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Defeat Your Arch Nemesis – How to Get Out of Your Own Way

Workshop Description:
“The only thing in your way is you.” You’ve probably heard that saying, but thought to yourself: Okay, but how? And how do I actually get out of my way?

This workshop answers those questions. Leadership Coach Michael Tertes names the part of us that’s “in our way” our Arch Nemesis a.k.a. saboteur, gremlin, inner critic, head bully, negative mind chatter. When our Arch Nemesis runs the show, it eats at our confidence, keeps us stuck, and undermines our ability to fully express ourselves.

During this participatory and powerful session, you’ll learn to identify the sneaky strategies your Arch Nemesis uses against you and discover five powerful moves to defeat it. You’ll leave knowing how to get out of your own way and move more freely toward the life, career, and relationships you truly desire.

Rethinking Impostor Syndrome™ – Unlocking Confidence & Belonging

Workshop Description:
If you lead, manage, mentor, or train others, it’s essential to understand Impostor Syndrome. It’s not just a personal struggle, it’s also an organizational challenge that impacts team performance, innovation, and retention.

Millions of successful people secretly worry they’re not as smart or talented as others think they are, and live in fear of being “found out.” To manage that anxiety, they overwork, over-prepare, and burn themselves out.

Rethinking Impostor Syndrome™ is a highly practical, solution-oriented approach that has reached over half a million people worldwide.

In this workshop you’ll:

• Understand what impostor syndrome is and what it is not

• Discover the sources of impostor feelings

• Identify your personal “Impostor Type”

• Learn how impostor syndrome intersects with diversity and inclusion

• Walk away with immediately usable tools to help yourself and others

You’ll leave with a fresh perspective and a plan to step into your leadership with greater clarity and confidence.

Leadership Essence™ — The Leadership Blindspot

Workshop Description:

• With all your success, do you still have the nagging question, “Why exactly am I successful?”

• Have people told you that you have a powerful presence, but you’re not sure what that actually means?

• Do you sense there’s more available in your leadership, but you can’t quite access it?

• Do you ever feel like an impostor, even after all you’ve accomplished?

• Have you achieved success, only to find yourself quietly wondering, “Is this it? Isn’t there something more?”

If you said yes to any of these, you’re describing a critical blind spot, your Leadership Essence™. This is the often, unseen foundation of who you are as a leader.

These questions are just the tip of the iceberg. Because when you don’t know your Essence, when you can’t see the foundation of who you are as a leader, you pay a price.

Opportunities slip past unseen. Your leadership is less effective than it could be. Confidence wavers. And perhaps most importantly, you’re not connected to the very foundation that shapes every other aspect of your leadership, your talents, your behaviors, your effectiveness.

It’s a blind spot because other leadership assessment tools focus on performance, behaviors, or strengths—but none reveal Essence. And yet Essence is the foundation that all the others are built on.

Here’s the truth: the most powerful part of who you are as a leader, the part that shapes your impact, your presence, the way others experience you is the part you almost never see. It’s a blind spot.

Leadership Essence™ is the foundation of who you are as a leader. It’s not a score. It’s not a category. It’s not about performance reviews. It’s your presence. The impact you have simply when you are in the room, and the influence you have when you’re engaged in what’s happening. It’s the effect you have even when you’re not trying—because it flows from simply being yourself.

In this interactive 90-minute workshop, you’ll:

• Discover why most leaders don’t know their own Essence and the cultural blind spots that keep it hidden.

• Explore the personal costs of not knowing your Essence: success without fulfillment, confidence without solidity, impact without alignment.

• See the path forward through the four stages of the Essence Journey™ from discovery to mastery.

The leadership our world needs today won’t come from titles or performance reviews. It will come from leaders who know themselves deeply and lead from their Essence.

This workshop isn’t about adding more tools or techniques. It’s about uncovering what’s already alive in you. Once you see and claim your Essence, you stop second-guessing, stop striving for someone else’s definition of success, and start leading from the most authentic, powerful part of who you are.

You already have a presence. You already have an impact. The only question is whether you’re leading with it consciously or leaving it hidden as a blind spot.

About the Facilitators

Michael Tertes

Michael Tertes is a coach, mentor, and thought partner to leaders and emerging leaders across the country, with over 17 years of experience.

His core work is Leadership Essence™, helping leaders shine a light on a critical leadership blind spot and discover the natural presence that shapes their impact. This work allows leaders to more consciously wield their gifts, align more clearly with their purpose, and create greater meaning and fulfillment in their lives and organizations.

Michael has worked with a wide range of leaders—including CxOs, doctors, lawyers, executive directors, architects, entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, writers, musicians, and artists guiding them to lead from the core of who they are.

He was mentored by Dr. Valerie Young, the world’s leading authority on Impostor Syndrome, and is a certified coach and licensed presenter of the Rethinking Impostor Syndrome™ Program, which has reached over half a million people worldwide.

Michael’s passion is helping people unlock their brilliance, lead with authenticity, and expand their impact by leading from the core of who they are.

Emmie Chang — Founder, Upgrade<->Reset

Emmie Chang is a Bay Area entrepreneur and community builder leading the Upgrade<->Reset movement—a “music festival meets wellness workshop” for people who are constantly evolving.

A Y Combinator alum, Emmie previously founded Camperoo/FutureLeague, building large-scale tech education programs for kids and developing adaptive learning software used across dozens of school districts. She holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Rice University and an MBA from The University of Texas at Austin.

Today, Emmie brings her background in product, education, and founder leadership to design immersive experiences that help people upgrade their personal operating system and reset their bodies and minds.