C-Suite Confidential

About C-Suite Confidential

C-Suite Confidential is now The Conditioning Room™ with Melissa Dawn Simkins. The world sees the performance. The Conditioning Room goes behind it. Melissa Dawn Simkins takes you inside the private practice of exceptional executives, leaders, athletes, coaches and high performers to uncover what prepares them for the moments that matter most. Not just what they achieved, but what they practiced, what pressure revealed, what they lost, how they recovered, the decisions that shaped them, and who they had to become along the way. You'll hear from people with the proof and the reps, alongside fresh insights into how we think, lead, recover and perform at our best when it counts. Because when the moment comes, you don't rise to what you know. You fall to what you've been conditioned to do. Welcome to The Conditioning Room. Where the reps live.

Publisher

Powered by Athleadership (R)

Category

business · business · education

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

25 Mar 2026

Latest episode

4 Nov 2026

Latest episodes

15 episodes in the feed.

1. 4 Nov 2026

   You Don't Realize How Much Your Own Mind Is Holding You Back | Dr. Corey Yeager

   Have you ever kept showing up for everyone else and forgotten to ask yourself how you're doing? Dr. Corey Yeager spent six years as the psychological support for the Detroit Pistons. He wrote his first book on the road with the team. Then, on a quick book tour stop in Seattle, his wife collapsed as they walked back to their hotel. No pulse. He did CPR for three minutes before she came back. He shut down his NBA career overnight and went home. In this episode of The Conditioning Room: Corey and I talk about the grandmother who taught him to trust his intuition at age ten, why the best leaders build real relationships with the people they lead, and what pressure does to the conversation we have with ourselves all day long. This episode is for you if you: Lead people under pressure and wonder whether your stress is spreading to your team Have a voice in your head that's harder on you than anyone else Are emotionally exhausted at work and pretending you're okay Want your team to push back without the room shutting down Are facing a choice between what you do and who you are

2. 22 Oct 2026

   Courage Is a Competitive Advantage: Shelley Zalis on Bold Leadership & Breaking Barriers

   Shelley Zalis did. Early in her career she was handed a six-page review that criticized her for listening to clients too much and pushing her team out of their comfort zone. She refused to sign it and was demoted for it. She went on to pioneer online research when everyone told her it wasn't the right time and she wasn't the right one. She's now a four-time movement maker, and she earned the title she still carries: Chief Troublemaker. In this episode of The Conditioning Room: Shelley and I talk about the courage it takes to stay consistently who you are when the room wants you to be someone else, and how she used data to prove an idea that everyone else had already written off.

3. 7 Oct 2026

   I Had to Let Go of the Person Who Made Me Successful

   In 2012, I killed a woman on a high school track in Atlanta. It took me eight months to understand why I had to let her go. In this first solo episode of The Conditioning Room, I tell you who that woman was. She was the little girl who forgot her own name on a pageant stage and promised herself she would never be unprepared again. Being ready got me into rooms I never imagined. It also cost me more than I knew. I share the stories behind the Core 4 of Athleadership: Agility, Resilience, Alignment and Well-Being. There's the 38 hours we had to turn our biggest summit virtual when the world shut down, a loss that divided my life into before and after, and the first book signing where I sold one copy. Under pressure, we don't rise to what we know. We fall to what we've conditioned. This episode ends with your first rep. Before you listen, think of one situation you'll face in the next seven days. What is the one rep you need to begin conditioning? Get the book: athleadershipmovement.com

4. 2 Sept 2026

   How to Audit Your Business Model and Lead AI Transformation with Serguei Netessine

   Leadership in an AI-driven era requires more than adopting new tech tools; it demands a complete overhaul of how you create value. Dhirubhai Ambani Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the OID Department Serguei Netessine joins Melissa Dawn Simkins to explain why experimentation, comfort with failure, and strategic reflection separate winning executives from the rest. Treating AI as a quick point solution fails to drive real productivity. Learn how to audit your operating system, eliminate vanity metrics, and balance running today's business while designing tomorrow's.

5. 20 Aug 2026

   How to Stop Pushing and Start Influencing in the C-Suite with Sudha Solayappan

   Leadership conditioning and executive resilience require more than individual effort. Melissa Dawn Simkins speaks with Sudha Solayappan about aligning organizational design with high performance habits. Together, they look at why the best leaders view challenges as opportunities rather than setbacks. What comes through in the conversation is that by understanding your internal game and separating identity from outcomes, you can master leadership under pressure. Listen to this episode to learn how to build an engine for success while maintaining authentic leadership. Ultimately, your strategy must match your talent for true organizational transformation.

