Curt Sassak

Curt Sassak's Coaching

So, you’ve got a life and career that looks great on paper, but no longer feels like a win.

If you’ve hit a point where the pressure’s high and the payoff is low, you’re not alone.
 You’ve outgrown the life you built.

That’s exactly who I work with.

If you're thinking you can just grind your way through it—good luck.
 I tried that.
 So did most of my clients.
 We all ended up at the same place: stuck, frustrated, spinning our wheels. 

Enter: The Recipe
 A high-performance framework built for high-achievers who want clarity, and momentum, fast.

It’s inspired by my 27-year chef career—because chefs don’t wing it.
 We follow structure.
 We refine.
 We execute with precision.

That’s what this is.

This isn’t a journal prompt and a pep talk.

 It’s a system—tested by fire—designed to help you:

 → Get clear on what’s next
 → Identify and eliminate the internal drag holding you back
 → Build momentum through customized strategy

This isn’t personal development.
 It’s personal execution.

We extract your core drivers, map them to your next chapter, and build a plan that makes sense for your ambition, standards, and lifestyle.

And I don’t take on everyone.

This is for people who have a track record of making sh*t happen,
 And are ready to channel that same energy into building the next version of themselves.

It requires honesty. Focus. Execution.

 You bring that—I’ll bring the clarity, speed, and accountability.

DM me “RECIPE” when you’re ready to move.

 And just know—I don’t work with spectators. Only builders.

Life and Career Strategist

Winetasters Choice: An Adult Beverage Promotional Agency

Key accomplishments:

👉Spearheaded the strategic growth of a B2B beverage promotion agency, elevating annual revenue from $300,000 to $1.4 million. 

👉Drove the company's revenue-generation engine as the principal revenue officer, by additional $221,000 in revenue within a five-month span in 2023 

👉Expanded operational footprint from 12 employees across four cities in Texas to a team of 250 employees spanning three states

👉Authored and enforced comprehensive standards, processes, and protocols, laying the foundation for scalable growth and operational excellence. 

👉Pioneered a remote work model, adeptly managing a dispersed team, fostering a culture of accountability and high performance. 

👉Spearheaded the development and execution of comprehensive social media campaigns, from conceptualization to content creation and audience engagement. 

👉Achieved a 4.6/5 star rating on Glassdoor, reflecting exceptional leadership and a positive organizational culture. Garnered a 90% approval rating from employees, underscoring effective management and employee satisfaction. 

👉Demonstrated deep understanding of market trends, and consumer behavior, enabling the development of targeted promotional campaigns. 

👉Regulatory Compliance: Ensured all promotional activities complied with industry regulations and standards, maintaining the agency's reputation and operational integrity. 

👉Achieved significant growth with a small team by  implementing new systems, automation and enhancing software utilization.

👉Problem-Solver: Excel at navigating ambiguous situations and making informed decisions with limited information. 

👉Founded and grew a successful YouTube channel, overseeing all aspects of content creation, video production, and editing. Utilized the platform to effectively drive new business opportunities

Company closed by the owner on 3/2/2024.

Testimonials:
https://winetasterschoice.com/testimonials-2/

President and Chief Revenue Officer

Executive Chef

Focused experience working in internationally renowned 5-star establishments.

USA, India, Dubai, Egypt, Australia and the Maldives

Previously employed at: Four Seasons Domestic, Four Seasons International, Hyatt Domestic, Hyatt International, One & Only, Marriott, independent restaurants


Key accomplishments:

👉 Distinguished by two guest chef appearances at the world-renowned James Beard House, a testament to culinary artistry and innovation.

👉 Engaged audiences with charismatic presence through 10 live TV appearances, enhancing brand visibility and personal brand as a culinary expert.

👉 Garnered 24 Best Restaurant/Hotel awards, affirming excellence in culinary delivery and guest satisfaction.

👉 Secured the prestigious Best New Restaurant Award from the iconic Washingtonian Magazine 

👉 Celebrated for exceptional culinary creations and service, reflected in numerous positive critiques and write-ups across esteemed culinary publications.

👉 Spearheaded the pre-opening phases of hotels and restaurants, demonstrating strategic foresight and operational excellence in establishing culinary ventures.

👉 Commanded teams of up to 200, fostering a culture of excellence, creativity, and teamwork in high-pressure environments.

