Why Strategy Isn’t Getting You Pregnant | Ep 18

For the Strategist archetype—and the part of you still trying to figure it all out.

You’ve done everything right. Tracked every cycle. Optimized every supplement. Googled until midnight. So why isn’t it working? This episode gently unpacks what control has given you… and what it may be keeping you from. This isn’t about blame—it’s about softening the grip and learning to listen in a new way.

✨ Listen to the episode now and ask yourself: What if your womb doesn't need a plan... but your presence?

—

📍P.S.
The Fertility Power Quiz reveals the energy driving your current path. If you feel the Strategist within you, this quiz will help you understand what’s next—not as a diagnosis, but as an invitation.
🔗 Take the Quiz Now → https://juliezhenning.com/quiz/

Listen to Episode 17 here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2443130/episodes/17255628

Transcript

Why Strategy Isn’t Getting You Pregnant

A Podcast for the Strategist Archetype (and the Parts in All of Us That Still Crave Control)

[Soft opening music fades]

Let’s take a moment to arrive.

Wherever you are—
 whether you’re walking, driving, lying down—
 I invite you to come into your body.

Notice your breath.
 Let your jaw unclench.
 Feel your shoulders soften just a little.

Let your attention drop from your head…
 down through your chest…
 into your belly.
 Into your womb space.

There’s nowhere else you need to be right now.
 Nothing else you need to solve.
 Just this moment.
 Just this breath.

Maybe you’re here because you took the Fertility Power Quiz and landed as a Strategist.
Or maybe you haven’t yet—but something about the title of this episode pulled you in.
Maybe you don’t think of yourself as a planner or a perfectionist…
But you know what it feels like to do everything “right” and still feel like something’s missing.

If that’s you—stay.

Because this isn’t about labels.
It’s about patterns.
And every woman on the fertility path has had a moment where control felt safer than surrender.

Let’s name this aspect of you clearly.

The Strategist is the part of you that:

• Tracks every detail
  
  
  
• Reads every article
  
  
  
• Keeps a spreadsheet of supplements, cycle days, and symptoms
  
  
  
• She’s quick to book the next appointment, try the next protocol—without first asking what her body really needs.
  
  
  
• Thinks she can figure it out, if she just finds the missing piece
  
  
  

She’s brilliant.
She’s capable.
She’s terrified of getting it wrong.

Because underneath all that clarity… is a woman who’s afraid she’s running out of time.

And she doesn’t know how to stop without feeling like she’s giving up.

Here’s the truth the Strategist doesn’t want to admit—but knows in her bones:

You can’t outsmart your fertility.
 Because your womb isn’t a puzzle.
 She’s a portal.

Conception doesn’t respond to performance.
It responds to coherence.

That’s why you’re here.

Not to figure it out…
But to feel into what’s already asking to shift.

But when the doing doesn’t work…
 When the plans and protocols still don’t lead to pregnancy…
 The questions start to get sharper:
 What am I missing? What else should I be doing?
 And maybe even: Is it me?

And if those questions feel familiar…
 I want you to know:
 You’re not broken.
 You’re not behind.
 You’re simply carrying a pattern that was never meant to hold this kind of dream.

It’s a pattern built on survival.
 On performance.
 On staying one step ahead, just to feel safe.
 It’s helped you win awards, solve problems, get your job promotion, hold families together.
 But conception doesn’t come through conquest.
 It comes through coherence.

This pattern—this constant reaching, researching, refining—
 was never designed to hold the mystery of life.
 It was built to manage risk.
 Not to make space for miracles.

Control has probably kept you safe your whole life.
It helped you succeed. It gave you order. It worked—until now.

But the very thing that gave you success?
It’s now the thing that’s keeping you from receiving.

Because the body doesn’t open from pressure.
She opens from presence.
From rhythm.
From trust.

If you’ve ever thought:

• “I just need a better plan.”
  
  
  
• “What if I missed something?”
  
