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.

In a world that increasingly feels uncertain — and at times, broken — how do we stay grounded as leaders and human beings?

In this powerful conversation, LaTonya Wilkins sits down with Dr. Caroline Adelman, clinical psychologist, coach, and founder of Chicago Psychotherapy, to explore what it truly means to lead and live well amid chaos. Together, they uncover how chronic stress, disconnection, and unpredictability shape our lives — and how we can rebuild connection through everyday mental health practices that actually work.

Dr. Adelman shares evidence-based techniques rooted in therapy and neuroscience that help leaders regulate emotions, create stability, and bring real compassion into the workplace. Whether you’re leading a team, a business, or just trying to stay grounded yourself, this conversation offers practical wisdom for navigating a complex, broken world — one human moment at a time.

• Connection — not control — is the foundation of resilience.

• Stress disconnects us from ourselves, others, and what matters most; awareness and intention reconnect us.

• Leaders don’t need to have all the answers, but they do need to show care, humility, and hope.

• Simple rituals — listening, check-ins, walk-and-talks — can transform workplace wellbeing.

• Human-centered leadership is the antidote to fear-based systems.

Dr. Caroline Adelman, PhD, is a clinical psychologist, coach, and founder of Chicago Psychotherapy. She completed her PhD at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and fellowships at the Yale Child Study Center. She previously served on the clinical faculty at Northwestern University and has spent over fifteen years helping children, adults, and professionals navigate anxiety, trauma, and transitions.

Dr. Adelman’s work integrates evidence-based therapy with compassion, humor, and authenticity. She’s a frequent speaker and consultant on resilience, wellness, and leadership.

To learn more, visit ChicagoPsychotherapy.com/dr-caroline-adelman.

Resources Mentioned

• Leading Below the Surface (2nd Edition): leadingbelowthesurface.com

• LaTonya’s article “The Relationship Between Psychological Safety and Accountability”: changecoaches.io/the-relationship-between-psychological-safety-and-accountability

🎧 Listen & Subscribe: changecoaches.io/podcast

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

🔗 Follow Change Coaches: linkedin.com/company/change-coaches

🌐 Learn more about our work: changecoaches.io

Authoritarian, fear-based leadership might seem loud and everywhere—but that doesn’t mean it’s working. In this solo episode, LaTonya Wilkins, award-winning executive coach and author of Leading Below the Surface (second edition out Sept. 30), unpacks why dominant leadership standards—rigidity, perfectionism, and toxic meritocracy—are failing organizations today. Drawing on Chapter 2 of her book, LaTonya contrasts authoritarian and relational leadership, shares personal insights from the field, and explains why relational leadership is the future in an era of mental health challenges, AI disruption, and broken systems.

She also teases upcoming guest conversations on mental health and conscious leadership. If you’ve been told to “toughen up” or “lead with fear” to get results, this episode will give you evidence, strategies, and courage to lead differently.

Authoritarian leadership OwlCast episode referenced:

Spotify

Apple

Key Insights:

• Dominant leadership standards (rigidity, fear, optics) are outdated and erode innovation and psychological safety.

• Authoritarian leadership thrives on fear and appears louder than it is—but relational leadership creates sustainable performance.

• Relational leadership is essential as workplaces face unprecedented challenges and employees bring their whole selves to work.

• Situational leadership and coaching cultures are powerful relational tools that drive inclusion, collaboration, and trust.

• Sticking with relational leadership—even when pressured to adopt authoritarian tactics—pays off in alignment, creativity, and resilience.

Let's Stay in Touch:

• Subscribe/Follow: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Change Coaches YouTube Channel to catch every episode.

• Leave a Review or Share: If this episode resonated, leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, and share it with a colleague or friend.

• Explore More: Visit LeadingBelowTheSurface.com and ChangeCoaches.io for book updates, keynotes, workshops, and coaching.

• Book Talks: Want a Leading Below the Surface book talk for your team? Email info@changecoaches.io to schedule—limited slots each month.

• Connect with LaTonya: LinkedIn — share your thoughts or let her know how relational leadership is showing up in your world.

