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Episode 6: Leadership, Resilience & the Power of Self-Reflection with Dan Singer (Part 2)
- Jul 1
- 8 min read
Leadership, Resilience & the Power of Self-Reflection Through Adversity, Growth, and Self-Awareness
Welcome back to Part 2 of Dana's conversation with EOS Implementer, business coach, and Marine Corps Reservist, Dan Singer.
In Episode 5, the conversation centered around leadership, accountability, communication, and difficult conversations.
In this episode, Leadership, Resilience & the Power of Self-Reflection take center stage.
Dana and Dan explore how adversity shapes us, why vulnerability matters, how support systems help us heal, and what it means to lead ourselves through life's most difficult seasons.
This conversation is about much more than business.
It's about becoming the kind of person who can navigate challenges, learn from setbacks, and continue growing even when life doesn't go according to plan.
Whether you're a business owner, therapist, parent, leader, or someone moving through a difficult season, this episode offers powerful insights into resilience, self-awareness, and personal growth.
Listen on Your Favorite Podcast Platform
Episode Highlights
In This Episode
How Dan discovered EOS and built his coaching business
Why Leadership, Resilience & the Power of Self-Reflection matter during adversity
The role difficult experiences play in personal growth
How support systems help us navigate life's hardest seasons
Why vulnerability and coachability are essential for growth
Leadership lessons from parenting
The importance of honest feedback
Emotional intelligence and leadership
Why controlling people is not leadership
The difference between surviving adversity and learning from it
Truth or Bullshit: Leadership, emotions, confidence, and control
Memorable Quote
"Our job isn't to create a comfortable life. It's to build the skills needed for a successful one." - Dan Singer
Key Takeaway
One of the biggest lessons from this conversation is that adversity is not the end of the story.
It's often the beginning of growth.
Leadership, Resilience & the Power of Self-Reflection are built through the challenges we face, the support we receive, and the willingness to honestly examine our own patterns.
Healing, leadership, and personal growth all require the same thing:
The courage to stay curious about ourselves even when life feels difficult.
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Further Learning & Resources
Discover journals, workbooks, consultation resources, and recommended tools designed to support both personal healing and professional growth.
EMDR Therapy Progress Journal
The EMDR Therapy Progress Journal helps clients track healing progress, identify
patterns, document insights, and stay connected to their therapeutic journey between sessions.
Perfect for:
EMDR clients
Trauma recovery work
Reflection between sessions
Tracking healing milestones
EMDR Coach Treatment Planning Workbook
Designed specifically for EMDR therapists, this workbook helps simplify case
conceptualization, target sequencing, and treatment planning.
Ideal for:
EMDR-trained clinicians
EMDR consultation groups
Organizing complex cases
Strengthening treatment planning skills
Meet Our Guest: Dan Singer
Dan Singer is a team performance coach who helps leadership teams gain clarity, improve execution, and build healthier organizations using the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS®) framework.
Through his work as an EOS Implementer, Dan helps businesses align around a shared vision, establish accountability, strengthen communication, and create the systems needed to achieve long-term growth.
Before becoming an EOS Implementer, Dan spent much of his career in sales, business development, and leadership roles. Most notably, he spent five years on the leadership team of a company running on EOS, helping grow the organization from $14 million to $20 million before its successful acquisition by a private equity group.
In addition to his civilian career, Dan has proudly served in the United States Marine Corps Reserve since 2009. An infantry Marine by trade, he currently serves as an Operations Instructor with the Marine Corps, where he helps develop leaders and strengthen organizational effectiveness.
Dan brings a unique combination of leadership experience, operational expertise, military discipline, and human-centered coaching to every organization he works with.
Connect With Dan
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dan_singer_eos/
Meet Our Host Dana Carretta-Stein, LMHC
Dana Carretta-Stein is an LMHC, EMDRIA Approved Consultant, founder of The EMDR Coach, and founder of Peaceful Living Mental Health Counseling (PLMHC).
Her work focuses on trauma-informed therapy, nervous system healing, EMDR therapy, attachment patterns, and helping people understand the deeper roots behind emotional and behavioral patterns.
Dana blends neuroscience, trauma-informed education, and direct honesty in a way that helps listeners feel both validated and challenged to think differently about healing.
Her core belief: Symptoms make sense when you understand the nervous system underneath them.
Trauma-Informed Therapy Through PLMHC
Peaceful Living Mental Health Counseling provides trauma-informed therapy for children, teens, and adults.
Services include support for:
Overthinking
Burnout
Trauma
Emotional overwhelm
Nervous system dysregulation
PLMHC offers in-person therapy in Scarsdale and virtual therapy throughout New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Florida.
If you’ve been searching for trauma-informed therapy in Westchester or EMDR therapy in Scarsdale, support is available.
Full Episode Transcript
Leadership, Resilience & the Power of Self-Reflection
Dana:
Welcome back, everybody, to another episode of The Truth About Healing.
I'm sitting here with my friend, my coach, Dan Singer.
This is Part 2 of our conversation.
Dan, let's keep the conversation going because it's so good.
Dan:
Hell yeah.
How Dan Found EOS
Dana:
Tell me a little bit about how you found EOS and got into this work.
Dan:
Most of my career was in manufacturing.
I worked in sales, business development, and leadership roles.
I worked for a family-owned business that desperately could have used EOS, but I didn't know about it at the time.
Then I worked for a company in Connecticut that was actually running on EOS.
Mike Paton, one of the original people who started EOS with Gino Wickman, was our implementer.
I had an incredible introduction to it.
