The Truth Behind the Applause: Why I Started Liberated Letters
A personal story of burnout and emotional disconnection that sparked a movement for high-achieving leaders seeking liberation, presence, and joy in leadership.
I built a wildly successful organization—and at some point, I realized I no longer felt like myself inside of it.
Over the course of two decades, I helped transform a small, scrappy theatre into one of the most respected arts organizations of its size in the city. We grew our subscriber base by 500%. We had sustainability, credibility, and serious community impact.
To the outside world, I was thriving. And truthfully, in all the important ways, I was. We were very successful.
The mission still mattered. The people were extraordinary. The impact was real.
But quietly, and gradually, something shifted inside me.
I still felt responsible. I still showed up.
But the joy that once fueled me began to fade beneath the weight of everything I was holding.
The pressure. The expectations. The performance of being the one who could always “make it happen.”
I remember sitting with the thought:
“If this is what success and fulfillment are supposed to feel like, why do I feel so disconnected?”
That was the beginning of a painful and necessary reckoning.
Around the same time, I stopped drinking—a decision that stripped away the last layer between me and the truth. Without that buffer, I could finally see it:
I wasn’t leading from alignment. I was surviving on autopilot.
Not because I didn’t care.
But because I had lost access to the part of myself that could feel it all.
Burnout isn’t always dramatic.
Sometimes, it’s a slow emotional drift—a disconnection masked by competence.
And when you're high-functioning, people applaud your exhaustion.
They call it commitment. They reward you for pushing through.
So you wear it like a badge—proof that you're strong, essential, resilient.
But burnout isn’t a badge. It’s a betrayal.
Wayne Cordeiro said it best: “When we lead on empty rather than out of our excess, our physical bodies will begin to suffer before our job performance begins to suffer.”
That’s exactly what I see in so many high-performing leaders. They’re still producing. Still showing up. But their bodies, their joy, and their clarity are paying the price.
That unraveling became my liberation.
What I had been living—and what I see in so many of the leaders I work with—was the
Do → Have → Be trap:
Do more → Have more success → Finally feel like enough.
But liberation doesn’t work like that.
The shift comes when you flip the formula:
Be → Do → Have
Be present, aligned, clear.
Do from purpose, not performance.
Have a life—and leadership—that actually feels like freedom.
And Liberated Letters was born from that moment—the one where I stopped pretending and started telling the truth.
This space is for the leaders who’ve outgrown their personas. For the founders, execs, creatives, and high-achievers who are waking up to the cost of success-as-performance. For the ones who want more than metrics. Who crave presence. Joy. Depth. A different kind of power.
Here’s what you can expect from Liberated Letters:
Stories that name what most leaders are afraid to admit
Insights that cut through performance culture and hustle hypnosis
Tools to reclaim your energy, emotional clarity, and leadership presence
Unpolished truth from a coach who’s lived it
If you’ve ever felt like you were winning on paper but wilting inside, you’re not alone. You’re not broken. You’re waking up.
And this—this is your liberation invitation.
Welcome to Liberated Letters.
Liberation is the work. Joy is the revolution.
Request my new Guide: Achieve More By Doing Less: 12 Essential Strategies for High-Achieving Leaders and Entrepreneurs to Overcome Overwhelm to Cultivate More Presence for Authentic Success
