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Break Down. Wake Up. is about discovering the world changing wisdom within our distress. I’m Meg Mateer, a psychology nerd turned business consultant and entrepreneur. Join me to hear from leaders about when things in their lives were breaking down and to listen for the wisdom waking up. Along the way, we’ll explore fresh perspectives like (1) how distress is a driver of success, not a barrier to it, (2) how our personal and professional lives are inherently connected and (3) how our individual experiences can help solve broader societal challenges. When things are breaking down, important wisdom is waking up.
34 Episodes
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Many of us were taught to hide our difficult experiences and emotions because it would indicate that we’re crazy, unsuccessful or broken. But what if, instead, these feelings are wakeup calls for positive change? In this talk , you’ll hear from Meg Mateer who shares stories from leaders who have embraced difficult feelings, grief, mental health challenges, addictions, and other forms of distress and used it to positively transform their lives. You’ll also learn about groundbreaking research t...
Season 1 of the Break Down. Wake Up. podcast is officially complete! In this episode, I take a look back on the last 31 episodes and give you a broad overview of what we've covered in this season. You'll also hear my personal story about how this project was born (hint: it has to do with my own breakdowns) and how global disruption actually helped put the project into the world. At the end of the episode, you'll get a perspective-shifting frame that will help you begin to see the wisdom withi...
How can our distress inspire activism, career shifts, and new businesses? In the latest episode, I highlight some of the biggest insights that have been inspired from the last 9 episodes. I also share my perspective on how these themes can help us solve personal, professional, and broader collective challenges.In the last nine episodes I interviewed a world famous thought leader, a serial entrepreneur, a psychology researcher, and a wellness and diversity equity and inclusion advocate w...
How involuntary family separation during her international migration awakened a complexity systems thinker to the illusion of safety in institutions and an even deeper need for people to listen to and understand contextNora Bateson has been working in complexity systems thinking for almost her entire career - focused on helping people and organizations contextualize complexity in order to solve challenging problems. So when she experienced the negative limitations of institutions that fo...
How her own professional struggle led an education leader to understand the link between trauma, learning and social injustice in the classroom. Miriam Rachel Freed spent the early part of her career working in education for underserved communities. She had tons of new ideas about how education could be reformed, but felt that none of it was being met with enthusiasm. She became the black sheep of the school system. On a personal journey, she reconnected with her own experience as a...
How can we use our distress as a catalyst to personal and professional growth?In this episode, you'll hear about the online group program where you can discover the wisdom within your distress and use it for sustainable insight and lasting transformation.I started this program becauseI realized that denying, suppressing and shoving down my pain was not workingI discovered that my distress could be a source of wisdom if I listened to itI saw that I was not alone - unconventional indeed - but n...
How shifting his emotional states helped a psychology researcher survive challenging life events that were out of his control. What happens when your own emotions feel overwhelming in a situation you cannot control? And what about if you've learned through your environment that strong emotions are not welcome? In this story, Sam Swidzinski, a researcher focused on innovative therapeutic methods to support mental health, shares a unique experience of how shifting into different emoti...
What kind of wisdom can we get from exploring our distress? This episode is for people, teams, and organizations who want to learn why its worth it to explore and share our experiences of distress and how this exploration makes a deep and lasting positive impact.We've been taught that disruption, confusion, anxiety, depression, and loss is not worth listening to, and many institutions who support this idea simply want to hand over a quick fix and help you reduce that pain...fast.But by reachi...
How we can use the experiences we have been trying to control to uncover the answers we have long been searching for - an unique approach to create sustainable change in our personal & professional lives, our organizations and our world. We've spent too long framing our experiences from a narrative of control.We've been taught to manage, contain, push down, jump over, fight, things like our physical pain, our vices, challenging emotions, conflicts, and marginalized stories.And it's not su...
