🎧 Episode 16: Power Leaks You see the shadows. You understand the masks. But you're still exhausted. Why? Power leaks—the invisible drains on your time, energy, and money that compound daily. The yes you gave without thinking that turns into weeks of regret. The offer you priced too low that leaves you resentful. The conversations that circle endlessly because you're managing emotions instead of moving the business forward.

The research is staggering:

• Gallup: Women leaders are 1.7x more likely to carry invisible labor loads

• McKinsey: Women spend 200 extra hours per year on non-promotable tasks

• Stanford: Energy leaks cause slower growth, higher stress, and burnout

• Harvard: The "hidden tax of entrepreneurship"—undercharging, overgiving, overworking

The 7 Most Expensive Power Leaks:

1. Client overgiving (unpaid labor disguised as service)
2. Underpricing (steady erosion of revenue and confidence)
3. Team drama (management energy instead of strategy)
4. Calendar chaos (reactive instead of innovative)
5. Invisible labor (default organizer, mediator, emotional support)
6. Perfectionism (delayed launches, missed opportunities)
7. Boundary violations (constant availability = burnout)

Each leak feels small in the moment. But compounded over a year? They create an invisible tax that quietly caps your growth.

Your Power Leak Audit: Where do you end the day feeling resentful? What yes do you already regret? How many hours weekly are you spending outside your zone of genius? You don't need more discipline. You need to stop leaking power in the first place.

Ready to plug the leaks permanently? Take the Identity Mask Quiz and discover which patterns are draining your power.

Burnout isn't the root cause—it's just the smoke. The fire underneath? Your identity shadows. The parts of you still running old programming, still chasing approval from the wrong people, still carrying "shoulds" that were never yours. You can fix your calendar, systems, even your client roster. But if you don't deal with the shadows underneath, they'll recreate the same exhaustion in a new form. Jennifer's wake-up call: apologizing for charging the exact rate she had quoted. That's when she realized—this isn't leadership, this is shadow management. The research is stark:

• 95% of decisions come from subconscious programming, not conscious strategy
• 89% of executive burnout comes from identity misalignment, not workload
• "Good girl" programming leads to 43% lower lifetime earnings
• Entrepreneurs who don't address shadow patterns are 3.2x more likely to experience chronic burnout

The 5 shadows running your business:

• Good Girl CEO (says yes to everything, undercharges 34% below market) • Overachiever (burnout disguised as success, stuck at earning ceiling) • Martyr (exhaustion as badge of honor, gives premium work for free) • Chameleon (adapts to everyone, can't charge premium rates) • Perfectionist (nothing's ready to launch, missed opportunities) Each shadow feels like it's helping you succeed, but they're actually draining energy, sabotaging vision, and keeping you tied to rules you never agreed to.

Ready to discover which identity mask is secretly running your business decisions? Take the free Identity Mask Quiz and step into the leader who integrates her shadows instead of being controlled by them.

Burnout doesn't arrive with flashing lights or dramatic collapse. It sneaks in quietly through endless "yes" to misaligned projects, late nights you call "just this quarter," and the mask of "I've got this handled" when your business is actually running you. Here's the brutal truth: Burnout isn't just exhaustion—it's misalignment. It's what happens when you're succeeding by someone else's definition instead of your own.

Jennifer's wake-up call came during a client strategy session. She was giving brilliant advice—set boundaries, focus on your zone of genius, charge what you're worth—when she realized she wasn't following a single piece of her own guidance.

The research is staggering: • Entrepreneurs report burnout 72% more often than employees • 42% of women leaders feel burned out (vs. 35% of men) • Burned out entrepreneurs generate 23% lower revenue over three years • Recovery takes 18 months without intervention

The hidden patterns: • Over-delivery trap (saying yes to every request outside scope) • Control everything syndrome (refusing help because "no one can do it like me") • Calendar stuffing (mistaking busy for productive) • Invisible labor load (managing everyone else's emotions) These look like productivity but they're burnout in disguise.

Your burnout audit: Where are you exhausted? Where are you resentful? Where are you unfulfilled? That's not proof you're broken—it's a map showing exactly where your business needs to shift.

Ready to discover which identity mask is driving your burnout patterns? Take the free Identity Mask Quiz and step into the leader who builds from alignment, not exhaustion.