Episode 46: Leah Hadley on How Leaders Can Reduce Financial Stress

Have you ever felt successful on paper, but in your mind you're financially stressed or uncertain? We're gonna talk about all of those things today. Stay tuned. Today's guest has built businesses centered around helping people navigate some of the most emotionally and financially complex moments of their lives. I'm joined by Leah Hadley, founder of Intentional Wealth Partners and Intentional Divorce Solutions. She's a financial advisor, speaker, author, podcast host, and someone who brings both analytical expertise and deep empathy to the work that she does. And what I appreciate about Leah's perspectives is that she understands financial wellness is not just about numbers. It's about helping people create clarity, confidence, and peace of mind during seasons that can feel overwhelming. But before we jump in today, I wanna say this quickly because it's important. Today's conversation is meant to provide education, perspective, and ideas around leadership and financial wellness, but nothing we discuss today should be considered personal financial investment or tax advice. Every person and every business situation is different, so if something resonates with you, make sure you're working with someone who's a qualified financial professional who understands your specific situation. All right, let's jump in. Leah, I am so glad that you're here today.

Thank you so much for having me, Chrissy. This is fantastic.

So you, also navigated some major life transitions personally. At what point did you realize those experiences could actually shape the way you lead and serve clients? Tell me about your entrepreneurial journey and then how you kind of got into that.

Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, the biggest moments of my life have really shaped everything about how I work and how I do business. You know, what really started me out on my entrepreneurial journey was when I was ready to start a family. I was working in equity research, and that job has a lot of travel requirements associated with it, at least I did back in the day. Who knows now? And just a lot of time, you know, around earnings season. Time is not your own. You're really focused on what's happening in the market all the time. And I wanted to have a family and I wanted to be present for my family. And so that's what made me shift into working with individuals and families on financial planning.

Wonderful. So both of your businesses lead with the word intentional.

Mm-hmm.

I think that's such a powerful word. What does it mean for you to be an intentional leader, to be intentional in your business instead of being reactive?

Yeah, it's really about taking the time to slow down and be thoughtful and to be strategic, right? So often we find ourselves in these situations where everything is reactive, whether it's stuff going on at home, stuff going on in the business. We just don't have a lot of time. And when we create that space to really look at where am I at and where do I want to be, that's when you get to bring that intentionality to your leadership.

Where do you think leaders tend to become reactive without realizing it?

Oh my goodness. So, so often we see it. You know, we work with a lot of business owner clients, and right now we are in tough market conditions, right? And a lot of times people don't necessarily take that space to just look at what's happening in the market, but might be looking at what's happening in their individual business and reacting to things very quickly when what actually might be happening are dynamics that may be outside of your control, may require a pivot, but require some more thought than just whatever you're responding to in the moment.

Yeah, I think a lot A lot of leaders are operating in survival mode. They don't necessarily realize how much it impacts their decision-making.

Yeah, absolutely.

So you talk a lot in, in the things that you do about balancing empathy and expertise.

Yes.

So a lot of business owners struggle with that balance. I know at times I do, 'cause they either become too emotionally involved or they become too transactional. How do you build systems and training that make empathy a consistent part of your client experience?

Well, first and foremost, I hire for it. I think empathy is something that is very hard for people to learn.

Completely agree.

And I really want people who have life experience, who understand what our clients are going through and can truly get that emotional component. The financial piece, those skills, those are trainable, those are teachable skills. And so that first and foremost is what we focus on is making sure we're hiring people who are well positioned to support our clients in that way. But we also talk about it opening— openly. We have a weekly team meeting where we're talking about what's going on with our clients, how can we best support them and acknowledge acknowledging with our peers if somebody is becoming too emotionally involved and maybe kind of crossing that line, making sure we have respect for the boundaries of the company.

Yeah. What leadership lessons come from helping people through emotionally charged situations and transitions?

Oh my goodness. So, so many leadership lessons. You know, I think one of the biggest things that really helped me, and it's funny cuz I didn't do it from a leadership perspective, but one of the trainings that I have is I'm a mediator. Um, and that mediation training is so incredibly valuable in terms of making sure that you're You're taking that step to really listen and hear what's being said instead of listening to respond, right?

Mm-hmm.

Um, and so as far as really being able to lead in those moments, it really is not always having that immediate reaction, but like, let's take a pause and really get underneath what's going on here. Yeah.

So you, you, you skipped to my next question, which I was so excited about. Let's talk about that mediation piece. So how can those small business owners, how can they apply some of those mediation techniques internally, whether it's, you know, with employees, with partners, or with vendors?

