#201- Leading With Heart Without Giving Your Power Away | Dr. Karen Weaver & Adrea Peters

Leading with heart is not leading soft. Dr. Karen Weaver and Adrea Peters, co-authors of Heart Frequency, make the case that the answers we keep searching for outside ourselves are already inside, and that reaching outward for them is a quiet way of handing over our own power.

Karen is a writer and publisher in Australia and a mother of six. Adrea lives in Vermont and leads large-scale healthcare technology projects. One lives in flow, the other in checklists, and their book is built on that difference.

We talk about why so many people retreat right before the breakthrough, why Adrea says feelings come before thoughts, and what she does when someone on her team starts picking apart the plan. Her answer surprised me: she welcomes it, because it usually means that person does not feel heard.

I also share more than I planned to about turning forty, finishing the list, and realizing I did not know where to look for myself.

If you lead well and still feel the weight of it, start with the leadership conversation at 52:08.

In this conversation

  • Why two opposite temperaments wrote one book
  • Story structure as a map for a life, and why we avoid the messy middle
  • Micro, meso and macro: self-awareness, relationships, and belonging
  • Why we look outside ourselves when it gets uncomfortable inside
  • Struggle, breakthrough, and breaking wide open
  • Feelings before thoughts, and what to do when a meeting triggers you
  • Leading with heart in a high-stress industry
  • Whether it gets mistaken for softness, and why "because I said so" no longer works

About the guests

Dr. Karen Weaver is a writer and publisher based in Australia who has been writing and publishing books since 2010. Adrea Peters is a writer, speaker, and teacher based in Vermont who leads large projects in healthcare information technology. Heart Frequency: The Science of Using Your Internal Guidance System to Create an Extraordinary Life (Muse Oracle Press) publishes 7 November 2026, with a launch in New York.

Connect with Karen and Adrea

  • Book, events and contact: https://heartfrequency.com

Connect with Ryan Watts

  • The Personal Success Podcast: https://thepersonalsuccesspodcast.com
  • Ryan Watts Coaching: https://www.ryanwattscoaching.com
  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanwattsmba