What if your greatest strength is actually your prison? What if the capability everyone admires, the drive that built your success, the resilience that got you through everything, is the very thing keeping you exhausted, overwhelmed, and unable to let anything be easy?

Manja Horner learned early that she couldn't be a bother. With an older sister battling cancer and parents stretched beyond capacity, four-year-old Manja absorbed a profound lesson: be strong, be capable, never add to the burden. That pattern of over-functioning became her operating system, driving her to perfectionism, straight A's, a full-ride scholarship, and eventually a high-powered corporate career at BMO's Institute for Learning.

On the outside, Manja was killing it. Executive track. Great salary. Respect. Security. But when she was asked to pour months of her life into a project she didn't believe in, something shifted. She walked away from the comfort, the salary, the stability, because her integrity mattered more than her safety. She sold a rental property to fund her business, had three small kids, and her husband, a police officer whose core values are security and stability, watched his wife blow up their predictable life.

Fast forward to today: Manja runs a thriving learning and development company serving the skilled trades industry, she's pioneering AI applications to capture retiring tradespeople's wisdom, she's writing a book, raising three kids, doing somatic therapy, acupuncture, and EMDR to heal childhood wounds. She's accomplished, capable, and deeply successful.

And her biggest challenge? Learning that ease is safe. Learning to soften without losing her edge. Learning that she doesn't have to make everything uncomfortable just because comfort feels dangerous.

Manja Horner is a learning experience strategist and trusted advisor to companies who want to transform their business with training and team procedures and processes in a seamless, digital and easy-to-implement system. As founder of Boost, she's on a mission to create amazing employee experiences and get results for leaders in the skilled trades. She helps clients in the skilled trades and construction create inspiring, enriching, and all-encompassing experiences for better employee retention, integration, and education. Manja is also the author of the forthcoming book Passing the Torch in the Trades and a former corporate learning executive at a leading financial institution who left security to build a business rooted in integrity and impact.

Find Manja on:

If Manja's story landed, it's because you recognize yourself in it. You're strong, capable, the one everyone turns to. You've built something impressive. But you're exhausted. You can't remember the last time something felt easy. And the idea of softening, of allowing ease, of not carrying it all? It terrifies you because doing feels safer than being.

Here's what nobody tells you: Your strength isn't the problem. Your capability isn't the problem. The problem is that you learned a long time ago that being a burden wasn't safe, so you became the opposite. You became the rock. And now you're carrying weight that was never yours to carry.

The Congruency Audit is where we look at the gap between the success you've built on the outside and the exhaustion you're feeling on the inside. We'll identify the exact patterns keeping you stuck in over-functioning, the childhood wounds driving your need to never be a bother, and what it's going to take for you to finally create success that feels as good on the inside as it looks on the outside.

This isn't about doing more or being better. This is about learning that ease is safe. That softening doesn't mean losing your edge. That you can be strong AND allow support. That you can be capable AND let things be easy.

Book your Congruency Audit: lisacarpenter.ca/audit

This isn't about optimizing the version of yourself you built to survive. It's about creating congruence so the life you've built doesn't just look good, it finally feels right.

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You're over-giving because you're terrified no one will see your value. You know you're doing it. You're even aware it's exhausting you. But awareness without understanding why you do it? That just fuels the shame cycle.

Emma came to this coaching session with a question about imposter syndrome. Twenty-five years of teaching, consistently getting great results with her clients, and still doubting whether she's doing enough or good enough. Still uncomfortable asking for money. Still over-giving in every session because maybe, just maybe, if she gives enough, they'll finally see her value.

But here's what I don't coach to: I don't coach to imposter syndrome. I coach to the operating system underneath producing that symptom.

Within minutes, we uncovered what was really running the show. Emma watched her mom overwork her entire childhood. Watched her put herself last, neglect her health, tie her worth to productivity, and never value herself. Emma loved her mom. So she learned this is what you do. You work until you're exhausted. You give until there's nothing left. You prove your value through doing.

