Episode 202 - Leaders On Leadership With Tina Schaaf
Leadership can feel isolating, but Tina Schaaf, CEO of The Schaaf Group, shows how discipline, faith, and vision can turn that isolation into fuel for growth. Drawing from more than 30 years in executive recruiting and transformational coaching, Tina recounts the moment a CEO told her “you are enough,” a turning point that reshaped her identity as a leader in a male-dominated environment. She opens up about her intense daily rituals—rebounding, gratitude practice, cold plunges, clean eating, fasting, and mindfulness—that keep her sharp, grounded, and ready to serve. Tina also shares the “Holy Spirit moment” that prompted her to stop playing small, build a vision board with her husband, and embrace a bigger stage for her gifts. Gain a rare look at how she helps mid-career professionals clarify, claim, and commit to their true selves while weaving faith, purpose, and self-care into leadership at every level.
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Leaders On Leadership With Tina Schaaf
Welcome to another leaders on leadership show where we pull back the curtain on leadership and talk with leaders of all ages and stages about what it takes to pay the price of leadership. I am so excited to welcome my special guest, Tina Schaaf. Tina, welcome.
Thank you so much, Tracey. I am so excited to be here.
I’m very much looking forward to this. Folks, I want to tell you a little bit about Tina and then I want to tell you about how Tina and I connected. First of all, Tina is the Founder of the Executives Agent™, which is focused on executive coaching and the Schaaf Group which is focused on executive search and she’s also a leadership strategist.
Tina is an executive coach, speaker and she’s on a mission to help high-level professionals discover and rediscover who they are and to rise with confidence, clarity and calling. She has over 30 years in executive recruiting, business growth and transformational coaching. Tina brings a rare blend of strategic expertise and spiritual discernment to her work. She helps guide clients to break through barriers, aligned with truth and lead from the inside out.
Her personal journey ignited a passion for helping others reclaim their worth, rewrite their story and build lives anchored and purpose. Tina’s work is not just about career advancement. It’s about identity reclamation. She empowers leaders to move from uncertainty to unshakable vision. helping them step into the next chapter of life with boldness, faith, and a renewed direction. Tina, I am so excited about this.
As am I. I can’t wait to talk more about it.
Overcoming The "It's Lonely At The Top" Mindset
Before we’re going to unpack, folks. I met Tina when I was out in Glendale, Arizona speaking to a Convene Group. Those of you know that a lot of the guests I’ve had on, I’ve connected through Convene. Convene is a Christian faith-based Ministry in the marketplace Mastermind group. Tina, being the star that she is. It should not surprise you that she is involved in a Mastermind group such as Convene. She was there and we immediately hone on each other like lasers coming into focus. I said, “I’d love to have you on the show,” and she agreed.
Tina, we’re going to get right into it. My father, Charlie “Tremendous” Jones spoke on leadership prolifically he also spoke on the price of leadership. What you’re going to have to be sacrificing in order to be a true leader and not a leader in name only. The first of those four key tenants that he talks about is loneliness. We have heard the saying, “It’s lonely at the top and heavy is the head that wears the crown.” Could you unpack what loneliness has looked like for you as a leader and maybe a time where you went through a season of it and some tools you could share with our readers?
Every leader likely goes through this time period. Hopefully, they find themselves on the other side of it because otherwise, that’s a very unfortunate path. To go back, a pivotal moment, it does have a little bit to do with being a woman, even though I don’t ever like to play that card. That’s not a thing for me. However, I did enter into a male dominant environment. They were not typically very thrilled that I was there and made it very known. I had to make a decision on, “Am I going to let that impact me in how I achieve success or am I going to overcome it?”
That led to a lot of feeling that I had to educate myself and just be a notch above everybody and everything so that I could stay in the proverbial gain and so that I could meet the demands of the opposition if you will. A pivotal moment in my career was when I’m working so hard. I’m trying to make sure that I’m meeting those wrongs and matching up and being able to run with the pack. My CEO took me aside and brought me into his office.
