#633 From Burnout to Alignment: Redefining Success as a Leader with Carrie West

What if burnout wasn’t a sign of weakness—but a call to realignment?

In this powerful episode of Talking with the Experts, Rose Davidson speaks with transformational coach and bestselling author Carrie West to explore the deeper reasons behind burnout and how aligned leadership can redefine success.

Carrie shares her deeply personal journey of hitting rock bottom and rebuilding her life and business from the inside out. Now, she helps high-achieving leaders break free from the pressure of perfectionism and hustle by teaching them how to tune into their nervous system, rewrite limiting beliefs, and lead from a place of authenticity and inner purpose.

You’ll learn:

• How to recognise burnout and understand what your nervous system is really telling you
• Why your internal stories are shaping your leadership—and how to rewrite them
• What it truly means to lead in alignment and build a business that reflects who you are

This conversation is a gentle yet profound reminder that true leadership begins with self-awareness—and that sustainable success doesn’t come from doing more, but from becoming more of who you really are.

Whether you’re experiencing burnout, navigating a pivot, or simply feeling disconnected from your “why,” Carrie’s insight will guide you back to your centre.

💬 Are you ready to rewrite your leadership story?

🔗 CONNECT WITH CARRIE

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/story-of-your-life/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61553115232260 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/storytellers_acad/ 

Website: https://carriekcwest.com 

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Transcript

Intro | 00:01
Welcome to Talking With The Experts. Here we discuss all things business, by business owners, for business owners. Here is your host, Rose Davidson. 

 Rose | 00:11
Hello, my name is Rose Davidson from rosedavidson.com.au and welcome to Talking With The Experts. Would you like to learn how to go from burnout to breakthrough and lead with alignment in life and business? 
 Well, my next guest, Carrie West, is going to discuss that with us, helping high achieving entrepreneurs and leaders break free from burnout by reconnecting with their inner alignment. And Carrie is a transformational coach, speaker and the international best-selling author of Life Rewritten. She works with high-achieving entrepreneurs and leaders to help them break free from burnout and reconnect with who they truly are so they can lead from a place of alignment, purpose and power. After overcoming her own rock bottom moment, Carrie rebuilt her life and business from the inside out. And now she guides others to do the same. With a signature blend of mindset, nervous system work and soulful strategy, she empowers her clients to rewrite their inner stories and build lives and businesses that feel as good on the inside as they look on the outside. Carrie is known for her warmth, wisdom and down-to-earth approach and creativity. Her approach to personal transformation and leadership. Carrie, it is such a pleasure to meet you. Thank you so much for joining me here on Talking With The Experts. 

 Carrie | 01:34
It's my pleasure. It's my pleasure. I love what you're doing and creating the space to keep bringing these stories out to the world. It's important. 

 Rose | 01:44
Thank you. Yeah, I appreciate that. It's almost up to my fifth anniversary. 
 So in a couple of days, I have been doing this for five years. And I think you're about my 620 something guest. 
 So it's really exciting for me to have ventured this far into the process. 

 Carrie | 02:05
Absolutely. Now when I have me back and I'll be the 1000th guest and then I want a. 

 Rose | 02:10
Prize. Absolutely. Carrie, tell me how you got. Doing what you're doing, why are you offering such great services to people? 

