Notes on Resilience

Hosted by Manya Chylinski

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Episodes

180

Latest episode

Jun 2026

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EN-US

About the show

Notes on Resilience explores how human experience, including adversity, shapes leadership, innovation, and culture. Host Manya Chylinski talks with people whose work, research, or lived experience reveal how we adapt, care, and create after challenge—what these stories show about the systems we build, and what must evolve. These conversations are rooted in a simple idea: the goal isn’t resilience for its own sake, the goal is well-being. Resilience is what makes recovery and growth possible. The show serves as field research on how people and systems recover, rebuild, and move forward.

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60 recent

June 10, 2026Episode 2332 min

180: Human-Centered Leadership, with Chase Sterling

Send us Fan MailWe sit down with Chase Sterling, workplace well-being expert and founder of the Wellbeing Think Tank, to get honest about what support actually looks like when someone is stressed, grieving, or barely holding it together. The throughline is resilience—a human process that requires time, space, and genuine psychological safety at work.We talk human-centered leadership in practical terms: focusing on the human so performance follows, recognizing that people bring invisible burdens into meetings, and building cultures of belonging that do not depend on fake cheerfulness. Chase shares why non-toxic positivity matters, how leaders can hold space instead of trying to fix emotions, and why transparency beats polished messaging. We also talk about feedback, accountability, and giving people a clear chance to change.Then we zoom out to the systems level: employee retention, turnover cost, healthcare costs, and the future of work. Chase challenges the current moment of record profits paired with layoffs, calls out when greed drives decisions, and argues that AI is a useful automation tool but not a replacement for critical thinking, creativity, and humane judgment. If this resonates, subscribe, share the episode with a manager or teammate, and leave a review. What is one thing a leader has said or done that made you feel genuinely supported at work?Chase Sterling, MA, is a speaker and the founder and executive director of Wellbeing Think Tank known for amplifying experts over influencers and providing educational events that support individual and organizational wellbeing. Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched!Start for FREESupport the show__________Producer / Editor: Neel PanjiInvite Manya to inspire and empower your teams and position your organization as a forward-thinking leader in well-being, resilience, and trauma sensitivity. Learn more: www.manyachylinski.com/servicesSubscribe to the newsletter: manyachylinski.com/notesPlease subscribe, rate, and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts or your listening platform of choice. It really helps others find us.#trauma #resilience #compassion #MentalHealth #CompassionateLeadership #leadership #survivor

June 3, 2026Episode 2224 min

179: Always Be Curious, with Chris March

Send us Fan MailYour first move as a leader is probably not what you think. Before the strategy deck, before the new plan, the faster path to trust and better results is to be genuinely curious and listen like you mean it. I’m joined by executive advisor Chris March, who helps founder-led companies scale beyond the founder without losing operational control, and we dig into what resilient leadership looks like when things get real. Chris shares a defining leadership test from the COVID era, when travel shut down and leaders had to deliver heartbreaking news. We talk about why transparency and directness can be more humane, how to prepare for uncomfortable conversations, and a simple question that changes everything: What outcome do we want from this talk? Then we get practical: Chris lays out a listening tour you can run when you take over a role, including the exact questions that surface what’s working, what’s broken, and why people show up every day. We challenge the idea that the only reward is a management title, and we close with Chris’s essentials for modern leadership: keep learning, protect your health, and build communication skills (yes, Toastmasters counts). Website: https://chrismarchcoaching.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopherrmarch/If this helped you rethink how you lead, subscribe, share it with a manager or founder, and leave a review so more people can find the show. What is one question you’re going to ask your team this week? Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched!Start for FREESupport the show__________Producer / Editor: Neel PanjiInvite Manya to inspire and empower your teams and position your organization as a forward-thinking leader in well-being, resilience, and trauma sensitivity. Learn more: www.manyachylinski.com/servicesSubscribe to the newsletter: manyachylinski.com/notesPlease subscribe, rate, and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts or your listening platform of choice. It really helps others find us.#trauma #resilience #compassion #MentalHealth #CompassionateLeadership #leadership #survivor

