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Women Who Lead by Bloom I help women to unlock their next level of leadership
Founder of Bloom | Workshops + leadership coaching for leaders + teams

Ruth Penfold is a former C-suite executive turned leadership coach, mentor, and yogi. Guiding women to lead with courage, truth, and deep self-trust. After years of performing worth instead of embodying it, Ruth rebuilt her life from the inside out. Her journey through corporate burnout, heartbreak, and reinvention became the foundation of her work: helping women remember their power and lead from authenticity, not exhaustion. Today, through Bloom and her program Women Who Lead, she creates spaces where women can reconnect with their bodies, find clarity in their leadership, and thrive without burning out. Her approach blends practical leadership tools with spiritual wisdom, a fusion of boardroom experience and embodied practice. From yoga and breathwork to executive mentoring, she teaches that leadership begins in the body long before it reaches the boardroom. Ruth’s message is simple yet radical:
You don’t need to perform to be valuable. You don’t need to overdeliver to be seen. You are already enough and from that wholeness, you can lead. Based in London and the US, Ruth continues to share reflections, stories, and teachings that remind women that leadership isn’t just a title, it’s a way of being. Connect with Ruth:
Email: [email protected]
Website: https://ourtimetobloom.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruthpenfold/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ruthpenfold/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/

6 things I did when I got a settlement agreement that most women don't know they're allowed to do.One, I called a lawyer...
10/19/2026

6 things I did when I got a settlement agreement that most women don't know they're allowed to do.

One, I called a lawyer before I said another word to the people delivering the news.

Two, I stopped treating it as something I owed them an explanation for.

Three, I let my real emotional reaction be visible, and used it as leverage instead of hiding it as weakness.

Four, I pushed deliberately into the guilt I could see they felt.

Five, I asked for more than the first number. Then asked again.

Six, I negotiated every single detail, including my remaining holiday.

Most executives have had one. Stop carrying it like a secret.

Comment MORE and I'll tell you how ❤️‍🔥

10/18/2026

6 things to stop doing at work if you want your evenings back

Answering the Slack message the second it pops up.

Opening with “this might be a silly question, but...”

Saying sorry for things that needed no apology.

Checking your inbox from bed “just to be across it”.

Managing everyone’s mood in the meeting before your own.

Saving the real version for the car on the way home.

None of these make you good at your job, honey.

They just make you tired.

Comment MORE and let’s get your evenings back sweetheart ❤️‍🔥

10/18/2026

I'm 46 years old, and this is the first summer of my life I've truly loved my thighs.

Do you have any awareness of how much work it takes many women to reach that level of self love and confidence?

Though in my 20's, I weighed 40lbs more and I hated my body, I am happy to say that I've loved my body for a long time now.

I've done a LOT of work to get here. But my thighs? My curves? They've been a different story.

And this year, I finally wore the shorts.

Only to have a man call women who wear short shorts "wh**es"?

And by the way, the judgement can come just as fast from other women too. If you find yourself judging someone, I simply say this:
Do you have any idea what it might have taken for that woman to wear them?

I can tell you, it is a LOT.

So, my darling, wear the shorts.
You don't have to earn the right to feel beautiful, comfortable or free in your own skin.

And if this is the year you finally stop hiding a part of yourself you've spent decades trying to change, I hope you know what a bloody enormous thing that is.

LFG ❤️‍🔥

A man came into my comments to tell me girls half my age make more money than women from my generation.And that they're ...
10/18/2026

A man came into my comments to tell me girls half my age make more money than women from my generation.

And that they're smarter than me at this point.

He expected it to hurt.

My answer...? GOOD.

Because those women asking for the number in year one? The one that took some of us fifteen years to even attempt?

They ARE me. Just younger.
They stand on my shoulders. Like I stand on my mum's. Like she stood on her mother's.

That's how it has always worked. Every woman who went first made the ask a little easier for the one behind her.

He wanted to set us against each other.
He picked the wrong women.

We aren't about that life now.

This week's newsletter is about what he got right about the money (in NYC early career women can often be on par with men, though not everywhere!). What he got very wrong about us. And why none of us are ever too old to be a tiny Queen.

And in the meantime: give them hell tiny Queens.

⬇️

10/17/2026

You’re not tired from the work. You’re tired from performing “fine” for eight hours straight.

Imagine walking out of a meeting with more energy than you walked in with.

Sounds impossible right now?

That’s because the work isn’t what’s draining you.

It’s rewriting every Slack three times so it can’t be taken the wrong way.

It’s smiling through the meeting and feeling wrung out the second it ends.

It’s being shattered by Thursday when you haven’t even done anything hard.

That’s the cost of performing all day, darling. Not working.

