Pressure-Proof Leadership: Claire Hayek on Neuroscience, Resilience & Leading Under Pressure

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What's up, my good people? Welcome to the CJ Moneyway Show, powered by Believe Network and CJ Moneyway Media. Here on the show, we bring you transformational conversations with leaders, entrepreneurs, innovators, authors, athletes, creators, and everyday people who are building lives of purpose and making an impact that extends far beyond themselves. Our mission is simple: to plant seeds today that impact tomorrow, because we believe that when faith meets vision, legacy becomes inevitable. So whether you're listening on your morning commute, working out, or investing in your personal growth, thank you for tuning in Now let's get into today's conversation. Hey, what's up, Claire? Let me say this real quick. Leadership isn't tested. I think I heard this somewhere before, maybe from my guest. Leadership isn't tested when everything is working. It's tested when the pressure rises, uncertainty takes over, and everyone is looking for you for direction. Today's guest has spent more than 3 decades helping leaders become Pressure Proof, not eliminating pressure, but by changing how they respond to it. Joining me today, my girl Claire, founder of Pressure Proof, leadership TEDx speaker, executive advisor, author, and host of the Neuro Leadership Edge podcast. Hey Claire, welcome to the show. Thank you for coming on.

Thank you for having me.

I appreciate it. I appreciate it. Hey, so Claire, let me ask you this. Before the TEDx stages, before the leadership programs, what seed was planted inside young Claire that you now recognize was preparing you for the work that you're doing today?

Yeah, that's actually a very interesting question. As you know, I was born and raised in Beirut, in Lebanon, back in the '70s. And we've gone through the war and, you know, the whole horror of wars. And I'll leave it to that. It's actually still happening right now. I mentioned this because at the time I didn't know, I didn't understand. I was young. I was, you know, we left when I was a teenager. But looking back, I know that my upbringing, what I've gone through as a child, having been a war child, I got forged under pressure and pressure kind of became the thing that I chased throughout all my career. And it also shaped how I reacted, how I behaved. And I had no idea that it would have so much power and so much influence on decisions I've made. And it became kind of a driver for most of my career after that. So I guess the short answer would be really my childhood and the pressure that I've gone through that, that kind of influenced the decisions that I took later in life.

Let me ask you this, Claire, because that was pretty interesting, you know, because you said during the war. As a child, this is what you were seeing and things of that nature. For a lot of us that hasn't been in situations like that or haven't been in environments like that, we really don't understand the depths and, as you were saying, the pressures of that. Just give us one or a couple insights on somebody being raised— How we got so much stuff going on right now where we got stuff going on in Iran, you had these things going on in Venezuela, in various places where this stuff happening that So just give us an insight of just some of the things that people that's going through this right now, you know what I'm saying, may be feeling, or the pressure that may be on them just to try to survive day to day.

