The Mike Method

Many of us experience moments where we know what we want, but still find ourselves hesitating to take the next step.In this episode of The Mike Method, Mike welcomes LauraAura, keynote speaker, coach, entrepreneur, and host of the Gutsy Podcast. After more than two decades building businesses, leading brands, and supporting entrepreneurs through growth and change, LauraAura now helps people move beyond hesitation and take meaningful action toward what matters most.Together, Mike and LauraAura explore the tension between intuition and self-protection, why our minds often resist change even when something feels right, and how small acts of courage can create momentum toward larger goals. They also discuss identity shifts, entrepreneurship, trusting yourself through uncertainty, and the challenge of disappointing others in order to remain aligned with what you genuinely want.Whether you're considering a career change, starting a creative project, launching a business, or navigating a significant life decision, this conversation offers a practical reminder that meaningful change rarely begins with certainty. More often, it develops through small actions taken before all the answers are available.Episode Resources:Connect with LauraAuraThe Gutsy Podcast

Character is not something we talk about often in modern leadership conversations, but according to Andrew Allen, it may be one of the most important forces shaping the lives we build.Andrew Allen is a multi-platinum Canadian singer-songwriter, keynote speaker, and creator of the HIIDA framework: “How You Do Anything Is How You Do Everything.” After nearly two decades touring alongside artists like Bruno Mars, OneRepublic, Train, and Andy Grammer, Andrew shifted from music into leadership conversations focused on discipline, intentionality, responsibility, and character development.In this conversation, Mike and Andrew explore the difference between personality, identity, and character, why repeated choices matter more than motivation, and how small daily actions quietly shape the way we respond under pressure. They also discuss willpower versus discipline, stoicism, resilience, habits, fatherhood, leadership, and the connection between intentional living and personal responsibility.This conversation offers a grounded reminder that character is not built in one defining moment. It is developed through repeated choices, practiced consistently over time.Topics We Explore:The HIIDA framework: How You Do Anything Is How You Do EverythingThe difference between personality, identity, and characterWhy discipline matters more than motivationHow repeated choices shape future behaviorStoicism and intentional livingBuilding resilience before life becomes difficultThe role of habits and consistency in leadershipWhy goals can begin to feel hollowFatherhood, leadership, and evolving identityCreating meaningful change through small daily actionEpisode Resources:Andrew Allen: Website

We’re excited to welcome Kara Kalin for the 100th episode of The Mike Method. We’re also incredibly grateful for the support that has helped us reach this milestone. Every listen, follow, share, and conversation around the podcast truly means so much to us.In this conversation, she shares how early experiences in sport, grief, pressure, and performance shaped the way she understood strength, achievement, and emotional survival. Kara has spent more than two decades working at the intersection of trauma, resilience, mental health, and high performance as a registered clinical counselor, certified EMDR therapist, mental performance specialist, former national level athlete, and Team Canada coach. Together, she and Mike explore how trauma can remain stored in the body long after an experience is over, why “just push through it” is not a sustainable strategy, and how nervous system overload often shows up as anxiety, overthinking, shutdown, or emotional exhaustion.Kara also breaks down EMDR in a practical and accessible way, explaining how trauma loops form, the difference between conscious and unconscious looping, why many people cannot simply reason their way out of activation, and how processing experiences can create more capacity, connection, and resilience over time.The conversation explores parenting, sport culture, leadership, grief, emotional regulation, and the difference between surviving hard experiences and actually healing from them.This episode is about learning how to move through life with what Kara calls a strong spine and an open heart.Episode Resources:Kara Kalin: Website / LinkedInShift Change - leadership and corporate integration: WebsiteViRTUS: Website / Instagram / LinkedInSign up for our Newsletter: Sign Up

In this episode of The Mike Method, Mike sits down with returning guest Lynn Sumida for a deeply personal conversation about perfectionism, nervous system safety, and the hidden fear many high performers carry beneath constant striving.Lynn is the founder of Mirrors Point and Expanding You, co-author of The Extraordinary Within, and is currently writing her upcoming book Almost Good Enough, which explores the pressure so many people feel to perform, perfect, and prove themselves.Together, Mike and Lynn explore why peace can feel uncomfortable for the nervous system, how early experiences shape our relationship with safety, and why many leaders stay stuck in cycles of achievement while struggling to actually enjoy the journey.The conversation also moves into masculinity, emotional sensitivity, vulnerability, and the difference between the polished facade people present to the world and the very human reality underneath it.Topics include:nervous system protection and hypervigilanceperfectionism and productivitywhy white space can feel threateningemotional safety and childhood patterningvulnerability and leadershipthe inner critic and self-protectionpeace, achievement, and identityhow early experiences shape adult behaviorLynn also shares details about her upcoming Almost Good Enough workshop experience happening in Nanaimo.Episode Resources: Connect with Lynn: Linkedin / Website