👉 Managed multi-million dollar food and beverage operations, showcasing adept financial acumen and operational management to drive profitability and culinary excellence.

👉 Lowered food cost by $70,000 and increased the guest satisfaction rating for food quality by 1.4 points from 2 to 3.4 on a scale of 1-5 in my first year as Executive Chef

Teaching Mid-Career Leaders how to navigate life & career transitions using my Proven Recipe / Improve the quality of your life / Create your next chapter by design, not default / Former Chef

𝙎𝙪𝙘𝙘𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙃𝙖𝙨 𝙖 𝘾𝙧𝙪𝙚𝙡 𝙎𝙚𝙣𝙨𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙃𝙪𝙢𝙤𝙧.

You work your ass off, climb the ladder, got everything you want on paper, but feel empty. 

You ask yourself, "Is this it? What's next?"

You tell yourself it’s just a phase. That the feeling will pass.

It won’t.

At first, it’s a nagging thought. Then it’s an ache. 

You're wondering how you went from feeling like a confident badass knocking out your goals to just tolerating your life and career. 

Now, you dread waking up and you're just going through the motions daydreaming about the way things used to be. 

You know you want a change. You have something more to offer the world. 

But fear is holding you back. 

I know this feeling. It cost me 4 years of my life. I was depressed, and it cost me my confidence, my drive, and over $250,000.

Until I decided to take back control.

𝐖𝐇𝐎 𝐈 𝐇𝐄𝐋𝐏 & 𝐇𝐎𝐖

I work with career-driven, successful professionals 40 and up who feel stuck and want more out of life.

You’re not lost. You’re not broken. You’re just at a crossroads.

Your problem isn’t knowing you need a change. 

Your problem is knowing HOW to do it—without wasting years stuck in limbo like I did.

Your clarity is just like a five-star dish—if you’re missing key ingredients or following the wrong process, it won’t turn out right.

That’s where I come in.

I help high-performers get the exact recipe they need to figure out what’s next.

Here’s the recipe:

𝙄𝙣𝙜𝙧𝙚𝙙𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙨:

🔥 Sharpen Your Mindset: REGAIN your CONFIDENCE and break free from self-doubt and second-guessing.
🔥 Regain Balance: Stop just surviving—start actually living.
🔥 Get Crystal Clear Clarity: Know exactly where you're headed and how to get there.
🔥 Remove Mental Roadblocks: Identify and eliminate what’s keeping you stuck.
🔥 Design Your Next Chapter: Not by accident. Not by default. But with intention.
 
𝙋𝙧𝙤𝙘𝙚𝙙𝙪𝙧𝙚:

Follow a proven and tested real-world process built on precise ingredients that puts you back in control.

𝘾𝙇𝙄𝙀𝙉𝙏 𝙍𝙀𝙎𝙐𝙇𝙏𝙎

The real success stories? My clients.

"Curt didn’t just help my career—he helped me take back my life. His approach forced me to get real about what I wanted. The clarity I gained was priceless."
— Matt Lunny

𝙉𝙀𝙓𝙏 𝙎𝙏𝙀𝙋𝙎

If you're done settling and want to wake up excited about your life again, let’s talk.

Message me: "I want the Recipe" to learn more. 

That’s it. No fluff. No B.S. Just results.

— Curt

Founder

So, you’re career driven, have had success, and now you feel like there are no more mountains to climb.

You got to the top of the “mountain,” and achieving your goals only to find you don’t feel fulfilled or happy. It’s like, WTF?

Your life/career no longer serves you. All you know is that you feel stuck and see no way out. You need to make a change. But doing what?

Then fear creeps in. You have questions.  “What do I do now?”  “I don’t know what else to do” 

“If I change careers how will I make enough to pay my bills?” and so on

These are the same questions (and more) I asked myself when I did a career change after 27 years as a chef and started over at 41 from zero.

Did you know a New York Times study found that 75% of Americans don’t have a clear sense of purpose?

And, there are serious health risks associated with a lack of purpose

A lack of purpose affects your self-worth, self-confidence, and self-esteem.
Which, in turn, can lead to depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and other health issues.
I experienced all of those.

The good news is this: You’re only 5 steps away from finding the purpose, fulfillment, and new career you so desperately want.

