What If...
What if the very drive that made you successful is the exact thing that's quietly destroying your health? What if burnout doesn't announce itself with a dramatic breakdown, but instead shows up as bloating, fatigue, and a rash from eating eggs — and you, a physician, still miss it? Dr. Susan LaValle didn't just study burnout. She lived it, ignored it, and almost didn't survive it — three times.

The Summary & Guest Intro

Dr. Susan LaValle is a former professional ballet dancer turned plastic surgeon turned executive performance strategist — and that career arc alone tells you everything you need to know about how hard she pushes. As the founder of Balance Performance and author of Thrive: A Five-Week Guide to Mastering Your Energy at Any Age, Susan now helps high-achieving executives understand what their biology is trying to tell them before their body forces the conversation. After three ICU visits in a single year — including a blood clot that traveled from her entire left leg to her lungs — she rebuilt her life and her practice around a simple but radical truth: you cannot out-perform a body that is shutting down. This episode sits right at the intersection of Erica's Glass Ceilings and Sticky Floors mission — because the "show must go on" mentality isn't just a personal habit, it's a system that rewards women for running themselves into the ground.

Inside the Episode

• The "Show Must Go On" Sticky Floor: Dr. Susan traces her relentless drive back to 14 years as a professional ballet dancer — and how that single belief followed her into the operating room, into motherhood, and straight into the ICU. Learn why the mindset that builds careers can also quietly dismantle your health.
• What Burnout Actually Looks Like: Forget the dramatic collapse. Dr. Susan breaks down what her burnout really looked like — weight gain, gut inflammation, food sensitivities, and fatigue she kept overriding — and why even a physician can miss the signs until it's almost too late.
• The Four-Day Work Week Win: After her third hospitalization, Dr. Susan restructured her entire plastic surgery practice around a four-day work week — and her team was just as productive, her patients were happier, and nobody had to sleep on a couch outside the exam rooms. Yes, really.
• The Listen, Let Go, and Live Framework: The three-step methodology behind Thrive — and why "let go" is the hardest of the three for every high achiever in the room. Spoiler: it's not the hot yoga you have to give up, it's the identity.
• Tests Don't Guess: Dr. Susan's approach to proving burnout to skeptical executives who swear they're "not stressed" — using cortisol labs and biological data to show what the body is doing when the mind refuses to admit it.
• The Sleep Gap Nobody Talks About: Why you can't go from four hours to eight hours overnight, and the one small shift — just 15 minutes — that Dr. Susan prescribes first to start closing t

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What if the moment that looked like the end of everything was actually the moment your real life finally began? Not the life you planned, not the one that looked good on paper — but the one you were always meant to be living.

That's not inspiration. That's Liz Prochaska's actual story.

Liz spent 15 years climbing the corporate ladder in recruiting and HR leadership, quietly burning out while checking every box the world told her to check. Then on a snow day in January 2025, one accident changed everything — her job, her identity, her freedom, and her future. What she built from the rubble? A woman-owned landscaping company, a sober and present life, and a story she's finally ready to tell. This episode is raw, real, and the kind of conversation that reminds you that good people go through hard things — and that a moment in time does not have to define the rest of your life.

Inside the Episode:

• The Snow Day That Changed Everything: The golf cart accident that resulted in nine criminal charges, a hospital stay, and CPS at her door — and why Liz says it could have happened to literally anyone
• The Corporate Burnout Nobody Talks About: How 15 years of climbing, hustling, and people-pleasing left Liz hollowed out long before the accident ever happened
• Sink or Swim: What it actually looks like to wake up with no job, no income, pending criminal charges, two boys to feed, and a mortgage — and choose to keep going anyway
• The $30 Lawn: How a neighbor's overgrown grass, a borrowed truck, and a push mower became the unexpected foundation of Liz B Mowing — a thriving, woman-owned business
• Sobriety as a Superpower: What Liz discovered when she stopped drinking the day of the accident and never looked back — and why she says she's experiencing life for the very first time
• The Tattoo, The Bracelet, and The Legacy: The daily reminders Liz carries with her that say keep going — and what she hopes to pass on to her boys and the strangers who need to hear it most

Resources & Links:

• Liz B Mowing — Follow Liz on Instagram for the full journey
• Her Collective — DM Erica for a personal guest invite to a live session
• Glass Ceilings and Sticky Floors (the book) — Erica's framework for breaking through what's keeping you stuck

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What if burnout isn't a mindset problem — it's a design flaw? And what if the systems you've been performing inside were literally built without your biology in mind?

That's not a theory. It's neuroscience. And it changes everything.

Kathryn Spears is a neuro somatic practitioner, applied neurology specialist, and international speaker working at the intersection of neuroscience, women's leadership, and organizational performance. In this episode, she joins Erica to break down why the female nervous system is wired differently — and why ignoring that difference is quietly costing women their health, their clarity, and their climb.

Inside the Episode:

• The Hormone Nobody's Talking About: Why the female nervous system runs on oxytocin — not dopamine — and how our hustle culture is actively depleting the one thing women need most to regulate and perform
• The Design Flaw: How corporate systems, stress responses, and even societal expectations are neurobiologically working against women — and why that's not a personal failure
• The Authenticity Tightrope: The subconscious battle between self-expression and connection that keeps women shrinking, people-pleasing, and second-guessing — and how the nervous system is quietly running that whole show
• The Mindset Myth: Why meditation, journaling, and positive thinking alone won't break the cycle — and what actually interrupts a stress response at the physiological level
• The 95% Problem: The stat that will make every woman in a meeting quietly nod — and why most leaders think they're self-aware but aren't
• State Before Strategy: Why a dysregulated nervous system creates blind spots that no amount of hustle, talent, or ambition can overcome — and what companies are missing by ignoring this
• The Mix Tape Upgrade: Why imposter syndrome, perfectionism, and your inner critic aren't personality traits — they're outdated nervous system patterns playing a 1992 mix tape in 2026

Resources & Links:

• Beyond Your Mindset — Kathryn's website: beyondyourmindset.com
• Kathryn Spears on LinkedIn
• Her Collective — DM Erica for a guest invite to a live session

BUY THE BOOK - Glass Ceilings and Sticky Floors

Connect with me on LinkedIn

Be a Book Launch Insider!!!

My FREE 5x5 Starter Kit for LinkedIn

FREE WEEKLY SUCCESS PLANNER

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And YES - I'm on TikTok!