The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – From Burnout to Badass: Flip the Script on Your Work-Life Story by Dana L Cox

Episode Date: March 24, 2025

From Burnout to Badass: Flip the Script on Your Work-Life Story by Dana L Cox Danalcox.com From Burnout to Badass: Flip The Script on Your Work-Life Story is a cultural revolution and personal transformation guide that shatters the status quo of how we approach work, life, and success. Dana L. Cox, a seasoned business consultant and dynamic leadership expert, delivers an unapologetically bold and empowering roadmap to help you reclaim your time, energy, and purpose. This isn't just another book filled with fluffy inspiration-it's a no-nonsense, action-packed call to greatness. Cox's electrifying voice resonates with powerful tough love and transparent honesty. She invites you to confront your reality, uncover your hidden blind spots, and challenge limiting beliefs holding you back. With her, it's not about excuses-it's about results. What makes this book stand out is its inclusivity. Cox draws from diverse cultural perspectives, weaving insights from Asian, African-American, Latin American, and Middle Eastern experiences to create a global guide. By honoring these unique viewpoints, Cox ensures every reader finds themselves within its pages. From Burnout to Badass positions you as the hero of your own story, equipping you with tools to reframe challenges as opportunities, realign priorities, and confidently rewrite your work-life narrative. Whether drowning in burnout or simply seeking to elevate your life to badass levels, this book is your wake-up call. Are you ready for radical, lasting transformation? This book is not just a guide-it's a partner on your journey to reclaiming your power, rediscovering your joy, and redesigning your life on your terms. No fluff, no judgment-just real talk, practical strategies, and undeniable results. Your journey from burnout to badass starts now.

You wanted the best. You've got the best podcast, the hottest podcast in the world. The Chris Voss Show, the preeminent podcast with guests so smart you may experience serious brain bleed. The CEOs, authors, thought leaders, visionaries and motivators. Get ready, get ready, strap yourself in. Keep your hands, arms, and legs inside the vehicle at all times. Cause you're about to go on a monster education rollercoaster

with your brain. Now, here's your host, Chris Voss. Hey folks, it's Voss here from thechrisvossshow.com. Thechrisvossshow.com. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the big show. As always, the Chris Voss Show is coming to you, 16 years, 23 in an episode so far, of just the most amazing, delightful people with their journeys, their stories, their lessons of life they bring to you and help you improve the quality of your life.

Because we've seen some of you need some help. I'm talking to Bob there in the audience in the back. Opinions expressed by guests on the podcast are solely their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the host or the Chris Foss show. Some guests of the show may be advertising on the podcast, but it is not an endorsement or review of any kind. Anyway guys, she is a wonderful human being and a lovely gal. Dana L. Cox joins us on the show.

She has her new book out February 25th, 2025 called From Burnout to Badass. Flip the script on your work life story. We're going to get into some of the details on her, her journey, et cetera, et cetera. And she was born and raised in Milwaukee's Hillside housing project where the odds weren't in her favor. She became a teen mom juggling diapers and textbooks while putting herself through college and earning both a bachelor's in business and an MBA,

all while working and raising a family and seven incredible children. Is that right? Ms. Cox? Yes, that's correct. Seven kids. We should have moved to Utah. You fit in just wonderfully. Her journey has been marked by a profound loss. Her son Charles passed away at birth, a pain most parents should need to endure. He went in grief and she found the strength to keep on going. She's going to talk to us about some of her journey here as well as coming to be a global executive at a Fortune 500 company.

Welcome to the show. How are you, Dana? I'm great, Chris. How are you? I am excellent. It's wonderful to have you. Congratulations on the new book. Uh, give us your dot coms.

