An Inspired Chat with Leah Feuer of New York

We recently had the chance to connect with Leah Feuer and have shared our conversation below.

Leah, really appreciate you sharing your stories and insights with us. The world would have so much more understanding and empathy if we all were a bit more open about our stories and how they have helped shaped our journey and worldview. Let’s jump in with a fun one: What do the first 90 minutes of your day look like?
I love them! Which is a crazy thing to say as not a morning and someone who has had her fair share of insomnia. I do whatever I want! Today, I even tie-dyed a sweatshirt! It’s my best “life-hack” – and one I shared on my newsletter (along with a ginger shot recipe): https://www.leahfeuer.com/blog/morning-routines-amp-ginger-shots

In general, I schedule sessions for the afternoon, so I can wake up on my own time and have a few hours before I need to be “on” for anyone else. I leisurely get out of bed and make my way to the terrace where I take a picture of the view. It’s a little ritual that helps me connect to beauty and be outside – two things I love. (Side bar: I’m two months away from having a whole year of daily photos and can’t wait to see the collection!).

I try to listen to what my body wants and give it that. Usually some combination of movement, food, something to sip, journaling or drawing, chatting with someone, messing around with my plants, pickling something.

Before starting my coaching practice, I took a year off to travel and re-connect to myself – aka recover from ten years hustling in startups. I re-learned how great it feels to wake up and have no one to answer to. I decide when to set my alarm (almost never), how long to stay cozy under the covers (a secret I will not reveal!), and what to do with my day.

It was a stark contrast to my product management years – running daily AM standups and working with teams on different time zones. The adrenaline spike of opening my eyes to an inbox freshly filled with urgent emails, only a sliver of time to catch your teammates before their bedtime and another 24-hours is lost, and then rushing off to meetings. No, thank you. Another ginger shot? Yes, please!

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m a coach, or as I like to call it, a Mind Organizer. I help creative leaders, founders, and solopreneurs get unstuck and move toward what’s next — with more clarity, confidence, and ease. My clients are often people who’ve already achieved traditional success but feel something deeper calling: a different relationship to work, ambition, or themselves.

Before coaching, I spent a decade building products and leading teams — I helped launch over 40 apps, won Apple’s App of the Year, and advised at a blockchain incubator. That background lets me bridge two worlds: the intuitive, emotional side of growth, and the strategic, operational side of business.

What makes Mind Organizing unique is that it’s not about fixing yourself — it’s about remembering who you are when you’re at your most alive. The work is part strategy, part soul. Right now, I’m developing a new small-group coaching program for creatives and leaders who want to reconnect to their spark and define success on their own terms.

Thanks for sharing that. Would love to go back in time and hear about how your past might have impacted who you are today. Who were you before the world told you who you had to be?
This question breaks my heart – and brain. A lot of the people I coach are grappling with this struggle in some way. There’s so much angst around questions like:

– How can I feel like myself again?
– How do I stop caring so much about what people think?
– How can I untangle my identity and my worth from my work?

I wish this pain wasn’t so present, but it’s also a gift to have the space and safety to start exploring the answers.

I’m not sure there’s ever a “before the world told us who to be.” Certainly, there’s plenty of “before we are aware of it,” but we start responding to the world around us in the womb, and that inevitably shapes us. Thinking about epigenetics is the part that starts to make my mind melt.

But, trying to answer the question: In my essence, I’m curious, empathetic, creative, sensitive, and adventurous. I can be soft and nurturing but I also like to challenge the status quo. I feel most myself when I’m walking slowly and taking in the beauty around me, having an intimate conversation with someone I love, tasting something delightful, lying in moss, pickling some scraps. I ask a million questions. I love sorting and organizing things — not because I’m a neat freak (my closet will tell you otherwise), but because there’s pleasure in something beautifully arranged, whether by nature, accident, or by hand. I’ve also loved dogs since I was old enough to remember. Is that a personality trait?

What have been the defining wounds of your life—and how have you healed them?
This is an intense one to share with the internet, but here goes:

When I was five, my dad was arrested and falsely accused of child pornography by a corrupt prosecutor. The police showed up at our house in the middle of the night and took us all to the station. I was taken alone into a dark room for questioning by two large men. I remember how creepy the room felt, how everything was above my line of sight – the surface of the desk, the men’s faces – but I didn’t think of myself as small. I remember how frustrated I was that they didn’t believe me. If they just listened to me, they would realize this was all a mistake. My dad couldn’t be home or contact us for months. I started sleeping in a fort I made behind the couch instead of my bedroom.

Healing has happened in bits and spurts, as I’ve had the bandwidth and resources to realize the ways past experiences continue to impact me. My parents have been a huge part of the process, constantly reinforcing that it wasn’t my fault and not minimizing the experience or the aftershocks.

While I was transitioning to coaching full time, I started learning more about trauma, emotional processing, and somatic healing. I thought it would be helpful to be aware of for my clients, and it was – hugely! But it was also hugely helpful for myself. Working with my body and emotional awareness has helped me change in ways that my thinking-brain alone could not do. I get to physically step into a new way of responding and being vs intellectual understanding. Diving into the systemic parts of my experience, power dynamics, and the history of policing and imprisonment have also been a big part of the journey.

I think our readers would appreciate hearing more about your values and what you think matters in life and career, etc. So our next question is along those lines. Is the public version of you the real you?
Yes. It’s not all of me, of course, but I’m very “me” wherever I go. Sometimes to a fault.

Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. Could you give everything your best, even if no one ever praised you for it?
WHAT?! I’m all for inner validation, but we’re human — we want to feel seen, heard, and that our contributions matter. And honestly, giving everything your best all the time? Exhausting.

Figuring out this balance — contributing in a way that feels aligned and sustainable — is exactly the kind of work I do with clients.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.leahfeuer.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leahfeuer
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leah-feuer-54893720/
• Other: https://leahfeuer.substack.com/
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