PODCAST · business
Powrup
by Powrsuit
Nat and Kristen are on a mission to amplify your impact - think of us as your personal cheerleaders. We’ve been there and done that and are open-sourcing the career playbook. Filled with actionable insights and entertaining commentary, each episode will equip you with the confidence and skills to shape your career on your terms. Find out more at www.powrsuit.com.
Episodes
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Ep 188: How do you back yourself in meetings?
We've noticed a trend lately: Powrsuiters sharing that they want to back themselves more when under pressure. Getting the words out is the first step, but it’s the uncertain twenty seconds after, when you’re braced for someone to question you, that stops many of us speaking up at all. In this ep…
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Ep 187: Not sure what to do next in your career?
The usual advice when a job ends is to work out what you want first, then make a move. Kristen has given that advice to plenty of Powrsuit members, and in this ep of Powrup, Nat and Kristen question it. They talk about the awkward in-between stage after a redundancy, time at home with kids or...
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Ep 186: How to Disagree at Work in a Polarised World
Neutrality used to cost you nothing but now it costs reach. We start with the flashpoints doing the rounds: Ed Sheeran, Sydney Sweeney, Meghan Markle, Jacinda Ardern, return to office mandates, private school vs public school (we could go on). Then the work version, where you can't mute anyone…
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Ep 185: Why Women Can Be Harder on Other Women
Queen bee syndrome is when senior women pull the ladder up behind them. It's real, it's been studied, and the research points to structure rather than personality. We start with the Sydney Sweeney ad and the pick me girl label, then get to the thing Powrsuiters say in hushed tones on calls: one…
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Ep 184: Are People Getting Ruder?
Are people ruder now, or have the norms just shifted under our feet? Speakerphone conversations in the airport lounge, QR code ordering when you've just paid close to a hundred dollars for a couple of burgers and beers, ghosting meetings and catchups - is this the new normal? A researcher has…
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Ep 183: Are you past, present or future focused?
Your brain has a default time zone: Past, present or future. Kristen found out about it at a dinner party, went home and got AI to test her, and ran a shorter version on Nat. Someone more junior gets the promotion you wanted and it's 9pm, what are you doing?If you're past focused you work out how...
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Ep 182: Calendar management: do's and don'ts for sanity
Your calendar probably isn't a plan. It's a receipt for everything other people asked you to do. We've heard a few common ways people run a calendar. As a receipt, where it's just a record of what you're delivering for everyone else. As a watch list, where you accept everything and then triage it...
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Ep 181: How to work a room when you'd rather hide in the toilet
Networking is the thing most of us dread, so here's how to actually work a room without wanting to hide in the women’s toilet. We start with the liking gap - the research showing people walk away thinking they tanked terribly while everyone else rated them an A. Then in Powrsuit fashion, Nat and...
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Ep 180: Quiet quitting is back (in the worst economy for it)
Quiet quitting is back - and it makes no sense. Jobs are at an all time low, unemployment all time high, and yet work disengagement is off the charts? Nat and Kristen dig into why people are checking out when you'd most expect them to cling on. They cover what’s going on (poor management, burnout...
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Ep 179: Criticism disguised as feedback (and what to do)
There's a difference between feedback and criticism, and often what we get is the latter dressed up as the former. So we pull the two apart: feedback is clear, actionable and comes from someone who wants you to win, while criticism can be someone venting and making it your problem. We also dig…
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Ep 178: Dating apps are broken (so where do people go?)
Nat and Kristen get into why dating apps have got so bad - and general swipe fatigue (the same friction-removing tech logic has leaked into job hunting), and why Gen Z are heading back to real-life 'third places' like run clubs and work for dating. Then the bit that actually matters for your...
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Ep 177: Are you the drama? Victim, villain, hero at work
Nat and Kristen turned up in matching green tops to talk about the roles we all slip into when things go sideways - victim, villain and hero. Kristen owns up to being a chronic hero (that dopamine hit of solving everyone's problem, whether they asked or not), Nat cops to villain as her go-to, and...
