Evolving on Purpose

Matt Swartz sits down with therapist and business owner Sarah Rollins to explore one of the biggest challenges leaders face: balancing accountability, culture, and the fear of getting it wrong.

Together they unpack the hidden impact of shame, perfectionism, and the need for control, while discussing how psychological safety, healthy leadership, and resilience are built from the inside out. Sarah shares her real-world struggles as a practice owner, and Matt offers powerful insights on moving from fear and overcorrection toward trust, creativity, and growth.

Whether you're a business owner, manager, therapist, or someone navigating leadership in any capacity, this conversation will challenge you to rethink how you handle uncertainty, powerlessness, and the pressure of responsibility.

Connect with Sarah
Instagram: @embodiedwellnesstherapy

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#EvolvingOnPurpose #Leadership #PersonalGrowth #EMDR #Healing

In this episode of Evolving On Purpose, Matt Swartz sits down with Sarah Rollins, founder of Embodied Wellness PLLC, to explore the often unseen challenges that come with leadership, entrepreneurship, healing, and personal growth.

Sarah shares her journey from social worker to private practice owner, opening up about burnout, scarcity mindset, boundary-setting, and the realities of building a successful business while staying true to her values. Together, Matt and Sarah dive into the relationship between trauma, control, shame, accountability, and the inner work required to lead both ourselves and others well.

Connect with Sarah

Instagram: @embodiedwellnesstherapy

🧭 Take Our Free Flow Quiz

📄 Download the Free "Your Turning Point" PDF

🔥 Join "The Campfire" — our Free Weekly Group, Tuesdays @ 1 PM Eastern

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You're not stuck because of your circumstances. You're stuck because of your expectations — and you've been treating them as facts.In this episode, Matt Swartz breaks down why so many high performers and leaders hit an invisible ceiling: not because they lack discipline or skill, but because they're still operating from expectations built by an old version of themselves. He unpacks where expectations actually come from, why they feel like "the truth" instead of a belief, how to spot them in your own life (hint: listen for the word "should"), and what it actually costs you to keep living by rules you never chose.Matt shares personal stories — from nearly giving up on this podcast, to rebuilding his friend network as a new dad, to challenging a lifelong belief about money and savings — to show what it looks like to update your expectations without lowering your standards.If you've done the work, healed, grown, and still feel stuck… this episode is for you.In this episode:Why expectations feel like reality (and why they're not)The #1 sign you're operating on autopilot: the word "should"Where expectations actually come from (and why they hardened into rules)The real cost of staying loyal to an outdated version of yourselfHow to identify, question, and rebuild your own expectationsA practical example: money, scarcity, and betting on yourself

Wren Buse — board-certified music therapist, musician, and host of Magical Moments with Music — sits down with Matt for a real, unscripted coaching session. Wren runs a podcast solo: booking guests, writing questions, editing, and even composing original music for episodes. But somewhere in the process, the motivation disappears.

What starts as a conversation about podcast logistics turns into something deeper: the moment you stop being harsh with yourself, where does your drive come from instead?

Matt and Wren dig into self-worth, chronic hand pain that's disrupted Wren's relationship with piano, the fear of sharing creative work publicly, and why every stuck project is really a mirror for where you're at in your own growth.

This is coaching, not therapy — a real look at how one person works through what's actually holding them back.

Connect with WrenInstagram: @magicalmusicpodInstagram: @wrenbuse

In this episode of Evolving on Purpose, Matt sits down with Wren, a board-certified music therapist, musician, and host of the podcast Magical Moments with Music. Wren opens up about the teenage mental health crisis that nearly derailed everything, the ultimatum from their care team that became an overnight turning point, and how surviving eating disorder treatment, an abusive relationship, and a cross-country move alone shaped the therapist they are today.

We get into what it actually means to bring lived experience into the therapy room — when it's an asset, when it's a liability, and how "parts work" helps Wren hold both. Wren shares the wild story of moving apartments and performing as officiant and wedding singer for their best friend's wedding in the same week — and what it felt like to realize years of trauma work had quietly built the resilience to handle it. We also talk about the uncomfortable truth that the more independent and successful we become, the harder it can be to ask for help — and why vulnerability is a practice, not a personality trait.

