I build organizations that perform through change.

For more than two decades, I’ve led and advised executive teams at Twitter, Lincoln Center, GLG, Verizon Media, Bloomberg, Deutsche Bank, and McKinsey on how to align people, strategy, and systems so that transformation doesn’t just start —it sticks.

My work sits at the intersection of HR, organizational design, and leadership behavior. I help CEOs, CHROs, and functional leaders architect operating models that accelerate performance, strengthen culture, and enable scale without chaos.

Through Leadership Rewired, I’ve worked with growth-stage and enterprise organizations to translate strategy into action, rebuild leadership alignment, and embed accountability where it matters most—at the behavioral level.

Whether leading from within or advising from the outside, my focus stays the same: clarity over complexity, systems over silos, and people at the center of every decision.

Specialties: Organizational Design | HR Transformation | Talent Strategy | Leadership Alignment | Change Enablement | People Analytics | Culture & Engagement | Executive Coaching

Allison Allen, ACC

Leadership doesn’t fail because people don’t know what to do.
It fails because the hardest behaviors are rarely practiced.

Listening.
Curiosity.
Genuine interest in other people.

We treat these like instincts, but they’re skills.
And skills don’t show up under pressure unless they’ve been trained.

In this clip from Leadership Rewired, Ken Fogarty MSc, CPSL, CEO, Dale Carnegie of Nevada, names the uncomfortable truth behind most leadership breakdowns:

Common sense leadership isn’t common practice.

🚩 Especially when conversations are tense.
🚩 Especially when stakes are high.
🚩 Especially when authority would be easier than curiosity.

Leaders don’t rise to intention in hard moments.
They fall back on what they’ve practiced.

🎙️ Ask, Don’t Tell: How Great Leaders Get Better Results
Full episode below in comments.

📌 Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
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Transforming Organizations Through People, Culture & Systems | HR & Talent Executive | Advisor to CEOs, CHROs & Growth Leaders | Founder, Leadership Rewired | Ex-Twitter, Expedia, GLG, Verizon Media, McKinsey

A regulated leader is a high-performing leader.

Calm is capacity.
Calm is clarity.
Calm is strategy.

You’ve seen it.
The leader who walks into the crisis and the room exhales,
not because they have all the answers,
but because their nervous system isn’t adding to the chaos.

They don’t need perfect information.
They just need enough regulation to think clearly
while everyone else is spinning.

High performance isn’t speed or intelligence.
It’s psychological capacity under pressure.

Consider this...
→ 71% of leaders report increased stress.
→ Stress management practices reduce burnout by nearly 2x.
→ Leaders with emotional regulation skills outperform their peers in every measure that matters...
→ execution, influence, decision-making, and team effectiveness.

Yet most leaders still treat regulation as a “nice-to-have.”
Something for wellness newsletters.
Something useful when things are calm, 
then abandoned the moment pressure hits.

Here’s what they’re missing:
→ Regulation isn’t what you do when pressure is low.
→ It’s what gives you capacity when pressure is high.

The cost of unregulated leadership:
🚩 When leaders lose capacity under pressure:
→ Panic narrows thinking — the solution becomes obvious only in hindsight
→ Decisions soothe anxiety instead of advancing strategy
→ Teams waste energy managing your emotional spikes
→ Reactivity becomes the operating system others must work around

What regulated leadership creates:
✅ When leaders stay grounded:
→ Thinking expands, you see options panic would hide
→ Strategy drives decisions instead of emotion
→ People bring you information early because they trust your steadiness
→ Teams stay focused on execution, not emotional cleanup

The pattern high-performing leaders understand:
→ Pressure doesn’t disappear.
→ Complexity doesn’t calm down.
→ Uncertainty doesn’t resolve.

What changes is your capacity to stay regulated inside all of it.

✅ The leader who can sit in a boardroom full of anxiety and not absorb it?
→ That’s who the board trusts with the hardest calls.
✅ The leader who can hear bad news without spiraling?
→ That’s who teams bring problems to before they explode.
✅ The leader who can feel the discomfort of the decision and make it anyway?
→ That’s who actually transforms organizations.

The compound effect:
Your regulation becomes your team’s capacity.

When you stay steady, they think more clearly.
When you stay grounded, they stop managing your emotions.
When you model composure, they learn how to navigate pressure themselves.

This isn’t “soft skills.”
This is organizational performance architecture.

Calm isn’t the absence of pressure.
Calm is having access to your full strategic intelligence
when pressure is highest.

👉🏾 How would your leadership change if you had full access to your strategic capacity, even under pressure?

📌 Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
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If you can’t do everything next week, 
choose the thing that will move anything.

Sunday night.
The week ahead is already too full.
The priorities are competing.
The urgent is screaming.
The important is shrinking into the background.

So here’s the question that cuts through all of it:
❓ What’s the one thing you could do next week that would unstick something else?

Not the biggest thing.
Not the loudest thing.
Not the thing that makes you look productive.
The thing that creates movement.

Here’s what I mean:
→ The conversation you’ve been avoiding that’s blocking three other decisions
→ The email you need to send that would clarify direction for your whole team
→ The 30 minutes of thinking that would save you an hour every day
→ The boundary you’ve been delaying that would protect your capacity

You already know what it is.
You’ve been circling it all week.

For the week ahead, try this:
Before you dive into Monday’s chaos, identify your one unlocking move —
the single action that, if you did it, would make everything else easier or unnecessary.

