Executive Unschool Publication
Welcome. You've found your people. We explore the work you do, the wealth you build, and the wellbeing you deserve, without asking you to blow up the life you've worked so hard to create.
Executive Unschool publishes essays, written to start a better conversation. It’s a publication for ambitious women who have lost interest in optimizing a life that doesn't feel like their own.
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WEALTH
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WELLBEING
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WORK ⁘ WEALTH ⁘ WELLBEING ⁘
How My Title Became Me
I spent years believing my title was proof that I had arrived. But somewhere along the way, the line between what I did and who I was disappeared. This is what I've learned about untangling your identity from your career, and why the person you are beyond the business card matters so much.
Capacity, not clarity.
Most of us spend our careers chasing more clarity, believing the next strategy, framework, or roadmap will finally make work feel easier. I've come to believe the opposite is true. The real advantage isn't knowing more. It's building the capacity to recover, adapt, and keep going when reality doesn't follow the plan.
Try this before launching the next thing
The biggest reason change initiatives fail isn't poor strategy. It's asking people to carry more than they have the capacity to hold. Before launching your next big idea, there is one question I believe every leader needs to ask.
If Going to Mars Is Easier Than Fixing Work, We've Lost the Plot
A Gallup leader recently suggested we're closer to colonizing Mars than fixing the workplace. I disagree. Work isn't broken because we lack solutions. It's broken because we've forgotten the humans it's supposed to serve. Here's why I believe a different future is possible. Read more.
Reset Before You Rise: Why Recovery Comes Before Growth
We often chase the next level without giving ourselves permission to recover first. But growth built on exhaustion rarely lasts. Here's why the most effective leaders and healthiest teams know that resetting isn't a pause from the work. It's what makes the work possible. Read more.
What actually holds when everything is shaking
When institutions, careers, and systems feel unpredictable, our nervous systems search for certainty that may no longer exist. This reflection explores why connection, care, and love—not productivity—may be the most reliable compass during uncertain times.
I was blasted for choosing peace. Here’s my response.
When the world feels chaotic, choosing rest can look like disengagement—but it’s actually how sustainable leaders endure. This reflection explores why recovery isn’t selfish, how nervous system regulation supports long-term impact, and why replenishment is essential for changemakers.
Why pushing through isn’t working
Chronic work stress isn’t just exhausting—it’s physically harmful. Research shows most professionals experience significant stress each year, and many develop health issues as a result. Here’s why micro-recoveries may be the most effective way to offset modern work’s impact on your nervous system.
Work Recovery: The Midweek Reset Your Nervous System Needs
Hustle culture teaches us to push through stress without pause. Work recovery offers a different path. A reflection on midweek resets, nervous system regulation, and one simple tool—pause before reacting—that can help you reclaim clarity, calm, and capacity.
Choosing Courage Over Comfort in Uncertain Times
Courage isn’t the absence of fear — it’s alignment in the presence of it. This reflection explores what it means to choose integrity over approval, regulate your nervous system for bravery, and build confidence brick by brick when visibility feels risky.
What It Really Means to Lead With Integrity in Uncertain Times
Leadership isn’t your mission statement — it’s your behavior when it’s inconvenient. This reflection explores what it means to stop shrinking, speak with integrity, and live your values publicly, even when it costs you followers, clients, or comfort.
Leadership, Grief, and Work Recovery in Times of Rupture
When the systems we were taught to trust fail in real time, leadership changes. This reflection explores how grief, regulation, and community care become essential—not optional—and why staying human matters more than optimizing performance in moments of collective rupture.
Anchoring Strength: How We Stay Steady in Uncertain Times
When traditional goals feel out of reach, anchoring into an energy or emotion can offer steadiness instead. This reflection explores why choosing strength—not as force, but as inner stability—can help you navigate uncertainty, grief, and change with more clarity and resilience.
EP 119 Leadership in 2026: Less Control, More Inner Stability | with Andrea Tessier
As we move toward 2026, many leaders are sensing that the old leadership playbook is breaking down. In this episode of How Good Can It Get?, Bree Johnson and Andrea Tessier explore why strategy and performance are no longer enough—and why the future of leadership requires inner steadiness, emotional intelligence, and self-trust.
EP 118 Some years ask questions. 2025 gave me answers.
In this reflective episode of How Good Can It Get?, Bree Johnson shares five lessons that emerged from a year of growth, simplification, and trusting her intuition. A thoughtful look at how clarity often comes after seasons of uncertainty and change.
EP 117 Why Resentment Peaks During the Holidays
Why does resentment surface during the holidays—and what is it actually trying to tell us? In this episode of How Good Can It Get?, Bree Johnson explores how unmet needs, energy depletion, and the illusion of control affect wellbeing and leadership.
Right on Time: When Self-Trust Matters More Than Crushed Goals
What if the most meaningful growth doesn’t show up in metrics? A year-end reflection on misalignment, over-functioning, work harm, and why fewer goals crushed—but more self-trust gained—might mean you’re exactly where you’re meant to be.
Ep. 116 The Biggest Leadership Lie We All Believe About Wellbeing
In this episode, I break down the single biggest barrier to wellbeing I see across founders, people leaders, and women running entire households: letting external uncertainty steal time, focus, and nervous system capacity.
Ep. 115 this podcast is for you!
Bree discusses transforming work into a craft, emphasizing the need for personal empowerment and the identification of resistance in one's professional life.
Returning to Yourself: Midlife, Craft, and the Work of Unlearning
What if your work isn’t something to manage—but something to craft? This reflection explores midlife reinvention, unschooling old expectations, and reconnecting with the version of yourself who loved deeply, created freely, and didn’t perform for approval.