How to Deal With a Narcissist Without Losing Your Mind | The Ripple Effect Podcast
The Ripple Effect Podcast with Steve Harper
Release Date: 03/24/2026
What You're Willing to Risk Shapes the Life You Get (The Ripple Effect Podcast ft. Jason Boulette)
The Ripple Effect Podcast with Steve Harper
You can do everything right in your career and still find yourself staring at the ceiling at 2 am, wondering what exactly you’re building. The title sounds impressive, and the salary looks good, but somewhere along the way the thing that was supposed to give you a life started quietly taking it. The years go faster than the days, and it’s easy to look up one morning and realize the schedule you built isn’t the life you meant to have. This episode is about what you’re willing to risk to change that, and how much of your time you’re okay trading for comfort. Work-life balance sounds...
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Proof You Can Start Over Without Walking Away From Everything ft. Michele Trongaard
The Ripple Effect Podcast with Steve Harper
Twenty-three years is a long time to spend earning a reputation. Michele Trongaard has one that precedes her everywhere she goes in this industry, and after sitting across from her for this conversation, I understand exactly why. Michele is stepping away from her role as a district CFO after more than two decades in public school finance, and she's doing it on her own terms, heading into a new chapter rather than just closing the book on the old one. I wanted to talk with her about what actually built that reputation, because it wasn't the budgets or the balance sheets. It was something much...
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What the Best Leaders Can't See About Themselves (The Ripple Effect Podcast ft. Brian Vogel)
The Ripple Effect Podcast with Steve Harper
Picture your ideal Tuesday. You come in with a clear head, a short list of things that actually matter, and a couple of hours of uninterrupted time to think strategically about where you're taking this thing. Now picture your actual Tuesday. Six fires before noon. Three decisions that landed on your desk that someone else should have made. A calendar that left no room for anything except reacting. And somewhere around four in the afternoon, the quiet feeling that you've been incredibly busy and somehow accomplished nothing. If that second picture is more familiar, this episode is for you. My...
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You Were Creative Once. Find Your Way Back. (The Ripple Effect Podcast ft. Maria Gatling)
The Ripple Effect Podcast with Steve Harper
When was the last time you made something? A drawing, a photo, a collage, a doodle in the margin of a notebook. Something you made with your hands because something in you wanted to. Most of us have to think about it. And the longer we think, the further back the answer goes. Somewhere along the way, we handed our creative lives back. Not all at once, and not on purpose. Just gradually, between the jobs and the responsibilities and the screens and the schedules, the things we used to make got quietly set aside. And we told ourselves we’d get back to them. And then we didn’t. And eventually...
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The One Thing Your Competition Can Never Buy or Copy (The Ripple Effect Podcast ft. Joe Fusco)
The Ripple Effect Podcast with Steve Harper
Here's a question I want you to think about before you hit play. When was the last time you felt like the work you were doing actually mattered? Not mattered as in the numbers went up or the boss was happy. Mattered in that way where you finished a day and felt genuinely full rather than just done. Most of us have forgotten what that feels like. Or maybe we never had it to begin with. This conversation goes deep on that. My guest Joe Fusco and I got into what actually makes a company great, why people don't fit in a spreadsheet no matter how hard we try to make them, and what it really...
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Hurricane Katrina at 21: The Story the Media Never Fully Told featuring Sandy Rosenthal
The Ripple Effect Podcast with Steve Harper
Here's a question I want you to think about before you hit play. When was the last time you felt like the work you were doing actually mattered? Not mattered as in the numbers went up or the boss was happy. Mattered in that way where you finished a day and felt genuinely full rather than just done. Most of us have forgotten what that feels like. Or maybe we never had it to begin with. This conversation goes deep on that. My guest Joe Fusco and I got into what actually makes a company great, why people don't fit in a spreadsheet no matter how hard we try to make them, and what it really means...
