Reinvention is never easy, but it’s often the key to resilience and future success. In this episode, founder and CEO Johanna Danaher shares her journey of navigating career transitions, adapting to new challenges, and building Anchor to Aspire to help leaders and organizations thrive in a changing world of work. From embracing bold career pivots to reframing setbacks as opportunities, Johanna reveals the mindset shifts that fuel resilience and the strategies leaders need to prepare for the future of work. She also explores the importance of cultivating personal purpose alongside professional growth, offering listeners both inspiration and practical insights for their own journeys of reinvention.
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Anchor To Aspire: Founder And CEO Johanna Danaher On Reinvention, Resilience, And The Future Of Work
Reinvention is not a buzzword. In this day and age, it’s a survival skill. Many of us know that feeling. One day, you’re flying high. You’ve built this career, climbed that ladder, checked all the boxes, and then the next day, you wake up and you’re like, “I hate that.” At the same time, it’s also exciting because you realize that on that day, it no longer fits for you. It means you’ve grown. You’re ready to expand beyond. For our guest, the founder and coach, Johanna Danaher, that moment came after 25 years in the corporate world. When that came to an end, a new chapter was sparked.
Tapping experiences, which many of us have had, coming from motherhood, various forms of grief, health, diagnosis, and career of zigzags, is something she created a whole new book, as it were, that became Anchor to Aspire. That is her coaching practice that’s grounded in that whole paradox that you have to leap forward. You have to ground yourself. You have to anchor yourself in your values, your identity, and your energy, and then you have to aspire to what’s possible.
Her whole reason for being is to help women pause before the next leap and then fly forward. In our conversation, we talk a lot about that, but we also tap into the whole notion of this idea of the future of work. It’s already here. There are a lot of things that we need to start navigating, be it hybrid teams to AI disruption, a multi-generational workplace, which is something that is near and dear to my heart, and cognitive capacity, aka critical thinking, to all of us.
That’s near and dear to my heart as well. It is that ability to hold multiple perspectives and sit with complexity. I call it looking at an issue with dragonfly eyes. It is fast becoming one of the most critical leadership skills. Do you want to know something? If you build that one up, that will be your ticket to relevance. We talk about how women can learn to navigate boundaries and burnout by accepting some help, leaning on others, and getting some suggestions.
I honestly think that you will love this conversation. It’s about courage, resilience, and finding joy in that paradox and messiness of chaos, beauty, turbulence, and peace. Johanna’s very raw and vulnerable story is a reminder that reinvention is not about going back. It’s about painting what’s coming forward, and then going after it and getting it done. Let’s tune in, and let me know what you think. By all means, please let me know if there are other subjects that you’d like to tune into.
Readers, welcome, but a special welcome to what is going to be an extraordinary conversation with such an insightful and wise person. That person is none other than the Founder of Anchor to Aspire, Johanna Danaher. Johanna, welcome to the show.
Thank you so much. I am so thrilled to be here to talk with you, to talk with your readers, and to have this amazing conversation together.
Johanna’s Journey: From Corporate To Anchor To Aspire
Johanna is magical. We’re going to talk a little bit about the future of work, for sure, but we’re also going to talk about your place as you ride the many waves of work and notions such as reinvention of self, which is particularly relevant given the crazy times we find ourselves in. I’m going to go ahead and jump into it if I might. Are you ready?
I love that. I am.
I want to kick off a bit with the reinvention of self. I know that both you and I have lived many lives. You’ve built Anchor to Aspire around that whole idea of reinvention. For you personally, what did reinvention look like for you, and what sparked that journey?
This is a great question because there have been multiple times in my life where reinvention has played a part. When I formed Anchor to Aspire, it was after losing my corporate role. I had been in a corporate environment for 25 years. It was a very long, incredibly meaningful, and amazing career, and it ended. It ended at a period when I wasn’t quite ready for it to end.
I was planning. I was starting to think about what semi-early retirement would look like, but I was still fully invested, engaged, and passionate in the work that I was doing, and that ended. The spark for reinvention came at that moment in time. I was like, “What do I do now? Right? How do I define myself without the title, the job, and the corporate entity that I called home for so long?” That was where the genesis of Anchor to Aspire came from. It was at that moment.
