In this episode of The Disruptor Podcast’s special "Boardroom Bound" series, host John Kundtz sits down with Sarah Jakle, Founder and Executive Director of DemocraShe.
Sarah's disruptive approach to youth leadership training intervenes during the critical high school years, the exact moment when a young woman's belief in her leadership potential historically begins to drop.
By blending public policy training with evidence-based brain science, Sarah equips historically underserved young women with the tools to quiet their anxious inner critic, overcome natural self-doubt, and thrive in any space of power.
Discover why true leadership training requires more than just inspiration; it requires the science of persistence.
Key Highlights & Takeaways:
1️⃣ From the Couch to a Catalyst: Sarah shares her deeply personal story of how a devastating autoimmune diagnosis led her to discover neuroscience "brain hacks" that eventually fueled her to register over 485,000 voters.
2️⃣ The High School Drop-Off: Why the teenage years are the ultimate battleground for building leadership confidence, and why it is the last time boys and girls think they can run for office equally.
3️⃣ Inspiration vs. Persistence: The crucial difference between motivating the brain's rational "prefrontal cortex" and soothing the threat-detecting "amygdala" when women face pushback in spaces of power.
4️⃣ Building Your "Inner Best Friend": A practical, evidence-based resiliency skill to combat the inner critic (Sarah uses Barack Obama and her dog, Branch!).
5️⃣ Grounding with Mother Earth: Simple, actionable techniques to settle the nervous system before stepping out of your comfort zone, whether it's taking a driver's test or making a campaign speech.
6️⃣ Disrupting the Pipeline: How DemocraShe breaks down economic barriers by paying high school girls a stipend to participate, and the power of their peer-to-peer mentoring model.
Links & Resources Discussed in this Episode:
👉 Learn more about DemocraShe
👉 Connect with Sarah Jakle on LinkedIn:
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