What Your Holding Onto Is Holding You Back - Ep 3 of From Stuck to Leading Series

We'd love to hear from you. Send us fan mail!Breathwork isn't wellness. Learn the 60-second nervous system reset executives use to reclaim clarity, presence, and leadership influence.  About This Episode: Most executives don't realize they're holding their breath through back-to-back meetings. Your nervous system stays in overdrive, your thinking fogs, decisions that should take five minutes take thirty, and your presence—the thing that makes people trust you starts eroding. Breathwork isn't wellness fluff. It's the executive tool for clarity, presence, and influence.  In this episode, Brett Aldrich, founder of Seed the Spirit, reveals the exact breathing practices executives are using to reset instantly, step from reaction to solution, and prove their credibility without saying a word. From 4-4-4 breathing at your desk to dual nostril breathing for neutrality, Brett walks through three practices you can start today, plus why rest, not hustle, is how leaders deliver more value.  If you're managing your nervous system like a performance problem instead of a body problem, this conversation will change how you think about leadership presence.  What You Will Learn: • How to reclaim mental clarity in 60 seconds—the practice that works between meetings • Why your credibility depends on your nervous system and how to prove it • The 4-4-4 breathing technique: when to use it and why it resets faster than coffee • Dual nostril breathing: the practice that brings your body to center • Circular breathing: how to process a nonstop day without burning out • Why rest isn't lazy, it's the fastest path to executive performance • The exact mistake most leaders make that keeps them trapped in reaction mode About the Guest: Brett Aldrich is founder of Seed the Spirit, a breathwork and nervous system coaching practice. After years in high-stress corporate and victim advocacy roles, she recognized that burnout is a body problem, not a mindset fix. Now she teaches leaders and entrepreneurs how small breathing practices compound into big health and career wins. Visit seedthespirit.com or connect on Facebook: Seed the Spirit.  About Bernadette: Bernadette Boas is an executive leadership coach and founder of Ball of Fire Coaching. After 25+ years in corporate leadership (VP, Chief Knowledge Officer) and 18+ years coaching 400+ executives across Fortune 500 and high-growth organizations, she was fired for being "too difficult"—the best thing that happened to her. Now she helps leaders navigate burnout, reclaim their presence, and lead from their power. Website: balloffirecoaching.com | LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/bernardetteboas  Resources & Related Episodes: → Take the Leadership Gap Diagnostic: https://balloffirecoaching.com/opt-in → Schedule Your Discovery Call: coachmebernadette.com/discoverycall → The Burnout Trap No One Talks About: https://balloffirecoaching.com/truth-about-burnout/ → Your Team Isn’t Underperforming, They’re Under-Directed: https://balloffirecoaching.com/clear-expectations/->The Non-Negotiable Leaders Miss and Why They End Up Micromanaging: https://balloffirecoaching.com/why-leaders-micromanage/  Subscribe & Follow: New episodes every Tuesday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and Buzzsprout. Subscribe to stay connected and never miss an episode. LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/bernardetteboas | Instagram: @shedthecorpbitch | Facebook: @shifttorichSupport the show

We'd love to hear from you. Send us fan mail!Your high-potential just hit a ceiling she can't see. Your strong contributor is running a toxic sub-team and you're not sure how to course-correct without losing him. Your new promotion deserves better than a "good luck" and a handbook.Executive coaching is the $20 billion industry you're underusing.Most HR leaders and hiring managers know coaching works; the ROI is proven, engagement lifts, retention improves. But most don't hire coaches, or when they do, they hire badly. They lack effective vetting questions, and a framework that doesn't just rely on a certificate that doesn't carry any weight if someone can't actually create change.This week on Shedding the Corporate Bitch, Bernadette walks through the exact framework she uses to evaluate coaches for her 400+ executive clients. It includes 15 total