 Carrie | 02:21
Well, I'm a storyteller at heart. And I mean it literally when I say that story saved my life. It was I didn't have a happy beginning. And I told myself stories. As a comforting tool. 
 You know, the self-care that you do, sucking thumbs, rocking, blankies. I told myself stories. And when I could write and get a pen and paper, I wrote them down. When I went to film school, I started really digging into story structure. And interestingly enough, I had already finished an undergraduate degree in psychology. And I went for my master's in film and writing is because I wanted to write stories. And so It was interesting to me as we were going through the process of understanding the story structure, of what goes into a good story, I had this light bulb go off and say, blankety blank. My life is a story. I have antagonists who have been driving me crazy, my parents who did nothing for me, you know, the foil. The characters, the villains, you know, the people that got in my way and or I thought they got in my way. But as a child, they do get in your way. 
 And then I realized the theme I had was one of survival, not one of thriving survival. And that happened because my parents Weren't very good. And what happened was they gave me the stories that they had. They were living their stories. And so as a baby, your first response is you want to belong. 
 So you accept the family story. That's how you know you're a part of a family. We speak the language. When you meet people in different professions, have you ever noticed when you talk, when you get into a meeting with a bunch of lawyers, they speak a whole different language. You and I don't understand legalese. I listen to them and they're talking the whereforethous, how hereto withs and notwithstanding, and it's like, just speak English, please. Just tell me what you mean. But they know they're a lawyer. You have a camaraderie in language. Same with the medical profession. You speak in a different language. 
 Well, we not only get our language from our parents, we get our stories. You must work hard. You must go to school, get a degree, follow this path. You must do this. You should do that. They don't open the door for you to follow your passion. And so I've had a number of clients who are unhappy in their careers until they, and then we find out it's the story they took from their parents that they took on that career. And once they learn that, they can just break free. But I had to break free first. And understanding the stories I was given allowed me to change them. And get rid of the ones that weren't working for me, which was pretty much all of them, and come up with new stories. Long-winded answer to a short question, but there you have. 

 Rose | 05:40
It. No, great. It was a great answer. I was on a similar path. 
 I mean, I grew up in a very traumatic household. I'm still living through that trauma now, you know, and I'm 65 years old. And, you know, it just follows you around. It doesn't matter. And, you know, it's there with you always. Carrie, you know, I'd love to know. How can we identify and rewrite the internal stories that are holding us back? 

 Carrie | 06:08
I'll tell you the greatest identifier. The greatest identifier of any story is when you say should. 
 Well, I should go to school. I should work at this job. I shouldn't leave now because I need to pay off a debt or it's not a good time or my partner, husband, spouse, whatever, is not working or we're making a move or we just had a baby or I'm saving for this. As soon as you get into that should state, that's a story. And it's understanding that awareness. When you can look at the should, what are you really telling yourself? You're probably telling yourself, for me... When I kept hearing the shoulds, the only way I could survive in my family was to take care of them. I couldn't have any needs. I had to take care of them. And... When I tried to do something for myself, and what I wanted to do. My parents were up in arms, and they dumped all this fear and shame on me. It traumatized me into thinking that having my own dreams and my own... Half. Was selfish. Or... Or not appropriate for the family, or here was my favorite one. Who do you think you are that you get to have your dream? And nobody else in the family did. And you kind of say, and you get small, don't you? You kind of count, and women do this quite a bit. We just kind of go, okay. Okay, and I used to be like a turtle. I walked around like this for years, because every time I wanted to step out and be, who I thought I was, Who do you think you are? Why do you wanna take that path? Don't you know you're gonna be so disappointed? How many writers in the world, how are you gonna support yourself if you're a writer? Now the latest one, I heard this, and I wanted to jump through the TV. The woman said, "How do you think you'll make money "as a podcaster?" And it's like, . This is my version of you'll never make money as a writer. Now it's like you'll never make money as a podcaster or a blogger or an influencer. It's like, why do we put that out there? 
 So we just cower back. We don't. It takes a lot of strength to stand up to these people that you were raised with. 
 So that's the first thing. When you have those identifiers and you immediately shrink back, it's either when you hear yourself say, well, I should or I shouldn't, or when you feel like, well... When you find yourself physically shrinking back, you're about to tell yourself a story. About why you shouldn't or why you can't or why it won't work out for you to take on a dream that you have. 

 Rose | 09:14
Great point. I mean, I started this podcast out of the need to help business owners back at the, when, you know, lockdowns first started and I've never made any money from this podcast. And I, you know, I'm Leonard and my family said, you know, are you making money from it? Why do you keep doing it? But that's not what I set out to do. And I don't want to make money out of the podcast. I just want to help business owners. That is my goal. That is my passion to do why I do this and you know I don't get a lot of likes I don't have a lot of subscribers on my YouTube channel I don't have a lot of downloads but to me those are egometrics I don't care the words obviously getting out because I'm getting great guests like yourself so you know what does it matter that I'm not making money and I'm not having all this you know fame and fortune who cares I don't as long as I'm helping someone as long as I help one person I that's all I care about. 