Not your whole to-do list.
Not your full list of priorities.
Just your unlock.

Then protect it like your most important meeting.
Because it is.

The difference between leaders who create momentum and leaders who manage overwhelm?
→ They don’t try to do everything.
→ They do the thing that moves anything.

And here’s what compounds:
When you consistently identify and execute your weekly unlock... 
 ✅ You stop drowning in tactics.
 ✅ You start seeing the levers that actually matter.
 ✅ You build the muscle of strategic action, not just strategic thinking.

Next week doesn’t have to be perfect.
It just has to move.

Your Sunday Practice:
What’s one thing you could do next week that would unstick something else?
→ Write it down.
→ Block time for it on Monday.
→ Do it before anything that feels more urgent.
 ✅ That’s your week.

👉🏾 What’s your unlock for this week, the one move that would create momentum for everything else?

📌 Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
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Sometimes I wonder if we’ve got leadership backwards.

We chase development like it’s a fix,
more training, 
better frameworks, 
sharper models. 

As if clarity only comes once everything is perfectly defined.

But real leadership doesn’t happen in the polished moments.

It happens in the messy ones. 
The uncertain ones. 
The days when you’re not sure if you’re doing it right.

Building resilient cultures during change isn’t about avoiding chaos.

It’s about staying present inside it. 
Letting disruption teach you instead of rushing to control it.

I’ll be honest, there are moments when leadership feels like translating strategy into action without a clear map. 

When you’re making calls with imperfect information
and trusting your judgment more than your certainty.

And maybe that’s the work.

Leaders who are willing... 
To ask questions. 
To stumble a little. 

To admit they don’t have all the answers, but stay engaged anyway.

So if you’re feeling a bit lost today, you’re not behind.

You’re in it.

And sometimes, that’s exactly where growth happens.

📌 Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
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We’re entering a world where everyone is certain, and many are wrong.

AI tells us the “truth.”
Data reinforces our beliefs.
Opinions are louder than ever.

And that’s exactly why the most important leadership skill of the future isn’t intelligence.

It’s humility.

In this clip, Ken Fogarty MSc, CPSL, CEO of Dale Carnegie of Nevada, names a principle leaders rarely practice:

If you’re wrong, admit it — quickly and emphatically.

Imagine how different teams, organizations, and cultures would feel if leaders were willing to say:

 “I was wrong.”
 “Here’s what I missed.”
 “I’m changing my mind.”

That’s not weakness.
That’s credibility.

🎙️ Ask, Don’t Tell: How Great Leaders Get Better Results
Full episode below in comments.

📌 Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
♻️ Please repost if this resonates and follow for more leadership insights.

Exhaustion makes every leader reactive.
I watched it happen in real time once.

A client — brilliant strategist, 15 years building the company, universally respected.

She called me because “something felt off.”
〰️ Her leadership wasn’t landing. 
〰️ Her team felt distant. 
〰️ Her decisions felt heavier.

She kept talking about the transformation, the pressure, the board expectations, the market demands.

After an hour, I asked one question:
“When’s the last time you slept more than five hours?”

She went silent.
She couldn’t remember.

And in that moment, it was clear:
The issue wasn’t her capability.
It was her capacity.

She’d been operating on fumes for so long that depletion became her normal.
She forgot what it felt like to lead from a full tank.

Here’s what I’ve noticed after twenty years with leaders:
Exhaustion doesn’t show up with a dramatic collapse.

It shows up in a thousand micro-reactions:
→ The midnight email that creates problems you didn’t intend
→ The meeting where your tone lands sharper than you meant
→ The decision you rush because uncertainty feels unbearable
→ The strategic conversation you can’t think clearly through because your brain simply has nothing left to give

None of these moments feel connected.
You tell yourself it’s a bad day. 
A tough week. 
A heavy quarter.

🚩 But your team?
→ They see the pattern long before you do.
→ They start managing you instead of trusting you.
→ They adjust their behavior to your exhaustion.
→ They work around you instead of with you.
And exhaustion compounds.

👉🏾 Reactive leadership creates messes that generate more pressure.

What helped that client wasn’t more strategy.
It was one question:
“What would it take for you to lead from capacity instead of depletion?”
✅ She blocked three days.
→ No email.
→ No Slack.
→ No “quick check-ins.”
→ Just space.

When she came back, she said:
“I didn’t realize how reactive I’d become until I had enough rest to feel what regulated actually feels like.”

Her team noticed before she even told them.
Not because she changed her strategy —
but because she stopped leaking instability into the system.

If something feels off this weekend…
→ Maybe it’s not your strategy.
→ Maybe it’s not your team.
→ Maybe it’s not the transformation.
→ Maybe it’s your capacity calling for protection.

The work will still be there on Monday.
The pressure isn’t leaving.
The complexity isn’t easing.
But your ability to lead through all of it?
That depends on a nervous system that isn’t running on fumes.

Weekend Reflection:
What would change if you gave yourself permission to rest, not as a reward for finishing everything, but as the foundation that makes your leadership sustainable?

📌 Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
♻️ Please repost if this resonates and follow for more leadership insights.

Sunday night. You’re looking at the week ahead and it’s already overflowing,
 → back-to-back meetings,
→ strategic decisions, 
→ team dynamics, 
→ fires to put out, 
→ problems waiting for your brain.

All of it matters. None of it works if you show up depleted.