Yeah, I just literally yesterday published an article on Substack about how I think more people need mediation training. I think mediation—

agree completely—

training is so incredibly valuable. Everything from negotiating your compensation, negotiating with your employees, negotiating with your vendors, right, to managing through conflicts that come up. So it's so incredibly valuable just in terms of being able to have those skills to really understand, communicate, but also to be able to work under pressure. You know, that's a big part of the mediation training is managing through people's emotions And so part of that is really starting to be very focused on how you react to people and becoming sort of more neutral and more present in those spaces. Um, and that's so valuable for leaders.

Have you found that there's one thing that leaders do unintentionally that escalates conflict instead of resolving it?

Well, I think the most common thing that I see is that immediate reaction to whatever is on the surface. And so often I think that's something that we learn a lot through mediation training is usually whatever's on the surface isn't actually the issue that needs to be addressed. Stressed, we really need to dig deeper and find out what's going on that's creating that challenge.

Oh, I love that. So Leah, I want to pivot a little bit and kind of talk about, you know, all of the brands that you have. I mean, it's, I mean, I don't generally meet people that have more brands than I do, which is really impressive. So you lead multiple brands. You have two businesses. You have Intentional Wealth Partners. You have Intentional Divorce Solutions. And then you also have Watch Her Thrive. So how do you manage? Tell us a little bit about the businesses and then tell us how you manage those multiple businesses without burning yourself out? Because I know you sleep occasionally.

I prioritize sleep because I don't function well without good sleep. But yeah, I have a wonderful team in place. And honestly, that's been huge in terms of being able to grow the companies and to support our clients well. So Intentional Wealth Partners, we are a fee-only financial planning and wealth management firm. And so we offer flat fee financial plans. We offer portfolio management for people. Intentional Divorce Solutions, we have CDFA, Certified Divorce Financial Analysts, who help people people navigate the financial decisions that come along with divorce. We have a mediator and a divorce coach on the team as well. And then Watch Her Thrive is really a community model. We have the Empowered Sisterhood that falls under Watch Her Thrive, which is our membership program. And in all honesty, I've had to make really hard decisions in all of those spaces over the years to really recognize what fuels me and what burns me out. And for example, when I first started, I did a tremendous amount of forensic work. We did big litigated cases for the divorce business. Very, very time-consuming, very lucrative, but not where I wanted to put my energy. We really wanna focus on people who are looking for resolution, who are working together to kind of solve the puzzle of what does this next chapter look like? And so I found for me that was something I had to let go of in the business pretty early on. And that was terrifying, Chrissy, 'cause that was a big revenue driver for us, right? But I do consistently evaluate our offers, how we support our clients. Are we meeting the market where the market is, right? And how do we need to adjust? Very open to making those adjustments as necessary.

How has delegation changed as your business has grown and you've evolved as a business leader?

You know, the biggest change was just in this last year. Up until this last year, I was always the business development person. I was always out there driving the sales, doing primarily, you know, all the prospective client calls.

I hear you.

Yep. And I really made a big shift to get more of our team involved in that. And there was a little bit of resistance initially. But what we have found is that, you know, So clients love it, honestly, to really feel like they're being supported by the whole team, not just by me as an individual. And it really has allowed us to grow a lot faster than I could do on my own. Wow.

And I think, you know, so many leaders underestimate how much intentional structure protects them from burnout. You've built some pretty good structure around you. What was one of the things that was hardest for you to let go as a founder? Oh gosh, I've, I've struggled along the way letting go of everything. You know, I think— I understand.

I appreciate it. I think, you know, Knowing that there are people who can do certain jobs better than I can do them, and really owning that and embracing it and investing in it.

So, as a master analyst in financial forensics— Yes. I love that. Master analyst in financial forensics. It sounds like so cool. You're trained to look beneath the surface. So, what's one thing that small business owners should be paying closer attention to financially that often gets overlooked?

You know, a lot of times people will make a decision about how they're going to spend their resources and never look back. That should be an ongoing evaluation, right? Whether it's monthly or it's quarterly, but continuing to look at where are those leaks in the business. There may have been something at one season of the business that made a lot of sense to be investing in, but you may be in a different season now. Money still may be going out the door, right? Yeah. And we're not seeing a return on that. And so being in that constant evaluation of am I using my resources well is really important. And I don't think enough small business owners do that.

No, I would totally agree to you, with you. Where do you see people unintentionally creating that financial stress for themselves. I think sometimes we, we worry way more than we should because we, we're not necessarily prepared, but I would love to, to hear your take on it too.

