Alicia Couri is the Founder and CEO of Audacious Concepts Inc., a boutique leadership firm that helps organizations boost performance by aligning action with instinct. She is a Kolbe-Certified Consultant, Predictive Index expert, TEDx speaker, and cancer survivor. Her diverse background informs her unique approach to leadership development, emphasizing not just what you think or feel, but how you instinctively act.

She is also the founder of RedCarpet CEO, a digital media and content platform dedicated to amplifying powerful voices. In this episode, Alicia shares insights on a range of critical topics, including conative intelligence, the deep insights offered by the Kolbe assessment, the pervasive issue of burnout among high performers, the cultivation of audacious confidence, and the vital role of self-advocacy in both leadership and personal health.

This conversation is a must-listen for anyone seeking to understand their innate strengths, combat professional exhaustion, and lead with authenticity and courage.

The Third Part of the Mind: What Is Conation?

The human mind is traditionally understood through two primary lenses: the cognitive, encompassing IQ, skills, and reasoning, and the affective, which covers emotional intelligence, personality, and values. However, Alicia introduces us to the crucial third part: conation. Conation represents the instinctive drive to act, the innate wiring that dictates how individuals approach problem-solving and take action when faced with unstructured situations.

It's important to differentiate conation from mere gut instinct. While gut instinct can be an impulsive, "lizard-brain" reaction, conation is a performance instinct—a consistent, natural pattern of behavior that emerges when an individual is free to act in their own way. This intrinsic force profoundly influences how we engage with tasks and challenges.

The concept of conation was extensively researched by Kathy Kolbe, inspired by Aristotle's writings on volition. Kolbe's work built upon her father's legacy, who founded the Wonderlic cognitive assessment, providing a complementary framework for understanding human potential.

"You can think about a problem, you can feel about a problem. This is how you're actually going to do the solution for the problem. That's conation."

— Alicia Couri

The Kolbe Assessment and Why It Matters for Leaders

The Kolbe A Index is a powerful 36-question assessment designed to measure an individual's innate conative strengths. It evaluates four key action modes: Fact Finder (how one gathers and shares information), Follow Through (how one organizes and works with patterns and systems), Quick Start (how one handles risk and change), and Implementation (how one interacts with tangible objects and three-dimensional space).

The results are displayed on a continuum of 1-10 across three distinct zones, providing a nuanced understanding of a person's natural inclinations. Notably, the assessment is remarkably stable, validated by over 50 years of test-retest research, indicating that these conative strengths are fundamental and unchanging aspects of one's being.

For leaders, understanding their unique conative design is transformative. It allows them to stop blindly following advice that contradicts their natural instincts, a common pitfall that often leads to burnout. By aligning their actions with their inherent strengths, leaders can operate more efficiently and sustainably, conserving their mental energy for what truly matters.

"When you're operating outside of that mental energy, it's like kindling — it burns up quickly. But if you're operating within it, it's like solid wood that takes a long time to burn, but keeps the fuel going."

— Alicia Couri

Conative Misalignment and the Burnout Epidemic

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Lauren LeMunyan is breaking down the myths of goal setting, helping leaders embody their future selves, and building psychological safety from the inside out.

This one hit different. I sat down with Lauren LeMunyan — certified master coach, CEO of Spitfire Coach, and creator of Future Self Design — and walked away with a completely new way of thinking about transformation. We talked about burnout, the fear of success, why SMART goals keep us stuck, and what it actually means to become the person you're designing yourself to be. It's a conversation about courage, self-awareness, and the kind of inner work that creates real, lasting change.

Lauren's path to coaching began in a meditation during her first coach training weekend — going through a divorce at 31, she heard a voice say 'you are the Spitfire Coach.' What followed was a decade of building a practice that now serves individuals and corporate teams alike. Future Self Design flips the script on traditional goal setting: instead of focusing on what's not working, it asks who you become on the other side — and challenges you to start embodying that person today.

The conversation also gets into psychological safety as a spectrum, the ladder of inference, why burnout is really about unmet expectations, and how community is the antidote to the isolation epidemic. Lauren is funny, direct, and deeply real — and this episode is packed with tools you can use immediately.

