Who’s Encouraging You? | A Personal Invitation to BOLDLY
Moving Forward
You spend so much time leading, serving, and encouraging others—but who’s encouraging you? In this special solo episode of Moving Forward, 4word President & CEO Melissa Harrison reflects on the importance of making room for friendship, prayer, and community. As BOLDLY approaches, she shares a personal invitation to step away from your everyday responsibilities and connect with women who understand the intersection of faith, work, and leadership. In this episode: Making room to receive encouragement when others depend on you Finding women who can pray with you, challenge you, and...
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From Striving to Trust with Sheeba Philip
Moving Forward
What if moving forward in your calling begins with releasing the pressure to make everything happen? In this episode of the Moving Forward Podcast, Melissa Harrison sits down with Sheeba Philip, founder of Impart Group, for a candid conversation about career setbacks, identity beyond achievement, and learning to build with God. With more than 25 years of executive leadership experience, Sheeba explains that her most formative seasons came through failure and disappointment. After a leadership change ended her role at JCPenney, she found herself wrestling with a deeply personal...
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From Burnout to Renewal with Dr. Ioana Popa
Moving Forward
You can love your work, believe deeply in your mission, and still find yourself depleted. Sustainable leadership requires paying attention to the person carrying that mission—and making room for renewal along the way. In this BOLDLY Breakout Spotlight episode of the Moving Forward Podcast, Melissa Harrison sits down with Dr. Ioana Popa, a physician-psychiatrist educator, executive coach, and co-founder of Team For The Soul Institute, for a conversation about burnout, daily regeneration, and discerning God’s direction for your life and work. Drawing on her professional...
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From Brokenness to Boldness with Kisha Smith
Moving Forward
Leading authentically begins with the courage to acknowledge our own stories—and trust that our struggles do not diminish our worth or our ability to make a difference. In this final episode of our BOLDLY Breakout Spotlight week on the Moving Forward Podcast, Melissa Harrison sits down with Kisha Smith, known as “The Transparency Coach,” for a candid conversation about healing, faith, vulnerability, and leading with conviction. Drawing on more than two decades of corporate HR experience and her own journey of healing, Kisha shares how God invited her to address pain she had spent years...
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Anchored to Lead Boldly with Rachael Jackson
Moving Forward
The achievements that shape our careers can also shape how we see ourselves. An unexpected change can invite us to discover a deeper foundation for our identity—and a new way to lead. In this special BOLDLY Breakout Spotlight episode of the Moving Forward Podcast, Melissa Harrison sits down with Rachael Jackson of REV, a West Point graduate and former Army Apache helicopter pilot, for a candid conversation about identity, faith, perseverance, and the power of meaningful connection. Rachael’s journey began with a praying mother and a conversation with an Army recruiter. As a strong-willed...
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Ambition, Faith, and the Courage to Grow with Ellie Nieves
Moving Forward
What if growing in your career doesn’t require choosing between ambition and humility? In this special BOLDLY Breakout Spotlight episode of the Moving Forward Podcast, Melissa Harrison sits down with Ellie Nieves, a leadership coach, public policy professional, and author of The Career Playbook for Christian Women, for a practical conversation about pursuing professional growth while remaining grounded in faith. Ellie shares that becoming a Christian didn’t make her ambition disappear. Instead, it invited her to examine what was driving it. As she explains, “He wasn’t calling me to...
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Finding Purpose Right Where You Are with Dr. Jessica Rimmer
Moving Forward
What if living with purpose doesn’t require a new job, a clearer five-year plan, or a dramatic change in circumstances? In this special BOLDLY Breakouts episode of the Moving Forward Podcast, Melissa Harrison sits down with Dr. Jessica Rimmer, CEO of Solomon Strategic Advisors and author of The Purpose Formula: How to Live Fully Alive, to explore how women can recognize and live out their God-given purpose. Jessica describes purpose as a “pilot light in the soul”—a source of energy that can help us recognize when it is time to bring our gifts to a situation. She also...
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Finding Your Way Back to Joy with Joy St. John
Moving Forward
What happens when you reach a career milestone you worked hard for—and realize you may be called to take a different path? In this special BOLDLY Breakouts episode of the Moving Forward Podcast, Melissa Harrison sits down with Joy St. John, founder of The Joyous Edge, to talk about success, calling, and the courage to slow down when the life you are living no longer feels aligned with the one you want to lead. Joy was thriving in her career at KPMG. She was on the partner path, developing leaders, advising clients, and helping grow a global community of women in risk. Yet as...
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The Courage to Lead Imperfectly with Melissa Russell
Moving Forward
What if becoming a stronger leader isn’t about getting everything right—but becoming more honest about where you need to grow? In this episode of the Moving Forward Podcast, Melissa Harrison sits down with Melissa Russell, President of charity: water, for a candid conversation about leading through failure, receiving feedback, and releasing the expectation of perfection. Melissa explains that leaders have to become comfortable with acknowledging when something hasn’t gone as planned. If perfection is the goal, every criticism or mistake can feel crippling. But when leaders...
