Burnout Is the Symptom. Your Workplace Might Be the Cause | EP100

[00:00:00] There is this word in the Philippines. It's really Spanish. It's maldita. I've heard it my entire life. And so when they say maldita, it's like you're f***ing. What maldita means over the years, I've realized is you're unaffitable. People can't get their way with you because you are your own pillar. You are immovable. You can have flexibility and adaptability and be kind, but you should stay to who you are and not compromise.

[00:00:27] I am not going to bend over backwards for something that is not aligned to my value system. That's not aligned to my belief system. We can respect each other, but this is who I am. And you can still be all of that and be kind. That's what I mean. Like the kindness is just no assholery, douchebaggery, none of that.

[00:00:51] But still hold true to yourself. Uneffitable. Yes, exactly. Maldita in a really, really, really good way. No one can mess with you. Hi, I'm Christy Honeycutt, your host of Inside the C-Suite, where execs get real about leadership, impact, and what truly drives high-stake decisions.

[00:01:20] Stop. Forget everything you think you know about workplace wellness. My guest today, Maude Moreno, founder of Yoga at Work, spent 24 years in IT leadership, 14 years teaching mindfulness breath work, and nervous system regulation. But this conversation is not about yoga. It's about the hidden cost of how we work and lead.

[00:01:43] After experiencing medical burnout at the young age of 25, eventually becoming too ill to continue her corporate career, Maude turned her personal lived experience into a mission. Today, she's challenging leaders to confront a truth most organizations overlook. Look, you can't separate the nervous system from the way we work. And burnout isn't just a wellness problem. It's a leadership problem.

[00:02:14] So, are you guys ready for a little bit of breath work and a lot of information? Let's jump in. I can't wait for this one. Thank you for joining Inside the C-Suite. Girl, yay! Yay! I haven't seen you since Anna's Evolve HR Conference, where we quickly became fast and furious friends. And I'm so, so glad to have you on the show. So, I know my introduction cannot do the woman you are justice. I'd love for you to introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about what you do. Yes. Hi. Well, thank you so much for having me today and for carving out time.

[00:02:44] So, my name is Maude Moreno. I am what you would call a workplace stress regulation trainer or a nervous system regulation trainer. I basically work with teams. I work with leaders. I work with people in the workplace who basically need neuroscience and nervous system information and to help them deal with everyday workday realities.

[00:03:05] So, using nervous system regulation and practices to focus better, to communicate better, to respond versus react, to make decisions under pressure better. All these things that we deal with everyday, we think are part of our personality traits, but really it's our nervous system being conditioned to respond in a way that it always has because we have not intervened it.

[00:03:28] And so, I train, I facilitate workshops, I teach people how to manage their nervous systems so they can show up to work better everyday. And not just feel like humans doing, but be humans being, just being with their nervous system. Yeah. So, at the conference, and I'm going to beg you for something, at the conference, I fell madly in love with you due to something called the sip breath. And I have used it ever since.

[00:03:54] And I would love for you, if you're okay, can we do that with the audience? Okay. For sure. That's awesome. So, the sip, I love that you also coined your own word because what's important is what resonated with you. It's really called the physiological side. And it was discovered by like physiologists in the 1930s. And it was studied further now. More people in the military even like use it.

[00:04:20] So, basically what happens in the physiological side is you take a two-part inhale. So, you take a long inhale and then you take a small sip at the top. And then you prolong your exhale. So, I'm not going to tell you how to breathe in and out through the nose. I'm just going to tell you to take an inhale two parts and then exhale through the nose or mouth. But like slow the exhale down. And that's what helps reset your state. So, are you with me? I am 100% ready. Yeah.

[00:04:48] So, place your feet down on the ground and just make sure you're uncrossing your legs. So, I already want you to feel earthed down, grounded down. And then just relax your spine. Relax your shoulders. Relax your elbows. We're not doing a huge thing here or any huge expectations. And so, I want us to start just inhaling and exhaling normally. Just inhale, exhale maybe for one or two cycles. I'm not even going to tell you how to do it or when to do it. Just breathe in, breathe out.