It's actually— how can I describe it? It's really hard to describe, but I can tell you one thing, and I actually write about this in my upcoming book in September. I remember my childhood as different chapters, and there's kind of void in between where I don't remember. So this is not telling you much, but an example would be lovely day, uh, you're a kid, you're playing outside. I don't know, you're at a beach, or— I mean, we— Lebanon is beautiful country. You have the mountains, we have the sea, we just very, very animated people, were very welcoming. You know, there's a lot of culture, right? So you, as a child, You don't think of the war, what's happening. You don't understand what's going on. You just know that, you know, you have a day off, you're playing outside with your friends, and then all of a sudden you start seeing people around you, adults acting differently, kind of in a panic, in a dramatic way, or just trying to hold it together. But you recognize the facial expressions, kind of the, I'm holding it together, but I'm freaking out on the inside. You are exposed to that at an early age. And then within seconds, a moment that was beautiful, fun, turns into something completely different. Now we're, we're completely, we're under pressure. We're scared. Fear creeps in. We need to take shelter. Now it's survival. So we go from creative, fun, happy, safe, to unsafe, uncertainty, danger, danger, run for your life within a second. And so as a child, it's a lot to take in. It's a lot to process. I think the word is it's a lot to process. And so your brain processes it as the best of its capability, and it kind of records it, puts it somewhere, wires it as the thing that is normal to do. There's safe and then there's unsafe, and this becomes your reality. And so you just go with it until, until you look back and you realize how that really affected your behavior under pressure. And because these wirings, your brain is wiring a behavior to a certain condition. And now later in life, when you're under pressure, you might not have bombs falling on your head. You might be in a situation where you're being confronted in front of your boss or you're being confronted in front of your team. But the brain doesn't know the difference. It knows that this is kind of a survival pattern. I'm going to default to whatever I did in my childhood. And it goes and snaps into that survival pattern that shaped you as a child that is not serving you right now as a leader in front of your team, trying to survive. So I don't think people understand the magnitude of what goes on in an adult or a child's brain. When these conditions are happening, when there's war, when there's uncertainty, when there's lack of safety. And basically, I'm not even talking about certain war children that are going through, you know, just war families that are going through famine, or they don't even have a shelter. You know, we were privileged enough to, or I guess blessed, I should say, to be able to run for shelter. You know, we were blessed enough to have enough time together to have a box, an emergency box with food and run with it to the shelter because we didn't know if we'd be there for 24 hours or 48 hours or a week. And some people just don't even have that privilege or they're not even, you know, they don't have that chance. So I can't even imagine, and I'm not in any way comparing what I've gone through as a child to anybody going through war right now. I think we all live it in a different way. But I think it's important for us people that are in a safe environment right now, that we're lucky enough to be safe in a safe environment, to understand what, what people are going through when they are under attack. It's so big, it's huge. And I don't think we talk about it enough. And I think it's also that feeling of restlessness. Because what are you going to— what can you do about it besides providing, you know, maybe donating You can't do anything. You can just be empathetic and pray. You can have them in your thoughts. Maybe you can be more grateful with the life you have and stop complaining about the little things that really don't matter when you think of other people that have nothing, that don't even have water. Right?

So—

Yeah, that sums it up right there. You know, just be grateful and thankful for the position you are, you know, whether you have little or whether you have a lot. Be thankful that you're still here. You're not dealing with a lot of things that a lot of other people going through. And I thank you for giving us some insight, you know, just some insight, clarity on what people actually go through and the mindset when you are exposed to things like that, especially at an early age. So let me ask you this, Claire. You spent decades around executives. What's the biggest misconceptions leaders have about pressure?

Oh, God, that's such a good question. The biggest misconception about pressure is that it's normal. It's just, it's just what it is. And the worst misconception, the worst one I can think of is that I love pressure. Pressure is good because I get so much done, you know, when I'm under the gun and I'm under pressure. I mean, I live off that thing and it really motivates me. It got me to do a lot and achieve in my life. And that's the biggest misconception because yes, to a certain extent. The problem with that is that a lot of leaders are not fully aware what pressure is actually doing to their thinking, to their decisions, to how they show up and their behavior under pressure. They are just focusing on the good thing that pressure is doing because it could drive you and motivate you and, you know, get things done. You have a deadline, you might be a procrastinator and you need that little pressure. In order for you to have that inner intrinsic motivation to get something done. But what happens is when you're under pressure, you're pretty much functioning from a survival brain, not from your strategic brain, your prefrontal cortex. You're literally in your amygdala, the back brain, the tribal brain that kept us alive, kept our ancestors alive, and it's still keeping us alive.

Mm-hmm.

The thing with that is when you're in your survival brain, you might be getting things done and you're running on adrenaline, However, it's affecting your decisions. It's affecting your focus. It's affecting a lot of things you're not aware of. It's affecting your behavior and your relationships. You're still getting the thing done, but you're not looking at what the cost of running under pressure. And until you start looking at that and objectively observing yourself under pressure and maybe do a couple of assessments, one or two, which I'll be sharing with you and your audience. They're free, by the way. So then you're like, wow, okay. So my default under pressure is control. That's one of my pressure archetype. You know, when you do an assessment, you're like, wow, I never really thought about it that way. So when you start being self-aware of these behaviors, at least you have a choice now and go, okay, do I need to control the situation right now? Because does it really require for me to control? Is this the best thing I could do right now? For myself and my team in this situation? You are asking the question, you are making the choice. But when you're not aware and you're just running under pressure, you're not even making a choice. Pressure is running you. What I'm saying, and I'm challenging people out there, is to think pressure might be serving you right now, but has it been running you all along? All I'm saying is stop, look at it, understand what pressure is doing, who you become under pressure, and decide, does this behavior really helping me right now? Or do I really— maybe if I'm a controller under pressure, maybe the situation is not really necessary for me to control. Maybe I could pause and let my team handle it because I think that would be a great way to show them that I trust them. I'm just throwing an example out there.

