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I don’t always practice what I preach.

Case in point, I’m running on 1.5 hours of sleep, sitting at my gate at the airport en route to Florida to give my keynotes.

It’s 5:40 AM. I’ve eaten a Dunkin’ Donuts breakfast sandwich that I wasn’t actually hungry for, but…

1. I love the Dunkin’ in the airport. There’s this one Indian guy always at the register who giggles at every order like he’s keeping a secret. I don’t know who gave him the butt-ass early in the morning shift, but since I often fly early, he’s always there. And he makes my day.

2. I know I won’t be eating again for many hours, likely dinner.

3. Dunkin’ serves their coffee at 9000 degrees, meaning by the time I board this flight, it might be drinkable.

I board at 6:10. Let’s see how quickly these words come to me. Hopefully just enough time to not let this coffee sheer off the skin on the roof of my mouth.

The irony is not lost on me that I literally just wrote about how sleep is for the living. How you can't show up fully when you're running on fumes. How "I'll sleep when I'm dead" is backwards thinking.

Yet here I am, running on fumes, about to give two comedic keynotes in West Palm Beach to a room full of women leaders about sustainable success and leading with intention.

Sometimes life doesn't cooperate with your wellness plans.

Last night was a perfect storm of packing procrastination, packing anxiety, and my brain deciding 2 AM was the ideal time to mentally rehearse my entire presentation… (You know, just to make sure I didn't forget how to speak publicly after doing it for 20 years).

The plan was to sleep on this flight. That's still the plan. I have 17 minutes til boarding. A child is screaming. Coffee is still piping, about 7200 degrees now.

There's a gap between knowing what's right and actually doing what's right. And sometimes that gap is exactly what makes us human.

Plus, if I'm going to speak about authentic leadership, might as well start with admitting when I'm completely winging it.

The Hustle

There's this toxic thing that happens in the wellness and productivity space where everyone pretends they've got it all figured out.

Like successful people wake up at 5 AM every day, meditate for an hour, drink green juice and wheat grass shrapnel that they grew in their indoor greenhouse, and never eat gas station snacks or doom-scroll at 2 AM. Like good leaders are always "on," always composed, always making the optimal choice.

That's bullshit.

And it's dangerous bullshit because it makes everyone else feel like failures for being normal ass people just trying to smash all that needs to be done into the few hours they have available in a 24-hour span.

The gap between knowing what's right and doing what's right isn't a character flaw. It's called being a person with a brain that sometimes chooses chaos over calm, connection over perfection, or just gets overwhelmed by life moving faster than your ability to optimize it.

I know sleep is crucial. I literally wrote about it. But last night my to-do list had other plans, and this morning I had a flight to catch and talks to give. So here we are.

The best leaders aren't the ones who never screw up. They're the ones who screw up and still show up. Who admit when they're messy. Who find joy in a Dunkin' employee's laugh even when everything else feels sideways.

Authentic leadership isn't about having all the answers. It's about being honest about the questions. It's about doing your best with what you've got, not pretending you've always got your best available.

I'm going to give great keynotes this week.

Not because I'm perfectly rested and optimized, but because I care about what I'm sharing and I know how to do this work even when I'm not at 100%. I can turn this shit on big time…

And then crash hard after. The chill.

Sometimes good enough is good enough. And sometimes admitting you're just a person flailing is exactly what people need to hear.

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The Chill

Grace is a beautiful thing. And we should gift ourselves with it way more often.

I could sit here beating myself up for not sleeping enough before an important week. I could spiral about how this reflects my priorities or my self-discipline.

Or I could remember that life is messy and sometimes you do your best with imperfect circumstances.

Maybe that's what authentic leadership really looks like — showing up human instead of pretending you're superhuman.

I'm going to Florida to talk about ‘boss lady shit’ with a room full of women who need to hear that it's okay to not have it all figured out. That you can care deeply about wellness and still have nights where your brain won't cooperate. That leadership isn't perfection — it's showing up with what you've got.

The gap between knowing and doing isn't failure. It's normal.

Some of my best work has come from these imperfect moments. Actually, all of it. (That's comedy for ya.)

5 mins til boarding and some twat just spilled my entire coffee.

Looks like I'm cruisin’ on zero sleep AND zero caffeine. At least my coffee is room temp now.

6:08 and we’re boarding. Maybe the coffee got kicked by the grace of God so your girl can catch some zzz’s on this flight… Email scheduled, over and out. By the time you read this I’ll have just landed in Florida.

I approve this gate-side message.

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Love you all and cheers to the hustle + chill. We hustle, and then we nap poolside in West Palm Beach…

xx NPH