[00:05:17] Breathe in, breathe out. And now we're going to start the physiological sigh. So, take a sip in through the nose. Inhale. Pause. Then take a small sip at the top. And then exhale slow. Nose or mouth. Prolong, prolong, prolong, prolong the exhale. Let's do that two more times. Inhale in through the nose. Tiny sip in. And then exhale out.

[00:05:45] Sigh, sigh, sigh out your stress, your day, your tension. Let's do it one more time. Sip in through the nose. One more sip at the top. And then exhale. Beautiful. Oh my God, I feel so much better. So, open if they were close. Yes, relax your shoulders. And yes, good morning body. Good morning mind. Yes. See? For those of you that see Mod, this is why. This is why I love you. So, thank you for that. I really, really needed that.

[00:06:14] As you know, I have a book launch party tonight. A pre-book launch party for this guy. And so, you and I are fast friends. Because, yeah, the inner work of leading a broken system, guys. There are some prompts like this. But Mod does that sip breath the best. And it has changed. I found myself using that when I would just, my energy was off. Or I needed to approach a difficult decision. Because what I find is you just don't make really good decisions if you're not clear. Right?

[00:06:44] If you've got a lot of stress, you're buzzing around. You've got a flat tire. You're probably chewing at your wife or your husband or whatever. And so, I just find those moments to try to breathe. And so, getting to meet you and getting to experience. And now, everybody that sees this gets to experience that little bitty tiny bit of magic. Thank you for that from my heart. I really needed that today. Always, always my pleasure. Oh, my gosh. It's definitely your gift. And so, look, I know that you have an incredible background.

[00:07:13] And I want to jump into it. So, before we talk about, like, get into, like, really what you teach and all the things that you do, take me back to Mod at 25. What was your body trying to tell you that you didn't know how to hear? Right. So, you know, you were 25 years old. Who did not do stupid stuff at 25 years old? Right? This is with 2002. I had a great job. I was in the Philippines.

[00:07:39] I was in IT already, sort of managing profit and loss reports. I was also managing a website that had to be translated in eight different languages. I mean, not even kidding. Vietnamese, English, German, Japanese, Thai. Oh, yes. Before AI. Traditional Chinese, simplified Chinese, German. I mean, and I was managing this website. But, Christy, you might be able to relate to this. When you are young, you feel invincible. And so that's what started the late nights. Right?

[00:08:09] The late nights is fine. Late nights, you go home. And then what happened was the late nights and then the early mornings where you forget to have your breakfast. And then the late nights, the early mornings, the lunches where you kind of forget to eat because you're working in front of your computer. And the cycle just went on. You'd have a nice dinner with your friends. But you are ending up in the office, going home at midnight, and then going back to the office again at 7 a.m. So to answer your question, I had no idea what wellness felt.

[00:08:38] I knew what unwellness felt. But when you're 25, you're drinking, you're smoking, you're doing all the bad stuff. But the good thing is, the good thing is, when my body broke down. So, Christy, this is what happened to me. People found me and my head clopped over the keyboard and I'm not moving. Mods, gone. And I had been this way since the late 90s when I was working. So, by the time 2002 came in, this became my normal.

[00:09:08] I would wake up in the ER. My mom would be there because somebody would have called her. And my fingers at one point were so frozen. They were like, they were always like guns. And my toes were curled in like that. And some of my friends would try to pinch and introduce some pain into my body. I couldn't feel it because I was just frozen. But then the doctor diagnosed me. By the way, burnout is not a diagnosis. It's a phenomenon and it's a symptom.

[00:09:36] But at the time, the doctor diagnosed me with medical burnout and told me these words, which you will appreciate because we're both in our middle age. You're a 25-year-old living in a middle-aged person's body. No one wants to hear that at 25. So, he suggested a hiatus. I did take some months off of my job. And that's when I discovered fitness and yoga. All in the same year when I was 25. Messed everything up.

[00:10:06] Found yoga. Found wellness. And I haven't stopped until today. And it's been 24 years. Thank you for being so open to share that. Because I know there are a lot of people that deal with toxicity in the workplace. And we are a hustle porn culture, right? Right? So, was that your wake-up call that success could look differently for you? Not necessarily. Because I went back to work in the same company. But this time, here's the thing.