He said to me, “I need to share something with you.” I was thinking, “What’s this look like? It’s pretty heavy.” He said, “Tina, you are enough as you are. You are enough. All of this effort you’re making to try and be fully knowledgeable in everything and fully capable in everything is more work than you need to do because you are enough.”
I have to share with you. It was a massively pivotal moment in my career and in my leadership. I had always up to that point in time thought I needed to do more. I need to stay ahead of this. It was that moment of just claiming who I am and believing. I had a great deal of respect for him and the information he was sharing with me had weight to it and I believed it. I embraced it.
I took that forward not only in my leadership but also in helping other leaders and professionals in who they are and helping guide them so that you’re not just constantly wearing yourself out on, what else do I need to know or how much better do I need to be or how much more do I need to overcome? It’s not just to say stop learning and stop growing. That’s not what that message is. It’s the message of owning what you have and who you are as a leader.
Own what you have and who you are.
First of all, I love it. There are going to be physical differences as a woman in private primarily male fields and a lot of the people that I speak to. I get it, but I love that you said that you educated yourself and how you could up your game, which is important. How precious that you had a leader that gave you that space because some don’t or a lot don’t? They’ll let you keep standing, whirling and dig yourself into an early grave. Saying that to you is amazing.
To expand on that for just a minute, because of that and what that’s meant to my life and career. I had a moment a couple months ago where I saw that he was going to be in a particular environment as a speaker. I flipped in and intentionally flew in to be in that audience to take him aside and let him know exactly what he did. I would love to have more people, more leaders to be empowered to do that and to lean into.
I feel like that was the holy spirit moment for him. He just knew and saw it and decided to lean in because he didn’t have to. He did. He chose to and the impact on this woman’s life is not insignificant. It’s been very significant and I wanted him to know that. Since he’s speaking, still empowering people and still leading that he could then maybe be inspired to continue to do that.
I’m sure that made the world him. I love that he didn’t say, “Don’t do this. It looks like you’re trying too hard as a woman.” He didn’t say don’t stop doing it. He let you know you’re enough, which is just the most beautiful way to say something like that. Otherwise, it would have been like, “I have to do more,” because there's that tension going on.
To allow you to be in the space of your own identity is amazing. That’s a great thing for other leaders, whether it’s male or female. You get people that are just pushing and pushing. It’s part of our coding as Christians to constantly be raising the bar of excellence and know that you are enough. Thank you for that. I love that and I love that you are educating yourself because everything lands on your sense of self and your identity. By him affirming your identity is enough, then you could rest in it. It’s like our identity in Christ.
Thank you. I know that I want to do this.
Battling Weariness: Daily Rituals For Sustained Energy
Thank you, Tina, for unpacking that. It’s a very interesting perspective. The next he talked about is weariness. My father was very pragmatic and he’s like, “Tracey, as you go to lead people, you’re going to have some people who do way more than is expected and a lot that do less than is expected. It’s tiring, frustrating, and exhausting. You’re picking up things that other people should have done. You’re going to grow weary.” I know we talked. I want to unpack a lot of the physical things because that’s how we talked about physically staying strong. Tina, how do you combat weariness so you can stay at your best?
I made a decision years ago that I had to be strong. I have a very warrior mentality. As a warrior, and I know that you have a military background, Tracey. I’m sure this all resonates very well with you. My father and my brother were in the Air Force. My father was a police officer. There’s a lot there. I grew up on a farm and you got to get up early in the morning and do all the things. Some of it is naturally built in me and yet everything a human does is a decision. It’s a decision point. I’m 5’2”, a smaller-ish person and so I decided, “I need to keep this brain strong. I need to keep my mind strong. I need to keep my body strong,” so that I can combat that weariness.
You Are Enough: Everything a human does is a decision point.
Life has a lot that’s coming at you every day, especially business. If you’re going to be a business owner or a leader in any business, it’s going to have a lot of intricacy to it and the opportunity for weariness. I get up every morning and I practice a daily ritual, you could call it. Where the first thing I do is what’s called rebounding. While I’m doing that, I’m filling my mind with positive influences that I’ve developed in my life. I listen to that for five minutes while I’m jumping then I move into gratitude.
