Lead Well! with Christine Schickinger

How much does your environment influence your thinking, emotions, and decisions? In this episode, Christine explores why environment is often the missing piece in change models. From hunger and sleep to safety, noise, and the people around us, small environmental factors can radically shift outcomes. You’ll learn: Why environment is a leverage point for change How basic needs affect judgment and e...

What really shapes our lives. Our thoughts. Our feelings. Our behavior. Or something deeper? In this episode, I revisit familiar psychological models like CBT and expand them with two elements that are often overlooked. Your environment and your inner state. Drawing from neuroscience, nervous system regulation, and my work with humans and animals, I explain why outcomes alone are a poor measure of...

Looking back at a year usually means counting results. This episode asks a different question: How did those moments actually feel in your body and nervous system? Not what happened. But the state you were in before and after. A gentle year-end reflection.

The holiday season often comes with pressure, noise, and hidden stress. This short episode is different. In Episode 101 of Lead Well!, I invite you to a brief resilience break. A guided pause to help your nervous system shift out of stress mode and into a calmer, more regulated state. You can listen while sitting, resting, or even while waiting for the bus. No special setup needed. This episode is...

Episode 100 is a moment to pause. Not to summarize achievements, but to acknowledge influence. In this solo episode, Christine reflects on gratitude. Not as a feel-good concept, but as a stabilizing force for the nervous system, perspective, and leadership. She shares the stories of nine people. Most of them podcast guests. All of them deeply influential. Teachers, mentors, colleagues, and thinker...

Deutsche Originalaufnahme - to listen to the English Dub version, forward to chapter 3 at timestamp 00:26:28. In this episode, Dr. Ulrike Stefanowski joins me to explore one of the most underestimated foundations of mental and physical health: sleep. Ulrike is a medical doctor, coach, and founder of INSANO, an institute focused on mental well-being and nervous-system regulation. She combines medic...

In this practical and energizing conversation, movement educator and physical therapist Eileen Kopsaftis explains why pain does not have to be a natural part of aging. She shares the most common myths about decline, how the brain loses contact with parts of the body, and why most people unknowingly train in ways that reinforce stiffness instead of reducing it. Eileen demonstrates a simple seated t...

Betrayal trauma expert Mr. Jay explains what betrayal trauma really is, why it rewires the nervous system, and how to rebuild safety, trust, and self-worth from the inside out. A powerful, practical conversation on healing, boundaries, and self-leadership.

What if vitality is not about pushing harder, but about listening more deeply? In this conversation with Dr. Deborah Zucker, naturopathic physician, mental-health counselor, and author of The Vitality Map, we explore the nine keys to deep vitality. Deborah shares her own health crisis, the wake-up call that changed her life, and the foundational skills most of us were simply never taught: attuneme...

What does it take to move from surviving to truly thriving after trauma? In this powerful episode, Dr. Dawnmarie Risley-Childs, a psychiatrist, author of The Offering, and self-proclaimed “Hope Dealer”, shares her personal journey through childhood abuse, complex PTSD, and the radical act of forgiving without forgetting. Together, we explore how trauma shapes the nervous system, how healing can be...

In this episode, Christine explores The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz — a timeless guide to personal freedom and self-leadership. These four simple yet profound principles can transform the way you relate to yourself and others: Be impeccable with your word Don’t take anything personally Don’t make assumptions Always do your best Christine connects each agreement to her NeuroPositive framewor...

In this solo episode, Christine Schickinger explores a timeless communication method that helps you say less - and mean more: the Pyramid Principle by Barbara Minto. If you’ve ever been told to “get to the point,” or struggled to make your ideas heard, this method will transform how you structure your thoughts, presentations, and even emails.

Bianca D’Alessio is one of New York’s top real estate leaders, a TV personality from Selling the Hamptons, and the author of Mastering Intentions: 10 Practices to Amplify Your Power and Lead with Lasting Impact. In this episode, we talk about why purpose and intention matter more than goal-chasing, how to quiet the “brain bully” that sabotages success, and how to play the long game in leadership a...

When success turns hollow, how do you find your way back to purpose? Christine talks with lawyer-turned-novelist Anusia Gillespie about burnout, healing, and her debut novel Soul Toll, which blends ambition with spiritual awakening.

What if your creativity didn’t have to please anyone but yourself? In this inspiring conversation, Amandine de Gaspari—a neurodivergent, purpose-driven coach—talks with Christine Schickinger about embracing your authentic voice, finding freedom in creativity, and redefining what it means to “be too much.”

In this inspiring episode of Lead Well!, I talk with Kevin Field, co-founder of WeFayo – a free platform connecting over 180 communities across the U.S. for families and individuals living with medical conditions or special needs. Kevin shares how his journey with his wife’s Crohn’s disease and raising a child with special needs turned into a mission: building a place where no one has to navigate...

What if respect and safety were the standard in every home? In this episode of Lead Well!, I speak with Sabrina Osso, founder and CEO of Osso Safe, about her mission to create safe environments where people live, learn, work, and play. Sabrina shares her powerful story as a survivor of violence, how her one-woman show grew into a movement, and why safety at home impacts every part of our lives - f...

What if the answers you’ve been searching for were already inside you? In this conversation with Jamie Lerner, Integrating Wellbeing Therapist and co-author of The Ever Loving Essence of You, we explore how to shift the stories that keep us stuck, tap into our intuition, and build more authentic connections — with ourselves, others, and even nature.

In this episode of Lead Well!, Christine talks with Rebecca Bush, a specialist in dyslexia who brings both professional expertise and lived insight into what it means to learn differently. We explore: Why dyslexia is about much more than reading difficulties The hidden strengths of dyslexic thinkers – from creativity to problem-solving Practical ways to support children and adults with dyslexia Ho...

When I asked Letitia Blanker how she was doing, she answered with two words: “I am.” In this conversation, Letitia opens up about a season when everything seemed to land at once: her father’s sudden illness, the end of a 20-year relationship, selling her home, losing her job—and then a breast cancer diagnosis just one month later. What surprised both of us: cancer didn’t break her. It gave her str...

This week I talk to Pia Mailhot-Leichter. Her book "Welcome to the Creative Club: Make Life Your Biggest Art Project" is part memoir, part manifesto, and part gentle rebellion against the myth that “creativity” belongs only to the gifted few. We talk about: How Pia rediscovered her creativity on a Trans-Siberian journey Why neuroscience shows your best ideas come during rest (hello showers & daydr...

Apologies for the suboptimal audio. This topics seems so important we still decided to publish it. What really happens in the psychoanalyst’s office? Silences, dreams, and breakthroughs that can change a life. In this powerful conversation, Joan K. Peters shares her rare decision to reveal the private world of her psychoanalysis in her memoir Untangling. Twice in her life, Joan entered the deep wo...

What if you’re not actually stuck — you’re just tuned into the wrong timeline? In this episode, I talk with Wendy Paquette, Reality Architect and master of energetic congruence, about how leaders (and anyone) can shift from outdated programming into an aligned, soul-led life.

Feeling burned out? Discover how nature can reset your nervous system and restore your energy. In this episode, award-winning landscape architects Elizabeth Boults and Chip Sullivan, authors of Wisdom of Place, share their R.O.O.T. method—a simple, science-backed way to reduce stress and reconnect with the world around you.

George Dubec has seen it all — from the disco era to scheduling Tony Robbins. In this episode of Lead Well!, I talk with The Ultimate Networker about what it takes to build authentic relationships in business and life — and why it matters more than ever today.