Yeah.

Right. So Yeah, 24/7 pressure, running under pressure and running into the survival brain, using the survival brain is not natural. It's not natural. Our ancestors didn't run in their survival brain 24/7. They weren't maybe being chased by a puma or a bear 24/7. We are running right now as if our brain is running as if we're being chased by a bear or puma or tiger, whereas it's just everyday life.

And if I'm getting chased by a bear or a tiger, I am out of here, Claire. But you said something that was interesting about leading from pressure and, you know what I'm saying, and the different effects that it have on you. I was working on something the other day. I just want to throw that out there because I would like to take your assessment. A lot of times the internal, you know what I'm saying, like we don't deal with the internal person. And so sometimes when pressure comes, as you say, we kind of tend to run away from things, although we're leaders, you know what I'm saying? We are leading people, but we haven't controlled our internal feelings, you know what I'm saying? Like emotions and things of that nature, we let it filter out because we're so busy trying to work on the external part of it, but the internal part is missing. And so when I'm missing the internal, which is me, which is inside of me, how I deal with pressure, how I deal with conflict, how I deal with trials and tribulations, they come about, I'm trying to deal with it with an external factor because it's right in front of me. But I can't really deal with it externally because I haven't dealt with it internally. So that's just something that I was just throwing out there to want to see what you had to say about that.

Yeah, no, I think it's exactly what it is. And I always say, you know, you cannot lead before you can learn to lead yourself first. Leadership is from the inside out. It's it's not the other way around. And often I speak to leaders and they're a bit overwhelmed. They're probably really going through a lot. And I mean, who doesn't, right? I mean, there's a lot going on. They usually, you know, their instinct is to look outside. You know, my team is not performing. We have going through an M&A, a merger and acquisition, for instance. I'll just give an example. You know, this is not going well. We're not communicating. We're not collaborating. The team is not that. And then the first question I ask that leader, and I, what about you? You know, how are you? How are you doing? You know, how are you coping? And that stops them. And usually they say, I haven't really thought about that. You know, if you're going to lead a team, it's much easier to see what's outside of you. I mean, it's not easy to read your own label. And that's where, you know, I guess professionals and experts like myself, you know, or coaches or whichever come in because you need that person to be able to read your label. Sometimes you're not able. I need, I need somebody to read mine too. And I, and what I did, I was forced to kind of read my own when I hit a wall about 3 years ago. And I had to kind of learn how to coach myself. And that is possible. We are able to coach ourselves if we build that self-awareness. If we start being interested to understand what is driving us, where it's coming from, call it self-therapy, but it's extremely useful when it comes to productivity, transforming yourself, being productive. Being successful in what you do. If you don't understand yourself, you don't know how this thing is running, and especially your brain, how your brain was wired since you were 3 years old, because you're defaulting to your 3-year-old brain when you're under pressure, your survival brain. That survival brain started forming at the age of 3, and it wired a certain behavior that served you as a child. But is it serving you right now? You know? So yeah, very interesting. Very interesting when you look on the inside of things as opposed to looking just outside of you.

Yeah, I mean, I like it. You know what I'm saying? Like, what you're explaining now, what I want the audience to get is that, yeah, she's talking neuro leadership, but these are everyday basic principles about life, period. This is life. You know what I'm saying? Like, this is life for a man trying to lead his family. If you haven't— dealt with yourself internally, but you still trying to lead, you know, it's like, okay, what about— like you said, yeah, well, what about you? Uh, but you can tell your wife what to do. You can't even lead yourself, man. So we just gonna leave y'all with that nugget right there. Neuroscience, neuro leadership edge right here on the CJ. So let me ask you this, player. What does neuroscience teach us about fear? That traditional leadership books usually miss?