As for your readers, I wish I could get everybody to do this every morning, five minutes of gratitude and just thinking about the things in your life that have impacted your life that bring you joy that were precious positive moments. The amount of memories that have flooded into my mind in those five minutes since I started doing this and I started doing that about months ago, every morning. It’s probably a great practice for your mental state, meaning just memory.
As we get older, it might be great. I haven’t done any studies on this yet but what I know is I’m getting flooded with memories, thoughts and things to be grateful for that I haven’t thought about for years upon years. Flooding that into my body and then making a decision of the things that I’m going to commit to that day that I’m seeing is already happening then moving into meditation. I do this crazy thing that people definitely think I’m crazy about. I do cold plunge every other day, 42 degrees for five minutes.
Do you have one at your house?
I do.
I know we talked about the infrared sauna but do you both?
I do both because they both have amazing qualities for the body and exercise then I just eat very clean. As we age, studies say that after the age of 30, our body starts degrading. What are the things that I can do to keep it healthy and strong so that I don’t find myself in that place of weariness? When I do, I still have enough energy to pull up and to pull through. It’s a lot of investment in yourself and caring for yourself to then be able to care for others.
Didn’t you tell me you fast one day or two a week?
I do, every Wednesday.
We talked about mushrooms and magnesium.
I could talk about that all day long. I have seven different mushrooms that I put in my body everyday.
I know. We talked about that. I knew there’s a lot of reasons we connected but when you said you’re a warrior. I always say I’m a zealot, which is like a warrior, so I get that. I loved that you talked about that. Now, the gratitude that you do. Do you write that down or do you just think about that?
It’s mental. I’m thinking about it. I’ll give you the exact picture. I’m looking at a cross while I am at first thinking of my father and savior for my life, for my body and for all that He’s giving me. I go through and talk into my creator first and then I move into a stage of thinking back at memories and moments in my life that are special. Everything from the first day that one of my children took their first steps. This is a very interesting thing. I would love to dive into the psychology of this someday but I think more of my grandmothers in this time period of gratitude than I have in potentially twenty years.
The intricacies of things we did and things they taught me and the love they gave me. It’s just precious moments of just being outdoors and grass. The simplest thing of our grass outside and the smell of it. It’s a unique thing that I can’t wait to learn more about because I will. If you can only do one thing, start your day with gratitude, thankfulness and centeredness. I would say at least do that.
If you can only do one thing, start your day with gratitude, thankfulness, and centeredness.
Focused Leadership: Abandoning Distractions For Core Goals
I do think there is an awful lot of science, even healing from trauma. It’s going into creating gratitude synapses and memories. That cognitive therapy where you’re going back because short-term is a little iffy as you get older but you can always go back to the long term. Certainly, gratitude is one of the most beautiful things of all. Thank you so much for that. We talked about loneliness and awareness. The next thing we talked about was abandonment. I don’t mean like fear of abandonment or abandoning a pet.
My father always told me, “We need to start focusing on what we need and ought to do. Not what we like and want to do.” I can film my day with 100 great things but it may not be the levers I need to pull to get my business be like, “I’m tremendous. Look at all I did.” It was more about a singularity and a focus. With everything you’ve got going on, how do you keep the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing?
To be able to do that, you have to know where you’re going and where you want to go. Somebody once said to me, if you don’t have a plan, then any road will get you there. If you decide to go on a trip and you’re just getting your car and start driving. Anywhere you go is there. However, if you say, “Tomorrow, I want to be in California.” You better have a plan of what stops you’re going to make and how you’re going to get there.
I firmly believe in that. I have developed a plan for my life and things that I intend to accomplish. Once I do that, it’s not up for a vote. It’s not like, “Maybe I’ll do that. Maybe this will happen.” There’s no maybes here. It is, I have decided and therefore, now I have to take these steps to make sure that occurs. As I make my choices for the day, because I am just like you, Tracey. I do a lot.
