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The Made Leader Podcast

Leaders: You Don’t Have to Sacrifice Yourself with Alli Murphy

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Headshot - Alli Murphy

What if everything you’ve been told about success is wrong? Podcast guest, Alli Murphy, breaks down the dangerous myth that you must sacrifice yourself to lead well—and shares exactly how to reclaim your time without sacrificing performance.

As the founder of Work & Thrive HQ and a former Managing Director who took 5+ weeks of work-free PTO while scaling 7-figure programs, Alli Murphy knows firsthand that ambition and balance aren’t mutually exclusive.

In this candid conversation, Alli shares her journey from workaholic to someone who prioritizes calm over chaos. She reveals what happened when she stopped checking her email first thing in the morning, how an internal drive can become a trap, and why leaders need to question the stories they tell themselves about what success requires.

You’ll learn practical strategies for reclaiming time, building high-performing teams that don’t rely on you being plugged in 24/7, and actually enjoying the life you’ve worked so hard to create. Alli’s approach is warm, direct, and refreshingly honest—perfect for leaders caught between proving themselves and burning out.

Whether you’re working every single day without a break or just starting to question if there’s a better way, this episode will challenge everything you thought you knew about what it takes to lead successfully.

Episode Highlights:

00:00 – The biggest lie leaders are told about success
01:00 – Alli’s path from consultant to managing director without formal leadership training
03:10 – The early signs of burnout and the two-month stretch with no days off
08:00 – Internal pressure vs. organizational pressure: what fueled Alli’s overworking
10:10 – The moment that made Alli question everything (“I think you made your wife up…”)
13:00 – Tiny experiments that helped Alli retrain her nervous system
16:10 – The scary but transformative experiment of not checking Slack first thing
18:30 – Delegation, coaching, and letting go of being the chief problem-solver
23:00 – Leadership pushback: setting boundaries and holding firm
26:40 – One-way door vs. two-way door decisions (and how leaders can apply this)
31:00 – Systems that create clarity: dashboards, structured 1:1s, and team ownership
37:30 – Advice for new leaders on building relationships and redefining their role
42:10 – Alli’s Q4 reflection prompts for ending the year with intention

Links & Resources

Guest Bio

Alli Murphy is a leadership strategist, coach, speaker, and founder of Work & Thrive HQ. Known for her warm, direct, and refreshingly practical style, she speaks to high-achieving, women leaders about how to reclaim 5-10 hours a week, build a high-performing team, and actually enjoy the lives they’ve worked so hard for.

She’s been invited to speak by organizations like Engage for Good, the American Cancer Society, Qorvo, and Oregon State University. Her audiences have included leaders from Nike, Subaru, ESPN, PayPal, and Walmart, and she’s facilitated masterminds and coached executives from Microsoft, Best Buy, Qorvo, and Susan G. Komen.

Before launching her business, Alli served as a Managing Director, scaling 7-figure programs and leading organizational transformation—all while championing a people-first culture and taking 5+ weeks of work-free PTO. Today, her talks blend real-world results with a simple but radical idea: ambition and wellbeing should work together, not compete.