I know for myself, it’s such a surreal situation you find yourself in. You get in your car, and you’re driving away. At least in my case, it was earlier in the day. You’re like, “Did this actually happen?” For you personally, on a mental self-worth level, what was that like?
For me, it was every emotion that you were talking about there. There was relief in some ways because my company had been going through significant transformations. There were workforce reductions. There were organizational structures. There was a little bit of relief, like, “Now I know. I don’t have to live through this again.” There was that.
There was sorrow. I had put a lot of my time and energy into it. I defined myself by my role, so there was grief and sorrow for that loss. There was also a little bit of joy because the change had the impact of another colleague getting promoted. I was happy to see that. There was also anger because I was frustrated with the fact that I was let go, and another colleague was also let go. There was everything coming into the mix. There was this moment where I also felt untethered because I didn’t know what would happen next. That was a moment of reflection for me. It was like, “What happens now? How do I figure it out?”
The Paradox Of Anchor To Aspire: Chaos, Serenity, And Self-Awareness
I’m debating because I love the meaning behind Anchor and Aspire. Let’s go to that. I want you to talk a little bit and share. The meaning of the name Anchor to Aspire, share a little bit about that, and how it reflects your whole notion and your approach to such a transformation.
Anchor to Aspire, I chose that name very intentionally. I chose it because of the paradox that the ocean represents. It’s chaos versus serenity. It is calm versus destruction. In many ways, it’s the giver of all life, and it can take life. The idea is that we can exist in paradox. We can hold two things that seem equally opposite to be equally true at any given moment. Joy and grief can be things that we experience at the same time, as well as happiness and despair. It sounds like you can’t, but you can. You can hold those two emotions together. Also, change and uncertainty.
Understanding your values, energy, and well-being are critical when you’re at the crossroads of your career. Share on XThe paradox of life is represented by the name of Anchor to Aspire. It started from thinking about the ocean and thinking about how you have to be anchored in who you truly are. It is that deep knowledge, deep self-awareness, and authenticity before you can truly aspire and operate at your highest potential. If we’re not anchored in ourselves, we are never going to be able to aspire to something greater.
The other paradox here that I like to talk about is this, because I had somebody ask me. They’re like, “Doesn’t an anchor hold you still and hold you back? It’s anchored in the ground.” I was like, “No, it doesn’t. It’s anchoring you in your values, but it allows you to move.” When you think about an anchor at sea, it’s holding you steady, but it does shift. It does pick itself up. It does reset. It allows you to shift and change while keeping you grounded in yourself.
Navigating Crossroads: Pausing To Discover What No Longer Fits
It is so incredibly important, I know, in the months to come, with all the various changes that are taking place in the world. Many women are facing this moment, or they begin to, when the life or the career they’ve built doesn’t fit. You outgrow. To your point, you were there, but you were like, “I’m not ready yet.” What advice do you give to those who are standing at that crossroads? On the one hand, you know, “My old tricks, I wish it felt comfortable, and it doesn’t. It’s too small, and I’m too big.”
There are a couple of things. It sounds a little counterintuitive because the first thing I would recommend is to pause. Don’t rush into the next thing. I say pause for a very specific reason because it’s about getting curious. It’s about pausing and understanding what no longer fits me. Is it the work that I’m doing? Is it the pace at which I’m doing it? Is it my values being misaligned with the organization that I’m operating in, or the work that I’m doing? Is it that I’m no longer energized by what I’m doing? What is it that no longer fits? What’s driving that feeling that you have? Either you’re stuck or you want something different.
It is then understanding and anchoring into what matters most for you. It is understanding your values, your energy, and your well-being. Those three things are critical. When I talk about values, a lot of us have done values assessments at some point in time. We probably did it early in our careers and probably haven’t looked at it again. We’re 20, 30, or 15 years into our careers, and the values that anchored us then may not be the values that anchor us now. Think about, “What matters to me at this moment in time?” and then start to think about moving into something that’s more aligned.
I also think, for me, there’s the myth of the safety net that the corporate world or the stability that I had in my role. That’s a myth. Stability does not exist. Also, the perception of stability, we often confuse that with fulfillment. Sometimes, what feels safe, normal, or the thing you should do is the thing that’s draining you. That’s the advice. Pause, get curious, and ask yourself those questions.