We could do so many good things. People call us with lots of things. Should I bless them?
People know that, so they’re going to call upon you to do those things. I have a servant’s heart. That can happen. It is then about, how does this align? Is this getting me closer to my goal? Am I going to reach that destination on time or am I going to make a new decision that that destination is going to be a day later or an hour later? Whatever the case may be. It’s a decision point that has to be made on, am I moving towards that or am I moving in a different direction? Take time to acknowledge, make that decision and what that decision is. Am I staying true to my goal or am I changing the variables and extending what I had already set?
Even stalling but you can let your foot off. When you talk about this, the plans. Are they written down? Do you recalibrate them every so often? Can you tell us a little bit more of the details of how you stay on point?
I believe in a vision board because I’m visually oriented. I have to see. It can’t be just theory in my head. I have a vision board that I look at every day. It’s not something that we just look at. My husband and I created it together. We also touch it. We are partners for life, so you better include that person in so they know where you’re going and you agree to the journey.
We’re type A women. We need that.
That visual is a beautiful thing because we put it right in our path. It’s right there every day. One of the things that I appreciate is the ability to map out. Map out your strategy, the destination when you want to arrive there and the steps that you need to do to get there. Now that’s a check in measure for being able to say, “Am I on point?” I’m writing a book and as I write this book, I set goals.
It’s the day that I wanted to be all packaged up and ready to move this out. As I was going through the week, I just discovered a couple things that I need to modify. I’m going to set a new date and make sure that I do the things every day. When I plan my day and I plan my week in such a way that allows for the time to achieve those things so that I can meet that destination.
I hope I’m not asking for too much detail, but on your vision board. Do you put vacations up there? I get the goals because you’re going to want to dial it back but what things do you put on there as a couple?
We put everything that we might want to do. We have everything on there from our future house that we will have and what’s the purpose of it. In our life, our homes have always been not just ours. Out of 27 years of marriage, we’ve had two years where we didn’t have somebody in our home other than us, our immediate family. We felt like we were blessed enough to be able to have a home that had space and that space wasn’t meant to just be space. It just started happening early in our marriage and people just show up. We don’t go seek them out.
When we look at that future home, what will that home entail and why? Why would it exist? It’s not just a dwelling. That’s on there. In the center of it is a cross. It’s faith, hope and love because that’s my center. That’s the center of everything. There are destinations that we want to go to. Those are up there. There’s the body that we want to make sure that we either have or maintain that’s on there. My book is on there. My speaking engagements are on there because they’re not fully baked yet. All the things that we are to achieve, that we expect to achieve. It’s a pretty big board. It’s not one or two things.
Is it a poster board or a whiteboard?
Even larger than that. I’ll send you a copy of it.
I’m so excited. I’m a big board and list but Kori, who was the guest before you was like, “I have this board right beside me and I write in it all the time.” I like the bigger vision board. I got my vision up here, but I like the collaboration with your spouse that you put all that stuff on there. I’m going back. As you get older, keep your brain wired and think about the future because if you’re retired or you don’t have that much to chisel your brain on anymore. You got reading and stuff like that, but that’s cool. You always want to keep future oriented, especially men. What’s the next great adventure that we’re going to be going on? Thanks for entertaining my prodded question.
I love it.
Cultivating Future Vision: Crafting And Executing Your Path
I’m going to talk to Mike about that. That’s exciting stuff. We talked about loneliness, weariness, and abandonment. I can see where that line of sight keeps you very tightly focused on that. The last thing my father talked about was vision. When you talked about your vision board, I can remember growing up listening to these people and thinking, “I’m not a visionary.” You got to be touched by an angel or like John the Baptist anointing. He’s like, “It’s seeing what needs to be done and doing it.” That’s what vision is.
You look into the future and then you execute. I’m like, “Now that I can do.” How do you craft your vision? I know you can talk a little bit about you’re going through a professional shift now. How do you get to that? What do you do when it’s time to pivot? How do you get to the greatest future vision of what you’re supposed to be?
