The UpLevel Podcast

Conscious leaders create conscious cultures. The UpLevel Podcast is a transformational resource for leaders, coaches, and people managers who are ready to lead with greater presence, purpose, and humanity. With 85% of employees disengaged at work and mental health challenges costing organizations thousands per employee each year, the demand for emotionally intelligent, trauma-aware, and consciously coached leadership has never been more urgent. Each episode explores what it truly means to uplevel within ourselves, our organizations, and the systems we move through. Themes include emotional embodiment, grief, right relationship coaching culture, and the ROI of investing in human well-being. Named one of the web’s Top 10 Coaching Culture Podcasts and a Top 50 Best Workplace Mental Health Podcast by Feedspot, the show is a core part of UpLevel’s mission to build a mo

The UpLevel Podcast is a education podcast hosted by Christie Mann & Rachel Baldi, with 127 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Christie Mann & Rachel Baldi hosts The UpLevel Podcast, a education show with 127 episodes published.

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  Episode #7

  How Do You Rebuild Your Confidence After Taking a Career Break? A Real Coaching Conversation with Amanda Wood

  Aug 5, 202637 minS11

  Send us Fan Mail Returning to work after time away can bring hope, excitement, and more self-doubt than many people expect. This week on The UpLevel Podcast , our host Christie Mann coaches multidisciplinary creator Amanda Wood through the very real experience of preparing to return to the workforce after an intentional 18-month career break. Amanda has spent her career leading creative teams, building brands, and running her own agency. During her time away, she developed greater clarity about the kind of work she wants to do, the life she wants to create, and the values she refuses to leave behind. Together, Christie and Amanda explore how coaching can help shift attention away from the inner critic and back toward possibility. Through future visioning, embodiment, metaphor, and practical coaching techniques, Amanda reconnects with what gives her energy: meaningful collaboration, creativity, trust, flexibility, and contributing to something larger than herself. One of the most powerful moments in the conversation comes when Amanda recognizes that the loudest voice in her head is not the most truthful one. As Christie reminds her, self-doubt often grows louder when we're getting closer to something that truly matters. Whether you're returning after raising children, recovering from burnout, taking a sabbatical, caring for loved ones, or intentionally stepping away to reset, this conversation offers encouragement and practical coaching tools to help you move forward with greater confidence. In this episode, you'll learn: How to rebuild confidence after taking a career break Why self-doubt often increases before meaningful change A coaching exercise that creates momentum through future visioning How to reconnect with your strengths instead of your fears Why values should guide your next career move Practical ways to move forward before you feel completely ready About Amanda: Amanda Wood is a multidisciplinary creator with a degree in fine arts and over 15 years of experience as a creative professional in advertising and communications. She has worked in large agencies as an art/creative director for clients like Toyota, Air Canada, McDonald’s, and Mazda and later founded her own agency specializing in bringing new brands to market. She is also a certified yoga instructor and a student of acting and is engaged in many community-based creative projects such as sign painting, schoolyard revitalization, and children’s face painting, to name a few. Amanda lives in downtown Toronto with her husband, six-year-old son, and dog, Cosmo. The UpLevel Podcast was listed as one of the Top 10 Best Coaching Culture Podcasts!!! https://podcasts.feedspot.com/coaching_culture_podcasts It was also ranked #4 among the top 50 Best Workplace Mental Health Podcasts! https://podcast.feedspot.com/workplace_mental_health_podcasts www.uplevelproductions.com https://www.instagram.com/uplevelproductions/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/uplevelproductionscompany https://www.facebook.com/uplevelproductionscompany

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  Episode #6

  Why Does Perimenopause Make Leaders Feel Like They're Losing Themselves? | Nick Kettles Leads a Real Coaching Session with Christie Mann