We often confuse the perception of stability with fulfillment. What feels safe or normal, or what we think we “should” do, can actually be draining. So, pause, get curious, and ask yourself those questions. Share on XValues That Evolve: Balancing Your Core With New Life Stages
I love that last piece. There’s nothing worse than working half-heartedly at all. Talk about the drain. I’m so glad you brought up the piece about how our values can shift. I spoke with Suzy Welch about this, and we went round and round. She says, “Your values are your values. They stay.” My experience is that there might be 1 or 2, but there’s so much contextual context that fuels and informs you. That’s what helps you shift. How do you help clients balance that anchor part with the aspire part?
There are a couple of different ways. Some of the things I will do are start with what energizes you. What is your energy showing? How are you showing up on the days that are the best days, and how are you showing up under stress? Your energy tells you a lot. It helps you to understand where you have deep satisfaction, and where that mismatch is happening.
I work with clients on understanding, “Now I know what’s happening. I know how I’m showing up under my best potential and the stressful moments, but I don’t know why. I don’t know what’s sabotaging me. What’s the trigger that’s bringing me there? How do I work with addressing that? Is it my inner critic? Is it imposter syndrome? Is it the belief that I have to do it all? What’s underneath all of this? Is it people-pleasing? Is it control or fear?” Understanding what’s energizing us and what’s holding us back is key. We can’t go anywhere until we understand those types of things.
Understanding what energizes us and what holds us back are key. We can't go anywhere until we understand those things. Share on XWe then do a values assessment. The values assessment is important. There might be 2 or 3 things that are core and central to you, but there are other values that may come in and out of your life at different times, depending upon your situation. Maybe you’re a caregiver of an aging parent. Something that’s going to be a deep value for you now might not be the same thing as it was when you were early in your career.
Let’s look at that. It’s not to say our values have to completely change, but we have to recognize that there are some things that are becoming more versus less important. We can then start to move into thinking about the aspire aspect of it once we understand what’s energizing us, what we value, and that deep component of what’s sabotaging our behaviors.
That is huge and key. With that in place, then you’re going to be better able to probably ride the various shifts that are taking place in the world around you, I would assume, personally and professionally.
100%. We know where our energy is going. Is it energy that is inspiring, or is it energy that’s draining? When we understand that, then we can ride the waves. I love the talk about riding the waves because the waves are always there. Sometimes, they might be small. Sometimes, they’re big. They’re always there. We can choose consciously how we respond to those waves, and we can only choose consciously if we understand ourselves and what matters to us deeply. Conscious choice, for me, is something I cultivate daily. I am moving from that reaction to the response. I want to consciously choose how I respond to any situation that comes at me, versus acting from impulse or that automatic response.
The Future Of Work Is Now: Embracing Constant Change And Agility
A little prefrontal cortex versus your amygdala. With that in mind, what are some of the shifts that you see shaping the future of work? What are some tips? Tell us how we should be preparing for them. It’s always been tricky, but particularly now, I feel as though there are more targets around us on not just our backs, but pick a body part.
There’s this question. We ask the question, “What about the future of work? Let’s predict the future of work.” There are a lot of wonderful articles and some deep thinking that’s happening. My answer is, the future of work isn’t something that’s coming. It’s already here. We’re in it. The future of work is now. That’s an important thing to reflect on because now is all we have. There’s the past, and then there’s the future, but now is the present moment. It’s always going to be changing.
When I think about the future of work, I think about change. I think about the ability to cultivate agility and resiliency. To recognize that change is the only thing that we can hold constant and embrace it. With change comes opportunity. It is scary, but it is where opportunity lies. That’s an important thing to think about. What’s shaping the future of work is the fact that we have to embrace this change.
AI is out there. Everybody’s talking about AI. Everybody’s talking about hybrid workplaces or hybrid ways of working. That’s the norm in this environment. I also think that there’s a need for belonging. There’s an increased need for clarity. There’s this deeper need for human connection. The loneliness pandemic, there’s a lot of writing about that out there. It’s real and true. Deep connection is something that we will need to continue to cultivate in the future of work.
