From a Woman to a Leader

Hosted by Limor Bergman Gross

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Jun 2026

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From a Woman to a Leader helps women in tech grow into confident, strategic leaders. Hosted by former Director of Engineering and executive coach Limor Bergman Gross, this show explores promotions, executive presence, visibility, influence, decision-making, and navigating bias in male-dominated environments. Through honest conversations with senior women in technology, you’ll gain practical strategies and mindset shifts to step into leadership with clarity, authority, and impact.

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June 16, 2026Episode 9239 min

The Power of Not Knowing | Merav Yanai, Founder of Leap

Merav Yanai spent 30 years watching companies fail their managers, and she finally did something about it.She's an HR executive who moved to operations after an acquisition, led a major merger across US and Israeli teams, then left corporate to found Leap, an AI tool that gives mid-level managers the real-time thinking partner most of them never get: private, in the flow of work, available when the actual problem shows up.In this episode, Merav and I go deep on career transitions, the psychology of leading out of your depth, and what the AI revolution is really demanding from managers right now.You'll hear:Why Merav walked into her operations team in week one and named the elephant in the room out loud — and what happened nextThe "power of not knowing" mindset she uses every time she steps into unfamiliar territoryWhat nobody warns you about when you make a career move: you lose your identity, your authority, and your confidence, and you have to rebuild all threeWhy 70% of managers still learn by trial and error — and what Merav built to change thatHow Robin (Leap's AI agent) works differently from ChatGPT, Gemini, or any general-purpose LLMThe question Robin asked her, which she couldn't answer at first, was: "How would you change your behavior to get a different result?"Early results: 12% faster decision-making, 30% improvement in strategic thinkingWhether AI will make coaching and mentoring redundant (short answer: no, but the role shifts)Guest: Merav Yanai, founder of Leap (myleap.ai), former VP HR and Operations executiveConnect with Merav: https://www.linkedin.com/in/merav-yanai/Connect with Limor:LinkedIn: Limor Bergman GrossCoaching: https://limorbergman.com/coaching/Newsletter/Substack: https://limorbergman.substack.com/From a Woman to a Leader drops every Wednesday. Subscribe wherever you listen.

June 9, 2026Episode 9131 min

You're Not Starting From Zero: a conversation about Change Careers | Or Harel

You've built something you're good at. You've put in the years. And now, part of you wants to do something new, but another part whispers, "If I leave, I'm starting from zero." I'll be no one.My guest this week, Or Harel, knows that feeling, and she walked through it anyway. After 13 years in the military, including a role no woman had held before her, she left at 31 to start over. Since then, she's co-founded two startups and built a career in product, marketing, and research, all from skills she almost didn't recognize as skills.This conversation is for any woman standing on the edge of a big change and wondering whether her experience will actually count on the other side.In this episode:Why "I'm starting from zero" is usually a story, not a fact, and how to spot the experience you're discountingHow to take an honest inventory of your skills without over-selling or tearing yourself downWhy the art of asking the right questions might be the most transferable skill you haveWhat really holds women back from making a change, and the kind of support that gets you through itAbout Or Harel: Or Harel is a researcher and product and marketing specialist who spent 13 years in military intelligence before moving into tech and entrepreneurship. She's co-founded two startups and is passionate about helping women see that the experience they already carry is worth far more than they think.Connect with Or: https://www.linkedin.com/in/or-harel-281182196/The NGO Or volunteers with (supporting women leaving the military): https://asur.co.il/en/home/Listen, and if you've ever told yourself it's too late to begin a new chapter, this one's for you.Connect with Limor:Podcast: https://limorbergman.com/podcast/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/limorbergman/Substack: https://limorbergman.substack.com