They are the same 5 steps I used to go from feeling lost/stuck and finding a purpose and fulfillment

All it requires from you is self-honesty and a commitment to change

I coach people through one-to-one sessions

You think asking for help is equivalent to failure? Yep, I used to think the same, but that’s your ego talking

Consider: If you’ve been stuck, and the steps you’ve taken have not yielded results, what makes you think anything will change by repeating what you’ve done?

What got you here will not get you THERE.

Just like a car needs realignment from time to time, our personal and professional vision needs realignment from time to time

So, you can remain stuck and lost, or you can send me a DM

Career, Business & Executive Coach | Mindset & Mental Fitness Coach | DISC® Certified | Mentor

👋 Hi, I’m Monica.Most founders and business owners don’t need more strategy. They need more internal bandwidth.I coach founders to think more clearly, lead better, and run a business that doesn’t burn them out.I’ve spent 30+ years leading teams across corporate and start-up environments, responsible for people, revenue, and operations. I understand the pressure at the top - and what happens when the founder tries to carry it all.Those decades taught me one thing:If the founder is overwhelmed, the business will be too.No strategy fixes a leadership bottleneck.My coaching isn’t generic leadership training. It’s deep, personalised, evidence-based work grounded in performance psychology, neuroscience, and practical leadership experience.Credentials:• ICF-accredited Performance Coach• Neuroscience of Change certified• Positive Intelligence Coach• Certified Neuroscience Coach• CIPD Associate in HR ManagementSince starting my practice, I’ve coached founders and leaders from organisations including Nike, Amazon, Warner Bros, and the NHS -  but my focus now is singular:➔ founders navigating growth, decision fatigue, and the pressure to lead.Does this sound familiar?✔︎ You’re making nonstop decisions but trusting yourself less✔︎ Your team asks for things they should handle alone✔︎ You’re busy all day but key work isn’t moving✔︎ You’re dragged into fires instead of thinking strategically✔︎ Stress is rising and your headspace shrinking✔︎ You want growth but can’t keep leading like thisYou don’t need another masterclass.You need support tailored to you and your business.We work across three layers:1. Lead YourselfBuild the clarity and headspace to make better decisions and stay out of reactive mode.2. Lead Your TeamGet your team thinking for themselves, taking ownership, and solving problems without everything coming back to you.3. Lead Your BusinessMake clearer decisions, cut through noise, focus on what drives progress, and create momentum.Client results:✔︎ Simplified their business → revenue up 40%✔︎ Fixed costly team issues (incl. a £250K mis-hire)✔︎ Rebuilt confidence in communication and leadership✔︎ Stepped out of firefighting and regained thinking time✔︎ Reduced stress at work and at homeClients often say I make complicated things feel simple, and create a space where they can think clearly and make decisions they trust.📩 If you’re ready to lead with more clarity - and build a business that performs without burning you out - book a free 30-minute consultation.

Monica Federico, Assoc. CIPD

You can be a boss without being a leader.
Most founders learn that the hard way.

Building a business is one thing.
Leading one is another.

Most founders get pulled into the work.
I see it with my clients all the time.
Successful. Smart. Still “too busy.”

Almost every founder I coach thinks their problem is lack of time, but it’s usually leadership.

They run operations.
Solve problems.
Put out fires.
And somewhere along the way, the leadership part gets pushed aside.

It usually comes down to three layers:

1. Leading yourself
↳ Your clarity becomes the team’s clarity.
↳ Your emotional state sets the tone.
↳ Your habits set the pace.
Operate from a calm, focused, clear space and everything else steadies.

2. Leading your team
↳ Give direction, not micromanagement.
↳ Don’t get stuck in the weeds. Delegate.
↳ Help your team develop and grow.
Culture and alignment start here.

3. Leading the business
↳ Strategy becomes cleaner.
↳ Decisions get simpler.
↳ You shift from reacting to building.
This is where growth becomes predictable.

Founders often think leadership is something to revisit when things calm down.

But things calm down when leadership becomes the priority.

You can be a boss by default.
Becoming a leader is a choice.

And it always starts with how you run yourself.
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♻️ Repost and share it with someone who leads others.
🔔 Follow Monica Federico for more peak performance & leadership psychology

Monica Federico

Founder Leadership & Performance Coach | Helping founders think more clearly, lead better, and build a business that doesn’t burn you out | Based in 🇬🇧 supporting clients worldwide 🌎

Nobody likes to be disliked.

