What Ballet Can Teach You About Perfection, Feedback, and Not Falling Apart, with Megan Fairchild, NYC Ballet Dancer

What do ballet and building a company have in common?

Way more than you’d think.

Megan Fairchild is a principal dancer at New York City Ballet, an author, an NYU MBA grad, and a mom of three (including twins). In this episode, she gets radically honest about the pressure to perform—on stage, at work, and at home.

We talk about:

🩰 Perfectionism as a tool, not a personality flaw

🧠 How to give and receive feedback without spiraling

🤯 Living in constant comparison—and how to break out of it

🪞 What parenting taught her that ballet never could

🧘‍♀️ The anxiety that brought her to her knees—and how meditation brought her back

📚 Why she spent 15 years finishing her undergrad (and what it taught her about discipline)

If you’ve ever struggled with burnout, imposter syndrome, or the pressure to always be “on”—this episode will hit home.

🔔 Subscribe for more unfiltered conversations about ambition, identity, and doing things your way.

👇 Let us know in the comments: What’s something you learned the hard way about chasing excellence?

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