  Jul 22, 202648 minS11

  Send us Fan Mail If you've ever felt like your own body stopped taking direction from you, this one's for you. This week on The UpLevel Podcast , join us for a deeply personal coaching session as Christie Mann, executive coach, leadership educator, and co-founder of UpLevel Productions, steps into the client seat as Master Certified Coach Nick Kettles, who has spent more than 25 years working with grief, transition, and ancestral healing, guides her through one of the biggest transitions of her life. Together they explore the grief of letting go of an identity built on capacity, achievement, and always having it together. This conversation is about far more than hormones. It is about what happens when the version of yourself that has carried you for decades can no longer carry you the same way. It is about learning to rest without guilt, discovering a different kind of strength, and trusting that wisdom often grows when productivity slows. Nick brings together Co-Active Coaching, grief work, constellation practices, trauma-informed coaching, and ancestral healing to help Christie make meaning of this threshold. What begins as a conversation about fear gradually becomes an exploration of possibility, elderhood, and giving ourselves permission to become someone new. Whether you are experiencing perimenopause yourself, supporting someone who is, or navigating any season of profound transition, this episode offers language, compassion, and hope for what can emerge when we stop fighting change. In This Episode: Why the exhaustion of perimenopause might be making room for something deeper than physical rest The difference between leadership and eldership, and why one requires letting go of the other What it means to "own" your energy, your work, and your worth without deferring or diluting it How ancestral trauma and ancestral vitality both live in the body, and how naming your lineage can be part of healing it Why so many women in this season describe feeling like Bambi: new, unsteady, and strangely innocent A moment of real grief work, honoring a great-grandmother lost to suicide and the silence that followed Coaching Grief and Loss Masterclass | Oct 14th for 5 weeks Reserve your slot here: https://phoenixconsulting.eu.com/coaching-grief-and-loss/ UpLevel with Grace | Substack Read Here: When the Estrogen Has Left the Building About Nick: Nick is a Master Certified Coach, and healer of 25 years experience in the human potential movement. In a desire to escape an awkward and painful past, throughout his life, he frequently mistook his own adaptive and often reactive life strategies as evidence of a purposeful existence. Today, however, he increasingly finds delight in finally moving slow enough to discover that our purpose and indeed our spirituality can be found at the heart of our messy humanity. This realization guides all his work whether as a coach, trainer, designer or writer. Website: https://nickkettles.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickkettles/ The UpLevel Podcast was listed as one of the Top 10 Best Coaching Culture Podcasts!!! https://podcasts.feedspot.com/coaching_culture_podcasts It was also ranked #4 among the top 50 Best Workplace Mental Health Podcasts! https://podcast.feedspot.com/workplace_mental_health_podcasts www.uplevelproductions.com https://www.instagram.com/uplevelproductions/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/uplevelproductionscompany https://www.facebook.com/uplevelproductionscompany

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  Episode #5

  How Do You Know You're Becoming Who You're Meant to Be? | Coaching in Real Time with Quinn Simpson

