Join me as I sit down with psychologist and leadership development consultant Dr. Christina Pate, whose work explores the intersection of human behavior, organizational culture, and sustainable performance.

Christina’s path into this work began with her own experience of burnout - not as something to push through, but as information that something deeper was misaligned. Since then, she has focused on helping leaders and organizations understand how nervous system patterns, identity pressures, and workplace expectations shape how we perform, lead, and sustain ourselves over time.

We talk about over-functioning, identity beyond roles, the pressure many women leaders carry to hold more than their share, and what it means to build lives and organizations that support wellbeing rather than quietly erode it.

This is a thoughtful conversation about leadership, sustainability, complexity, and learning to build success that can actually last.

You’ll Learn:

⭐ Why burnout is often a signal of misalignment - not a personal failure
⭐ How leadership mirrors the way we lead ourselves
⭐ The role of nervous system awareness in sustainable performance
⭐ The difference between scalable success and sustainable success
⭐ Why holding complexity is a modern leadership skill

Key Insights:

Burnout as Information:
Burnout often reveals misalignment between values, identity, expectations, and systems - not a lack of resilience.

Leadership Starts Internally:
The way we regulate stress, set boundaries, and relate to uncertainty shapes how we lead others.

Sustainable vs Scalable Success:
Organizations frequently optimize for growth and output without building the internal conditions required for people to thrive.

Nervous System Awareness Changes Leadership:
Stress responses influence decision-making, communication, and capacity long before conscious strategy.

Identity Beyond Roles:
Career disruption, burnout, and transition often surface deeper questions about identity and purpose.

Complexity Over Certainty:
Modern leadership requires the ability to hold nuance, reject binary thinking, and operate in ambiguity.

Timestamps:

[00:00:00] – Introduction and meeting through LEAP Academy
[00:03:00] – Early burnout and redefining success
[00:07:00] – Burnout as signal, not failure
[00:12:00] – Leadership as a mirror of self-leadership
[00:18:00] – Over-functioning and invisible responsibility
[00:25:00] – Disruption, grief, and rebuilding frameworks
[00:28:00] – Nervous system awareness and leadership
[00:33:00] – Fight, flight, freeze, and fawn responses
[00:38:00] – Rejecting binary thinking and holding complexity
[00:41:00] – Identity shifts and the future of work
[00:44:00] – Micro practices for regulation and sustainability
[00:47:00] – Legacy as sustainability, not scale

Resources and Links:

Connect with Dr. Christina Pate

Learn more about her leadership development work

Take Christina’s stress response quiz

Find host Kristin Belden on LinkedIn or at BeldenStrategies.com

Sign up for more conversations and insights at BeldenStrategies.com/newsletter

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, follow the show, and leave a review.
And if you’re interested in more conversations about leadership, identity, and building sustainable success, join my newsletter at BeldenStrategies.com

What happens when the company you helped build disappears - and you’re left rebuilding your identity in real time?

Join me as I sit down with Michelle Skoor - former colleague, executive teammate, and one of the most grounded leaders I know. We worked side-by-side inside a fast-scaling, venture-backed social impact tech company that ultimately imploded. What followed wasn’t just professional transition - it was personal reckoning.

In this conversation, we unpack what it means to lead through uncertainty, to question your own judgment, and to sit with the uncomfortable space between who you were and who you’re becoming.

Michelle shares how their years as a competitive gymnast shaped their leadership style, why they've only applied for a traditional job twice in 25 years, and how intentionally building relationships over decades created the foundation for their next chapter.

We talk about identity, imposter syndrome, risk tolerance, burnout, menopause, parenting, privilege, privilege’s responsibility, and the courage it takes to get quiet before rebuilding.

This is an honest conversation about ambition, grief, resilience, and redefining legacy - not as titles or status, but as impact and love.

You’ll Learn:

⭐ How early life experiences shape your leadership muscle
⭐ Why building relationships over time matters more than “networking”
⭐ How to recover after a professional implosion
⭐ Why quiet seasons can be strategic
⭐ The difference between being good at something and wanting to do it
⭐ How to evaluate sustainability before saying yes

Key Insights:

Risk Tolerance Is Built Over Time:
Trying things - in sports, in startups, in life - creates the muscle to navigate uncertainty.