An honest answer to that is, I am so thankful for my faith because my fate has led me to my visions that I’ve seen or been part of. It's the same thing because in most cases, I didn’t see it coming and yet he did and he knew. It says that all of this has been written. It’s already done. It’s now, are you going to be willing? In your free will, are you going to be willing to go there? What has been interesting is when it happens. The most recent event that happened was a few years ago. I was in Washington in my apartment that I had been renting because we moved the family to Arizona and my businesses have been in Washington many years.
I would be there for several weeks and then come down and visit then go back. I was literally just there, quiet and alone. I call it a holy spirit moment. Something struck me, “Is this it?” I had to then grapple with, “What does that mean, is this it? Is this what I’m going to be doing for the foreseeable future?” I love how things work in life. At that moment, I was looking at my email and there was something that came across my radar about Sage Robbins who is Tony Robbins wife. She was doing a woman’s event and I was like, “Maybe that will spike something. Maybe that’s something I should invest some time in.” It was a three-day event. Sure enough, it spiked something.
You know 100% what you’re getting.
As I said, I had no idea what I was walking into. I had no idea what the meaning of this would be. The net of it was me going a little bit deeper into Tony Robbins teachings in his masterclasses and an awareness where I was once again called. The calling was, “You’ve been playing it safe and small. We’re not doing that anymore. It’s time to play it big. There are people out there that need to be touched and need to know the story that you have to share and all that you have learned and the gifts I’ve given you. You need to get out there and share it on the bigger stage. Go make that happen.”
You Are Enough: There are people out there that need to be touched, that need to know the story you have to share and all that you have learned.
It was a humbling moment. It’s a little bit of a scary moment and there’s moments as a human where you say, “Really, me? Who am I called?” If you go back to the Bible, there’s many stories like that, too. “You’re calling me? Who am I?” It’s that fate. At the end of the day, it’s fate and going okay. For me, it’s faith and reverence.
Faith that He knows the things that I don’t know and He will lead me to the places that I need to go. Reverence because he gave me these gifts that I am now being called to share. My reverence for my creator and savior is to say, “I’m not going to ignore that. I’m not going to cower. I’m going to lean in and do my part so that I can live out for kingdom good.”
I love that you put that reference in there. I also love that you said it’s already written but yet we have free will. People are like, “I can’t process that.” I’m like, “I know. You’re not God. Live in it.” I love that you brought those two, that awareness and what better way now to share this, as you said, you’re working on this book. That’s what Charles would always encourage people.
You’re going through something and if you don’t put it in a book, that’s very selfish of you. You were put through something and you are still alive. You’re better because of it, you’re refined. God didn’t put you through that just to make you feel good about it. You’re now supposed to go pour this into other people. That has always been Charles’s thing. You do the book not because to sell more books or get on stage.
It is your duty to share what you’ve been through with others. A book just happens to be brilliant. They come here, you speak but then they go home. They still have a piece of Tina because they have our book. I’m so excited that you are using and putting that experience into a book format to take this to the next level.
I’m excited, too. It’s a little bit scary, too. You’re putting yourself in a bigger spotlight but again, it’s that faith of, he’s not going to put me here so that I fall out on my face. If I do, then I’m going to learn something. I will learn something that will be for, again, if I’m focused, it’s for his kingdom good.
By the way, I had my 13th come out.
Congratulations. That’s amazing.
Thank you. Being a publisher helps too, but part of it is, whether we sell one or zero or a million, it doesn’t matter. The fact of the matter is, you’re being obedient. I think about the number one bestselling book of all time, the Bible. Had people not written down everything, we would not have the word of God. It’s so important. We’re down on our own little journeys to share with other people. We have divine revelation, but we’re still supposed to be pouring in with others. I’m thrilled that you’re doing it.
