A performance playbook for female leaders navigating post-natal return, caregiving, perimenopause and menopause.

You've always had the edge.
This is how you keep it.

43%

of women report a loss of leadership confidence following return from parental leave

50%

lower promotion rate for women carrying dual caregiving loads at peak career stage

1 in 4

women have declined a leadership opportunity because of menopausal symptoms

Three transitions. One career stage. Zero support. Until now.

What is Gutsy?

No one built a leadership playbook for post-natal return, caregiving, perimenopause and menopause. These transitions don't pause for board meetings. They don't care about the pitch you've been preparing for three weeks. They arrive at exactly the career stage when you are most valuable and most visible.Most leadership programs assume a stable baseline. Gutsy doesn't.At its core is the Gutsy playbook. Specific moves, techniques and tools drawn from performance psychology, elite sport and cognitive science.Not theory. Not awareness. Practical tools you reach for in the moment.

Like an EpiPen. Built before the crisis. Essential when it hits.

Not a wellness program. Not a leadership course. Something that didn't exist until now.

This is me.

You are still the leader you always were. Some days are just harder than they should be.

You know the moments. The brain fog before a critical presentation. The word that disappears mid-sentence. The confidence dip before a board meeting. The heat that rises at exactly the wrong time. The word that disappears mid-sentence.You've been navigating these moments alone. Adjusting, compensating, performing. With tools built for your health. Not your leadership.The Gutsy playbook changes that. Not to fix you. Not to raise awareness. To give you a practical performance playbook you can reach for in the moment. Practical tools that keep you sharp, present and in command. Whatever your body is doing.

What you get:

The Playbook

Concrete tools for the moments that matter. Preparation frameworks, reframing techniques, buying time phrases and AI prompts. Ready to reach for when you need them.

The Digital Toolkit

Curated breathwork tools, performance resources and templates. Pre-selected and ready to reach for. No searching. No deciding.

The Community

A cohort of women in the same moment as you. Learning the same tools. Facing the same transitions. You are not navigating this alone.

your edge. strong. always.

This is my organisation.

Your most experienced female leaders are navigating post-natal return, caregiving, perimenopause and menopause right now. Silently. With tools built for their health. Not their leadership.

You've seen it. The senior female leader who goes quiet in a meeting she used to own. The high performer who suddenly seems less certain. The woman you'd earmarked for the next role who starts pulling back.You couldn't name it. And you had nothing to offer her.Here's what makes that more urgent than ever. As AI takes over analytical and operational tasks, leadership value shifts entirely to judgment, contextual reasoning and human systems capability. These are precisely the strengths concentrated in your most experienced female leaders. Losing them now is not just a retention problem. It is a strategic one.Gutsy was built for this moment. Not as a wellness initiative. Not as a menopause awareness session. As a practical performance program that protects your most valuable leadership capability at exactly the moment AI makes it irreplaceable.

What your organisation gets:

The Masterclass

A facilitated full day intensive for up to 20 female leaders. They leave with the playbook in their hands and the tools already practiced. Immediate impact. No waiting.

The Digital Toolkit

Every participant leaves with access to a curated performance toolkit. Performance resources, templates and breathwork tools - pre-selected and ready to reach for between sessions and beyond.

The Manager Module

Equip the people around transitioning leaders. Give managers the language and the tools to support without overstepping. Because the conditions around her matter as much as the tools she carries.

your edge. strong. always.

Who we are.

We stopped waiting for someone else to solve this. So we did.

We met on a beach in Byron Bay. Two women, one AI retreat, and a conversation that started with artificial intelligence and ended somewhere much more personal.Ariane had spent decades walking into boardrooms, executive briefings and high stakes strategy sessions - and owning the room. Sharp, prepared and confident in her ability to read any situation and respond. Until the day her edge felt less reliable than it used to. Perimenopause. Nobody talks about what it actually does to the tools you've spent a career building.She went looking for solutions - programs, books, frameworks. There was nothing. So she started building her own approach, and talking to women around her. She kept hearing the same thing.Then she met Belinda and the idea found its other half. The coaching methodology and psychological frameworks to turn lived experience into a practical playbook. And her own lived experience - raising two small children without ever stepping back from the leadership table. Two women, two perspectives, building something neither could have built alone.

"Between us we have three kids, two continents worth of senior leadership experience, and exactly zero tolerance for being told to just take it easy."

Ariane Fricke

Belinda Thomas

Join Us.

The playbook in your hands. The tools already practiced. You leave ready.

Gutsy programs run as small, focused cohorts. Register your interest and we'll be in touch.

The 1-Day Workshop

1 May 2026 · Sydney

One focused day. The Gutsy playbook in your hands. Key tools practiced. Moves ready to reach for. You leave prepared for whatever comes next.

What's included:

  • Full day facilitated program.

  • The Gutsy playbook and digital toolkit.

  • A cohort of women navigating the same transitions.

The 2-Day Retreat

Sydney Region · Winter 2026

Two days to go deeper. The playbook, the tools, the science. Alongside women who understand exactly what you're navigating. Designed for performance. Built for connection.

What's included:

  • Full program across two days.

  • Accommodation and meals.

  • Pre-retreat preparation call. Post-retreat integration call.

  • Private cohort community - ongoing peer support beyond the retreat.

Get in touch.

Whether you're a leader navigating this personally or an organisation ready to act - we'd love to hear from you.

We respond to every message personally.
No automated replies. No sales sequences. Just a real conversation.