May 27, 2026Episode 2118 min

178: Real Recovery Is Slow And That Is Normal

Send us Fan MailOne screw in a piece of drywall doesn't usually feel profound. This time it did.Standing in a gutted house in Altadena, California, more than a year after the Eaton Fire, I felt the absurd weight of wildfire recovery and the despair that comes from doing something tiny to address an enormous problem.Then my mind shifted: rebuilding is not made of big, triumphant moments. It is made of the next screw, the next sheet of drywall, the next task you can actually do.We talk about what disaster recovery really looks like: homes still stripped to the studs, insurance disputes dragging on, and many families still displaced. From there, we zoom out to mental health after disaster, including the second disaster that can hit months later when the urgency is gone, the news cycle has moved on, and survivors are left with paperwork, grief, and a long road. We name the human realities: insomnia, nightmares, avoidance, and the way housing instability can intensify stress long after debris is cleared.Finally, we get honest about the systems around recovery. Deadlines, application windows, nonprofit metrics, and donor expectations can pressure people to perform healing on a schedule, then blame them when they are still struggling at 18 months, 3 years, or 5.I share what a healthier long-term recovery infrastructure could look like, and why resilience is not a personality trait or a finish line. It’s a practice, and it’s usually invisible.If you’re navigating trauma recovery or supporting someone in the long tail of a disaster, listen through and share this with a friend who needs it.Subscribe to Notes on Resilience and leave a review so more people can find the steadier, truer story of how healing happens.Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched!Start for FREESupport the show__________Producer / Editor: Neel PanjiInvite Manya to inspire and empower your teams and position your organization as a forward-thinking leader in well-being, resilience, and trauma sensitivity. Learn more: www.manyachylinski.com/servicesSubscribe to the newsletter: manyachylinski.com/notesPlease subscribe, rate, and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts or your listening platform of choice. It really helps others find us.#trauma #resilience #compassion #MentalHealth #CompassionateLeadership #leadership #survivor

May 20, 2026Episode 2025 min

177: How Lived Experience Turns Into Real Support, with Cynthia Conigliaro

Send us Fan MailYou can feel it everywhere right now: more stress, less sleep, shorter tempers, and a quiet sense that a lot of people are barely holding it together. We sit down with Cynthia Conigliaro to talk about what resilience actually looks like when life hits hard and does not let up. Cynthia shares the real work behind being positive, and why that label often hides a long history of effort, grief, and growth. We get personal about lived experience, from years of infertility and pregnancy loss to a terrifying medical emergency when Cynthia collapsed on a run with her heart rate at 16 beats per minute, later receiving a pacemaker. We talk about what it means to rebuild trust in your own body, why anniversaries can be a meaningful part of healing, and how simply being understood can lower shame and isolation faster than advice ever will. From there, we zoom out to collective trauma, indirect psychological injury, and the mental health aftershocks we still underestimate even when physical wounds get immediate attention. We unpack why healing is not linear, why culture shapes grief, and how stay strong can sometimes become emotional avoidance.We end with practical workplace insights: heart-centered leadership, burnout signs, and why AI and automation make caring for people and building psychological safety even more essential. Cynthia Conigliaro has been in the field of health and wellness for over 20 years. She is a coach, speaker, and the founder of her corporate presentation business Work Well Webinars where she delivers wellness presentations virtually and in person to companies all over the country. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cynthia-conigliaro-mba-msw-hwc/ Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched!Start for FREESupport the show__________Producer / Editor: Neel PanjiInvite Manya to inspire and empower your teams and position your organization as a forward-thinking leader in well-being, resilience, and trauma sensitivity. Learn more: www.manyachylinski.com/servicesSubscribe to the newsletter: manyachylinski.com/notesPlease subscribe, rate, and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts or your listening platform of choice. It really helps others find us.#trauma #resilience #compassion #MentalHealth #CompassionateLeadership #leadership #survivor

May 13, 2026Episode 1925 min

176: Beyond Resilience, with Keith Erwood

Send us Fan MailMost organizations don’t fail because they don't have a plan. They fail because they can’t imagine they would ever need a plan.We sit down with Keith Erwood to talk about what real risk looks like and why business continuity and crisis management have to be more than checklists and compliance.Keith shares how his experience in EMS during 9/11 shaped the way he thinks about leadership, reflection, and recovery, including the quieter aftermath that hits months later. We also talk about the ripple effects on small and mid-sized businesses, and why community resilience collapses when the local places people depend on can’t reopen. From there, we dig into what helps individuals recover from trauma, why mental health support is still hard to access, and how workplaces often respond only after something big happens.Then we challenge a common assumption about organizational resilience: bouncing back isn’t the only goal. Keith introduces the idea of endurance, using Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance expedition to explore perseverance, survival psychology, and the will to live. We connect those lessons to preparedness planning, overlapping disasters, and the biases that make teams dismiss realistic scenarios. Finally, Keith offers a practical tool leaders can use right now: financial impact analysis that focuses on what it costs when a critical process goes down, no matter the cause, from cyber events to key-person risk.If you care about disaster preparedness, IT disaster recovery, or building a people-first resilience strategy, you’ll take away concrete ways to think clearer and plan smarter. Subscribe, share this with a leader who needs it, and leave a review with your biggest preparedness blind spot. Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched!Start for FREESupport the show__________Producer / Editor: Neel PanjiInvite Manya to inspire and empower your teams and position your organization as a forward-thinking leader in well-being, resilience, and trauma sensitivity. Learn more: www.manyachylinski.com/servicesSubscribe to the newsletter: manyachylinski.com/notesPlease subscribe, rate, and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts or your listening platform of choice. It really helps others find us.#trauma #resilience #compassion #MentalHealth #CompassionateLeadership #leadership #survivor