Where do people want to find you on the interwebs? DanaLCox.com and FixCoaching.com. And so give us a 30,000 every what's in the new book. What's in the new book. It's really, I started off as my journey through from burnout and out, but also it's just really to help other individuals understand what it to recognize the signs of burnout and to

also find their path away from that or to prevent getting there if they're on that pathway. So it was really a journey and to give them the tools that they need to be able to kind of create the harmony in life so that they can have a successful professional career, but also a very thriving personal life without having to sacrifice their weekends or their Saturday nights. Oh, you mean I can have weekends off? Yes, yes, you can. I'll talk to my boss, see what he has to say. Wait, it's me.

From Bernadette to Bata, I was reading, much of your body sent to me was in the first person. Tell us a little bit about your story and how you were raised and some of the challenges you've overcome there. Yeah. So you mentioned being raised in the inner city of Milwaukee. So definitely come from humble beginnings, aka poor. To be honest and to be frank, right? But I also had a team mom. So it was, I think this is the cycle. But for me, it was the long bus rides to school. My mom was very adamant about my education. So I went to parochial school, which did require long bus rides. So for high school, it was two hours, two from school. But grades were important,

participation in extracurricular sports and things of that nature were also important, but it was not an easy environment to be raised in, to be honest. My mom worked two jobs, first and second shift. So, I spent a lot of time with my grandparents or as a latchkey kid. Pete Slauson And so, you end up growing up and then you, somehow you get seven kids. I've heard they're studying on what causes that. Jai Radha Yeah, I was married, so I was married for 33 years. Yeah, 33 years. And seven kids. Seven kids. You gotta get the seven kids in there because that's a feat. One daughter and six sons, for sure. But they are, you know, except for Charles, all of them are

adults and thriving, productive members of society, thank goodness. So, did something right. Pete Yeah, I'm sure you did quite a few things, right? So, when you decided to end your 33-year marriage, and were you, now, during the time you were married and raising the kids, were you going to college at all? Were you climbing the corporate ladder and stuff like that? Because I know it's a part of your story. Charles Yeah, both of those things.

So, working, going to school at night, going to school on the weekend. So it was definitely burning the candle on both ends and in the middle, cooking the meals, helping the kids with their homework. I think I lived off of probably three, four hours of sleep during that period of time. But, you know, it's not, it's those are the things that fuel you, wanting to make sure that my kids had a different experience in life than I did. And that was really the thing that fueled my engine. And so you, you end up at one point deciding to start your own company. I did that recently, recently actually started deciding to start my own company, but it was really really more about I had a job that I loved and I was good at but

You know how you really wake up one day and you realize you're meant for more while I could do it in my sleep It was not the thing that was getting me out of the bed every day And so when I think about what motivates me, what brings me the most joy, it's really being able to pour into others and help to develop others and help them recognize the greatness within them. That was the aspect of the job that was most exciting and most exhilarating for me. And I think it's really in line with my purpose. And so, now you have two books to my understanding, correct? Debra Johnson Yeah, I do. So, the first book was released

about two years ago. It's called The Fix, Focus and Intentional Execution, The Seven Steps for Climbing the Corporate Ladder without Sacrificing Your Health or Neglecting Your Family. Pete Slauson I like neglecting my family though. They're annoying. Debra Johnson Sometimes they can be. you know, you can't help. You can't help. I have two Huskies.

They practice being annoying. So yeah, now you're out coaching people, helping them achieve their goals, et cetera, et cetera. Tell us some about some of the services you offer there. Yeah. So big, biggest thing for me is helping high achieving women to get position promoted and paid without the stress, without the burnout and without the waiting game, Chris.

So oftentimes women are waiting for someone to recognize their greatness or recognize how great they, how awesome they are, the value that they contribute. And it's really not a waiting game. It's really not being the best kept secret, but they need to be positioning themselves and making sure that they are evangelizing the value that they bring to the organizations that they work in. It's not their boss's job, and certainly their bosses are not sitting around thinking about how they are going to market Sally's greatness.

Yeah, you definitely have to advocate for yourself in this world. Debra Johnson You do, you do. And it's interesting, you know, we talk about the pay gap, but the society has a role in that. But also, the reality is that less than 30% of women even negotiate their salaries. Pete Slauson Yeah, I've heard that they're bad at negotiating or they don't.

