Welcome to the first episode of 2026 on The EmPOWERed Half Hour. I’m starting this year by naming what’s really underneath burnout and why regulation is the foundation of sustainable leadership and fulfillment.

In this solo episode, I introduce the core theme for the year ahead and explain how dysregulated nervous systems create dysfunctional results in our lives, leadership, teams, and families. This year, I’m bringing more science, frameworks, and practical tools to help you regulate your nervous system so you can lead and live more effectively.

I walk you through the Pyramid of Unpotential, the upside down version of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, and break down the five stages of burnout. You’ll learn how unmet needs quietly plant the seed, how overworking and questioning your belonging show up, and what happens when dysregulation goes unaddressed.

If you’re leading a team, a family, or yourself, this episode will help you recognize burnout sooner and understand why regulation changes everything.

Burnout as a symptom:
Why burnout is not the problem but a result of nervous system dysregulation.

The Pyramid of Unpotential:
How burnout progresses from unmet needs to devastation.

The Role of the Uns and Overs
Why getting focused and intentional matters more than doing more.

Questioning belonging:
Why burnout often shows up as “Should I stay or should I go?”

Disharmony in the bodies:
How stress impacts your physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, and financial health.

Key Moments You Won't Want to Miss:

• Why dysregulated people live dysregulated lives and leaders run dysregulated teams

• How burnout quietly begins with feeling unseen, unheard, or undervalued

• Why overworking is often a sign of unmet emotional needs

• Why stress shows up in the body long before we admit something is wrong

• What devastation looks like when burnout goes unchecked

• Why asking for help is a leadership move, not a weakness

Empowering Thoughts to Take With You:

• ““Dysregulated people live dysregulated lives and dysregulated leaders run dysregulated teams.” – Becca Powers

• “Burnout is actually a symptom of dysregulation.” – Becca Powers

• “When someone feels undervalued, they will overcompensate.” – Becca Powers

• “One thing burnout robs from you is your presence.” – Becca Powers

• “If you can catch stuff in the overs, you can solve things really quickly and before they get hard.” – Becca Powers

Stay Connected

• Take the Leadership Persona Quiz: https://beccapowers.com/takequiz

• Subscribe to our weekly newsletter, The Regulated Leader: https://beccapowers.com/regulated

• Join us in the TEHH Room, our podcast email list: https://beccapowers.com/empoweredhalfhouremailoptin

• Website: https://beccapowers.com/

• LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube: @Beccapowers1313

• Subscribe and listen on your favorite platform: https://theempoweredhalfhour.buzzsprout.com

Follow Becca Powers

• Website

• Instagram

• LinkedIn

• Facebook

🌟 Did you love this episode of The emPOWERed Half Hour Podcast? Sharing your thoughts can make a big impact!

💬 Leaving a review is simple:

1. Visit this link.

2. Scroll down to the "Ratings & Reviews" section.

3. Tap "Write a Review" to share your thoughts and let others know what you loved about the show.

Your feedback helps us grow and continue delivering the content you love. Thank you for being part of our empowered community! 💖

We Want to Hear From You!

As you reflect on this episode, where do you notice yourself overworking, overcommitting, or overextending?

Is there a place in your life or leadership where you feel unseen or undervalued?

What would it look like to pause, get curious, and choose regulation before burnout takes over? Share your biggest takeaway and let us know how this conversation is helping you lead yourself and others with more awareness, intention, and care.

Becca Powers: Dysregulated people live dysregulated lives, and dysregulated leaders run dysregulated teams. There, I said it.

Welcome to The EmPOWERed Half Hour. This is the first show of 2026, and I’m excited that you’re here. I’m excited to be broadcasting, and this year I want to talk a whole lot about dysregulation and regulation.

In the years that I’ve been doing this work, I’ve approached conversations from a place of empowerment. This is The EmPOWERed Half Hour, and we’ve done that through many different conversations, whether it’s overcoming obstacles or moving through trials to triumphs. I’ve had so many different types of conversations happen.

