Achieve your goals without Losing Yourself

Meet Ruth Pearce

I’m Ruth Pearce, JD, PCC, PMP — a leadership keynote speaker, coach, and behavioral‑science practitioner. I help high‑achieving, mid‑career professionals and leaders create sustainable success: success that feels as good on the inside as it looks on the outside.

I’m bold and authentic, an artful listener, quietly brave, decisive, and disarmingly plain‑spoken. I live in Durham, North Carolina — an eclectic, evolving city that matches how I work: curious, irreverent, and always growing.

Who I'm Here For

I work with people who are deeply capable, deeply responsible… and deeply tired.

  • Leaders who look like they’re “firing on all cylinders” but feel like a shadow of themselves inside

  • Mid‑career professionals who’ve checked all the boxes and still feel a quiet “Is this it?”

  • Organizations who see their best people delivering results but showing signs of burnout, disengagement, or loss of spark

    • If that’s you — or your leaders — you’re in the right place.

    My Own Story of Collapse (a.k.a. Burnout)

    I wasn’t the first person to realize I was burned out.

    My husband noticed first. He described me as “absent.” Then my dogs seemed puzzled by me — looking for the human they signed up for, not the distracted person rushing past them.

    The last people to see it were my colleagues. In a high‑stakes offsite meeting, surrounded by senior leaders, I suddenly stood up and spoke out. It wasn’t a planned act of bravery. It was my body, my integrity, my spirit refusing to stay silent any longer.

    It cost me. And it saved me.

    For years I’d been “in the middle” as a project manager — pulled between team and leadership, drawn into politics, focused on meeting others’ expectations even when they didn’t feel like me. I gradually disappeared under the role.

    That turning‑point moment was messy and expensive. It was also clarifying. It sent me on a long journey through:

    • Economics and law

    • Mediation and conflict resolution

    • Therapy and coaching

    • Positive psychology, character strengths, and hope theory


    Two questions guided me:

    1. How did I get here? What choices and ignored signals led to that collapse?

    2. How can I help other people avoid crashing as hard as I did?


    I experiment so others don’t have to. I learn so I can help people be more than the sum of what they’ve endured — so they can become more of who they were always meant to be.

    Lesson series

    What I  Do Now

    Today, I bring that lived experience and years of study into:

    • Keynotes and workshops for organizations who want their leaders to perform at a high level without burning out

    • Coaching for mid‑career professionals who want to feel like themselves again

    • Frameworks and tools that help people move from “I can’t keep doing this” to “I know what’s next and how to get there”


    My work lives inside two core frameworks:

    • Be Hopeful, Be Strong, Be Brave, Be Curious® – my registered trademark book and philosophy, built around four powerful leadership mindsets.

    • The Six Levers of Sustainable Success™ – a practical leadership model that helps high‑achievers adjust how they use strengths, hope, courage, curiosity, purpose, and alignment so success becomes sustainable.

    Together, they form a whole‑person operating system for leaders and professionals who want to thrive, not just cope.

    Professional Bio (The Short Version)

    • Founder of Pearce Insights® and the A Lever Long Enough brand

    • Leadership keynote speaker and coach focused on sustainable success and burnout recovery for high‑achieving leaders

    • JD, PCC (ICF‑credentialed coach), PMP – with backgrounds in law, project management, and behavioral science

    • Author of Be Hopeful, Be Strong, Be Brave, Be Curious™

    • Creator of the Six Levers of Sustainable Success™ framework

    I blend legal thinking, project discipline, positive psychology, and coaching to give people tools they can actually use — not just ideas that sound good on slides.

    Ready to Talk?

    If any part of my story resonates with you — or sounds like your leaders — let’s talk about what sustainable success might look like for you or your organization.
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    Words I live by

    “Get comfortable with being uncomfortable.”

    "All you need to be interesting to me is a unique story. And everyone has a unique story - even if you don't think you do!"
    R.T. Kelly, 1930 - 2000, Ruth's Dad
    “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless yet be determined to make them otherwise.”
    F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1896-1940
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