Beyond “Just Change Your Perspective”
"I had accomplished everything I wanted to accomplish in this career already. And it was like, wait, I didn’t even intend for this career. This was nothing I wanted." – Sage Brody
Before We Begin, A Quick Request from Your Friendly Neighborhood Hosts
Our coming book One Size Fits None: Time for an Entrepreneurial Revolution challenges us to make it normal, when facing entrenched problems and broken systems, to launch experiments to address them – no matter who we are or where we live.
To learn more about the book and how you can get involved in its project, click here. Supporters can receive signed copies, participate in book launch events, and bring dynamic “what if instead” discussions to your school, company, or community.
What if Instead … We Didn’t Wait for a Breakdown Before Taking Stock?
In this episode of What If Instead?, hosts Mim Plavin-Masterman and Alejandro Juárez Crawford talk with Sage Brody, who once held a front-row seat to Wall Street's collapse and walked away. After years in high finance, including a high-pressure role related to the bankruptcy that kicked off the Great Recession, Sage reached a breaking point that no promotion or paycheck could fix.
Sage now works with others to heal emotional trauma that’s held in their body and helps them feel more alive—physically and emotionally—as a Somatic Movement Therapist and Educator. In addition to working with individuals, Sage also trains others to become Somatic Movement Therapists.
From High Stakes to Hollow Success
Sage was in the epicenter of a $7 billion lawsuit, briefing the CEO at 7 a.m. then working until 1 in the morning each day. When, for the first time in six months, she took a day off, the CEO called her.
“I was completely burnt out… physically dying… I had to take anxiety medication to go to work every day.”
A mentor asked the question that cracked the facade: Where do you want to be in two years?
The answer came fast: Not here.
Traditional “Life Coaching” Couldn't Touch This
Sage sought help. The advice was: just change your perspective. But trauma doesn’t work like that:
“Our body holds our implicit memories…. If we don’t resolve those wounds, we keep reacting to the past.”
The panic, the shutdown, the spiral – it wasn’t about stress alone. It was about unhealed pain, stuck in the nervous system. The breakthrough came, not from powering through, but in a different way entirely.
What If Instead of Avoiding Pain, We Befriended It?
We’re trained to escape pain, but – Sage argues in the episode – feelings carry wisdom. If we stop judging or fleeing them.
Sadness, fear, and failure aren’t flaws – they’re signals.
Defensiveness is often an old wound in disguise.
True change starts by sitting with what hurts, not fixing it right away.
“Our feelings can’t give us their wisdom if we don’t let them exist.”
So, What if Instead?
What if the bravest thing wasn’t pushing through, but pulling over and listening in? While we’re busy being “professional,” Sage challenges us to change the way we think of ourselves, whatever our roles.
As she says to one of the episode hosts:
“You’re a human who happens to be a professor—not a professor who is kind of also a human.”
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