[00:10:34] I was now armed with yogic principles. I was now armed with a natural stop, which is the breathing, the movement. I didn't even call it mindfulness at the time. It was just meditation, right? Because meditation is a mindfulness practice. But what it introduced to me is now there are ways for me to cope. Now there's ways for me to finish the stress cycle, which is how burnout accumulates. We have the trigger. We have the peak. It stays here.

[00:11:04] We never get to recover. We never get to complete the cycle. But it wasn't until four years ago, Christy, actually five, when I got diagnosed with dysautonomia. So for the ease of your audience, it is a dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system. And the autonomic nervous system, Christy, as you know, are the things we don't think about. The breathing, the sweating, the swallowing, thermal regulation, heart rate.

[00:11:28] These things that our autonomic nervous system takes care of, I actually have sort of an anomaly in them. And so when five years ago, I got sick and I got a mediocre performance review. Not that my boss was awful. It wasn't his fault. I could, there was just not a lot of output for me because I was now a different person. I went on disability. Coming back, I thought, why am I going to force myself into another IT job, another IT leadership job,

[00:11:57] when I know my body is different? I am different. So to your question, that was when it really, really, really stuck with me. This is not success. This is not fulfillment. This is me forcing my body to do something it absolutely wants to reject. I was happy at my job, happy with my team.

[00:12:19] But the amount of stress and demand from being a leader, an operations lead at the time for a Fortune 10 healthcare delivery company was going to be a lot. And so when I then got back to work, I decided I'm going to do it on my own. I'm going to serve the corporate space because I've been there. I've had to smile when my head was spinning. I've had to facilitate these meetings and take notes because AI wasn't there yet.

[00:12:47] And take notes and then disseminate them to people. When my body was nauseous and the room was spinning or I felt fatigue. So that's really when I was able to dial it down like my nervous system. Like, no, you can no longer do it. But come back to work that is now to your capacity and not anyone else's time, calendar, or expectations. So that's what happened to me.

[00:13:13] That is such courageousness and boldness to do that. And I've met you in person. And I dare anybody to look at you now and not feel your energy and your heart on wanting to change this because your lived experience, which I think is so incredibly beautiful and a great story. So you talked about your... Can I ask you a question? Yeah, of course. Yeah. Any of that relatable to you? It's all relatable to me, girl. Right.

[00:13:39] Like, when you asked me at what point was a turning point for me, when was it for you again? Just remind me briefly. Because I know we talked about this, but I had forgotten when that point of no return for you was. The point of no return for me is when I went to a doctor's office because I just was really not feeling like myself. And I was so hurried to get in and out. I'm like, just tell me what the blood work says. Tell me what I need to do. Tell me what... Just get me out of here.

[00:14:08] I'm Native American, so I don't like doctors. I don't like taking medication. I'm a little bit hard. But for me, there was two things that happened. I went to get a massage because I am all... I'm a Reiki practitioner. I... Yoga, meditation, all the things. You know, I'm woo and I believe in it. But even though I'm woo and I believe in it, I was still hustling and working so hard. I go to get a massage. My massage therapist finds a very big spot, about this big, on the back.

[00:14:37] For those of you that can't see my hands, it's about two, three inches on the back of my head. I had absolutely no hair. And she asked me, she goes, do you know your bald back here? And I said, what? And so I touch it. She takes a picture. She shows me. And I had a pixie at the time, so it's barely being covered by my hair. Right. And so the entire rest of the massage, I'm thinking, my God, am I stressed out? Am I sick? Do I have cancer? The whole rest of the massage. So I immediately go to my doctor. My doctor tells me the following thing.

[00:15:04] They run a bunch of tests and she says, you have two choices. Quit your job or go on Xanax. And you've got an autoimmune disease. You've got some stuff going on with you. And your stress level is bringing it full front. She goes, you have got to slow down. You have got to take care of you. And I've always been a hard charger. I've always been a leader. I've always been for the company. I've always been protect the lower team. And I took all of that on and my body just revolted.

[00:15:32] And I made the decision to separate last September and launch into full-time my own consulting, coaching, and the book. That's what this is about. So that's amazing. Thanks for bringing that out, Bob. This is about you, girl, not me. No, it's okay. I forgot when that turning point was for you, but you did mention this is last year. You're in the honeymoon stage of loving yourself. I am in the honeymoon stage of loving myself, yes. Wow. Yes. Mad props.