And now, decades later, Emma's middle-aged, looking in the mirror, and seeing her mom staring back at her.

This is what it sounds like to work with a coach who doesn't address what you think the problem is. I go after the beliefs and identity driving the behavior. If you've been telling yourself it's just imposter syndrome when it's actually about worthiness, tune in.

What pattern are you repeating that you watched growing up? What are you getting from over-giving, from tying your worth to productivity, from staying exhausted, that you won't admit?

Emma came in thinking we'd coach on imposter syndrome. But the real work was uncovering the operating system underneath that was running her life. And I'm willing to bet there's an operating system running yours too.

If you're done perpetuating the suffering, if you're ready to stop recreating what you watched and start becoming the conscious creator of your own life, book a free Congruency Audit with my team at lisacarpenter.ca/audit. We'll identify what's working, what's out of sync, and the single biggest opportunity to bring your life, work, and self back into congruence.

What pattern are you ready to stop repeating?

If you listen on Spotify: 

You've built something impressive. From the outside, it all looks good. But if you're honest with yourself, you've been playing small. Making things look perfect so no one sees the truth underneath. Smiling through the exhaustion. Saying "I'm just" when someone recognizes your power. Shrinking yourself so others feel comfortable.

Today's guest knows this pattern intimately because she lived it for years.

Sarah Albritton has spent over 30 years as the trusted catalyst for high-impact leaders who've achieved massive success but know something's still missing. She works with CEOs, founders, and senior executives who look unstoppable from the outside yet privately feel their compass spinning. Her clients include billion-dollar business leaders and visionary founders who've realized the old playbook isn't working anymore.

But before she was coaching the world's most accomplished leaders, Sarah was the woman who made everything look perfect while quietly crumbling inside. The high achiever with imposter syndrome who spent 20 years in a marriage where she wasn't fully present. The capable woman who carried chronic back pain because her body was screaming what she wouldn't say out loud. The leader who walked into rooms full of elite coaches and heard herself say "I'm just a coach here, just like everybody else" in that high-pitched little voice, watching doors close behind people's eyes.

Until the day she couldn't keep playing small anymore.

In this raw, vulnerable conversation, Sarah reveals what it actually costs to make things look perfect when you're not being real. The physical pain her body carried from years of inauthenticity. The devastating betrayal when her entire friend group turned on her during her divorce, not just walking away but actively trying to destroy her. The moment at a coaching seminar when she caught herself shrinking and made the conscious choice to show up bigger. And how learning to treat her body as her hero instead of her villain changed everything.

Sarah Albritton is a transformational coach and leadership catalyst who has spent over 30 years working with the world's most accomplished leaders. She's known for her rare ability to deliver what she calls "catalytic jolts of clarity," helping CEOs, founders, and senior executives torch limiting patterns and reclaim aligned leadership. Working from deep 1:1 coaching to transformative team sessions to soul-awakening retreats at her North Carolina farm, Sarah balances self-compassion with radical candor and a refusal to sugarcoat. Her new program, Leading with Backbone, helps both business leaders and coaches show up courageously with truth. Find her at sarahcalbritton.com and on LinkedIn and Instagram @sarahcalbritton.

If Sarah's story hit close to home, it's because you're living some version of it right now. You've built something that looks good on the outside. People think you have it together. But you know the truth. You're playing smaller than you're capable of. Making things look perfect so no one sees how exhausted you really are. Shrinking yourself so others feel comfortable while your body carries the weight of everything you're not saying.

Here's what that costs you: your energy, your presence, your health, your relationships, and your ability to actually feel the success you've built. You collapse into bed exhausted but can't sleep because your mind won't stop racing. You snap at the people you love most, then feel guilty for not being present. You know you should take better care of yourself but you always run out of time and energy. You've built a life people admire but inside it doesn't feel congruent.