• Next Episode Preview: Don’t miss next week’s conversation on Everyday Mental Health Practices for Leadership and Life—practical ways leaders can support wellness in a world that feels broken.

In today’s fast-changing world, surface-level leadership won’t cut it anymore. In this solo episode, LaTonya Wilkins (award-winning executive coach and bestselling author of Leading Below the Surface) walks you through 10 concrete ways organizations benefit when they embrace Below the Surface Leadership.

From stronger leadership alignment and inclusive decision-making to navigating bias, building real belonging, and creating a shared language for change—even in the age of AI—you’ll hear practical ways to shift culture and performance.

LaTonya also shares an update on the Second Edition of Leading Below the Surface (out this fall!) and how you can bring these practices into your teams and organizations.

You’ll learn:

• 10 tangible benefits of Below the Surface Leadership
  

• Practical ways to apply P2B (Person-to-Belonging) listening
  

• Why authenticity and psychological safety are more than trends
  

• How to build a shared language for change in uncertain times
  

Resources:

• LeadingBelowTheSurface.com — book updates & launch info
  

• Change Coaches — coaching, workshops, and keynotes
  

LaTonya’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/latonyawilkins

Psychological safety has become one of the most popular leadership buzzwords in recent years. But is it enough on its own?

Inspired by Amy Edmondson’s recent Harvard Business Review article, executive coach and author LaTonya Wilkins explores the six most common misconceptions about psychological safety — and what leaders can do to move beyond them.

LaTonya also shares exciting news about the second edition of her award-winning book Leading Below the Surface, coming this fall, and gives three practical tips for keeping psychological safety alive in your organization.

• Why psychological safety isn’t about being “nice” or avoiding accountability
  

• The difference between safety and job security
  

• How safety drives performance and collaboration, not the opposite
  

• Why everyone — not just senior leaders — can create safety
  

🌟 What You’ll Learn in This Episode

• Why psychological safety isn’t about being “nice” or avoiding accountability
  

• The difference between safety and job security
  

• How safety drives performance and collaboration, not the opposite
  

• • Why everyone — not just senior leaders — can create safety

  
  

  • Three practical ways to make psychological safety last
    

  
  

• 🔗 Resources & Links

  • Official Podcast Hub: leadingbelowthesurface.com
    

  • HBR Article: What People Get Wrong About Psychological Safety by Amy C. Edmondson & Michaela J. Kerrissey
    

  • LaTonya’s Article: The Relationship Between Psychological Safety and Accountability
    

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

  • LaTonya Wilkins on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/latonyawilkins
    

  • Coaching Below the Surface Program: changecoaches.io/coaching-below-the-surface/

  
  

In this episode of Leading Below the Surface, LaTonya Wilkins sits down with sales strategist Kelly Hoppesch to unpack the art of selling yourself without feeling fake, pushy, or “salesy.” Whether you’re a CEO, a coach, or simply navigating your career, sales is a skill we all need, even if we don’t think of ourselves as salespeople.

Kelly shares her insights on empathy in sales, how to build authentic influence, and why selling is really about connection and clarity, not scripts and pressure. You’ll walk away with actionable ways to position yourself, your ideas, and your value; all in a way that feels natural and aligned.

Guest Bio:

Kelly Hoppesch is a seasoned sales strategist, specializing in the HR Tech space. She’s held revenue leadership roles at powerhouse brands like LinkedIn, CareerBuilder, and Glassdoor, but her true passion lies in the messy, high-stakes world of startups. In 2021, she founded KH LLC, a consulting firm built to help tech founders unlock revenue and scale smarter, faster, and with purpose.

Kelly believes revenue problems aren’t just about numbers — they’re rooted in people, operations, and execution. Through her work, she helps founders uncover the real heartbeat of their business, rewiring what’s broken so they can move forward with clarity and confidence.

Stay in Touch with Change Coaches:

-Change Coaches Guide to Create Psychological Safe Conversations Across Differences

-Change Coaches Newsletter

Connect with us:

Email us at info@changecoaches.io

Learn more about Change Coaches

Follow LaTonya on LinkedIn

Follow Change Coaches on LinkedIn

For More on the Book Leading Below the Surface