[00:16:02] I just had to ask the question. I needed to remember the dates that you gave me and your timeline. So thank you for sharing that. Yeah. No, you're welcome. And look, it's really funny. And I don't know if it's because I'm over 50 and I just don't give a F anymore. I don't know. Like, I believe there's part of that. But there's so many seen and unseen things that people have. And I can tell you, too, when all of this happened, and so me, like, stepping away was September, but this was going on for a good year before I stepped away.

[00:16:29] I was in a meeting with a wig because I had lost my hair. And I don't know about you, but wigs are for a grand. A lot of people don't understand this. So your employees, your friends, the people you interact with, they have seen and unseen differences that you guys will never, ever know. Most people won't know that I have alopecia. Some people might see a little calic here once in a while where my hair is growing back. But it's heart-wrenching. And so I show up to a meeting in a wig. And what was I met with?

[00:16:58] The $4,000 wig. Am I going to get a pixie that's two inches long? No. I'm going to get one that's longer and use it because I'm going to need this wig for years. And so I show up in a wig to make everybody else comfortable. So they're not looking at me with a bald spot all up in here. And I was met with the following from Mel Counterparts. Well, don't you look fancy and glamorous. Where are you going out tonight? Really just pulling out all the stops. I am aware it's a wig.

[00:17:26] Yes, I'm aware it looks different than how my hair was yesterday. But I'm also aware that I'm doing this to make you comfortable the best I can. Do you know what I mean? And so there are so many people that are in organizations that are, they mean, they're caring for their kids. They're caring for their parents. They have autoimmune diseases that you'll never see. And then what do we say about them in performance reviews? What do we say about them at the water cooler? What do we say to their face? Where did mindfulness go?

[00:17:56] Where did empathy go? And so that's why I love your story because you have lived experiences. I have lived experiences. And we have hearts that we want to help other people know you're not alone. You are not alone. Anybody out there that's got alopecia, hit me up. I got you. Like, it sucks. And I know that you've experienced the bad things. And yeah, but that's why I love what you do.

[00:18:23] And that's why I think it's important to hear your voice in your story. So when we talk about nervous system, your nervous system enters the meeting before you do. Yes. It just, it does. We talk endlessly about culture, engagement, productivity, performance. But we rarely talk about the state of people that we're asking them to perform. And, you know, and like, what are leaders missing? Well, that's really the missing link.

[00:18:48] And I always remind myself that when I stand in front of people, whether it's virtual or in a workshop, the missing link is that they show up to work with their bodies and with their brains. And that's it. But really, like you said, before your mouth even opens, your nervous system is dictating your tone and energy. So have you ever been that person when like somebody walks in a space and then you're supposed to ask this person a very important question.

[00:19:18] They look a certain way and then you look to your team like, not today. No, we're not asking that. No, we're not talking to him today. That's because their body's already sending signals that are coming from their nervous system. That's telling them either growl, tighten your jaw or look at them a certain way or be tight and tense in your body to the point where people can literally feel you just crumbling in.

[00:19:44] And that's exactly the first part that I teach people, Christy, is what is the nervous system? And I don't try to sound too anatomical about it, but I do want to break it down. Like the brain and the spinal cord, yeah, they're the sensual nervous system. This is her techie brain coming out, guys. Right, exactly. And then there's the peripheral nervous system, which is the rest of the nerves in our body, right? And there's this fabulous thing called the vagus nerve that runs from the stem of our brain.

[00:20:13] It's a cranial nerve coming from our cranium all the way to our gut. And I even have people do this sometimes. Like have one hand, maybe Christy, you can do it with me. Have one hand in the back of your head. And then with your other hand, just sort of glide and slide through your jaw, a little bit part of your face, your head, your neck, your chest, and your gut. And I have them do that because like this is your vagus nerve. And then you can release your hands now.

[00:20:42] And what the vagus nerve is really like fabulous about is 80% of it is bringing messages to the brain. How does this energy in the room feel? How does the temperature in the room feel? How this person looks at you, the color of their jacket. Are you responding to how they're presenting themselves? You're scanning for threat. You're scanning for all these signals. And then it informs the brain.

