WELCOME TO THE BALANCING ACT

There’s a strategy behind sustainable success.

Balancing Act draws on years of executive coaching, performance science and real lived experience to reveal what genuinely drives long-term results, and what quietly undermines them. It brings clarity to the pressures of modern leadership and shows how the right structures, habits and decisions can transform the way you navigate work, wealth and wellbeing. It’s a practical guide for those who want results that won’t cost them the rest of their life.

The book is a strategic blueprint for operating at a high level without burning out or losing sight of what matters most. It’s shaped by the conversations, challenges and breakthroughs I’ve shared with leaders, founders, athletes, military professionals and individuals navigating real-world pressure – people who needed a way to perform without paying for it later.

At its core sits the Calibration Model, a framework that helps you understand what drives your performance, where friction is forming, and how to recalibrate before things unravel. It recognises the realities of modern work and life: competing demands, shifting priorities, sudden pressure, and the constant challenge of maintaining clarity.

Across the chapters, you’ll find practical tools, evidence-based insight and lived experience. Themes such as decision-making, emotional intelligence, structure, identity, resilience and recovery sit alongside real stories from contributors who have led, rebuilt, shifted direction or found strength in the moments that mattered.

Throughout the book, QR codes take you directly into the Balancing Act Resource Hub (which you’ll find here, on this site) where you can access extended interviews, downloadable tools, visual explainers and prompts designed to help you apply the ideas and frameworks immediately.

Whether you’re advancing, pivoting, or defining success on your own terms, Balancing Act gives you a structure and the confidence to build results that are sustainable, strategic and grounded in who you are.

The Calibration Model gives you and your teams a clear way to understand what truly drives sustainable success. By mapping the three core paradigms of Money & Mission, Mental & Physical Health, and Work & Life, it highlights where alignment is strong, where pressure is building and where recalibration is needed. It’s a practical tool for leaders who want clarity, capability and balance that lasts.

The model was developed through years of coaching leaders who were capable, driven and ambitious, but operating under pressure that wasn’t sustainable. They didn’t need more motivation. They needed structure. A way to understand their world and the forces shaping their performance.

The Calibration Model brings that structure.
It simplifies complexity and helps you see the elements underpinning your decisions, your energy, your behaviour and your outcomes.

Money & Mission: How you earn, what you’re pursuing and whether your direction aligns with what matters to you.

Mental & Physical Health: Your capacity, clarity, resilience and emotional bandwidth.

Work & Life: The rhythm, boundaries and structure that influence how you show up in every part of your world.

Individually, each paradigm matters.
Together, they shape the quality, sustainability and direction of your performance.

The model also shows how these areas interact, how a shift in one creates ripple effects through the others. This insight helps you recognise early signs of overload, reconnect with your priorities and strengthen alignment during change.

It becomes a practical tool you can use personally and professionally:
– to guide decisions
– to support teams
– to anchor performance in wellbeing
– to maintain clarity in transitions
– to build results that last

Supporting the model are the three Calibration Tools explored in Balancing Act: Emotional Intelligence, Skilled Communication and The Resilience Advantage. Together, they create a complete method for navigating work, wealth and wellbeing with capability and control.

I’m Sarah Brennand, an executive coach, strategic educator and performance specialist. I work with leaders and organisations navigating high-pressure, high-performance environments, helping them build capability and achieve sustainable success.

I’m the Founder of L7 Executive Coaching and Co-Founder of Illuminare Executive Education, organisations delivering leadership and business solutions across the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. My work centres on strategy, performance and the ability to operate with pace and alignment in environments that demand both.

I’ve coached and advised across sectors including finance, engineering, education, hospitality, energy and elite sport. I’ve supported organisations through growth and transformation and coached individuals at pivotal moments – career transitions, leadership shifts, business expansion, and periods where performance and wellbeing needed to move together.

I’ve also lived the balancing act I write about. I’m a proud mum to three children, and raising a family alongside career growth has shaped my understanding of resilience, priority and the discipline required to perform under pressure. It’s taught me as much as any formal role or qualification.

Alongside this, I choose challenge. Endurance and adventure events give me something to train for and remind me that pressure requires structure, mindset and stamina. Leadership is no different.

Balancing Act brings these worlds together: the strategic models I use with clients, the tools that drive performance, and the mindset that sustains it. It’s a formula for mastering work, wealth and wellbeing – a practical toolkit for those serious about creating success they can maintain.