Burnout, Toxicity, and Overcoming Obstacles w/ Marilise de Villiers

On this episode, Allan invites Marilise de Villiers, Founder and CEO at ROAR! Coaching & Consulting, to come on down to the ranch and discuss how to deal with toxic situations, how to overcome obstacles in the workplace, how to avoid burnout, and how to spot our own negative behaviors that interfere with our success.

Marilise and Allan cover toxic workplaces and bosses, share personal stories, and discuss the internal mechanisms which allow external toxicity to harm us, as well as the internal behaviors to prevent that.

They discuss obstacles, and how big obstacles should be embraced. They also talk about "exercising the resilience muscle".

This is a fantastic show with some open and vulnerable moments, as well as with some very practical advice for avoiding burnout and dealing with problems most of us have faced or will face in our information security careers.

Key Takeaways:

1:11 How Marilise got into information security
2:29 About her coaching and consulting practice for information security professionals
3:53 Avoiding CISO burnout despite our intrinsic challenges
5:08 External forces but also our own self-defeating behaviors
7:01 Clarity on who you are and why you are here
9:31 "I am" is the first negative step towards internalizing toxicity around us (neuro plasticity)
11:03 Allan's former toxic boss who "showed him a carnival house mirror" and led to negative internalization
12:21 Marilise has a similar story
14:29 Facing futility and hopelessness in information security
15:19 Caring too much vs. business problems as a control and communication problem
18:23 How to perceive our biggest obstacles
19:28 Get professional help to strengthen your resilience muscle
20:17 Shout-out to Chris Cochran of Hacker Valley Studio and his 'find your super powers' coaching (and other trusted coaches)
21:49 Your best life is on the other side of your biggest obstacle
21:59 There is always another obstacle
23:22 Living your best life TODAY
24:15 The value of resilience and embracing big obstacles
24:57 Marilise's reason for being in cybersecurity

Links:

Learn more about Marilise on LinkedIn and on Twitter
Follow Allan Alford on LinkedIn and Twitter
Learn more about Hacker Valley Studio and The Cyber Ranch Podcast
Sponsored by our good friends at Uptycs