In this episode of DissedMedia: A Startup Story, host Ben Olmos sits down with Dr. Eboni L. Truss, founder of The Unbecoming Movement, to explore leadership fulfillment, how high-performing leaders can rediscover purpose and authenticity when achievement no longer feels satisfying. For much of her career, Dr. Truss followed the traditional success formula, climbing the professional ladder, collecting accolades, and building a thriving business. Yet beneath all that progress, she realized she had drifted from the purpose that once drove her. That realization became the foundation for her work helping others move from performance to purpose.
When Achievement Isn’t Enough
Dr. Truss began her journey in education as a teacher and school administrator before stepping into entrepreneurship. Like many ambitious professionals, she listened to the experts, hired coaches, and pursued every best practice she could find.
Over time, that pursuit turned into pressure. The business metrics looked good, but the deeper sense of connection and fulfillment began to fade. She had become an expert at achieving goals that no longer felt like her own.
This tension between external achievement and internal satisfaction is common among leaders and founders. Success becomes a moving target, always advancing, never fulfilling. That realization marked the turning point for Dr. Truss and inspired her to create a new framework for growth: one grounded in authenticity, not applause.
Untangling Success: The “Unspaghetti” Approach
Dr. Truss uses the idea of “unspaghetti-ing your brain” to describe the process of regaining clarity after years of chasing achievement.
Just like tangled earbuds, life can become a mess of overlapping priorities, expectations, and identities. Her process begins with slowing down, creating space to listen, reflect, and identify what’s truly meaningful. From there, she helps leaders find the threads of alignment still present in their work and rebuild from that foundation.
The goal isn’t to start over; it’s to start fresh, with intention. Leaders can’t build something sustainable if they’re doing it from a place of disconnection. Fulfillment starts when you realign your goals with your genuine values.
The Cost of Constant Performance
Many leaders fall into the trap of performing success rather than experiencing it. The constant drive to deliver results, gain recognition, and project confidence often leads to exhaustion and burnout.
Over time, those patterns turn into identity. People begin to measure their worth by their output and lose touch with who they are outside of achievement. This is where many high performers hit a breaking point, they realize they’re living a version of success that looks good on paper but feels hollow in practice.
Dr. Truss’s message is clear: fulfillment doesn’t come from doing more. It comes from reconnecting with why you started in the first place.
A Framework for Unbecoming
The Unbecoming Movement is built on three simple but powerful steps that leaders can use to find alignment again:
- Unravel the noise. Identify what’s truly important and separate it from the external pressures and expectations that create distraction.
- Find the through lines. Look for areas in your work and life that still align with your purpose and authenticity, even in small ways.
- Rebuild with authenticity. Design your daily actions and decisions around values that reflect who you are, not who others expect you to be.
These steps help leaders transition from performance-driven success to purpose-driven fulfillment. It’s a process of returning to self, less about reinvention and more about reconnection.
Reclaiming Your Leadership Identity
For founders and executives, it’s easy to lose personal identity inside a growing business or corporate structure. Professional roles become masks, different versions of yourself that adapt to expectations rather than truth.
Authentic leadership begins when those masks come off. When you stop chasing validation and start living in alignment with your purpose and authenticity, the metrics that once defined success begin to take on new meaning. Instead of measuring your worth by output, you measure it by impact, balance, and integrity.
Fulfillment in leadership is not about abandoning ambition. It’s about pursuing success that feels as good internally as it looks externally.
Building Support and Community
True transformation doesn’t happen in isolation. Dr. Truss and host Ben Olmos discuss the importance of surrounding yourself with a balanced circle: mentors who challenge you, peers who grow with you, and individuals you can lift up in turn.
That ecosystem creates accountability and perspective, reminding leaders that fulfillment is a shared process. When you engage with people who value purpose and authenticity over performance, you begin to reframe what success truly means.
Start the Process of Unbecoming
For executives and entrepreneurs ready to realign their success with authenticity, Dr. Truss offers a practical entry point:
A 3-Step Guide to Live the Life You Actually Want to Live
The guide walks readers through reflective exercises that help untangle priorities, rediscover values, and build a more intentional approach to leadership and life. It’s a simple but powerful resource for anyone who feels successful on paper but stuck in practice.
Listen to the Full Conversation
Episode 31: Redefining Fulfillment in Leadership with Dr. Eboni L. Truss
Available now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.
Connect with Dr. Eboni L. Truss:
- Website: https://eboniltruss.com/
- LinkedIn: Dr. Eboni L. Truss