Yeah. Debra They don't. And they're, you know, they don't for many reasons. But you know, some of it's just not knowing how to, other aspects is just being conditioned to think that people will just give you what they think you're worth. And some of it is just fear of rejection. Pete You might get a no. Debra You might get a no, but it's really important to reframe the relationship with rejection and really not see the no as a never, but to also see it as a negotiate, right? And the opportunity to negotiate for themselves and understanding how to do that is really

important as well. Oh yeah, yeah. Definitely. So, in your book, you get into basically calling people to greatness, being bold. You know, do women sometimes have trouble being bold like men? Debra Mm hmm. They do. They really do. I think, you know, it's, we're conditioned probably to think that, you know, if we are speaking about our accolades, then we're, you know, being obnoxious. You want other people to acknowledge how great you are or to stamp you as approved, if you will.

But I'm a firm believer that, you know, if I open my eyes this morning, I was approved to be here. I like your attitude. I'm number one, right? If I open my eyes, I have been approved by the person that matters, the entity that matters. They get a chance to do it again, but people see you how you see yourself. So if you don't see yourself as great and awesome and wonderful,

no one else is either. That's a good point. I see myself as awesome all the time. Listen, all of that and a bag of chips, sir. Pass the dip, please. Pass the dip, please. So what are some offerings you have on your website that you offer to people, courses? Tell us some of the stuff that's there. So a couple of online courses that I have, I also have a in-person two-day event called the Get Paid Accelerator that are running this April in

Atlanta, Georgia. It's really to help really give women a fast, I'm going to call it an intensive deep dive into all the things to help them get position promoted and paid, but also walk out of the room with a 90-day blueprint on the steps that they need to take in order to secure their next promotion or pay increase. Pete Slauson Wow. I mean, it's really something where you have to advocate for yourself in life. You have to be your own cheerleader. You have to really, you know, push, be seen. You know, there's a lot that goes, especially if you're

working in a corporate environment where, you know, you've got to compete with other people and sex. I think probably, do you counsel on entrepreneur women? Yeah, actually I do. Because I also think as entrepreneur women, the negotiation is different, right? It's not necessarily for a pay increase or anything like that, but it's really about positioning themselves against the competition. How do they market themselves and identify the right target audience, identify the right clients and secure the conversations with the right people to make sure that they are

creating the opportunities for them and their business to show up and to get the margins. And so you talk about different things like leadership and career development, getting the right tools. You definitely need to have the right tools to be a good leader. Anybody can be a leader technically, but a lot of people just suck at it. Self-empowerment and authenticity. Why is it important for people to discover authenticity and feeling self-empowered as opposed to victimhood? I think it's a matter of, everybody else has already taken. So how about figuring out who you are first and being the best version of you, which is key, right?

We're all different individuals, but I think it's important to understand your voice, your desires, what does success look like for you and being able to define that for yourself and not take someone else's definition of that. And I think that for me personally, that has been a big piece of my own journey is getting to a place where I was able to identify what success looked like, what it

felt like in my own life. And once I got clear on that, then I could create the roadmap that aligned and created and allowed that to become a reality for myself. Oh, yeah. Lots of good stuff people need to take and learn in this thing. Excellent growth and mindset. You empower them to shift their mindset, build resilience, and pursue goals of clarity. Tell us some kind of overview of that and how you help people. Deidre Yeah. So, it's really important to, you know, I think we all are up against different challenges in life. And it's a matter of how you see those challenges. Do you see them as truly you mentioned victimhood earlier in the conversation?

Do you see that you're a victim of those things or do you see them as opportunities for growth? So it's a matter of perspective and being able to shift that perspective. Most of the time, those are lessons, right? You either it's not a win or a loss situation, it's a win or a learning opportunity. And so, it's really reframing how you think about those things, how you approach those things to give yourself the best opportunity to overcome them. Pete Slauson You talk in your book about overcoming blind spots, I think like Andy Robinson's called them scatomas.