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Ep 176: The first 90 days (and why you're allowed to not know things)
A Powrsuiter put her hand up for a stretch role, got it, then froze - terrified that asking questions would make her look stupid. Nat and Kristen unpack why that's textbook imposter phenomenon, and why the first 90 days are for diagnosing before you prescribe, not hitting the ground running (a...
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Ep 175: How to talk to sceptics (without needing to win)
Kristen got cornered at a party by a guy insisting women are outstripping men on every metric, and spent the weekend rarked up about it (now officially in the Oxford English Dictionary, by the way). So Nat and Kristen come armed with the stats they wished they'd had - like why 40 years of women...
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Ep 174: Allyship and Man Flu
Nat and Kristen dig into allyship after an event where the allies in the room got an actual rule sheet - turn up, listen, don't take up space. One of them still found a moment to stand up and announce that men get man flu, and honestly, it was a highlight. They debate what an ally even is, why...
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Ep 173: Why Your Managing Up Isn't Landing
A Powrsuiter came to us with a familiar problem: she's scheduling one-on-ones, building rapport, sending proactive updates - and her manager's response is... nothing. Not hostility, just indifference. Turns out she’s probably missing one critical angle. Nat and Kristen dig into the direct...
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Ep 172: Why No One Asks the Obvious Question
Nat and Kristen get into why the most useful question in any meeting - the basic, obvious, 'dumb' one - is almost always the one nobody asks! Turns out 70% of people are holding back in meetings, doing constant mental maths about whether it's worth it. They get into the blue collar vs white…
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Ep 171: Stop Waiting to Be Noticed
Nat and Kristen take a quiz to find out what kind of follower they actually are (Nat's a recovering chaos-agent, Kristen's an eye-roller with a popcorn habit). They get into the five followership styles - passive, alienated, survivor, conformist, effective - and why almost everyone reckons…
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Ep 170: Everyone's Flat Right Now (Not Just You)
Nat and Kristen dig into the motivation gap that's showing up everywhere right now - teams low on initiative, leaders exhausted by it, and nobody quite sure why. They cover a few reasons people are checked out (spoiler: six years of economic chaos can do that), why change fatigue is different…
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Ep 169: Your Calendar Is Not a Democracy
Nat and Kristen get into why so many of us treat a meeting invite like a court summons - accepting on autopilot, turning up unprepared, and wondering why we feel busy but not strategic. Turns out, saying yes to everything gets you a great reputation as a doer, and quietly sidelines you from the...
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Ep 168: Write Your Own Obituary (No, Really)
Nat and Kristen wrote their own obituaries - one involves a yacht, gin martinis, Michelle Obama, and a request for dramatic sobbing (guess who). The other is a manifesto. Both are surprisingly useful. This episode is about using your obituary as a filter: for your values, your career, and whether...
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Ep 167: Why You Always Put Everyone Else First
Turns out there's actual science behind why you do everything for everyone else before yourself. Nat and Kristen dig into the biology of why women are literally wired to put others first and how decades of conditioning piles on top to make self-prioritisation feels uncomfortable. They cover what...
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Ep 166: The Ick List: Workplace Edition
Nat and Kristen dive into the professional version of the dating ick - that sudden, inexplicable cringe you get from colleagues and workplace behaviour. From performative cultural awareness and name-dropping to people who swan into meetings mid-phone-call just to look busy they share their…
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Ep 165: Read The Room: The Superpower Nobody Taught Us
Nat and Kristen get into the underrated skill of reading a room - who actually holds the power (*cough* it's not always the most senior person), why where you sit says more than you think, and how to spot the silent dissenters before they tank your project offline. They cover what to watch for in...
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Ep 164: The Art of the Opener: Better Conversation Starters
Nat and Kristen tackle the lost art of starting a conversation - why we've all gotten terrible at it (thanks, Zoom), and how to stop defaulting to ‘what do you do?’ at every networking event. From the situational observation trick to the ‘gift opener’ technique, they share practical openers for...
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Ep 163: The Relationship Bank Account: Who's Draining You?