Change is scary and the unknown is scary, but there’s also a thin line between fear and excitement. Probably, if you try to fuel and look at it as curious, I wonder what I’ll learn. In past times, when technologies have come about, women were often somewhat left behind. What I’m trying to encourage all of us to recognize is that this technology is one that plays completely to our intrinsic natural proclivities of being collaborative, being community-oriented, and working together. If everyone can play around again in there, see what it’s like, and start learning about these things, and see it as a partner or researcher, so we can do all the things that make us shine, beautiful, and great, it can do the dishes while we take all the compliments about the meal.
AI is something that augments us. It’s a tool that we can use to enhance what it is that we’re producing. There are a number of great articles that have been out there about AI and how to use it, and to recognize that it is something that can be leveraged in a way that drives our productivity in a different way. It enables us to take data and insights and then turn those insights into action.
Data is data. Insights are insights. We, the humans, have to go beyond the data and the insights to the experience, meaning, and emotion. AI can help us take those disparate pieces of data and help us craft some insights in different ways that we might not be able to do in a much faster way. We can turn something that we’re learning into an insight that drives an action, that creates a new experience, and that has that meaning and emotion. It is thinking about how we use AI in a way that augments what we bring to the table already, which is that deep reflection, human connection, co-creation, and collaboration, in a way that does it faster?
AI And Critical Thinking: Enhancing Human Insight, Not Replacing It
Concerns regarding technology in general. I’m not going to even make AI the bad person because AI has been here for a lot longer than probably any of us even recognized. There’s going to be more, and they’re going to be coming. With the depth and the breadth of our reliance on technology, do you have any concerns? Tell me.
There was a great article in Harvard Business Review on this. It was something I was diving into and reflecting on. What concerns me is that oftentimes with technology, we can offload our critical thinking. This is what the article talked about. That’s the concern I have. If we use AI correctly and if we use it to the best of our ability, we’re augmenting our critical thinking. We’re augmenting our ability to take those disparate dots and connect them into a story.
People often used to say to me, “You see the forest through the trees. You see each and every tree.” I’m like, “Yeah, because all of these are pieces of information. We can create, craft, and pull them together into a story or insight that enables us to move something forward.” People were always like, “How did you get there from here?” I’m like, “I’m looking at different pieces of data. I’m listening. I’m asking questions. I’m reflecting. I’m talking about lived experience as well. That’s how I got here, because I looked at all of these pieces as opposed to 2 or 3.” That’s how I think we can leverage AI, but the concern that I have is that many of us are going to offload to AI and not embrace our own critical thinking and our cognitive capacity.
My concern is many of us will offload to AI, neglecting our critical thinking and cognitive capacity. Share on XI was going to give a great example. We were at our dock. My sister-in-law and her daughter had their boat in the water, and they were taking it out. They hadn’t been down for a few days. We haven’t gotten any rain in Connecticut in forever, but it rained, so they had to pump it out. It was out of battery. They were like, “We got the battery started. Now, the pump isn’t working,” so they had to get in.
They’re underneath. They’re there, and they’re trying to reach the thing. They’re almost doing a headstand in the bilge of the boat. The bilge pump was in the place that schematically made the most sense for it to be, but you could not work on it. You couldn’t reach it. When it didn’t have the power and it had gotten jostled out, we couldn’t get it back on. We had to take apart and unscrew part of the boat to access it. It was in the right place, but it wasn’t accessible to humans to be able to fix it. That was a great example of how it was perfect, but not.
Thriving Amidst Complexity: The Role Of Coaching And Intentional Pause
The opening episode for this season was with the Editor in Chief of Harvard Business Review. What we spoke about was critical thinking. You’ve got some teams who are here and far away. You’ve got all of those generations. You’ve got new technology coming at you. How does coaching help people not just survive, but thrive in this constantly evolving landscape?
There are a couple of things. I’m a coach who works with a coach. I fully and firmly believe that every coach needs a coach because it helps us slow down. It helps me to take that pause. In the craziness of the busy world that we live in, it helps me to pause. I wrote about this on LinkedIn not too long ago. It was a quote from Socrates. “Beware the barrenness of a busy life.” It’s amazing. When you think about the barrenness of a busy life, you’re like, “I’m so busy. I’m not present.”