6. 5 Aug 2026

   The Science of Inner Certainty: Leading Through Chaos with Amir Glogau

   High-performance leadership demands deep transformation and mental conditioning. It is essential for leaders to get out of childhood conditioning to go from chaos to clarity in their leadership style. In this episode, Amir Glogau, creator of SOULeadership, joins Melissa Dawn Simkins to discuss how childhood conditioning and ancestral narratives shape C suite leadership. They talk about how performance psychology helps executives deal with leadership under pressure. Learn how to master decision making in leadership by cultivating inner certainty and a corporate athlete mindset for sustainable success.

7. 22 Jul 2026

   The Conversation Before Burnout with Melissa Dawn Simkins and Ryall Graber on Breaking the High-Performer Cycle

   Learn how to develop an athlete mindset to lead sustainably. Break cycles of overwork via executive conditioning, which will help you to change the way you think about recovery. Burnout isn't where the story begins. It's where an unexamined conversation finally catches up with us. Melissa Dawn Simkins opens up about her own experience with burnout and the difficult journey of redefining success. Joined by wellness coach and former IFBB Pro World Champion Ryall Graber, they explore why high-performing leaders struggle to prioritise pausing. They talk about how recovery is essential for sustainable leadership, and how to use the ARRA framework so that sustainable performance can actually be achieved. You'll also discover Ryall's ARRA Framework for building resilience, restoring energy, and leading at a high level without sacrificing your health. We’re bringing back this episode of C-Suite Confidential, where Melissa Dawn Simkins shares her personal journey through burnout and recovery with wellness coach Ryall Graber. This eye-opening episode featured in the Greatest Hits covers how high-performance leadership depends on recovery, not relentless grind. Hear about Melissa’s own experience working with Ryall to restore her own wellbeing exemplifies this. They discuss the similarities in their journeys, and talk about bouncing back through neuroleadership, performance psychology, and athletic performance. Ryall introduces an athlete’s approach to executive conditioning and mental conditioning for leaders, along with the ARRA framework to help leaders rebuild energy, resilience, and long-term performance.

8. 1 Jul 2026

   Rest, Resilience, and the Science of Sustainable Success with Khalia Collier

   High-performance leadership uses executive performance and leadership resilience for athleadership and c suite leadership mental conditioning. In this episode, Melissa Dawn Simkins sits down with Khalia Collier, Vice President of Community Relations for the Dallas Mavericks. They discuss the critical shift from a hustle mentality to sustainable success. Collier shares how she navigated being a team owner at twenty three and the importance of internal regulation. Learn how physical and mental conditioning supports a corporate athlete mindset and long term executive leadership.

9. 17 Jun 2026

   The Leader's Brain Under Pressure: The Neuroscience of Leadership Conditioning with Dr. Michael Platt

   Leadership Transformation requires more than knowledge; it demands leadership conditioning. In this episode of C-Suite Confidential, Melissa Dawn Simkins speaks with neuroscientist Dr. Michael Platt about the Corporate Athlete Mindset. They talk about how Athletic performance translates to executive performance. By understanding Neuroleadership and the science of the brain, leaders can build Executive Resilience. This discussion covers how leadership under pressure and mental conditioning for leaders are essential for high-performance leadership in the modern era. Learn to build leadership stamina and avoid cognitive surrender in a tech-driven world.

10. 3 Jun 2026

    The Career Move Most Leaders Are Afraid to Make with LaChina Robinson

    WNBA analyst and sports broadcaster LaChina Robinson shares how choosing purpose over prestige transformed her career, leadership style, and impact. In this episode of C-Suite Confidential, she opens up about career alignment, women in leadership, mentorship, mental toughness, and building authentic success in high-pressure environments. LaChina shares why she chose purpose over prestige, committing to women’s basketball coverage long before the market validated it. She discusses the role of mentorship, the importance of representation for women in leadership, and how executive development requires intentional alignment between belief and action. Through her RISE framework, she offers a practical approach to ensuring your work, impact, and values move in the same direction—creating sustainable, authentic success.