We all have blind spots where we, you know, we can't sometimes see what the real problem is or maybe we're in denial, we've blocked it out or maybe we just can't see it. Maybe we're kind of in our, what's the old adage? The fish can't see out of the water or something like that or the fish can't see through the glass. I don't know. There's some fish analogy about how they can't see that they're swimming in the water. I don't know. There's some fish analogy about how they can't see, I don't know, that they're swimming in water. I don't know. I'm sure some of the audience will figure out which reference

I'm referencing. I'm like, I haven't heard that one. I'm lost. I'll see if I can Google it real quick what you answered. But blind spots, the scotomans, how do those impact us? It's important to understand what your blind spots are, right? Because sometimes we're trying the same thing. What's the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over again and wanting a different outcome, right? But if you find that you keep running up against the same challenges and you're not getting to where you want to be, obviously there's something else there, right? And sometimes we don't want to recognize that there could be blind spots that

are impeding our ability to grow, evolve even further. We like to hear that we are all that in a bag of chips. So we talk to people who are fans. They're raving fans of ours. But I also think that it's important to talk to people that may find you difficult to work with or that you might find difficult to work with because sometimes those are the best people that are willing to tell you the things that you are not even noticing that are opportunities

for you or blind spots for you that need to be addressed so that you can evolve into your best version. And it's being willing to have those conversations, but also not necessarily being destined to hearing the feedback. It's just data. It is data. And sometimes we get so wrapped up and emotionally charged by the information that we're receiving because it's not necessarily what we want to hear, but it's the things that we need to hear that give us the best opportunity to evolve and to grow from there. Yeah, most definitely.

You know, so the reference I was trying to pull from is fish can't see water, evidently. I guess that's the thing. We can't see air, they can't see water, because they're just living in it. So they can't identify it as a separate thing. It'd be kind of weird if we can identify an oxygen tank. There's an analogy around, I think it's fleas, right? And so you can put them into a jar and they will jump out of the jar without a lid, right? But then if you put a lid on that container,

they then adjust their jumping to just that level. After you take the lid off, they will never jump out. And a lot of blind spots work pretty similarly, right? We condition ourselves in a certain way and we never evolve beyond that unless someone points that out or we are given an opportunity to push past that. So it's pretty similar to the flea with a lid on it. The lid flea, yeah, I've heard that analogy. It's pretty cool.

It's interesting how that works so you can train people who do things. What have we talked about? I think, didn't you say you had another website beyond DanaLCox.com? DanaLCox and FixCoaching.com, they pretty much bring you to the same information. Yeah, they bring you to the same information. Yeah, they bring you to the same information. One, essentially all the things about me, who I am, right, but also the services. So not just the individual things that I offer from coaching, but also business consulting from an operational efficiency, talent development, those types of things

are also aspects that I cover as well. Strategy, operations. So, it sounds like you cover a lot and you know a lot from both the corporate field and the entrepreneurial field, helping people do their thing. What do you find a lot of people are coming to you having issues with? What's a popular issue you're seeing from clients? K.D. You know, the one thing that has been resonating probably the most as of late is in regards to negotiation and how to have that conversation, what the conversation needs

to be, how to structure that conversation, and even getting to a place of confidence and belief in their own abilities in order to be willing to have the conversation. So it's been a lot around negotiation, not just from a salary perspective, but also from a seeking opportunity, growth opportunity perspective and things of that nature. So just helping them to get into the right frame of mind, but also as to how they see their work, what they've contributed to the organization and being able to talk about that from a way that resonates from a place of value. A lot of times there's a lot of ah-hahs because you can say, I did 23 projects this year.

And it's like, okay, so what, what does that mean? What does that mean? Why do I care that you did 23 projects this year? But if you say I did 23 projects this year that contributed to the organization making an additional $3.5 million, that's a very different conversation. I always negotiate with give me what I want or else and put the money in the bag. This sounds like robbery.