May 6, 2026Episode 1816 min

175: The Gap After The Crisis

Send us Fan MailThe strange part of a crisis is not the first week. It’s the months after, when the debris is cleared, the headlines move on, and your body finally stops running on adrenaline. That’s when many people begin to notice the insomnia, anxiety, irritability, brain fog, and avoidance they couldn’t afford to feel earlier. And too often, that’s exactly when the surge of support has already disappeared. We dig into the gap between when help is offered and when people are actually ready to accept it, using the aftermath of the 2018 Camp Fire in Paradise, California as a vivid example. We talk through why survivors often say “we’re fine” in the immediate aftermath, how triage and stigma shape help-seeking, and why leaders can’t rely on early utilization numbers to judge long-term community wellbeing. Along the way, we connect the dots to what disaster research shows about delayed stress responses and post-traumatic stress symptoms after events like 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. We also name the deeper mismatch: psychological timing, institutional timing, and social timing rarely align. Emergency funding ends, staff burn out, and reporting systems reward what’s measurable early, while many people only feel safe enough to ask for support later, when it’s socially less acceptable to still be struggling. We close with practical, realistic ways to keep mental health support accessible after disaster recovery begins, including 3, 6, and 12-month follow-ups and partnerships with schools, faith communities, and primary care. If this resonates, subscribe for more conversations on resilience, share this with someone who leads in a crisis, and leave a review telling us what kind of support you wish existed six months after the emergency.Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched!Start for FREESupport the show__________Producer / Editor: Neel PanjiInvite Manya to inspire and empower your teams and position your organization as a forward-thinking leader in well-being, resilience, and trauma sensitivity. Learn more: www.manyachylinski.com/servicesSubscribe to the newsletter: manyachylinski.com/notesPlease subscribe, rate, and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts or your listening platform of choice. It really helps others find us.#trauma #resilience #compassion #MentalHealth #CompassionateLeadership #leadership #survivor

April 29, 2026Episode 1726 min

174: Resilient Leadership Starts With You, with Chris Harris

Send us Fan MailWould you follow someone up the hill if they’ve never taken one themselves? That question sits at the center of our conversation with executive coach and keynote speaker Chris Harris, whose warrior mindset approach strips leadership down to what people actually feel: credibility, trust, and the calm confidence that comes from real resilience.We get personal fast. Chris shares a defining moment from childhood homelessness, sitting on a curb and eating donuts found in a dumpster, and the decision that changed his trajectory: choosing self-worth. From there, we connect the dots between lived adversity and the kind of compassion that isn’t just empathy, but empathy in action. If you’re thinking about leadership development, mindset coaching, or building a resilient organization, this story is more than inspiration. It explains why care, standards, and accountability can coexist without becoming performative culture talk.From elite special operations lessons to corporate reality, we unpack what makes teams strong under pressure: psychological safety that’s real, shared purpose that’s clear, and leaders whose character, values, and integrity align without friction. Chris also teaches a practical metacognition tool, “Sit, Stand, Open, Close,” to help you break autopilot, notice what you’re thinking, and adjust in real time, especially when stakes are high and stress is loud. And we end with a reminder worth borrowing: you’re under no obligation to be the same version of yourself you were ten minutes ago.If this helped you think differently about resilient leadership, mindset, and trust at work, subscribe and share it with a colleague. What’s one leadership behavior that instantly builds trust for you?Chris Harris is a coach, author, and keynote speaker. He is an accomplished black belt and U.S. Martial Arts Hall of Fame inductee, and has trained thousands — from the U.S. military to its global allies — in close-quarters combat and mental toughness.Website: https://chrisharrisllc.com/ Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched!Start for FREESupport the show__________Producer / Editor: Neel PanjiInvite Manya to inspire and empower your teams and position your organization as a forward-thinking leader in well-being, resilience, and trauma sensitivity. Learn more: www.manyachylinski.com/servicesSubscribe to the newsletter: manyachylinski.com/notesPlease subscribe, rate, and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts or your listening platform of choice. It really helps others find us.#trauma #resilience #compassion #MentalHealth #CompassionateLeadership #leadership #survivor

