The Well with Mandy Balak

Hosted by Mandy Balak

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163

Latest episode

Oct 2026

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About the show

Ambition was never the problem. Depletion is. The Well is a show about leading from full. It's for founders and leaders who built the thing and still feel behind. Who hit the goal and felt nothing. Who know exactly what's next and still haven't started. Every week, a real conversation about how you lead yourself, because that's where leadership starts. Sometimes it's a leader worth learning from. Sometimes it's just me and what I'm working through. What we get into: Chasing vs choosing. Why more effort stopped working, and what replaces it. Capacity. The math behind burnout that nobody checks. Armor patterns. The strategies that made you successful and are now charging you for it. Letting the win land. How to hold more without building yourself a new cage. I'm Mandy Balak, three-time founder, author of Chasing Enough, and creator of the Well-Resourced Method. I built and exited a 250,000-member community, and I built most of it while getting my father out of a Colombian prison. That's the part that taught me everything the wins didn't. This isn't a show about wanting less. It's about wanting more and paying less for it. Find your armor pattern, free in 5 minutes: mandybalak.com/quiz Read Chasing Enough: mandybalak.com/book Private coaching with Mandy: mandybalak.com/coaching Everything else: mandybalak.com Instagram: @mandybalak

Listen to episodes

60 recent

October 19, 2026Episode 17149 min

#171: Recovery Is the Edge, with Dr. Michael Gervais

You know how to push. You know how to outwork the room. What you don't know how to do is stop without feeling guilty about it. I sat down with Dr. Michael Gervais, high performance psychologist to Olympians, the Seattle Seahawks and Felix Baumgartner's jump from the edge of space, at the end of last year. I didn't know it would become the before picture for Chasing Enough. In this episode: Why elite teams treat stress and recovery as one equation, and business only plans for one half What Felix's "claustrophobia" was really about, and what it teaches about trusting your team The question Marshawn Lynch asked himself in the mirror Why recovery built into the rhythm of business is a competitive advantage If I stop the chase, will I lose my edge? No. This becomes your edge. Chapters 8 through 10 of Chasing Enough go deep on capacity and recovery. Buy the book before November 1, upload your receipt at mandybalak.com/toolkit , and get the audiobook, the Well-Resourced Toolkit and a seat at the December live session. Send this to the friend who still thinks rest is something you earn. 00:00 Cold open 01:30 Why I'm sharing this now 03:05 Dr. Michael Gervais joins 09:53 Felix Baumgartner and the edge of space 19:52 The fear of enough 25:15 Marshawn Lynch's mirror moment 27:15 A decade with Pete Carroll and the Seahawks 39:03 Overtrained, under-recovered 42:44 Recovery as a competitive advantage 47:00 Where to start 48:51 Closing Read Chasing Enough: mandybalak.com/book Claim your launch bonuses: mandybalak.com/toolkit Find your armor pattern, free in 5 minutes: mandybalak.com/quiz Private coaching with Mandy: mandybalak.com/coaching Everything else: mandybalak.com Instagram: @mandybalak Dr. Michael Gervais, Finding Mastery: findingmastery.com

September 16, 2025Episode 16617 min

#166: Stop Falling Off Plan: Why Grey Wins Every Time

High achievers love the extremes. All or nothing. Perfect or pointless. That mindset might have fueled your success… but it's also what's burning you out and keeping you stuck in a perfectionist loop. In this episode, Mandy shares why the real transformation doesn't happen in black and white — it happens in the grey. Grey isn't failure. Grey is adaptation. And when you learn to live in the grey, you stop sabotaging and start sustaining. You'll learn: Why perfectionism creates hidden energy leaks that cost you time, energy, and presence. Real-life examples of what "grey" looks like (workouts, meals, leadership). The Minimums → Standards → Sprints framework to keep moving forward no matter your season or energy level. Because success isn't about doing it all. It's about creating a rhythm you can actually sustain. Find your armor pattern, free in 5 minutes: mandybalak.com/quiz Read Chasing Enough: mandybalak.com/book Private coaching with Mandy: mandybalak.com/coaching Everything else: mandybalak.com Instagram: @mandybalak If this one landed, send it to the person you thought of while you were listening.