I mean, you know, fear is a survival response. Now, your brain's only job is to keep you alive. That's it. You know, especially around danger, obviously, you know, actually, there's a lot happening subconsciously in the brain is managing the whole body right now is with my gestures, I'm breathing, there's a lot going on in my body that the brain is signaling that I'm not aware of. I mean, that's the brain job. But what I mean is that under danger, when the brain senses danger, what is danger for the brain? It's a situation that it's not recognizing. It's not registered in its neurons and its wiring. I don't know this thing. This is, we can call it outside our comfort zone. It's an unknown. It's an uncertain thing. I'm not really sure what label to put on it. So it's going to put you in survival brain because the only job is to keep you alive. So it can be something really silly. That's where fear comes in. Fear is kind of a response of the brain saying, you should be scared right now, you know, to keep yourself safe. Don't jump into a void. Don't jump off the cliff. I want you to be scared because that's dangerous for you. So that's how fear kind of, in a simple way, you know, if I can explain it in a simple way, where fear comes from. So in a way, it's like a thing that keeps us alive. But the problem is You remember when I told you that pressure running you, as opposed to your brain running you, as opposed to you running your brain?

Mm-hmm.

The brain is going to do what the brain's going to do, but sometimes it's going to do things that are going to make you scared or stop you or put imposter syndrome in your thoughts, in your head, or thoughts that say, oh no, you're going to totally screw this up. Don't go on stage and speak in front of these people. You're not good. It's going to feed you all these things and all these thoughts. And all these messages in order to keep you safe. And this is what I mean, the self-awareness. It's a good thing because sometimes it's necessary, right, in extreme conditions. However, most of the time it got wired that way to keep us alive. But this wiring that is making us scared, that is basically making us stand in our own way, limiting us from growth, from stepping into our power, for limiting us from playing at the level we're built for and tapping into our amazing skills that we haven't even tapped into because we're just scared to do it because it's an unknown for our brain ever since we're 3. So the idea is to be able to stop and say, okay, I know this is me running my brain now. I know I'm scared right now. I know this feels very insecure right now for me because I've never really stepped on that stage and spoke in front of thousands of people. I can feel it in my body. The blood is rushing. My heart is pumping. My hands are sweating. I can't even breathe, but I know this is my brain's reaction to this pressure right now because it doesn't understand. I am aware of all this, but I choose to step on that stage anyway. I choose to take a deep breath and tell myself out loud, you could do this. Just do it. You know, you could do it even though you don't believe it. Just say it and then step on that stage. And I promise you might be sweating and you might be scared and your hands might be sweaty, sweating, but you literally, when you pause and you take that deep breath, you've slowed down your nervous system. You are signaling your brain into safety. We got this. Don't worry. Thank you for keeping me alive, but I got this. You need to let me do this. So now your brain's going, okay, okay. I'm not sure, but I will try. But, and more biologically speaking, you're sending the blood flow out of your survival brain by doing that into your prefrontal cortex, your brain CEO, where you're strategic, where your skills live, where you can actually speak in front of people. You know what I mean? You're getting out of your own way. And so when you do step onto that stage and you start breathing and you calm yourself down, what's going to happen? You're going to excel because you're going to be in your brain CEO. You're not running from your survival high-pressure brain that is not serving you. It's just keeping you scared and keeping you standing in your own way. It's literally that self-awareness. Everybody talks about it, but nobody explains it in literally biological terms like this. When I learned this, it changed everything because I knew what I have to do to calm myself down. I knew what would really serve me right now, not pep talk, because somebody can say, hey, you could do it. You're good. Trust yourself. Just do it. Go for it. Oh my God. We're so excited for you. But you're still freaking out. How do I tell myself? How do I convince myself? How do I slow my heartbeat down? You know? —And these are the tools—

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Music style, music style.