questions; 10 universal ones every leader should ask, plus 5 critical ones if you're an HR or business leaders investing in coaching for your organization.What You Will Learn• How to accelerate high potentials and fix struggling teams through the right coach match• The 15-question vetting framework that separates great coaches from poor hires• Red flags in coach selection and how to spot them in your first conversation• Why chemistry alone is not enough and not all certficates and credentials are a quaranteeKey Quote:"The best leaders in the world have coaches. It's not because they're broken. It's because they want to show up as the best leader they can be."Episode Chapters0:00 — Introduction0:32 — Why Leaders Don't Hire Coaches (Even When Coaching Works)1:30 — Who This Episode Is For3:35 — Why Coaching Matters and the ROI5:59 — Common Hiring Mistakes Leaders Make8:00 — The 10 Universal Vetting Questions32:55 — The 5 HR-Specific Vetting Questions35:48 — How to Make Your Final Decision37:35 — Your Challenge This Week38:00 — Closing Invitation and Next StepsWant to determine if there are leadership gaps that need attention? Take our free Leadership Gap Diagnostic that takes 10 minutes and pinpoints exactly where you need support. Get started: https://balloffirecoaching.com/opt-inAbout Bernadette BoasBernadette Boas is an executive leadership coach, founder of Ball of Fire Coaching, and author of Shedding the Corporate Bitch. With 25+ years in corporate leadership roles (VP and Chief Knowledge Officer) and 16+ years coaching 400+ executives across Fortune 500 and high-growth companies, she transforms leaders and teams.About Shedding the Corporate BitchEvery episode transforms today's managers into tomorrow's powerhouse leaders. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you listen.Support the show

We'd love to hear from you. Send us fan mail!About This EpisodeMost leaders treat employee turnover like a compensation problem or a market problem. Kevin Patrick of Trinity One Consulting spent 15 years inside ERP systems implementations before realizing it's neither; it's a trust problem, and it's fixable.In this episode, Kevin walks through the Dream Manager methodology: a model built on the idea that people give a company their best work when the company genuinely invests in their life outside of it. Kevin shares how a Florida home builder used it to attack a 58% turnover rate in its sales division, and why the math on turnover; lost salaries, ramp time, and tribal knowledge gets into the tens of millions faster than most leaders expect.Stop wondering why your best people leave even when the paycheck is right, and understand the first step you can take to prevent it.What You Will Learn•      Trust: why treating people as “a paycheck for eight hours” quietly erodes your influence as a leader•      Visibility: how to spot disengagement before it costs you a resignation letter•      Results: the real financial math behind employee turnover, department by department•      Trust: the one question that gets even guarded employees to open up•      Influence: why bringing frontline employees, not just managers, into major decisions changes outcomesKey Quote“Numbers don't lie. Math is math when you do it right.” — Kevin PatrickEpisode Chapters0:00 Why 78% of your team has already checked out1:54 The catalyst: why business isn't just systems4:25 The real reason employees disengage at work6:02 Why the wrong people are in the room during big rollouts8:57 What the Dream Manager method actually is10:00 Case study: 58% turnover in a 400-person sales team14:25 How to pitch this internally: the numbers-first approach20:00 Inside a real Dream Manager conversation26:04 Can managers become Dream Managers themselves?30:21 Your first step: what to bring to the conversation33:28 The Bozeman, Montana downsell story35:06 Where to find Kevin PatrickAbout the GuestKevin "KP" Patrick is Founder and CEO of Trinity One Consulting and Director of Operations at Anton Systems. A Certified Dream Manager and EOS Integrator with 30+ years in business, he helps businesses optimize operations through AI and people-first leadership. He also hosts The Dream Dividend podcast and coaches youth football in St. Augustine, FL.Related EpisodesLeadership Blind Spots: Why Your Best People Keep Quitting with DEBBIE LONGOWhy Top Performers Keep Getting Passed Over for Promotion with TIM SHARP Career Path Strategy: How To Drive Your Own Career Direction DOWNLOAD OUR FREE Leadership Gap Diagnostic: HERESubscribe HERESupport the show