The idea that coaching can help carve out that time for you to be fully present with yourself is an important component of it. It is making space to focus on me. That’s something many women don’t do. I know I’m guilty of that. Self-care goes to the bottom of my list. Focusing on myself is and has always been something I don’t do, even though I teach about it and I teach about the importance of it. For me, in my coaching with my clients, it’s all about creating that space and giving myself permission to pause.
Coaching can help you carve out time to be fully present with yourself. Share on XIn general. To that point, when you do give yourself that permission to do that, you can respond versus react 9 times out of 10. Are there patterns that you’re seeing across the women with whom you’re working? It could either be shared challenges or their sources of strength. Is there a difference between generations? Are there some that are wired that way still because of who our mothers and grandmothers were, and we’re still working out some of those past generational kinks?
I would say yes to all of those things that you highlighted. The things that I’m seeing across most of my clients that I’ve partnered with Anchor to Aspire, and even in my coaching that I was doing in corporate, are three things. Setting boundaries is the challenge. It’s also a strength. The setting of the boundaries, the belief in the myth that I can do it all, and the need for people-pleasing are the challenges. When we shift that narrative and focus on understanding boundaries, why boundaries are important, and how we can control those boundaries, then it becomes our strength and one of our superpowers.
Another area that I do see, and this is interesting because I see it in different ways, depending upon the generation, is imposter syndrome and self-doubt. Most of my clients and my peers that I’ve been working with who are mid-career or mid-life, imposter syndrome is coming forward. It’s like, “I’ve gotten here, and what got me here won’t get me there. I’m not skilled enough to get there.” It’s that imposter syndrome and belief that we don’t carry the skills that we need to continue to succeed. It’s that self-doubt that’s showing up. It’s like, “Who am I to be where I am?”
For the younger generation, imposter syndrome is showing up differently. It’s like, “I have never worked in this type of environment. I’m post-COVID, where I don’t know how to make relationships. I don’t know how to network.” There’s that imposter syndrome showing up in that way, like, “I’m not good enough,” or, “People aren’t going to like me. How do I fit into the group?” That shows up often.
The third thing is purpose. This one’s also interesting because it shows up differently. One is purpose for students. My daughter is a sophomore in college. Purpose is important to her. Doing work that matters and doing work that aligns with her passion area is critical. She’s not going to work in a place that doesn’t align.
Purpose for women who have been in their career for multiple years plays an important part, but what comes into the conversation is, “I have to find my purpose somewhere else besides the workplace through volunteerism, caregiving, giving back, or whatever it may be. It’s not going to come to me here at my job.” That’s a belief that we have to unpack. We have to say, “That’s probably not true.” That’s a story you’re telling yourself, or you’re holding yourself back from finding that purpose in your work.
That will also potentially require patience. I completely agree with you. With the younger generation, one of the most outstanding examples of that is when different corporations said, “We are requiring everybody to come back to work.” These are big-name, formerly sexy brands like Apple and Google. Name all the names. Everyone said, “Okay, then I won’t work with you.” My generation was like, “Nobody ever says no to blah.” It’s like, “They do now.”
They’re looking for something. If we can’t deliver that, they’re looking for that human connection. They’re looking for that flexibility. They’re looking for the belief that you can do your work regardless of where you are. The generations are looking for different things. This is the first time we have five generations in the workplace.
We have to, as leaders, learn how to adapt our style and adapt how we communicate and engage with multiple different generations. What I was looking for and the values that brought me into the workplace might be very different from the values that are bringing this generation into the workplace. Although, I did start out my career as a gig worker before gig working was sexy. That was where I started.
Lifelong Learning And Global Networks: Fueling Personal And Professional Growth
Thank you. I always refer to myself as a Millennial before I was a Millennial, and I’m not a Millennial. It is so true. With all of this, how do you keep growing and nourishing yourself so you can stay present?
A couple of things. I’m a lifelong learner, 110%. I love to read any genre of books. I love to read thought leadership articles, and I do that every day. I start my day off every single morning by reading some thought leadership that someone in my network has shared. That inspires me. It gets me to do some critical thinking.
