947: Elena Joy Thurston: Burnout, Belonging & Building Brave Leadership

Shameless Leadership

Sara Dean

Education, Management, How To, Business, Self-improvement

4.7 • 800 Ratings

🗓️ 8 July 2025

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When I decided to start inviting guests onto Shameless Leadership, I immediately knew I wanted my dear friend and speaking colleague Elena Joy to join me. The work Elena Joy does around inclusion always captivates me. She is smart, witty, and strategic in all the best ways - as you’ll hear in this conversation. She knows what needs to be done to get the work done. Her unflinching commitment to tackling tough conversations while upholding human dignity always blows me away. While her knowledge around inclusion and its connection to burnout is robust, her methods for tackling challenges where these areas intersect are approachable and welcoming. This is all to say, Elena Joy makes me want to be a better human, and I suspect she will have the same impact on you. In an official capacity, Elena Joy Thurston, she/her, is the CEO of LATITUDE, a boutique HR consultancy specializing in creating sustainable leadership pipelines through burnout prevention and emerging leader programs. A Mormon mom of four who lost her marriage, her church, and her community when she came out as a lesbian, her viral TEDx talk on surviving conversion therapy has attracted clients such as the Denver Broncos, Peloton, and Planned Parenthood. She is featured in the award-winning documentary CONVERSION, recently launched on AppleTV and Amazon. Elena Joy lives in Arizona with her four children and spends her spare time dreaming of her next fly-fishing trip. Listen in to hear Elena share: How she saw the writing on the wall with DEI and made an intentional pivot in her work in order to continue to achieve her goals around inclusion in the workplace The truth about the state of DEI - what has been taken from us and what we still have to work with, and what it all means in terms of sustainable leadership How understanding our co-workers' identities opens the door to communication and decreases burnout What burnout looks like in 2025 and how it looks different for Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z How burnout is universal and individual at the same time The importance of creating positive emotional experiences to counter the feelings that trigger your burnout How to use the Release & Restore Method to shift your energy daily, weekly, monthly, yearly Links Mentioned: Women Business Owners, join me for a free business-building workshop on July 16th, Focused & Fierce: Lead with Purpose and Build Your Business in a Noisy World: saradean.com/fierce Hire me to speak: saradean.com/speaking Coach with me: https://saradean.com/executive-coaching-services Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saradeanspeaks Watch Shameless Leadership episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@saradeanspeaks Work with Elena Joy: https://latitudeleaders.com/ Get Elena Joy’s Free Burnout Starter Kit: https://latitudeleaders.com/burnoutstarterkit Attend Elena Joy’s Free Office Hours: http://joyfulofficehours.com Latitude Leaders on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/latitude-leaders/ Latitude Leaders on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/latitudeleaders Elena Joy on on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elenajoythurston/ Elena Joy on Instragram https://www.instagram.com/elenajoyspeaks/ Elena Joy’s TEDx talk on Youtube: https://youtu.be/rIhPZMC4UEg Interested in becoming a sponsor of the Shameless Mom Academy? Email our sales team at [email protected]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to shameless leadership. I'm your host, Sarah Dean. This show is for women, transgender people, non-binary folks, as well as allies, who are committed to advancing their leadership while also advancing the leadership of those around them. In each episode, we will offer practical tips, leadership strategies, and inspiring
0:21.9	stories to help you become a more confident, compassionate, and inclusive leader. The truth is,
0:27.5	you were born to lead. What might happen for you if you were to wholeheartedly embrace that
0:32.2	part of yourself? So let's start now, together. Hello, shameless leaders. I'm so excited to be bringing you a very special guest today.
0:41.3	So when I started inviting guests on to shameless leadership, I immediately knew I wanted to invite
0:46.3	my dear friend and speaking colleague Elena Joy Thurston to join me.
0:50.3	The work that Elaine and Joy does around inclusion always captivates me.
0:53.3	I always learn so much from
0:54.8	her. She is smart and witty and strategic and all the best ways, as you're going to hear in this
1:01.2	conversation. And she also knows exactly what needs to get done to get the work done. Her unflinching
1:08.5	commitment to tackling tough conversations while upholding human dignity
1:12.2	always blows me away. And while her knowledge around inclusion and its connection to burnout,
1:17.1	which we dig into a lot in this episode, is robust, her methods for tackling challenges where
1:22.2	these areas intersect are very approachable and welcoming. So all this is to say that Elena Joy makes me want to be a better
1:29.4	human and I suspect she's going to have the same impact on you. In an official capacity,
1:34.1	Elena Joy Thurston, she, her, is the CEO of Latitude, a boutique HR consultancy
1:38.9	specializing in creating sustainable leadership pipelines through burnout prevention and emerging leader programs.
1:45.8	A Mormon mom of four who lost her marriage, her church, and her community when she came out as a lesbian,
1:51.6	her viral TEDx talk on surviving conversion therapy has attracted clients such as the Denver Broncos,
1:57.9	Peloton, and Planned Parenthood. She's featured on the award-winning
2:01.4	documentary conversion, which, holy cow, is an amazing, incredible must-see documentary. And I got to
2:08.7	interview her and the creators of conversion a while ago. So you can search back in the archives for that.
	...

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