But in leadership, it’s inevitable.

John Lennon said, “Being honest might not get you a lot of friends, but it always gets you the right ones.”

It’s a life principle.

But if we are in charge, it becomes a requirement.

Because when the need to be liked outweighs the need to be honest, our leadership will suffer.

I’ve seen people-pleasing cost leaders more than they realise:

❌ Agreeing to business decisions they didn’t believe in because they didn’t want to upset a strong-headed team member.

❌ Letting unrealistic demands from senior leadership hit their team because they didn’t want to be seen as difficult.

❌ Avoiding giving new hires the guidance they needed because they didn’t want to come across as a micromanager.

People-pleasing isn’t harmless.

It leads to poor decisions.
It leads to underperformance.
It slowly erodes your authority.

The fix isn’t about being blunt for the sake of it.
It’s about leading with clarity, not appeasement.

Here’s where to start:

✅ Know your non-negotiables.
Decide what you will and won’t compromise on before you step into the room.

✅ Prepare for trigger moments.
Before a meeting or one-to-one, ask yourself: “Where could I slip into people-pleasing here?” Plan your response instead.

✅ Speak early.
Address concerns before they snowball.

✅ Separate disagreement from disrespect.
Challenging an idea isn’t the same as undermining the person.

✅ Anchor in shared goals.
Frame honesty around what’s best for the mission.

Being honest, even when it’s uncomfortable, is how you create teams that perform, trust you, and stay aligned under pressure.

Popularity is easy.
Credibility is what gets results.

What’s one thing that’s helped you speak up more as a leader?
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♻️ Repost to support a culture of honesty in leadership.
👉🏼 Follow Monica Federico for performance & leadership insights

Leadership & Performance Coach | For founders who want to lead with clarity, calm, and strategic focus | Based in 🇬🇧 supporting clients WW 🌎

The moment a team stops feeling trusted is the moment they stop showing initiative.

And that tension shows up inside every growing business.

When it’s our business, it’s natural to stay close to everything.

But that instinct comes with a cost.

The watching, the double-checking, the stepping in…
it creates the very friction you’re trying to avoid.

There are always 3 layers to this:

1. The leader
↳ Control feels safer
↳ Perfectionism creeps in
↳ Guilt makes handing things over harder
↳ No one understands the business like you do

2. The team
↳ Rushed handovers
↳ One brief with no checkpoints
↳ Taking tasks back because it’s quicker
↳ Assuming delegation doesn’t work after one mistake

3. The strategy
↳ Right person, right role
↳ Do they have the skill?
↳ Do they have the time?
↳ Do they understand the bigger picture?

When these layers fall out of sync, leaders end up doing the thinking and the doing.

Meanwhile, the team waits (and disengages) on the sidelines.

But when the layers line up, delegation becomes lighter.

✓ Your workload decreases
✓ Your team steps forward

And you get to focus on the work only you can do.
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♻️ Repost if you don't believe in micromanagement
🔔 Follow Monica Federico for leadership insights.

Founder Coach | Helping founders think more clearly, lead better, and build a business that doesn’t burn you out | Leadership & Performance | Based in 🇬🇧 supporting SMEs worldwide 🌎

Your leadership won’t outperform your habits.
And neither will your team.

After coaching leaders and founders across industries, I see the same pattern repeatedly:

👉🏼 Your daily habits become the culture your team works inside.

When leaders are clear, intentional, and grounded, performance rises.

When they’re reactive or stretched thin, the whole system feels it.

Here are the 9 laws I see consistently in high-performing leaders who navigate pressure, build trust, and make better decisions under stress.

Which one is your favourite?
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📌 Save this for the week ahead.
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Leading from the front

Doesn’t require doing every job.

Many still misunderstand what "leading by example" means.

Mainly because they’re stuck in the early-stage version of it.

When your team is small, rolling up your sleeves works.

It proves you’re willing.
It builds trust.
It keeps things moving.

I learned this firsthand.

When I was leading a team of 5, doing everything did work.

But when that team grew to 35, the exact same instinct started breaking things instead of building them.

And I see this pattern in every team that scales:

❌ If you keep doing every job, you stop doing your job.
❌ If you stay everywhere, your team stays dependent.
❌ If you signal commitment through hours, you teach exhaustion is normal.
❌ If you fix everything, they never learn to think without you.

