The cost of hiding your soul

For a long time, I believed that to be taken seriously as a professional, to be seen as a leader or authority in my field, I had to compartmentalize. I definitely felt this way at the start of my career.

My energy work, my movement practices, my softer, healing side… all of it had to stay separate from the “business me.” The board meetings, client calls, staff management, and media appearances demanded a version of myself that felt focused, strategic, and in control. Vulnerability, softness, flow—they seemed like distractions, luxuries, or worse, weaknesses.

But I’m stepping into a new space in my life now, a space where alignment is everything. Where energy and action, softness and authority, business and movement don’t just coexist; they enhance one another. I’ve realized that hiding parts of myself to communicate leadership isn’t necessary. In fact, it’s counterproductive. We all require both sides of ourselves. We all move in different circles. And in every one of those circles, we can lead... whether it’s on a nonprofit board, in a corporate strategy session, representing a client, or presenting to the press.

Yet there are spaces that need gentleness. The quiet moments before the day starts, a pause in the middle of the chaos, the parade you march in with the city’s rhythm pulsing through you, the movement class you teach, the practices that ground and heal you. These aren’t interruptions- they’re integral. They are part of the same whole that makes leadership sustainable, authentic, and human.

Living in New Orleans has made this easier. A city where you can be a high-powered attorney by day and shake your butt in front of thousands as a 610 Stomper on the weekend, and where everyone understands that joy, rhythm, and professionalism aren’t mutually exclusive. The world could take a page from this city’s book: we need more balance, more acknowledgment that life isn’t an either/or. It’s this AND that. Authority and softness. Strategy and flow. Leadership and alignment.

I want to attract clients, collaborators, and peers who believe in alignment as much as I do- people who understand that true professionalism doesn’t mean hiding the soul, and that the softer side doesn’t dilute strength. It amplifies it. It completes it.

In the end, leadership isn’t about fitting into someone else’s definition of authority. It’s about showing up fully, integrating every part of yourself, and inviting the world to do the same. That’s the kind of balance I live for; and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

With a second line in my step, wherever the rhythm carries me,
Karlita