But when it comes down to it, it’s about the nervous system. Is your nervous system dysregulated, or is it regulated? Because dysregulated nervous systems create dysfunctional results. That’s just how it goes.

In life and leadership, I think it’s really helpful to start putting the science behind this and putting together the frameworks and tools to help you regulate yourself as a leader, lead better in your homes, and lead better in your families. I’m a nervous system nerd, as you’ve known through the years of listening to this podcast. But this year, I’m putting the flag in the sand.

The conversations I bring you this year, whether solo episodes like today or conversations with my business partner Linnae, will reflect that. Linnae was a former guest, and you may have listened to her episode about the power of and. We do a lot of training and coaching, and we certify leaders in trauma-informed leadership.

There’s a lot we see in this work, and when I’m only doing guest interviews, I don’t always get to talk about the nerdy stuff that can truly change your leadership style, your life, and your results. This year, I’m going to nerd out, and you get to be a part of that.

You’ll hear more solo episodes from me, more conversations with Linnae and me. We have a great dynamic, and I think you’ll enjoy the conversations while also getting incredible content. I’ll also continue to bring you top-notch guests. This year, the conversations will center around regulation, radiance, and revival.

We’ve had a lot of conversations around burnout and recovering from it, and this year I want to focus on burnout through the lens of leadership. Whether we’re leading teams in corporate America, leading in business, volunteering, raising families, caretaking, or simply leading ourselves, we are all leaders. I wrote Harness Your Inner CEO for a reason.

So we’re going to start pulling content through the lens of leading yourself and leading your teams. If you’re in the business world, you’ll start getting practical guidance on how to lead more efficiently, in both life and business.

I’ve talked before about the Pyramid of Unpotential and how burnout unwinds. Today, I want to revisit it so you can recognize burnout in yourself and, if you’re a leader, in others.

The Nervous System, the “Uns,” and the Pyramid of Unpotential

As we progress through these conversations, we’ll also bring you our frameworks, including the Seven Principles of Trauma-Informed Leadership and the Thirteen Domains of Trauma-Informed Coaching. My goal by the end of the year is to give you expertise, new perspectives, and tools that I genuinely hope are life-altering.

That brings me to today’s focus: the Pyramid of Unpotential.

You may be familiar with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Maslow identified five levels that humans need to meet to reach self-actualization, or their full potential. These include basic needs like food and shelter, safety and emotional security, belonging, and self-esteem through accomplishment and using your strengths. At the top is self-actualization.

I love Maslow’s work. I also teach frameworks like the POWER Method, which we’ll explore more this year. But when I introduce frameworks, I like to start with the Pyramid of Unpotential, which is the upside-down version of Maslow’s Hierarchy.

There are five levels, and this model shows where burnout begins. It explains how people get stuck in their unpotential instead of moving toward their full potential. I’ll walk you through where burnout starts and how it progresses, and I want you to do a self-assessment to see where you are. If you lead a team, you may also recognize these patterns in others.

So where does burnout take root?

In Maslow’s hierarchy, the first two levels are basic security and emotional safety. For most people listening, basic security like housing and employment is in place. But if your job feels threatened or your emotional safety is compromised, things can start to unravel.

Burnout is actually a symptom of dysregulation. The seed of dysfunction begins with what I call the “uns.” Feeling unseen, unheard, unloved, unwanted, or unimportant. Put “un” in front of any unmet need.

Let’s say someone doesn’t feel important at work. If it happens once, they shrug it off. But when it becomes weekly or monthly, it activates Stage One of burnout, which I call the unders. Feeling undervalued, underappreciated, underrecognized, or underpaid.

At first, people may not even recognize what’s happening. They may just feel confused or irritated.

Once the unders take hold, people move into the overs. Overworking, overstressing, overanalyzing, overthinking, overcommitting, and overextending. Leaders may notice overreporting, oversharing, or overspeaking.

