Best day yesterday leading @sunrunsolar Expansion Team (yes that’s really their name- how great is that connection?!) in a personal & leadership development & team building experience. We taught on accessing inner wisdom as a leader to gain clarity on next steps in their personal and professional lives. Also, some breath-work to quiet the noise & access their inner world, journaling & real-time practice in listening & ice bath/sauna to get people into their bodies & teach stress regulation. What a day! Love this crew. @runxstreet
Yesterday’s Atomic A3 Leadership Summit started at the NAC boathouse with Coach Mijo Rudelj, who reminded us:
A team rowing at 50% in perfect sync is faster than a team rowing at 100% disjointed.
From there, we moved into breathwork and some of the most important team conversations: accountability, trust, and vision. Then a round of ice bath and sauna for a reset.
We closed the day with the A3 Playbook: clarifying how to accomplish big goals, multiply leaders, and expand into new territory.
The through-line from the day was Sync over solo. Multiplication over addition. Eight leaders, one rhythm. This is what exponential leadership looks like.
#AtomicA3 #ExpansionLab #LeadershipSummit #FindSwing #ResilientLeadership
Have you ever noticed that growth rarely looks the way we hope it will?
Maybe you’re in the middle of a transformation: growing into a new season, changing patterns, building better habits, showing up in a new way, and then, boom: you fall back into something old. Maybe it’s the communication style you said you were done with. Or the shortcut that no longer serves you. It could be a habit that once protected, but now holds you back.
That’s part of the process. That is what growth actually looks like.
One of the patterns we often see in coaching is this:
People hit a setback and start questioning the entire process. They forget how far they’ve come. They feel deflated, like they’ll never get to where they want to be. Like the progress didn’t matter.
But growth is not linear. Expansion is not tidy. It’s messy, disorienting, and sometimes deeply uncomfortable, but it’s also wildly worth it.
If you’re in a season of growth and it feels uncomfortable, that’s normal- keep going! Expansion is gritty. You’ve got this. 👊🏽
#ExpansionLab #Expansion #ExecutiveCoaching #Transformation
“When did you last feel fully yourself?”
We dropped that question into a room of women… and what followed was powerful.
Jen talked about the gap between who we present to the world and who we actually are: the performing, the shrinking, the waiting for permission.
Then the women got honest with each other. And something shifted.
The most powerful thing a woman can do is stop performing and start really living.
SheRun, thank you for letting us show up and go somewhere real with your women.
When stress hits, most people do one of two things: they push through it or they get buried by it.
But there is a third option…
We call it the Three R’s of Stress Mastery:
1. Recognize- Notice what’s happening in your body and name the trigger. What set this off? Where do you feel it? The faster you recognize it, the faster you can do something about it.
2. Regulate- Shift your body before you try to think your way through it; breathe, move, get outside, or walk it off. Your body needs to move the stress through before your brain can process it clearly.
3. Reframe- Change the story. Instead of “I can’t handle this” or “this always happens to me,” ask yourself: how is this pressure actually serving me and shaping me?
Each time you move through the Three R’s, you interrupt the stress cycle, rebuild your presence and return to your center. The faster you move through them, the faster you recover.
Part 2 of our 3-part series on Emotional Regulation. Full article in our May newsletter.
The next time your heart races before you have a big presentation, walk into a tough meeting, start something new, or sit down for a conversation you’ve been avoiding, you can tell yourself “I’m anxious, something is wrong,” or you can tell yourself, “I’m activated, my body is preparing me to perform.”
The same heart rate, the same sweaty palms, the same shallow breathing; but one story puts you in a threat state and the other puts you in a growth state.
That one reframe changes how you show up in the moment. It changes how you lead a meeting, have a tough conversation with your partner, or walk into something that scares you.
Stress is not the enemy. The story you tell yourself about it is what determines whether it fuels you or depletes you.
Part 2 of our 3-part series on Emotional Regulation- Full article in our May newsletter.
📸 @djwill__
Most people treat stress like something to survive, push through, or avoid.
But stress is not the enemy; it is information. It’s your body saying, “Something matters here.”
Think of stress like a curve. A healthy amount of it actually sharpens you. It activates focus, boosts energy, and drives performance- that’s your Optimal Performance Zone.
But most people stay in that activation too long without recovery. And the stress that was originally serving them starts breaking them down. Then focus turns into mental fog, energy turns into exhaustion, and drive turns into irritability.
