Your Path to Success with Ruth Kearns Wollmann – Details, episodes & analysis

 Vicky Ferrier on Writing Herself Into Being
 - Mid-Career Reckoning, Courage, and Leading for Good

What if your mid-career reckoning became an awakening — a chance to realign your strengths, values and purpose?

In this episode, Ruth Kearns Wollmann speaks with Vicky Ferrier, Chief People and Commercial Officer at Konsileo — a commercial insurance firm with no managers. Vicky shares insights from her rich and varied career. In particular, she shares how she navigated the messy middle of her career, rediscovered what truly mattered, and began writing her way into a future she could believe in.

From self-doubt to self-authorship, from leadership principles to finding the right people, this is an honest and uplifting conversation about growth, identity, and leading for good — at work and in life.

Vicky also supports young leaders globally through her work with WYSE, a UN-affiliated leadership development charity.

Key Topics:

• Pivotal moments and mid-career questioning

• Leading without hierarchy

• Courage, humility, and imagination

• Writing as a tool for clarity and growth

🔗 Links
:

• Learn more about Ruth’s coaching work: yourpathtosuccess.ch


• Connect with Ruth on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruthkearnswollmann/

  
  


🎧 Listen now and be inspired to write your next chapter.

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Stephen (Shed) Shedletzky is an author, speaker, facilitator, and coach whose work is all about empowering leaders to cultivate trusting, purpose-driven workplaces.

His first book, Speak Up Culture, explores how and why great leaders make it “safe and worth it” to speak up—and why it matters.

In our conversation, Shed shares the formative experiences that led him to his purpose, including:
🔹 Growing up with a stutter and how it shaped his perspective
🔹 Witnessing 1,000 colleagues let go on his first day at his first job
🔹 Discovering Simon Sinek’s work on purpose, deciding he wanted to work for him—and making it happen
🔹 Taking the leap to start his own company and write his book

Along the way, we dive into all things leadership, including:
✅ What challenges can teach us—and how weaknesses can become gifts
✅ Psychological safety, speak-up culture, and servant leadership
✅ The legacy Shed hopes to leave—including his plans for his next book

Shed’s book "Speak Up Culture" is wise, practical, and a great read—I highly recommend it!

📌 Follow Shed on LinkedIn: Stephen Shedletzky
🌎 Learn more about his work at shedinspires.com

Ruth Kearns Wollmann is an ICF-accredited professional coach and leadership development facilitator with a background as a cognitive psychologist, business executive and organisational leader in corporate and non-profit organisations. She partners with established and emerging leaders as they seek to navigate their path to success from a place of strength, authenticity and purpose.

Find out more about Ruth's work with individuals and organisations at: yourpathtosuccess.ch 

To book a 30-minutes appointment with Ruth to explore working together go here: https://yourpathtosuccess.ch/book-appointment/

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Maria de la Hera has over 25 years of experience in International Marketing, Sales and General Management with 18 of those years working in the luxury sector. 

Several years ago, Maria chose to leave the corporate world and found her sweetspot as a board member. She serves on the board of advisors for several companies including Valeur Absolue perfumes and Familia Torres.

In this interview, she shares with me how she navigated her career over the past 30 years and how she made and embraced choices at each stage. Her story took us from her first move to Switzerland as a young, newly married Spanish literature graduate seeking to establish herself in the professional world, through the way she worked her way up from being an assistant to being a corporate executive, and finally to her most recent decision to leave the corporate world behind her and embrace not only a new professional adventure but also a new lifestyle.

Over the years, Maria learned a lot about making choices, preparing for the change that they would bring, and always staying true to who she is at her core. 

She calls out 3 key principles for a successful and fulfilling career:

1. Seek out mentors and learning a priority.

2. Be bold then embrace your choices.

3. Prepare yourself for the change ahead logistially and emotionally.

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Rebecca Wardell is a former New Zeland Olympic heptathlete and extreme cyclist who currently works at the International Olympic Committee in Lausanne.

Rebecca's career so far has been quite the ride, literally and metaphorically. Her story is one of pursuing her dreams and goals through passion, adventure, perseverance, and re-invention.

Rebecca has always enjoyed sport, and competing in the Olympics was a childhood dream. After leaving school she focused on athletics, but it was only in 2004, having missed out qualifying for 400m hurdles in Athens, that she chose to pick up heptathlon. She rose to the challenge and competed in the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Despite her doctor trying to convince her to retire in 2010 she insisted she wanted to give London 2012 a go, but unfortunately she tore a hamstring and couldn't qualify. 

Retiring from athletics at 34, she had to discover a new professional identity when most of her peers were already 10 years into their career. Her work led her to Switzerland to the International Olympic Committee in Lausanne where she continued to be connected into the sporting world and picked up road cycling for fun. 

It was on one of her road trips with 2 other New Zealand friends that they first started talking about cycling 20,000km home to New Zealand. And so in 2018 that Rebecca quit her job and set off for a trip that would last 385 days across 17 countries. It was a crazy, audacious goal that required courage, resilience, and a "nothing ventured, nothing gained" attitude. 

In this interview you will hear Rebecca talk about her "Long Way Home" as she calls it, including:

Why she set off in the first place

What she learned along the way and 

How it led her full circle back to Lausanne and her passion for the Olymypic movement.

You can also watch Rebecca's 39 minute documentary of her trip here:

The Long Way Home Video  

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Nadine Hack has been named a “master bridge-builder” by Harvard University and IMD business school where she was the first ever female executive in residence. 

It has been her life work to partner with governments, large corporations, and NGOs to enable them to solve some of their toughest challenges through the power of connectedness.