The Congruency Audit is where we look at the gap between the success you've built on the outside and what you're actually feeling on the inside. We'll identify the exact patterns keeping you stuck in playing small, the wounds driving your need to make things look perfect, and what it's going to take for you to finally show up as big as you actually are. This isn't about optimizing the version of yourself you built to survive. It's about creating congruence so the life you've built doesn't just look good, it finally feels right.

Book your Congruency Audit: lisacarpenter.ca/audit

Success that feels as good on the inside as it looks on the outside.

If you listen on Spotify:

In this episode, I'm getting real about what's happening in my own body right now, hormones out of whack again, depression, anxiety, fatigue, memory loss, and a complete loss of zest for life. My get-up and go has left the building.

But here's what I know: what I'm feeling is real, but it doesn't make it true.

I've been on HRT for years. I take amazing care of myself physically. I work with practitioners. I've done decades of emotional work. And I'm still navigating this.

Because HRT can support your symptoms, but it's not a magic bullet for all the emotional work you've been avoiding. Taking physically good care of yourself doesn't mean you've taken emotionally good care of yourself.

Your hormones don't tank out of nowhere—they reflect how you've been living. The chronic stress, the over-functioning, the self-abandonment, the patterns you've normalized for so long you don't even see them anymore.

This episode is for high-achieving women in perimenopause, menopause, or post-menopause who are exhausted, overwhelmed, and wondering if they're losing their minds. If you're ready to blow up your life or feeling like a victim of your own body, this conversation will challenge everything you think you know about hormone health.

I break down what hormones can do, what they can't do, and the deeper self-leadership work your body is demanding you finally pay attention to.

Because hormone therapy can change your chemistry, but only you can change your capacity.

If you're exhausted from feeling like a victim of your own body, if you recognize yourself in this episode and you're ready to lead yourself differently, book a free 15-minute Congruency Audit.

We'll identify exactly where you're out of congruence with yourself and what needs to shift so you can navigate this phase with awareness instead of reactivity, with self-leadership instead of self-abandonment.

Book your Congruency Audit

You're afraid of not feeling good enough. Meanwhile, you wake up every day already feeling that way. So what exactly are you protecting yourself from?

In this live coaching episode, I work with Laurie-Ann Murabito, a successful speaking coach who's built a beautiful business but came to me feeling stuck. Not confident enough. Not getting the engagement she wanted. Not seeing the results she expected. So she stopped promoting her work and held back from the bigger vision she knew she was being called toward.

Within minutes of our session, I exposed the pattern she was living: She was afraid of not feeling good enough, but she was already experiencing that feeling every single day. She was protecting herself from what she was already living.

This is imposter syndrome in its most insidious form. Not the dramatic "I'm a fraud" moments, but the quiet, daily erosion of confidence that keeps accomplished people playing small. Laurie-Ann had all the evidence she needed that she was creating real results. Clients hiring her out of the blue after listening silently for months. People telling her she was their only choice. But she wasn't looking at that data. She was hanging her confidence on likes, comments, and downloads that would never be enough.

Here's where the coaching got interesting: I asked her what she was getting from staying stuck that she wouldn't admit. What was the real payoff for playing small? Her answer shifted everything: "I get to stay right here. I don't have to step into that bigger role."

This is the work I do. I don't coach to what you think the problem is. I coach to the operating system underneath that's producing all those symptoms. While most coaches would focus on confidence-building exercises or mindset mantras, I go after the unconscious pattern that's creating the lack of confidence in the first place.

When Laurie-Ann described the vision she's been holding back from, building a world-class speaking and communication company, tears came. That's when I knew we hit the real issue. This wasn't about confidence. It was about identity. Who would she need to become to step into that vision? And what parts of herself would she need to stop being loyal to?

I guided Laurie-Ann to see that she was choosing evidence that kept her small because looking at evidence of her real impact would require her to step up. And stepping up meant leaving behind the familiar version of herself that feels safe, even when it's exhausting.