  Jul 8, 202627 minS11

  Send us Fan Mail What does it actually feel like to be so aligned with your purpose that you lose track of time? This season is about stewardship, and that means taking you inside real coaching, leadership, and relationship conversations as they actually happen. This week on The UpLevel Podcast, our host, Christie Mann, coaches Quinn Simpson, co-founder of Gedi Village and Graydin, in a live somatic coaching conversation about becoming. Quinn opens up about the moment a book changed the direction of her life, the mentor who told her she couldn't change the world one person at a time, and the vision she's now building through Gedi Village, an ecosystem designed to bring the concept of a village back into how children learn, with Toronto positioned as a global hub for that vision. The conversation moves into the body. Quinn is coached through a physical embodiment exercise that surfaces something she hadn't expected to say out loud: a lifelong ache to give other people permission to be fully themselves, and the grief underneath that longing. What emerges is a conversation about social health as the missing link between mental well-being and meaningful relationships, and why the next version of Quinn is choosing to build in public. If you have ever felt the pull toward your next chapter but couldn't name what it actually looks like, this conversation will help you feel it before you can explain it. In This Episode: Why Quinn believes systemic change matters more than individual change What Gedi Village is, the philosophy behind it, and the vision for Toronto as a global education hub A live somatic coaching exercise on embodiment and becoming The connection between social health and personal alignment How coaching helps uncover what thinking alone cannot reach Why vulnerability can create permission for others Why urgency and rest can coexist in how we build our future The physical anchor Quinn is creating to stay connected to her next chapter About Quinn: Driven by a passion to transform education, Quinn Simpson is the co-founder of the Gedi Village Foundation. She aims to make Toronto a global education hub by establishing a cutting-edge K-8 school, a professional development centre, and a philanthropic arm advancing social-emotional learning. Quinn was also a co-founder of Graydin, an organization dedicated to revolutionizing how we support and empower the next generation. Since 2011, Graydin has partnered with over 400 schools and universities worldwide to pioneer the educational coaching movement. With 18 years of experience in coaching, teacher training, and content creation, Quinn is a certified Co-active Coach and NLP Coach Practitioner. Previously, she co-founded Akosia, a charity operating for 10 years that used coaching to facilitate filmmaking projects for underprivileged youth and women. Quinn lives in West End Toronto, where she enjoys walking in High Park and teaching her two sons, Theo and Bowie, that coaching skills are for everyone. LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/coachquinn Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/quinnsaysyes/ 🎉 The UpLevel Podcast was listed as one of the Top 10 Best Coaching Culture Podcasts!!! https://podcasts.feedspot.com/coaching_culture_podcasts 🎉 It was also ranked #4 among the top 50 Best Workplace Mental Health Podcasts! https://podcast.feedspot.com/workplace_mental_health_podcasts Tags: somatic coaching, purpose alignment, coaching for educators, personal transformation, social health, embodiment coaching, becoming your next self, coaching for founders www.uplevelproductions.com https://www.instagram.com/uplevelproductions/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/uplevelproductionscompany https://www.facebook.com/uplevelproductionscompany

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  Episode #4

  Stewardship: The North Star of Fatherhood | Coaching in Real Time with Luke Partridge

  Jun 24, 202636 minS11

  Send us Fan Mail If you're a parent, a leader, or anyone navigating the tension between responsibility and authenticity, this conversation speaks directly to you. This week on The UpLevel Podcast, Luke Partridge, a seasoned talent acquisition leader with more than 20 years of executive search experience across the UK, Europe, Australia/New Zealand, and Asia, brings forward one of the most human leadership challenges there is: how to show up with integrity, collaboration, and authenticity while parenting three teenagers through constant shifts in family dynamics. Together with Christie Mann, Luke explores his core values of accountability, empathy, and authenticity, the three that form what he calls his "North Star of Fatherhood." Through perspective work and deep reflection, Luke moves from thinking about these values to genuinely experiencing them, and he discovers that vulnerability and transparency are real sources of strength. This episode embodies the season's theme of stewardship: what it means to model values rather than simply teach them, to create the conditions for others to thrive, and to lead from a place of integrity even in the most pressurized moments. Listen in as Luke finds that being a work in progress, admitting what you don't know, and honoring your values when it's hard is exactly what the people who trust us most need from us. In this episode, we’ll explore: Fatherhood as a leadership practice Accountability, authenticity, and empathy Creating a healthy family culture How vulnerability builds trust The connection between parenting and leadership Modeling values through everyday actions A practical reflection practice for staying grounded What it means to steward the next generation About Luke: Luke Partridge is a seasoned talent acquisition leader with over 20 years of executive search experience across the UK, Europe, Australia/New Zealand, and Asia. Based in Hong Kong, he currently serves as a Talent Partner at Equinix, where he partners with business leaders to build high-performing teams in the digital infrastructure space. Previously, Luke honed his expertise at Meta (Facebook), earning praise for his strategic recruitment approach, candidate experience, and ability to align talent with complex business needs. Passionate about proactive talent strategies and team development, he brings deep insight into how to curate your career, getting the maximum from your work path, and using modern recruiting practices, including generative AI applications in talent acquisition. An avid marathon runner and fundraiser, Luke has completed ultra-challenges for Oxfam, UNICEF, and the MS Society while volunteering with environmental causes. A father of 3 and lifelong learner, he shares practical wisdom on building exceptional teams through his writing and speaking. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lukepartridge/ 🎉 The UpLevel Podcast was listed as one of the Top 10 Best Coaching Culture Podcasts!!! https://podcasts.feedspot.com/coaching_culture_podcasts 🎉 It was also ranked #4 among the top 50 Best Workplace Mental Health Podcasts! https://podcast.feedspot.com/workplace_mental_health_podcasts www.uplevelproductions.com https://www.instagram.com/uplevelproductions/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/uplevelproductionscompany https://www.facebook.com/uplevelproductionscompany