We'd love to hear from you. Send us fan mail!You've done the work. You've discovered who you are, confronted the fears running your leadership, shed the old story, and started creating something new. So why does one bad day, one hard conversation, one piece of sharp feedback still have the power to send you right back to where you started?In the final 5th episode of the From Stuck to Leading series, Bernadette Boas breaks down why a new identity doesn't happen overnight, a habit takes roughly 66 days to embed, and decades of old stories don't dissolve in a single breakthrough. She walks through the exact 4-part loop that turns fragile progress into permanent, compounding change: building your evidence file, elevating your standards on purpose, restructuring your circle, and treating the whole process as iterative instead of one-and-done. Plus a real client story of a leader who used this loop to recover from a major organizational shakeup without losing the ground he'd gained.This is the fifth and final episode of the From Stuck to Leading series, following Discover, Confront, Shed, and Create — start with Episode 1 if you're joining new, since today's episode builds directly on all four. Go to https://balloffirecoaching.com/podcast to find those episodes.What We Cover●      [00:00] Why you can't accelerate on an empty tank●      [00:53] Series recap: Discover, Confront, Shed, Create●      [03:44] The five steps, redefined for daily use●      [06:00] Why new identities don't happen overnight — the 66-day reality●      [11:28] The four-part acceleration loop: evidence, standards, circle, iteration●      [19:44] Client story: rebuilding momentum after a major reorg●      [25:46] Putting the loop into action — the 4 moves●      [30:56] Bernadette's own story, the closing coaching question, and what's nextKey Quote"You can't accelerate on an empty tank." — Bernadette BoasLinks Mentioned●      Free Leadership Gap Diagnostic: ●      60-Minute Diagnostic Deep Dive (results walkthrough + 60-day action plan): tiny.cc/diagnosticdeepdive●      Website: balloffirecoaching.comAbout the ShowShedding the Corporate B!tch is a weekly leadership podcast for executives ready to stop performing and start leading from who they really are.About the HostBernadette Boas is an executive leadership coach, speaker, and author, and the founder of Ball of Fire Coaching, with 25+ years of corporate leadership experience and 16+ years coaching 400+ executives across Fortune 500 and high-growth organizations.Support the show

We'd love to hear from you. Send us fan mail!About This EpisodeMost leaders assume their team's friction is a personality clash. Executive and business coach Debbie Longo says it's almost always behavior, and the leadership blind spot she runs into most is control and manipulation. In this episode, Debbie walks through how a single thought becomes a behavior, why some leaders need to hit a “bottom” before they'll change, and why real, lasting change starts with seeing the pattern in yourself before anyone else has to point it out.  Bernadette and Debbie also get into the tension every HR leader and manager feels: real behavior change can happen fast, but it doesn't happen on command,  and pushing for speed without patience is often what derails it.What You Will Learn•       Rebuild trust with your team by recognizing the one behavior pattern most executives never catch in themselves•       Stop the control-and-manipulation cycle before it tanks sales and drives out your best people•       Use a 2-minute nightly inventory to catch blind spots before they cost you your job•       Turn pressure from your board or boss into a fast, focused action plan instead of denial•       Understand why real behavior change can show up in weeks, and what determines the pace•       Protect your influence and credibility by leading from awareness instead of ego•       Give HR and managers a clear, patient way to talk about the pace of real changeKey Quote“I changed my thinking, and everyone around me changed.” — Debbie LongoEpisode Chapters00:01 – Why behavior, not personality, drives leadership effectiveness00:04 – The mindset-shift example: catching a bad outcome before it happens00:07 – What hitting bottom actually looks like (divorce, job loss, losing a