There's a new type of activism on the rise....one whose action starts with listening...and why it is fundamental for moving beyond the rising polarization within ourselves, our relationships and our society. In this episode, I share more about how inner work is necessary for outer change, how polarization reduces complexity and keeps us fighting on the surface, the importance of sharing untold stories and how our distress helps us discover new perspectives forgotten under the surface.If you l...
How her own pregnancy and postpartum depression sounded the alarm for Vivian Acquah about workplace discrimination and the need for deep listening in inclusion effortsVivian Acquah was a successful professional working in finance and technology. But when she got pregnant, she started to sense something off about the reactions she was getting. Prior to her pregnancy, she was one of the top employees at her company and afterwards, she felt devalued, experiencing a heightened level of comments a...
How suddenly losing her income in the pandemic inspired a serial entrepreneur to help other people over 50 start their own businesses. Suzanne Noble had a successful 20 year career in public relations - but when she decided to sell her business and start a tech company, she faced blatant skepticism and discrimination for being an older female founder. After years running her own business, it was the first time she felt really excluded. So she wondered whether she was the only one feeling...
What if professional development actually looked more like a balance beam than a corporate ladder? In the latest episode, I introduce this concept and highlight some of the other biggest insights that have been inspired from the last 10 episodes. I also share my perspective on how these themes can help us solve personal, professional, and broader collective challenges. In the last ten episodes I interviewed business leaders, entrepreneurs, coaches from sectors like wellness, health tech,...
How his experience hearing voices helped an ambitious rising leader find inner peace and explore a variety of perspectives on how to foster broader harmony.From an early age, Dmitriy Gutkovich had his sights on politics and public service - he dreamed of being a senator and making an impact for the broader world. His ambition took him to an Ivy League school and set him up on the fast track to traditional leadership. But during his studies, he began hearing voices, an experience which opened ...
How a sudden physical injury helped a former healthcare leader see the impact that a fear-driven management style was having on his wellbeing and performance in a high stakes environment. Marcel Schwantes was set up for an accelerated career leading human resources departments in a hospital group. He was put through a two year leadership rotation program that demanded a lot from him - and he was up for the challenge. But pretty soon he began to sense signals of an unsupportive, critical ...
How an educational trip on diversity and inclusion helped a grants consulting partner realize her own complex experiences with gender inequity as a female corporate leader and inspired her to create change in her organization and beyondHelene Geijtenbeek had a successful 20 year career in corporate grants consulting when she attended an educational trip to Silicon Valley to learn about Inclusion and Diversity and learn how the big tech companies address it. During this trip, she had a wa...
How my leap from corporate consultant to entrepreneur brought me close to some of my biggest wake up calls to understand myself and follow my gut in business. This episode is an interview I did with Agnes Bilik on her podcast, Raw and Real. In this interview I share a bunch of my own break down wake up stories - the big life changing ones and the small daily ones! I dive deeper into my experience with depression and also share the break down wake up experiences I had when I started my own bus...
How my own breakdowns, when I finally paid attention to them, inspired and facilitated my transition from corporate consultant to social entrepreneur. I spent the first eight years of my career working in corporate consulting, climbing the corporate ladder, and living a very traditionally successful life. But something was missing - I could feel the subtle dissonance between what I was spending my time with and what I was really called to do. It wasn't until I began to really listen to my wak...
How experiencing extreme states of consciousness helped a non-profit chief operating officer process childhood challenges, improve his marriage and shift his approach to leadership Oryx Cohen was a leader in an organization training people to better support those in an emotional crisis. He knew about the value of these periods because he experienced several extreme states of consciousness throughout his life. So when he entered an altered state of consciousness suddenly at the end of lea...
How the unexpected death of her mother at a young age helped a futurist thinker and philosopher finally pursue her professional dreams and realize her potential. Lene Rachel Andersen almost always felt like she did not fit in. She was brilliant and had a lot to offer, but growing up she felt really different from the other kids. She spent years trying to have the "normal package" - a normal job, a normal family, a normal house. She was working as a secretary after finishing her business ...
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