Welcome to Milestone Moments, the show where
we explore the journeys that lead to success.
I'm Sheila Slick, your host and founder of Five
Milestones. In every episode, we will bring you
insights from the minds of entrepreneurs, leaders
and experts who will share not just their expertise,
but the milestone moments that have reshaped
their journeys and led to significant achievements.
So if you're looking for motivation, you're in
the right place. Subscribe now and discover the
milestones that mark the path to success. Welcome
to another episode of Milestone Moments in Business
and Leadership. I'm your host, Sheila Slick.
And today, my special guest is Samantha Catone.
Sammy is a former litigation attorney whose high
-pressure legal career led to burnout, and eventually
a chronic illness that forced her to stop to
rebuild from the inside and out. Welcome to the
show, Samantha. Thank you so much for having
me, Sheila. I'm so excited. Well, that's a very
powerful introduction, very short but very specific.
Tell us a little bit about what led you to do
what you're doing today. Absolutely. I mean,
coaching and speaking on burnout was never in
my ether until very recently. I spent eight years
practicing litigation, as you mentioned, and
in early 2025, I had a major health collapse
to the point where I was forced to stop and slow
down and really start doing some reflecting.
The irony of my burnout and my illness was I
had been really taking care of myself. I put
myself in the top 5 % in terms of the way that
I ate, you know, whole foods and meditation and
exercise. I was seeing specialists. I was doing
supplementation. So I was confused. I'm like,
man, I'm doing all these things right. I've got
a great job. I'm making good money. And I am
just sick, empty, and miserable. So that set
me on this journey where I learned a lot of things.
Primarily, I had the traits that I had always
kind of attributed to my success, like perfectionism
and people -pleasing, overachievement. Those
were survival strategies. And that was one of
my first aha moments, that those were learned
survival strategies keeping me in fight or flight.
So I realized I needed to probably create some
new belief systems around productivity and rest
and really retrain my brain to stop equating
rest with danger. And that was one of the biggest
aha moments that I had. I also had to take a
close look at self -worth and finding spirituality
was really helpful for that piece. But those
were kind of the biggest three shifts for me
that started my healing and recovery journey.
Was it seven years ago that... I got really sick
last year, but I've been practicing for eight.
So it was a slow build in terms of my health.
I always had health issues. And then all of a
sudden, my body just gave out on me where I could
barely function. I lost 25 pounds in two months.
So it was definitely a slow burn. And it finally
caught up to me where my body was just like,
you got to stop ignoring me. and start listening.
Because, you know, you detach from yourself.
You lose touch with yourself. And I think the
body has a way of bringing those things to the
surface when you're not paying attention. So
what was the first step in rebuilding yourself
back? I would say the biggest thing was I really
had to evaluate my belief systems, which a lot
of the time they're operating below our conscious
awareness, right? So we're not even aware that
we have these belief systems. So I started really
taking a look at my... typical thought patterns.
I would have automatic negative thoughts, anxious
thoughts all day long. And I'm like, what is
the belief? driving those thoughts. Things like,
if I rest, I'm going to fall behind. And I kept
kind of peeling the layers back and realized
I was really only praised as a child and I was
achieving in some context. And that became a
survival strategy. So I would create new beliefs.
Rest is productive. And I would have to reaffirm
those things to myself as often as I could and
start to build evidence to really rewire the
brain to associate rest and stopping as productive
and safe for as a threat what has surprised you
the most now being on the other side of it you
know how they say hindsight you can look back
what was your most surprising thing that you
learned I think for me the most surprising thing
that I learned was I was completely disconnected
from myself. And that was odd to me because I
was always somebody that thought like I was very
in tune with my emotions and my feelings. I was
very like a self -aware person. But I realized
you're not tapping into your intuition in any
way. You are not really listening to what your
body is telling you. And I realized. You've spent
your whole life seeking external validation,
seeking answers from other people. Despite feeling
like you're this self -aware person, you're chasing
answers that have been within yourself, but looking
outside of yourself, whether that be through
medical specialists or doctors trying to find
a diagnosis. I finally realized when you regulate
your nervous system, all of the answers that
you are seeking are within you, and life becomes
so much easier. All right. Let's talk a little
bit about regulating the nervous system. What
exactly does that mean, Sam? Yeah. So, I mean,
we have two states. We have the sympathetic and
the parasympathetic state. And this was my aha
moment when I started learning about the nervous
system because I realized the reason nothing
is helping is because I'm in sympathetic fight
or flight 24 -7. So when that happens, what happens
is all of our energy goes to survival, right?
So any non -essential functions like digestion
and rest and detox support, there is no energy
left for any of those really important functions.
So if you think about it, you're not going to
digest food. You're not going to sleep properly.
You can't detox. So that's what happened to me.
These toxins build up in my body because I was
not detoxing, never getting into that parasympathetic
state. So it was interesting because all the
common advice out there was, you know, set better
boundaries and meditate more, eat better. And
I'm like, man, I'm doing all these things and
none of it's working. So that's where I really
realized it's your thought patterns that are
keeping you in that sympathetic state. So I focused
on my beliefs, which were dictating my thoughts.
