The Story of How Your Ancestry Guides Your Resilience

About Our GuestSandy Davis is a fractional COO, the founder of Elevate Operations Advisory, and the voice behind Elevate Within on Substack. With over 25 years in operations leadership across investment banking and commercial real estate, she now partners with founder-led businesses to fix the operational breakdowns that quietly stall growth, so founders can stop being the bottleneck and teams can scale sustainably. Her work sits at the intersection of operational strategy and personal resilience.Website: Elevate Operations AdvisoryLinkedIn: Sandy DavisSubstack: Elevate WithinThat moment when life hits you with everything at once. Loss, burnout, identity collapse. You wonder if you’ll ever find solid ground again. Many of us have been there. This week’s episode with Sandy Davis pulls back that exact layer.Sandy’s story isn’t the polished bounce-back tale. It’s the raw truth of losing both parents within 37 days, right as corporate burnout peaked and her 50th loomed. The white void of grief turning black. Survival autopilot kicking in while the world demanded she keep performing. Then, the slow reclaiming. Through her mom’s journals, sitting with different versions of herself, and deciding to rebuild on her own terms.We peel into what resilience actually looks like when the Instagram version fails. Not quick recovery, but the kind forged in fire. The masks we wear, especially as women navigating corporate spaces. And that inner voice, the little girl, the 20-year-old, still there beneath the noise, still looking for purpose.Sandy now leads as fractional COO at Elevate Operations Advisory, turning founder chaos into scalable systems. But her real work lives at the intersection of operations and personal rebuilding.“My mom gave me what she could,” Sandy said, “so I could become who she couldn’t.”If you recognize yourself somewhere in Sandy’s story, we’re here. No need to have it figured out first.Reach us at [email protected] Ohannesian is the founder of Triage Coaching and Consulting, where she helps high-performing individuals and teams regulate burnout, shift stress patterns, and build sustainable performance using heritage-informed approaches. She offers one-on-one coaching, group programs, and retreats.Learn more: triagebalancedlife.comYoshie Barnett is the founder of Lotus Flower Journeys and a Crossroads Coach for high-achieving women ready to move beyond perfectionism and reconnect with themselves.Learn more: lotusflowerjourneys.com