All Episodes

September 15, 2025 • 48 mins

🎙️ Episode Title: Firestarter: Igniting Women's Inner Power with Marissa Ciesluk

Episode Summary

In this episode, Marissa Ciesluk—leadership coach, keynote speaker, and founder of MWC Leadership—shares her journey of breaking free from expectations and learning to live authentically. She opens up about her shift from a career in higher education to leadership coaching, inspired by her own self-discovery and a pivotal life event involving her daughter.

Marissa recounts her transformative climb up Mount Kilimanjaro, where she discovered that success isn’t about reaching the summit but about becoming the person you’re meant to be along the way. She dives into the power of reconnecting with your inner truth, cultivating self-trust, and embracing a philosophy she calls “more without compromise.”

This conversation is a spark for any woman ready to reclaim her voice, lead unapologetically, and live in alignment with her true self. With honesty and inspiration, Marissa reminds us that nature heals, authenticity empowers, and our inner fire is waiting to be ignited.

Key Takeaways

  • Success isn’t the summit—it’s who you become on the journey.
  • Reconnecting with your inner voice is key to authentic leadership.
  • Living with self-trust and self-love creates freedom and power.
  • “More without compromise” means you don’t have to trade joy for success.
  • Embody your inner mentor—live, dress, and lead as the woman you want to be.

Related Links

Calls to Action

  • Follow Marissa on LinkedIn for insights and updates.
  • Visit her website to explore coaching, workshops, and retreats.
  • Check out Tara Mohr’s Playing Big for more on women’s leadership.
  • Start embodying your own inner mentor today.

Promotional Quotes

✨ “In this season of my life, uncaged means living authentically and intentionally and in alignment with who I am designed to be.” (01:00)

✨ “Nature heals. I had spent some time trying to get out and do some walking and being calm and being still and listening to that inner voice that I had spent so long ignoring.” (05:52)

✨ “Success is not the summit. It's not about reaching the summit of whatever metaphorical mountain you're reaching. On that mountain, I became a part of who I am today.” (10:33)

✨ “Start dressing like your inner mentor. I'm in my flow era, all about my flowy pants, my flowy shirts, my big flowy dresses. Start embodying that inner mentor.” (29:13)

Mark as Played

Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know
Dateline NBC

Dateline NBC

Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com

My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark

My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark

My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.