You should be a little scared because that’s just the way it is. I’m more thankful you’re obedient but I love the word reverence. Everybody nowadays, it seems like, the world is like, “You shouldn’t call yourself special. Who are you to claim your identity or whatever?” They want to strip you of everything that makes you a unique brilliant individual. It’s like, I’m not being prideful but I’m giving shout-outs to my creator for what he’s endowed me with. It’s already written. Nothing gets you up in the morning like that. You just go do it. I love that.
I always say that Nike thinks that “Just do it” is their slogan but it’s Tina Schaaf’s slogan.
Empowering Others To Find Their Purpose
I believe it. We talked about loneliness, awareness, abandonment and vision. Is there anything else from a leadership perspective that came to mind or you would like to share with our leaders that is about paying the price of leadership that is outside of what we’ve already covered?
I would say that one of the things that I’ve seen that breaks my heart is the impact of others in owning what others say about you as a leader or as a human and taking that on as truth and not owning who you are. I was given a gift and that was a massive gift, a priceless gift to be told you are enough. I would say to anybody who’s reading this to take a look at yourself in the mirror and say that to yourself. Determine what does that mean for you. Not what does the world say about you. Now what does the person sitting right next to you say about you? What do you say?
If you’re a person of faith, what does God say about you? There’s plenty of scripture about that. Stop the noise and stop buying into all the things that are put upon you and own what is true for you and what you want to do in this world, what you want to be as a leader, how you want to lead and how you want to show people gratitude, appreciation, empowerment and mentorship. All the things. Serving is what empowers a human and makes them feel like they have purpose. How are you serving? How can you serve as a leader?
If you want to feel like something different that you’re not feeling so good or you’re not feeling like you’re the best person or leader or whatever. Go serve. Go serve somebody. Do something that’s unselfish. The impact of that alone will help lead you to who you are at the core and what you could be doing with your life that you may not be currently doing.
Executive Coaching & Beyond: Tina's Pivot To Broader Impact
It reminds me of the Ken Blanchard quote, “The quickest way to get what you want is to help enough other people get what they want.” This is not about you. The world has never been about you, but yet you find you. That’s the body in Christ. We’re meant to be in community and with one another. I just so appreciate your words, Tina. Now, you are making a pivot. You talk about serving. You’re pivoting into more of your executive coaching, which I can think of no greater way to serve, honestly. What a brilliant transition. Tell us a little bit about that.
When I had that moment years ago, I had to sit back then and think, “What does that mean? How would I do that? How would I be able to impact more people and greater audiences that my calendar cannot fulfill?” What that led to is, my husband has been an amazing champion. I have to give him credit because he saw things in me years upon years ago and started perpetuating those things. I started writing a book many years ago and then shelved it because life, kids and all the things are right. It was January of 2025 that I just randomly said, “You should finish your book.”
I got to go find it first. I revived it and brushed it off, then started coming up with a plan. The plan was about the thing that has had the greatest impact in human being’s lives. The people that I’ve placed into careers, an impact. Impact to their life, their family, the businesses, the community, all of that. However, the greatest impact that I’ve been blessed and fortunate enough to sit in is the empowerment of a human and getting them back to their foundation of knowing who they are then lifting them up from there.
You Are Enough: The greatest impact I've been blessed and fortunate enough to witness is the empowerment of a human, guiding them back to their foundation of knowing who they are.
Help them see it and more importantly, own it. Own who they are so they could go out and live this life with the purpose that they were intended to live. The awareness of that led me to, “I need to finish this book. I need to focus on the Executives Agent™ practice, which is my coaching practice, and still keep a foot in search because it is my first love. It’s something that I just enjoy doing. Businesses grow and all that.
However, keeping a focus there and going on to the grander stages. Getting the book completed and I’m going to create courses, workshops and masterminds and all the things that allow me to go into that proverbial larger stage so that I can get the word out there. There is a way. There is a path and it’s a path and process that I’ve created in helping people find their three Cs to be able to clarify, claim and commit. They have to clarify who they are, own it, and then commit to living in it.