August 5, 2026Episode 16728 min

#167: Success, redefined

Everyone is leaving something they built. Jobs, cities, marriages, careers they spent twenty years on. If that's you, or you're circling it, start here. Because a pivot doesn't work if you pack the old pattern in the suitcase, and the question under every reinvention is the same: how do you make a change without rebuilding the same life with different wallpaper? In this first episode of the new season, Mandy shares the pattern underneath her own burnout cycles, why the finish line keeps moving, the four things to know before you redesign your life, and the part nobody models: what it looks like to keep your ambition without paying for it with your life. You'll leave with the Success Audit: three questions to find out who actually wrote your definition of success. If you're ready to stop chasing and start choosing, this one is for you. What's inside: The pattern that follows you into every pivot, and why you can't out-plan it Why the finish line keeps moving, and the done list practice for high achievers Old metrics, new life: what happens when you measure a new season with an old scoreboard Why your definition of success is running your leadership, whether you've defined it or not The two stories we're sold about ambition, and the middle path Mandy is living instead Choosing beats chasing: what deciding on purpose looks like in a real week The Success Audit: three questions to take on a walk this week Lines from this episode: "You don't escape the pattern. You just give it a new address." "I called it commitment. My body called it burnout." "Everyone was getting the last of me, and I was getting the last of me." "Behind by what scoreboard? Who wrote it?" "Take your ambition back. It was never the problem." The Success Audit: Write your current definition of success. The real one, not the dinner party version. Ask: who wrote this? Rewrite one line. What's one measure of success you're retiring, and what replaces it? Find your armor pattern, free in 5 minutes: mandybalak.com/quiz Read Chasing Enough: mandybalak.com/book Private coaching with Mandy: mandybalak.com/coaching Everything else: mandybalak.com Instagram: @mandybalak If this one landed, send it to the person you thought of while you were listening.

October 10, 2026Episode 17044 min

#170: You're Not Stuck. You're Protecting Yourself.

You know exactly what to do. You've read the book twice. You've polished it, renamed it, edited it one more time. And it's still sitting in drafts. You're not stuck. You're protecting yourself. Stuck isn't the absence of a next step. It's the presence of protection. You're not avoiding the work, you're avoiding the verdict. This is my re-introduction to The Well as the published author of Chasing Enough, and I'm telling the truth about what it took to get it out. Seven years of writing. A manuscript I handed in and asked to have back. Podcasts I recorded this summer and couldn't bring myself to publish. A pattern that started in a grade seven drama class. And the 15-minute rule that finally broke it: a one-take video on a hotel balcony in Portugal, no makeup, that went to 2.4 million views. In this episode: Why "I'm stuck" is a life sentence you keep handing yourself The three people Chasing Enough was written for: the one who can't stop, the one who can't start, and the one who arrived and felt nothing The capacity math for the one who can't stop: if your demands are at an eleven, your resources need to be too The 15-minute rep for the one who can't start How to let the win land for the one who arrived and felt nothing The "It All Worked Out Better Than Expected" dinner, six months from today It doesn't need to be perfect to be successful. Send this to the friend with the finished thing they haven't published yet. 00:00 open 01:28 Back on The Well, as a published author 05:26 Why the thing you're here to bring gets stuck 09:55 One more edit: how stuck showed up for me 11:33 Grade seven drama class 15:15 The launch journal and my definition of enough 19:26 Boldness, and the edges that come with it 21:08 Stuck is the presence of protection 23:08 The three people this book was written for 24:57 Notice, release, rise 27:04 The 15-minute rule and the 2.4M-view video 35:06 For the one who can't stop 36:51 For the one who can't start 39:20 For the one who arrived and felt nothing 40:31 What if it all worked out better than expected Find your armor pattern, free in 5 minutes: mandybalak.com/quiz Read Chasing Enough: mandybalak.com/book Private coaching with Mandy: mandybalak.com/coaching Everything else: mandybalak.com Instagram: @mandybalak

September 18, 2026Episode 16950 min

#169: Why Your Morning Routine Stopped Working with Marc Champagne

Marc Champagne had the routines, the practices and a book about mental fitness. Then the practices stopped working and he felt ashamed about it. So he asked around. Almost everyone doing this work had hit the same wall. What he calls one foot in the old self and one foot in the new. His answer was to build a table of 14 teachers across 2600 years and ask them how they did it. Lao Tzu. Rumi. Harriet Tubman. A samurai. Nikola Tesla, invited in at the last minute, four days before the manuscript was due. Marc is a mental fitness strategist and host of Behind the Human. He has spent two decades studying how the most effective thinkers keep their minds clear under pressure, which is exactly why the flat spot bothered him. We get into what those teachers said about being stuck, why most leaders are running at 60 percent mental capacity, and the practice he uses when his own nervous system goes off. Connect with Marc Champagne on Instagram: instagram.com/mchampagne Get Marc's Mental Fitness Playbook: blueprint.mchampagne.com Find your armor pattern, free in 5 minutes: mandybalak.com/quiz Read Chasing Enough: mandybalak.com/book Private coaching with Mandy: mandybalak.com/coaching Everything else: mandybalak.com Instagram: @mandybalak If this one landed, send it to the person you thought of while you were listening.

