Episode 149

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Published on:

13th Nov 2025

131. Staying Energized for Success with Andrea Nakayama

What if the fastest path to your goals starts with protecting your energy? We sit down with functional medicine nutritionist and educator Andrea Nakayama to unpack how high achievers can set a self-care floor, work with their biology, and lead with more clarity and calm. Andrea’s story - building a global education company while navigating profound personal loss - reveals why sleep, boundaries, and joy aren’t luxuries. They’re leadership tools.

We explore how to define your non-negotiables so they actually live on your calendar, not just your wish list. Andrea breaks down the hormone science behind the late-night “second wind,” why it sabotages sleep quality, and how to catch your natural evening curve for better recovery. We talk practical micro-practices that fit real schedules: 10-minute resets, afternoon self-checks, and routines that flex without collapsing into all-or-nothing thinking. Her “road, bike lane, poison ivy” model helps you stay consistent while avoiding extremes that trigger stress and setbacks.

For big goals, we trade hustle myths for smarter pacing. Think Everest, not elevator. In business, growth happens in stages - each base camp gives you time to adapt, refine, and build the strength to reach your next summit. Andrea’s five P model - passion, permission, purpose, persistence, perseverance - replaces perfectionism with momentum you can sustain. Along the way, we connect bioindividuality, circadian rhythm, and nervous-system-care to everyday leadership decisions so your effort translates into durable results.

If you want to finish strong and start stronger, this conversation gives you the playbook: protect sleep, schedule what refuels you, and let joy be part of the plan. Subscribe, share this episode with a friend who needs permission to slow down, and leave a review to tell us your top non-negotiable for the season. 

In this podcast you will learn how to:

• Define energy, relationships, and impact as daily anchors

• Non-negotiables for leaders: sleep, digestion, blood sugar

• Setting a self-care floor and saying no with confidence

• Calendar design with micro check-ins and wiggle room

• Shift out of all-or-nothing mindsets

• Cortisol, circadian rhythms, and second winds

• Evening unplugging and nervous system care

• The five P model: passion, permission, purpose, persistence, perseverance

• Add joy as a core success metric

Highlights:

0:00

Slowing Down To Succeed

0:21

Framing Elite Achievement

4:08

Making Self-Care Non-Negotiable

8:02

Defining Your Self-Care Floor

12:04

Calendar Design And Wiggle Room

15:57

Beyond Perfectionism And The Bike Lane

20:38

Base Camps, Not Summits In A Day

25:53

Circadian Rhythm And Second Winds

30:00

Night Unplugging And Nervous System

33:28

Micro-Practices For Recovery

37:42

Weekends, Boundaries, And Refueling

Interested in 1:1 Coaching?

Kristin partners with high-performing financial advisors, leaders, and business owners who are ready to lead with more clarity, focus, and intention.

Clients often come to her with a strong vision, but they aren’t sure how to close the gap between where they are now and where they want to go. Many are navigating a season of growth, stepping into expanded leadership, or realizing they’ve outgrown their current systems and ways of working.

They know they’re capable of more and want a strategic thought partner to help them get there, someone who will ask the tough questions, create space to think deeply, and offer a proven process for turning ambition into meaningful progress.

If this sounds like the kind of partnership you’ve been craving, email meet@kristinburke.com to learn more and connect.

Connect with Kristin

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Goal Setting Success Course

Breakout Plan

Connect with Andrea

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About the Podcast

Elite Achievement
A leadership and execution podcast for financial advisors and firm leaders
Elite Achievement with Kristin Burke

You’re a financial advisor. Your calendar is booked with back-to-back client meetings. You have a vision to grow your firm. You’re not sure if you have the right team in place. You’re holding on to work you know you should be delegating. You want to spend more time doing complex planning and working with your best clients, but you’re still trying to deliver for every client in your book.

At the end of the day, you’re still the one driving the revenue.

Or…

You’re leading a team of financial advisors or a firm. You’re responsible for growth, but don’t produce the results yourself. They come through the people you recruit, develop, and retain. And many of them aren’t traditional employees, which means you’re leading as much through influence as you are through expectations and accountability.

Your calendar is full, but your time doesn’t always feel well spent. You start the day with a plan, and it quickly shifts as people come to you with questions, challenges, and decisions that need your input.

You’re constantly balancing competing priorities. Attracting and bringing in new talent. Launching and developing new financial advisors. Supporting career advisors as they continue to grow. Having difficult conversations when someone isn’t performing. Protecting the culture and keeping everyone aligned to the vision.

At the end of the day, you’re still accountable for the results.

Different roles. Same challenges.

How do you create clarity around your vision and get others aligned to it?

How do you focus on the right priorities when everything feels important?

How do you develop people and hold a high standard of performance?

How do you lead effectively while still driving results?

This is the work of Elite Achievement.

A leadership and execution podcast for financial advisors and firm leaders who are building and scaling a firm and being challenged to lead at a higher level as success becomes less about your individual effort and more about how you lead.

Kristin Burke brings over 20 years of industry experience and works closely with financial advisors and firm leaders as they build firms, develop people, and navigate the challenges that come with growth.

Elite Achievement is about setting a bold vision, executing consistently, and becoming the kind of leader capable of building a legacy.