April 22, 2026Episode 1631 min

173: How To Talk To Your Doctor, with Dana Sherwin

Send us Fan MailDoctor visits can feel like a high-stakes performance: you get 15 minutes, you are anxious, and you only remember the perfect question after you leave. We sit down with Dana Sherwin, a healthcare management consultant and speaker specializing in patient-physician communication, to make those minutes count and to make the relationship feel like a partnership instead of a power struggle.We dig into what patient engagement actually looks like in real life and why it links to better health outcomes. Dana shares a simple, repeatable way to prepare for a doctor appointment: write down your top priorities, your symptom timeline, and the questions you cannot afford to forget. We also talk about a surprising idea many people miss: a huge share of diagnoses comes from what you tell the doctor, which makes your story, your context, and your clarity a clinical tool.If you want more confident conversations and a clearer plan after every appointment, listen now.Dana Sherwin is a consultant and speaker focused on healthcare management and patient-physician communication. In prior executive and consulting roles, Dana worked in hospitals, managed care plans, and three public accounting/consulting firms. She is also a 6 ½ year survivor of a stem cell transplant for a blood cancer disorder.LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/desherwin/Website: The Thinking Patient Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched!Start for FREESupport the show__________Producer / Editor: Neel PanjiInvite Manya to inspire and empower your teams and position your organization as a forward-thinking leader in well-being, resilience, and trauma sensitivity. Learn more: www.manyachylinski.com/servicesSubscribe to the newsletter: manyachylinski.com/notesPlease subscribe, rate, and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts or your listening platform of choice. It really helps others find us.#trauma #resilience #compassion #MentalHealth #CompassionateLeadership #leadership #survivor

April 15, 2026Episode 1517 min

172: Hidden Wounds Of Surviving A Public Crisis

Send us Fan MailA bomb explodes across the street, and you walk away with both your legs. People call that fine.But your body tells a different story for years. On the 13th anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombing, I share what that day felt like from the bleachers, what came after, and why invisible injuries like trauma, PTSD symptoms, and nervous system triggers can be so hard to explain to anyone who hasn't live them.Then we turn the lens toward leadership, crisis management, and employee well-being. Operations can return to normal while people are still not okay, and anniversaries are one of the clearest moments when that gap shows up. I talk about the two common mistakes leaders make: saying nothing and leaving people alone with the date, or over-commemorating in ways that feel performative and can reopen wounds. The goal is not a perfect script. The goal is a culture that can acknowledge reality without controlling how people grieve.You will also hear a personal contrast that still shapes how I think about institutions: one response that felt human and one that felt like a form-letter refusal. We close with practical, trauma-informed actions you can take now, including marking key dates on your calendar, offering support resources, checking in and listening, and giving everyone clear permission to opt out of remembrance. If you found this helpful, subscribe to Notes on Resilience, share the episode with a leader who needs it, and leave a review. What anniversary do you wish your workplace had handled differently?Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched!Start for FREESupport the show__________Producer / Editor: Neel PanjiInvite Manya to inspire and empower your teams and position your organization as a forward-thinking leader in well-being, resilience, and trauma sensitivity. Learn more: www.manyachylinski.com/servicesSubscribe to the newsletter: manyachylinski.com/notesPlease subscribe, rate, and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts or your listening platform of choice. It really helps others find us.#trauma #resilience #compassion #MentalHealth #CompassionateLeadership #leadership #survivor

April 8, 2026Episode 1428 min

171: Lead Without Losing Yourself, with Robin Goad

Send us Fan MailWhat if leadership were less about being impressive and more about being useful? Robin Goad joins me to get painfully honest about how most of us learn leadership the wrong way, then spend years unlearning it. She’s a technology executive at Amazon Web Services, a speaker and coach, and the author of Girl By Birth, Woman By Fire, and she brings a clear message: leading well is selfless, practical, and deeply human.We talk about what it looks like to protect your team in corporate America, from taking the heat when things go wrong to giving your people real ownership when things go right. Robin explains why compassion at work is about guardrails — clear boundaries, consistent accountability, and earned trust that create the conditions for resilience, better performance, and healthier teams.Along the way, she shares the leadership question she wishes every manager would ask: “What do you want to be when you grow up, and how can I help you get there?” That single sentence changes career development, retention, and the honesty people bring to work.We close with a look at organizational culture and employee feedback, including a simple daily mechanism at Amazon that surfaces anonymous insights and makes leaders pay attention. If you care about compassionate leadership, employee engagement, and building trust inside big systems, this one will stick with you. Robin Goad is a technology executive at Amazon Web Services (AWS), speaker, and coach who helps ambitious women master the corporate game without losing themselves. She is the author of Girl by Birth. Woman by Fire, with practical strategies for thriving in corporate America and in life. Her message is simple and bold: you can achieve extraordinary success without sacrificing your soul.LinkedInFacebookInstagram Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched!Start for FREESupport the show__________Producer / Editor: Neel PanjiInvite Manya to inspire and empower your teams and position your organization as a forward-thinking leader in well-being, resilience, and trauma sensitivity. Learn more: www.manyachylinski.com/servicesSubscribe to the newsletter: manyachylinski.com/notesPlease subscribe, rate, and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts or your listening platform of choice. It really helps others find us.#trauma #resilience #compassion #MentalHealth #CompassionateLeadership #leadership #survivor

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