Yeah, you know, one of the things that I see right now is everybody's reaching for all these new tools that are being created with AI, and there are costs associated with all of these different things. And I'm not suggesting not to try them, but I think you want to be strategic about how you look at how are you going to integrate this into your business and not just look for the next new shiny thing that may bring in money or may not, right? Like being very systematic in making those decisions.

Oh, you're so right. And especially because with some of those new tools, they're, they're subscription-based and you, you get it and then you forget that you have it. It's like, what is my token budget? So, oh, I hear you. So let's talk about some content and things that you've done with authority. You know, you consistently create content through your podcast. You've got all these other things, like you got YouTube, you got LinkedIn Lives, you do speaking events. How has that consistency compounded over time for your business? Yes.

Yeah, this has been a really beautiful thing. It's one of those things that, in all honesty, I don't know that I would have put myself out there in this way. I was very fortunate early on to be invited into spaces, and when I was invited into spaces and started to share, I got wonderful, wonderful results. People were seeing the impact that we had. We were being able to make an impact on people who couldn't even afford our services, right? Still being able to put that content out there and have the kind of impact that I want to have. And so it was something that that while it wasn't necessarily intentional to begin with, it really drew me in. And seeing those results over time, and now it's one of those things where people are looking for it, right? Now we've kind of created that exposure, and people need the support. And I don't think, you know, one of the things that really motivated me in a very meaningful way is there's a tremendous amount of bad financial advice out there, and even worse divorce advice, right? And so part of it was me feeling like, you know what, I have something really important to say, and I think it's important that this message heard, and that these loud voices that are telling people to do things that just aren't in their best interest, we have to be louder.

Yeah. So what advice would you give to those business owners who just feel absolutely intimidated by putting themselves out there publicly?

You know, I think it has to be bigger than you, right? For me, it's my mission that drives me. I never wanted to be the center of attention. That's not like my personality, right? But I know how important it is. I know how important the work that we do is. And so it's okay to just just put yourself out there and be vulnerable. Wow.

So Leah, if someone wants to connect with you on all of your different brands, I would, I would love for you to just let them know. That's the easiest way to connect.

The easiest way to connect with me is either on LinkedIn— I'm very active on LinkedIn— or on Instagram under Watch Her Thrive.

Wonderful. So as we start to wrap up, we have the same question that we ask every business owner, and that is, Leah, if someone listening today just wants to get 1% better in their business, what would you tell them to do?

You know, one of the things that I learned as an analyst was to really understand the drivers of your business, right? That really puts you in the driver's seat, allows you to feel in control. So if you're really looking to be 1% better, make sure that you really understand your numbers. What are the drivers behind those numbers? What levers can you pull when maybe life gets busy and you need to, you know, let some stuff off your plate? Or maybe you have a little bit more space, right? But knowing what those levers are, understanding them, really allows you to have that, you know, mentality of being in control instead of just feeling like, you know, it's overwhelming.

I love that. Leah, thank you for being intentional and spending some time with us today. We'll make sure that we link, um, all of your information in the show notes, and I'll be back with a summary of our talk.

Thank you so much for having me, Chrissy Myers.

Here's what I hope people take away from my conversation with Leah today. Success is not just about what your life or business looks like from the outside. A lot of people look successful on paper while they're privately carrying stress, uncertainty, burnout, and fear about the future. And what Leah reminded us of today is that real leadership, both personally and professionally, requires intentionality. Intentionality with your time, with your decisions, and with your money. And really intentionality too about the way you lead with people and the way you lead through difficult seasons. And so one of the things that I really appreciated most about Leah's perspective is that she doesn't separate seperate financial decisions from human decisions. Because behind every business challenge and transition or major life event, there are real people trying to create stability, confidence, and peace of mind. And as leaders, we spend so much time taking care of everyone else that we often avoid slowing down long enough to ask ourself this question: Am I building this intentionally, or am I just reacting to what's in front of me? So because reactive leadership eventually creates a reactive business, but intentional leadership creates healthier teams, healthier decisions, and we get healthier lives. So if something from today's conversation stood out to you, don't let it become another podcast you listened to and moved on from. I want you to pick one thing you learned and start there because small intentional decisions are what ultimately change the trajectory of both business and our lives. And if this episode encouraged you or gave you a new perspective on leadership and financial wellness, I'd love it if you would share it with another business owner who needs to hear it. And as always, keep working to get 1% better in your business every day.