As an infantry Marine, I was brought onto the leadership team because we had some aggressive goals.
I fell in love with EOS immediately because at its core, it's really a decentralization tool.
It creates clarity.
It creates accountability.
It empowers decision-making throughout an organization.
The more I learned, the more I realized it mirrored many of the planning frameworks we use in the Marine Corps.
When I saw EOS, I thought:
"This is what I've already been doing, but for businesses."
Finding The Right Fit
Dan:
Eventually I moved into larger organizations.
I worked with a global contract manufacturer and managed a major account.
On paper it looked like a great opportunity.
But six months in, I realized it wasn't me.
I was on a Zoom call learning pivot tables one day and thought:
"I'm going to lose my mind."
It wasn't the company.
The company was doing exactly what it was supposed to do.
The issue was that I had put myself in an environment that wasn't aligned with who I was.
That realization required a lot of self-awareness.
Instead of blaming the company, I had to ask:
"Why am I here?"
"What do I actually want?"
The answer was simple.
I wanted to build something of my own.
That's when I called Mike Paton and asked what it would take to become an EOS Implementer.
Purpose Through Adversity
Dana:
Since starting your business, what have you learned about yourself?
Dan:
A lot.
One of the biggest lessons came from the work we do around Core Focus.
Helping clients discover their purpose, cause, or passion made me start asking those questions about myself.
Because honestly, owning a business is hard.
It's stressful.
It's risky.
You wake up at 2:00 in the morning wondering how you're going to make payroll.
So there has to be something deeper driving you.
I started reflecting on that after going through a difficult divorce.
I also reflected on losing my father to an overdose when I was 23 and navigating addiction within my family.
I've been through hard things.
But one thing I've learned is that life isn't coming after me.
Life comes for everybody.
Every single person will experience adversity.
The question becomes:
How do we make meaning from it?
How do we use it?
Eventually I landed on my purpose:
To help people realize their full potential by appreciating adversity and embracing it.
The People Who Help Us Heal
Dana:
You've said many times that healing isn't just about what happens to us.
It's also about who was there for us.
Who were those people for you?
Dan:
I've been fortunate to have a few.
One is my friend Pete.
We've known each other for years.
He's one of those people where the space is always there.
No judgment.
No expectations.
Just support.
The other group is my EOS Level 10 group.
It's made up of military veterans from around the country.
When I learned about my wife's affair, I was on a plane to Texas within days and sitting with those men.
One of them, Rodney, challenged me in a way I needed.
He said:
"What happened isn't your fault. But there was an environment that allowed it to happen. Before you focus on anyone else, you need to reflect on your role."
That was one of the most important things anyone could have said to me.
Most people wanted me to stay in victim mode.
Rodney pushed me toward ownership.
And that changed everything.
Why Feedback Matters
Dana:
I think that's one reason people avoid feedback.
They don't want to feel shame.
But healthy shame actually serves a purpose.
It helps us recognize when we've hurt someone or need to change something.
If we're willing to sit with that discomfort, we grow.
Dan:
Absolutely.
That's why I tell every potential client there are three non-negotiables.
First, you have to be growth-oriented.
Second, you have to be coachable.
Third, you have to be willing to be vulnerable.
If someone can't do those things, this work won't work.
Growth requires openness.
It requires discomfort.
And it requires a willingness to hear things you may not want to hear.
Truth or Bullshit
You Can Separate Personal Issues From Business Performance
Dan:
Bullshit.
We're human beings.
The stress from home comes to work.
The stress from work goes home.
You can learn to regulate it.
You can develop tools.
But pretending the two are completely separate isn't realistic.
The goal isn't separation.
The goal is awareness.
Great Leaders Are Naturally Confident
Dan:
Bullshit.
Leadership is a journey without a destination.
Confidence develops through experience.
But if you're confident all the time, you might actually be complacent.
The best leaders stay humble.
They're always learning.
Always growing.
Always reflecting.
Emotions Don't Belong In Business
Dan:
Bullshit.
The best leadership teams I've worked with have laughed together, cried together, and shared difficult experiences together.
That's where connection happens.
When people stop hiding behind titles and roles and start showing up as human beings.
Emotion creates trust.
And trust creates strong teams.
Leadership Is About Controlling People
Dan:
Absolutely bullshit.
Leadership is about empowering people.
Developing people.
Supporting people.
Giving people the tools to succeed.
Control creates dependence.
Leadership creates capability.
The goal is not to make people rely on you forever.
The goal is to help them become self-sufficient.
Leadership Lessons From Parenting
Dana:
One thing parenting has taught me is how easy it is to want to protect our children from discomfort.
But sometimes that's exactly what gets in the way of growth.
My son recently told me:
"I don't really know how to feel sad because I never had a chance to."
That stopped me in my tracks.
I realized I had spent years trying to protect him from sadness instead of helping him learn that sadness is a normal human emotion.
Dan:
I had a similar experience with my son.
He made a choice, missed a deadline, and lost a privilege.
The easy thing would have been to rescue him.
Instead, I let him experience the consequence.
The next day we talked about it.
That's leadership.
Whether you're parenting or leading a team, your job isn't to eliminate discomfort.
Your job is to help people learn from it.
Final Thoughts
Dana:
Thank you so much for being here and for helping me grow over the years.
Dan:
You've helped me grow too.
I appreciate you.
Dana:
Thank you everybody for joining us for Part 2 of this conversation.
We hope these conversations around leadership, resilience, self-reflection, and growth help you think a little differently about your own journey.
We'll see you next time on The Truth About Healing Podcast.
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