Performance Architecting: Emily Leahy

Emily offers valuable insights into the challenges and rewards of being a founder and provides tips for aspiring entrepreneurs.

Emily Leahy

Emily is a performance strategist who mentors entrepreneurs, investors, and startups to find their innovative edge without tipping over into burnout. Her methods help to break through interference that is getting in the way of sustainable growth.

For over 15 years, Emily has devoted her career to accelerated learning and shifting focus states for optimal performance. She's worked with Silicon Valley startup founders, entrepreneurs, investors, and executives using progressive business growth and personal transformation techniques.

Are you a morning person or a night person? Why?

I am on the spectrum, so giving a straight answer is complex. I love the morning and evening for different reasons. I tend to utilize my slow mornings for introverted tasks such as reflection to start my day centered. Before allowing in thoughts from the outside world, I must gain clarity and direction before I head into execution. In the evening, I tend to be more of an extrovert and come alive connecting with others and feeding off ideas.

What was your inspiration to become a mentor?

I've always loved finding tools, strategies, systems, and critical insights that I can share with others. One of life's most fulfilling moments is helping people save time, energy, and resources to reach success faster through mentoring.

There can be a lot of interference in the building, which is 99.9% of the time hidden below the surface. It's hard to see yourself when you're the picture in the frame. But it can be incredible to witness what's possible when you help eliminate an internal or external barrier they couldn't see before.

What are the benefits of having a performance strategist?

I could list so many benefits of having a performance strategist. Here's an interesting fact: not all athletes have coaches, but all Olympic athletes do. It takes work to learn how to properly sprint as a highly ambitious leader in business, whether you are an entrepreneur, investor, or startup founder.

Hitting a wall of exhaustion and attempting to push through overtime reduces consistent productivity and progress. You can work 12 hours a day and achieve 0 results without a cohesive strategy to expand capacity and sharpen focus.

Here are some examples of how I help my clients as a performance strategist:

• Establish an understanding of starting point and fundamental goals to work towards.
• Support with energy management strategies to address individual constraints, pressures, and current challenges.
• We supply tools, skills, and methods to create and maintain mental sharpness.
• Uncover hidden blind spots that create distortions around current performance that cause over-efforting without traction.
• Provide transformational experiences that cut deeper than intellectual theories by altering the mind safely and effectively for permanent results. Results.
• Implementation of systems to stay consistent while measuring and monitoring progress.
• Support with discernment of fuel quality for endurance to expand capacity and meet potential.
• Build confidence to use strengths best in overcoming adversity and setbacks.

If you could have a superpower, what would it be?

The ability to delete self-doubt from people's minds. Overthinking ruins the majority of executing a problem that must be solved. I can't count how many capable, wildly talented, and ambitious people I know can get stuck with imposter syndrome.

Who are some of your biggest influences?

Every person I have had a meaningful relationship with has influenced my life and supported my entrepreneurship journey. My coaches, mentors, and advisors inspired me to pay it forward. They saw what I couldn't see: the good, the bad, and the ugly. It's such an intimate process. But if it weren't for them, I wouldn't have been able to find my edge and rise above where I've always stopped myself.

What are three pieces of advice you would share with a 1st-time founder?

As a first-time founder, you must develop your high performance and success blueprint. I highly encourage founders to step back in a world drowning in mental models, hacks, and hype. There isn't a secret sauce you're missing out on the internet.

What's more important is learning to master your speed so you're not constantly crashing. Cycles of burnout can quickly go under the radar due to the sprinting it takes to start something from scratch and get it out there. However, if you master your energy, you can better manage your time and expand what's possible daily.

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