👉🏾 You can’t think strategically when your nervous system is running on fumes. 👉🏾 You can’t regulate your responses when you’re already overstretched. 👉🏾 You can’t hold the room when you can barely hold yourself.

The week doesn’t need your exhaustion. It needs your capacity.

For the week ahead, try this:
→ Identify the 10 minutes that protects everything else.

Not the 10 minutes you hope you’ll find. The 10 minutes you will actually protect even when the week goes sideways.

For some leaders, it’s 10 minutes before the day begins to ground themselves. For others, it’s 10 minutes between meetings to reset their nervous system. For some, it’s 10 minutes at day’s end to process before going home.

It doesn’t matter when. It matters that you protect it like your most critical meeting. Because it is.

Why 10 minutes matters:
Not because 10 minutes fixes everything, but because 10 minutes of protected space changes everything downstream.

→ It’s the pause that lets you respond instead of react. → The reset that keeps stress from compounding into impatience or reactivity. → The quiet moment that prevents your team from absorbing pressure you haven’t processed yet.

Ten minutes sounds small. But it’s a leadership leverage point, a tiny hinge that moves the entire week.

🚩 Leaders who don’t protect capacity:
* Leak stress into every interaction
* Make reactive decisions they undo later
* Burn out teams trying to compensate for their depletion
* Lose clarity by Tuesday and momentum by Thursday

✅ Leaders who do protect capacity:
* Think more clearly
* Regulate better under pressure
* Make decisions from strategy, not stress
* Build environments where teams can do their best work

The difference isn’t working less. It’s protecting the space that makes the work sustainable.

Your Sunday practice:
What are the 10 minutes you will protect this week, the space that keeps you leading from capacity instead of depletion?

→ Write it down. → Block it on your calendar. → Protect it like a board meeting.

Because how you lead next week depends on it.

👉🏾 What’s your 10 minutes this week and when exactly will you protect it?

♻️ Repost to promote taking 10 minutes…
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Consistency is a strategy. 
Intensity is a gamble.

The leader who works 80-hour weeks for six months and then burns out.
The team that launches three major initiatives at once, then abandons two.
The executive who’s “all in” until the pressure hits, then disappears.

This isn’t commitment.
It’s unsustainable theater.

Long-term leadership isn’t built on heroic sprints.
It’s built on small, compounding decisions most people never see.

Transformations rarely fail because the strategy was wrong.
They fail because leaders can’t sustain the consistency required.

These efforts are “punishing in their relentless need for consistency, consistency, consistency on the part of leadership.”

Yet intensity gets the applause.
Consistency gets ignored.

We glorify the late nights.
We praise the “whatever it takes” mentality.
We mistake exhaustion for dedication.

But the math doesn’t lie:
Intensity burns out.
Consistency compounds.

What intensity-driven leadership actually creates:
🚩 The intensity trap:
→ Unsustainable patterns that guarantee burnout
→ Teams that sprint, crash, and disengage
→ Results that spike briefly and then crater
→ Cultures built on crisis mode instead of capability

What consistency-driven leadership builds:
✅ The compounding effect:
→ Sustainable practices that grow over years
→ Teams that deliver reliably, not heroically
→ Trust rooted in predictable follow-through
→ Systems that outlive individual effort

The truth about long-term impact:
A leader who shows up at 80% for ten years
will outperform a leader who shows up at 120% for eighteen months
every single time.

Because leadership isn’t about how hard you push today.
It’s about whether your team can count on you to show up
tomorrow, next month, and five years from now.

The best leaders aren’t the weekend warriors trying to prove commitment.
They’re the ones... 
✅ Who build systems that don’t require heroics.
✅ Who create rhythms they can sustain.
✅ Who understand that presence beats performance theater.

Intensity is impressive.
Consistency is rare.

And in a world addicted to hustle culture,
the ability to show up steadily, not spectacularly,
becomes your competitive advantage.

Your team doesn’t need you to be extraordinary for a quarter.
They need you to be reliable for a decade.

That’s not less ambitious.
It’s just harder to Instagram.

👉🏾 Are you building leadership that compounds, or burning intensity you can’t sustain?

📌 Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
♻️ Please repost if this resonates and follow for more leadership insights.

You know what needs to happen.
The strategic move is obvious.
The direction is clear.
The data supports it.
Your experience confirms it.

So why isn’t it happening?

Because between knowing what to do
and actually doing it sits the hardest part of leadership:

Managing yourself.

Your strategy isn’t the problem.
The emotional discipline to execute it is.

Organizations spend millions on strategy, consultants, frameworks, offsites, planning cycles, alignment sessions.
But execution stalls for one simple reason:

Doing what the strategy requires feels emotionally uncomfortable.

Research shows emotional intelligence accounts for twice as much impact 
as IQ and technical skill in leadership effectiveness.

Yet most development dollars still go into strategic tools, 
not emotional discipline.

Most strategy failures aren’t strategy failures.
They’re self-management failures.

What happens when emotional discipline is missing:
🚩 The avoidance pattern:
→ The conversation needs to happen 
      ↳conflict feels unbearable → delay
→ The decision needs to be made 
      ↳uncertainty feels dangerous → wait for more data
→ The accountability moment arrives 
      ↳disappointing someone feels costly → soften it
→ The boundary needs protecting 
      ↳saying no triggers fear → say yes

What emotional discipline enables:
✅ Courage-based execution:
→ Having the hard conversation even when your stomach tightens
→ Making the call with 70% clarity because waiting costs more
→ Holding people accountable even when the relationship strains
→ Saying no to protect what matters, not to avoid discomfort

This has nothing to do with intelligence.
And everything to do with your willingness to tolerate discomfort long enough to lead.

