Tami-Rae Rourke on Anxiety, Entrepreneurship, and the Cost of Being Strong | STRONG LIKE a GIRL.

Tami-Rae Rourke is the kind of person who makes everything look effortless. A career that spans telecommunications, real estate, financial advising, and board leadership. A telecom company she co-built from the ground up that sold for over $50 million. Chamber of Commerce president. Honorary Lieutenant Colonel. The resume reads like someone who never had a bad day.

But that's not the full story. Behind every boardroom win and business deal, Tami was quietly battling severe anxiety and phobias that started when she was just 14 years old. Three traumatic events hit back to back: a break-in at her home, an anaphylactic reaction from a shellfish allergy, and the sudden death of a close friend. The result was a fear so consuming she couldn't be left alone, couldn't drive, couldn't walk into a room of strangers without someone beside her.

In this conversation with Tanya, Tami opens up about what it actually costs to be the strong one in the room. She talks about losing a job because of a panic attack, skipping six months of school, and the moment she walked into her doctor's office at 20 years old and demanded a prescription that would change her life. She also reveals something she's never shared publicly before: that she didn't take maternity leave not because she was a workaholic, but because her anxiety made it impossible to stay home alone with her children.

This episode is raw, honest, and deeply human. Tami and Tanya also dig into what it means to be a woman in business, the double standard that labels assertive women as "bossy" while rewarding the same behavior in men, and how anxiety and leadership can coexist in the same person. Whether you're dealing with your own mental health challenges or you just want to understand someone who is, this one's worth your time.