Identity Can Over-Attach to Work:
When roles disappear, you’re forced to separate your worth from your title.

Quiet Is Not Failure:
Taking space to reflect, heal, and reset can be the most strategic move you make.

Sustainability Matters:
Mission-driven work without a path to financial health is fragile - and leaders must ask harder questions.

Legacy Is Dual:
It’s the work you’re proud of and the love you cultivate at home.

Timestamps:

[00:00:00] – Introduction: Leading through uncertainty
[00:07:00] – Gymnastics, risk-taking, and leadership muscle
[00:18:00] – Early career, imposter syndrome, and building access
[00:25:00] – Intentional relationship-building vs. networking
[00:33:00] – Writing a personal manifesto
[00:42:00] – The implosion and identity reckoning
[00:50:00] – Asking harder questions about sustainability
[00:57:00] – The power of quiet seasons
[01:05:00] – Parenting, re-parenting, and legacy

Resources and Links:

Find host Kristin Belden on LinkedIn or at BeldenStrategies.com
Sign up for more conversations and insights at BeldenStrategies.com/newsletter

Connect with Michelle on LinkedIn

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, follow the show, and leave a review. And if you’re navigating your own transition - whether by choice or by force - join my newsletter at BeldenStrategies.com/newsletter for more conversations about leadership, resilience, and building what’s next.

What would you do if the thing you built your identity around vanished overnight?

Join me as I sit down with Channelle Charest - a former executive at a rapidly scaling, venture-backed tech company that imploded almost overnight. What followed wasn’t just a career shift. It was an identity reckoning.

Channelle and I shared that experience from the inside. We were leaders. We were deeply invested. We believed in what we were building. And then suddenly, it was gone.

This conversation isn’t about scandal. It’s about what happens after the collapse - when titles disappear, roles dissolve, and you’re left asking: Who am I without this?

We talk about tying your identity to your work, the grief of losing something you loved, the pressure to rebuild quickly, and the uncomfortable (but necessary) process of reevaluating what actually matters.

This is an honest conversation about ambition, burnout, code-switching, discipline, self-talk, and what it means to evolve - especially when evolution isn’t your choice.

You’ll Learn:

⭐ Why high achievers struggle to slow down (even when they need to)
⭐ The cost of tying your worth to performance
⭐ How to rebuild after professional loss
⭐ Why discipline can be more powerful than hustle
⭐ What legacy really means beyond achievement

Key Insights:

Identity Can Get Over-Enmeshed with Work:
When your vocation becomes your entire identity, losing it can feel like losing yourself.

Success Isn’t the Same as Alignment:
You can have impact, money, community, and influence - and still need to reevaluate who you are within it.

Discipline > Overdrive:
Growth sometimes means restraining your natural strengths instead of overusing them.

Women Code-Switch More Than They Realize:
Many female leaders feel pressure to shift identities between work and home - something men are often culturally exempt from.

Legacy Isn’t Empire-Building:
It’s laying bricks that raise the baseline for someone else.

Timestamps:

[00:00:00] – Introduction: When the thing you built disappears
[00:04:00] – Working together in a high-growth tech company
[00:08:00] – Identity, performance, and authenticity
[00:17:00] – The implosion and the grief that followed
[00:22:00] – Survival mode vs. reflection mode
[00:27:00] – Rebuilding your identity from scratch
[00:30:00] – Choosing values over prestige
[00:36:00] – Discipline, overdrive, and self-awareness
[00:44:00] – Inflection points and evolution
[01:04:00] – Redefining legacy

Resources and Links:

Find host Kristin Belden on LinkedIn or at BeldenStrategies.com
Sign up for more conversations and insights at BeldenStrategies.com/newsletter

Connect with Channelle Charest on LinkedIn

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, follow the show, and leave a review. And if you’re navigating a season of professional transition or identity shift, join my newsletter at BeldenStrategies.com/newsletter for more conversations about leadership, reinvention, and building what’s next.