I start my day that way because I know I process information as I’m making my breakfast, taking my shower, or going for my morning walk. I always like to start my day with some sort of article that’s going to stimulate some thought. Usually, it’s something that is in an area I don’t know a lot about. It’s in an area where I have some ideas that might be counter or different from what the author is saying, so it’s stimulating that reflection.
The other thing is that I started a book club. It’s so fun. My girlfriends and I all get together. Everybody suggests the book that we’re going to read for the month. It brings in a completely different perspective and gives me new books to read that I probably wouldn’t have chosen myself. I’m constantly building my network. What’s important to me is to have a global network of people from various industries and different countries.
One of the things I miss about working in a multinational corporation is having instant access to anyone in the world. I’m intentional about creating a network that I can engage with. I truly believe that the network is not about how many people I know. It’s how well my network knows me. It’s about how they know me. That means that I’ve been authentic, I’ve been open, and I’ve been willing to engage in conversations to learn.
The network isn't about how many people I know; it's about how well my network knows me. Share on XThat is a very great, spot-on nuance. What kind of impact are you hoping that Anchor to Aspire will have?
For me, if I can raise the consciousness of the world one person at a time, that’s what I’m trying to do. I’m trying to help people understand that how they show up in stress and in regular environments is driven by our energy. Our energy is impacted by our environment and our ability to have mental clarity. It’s impacted by our physical health and well-being. It’s impacted by our emotions. All of those aspect makes us unique and human. How we then cultivate that awareness into doing something that matters is what I’m hoping that I can help people find. That’s the impact that I’d like to have.
I also want to help people find their happiness and joy. I want to help people find joy every day. Happiness is not a destination. Often, we think that happiness is going to come to us when we get the promotion, when we have the title, when we buy the big house, or when we have a 401(k). Happiness happens every day. It’s a choice we make every day. How can I help you and the clients make that choice and find that happiness every day?
That’s beautiful. What a different world we would be living in if we all started and ended each day with that experience and being our lived experience.
It’s very hard to do. How do we figure out what those small, meaningful habits are that we truly can make part of our DNA that enable us to find that joy and happiness and spread that kindness?
Your Life Is The Permission Slip: Trusting Yourself To Go All In
That’s exactly what I wanted to ask you. If you could leave readers with one practice or mindset shift that embodies that, what would it be?
There are a couple of things I would say. I talked about it before, this myth of the busy life. For me, it’s about the power of pause. No matter what you’re doing, pausing and taking a moment to get clear is so important. Before the big leap that you’re taking in your career or before the next yes that you say to anything, whether it’s going out with friends or taking on a project, anchor in what’s true to you. Why are you saying yes? If it’s truly something you want to say yes to, then do it right. Jump in feet first and do it. That’s the important component of this.
It is pausing, reflecting, saying no to the things that you want to say no to and not feeling guilt over it, and then releasing those things. Once you’ve released the clutter that’s holding you back and you’ve anchored in the things that you truly believe are what ground you, inspire you, and energize you, give yourself that permission to go all in. Invest in those things that matter most. One of the things that I love to say, and we talked about this before, is don’t wait for permission. Your life is the permission slip. That is 100% something I believe. Don’t wait for permission to go all in on yourself. Do it.
In addition to that, in terms of knowing what you know, I know that would probably be, first and foremost, the first nugget of advice you’d give your younger self. Are there other pieces?
Yeah. You can’t give yourself permission to go all in if you first don’t trust and believe in yourself. It’s trusting yourself. You can’t go all in. You can’t jump. You can’t take that step to where the magic happens, which is outside of our comfort zone, unless we trust and believe in ourselves. We have everything we need to be successful already inside us. Trust yourself.
We have everything we need to be successful already inside us. Trust yourself. Share on XThat is so true. The truth is, how can you expect others to trust you if you don’t? That’s the piece. That’s the little magic fairy dust that people feel, and then they’re like, “Whoa.” That’s what helps people hitch their wagon to you.
That followership starts with you and trusting yourself.
Thank you so much. I’ve so enjoyed this conversation. Chockablock nuggets. Are there any special promotions or things you want to talk about?
