The UpLevel Podcast

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What if feedback was less about judging performance and more about helping people see what they cannot yet see for themselves?

This week on The UpLevel Podcast, Christie Mann, Carlo Bos, and Lottie Martínez invite listeners behind the scenes of UpLevel’s work developing its faculty for a large-scale global leadership initiative with a leading technology company.

The conversation is a real three-way feedback session following a three-day client delivery. The team uses a deliberate process designed to create space for people to give feedback clearly, receive it openly, and recover when needed. Each of them practices here exactly what they teach their clients.

The feedback also surfaces deeper leadership questions:
--How do you know when to step forward?
--When should you create more room for someone else?
--How can you receive feedback without immediately defending, explaining, or fixing?
--What does psychological safety actually require from the people giving feedback?
--What happens when leaders treat feedback as part of an ongoing relationship rather than a performance review?

This conversation offers a rare look at leadership development from the inside. The team earned a 100% net promoter score from the client, yet they still take time to examine what contributed to that result and where each person can continue to grow. That’s the heart of stewardship, the work continuing well past a successful delivery.

In this episode, we’ll explore:

• Why strong teams need feedback even when performance is already excellent
• How to create psychological safety around feedback
• The difference between evaluating someone and developing someone
• Why feedback can include amplification, not only correction
• How leaders can become more discerning about when to take up space and when to create it
• What it means to “stay” in a difficult conversation
• How leaders can receive feedback without becoming defensive or reactive
• Why client stewardship requires both boundaries and relationships
• How leaders can make invisible skills visible so others can develop them
• What it means to embody the work you teach

Organizations that build real leadership capacity don’t stop at a great outcome. The strongest ones build in moments like this one, deliberate, designed feedback that keeps the people delivering the work growing too. If you’re thinking about what it takes to build this kind of practice into your own organization, the Leadership Development ROI Guide walks through what that looks like in practice. You can download it here: https://www.uplevelproductions.com/freeresources-1

About Carlo and Lottie:
Carlo Bos is a leadership development expert, executive coach, and former Co-CEO of the Co-Active Training Institute, where he led during a pivotal period of transformation from 2018 to 2023. Over the past 20 years, he has worked with executives across industries as an assessments expert, program designer, and master facilitator, building and scaling leadership programs that have reached thousands. Having sat on both sides of the leadership and development table, Carlo is passionate about cultivating authentic, values-driven leadership. Today, he focuses on restoring healthy male leadership while helping organizations scale human intelligence alongside rapid advances in AI in service of growth, inclusion, and impact.

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/boscompanyleadershipcoach

Lottie Martínez is an executive coach, leadership development facilitator, and co-founder of Blue Bridge, a talent development firm. Since 2015, she has accumulated over 2,800 hours of executive coaching experience. She designs and facilitates leadership development programs and works with C-suite leaders and leadership teams, supporting transformation across at least ten countries. A faculty member at the Co-Active Training Institute since 2016, she trains coaches globally and serves on a nonprofit board. Her background in engineering and international consulting, complemented by an MBA, brings a business and systems perspective to developing leaders and strengthening teams.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lottie-martinez/

🎉 The UpLevel Podcast was listed as #3 among the Top 7 Best Coaching Culture Podcasts!!! https://podcasts.feedspot.com/coaching_culture_podcasts

🎉 It was also ranked #16 among the Top 49 Best Workplace Mental Health Podcasts! https://podcast.feedspot.com/workplace_mental_health_podcasts

🎉 It was also ranked #10 among the Top 23 Best Conscious Leadership Podcasts! https://podcast.feedspot.com/conscious_leadership_podcasts

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Many leaders reach a point where the business they built has worked well, and the next chapter asks them to step forward as the face of their own ideas.

This week on The UpLevel Podcast, we welcome Dr. Nancy Dome as she opens up about navigating a major career transition and what comes next. She came into this coaching session wanting clarity and one next step, while also being honest about the fear and uncertainty that come with making her own body of work the focus.

Together, Dr. Nancy and Christie name the voice that questions her, which she calls Ricky, and make room for the very real fatigue that can come after years of building a business. Then Dr. Nancy explores her transition through two very different perspectives: "aspiration" and "sushi." As she speaks from each perspective, something shifts; her energy changes and new possibilities begin to surface.

