Mirror, Mirror on the Wall
A few weeks ago, I had the final session of the year with my coach.
To be honest, I didn’t go into the call expecting anything profound. I was running on fumes. This year stretched me in ways I wasn’t prepared for—selling the home I grew up in, family health challenges, the emotional weight of caring for people I love, limited support, the beautiful chaos of raising a toddler, and the never-ending work of running two businesses. Packed with all the beauty of all the things I’ve ever wanted… and simultaneously challenging.
It was one of those seasons where you keep going, you choose to focus on how it’s all expanding you… because there isn’t another option. You lead, you love, you show up—and you quietly hope you’re doing a good job.
Near the end of our conversation, he paused and said four words that I didn’t realize I needed to hear:
“The work is working.”
I don’t know if I’m transparent enough about the behind the scenes part of life, but I don’t just teachthe work. I’m knee (sometimes eyeball) deep in it myself.
I practice it. I fall out of it. I come back to it. I repair. I reflect. I try again. Every framework and tool I teach inside BRAVE® programs are the same ones I use to navigate the real, messy, beautiful, complicated texture of my own life.
And hearing someone (who doesn’t hesitate to call me on my stuff) reflect back to me—in a year that tested every muscle of my emotional resilience—that the work is working?
I lit up like our Christmas tree.
My entire system smiled, exhaled, and somehow dropped into the stillness and peace that’s felt rather elusive this year.
It gave me more confidence, more clarity, more steadiness in two seconds than I’d had in weeks, months?
It also reminded me of something important:
We often can’t see our own growth from the inside. We all need a mirror.
A real mirror.
Not a partner.
Not a boss.
Not a friend who’s “trying to help.”
Those are nice, but we need someone without an agenda or vested interest who will reflect pure truth, no matter what.
As we start a new year, my hope for you is this:
I hope you have someone in your corner who can look at you—especially on the days you feel wobbly—and remind you that:
“The work is working.”
Because it is.
You just can’t see it. Yet.
You’re in this community because you’re committed to being your best.
And yes, you found me because of work, but the kind of leaders here are committed to being their best selves at home and in every nook and cranny of life as well.
Think about that last leadership training or that class you took or book you read… I keep reminding my leaders that “if it only works at work, it doesn’t work.”
We need growth and development as the whole human. Tools that transcend the office, factory floor and zoom meetings. Practices you can take with you everywhere you go. That’s the only time when the “work” you do on yourself truly “works”… when it becomes who you are.
Here’s to the year ahead— the one where you see your own strength as clearly as the world sees it in you.
One where all the work you do “works.”
To a year of brave conversations,
—Elisabeth
P.S. If don’t have that mirror yet—or if you’re craving a deeper level of support, structure, accountability, and mastery in how you lead and live—how you use conversation to get the best out of the people around you… and some part of BRAVE has intrigued you, here are the ways you can step into that kind of partnership with us:
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Ways to Work With Us in 2026
1. BRAVE® Workshops for Teams
A catalytic reset for fast-moving teams who need to communicate at the speed of growth.
A 2-hour or half-day experience that gives your people the human operating system they wish they’d learned years ago, so you can scale your people, potential and performance as fast as your processes and systems.
2. How to Talk to Humans Bootcamp - BRAVE® Certification — Level 1 (for Individual Leaders)
Learn the BRAVE® framework — the step by step roadmap to address the five things that we unintentionally get wrong in conversations that neurologically hold us and our teams back from reaching potential and the highest levels of performance.
Six weeks that permanently upgrade how you lead, make decisions, and navigate hard conversations. We start January 23rd.
3. BRAVE® Culture Immersion (Full Certification + Labs)
A six-month deep dive for leadership teams who want culture that scales as fast as the business.
Think of it as the “new operating system” your company installs once—and benefits from forever.
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Whether you work with me through BRAVE® or with another coach, program, or guide… just make sure you’re not doing this year alone.
Make sure you have someone who will help you slow down for a second and listen, who will hold the mirror steady and who can say, with honesty and conviction:
The work is working.
