Trust with yourself is the foundation of sustainable success. Ashley Hawks shares what happened when the success she built no longer made her happy and how she rebuilt her life, leadership, and purpose from the inside out.

Ashley Hawks, serial entrepreneur and owner of SOAR Leadership Groups, joins Jaime Taets for an honest conversation about what happens behind the highlight reel. From building and selling Forever Bride to David's Bridal, navigating corporate leadership, health challenges, burnout, and nearly losing connection with her marriage, Ashley explains why reaching the top is not always the finish line.

Jaime and Ashley explore self-trust, sustainable success, leadership burnout, radical accountability, energy management, and redefining what success actually means. Ashley shares practical ways to create momentum through small actions, protect your energy, and stop letting perfectionism dictate your decisions.

Timestamped Chapters

0:00 Introduction to Ashley Hawks

2:04 From Bridal Shop Roots to Entrepreneurship

7:25 When Success Doesn't Feel Successful

8:42 Childhood Experiences, Identity, and Community

12:39 The Hidden Cost of the Girl Boss Mentality

17:10 When Business Success Hides Relationship Problems

24:18 Radical Accountability and Owning Your Choices

27:51 Redefining What Success Actually Means

29:38 Why Meaningful Friendships Matter

34:46 Ready, Fire, Aim: Stop Waiting for Perfect

37:00 How to Get Unstuck Through Small Movements

38:41 Building Trust with Yourself

39:00 The People Around You Shape Your Life

44:04 Finding the Right Rooms and Communities

46:43 You Are Worthy 

Guest Bio

Ashley Hawks is a serial entrepreneur and owner of SOAR Leadership Groups, a community helping entrepreneurs and business leaders grow through connection and accountability. She previously built Forever Bride, which she sold to David's Bridal, before returning to her purpose of helping people build businesses while creating lives filled with health, relationships, and joy.

Quotes from the Episode

"Small actions create momentum and momentum creates trust with yourself."

"Self-discipline is the highest form of self-love."

"You are worthy."

Leadership Insights

What does it mean to trust with yourself?

Trusting yourself means consistently following through on the small commitments you make to yourself. Ashley explains that small actions, getting up when you said you would, moving your body, journaling, reaching out for help, or taking one uncomfortable step, create evidence that you can rely on yourself when bigger decisions arrive.

What is sustainable success?

Sustainable success is success that allows you to achieve meaningful professional goals without sacrificing your health, relationships, joy, or sense of purpose. For Ashley, success has shifted from titles and achievements to waking up genuinely excited about her day and building a life she actually enjoys.

Why is the voice in your head so powerful?

The negative voice in your head can grow louder over time, especially when you are trying to maintain a perfect outer shell and not asking for help. Ashley explains that you have to get control of that voice early on, because if you let it run rampant, it becomes harder and harder to quiet. The first step is recognizing that the voice is not telling you the truth.

Resources

• SOAR Leadership Groups: SOARGroups.com
• The Energy Bus: Ashley discusses the book's message around owning your energy and taking responsibility for how you show up.
• Connect with Ashley: LinkedIn | SOAR Leadership Groups
• Follow Jaime on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook

If you have ever felt like you are succeeding on paper but falling apart inside, this conversation is your permission slip to stop pretending. Share it with a leader who needs to be reminded that they are worthy of building a life they actually enjoy.

Subscribe to View From The Top with Jaime Taets for more conversations about self-trust, sustainable success, and the journey from success to significance.

Will see you at the top, and beyond.

Jaime Taets

Leadership burnout isn't always about working too hard—it can be a signal that something is out of alignment. Erin Newkirk shares why leaders need to pause, ground themselves, manage their energy, and stop confusing performative work with productive leadership.

Erin Newkirk joins Jaime Taets for a conversation about career transitions, leadership, energy management, and the inner work that often gets ignored when success becomes the goal. From General Mills to entrepreneurship, healthcare, and Caribou Coffee, Erin's career has been less about climbing a straight ladder and more about building a body of work around her strengths, curiosity, creativity, and purpose.

Jaime and Erin explore why alignment is not a soft skill, how burnout can reveal deeper misalignment, and why leaders don't have to be "on" all the time. They discuss Erin's four-step process of grounding in reality, opening to possibilities, leading with love, and taking aligned action—and why becoming your own Chief Energy Officer may be one of the most important leadership skills you can develop.