The leaders who break through aren’t the ones with better strategies.
✅ They’re the ones who’ve built the emotional discipline to execute strategy
when execution feels terrible.
✅ They can recognize the spike of anxiety and not let it veto the decision.
✅ They can feel the discomfort of the hard conversation and have it anyway.
✅ They can sit inside uncertainty without manufacturing false clarity to soothe themselves.

That’s not a strategy skill.
That’s self-management.
And it’s the difference between leaders who are smart
and leaders who are effective.

Your team doesn’t need another strategic framework.
They need you to manage yourself well enough to execute the one you already have.

👉🏾 What strategic move are you avoiding right now, not because you don’t know what to do, but because doing it feels too uncomfortable?

📌 Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
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I used to think leadership was about control.
 Making sure decisions were tight. Execution was clean. 
People stayed in line.

What I’ve learned is that control creates compliance, not commitment.

Real leadership is influence. It’s built through trust. 
Through consistency. 
Through creating space where people don’t have to perform to belong.

That kind of leadership asks something harder of you.
 It asks you… 
→ To admit when you don’t have all the answers. → To stay present instead of defensive. → To lead without gripping everything so tightly.

And yes, that can feel terrifying. Because influence requires letting go of control.

But here’s what surprised me: ✅ The less I tried to control outcomes, 
✅ The more people stepped up. ✅ The more honest the conversations became. ✅ The more movement actually happened.
Influence isn’t softer than control.
 It’s stronger, and more sustainable.

And maybe, especially right now, that’s the kind of leadership that actually moves things forward.

📌 Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
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graphical user interface, text, application

Your biggest competitive advantage isn’t speed, capital, or strategy.
It’s whether you can stay steady when pressure spikes.

Imagine this:
→ A competitor launches something disruptive. 
→ The board starts asking questions. The team gets anxious. Slack lights up. → Everyone wants a fast response.
→ Most leaders reach for activity, more meetings, faster decisions, louder communication.

But the leaders who outperform don’t move faster.
They move steadier.

That steadiness? Emotional endurance.

Strategy doesn’t fail in moments of disruption.
It fails when leaders lose the capacity to think clearly through disruption.

Here’s what I see over and over:
Two organizations face the same pressure.
Same data. Same market. Same urgency.

One spirals into reactive decisions and mixed signals.
The other holds the line, adapts intelligently, and compounds trust.
The difference isn’t intelligence.
It’s endurance.

🚩 What low endurance looks like:
→ Urgency replaces strategy
→ Anxiety drives decisions
→ Teams spend energy managing leadership stress
→ “Agility” becomes chaos

✅ What high endurance enables:
→ Clear thinking under pressure
→ Consistent decisions even when uncertainty rises
→ Teams that execute instead of brace
→ Strategy that survives contact with reality

Here’s the part most leaders miss:
Emotional endurance isn’t built during crises.
It’s built before them, in small, repeatable ways.

Not retreats. Not apps. Not slogans.
But things like:
→ Protecting a small, daily reset that keeps you regulated
→ Naming pressure early so it doesn’t leak into behavior
→ Designing your operating rhythm to reduce decision fatigue

That’s not self-care.
That’s leadership architecture.

Because when pressure hits, and it will,
your team doesn’t need you faster.
They need you steadier.

👉🏾 As you head into the weekend:
What would change if you treated emotional endurance as a strategic asset, 
not a personal nice-to-have?

📌 Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
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I used to think culture was something you could shape with policies and programs.
 Put the right structures in place, and culture would follow.

What I’ve learned is that culture refuses to be engineered.
👉🏾 It lives in the stories people tell themselves. 👉🏾 The unspoken rules no one writes down. 👉🏾 The way leaders show up when no one’s watching.

And here’s the thing most leaders miss: culture isn’t static. It’s alive. 
Constantly shifting. 
Trying to control it is like trying to hold water.

So maybe the work isn’t about tightening the grip. Maybe it’s about creating space
→ for the stories to be told, 
→ for the unspoken to surface, 
→ for people to feel safe enough to be honest.

Culture isn’t built in policies. It’s built in everyday moments, 
→ how decisions are made, 
→ how conflict is handled, 
→ how people are treated when things get uncomfortable.

I’m still learning this myself.
 But I do know that real change doesn’t come from cleaning up the mess.

It comes from getting comfortable enough to stay present inside it.

📌 Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
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You can’t out-strategize emotional dysregulation.

Your transformation plan is brilliant.
The roadmap is clear.
The communications are crisp.
The milestones are defined.
Then the first obstacle hits.

Suddenly:
💥 A late-night email reverses yesterday’s decision.
💥 An emergency meeting creates more questions than answers.
💥 Priorities shift, not from strategy, but from panic.

A system can’t work when the leader running it is reactive.
When anxiety makes decisions, strategy becomes optional.

70% of change initiatives fail.
Leaders blame strategy, resources, or timing.
But here’s the truth behind the failure rate:
The plan didn’t collapse; the leader did.

73% of employees report moderate to high stress during change.
Employees experiencing change-related stress perform 5% worse.
But the real cost isn’t the team’s stress, it’s how leaders respond to their own.