I love that and I’m so excited to see that come out. How beautiful for the coaching but I love that you said your first love. As entrepreneurs and as people, God can gift you in a lot of different areas and we can be successful. You don’t have to be like, “I got to put this down.” Maybe you have to put it down. There’s things I still keep my fingers in that we’re previous loves. It’s not my number one calling, but I like that you said that because sometimes we can get very dichotomous, black and white, this or that. Why can’t you do a tremendous blend and keep threading it now if it pulls you away?
That’s not what’s going on. You’re very successful at it, so why wouldn’t you still keep it? You were still blessing people in that realm. I always tell people, keep doing the little of the previous until the new books on your calendar so there is no more room for the previous. Somebody can pick that up. I’m glad you put that because a lot of our readers are serial entrepreneurs or wear multiple hats and are doing that.
It’s okay, because sometimes people are like, “Am I bad enough because I’m still doing this?” Yes and yes. There’s no rule that you have to cut this off. I’m not going to scold you. Unless you pay me too, then I’ll scold you. It’s just one of those things that life doesn't always have clean endings and it’s okay. It’s all good. I love that you still call it your first love and that’s what it is.
I can’t deny it.
I know. I have some of my first loves too. Talk about all this, if people are interested in connecting with you or maybe even connect with you as an executive coach. Is that the level you’re looking at? Are you looking for a C-suit above or could an entrepreneur or somebody middle level? What are your thoughts?
Mid-Career Mastery: Guiding Professionals To Their True North
How we’ve clarified it, you need to figure that piece out too. It’s somebody who’s a mid-career professional. It doesn’t have to be, but that is a sweet spot for me. They have some experience underneath their belt and they know what they’ve appreciated and enjoyed and maybe hasn’t gone so well. They have some level of experience underneath them that I can then help them understand better, dive in and dissect what has occurred up to that point and how they got there.
I’ve got a song that I love by the Talking Heads, How Did I Get Here. Help them understand how they got there, then what’s next? How can we build that foundation? I call it a mid-career. We’re talking about anybody who’s probably in that 35 to 65 or greater. It can be on either end of that but there’s some good experiences occurred and they’ve got to this foundation kind of where I ended up like, is this it?
Coaching helps you unpack that. You unpack it. Not somebody telling you what to do next because when you’re working for somebody, you’re used to that. This is the season where you follow the orders enough. Now, you get to set orders for yourself. You’re your own chairman of the board. I love that you know that’s where you’re good at. That’s cool.
Thank you so much, Tina, for being our guests. It’s been brilliant. I have learned so much from you and to get to know you better. I look forward to many more conversations. For readers, thank you for your tremendous leadership. Remember, as Charlie “Tremendous” Jones said, “You’re going to be the same person five years from now that you are today except for two things, the people you meet and the books you read.” You just met tremendous Tina. You’re going to read her tremendous book in the future.
If you like what you read, please we’d love the honor of a review. That goes a long way. It helps other people know what to read. Also, if you would share this with other leaders that are paying the price of leadership, they need to know they’re not in this alone. Hopefully, this will support and edify them. Tina, again, thank you.
Thank you so much for having me, Tracey.
You’re welcome. Everybody, have a tremendous rest of your day.
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About Tina Schaaf
Founder of The Executives Agent ™, focused on Executive Coaching & The Schaaf Group, focused on Executive Search, and a Leadership Strategist. Tina Schaaf is an executive coach, leadership strategist, and speaker, on a mission to help high-level professionals rediscover who they are and rise with confidence, clarity, and a sense of calling. With over 30 years in executive recruiting, business growth, and transformational coaching, Tina brings a rare blend of strategic expertise and spiritual discernment to her work—guiding clients to break through barriers, align with truth, and lead from the inside out. Her personal journey ignited a passion for helping others reclaim their worth, rewrite their story, and build lives anchored in purpose. Tina’s work is not just about career advancement; It’s about identity reclamation. She empowers leaders to move from uncertainty to unshakable vision, helping them step into the next chapter of life with boldness, faith, and renewed direction.