If you can recognize the uns, the unders, and the overs, you can keep yourself and your team out of burnout. When someone feels undervalued, they overcompensate to prove their worth.

If a leader notices the overs early and initiates a conversation, burnout can be interrupted before it escalates. Often, these situations are honest misses, not intentional harm. But paying attention allows you to course-correct before deeper damage occurs.

If you catch this early in yourself or others, you can prevent burnout from progressing into the more difficult stages.

So let’s pretend Stevie’s overs go unaddressed and she continues on. After a while, Stevie moves into level three, which is questioning belonging. In burnout terms, this is stage three.

The narrative in your head starts going, Should I stay or should I go? Should I stay or should I go? I always think of the Clash song. If you start hearing that loop in your head, you know you’re in stage three. You’ve bypassed the overs, you haven’t unpacked what’s really happening, and you’re unaware that you’re actually feeling undervalued or unimportant. There’s no plan in place to resolve it.

At this stage, especially when it’s tied to work, most people don’t feel they have the agency or courage to leave or have a conversation. And here’s why. It goes back to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. When money is involved, the fear of having a conversation is tied to losing your job. That shakes your sense of security. Suddenly your brain jumps to, I won’t be able to put a roof over my head. And just like that, you stay stuck in a situation that isn’t aligned with your highest good.

It’s so important to be in spaces where you feel you belong. Because when you do, you move back up Maslow’s hierarchy. You feel accomplished, confident, fulfilled, joyful. Your relationships thrive. That’s not what happens when you question your belonging and stay stuck.

So what happens next?

Let’s say Stevie decides not to have the conversation. She keeps her mouth shut and pushes through. At that point, she moves into level four of unpotential, which is disharmony of the bodies. This is stage four of burnout.

Disharmony can show up in your physical body, mental body, emotional body, spiritual body, or financial body. It might be one or many. You start seeing stress-related pain, migraines, jaw clenching, back pain, shoulder tension, joint pain. You may not even realize it at first. We rationalize a lot. We tell ourselves we’re not that stressed.

You also lose emotional stability and presence. Burnout robs you of your presence. You’re there, but you’re not really there.

Financial disharmony can show up too. Many women turn to shopping as a coping mechanism, which builds debt. Spiritual disharmony follows. You lose hope. You start feeling like this is happening to you and that you can’t get out. When your beliefs start getting rattled, that’s a dangerous place to be.

If Stevie stays stuck, she eventually moves into level five of unpotential, or stage five of burnout, which I call the devastation of the Ds.

This is where chaos happens. Disease, divorce, depression, debt, addiction, and disconnection show up. Chronic illness increases. Autoimmune disease, heart disease, cancer rates rise. People turn to alcohol, prescription medications, or numbing behaviors just to cope.

This is where I was. My marriage was on the edge of divorce. I had tens of thousands of dollars in debt. I gained weight. I developed autoimmune disease. I disconnected from my kids. My entire life needed to be rebuilt.

I share this because I want you to pay attention early. Catch things in the overs. Although I don’t regret my experience, I don’t want you to have to go that far to learn the lesson.

If you’re listening and you’re in one of the rougher stages, know that you can get through it. There is meaning here, even if you can’t see it yet. And if you’re in devastation of the Ds, you need support. Reach out to a therapist. Talk to a trusted friend. Say the truth out loud.

If you’re in disharmony of the bodies, get professional help. Stages four and five require support. Stages three and below are a powerful place to course-correct with mentorship, honest conversations, and self-awareness.

If you’re a leader, pay attention to the overs on your team. If you’re overworking, ask yourself why. Are you feeling undervalued, underappreciated, or unseen somewhere in your life?

That awareness is where change begins.

That brings us to about the 30-minute mark. I wanted to start this year by talking openly about regulation, dysregulation, and the Pyramid of Unpotential. This year’s conversations will be deep, practical, and powerful. We’re going to learn a lot, laugh a lot, and grow a lot together.

Thank you for listening. Take a look at where you or the people around you might be overing. And I’ll catch you next time.