 Carrie | 10:13
That's brilliant. That is absolutely brilliant. And you're being your true self. You're not doing what somebody thinks you should or shouldn't do. You are doing this for your reasons. When I first set out to write this book, I started having panic attacks about what if no one buys it? What if? And I kept thinking, well, I got to find a topic that other people will want to buy, or I got to find something that will strike a chord. And finally, a friend of mine said, right from your heart. The people will find you that need to find you. Thank you. And that's what I did. Rose, it was so freeing when I could stop trying to be. 
 Something. What did you call it? An egometric? I like that. 

 Rose | 11:04
It is an anger. 

 Carrie | 11:06
- It is. And once I did that, it was like, ugh. 
 And then the book just came out of me. It just, it wrote itself. My editor had to help me out a bit, but it did. It wrote itself. 
 You know. I don't know that I'll sell more than a couple hundred, couple thousand copies. And that's okay. The right people will get it. I am so proud of it. That's all that matters to me. 

 Rose | 11:34
Exactly right. That's exactly right. Now, why is alignment and not hustle the key to sustainable success? 

 Carrie | 11:41
Say it again. 

 Rose | 11:42
Why is alignment, not hustle, the key to sustainable success? 

 Carrie | 11:50
It's your truth. When you are in the hassle state, when you are out of alignment, your energy is split, your focus is split. There's a part of you that wishes you were going down and doing this, or you long for something, or you want something. 
 And then there's the other part of you that's focused on what you should be doing, what you need to be doing, what you have to be doing to live your life. So you're split. And your energy is not focused. 
 So you have to get in alignment. I remember when I first started going on this path, I always hated the work I was doing, but I was always doing work because we were so poor. And money was always a challenge. I thought if we just had enough money, everybody would be happy. 
 So I found myself taking any job that paid me a lot of money. I didn't care. I was smart enough that I could figure out how to do it. I just wanted a lot of money. And what I would do is I'd make a bunch of money and then I'd go, I can't do this anymore. Okay, I have enough money. I'm going to quit and I'm going to follow my dream. And I tried every program, you know, Find your dream and the money will come follow your passion and the money will come. 
 And then I'd spend all my money following my passion, which was usually going on a vacation or doing something else. And then it's like, I have to go and get another one of those damn jobs that pay me a lot of money, but I don't like them. 
 So this was before I got my degree in film school. So I found myself Switching. Just jumping back and forth. 
 So I was never... Engaged fully with what my real work was. I didn't even let myself really know what it was. Knowing that would have really freaked me out at the time. I needed to get an alignment. And like I said, when I found out about my connection with stories, That. Landed with me in such a profound way, I felt it in my body. And I noticed when you talked about doing this podcast, the importance of it for you, your energy, you just came alive. And you knew exactly what you were doing and why and what your purpose was. Knowing your purpose It is so important. Because I believe as human beings, We need to feel productive. And we need to feel that we're contributing. When we know our purpose, we feel and that we're contributing. In some way, shape or form. And we get caught up in these stories. I don't know if you do it in Australia, but in America, we always have this damn American view of what it means to be successful and happy and, Productive. And it's a lie. It's a lie. It's a story they've told us. 
 You know, like they say, you have to have a home ownership is the American dream. Why? Why is that the American dream? Who said that? That was a catchphrase on an ad campaign 200 years ago during the revolution. 
 Somebody had, you know, the American dream. And we all live it. And now a lot of people have shame if they don't own a house. It's crazy how these things get started, but alignment is when you feel that groundedness and sense of purpose, then nobody can take you off of it. And your focus is there. It's funny, things just seem to fall into place then. 
 Like you said, you start getting great guests to come on your show because you're very clear on what your alignment is. You're not shifting around trying to be something to bring on all these guests. You're here and the right guests will find me at the right time. 
 Yeah. That's alignment. 