When leaders can’t regulate themselves under pressure, they create:
→ Chaos their teams must absorb
→ Confusion that erodes trust
→ Whiplash pivots that look like incompetence
→ A culture where everyone manages emotions instead of executing strategy

What reactive leadership looks like during change:
🚩 When leaders lose regulation:
→ Monday’s priority becomes Friday’s “why are we even doing this?”
→ Anxiety gets translated into false urgency
→ Every problem triggers a meeting → every meeting triggers three more problems
→ Strategic pivots happen weekly because uncertainty feels unbearable

👉🏾 Teams manage the leader’s emotions instead of the organization’s change

What regulated leadership enables:
✅ When leaders stay grounded:
→ Decisions hold steady even when pressure spikes
→ Anxiety exists, but doesn’t drive strategy
→ Problems get solved without organizational chaos
→ Uncertainty is acknowledged without forcing premature answers

👉🏾 Teams stay focused on execution, not emotional cleanup

What most leaders miss:
→ Emotional regulation isn’t about staying calm.
→ It’s about staying strategic when your nervous system wants to run.
→ It’s noticing the spike of panic and refusing to turn it into policy.

✅ The leader who can feel uncertainty and still hold the line?
→ That’s who teams trust through transformation.
→ The leader who needs to “do something” to soothe their discomfort?
→ That’s how change turns into theater, not progress.

Stress management practices reduce burnout by nearly 2x.

👉🏾 Leaders who build emotional discipline create the only environment where change can actually land.

And this is the real reason 70% of change efforts fail:
Not because the plan was wrong.
But because the leader couldn’t stay regulated long enough to execute it.

👉🏾 What change are you leading right now, and how are you managing your own stress so it doesn’t become your team’s strategy?

📌 Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
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Unexpressed stress becomes unintentional harm.
Leaders leak what they don’t address.

You think you’re hiding it.
You think the team can’t tell.
You think if you just “get through the meeting,” no one will notice.

They notice.
They always notice.

Unexpressed stress doesn’t disappear.
It seeps, into tone, decisions, silence, timing, and presence.

Teams absorb what leaders won’t acknowledge.

What I’m noticing:
→ 71% of leaders report increased stress.
→ Only 29% of employees trust their immediate managers.
→ Employees with supportive managers are 11x more likely to trust their leaders.

Leaders are drowning in unspoken stress.
Teams are losing trust without knowing why.

Because stress you refuse to name doesn’t stay contained, 
it leaks into leadership in ways you can’t control.

What unexpressed stress actually looks like:
🚩 How unaddressed stress harms teams:
→ Anxiety: confusion (teams assume they caused it)
→ Irritability: vigilance (people manage mood, not work)
→ Withdrawal: isolation (silence feels like punishment)
→ Perfectionism: paralysis (fear trickles down and freezes initiative)

What acknowledged stress creates:
✅ When leaders name what they’re carrying:
→ Transparency builds trust: “Here’s what I’m managing — not your performance.”
→ Humanity spreads: teams feel permission to show up honestly
→ Clarity returns: they stop interpreting tension as failure
→ Culture shifts: problems get named instead of navigated around

What actually helps:
Leaders don’t need to process stress publicly.
But they do need enough transparency to remove misinterpretation.

Statements like:
✅ “I’m managing a lot right now. If I seem distracted, that’s me, not your performance.”
✅ “I’m under more pressure than usual this week. I’ll do my best not to let it spill over.”
✅ “My bandwidth is tighter than normal. Here’s why, and here’s what you can expect.”

That’s not oversharing.
That’s leadership that understands the cost of silence.

Stress is personal.
Its impact is not.

The moment you lead people, your inner state becomes an outer experience.

When you won’t name what you’re carrying, your team carries it for you, without context, without support, and without knowing it’s not about them.

✅ Leaders who create psychological safety through transparency 
build trust that survives pressure.
🛑 Leaders who hide their stress create cultures where everyone performs invulnerability until something breaks.

👉🏾 What stress are you carrying that your team is absorbing, and what would change if you simply named it?

📌 Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
♻️ Please repost if this resonates and follow for more leadership insights.

LinkedIn should make you money, not drain your time. I turn CEOs into the most trusted voice in their market, FAST, with only 1 hour per week. | Top 1% LinkedIn Storyteller | CEO of Storytold

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If you’re tired of posting and getting nothing…

If you want LinkedIn to actually bring in clients…

If you want to look, sound, and perform like the expert you already are…

Book a call with us:   →  cal.com/storytold

Let’s get your story told.

Jack Dyer🕺

Yesterday, I had 7 calls booked.
Only 1 person showed up.



6 people just ghosted, despite several confirmation emails.

My afternoon was blocked out,
and the time waiting felt wasted.

But what annoyed me most, was
that every no-show took up a slot
that someone else truly needed.


I do these free 20-minute calls to HELP people.


- Not as a funnel.
- Not for lead gen.
- Not a sales tactic.

I do them because I remember
what it felt like to be a CEO who
didn’t know where to turn for help.


→ who felt invisible online…

→ who was embarrassed to ask for help…

→ who thinks everyone else has it figured out.

→ who didn’t know what they were doing wrong…


By booking a call and not appearing,
these people didn’t just waste my time.

They actually stole an opportunity
from someone who’s struggling,
and now can’t book in.

Someone who needs clarity.
Someone who needs direction.
Someone who’s been stuck for
months posting into the void.

