In The Business of Healthy Masculinity Redefining power through conscious self-leadership with Vanessa Pereria
Hello again,
Welcome to February 2026! I’m not sure about you, but I feel like we have gone through another 12 months just during January !! But here we are, still going …..
As always, my thanks to Anna deNardin for her graphic and artwork support to help bring these conversations even more to life.
This podcast is sponsored by Hannah Litt. The work that she does around holding safe spaces for leaders, delivering keynote talks and fireside chats, and building community spaces all has a very strong values-alignment with the ethos of this podcast Systems & Soul with Hannah Litt
I am super excited to introduce you to my next guest on the In The Business of Healthy Masculinity, Vanessa Pereria:
Vanessa Pereira is an award-winning Self-Leadership Coach & Speaker, recognized with the Bold & Unstoppable Award 2025 for her transformative work empowering women to lead from within. With 18 years of navigating the corporate environment and overcoming personal life challenges, Vanessa is an expert in self-leadership and purpose-driven transformation. She coaches women across the globe to redefine success and lead with inner confidence, decisiveness, and self-trust. Featured in Authority Magazine for her Four Foundational Pillars of Self-Leadership, she blends science, faith, and deep inner work to light a spark for women to elevate their self-worth…inside and outside the workplace. Through her coaching programs and multiple workshop trainings, Vanessa guides women to shift from doing to BEING, the modern route to conscious leadership (no fancy titles required).
Vanessa’s Contact Details:
* Stay motivated with V on: LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook
* Get started on your journey (chat with V): Schedule a free call
Email V for any questions/feedback: info@vanessarosepereira.com
Let’s dive into this weeks conversation:
You can find this whole ‘In The Business of Healthy Masculinity’ conversation on the following platforms:
* Apple
* Spotify
* YouTube
Breaking patterns
“The next generation, my generation now, is rewriting all of that. We’re not carrying those patterns again.” - Vanessa Pereira
It is especially potent that Rich Cooper spoke on last week’s episode about breaking patterns, and here we are again with Vanessa sharing some very powerful and visceral stories about her own experience of pattern-breaking.
I deeply empathise with this after breaking my own patterns around emotional suppression and the fear of asking for help some years ago, patterns handed down to me from previous generations.
What personal and organisational patterns need to be broken within your context?
Who may you be able to align with in that regard to avoid feeling lonely (as I often have)?
Please share in the comments below and let’s keep this conversation flowing, as it is so critically important, in and outside of business.
Corporate and cultural conditioning - The chicken and/or the egg?
“Throughout my entire life, I spent it living what other people said I needed to live by. And when you get into the corporate world, that just gets heightened even more. It’s not about the corporate world, but it’s about the culture and the conditioning.” - Vanessa Pereira
I empathise so much with what Vanessa speaks to RIGHT NOW within big business, and beyond. At a time where we are getting live-streamed images of all-sorts, business leaders push all of that to the side in pursuit of solely profit.
There is a huge lack of safety to speak about anything that is not linked to making profit, and through that we see global disengagement at 79%. Too often we, and I, speak about the low engagement stats, but let’s get real about the state of DIS-engagement.
So one has to ask, if our culture and conditioning rewards disengagement and compliance, what is going to tip the balance in another direction?
How do we make a dent in our individual and collective cultural conditioning?
What are you thinking, feeling, and what are your thoughts? Please let us know in the comments, your perspectives.
Consciously balancing masculine and feminine energy/traits
“You need to have a balance of both (masculine and feminine energy). So you need to be driven, of course, and take action. And at the same time, we need to have self-trusting in knowing that I don’t need to chase for anything.” - Vanessa Pereira
What comes up for you when you watch this clip/read Vanessa’s words?
For me her message mirrors the beauty and confusion of paradox. For 5-600 years under Western-led colonization, we have been conditioned to follow binary thinking (either/or), or to hang our self-worth and identity on things ‘outside’ of ourselves i.e job title, how much money we have etc, yet all the time we have had the innate ability to handle complexity, to embrace the ‘yes/and,’ to be soft AND strong.
I witness daily how damaging and even abusive so-called leaders are when operating in hyper-masculine, with zero feminine energy to balance. This often leads to silencing of voices, control, and sub-optimal performance.
What may you add, challenge, or build on this conversation? Please share your experience in the comments and expand the conversation.
You don’t have to quit your 9-5
“Entrepreneurship is not for everyone. And the nine to five, there's nothing wrong with it. We just need to shift our perspective on how we're looking at things and what we're really relying on for our worthiness.” - Vanessa Pereira
Yet again, Vanessa’s words land with me very deeply, personally.
I have been building Radicality.co.uk on the side for the past 18 months whilst still working full-time in the corporate space, and I will continue to do so.
It has taken a LOT of inner work and awareness-raising for me to realise that no matter where I work, under the current patriarchal and supremacist culture, I will always be BEing harmed, and harming others as part of interconnected harmful systems.
How do we leverage our 9-5 and/or entrepreneurial energy to have an impact is the key question, and one that Vanessa invites us into powerfully.
What are you thinking, feeling, and what is your perspective? Please add to the conversation in the comments.
Until next time
We hope that you join us in this exploration, and please do feed back and share with your networks if you are getting value.
Finally, if any of the above questions have ignited curiosity within you,I am here if you are looking for a 1-1 Thinking Partner that can be in your corner by voice note, virtually, and in-person, I have found 5 x 60 minutes calls + unlimited voice note communication to work the best.
If you are ready to embrace the journey towards healthier masculinity and the goodness that brings, at home and at work, drop me a line at garry.turner@radicality.co.uk.
Episode #17 of the podcast will be published next Mon 9th Feb 2026 with NGO-co-founder, author, and gorgeous human, John Engle.
Here is a clip to whet your appetite in advance:
I am always interested in your reflections, challenges, and anything else that piques your curiosity with these updates.
Until next time, take care and have as good a week ahead as possible,
Garry Turner
garry.turner@radicality.co.uk
+44 7928 979358
Get full access to In The Business of Healthy Masculinity at inbusinessofhealthymasculinity.substack.com/subscribe