BREAKTHROUGH with Hayden Brown

Do you spend five days a week… waiting for the other two?

And what if the answer isn't a new job, but a new relationship with the one you already have?

In this episode of BREAKTHROUGH, Hayden and Greg unpack how to find more fulfilment in your work, whether you're a business owner or an employee. It follows on from our burnout episode: if burnout is a sign of unfulfilled values, what do you replace it with?

Most people assume achievement will bring fulfilment. Hit the goal, earn the respect, prove yourself, and the feeling will follow. But some of the most successful people Hayden works with are the least fulfilled, because their success has become a very effective mask.

We explore why "quit your job and follow your passion" is often a disservice, and why the first step is usually internal: changing your relationship with the work you already do. If you take that as far as it can go and still hit a wall, it may be time for an external change, made from clarity rather than frustration.

Hayden shares the story of a CEO client who started doing the mentoring he loved inside the role he already had, and explains why what we value comes from what we perceive as most missing in our lives. Greg brings practical tools for working out what matters most to you, including the funeral exercise, Stephen Covey's circle of influence, the balance of challenge and skill behind flow, and the ikigai framework.

👉 If you've ever found yourself:

• living for the weekend and dreading Monday

• achieving the goal and still feeling like something is missing

• telling yourself you're putting your own fulfilment on hold for your family

• wondering whether to quit your job or stay and make it work

👉 This episode will help you:

• separate achievement from fulfilment and get clear on what matters most to you

• find more purpose and energy in the role you already have

• know when it's time for an external change, and make it from clarity rather than emotion

The goal of BREAKTHROUGH is to help you uncover the "why" behind your challenges and gain clarity on your next best steps to break the pattern.

This episode explores why you don't need your dream job to find fulfilment, and how getting clear on what you value can bring more meaning to the work you're doing now.

Watch our episode on burnout here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlAfqmM0-z8

Want your question answered on the show? Submit your question here: https://breakthroughpod.com

To learn more about working with me privately, visit: https://haydenbrownpsychology.com

Follow Hayden on Social Media:

Website: https://haydenbrownpsychology.com 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/haydenbrownofficial

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haydenhumanbehaviour/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/haydenhumanbehaviour/

Follow Greg on Social Media

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gregburgoyne/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregburgoyne/

Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational and personal growth purposes only. The content shared on this show is not a substitute for individual medical, psychological, or mental health advice. We do not diagnose or treat disease or provide medical care. Case studies and stories are shared to help illustrate concepts and create insight. Names and identifying details are regularly changed to protect confidentiality.

Why do you come back from a holiday… and feel flat again within a week?

What if the better question isn’t how to recover from burnout, but what’s driving it?

In this episode of BREAKTHROUGH, Hayden and Greg unpack burnout and chronic exhaustion at the root, not the symptom. More days off, a holiday or even a new job can help for a while… But if you go back to the same conditions, and the same need to prove yourself, justify or get ahead, the same pattern will return.

We explore why burnout is often less about the hours you work and more about your relationship with the work: the meaning you give it, the fears behind it, and what you’re trying to avoid. One person can burn out on a 40-hour week while another carries 60 hours and seems fine.

Greg shares his own experience of burning out in his 20s, and Hayden unpacks why the strategies that get high-achievers ahead can be the same ones wearing them down. We also share one question that can reveal what’s really driving you: if you were to stop, what would come up?

👉 If you’ve ever found yourself:

👉 This episode will help you:

The goal of BREAKTHROUGH is to help you uncover the “why” behind your challenges and gain clarity on your next best steps to break the pattern.

This episode explores why rest doesn’t have to be earned, and how understanding what drives your burnout is the first step to breaking the cycle instead of repeating it.

Watch our episode on hard conversations and conflict avoidance here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frfHVir5xXY

Want your question answered on the show? Submit your question here:

https://breakthroughpod.com

To learn more about working with me privately, visit:

https://haydenbrownpsychology.com

Follow Hayden on Social Media

Website: https://haydenbrownpsychology.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/haydenbrownofficial

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haydenhumanbehaviour/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/haydenhumanbehaviour/

Follow Greg on Social Media

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gregburgoyne/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregburgoyne/

Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational and personal growth purposes only. The content shared on this show is not a substitute for individual medical, psychological, or mental health advice. We do not diagnose or treat disease or provide medical care. Case studies and stories are shared to help illustrate concepts and create insight. Names and identifying details are regularly changed to protect confidentiality.