Someone who could’ve had the slot.
🤬🤬🤬 (and I never use this emoji)


It’s SO EASY, barely a few seconds,
to message and say “I can’t make it.”
So I can open the slot to others.

I get it, life happens. Traffic happens.
Kids happen. Emergencies happen.

But respect is still free.

I ended up wrapping Christmas
presents during the empty slots
so it saved time this weekend…

but I kept thinking about the
people who actually needed
me, that I had to turn away.



So here’s my ask, as we head
into the season of goodwill:

→ If you book a call… show up.
→ If you can’t show up… say so.
→ If you need to reschedule… do.
→ If you no longer need the help…

Cancel, and free the slot
for someone who does.

Rant over.


If you’re giving and giving to LinkedIn
but not getting anything back, drop
me a message or book in a free call
(as long as you show up)!

Chat to me. No agenda, just a friend.
And I’ll help you get your story told.

Burnout isn’t sexy. 




For the last 4 weekends, I’ve been:

- attending business shows in London
- going to public speaking events
- travelling across the UK for work
- running workshops to help others

On top of that, I’ve been working
12 hour days for 5 days a week. 

Which means I haven’t had a 
day off to rest in over a month. 


And y’know what? 


I’m an idiot. 


Because if I want to perform at my best
during the week, I need some downtime!

Humans aren’t designed to run on empty.
We need days off.


So today, I’m not travelling, I’m sat at home 
with my feet up and actually letting my brain 
recover by playing a mindless PC game! 

That photo is from Cardiff on Thursday
(one of many, many, many trips recently)


I’m not getting anyone’s #storytold today! 


Have a great weekend all, and remember:
High achievers like you can only achieve
if you give yourself permission to rest.

Stop posting in the dark. We turn your LinkedIn into a business asset, with almost ZERO effort from you. | Top 1% LinkedIn Storyteller | CEO of Storytold.

No alternative text description for this image

“I want him to do well, but not better than me.”



I overheard this in the gym the
other day (well, the locker room).

And I thought to myself…
I used to think this way.

No need to comment or tell us.
Have you ever thought this too?


This is a very limiting belief.
A mindset winners DON’T have.


For context, here’s the full story:

I was changing after going swimming.
Two other guys were in the locker room.

One guy was talking about his friend.
He got him a job at the same company,
and watched as his friend climbed the
ranks quicker than the guy talking did.

Eventually, his friend became his boss.
And he completed his story by saying:

“Like, I wanted him to be successful…
Just not more successful than me! 😂”

And I get it.
When I was young,
I thought this way too.
(to my shame, looking back)

But if someone is truly your friend,
And if you have an infinite mindset,

You don’t let your own jealousy
begrudge them their success.

You’re happy for them!
You want them to win!
You cheer them on!
You support them!

THEIR success is NOT a reflection of
your own inadequacy. But thinking that
you’re only successful if they’re not, IS.

Leaders know we can all be successful.
And: That comparison keeps you small.

The friend who did well was focused
on being the best version of himself.
By not comparing, he succeeded.

The jealous friend was constantly
comparing. And he got left behind.

Focus on your own journey.
Do the work. Make it happen.
And support others to join you.

There’s enough success for us all.

Jack 🕺

How I hit 46k followers (without using AI)



“AI really pulled through for me”

Someone said when I was freelancing.

No, really. Let me set the scene for you:

Hey Turnipheads, it’s Natasha here.
Where’s Jack? Don't worry about it.

Recently Jack and I spoke about the
hot topic of AI, live on Radio Cardiff.

We’re not against using AI as a tool.
But people become too reliant on it.
It can’t do what people really need.

For example, last year I designed
a little logo for a castle coffee shop.

Showed the guy the logo, and he said
“Nah, we used AI & it pulled through!”


Hint, it didn't.


The logo was badly drawn, low pixels,
not adaptable, no colours, not unique.
A coffee cup with a castle thrown in.

And they liked it….. For 3 days.
Then they just stopped using it.


AI didn't understand the nuances,
or their personality, or their SOUL…
so nobody connected with the logo
emotionally. They deserved BETTER.


👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇

Connecting with an audience (and
growing to over 46k followers means
understanding personality and nuance.

This is something AI cannot replicate.

AI skips the ‘why’ and “gives outcome”
Worse, everyone can tell when you get
ChatGPT or Claude to write your posts.

I used to have 740 LinkedIn followers.
Now my team and I have +46,000…
Because we connect with EMOTIONS.
We tell authentic stories. AI doesn’t.

AI cannot get your story told.
No matter how fast/easy it is.


For brands that want to build trust.

For those who connect with people,

And for those who have a story to tell:

Thats where real design pulls through.

I’m Natasha, the designer at Storytold.


And our dedicated little team has helped
global CEOs grow on LinkedIn & beyond
with more genuine connections.

Let us help you get your story told:
https://lnkd.in/e2e-4UVa

🕺

AI cant design proper good like

If LinkedIn makes you feel invisible, this is for you.



Most CEOs think LinkedIn is broken.
It’s not. Their content is.

You know you’re an industry expert.
You run a successful company.
You post regularly because you
know you should be more visible.

But you feel like you’re shouting
into the void. You’re putting in so
much effort, but nothing happens.

Zero profile visits, zero engagement,
Zero new followers, zero new leads.


What a waste.