We’ll also “brain-dream” a list of possible next steps, and she closes the session by imagining herself stepping across a line, naming what she is ready to let go of and what she is ready to say yes to.

It’s a powerful look at what can happen when we give ourselves permission to see a transition from a different perspective.

In This Episode:

• How to find clarity during a career transition
• How to respond to imposter syndrome and the inner critic
• How changing perspective gives you access to new ideas and energy
• How to choose small actions and build accountability that fits your life
• Why naming your inner saboteur can change your relationship with it
• Why "sushi" became a powerful metaphor for Nancy's next chapter
• The importance of reconnecting with the things that give you energy
• What it means to step across a threshold and choose possibility

About Dr. Nancy:
Dr. Nancy Dome is a renowned speaker, author, coach, and Founder/CEO of Epoch Education, which she co-founded in 2014 to help leaders in education and business build greater diversity, inclusion, and belonging through accessible professional development.

With a career spanning education, social justice, and professional development, Dr. Dome has worked as a teacher, faculty member, coach, and organizational leader. Her work focuses on helping individuals and organizations navigate complex conversations, build stronger relationships, and create more inclusive cultures.

She is the bestselling author of Let’s Talk About Race and Other Hard Things and The Compassionate Dialogue Journey, and is the creator of Compassionate Dialogue, a framework designed to support meaningful conversations, personal growth, and stronger workplace relationships.

Website: https://drnancydome.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancydome/

🎉 The UpLevel Podcast was listed as #3 among the Top 7 Best Coaching Culture Podcasts!!! https://podcasts.feedspot.com/coaching_culture_podcasts

🎉 It was also ranked #16 among the Top 49 Best Workplace Mental Health Podcasts! https://podcast.feedspot.com/workplace_mental_health_podcasts

🎉 It was also ranked #10 among the Top 23 Best Conscious Leadership Podcasts! https://podcast.feedspot.com/conscious_leadership_podcasts

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Why can asking for help feel so difficult, even when you know you need it? 

This week on The UpLevel Podcast, join us in a live coaching conversation as our guest Bubba Nicholson opens up about his struggle to ask for help and his belief that reaching out might make him an inconvenience.

As a strategic consultant, hybrid athlete, coach, and creator of the Black Pocket Breathwork Protocol, Bubba is stepping into a major new chapter. He is preparing to launch his book, Blue Collar Breathwork: Breathwork for People That Don't Do Breathwork, while continuing to grow his work and bring his mission to more people.

We’ll explore the internal voice that tells him people are too busy, that he has not stayed in touch enough, that he might be taking advantage of a friendship, or that someone might think his idea is foolish. Together, Bubba and Christie give that voice a name: Charles.

Creating this character gives Bubba a way to recognize the difference between his own values and the protective voice that has been trying to keep him safe.

This episode offers a powerful look at how coaching can help us recognize old patterns, separate them from our values, and create more choice in how we respond.

In this episode, we’ll explore: 

• Why asking for help can feel deeply uncomfortable for leaders 
• How the fear of being an inconvenience can affect relationships and leadership 
• The connection between self-doubt and asking for support 
• What the "saboteur" represents in coaching 
• How naming an inner critic can create more awareness and choice 
• Why our protective patterns are not always trying to hurt us 
• How old beliefs can influence present-day decisions 
• The relationship between isolation, connection, and community 
• Why vulnerability can become a leadership strength 
• How to distinguish your own values from the voice of self-doubt 
• The importance of recognizing personal growth
• Why it is possible to change patterns that have been present for decades 
• How asking for help can expand your community and your ability to contribute 
• What it means to step into a bigger platform while continuing your own healing 

If you want to build the same coaching skills you just heard in action, bottom lining, holding someone's agenda, uncovering self-limiting beliefs, championing what's possible for them, The School of UpLevel teaches these skills so you can use them with your own team, your family, or yourself. You can explore what's available here: https://www.uplevelproductions.com/the-school-of-uplevel

About Bubba:
Bubba Nicholson is a high-level strategic consultant, hybrid athlete, and the creator of the Back Pocket Breathwork protocol. After building an elite career in the regulated cannabis industry, a high-stakes path that required traveling 310 nights a year for over four years, Bubba engineered his protocol out of necessity to manage his own health, recovery, and long-term sobriety while building a cannabis business.