 Rose | 16:00
Yeah, I agree. And I sometimes doubt myself during the past five years because I don't have downloads and I don't have the people following or subscribers on YouTube or whatever. And sometimes you doubt yourself. But then you've got to pull your ego back into check and say, well, does that really matter? The people that are listening or watching are the people that need the information. And you're right, they will find you at the right time. Just because they don't subscribe or download. Who cares? 
 You know, they obviously listen to it some way. So, you know. This is what I tell all my podcast people who are thinking about starting a podcast all these downloads and egometrics don't mean anything as long as you're doing it for the right reasons. 

 Carrie | 16:45
Absolutely. Absolutely. And, I don't know how you feel about this, but it was a couple weeks ago. I was going through that space. It was like, I haven't sold that many books. I wonder if people reading it, should I, you know, what do I do? What do? I think my message is a good one. 
 And then all I was starting the same thing. What do I do? What do I do? 
 And then I got this lovely email from this man who read my book. And it was like, The things he said Showed me that I was seen And that my story impacted him in such a beautiful and profound way. That I didn't care if I never had another person sign up on any of my websites. Didn't care. And I kept reading that email over and over again. And I said, that's why I wrote this book. That one guy got what I was about. 

 Rose | 17:41
Yep. It only takes one, doesn't it? It just takes one to get what you're about, to get the message, to... Be helped, be guided in some way. And it makes everything worthwhile. 

 Carrie | 17:55
Yep. Yep, it does. And you know what? You don't know what, I don't know what impact that had on him that he took out to the world. Do you know what I mean? As a result of that, he may have done something great in his life. That made a difference for somebody else, and then they made more. 
 You know, we don't know how the words are spreading. We may not always see it, but. It's happening. It is happening. 

 Rose | 18:25
I agree. I totally agree. Carrie, you It's an interesting conversation, but I'd like to know about how we can recognise and recover from burnout and tune into our nervous system to know that we are building a leadership style that's rooted in self-awareness and authenticity. A lot of us don't know how to do that. And we've never really been taught. And there's nothing that, you know, has helped us along our journey. 
 So perhaps you could enlighten us a little bit. 

 Carrie | 18:56
I deal with this all the time. And I do have a program called Leadership Rewritten. And in that program, I ask people to say, what does leadership mean to you? Because there are so many definitions of leadership out there. And again. We Stripe for something. Because we think we should, or that's the next step in our career path or in our life's journey. 
 You know, like I said, when I was growing up, my path was to get married, have babies and take care of a house for my husband. That was it. Now, a lot of kids, you get married, you go to college, you... Get married, you have babies and you have a career. And especially for women, you have a career, but you have to come home and take care of the family.- 
 So. When I start talking to women about leadership, it's like, what does leadership mean to you? Does it mean you want to have a stronger voice in your community? Does it mean you want to have a seat at the table? Do you want to be a big executive? What does it mean to you? Does leadership mean you want to be a leader of your own personal life? 
 So we have to get clarity on what that means for you. And again, this is where the shoulds come up. 
 Well, I should be the manager of the office. The only way I'm gonna get my promotion or make more money is if I take the management position that they've offered me. If that's the case, then you are again... Out of alignment, you are doing work that you're not crazy about doing. 
 So you're, it feels like it's really work. That's when work becomes a four-letter word. You don't feel like you're productive. You don't feel like you're doing something because you care about it. 
 You know, for me, it is now 8.30 at night here. It's about to get dark outside. It's 8.30 at night, and I've had a long day. I've told you about that with everything going on here. But I am jazzed about being on this call with you because we're talking about something I'm very passionate about. I don't feel any burnout whatsoever. And I don't know if you knew this, but when I first got on the call, I was feeling tired from all the stuff going on with the remodel. That's how you combat. Burnout. And exhaustion and overwhelm from work from what you're doing or just from life is finding your path finding your voice finding what you're passionate about then you will go for it full for full speed ahead Now, A lot of people out there do have responsibilities of families. This is not to say, you know, if you're supporting a family or you're doing something that you give that all up and say, hey, I'm going after my passion and my passion is to live in a rainforest. 
 So have a great life, guys. You have to think about the consequences and how can you take advantage of what you've built so far in your life? How can you share your passions with your family so that everybody benefits from it? And I will tell you, when I started finding my passion, even though I'm on a call this late at night, my partner's like, go for it. I've got a bunch of stuff. He's watching the Tour de France, fine by me. 
 So this whole feeling that I, I can't do this at night because I've got my, it's evening time with the family. He has seen me become so much happier since I've been living my true voice. And it's freed him up to have his true voice. And our relationship has just changed. And we're both so much happier because we're fulfilling our personal path. 
 So when you are in alignment, and you're conscious and aware the impact of what you're doing and The overwhelm, the burnout. Diminishes. Does that make sense? 