You’re seeing your competitors
look louder and clearer than you.
You're missing revenue 'cos the
algorithm makes you feel like
you just "don't get LinkedIn".


It time for CHANGE.


You're a CEO!  You’re the top dog!
Your expertise deserves attention.

Your LinkedIn needs to stop being
a time-sucking chore, and become
the inbound lead engine it should be.

Some people tell me
"I can just do all this myself"

If you’ve got time, sure! But in reality,
you're too busy running a company.
You don't need to be good at content:
you need a team who turn your ideas… 

into LEADS.


Last week, one of our clients (a busy
Director of a global firm) spent just
one hour talking to us. He’s getting
941% more profile viewers than last
week, and he’s got the next 2 weeks
of posts ready without lifting a finger.

And on Friday, he sent us a screenshot
on WhatsApp of his latest milestone:
7,500 new followers in only 4 months
(and an inbox overflowing with leads)


You run your business.

We handle everything.

You get real results.


So if you’re tired of posting in
the dark, we’ll turn your profile
into a predictable source of leads.

It’s not magic. It’s proven strategy.
And it all starts with a free call.
Book it from my page.

And happy Tuesday!

I realised most CEOs are failing at LinkedIn, and here’s why:



Last week at the 
The Business Show London
a CEO told me difficult to hear:

“Jack… I think LinkedIn just isn’t
for people like me anymore.”

He sounded almost embarrassed
to admit it, and realised he meant:

“I’m posting into the void and
it’s making me doubt myself.”


I get it.


LinkedIn makes smart leaders feel invisible.
Especially when see competitors post the
same recycled ideas, and somehow get
200 likes and three inbound leads from it.


Meanwhile, their own content, the stuff they
spent 20 hours a week sweating over, gets
70 impressions, 2 likes, and duck-all else.
No clicks on their website, no calls booked.


I’ve learned this issue hides a very real fear:
He also said: “Maybe the problem is me.”


It’s not.


The problem is that today, CEOs are
expected to run a business AND magically
become world-class Content Strategists too.


That same CEO told me: “I’ve got a writer.
I’ve got a marketing person. But none of
it is landing us any new clients.”


And ‘cos I want to help him, I told him the truth.


A copywriter can write. A marketer can post.
But neither can build influence if the strategy,
psychology, and story aren’t connecting on
an emotional level with your audience.


–  It’s not about posting more often.
–  Or designing prettier photos.
–  Or being “more creative.”


It’s about having a message that
cuts through, CONSISTENTLY, without
draining the CEO’s time or brainpower.


So we ran a Brand Discovery session.
We rebuilt his message. We stopped
guessing. We created a strategy that
matched his buyers’ behaviour.


And within 3 weeks, his posts were
doing what they were supposed to:

Getting attention. Building authority.
Starting conversations. Attracting leads.

Not because he changed.
But because his strategy did.


You don’t need to post more.
You need a team that posts SMARTER,
and turns your expertise into demand.


That same CEO who used to spend
20 hours of worry, now spends one
hour a week laughing on a call with us.

And his LinkedIn has become a real
business asset, not just a time sink.


And if you’ve been spending 20 hours
a week writing LinkedIn posts that take
all your energy and give nothing back…


Then it’s time for a change.


It’s time to make LinkedIn work for YOU,
without you doing all the work. DM me.


We’ll help you get your story told.
https://lnkd.in/ecCVYZhK

My team and I are so busy delivering, that we don’t often stop to smell the roses.



Or in this case, to recognise
that our partners enjoy the
work as much as we do!

I’m grateful for all the work we
do with Tania, because it’s real.

It’s meaningful.

And we’ve grown her in the hearts
and minds of her community, both
on LinkedIn and in the real world.

Thank you Tania - it’s a genuine
pleasure to work with you and
I love seeing you grow with us!

We love getting your story told.
Want to grow like Tania has?

My BLACKFRIDAY promo code
(a huge 53% discount)
ends at MIDNIGHT. 

Even if we start work in January, 
don’t lose out on the discount:


Make me attractive:
👉  https://lnkd.in/e5p3jDq6

Do my LinkedIn for me:
👉  https://lnkd.in/e633ifJr

Give me clarity in 2 weeks:
👉  https://lnkd.in/eYP2t_7D


Which one will you choose?

Most CEOs get 0 leads from LinkedIn for 1 reason:



Because they’re scared to look unprofessional.

LinkedIn creates a strange pressure where
leaders feel they must always be perfect:

Perfect tone, perfect message, perfect ideas.
But really, perfection is damaging their brand.

Humans (y’know the people who buy from us)
connect with other relatable, flawed humans

Not polish, perfect, poetic, professional posts
Stop PEEING everywhere! We need REAL!!

The moment you share something real,
not rehearsed, everything changes:

→  Your authority grows.
→→  Your audience pays attention.
→→→  Your content converts into leads.

Not because you kept being perfect.
but because you start sounding like YOU.


This is exactly what we help CEOs do:
turn your voice into posts that build trust,
cut through AI noise, and bring you leads…

… without you spending hours
writing posts that go nowhere.


We’ve done it for Leaders from New York
to Dubai. Join us to turn your LinkedIn into
consistent authority and new opportunities.

Let’s get your storytold.
Trust me on this one.


P.S. Who spotted the spelling mistakes in this post? They're importnat: They prove I wrote this myself, without AI!

I was writing a description of Storytold today, and there was a little “Generate with AI” button. Curious, I clicked it.