Let me ask you this, Claire. You know, you said something in that that was really intriguing. And the way that you brought it up, the points there, how you stepped it up, you say, you know, get on that stage and you won't have fear. So let me ask you, so building a speaker stage, you know, before you went on the TEDx stage, so just explain like how the preparation, you know what I'm saying, speaking in front of conventions or going to the school community center speaking, you know, like when you first started until you got that big call to say, hey, we want you to do a TEDx speech. Because from what I'm understanding, and from what I'm hearing, you know, thanks to my man Steve that want to help me with my framework on the TEDx speech, and you offered that to do that to me. And so because I told him, I said, man, I ain't ready for no TEDx, you know what I'm saying? And so from someone who has been on that stage and has been preparing themselves to get there, what does it take? You know, as you were saying, you know, the fear and everything. What does the early part, you know, saying getting all that out, How does that prepare you for the biggest stage?

You know, I think a lot of people have different ways of preparing for something like that, but I can speak from my own experience. Actually, I'll rewind way before TEDx because that was the time when I was just in panic being in front of people. I'm a singer-songwriter. I'm not sure if I mentioned that. I've had a career in music ever since my 20s. It's been a while, more than 32 years ago. And when you're a performer, you show up on stage and you need to sing. So your voice is your body. So if your body's shaking and you're scared, then this is exactly what you're singing is your voice is shaking. I think we've all seen this before. We've all seen this before where, you know, a great singer goes on stage, but they lack experience and their voice is shaking and their performance is suffers, right? So your body is literally your voice. So what— the first time I did this, it was terrible. I mean, I can sing. I'm talented. I can sing. I would not get on a stage if I didn't know my songs. I didn't know that I could sing, right? And I've been rehearsing and everything. I was off-key. I was completely distracted. I was scared. I was literally freaking out. And when you're singing, you're not— I'm not playing guitar. When you're singing, it's your body. So whatever's happening in your body, it's coming out on stage.. And I remember that moment. It was a shock to me. It was like trauma, literally. But I had to— it was a show. I had to keep going. So I kept going. It really got better. Now, the next time I stepped on that stage, I had that trauma. I'm like, oh my God, I literally had to— in my early days, it was practice. The more I did it, the more I put myself out there, the easier it got because Now the brain was saying, "Hey man, we've done this before. It was bad, but you know what? It got better. Okay, so I'm not, you know, don't freak out. You just get used to it." Now that's like the long way to do something, right? Because you gotta practice. Like anything else, you're rewiring a habit. An athlete does this in order for them to become like the top of their game and so on and so forth. So to become a great speaker is a work in progress all the time. Now for my TEDx, I mean, I had been speaking and, you know, doing— I had a career in engineering. I did presentations all the time, but I've never done like big, big things like that. Although besides just performing, when I did my TEDx, it was a whole different level, but I knew exactly what to do. I went straight to it. I said, "Okay, I need to practice." So every day I practice, memorize, practice, memorize, then go for a walk and do it every day, every day for 2-3 months. Then the day came, and I'm supposed to know this thing, right? By heart. And I'm like a neuroleadership expert, and I know how to reset, and I know how to bring my heartbeat down, how to calm myself, how to control my thoughts, how to manage my brain. And the unexpected happened. So the day before, during dress rehearsal, we just had to test the mic and, you know, just check the slides. But then they asked me, and I write about this in my book, in my upcoming book, they asked me, "All right, you're up." So the room was empty. There was a tech and maybe a cameraman, just people just walking around. And I had to step on that stage the day before my actual TEDx and do my talk and do the whole thing and run through it without my slides because the slides weren't working. And rely completely on my memory. So that was a huge unexpected event for me. And of course my thoughts went to panic. Like, I'm going to screw this up. I don't have my slides. How am I going to do this? Oh my God. What if this happens tomorrow? Your brain is like firing all these things to go, don't do it. Don't do it. You know, it's danger, danger, you know, run, run, run, run, run. Just don't, don't look back. Just keep running. Um, and then, But, you know, luckily I had rehearsed this before. I know what to do. But I— the idea is that when pressure hits, you're not just going to become this guru and just going to be calm all the time. Maybe one day with practice. But the idea is to be— to learn how to bring yourself back quickly. Not a week later, not a month later, not a year later, you know, and have this thing kind of get bigger and bigger in your head. The idea is to be able to interrupt the pattern and say no. No, these thoughts are not serving me right now. I need to calm down. Take a deep breath. You got this. You've rehearsed it 3 months. Don't be silly. You don't even need the slides. Literally, that's what I told myself on the inside. And I did it. And I was able to be focused because I was in my strategic brain. I calmed myself down in order to remember my words because I wasn't going to remember my words. And it was really tough though, because it's much harder to speak to nobody in a room and pretend somebody's there listening and caring. And there's noises in the background at the same time, people setting up, so distraction. So it really tested my focus and my ability to just pull through so that the actual day was a joke. It was literally a joke. I was so relaxed because I felt like I've gone through the worst the day before. Yeah. And I was like, oh my God, I can't wait. Everybody else was nervous, actually. I can feel for them. But I was so relaxed. I would just, I was like, it's not going to be 5 minutes before my talk that I'm going to go, I'm going to revise it. I didn't even want the TEDx Talk paper and my presentation. I didn't even want to look at it. I'm like, no, I'm disconnecting. I'm connecting with the, I'm being present. I'm going to stay calm. I'm just going to enjoy this because this is going to fly by. So that was really my, it was a whole thing. I had to work on myself. Yeah, throughout the whole thing. But what I'm saying is that I knew what to do. And that is a skill. And that is something you can build. You don't have to be the victim of pressure.