Nat and Kristen get into why so many women find themselves giving, giving, giving - and getting very little back. They break down a ‘relationship bank account’ theory (deposits, withdrawals, and who's quietly draining your savings), why being the reliable, accommodating one can seriously…
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Ep 162: (Repeat) Stop Assuming, Start Managing Up
While we recharge, we're reaching into the vault for this one - and if you've ever silently fumed about your manager, it's for you. One in two people quit because of theirs, but here's the thing: this relationship is a two-way street and there's way more you can control than you think. Nat and...
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Ep 161: (Repeat) Gravitas: The Powr Of Presence
We're taking a couple of weeks off (yes, we're actual humans!), so we're reaching into the vault for this one - and it's a goodie worth revisiting. Nat and Kristen unpack gravitas - the ancient Roman virtue that's been wildly misunderstood, especially for women. What it actually is, what it...
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Ep 160: Crisis Fatigue is Real. Here's How to Cope.
Nat and Kristen are battling sinus colds AND the state of the world - turns out both are equally congestion-inducing. From their city's dodgy sewage situation to a looming fuel crisis, a lonely Gen Z kid, and powerful men making questionable decisions, they unpack why we've all gone a bit numb to...
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Ep 159: We Need to Talk About Your Meetings
Nat and Kristen count their meetings live on air (nine for Kristen. NINE.) and dive into why your calendar has become a problem. They cover why time wasted in unproductive meetings has doubled since the pandemic, why 70% of senior execs admit meetings are inefficient but keep booking them anyway,...
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Ep 158: Why We Wait For Permission
Why are so many of us hanging around waiting for a shoulder tap, an invite, or someone to say ‘go ahead’? Nat and Kristen get into where permission-seeking comes from, why it's a learned behaviour rather than a personal failing, and what you can do about it - starting with the low-stakes stuff…
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IWD Special: Find Your Voice (And Help Others Find Theirs)
Nat and Kristen dig into why women speak up to 75% less the moment men enter the room - and no, it's not a confidence problem, but a room problem. They get into the research behind why it takes a supermajority of women on a board before they get equal airtime, and what's actually going on when...
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Ep 156: Ep Your Labels Are Limiting You
Nat and Kristen dig into the growing habit of self-diagnosing every uncomfortable feeling - from 'I'm nervous about this event' becoming 'I have social anxiety' to the ADHD label being casually dropped with zero diagnosis in sight. They're not here to dismiss real mental health struggles (big...
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Ep 155: What's Your Work Personality?
Nat and Kristen do a deep dive on personality tests - yep, including the bird one from the 90s - before diving into the Business Chemistry assessment and its four archetypes: the Pioneer (40 browser tabs open, hates admin), the Guardian (actually reads the terms and conditions), the Driver…
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Ep 154: When to Take Credit (And When to Share It)
Nat and Kristen dig into why everyone assumes the guy did more when men and women work together, even when there's zero evidence for it. From research papers where men get tenured more often to the woman who secretly engineered the Brooklyn Bridge for 11 years while her husband took credit, the...
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Ep 153: Stockdale Paradox: When Sh*t Gets Real
Heard of the Stockdale Paradox? Neither had we until two incredible expert interviewees in Powrsuit both brought it up. It’s a concept from a Vietnam POW about how to get through seriously hard times - you have to face the brutal facts of how hard things are while at the same time, believing…
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Ep 152: Preparing Quiet Talent for Leadership Roles
A senior leader asked how to support a talented woman who's quiet in meetings and doesn't look like a 'traditional' leader. We break down a simple three-step framework: the reality check (does she actually want the role?), finding her leadership style (there's more than one way to lead, thank…
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Ep 151: Ask vs Guess Culture: Why Your Hints Aren't Working
Ever hint that you're going to Hawaii hoping someone offers their private jet? That's guess culture. Ever directly ask to borrow said jet? That's ask culture. Nat and Kristen unpack why some people drop hints while others just ask outright - and why it causes so much confusion at work, at home…
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Ep 150 (Replay): How To Manage Up
Enjoy a replay of one we wish we'd heard earlier in our careers #redo One in two people quit over their manager, but here's the thing: this relationship is actually a two-way street, and there's way more you can control than you think. Most managers get about 4 hours of leadership training per...
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Ep 149: What's Your Word of the Year?