Ever feel like you're waiting to 'find yourself' before you're allowed to change? What if there's nothing to find, only something to choose?

In BREAKTHROUGH's first interview episode, Hayden sits down with Mindset Coach, Sarah Robb, to talk about rebuilding a life after losing both parents by the age of 26.

Sarah lost her father suddenly at 20 and her mother to a brain aneurysm six years later. In this conversation, Hayden and Sarah unpack how she moved from suppressing that grief to consciously choosing who she wanted to become, the five hidden reasons we hold onto beliefs that keep us stuck, and the difference between change driven by an old wound and change driven by a healed scar.

👉 If you've ever found yourself:

- waiting to feel ready before you make a change

- unsure whether you're driven by purpose or by an old wound

- staying in a limiting belief that no longer serves you because it feels safe or familiar

- assuming you have to choose between the life you want and the responsibilities you already have

👉 This episode will help you:

- recognise the five hidden reasons we hold onto beliefs that keep us stuck

- tell the difference between operating from a wound and operating from a scar

- start choosing who you want to become, instead of waiting to find out

The goal of BREAKTHROUGH is to help you uncover the “why” behind your challenges and gain clarity on your next best steps to break the pattern. This episode explores what it looks like to rebuild a life on purpose after profound loss, and why waiting to feel ready is often the thing keeping you stuck.

Want your question answered on the show? Submit your question here: https://breakthroughpod.com

To learn more about working with me privately, visit: https://haydenbrownpsychology.com

Find Sarah:

Website https://springwithsarah.com/

Instagram: https://instagram.com/springwithsarah/

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/sarahrobbcoaching/

Follow Hayden on Social Media:

Website: https://haydenbrownpsychology.com

Instagram: https://instagram.com/haydenbrownofficial

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/haydenhumanbehaviour/

Facebook: https://facebook.com/haydenhumanbehaviour/

Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational and personal growth purposes only. The content shared on this show is not a substitute for individual medical, psychological, or mental health advice. We do not diagnose or treat disease or provide medical care. Case studies and stories are shared to help illustrate concepts and create insight. Names and identifying details are regularly changed to protect confidentiality.

Why do the conversations that matter most feel the hardest to start?

And why, when you finally have them, do they so often come out wrong?

In this episode of BREAKTHROUGH, we get tactical. Following on from our recent episode on 'why' we avoid hard conversations, Greg takes the lead to walk through exactly how to have them productively.

Greg and Hayden break down five practical keys for any difficult conversation, at home, with a partner, or at work: starting with your intent, sitting beside the person instead of across from them, processing your own emotion before you speak, getting clear on what you actually want, and making a plan for how and when you'll raise it.

The reframe underneath it all: the person you're talking to isn't the problem. The pattern between you is. That one shift changes the whole conversation.

👉 If you've ever found yourself:

• putting off a conversation because you don't know how to have it

• firing off an angry text or email you later wished you'd sat on

• avoiding the topic until it comes out emotionally

👉 This episode will help you:

• walk into a hard conversation with the right intent, before you say a word

• separate the person from the behaviour so it feels like teamwork, not an attack 

• turn “you made me feel” into more empowering language

The goal of BREAKTHROUGH is to help you uncover the ‘why’ behind your challenges and gain clarity on your next best steps to break the pattern.

This episode helps you turn the conversations you've been avoiding into ones you can actually have, calmly, clearly, and without losing the relationship in the process.

Watch our previous episode on 'why' we avoid hard conversations here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frfHVir5xXY

Want your question answered on the show? Submit your question here: https://breakthroughpod.com

To learn more about working with me privately, visit: https://haydenbrownpsychology.com

Follow Hayden on Social Media:

Website: https://haydenbrownpsychology.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/haydenbrownofficial

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haydenhumanbehaviour/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/haydenhumanbehaviour/

Follow Greg on Social Media:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gregburgoyne/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregburgoyne/

Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational and personal growth purposes only. The content shared on this show is not a substitute for individual medical, psychological, or mental health advice. We do not diagnose or treat disease or provide medical care. Case studies and stories are shared to help illustrate concepts and create insight. Names and identifying details are regularly changed to protect confidentiality.

Why does the thing you want most feel like it would cost you the thing you fought hardest for?

And why do two things you genuinely value end up feeling like a choice between them?

Sandrine asks: “How can I have a fulfilling relationship without losing my freedom?”