And once I kind of got a handle on that piece,
those other tools became really, really helpful
as well. Sitting in stillness. My goodness, how
many high achieving women can't sit with themselves
for five to 10 minutes? You know, our brains
are just all over the place. And that is just
such an important skill. And the other big piece
to that was actually rebuilding self -worth and
learning how to not attach my worth. to my job
title. Because if your worth is attached to your
productivity and your output, your nervous system
is never going to feel safe. You're never going
to be in that parasympathetic state because anything
you do counter to pursuing those goals feels
physically dangerous. So for me, it was really
more of the mindset work that I needed to do
to regulate my nervous system than anything else
in terms of like mindfulness and all that. It
was my thoughts. And that was a big aha moment
for me. That's really I'm getting a lot out of
this conversation, how the mind affects the body.
Absolutely. Well, yeah, you know, I ended up
healing after starting this work and incorporating
the belief work, self -worth and bringing some
spirituality into my life, too. I healed without.
seeing doctors, without taking medicine, without,
you know, I stopped everything and said, you
need to go and work. Listen to your gut. What
is it telling you? And I just needed to rebuild
myself worse so that I had an identity outside
of work. That was the biggest thing for me. So
how do you help women today do that same thing?
Yeah, self -worth is the number one, I think,
limiting belief. And it really does set the ceiling
in our lives for what we can achieve and the
fulfillment that we can reach. So what I help
women with is one is forgiveness. Forgiveness
is really, really intertwined with self -worth.
And that's because if we can't forgive other
people for things that have happened to us in
our lives, we're implicitly telling ourselves
that we could do something that is unforgivable.
So that is actually implicitly going to really
impact your self -worth. The whole concept of
your self -image too. So visualization is something
that can be really helpful. If there's an identity
that you want to step into or goals that you
want to achieve, start visualizing it. visualize
the person that you want to be because our subconscious
mind doesn't know the difference between a vividly
imagined experience and a real one so that's
a really fun tool there's so many different things
that go into self -worth and finding spirituality
can also be really really helpful just believing
that you are enough because you exist and it's
unattached to anything else what services do
you offer to help anyone that perhaps feels they're
in a position like you were and need some kind
of coach or support. Yeah, I offer a one -on
-one coaching program. I have a couple different
structures in place depending on what the client
is looking for. I have a four -week program that's
really about going from surviving to thriving.
And these three things that I talked about, belief
work, self -worth, and spirituality are really
kind of the foundational stuff. That's why my
approach is a little different because I'm not
going to tell you to worry about your diet or
anything else that you're doing until you get
those fundamentals down. And I think that's what
some of this space is missing. a little bit is
once you can address the belief systems and your
self -worth, a lot of other things kind of tend
to work themselves out because you're creating
a new identity and you start taking better aligned
action that is much better for you. So I work
with women one -on -one through that process.
I also have a longer program for women who are
really feeling stuck, like they don't know if
they're in the right role or if they're looking
for a career path. a career shift. We do a lot
of core values work, figuring out what are your
core values, because if you're doing work that's
misaligned with those values, burnout's going
to be inevitable at some point, right? We need
to be aligned with our soul's desires, our values.
And I also do a lot of speaking for attorney
organizations and law firms. So I'm teaching
this stuff via speaking engagements as well,
which is cool because I can just reach a lot
more people that way. So that's what I'm up to
these days. So where can we find you online?
You can find me on Instagram, sammycatoneburnoutcoach.
I'm probably the most active there. And my website
is just sammycatone .com. You can book a discovery
call. You can take a look at my speaking engagements,
my one -on -one coaching. There's more details
on there. And I'm also on LinkedIn. It's just
Samantha Catone on LinkedIn. So that's where
you can find me. And I'd love to hear from you.
If you have any questions, any support, I'm here
for you. And do you only work with women? My
focus is women, but I do not exclude men. I'm
primarily focused on attorneys and high achievers.
So high achievers are obviously prone to burnout
and stress because we all run with that kind
of type A personality, which drives burnout.
So I do not exclude men or anybody from my program.
I think this is beneficial for everybody. I just
have a real passion for helping women and empowering
power women. I just wanted to make that clear
because we kept mentioning women, women. I thought,
well, maybe she works with men as well, not to
exclude anyone. And so for anyone that's hearing
your story today, what is the one thing that
you want them to walk away with? Take your power
back. I spent most of my life blaming my burnout
on my circumstances, my job, toxic work environments.
And what I've learned is. A lot of this stuff
is more internal and we have a lot more control
over this than we think. Use your brain as a
tool. You can rewire it. And one thing you can
start doing today is implement a daily gratitude
practice. There's a lot of neuroscience behind
that. So if you leave this conversation with
nothing else, start a daily gratitude practice
and things are going to shift for you. Well,
thank you so much for joining me today, Samantha.
Thank you, Sheila. I appreciate you. Thank you.
And thank you all for tuning in to another episode
of Milestone Moments in Business and Leadership.
Until next time.