You know, I get it. So I do have to ask you, I know you say the day of you was ready, you didn't want to look at your TEDx sheet or nothing because you had already went through the hard part the day before. So I just gotta ask. So the day of, did the slides actually work?

Good question. They did. They did. They did. And I look back on the TEDx, and by the way, if you're all curious on which TEDx we're talking about, it's called "Your Voice Matters More Than You Think," basically. I can share the link with you, and if you want to put it in the description. But the slides worked. However, I had a bit of trouble with the clicker. I really was just so relaxed, to be honest with you. It didn't matter. Like, I would just point it and click, click, click. I was not panicking. I was just like, "Meh, whatever." There was a lot of pause. There was a lot of well-thought pauses because I needed to breathe. I needed a moment. With all the rehearsal I've done, with all the rehearsing and everything, it's still something. It still gets you, you know? And then you just get into the flow. And then when you get into the flow, just everything snaps into place. It's brilliant. It's honestly, it was a great experience. Highly recommended. For anybody at any level, because it will really level you up. I don't care how good you are, it will level you up. It will humble you as well.

I guarantee, I bet you it do that. I enjoy talking to someone of your caliber that can grace the CJ Muddy Way Show and tell us about your experiences. So I only have one more question for you, and I really enjoy you. Before we do that, tell us a little bit about your book that's coming out in September, I believe, right?

Yes. So the book is coming up September 9th, and it's called The Leadership Skill Nobody Taught You, with the subtitle Calm Under Fire in the Age of Disruption. Because this is the age we're living in. There's a lot going on. There's a lot of AI transformation. And I mean, you know, look, look around you, what's happening in the world. And this book is really all about understanding what pressure does to us from our childhood being aware of whether it's running you or you have a hold on it, and deciding what do I want to do with it, and learning basically what it does and the unhidden cost of pressure, whether it is in your professional life, whether you have an organization, work for an organization, and/or when you bring it home. Because pressure is life, and the book is all about how we can work with pressure and learn to grow and play at the level we're built for with pressure and show up with calm authority despite the pressure. And that's a skill that we could build. We don't have to lie victims to the 24/7 high-pressure environment that we live in right now. We do have that choice. And we learned that we have a choice by having the conversation about pressure because otherwise, like, why are we talking about pressure again? Oh, because I default to this. Oh, wait, what? When? How did I do that? You know, so the idea of the book is to bring awareness to the subject and to be able to weave through my personal story, my personal experience. And I've interviewed and researched for the past 2 years more than 60 senior leaders across multiple different industries or across 6 continents. That have jobs or have experience with high-pressure situations, or had things happen to them in their own life. And I brought these conversations and their research and their input into the book. So it's very hands-on. It's not just about me and my experience. Also, there's a thread, basically, this common thread across different industries, different people, different levels, different experiences, different backgrounds, cultures, that, you know, the common thread is pressure. And that we're human beings. And it basically proves the point that most of us are being run by pressure. And this is what has been costing us. And this is what you can do about it to change it. And now the ball is in your court. What do you want to do?