Connect with Wren

Instagram: @magicalmusicpod

Instagram: @wrenbuse

In this episode of Evolving On Purpose, host Matt Swartz shares the ALIVE Framework — his signature system for healing anxiety, built from over 30,000 clinical hours, 15 years as a leadership coach and therapist, six years of EMDR practice, and his own journey through panic attacks and burnout. Matt breaks down why anxiety isn't a weakness or a disorder, but a signal your nervous system is sending — and why awareness alone isn't enough to heal it. He walks through the six survival patterns (avoidant, freeze, pleasing, aggressive, confused, and solving) that quietly run high performers' lives, then unpacks each stage of the ALIVE process:

Awaken – see and own your patterns without shame

Lighten – regulate and stabilize your nervous system

Integrate – accept, process, and release stored emotional wounds

Vitalize – identify and meet your real needs

Evolve – rewire, grow, and build a life of flow.

Matt also gets personal about his own healing journey — from panic attacks in his 20s to burnout after becoming a father — and explains why the leaders who change the world aren't the ones who power through dysfunction, but the ones who heal first.

If this resonated, make sure you're subscribed on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts, and share it with someone who needs to hear they don't have to figure this out alone.

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🔔 Subscribe for new episodes every week💬 Let us know what you want us to explore next

Ryan Abriel is back for a coaching episode that goes deep. Author of Still Here: 365 Reasons to Keep Going, Ryan has spent 13 years navigating anxiety, depression, and panic attacks — and has seen seven different therapists along the way. In this conversation, Matt coaches Ryan through why the "standard" therapy toolkit (breathing exercises, coping worksheets, talk therapy) hasn't been enough, and what's actually going on underneath.

Disclaimer: this is a coaching conversation, not therapy, and is not meant to diagnose or treat any medical or mental health condition.

Matt and Ryan explore:

• Why anxiety and panic aren't disorders — they're the nervous system doing exactly what it's designed to do
• What happens when we fight our own symptoms instead of understanding them
• Ryan's physical, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral patterns, symptom by symptom
• Why panic can resurface around major life events, like becoming a parent
• The difference between managing symptoms and actually resolving what's underneath them
• Why talk therapy alone often plateaus — and what comes next when it does

This is a real, unscripted look at what it's like to sit down and actually work through the patterns that have run your life for over a decade.

If this resonated, make sure you're subscribed on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts, and share it with someone carrying more than they let on.

Connect with Ryan

Instagram: @abriel

Instagram: @stillhere365reasons

— LINKS & RESOURCES —

🧭 Take Our Free Flow Quiz

📄 Download the Free "Your Turning Point" PDF

🔥 Join "The Campfire" — our Free Weekly Group, Tuesdays at 1 PM Eastern

🎙️ Apply to be a Guest on the Evolving on Purpose Podcast

🔔 Subscribe for new episodes every week
💬 Let us know what you want us to explore next

#EvolvingOnPurpose #Anxiety #PanicAttacks #Coaching #MentalHealth #NervousSystem

This week, Matt sits down with Ryan Abriel — brand and content marketing leader in the global sportswear industry, high school basketball coach, photographer, husband, father of two, and author of Still Here: 365 Reasons to Keep Going.

For 13 years, Ryan has navigated anxiety, depression, and panic attacks while leading, creating, and showing up for the people around him — mostly in secret. Ryan opens up about the panic attack that changed everything at a restaurant in Salt Lake City, the shame he carried for over a decade, and how the athletic world's culture of "toughness" made it even harder to name what he was going through.

Matt and Ryan dig into:

• What it's like to hide a mental health battle in the hyper-masculine world of sports
• How Ryan's book started as a private journal before becoming something he shares publicly
• Why staying "busy" can be both a coping mechanism and a trap
• The difference between distraction and genuine presence
• Why disclosing your struggles to the people around you can be an act of connection, not weakness
• How noticing when someone isn't okay — and saying something — can change the course of their life

If you've ever worn a mask to get through the day, or you love someone who might be, this conversation is for you.