Agreement is not the goal. Alignment is.In this episode, Mike sits down with Céline Williams, a business strategist, executive coach, and leadership development expert who has spent more than 15 years helping fast-growth companies and Fortune 500 organizations build stronger cultures, improve communication, and lead with greater clarity.This conversation starts where most leadership advice does not, with self-awareness. Céline shares why understanding your own reactions, patterns, and internal drivers is the foundation for everything else, including empathy, communication, and decision making.From there, they explore the difference between listening for agreement and listening for understanding, and why that shift can change how we navigate conflict, relationships, and team dynamics.They also get into:Why empathy starts with curiosity about yourselfA simple two-question framework to approach difficult conversationsThe relationship between people and systems, and why one cannot be prioritized at the expense of the otherThe false choice between kindness and accountabilityWhy leaders need to acknowledge power dynamics to build real psychological safetyThis is a grounded, practical conversation with ideas that feel clear once they are named, but are easy to miss when you are immersed in the day to day.Episode Resources:Connect with Celine on LinkedInreVisionary

Resilience is often framed as pushing through. But in a world where AI, fintech, and constant change are reshaping how we work, that definition is no longer enough.In this episode, Mike sits down with Reese Hayden, Senior Director and Head of Executive Talent and Learning at PayPal. Reese leads executive selection, development, and top team effectiveness for senior leaders, and has spent over a decade helping organizations like Salesforce, Dropbox, and Cisco connect leadership development directly to strategy and performance.Together, they explore what leadership requires when the pace of change continues to accelerate.They break down PayPal’s four core leadership capabilities: investing in self and others, leading with clarity, impactful problem solving, and agile decision making, and how these show up in real, day to day leadership.The conversation moves beyond theory into practical tools, including how to recognize when you are in the “yellow” before burnout, the difference between productive and destructive tension, and how simple frameworks like DAISY and the Five Whys help leaders make better decisions and avoid solving the wrong problems.This is a grounded, practical conversation on how leaders can stay effective, present, and resilient without running themselves into the ground.Episode Resources:Connect with Reese on LinkedIn

Setting and defending healthy boundaries saved Dana Skaggs’ life, and in this conversation, she breaks down exactly why.Mike Desjardins sits down with Dana Skaggs, therapist and trauma specialist known for her work on boundaries, to explore how anxiety, people pleasing, resentment, and emotional exhaustion are often rooted in one core issue: weak or unclear boundaries.Drawing from both her professional work and her own upbringing in a home shaped by unpredictability and emotional volatility, Dana shares how discovering boundaries changed not just her career, but her entire life.Together, they unpack what boundaries actually are, why they feel so difficult to set, and what really happens when you start to change the dynamic in your relationships.Dana introduces practical frameworks like the “yard” analogy, where your thoughts, feelings, and actions are yours to own, and explains why the pushback you receive after setting a boundary is not a sign you are doing it wrong, but often a sign you are doing it right.They also explore people pleasing, the fear of losing relationships, and the reality that if someone cannot accept your “no,” the relationship may not be what you think it is.This conversation offers a grounded, honest look at what it takes to move toward relationships built on strength, safety, and personal responsibility.Episode ResourcesBoundaries by Henry Cloud & John TownsendLearn more about Dana Skaggs: WebsiteConnect with Dana: LinkedIn

If you have ever felt caught between who you are and who the world expects you to be, this conversation will land.In this episode of The Mike Method, Mike Desjardins sits down with Leslie Brown to explore what it takes to move from autopilot into alignment. Leslie is an embodiment coach, facilitator, and Director of Organizational Development who helps individuals and leaders reconnect with their inner wisdom and understand how their patterns shape the way they live, lead, and relate.Her work sits at the intersection of nervous system awareness, embodiment, and leadership, supporting people to stay present, grounded, and clear in moments that matter.Together, Mike and Leslie unpack how people pleasing patterns form, why we lose connection to ourselves, and where real change actually begins.This conversation offers a practical starting point for anyone ready to slow down, build self awareness, and choose growth over protection.Episode Resources:Leslie Brown: Website / Services#884 - Nick Pollard - How To Stop Being Such A People PleaserModern WisdomViRTUS: Website / Instagram / LinkedInSign up for our Newsletter: Sign Up