 Rose | 23:08
It does. I mean, I know I've, I quite often get to the point of burnout where I know that, you know, it's becoming a bit of a burden to do stuff. But that was when I was caring in a caring role as well, you know, full time and doing other things. And I just got to the point where I just didn't want to do anything anymore. My brain would just shut down and I didn't want to continue, you know, either being a carer or doing other things. It's just that I just wanted to go and hide somewhere. 
 So I'd find I was scrolling through Facebook and watching reels all day long just because it was mindless, mind-numbing, and I didn't have to think about anything do anymore. 

 Carrie | 23:47
To. 

 Rose | 23:50
So the burnout now... Dug my way out of that and, you know, just the things that I can do. Control and not worrying about the stuff that I can't. 

 Carrie | 24:02
Right. And that's when you start doing that, because I came up. When I first decided to go into doing this as my full-time job, I had to clear out and wrap up some other work I was doing. 
 So in that process, it's so funny, all of a sudden I felt like some of my business clients, the ones who paid me a lot of money even though I hated the work, all of a sudden came out of the woodwork and offered me some big contracts. And I went like, ooh, because my old pattern was to, ooh, take that. And I did take one of them and all of a sudden I was doing that work, which I hated and doing the book and the promotional stuff, which I loved and meeting people like you, which I loved. And I woke up one day and I went, I can't do that. I am doing this other work because I'm afraid. Of the money situation. And as soon as I said that, I quit the other job. And I'm focusing on my stuff. You have to set good boundaries. And I was like you when I was, even though it was paying me a lot of money, when I had downtime, instead of working on a book, I didn't have the energy to work a book. I was just burnt out from dealing with this work I hated. I'd play video games. I had my little iPad out and I was playing video games. And It's like, okay, this is not getting me anywhere. 
 So I had to make a decision. I had to make a choice. I didn't have. The... The luxury of just doing nothing. I had to find something I wanted to do. I hated every time I played video games. I felt like such a sludge. 
 And then I, you know, so I had to deal with the judgments and why I was judging myself. But as soon as I cleared all that out, I am more focused. I'm reading a lot more books now, which is fun. And I'm doing the things that help me. Be the person I want to be instead of doing, you know, again, there's that should, well, you should take that contract. It's a lot of money and it'll cut, dot. That's damn story of what I should do. 

 Rose | 26:19
Yeah, it's the shoulds, coulds and would haves. 

 Carrie | 26:23
Yeah. 

 Rose | 26:25
- Yep. - Absolutely. If you want to find out more about Carrie West, you can find her on LinkedIn at Story of Your Life. You can find her on Facebook under Carrie Casey West. You can find her on Instagram at Storytellers underscore ACAD. And her website is CarrieKCWest.com. Carrie, it's been an absolute pleasure. I have enjoyed our conversation today. Thank you so much for joining with me. 

 Carrie | 26:52
Thank you, Rose. 

 Rose | 26:54
Bye-bye. 

 Outro | 26:55
You've been listening to Talking With The Experts, hosted by Rose Davidson. Make sure you have a look at our back catalogue over at talkingwiththeexperts.com. And be sure to subscribe to our podcast so you don't miss out on any episode. We look forward to your company next time.