You hired them because you saw potential. You trained them because you believed they could step into what you needed. But somewhere between the vision and the reality, a gap opened up. They're not moving as fast as you hoped. They're not thinking the way you do. And suddenly, you're questioning everything: Did I hire the wrong person? Am I a bad leader? Why can't they just get it? Here's what Sara and Marisa know after years of building teams and training associates: sometimes the problem isn't the person. It's the expectation. This episode is a raw, real conversation about what it actually takes to lead someone into their potential without breaking them or yourself in the process.

🔥 In This Episode:

• The difference between hiring an adjusting horse versus a future partner, and why role clarity from day one changes everything about retention and performance
• Why placing unrealistic expectations on team members sets everyone up for disappointment, and how to get honest about what someone can actually deliver
• How to discern whether someone needs the full recipe with step by step instructions or just the ingredients, and why forcing your learning style onto theirs creates friction
• The evolution from wanting to be liked by everyone to becoming firm with expectations while staying kind, and why that muscle only develops through experience
• What it actually looks like to train someone up while trying to step back from your business, and why pouring your essence into a new team member now saves you time later

Leadership isn't about finding people who think like you. It's about creating the conditions for different humans to thrive within your vision. And that requires a level of self awareness and flexibility that most business advice doesn't prepare you for.

Bonus: If you're in the thick of training a team, struggling with expectations, or trying to build leadership capacity in your business, our Heartwork Leadership Live event on March 13 and 14 in Knoxville is where we're going deeper into all of this. This isn't a typical leadership workshop. It's heart work meets implementation strategy, and we're keeping it intimate so we can actually go there together. Grab your spot HERE!

Connect with us:

• Instagram: @drsaranelsongray, @dr.marisa.nicole10, @theheartworkpodcast

Email: theheartworklife@gmail.com

Support the show

Sydney Kaye Hagel was sitting in her corporate cubicle, successful by every external measure, and her nervous system was screaming. She had a stable job, benefits, and a wedding to pay for. She'd already built The Wealthy Circle, a community for women she truly cared about. And yet every day she showed up to her corporate role feeling more misaligned, more disconnected from the vision she held for her life. She knew she was meant for more. She just didn't know if she had the guts to choose it. The turning point came when mentors she admired asked her a question that stopped her cold: "Do you think you deserve to be in the room?" That question unlocked everything. Sydney left her corporate job, launched The Cozy Agency, and stepped fully into the identity she'd been holding back for years. This conversation is about what it actually takes to close the gap between who you were and who you're becoming, the hidden cost of people-pleasing, and how to build a brand and a life from authentic identity instead of someone else's blueprint.

🔥 In This Episode:

• The crossroads moment when Sydney realized she had outgrown her corporate identity and what it took to finally walk away, even when it felt financially reckless and emotionally terrifying
• Why your nervous system is your most accurate compass for misalignment and how to use it as a decision-making tool instead of ignoring the signals until you're burned out
• How to build a brand from your actual story and senses instead of copying what everyone else is doing, including the five-sense audit that transforms customer experience
• The shift from people-pleasing to boundary-setting and why communicating real feedback makes you a better leader, not a colder one
• What Sydney learned about hiring for grit and charisma over skill alone, and the one thing candidates do that makes her say yes immediately

This conversation disrupts the idea that choosing yourself is selfish. It reveals the truth: dimming your light to keep others comfortable is the real betrayal. When you step into alignment, you don't just change your own life. You give everyone around you permission to do the same.

Mark Your Calendar:
We're hosting another in-person HeartWork Leadership event March 13th and 14th in Knoxville, TN. If this conversation stirred something in you about stepping fully into your leadership, embodying your truth, and building something that actually feels like yours, this event is where that work happens. Sign up here.

Connect with Sydney Kaye Hagel:
Website: https://www.getcozy.co
Instagram: @wellsaidsyd @the.cozy.agency @wellthycircle

Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/well-said-with-syd/id1533334441

Connect with us:

• Instagram: @drsaranelsongray, @dr.marisa.nicole10, @theheartworkpodcast

Email: theheartworklife@gmail.com

Support the show

What happens when everything you've built suddenly feels like it was created for someone else's definition of success? Sara found herself asking a question that felt completely foreign: what does my heart actually want? Not what the industry says or what the next level of growth is supposed to look like. Just what does her heart want. And the answer was terrifying because it involved rest, trust, creativity, and play instead of more hustle, more systems, more metrics. This is the conversation about what happens when you stop chasing someone else's version of success and start asking what growth means when it comes from the inside out.

🔥 In This Episode:

• Why growth doesn't always mean more volume, more revenue, more team, and what it looks like to redefine it from the inside
• The Italian concept of "dolce far niente" (the sweetness of nothing) and why American hustle culture keeps us disconnected from our hearts
• How Sara's best business quarter in three years came from stillness and alignment, not from forcing and strangle-holding productivity
• The gap between leading with frameworks versus leading with creativity, and why both matter at different stages of entrepreneurship
• Why sometimes the most growth-oriented thing you can do is make no decision at all and let the path unfold

Growth can be an internal thing. The metrics, the revenue, the expansion are just the fruit of the work you're doing inside, not something you have to control or rush after or grab. This episode is permission to not always have the answer, to let yourself feel lopsided while building a new muscle, and to trust that 2026 might be one of your best years not because you hustled harder, but because you finally let your heart lead.

Mark Your Calendar: We're hosting another in-person HeartWork Leadership event March 13th and 14th in Knoxville, TN. If you're ready to lead from a place that honors both the doing and the dreaming, this weekend is for you. Bring your whole team and experience what happens when you stop forcing growth and start allowing it. Sign up here.

Connect with us:

• Instagram: @drsaranelsongray, @dr.marisa.nicole10, @theheartworkpodcast

Email: theheartworklife@gmail.com

Support the show