Today, he leverages that corporate precision to consult on both Global Cannabis businesses & experiential design for contrast therapy companies and has coached well over 2,000 individuals through his protocol. He is the author of the upcoming book Blue Collar Breathwork: Breathwork for People That Don’t Do Breathwork. Bubba strips the mysticism out of somatic practices, opening breathwork up to anyone who may not resonate with mainstream wellness culture they see in their feeds.

He reframes breathing as a rugged, mechanical, and tactical tool for everyday performance and resilience. 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bubba-nicholson-b5122415/ 

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

🎉 The UpLevel Podcast was listed as #3 among the Top 7 Best Coaching Culture Podcasts!!! https://podcasts.feedspot.com/coaching_culture_podcasts 

🎉 It was also ranked #16 among the Top 49 Best Workplace Mental Health Podcasts! https://podcast.feedspot.com/workplace_mental_health_podcasts 

🎉 It was also ranked #10 among the Top 23 Best Conscious Leadership Podcasts! https://podcast.feedspot.com/conscious_leadership_podcasts

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What does it actually take to lead a team through fast, high-stakes transformation without losing the trust of the people doing the work? 

This week on The UpLevel Podcast, join us in this live coaching session with seasoned talent leader Liz Mackay as she brings a question so many leaders are covertly wrestling with right now: how do you hold speed, performance, and cost discipline in one hand, and genuine humanity in the other, without one collapsing the other? 

Liz has spent more than two decades helping organizations grow and change. But underneath the titles and the transformation roadmaps, she came to this conversation asking something more personal: do I believe I'm the kind of steward my people need right now? 

This episode moves through embodiment and stillness. By the end, Liz names a specific, practical 30-day practice she's committing to and a belief she's ready to release. 

If you're leading people through change and wondering how to stay grounded while everything moves fast, this conversation is for you. 

In This Episode:

• Leading a "messy middle" transformation without losing trust 
• The difference between solving fast and solving well 
• Naming and working with a saboteur (limiting belief) 
• How to lead through organizational transformation without losing your humanity 
• Why high-performing leaders can become overly focused on solutions 
• How embodiment can become another source of leadership intelligence 
• Why leaders need to allow people room to make mistakes and grow 
• How vulnerability can strengthen connection with a team 
• What it means to be a steward of people during a difficult period of change 
• How a leader's personal behavior can influence the culture around them 
• What kind of legacy leaders leave through the people they develop 

If this conversation has you asking similar questions about your own leadership right now, Executive Coaching is built for leaders navigating exactly this kind of complexity and pressure. You can learn more here: https://www.uplevelproductions.com/copy-of-services

About Liz:

Liz Mackay is VP of Talent Management at Equinix and a global talent leader with more than two decades of experience across organizations, including Equinix, Amazon Web Services, Google, and DSM; her work focuses on talent, leadership, organizational transformation, and creating workplaces where people can grow and thrive. 

With a background in drama and an MBA, Liz brings a distinctive perspective to leadership, combining strategic thinking with a deep belief in connection, community, and human-centered work. In this episode, she explores what it means to lead through significant transformation while maintaining trust, empowering others, and staying connected to her own humanity.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lizmackay/  

🎉 The UpLevel Podcast was listed as one of the Top 10 Best Coaching Culture Podcasts!!! https://podcasts.feedspot.com/coaching_culture_podcasts

🎉 It was also ranked #4 among the top 50 Best Workplace Mental Health Podcasts! https://podcast.feedspot.com/workplace_mental_health_podcasts

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What happens when a team stops assuming how people should work together and actually designs the relationship?

This week on The UpLevel Podcast, we return to the Designed Alliance conversation between UpLevel's Brand Acceleration and Operations teams. If you missed part one, that episode focused on the human-to-human foundation between two team leads. This episode widens the circle to the full team.

We open with a shared vision exercise. Each person names what it would feel like if these two functions worked in true partnership, one crew rowing the same boat rather than departments handing things off to each other. From there, the conversation moves into something most teams avoid: naming specific, actionable requests around communication to reach real agreements that people can say yes to, no to, or counteroffer.

You will hear the team talk through email protocols, response time expectations, meeting cadence, and what to do when a saboteur voice shows up mid-project. One team member shares a vulnerable moment about self-criticism, and the group responds with the kind of care that makes this episode worth listening to. This is what building a coaching culture actually looks like in practice.