house)00:08 – Why HR and managers underestimate how long real change takes00:10 – The message to HR leaders and hiring managers: patience over pace00:14 – How control and manipulation actually develops 00:16 – Why controlling leaders can't see it in themselves00:20 – "I change myself... everybody around me changes" — the ripple effect00:20 – Where accountability fits in (board/boss pressure forcing change)00:22 – How Debbie tells a client they're not actually changing00:24 – The #1 tip: the nightly self-inventory exercise00:26 – Wrap-up and where to find DebbieAbout the GuestDebbie Longo is an Executive Behavioral Coach, speaker, and podcast host with more than 24 years of experience helping leaders improve communication, accountability, and performance by changing behaviors that drive results. She equips executives and business owners with practical strategies that strengthen leadership, culture, and long-term business success.About the HostBernadette Boas is a corporate executive leadership coach, speaker, and founder of Ball of Fire Coaching.Related EpisodesThe Accidental Leader: Manager vs. Leader Your Team is Being Under-Directed!!5 Steps to Move From Top Performer to True LeaderLeadership Gap Diagnostic CTATake the free Leadership Gap Diagnostic → balloffirecoaching.com/opt-inSubscribe CTASubscribe on YouTube or your favorite podcast app so you never miss a Powerhouse conversation.Support the show

We'd love to hear from you. Send us fan mail!You did the work and you let go of the old story, the fear, the pattern that kept you stuck. So why does it still feel like nothing's actually changed?In this episode, Bernadette Boas breaks down the mistake nearly every leader makes right after a real breakthrough: mistaking the relief of letting go for the finish line. She walks through the five-part foundation — trust, integrity, motivation, empowerment, and results that turns genuine growth into an actual new career, plus the 4 specific moves to build a new identity on purpose instead of by accident.This is Episode 4 of the five-part From Stuck to Leading series, following Discover, Confront, and Shed.What We Cover●      0:00 — Why relief isn't the finish line, and the exact point most people quietly stop building●      8:00 — The foundation that makes growth actually stick: trust, integrity, motivation, empowerment, results●      14:40 — "You'd be surprised how little others think of you" — the sentence that changed how she leads●      21:30 — The 4 moves to build a new identity on purpose●      30:00 — The networking party story: 40 friends down to 5●      35:00 — The coaching question, the dare, and what's next in Episode 5Key Quote"You'd be surprised how little others think of you." — Bernadette BoasLinks Mentioned●      Listen to Episode 1-3: balloffirecoaching.com/podcast●      Free Leadership Gap Diagnostic: balloffirecoaching.com/opt-in●      Book a 30-min Discovery Call: coachmebernadette.com/discoverycall●      Website: balloffirecoaching.comAbout the ShowShedding the Corporate B!tch is a weekly leadership podcast for executives ready to stop performing and start leading from who they really are.About the HostBernadette Boas is an executive leadership coach, speaker, and author, and the founder of Ball of Fire Coaching, with 25+ years of corporate leadership experience and 16+ years coaching 400+ executives across Fortune 500 and high-growth organizations.Support the show

We'd love to hear from you. Send us fan mail!You're the most reliable person on your team, and that reliability might be exactly what's keeping you from the next promotion. In this episode, executive and career transition coach Laura Berman Fortgang joins Bernadette to unpack the entrepreneurial mindset every corporate leader needs, and why the people who do everything right often stay stuck as the "understudy" instead of becoming the star.Laura has spent decades coaching executives and entrepreneurs through career change including work with guests on The Oprah Winfrey Show. She and Bernadette dig into why asking questions builds more real influence than giving answers, how to handle a manager who feels threatened by your visibility, and the delegation habits (especially common among women) that quietly cap a career.Laura also shares the four pillars — messaging, methodology, marketing, and managing yourself and your business that determine whether a corporate-to-entrepreneur