June 4, 2026Episode 9024 min

The Introvert's Networking Playbook | Solo episode

You walk into a conference. You don't know anyone. Everyone seems to already be in clusters: laughing, exchanging cards, working the room. And you're standing at the edge of it, wondering what's wrong with you.For most of my career, that's how I felt.In this solo follow-up to my conversation with Naama Nicotra, CEO of NakedPak, I'm naming the playbook Naama was running without calling it one, and the one I had to figure out for myself before I called myself a coach.Spoiler: it's three moves. One drink. One person. One question.In this episode:The first big conference I ever went to (Java One 2001), and why I was terrified to walk into a single session aloneWhy "just put yourself out there" is the wrong instruction for introverts, and what actually worksThe 1-on-1 superpower (and the paid speaking gig I got because of it)What I told a client this week, who's scared her team will leave because she's not chatty enoughWhy people actually leave their managers , and it has nothing to do with whether you're their best buddyIf you've ever stood at the edge of a room thinking something was wrong with you, this episode is for you.Connect with Limor:Website: https://limorbergman.comPodcast: https://limorbergman.com/podcast/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/limorbergman/Substack: https://limorbergman.substack.comFor anyone searching: networking for introverts, introvert leadership, women in tech, female leaders, how introverts make connections, conference networking tips, quiet leaders, team retention, introverted managers.

June 2, 2026Episode 8943 min

Pitch Without a Slide Deck, and Walk Into Any Room | Naama Nicotra, Naked Pak

Naama Nicotra is back for round two. The founder and CEO of NakedPak, the first brand making microplastic-free meals with edible, hot-water-soluble packaging, sat down with me again to talk about the things we didn't get to last time. She told me about the moment she watched two men at an event bond instantly and what it revealed about why women in tech don't form those same bonds. She walked me through how she approaches a room where she knows no one, and she gave away her real pitching playbook, the one where she throws out the slide deck and asks the investor to talk first.In this episode, we cover:Why the bonds women in tech build with each other are our real unfair advantage, and why we don't lean on them enoughHow to walk into a room of strangers and actually start talking (Naama's two best stories)The three pitch versions every founder should have, and how to know which one to useWhy she stopped showing the deck in the meeting, and what happened to her conversion rateThe fundraising advice she would give her past self: don't start raising when you need the moneyAbout Naama:Naama Nicotra is the founder and CEO of NakedPak, the first brand to create edible, hot-water-soluble food packaging that leaves no plastic, no waste, and no chemicals behind. She studied industrial design and served as the first training officer in a new IDF commando brigade. Her perspective on fundraising, pitching, and showing up in rooms where you don't belong yet is the most practical playbook I've heard from an early-stage founder.Connect with Naama:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/naama-nicotra-1b9232174/NakedPak: https://www.nakedpak.com/Connect with Limor:Website: https://limorbergman.comPodcast: https://limorbergman.com/podcast/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/limorbergman/Substack: https://limorbergman.substack.comFor anyone searching: how to pitch investors without a deck, fundraising advice for first-time founders, networking for introverted founders, women in tech, female founders, how to handle rejection from VCs, and when to start fundraising.

May 28, 2026Episode 8810 min

Success Is the Journey, Not the Outcome (My Take on Failure and Rejection)

You look at the people you admire, and you see the finished version. The company, the title, the stage, the applause. You almost never see the years of failure and rejection it took to get there. And quietly, you start measuring yourself against their outcome instead of your own journey.In this solo episode, I share my honest take on my conversation this week with founder Naama Nicotra and what it stirred up for me about success, failure, and rejection. I talk about why I told Naama she is already successful even though she does not feel it yet, what I tell my own kids when they fail a test, the rejection folder that stuck with me, and the five to ten rejections that sit behind every talk I give.This is the companion to my conversation with Naama Nicotra. And stay close, because next week I have a second episode with her, and there is a slightly embarrassing reason there are two.Connect with Limor:Website: https://limorbergman.comPodcast: https://limorbergman.com/podcast/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/limorbergman/Substack: https://limorbergman.substack.comFor anyone searching: what success really means, how to handle rejection, redefining success, failure as part of growth, women in tech, and becoming a speaker.

May 26, 2026Episode 8738 min

You Don't Need a Technical Background to Build Something | Naama Nicotra, NakedPak