At scale, “leading by example” changes shape completely.

✅ It becomes calm over chaos.
✅ Clarity over noise.
✅ Boundaries over burnout.
✅ Delegation over micromanagement.
✅ Thinking time over constant busyness.

Because your team doesn’t copy what you say.
They copy what you model.

📌 And what you model becomes the culture.

Switching from the old version to the real version isn’t dramatic.

It’s a series of small, deliberate choices that shift how your team operates, even when you’re not in the room.

If you want a team that leads, stop showing them leadership means doing everything.

Show them what leadership looks like now.
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♻️ Repost and share it with someone who leads others.
🔔 Follow Monica Federico for more peak performance & leadership psychology

The smartest founders are often the most overwhelmed.

Not because they lack intelligence.
But because their minds never stop generating solutions.

Every problem gets a new tool.
Every challenge gets a new framework.
Every dip gets a new strategy.

More apps.
More advisors.
More methodologies.

It happens quickly.
You see possibilities everywhere.
And the very thing that makes you effective starts to scatter your focus.

When you can see ten ways to solve something, it’s tempting to try all ten.

Meanwhile, the simple answer sits there.
Ignored.

Under pressure, switching to something new gives the mind a quick sense of relief.
It feels like progress, even when it isn’t.

Complexity doesn’t create clarity.
It buries it.

I’ve seen founders stack system on top of system.
Each one made sense on its own.
Together, they created chaos.

The team couldn’t keep up.
The direction blurred.
Momentum dipped.

Mental clarity isn’t about hunting for better solutions.
It’s about creating space to use the ones you already have.

One strategy, fully executed, beats ten half-started.
One clear metric beats a dashboard of noise.
One focused quarter beats a year of pivots.

The founders who operate at their best don’t collect everything.
They commit to what matters.

In a world built to sell you endless solutions, the real power is knowing when to stop adding.

What’s one thing you could pause this week to see things more clearly?
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♻️ Repost if simplicity is on your mind
🔔 Follow Monica Federico for clarity in leadership

When your head is overloaded, big productivity systems don’t help.

Your brain doesn’t have the bandwidth for them.

I get to this point almost every year.
And I know I’m not alone.

Many of us hit this stage where half of our brain is planning for next year.

We’re trying to tidy up the loose ends of this one.

And we’re noticing the things we thought we’d finish…
and didn’t.🤷‍♀️

It creates a quiet mental clutter that sits in the background.

Nothing dramatic.
Just a little less clarity.
A little more noise.

And that’s when I reach for these tools.

They’re simple.
But they’re effective.

They might sound basic.
But they’re grounded in performance science.
And each one targets a specific mental state.

They work because they help your brain do what it struggles to do
when it’s overloaded.

Five different tools.
Five different states.
About five minutes each.

If your head feels full right now,
pick one and give it a go.

PS: How's your brain doing right now? Just me? 😉
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♻️ Repost and help others declutter & stay focussed
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5 quick & easy ways to declutter your mind

Red flags get all the attention.
But green flags are what leaders should reward.

Our brains are trained to spot the gap.
The problem.
The risk.
The person who isn’t pulling their weight.

That’s the brain doing what it’s built to do.
It prioritises threat over everything else.

Useful for survival.
Terrible for leadership.

Because when we’re glued to what’s wrong,
we miss what’s working.

We miss our steady performers in the middle.
We miss the green flags that quietly keep everything moving.

And the irony?
What we reward gets repeated.

So this week, try switching the lens.

✅ Spot the green flags.
✅ Name them.
✅ Reinforce them.
✅ Make the good behaviours visible.

People rise when they feel seen for what they’re doing right.
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♻️ Repost to support a better workplace culture
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Most people don’t have a productivity problem.
They have a prioritisation problem.

The 80–20 principle sounds simple…
But applying it?
That’s where everything changes.

Here’s the pattern I keep seeing with founders and leaders:

We spend 80% of our week on things that move us 20% forward.
Emails. Admin. Meetings.
Busy work disguised as progress.

But when you zoom out, you always find the same truth:

A tiny percentage of your actions, decisions, relationships, habits and customers drive almost all of your real growth.

And when you double down on those things?
Life gets a lot lighter, and results get a lot bigger.