Yeah. Thank you so much for that. This conversation was incredible. I love having this dialogue with everyone. I am continuing the conversation. A fellow coach and I are hosting a mini webinar series on LinkedIn called Making WAVES to MOVE to JOY, where we unpack different myths. Some of them, I’ve talked about here. Others, our listeners are telling us what those myths are that have come in and hindered them or held them back. You can always find our Making WAVES to MOVE to JOY episodes on my website, which is AnchorToAspire.com, or follow me on LinkedIn, where I’ll share information on the upcoming episodes.
That’s fantastic. Please join me in saying, “Thank you, Johanna.” I appreciate your time, your generosity of spirit and wisdom, and also all the amazing work that you’re doing in helping us all shift and, frankly, anchor to aspire.
Thank you very much. We come together as a community of women. We are here in each other’s courts to support one another. Thank you so much for creating this space for these types of inspiring conversations. It’s very energizing to be a part of it.
It is my pleasure. Until next time.
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Unlocking Your Potential: Essential Takeaways For Reinvention And Resilience
You have to admit there were some incredible mottos and adages that are incredibly memorable, incredibly powerful, and, frankly, would make some pretty great t-shirts. Here we go for KB’s Takeaways. Thanks and compliments to Johanna Danaher, the Founder and Coach of Anchor to Aspire. First was an interesting take on networking. It’s great. We also often think, “More numbers are better,” but what is the depth of your connection with that network? Do not ask yourself, “How big is my network?” Start asking yourself, “How well does my network know me?” That is where the magic will start to happen.
My favorite, and we can’t say it enough, is the power of the pause. Exhale, everybody. You’ll be able to move forward in no time and be able to respond versus react. We’re going to need that a lot in the coming months and years ahead. Don’t confuse achievement with fulfillment. Is that not so true? You did it, but did you like doing it afterwards? Are you proud of what you did? Those are things to think about.
Trust yourself. Believe in yourself. Do what makes you happy every day. The thing about trusting yourself is that if you don’t, how can you even begin to think and ask that somebody will trust you? You’ve got to start with you. When you’ve got 1 finger pointing outside, there are 3 pointing back at you, so make sure you trust yourself. Finally, the permission. Don’t wait for permission. Your life is the permission slip.
Be sure to check out the information. She and her partner are going to be doing a program called Making WAVES to MOVE to JOY. I think it’ll be an amazing webinar. Thanks, as always, for reading in your time. I know you have a place you could be. I’m glad you’re letting me into your head. I look forward to the conversation continuing in the next episode.
Important Links
- Anchor to Aspire
- Johanna Danaher on LinkedIn
- Reinvention At Any Age: 3X NYT Best Selling Award Winning Author And NYU Stern Professor, And Initiative Director, Suzy Welch On Becoming You
- What Happened To Critical Thinking Today With Amy Bernstein
About Johanna Danaher
Johanna Danaher, ACC, CPC, ELI-MP
Johanna A. Danaher is the founder of Anchor to Aspire™ Coaching, where she helps leaders navigate life and career transitions with clarity, energy, and purpose. After a 25-year career at Pfizer leading global talent, culture, and leadership initiatives, Johanna shifted her focus to coaching—drawing on her own reinvention journey to guide others through theirs.
At Pfizer, she pioneered career “zig-zags” as an alternative to the traditional ladder, launched large-scale growth platforms, and led cultural programs that reached tens of thousands of colleagues worldwide. Today, she brings that expertise into her coaching practice, blending Energy Leadership™ and Positive Intelligence® to support clients facing pivotal moments—whether stepping into bigger leadership roles, moving toward retirement, or navigating the physical and emotional realities of midlife, including menopause.
Johanna’s work is grounded in science, energy management, and happiness research, but it’s also deeply personal. Living with celiac disease and managing an autoimmune condition taught her the importance of self-care and resilience. Those lessons fuel her commitment to helping people redefine success, harness their energy, and create fulfilling next chapters in life and work.
She lives on the Connecticut coast with her husband, while her daughter is in college studying hospitality and continuing her love of music. The ocean, outdoor adventures, and family connection continue to inspire Johanna’s mission: to be an authentic guide and catalyst for transformation in both the professional and personal realms.