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_outlineLeading 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 trying to suppress. She describes a life of striving for excellence and seeking fulfillment through accomplishments, while leaving parts of her story unacknowledged.
As she began allowing God into those places, Kisha discovered a new sense of freedom and purpose. That experience now informs her work helping women acknowledge their silent struggles, find trusted support, and show up more fully as themselves in their lives and leadership.
Kisha explains that transparency requires both courage and discernment. Sharing your story begins with identifying people and spaces where trust is present. You can be authentic while maintaining professionalism and setting thoughtful boundaries around what you share and with whom.
She also challenges the pressure leaders feel to appear as though they have everything together. As she shares, “We just need to release the pressure of being perfect and lead authentically and then build authority grounded in truth.” In her experience, appropriate vulnerability helps people relate to one another, strengthens trust, and creates a foundation for meaningful influence.
The conversation explores Kisha’s journey “from broken to spoken”—giving voice to experiences that once remained hidden. She shares how speaking honestly in supportive spaces helped her move from shame toward purpose, while offering encouragement to other women who recognized parts of their own stories in hers.
Faith is central to Kisha’s approach. Scripture, prayer, and time with God have shaped her understanding of who she is and whose she is. She encourages women to bring their fears, questions, and struggles before God and allow His truth to inform how they see themselves.
Kisha also offers practical ways to begin: identify one safe person, connect with a trusted community, and make time to sit with God. These steps create space for honesty, support, and growth without requiring you to share everything at once.
This conversation is ultimately about leading with freedom and conviction: acknowledging your story, releasing the pressure to perform perfection, and trusting that God can use your experiences to serve others.
In this episode, we get into:
Your struggles do not define your worth.
Ground your identity in who God says you are.
Transparency begins with trust.
Share honestly in safe spaces, with thoughtful boundaries.
Authenticity strengthens your leadership.
Release perfection and build influence through honesty and connection.
Kisha also shares how authentic leadership shapes workplace culture. When leaders communicate respectfully and allow themselves to be relatable, they help create an environment where others can build trust, ask for support, and contribute more confidently.
Through individual coaching, group coaching, and women’s masterminds, Kisha helps women explore how faith and transparency can move them toward a greater sense of purpose.
She closes with a reminder for the woman wondering whether her story disqualifies her from moving forward: “Your present struggle or your past struggle does not define your worth or your future.”
4word is excited to welcome Kisha to BOLDLY this October in Dallas, where she will lead “From Brokenness to Boldness: Leading Authentically in Faith and Work.”
Learn more about BOLDLY at 4wordwomen.org/boldly/.
About Kisha Smith
Kisha Smith, known as “The Transparency Coach,” brings more than two decades of corporate HR experience to her faith-based coaching and leadership work. Drawing on her personal journey of healing, she helps women acknowledge their silent struggles, embrace their authentic selves, and lead with greater confidence and conviction.
Kisha offers individual coaching, Brokenness to Boldness group coaching, and women’s masterminds that combine transparent communication, biblical principles, and trusted community.
Learn more about Kisha and her coaching at kishasmith.com.
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/