I made this breakdown as a reminder:

 • Business.
 • Leadership.
 • Energy.
 • Strategy.
 • Relationships.

It’s all the same pattern.

Focus on the few things that actually move you forward.
Cut the rest.

Save this for the week you need the reminder.
Because we all hit those weeks.
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♻️ Repost to help others prioritise
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Earlier this month my brain felt like it had 39 tabs open and a YouTube ad playing somewhere in the background.

I kept pushing… until last week, when I finally had to take my own advice.🤦🏼‍♀️

As a performance coach, I spend my days helping people optimise their minds.

But even I forget that peak performance is not built on hacks.

It comes from recovery.
It comes from maintenance.
It comes from the boring habits most of us overlook.

Looking after your brain is not just about feeling better.

It is about:

- clearer business focus
- better decision making
- better emotional regulation
- being able to show up fully for your team, your work, and the people you care about

So I went back to my own checklist, the simple habits that keep my mind sharp without burning me out.

And as soon as I made a couple of small tweaks, I could feel the difference almost immediately.

So here is my invitation to use the infographic as a little self-audit 👇🏼

You do not need to tick every box on the checklist by Monday.

You can add a change or two per week.

And since it is Friday, consider this your permission slip to start small this weekend.

Give your brain the conditions it needs to show up fully next week.

PS: Happy Friday!
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♻️ Repost to help others with a low battery
🔔 Follow Monica Federico for more founders performance & leadership psychology

56% of leaders report burnout.
47% of UK founders say running their business has harmed their health.

56% of leaders report burnout.

That isn’t just a workload problem.
It’s a bandwidth problem.
A nervous system stretched past its limits.

When stress spikes, your prefrontal cortex loses processing power.

• Focus narrows
• Decision quality drops
• Emotional reactivity increases

Your brain shifts into short-term survival mode.

And your leadership follows.

That’s why the same behaviours keep showing up when pressure rises.

They’re not personality traits.
They’re stress responses.

• Talking in circles
• Chasing urgency
• Acting on impulse
• Over-controlling decisions
• Working nonstop to “catch up”
• Avoiding overdue conversations

They feel productive in the moment, but they quietly sabotage your leadership reputation and impact.

Better leadership doesn’t come from trying harder.

It starts with getting your capacity back.

And that begins with a few basic foundations that stabilise your nervous system:

 1. Protect your sleep
 2. Eat high-nutritional-value food
 3. Move your body daily
 4. Take micro-breaks between meetings
 5. Reduce caffeine when you feel wired
 6. Step outside for natural light

These are the levers that restore bandwidth.

Once your cognitive load drops, it becomes easier to correct your leadership responses.

You can’t access strategic thinking in survival mode.

And you can’t scale what your nervous system can’t sustain.

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Sources:
FreeAgent, Burnout Britain Report (2023).
Superhuman Executive Burnout Report (2024).
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♻️ Repost to support a healthier leadership
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72% of founders report feeling burned out. 

And it’s not just “the hustle.”

It’s bandwidth overload.

Burnout for founders rarely shows up as “I can’t do this anymore.”

It shows up as:

– Making slower decisions
– Snapping at tiny things
– Losing creative sharpness
– Feeling busy but oddly unproductive
– Carrying the whole business in your head
– Working all day but making no real progress
– Never having space to think beyond tomorrow

That’s not weakness.

That’s cognitive overload from running an entire company on a low bandwidth.

Most founders don’t burn out because of hard work.
They burn out because they’re:

✔️ the chief problem-solver
✔️ the decision engine
✔️ the emotional shock absorber
✔️ the strategist
✔️ the operator
✔️ the culture-setter
✔️ the safety net for everyone else

And you were never meant to hold all of that alone.

Here are 7 signs your leadership bandwidth is overloaded...and what to do before it costs you clarity, your team, or the business.👇🏼

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Sources:
– Startup Snapshot, State of the Startup Report (2023)
– Startup Snapshot & Intel Ignite, Founder Wellbeing Update (2024)
– MindForward Alliance, Wellbeing in Startups (2022)
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♻️ Repost if you agree burnout isn’t a badge
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Your mind won’t relax when things calm down.
Things calm down when your mind relaxes.

Don’t get me wrong, having a busy mind isn’t always a bad thing.

