Speaking + Media

HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE

  • Biglaw workshop facilitator and coach
  • Keynote Speaker at the (Im)Perfectionist Summit
  • Founding Member of The Burnout Panel
  • Reimagining Unconference contributor
  • Repeat podcast guest on Strong Women In Leadership
  • Repeat podcast guest on Your Own Best Company
  • Innovation Women Speaker

Speaking Topics

Excellence vs. Perfectionism: The Neuroscience of Survival

It’s a fine line between perfectionism and excellence and each has a very different impact. Does your team know how to discern them?

Perfectionism-related stress can result in diminished cognitive capacity which negatively impacts decision making, ethics, negotiation and listening skills, and general productivity. In fact, observing a co-worker’s stress can raise levels of the stress hormone cortisol by as much as 26% in-person and 24% in virtual settings. Learning how to orient away from perfectionism and toward excellence allows individuals to access their positivity, engagement, motivation, and creativity and increases team and departmental flexibility, success, and productivity.

Finding Your Fortitude & Flow®

The Perfectionist Two-Step is to see and fix, see and react, and see and perfect it. This habitual way of functioning creates chronic stress loops in your body as an individual and in the collective experience. This creates rifts in relationships, negatively impacts work productivity and satisfaction, and undermines our relationship with ourselves. By slowing down and practicing the Fortitude & Flow® Process through noticing, discerning, acting, and integrating you can create lasting and holistic change. It’s time to try a radically different approach, one that embraces and celebrates imperfection and sees it as a normal part of the human experience – not something broken that needs fixing.

The Art of Discomfort

Our bodies are wise and use predictability and anticipation to save us energy. But what happens when our history and our body’s memory keeps us from doing the things we really want to do?

Perfectionism, procrastination, and anxiety, and are all ways the body tries to keep us safe from threat. By understanding how to relate to discomfort differently, you can open up the doors to more creativity, productivity, collaboration, and freedom.

The Procrastination Protocol: Tackling Productivity Without the Drama

Sometimes the things that scare us are mundane. But our bodies react as if we’re being chased by a tiger.  You KNOW the project is important or you KNOW the deadline is looming…but it doesn’t stop you from doing the tasks that don’t matter or saying “I’ll do it tomorrow.” Again. Let’s dive right into what you can do instead to keep forward movement and progress in your personal and professional life. Learn why you experience the resistance and avoidance. Understand why you’re more comfortable avoiding making hard decisions than actually deciding. The Procrastination Protocol explores the pendulum swing from overwhelm to avoidance, the drama it creates, and what it looks like to break that cycle.

 

Finding Joy in the Apocalypse

It’s not only important, but it’s imperative that we learn to find our way toward joy even in the midst of the grief and heartache. This is not about toxic positivity, this is about holding the both/and of the good and the challenging in our heads and hearts. Humans are filled with change and have always navigated change. We share a lot about what’s hard and what’s painful. And knowing how to access joy is our way forward – it’s where we’ll find our resilience together. 

Want to book Audrey?

Audrey is available for virtual speaking engagements, workshops, and interviews. Please e-mail me at Audrey(at)FortitudeAndFlow(dot)com or fill out the form below with your information and details about the engagement you’re interested in. Scroll down for Audrey’s media assets and interview history.

10 + 5 =

Podcast interviews

“Through a life of trial and error, she has learned to make brave decisions and pivot when life’s plans start to fall apart. Fortitude, defined as courage in pain or adversity, is certainly what Audrey is all about. [She] explains how her journey through career changes was full of ‘brave making’ moments. These moments, she suggests, are often found in failure. Remarkably, they can often be overcome with the support of community and through the collective sense of safety. This is a priceless bit of knowledge to possess right now, as we all redefine what community and support look like!” – Heather Vickery, Host and Executive Producer of The Brave Files

February 2023

Rise and Rouse Podcast with Erin Allgood: Smoke Does Not Always Mean Fire

Organized & Energized! The Podcast with Kathi Burns: How to Rewire Your Perfectionism

