Excellence, Authenticity, and Family Balance with Rashida Bradley

Episode 8 - December 8, 2025

Join us for a deeply honest and inspiring conversation with Rashida Bradley, an accomplished Operational Strategist, as she shares her journey in navigating career pivots and family balance. Rashida opens up about the many challenges she faced—from balancing graduate school and a surprise pregnancy to managing the impact of grief and joy on the same day.

Rashida highlights the importance of community support and advocates passionately for vulnerability in leadership as a pathway to building deeper trust and connection. We discuss the importance of striving for excellence over the pursuit of perfection, and the freedom found in embracing authenticity in all professional spaces. This episode is packed with essential advice on prioritizing mental health, practicing self-care, and continuously fostering personal growth in life and career.

🔑 Key Takeaways for Leadership & Personal Growth
Surround yourself with a strong network.
Honest vulnerability is the key to genuine connection and building a high-trust team.
Pursue excellence, not perfection.
Authenticity in professional settings is a form of leadership.
Prioritize mental health and self-care practices for sustained personal growth and high performance.
View your career as a journey of continuous evolution.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Rashida Bradley
01:45 Career Pivots, Applying for Graduate School and Personal Growth
04:03 Balancing Family and Education
07:07 Choosing A Career AND A Family
07:37 Navigating Grief and Joy on the Same Day
11:17 Being Vulnerable and Building Community
14:33 The Importance of Helpability and Support
18:03 Mental and Physical Health Management
19:23 Pursuing Excellence Over Perfection
21:44 Navigating How to Show up Authenticity When You Feel Left Out
27:20 Charting Your Own Course in Career and Life

Guest
Rashida is a seasoned healthcare leader and operational strategist with over 15 years of experience driving financial and operational transformations for Fortune 50 companies like CVS Health. As a Lead Director supporting Health Services, she oversees financial strategy and operational execution across pharmacy benefit management. Drawing on her background in investment banking (Lehman Brothers, Citi, J.P. Morgan), Rashida brings deep expertise in financial strategy and enterprise change management to complex, regulated healthcare environments. She is an alum of Babson College and a dual Master's recipient from Cornell University (MBA & MS in Healthcare Policy).

LinkedIn:   / rashidabradley  

Host
Kelly Dwyer is an executive coach and facilitator. Through her podcast Life from Within, she opens up real conversations about personal growth, career crossroads, and the inner work of leadership. She created the show to explore the moments of courage and clarity that spark inner shifts and lead to meaningful outer progress.
In her coaching and facilitation practice, Kelly partners with thoughtful, influential leaders, including founders, C-suite executives, and rising leaders who shoulder significant responsibility and want to lead with grounded clarity and self-trust. She helps them return to what matters most, cut through the noise, and navigate inflection points with aligned conviction.
Kelly is a graduate of the University of Colorado and holds an MBA from Cornell University.
Coaching and facilitation: https://kellydwyer.co

Resources mentioned
Drive by Daniel Pink: https://www.danpink.com/books/drive/

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