--- title: "What UNBOUND Taught Me About Being \"Too Much\"" description: On the UNBOUND stage I talked about happier workplaces. What I was really talking about was the leader I had to become to build one. image: https://intuitive.ceo/hubfs/PP%20blog%20images%20(1)-2.png --- [Skip to content](https://intuitive.ceo/blog/what-unbound-taught-me-about-being-too-much#main-content) [![ICEO - LS - red (2)](https://intuitive.ceo/hubfs/ICEO%20-%20LS%20-%20red%20(2).png)](https://intuitive.ceo) - About - [The Intuitive CEO Method](https://intuitive.ceo/the-intuitive-ceo-method) - [Why Me](https://intuitive.ceo/why-work-with-me) - [Case Studies](https://intuitive.ceo/case-studies) - [Podcasts & Media](https://intuitive.ceo/podcasts-and-media) - Executive Coaching - [1:1 Programmes](https://intuitive.ceo/coaching-services) - [Taster Session](https://intuitive.ceo/the-taster-session) - [Executive Coaching for Senior Leaders](https://intuitive.ceo/executive-coaching-for-founders-senior-leaders) - For Organisations - [The Human Lens](https://intuitive.ceo/human-centred-coaching-for-organisational-change-the-human-lens) - [Group Workshops](https://intuitive.ceo/group-workshops) - [The Happy Workplace ↗](http://thehappyworkplace.org.uk/) - Resources - [Leadership Archetype Quiz](https://intuitive.ceo/leadership-archetype-quiz) - [The Conscious Leader Journal](https://intuitive.ceo/the-conscious-leader-journal) - [From Burnout to Fulfilment Workbook](https://intuitive.ceo/from-burnout-to-fulfilment) - [Blog](https://intuitive.ceo/blog) - [Speaking & Events](https://intuitive.ceo/speaking-and-events) - [Book a Discovery Call](https://intuitive.ceo/discovery-call) This is a search field with an auto-suggest feature attached. - There are no suggestions because the search field is empty. # What UNBOUND Taught Me About Being "Too Much" [Gemma Price](https://intuitive.ceo/blog/author/gemma-price) Oct 5, 2026, 3:13:37 PM ![What UNBOUND Taught Me About Being ](https://intuitive.ceo/hubfs/PP%20blog%20images%20(1)-2.png) There are moments when you suddenly see the distance between where you started and where you're standing. Being on the UNBOUND stage, delivering a talk in Boston, USA was one of those moments for me. I want to be clear about what I mean, because it isn't "look at me, I got a stage". It's that I stood in front of a room full of leaders and said, out loud and at scale, something I'd spent years quietly testing inside my own business: > You can build a company with high standards *and* real humanity, and you don't have to pick one. After the nerves and the talk, there was a queue of people who couldn't wait to tell me it had resonated, and for the rest of the week I kept being stopped in the corridors with "that makes so much sense to me". ### I had the idea long before I had the proof I started HubGem around seven years ago with a belief about how work could feel, and absolutely no evidence that it would survive contact with reality. As a leader and employer, I wanted people to be trusted. I wanted flexibility to be normal rather than a favour. I wanted a team who could be whole human beings with lives outside work and still do brilliant work. At the time some of that felt unconventional. Some of it probably sounded like a lovely idea that would fall over the first time we had to make payroll. It didn't. We're now a team of around 25, and we've been named the #1 World's Happiest Workplace for 2026 (WorkL) as well as one of the 2026 Global Top 100 Inspiring Places to Work (The Inspiring Workplaces Group). None of it came at the expense of being a commercially serious business. I care about growth, profit and performance as much as I ever did. > A happy workplace isn't one with a fruit bowl and no accountability. It's one where people are trusted, expected to do great work, and treated like humans while they do it. High standards and humanity aren't opposites. For me they've always been the same conversation. ### It wasn't tidy I don't want to tell this like a neat upward line, because it wasn't one. I've made mistakes as a leader. I've had financial pressure and hard decisions about people, and there have been stretches where I wondered whether I could carry everything I'd created. I've done all of it while raising two young children and running more than one business. There has been a lot of "I have no idea if this will work" along the way. I've done a lot of things that frightened me, mostly because I'd rather move towards something that matters than wait until I feel fearless. Fearless never arrives. For a long time I also worried that I was too much. Too ambitious, too intense, too passionate, too emotional, too curious, too driven. So I diluted it. I made myself a bit more palatable in certain rooms. Somewhere along the way I realised those weren't flaws to be managed. They were the reason any of this existed. So when I stood on that stage, I wasn't only "CEO Gemma". It was all of me the