Sometimes it’s a spark - the kind of busy that fuels ideas, creativity, and momentum.

But there’s another kind of busy.

The kind where you have too many tabs open at once.

And that version is usually a signal that you have been carrying more than your brain was designed to hold.

Decisions.
People.
Deadlines.
The invisible load no one else sees.

When everything lands at once, your mind stops sorting what matters from what is just noise.

So suddenly:
→ Everything feels urgent
→ Everything feels like yours to solve
→ Everything stays open in the background

Most people try to push through this.

But your brain does not need more pressure.
It needs more structure.

⤷ Space between tasks
⤷ Loops closed instead of left running
⤷ A body that is not locked in tension all day
⤷ The reminder that thoughts are not instructions

The truth is:

Things do not calm down and then you rest.
Things calm down because you rest.

A calm and focused mind makes clearer decisions.
Clearer decisions create better outcomes in work and in life.

If your mind has been too busy lately, take it as an invitation.

You do not have to carry everything at once.
You do not have to figure it all out today.

Happy Friday 🤍
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Leaders alway teach us something.

Sometimes we teach what not to do.

We’re shaped by the leaders we admire… 
and the ones we hope we never become.

It starts early.
Watching the adults around us.

Noticing what lifts people up.
Noticing what shuts people down.
Quietly thinking "Right. I won’t be like that."

And the same thing happens at work.

We learn from the brilliant leaders.
The ones who stay calm, clear, present.

But we learn just as much from the overwhelmed ones.
The reactive ones.
The ones who stopped paying attention.

Those lessons stick.
They shape how we make decisions.
They shape how we treat people.
They shape the culture we create when it’s our turn to lead.

Here’s what most people forget.
Someone has learned from us in the exact same way.

A team member.
A colleague.
A friend.

They’ve watched us at our best and at our worst.
And they’ll carry those lessons forward…
including the ones we never meant to teach.

That reality can sting.
But it’s also the wake-up call most leaders need.

Because it brings the focus back to the only thing we control.
How we show up today.
How we set the tone.
How we correct ourselves when we realise we’ve gone off-track.

Your behaviour becomes someone else’s blueprint. 
Make it worth repeating.

PS: What's a lesson that stood out for you?
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Have all a fantastic week!
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A little important reminder:
Your mind builds your future before your actions do.

Your brain is constantly building mental shortcuts.
And the sentences you repeat become the shortcuts you rely on.

We usually treat our thoughts like harmless background noise.

But your brain is always listening, and always learning.

And the phrases we default to are often these:

“It’s so busy right now.”
“There’s so much to fix.”
“It’s hectic … I must work late.”

They feel accurate.
They feel small.
But repeat them often enough… and they become a filter.

A filter that scans for chaos → notices chaos → reinforces chaos.

Not because it’s the full truth, but because it’s familiar.

This is how leaders end up stuck in constant firefighting mode.

You slowly train your mind to prioritise problems over possibilities.

Here’s a simple 3-step reset to break that loop:

1️⃣ Catch the sentence

Interrupt the pattern by naming the exact phrase you keep repeating.

2️⃣ Reframe it (without pretending everything is perfect)

Swap “It’s chaos right now” with:
“This is a demanding moment, and I can navigate it.”

Same reality.
Different mental instruction.

3️⃣ Redirect your mind toward opportunity

Ask:
“Where’s the leverage point here?”
Your mind will follow the instruction.

This isn’t about being positive.
It’s about taking control of your mental defaults.

Because intentional thinking is a competitive advantage.
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Most businesses get this backwards.

Many moons ago, when I was in corporate, we were going through a major rebrand.

On the surface, the business was doing well.

But underneath, three things were slipping:

• Client retention
• Employee retention
• And the ripple effect: declining customer experience

The obvious instinct
↳ fix the customer journey first

The real solution
↳ fix the employee experience first

So instead of rewriting scripts or tightening KPIs, 
we shifted our focus inward:

• We invested in the team
• We rebuilt the employer brand
• We opened decision-making from the bottom up
• We made development, recognition and communication part of the strategy

Very quickly, it became clear:

✅ When people feel supported, customers feel it too.
✅ You can’t build a strong customer brand on an undervalued or exhausted team.

The lesson I took with me:

✍🏼 If you want better customer outcomes, start internally.