[00:21:08] And that's the thing that when people have never heard of the vagus nerve or have never cared about it, the gut brain is such a powerful thing. And I always tell this to women too. If you enter an elevator and you feel something's off, the brain is not using logic. It's your gut, your vagus nerve saying, get out of the elevator. This room doesn't feel safe. That's not logic. That is your gut brain that you just have to trust because it's scanning for those signals.

[00:21:36] It's the same in the workplace. The exact same thing. We have set ourselves in our environments a certain way where we're looking at a window that has no beautiful view or maybe we're staring right on a wall. We're situated right next to a person who's nonstop talking or gossiping or very toxic. We are the product of our environment. And so what do you do when you're surrounded by those types of stimuli? And these are workday realities, right?

[00:22:05] Yours got to such an extreme that you started losing hair. For other people, it may be so extreme that they've forgotten to go to the bathroom. They get bladder infection. They get all these diseases. Right. I've forgotten to drink the water. Why? Because I need to reply to three emails. Did you eat today? No, I didn't eat today. Right. Right. And as an Asian, I brought up, that's another layer. We ask about food all the time. Like, are you fed?

[00:22:33] Like in the Chinese culture, how are you is have you had rice? That's basically what they say. Have you eaten? So in a way, the Asian culture, a lot of our languages ask, have you nourished yourself? Have you eaten? And it's not the same in the Western world, right? It's like, how are you? All of that. But I'm going off on a tangent. But that's basically it. That's what I teach people is reacquaint yourself starting with your nervous system. Because guess what? It governs everything.

[00:23:02] You gotta befriend it. And that's what I do day to day because of my condition. When I feel fatigue, I do not push through because the brain is telling me, your battery's low. You know what's going to happen if you don't stop. You're going to pay for this. I have the luxury of having a nervous system despite my condition. That sends me that message. I also have the luxury that I'm attuned to my body.

[00:23:25] But Christy, the average Joe and Jane have no clue that the orange signal has been blipping. They had these notifications for years. They keep going. They keep driving in a flat tire. And before you know, they're off the edge. They're off the cliff because it's the point of no return. But in another sense. So that's my passion is to teach people to come back into their bodies. Befriend your nervous system. Reacquaint yourself with yourself. You know? I love that so much.

[00:23:55] So I'm fascinated with the way organizations respond to burnout. So I just have to tell you. Sometimes the answer is essentially like, hey, here's a meditation app. And look, I love meditation apps. But you have to actually use them. You know, here's a yoga class. Now go back to the same environment and, you know, disregulate yourself. And so at what point does wellness become a band-aid for a system leadership doesn't want to fix? Oh my God. It's seen as a band-aid.

[00:24:25] Even now. Even when people know that it shouldn't be, it should be part of your business strategy. Right? Your business strategy. You talk about growth and scaling and all of this vision that you have. Can that be possible if you're not healthy? Can that be possible if you have a nervous breakdown, a panic attack, a heart attack because there's just so much going on? No. So it should be part of your business strategy to help the healthiest possible employees.

[00:24:55] Now, I'm also a meditation app user. Right? I teach yoga as well. I'm a breathwork practitioner. I do sound baths. I facilitate sound baths. Love sound baths. Right. Right. But what I always tell people is like, these are tools. These are tools that you can use. It's fine. It gives you some sort of recovery.

[00:25:13] But if you don't get to the root of why you feel burnt out, if you don't get to the root of this feeling why burnout is imminent in my life, I feel like I'm about to have a nervous breakdown. I feel like I'm about to because the mouth is dry. You get the three o'clock headache. You get this and that and that. These are all signals that the body is telling you something. Right? If you don't get into the root of that, you're going to get back into the perennial hamster wheel.

[00:25:39] And Christy, it's funny because right before this call, I was just doing a workshop walkthrough with this global law firm. And my topic is prevent burnout, protect capacity. And I'm going to touch again about the lack of recovery. The trigger is there. The stimulus is there. We stay at the peak. We're always here. I call it this nervous system overdrive or the nervous system overdraft where we just keep withdrawing, withdrawing, and there's not enough left in the tank and in the bank.