In this episode, you'll hear about: 

• What a Designed Alliance is and why teams benefit from creating one 
• How Brand Acceleration and Operations can move from separate functions toward greater integration 
• Why shared vision should come before detailed protocols and processes 
• How clear requests can reduce confusion and unnecessary frustration 
• Why requests should allow for a yes, no, or counteroffer 
• How unclear expectations can activate workplace saboteurs 
• Creating communication agreements around email, response times, and urgent requests 
• Why acknowledging receipt can matter even when you do not have an immediate answer 
• How teams can give and receive feedback with greater clarity and care 
• The relationship between operational excellence and operational elegance 
• Why perfection cannot be the standard for a healthy team 
• How vulnerability can strengthen rather than weaken working relationships 
• What it means to be the work instead of simply talking about the work 

If this conversation has you thinking about what it takes to build a culture like this on your own team, The School of UpLevel has on-demand courses designed to help you build these same skills, from coaching conversations to designing working alliances that actually hold up under pressure. You can explore what's available here: https://course.uplevelproductions.com/   

About Chrissy, Kaitlin, and Brittany:

Chrissy Bernal is a brand architect and PR strategist who helps entrepreneurs and authors build brands with intention and clarity. Based in the Greater Houston area, she's the founder of Be a Better Brand, where she works with clients on strategic marketing, PR, and brand positioning. Chrissy is also a published author, and her own journey publishing children's books shaped much of her approach to branding, giving her firsthand insight into what it takes to build a message that actually connects. She's a previous guest on The UpLevel Podcast, where she spoke on brand growth and PR for authors, and she brings that same strategic, story-first thinking to her work leading marketing at UpLevel.

Website: https://beabetterbrand.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrissybernal/

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

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/officialChrissyBernal/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChrissyBernal

Kaitlin Voellinger is the Director of Operations at UpLevel, where she brings structure, clarity, and steady presence to the work behind the scenes. She's known for creating safe, supportive spaces for the people around her, whether that's mentoring a colleague through a new challenge or holding the practical details that keep a team moving. Kaitlin leads with integrity and honesty at the center of everything she does, and she believes real success isn't just about hitting a goal. It's about building right relationships along the way and taking the time to actually feel the accomplishment together. She's currently co-leading UpLevel's marketing and operations alliance, bringing the same care and intention to that partnership that she brings to every part of her work. 

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

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaitlin-voellinger-a1770a293/

Brittany Geier is an empowerment coach and guide who helps women reconnect with their inner wisdom, build self-trust, and create lives rooted in authenticity and freedom. A certified Co-Active Coach with a background in industrial engineering, Brittany draws from coaching, embodiment practices, Internal Family Systems, Somatic Experiencing, and Shamanic wisdom. Her work centers on helping women reconnect with themselves and bring their unique gifts and visions into the world.

Website: https://www.brittanygeier.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittanygeier/

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

TikTok: https://www.instagram.com/brittanygeier/

🎉 The UpLevel Podcast was listed as one of the Top 10 Best Coaching Culture Podcasts!!! https://podcasts.feedspot.com/coaching_culture_podcasts

🎉 It was also ranked #4 among the top 50 Best Workplace Mental Health Podcasts! https://podcast.feedspot.com/workplace_mental_health_podcasts

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What does it actually sound like when two colleagues sit down and build a real relationship on purpose, before the pressure hits?

This week on The UpLevel Podcast, we step back and let you listen in on a real play. Two colleagues, Kaitlin Voellinger and Chrissy Bernal, are stepping into new roles together at UpLevel, leading marketing and operations side by side. Most teams wait for tension to force this kind of conversation. Kaitlin and Chrissy sit down and design the relationship first.

You'll hear them name what's already working, share the values they want each other to hold onto, and make specific, honest requests about how they want to be supported when things get hard. This is a live demonstration of what conscious leadership sounds like when it moves from concept to practice.

If you've ever slipped into "role to role" mode with a coworker and lost the human connection underneath it, this episode will give you language and a framework to bring it back.

