Hey Leader,
A few weeks ago, Dina, a VP of Demand Gen at Mission, a CDW company, pinged me on Slack with a line that made me stop mid‑typing:
If you’ve ever ended the day feeling like someone wrung out your brain like a sponge, you know exactly why I froze. 🥶
Because this is the same woman who used to start her mornings already underwater:
Scrolling social first thing
Reacting to every ding
Sprinting into back‑to‑back meetings with zero breathing room
By 7:30pm she felt like a zombie.
That message wasn’t about finishing early. That was a proof point, the quiet kind that tells you someone is leading from the level they were hired for.
In The Elevate Lab, we focused on the shifts that made this possible:
Building a shutdown ritual so she could end the day without chaos and step into the next morning already grounded.
Protecting her mornings and not checking social media first thing, so she wasn’t starting the day in reaction mode.
Coaching her team to take the strategic lead so she wasn’t the default brain behind everything.
When these shifts added up, the way she led started to feel completely different.
She stopped leading from the version of herself that got rewarded for fixing… and started leading from the version her VP role actually requires.
After that Slack message, she handed off the entire OKR planning to her team. Not because she couldn’t do it, but because she understood she shouldn’t.
If this made you think, “I need that,” reply I’m in and tell me what your version of a 9:30am win would look like.
Lead boldly, live fully, & don’t forget to breathe.
In your corner,
Scroll-Stoppers
This week’s most valuable scroll-worthy stuff, from tools to truth bombs!
The science behind why bad sleep wrecks your decision‑making. Poor sleep patterns are now linked to 172 different diseases (yes, really), and chronic reactivity at work is one of the biggest culprits.
Why “fixer mode” keeps women leaders stuck in the weeds. When you’re the go‑to problem‑solver, you lose the space your VP‑level brain needs to think, plan, and lead.
A 3-minute morning reset to get out of reaction mode. A simple practice to ground yourself before the day starts, so you’re leading instead of reacting.
Try This Today
Shifts you can make this week to get out of fixer mode.
Hand off one thing you’ve been holding.
If you’ve been carrying the planning, the prep, or the follow‑through, pick one piece and let your team take it from here.
Protect the first 30 minutes of your morning.
No scrolling, no scrambling. Give yourself the breathing room that turned Dina’s reactive mornings into strategic ones.
End your day on purpose, not by collapse.
Close your laptop with a quick shutdown ritual: name what matters tomorrow and what can wait.
Mini Interview
Interviews I recorded with women leaders at CultureCon who are redefining what leadership can feel like.
Claude Silver, Chief Heart Officer at VaynerX
Q: How would you explain your job to a 4-year-old?
I get to listen to people every day, make them happy, + make their heart feel full.
Q: What do you wish more women knew?
You are worthy. You are enough. You are loved. And you are love.
Claude doesn’t just talk about heart-centered leadership, she lives it.
Dance parties with her kids, grounding rituals, creating cultures of optimism and belonging… she carries herself with a steadiness you can feel.
A reminder that you can lead with impact without absorbing everyone else’s emotions.
Your Power Reframe
Because what you believe shapes how you live & lead.
This Sparked Something
Little joys, leadership sparks, & random things we’re loving this week!
Writing ritual unlocked. I got a new journal for my book and finally built a real start-and-stop writing ritual. It’s a lot like my shutdown ritual, it pulls me into book writing and lets me step out of it without carrying all the mental residue. ~Alli
Philippines trivia time. We don’t celebrate Thanksgiving here, but my family still joined in, and turkey is so rare in the Philippines that I’ve actually never tried it 😅 ~Pau
Thanksgiving twist. TJ and I were supposed to host this year, but after hosting Friendsgiving last week, someone offered to take Thanksgiving off our plate. We said yes without the usual “I should…” guilt spiral, and choosing ease felt awesome 🙂 ~Alli