transition actually works.What You Will Learn●      Build the entrepreneurial mindset that gets you noticed for promotion, without overstepping●      Grow your influence by asking better questions instead of giving answers●      Handle a manager who feels threatened by your initiative●      Recognize the delegation trap that keeps capable people invisible for the roles they want●      Know when you're actually ready to leave corporate and build your own business●      How to apply the four pillars — messaging, methodology, marketing, managing ●      Hear the client story of a stuck senior executive who took the reins and landed a C-suite roleKey Quote: “It's easier to find a new star than to replace the understudy.” — Laura Berman FortgangAbout the GuestLaura Berman Fortgang is an executive and career transition coach and the author of Now What? Ninety Days to a New Life Direction. Her coaching career includes work with guests on The Oprah Winfrey Show, and she has spent decades helping corporate leaders and entrepreneurs navigate promotion, career change, and business transitions. Learn more at LauraBermanFortgang.com.About BernadetteBernadette Boas is an executive leadership coach and founder of Ball of Fire Coaching, with 25+ years of corporate leadership experience — including VP and Chief Knowledge Officer roles — and 400+ executives coached across Fortune 500 and high-growth organizations.Related Episodes from our From Stuck to Leading Series:●      Episode 3 - Shed - https://balloffirecoaching.com/whats-holding-you-back/●     Episode 2 — Confront https://balloffirecoaching.com/5-inner-fears-destroying-your-leadership/●      Episode 1— Discover https://balloffirecoaching.com/from-stuck-to-leading/Leadership Gap Diagnostic: Take the free Leadership Gap Diagnostic to find out what's really holding your career back: balloffirecoaching.com/opt-inSubscribe to Shedding the Corporate B!tch on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify for a new episode every week.Support the show

We'd love to hear from you. Send us fan mail!Most leaders don't stay stuck because they lack skill, they stay stuck because of an authentic leadership identity they haven't claimed yet. In Episode 3 of From Stuck to Leading self-coaching series, Bernadette Boas breaks down the difference between a Borrowed, Performed, and Owned leadership identity, and walks through exactly what happens the moment you stop performing for the people around you.This episode delivers the five concrete moves Bernadette's private clients use to shed a self-limiting story: finding the story behind a diagnostic gap, gathering the evidence that contradicts it, naming who you've been performing for, rewriting the story, and making one deliberate choice from it.It builds directly on Episode 1 (Discover) and Episode 2 (Confront). If you haven't caught those yet, start there before diving into this one. https://balloffirecoaching.com/podcastWhat You Will Learn●      The exact story quietly keeping you out of the room for your next promotion●      Why the people closest to you may resist your growth and why it isn't your problem to manage●      The difference between a Borrowed, Performed, and Owned leadership identity●      The 5-move method for shedding your limiting beliefs●      How to find the evidence that proves your limiting story was never true●      One deliberate choice you can make this week to start living your new storyEpisode Chapters0:00 — Cold Open + Series Recap (matches — "the most dangerous moment..." opens the episode)3:00 — What Shedding Actually Means 12:00 — The Three Leadership Identities 22:00 — Moves 1 & 2: Story and Evidence 38:00 — Move 3: Who You're Performing For 42:00 — Moves 4 & 5: Rewrite and Choose 47:00 — Bernadette's Story: The Milkman's Daughter (52:00 — Close + Episode 4 Preview About This Self-Coaching SeriesFrom Stuck to Leading: Episode 1 — Discover, Episode 2 — Confront, Episode 3 — Shed (this episode), Episode 4 — Create and Episode 5 — Accelerate (every other Tuesday). Related Episodes●      Episode 2 — Confront https://balloffirecoaching.com/5-inner-fears-destroying-your-leadership/●      Episode 1— Discover https://balloffirecoaching.com/from-stuck-to-leading/DOWNLOAD FREE Leadership Gap DiagnosticTake the free Leadership Gap Diagnostic: balloffirecoaching.com/opt-inSubscribeSubscribe on YouTube (@ShedtheCorpBitchTV), Apple Podcasts, or Buzzsprout.Support the show