person who had ideas before she knew whether they'd work, the founder who took the risks, the employer who cared how her team's days felt, the mum juggling children and leadership, the woman who made mistakes, learned from them, and kept choosing to build around what she believes. ### Why this matters to me Work doesn't stay at work. How someone is treated for most of their waking week turns up at the dinner table. It shows up in how they parent, in their confidence, their health and their relationships. A leader who creates safety, trust and room to breathe sends a different version of their team home at the end of the day. > Culture has a human impact. That's why I can't stop talking about it. It isn't just my subject matter. It's something I believe can make people's lives better. ### Culture starts inside the leader After years of building culture, and now years of coaching leaders, this is the thing I'm most sure of: culture isn't something you install. It's a reflection of how leaders think, react, decide and show up under pressure. Your team can't feel safe around someone who is running on fear, approval-seeking or exhaustion, however good the values poster looks. And you can't lead from a place you haven't been willing to look at. Check out how I support leaders through [The Happy Workplace Leadership Programme](https://thehappyworkplace.org.uk/the-happy-workplace-leadership-programme/). That's why, alongside [The Happy Workplace](https://thehappyworkplace.org.uk/), I work 1:1 with leaders through [The Intuitive CEO](https://intuitive.ceo/)*®*. It combines neuroscience, psychology and intuitive intelligence to work at the level where most coaching doesn't reach: identity, belief and the deeper patterns that shape every decision you make. I'm not a coach who has read about leadership. I've led, and I coach from there. This might be for you if:   - You're successful on paper, but you feel the gap between that and how it feels inside - You're in the middle of a significant transition in your leadership or identity - You've collected enough frameworks and you know the missing piece isn't another one - You want to lead from inner authority, not performance, approval or fear There are four ways in, depending on where you are: - **The Compass:** a single 90-minute session to cut through one decision or crossroads - **The Reset:** four weeks for leaders running on empty - **The Recalibration:** eight weeks to realign your identity, decision-making and direction - **The Expansion:** twelve weeks of the deepest work, for leaders at an inflection point > [See my 121 coaching journeys and learn more here.](https://intuitive.ceo/coaching-services) ### The bit I keep coming back to The businesses, the awards and the growth matter. But behind every workplace statistic there are human beings. If even one leader reading this changes how they speak to their team, gives someone more trust, becomes a little more self-aware, or creates a place where somebody enjoys going to work, that impact travels home with that person. That's why I'm going to keep talking about this. If that leader is you, **come and talk to me.** > [**Book a discovery call →**](https://intuitive.ceo/discovery-call) [Featured](https://intuitive.ceo/blog/tag/featured) [Mindset](https://intuitive.ceo/blog/tag/mindset) [Women](https://intuitive.ceo/blog/tag/women) [High-Achievers](https://intuitive.ceo/blog/tag/high-achievers) ## Related Posts ### [Jul 8, 2026, 3:18:13 PM Executive Coaching vs Therapy: How to Know Which One You Actually Need](https://intuitive.ceo/blog/executive-coaching-vs-therapy) ### [Jun 5, 2026, 9:12:09 AM Why High Achievers Can't Switch Off (And What's Really Happening Beneath the Surface)](https://intuitive.ceo/blog/why-high-achievers-cant-switch-off) ### [May 28, 2026, 10:10:36 PM Success on Paper, Restless Inside: What Your Discomfort Is Trying to Tell You](https://intuitive.ceo/blog/success-on-paper-restless-inside) ![ICEO - LS - red (2)](https://intuitive.ceo/hubfs/ICEO%20-%20LS%20-%20red%20(2).png) Executive Coaching by The Intuitive CEO®. For founders, CEOs and senior leaders ready to lead from clarity, confidence, and sustainable inner authority. *The Intuitive CEO® is a registered trademark of Purpose Panda Coaching Ltd.* ![2-2](https://intuitive.ceo/hs-fs/hubfs/2-2.png?width=1920&height=1080&name=2-2.png) ![3-1](https://intuitive.ceo/hs-fs/hubfs/3-1.png?width=1920&height=1080&name=3-1.png)   - About - [The Intuitive CEO Method](https://intuitive.ceo/the-intuitive-ceo-method) - [Why Me?](https://intuitive.ceo/why-work-with-me) - [Executive Coaching Programmes](https://intuitive.ceo/coaching-services) - [Group Coaching & Workshops](https://intuitive.ceo/group-workshops) - [Blog](https://intuitive.ceo/blog) - Contact - [Book a Discovery Call](https://intuitive.ceo/discovery-call) - [Contact](https://intuitive.ceo/contact) © 2026 All rights reserved. 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