Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur | Start and Grow Your Own Business 1190: From the ARMY to the FBI, here's how you master RESILIENCE as an entrepreneur w/ Sarah Draper
What does it truly mean to thrive—not just survive—as a leader or entrepreneur? Sarah Draper brings decades of high-pressure leadership experience from the Army and FBI into the entrepreneurial world, where she now empowers high-performing leaders to build resilience proactively. In this episode, Sarah dives into how to master energy, avoid burnout, and lead with clarity—sharing strategies that challenge the hustle-at-all-costs mindset. Whether you're building a business or leading a team, this episode will shift how you think about success, leadership, and well-being.
💡 What You'll Take Away For YOUR Business
- 🔋 Why managing your energy, not just your time, is key to sustainable success
- 🚧 How to embrace struggle as the path to growth (and stop fearing it)
- 🧠 The concept of pre-resilience and how to prepare for challenges before they hit
- 🕰️ Practical ways to create boundaries that protect your priorities and performance
- 💤 Why sleep and recovery are non-negotiable assets for entrepreneurs
- 🧭 How to reverse-engineer your goals by starting with your long-term vision
- ❤️ The role of relationships in resilience and leadership (backed by 86+ years of Harvard research)
📝 About the Guest
Sarah Draper is a leadership and resilience speaker, coach, and trainer who helps high-performing leaders master stress, energy management, and recovery for sustainable success. With experience at West Point, in the Army, and the FBI, she brings firsthand insight into high-pressure leadership.
Through her company, Leading Well Strategies, Sarah delivers keynotes, executive coaching, and development programs that challenge the “push harder” mentality. She empowers leaders to build resilience proactively, avoid burnout, and lead with clarity and confidence.
Sarah’s core belief: leadership strength isn’t about enduring stress—it’s about mastering it. Her work helps professionals shift from survival mode to strategic endurance, so they not only perform at their best, but stay there.
🎯 Sarah’s BEST Piece of Advice for Wantrepreneurs and Entrepreneurs
“Be open to surprises.”
Sarah encourages entrepreneurs to stay open to unexpected opportunities, even if they don’t fit your original plan.
Key takeaways from her advice:
✔ Your path may evolve in ways you never imagined—stay curious and flexible
✔ Surprising moments often spark your biggest breakthroughs
✔ Leave space in your schedule and mind for possibilities to find you
📢 Memorable Quotes
- “Resilience isn’t a trait—it’s a practice. It’s what you build before the storm hits.” – Sarah Draper
- “Energy is something you can build—and something you bring to every room you walk into.” – Sarah Draper
- “We’ll never get everything done. But if we prioritize ourselves, we’ll always get the right things done.” – Sarah Draper
💡 Actionable Takeaways
✅ Run an energy audit to track what drains you vs. what energizes you
✅ Define your personal boundaries—and notice how often you violate them
✅ Create a wind-down routine to improve your sleep and next-day performance
✅ Start your vision planning with your ideal future life, then work backward
✅ Use recovery (not just productivity) as a tool for growth and leadership
🔗 Links & Resources