Show Notes

In this episode of Leading Below the Surface, I reflect on the lessons that quietly shaped my year — not through big milestones or dramatic changes, but through slower growth, healing, and learning to listen more closely to my body and intuition.

Rather than setting rigid goals, I share why I’ve been leaning into intentions and clarity, supported by science around behavior change, visualization, and motivation. We explore what it means to set “soft stretch” goals that are ambitious but achievable, why manic manifesting can actually work against us, and how progress often unfolds more slowly — and more sustainably — than we expect.

I also talk openly about endings, healing, and the quiet shifts that signal real growth, even when it doesn’t look loud from the outside. This episode is an invitation to pause, reflect, and enter the next chapter with more intention and less urgency.

If you’re someone who feels called to move forward thoughtfully — not frantically — this conversation is for you.

This episode is also available on YouTube. You can watch and subscribe to the Leading Below the Surface Podcast on the Change Coaches YouTube channel, where we’re focusing our energy moving forward.

Key Themes & Takeaways

• Why intentions can be more effective than rigid goal-setting

• The science behind “soft stretch” goals and sustainable motivation

• How visualizing challenges (not just success) supports real behavior change

• The difference between intentional growth and manic manifesting

• Why the next step forward is often already in front of you

• How endings create space for healing and clarity

• What quiet growth looks like — and why it still counts

Reflection Prompts from the Episode

• What is your body telling you that you may be overriding or ignoring?

• Where might you be forcing progress instead of allowing it to unfold?

• What endings — habits, roles, relationships, or expectations — may be asking for your attention?

Listen, Watch, and Connect

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

📺 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@changecoaches/podcasts

🔗 Coaching Below the Surface: https://changecoaches.io/coaching-below-the-surface/

🔗 Change Coaches on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/change-coaches

🔗 LaTonya Wilkins on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/latonyawilkins/

🔗 Full Article on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-2025-taught-me-letting-go-healing-trust-latonya-wilkins-udscc

PODCAST DESCRIPTION

In this candid episode of Leading Below the Surface, LaTonya Wilkins sits down with executive coach and Consciously CEO Kvon Tucker to talk about what it really takes to break away from dominant leadership standards – especially inside big-name companies like Netflix, Amazon, and Google.

Kvon shares how a suicidal depression in his late 20s became a turning point, why he ultimately walked away from a “dream” tech career, and how he and his family ended up in Costa Rica designing a more human, spiritually aligned life. Kvon unpacks the dangerous mix of hypergrowth, fear-based leadership, and ego-driven cultures – and what it looks like to lead consciously instead, in a way that centers love, liberation, and human wellbeing.

This is a below the surface conversation about work, worth, ego, redemption, and the kind of leadership our world actually needs right now.

EPISODE SUMMARY

In this conversation, we explore:

• How Kvon’s mental health crisis woke him up to a life and career he didn’t actually choose.

• His path through Netflix, Amazon, and Google – and what was really happening beneath the “best places to work” branding.

• The “dark triad” traits that often get rewarded in dominant leadership cultures, and why they’re so harmful.

• Hypergrowth vs. natural growth: why the pace that works for business often breaks human bodies.

• Three practices Kvon recommends for anyone who wants to lead more consciously: meditation, healing work (like therapy), and coaching.

ABOUT OUR GUEST – KVON TUCKER

Kvon Tucker is an executive coach and the CEO of Consciously, a coaching and consulting company that helps leaders build more conscious, human-centered organizations. Before founding Consciously, he led manager and leadership development at companies including Netflix, Amazon, and Google. Today, Kvon coaches leaders around the world as they navigate identity shifts, burnout, and the desire to lead in a way that’s more aligned with their values, spiritual growth, and real life. He lives in Costa Rica with his wife and daughter.

KEY INSIGHTS

• Dominant leadership standards are often built on fear, hypergrowth, and ego – not love, wellness, or liberation.

• Big-name “dream companies” can simultaneously offer incredible opportunities and deeply misaligned cultures. Both can be true.

• Hypergrowth works for revenue, but it’s usually unsustainable for human nervous systems and family life.

• Many leaders are waking up to the fact that the path they’ve been on is no longer serving them – there’s a real shift in collective consciousness happening.

• Ego isn’t always “bad.” It can be redirected toward growth and impact when we’re aware of it and in relationship with it.

• You can’t be serious about liberation if you’re not serious about practices that help you know yourself – like meditation, therapy, and coaching.

LEARN MORE:

If this conversation resonated, here are a few ways to go deeper:

Work with Kvon or learn more about his work

• Website: https://consciously.one

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kvontucker

Explore Coaching Below the Surface (ICF-approved coach training)

• Learn more about the Coaching Below the Surface program and upcoming cohorts:

  https://changecoaches.io/coaching-below-the-surface/

Work with LaTonya & Change Coaches

• Learn about keynotes, leadership development, and coaching for executives and teams:

  https://changecoaches.io

Connect with LaTonya & Change Coaches

• LaTonya on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/latonyawilkins/

• Change Coaches on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/change-coaches

Listen & follow the podcast

• Follow “Leading Below the Surface” wherever you listen to podcasts, and share this episode with someone who’s questioning dominant leadership standards or reevaluating their own path.

In this special replay of a Change Coaches Community Event, we explore how to stay mentally, emotionally, and physiologically grounded while leading in uncertain times.

Blythe Landry — therapist, trauma specialist, and author of Trauma Intelligence — joins LaTonya to share real-world, accessible mental health practices that help leaders thrive without burning out.

You’ll hear discussion, guidance, and tools rooted in science, nervous-system awareness, grief work, and Below the Surface leadership. We also uplift wisdom from the community members who joined live — demonstrating the power of connection and shared learning.

This isn’t self-care theory. It’s practical, lived resilience for today’s world.

Episode Highlights

• Why uncertainty fuels stress — and how leaders can respond with grounding, not urgency

• The role of micro-rest, boundaries, and intentional recovery

• Tools to reconnect with your body and calm your nervous system

• Emotional hygiene habits and rituals to keep you steady

• How to support others without carrying their emotional load

• The restorative power of nature, community, and mindful movement

• What it looks like to lead like a human — not a machine

Key Insights

• Leaders can’t control chaos — but they can control rituals, structure, and presence

• Nervous system literacy is leadership literacy

• Rest isn’t indulgent — it’s strategic

• Community care is a resilience multiplier

About Today’s Guest: Blythe Landry

Blythe Landry, MSW, MEd, LCSW, is a nationally recognized trauma and grief therapist, author of Trauma Intelligence, and founder of Grief to Purpose, a program supporting individuals healing from loss. She brings 25 years of experience helping people transform grief and adversity into grounded strength and connection.

Learn more about Blythe at BlytheLandry.com

🔗 Links & Resources

• Learn about Coaching Below the Surface™

https://changecoaches.io/coaching-below-the-surface/

• Join our community events list

https://changecoaches.io/community

• Connect with LaTonya on LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/latonyawilkins/

• Learn more about Change Coaches

https://changecoaches.io

If today’s conversation resonated, share it with someone who leads with heart and is navigating uncertainty.

To deepen your practice and connect live with other values-driven leaders, join our community events list — we’d love to see you in the room next time.