December 2022

Network 4 Impact : Interview with Megan Mayer on Perfectionism

Your Own Best Company with Franklin Taggart: The Deep Work Discussion with Audrey Holst and Erica Holthausen

What Has My Attention with John Biethan: Women In Strong Leadership – How Trust Builds Business feat. Audrey Holst, Lisa Pachence, and Patty Block

Entrepreneurship is a Marathon with Vanessa Zamy: The Burnout Panel on Quiet Quitting

September 2022

Books Applied Podcast with Iggy Perillo: 7 and a half Lessons About the Brain

September 2022

Actions’s Antidotes with Stephen Jaye: Ditch Perfectionism, Strive for Progress 

Your Own Best Company with Franklin Taggart: From Aha Moments to Uh-Huh! Moments with Audrey Holst and Erica Holthausen

August 2022

Your Own Best Company with Franklin Taggart: Thought Leadership. with Audrey Holst and Erica Holthausen

July 2022

Your Own Best Company with Franklin Taggart:  Staying Human and Staying in Business

June 2022

What Has My Attention with John Biethan: Women In Strong Leadership – How to Pioneer in Business feat. Audrey Holst, Lisa Pachence, and Patty Block

May 2022

The Unstoppable Podcast with Ralph Graves Jr.: De-Programming the Perfectionist Mindset

Sell it, Sister! Podcast Hosted by Erika Tebbens: What Nobody Tells You About Perfectionism

April 2022

Transcend Your Dichotomy with Brooke Monaghan: Audrey Holst on perfectionism in business ownership

What Has My Attention with John Biethan: Women In Strong Leadership – Stepping Into Your Power feat. Audrey Holst, Lisa Pachence, and Patty Block

March 2022

What Has My Attention with John Biethan: Women In Strong Leadership – Breakdowns and Breakthroughs feat. Audrey Holst, Lisa Pachence, and Patty Block

The InnovaBuzz Podcast with Dr. Jürgen Strauss: Part 1 – The Magic 500 Milestone

Movement Makers with Nikki Groom: Recovering from Perfectionism

February 2022

What Has My Attention with John Biethan: Women In Strong Leadership – Service and Success – How to Have Both feat. Audrey Holst, Lisa Pachence, and Patty Block

Leading Through Crisis with Céline Williams: Perfectionism and Procrastination

What Has My Attention with John Biethan: Women In Strong Leadership – Redefining Humaning feat. Audrey Holst, Lisa Pachence, and Patty Block

Live with Chris Williams on Group Coach Nation: Perfectionism and the Apocalypse

December 2021

Your Own Best Company with Franklin Taggart: Rediscovering Human Connection

What Has My Attention with John Biethan: Women In Strong Leadership – Leadership, Collaboration, and What’s Next

Revenue Accelerator with Cat Stancik 

November 2021

What Has My Attention with John Biethan: Women In Strong Leadership – Fortitude and Flow

The InnovaBuzz Podcast with Dr. Jürgen Strauss: How to Balance Perfectionism and Excellent Action

October 2021

Your Own Best Company with Franklin Taggart: Letting Go of Perfectionism

One Broken Mom with Ameé Quiriconi:  Are You a Boundary Violator

The Find Your Awesome Podcast with Kelsey Abbott: Perfectionism

Voices of Impact with Erica Castner: Break up with Perfectionism

September 2021

The How of Business with Henry Lopez: Overcoming perfectionism to help you grow your small business

The Prosperity Place Podcast with Joan Sotkin: Perfectionism in Entrepreneurs

One Broken Mom with Ameé Quiriconi: Overcoming Perfectionism

June 2021

Mindscaping Podcast with Jessica Crow: Reengineering Perfectionism

April 2021

Self-Sabotaging Sagas with Genea Barnes: I Have to Be PERFECT

March 2021

The Art of Living Well Podcast with Stephanie May Porter and Marnie Dachis Marmet: You are not perfect – let’s talk about how to deal with that