Timestamped Chapters

 0:00 Introduction to Erin Newkirk and Her Career Journey
 4:05  Why Careers Aren’t Supposed to Be a Straight Line
 6:19  The Hidden Cost of Misalignment and Burnout
 9:04  Erin’s Four-Step Process for Getting Unstuck
 15:06  Energy Management: Breathing, Meditation, and Daily Rituals
 22:25  Redefining Success Around Fulfillment
 23:51 Becoming Your Own Chief Energy Officer
 26:26  What to Do When You’re Stuck: Ground in Reality

Guest Bio

Erin Newkirk is a brand-building and marketing leader whose career spans General Mills, entrepreneurship, consumer technology, healthcare, advisory work, and Caribou Coffee. She has worked on major brands including Cheerios, Old El Paso, and Pillsbury and later founded the consumer technology startup Breadstamp, growing it to a few million users before selling it to Taylor Corporation.

Erin went on to lead marketing and brand strategy at Caribou Coffee before beginning her next career chapter. Her leadership philosophy centers on alignment, inner work, curiosity, creativity, energy management, and building a career around strengths rather than simply chasing titles.

Quotes from the Episode

"Alignment is not a soft skill."

"The who is even more important than the what."

"Don't compromise who you are and what you believe in."

Leadership Insights

What is leadership burnout?

Leadership burnout can happen when the way a leader is operating becomes disconnected from their values, energy, purpose, or the environment around them. Erin describes the importance of recognizing the "slow burn" of cognitive dissonance and misalignment rather than waiting for a major crisis to force a change.

What does alignment mean in leadership?

Alignment means creating greater consistency between who you are, what you value, the work you're doing, the people you're working with, and the purpose you're pursuing. Erin explains that when purpose, people, process, and platforms aren't working together, leaders can experience dissonance, lack of growth, and burnout.

How can leaders become their own Chief Energy Officer?

Being your own Chief Energy Officer means taking responsibility for understanding and managing your energy rather than constantly saying yes or trying to remain "on." Erin emphasizes practices such as deep breathing, meditation, reflection, journaling, stillness, curiosity, and being intentional about what you put on your plate.

Resources

• Connect with Erin Newkirk on LinkedIn
• Explore Erin Newkirk's website
• Explore Jaime Taets Consulting
• Explore Jaime's Women's Executive Retreats
• Explore Keystone Group International and its leadership, culture, and organizational growth work.
• Follow Jaime on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook

If you've ever felt stuck, burned out, or unsure why success no longer feels the way you expected it to, this conversation is a reminder to pause before pushing harder. Your discomfort may not mean something is wrong—it may be telling you that something needs to change.

Subscribe to View From the Top with Jaime Taets for more conversations about leadership, resilience, personal growth, and the journey from success to significance.

Will see you at the top, and beyond.

Jaime Taets

For almost eight years, I have had the privilege of hosting conversations with leaders who achieve incredible things.

And earlier this year, I paused. Not because the work was finished, but because I wanted to be intentional about what came next. Today, I’m excited to relaunch the podcast under a new name: View From the Top. This show is for leaders who’ve reached the summit and realized that success doesn’t end there. It evolves. The climb mattered. The stumbles mattered. And often, the most meaningful work begins after achievement.

In View From the Top, we’ll talk honestly about what it looks like to redefine success, navigate change, and do the inner work that shapes the next chapter of leadership. If you’ve ever found yourself asking “What’s next?”… this space is for you. Follow the podcast and join me for the journey.

View from the Top is now streaming on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. Please do me a huge favor – follow and listen to the first episode out now. I can’t wait to share these new conversations with you. Coming from people who inspire me, and I know will inspire you too.

Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube

Our conversation was focused on how leaders can find their voice to show up authentically to help inspire their teams during tough times.   What are your pivot stories that might impact others who are where you once were?

Jill Kalogerson is a lawyer, a construction executive, a founder and owner and a community advocate, in addition to being a mom of 6! Through all of these roles, she has learned a lot about herself and how to live more at her edges so she is constantly challenging herself to grow. Her message is one that we all need to hear right now as we navigate times that feel chaotic – how can we learn through them?

Here is a link to Klaus Lemke’s book, Better Building

Megan Lindahl Goodrich is a trauma survivor who writes about her experiences in the book, Beyond Terminal: Processing Childhood Trauma to Reclaim Self. In this episode she shares her journey to healing and how it’s helped her step deeper into her leadership and purpose. Trauma does not have to be the thing that defines you, it can in fact be the thing that strengthens you to live into your purpose.

You can get more information on Megan’s book here: https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Terminal-Processing-Childhood-Reclaim-ebook/dp/B0DF96QCLN