Stop performing and the energy comes back.

Comment MORE and let’s get your energy back sweetheart ❤️‍🔥

I'm 46 years old, and this is the first summer of my life I've truly loved my thighs.I saw this written on a pavement in...
10/17/2026

I'm 46 years old, and this is the first summer of my life I've truly loved my thighs.

I saw this written on a pavement in New York the other week. LOVE YOURS.

And I thought... "You know, I ACTUALLY, FINALLY do"

Because this year, of all years, when perimenopause is changing my body in ways I haven't quite figured out, I finally decided my thighs didn't need to get smaller for me to love them.

I've loved my body for a long time. I've done a LOT of work to get here. But my thighs? My curves? They've been a different story.

And this year, I finally wore the shorts.

Not because my body changed in the way I'd always wanted it to. But because something in ME changed.

Do you understand what an act of rebellion that is?

To spend your whole life being told your body is a problem to be solved, and decide to love it anyway?

Not just talk about body positivity. But actually walk out of your house, thighs on show, and feel FREE?

Only to have a man call women who wear shorts "wh**es"?

And by the way, the judgement can come just as fast from other women too. If you find yourself judging someone, I simply say this:

Do you have any idea what it might have taken for that woman to wear them?

How many years of shame she's had to unlearn?
How many summers she's spent covering up?
How much courage it took to finally stop?

I can tell you, it is a LOT.

So, my darling, wear the shorts.
You don't have to earn the right to feel beautiful, comfortable or free in your own skin.

And if this is the year you finally stop hiding a part of yourself you've spent decades trying to change, I hope you know what a bloody enormous thing that is.

LFG ❤️‍🔥

10/17/2026

Homework.

This week, I want you to get out and about and ask for some stuff.

Tiny asks. Little ones.

Because those tiny asks build your capacity for making asks. And every ask straightens your spine a little more.

And honestly? It doesn't matter whether they say yes or no.

The point is that you asked. You put your big girl pants on and did the thing. Your body feels that.

And you start moving through the world in a different energy. One that says: I can ask for what I want.

It can be as small as walking into a coffee shop and saying, I don't want that cookie. I want that one.

Yes, I'm that person. Who else is that person?

So tell me, what are you asking for this weekend?

Drop it in the comments ❤️‍🔥

10/16/2026

A man commented on one of my posts to let me know that younger women are getting paid more than me these days, and that I’m basically washed up.

He thought that was an insult.

Here’s what actually happened in my body when I read it. Pride. Real, full-chested pride.

Because I LOVE TO SEE women in their twenties ask for the number in year one that took some of us fifteen years to even attempt.

No apology in their voice. No pre-emptive over-explaining. Just the ask, plainly, like it was always going to be that simple.

He wanted me to feel threatened by that.
And I’m just out here cheering. Loudly.

Tiny queens, get your money. I’ll be the one clapping the hardest.

If you are tiny or other aged Queen who still feels stuck, comment MORE and let’s get you started, babe❤️‍🔥

10/16/2026

Before you take that job, or stay in the one you're in, ask yourself these questions first.

I turned down a Chief People Officer role once, on paper exactly what I wanted, because these questions would have saved me a lot of pain if I'd asked them sooner.

1. Does the CEO's temperament in this interview feel steady, or performed for the hour?
2. Does the leadership team around them feel aligned, or like they're each managing a different version of the same person?
3. Am I excited about the actual work, or just the relief of finally having an offer?
4. Would I still want this role if the title stayed exactly the same?
5. Am I ignoring a gut feeling because the timing finally looks right on paper?

I asked myself these late, that time. Ask yourself early.

Comment MORE and I'll get you started ❤️‍🔥

10/15/2026

Not to be dramatic, but I never wanted success for the sake of success. I just wanted a life that felt good to live.

I hear this from women all the time. And every time, I recognise a little bit of myself in them.

Women who’ve spent years chasing the next title, the next promotion, the next big thing, believing that when they finally got there, they’d feel the way they’d always wanted to feel.

I know that feeling. Because I’ve lived it.

And somewhere along the way, I realised that what I was really chasing wasn’t another title.

It was peace, wearing a job title as a disguise.

And here’s the thing, gang. Wanting a life that feels good to live doesn’t mean you have to stop being ambitious.

It means you get to decide what all that ambition is actually for.

Maybe it’s the corner office. Maybe it’s a four-day week. Maybe it’s doing work you love and having enough of yourself left over to enjoy the rest of your life.

None of those dreams is smaller than the others.

And every single one deserves respect.

Comment MORE and I’ll show you how to start building a career that feels as good on the inside as it looks on the outside. ❤️‍🔥

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