In this coaching episode, you'll hear me guide Laurie-Ann through:

This episode is for you if:

This is what it sounds like to work with a Master Coach who sees the operating system underneath your surface symptoms. If you've been holding back from something bigger, tune in.

Ready to explore your own patterns?

Book a free 15-minute Congruency Audit at lisacarpenter.ca/audit. We'll identify what's working, what's out of sync, and the single biggest opportunity to bring your life, work, and self back into congruence.

You tell yourself you're being strategic. That you're building collaborations, finding complementary skill sets, creating win-win partnerships. But what if the real reason you keep looking for someone else to do it with you is because you don't believe you're enough on your own?

Andrea Janzen built a wildly successful leadership development company in one of the most male-dominated industries on the planet: construction. She's coached over 1,000 construction professionals, works with multinational companies, hosts the Ambition Theory Podcast, and is a Forbes contributor. On the outside, she's absolutely killing it.

But for years, Andrea was running a story underneath all that success. A story that said she wasn't legitimate without an HR background. That she needed partners to fill her gaps. That her energy and authentic approach weren't enough to carry her business forward.

The cost? She almost missed massive opportunities. She hid her greatest strengths. She exhausted herself trying to prove her worth. And even when she was achieving goals she'd journaled about years earlier, she couldn't let herself feel successful.

Until a client said five words that changed everything: "We just want to work with you."

Andrea Janzen is a Certified Executive Coach with an MBA, the host of the Ambition Theory Podcast, a Forbes contributor, and a top-rated speaker. She is passionate about coaching construction professionals to develop themselves, set leadership goals, and get results. Since 2018, Andrea has coached and trained over 1,000 construction professionals. Before becoming a coach, Andrea was a marketing leader who worked on some of the world's best-known brands.

Connect with Andrea:

Ready to stop hiding behind partnerships and step into what you're actually capable of?

Here's what Andrea's story reveals: The "not enough" story doesn't go away with more credentials, more partners, or more proof. It goes away when you finally see what's been true all along, that your energy, your authentic approach, your unique way of seeing things, that's not a gap to fill. That's your genius.

But most high achievers can't see this on their own. We need someone to hold up the mirror, to name the pattern we're running, to show us where we're hiding instead of leading.

That's exactly what the Congruency Audit does.

The Congruency Audit is where we look at the gap between the success you've built on the outside and what you're actually feeling on the inside. We'll identify the exact "not enough" story keeping you stuck, the ways you're over-functioning or seeking external validation instead of trusting yourself, and what it's going to take for you to finally create success that feels as good on the inside as it looks on the outside.

If Andrea's story hit you somewhere deep, if you recognized yourself in the pattern of seeking partners from scarcity or achieving goals without feeling successful, this call is for you.

Book your Congruency Audit

This isn't about optimizing the version of yourself you built to survive. It's about creating congruence so the life you've built doesn't just look good, it finally feels right.

Tracy Goodwin had a gift she couldn't deny. She could hear things in people's voices that no one else could hear, seven layers of sound that revealed scars, wounds, and the real person buried beneath years of conditioning. But instead of stepping into that power, she played it safe. She taught traditional voice coaching while her radical insights screamed to get out.

Then the hate came. International hate clubs. Requests to appear on national television to be humiliated on purpose. Daily emails telling her she was an "effing piece of" nothing, that she shouldn't exist, that she should be dead. Her life was literally threatened because she wouldn't accommodate someone's request, because she wouldn't conform to what others wanted her to be.

So she went into hiding. She refinished furniture for years, sanding away layers of old paint and varnish while God sanded away her excuses.

Until she heard the voice she'd been running from: "What are you doing? I didn't put you down there to finish furniture. I need you back in the game."

Within 24 hours, the concept of psychology of the voice became crystal clear.