We'd love to hear from you. Send us fan mail!You're outperforming everyone, and still getting passed over. A 30-year HR insider explains why companies reward compliance over contribution, and how to speak up without killing your career.  Tim Sharp sat inside the HR rooms of the world's largest tech and pharma companies for three decades. What he saw drove him to write a book so honest his lawyer warned it could get him fired — so he published it under a pen name.  In this episode, you'll learn: — Why the "good soldier" path stalls at middle management, and what the people who rise do differently — The "don't outshine the master" trap — How to manage your visibility without dimming it — What "soft corruption" in senior ranks means for who actually gets ahead — Who HR really represents (Tim's in HR — he said it, not me) — How Tim built real courage: 12 years sober, a values rebuild at 40, and the practice of speaking up  GET TIM'S BOOK — important: it's published under his pen name. Search Amazon for: PHILIP ARMSTRONG FEYNG: "Busting Business Bullshit: From Corporate Nonsense to The Rise of The 20% Company" - HEREConnect with Tim: LinkedIn — @TSharp1 | Facebook & Instagram — @TimSharp  ------------------------From Bernadette, FIND YOUR LEADERSHIP GAP (free, 10 minutes): balloffirecoaching.com/opt-inSupport the show

We'd love to hear from you. Send us fan mail!Your leadership gaps aren’t measuring what you haven’t learned. They’re measuring what you’ve been afraid to confront. In this episode, executive coach Bernadette Boas names the five inner fears, including leadership self-doubt, imposter syndrome, and fear of failure that quietly run even the most accomplished leaders from the inside out.This is Episode 2 of From Stuck to Leading, a 5-part self-coaching series built around the exact steps Bernadette uses with private clients. In this episode, you’ll finally see the direct line between what you’re carrying internally and the leadership gaps showing up in your diagnostic scores.Be sure to DOWNLOAD your free leadership gap diagnostic and refer to it while listening thoughout the series - balloffirecoaching.com/opt-inABOUT THIS SERIES•       Episode 1 — DISCOVER: Who are you as a leader when no one’s watching? HERE•       Episode 2 — CONFRONT: Meet the 5 inner fears destroying your leadership ← this episode•       Episode 3 — SHED: What do you release, change, or expand? (coming soon)•       Episode 4 — CREATE: What does the leader you’re meant to be look like? (coming soon)•       Episode 5 — ACCELERATE: What’s the one move that changes everything? (coming soon) WHAT YOU’LL LEARN•       Why leadership self-doubt and imposter syndrome are creating your diagnostic gaps•       How to identify which of the 5 inner fears is running your leadership•       The direct link between your internal fears and your team’s trust, performance, and engagement•       A 3-step Confront framework for facing what’s been running your leadership from the inside•       How to read your Leadership Gap Diagnostic scores as fear gaps, not skill gaps KEY QUOTE“Your diagnostic isn’t measuring what you haven’t learned. It’s measuring what you’ve been afraid to confront.” — Bernadette Boas EPISODE CHAPTERS0:00 — Cold Open / Series Intro5:00 — Meet Your Five Inner Bitches7:00 — Inner Bitch #1: The Imposter9:30 — Inner Bitch #2: The Failure Avoider13:00 — Inner Bitch #3: The Control Freak15:00 — Inner Bitch #4: The People Pleaser17:30 — Inner Bitch #5: The Approval Seeker21:00 — Leadership Gap Diagnostic Spotlight Introduction22:30 — Spotlight Question 1: Self-Awareness25:30 — Spotlight Question 2: Executive Presence & Influence27:00 — The 3-Step Confront Framework33:30 — Coaching Question + I Dare You34:30 — Outro + Episode 3 Tease RESOURCES•       FREE Leadership Gap Diagnostic: balloffirecoaching.com/opt-in RELATED EPISODES•       Episode 1 — DISCOVER: Who Are You as a Leader?  HERE•       Why Your Team Ignores You and What to Fix First •       Confident as F*ck: How to Stop Leading Through Fear with RACHEL LAWRENCE  ABOUT BERNADETTE BOASBernadette Boas is an executive coach, speaker, author, and founder of Ball of Fire Coaching. 25+ years in corporate America. 18+ years coaching 400+ executives across Fortune 500 organizations. Host of Shedding the Corporate Bitch podcast. SUBSCRIBE•       YouTube: youtube.com/@ShedtheCorpBitchTV•       Apple Podcasts: HERESupport the show