Nat and Kristen admit they've completely forgotten if they even did a word of the year last time, so this year they're making it stick. They break down why 90% of New Year's resolutions fail (know when 'quitter's day' is?), then brainstorm their 2026 words - 'patience' for playing the long game,...
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Ep 148: Highs, Lows, and Why 2025 Was a Six Out of Ten
Time to take a look back at 2025 - a year Nat calls 'three thirds' (great start, fell off a cliff, optimistic end) while Kristen just found it grindy. They talk about couch patches and perimenopause energy crashes, the weirdness of starting a business during an economic downturn, and how Kristen...
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Ep 147: The Stories Making Us Exhausted
Nat and Kristen dig into the unhelpful stories women tell themselves about busyness, value, and work - like doing 'three people's jobs' (you're not working 120 hours, sorry), wearing exhaustion like a badge of honour, or crawling towards the finish line every single year. They explore why guys…
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Ep 146: Why Women Feel Weird About Power
Nat and Kristen dig into why many of us feel uncomfortable about holding power and having ambition. We attempt to introduce the Cedar Barstow framework of power (in a very light way!) and challenge ourselves whether power means control or influence. Ultimately, we want to explore why 'I don't…
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Ep 145: FOMO Is Messing With Your Progress
Nat and Kristen dig into why we're all comparing ourselves to everyone else - and how it's keeping us stuck. They cover the amygdala's role in making you feel like a loser when someone else gets promoted, why Kristen was hunting for designer labels in op shops at age 12, and how to train your...
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Ep 144: Too Busy for Yourself? Here's Why!
Have you noticed you'll drop everything for an email but can't find 15 minutes for yourself? Nat and Kristen dig into why we're so good at meeting everyone else's urgency but terrible at our own. They cover five practical hacks to stop deprioritising yourself - from fake deadlines with actual...
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Ep 143: Stuck in Your Job? Stop Coasting and Start Moving
The job market's gone from employees calling the shots to everyone staying put because it feels too risky to move. Nat and Kristen tackle what to do when you're stuck in a role you'd rather leave but can't - from learning new skills on company time to actually grabbing lunch with people who…
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Ep 142: Strategy Isn't What You Think It Is
Nat and Kristen tackle strategic thinking - the skill everyone claims they want until they actually have to do it. They break down why we confuse 'having ideas' with solving problems, how asking 'why' five times can save you from building yet another doomed app, and why that shiny new website...
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Ep 141: The Amygdala Hijack: Why We Rage
Ever sent an email you immediately regretted or lost it with your kid over a few tiny things? Nat and Kristen dig into the science of why we go from zero to rage in six seconds flat. Turns out, it's your amygdala doing its overprotective thing. They share their own flying-off-the-handle moments...
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Ep 140: When Friendships Fade (and why that's fine)
Nat and Kristen give you permission to deliberately fade on friendships that no longer serve you. They break down the reason/season/lifetime framework - from work besties you've moved on from to uni friends who still expect wedding invites years later. Plus: how tricky is it to navigate the mums…
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Ep 139: Why Your Team Acts Like They're From Different Planets
Nat and Kristen unpack why five generations working together create such different approaches to everything - from handling restructures to work-life balance. Boomers climbed tenure ladders when single-income households worked, Gen X raised themselves, millennials were helicoptered, and Gen Z...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Nat and Kristen are on a mission to amplify your impact - think of us as your personal cheerleaders. We’ve been there and done that and are open-sourcing the career playbook. Filled with actionable insights and entertaining commentary, each episode will equip you with the confidence and skills to shape your career on your terms. Find out more at www.powrsuit.com.
HOSTED BY
Powrsuit
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Powrup have?
Powrup currently has 188 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Powrup about?
Nat and Kristen are on a mission to amplify your impact - think of us as your personal cheerleaders. We’ve been there and done that and are open-sourcing the career playbook. Filled with actionable insights and entertaining commentary, each episode will equip you with the confidence and skills to...
How often does Powrup release new episodes?
Powrup publishes regularly with 188 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to Powrup?
You can listen to Powrup on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Powrup?
Powrup is created and hosted by Powrsuit.
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