Sandrine spent much of her life feeling invisible and following other people, without a clear sense of what mattered to her. That changed. She now runs her own business, works from anywhere, travels, and has built relationships and a life she loves.

Then she met someone she really likes. And she found herself burning a lot of mental energy switching between the things she values, convinced that a close relationship would mean losing the freedom she worked so hard to create.

In this episode of BREAKTHROUGH, Hayden and Greg explore conflicting values, and why the conflict is so often in the assumption rather than in the values themselves.

They unpack how past pain shapes what we think we stand to lose. When freedom follows a long period of feeling invisible, it can become an overcorrection, and an overcorrection defends you by narrowing your options. The tension itself becomes the evidence: if you can't move towards something you want, the freedom isn't as complete as it looks.

Hayden and Greg also look at what happens when you fulfil a value and another one rises to take its place, why the question “what does this mean for them?” changes a relationship, and what a shared vision actually looks like between two people with different priorities.

👉 If you've ever found yourself:

- telling yourself you can't have both, so you don't try for either

- protecting your independence so hard that it starts to cost you

- switching between what you value and finding it exhausting

- holding back from a relationship, a business or a move in case it takes something away

👉 This episode will help you:

- spot the assumption of loss sitting underneath a values conflict

- tell the difference between a purposeful decision and a pain-avoidance one

- explore how two values you care about could serve each other instead of compete

The goal of BREAKTHROUGH is to help you uncover the “why” behind your challenges and gain clarity on your next best steps to break the pattern. This episode explores how the freedom you built to protect yourself can end up limiting you, and why the life you want may not require the trade-off you assume it does.

Watch our recent episode about tough conversations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frfHVir5xXY&t=31s

Want your question answered on the show? Submit your question here: https://breakthroughpod.com

To learn more about working with me privately, visit: https://haydenbrownpsychology.com

Follow Hayden on Social Media

Website: https://haydenbrownpsychology.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/haydenbrownofficial

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haydenhumanbehaviour/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/haydenhumanbehaviour/

Follow Greg on Social Media

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gregburgoyne/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregburgoyne/

Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational and personal growth purposes only. The content shared on this show is not a substitute for individual medical, psychological, or mental health advice. We do not diagnose or treat disease or provide medical care. Case studies and stories are shared to help illustrate concepts and create insight. Names and identifying details are regularly changed to protect confidentiality.

Why do you keep putting off the conversation you know you need to have?

And what is that silence actually costing you?

In this episode of BREAKTHROUGH, Hayden and Greg explore why we avoid difficult conversations and conflict, and why the reasons we give ourselves are almost never the real ones.

The story we tell is a noble one. I don't want to upset them. It's not the right time.

My needs are probably too much. Underneath it, Hayden argues, is something closer to home: fear of rejection, self-doubt, and the discomfort of sitting with our own unbearable feelings. So we avoid the short-term pain and hand ourselves a far larger long-term bill.

Because avoiding conflict doesn't remove it. It moves inside, where it builds into resentment, distance, and the sense that you are in a relationship with the version of yourself you present, rather than who you really are.

If you've ever found yourself:

• putting off a conversation you know you need to have

• telling yourself it's kinder to say nothing

• agreeing on the outside while disagreeing on the inside

• only speaking up once the resentment has already built

This episode will help you:

• see why your explanation is rarely your real motivation

• recognise conflict avoidance as a strategy, not your personality

• have the small conversations before they become big ones

The goal of BREAKTHROUGH is to help you uncover the "why" behind your challenges and gain clarity on your next best steps to break the pattern. This episode explores how avoiding the hard conversation to protect someone else is often how we hurt them, and ourselves, the most, and why the willingness to be honest is what sets a relationship free.

Watch our episode on why you keep attracting narcissists here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp-j-Y0FG8E&t=71s

Want your question answered on the show? Submit your question here: https://breakthroughpod.com

To learn more about working with me privately, visit: https://haydenbrownpsychology.com

Follow Hayden on Social Media:

Website: https://haydenbrownpsychology.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/haydenbrownofficial

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haydenhumanbehaviour/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/haydenhumanbehaviour/

Follow Greg on Social Media:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gregburgoyne/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregburgoyne/

Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational and personal growth purposes only. The content shared on this show is not a substitute for individual medical, psychological, or mental health advice. We do not diagnose or treat disease or provide medical care. Case studies and stories are shared to help illustrate concepts and create insight. Names and identifying details are regularly changed to protect confidentiality.