In this episode, you'll hear:

• What it sounds like to acknowledge what's already working in a working relationship
• How to name and share personal values with a colleague in a way that builds real understanding
• A live example of asking for feedback before you need it
• How two people negotiate a working agreement for communication, check-ins, and conflict
• Why success means pausing to actually feel accomplishment instead of rushing to the next goal
• What it means to be a "sounding board" instead of an "echo chamber" for a colleague

If this conversation has you thinking about the relationships you're building at work, The School of UpLevel has on-demand courses designed to help you build these same skills for yourself, from coaching conversations to designing working alliances that actually hold up under pressure. You can explore what's available anytime here: https://course.uplevelproductions.com

About Chrissy and Kaitlin:

Chrissy Bernal is a brand architect and PR strategist who helps entrepreneurs and authors build brands with intention and clarity. Based in the Greater Houston area, she's the founder of Be a Better Brand, where she works with clients on strategic marketing, PR, and brand positioning. Chrissy is also a published author, and her own journey publishing children's books shaped much of her approach to branding, giving her firsthand insight into what it takes to build a message that actually connects. She's a previous guest on The UpLevel Podcast, where she spoke on brand growth and PR for authors, and she brings that same strategic, story-first thinking to her work leading marketing at UpLevel.

Website: https://beabetterbrand.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrissybernal/

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

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/officialChrissyBernal/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChrissyBernal

Kaitlin Voellinger is the Director of Operations at UpLevel, where she brings structure, clarity, and steady presence to the work behind the scenes. She's known for creating safe, supportive spaces for the people around her, whether that's mentoring a colleague through a new challenge or holding the practical details that keep a team moving. Kaitlin leads with integrity and honesty at the center of everything she does, and she believes real success isn't just about hitting a goal. It's about building right relationships along the way and taking the time to actually feel the accomplishment together. She's currently co-leading UpLevel's marketing and operations alliance, bringing the same care and intention to that partnership that she brings to every part of her work. 

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

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaitlin-voellinger-a1770a293/

🎉 The UpLevel Podcast was listed as one of the Top 10 Best Coaching Culture Podcasts!!! https://podcasts.feedspot.com/coaching_culture_podcasts

🎉 It was also ranked #4 among the top 50 Best Workplace Mental Health Podcasts! https://podcast.feedspot.com/workplace_mental_health_podcasts

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Returning to work after time away can bring hope, excitement, and more self-doubt than many people expect.

This week on The UpLevel Podcast, our host Christie Mann coaches multidisciplinary creator Amanda Wood through the very real experience of preparing to return to the workforce after an intentional 18-month career break.

Amanda has spent her career leading creative teams, building brands, and running her own agency. During her time away, she developed greater clarity about the kind of work she wants to do, the life she wants to create, and the values she refuses to leave behind.

Together, Christie and Amanda explore how coaching can help shift attention away from the inner critic and back toward possibility. Through future visioning, embodiment, metaphor, and practical coaching techniques, Amanda reconnects with what gives her energy: meaningful collaboration, creativity, trust, flexibility, and contributing to something larger than herself.

One of the most powerful moments in the conversation comes when Amanda recognizes that the loudest voice in her head is not the most truthful one. As Christie reminds her, self-doubt often grows louder when we're getting closer to something that truly matters.

Whether you're returning after raising children, recovering from burnout, taking a sabbatical, caring for loved ones, or intentionally stepping away to reset, this conversation offers encouragement and practical coaching tools to help you move forward with greater confidence.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• How to rebuild confidence after taking a career break
• Why self-doubt often increases before meaningful change
• A coaching exercise that creates momentum through future visioning
• How to reconnect with your strengths instead of your fears
• Why values should guide your next career move
• Practical ways to move forward before you feel completely ready

About Amanda:

Amanda Wood is a multidisciplinary creator with a degree in fine arts and over 15 years of experience as a creative professional in advertising and communications. She has worked in large agencies as an art/creative director for clients like Toyota, Air Canada, McDonald’s, and Mazda and later founded her own agency specializing in bringing new brands to market. She is also a certified yoga instructor and a student of acting and is engaged in many community-based creative projects such as sign painting, schoolyard revitalization, and children’s face painting, to name a few. Amanda lives in downtown Toronto with her husband, six-year-old son, and dog, Cosmo.