If this resonated, make sure you're subscribed on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts, and share it with someone who needs to hear they're not alone.

Connect with Ryan

Instagram: @abriel

Instagram: @stillhere365reasons

— LINKS & RESOURCES —

🧭 Take Our Free Flow Quiz

📄 Download the Free "Your Turning Point" PDF

🔥 Join "The Campfire" — our Free Weekly Group, Tuesdays at 1 PM Eastern

🎙️ Apply to be a Guest on the Evolving on Purpose Podcast

🔔 Subscribe for new episodes every week
💬 Let us know what you want us to explore next

#EvolvingOnPurpose #MentalHealth #Anxiety #PanicAttacks #Vulnerability #PersonalGrowth

Matt breaks down the pattern that quietly runs so many high performers' lives: people pleasing.

This isn't about the timid pushover. It's the reliable employee, the "does-it-all" mom, the boss who supports everyone but can't get their own work done — the high achiever who can't stop saying yes until they burn out or collapse. Matt traces how this pattern usually starts in childhood, why the world applauds it, and why that applause makes it so hard to see as a problem.

In this episode, Matt covers:

• How people pleasing starts as a survival strategy — "I'm valuable when I'm needed"
• The over-functioning cycle: pleasing → over-commitment → resentment → collapse
• Why disappointing someone can actually be an act of respect
• The difference between kindness and compliance
• Why the goal isn't saying no perfectly — it's tolerating the discomfort of saying it
• A reflection question to help you spot where you're being agreeable but dishonest

This is part of Matt's Six F's framework (the fight, flight, freeze, fun, fix, and flex responses) from his Anxiety ALIVE and Six Foundations of Flow work — with more patterns to come in future episodes.

If you recognize this pattern in yourself or someone you lead, love, or work with, share this episode with them. This work isn't meant to be done alone.

— LINKS & RESOURCES —

🧭 Take Our Free Flow Quiz

📄 Download the Free "Your Turning Point" PDF

🔥 Join "The Campfire" — our Free Weekly Group, Tuesdays at 1 PM Eastern

🎙️ Apply to be a Guest on the Evolving on Purpose Podcast

🔔 Subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts
💬 Let us know what you want us to explore next

#EvolvingOnPurpose #PeoplePleasing #Boundaries #Leadership #Burnout #PersonalGrowth

Mandy Diseno returns for a real, live coaching session — a rare look inside what therapy and coaching can actually look like when it works.

Mandy opens up about the therapist who asked her one question that changed everything: "Do you love yourself?" From there, Matt coaches Mandy through the deeper layers of her story — how people-pleasing became her survival pattern in childhood, how it shaped her marriage, and how healing that pattern is now the foundation of her work helping other women.

In this session, Matt and Mandy explore:

• The three stress responses: control, people-pleasing, and avoidance
• How losing yourself happens in small sacrifices, not one big moment
• The difference between healing (releasing the old) and growth (building the new)
• Why boundaries aren't all-or-nothing — and how to find the right kind for you
• What it looks like to move from "I need to heal" to "I have energy to give"
• Why it's okay if your first therapist or coach isn't the right fit — and why you shouldn't give up

If you've ever wondered what coaching actually looks like from the inside, or you've had a bad experience and are hesitant to try again, this episode is for you.

If this resonated, make sure you're subscribed on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts, and share it with someone who needs to hear they don't have to figure this out alone.

Connect with Mandy

Instagram: @thewomaninbloom

— LINKS & RESOURCES —

🧭 Take Our Free Flow Quiz

📄 Download the Free "Your Turning Point" PDF

🔥 Join "The Campfire" — our Free Weekly Group, Tuesdays at 1 PM Eastern

🎙️ Apply to be a Guest on the Evolving on Purpose Podcast

🔔 Subscribe for new episodes every week
💬 Let us know what you want us to explore next

#EvolvingOnPurpose #Coaching #Therapy #Boundaries #SelfLove #PersonalGrowth