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The Ripple Effect
Moving Forward
Three women. Three different stories. One beautiful picture of what can happen when we invest in the life of a woman. What happens when you invest in the life of one woman? The impact rarely stops with her. When a woman grows in her faith, confidence, leadership, and sense of purpose, she carries that growth with her—into her home, her workplace, her relationships, and her community. And often, she turns around and invests in someone else. That’s The Ripple Effect. In this special Giving Week episode of the Podcast, Melissa Harrison sits down with three...
info_outlineArtificial intelligence is transforming the workplace—and many professionals and organizations are quietly asking one of two questions: Am I going to lose my job? or Is my organization already behind?
In this episode of the Moving Forward Podcast, 4word President & CEO Melissa Harrison talks with Melissa Peak about how women and organizations can navigate AI transformation with wisdom, intentionality, and courage.
Melissa is the Chief Growth Officer at Servant, the Founder and CEO of The CEO Project, and a member of the 4word Advisory Board. Drawing from nearly 30 years of experience leading businesses and large-scale transformation, she explains why fear may be a natural starting point—but cannot become our staying point. In moments of uncertainty, leaders have an opportunity to bring calm, clarity, and direction.
The conversation explores the difference between experimenting with AI as a personal assistant and developing a responsible strategy that creates meaningful value across an organization. Rather than beginning with the latest tool, Melissa encourages leaders to identify the problems they need to solve, define what success looks like, assess their organization’s readiness, and establish guidelines that reflect their mission and values.
Melissa also addresses concerns that AI could diminish the human element of work. She challenges leaders to approach AI with a different goal: use technology to handle repetitive tasks so people have greater capacity for relationships, creativity, mentorship, discernment, and the meaningful connection only humans can provide.
The conversation also introduces an exciting new year-long partnership between 4word and Servant. As 4word’s AI transformation partner, Servant will help equip women at every stage of their careers to engage with AI thoughtfully, responsibly, and confidently through workshops, thought leadership, digital content, and experiences at BOLDLY and the 2027 Executive Women’s Forum.
And in the final part of the conversation, Melissa shares a personal leadership lesson that changed the way she approaches work: God did not create us to be “human doings.” He created us to be human beings. She reflects on boundaries, burnout, stewardship, and learning to trust God when the work is not finished—but the workday is.
In this episode, we get into:
Fear can be a starting point—but not a staying point.
Lead with calm and clarity through change.
Start with the problem, not the tool.
Define what you’re solving before adopting AI.
Let AI free people to do what only humans can do.
Create more capacity for human creativity, relationships, and discernment.
You’ll also hear about:
- How to assess your personal and organizational readiness for AI
- Moving from AI experimentation to an intentional business strategy
- Why organizations need clear guidelines for acceptable AI use
- The risks of telling employees to avoid AI altogether
- Identifying the right problems for AI to help solve
- Protecting human dignity and strengthening relationships at work
- Why Christians need to participate in conversations about AI
- How AI fluency can become a career accelerator
- FaithBase and its role in helping faith-driven organizations use AI
- Setting healthier boundaries as a high-achieving leader
- The new year-long partnership between Servant and 4word
About Melissa Peak
Melissa Peak is the Chief Growth Officer at Servant, the Founder and CEO of The CEO Project, and a member of the 4word Advisory Board. She brings nearly 30 years of experience leading organizations, teams, and P&Ls ranging from thousands to hundreds of millions of dollars.
Before joining Servant, Melissa served at Amazon Web Services, where she led sales and delivery for some of AWS’s largest Fortune 100 and enterprise customers. Throughout her career, she has helped organizations navigate transformation, accelerate growth, develop leaders, and align business strategy with meaningful human impact.
Melissa is passionate about equipping leaders and organizations to use technology thoughtfully while protecting human dignity, strengthening relationships, and creating opportunities for people to flourish.
Learn more about Melissa on LinkedIn
Learn more about Melissa’s work at Servant
About Servant
Servant is a management and technology consultancy that helps faith-driven organizations amplify their missions through strategy, technology, AI transformation, and digital experiences.
As 4word’s AI transformation partner, Servant will provide thought leadership, workshops, digital content, and learning opportunities designed to help women and organizations move from uncertainty and experimentation to responsible, strategic AI adoption.
Learn more about Servant and explore FaithBase AI
Follow Servant on LinkedIn and Instagram
About Melissa Harrison
Melissa Harrison is a journalist, nonprofit leader, and President & CEO of 4word. She is passionate about helping women integrate faith, leadership, and purpose in the workplace. As host of the Moving Forward Podcast, Melissa brings a storyteller’s perspective to honest conversations about work, calling, growth, and the courage to keep moving forward.
🔗 Learn more about Melissa: melissaharrison.net
Follow Melissa on LinkedIn and Instagram
About 4word
4word is a global community for Christian women in the workplace, helping women grow in their faith, thrive in their work, and become the women and leaders God created them to be.
Find out more about 4word 👉 https://4wordwomen.org/