This episode is for you if you've ever:

Tracy Goodwin is a voice decoder, researcher, and voice behavioralist who works with the psychology of the voice. She helps high-performing leaders understand how their voice holds their scars, wounds, and power, ultimately getting them back to who they were put on this earth to be versus who the world told them to be.

Find Tracy at:

If Tracy's story hit you in the chest, if you recognized yourself in the pattern of knowing your truth but staying paralyzed by fear, it's time to stop hiding behind the version of success that's quietly killing you.

The congruency audit is where we look at the gap between the success you've built on the outside and what you're actually feeling on the inside. We'll identify the exact patterns keeping you stuck in the "never enough" cycle, the wounds driving your over-responsibility, and what it's going to take for you to finally create success that feels as good on the inside as it looks on the outside.

No more self-inflicted torture of knowing there's more but being too afraid to reach for it. No more settling for accomplishments that leave you empty.

Book your Congruency Audit: lisacarpenter.ca/audit

This isn't about optimizing the version of yourself you built to survive. It's about creating congruence so the life you've built doesn't just look good, it finally feels right.

You’ve achieved more than most people, but if you’re honest, it’s come at a cost — to your health, your relationships, your energy, maybe even your sense of peace. And here’s the kicker: no matter how much you do, it never feels like enough.

In this very first episode of Congruent, Lisa Carpenter pulls back the curtain on the truth about success. Why do so many high-achieving men and women deny or downplay their success? Why does “making it” rarely feel the way we imagined it would? And what does it actually take to create success that sustains you instead of drains you?

Lisa shares her own story of chasing achievement while never feeling successful, and how a life-changing season forced her to embody everything she’d been teaching for over a decade. She reveals the hidden costs of “do-er mode,” the patterns that keep ambitious people stuck, and the shifts required to build a life that feels as good on the inside as it looks on the outside.

What you’ll hear in this episode:

If you’ve been chasing achievement but still feel unfulfilled, exhausted, or disconnected, this episode will help you see that you’re not broken — you’ve been conditioned. And there’s a different way forward.

👉 Ready to uncover where you’re out of alignment? Book your free 15-minute Congruency Audit.

Subscribe now so you don’t miss next week’s episode: The Real Cost of Over-Doing (and How to Break the Cycle Without Losing Your Ambition).

Fresh off an incredible two-day retreat in the beautiful Okanagan, Lisa dives deep into the story that keeps so many driven, ambitious people trapped: "I should know this stuff already."

If you've been drowning in personal development for years, reading all the books, taking the courses, working with coaches, and you're still stuck in the same patterns, this episode is for you.

What You'll Learn:

The Truth About "Should Know Better" Lisa breaks down why believing you should already have it figured out is the exact thing keeping you stuck. She shares how this story kept her trapped for years and why it's actually keeping you from the transformation you're craving.

The Bus vs. Plane Analogy We don't need coaches. We're all capable of finding our way. But working with a one-to-one coach is the difference between taking a bus across the country versus hopping on a plane. Same destination, completely different timeline.

Lisa's Money Story Transformation For years, Lisa thought she had a money problem. The real problem? She was constantly holding her attention on what she didn't have instead of recognizing the abundance that was already there. She shares the specific questions she asked herself that shifted everything.

The Four Phases of Transformation

1. Awareness - Discovering what's really holding you back (spoiler: it's not what you think)

The Real Cost of Playing Small

Lisa challenges you to ask yourself: What is it costing you to get stuck in your stories? How much longer are you going to use "I should know this" as an excuse to not make the investment in yourself that you need to make?

She shares her own journey of learning to stop shrinking, to show up as a leader, and how working with coaches for two decades has allowed her to create the life and business she has today.

The Dragon Unicorn Moment

Lisa shares a powerful story about a friend telling her: "You not standing out is like a dragon unicorn standing in the middle of a field, not standing out." This became a turning point in her journey of accepting that she's here to lead.