[00:26:08] And you're not able to recover. What does that really look like? What does that look like for you? Is it dancing? Is it singing, which is really good for the biggest nerve? Is it breathwork? Is it this? And so what these companies do is they just throw these apps because they want to check that big checkbox that says, we've done the wellness thing. We've hired Mod. We've done this and done that. But there is not one. There is no follow through.

[00:26:37] And if there is, it's more quantity and statistics about usage. Yes. Second, there is no conscious intention of really helping employees better their workday lives. What does that look for a remote employee? What does it look like for an executive assistant who has to be in the office and has to work the same hours as the CEO? What does that look like? Yes. Yes. Dig deeper.

[00:27:03] And yeah, basically the rest can be abandoned unless you get really deep into the why. You get deep into how they got to this place in the first place. It's crazy from a tactical perspective. You're talking through this. I just had flashback. There was an organization that I helped consult with and they were having a lot of burnout. They were having a lot of people take medical leave and disability and just all the different things.

[00:27:28] And when we peeled back the layers, because it's not always one thing, there was a really simple thing that popped up. And you made me think about the CEO and the executive admin. There was never an off. It was, you're going to go on vacation? Great. No worries. Take your laptop just in case. Or, oh, well, just because I'm sending you emails and instant messages and text at 2 o'clock in the morning, that's fine. I'm in another country. I'm just working. Just get to it when you can get to it.

[00:27:54] It's like, yes, but they're sleeping and they're waking up and the first thing they see is text from their bosses. So I think there's a lot of behavioral things that can change, too. So you come in and help the individual regulate and be able to be more productive and be more within their body. But there is a leadership line that has to be towed above and beyond that. Like you said, look for the signals to help your workforce feel like they belong and that they're cared for. Right. And there's a two part.

[00:28:24] It's a two prong thought process for me to add on to that. One, sending your employees all these sorts of training, leaving it up to them to solve their problems. That's just half the equation solved. Like go see Maude. Maude will teach you this and then you'll figure out how to not be burned out. That's not the way to go. So I do empower people that despite I even differentiate a stressor from a stress. The stressor is the stimuli. The stress is the reaction.

[00:28:53] Even at the process of these certain stressors, I teach people what can you do in the bathroom as you're there for three minutes? Right. Is it the breathwork? Is it the pause? Is it this? Is it? I want to empower people that there is hope that they can do themselves. Great. But second part of the equation is really solving the real problem. So when I'm in this room, Christy, and I'm in the presence of a VP or a leader, the people are really intimidated with like, oh, they're here. They're the cause of my burnout. They're all of that.

[00:29:23] As a responsible facilitator, I really do not want to antagonize the company. I do not want to antagonize leadership. I don't want to say, is there a wink, wink guy that's toxic in your workplace? Like I don't ever want to. That's the fastest way for me to lose clients. But Christy, what I say is, if you look at how things are going on right now and you feel like there's no hope for your workload to change or things are just going to get worse, consider this an opportunity for conversation.

[00:29:53] If your life had to change today and things had to be better for this teammate, that leader, yourself, this, like you said, lower teams, right? I love that you use that term, the lower teams. Who needs to be involved in that conversation? And who do you think in this room, who do you think in this room does not think the same way as you? Because the answer is zero.

[00:30:16] Everyone knows and everyone sees the need for absolute well-being and wellness in order to keep loving this job, in order to keep showing up. So I leave it there. It's an opportunity for conversation. I also did the same thing with the sales team in Kraft Heinz. I did like a session with them. They're in sales, Christy, and we're talking all the fast food chains that they're handling all these accounts. And so you can just see these faces.

[00:30:45] Oh, this is a great 90-minute, 60-minute thing. What are we ever going to take away? One of them actually still calls it the mod moment. Actually, not one. A few of them. Every time they feel like their life, their work life has somehow gone through this perennial hamster wheel. Somebody says, oh, mod moment. Oh, mod moment. Somebody just has to raise a flag and use those two words. And it brought people back into the space of, I got to stop.

[00:31:13] When my work does not have a natural stop, there's no sense of finitude. I am empowered to put that stop. I'm going to go and grab water. I'm going to go and take a walk. I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'm going to turn my face away from the computer. I'm going to fold over my chair and stretch my back. Empowering people to know what stops you can do in the middle of all that ruckus, that is the biggest win. Because now they feel empowered. Like, the work hasn't changed.

