What Holds

Carla Royal

What Holds is a podcast about the work that holds what founders and leaders are building. Each conversation looks beneath performance, self-sufficiency, and success into what people carry, what it costs, and what becomes possible when they are no longer carrying it alone.

Episodes

  1. 4d ago

    When the Goalpost Stops Moving with Maurice Philogene

    Maurice Philogene built the kind of life many people spend years chasing: multiple careers, financial freedom, deep service, real estate, travel, and a wide field of experience. But the center of this conversation is not achievement. It is what it cost him to follow an inner voice that kept pointing him away from the track everyone else seemed to be on. Maurice talks about turning down visible markers of success, leaving paths that no longer made sense, and the loneliness of being different before he had the right people around him. What emerges is a conversation about discernment, status, fatigue, belonging, and the shift from building more to finally living inside the life already built. Timestamps 00:01:00 The life Maurice built across corporate work, service, real estate, and travel 00:05:00 Why his attention has shifted from building a life to inhabiting it 00:08:00 The red line where more stopped feeling right 00:11:00 Leaving roles that no longer matched his inner direction 00:14:00 Mud scripts, intuition, and the pressure to keep pressing go 00:18:00 The cost of being different before he had people who understood 00:23:00 Finding the people who made his life easier to speak about 00:26:00 Fewer relationships, but much deeper ones 00:29:00 Why not every hard thing is a real problem 00:38:00 Letting life unfold without controlling the outcome 00:41:00 “There is no there” and the end of chasing the next marker 00:51:00 What Maurice wants people who are still running hard to know Guest bio Maurice Philogene is the founder of Try Life On. Across more than two decades, he worked as a corporate executive, military officer, federal agent, police officer, and real estate investor while building financial freedom and traveling to more than 100 countries. His current work points toward building and inhabiting a life you do not need a vacation from. About Carla Carla Royal works privately with a small number of founders and leaders whose decisions carry real consequence. Most of them already have excellent advisers. What they rarely have is someone who knows the person carrying the company and can stay with the questions that cannot be answered inside it. She works underneath performance, where judgment, timing, and steadiness are formed before they appear in the room. Carla Royal, M.Ed., is a Certified Integral Master Coach™ with more than three decades of experience spanning psychology, coaching, and long-term private work with founders and senior leaders. Links Maurice Philogene: https://trylifeon.com Email: maurice@trylifeon.com Carla Royal: https://carlaroyal.com About the show What Holds is a podcast about the work that holds what founders and leaders are building. Each conversation looks beneath performance, self-sufficiency, and success into what people carry, what it costs, and what becomes possible when they are no longer carrying it alone. CTA If this conversation brings someone to mind, send it to them.

  2. Jul 14

    The Cost of Keeping Yourself Contained with Jennifer Flynn

    Jennifer Flynn is the founder of The Balance Maven and a strategic advisor to high-performing founders. In this conversation, she talks about what it means to be the person others bring things to while still carrying a full human life of her own. Jennifer names the pressure to appear put together, the body’s signals when that pressure gets too high, and the cost of masking her neurodivergence in rooms where directness, intuition, and “muchness” are not always easy for others to receive. She also speaks plainly about learning to be on the receiving end of support. This episode is for the listener who is used to being capable, useful, and needed, but knows there are parts of their life they can no longer carry alone. Timestamps 00:00 Opening: “it takes a village” 01:20 How The Balance Maven began with Jennifer’s own search for balance 03:35 Being the person people bring things to 06:35 How imbalance shows up in the body before the mind catches up 09:10 The pressure to look put together when people expect you to have answers 12:05 Jennifer’s silo metaphor for internal steadiness and external pressure 15:00 Roots, crowns, seeds, and the unseen work of growth 20:15 Why growth is messy and why that does not make it a problem 23:15 Retreat, rest, recomposition, and recalibration 25:45 Where Jennifer goes when she needs help 29:15 What it took to receive support instead of only giving it 32:00 Neurodivergence, masking, and reclaiming “muchness” 37:30 The cost of masking in professional rooms 43:20 What Jennifer wants people carrying it alone to know Guest bio Jennifer Flynn is a strategic advisor and the founder of The Balance Maven. She works with high-performing founders who are successful on paper but carrying a great deal behind the scenes. Her work brings together intuition, emotional intelligence, leadership, and strategy, with an emphasis on alignment before growth, systems, and scale. About Carla Carla Royal works privately with a small number of founders and leaders whose decisions carry real consequence. Most of them already have excellent advisers. What they rarely have is someone who knows the person carrying the company and can stay with the questions that cannot be answered inside it. She works underneath performance, where judgment, timing, and steadiness are formed before they appear in the room. Carla Royal, M.Ed., is a Certified Integral Master Coach™ with more than three decades of experience spanning psychology, coaching, and long-term private work with founders and senior leaders. Links Jennifer Flynn: https://thebalancemaven.com/ Carla Royal: https://carlaroyal.com About the show What Holds is a podcast about the work that holds what founders and leaders are building. Each conversation looks beneath performance, self-sufficiency, and success into what people carry, what it costs, and what becomes possible when they are no longer carrying it alone. If this conversation brings someone to mind, send it to them.

  3. Jun 24

    The Weight of Being the One People Look To with Daryl Dittmer

    In this episode of What Holds, Carla Royal speaks with Daryl Dittmer, entrepreneur, coach, author, and host of The Show Up Podcast. Daryl talks about getting sober at 19, building a successful career, learning to face fear rather than avoid it, and what it has meant to become someone others look to for leadership, direction, and help. This conversation moves through family role, achievement, recovery, marriage, self-trust, the body-level cost of overriding yourself, and the relationships that made it possible for Daryl to stop carrying everything alone. In this conversation [02:05] Daryl’s early life, sobriety, and choosing to engage with life [07:30] How fear shows up in his body and why he chooses to face it [11:00] The unseen weight of being the person others look to [13:35] How family role, achievement, and guilt became early drivers [16:20] When drive became costly and began affecting his body [19:45] Letting someone in through recovery, mentorship, and marriage [28:40] The comfort of being fully himself with his wife [31:30] Learning to trust the body as a source of guidance [33:20] Leaving a lucrative business when it no longer felt true [39:45] Learning to treat himself well enough to feel safe [45:00] What Daryl would say to someone still carrying everything alone About Daryl Dittmer Daryl Dittmer is an entrepreneur, coach, author, and host of The Show Up Podcast. He is the author of When I Stopped Fighting and When You Stop Fighting and works with people through coaching, sales training, writing, and conversation. About Carla Royal Carla Royal works privately with a small number of founders and leaders whose decisions carry real consequence. Most of them already have excellent advisers. What they rarely have is someone who knows the person carrying the company and can stay with the questions that cannot be answered inside it. She works underneath performance, where judgment, timing, and steadiness are formed before they appear in the room. Carla Royal, M.Ed., is a Certified Integral Master Coach™ with more than three decades of experience spanning psychology, coaching, and long-term private work with founders and senior leaders. Links Daryl Dittmer: daryldittmer.com Carla Royal: carlaroyal.com About the show What Holds is a podcast about the work that holds what founders and leaders are building. Each conversation looks beneath performance, self-sufficiency, and success into what people carry, what it costs, and what becomes possible when they are no longer carrying it alone. Share this episode If this conversation brings someone to mind, send it to them.

About

What Holds is a podcast about the work that holds what founders and leaders are building. Each conversation looks beneath performance, self-sufficiency, and success into what people carry, what it costs, and what becomes possible when they are no longer carrying it alone.