🎉 The UpLevel Podcast was listed as one of the Top 10 Best Coaching Culture Podcasts!!! https://podcasts.feedspot.com/coaching_culture_podcasts

🎉 It was also ranked #4 among the top 50 Best Workplace Mental Health Podcasts! https://podcast.feedspot.com/workplace_mental_health_podcasts

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If you've ever felt like your own body stopped taking direction from you, this one's for you.

This week on The UpLevel Podcast, join us for a deeply personal coaching session as Christie Mann, executive coach, leadership educator, and co-founder of UpLevel Productions, steps into the client seat as Master Certified Coach Nick Kettles, who has spent more than 25 years working with grief, transition, and ancestral healing, guides her through one of the biggest transitions of her life.

Together they explore the grief of letting go of an identity built on capacity, achievement, and always having it together. 

This conversation is about far more than hormones. It is about what happens when the version of yourself that has carried you for decades can no longer carry you the same way. It is about learning to rest without guilt, discovering a different kind of strength, and trusting that wisdom often grows when productivity slows. 

Nick brings together Co-Active Coaching, grief work, constellation practices, trauma-informed coaching, and ancestral healing to help Christie make meaning of this threshold. What begins as a conversation about fear gradually becomes an exploration of possibility, elderhood, and giving ourselves permission to become someone new. 

Whether you are experiencing perimenopause yourself, supporting someone who is, or navigating any season of profound transition, this episode offers language, compassion, and hope for what can emerge when we stop fighting change.

In This Episode:

• Why the exhaustion of perimenopause might be making room for something deeper than physical rest
• The difference between leadership and eldership, and why one requires letting go of the other
• What it means to "own" your energy, your work, and your worth without deferring or diluting it
• How ancestral trauma and ancestral vitality both live in the body, and how naming your lineage can be part of healing it
• Why so many women in this season describe feeling like Bambi: new, unsteady, and strangely innocent
• A moment of real grief work, honoring a great-grandmother lost to suicide and the silence that followed

Coaching Grief and Loss Masterclass | Oct 14th for 5 weeks 

Reserve your slot here: https://phoenixconsulting.eu.com/coaching-grief-and-loss/

UpLevel with Grace | Substack

Read Here: When the Estrogen Has Left the Building

About Nick:

Nick is a Master Certified Coach, and healer of 25 years experience in the human potential movement. In a desire to escape an awkward and painful past, throughout his life, he frequently mistook his own adaptive and often reactive life strategies as evidence of a purposeful existence.

Today, however, he increasingly finds delight in finally moving slow enough to discover that our purpose and indeed our spirituality can be found at the heart of our messy humanity. This realization guides all his work whether as a coach, trainer, designer or writer.

Website: https://nickkettles.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickkettles/

🎉 The UpLevel Podcast was listed as one of the Top 10 Best Coaching Culture Podcasts!!! https://podcasts.feedspot.com/coaching_culture_podcasts

🎉 It was also ranked #4 among the top 50 Best Workplace Mental Health Podcasts! https://podcast.feedspot.com/workplace_mental_health_podcasts

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What does it actually feel like to be so aligned with your purpose that you lose track of time?

This season is about stewardship, and that means taking you inside real coaching, leadership, and relationship conversations as they actually happen. This week on The UpLevel Podcast, our host, Christie Mann, coaches Quinn Simpson, co-founder of Gedi Village and Graydin, in a live somatic coaching conversation about becoming.

Quinn opens up about the moment a book changed the direction of her life, the mentor who told her she couldn't change the world one person at a time, and the vision she's now building through Gedi Village, an ecosystem designed to bring the concept of a village back into how children learn, with Toronto positioned as a global hub for that vision.

The conversation moves into the body. Quinn is coached through a physical embodiment exercise that surfaces something she hadn't expected to say out loud: a lifelong ache to give other people permission to be fully themselves, and the grief underneath that longing.

What emerges is a conversation about social health as the missing link between mental well-being and meaningful relationships, and why the next version of Quinn is choosing to build in public.

If you have ever felt the pull toward your next chapter but couldn't name what it actually looks like, this conversation will help you feel it before you can explain it.

