You've built something impressive. You've proven yourself over and over. But you're exhausted, your body is breaking down, and no matter how much you achieve, it never feels like enough. You're the strong one everyone leans on, but you're quietly wondering how much longer you can keep this up.

If this sounds familiar, you're not alone. This is the hidden cost of being strong, and it's exactly what today's guest, Alex Snider, lived through before everything came crashing down.

Alex Snider is the founder of Leaders Who Build, a leadership development company working with founders and executives who are scaling fast but struggling to lead themselves through it. Alex helps her clients integrate strategy with self-awareness so they can grow their businesses without losing themselves in the process. She's a certified executive coach who knows this terrain intimately because she's walked through it herself.

During COVID, Alex was tripling her company in 10 months. On the outside, she was crushing it. But her back was in constant pain for 12 months straight. Her business partnership had turned toxic. Her personal relationship was unhealthy. She was over-giving in every direction, having emotional reactions that would take her out for days, and her body was physically breaking down from carrying the weight of it all.

Alex had gone from being hyper-independent and emotionally unavailable to swinging completely to the other extreme: over-functioning, people-pleasing, and seeking partnerships to fill the gaps she believed existed in herself. She was operating from scarcity, not abundance. She was trying to earn love by being helpful and valuable enough. And she was attracting emotionally unavailable people so she could over-compensate by being the caretaker.

The breakthrough came when Alex realized she was having outsized emotional reactions because she had given every ounce of energy to everyone else. There was nothing left for her. She had to face the uncomfortable truth: her patterns of over-functioning weren't making her a better leader or partner. They were destroying her health, her relationships, and her ability to feel the success she'd built.

Alex's journey reveals something critical: you can't strategy your way out of patterns rooted in unworthiness. You can't hustle your way into feeling successful. And you can't keep abandoning yourself for achievement and expect to feel fulfilled.

The real work is getting honest about why you're over-giving. What you're getting from being everyone's rock. What you're avoiding by staying busy and helpful and indispensable. And whether you're willing to do the uncomfortable work of learning to love yourself enough to stop.

If you're ready to stop carrying it all and start building success that actually feels good, this conversation will show you what's possible on the other side.

The patterns Alex describes (over-functioning, people-pleasing, seeking external validation, struggling to feel your success) aren't character flaws. They're coping mechanisms you developed to stay safe. But they're costing you your health, your relationships, and your ability to enjoy the life you've built.

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 over-functioning mode, the wounds driving your need to be everyone's rock, 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 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 free Congruency Audit: lisacarpenter.ca/audit

Website: https://alexsnider.com/

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/snideralex

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leaderswhobuild/

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