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Pressure-Proof Leadership with Claire Hayek (The Ripple Effect Podcast)
The Ripple Effect Podcast with Steve Harper
Be honest. When’s the last time you actually felt calm, not just looked calm? Because those are two very different things, and most of us have gotten so good at faking the second one that we forget what the first one even feels like. You handle the hard conversation. You keep your voice steady in the meeting that’s falling apart. You hold it together for everyone else in the room. And then later, alone in your car or lying awake at night, it all comes flooding back. That gap between performing calm and actually being calm is something my guest today has spent her entire life studying,...
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Is Your Survival Brain Leading Your Team? (The Ripple Effect Podcast ft. Dr. Annie Campanile)
The Ripple Effect Podcast with Steve Harper
Most of us have spent years learning how to communicate better. Better words, better models, better frameworks. And yet somehow the same conflicts keep happening, the same conversations keep getting avoided, and the same people keep making the room tense the moment they walk in. Dr. Annie Campanile has a different theory about why, and it starts somewhere most leadership training never goes. Watch to learn what's actually driving workplace conflict beneath the surface, why the protective patterns you developed as a kid are probably still showing up in your leadership today, and what your...
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Honest Thoughts on Surviving Online Hate (The Ripple Effect Podcast ft. Ileana Garcia: Part Two)
The Ripple Effect Podcast with Steve Harper
If you caught Part 1, you know Ileana Garcia doesn’t hold anything back. Part 2 goes even further. We start with something that still stings a little: the Wall Street Journal feature that was supposed to be a proud moment, but turned into a pile-on. Ileana walks us through what actually happened behind that headline, why the internet turned on her over it, and how she’s made peace with something her own brother calls “engagement by enragement.” From there, we get into the harder stuff nobody really talks about out loud: the anonymous accounts that stitched her videos together to mock...
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What Dating Looks Like After 50 (The Ripple Effect Podcast ft. Ileana Garcia)
The Ripple Effect Podcast with Steve Harper
Have you ever had that moment where you realize the life you built isn’t actually the one you want anymore? Today’s guest knows that feeling better than almost anyone I’ve talked to on this show. Ileana Garcia (you probably know her as Illy in the Streets on TikTok) has spent the last few years turning her gray divorce and everything that followed into some of the most honest and funniest content out there. If you’ve ever gone through a divorce after 50, or you’re staring down starting over at 50 and wondering if you have it in you, this conversation is going to feel like sitting...
info_outlineYou walk into the conversation feeling clear, calm, and even confident. Then, somehow, you walk out, replaying every sentence, wondering if you said it wrong, if you overreacted, if you are the problem. If that sounds familiar, there’s a good chance you just tried communicating with a narcissist, or you’re dealing with narcissistic tendencies up close at work or at home.
Maybe it’s a narcissistic boss who turns every meeting into a scoreboard. Maybe it’s a narcissistic coworker who can’t share credit. Maybe it’s a client, a partner, a friend, the person you cannot fully avoid. You try to resolve the issue like an adult, and suddenly you’re in a loop of gaslighting, deflection, and a conversation that keeps snapping back to them. That’s exhausting. It drains your energy, scrambles your confidence, and makes even simple conflict feel like walking through wet cement.
In this episode of The Ripple Effect Podcast, I’m talking to you about how to deal with a narcissist without losing your peace, your professionalism, or your self-respect. Not in a “win the argument” way, because you already know that usually goes nowhere. In a practical, real-life way that helps you stay steady, set boundaries with a narcissist, and keep the conversation pointed toward an outcome instead of getting dragged into their chaos. If you’ve ever thought, “Why does every difficult conversation become a trial?” you’re in the right place.
If you’re watching this because you feel worn out, tense before meetings, or you’re starting to doubt yourself after every interaction, I want you to hear me clearly. You’re not crazy. You’re not weak. You’re not “too sensitive.” You’re navigating a tough personality dynamic, and there are communication skills that can help you hold your ground without becoming someone you don’t recognize.
Stick with me to the end, because the most important shift isn’t what you say to them. It’s what you stop giving away to them.
If this hits home, leave a comment and tell me what you’re dealing with right now. Narcissist at work, toxic coworker, narcissistic boss, or something closer to home.
And if you know someone who needs this, share it with them. We Ripple better when we don’t do this alone.
Ripple with Steve Harper
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