Most organizations reach for a new survey tool, a values refresh, or a round of mandatory trainings when they want culture to change. Mentoring programs, meanwhile, often get written off as nice-to-have — a checkbox with limited real impact. Artimisha Curl, Head of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity & Belonging at El Camino Health, proved otherwise: she built a mentoring program grounded in psychological safety that doubled as leadership development, professional development, and culture building all at once — and it’s become one of the highest-ROI moves in her organization. In this episode of Leading Below the Surface, LaTonya Wilkins talks with Artimisha about the pilot program they built together, why most mentoring programs don’t work, and how this one is already reshaping culture at El Camino Health.

In this solo episode of Leading Below the Surface, LaTonya Wilkins breaks down why surface-level networking and activity aren’t enough, what it really means to lead and coach below the surface, and why your deepest differentiator in the AI age has nothing to do with technique.

In this episode of Leading Below the Surface, LaTonya Wilkins sits down with Tamala Floyd Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Psychotherapist, and the first Black IFS lead trainer for a raw and revelatory conversation about Internal Family Systems (IFS), ancestral trauma, and what it really means to heal below the surface.

In this episode of Leading Below the Surface, LaTonya Wilkins sits down with two seasoned HR veterans, Turiya Gray and Krista Lane, for a candid, no-holds-barred conversation about the reality of working in and with HR. From performance review politics to AI-driven layoffs, they unpack what HR is really for, who it actually serves, and what grounded HR leadership looks like.

From the broom closet to full visibility, Erin shares how astrology became a grounding tool in her coaching practice and how it helped LaTonya make sense of some of her biggest life transitions. Together they explore how your sun, moon, and rising signs can reveal the way you move through the world, how the lunar cycle can inform your energy and decision-making, and why the most powerful coaching sometimes looks nothing like traditional coaching at all. This is a conversation about identity, intuition, and what becomes possible when we stop letting capitalism define how we show up for each other.

Drawing from decades of experience at the intersection of financial coaching and economic justice, Saundra unpacks why so many people — especially people of color — struggle with money, and why that struggle has far less to do with personal failure than with systems designed to extract wealth from those least equipped to fight back. This episode offers compassion, clarity, and a reframe of what it truly means to build wealth.

What does it really mean to be trauma-informed—and why does this matter far beyond therapy? In this deeply personal and educational episode, LaTonya Wilkins sits down with Lion Goodman, coach, author, and founder of the Clear Beliefs Institute, who shares his incredible story of surviving being shot in the head four times—and how that life-altering moment shaped his approach to healing and leadership.

Lion breaks down the difference between surface-level coaching and therapeutic coaching, how trauma shows up even in “successful” people, and how we can begin to unhook the past to truly move forward. Whether you’re a coach, a leader, or someone who wants to support others more skillfully, this conversation is rich, grounded, and unforgettable.