You look around at the founders, and at the people who keep getting ahead, and they all seem to have the technical background you don't. The right unit in the army, the right degree, and a keyboard in their hand since they were kids. So somewhere along the way, you decided that building your own thing, or going after the bigger role, isn't really for someone like you.Naama Nicotra is living proof that the story isn't true. She studied industrial design, served as the first training officer in a brand new commando brigade, and never wrote a single line of code. Today, she's the founder and CEO of NakedPak, creating food packaging you can actually cook and eat, with no plastic and no waste.In this conversation, we talk about what courage really looks like when there is no single brave moment, why success is the small wins you let yourself celebrate, and how she keeps going after every rejection instead of crawling under the blanket.In this episode:Why courage is rarely one big moment, and what it actually looks like up closeHow to keep moving after rejection (Naama's "rejection folder" will stay with you)What success really means before you've launched, raised, or "made it."Why people genuinely want to help you, and how to ask so they say yesAbout Naama:Naama Nicotra is the founder and CEO of NakedPak, the first brand creating edible, hot water-soluble food packaging that leaves no plastic, no waste, and no chemicals behind. She came to entrepreneurship not from a tech unit or a coding bootcamp, but from industrial design and from building things from scratch, including as the first training officer in a new IDF commando brigade. Her perspective is a reminder that there is more than one way into this world.Connect with Naama:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/naama-nicotra-1b9232174/NakedPak: http://www.nakedpak.com/Connect with Limor:Website: https://limorbergman.comPodcast: https://limorbergman.com/podcast/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/limorbergman/Substack: https://limorbergman.substack.comFor anyone searching: starting a business without a technical background, how to find the courage to start, dealing with rejection as a founder, what success means for an early-stage entrepreneur, women in tech, and female founders.

May 19, 2026Episode 8629 min

Made for More: When the Career You Built Stops Fitting, with Rachel Spekman

You did everything right. You built the career, earned the title, took the speaking slot, and finally had the baby. From the outside, you reached the pinnacle. From the inside, something is empty, and you can't name it.In this episode, I sit down with Rachel Spekman, founder of Made for More Coaching, a licensed therapist, and a former senior director in tech startups. Rachel spent a decade in entrepreneurship and tech, walked through a three-year fertility journey, and came back from her first parental leave to a realization she didn't expect: the career she had built no longer fit. She tells the story of the international flight, the Disney movie, and the cry that started the pivot — and then she shares the practical, non-impulsive way she now helps other high performers redesign their careers without blowing up their lives.What you'll take from this conversation:The 0-to-100 happiness question Rachel asks every client (and why most arrive at 30%)Why "I'll just push through" stops working and shows up as insomnia, anxiety, and burnout insteadThe identity work nobody warns you about when you've outgrown a career you used to loveRachel's three C's — community, contribution, challenge — and how to use them to diagnose what's actually missingWhy the answer is rarely "quit tomorrow" and almost always "leave with a plan"A practical exercise for figuring out what to do next, starting with your childhood self and the dinner party conversations you're drawn to right nowIf you've ever looked successful on paper and felt empty inside, if you've ever wondered whether you're allowed to want something different, if you've ever felt stuck and didn't know how to start moving, this conversation is for you.About Rachel SpekmanRachel is the founder of Made for More Coaching, a career strategy firm that helps high-performing professionals trade high-paid, soul-sucking careers for work that is deeply aligned. She brings ten years of experience supporting startup founders together with five years as a licensed therapist, blending market strategy with the mental health work most career coaches skip. Rachel is an LICSW and MBA based in Boston.Connect with Rachel:Website: https://www.madeformorecoach.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachelspekman/Connect with Limor:Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://limorbergman.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Podcast: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://limorbergman.com/podcast/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/limorbergman/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Substack: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://limorbergman.substack.com⁠

May 14, 2026Episode 8514 min

By Default or By Design: My Personal Take on Personal Branding (Solo)

You're at a dinner party with people you've known for a year. They didn't know what you did for a living. When they find out, one of them looks at you and says: "Wow. I didn't know you were so successful."You should feel proud. Instead, you feel something else. Irritation. And it takes you a while to understand why.This is a solo episode, my personal take on the conversation I had this week with Chen Guter, CMO at Dig. We talked about personal branding for women who hate self-promotion. Chen said something I have not been able to stop thinking about: "Inside the company, everyone knew who Chen Guter is. Outside the company, I didn't have a name. I was Chen from P&G."When I heard that, I thought about the dinner party. Because what Chen named and what I felt that night is the same problem in two different uniforms. She was Chen from P&G. I was Limor the director. For her, the company name was the brand. For me, the title was the brand. And neither of us had designed any of it.If you're an engineering manager, a director, or someone in tech leadership who has been at the same company for years, this is the conversation you need to have with yourself before you try to take the next step.What you'll take from this episode:Why engineers have the same personal branding problem as marketers, even though it looks completely differentThe exact moment I realized my title was my entire brand, and why that matteredWhere Chen pushed back on my advice during the episode, and what I'd actually say to a coaching client todayThe three questions I use with every client to start designing a personal brand on purposeThe four-year wait I had to break before I started this podcast, and the one sentence from a friend that ended itAbout me:I'm Limor Bergman, an executive coach for women in engineering leadership. I help managers, senior engineering managers, and directors progress in their careers without losing themselves in the process. If listening to this episode you're thinking you want help with this work, book a promotion strategy call: https://limorbergman.com/coaching/Connect with Limor:LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/limorbergmanSubstack: limorbergman.substack.com