Nadine's company beCause Global Consulting  helps people and organizations connect with their core purpose and each other. It's sister nonprofit Global Citizens Circle convenes diverse, intergenerational, cross-sectoral dialogue to find sustainable solutions and create constructive change. Nadine is currently writing a book called "The Power of Connectedness" which has a foreword by Desmond Tutu.

During our conversation, Nadine shares how she discovered and developed her passion and purpose, some lessons she has learned throughout her extraordinary career, and what she believes are the most essential leadership qualities for the future. 

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Bethany Foresman is a Director of Analytics & Insights at Procter & Gamble.

A few years ago, Bethany was working in a team where she was well-established and respected by her business partners when she had a change of line manager. Her new boss was really good at what she did, and Bethany admired her. She both wanted to learn from her and impress her. However, her boss had a very different profile in terms of strengths, and Bethany found herself losing her confidence in her own ability to add value.

It's not unusual to fall into the trap of comparing yourself to someone who is successful, but who has a completely different strength profile from you, and then trying to be a poor version of them rather than the best version of yourself.  The question is, how can you step back from comparison, and step up to being your best self?

In this episode, Bethany tells the story of how, with coaching support, she was able to turn her situation around. She stepped back to recognise her own strengths and her unique purpose. She created practices that enabled apply her strengths positively to show up at her best and add value. She intentionally sought feedback from people she could trust, built her confidence and turned the complementary styles of her and her boss from a lose for her, into a win-win-win for her, her boss and the team.

If you'd like to find out more about how coaching can support you to show up from a place of strength, authenticity and purpose then please do contact me via my website yourpathtosuccess.ch/book-appointment

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In this short 3-min clip from the end of the previous episode Ruth summarises the interaction between change and transition and gives 3 tips for navigating uncertain times in our lives.

Listen to the full episode "Ruth Kearns Wollmann on the Inner & Outer Journeys of Change and Transition" to hear her talk to her husband Daniel about her own personal experience of navigating big life changes.

If you'd like to find out more about Ruth's work and upcoming events check out her website at yourpathtosuccess.ch

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Ruth is a Leadership Development Coach, Facilitator and Podcaster. She loves coaching established and emerging leaders to step up to new challenges in work and life from a place of strength, authenticity and purpose.

In previous roles Ruth has been a postdoctoral research psychologist, a consumer insights leader, a business executive and a pastor. Ruth's career may have had its fair share of twists and turns, but there is core thread: Her passion for understanding people and empowering them to show up more fully, stand up for what matters, and step up to make the biggest difference they can make for good.

Ruth has been through many transitions in her life, but 10 years ago she made 2 big changes within a few months: She left her corporate career to take on a pastoral role in a church, and she got married.

In this episode Ruth talks to her husband Daniel about her experience of change and transition during that part of her journey. She shares how the inner journey of transition and the outer journey of change are like a dance. Sometimes our inner journey of growth leads and initiates an outer change. Sometimes an outer change or event, like moving house or job, starting or ending a close relationship initiates an inner journey of personal transition, adaptation and ultimately growth.

At the end she summarizes 3 things we can do to help us navigate change and transition:

1. Seek Inner Clarity: Know yourself, your strengths, values, purpose and principles. These things act like an anchor and a compass to guide your choices.

2. Seek Outer Clarity: Face the reality of your current situation. Are you set up for success and growth? What needs to change for you to thrive?

3. Create your own support structure: This includes people, systems and processes that keep you healthly and productive, and provide compassionate perspective, feedback and accountability.

If you'd like to find out more about Ruth's work and upcoming events check out her website at yourpathtosuccess.ch

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Zaid is Chief Marketing Officer and Diversity and Inclusion Director at Channel 4 in the UK. He is an amazing leader, marketeer and strategist and has had a diverse career spanning both marketing and commercial roles in various industries. He is also on the board of the Advertising Standards Authority, the Creative Diversity Network, Water Aid and is a champion for Men's Health and Mental Health.

You will discover in our conversation that Zaid clearly loves what he does and has built a diverse and fulfilling career around what he enjoys, what he is good at and what he cares about. If Zaid has a secret to a fulfilling life, it is to make choices based on principles rather than on a career destination. 

Here are 3 key principles for making choices that he shares  in the interview:

1. Be happy with the choices you make: they’re your choices

2. Know yourself well enough to know what a fulfilling day at work feels like

3. Be clear on your boundaries, then be open to anything within those boundaries

If you'd like to see some of the award winning advertising from Zaid's team you can watch the Paralympics Super Human campaign here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjIP9EFbcWY

If you'd like some support in clarifying your own principles for navigating your career you can contact me and find out more about my "Reignite your Purpose" workshops on my website: yourpathtosuccess.ch

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Lorraine Smith van Lin is an International Human Rights Lawyer who is also the Founder and Executive Director of "Tallawah, Justice for Women," an NGO that empowers women leaders and survivors of conflict and gender-based violence in the Global South.

Lorraine started her legal career in Jamaica where she was born and raised. She went on to study international law, became a judge and later director of the international bar association in the Hague.  As Lorraine continued through her legal career she became increasingly frustrated with well-intentioned systems that didn’t work for victims. Her passion drove her to speak up to find solutions that work for victims. Eventually it led her to create Tallawah, Justice for Women in 2021.

In this episode Lorraine tells her story in her own words. She shares some influential moments in her life and talks about how her anger and passion led her to find her voice and empower victims to find theirs.

You can find out more about the work of Tallawah in the podcast episode published on 8 March 2022 or via the website link below:

https://tallawahjustice.com

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