[00:31:42] But I have. The way I'm responding to it has. Yeah. Yes. And now there's more of us. I love that they call it the mod moment. But yes, sales team. I do too. Absolute susceptibility to burnout. A hundred. A hundred percent. But yeah, you know, there's hope. There's little things that we can tweak here and there. You know, I used to have this amazing team. It's probably one of my favorite teams I've ever led at IBM. I used to do all the internal recruiting for them. And I had this badass team.

[00:32:10] And we would have, you know, a lot of the meetings, everybody, because we always knew what business was coming in. And who was getting promoted. We knew everything. And so when we would have meetings, we had to be careful because there were people, you know, wanting to know and all the things. I actually started initiating outdoor meetings where we would go walk the park together. And it really, all it was, it was just like, I need you guys to get out of the office. I need you to get into nature. I need you to take a breath. I need you to know that we're a team and we've got each other. We've got to hit this big thing.

[00:32:40] But what help do you guys need from me? And we would just walk and talk. I got more out of those movement meetings than I did putting them in a conference room and stiff chairs with a PowerPoint. And, Maude, we delivered 105% of goal every time. Every time. And all of those people on that team are now leading big, big companies in talent acquisition and HR. And I hope that they took their mod moments or their Christy walks with them.

[00:33:08] But I've always believed in this methodology. And it's funny that it took me getting into my 50s to take my life back and not be sucked into the toxic. And I do. I love what you're doing. It's so incredibly helpful. So if we could just transition just a minute from IT executive to yoga at work, that's what you've done. So you've got credibility. You've got chops. You've been in corporate. You know the stress. You've lived this experience.

[00:33:37] What did 24 years in technology leadership teach you that now makes you better at this work? Ooh, dealing with all types of personalities. Anyways. So, Christy, being in IT for 24 years, right, project manager, product manager, I was like a business analyst for a long time, which I am the spider in everybody's web, translating tech to business, business to tech, things like that. As you know, I don't need to explain that to you.

[00:34:02] A lot of times I was at two teams where I was the only female and I had to have to deal with 11 developers, 13 developers. Newly implanted from the Philippines into the Midwest because that's where I lived for 10 years in Omaha. So everything was just like, I was deer in headlights. Long story short, in the 13-man team, literally all male or 11-man team, this one likes an email. This one wants an in-person instruction. This one wants to work directly with me. This one hates this.

[00:34:31] I had to literally figure out what worked for everyone because my job was to make their lives easy so they could focus on developing. They could focus on their technical skills. And my job was mediation, right? In a way, I was regulating the team. I was the glue in everybody's world, the spider in everyone's web, as I said. And now here in North Carolina, I still work kind of the same role until I got to this design operations lead.

[00:34:58] But the time I got there, I just, every time something or someone becomes difficult, because Christy, I've had my share of difficult, difficult employees. In fact, I had one say, I have a hard time taking orders from a short Asian woman. Did that make your blood boil? Yes. There's a lot of things that I'm blood boil. Yes, right? He's 6'4". I'm tiny. Some racial things here and there. Intimidation.

[00:35:28] Intimidation tactics, things like that. Like, how good are you really letting your work speak for itself? But they also want you to, like, really speak like them. So this is what I brought today when I founded Yoga at Work. Whenever I talked to a well-being coordinator, an HR person, a chief people officer, people like you. I show up in podcasts and whatnot. I'm better able to read people's energy while still staying true to my own.

[00:35:55] And I think I may have told you about this meeting where this person didn't show up for 30 minutes and supposed to be an important person. But on the 32nd minute, no, I was done. There was even no, I'm sorry, does this time still work for you? Because they had done it twice. It's one of those things where you stop giving an F. What people really think about you. You care about your reputation. You care about the work that you do.

[00:36:23] But now I'm also at a point where I've dealt with this type of person. I've dealt with that kind of person. And guess what? I'm still here. I'm still fabulous. I'm still working on being kind. Not necessarily being nice. Just being kind. Like, you know, being kind. So that's how my 24 years in IT from the Philippines to Omaha to here and now running my own business has really taught me is people. People, people, people. Helping people.

