Reclaiming Your Light: Leadership, Resilience, & the Power of the “Light Switch Moment” with Michelle Von Ruden

When Michelle Von Ruden walks into a room, you feel her power — not because she’s the loudest voice, but because she carries the kind of grounded leadership only someone forged by real-life “light switch moments” can embody.

In Episode 127 of Choose On Purpose, Michelle joined me in the studio to share her courageous journey — one marked by resilience, reinvention, & an unwavering commitment to helping others turn their own light back on after life flips the switch off.

Michelle is a John Maxwell Certified Leadership Coach, a dynamic speaker, a devoted wife & mother, & a woman who has overcome more in the last few years than many face in a lifetime. With over 15 years of experience in operations, HR, accounting, & finance, she blends real-world leadership with lived experience in a way that brings deep, grounded wisdom into every conversation.

🌑 The Moment Her Light Went Out & the Courageous Climb Back

Michelle describes trauma as a light switch moment — something or someone flips that switch off in an instant, & life is never the same. For her, one of those moments was a devastating car accident while driving her son home from a doctor’s appointment. It took two years, three surgeries, & therapy to physically recover… but emotionally, the deeper recovery took even more courage.

She shares that healing isn’t just “turning the light back on.” You must first grieve the person you were before the trauma, because she’s gone. You rise not by bouncing back — but by elevating forward.

Michelle’s metaphor of a dimmer switch is powerful:

“Your light doesn’t come back all at once. It slowly brightens as you move through the process.”

💛 The Lesson That Changed Everything: Ask For Help

Despite being a natural leader, Michelle admits that asking for help did not come naturally. After her accident? She didn’t ask anyone. But when she recently had an unexpected emergency appendectomy, she had no choice but to reach out & her friends showed up “in spades.”

It taught her:

“If I don’t ask for help when I need it, I’m doing my friends a disservice.”

As leaders, helpers, mothers, & women… this truth hits deeply.

🌱 Navigating Setbacks with Strength (& the 24-Hour Rule)

Michelle teaches her clients a signature tool called The 24-Hour Rule:

• When something upsetting happens

• You have 24 hours to feel it

• Then you must let it go — or it becomes a story that keeps you stuck

  
  This tool alone has the power to change the internal emotional landscape of women who tend to carry responsibilities, emotions, & expectations far longer than they should.

🌟 Why So Many Women Burn Out & How to Lead Differently

One of the most important conversations in the episode revolved around burnout.
Michelle highlights that many women get promoted because they are good at their job — but are not taught the actual leadership skills required to lead others. Suddenly:

• They’re managing people

• Navigating friendships that shift when peer becomes boss

• Carrying emotional weight at home

• Saying “yes” far too often
  
  

  We call this the difference between a yes girl & a no woman — something she had to learn through experience.

🔥 Her Growth Framework: The “Let’s Grow” Evolution

Michelle shares her powerful framework (originally taught through her "Let’s Grow" program), built around:

• Listening

• Leveraging strengths

• Reflecting

• & evolving each time you cycle through

  
  She’s now expanded this into:

• The Growth Lounge (membership)

• The Growth Lab (membership + framework)

• VIP Growth Experience

• 1:1 Leadership Coaching

This woman is building an ecosystem that supports growth at every level — from the subtly dimming light to the full-on empowered glow.

✨ The Future: Becoming a Household Name

Michelle shared her five-year vision of becoming a household name — not for fame, but to help as many people as possible turn their light switch back on.

She’s doing this with courage, visibility, vulnerability, & commitment to showing up imperfectly but consistently.

“I had to stop showing up as who I thought a leader should be & start showing up as Michelle.”

That is empowerment. That is leadership. That is why Episode 127 is a must-listen.

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5OB6kvbAnBRoIsMTLWBGby?si=6f4c2ac4b2af448b 
Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-127-turn-your-light-back-on-leadership-resilience/id1708481721?i=1000738310869 
YouTube: https://youtu.be/kBw1_Z_5Mb0?si=4a5QO5_8Y_EJVGcc 

Thank you for sharing with a friend that also live with intention!