Most leaders are not actually stepping into 2026. They are dragging unresolved decisions from 2025 behind them.

This episode of The School of Influence is a leadership walk around. Before you accelerate toward new goals, you need to inspect the frame you are building on. Momentum built on dysfunction always leads to burnout.

As a faith driven business leader and founder of the Influence Academy, I help entrepreneurs grow their impact, income, and influence through God honoring strategy. This episode calls leaders to stop chasing foliage that feeds the ego and start cultivating fruit that feeds the mission.

In this conversation, we break down:

• The Pilot’s Walk Around

Why speed without inspection creates hidden failure points.

• Fruit vs. Foliage

How to separate ego driven activity from real effectiveness.

• The Tax of Toleration

What you are allowing that is quietly draining your peace and energy.

• The Mirror Test

How fear gets disguised as wisdom, patience, or strategy.

This episode is not about doing more.

It is about removing what no longer belongs so your leadership can move forward clean, focused, and strong.

Most people don't truly "start fresh" in a new year; they often carry the "burden of the past" with them. We tend to cling to the old, rather than truly "let it go" and embrace a clean slate. This video explores why we must confront the "burden" we bring into new beginnings, rather than simply dragging our "past" along.