Bottom Line

You have information, but information is nothing without action. Nothing. The most successful, emotionally well people Lisa knows have worked with coaches, not because there's anything wrong with them, but because they value personal growth and want to show up as more powerful leaders in their lives.

Take Action

If this episode resonates with you:

• Stop telling yourself you should have it figured out by now

This Week's Challenge: Really ask yourself what you want and what you need for your own personal transformation. Give yourself permission to want what you want, need what you need, and get out of the story that you should be doing it all by yourself.

You can be driven and ambitious and want more in your life, but you don't have to do it at your own personal sacrifice. Make you a priority this week.

Want to work with Lisa? She's looking for driven, ambitious humans who are ready to stop playing small and create their extraordinary lives. Visit lisacarpenter.ca/wwm to learn more.

Lisa dives deep into the confusion around "let it be easy" versus doing hard things. If you've been avoiding uncomfortable actions or pushing through everything with force, this episode reveals the difference between allowing and forcing, and why both approaches can keep you stuck.

Many of Lisa's clients are excellent at doing hard things. They're masters at pushing through, putting their heads down, and forcing things to happen. But there's a crucial difference between forcing and pushing versus allowing. The energy behind the action matters as much as the action itself.

Lisa woke up with sore legs, knowing she had to train glutes that day. Heavy weights, high volume, very mental. She didn't feel like it. But she's committed to her outcome, and she knows that if she starts negotiating with herself based on how she feels, she's already losing.

Instead of wasting energy negotiating or switching to upper body, she went straight to the gym. While warming up, she shifted her energy from "Oh my God, this is going to be so hard and take so long" to reminding herself that she's strong, capable, and her body can do this. She tuned into her body's yes or no signals, which is different than just not feeling like it.

The key insight: she went in knowing it would be hard and asked "How can I allow this to be easier?"

Whether you're trying to transform your body, lose weight, or grow a business, it's going to be hard. Lisa can't tell you how many face-down moments she's had in business, how many hard decisions she's made, how much adversity she's faced. Being an entrepreneur isn't for everyone and it's definitely not a walk in the park.

When you're doing hard things, it's confronting. You have to look at your limiting beliefs, the stories you're telling yourself, your current identity and ways of being. You have to stare all of that down, and it's really uncomfortable.

Most people aren't willing to do uncomfortable things. So Lisa asks: is it that it's hard, or is it that it's uncomfortable and we don't want to do uncomfortable things?

For many high-achievers, the hardest, most uncomfortable thing isn't pushing through more activities. It's learning to slow down, say no, make rest a priority, have more fun, take things off their plate, be in the discomfort of not taking care of everybody else, and actually making themselves a priority.

When Lisa was learning to rest, she had to dismantle all her stories and beliefs: rest was lazy, rest was unproductive, rest was for "those people." She had things to do. It was tied to her identity as an overachiever who wore "busy" as a badge of honor. She could do all the things and take care of everybody else while doing them. No wonder she burned out.

To heal, she had to learn that slowing down was the hard thing for an over-doer. Most people would say slowing down isn't hard, but when you're wired to constantly achieve, slowing down is the most uncomfortable thing you can do.

Lisa had to learn how to make rest feel easier. Resting felt torturous, so she shifted her energy by reminding herself what rest would bring: healing, strength, the ability to do more ultimately. Rest wasn't going to take away from anything. She had to learn to honor and value rest, and that's how she allowed the hard thing to be easier.

Get comfortable being uncomfortable. The more you can get comfortable with being uncomfortable, that's when the magic happens. In that discomfort, you can adjust your energy so that even when it's uncomfortable, you still find a way to win and honor your energy.

The question becomes: what feels hard that you've been avoiding? And what things are you doing that you're telling yourself are hard that, if you shifted your energy around them, you could allow to be easier?

Thank you for being part of this community. If this episode resonated with you, share it with someone who needs to hear this message.