The CEO Survival Playbook
In collaboration with Brainz Magazine, I’m writing a series of articles geared toward CEOs, senior leaders, and aspiring executives to provide a framework for navigating business leadership in a heart-forward and sustainable way.
Building up strong cultures at work leads to financial success and stronger communities via happier employees.
If you’re ready to take charge of your success and build teams that are set up to thrive, this playbook is for you.
3 Ways to Avoid Burning Down Your Business
Part 1: Published September 15, 2025
As a founder, executive, or CEO of your own life, it’s easy to keep pushing—even when your business and energy are burning at the edges. This article outlines three key strategies to save both your business and your sanity:
Self-Care as Strategy — Your vitality directly impacts decision making, culture, and sustainability. Self-care should be nonnegotiable.
Sales Discipline — Every action must tie back to revenue. From frontline team members to leadership, sales focus is non-optional.
Courage to Pivot — When what’s working wanes, flip the script. Use failure as information, iterate intentionally, and don’t cling to stale plans.
Good intentions and grit don’t replace grounded alignment and strategy. If you’re feeling overwhelmed or stuck, this article provides concrete steps to turn things around.
How to Lead With Calm and Clarity Under Pressure
Part 2: Published November 25, 2025
As a paramedic, I believed strength meant holding it together no matter what I witnessed. But after a string of pediatric deaths, one night in the trauma bay broke through my composure and forced me to confront the cost of carrying everyone else’s grief.
This article explores three hard truths about compassion fatigue and burnout:
Emotional Suppression Isn’t Strength — Pushing down grief doesn’t make you resilient; it delays the reckoning.
Self-Medication Is a Warning Sign — When the shift ends but the pain doesn’t, numbing becomes a dangerous substitute for processing.
You Can Care Without Carrying — Healing begins when you stop mistaking martyrdom for empathy and start releasing what was never yours to hold.
If you’re the strong one in the room—the medic, clinician, executive, or leader who keeps going no matter what—this piece is a reminder: you can hold space without sacrificing yourself.
How to Say No Without Burning Bridges
Part 3: Published January 26, 2026
Most CEOs don’t fail because they lack vision. They fail because they say yes too often. Thriving leadership isn’t about adding more; it’s about disciplined subtraction.
This article outlines four critical leadership “nos” that protect performance, culture, and long-term success:
Say No to False Urgency — Not every request deserves action. Triage your time and protect focus like lives depend on it, because your business might.
Say No to Shiny Objects — If it doesn’t align with strategy, it’s a distraction. Alignment first. Execution second.
Say No to Misaligned Clients — Short-term revenue can quietly erode morale, brand integrity, and momentum. Not all money is good money.
Say No to Your Ego — Command-and-control leadership creates bottlenecks. Delegation is trust. Boundaries are respect. Clarity is strength.
Thriving leaders understand that survival depends more on subtraction than addition. A calm, direct no protects capacity, reinforces standards, and builds trust without burning bridges.