  
  
• “Maybe I need to do one more test…”
  
  
  
• “I just don’t want to miss my window.”
  
  
  
• “I know I shouldn’t stress—but I don’t know how to stop.”
  
  
  

—then the Strategist is alive in you.

That part of you isn’t wrong.
She’s just scared.

She’s scared of slowing down.
Of missing her chance.
Of facing the truth that effort alone isn’t enough.

But if effort was the answer,
 You would already be pregnant.

Let’s shift something now.

Place one hand on your chest. One hand on your belly.

Feel your body.
Feel the space between your thoughts.

Now breathe into that space.

And ask:

“What part of me am I trying to protect with all this planning?”

What comes up?
What does she need?

Let her speak—not in words, but in sensation.
In breath. In stillness.

Because this… this is the language your body understands.

This is where the real shift begins.

Not in what you do next,

but in how you begin to listen differently.

Because when the body feels heard,

the path forward becomes simpler, softer, more true.

You might ask yourself:

• What would it feel like to trust my body more than my browser?
  
  
  
• What if I didn’t track this cycle—what would that bring up?
  
  
  
• Who am I when I’m not trying to get it all right?
  
  
  

Just notice what stirs.
 No need to analyze it.
 Just breathe with it.

What does Alignment Look Like for the Strategist?

It doesn’t mean throwing everything away.
 It means choosing what’s aligned—not what’s anxious.

• Saying no to the seventh opinion
  
  
  
• Skipping ovulation tracking for one month
  
  
  
• Eating to nourish, not optimize
  
  
  
• Letting yourself be a woman—not a project
  
  
  

Because you are not a fertility algorithm.
 You are a living, feeling, sovereign being.

To the Strategist within you:
You are not wrong.
You are not failing.
You are simply being invited into a new way of receiving.

You don’t need a new protocol.
You need a new relationship—with your body, with time, with trust.

If this speaks to something inside you—let that be enough for today.
No pressure. No urgency.
Just notice what softens… and what opens.

And if you haven’t taken the Fertility Power Quiz yet, that may be your next step.
 Not as a label—but as a map.
 A way to witness the season you’re in, and what’s being asked of you.

You’ll find the link in the show notes.

And if you’re beginning to feel something inside you soften…
If you’re wondering who you’ll become once you stop managing everything…

I invite you to listen to episode #17 on the Queen archetype,
called Fertility After 40 Is Not a Decline—It’s an Upgrade.

for many Strategists, it’s the next version of themselves waiting to emerge.
The moment when control dissolves… and magnetism begins.

That episode is linked in the show notes as well.

You are not here to manage this journey.
 You are here to be transformed by it.

You are here to remember that the path to life
 doesn’t begin with doing.
 It begins with being.
 With listening.
 With trusting what no chart could ever capture.

Because your womb doesn’t want you to prove yourself.
 She wants you to return to yourself.

To move slower.
 To breathe deeper.
 To let the space between the steps become the medicine.

This is not about abandoning everything you've learned.
 It’s about surrendering what no longer serves.
 Not as a failure—but as an offering.

An offering of control…
 for connection.
 An offering of urgency…
 for divine timing.
 An offering of plans…
 for presence.

And hear this, in every cell of your being:
 There is nothing wrong with you.
You haven’t missed your window.
You’re not behind.
You’re awakening.

This tenderness you’re feeling?
 This softening?
 It’s not weakness.
 It’s wisdom.

Let this be your turning point.
 Not because you tried harder—
 but because you softened deeper.

Let your mind rest.
 Let your womb lead.

Let life find you when you're no longer chasing it.

And when the next doubt rises—because it will—
 place your hand on your belly and whisper:

“I don’t have to know. I just have to listen.”

You are on the path.
 You haven’t missed it.
 And your womb knows the way.

And if you ever feel the pull to come back to this space…
 even weeks or months from now—
 know that it’s not because you’re lost.
 It’s because your body is ready to go deeper.

And I’ll be right here.