That is not a performance problem. That is a recovery problem.
High performers don’t eliminate stress, they metabolize it. They use breath, movement, reflection, and rest to bring their system back to center. They know how to turn it on and, just as importantly, they know how to turn it off.
Recovery is not the reward for hard work. It is part of the work.
Part 2 of our 3-part series on Emotional Regulation. Full article in our May newsletter-link in bio.
🎥 @djwill__
Most leadership development teaches people about leadership. The Leadership Lab transforms how they actually lead.
Three phases: Self, Team, Organization. 24 weeks. Built from over 900 coaching hours with 100+ leaders within an organization. Cognitive and leadership frameworks, emotional self-awareness, physiological regulation, and the whole leader, integrated.
Friday was the commissioning of Cohort 1.
A morning that opened with ocean cold plunge, sauna, cacoa ceremony with intentions and breathwork that synced the room. An afternoon that solidified 24 weeks of work into 37 leaders who can name exactly who they are becoming, what their team has to deliver, and what the next 90 days requires.
Self leadership- Who are you actually becoming when no one is watching?
Team leadership- Can you sit with your team and tell the truth about who is carrying their weight, who is coasting, and what conversation has been avoided?
Organizational leadership- What does the next chapter look like and who is ready to build it?
Then the ceremony. We released what was no longer serving us as we step into the next phase of growth. We promoted new leaders and commissioned each other into what comes next. We declared our accountability partners, our 90 day focus, and the “I will” we walked out with.
And the region we built this with? 22.7% year over year sales growth.
This is what we built Expansion Lab to do; build leaders who build leaders.
🎥 @djwill__
Still taking in what we witnessed Friday at the Atomic Summit in San Luis Obispo. We haven’t stopped talking about it.
We closed Cohort 1 of the Leadership Lab: 37 leaders, six months of work, one unforgettable day.
Leaders telling the truth in front of each other, 37 declarations going into one room, people commissioning each other without being asked…You can’t fake that. You built it, Atomic.
And we’re just getting started.
Most people try to change how they react under stress without ever slowing down enough to notice what their body is doing first. But emotional regulation doesn’t start with better self-control. It starts with awareness.
Here’s a simple process we teach called the Regulation Loop:
1. Awareness. What is your body doing right now?
2. Pause. Stop before you respond.
3. Breathe. In for 4, out for 8. Let your system reset.
4. Choose. Now decide how you want to show up.
5. Act. Respond from presence, not pressure.
Five steps. Less than two minutes. And the difference between a reaction you regret and a response you’re proud of.
Try it and see what shifts.
Jen breaking down the Window of Tolerance in the Leadership Lab. This is one of the most important concepts we teach. Full article in our April newsletter, Part 1 of our 3-part series on Emotional Regulation.
There is a zone where you are calm, clear, and present. Where you do your best work, have your best conversations, and make your best decisions. It’s called the Window of Tolerance.
When life pushes you above it, you get reactive, anxious, or angry. When life pushes you below it, you shut down, disconnect, or go numb.
The goal isn’t to not to get stressed or never leave the window. Of course, life will push you out of it at times, that’s not the problem.
The goal is to notice faster when you’ve left it and get back inside sooner.
That gap is where your growth lives.
Your body is constantly shifting between three states. Learning to recognize which one you’re in is the first step to changing how you show up.
1. Sympathetic (Fight or Flight): Your heart rate rises, your breathing gets shallow, your muscles tense. You feel urgency, tension, and reactivity. This is the state where you send the text you shouldn’t have sent.
2. Dorsal (Shutdown or Freeze): You feel numb, disconnected, or withdrawn. You check out, go quiet, or just stop caring. This is the state where you’re physically in the room, but mentally somewhere else.
3. Parasympathetic (Rest and Recovery): You think clearly, connect easily, and show up as the version of yourself you actually want to be. This is the state where your best conversations, decisions, and relationships happen.
Most people live in a constant state of mild activation and don’t even know it. The tightness in your shoulders feels familiar, your shallow breathing feels normal, the stress that follows you all day just feels like life…
Which state are you in right now? Pause for 10 seconds and check in. Awareness is the first step towards Emotional Regulation.
The Full article is in our April newsletter- part 1 of our 3 part series on Emotional Regulation.