Oh, shit. I always get those two mixed up. I'm going to have to call my parole agent again. Damn it. Wasn't me. So, it's helping them to reframe even how they talk about the work that they do from a place of value. And when we have that conversation, a lot of times it's like, oh, that's what my boss wants to hear. Or that's what my boss needs to hear. It lands a lot different when you say, this is how much money I've enabled this organization

to make, or this is how much money I've enabled this organization to save. Show me the money. Show me the money. Show me the money. Show me that the numbers matter. I like to make sure that they, I say, not only know your numbers, but own your numbers. Right? So it's a matter of understanding the measurable impact that you are making within the organization and be able to talk about that, not be the best

kept secret around within your organization or within the marketplace. But also, when I say know your numbers, own your numbers, is one thing to say I want X salary or I deserve X salary. But do you know what that number is? Do you have done the research from a marketplace perspective to understand what you should be making based upon your education, your years in that type of field? Do you know that? And then are you willing to have the conversation? I like to have my clients do an exercise, spin in the mirror and say, you

know, I am worth and fill in the blank with that number When you say it, can you say it like a fact? Doesn't roll. Is it natural? Does it flow in that way? And if you can't say it? With your chest with your whole chest Chris, then you're not gonna say it to anyone else if you can't say it to yourself First or foremost, but if you can say it too easy, the number is too damn small. So it's supposed to make you sweat a little bit. So we need a sweaty number there. Not a huge sweaty number, you know, just a little sweat, a little palm perspiration.

Yeah. A little nervous. You do have to go high in negotiation to kind of be vital. You do. Yeah, you gotta pull the thing all the way out and extend the outside so you can get right down there to the middle. Please don't give a range. Stop giving ranges. Ah, do people do that? They go, this is a range of one and one they accept.

Really? And, you know, when you go buy a car, the car has a sticker on it. It has a price. It don't have a range. It's a price. It doesn't range. I can see somebody saying- People are going to offer you the lower end of that, right?

If you say my range is from here to here, they're going to offer you the lower end of that. They're not going to offer you the higher end of that. I can see somebody saying, what's my range? I'm like, I'll accept zero to a hundred thousand. And they're like, okay, zero. Damn it. I screwed myself again.

There's next year. Anything more we need to talk about, tease out on what you do, how you do it in the book, et cetera, et cetera. Oh, no, I, it's interesting that you asked the question. I think it's a matter of I have a free training tomorrow Oh, yeah Yeah, I'm afraid to me tomorrow. It's starting at six o'clock central seven o'clock Eastern. It's called the get paid formula Learn how to get paid your worth without the burnout. I cover

literally my get paid formula and To help you own it earn it and protect it. Wow. So give people a final pitch out as we go out on the book, tell them where they can get to know you better and handshake, maybe ask for time to see if you're a good fit together, et cetera, et cetera. Absolutely. So definitely reach out to me at Danaelcox.com or FixCoaching.com. You can schedule

a consult conversation with me directly from the website. Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn.com as well. I would love to connect with you and understand how I can best support your needs in this marketplace. Well, thank you very much for coming to the show. We really appreciate it, Dana. Thanks Chris. Thanks for having me. And I enjoyed having the conversation with you today. Thank you.

It's good to have a real bad ass on the show for a change. Hey, you know, thanks for wanting to know one Chris. Yeah, I'm not going to do any bad ass jokes on the show. I think at this point, cause I can only come with awful ones. Anyway, thank you very much for coming to the show, Dana. From burnout to bad ass. Flip the script on your work life story out, February 25th, 2025. Thanks for tuning in everyone. Go to Goodreads.com, Ford says Chris Foss, LinkedIn.com, Ford says Chris Foss, Chris

Foss won on the TikTok and he held this crazy place on the internet. the internet be good to each other stay safe we'll see you guys next time