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.
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
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
July 2022
Your Own Best Company with Franklin Taggart: Staying Human and Staying in Business
June 2022
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
March 2022
The InnovaBuzz Podcast with Dr. Jürgen Strauss: Part 1 – The Magic 500 Milestone
Movement Makers with Nikki Groom: Recovering from Perfectionism
February 2022
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
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
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
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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