September 17, 2026Episode 16836 min

#168: Ignoring Intuition, Cultivating Culture & Ending the Chase with Dr. Genieve Burley

She had a job. Her gut said leave. Her ego said you'll never get another one. So she stayed. Until her body made the decision for her. Dr. Genieve Burley is a Vancouver chiropractor, movement expert and mental health advocate with 20 years in practice. She went on to build her own integrative clinic with culture as the filter for every hire. Mandy and Genieve get into intuition vs ego, hiring from scarcity, why the basics beat peptides and GLP-1s, and the values exercise that cuts 100 words down to 3. Genieve also names the thing high achievers skip: stopping to feel what they already built. Connect with Dr. Genieve Burley on Instagram: instagram.com/drgenieveburley Find your armor pattern, free in 5 minutes: mandybalak.com/quiz Read Chasing Enough: mandybalak.com/book Private coaching with Mandy: mandybalak.com/coaching Everything else: mandybalak.com Instagram: @mandybalak If this one landed, send it to the person you thought of while you were listening.

March 7, 2020Episode 4523 min

How to Bring Your Body Into Everything You Do with Robin Hilton

This episode is part of our RISE Masterclass series providing you bite-sized coaching, wisdom and insights from 10 of our RISE Women's Conference speakers taking the stage April 23-25, 2020 in Lake Louise, Alberta. Robin Hilton is a yoga studio owner and teacher, sexuality coach, photographer, speaker and facilitator who connects women to the magic within themselves. Learn how to call your body into everything that you do, to ensure your body is on the agenda, and to tune into the clues our body is giving us to slow down and re-align. Find your armor pattern, free in 5 minutes: mandybalak.com/quiz Read Chasing Enough: mandybalak.com/book Private coaching with Mandy: mandybalak.com/coaching Everything else: mandybalak.com Instagram: @mandybalak If this one landed, send it to the person you thought of while you were listening.

December 28, 202113 min

Your Next Level: Energy budgeting for 2022

Welcome to YOUR NEXT LEVEL - this is a 10 part mini series created to help you reflect on the past year, CELEBRATE your successes and lessons learned and step forward into the next level of your growth.In this episode you'll learn how to do an energy audit and decide what you're going to leave behind with a stop, start and continue exercise. Find your armor pattern, free in 5 minutes: mandybalak.com/quiz Read Chasing Enough: mandybalak.com/book Private coaching with Mandy: mandybalak.com/coaching Everything else: mandybalak.com Instagram: @mandybalak If this one landed, send it to the person you thought of while you were listening.

April 17, 2019Episode 221 hr 5 min

Rise Without Compromise with Stephanie Pollock

Stephanie Pollock, Leadership Coach and Speaker, gets real about the journey as an entrepreneur, how what have you here won't get you there and encouraging conversations on how to stop side stepping your ambitions to go after what you really want. Stephanie leads women to unlock their fullest potential to claim a bigger, bolder vision for their work, sacrifice-free. Find your armor pattern, free in 5 minutes: mandybalak.com/quiz Read Chasing Enough: mandybalak.com/book Private coaching with Mandy: mandybalak.com/coaching Everything else: mandybalak.com Instagram: @mandybalak If this one landed, send it to the person you thought of while you were listening.

December 28, 202114 min

Your Next Level: A letter to future you

Welcome to YOUR NEXT LEVEL - this is a 10 part mini series created to help you CELEBRATE your successes and lessons learned and step forward into the next level of your growth.In this episode we discuss: Setting your themes for 2022 Defining success Writing a letter to your future self Find your armor pattern, free in 5 minutes: mandybalak.com/quiz Read Chasing Enough: mandybalak.com/book Private coaching with Mandy: mandybalak.com/coaching Everything else: mandybalak.com Instagram: @mandybalak If this one landed, send it to the person you thought of while you were listening.

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