In This Episode:

• Why Quinn believes systemic change matters more than individual change
• What Gedi Village is, the philosophy behind it, and the vision for Toronto as a global education hub
• A live somatic coaching exercise on embodiment and becoming
• The connection between social health and personal alignment
• How coaching helps uncover what thinking alone cannot reach
• Why vulnerability can create permission for others
• Why urgency and rest can coexist in how we build our future
• The physical anchor Quinn is creating to stay connected to her next chapter

About Quinn:
Driven by a passion to transform education, Quinn Simpson is the co-founder of the Gedi Village Foundation. She aims to make Toronto a global education hub by establishing a cutting-edge K-8 school, a professional development centre, and a philanthropic arm advancing social-emotional learning.

Quinn was also a co-founder of Graydin, an organization dedicated to revolutionizing how we support and empower the next generation. Since 2011, Graydin has partnered with over 400 schools and universities worldwide to pioneer the educational coaching movement.

With 18 years of experience in coaching, teacher training, and content creation, Quinn is a certified Co-active Coach and NLP Coach Practitioner. Previously, she co-founded Akosia, a charity operating for 10 years that used coaching to facilitate filmmaking projects for underprivileged youth and women.

Quinn lives in West End Toronto, where she enjoys walking in High Park and teaching her two sons, Theo and Bowie, that coaching skills are for everyone.


LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/coachquinn

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

🎉 The UpLevel Podcast was listed as one of the Top 10 Best Coaching Culture Podcasts!!! https://podcasts.feedspot.com/coaching_culture_podcasts

🎉 It was also ranked #4 among the top 50 Best Workplace Mental Health Podcasts! https://podcast.feedspot.com/workplace_mental_health_podcasts

Tags: somatic coaching, purpose alignment, coaching for educators, personal transformation, social health, embodiment coaching, becoming your next self, coaching for founders

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If you're a parent, a leader, or anyone navigating the tension between responsibility and authenticity, this conversation speaks directly to you.

This week on The UpLevel Podcast, Luke Partridge, a seasoned talent acquisition leader with more than 20 years of executive search experience across the UK, Europe, Australia/New Zealand, and Asia, brings forward one of the most human leadership challenges there is: how to show up with integrity, collaboration, and authenticity while parenting three teenagers through constant shifts in family dynamics.

Together with Christie Mann, Luke explores his core values of accountability, empathy, and authenticity, the three that form what he calls his "North Star of Fatherhood." Through perspective work and deep reflection, Luke moves from thinking about these values to genuinely experiencing them, and he discovers that vulnerability and transparency are real sources of strength.

This episode embodies the season's theme of stewardship: what it means to model values rather than simply teach them, to create the conditions for others to thrive, and to lead from a place of integrity even in the most pressurized moments.

Listen in as Luke finds that being a work in progress, admitting what you don't know, and honoring your values when it's hard is exactly what the people who trust us most need from us.

In this episode, we’ll explore:

• Fatherhood as a leadership practice
• Accountability, authenticity, and empathy
• Creating a healthy family culture
• How vulnerability builds trust
• The connection between parenting and leadership
• Modeling values through everyday actions
• A practical reflection practice for staying grounded
• What it means to steward the next generation

About Luke:

Luke Partridge is a seasoned talent acquisition leader with over 20 years of executive search experience across the UK, Europe, Australia/New Zealand, and Asia. Based in Hong Kong, he currently serves as a Talent Partner at Equinix, where he partners with business leaders to build high-performing teams in the digital infrastructure space.

Previously, Luke honed his expertise at Meta (Facebook), earning praise for his strategic recruitment approach, candidate experience, and ability to align talent with complex business needs. Passionate about proactive talent strategies and team development, he brings deep insight into how to curate your career, getting the maximum from your work path, and using modern recruiting practices, including generative AI applications in talent acquisition.

An avid marathon runner and fundraiser, Luke has completed ultra-challenges for Oxfam, UNICEF, and the MS Society while volunteering with environmental causes. A father of 3 and lifelong learner, he shares practical wisdom on building exceptional teams through his writing and speaking.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lukepartridge/

🎉 The UpLevel Podcast was listed as one of the Top 10 Best Coaching Culture Podcasts!!! https://podcasts.feedspot.com/coaching_culture_podcasts

🎉 It was also ranked #4 among the top 50 Best Workplace Mental Health Podcasts! https://podcast.feedspot.com/workplace_mental_health_podcasts

www.uplevelproductions.com
https://www.instagram.com/uplevelproductions/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/uplevelproductionscompany
https://www.facebook.com/uplevelproductionscompany