How do you know if someone in your life is a narcissist, your boss, your partner, a friend? And what if that is the wrong question to be asking?

In this episode of BREAKTHROUGH, Hayden and Greg take on narcissism and refuse the easy 'checklist'. Pop psychology promises five traits and a label. Real change starts somewhere less comfortable.

Underneath narcissism, Hayden argues, is rarely simple arrogance. It is a protective identity built over deep insecurity, shame, and a fragile sense of self-worth, so unbearable it gets suppressed until there is almost no awareness of it left.

But the more useful lens isn't diagnosing them. It is understanding why you keep ending up in these dynamics, where you have stopped being honest about what you want, and how to hold a boundary from a place of security rather than fear.

👉 If you've ever found yourself:

• wondering whether your boss, partner or friend is a narcissist

• feeling drained by a relationship, but unsure if it's you or them

• shrinking, managing, or keeping the peace instead of saying what's true

• blaming yourself, or blaming them, and getting no closer to change

👉 This episode will help you:

• see past the 'checklist' to what narcissism actually is underneath

• turn the focus from labelling them to understanding your own part

• communicate what you want and hold a boundary, even when it's frightening

The goal of BREAKTHROUGH is to help you uncover the "why" behind your challenges and gain clarity on your next best steps to break the pattern.

This episode explores how the real shift is not diagnosing the narcissist in your life, but reclaiming your own honesty, your boundaries, and your sense of what you actually want.

Watch our episode on why you put everyone else first here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nibj8ogV7eQ

Want your question answered on the show? Submit your question here: https://breakthroughpod.com

To learn more about working with me privately, visit: https://haydenbrownpsychology.com

Follow Hayden on Social Media

Website: https://haydenbrownpsychology.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/haydenbrownofficial

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haydenhumanbehaviour/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/haydenhumanbehaviour/

Follow Greg on Social Media

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gregburgoyne/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregburgoyne/

Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational and personal growth purposes only. The content shared on this show is not a substitute for individual medical, psychological, or mental health advice. We do not diagnose or treat disease or provide medical care. Case studies and stories are shared to help illustrate concepts and create insight. Names and identifying details are regularly changed to protect confidentiality.

Why do you keep making the same financial mistakes... even when you know better? In this episode of BREAKTHROUGH, Hayden and Greg explore the unconscious beliefs that shape your behaviours and relationship with money, wealth, and success, and why they so often undermine the very thing you say you want.

Your relationship with money did not start with your first payday. It started in childhood, in what you absorbed from the people who raised you: whether there was ever enough, whether wanting more was good or bad, and who gets to have it. Those beliefs unconsciously run your decisions today, mostly out of sight.

Hayden and Greg walk through the most common money beliefs that keep people stuck, from "what if I fail again" and "money is hard to make", to "wealthy people are selfish", "I don't deserve it", and "I'll be happy when...". Whether you are chasing wealth or telling yourself you are not money-driven at all, these patterns will shape your financial future.

👉 If you've ever found yourself:

• earning more but still feeling like there is never enough

• saying you want to build wealth, then getting in your own way

• feeling guilt or shame about wanting more money or wealth

• working relentlessly, yet money still feels hard or uncertain

👉 This episode will help you:

• uncover the money story you inherited long before your first payday

• recognise the common beliefs that keep people stuck around money

• start building wealth from your values instead of old fears and programming

The goal of BREAKTHROUGH is to help you uncover the "why" behind your challenges and gain clarity on your next best steps to break the pattern.

This episode explores how your money patterns are rarely about discipline or maths, and far more about the unconscious story you have carried since childhood, and what it takes to begin rewriting it.

Watch episode one here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWkmcZHaOI8&list=PLha8g7XKIK0Oyr7c2eazfNdhwScUDDJdk

Want your question answered on the show? Submit your question here: https://breakthroughpod.com

To learn more about working with me privately, visit: https://haydenbrownpsychology.com

Follow Hayden on Social Media

Website: https://haydenbrownpsychology.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/haydenbrownofficial

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haydenhumanbehaviour/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/haydenhumanbehaviour/

Follow Greg on Social Media

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gregburgoyne/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregburgoyne/

Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational and personal growth purposes only. The content shared on this show is not a substitute for individual medical, psychological, or mental health advice. We do not diagnose or treat disease or provide medical care. Case studies and stories are shared to help illustrate concepts and create insight. Names and identifying details are regularly changed to protect confidentiality.