11. 20 May 2026

    Why High Performers Crash and the Six Pillars That Rebuild Them, with Ryall Graber

    Ryall shares the story behind a binge eating disorder that escalated into severe hormone burnout recovery, forcing her off the competitive stage for ten months. In this deeply personal conversation, world champion fitness athlete Ryall Graber shares the personal breakdown that led her to develop the Wellness IQ framework. After winning nine professional titles and appearing on magazine covers, Ryall secretly battled hormone burnout and a binge eating disorder that forced her to step away from competition. In this episode, she reveals the six pillars of sustainable high performance used by executives and elite athletes alike: rest, nourishment, movement, mindset, biomarkers, and calm. Melissa Dawn Simkins and Ryall break down practical strategies for stabilizing blood sugar, improving sleep, rebuilding energy, and creating sustainable performance systems for leaders. If you’re achieving at the expense of your health, this episode shows how to rebuild the foundation.

12. 6 May 2026

    The Secret To Sustainable Leadership (Our Founder’s Story)

    In this episode of C-Suite Confidential, Melissa Dawn Simkins shares her personal journey through burnout and recovery with wellness coach Ryall Graber. How high-performance leadership depends on recovery, not relentless grind, stands out in the conversation. Melissa’s own experience working with Ryall to restore her own wellbeing exemplifies this. They discuss the similarities in their journeys, and talk about bouncing back through neuroleadership, performance psychology, and athletic performance. Ryall introduces an athlete’s approach to executive conditioning and mental conditioning for leaders, along with the ARRA framework to help leaders rebuild energy, resilience, and long-term performance.

13. 22 Apr 2026

    The 60-Second Reset Every Leader Needs: Backed By Neuroscience with Dr. Michael Mannino

    Leadership Conditioning is no longer optional in today’s high-stakes environments. In this episode, Melissa Dawn Simkins sits down with neuroscientist, founder and amateur athlete, Dr. Michael Mannino to explore how Executive Conditioning and Mental Conditioning for Leaders can unlock High-Performance Leadership. Drawing from sports neuroscience and neuroleadership research, Dr. Mannino explains why stress is biological, not personal, and how conditioning the nervous system is the key to sustainable high performance. We discuss how the leader can learn from the athletic mindset to perform when it counts. From hormesis and stress tolerance to team synchrony and flow state, this conversation reframes leadership development as a measurable, conditioned discipline. Leaders will walk away with practical tools, including a 60-second neurological reset, to turn pressure into performance.

14. 8 Apr 2026

    The Truth About Winning: Why Most Leaders Fail Under Pressure

    In this episode of C-Suite Confidential, Melissa Dawn Simkins sits down with elite performance coach Justin “Coach Kav” Kavanaugh to explore what it really takes to win, whether in sports or business. With over two decades of experience coaching Olympians and world champions, Coach Kav shares how awareness, accountability, and clear strategy separate top performers from the rest. From leadership transparency to decision-making, he breaks down the frameworks that drive consistent high performance.

15. 25 Mar 2026

    C-Suite Confidential Trailer

    Most people believe what separates winners from champions at an elite level is God-given talent. And while that may be true in some cases, in the majority, it’s their ability to raise their game a few notches under extreme pressure, and when it matters the most. So how do they do it? Pressure doesn’t come with a warning label. And leadership doesn’t happen in ideal conditions. Behind every boardroom decision, transformation initiative, or moment of growth, there’s an inner arena most people never see. This is C-Suite Confidential. I’m Melissa Dawn Simkins, Founder of Velvet Suite, and this podcast is about redefining leadership performance for the fast, volatile, and relentlessly demanding world we’re living in today. For too long, leadership development has focused on inspiration, theory, and mindset talk. But elite performance, whether in sport or business, doesn’t come from motivation alone. It comes from conditioning. On C-Suite Confidential, we go behind the titles and into the psychology of high performance. We sit down with C-suite executives, HR and talent leaders, and former athletes turned business innovators to explore how they train their mental muscle, navigate pressure, and sustain performance through constant change. These are candid conversations about resilience, agility, alignment, and well-being, the Core 4 of Athleadership®. You’ll hear real stories, not rehearsed answers. Science-backed insight, not leadership clichés, and practical drills you can apply immediately to condition your own leadership performance. This is a space for leaders who want to perform when it counts, and still thrive long term. If you’re ready to stop training leadership and start conditioning it, you’re in the right place. Follow C-Suite Confidential wherever you get your podcasts, and step into the inner arena of modern leadership.

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Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

2 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

3 ratings

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Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.