I also wrote my own, from my brain.
Can you guess which one is which?


OPTION A:
We emphasise authentic, real stories, an intimate Brand Discovery process, and help our clients communicate with real, ego-less stories about their past that connect them more authentically to their audience.


OPTION B:
We think creatively to deliver impactful results for our clients. We specialize in crafting and implementing strategies that elevate brand narratives and drive growth.
 
 
Did you guess which was which?
 

Mine was A. While my version isn’t
perfect, it definitely sounds more 
real than B, the AI written version.

The AI impressed me with how 
accurate the description was… 
But something wasn’t right. 

It somehow managed to be factual
correct with the description of our 
services, yet it also reads as hollow 
and soul-less at the same time.


This is why we need to use 
our human brains more often. 

This is why, when it comes 
to something important, 
we CANNOT outsource it to AI.

So if you're using AI to write content, 
you're damaging your reputation.

It doesn't have to be us, but get
a team of humans who write in
YOUR tone of voice instead.


Your business grows when you get your Storytold™

Here's the moment I stopped paying twice:



The question we all ask ourselves
when buying professional support:

"Is this worth the money?"

I’ve had that knot in my stomach.
Every time I’ve paid out for help,
two fears hit me at the same time.

The first is the price tag itself.
“Can I afford to pay it each month?”

Second is a deeper, scarier worry:
“Will this investment be for nothing?”

Let’s say you’re looking for a writer.
You’ve tried the cheaper options.
→ A £50/hour twice a month writer
→ The generic VA who ‘does it all’
→ The £500/month freelancer


And you paid twice.


Once on a low-cost, low-effort service,
twice with your time by fixing all their
mistakes, and with frustrating effort
to ‘do it right’ because they didn’t.

That frustration is the worst part.
The content was fine, but nothing
changed. You remained invisible.


Buy cheap, buy twice.


That’s a lesson I’ve learned the hard
way more times than I care to admit.


So instead of hiring cheap writers,
I created a company. A dedicated,
hardworking, loyal team who have
a secret that makes us successful:

We truly care about what we write.

What sets Storytold apart isn't just
affordability; it’s the impact with have.

We don't just 'make content'. We make
growth, and we actually care if it works.

For us, that means tangible results.
We consistently see client audience
growth of 2-4k followers every month.

(yes, you read that right. 2,000+ new
followers from our writing, every month,
with your inbox flooded with leads).

And if you don’t get at least 1,500 new
followers as a direct result of our work:
You get your money back. Guaranteed.

(a guarantee nobody has needed yet).


So it’s not £500 and it’s not £50/hour.
How much is it?


Working with Storytold is £2,350/month.
You may be thinking: "that's expensive."

The reality is that the opportunity cost
of remaining invisible on LinkedIn is
much, much higher.

When you invest this for a 3 month trial,
You become a go-to expert in your field.

We make your profile a predictable
source of leads, which genuinely
changes your business trajectory.

You're not buying posts.
You're buying opportunity, relief,
and time back to run your business.

We do your strategy, psychology,
and ALL content creation each week.
You approve. LinkedIn finally works.

If you're ready to stop guessing
and start growing, and to see a
genuine ROI on your time and
investment, we need to talk.

Message me to secure your spot for
a Brand Discovery call in January.

And finally, after being
invisible for far too long...

We'll get your story told.

🕺

Last week I did my first ever LinkedIn Live!  Let me know what you all think

Host of “Consulting Leaders”, Top 10% Active Podcasts Globally | I help B2B Coaches & Consultants get clients with Podcasts.

Description: 

Jack Dyer🕺 is the CEO of Storytold™, where he helps founders and consultants become influential online through authentic, visual storytelling, especially on LinkedIn. With 15+ years of experience in UX, branding, and narrative design, he turns a leader’s story into a commercial asset.
In this episode, we break down how consultants can use digital storytelling to attract better clients, build trust at scale, and communicate in a way that actually feels like them.

***************************************************************************

Links:

StreamYard (for guest):  https://lnkd.in/d3e233pv
YouTube (for sharing):  https://lnkd.in/dvJhggWp
Apply to be a guest: https://lnkd.in/dt6pEfjE

***************************************************************************

Jack's Bio: 

Jack Dyer is the CEO of Storytold™, a firm that helps founders and CEOs go from invisible to influential with authentic, visual storytelling. He’s a Top 1% LinkedIn storyteller with 45,000+ followers and more than 15 years of experience in UX, branding, and digital design.
His background spans award-winning websites, national digital systems, UX work across industries, and global brands like Jaguar Land Rover and Mercedes-Benz. At Storytold™, he and his team build story-driven websites and content systems that elevate a leader’s profile and grow their net worth.

***************************************************************************

Show Notes: 

Jack Dyer is a designer-turned-founder who now runs Storytold™, a consultancy focused on transforming how leaders communicate online. He helps consultants and CEOs move from being “good at what they do but invisible online” to becoming influential voices with a clear narrative and a recognisable digital presence.
His team creates UX-led websites, LinkedIn makeovers, creative concepts, video, and content that reflect a leader’s true personality, not the generic, polished persona most people default to. The goal is simple: make your digital presence a revenue-generating asset.
For consulting firm owners, Jack’s experience sits right at the intersection of story, design, and growth, a combination that can help any consultant communicate more clearly and close clients more easily.

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The Battle

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