What We Cover

How Lauren went from a messy divorce to building a 10-year coaching practice

Why SMART goals recreate the same patterns — and what Future Self Design does differently

The fear of success: why it's more common than fear of failure, especially for women

What psychological safety actually looks like as a spectrum, not a binary

The ladder of inference and how we make up stories that aren't true

Why burnout is about unmet expectations — and how to address it at the root

The micro decisions that stack into sustainable transformation

Pull Quotes

About Lauren LeMunyan

Lauren LeMunyan is a certified master coach, speaker, and CEO of Spitfire Coach. She is the creator of Future Self Design — an ICF-approved framework and live intensive that helps leaders move beyond goal setting and into embodying the person they are becoming. She works with individuals and corporate teams on psychological safety, inner barriers, and sustainable change. She has a podcast, a YouTube channel, and multiple books. She is a military spouse, a mom, and based in Denver.

Take Action

1) Join the Future Self Design intensive at futureselfdesign.com

2) Explore free resources, the podcast, and YouTube at spitfirecoach.com

3) If you're a coach or leader, look into ICF-approved training in the Future Self Design framework — 13 CCEs

4) Follow Lauren on Instagram and LinkedIn @spitfirecoach

Connect

Website: spitfirecoach.com · futureselfdesign.com
Podcast: The Spitfire Coach Podcast
YouTube: Spitfire Coach
Instagram & LinkedIn: @spitfirecoach

#SpitfireCoach #FutureSelfDesign #LaurenLeMunyan #TogetherDigital #PowerLounge #WomenInLeadership #PsychologicalSafety #Burnout #GoalSetting #SelfAwareness #Coaching #TransformationalLeadership #WomenWhoLead

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Welcome to this week’s episode of The Power Lounge, where authentic conversations reveal the real power behind the stories of remarkable women in business. Hosted by Amy Vaughan, chief empowerment officer at Together Digital, today’s episode dives deep into the often-overlooked gap between women’s contributions in B2B sales and how they’re actually recognized, compensated, and promoted.

Our guest, Lori Richardson, founder of Score More Sales and president of Women Sales Pros, joins us to share her journey from a young, single mother entering tech sales in the 1980s to a force for change in the industry. Lori is also the award-winning host of Conversations with Women in Sales and author of She Sells, a guide for leaders to recruit, retain, and elevate women in sales and leadership—not just women, but their allies, too.

In this episode, Amy Vaughan and Lori Richardson tackle the reality of pay inequity, negotiation tactics, mentorship versus sponsorship, the impact of AI on sales roles, and why “sales skills are life skills.” Lori shares insights from her Sales Decades Project, honoring female trailblazers, and offers practical advice for leaders and women aspiring to grow in sales.

Get ready for candid stories, practical wisdom, and inspiration to help you ask for what you deserve, build your influence, and climb higher—together.

Key Takeaways
From Challenge to Champion
Sales Skills = Life Skills
Beyond the Paycheck—Ask for What You Deserve
Mentors and Sponsors Matter
Strategic Volunteering Wins
The Power of Allies
Celebrate Progress, Keep Climbing

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:10 "Women in B2B Sales"
05:50 "Turning Point After Struggles"
09:38 "Sales Skills Are Life Skills"
12:21 "Find Good Leaders, Equality Matters"
15:48 Women Underrepresented in Sales Leadership
17:16 Gender Pay Disparity Insights
20:14 "Ask, Receive, $60,000 Raise"
26:04 Mentorship vs. Sponsorship Insights
28:42 "Proactive Self-Promotion at Work"
31:58 "Anger Inspires Sales Role Models"
34:27 "Turning Anger into Opportunity"
38:08 Unpaid Labor and Workplace Inequity
41:46 "Temporary Leadership and Growth"
44:12 Women, Sales, and Adapting to AI
49:13 "Al Martin: Pacing Sales Guru"
50:45 "Strategic Negotiation Pays Off"
53:12 "Join Together Digital Community"
53:48 - Outro

Quotes
“Celebrate your wins, share your power, and don’t hold back from asking for what you deserve—because when one of us wins, we all win.”- Amy Vaughan

“Go where you’re celebrated, not tolerated. Be strategic, be visible, and always negotiate for your value—because being seen starts with you showing up.”- Lori Richardson

Connect with Lori Richardson
Website: https://www.scoremoresales.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scoremoresales/

Call To Action:
Attend the Sales Decades Event
Interested in attending the Sales Decades Project event in Dallas?
Reference this episode for an extended early bird price!

📅 April 22nd – Reception (recognizing nominees)
📅 April 23rd – Day of learning (sales, leadership, mentorship)
📍 University of Texas Dallas, Sales Excellence Program

Details available via Score More Sales Website or connect directly with Lori via LinkedIn.

Connect with the host Amy Vaughan:
LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/amypvaughan
Podcast:https://www.togetherindigital.com/podcast/

Learn more about Together Digital and consider joining the movement by vis

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