[00:36:53] Dealing with people. Talking to people. And also myself. Just making sure that I still stay authentic and true to myself. So that was such a great answer. I have just a couple of questions. I have so many questions for you, but I want to make sure we get there. So, so you just said something I think is fantastic. So in the intake, you said, I asked you about your biggest failure and you rejected the premise. You said, no failures, just lessons learned, which I loved. And then you gave me two lessons that sound almost contradictory. So I have to ask you about it.

[00:37:23] It's better to be kind than right. That was one. And then the other one, which is my favorite. I'm going to take it on as my mantra is be un. We'll bleep it out. Yep. In the moments that matter. Yes. So how do you know when the moments calls for softness and when it calls for a boundary? It's the yoga that's coming into work. Yoga means huge.

[00:37:51] It's like bringing things together, right? You can be soft and strong. You can coexist. You can be kind, but still not put people in a place where they can exploit you. That's what an F withable meant to me. There is this word in the Philippines. It's really Spanish. It's maldita. Maldita. I've heard it my entire life. And Christy, you probably know this. Any word that starts with mal means bad. Malicious. Malignant. Right? Mal.

[00:38:22] And so when they say maldita, it's like you're a bitch. You're a bitch. Because mal is like bad. But I've heard that my entire life. You're the maldita in the family. Maldita this and whatnot. And really what maldita means over the years I've realized is you're unaffitable. People can't get their way with you because you are your own pillar. You are immovable. You can have flexibility and adaptability and be kind.

[00:38:49] But who you are, you should stay to who you are and not compromise. Like you said, you wore the wig not for you, but to make other people comfortable. Outward facing. Outward considering. It's what would people think. There's now less and less of that. I think the older we are. And it's almost like no matter how I show up today, this is 50 years of me, 49 years of me in my case.

[00:39:16] There's no, yeah, I am not going to bend over backwards for something that is not aligned to my value system. That's not aligned to my belief system. We can respect each other, but this is who I am. And you can still be all of that and be kind. You can still not be an asshole. Like the people maybe, you know, or exploit people in a way that they feel like they could exploit you. That's what I mean.

[00:39:42] Like the kindness is just no assholery, douchebaggery, none of that. But still hold true to yourself. Uneffitable. Yes, exactly. Maldita in a really, really, really good way. No one can mess with you. That's what I mean. I love that so much. I could talk to you for hours. But thank you for holding space. Before we drop, is there anything that you didn't get a chance to say that you want to?

[00:40:08] And let the audience know how they can get a hold of you because every single person needs what you're selling. Thank you so much. What I would want people to get out of this is, one, think about your work environment. Think about your team. Think about the people that you work with. Do something kind for them and show them ways on how they can be taught to befriend their bodies and minds and nervous systems again. Hire me. Don't hire me. That's fine.

[00:40:38] There's so much information out there. But just think about the people that you're working with. We are humans being, not just humans doing. The second part I was going to say is my website is yogaatwork.yoga. The work that I do started with wellness sessions in the workplace, the breathwork, the mindfulness, the movement. But now I'm really more focused on nervous system regulation workshops to the C-suite, to leaders, to teams.

[00:41:02] So if you know anyone that needs that for focus, for communication, for decision making, for burnout prevention, energy and capacity protection, or for any purpose, any goal that the organization is really looking to achieve and this can help them get there. Definitely keep me at the back of your mind. And the third thing is I would say that the biggest takeaway is befriend your body.

[00:41:30] Reacquaint yourself with your body. Reattune yourself with your body. Do not stay disconnected and let work get ahead of you. Let's try to come back into earth and love your body. And this is my final parting words. Without your health, there is no you. Without you, there is no job. So you start here. You start with your wellness. You start with your well-being, your health. Then let's make a better you.

[00:41:55] And then you can show up in the workplace so much better, more informed, and more reacquainted with yourself. That was beautiful. Thank you. All right, guys. You heard it from Maude. Thank you. So from my heart to your heart, thank you for holding space for our audience. And guys, please go like, subscribe, and follow Inside the C-Suite. Let me know who you want to see next. Ciao. Ciao. Ciao.