Elethia S. Gay explains why self-care is a core strategic decision for high performance, focusing on setting boundaries and converting fear into courage.
Originally released earlier this year, and back in the feed for a reason. Elethia makes an argument that reframes the whole conversation: your body is one member. It travels with you into every role, every goal, every promotion — which means health goals and career goals were never two separate lists. They are one vision for who you are becoming.
This conversation sets up the new episode releasing August 17.
Key Topics We Explored
* Why self-care is strategy, not recovery and what it costs to treat it as the thing you get to afterward.
* Your body is one member: why work-life balance splits something that was never actually separate.
* Being in love with yourself; not selfishly, but strategically and how that changes what you bring into a role.
* Why the oxygen mask metaphor breaks down when you have already waited too long to put it on.
* Start with one thing, not seven resolutions, and how to find the one thing that is actually the roadblock.
* Getting to the source rather than the symptom: if your feet hurt, the problem is not your discipline.
* Rest, spirituality, and surrender as the practical foundation underneath sustainable leadership.
* Roots to Wellness and Hiking for Hope: building community and self-expression out of hard seasons.
* The signature question: the one word Elethia uses to define her leadership story.
Chapters
00:00 - Why I Am Bringing This Episode Back
00:57 - Welcome: Self-Care Is Not Separate From Your Strategy
02:16 - Meet Elethia Gay
03:12 - How We Met: A Birthday Party and a Beyoncé Song
04:24 - The Leadership Journey: Training Manager to Wellness Coach
05:49 - Mom, Tony Little, and the Seed That Got Planted
08:29 - Walking Into the Room That Felt Like It Was For Everyone Else
09:24 - The Spin Class Moment: Why Not You?
13:05 - Roots to Wellness: Journaling as Self-Expression
16:03 - Hiking for Hope: Turning Loss Into a Mission
21:36 - The Shift: Why Health Goals and Career Goals Are the Same Goal
22:24 - Your Body Is One Member
24:19 - Be In Love With Yourself
25:09 - Why Women Put Themselves Last
26:12 - Getting Practical: Where to Actually Start
27:05 - Rest, Spirituality, and Surrender
31:16 - Choose One Thing, Not Seven Resolutions
33:31 - “I Do Not Have Time for Self-Care”
35:46 - The Signature Question: Be Unafraid
36:45 - Where to Find Elethia
38:15 - Closing Reflection
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Connect with Elethia:
Follow on Instagram: @elethiagay
Website: elethiagay.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/elethiagaycoach
Hiking for Hope: hikes supporting domestic abuse survivors
Book: Roots to Wellness — self-expression journal
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Follow on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lisa-jones-mbcp-mbci-57872823
Email: connect@leadershipstory.co
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