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Season 2, Episode 5: Brandon Hatton on Wealth, Nourishment, and the Gut Check
Brandon Hatton, founder of Conscious Wealth, shares his inflection points, from high school athlete to teacher to wealth manager, and why money is only one kind of wealth.
Kristina Wiltsee
Oct 204 min read


Season 2, Episode 4: Stay in the Fire: The Leadership Power of Paradox
Control and surrender, safety and candor, certainty and humility. Fred and Kristina explain why some tensions aren't meant to be resolved, and what grows when you hold them.
Kristina Wiltsee
Oct 163 min read


Season 2, Episode 3: Navigating Transitions: When to Take Action and When to Let Go
Planned, unplanned, and delayed transitions, including the ones we delay ourselves. Kristina and Fred on what goes in the boat, and why some delays are gifts.
Kristina Wiltsee
Oct 163 min read


Season 2, Episode 2: 10 Mental Models Every Leader Should Understand
Parkinson's Law, Hanlon's Razor, Pareto, Peter, Goodhart, Dunning-Kruger, Chesterton's Fence, Brooks' Law and more, with a spiritual twist on each.
Kristina Wiltsee
Oct 163 min read


Season 2, Episode 1: Influence vs. Manipulation: The Leadership Line You Don't Want to Cross
The Season 2 premiere tests priming, choice architecture, getting ahead of rumors, and assembled context against one question: who actually benefits?
Kristina Wiltsee
Oct 163 min read


Episode 20: Emotional Intelligence: The Leadership Skill That Holds It All Together
In the Season 1 finale, Kristina and Fred walk through self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management, plus a look back at the first season.
Kristina Wiltsee
Oct 163 min read


Episode 19: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: Building Trust, Accountability, and Results
Fred LeFranc has used Patrick Lencioni's model with over a hundred companies. Here's what trust, conflict, commitment, accountability, and results look like inside real teams.
Kristina Wiltsee
Oct 163 min read


Episode 18: The Ego Traps of Leadership: Certainty, Avoidance, and Control
Certainty, avoidance, and the gravity trap. Kristina and Fred name the ways ego goes out of shape in leaders, and what ego death looks like when it's working for you.
Kristina Wiltsee
Oct 163 min read


Episode 17: The Power of Forgiveness: The Leadership Practice That Changes Everything
Kristina and Fred unpack forgiveness as a release rather than an approval, walk through Ho'oponopono, and offer a business-friendly version for crucial conversations.
Kristina Wiltsee
Oct 163 min read


Episode 15: From Survival to Clarity: The Making of a Life Alchemist
Fred LeFranc interviews Kristina Wiltsee about subtle senses, the bathtub model of emotion, and why your imagination may be the most underused tool you have.
Kristina Wiltsee
Oct 163 min read


Kristina Wiltsee
Apr 190 min read


Kristina Wiltsee
Apr 190 min read


Episode 12: Cancer, Covid & Croissants Pt 2
How surrender became the strategy Part One of this story was the outer timeline. Diagnosis. Surgery. COVID. Running a bakery through chaos. The return of cancer. Radiation. Hormone therapy. India. The pivot from fear to love. Part Two is the inner timeline. This is the part where the real transformation happens. Not in the mechanics of treatment, but in the shift from being someone who endures a crisis to someone who becomes an active participant in the alchemy of it. Fred sa
Kristina Wiltsee
Mar 37 min read


Episode 11: Cancer, COVID & Croissants: Part 1
What happens when control stops working On the Executive and the Mystic podcast, we often explore the intersection between leadership and inner life. Between strategy and soul. But occasionally a story appears that doesn’t just illustrate the idea. It embodies it. This is one of those stories. This episode begins a two-part series in which my co-host, Fred LeFranc, shares the journey he has walked over the past five years. He sometimes refers to it with a strange title. Canc
Kristina Wiltsee
Mar 35 min read


Episode 10: As Above, So Below. A leadership principle that either saves your company, or becomes spiritual wallpaper
In this second dialectics episode of The Executive and The Mystic , Fred LeFranc and Kristina Wiltsee take on a classic Hermetic principle: as above, so below . It sounds mystical. It is also brutally practical. They run it through the dialectics structure they introduced in the prior episode: Thesis : argue for the principle Antithesis : argue against it Synthesis : integrate both into something usable for real leadership This is not debate-for-entertainment. It’s perspectiv
Kristina Wiltsee
Feb 244 min read


Episode 9: Is the Universe Neutral, or Is It Love?
A Dialectic Debate Between the Executive and the Mystic Most people don’t actually need more advice. They need a better mental operating system. In this episode of The Executive and The Mystic , Fred LeFranc and Kristina Wiltsee use a simple but sharp framework from Buddhist dialectics to do exactly that. They take a single principle, “the universe is neutral,” then stress-test it from opposing perspectives, and finally integrate both into something usable. The goal is not ag
Kristina Wiltsee
Jan 264 min read


Episode 8: Victim, Victor, Vessel
How the Drama Triangle Hijacks Your Life, and How to Get Your Power Back Most people don’t realize they’re in the drama triangle until they’re exhausted. They think they’re just “having a hard week.” Or dealing with a difficult boss. Or navigating a complicated relationship. Or trying to survive a season that keeps throwing punches. But underneath the surface, there’s often a pattern running the whole show. It’s the drama triangle . And it’s one of the most addictive psychol
Kristina Wiltsee
Jan 257 min read


Episode 7: Find the Right Altitude, Get the Right Attitude
A simple model for perspective, coherence, and better leadership decisions We all know the feeling. You’re so close to a problem that it looks like a horror show. You’re inside the details, inside the emotion, inside the urgency. Then you pull back, get a little altitude, and suddenly the thing that felt catastrophic looks… workable. That’s the core idea behind this episode of The Executive and the Mystic , co-hosted by Fred LaFranc and Christina Wiltsee. Altitude creates per
Kristina Wiltsee
Jan 256 min read


Episode 6: Worst, Better, Best
A practical way to dissolve fear, stop spiraling, and get your mind back Most of us don’t suffer because something happened. We suffer because we instantly decide what it means. A situation occurs. The universe stays neutral. Then our mind shows up like a disaster director and starts screening the worst possible film. That is the moment the spiral begins. In this episode of The Executive and the Mystic , Fred LaFranc and Kristina Wiltsee unpack a deceptively simple practice F
Kristina Wiltsee
Jan 206 min read


Episode 5: The Four Agreements as a Gateway to Coherence
A simple book that quietly changes how you lead, communicate, and live. If you’ve ever felt like your leadership is strong, but your inner world is chaotic… you’re not alone. Most professionals are trained to manage outcomes, solve problems, and hold the line. But culture isn’t built by performance alone. Culture is built by people who can regulate themselves. People who can stay coherent under pressure. People who can take feedback without collapsing, lead conflict without d
Kristina Wiltsee
Jan 196 min read
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