie shares how talking through her ideas helped her write a book in 30 days, while another author chose to give herself a year and why neither approach is wrong. She also explains how connecting ChatGPT to her CRM eliminated at least 10 hours of administrative work each week while removing an even greater amount of mental clutter.
You’ll hear:
• Why “just start writing” doesn’t work for everyone
• How to recognize when the process, not the person, is the problem
• Why generic books and generic AI both create more noise
• How giving AI a clear job produces better results
• Why your voice, judgment, expertise, and humanity still matter
• The questions Leslie uses to identify friction and design a better system
AI should not replace the human. A writing system shouldn’t force every author into the same box. The goal is not to make humans better at serving systems. It’s to create systems that better serve humans.
If you’re experiencing friction around writing your book or somewhere in your business, reach out. Let’s have a conversation about what’s driving you nuts, what needs to happen instead, and whether AI or a different system could make the process easier.
Connect with Leslie: Leslie@lesliecapps.com (mailto:Leslie@lesliecapps.com)
Subscribe to Powerful on Purpose for conversations about writing the right book, using AI intentionally, and building systems that fit the humans using them.
CHAPTERS
00:00 When the system doesn’t fit
01:20 Friction is useful information
02:10 Different people need different systems
03:00 Finding a writing process that fits
04:10 Eliminating the administrative drain
05:10 Why generic AI falls short
06:25 Give AI a specific job
08:00 Give your book a job
09:35 Find your biggest friction points
12:10 Protect your human creativity
#PowerfulOnPurpose #NonfictionWriting #AIForBusiness
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