Small Biz Gone Viral with Grant LeBeau

The Play Inspired Podcast with Judith Vergara

February 2021

Access to Anyone with Michael Roderick: How To Repair Your Perfectionism

Transcend Your Dichotomy with Brooke Monaghan: Reforming perfectionism

Being a Whole Person Podcast with Rebecca Hass: Transforming Perfectionism and Burnout

Brand It! with Petchy: You’re not perfect – and your brand doesn’t have to be either

“ALL of us have experienced burnout at one time or another but society has told us to keep going, produce more, be FINE when we are in fact, not very fine at all.  Audrey shares warning signs that burnout is either nipping at your heals or full on wreaking havoc on your nervous system AND ways to help you through the burnout.” – Jen Vertanen, Going There

December 2020

The Just Boldly Go Podcast with Amanda Arthur Krill

Voice(is) with Julie Fogh and Casey Erin Clark: Finding fortitude and flow outside of impossible standards

June 2020

Disrupting Balance with Hanifa Barnes: On Mindfulness, Identity & 3-Hour Tattoos

April 2020

The Brave Files with Heather Vickery: Bold Endurance

The Funk’tional Nutrition Podcast with Erin Holt: On Boundaries and Burnout

Going There with Jen Vertanen: How To Tell If Burnout Is Nipping At Your Heels and What To Do About It Because You Are NOT Fine

March 2020

In Her Voice with Kelly Covert: Laziness is a Lie

January 2020

The Couragemakers Podcast with Meg Kissack: Building Fortitude and Cultivating Flow

September 2019

Adulting with Ebonie Podcast with Ebonie Allard: The One About The Antidote To Burnout

Everyday Inspiring Women Podcast with Jessica Burrell

May 2019

The Introverts Talking Business Podcast with Thea Orozco: Beyond Burnout – How to prevent it and move past it

November 2018

Needy Podcast with Mara Glatzel: Getting (Back) Into Your Body

The Soul of Sensitivity with Anna Holden: Beating Burnout + finding Fortitude and Flow 

media Assets

Headshots

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Title/One-Liner

Owner and Founder of Fortitude & Flow® 

Podcast Bio

Audrey Holst works with ambitious high performers and teams to rewire their perfectionism into excellence so they can keep their high standards without the negative side-effects. She’s the creator of the Perfectionist Archetypes™ and founder of the Fortitude & Flow® Process which fuses neuroscience and embodied practices to create sustainable transformation. Her work goes beyond mindset and addresses perfectionism’s impossible standards at their root cause.

Bio

Audrey Holst works with ambitious high performers and teams to rewire their perfectionism into excellence so they can keep their high standards without the negative side-effects.

She’s the creator of the Perfectionist Archetypes™ and founder of the Fortitude & Flow® Process which fuses neuroscience and embodied practices to create sustainable transformation. Audrey has over 16 years of training practicing yoga, functional movement, and meditation as well as 14 years of experience teaching therapeutic hatha yoga as a certified Bikram Yoga instructor. She graduated from the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC) in 2014 and has worked with individuals, teams, and organizations for the past 8 years as a Certified Professional Coach. She’s an interpersonal meditation trained facilitator and continues to hone her skills to benefit clients.

Audrey’s upcoming book, You’re Not Perfect — And Here’s How to Deal With That, goes beyond mindset and teaches people how to connect to the unique essence of who they are. Her 1:1 work with clients in Emerge reconnects and heals their relationships with their brains and bodies through intensive support and custom-designed practices. Her corporate engagements support teams and culture while offering individual insights and ongoing micro-learning opportunities.

Audrey’s work pushes back on the spiritual bypassing and mindset-is-everything narrative that is rampant in the coaching and wellness industry. Perfectionism is a short-term survival mechanism – it’s time for long-term solutions.

 

One Sheet

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