May 12, 2026Episode 8430 min

By Default or By Design: The Truth About Your Personal Brand with Chen Guter

You're great at your job. You've built skills, taken on hard projects, and delivered results year after year. But somewhere along the way, you started noticing that the people getting the bigger opportunities, the speaking slots, the calls from headhunters, are not always the ones doing the best work. They're the ones who are visible.In this episode, I sit down with Chen Guter, CMO at Dig, on a topic she has spent years working through herself: the painful, awkward, deeply uncomfortable journey of building a personal brand when you were trained to let your work speak for itself.Chen spent a decade at Procter & Gamble shaping brands like Pampers, Fairy, Always, Tide, and Pantene. Inside the company everyone knew her value. Outside the company, she had no name. And the moment she tried to leave in 2018, she walked into an identity crisis she now sees in almost every woman she coaches on personal branding.What you'll take from this conversation:Why "I'll just do great work and let it speak for me" is the most dangerous career strategy women in tech keep falling forThe reframe that changed how Chen thinks about visibility: your brand is being built right now, the only question is whether you're the one designing itFour specific questions Chen uses with leaders to define their brand without it feeling like self-promotionWhy marketers, of all people, are often the worst at this (and what that tells the rest of us)What to actually put in your LinkedIn headline if you want the right opportunities to find youIf you've ever felt invisible at work despite doing the work, if you've ever opened LinkedIn to write something and closed it ten minutes later, if you've ever realized your reputation lives only inside your current employer's walls, this episode is for you.About Chen GuterChen is CMO at Dig, where she helps brands decode what is actually happening in social video and respond with evidence rather than guesswork. She spent a decade at Procter & Gamble, then led marketing at Lusha and AppsFlyer before moving into her current role. She's a public speaker, G CMO mentor, and coach on personal branding for leaders who want to shape their story with intent rather than by default.Connect with Chen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chenguter/Connect with Limor:Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://limorbergman.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Podcast: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://limorbergman.com/podcast/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/limorbergman/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Substack: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://limorbergman.substack.com⁠

May 5, 2026Episode 8329 min

From the Fitness Industry to Tech Sales: How Emily Jackson Pivoted Without a Tech Background

You've been quietly wondering whether you're cut out for the role you actually want. Maybe you've told yourself you're not technical enough to work in tech. Or that you're not aggressive enough to be in sales. Or that you're not the right "type" for the leadership role you keep watching other people get. So you've stayed where you are, even though you can't see a path forward from here.In this episode, I'm sitting down with Emily Jackson, a Senior Channel and Inside Sales Manager at an RFID technology company who built her tech sales career after starting out in the fitness industry, with no technical background and a self-described introverted personality. We talk about how she figured out what she was actually good at, why women in male-dominant fields keep counting themselves out, and what it really takes to make a pivot when nobody is handing you permission.What we talk about:Why "I'm not a technical person" is one of the most common reasons women keep themselves out of tech, and why it's almost never trueHow to do an honest self-assessment of your skills when your current job isn't showing you what you're capable ofWhy is an outside perspective from your network more accurate than your own self-evaluationThe introvert-in-sales myth, and why women already do relationship management every single day of their livesHow to compare your skills against a job description from a different industry and find more overlap than you expectThe exact way to break into tech when you've never worked in techAbout Emily:Emily Jackson is a Senior Channel and Inside Sales Manager for an RFID technology company. She built her tech career after starting in the fitness industry and a stint in aviation operations, transitioning into tech as a Business Development Manager at a major tech distributor before moving into sales. Outside her day job, she's a speaker, author, and career transition coach who works with women navigating their own pivots.Connect with Emily:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emily-jackson-13315896/Website: https://apluswomen.comBook: https://a.co/d/8fLt0OlConnect with Limor:Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://limorbergman.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Podcast: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://limorbergman.com/podcast/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/limorbergman/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Substack: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://limorbergman.substack.com⁠