Carry the Crown

What do you do when life is asking you to lead through your hardest season? When the weight you are carrying privately is heavier than anything you are showing publicly, and yet everyone still needs you to show up? In this episode of Mosaic Sparks, confidence coach and host Lesley George delivers one of the most honest and necessary conversations she has ever had for every woman who is leading through grief, loss, pain, or exhaustion and wondering how much longer she can keep going.

This episode is not about pretending you are okay. It is not about pushing through with a smile. It is about something far more powerful — learning to hold your humanity and your leadership at the exact same time without choosing between them. Because grief and greatness are not opposites. And the crown still fits even in your hardest seasons.

Lesley speaks directly to the woman who cries in the car before walking into the meeting. The woman who prays in the parking lot before she goes inside. The woman who is holding everything together with both hands while quietly wondering who is holding her?

You will leave this episode with:

• Why real strength is not the absence of pain but the courage to keep walking through it
• How to lead authentically through loss without losing yourself in the process
• Why asking for support is not weakness  it is your most powerful leadership decision
• 3 Quick Wins to restore yourself and keep leading with wholeness

"Grief and greatness are not opposites. You do not have to choose between feeling deeply and leading powerfully. The crown still fits especially in the hard seasons." — Lesley George | Mosaic Sparks

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Nobody told you that leadership would ask you to show up on your hardest days. Nobody warned you that the season you're caring the most would be the same season. Everyone needs you the most. But here you are, still standing, still showing up and still leading. So episode four is for you. I'm really excited about this episode. All I need you to hear is every single word. So once again, welcome back, sparklers. Welcome to Mosaic Sparks with me, Leslie George. And so let's get into our fourth episode of Leading Unapodegetically. It's not just a podcast episode, it's a conversation that I have needed to have with you for a long time. So we're talking about Queen Ramunda. I hope I'm pronouncing correctly. She's a mother, she's a queen, the matriarch and the backbone of Wakanda in Black Panther, Wakanda Forever. She faces grief that is almost impossible to articulate. She's lost her son, her king. And now she is responsible for holding together an entire nation while she's privately and completely shattered. And she does it. She stands before the United Nations in her crown. She makes the impossible decisions, holds her daughter close through her own pain. She leads all of it while carrying a weight that would destroy most people entirely. She's a woman so many of us actually are on in the inside. Not the polished, perfectly, perfectedly composed version we present to the world. But the one who carries in the car before, the one who cries in the car before walking into that meeting. The one who prays in the parking lot before she goes inside. The one who's holding everything together with both hands while quietly wondering and sincerely, desperately wondering who is holding her. They talk about the hustle, the sacrifice, and even the discipline. But nobody sits you down and tells you that you will have to lead through seasons where your personal life is quietly falling apart at the exact same time. Your professional life is demanding absolutely everything you have. Nobody tells you that the week your biggest opportunity arrives might be the same week you're going through something that has you barely breathing. Nobody tells you that the grief that you are carrying does not care about your calendar, whatever that launch date is, your clientless or your deadlines. Nobody tells you that the crown gets extremely heavy. Actually, genuinely unbearably heavy sometimes. But guess what? You keep wearing it. Why? Because people are counting on you. Because at the end of the day, the mission matters. Because something deep inside of you knows that your purpose does not pause just because your pain showed up uninvited. Queen Mother knew this. And what I need you to see in her story is not simply that she kept going, because any woman with enough willpower can keep going for a season. What I need you to see is how she kept going. Because she didn't pretend she was not in pain, she didn't perform strength, she didn't feel, she grieved fully, she raged honestly, and sat in the rawness of her loss and let it be as terrible as it actually was. And she still led. She held both things at the same time. Her humanity and her leadership, her grief and her greatness, her break-in and her showing up. And that is the thing that we've been taught completely wrong about what strength actually looks like. We've been taught that strength means not feeling, that resilience means bouncing back quickly and cleanly, that a real leader does not let the personal bleed into the professional. And so many women everywhere are walking around chronically suppressing their pain to maintain the appearance of strength. And it is costing them their health, their peace, their joy, and ultimately their effectiveness as leaders. Because real strength is not the absence of pain, real strength is feeling the full weight of what you are carrying and choosing consciously, intentionally to keep walking. It is carrying, it is crying in the car, but still going into the room with your head lifted. It is acknowledging to yourself and sometimes to the people you trust most that this season is genuinely hard and still showing up for the calling that is on your life. Sparklers, can I say one more thing that I really need you to receive? The woman, the women who lead through loss with honesty and visual grace, who allow their full humanity to be seen rather than hidden, those women give every woman watching permission to do exactly the same. Queen Mother leading while grieving did not make Wakanda weaker. It made her people feel seen and held. It said to every person around her, you do not have to be completely put together to show up and lead. You just have to keep showing up. You're not falling apart, you're being refined, and the crown, even when it feels impossibly heavy, still fits. So as we get ready to wrap up episode four, I want you to give yourself permission right now to name what you are actually carrying in the season. It's not, it's not for so it's not a social media post. And it's not to process it publicly, just privately and honestly. So write down what is heavy. You have to name it. Name the loss, name the fear, and and whatever that exhaustion. Whatever is that thing that is making you heavy? Because you can't heal what you will not acknowledge and name. And you can't lead well from a place of pain you have never given yourself permission to feel. So I want you to schedule one act of genuine restoration, not productivity designed as self-care, not a 20-minute blade break so you can perform better for everyone else. Something that actually genuinely refills your cup. Because you matter beyond what you produce. Your rest is not a reward for your hustle. Your rest is a leadership strategy. Protect it like the non-negotiable that it is. So as we come to the end of episode four, I hope you receive those words, and I hope you will do those exercises. So I want to leave with you some bragflamations. I am strong enough to carry the crown and wise enough to honor the weight of it. I lead from a place of wholeness, and healing and leading are not opposites. They happen together right here and right now. So, sparklers, don't you dear leave this episode the same woman who pressed play? You are worth more than you've been settling for. And now you know it. So go act like it. So we will see you on episode five. This is Leslie George from Mosaic Sparks.