Why do you hold yourself back... even when you know you're capable of more?

Why does standing out or achieving your goals often feel more uncomfortable than staying stuck?

In this episode of BREAKTHROUGH, Hayden and Greg explore the psychology behind Tall Poppy Syndrome and how fear of judgment, criticism, and even success itself can keep us playing small and living beneath our potential.

The challenge is rarely a lack of ambition. More often, it's the unconscious belief that succeeding, standing out, or fully expressing yourself will come at a cost - whether that's criticism, damaged relationships, or feeling disconnected from the people around you.

Hayden and Greg unpack how these hidden fears can influence your decisions in business, relationships, health, and finances, creating a pattern of self-sabotage, hesitation, and lack of purpose.

👉 If you've ever found yourself:

• worrying about what others might think if you succeed

• feeling shame for wanting more from life, business, or your career

• struggling with self-promotion, visibility, or putting yourself out there

• feeling like you're constantly fighting an invisible handbrake

👉 This episode will help you:

• overcome the hold of ‘Tall Poppy Syndrome’

• identify the fears and beliefs in the way of achieving your goals

• begin taking action from purpose and values instead of approval-seeking The goal of BREAKTHROUGH is to help you uncover the "why" behind your challenges and gain clarity on your next best steps to break the pattern.

This episode explores how fear of standing out may be holding you back and why developing the courage to be criticised could be one of the most important skills for creating a more fulfilling life.

Watch episode one here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWkmcZHaOI8&list=PLha8g7XKIK0Oyr7c2eazfNdhwScUDDJdk

Want your question answered on the show? Submit your question here: https://breakthroughpod.com

To learn more about working with me privately, visit: https://haydenbrownpsychology.com

Follow Hayden on Social Media

Website: https://haydenbrownpsychology.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/haydenbrownofficial

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haydenhumanbehaviour/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/haydenhumanbehaviour/

Follow Greg on Social Media

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gregburgoyne/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregburgoyne/

Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational and personal growth purposes only. The content shared on this show is not a substitute for individual medical, psychological, or mental health advice. We do not diagnose or treat disease or provide medical care. Case studies and stories are shared to help illustrate concepts and create insight. Names and identifying details are regularly changed to protect confidentiality.

How much of your life is being shaped by fear… without you even realising it?

Nicki asks: “How do I stop fear of abandonment from controlling my life?”

After years of trauma, loss, and emotional pain, Nicki feels disconnected from herself, stuck in unhealthy patterns of self-sabotage, and unsure how to move forward.

She shares how a painful affair, ongoing health struggles, and a long-standing fear of abandonment have left her feeling trapped in cycles of emotional eating, overthinking, and self-doubt.

In this episode of BREAKTHROUGH, we explore the correlation between past trauma, self-sabotage, and identity.

We unpack why so many of the behaviours we judge in ourselves are often unconscious coping strategies designed to protect us from pain, and how unresolved emotional wounds can shape our relationships, health, and decision-making for years.

We also explore why fear of abandonment often has less to do with losing a valued relationship and more to do with the meaning we attach to it.

👉 If you’ve ever found yourself:

• repeating self-sabotaging behaviours you can't seem to break

• struggling with emotional eating, overthinking, or avoidance

• losing your sense of self after trauma, or a painful relationship

👉 This episode will help you:

• understand the connection between past trauma and your self-sabotage

• identify how fear of abandonment may be influencing your relationship

• begin rebuilding a stronger sense of self based on your values instead of fears

The goal of BREAKTHROUGH is to help you uncover the "why" behind your challenges and gain clarity on your next best steps to break the pattern.

This episode explores how self-sabotage is rarely the real problem… but often a protective response to pain that no longer serves the life you're trying to create.

Watch episode one here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWkmcZHaOI8&list=PLha8g7XKIK0Oyr7c2eazfNdhwScUDDJdk

To learn more about working with me privately, visit: https://haydenbrownpsychology.com

Follow Hayden on Social Media

Website: https://haydenbrownpsychology.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/haydenbrownofficial

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haydenhumanbehaviour/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/haydenhumanbehaviour/

Follow Greg on Social Media

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gregburgoyne/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregburgoyne/

Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational and personal growth purposes only. The content shared on this show is not a substitute for individual medical, psychological, or mental health advice. We do not diagnose or treat disease or provide medical care. Case studies and stories are shared to help illustrate concepts and create insight. Names and identifying details are regularly changed to protect confidentiality.