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  Episode #3

  From Executor to Builder: Meeting Your Future Self | Coaching in Real Time with Marlenne Johnson

  Jun 10, 202629 minS11

  Send us Fan Mail Many talented professionals reach a moment when they know they're capable of more influence, more impact, and more leadership, yet something keeps them standing at the edge of that next chapter. In this episode of The UpLevel Podcast , we invite you inside a real coaching conversation with Marlenne Johnson, an organizational transformation strategist, storyteller, and systems thinker who helps organizations move through complexity with greater clarity, intention, and humanity. Throughout her career, Marlenne has partnered with leaders and teams to guide change, strengthen employee experiences, and create meaningful transformation. Now she finds herself facing a leadership question of her own: How do I move from being known as an executor to becoming a builder, thought leader, people leader, and community leader? Together, Christie Mann and Marlenne design a coaching alliance and explore the beliefs, habits, and assumptions that can keep even the most capable leaders from fully stepping into their potential. Through a future-self visualization rooted in Co-Active coaching, Marlenne connects with the version of herself she hopes to become, only to discover that the qualities she's seeking may already be present. In This Episode: Designing an alliance for safety, bravery, and growth How future-self coaching can open up leadership growth Why so many leaders wait for permission before stepping forward The difference between executing work and creating lasting impact How self-trust shapes leadership presence The role community plays in personal and professional growth Practical ways to bridge the gap between who you are and who you're becoming About Marlenne: Marlenne Johnson is an organizational transformation strategist, storyteller, and systems thinker whose work lives at the intersection of people, power, and change. With a career spanning recruiting, employee experience, and organizational effectiveness, she specializes in helping leaders navigate complex transformation by turning ambiguity into structure and intention into action. Her perspective is grounded in a deep curiosity about how individuals move within systems: how culture, incentives, and identity shape the choices people make inside organizations. Marlenne is known for her ability to see patterns others miss and for bringing both strategic clarity and emotional intelligence to conversations about leadership, transformation, and personal agency. Through her writing and her work, she explores what she calls the work of the “Soul Architect”: the ongoing practice of examining the systems we inherit, the roles we play within them, and the conscious choices available to us as we build something new. She is also the co-founder of the storytelling podcast My Story Is Not Unique, a space for honest conversations about identity, resilience, and the shared human experiences that shape how we lead, live, and grow. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marlennejohnson/ My Story is Not Unique Podcast 🎉 The UpLevel Podcast was listed as one of the Top 10 Best Coaching Culture Podcasts!!! https://podcasts.feedspot.com/coaching_culture_podcasts 🎉 It was also ranked #4 among the top 50 Best Workplace Mental Health Podcasts! https://podcast.feedspot.com/workplace_mental_health_podcasts www.uplevelproductions.com https://www.instagram.com/uplevelproductions/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/uplevelproductionscompany https://www.facebook.com/uplevelproductionscompany

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