Ask yourself:

• Are people genuinely heard?
• Do they understand the why behind decisions?
• Are we developing them consistently?
• Would they recommend this as a workplace?
• Are our employees true ambassadors of our business and brand?

Because when your people believe in what you do, they take care of your customers.

And your customers take care of your P&L.
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Some days you’re able to be successful.
Some days you’re not.

Some days it’s your turn.
Some days it’s not.

My week wasn’t bad.
It just wasn’t my turn.

And for a moment my mood dipped… 
nothing dramatic, just that wobble we all get.

It passed.
I know how to bring myself back now.

But when we’re ambitious, it’s easy to forget that slower weeks still move us forward.

That’s why I like the message in this video.👇🏼

In sport there’s no real failure.
What we call failure is often just progress we haven’t recognised yet.

Not every day feels like a win.
Not every week feels like progress.
But none of that means we’re off track.

Some weeks are momentum.
Some weeks are maintenance.
And all of it counts.

If this wasn’t your week either, nothing’s wrong.

Enjoy the video and have a lovely weekend!
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Video source: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee Bucks post-game press conference, 2023.
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I help people get clarity.
This week, I was the one getting it.

I had an interview for a feature about my work with Executives Diary Magazine.
And it made me stop in a way I haven’t in a while.

Talking things through forced me to look at my own path with fresh eyes.

When you’re deep in the day-to-day, you rarely pause to ask the bigger questions:

Why do I do this work?
What impact am I trying to have?
What actually matters to me as a coach and a leader?

Some answers surprised me - not because they were new, but because I hadn’t said them out loud in a long time.

A few things came up:

→ The calm I bring to clients isn’t accidental. It’s intentional.
→ Helping founders and leaders think clearly is still the most meaningful part of the job.
→ And self-leadership isn’t a concept for me. It’s the thread that’s shaped every chapter of my career.

The interview reminded me of all of that.

Sometimes it takes someone else’s questions to reconnect with your own direction.

So this post is really a thank you.
Not just for the feature,
but for the clarity the conversation sparked.

It’s easy to keep moving and forget the deeper reasons behind the work.

This week gave me a moment to stop, look up, and remember.
And it felt really good.

Here is the article: https://lnkd.in/etuxJW-d
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Open article: Integrity over Approval: Monica Federico’s Truth about Leadership That Lasts by magazine.executivesdiary.com

Integrity over Approval: Monica Federico’s Truth about Leadership That Lasts

The Sunday Scaries aren’t “in your head.” 

They’re in your nervous system.

When the brain faces too many unknowns, it enters anticipatory stress.

That physiological shift is what makes Sunday evening feel heavier than it should.

Across my long corporate career, most years were steady.

But there were a couple of years when Sundays consistently felt difficult.

Not because I disliked the work,
but because the pressure had increased and my brain had no structure to hold on to.

Today I run my own business, and the responsibility is significantly higher.

More decisions. More emotional investment.
By any measure, it should be harder to switch off.

Yet it’s easier.

Not because the workload decreased,
but because the clarity increased.

When you give your nervous system predictability,
you reduce the cognitive load that fuels Sunday anxiety.

Structure becomes a form of regulation.

The guide above outlines a practical, science-based sequence
that helps the brain transition from:

“prepare for threat”
to
“prepare with intention.”

Simple steps.
Clear order.
A measurable difference in how your week begins.

Save this for your Sunday reset.
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Being right feels really good.

But in leadership, it can blind us.

In life, being teachable is helpful.
In leadership, it’s non-negotiable.

Because the hardest things to learn are the things about ourselves.

I’ve seen this catch leaders out more than they realise:

❌ Missing data because it didn't match their view
❌ Ignoring feedback that would have helped.
❌ Repeating the habit that kept them stuck.
❌ Closing off others input without noticing.
❌ Blaming the team when the pattern started with them.

Blind spots aren’t harmless.

• They distort leadership decisions.
• They limit business performance.
• They shape a culture without you noticing.

The answer isn’t being less confident.
It’s staying open to what you might be missing.

Here’s where to start:

✅ Notice when you start to get defensive.
✅ Invite honest feedback on how you show up.
✅ Pause before you react in the moment.
✅ Check the assumptions you walked in with.
✅ Keep learning the craft of leadership.

Being right feels good.
Being teachable makes you a better leader.

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