What you want to do? What you want to do? How you want it? How you want to get it? If you want to get some neuroscience nuggets dropped on you, holla at my girl Claire. And tell us, where can we get these nuggets, Claire? Where can we find you at on social media? Where can we find your website? And please send me all the links so we can put them in the show notes so people can find you where you are.

Absolutely. Thank you for mentioning that. So if you're interested to know more about the book, you can go to clairehayek.com. That's my website. Everything is there, all my socials, the podcast links. And for the book, it's just /book, clairehayek.com/book. You can register to be an early reader and you'll get access to pre-launch access to the book and some freebies along the way. Besides that, I will be sharing with you, yes, a whole bunch of links, about 2 to 3 links for assessments that your audience can do. If you're listening to this and going, okay, I really want to know what my pressure archetype is, or how am I performing under pressure? Am I pressure-proof or not? Is my team pressure-proof or not? I will be sharing the Pressure and Performance Scorecard with you, the Pressure Archetype, and as well as basically resets, pressure resets that you can practice starting today, and basically to get pressure under control and start doing something about it. So I'll be more than happy to do that. And as far as socials, again, it will be on my website. You can find me on LinkedIn. I'm on all social platforms, and I'd love to hear from you. And if I can help you in any way.

Mm. Claire, appreciate that. One more question before we get out of here. If someone listening today feels like they're currently living in their storm, what seeds should they plant today that will eventually become tomorrow's harvest?

Yeah, I mean, I think listening to this podcast and listening to this conversation is already a huge step because when you see something, you cannot unsee it. And what you've seen, and I hope that you've seen through this episode, that there is a hidden cost when it comes to pressure. And I just hope that this episode makes you stop and reflect, right? That's one little step. Just if you can just pause and think about it, do an assessment or two just to try to understand what's happening, or just Pick up the Pressure Reset scripts and apply one or two. I'm talking simple, 30 seconds breathing or pausing before you jump at somebody, learning what triggers you, how you can manage that, understanding how you're behaving or your pressure default is affecting your family, is affecting your kids, your parenting, how you show up in life, and knowing that your brain is neuroplastic. That means it could be rewired to new habits, new life, a transformation that you choose to have in your life. And you can do this. I don't care if you're 20 years old, 30, or 90, or 95 listening to this. The brain is neuroplastic regardless of age. We can still change and wire it to work for us as opposed to against us. So breathe. One thing you can do is just breathe. Take a breather and take that— make that choice. Do I want to continue? Is this serving me right now? Is my brain really serving me under pressure? Am I being the person who I really strive to be in my life? Is this who I want to be and act like for the rest of my life? And only you know the answer. And regardless what it is, then you can take action. You have that choice, but only you can do that.

Only you can do the things that you have to do. As she said, pressure, you can overcome it, but it can't become you. Hey, so Claire, thank you so much for taking the time to join us today. I truly appreciate not only your expertise but your willingness to share the experiences that shaped your perspective on leadership. I know our audience is walking away with a practical tool that they can apply even Immediately, one of the biggest takeaways for me is this: Pressure doesn't define us, it reveals what's been building all along. That reminds us that the seed we plant today determines how we'll respond when tomorrow's challenges arise. Congratulations on everything you're building, Clara, especially your upcoming book, and we wish you continued success as you help readers around the world become truly pressure-proof. And to everyone listening, if this conversation encourages you, challenged you, or gave you a new perspective, do us a favor, share it with someone who needs to hear it. That's how we continue planting seeds that impact tomorrow. Until the next time, remember to keep building with faith, keep leading with vision, and keep living a legacy that's bigger than yourself. Hey, you've been listening to the CJ Moneyway Show with your boy CJ Moneyway and my girl the Nugget dropper from Neuroscience Leadership Edge podcast. Check her out. Hey, Claire, again, thank you for coming on the show. Until the next time, it's your boy CJ Moneyway. We out of here. Peace. Thank you.

You've been listening to the CJ Moneyway Show. We're real stories, real lessons, yeah, and real perspective come together. Remember, move with patience, move with purpose. That is the mindset of a Panthaa. Until next time, keep building your legacy brick by brick by brick by brick. Music style.